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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
+
+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: Cudjo's Cave
+
+Author: J. T. Trowbridge
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31406]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUDJO'S CAVE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  CUDJO'S CAVE.
+
+                               BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE
+
+              AUTHOR OF "NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD," "THE DRUMMER BOY," ETC.
+
+
+
+BOSTON:
+J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY.
+1864.
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
+J. T. TROWBRIDGE,
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
+of Massachusetts.
+
+ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
+BY THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
+4 SPRING LANE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+I. The Schoolmaster in Trouble
+
+II. Penn and the Ruffians
+
+III. The Secret Cellar
+
+IV. The Search for the Missing
+
+V. Carl and his Friends
+
+VI. A Strange Coat for a Quaker
+
+VII. The Two Guests
+
+VIII. The Rover
+
+IX. Toby's Patient has a Caller
+
+X. The Widow's Green Chest
+
+XI. Southern Hospitality
+
+XII. Chivalrous Proceedings
+
+XIII. The Old Clergyman's Nightgown has an Adventure
+
+XIV. A Man's Story
+
+XV. An Anti-Slavery Document on Black Parchment
+
+XVI. In the Cave and on the Mountain
+
+XVII. Penn's Foot Knocks Down a Musket
+
+XVIII. Condemned to Death
+
+XIX. The Escape
+
+XX. Under the Bridge
+
+XXI. The Return into Danger
+
+XXII. Stackridge's Coat and Hat get Arrested
+
+XXIII. The Flight of the Prisoners
+
+XXIV. The Dead Rebel's Musket
+
+XXV. Black and White
+
+XXVI. Why Augustus did not Propose
+
+XXVII. The Men with the Dark Lantern
+
+XXVIII. Beauty and the Beast
+
+XXIX. In the Burning Woods
+
+XXX. Refuge
+
+XXXI. Lysander Takes Possession
+
+XXXII. Toby's Reward
+
+XXXIII. Carl Makes an Engagement
+
+XXXIV. Captain Lysander's Joke
+
+XXXV. The Moonlight Expedition
+
+XXXVI. Carl finds a Geological Specimen
+
+XXXVII. Carl Keeps his Engagement
+
+XXXVIII. Love in the Wilderness
+
+XXXIX. A Council of War
+
+XL. The Wonders of the Cave
+
+XLI. Prometheus Bound
+
+XLII. Prometheus Unbound
+
+XLIII. The Combat
+
+XLIV. How Augustus Finally Proposed
+
+XLV. Master and Slave Change Places
+
+XLVI. The Traitor
+
+XLVII. Bread on the Waters
+
+XLVIII. Conclusion
+
+L'Envoy
+
+
+
+
+CUDJO'S CAVE.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+_THE SCHOOLMASTER IN TROUBLE._
+
+
+Carl crept stealthily up the bank, and, peering through the window, saw
+the master writing at his desk.
+
+In his neat Quaker garb, his slender form bent over his task, his calm
+young face dimly seen in profile, there he sat. The room was growing
+dark; the glow of a March sunset was fading fast from the paper on which
+the swift pen traced these words:--
+
+"Tennessee is getting too hot for me. My school is nearly broken up, and
+my farther stay here is becoming not only useless, but dangerous. There
+are many loyal men in the neighborhood, but they are overawed by the
+reckless violence of the secessionists. Mobs sanctioned by self-styled
+vigilance committees override all law and order. As I write, I can hear
+the yells of a drunken rabble before my school-house door. I am an
+especial object of hatred to them on account of my northern birth and
+principles. They have warned me to leave the state, they have threatened
+me with southern vengeance, but thus far I have escaped injury. How long
+this reign of terror is to last, or what is to be the end----"
+
+A rap on the window drew the writer's attention, and, looking up, he
+saw, against the twilight sky, the broad German face of the boy Carl
+darkening the pane. He stepped to raise the sash.
+
+"What is it, Carl?"
+
+The lad glanced quickly around, first over one shoulder, then the other,
+and said, in a hoarse whisper,--
+
+"Shpeak wery low!"
+
+"Was it you that rapped before?"
+
+"I have rapped tree times, not loud, pecause I vas afraid the men would
+hear."
+
+"What men are they?"
+
+"The Wigilance Committee's men! They have some tar in a kettle. They
+have made a fire unter it, and I hear some of 'em say, 'Run, boys, and
+pring some fedders.'"
+
+"Tar and feathers!" The young man grew pale. "They have threatened it,
+but they will not dare!"
+
+"They vill dare do anything; but you shall prewent 'em! See vat I have
+prought you!" Carl opened his jacket, and showed the handle of a
+revolver. "Stackridge sent it."
+
+"Hide it! hide it!" said the master, quickly. "He offered it to me
+himself. I told him I could not take it."
+
+"He said, may be when you smell tar and see fedders, you vill change
+your mind," answered Carl.
+
+The schoolmaster smiled. The pallor of fear which had surprised him for
+an instant, had vanished.
+
+"I believe in a different creed from Mr. Stackridge's, honest man as he
+is. I shall not resist evil, but overcome evil with good, if I can; if I
+cannot, I shall suffer it."
+
+"You show you vill shoot some of 'em, and they vill let you go," said
+Carl, not understanding the nobler doctrine. "Shooting vill do some of
+them willains some good!" his placid blue eyes kindling, as if he would
+like to do a little of the shooting. "You take it?"
+
+"No," said the young man, firmly. "Such weapons are not for me."
+
+"Wery vell!" Carl buttoned his jacket over the revolver. "Then you come
+mit me, if you please. Get out of the vinder and run. That is pest, I
+suppose."
+
+"No, no, my lad. I may as well meet these men first as last."
+
+"Then I vill go and pring help!" suddenly exclaimed, the boy; and away
+he scampered across the fields, leaving the young man alone in the
+darkening school-room.
+
+It was not a very pleasant situation to be in, you may well believe. As
+he closed the sash, a faint odor of tar was wafted in on the evening
+breeze. The voices of the ruffians at the door grew louder and more
+menacing. He knew they were only waiting for the tar to heat, for the
+shadows of night to thicken, and for him to make his appearance. He
+returned to his desk, but it was now too dark to write. He could barely
+see to sign his name and superscribe the envelope. This done, he
+buttoned his straight-fitting brown coat, put on his modest hat, and
+stood pondering in his mind what he should do.
+
+A young man scarcely twenty years old, reared in the quiet atmosphere of
+a community of Friends, and as unaccustomed, hitherto, to scenes of
+strife and violence as the most innocent child,--such was Penn Hapgood,
+teacher of the "Academy" (as the school was proudly named) in
+Curryville. This was the first great trial of his faith and courage. He
+had not taken Carl's advice, and run, because he did not believe that he
+could escape the danger in that way. And as for fighting, that was not
+in his heart any more than it was in his creed. But to say he did not
+dread to meet his foes at the door, that he felt no fear, would be
+speaking falsely. He was afraid. His entire nature, delicate body and
+still more delicate soul, shrank from the ordeal. He went to the outer
+door, and laid his hand on the bolt, but could not, for a long time,
+summon resolution to open it.
+
+As he hesitated, there came a loud thump on one of the panels which
+nearly crushed it in, and filled the hollow building with ominous
+echoes.
+
+"Make ready in thar, you hound of a abolitionist!" shouted a brutal
+voice; "we're about ready fur ye!" Penn's hand drew back. I dare say it
+trembled, I dare say his face turned white again, as he felt the danger
+so near. How could he confront, with his sensitive spirit, those
+merciless, coarse men?
+
+"I'll wait a little," he thought within himself. "Perhaps Carl _will_
+bring help."
+
+There were good sturdy Unionists in the place, men who, unlike the
+Pennsylvania schoolmaster, believed in opposing evil with evil, force by
+force. Only last night, one of them entered this very school-room,
+bolted the door carefully, and sat down to unfold to the young master a
+scheme for resisting the plans of the secessionists. It was a league for
+circumventing treason; for keeping Tennessee in the Union; for
+preserving their homes and families from the horrors of the impending
+civil war. The conspirators had arms concealed; they met in secret
+places; they were watching for the hour to strike. Would the
+schoolmaster join them? Strange to say, they believed in him as a man
+who had abilities as a leader, "an undeveloped fighting man"--he, Penn
+Hapgood, the Quaker! Penn smiled, as he declined the farmer's offer of a
+commission in the secret militia, and refused to accept the weapon of
+self-defence which the same earnest Unionist had proffered him again,
+through Carl, the German boy, this night.
+
+Penn thought of these men now, and hoped that Carl would haste and bring
+them to the rescue. Then immediately he blushed at his own cowardly
+inconsistency; for something in his heart said that he ought not to wish
+others to do for him what he had conscientious scruples against doing
+for himself.
+
+"I'll go out!" he said, sternly, to his trembling heart.
+
+But he would first make a reconnoissance through the keyhole. He looked,
+and saw one ruffian stirring the fire under the tar kettle, another
+displaying a rope, and two others alternately drinking from a bottle. He
+started back, as the thundering on the panel was repeated, and the same
+voice roared out, "You kin be takin' off them clo'es of yourn; the tar
+is about het!"
+
+"I'll wait a few minutes longer for Carl!" said Penn to himself, with a
+long breath.
+
+Unfortunately, Carl was not just now in a situation to render much
+assistance.
+
+Although he had arrived unseen at the window, he did not retire
+undiscovered. He had run but a short distance when a gruff voice ordered
+him to stop. He had a way, however, of misunderstanding English when he
+chose, and interpreted the command to mean, run faster. Receiving it in
+that sense, he obeyed. Somebody behind him began to run too. In short,
+it was a chase; and Carl, glancing backwards, saw long-legged Silas
+Ropes, one of the ringleaders of the mob, taking appalling strides after
+him, across the open field.
+
+There were some woods about a quarter of a mile away, and Carl made for
+them, trusting to their shelter and the shades of night to favor his
+escape. He was fifteen years old, strong, and an excellent runner. He
+did not again look behind to see if Silas was gaining on him, but
+attended strictly to his own business, which was, to get into the
+thickets as soon as possible. His success seemed almost certain; a few
+rods more, and the undergrowth would be reached; and he was
+congratulating himself on having thus led away from the schoolmaster one
+of his most desperate enemies, when he rushed suddenly almost into the
+arms of two men,--or rather, into a feather-bed, which they were
+fetching by the corner of the wood lot.
+
+"Ketch that Dutchman!" roared Silas. And they "ketched" him.
+
+"What's the Dutchman done?" said one of the men, throwing himself lazily
+on the feather-bed, while his companion held Carl for his pursuer.
+
+"I don't know," said Carl, opening his eyes with placid wonder. "I
+tought he vas vanting to run a race mit me."
+
+"A race, you fool!" said Silas, seizing and shaking him. "Didn't you
+hear me tell ye to stop?"
+
+"Did you say _shtop_?" asked Carl, with a broad smile. "It ish wery
+queer! Ven it sounded so much as if you said _shtep_! so I _shtepped_
+just as fast as I could."
+
+"What was you thar at the winder fur?"
+
+"Vot vinder?" said Carl.
+
+"Of the Academy," said Silas.
+
+"O! to pe sure! I vas there," said Carl. "Pecause I left my books in
+there last week, and I vas going to get 'em. But I saw somebody in the
+house, and I vas afraid."
+
+"Wasn't it the schoolmaster?"
+
+"I shouldn't be wery much surprised if it vas the schoolmaster," said
+Carl, with blooming simplicity.
+
+"You lying rascal! what did you say to him through the winder?"
+
+Carl looked all around with an expression of mild wonder, as if
+expecting somebody else to answer.
+
+"Why don't you speak?" And Silas gave his arm a fierce wrench.
+
+"Vat did you say?"
+
+"I said, you lying rascal!----"
+
+"That is not my name," said Carl, "and I tought you vas shpeaking to
+somebody else. I tought you vas conwersing mit this man," pointing at
+the fellow on the bed.
+
+"Dan Pepperill!" said Silas, turning angrily on the recumbent figure,
+"what are you stretching your lazy bones thar fur? We're waiting fur
+them feathers, and you'll git a coat yourself, if you don't show a
+little more of the sperrit of a gentleman! You don't act as if your
+heart was in this yer act of dooty we're performin', any more'n as if
+you was a northern mudsill yourself!"
+
+"Wal, the truth is," said Dan Pepperill, reluctantly getting up from the
+bed, and preparing to shoulder it, "the schoolmaster has allus treated
+me well, and though I hate his principles,----"
+
+"You don't hate his principles, neither! You're more'n half a
+abolitionist yourself! And I swear to gosh," said Silas, "if you don't
+do your part now----"
+
+"I will! I'm a-going to!" said Dan, with something like a groan.
+"Though, as I said, he has allus used me well----"
+
+"Shet up!" Silas administered a kick, which Dan adroitly caught in the
+bed. Mr. Ropes got his foot embarrassed in the feathers, lost his
+balance, and fell. Dan, either by mistake or design, fell also, tumbling
+the bed in a smothering mass over the screaming mouth and coarse red
+nose of the prostrate Silas.
+
+The third man, who was guarding Carl, began to laugh. Carl laughed too,
+as if it was the greatest joke in the world; to enhance the fun of
+which, he gave his man a sudden push forwards, tripped him as he went,
+and so flung him headlong upon the struggling heap. This pleasant feat
+accomplished, he turned to run; but changed his mind almost instantly;
+and, instead of plunging into the undergrowth, threw himself upon the
+accumulating pile.
+
+There he scrambled, and kicked, with his heels in the air, and rolled
+over the topmost man, who rolled over Mr. Pepperill, who rolled over the
+feather-bed, which rolled again over Mr. Ropes, in a most lively and
+edifying manner.
+
+At this interesting juncture Carl's reason for changing his mind and
+remaining, became manifest. Two more of the chivalry from the tar kettle
+came rushing to the spot, and would speedily have seized him had he
+attempted to get off. So he staid, thinking he might be helping the
+master in this way as well as any other.
+
+And now the miscellaneous heap of legs and feathers began to resolve
+itself into its original elements. First Carl was pulled off by one of
+the new comers; then Dan and the man Carl had sent to comfort him fell
+to blows, clinched each other, and rolled upon the earth; and lastly,
+Mr. Silas Ropes arose, choked with passion and feathers, from under the
+rent and bursting bed. The two squabbling men were also quickly on their
+feet, Mr. Pepperill proving too much for his antagonist.
+
+"What did you pitch into me fur?" demanded Silas, threatening his friend
+Dan.
+
+"What did Gad pitch into me fur?" said the irate Dan, shaking his fist
+at Gad.
+
+"What did you push and jump on to me fur?" said Gad, clutching Carl, who
+was still laughing.
+
+Thus the wrath of the whole party was turned against the boy.
+
+"Pless me!" said he, staring innocently, "I tought it vas all for
+shport!"
+
+The furious Mr. Ropes was about to convince him, by some violent act, of
+his mistake, when cries from the direction of the school-house called
+his attention.
+
+"See what's there, boys!" said Silas.
+
+"Durn me," said Mr. Pepperill, looking across the field as he brushed
+the feathers from his clothes, "if it ain't the master himself!"
+
+In fact, Penn had by this time summoned courage to slip back the bolt,
+throw open the school-house door, and come out.
+
+The gentlemen who were heating the tar and drinking from the bottle were
+taken by surprise. They had not expected that the fellow would come out
+at all, but wait to be dragged out. Their natural conclusion was, that
+he was armed; for he appeared with as calm and determined a front as if
+he had been perfectly safe from injury himself, while it was in his
+power to do them some fatal mischief. They could not understand how the
+mere consciousness of his own uprightness, and a sense of reliance on
+the arm of eternal justice, could inspire a man with courage to face so
+many.
+
+"My friends," said Penn, as they beset him with threats and blasphemy,
+"I have never injured one of you, and you will not harm me."
+
+And as if some deity held an invisible shield above him, he passed by;
+and they, in their astonishment, durst not even lay their hands upon
+him.
+
+"I've hearn tell he was a Quaker, and wouldn't fight," muttered one;
+"but I see a revolver under his coat!"
+
+"Where's Sile? Where's Sile Ropes?" cried others, who, though themselves
+unwilling to assume the responsibility of seizing the young master,
+would have been glad to see Silas attempt it.
+
+Great was the joy of Carl when he saw Mr. Hapgood walking through the
+guard of ruffians untouched. But, a moment after, he uttered an
+involuntary groan of despair. It was Penn's custom to cross the fields
+in going from the Academy to the house where he boarded, and his path
+wound by the edge of the woods, where Silas and his accomplices were at
+this moment gathering up the spilt feathers.
+
+"All right!" said Mr. Ropes, crouching down in order to remain concealed
+from Penn's view. "This is as comf'table a place to do our dooty by him
+as any to be found. Keep dark, boys, and let him come!"
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+_PENN AND THE RUFFIANS_.
+
+
+Penn traversed the field, followed by the gang from the school-house. As
+he approached the woods, Silas and his friends rose up before him. He
+was thus surrounded.
+
+"Thought you'd come and meet us half way, did ye?" said Mr. Ropes,
+striding across his path. "Very accommodating in you, to be shore!" And
+he laughed a brutal laugh, which was echoed by all his friends except
+Dan.
+
+"I have not come to meet you," replied Penn, "but I am going about my
+own private business, and wish to pass on."
+
+"Wal, you can't pass on till we've settled a small account with you
+that's been standing a little too long a'ready. Bring that tar, some on
+ye! Come, Pepperill! show your sperrit!"
+
+This Pepperill was a ragged, lank, starved-looking man, whose appearance
+was on this occasion rendered ludicrous by the feathers sticking all
+over him, and by an expression of dejection which _would_ draw down the
+corners of his miserable mouth and roll up his piteous eyes,
+notwithstanding his efforts to appear, what Silas termed, "sperrited."
+
+"You, too, among my enemies, Daniel!" said Penn, reproachfully.
+
+It was a look of grief, not of anger, which he turned on the wretched
+man. Poor Pepperill could not stand it.
+
+"I own, I own," he stammered forth, a picture of mingled fear and
+contrition, "you've allus used me well, Mr. Hapgood,--but," he hastened
+to add, with a scared glance at Silas, "I hate your principles!"
+
+"Look here, Dan Pepperill!" remarked Mr. Ropes, with grim significance,
+"you better shet your yaup, and be a bringin' that ar kittle!"
+
+Dan groaned, and departed. Penn smiled bitterly. "I have always used him
+well; and this is the return I get!" He thought of another evening, but
+little more than a week since, when, passing by this very path, he heard
+a deeper groan than that which the wretch had just uttered. He turned
+aside into the edge of the woods, and there beheld an object to excite
+at once his laughter and compassion. What he saw was this.
+
+Dan Pepperill, astride a rail; his hands tied together above it, and his
+feet similarly bound beneath. The rail had been taken from a fence a
+mile away, and he had been carried all that distance on the shoulders of
+some of these very men. They had taken turns with him, and when, tired
+at last, had placed the rail in the crotches of two convenient saplings,
+and there left him. The crotch in front was considerably higher than
+that behind, which circumstance gave him the appearance of clinging to
+the back of an animal in the act of rearing frightfully, and exposed a
+delicate part of his apparel that had been sadly rent by contact with
+splinters. And there the wretch was clinging and groaning when Penn came
+up.
+
+"For the love of the Lord!" said Dan, "take me down!"
+
+"Why, what is the matter? How came you here?"
+
+"I'm a dead man; that's the matter! I've been wipped to death, and then
+rode on a rail; that's the way I come here!"
+
+"Whipped! what for?" said Penn, losing no time in cutting the sufferer's
+bonds.
+
+"Ye see," said Dan, when taken down and laid upon the ground, "the
+patrolmen found Combs's boy Pete out t'other night without a pass, and
+took him and tied him to a tree, and licked him."
+
+The "boy Pete" was a negro man upwards of fifty years old, owned by the
+said Combs.
+
+"Wal, ye see, jest cause I found him, and took him home with me, and
+washed his back fur him, and bound cotton on to it, and kep' him over
+night, and gin him a good breakfast, and a drink o' suthin' strong in
+the morning, and then went home with him, and talked with his master
+so'st he wouldn't git another licking,--just for that, Sile Ropes and
+his gang took me and served me wus'n ever they served him!" And the
+broken-spirited man cried like a child at the recollection of his
+injuries.
+
+He was one of the "white trash" of the south, whom even the negroes
+belonging to good families look down upon; a weak, degraded,
+kind-hearted man, whose offence was not simply that he had shown mercy
+to the "boy Pete," after his flogging, but that he associated on
+familiar terms with such negroes as were not too proud to cultivate his
+acquaintance, and secretly sold them whiskey. After repeated warnings,
+he had been flogged, and treated to a ride on a three-cornered rail, and
+hung up to reflect upon his ungentlemanly conduct and its sad
+consequences.
+
+At sight of him, Penn, who knew nothing of his selling whiskey to the
+blacks, or of any other offence against the laws or prejudices of the
+community, than that of befriending a beaten and bleeding slave, felt
+his indignation roused and his sympathies excited.
+
+"It's a dreadful state of society in which such outrages are tolerated!"
+he exclaimed.
+
+"_I_ say, dreadful!" sobbed Mr. Pepperill.
+
+"The good Samaritan himself would be in danger of a beating here!" said
+Penn.
+
+"I don't know what good smart 'un you mean," replied the weeping Dan,
+whose knowledge of Scripture was extremely limited, "but I bet he'd git
+some, ef he didn't keep his eyes peeled!" And he wiped his nose with his
+sleeve.
+
+Penn smiled at the man's ignorance, and said, as he lifted him up,--
+
+"Friend Daniel, do you know that it is partly your own fault that this
+deplorable state of things exists?"
+
+"How's it my fault, I'd like to know?" whimpered Daniel.
+
+"Come, I'll help thee home, and tell thee what I mean, by the way," said
+Penn, using the idiom of his sect, into which familiar manner of speech
+he naturally fell when talking confidentially with any one.
+
+"I am stiff as any old spavined hoss!" whined the poor fellow,
+straightening his legs, and attempting to walk.
+
+Penn helped him home as he promised, and comforted him, and said to him
+many things, which he little supposed were destined to be brought
+against him so soon, and by this very Daniel Pepperill.
+
+This was the way of it. When it was known that Penn had befriended the
+friend of the blacks, Silas Ropes paid Dan a second visit, and by
+threats of vengeance, on the one hand, and promises of forgiveness and
+treatment "like a gentleman," on the other, extorted from him a
+confession of all Penn had said and done.
+
+"Now, Dan," said Mr. Ropes, patronizingly, "I'll tell ye what you do.
+You jine with us, and show yourself a man of sperrit, a payin' off this
+yer abolitionist for his outrageous interference in our affairs."
+
+"Sile," interrupted Dan, earnestly, "what 'ge mean I'm to do? Turn agin'
+him?"
+
+"Exactly," replied Mr. Ropes.
+
+"Sile," said Dan, excitedly, "I be durned if I do!"
+
+"Then, I swear to gosh!" said Sile, spitting a great stream of tobacco
+juice across Mrs. Pepperill's not very clean floor, "you'll have a dose
+yourself before another sun, which like as not'll be your last!"
+
+This terrible menace produced its desired effect; and the unwilling Dan
+was here, this night, one of Penn's persecutors, in consequence.
+
+It was not enough that he had shown his "sperrit" by fetching the
+victim's own bed from his boarding-house, telling his landlady, the
+worthy Mrs. Sprowl, that Sile said she must "charge it to her abolition
+boarder." He must now show still more "sperrit" by bringing the tar. A
+well-worn broom had been borrowed of Mrs. Pepperill, by those who knew
+best how the tar in such cases should be applied: the handle of this was
+thrust by one of the men, named Griffin, through the bail of the kettle,
+and Dan was ordered to "ketch holt o' t'other eend," and help carry.
+
+Dan "ketched holt" accordingly. But never was kettle so heavy as that;
+its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly the
+broom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt his
+laudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for his
+benefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether.
+But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and the
+next instant flourished the club over Dan's head.
+
+"I didn't mean tu! it slipped!" shrieked the terrified wretch. After
+which he durst no more attempt to thwart the chivalrous designs of his
+friends, but carried the tar like a gentleman.
+
+"This way!" said Silas, getting the escaped feathers into a pile with
+his foot. "Thar! set it down. Now, sir," throwing away his own coat,
+"peel off them clo'es o' yourn, Mr. Schoolmaster, mighty quick, if you
+don't want 'em peeled off fur ye!"
+
+Penn gave no sign of compliance, but fixed his eye steadfastly upon Mr.
+Ropes.
+
+"I insist," said he,--for he had already made the request while the men
+were bringing the tar,--"on knowing what I have done to merit this
+treatment."
+
+"Wal, that I don't mind tellin' ye," said Silas, "for we've all night
+for this yer little job before us. Dan Pepperill, stand up here!"
+
+Dan came forward, appearing extremely low-spirited and weak in the
+knees.
+
+"Is it you, Daniel, who are to bear witness against me?" said Penn, in a
+voice of singular gentleness, which chimed in like a sweet and solemn
+bell after the harsh clangor of Silas's ruffian tones.
+
+Dan rolled up his eyes, hugged his tattered elbows, and gave a dismal
+groan.
+
+"Come!" said Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knocked
+him down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turned
+from the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart is
+a-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country.
+Ain't it, Dan?--say yes," he hissed in his ear, giving him a second
+slap, "or else--you know!"
+
+"O Lord, yes!" ejaculated Dan, with a start of terror. "What Mr. Ropes
+says is perfectly--perfectly--jes' so!"
+
+"Your heart is a-burnin', ain't it?" said Silas.
+
+"Ye--yes! I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.
+
+"This man," continued Ropes, who prided himself on being a great orator,
+with power to "fire the southern heart," and never neglected an occasion
+to show himself off in that capacity,--"this individgle ye see afore ye,
+gentlemen,"--once more hitting Dan, this time with the toe of his boot,
+gently, to indicate the subject of his remarks,--"was lately as
+low-minded a peep as ever you see. He had no more conscience than to
+'sociate with niggers, and sell 'em liquor, and even give 'em liquor
+when they couldn't pay fur't; and you all know how he degraded himself
+by takin' Combs's Pete into his house and doin' for him arter he'd been
+very properly licked by the patrol. All which, I am happy to say, the
+deluded man sincerely repents of, and promises to behave more like a
+gentleman in futur'. Don't you, Dan?"
+
+As Dan, attempting to speak, only gasped, Ropes administered a sharp
+poke in his ribs, whispering fiercely,--
+
+"Say you do, mighty quick, or I'll----!"
+
+"O! I repents! I--I be durned if I don't!" said Dan.
+
+"And now, as to you!" Silas turned on the schoolmaster. "Your offence in
+gineral is bein' a northern abolitionist. Besides which, your offences
+in partic'ler is these. Not contented with teachin' the Academy, which
+was well enough, since it is necessary that a few should have larnin',
+so the may know how to govern the rest,--not contented with that, you
+must run the thing into the ground, by settin' up a evenin' school, and
+offerin' to larn readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, free gratis, to
+whosomever wanted to 'tend. Which is contrary to the sperrit of our
+institootions, as you have been warned more 'n oncet. That's charge
+Number Two. Charge Number Three is, that you stand up for the old rotten
+Union, and tell folks, every chance you git, that secession, that noble
+right of southerners, is a villanous scheme, that'll ruin the south, if
+persisted in, and plunge the whole nation into war. Your very words, I
+believe. Can you deny it?"
+
+"Certainly, I have said something very much like that, and it is my
+honest conviction," replied Penn, firmly.
+
+"Gentlemen, take notice!" said Mr. Ropes. "We will now pass on to charge
+Number Four, and be brief, for the tar is a-coolin'. Suthin' like eight
+days ago, when the afore-mentioned Dan Pepperill was in the waller of
+his degradation, some noble-souled sons of the sunny south"--the orator
+smiled with pleasant significance--"lifted him up, and hung him up to
+air, in the crotches of two trees, jest by the edge of the woods here,
+and went home to supper, intending to come back and finish the purifying
+process begun with him later in the evenin'. But what did you do, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, but come along and take him down, prematoorely, and go to
+corruptin' him agin with your vile northern principles! Didn't he, Dan?"
+
+"I--I dun know" faltered Dan.
+
+"Yes, you do know, too! Didn't he corrupt you?"
+
+These words being accompanied by a severe hint from Sile's boot, Mr.
+Pepperill remembered that Penn _did_ corrupt him.
+
+"And if I hadn't took ye in season, you'd have returned to your
+base-born mire, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I suppose I would," the miserable Dan admitted.
+
+"Wal! now!"--Sile spread his palm over the tar to see if it retained its
+temperature,--"hurry up, Dan, and tell us all this northern agitator
+said to you that night."
+
+"O Lord!" groaned Pepperill, "my memory is so short!"
+
+"Bring that rope, boys! and give him suthin' to stretch it!" said Silas,
+growing impatient.
+
+Dan, knowing that stretching his memory in the manner threatened,
+implied that his neck was to be stretched along with it, made haste to
+remember.
+
+"My friends," said Penn, interrupting the poor man's forced and
+disconnected testimony, "let me spare him the pain of bearing witness
+against me. I recall perfectly well every thing I said to him that
+night. I said it was a shame that such outrages as had been committed on
+him should be tolerated in a civilized society. I told him it was partly
+his own fault that such a state of things existed. I said, 'It is owing
+to the ignorance and degradation of you poor whites that a barbarous
+system is allowed to flourish and tyrannize over you.' I said----"
+
+But here Penn was interrupted by a violent outcry, the majority of the
+persons present coming under the head of "poor whites."
+
+"Let him go on! let him perceed!" said Silas. "What did you mean by
+'barbarous system'?"
+
+"I meant," replied Penn, all fear vanishing in the glow of righteous
+indignation which filled him,--"I meant the system which makes it a
+crime to teach a man to read--a punishable offence to befriend the poor
+and down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes it
+dangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to a
+person towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy which
+others have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system----"
+
+"Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You've
+said more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of a
+mild coat of tar and feathers."
+
+"I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands;
+so I thought I might as well be plain with you."
+
+"And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys,
+strip him!"
+
+"Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which they
+mistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I have
+said has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow me
+to speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crime
+against your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?"
+
+"We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the man
+called Gad.
+
+"You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another.
+
+"If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; I
+cannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have never
+interfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, or
+injurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but,
+whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient and
+faithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, a
+simple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harm
+to no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites.
+How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Not
+many, I am sure."
+
+"What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?"
+interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, what
+good would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sech
+low, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at the
+north."
+
+"The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alone
+makes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, had
+the common school education of the north, you would not be engaged in
+such business; you would be ashamed of assaulting a peaceable man on
+account of his opinions; you would know that the man who comes to teach
+you is your best friend. If you were not ignorant men, you, who do not
+own slaves, would know that slavery is the worst enemy of your
+prosperity, and you would not be made its willing tools."
+
+The firm dignity of the youth, assisted by the illusion that prevailed
+concerning a revolver in his pocket, had kept his foes at bay, and
+gained him a hearing. He now attempted to pass on, when the man Gad,
+stepping behind him, raised the broom-handle, and dealt him a stunning
+blow on the back of the head.
+
+"Down with him!" "Strip him!" "Give him a thrashing first!" "Hang him!"
+
+And the ruffians threw themselves furiously upon the fallen man.
+
+"Whar's that Dutch boy?" cried Silas. "I meant he should help Dan lay on
+the tar."
+
+But Carl was nowhere to be seen, having taken advantage of the confusion
+and darkness to escape into the woods.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+_THE SECRET CELLAR._
+
+
+No sooner did the lad feel himself safe from pursuit, than he made his
+way out of the woods again, and ran with all speed to Mr. Stackridge's
+house.
+
+To his dismay he learned that that stanch Unionist was absent from home.
+
+"Is he in the willage?" said the breathless Carl.
+
+"I reckon he is," said the farmer's wife; adding in a whisper,--for she
+guessed the nature of Carl's business,--"inquire for him down to barber
+Jim's." And she told him what to say to the barber.
+
+Barber Jim was a colored man, who had demonstrated the ability of the
+African to take care of himself, by purchasing first his own freedom of
+his mistress, buying his wife and children afterwards, and then
+accumulating a property as much more valuable than all Silas Ropes and
+his poor white minions possessed, as his mind was superior to their
+combined intelligence.
+
+Jim had accomplished this by uniting with industrious habits a natural
+shrewdness, which enabled him to make the most of his labor and of his
+means. He owned the most flourishing barber-shop in the place, and kept
+in connection with it (I am sorry to say) a bar, at which he dealt out
+to his customers some very bad liquors at very good prices. Had Jim been
+a white man, he would not, of course, have stooped to make money by any
+such low business as rum-selling--O, no! but being only a "nigger," what
+else could you expect of him?
+
+Well, on this very evening Jim's place began to be thronged almost
+before it was dark. A few came in to be shaved, while many more passed
+through the shop into the little bar-room beyond. What was curious, some
+went in who appeared never to come out again; Mr. Stackridge among the
+number.
+
+It was not to get shaved, nor yet to get tipsy, that this man visited
+Jim's premises. The moment they were alone together in the bar-room, he
+gave the proprietor a knowing wink.
+
+"Many there?"
+
+"I reckon about a dozen," said Jim. "Go in?" Stackridge nodded; and with
+a grin Jim opened a private door communicating with some back stairs,
+down which his visitor went groping his way in the dark.
+
+Customers came and went; now and then one disappeared similarly down the
+back stairs; many remained in the barber's shop to smoke, and discuss in
+loud tones the exciting question of the day--secession; when, lastly, a
+boy of fifteen came rushing in. His face was flushed with running, and
+he was quite out of breath.
+
+"What's wanting, Carl?" said the barber. "A shave?"
+
+This was one of Jim's jokes, at which his customers laughed, to the
+boy's confusion, for his cheeks were as smooth as a peach.
+
+"I vants to find Mishter Stackridge," said the lad.
+
+"He ain't here," said Jim, looking around the room.
+
+"It is something wery partic'lar. One of his pigs have got choked mit a
+cob, and he must go home and unchoke him."
+
+This was what Carl had been directed by the farmer's wife to say to the
+barber, in case he should profess ignorance concerning her husband.
+
+"Pity about the pig," said Jim. "Mabby Stackridge'll be in bime-by. Any
+thing else I can do for ye?"
+
+Carl stepped up to the barber, and said in a hoarse whisper, loud enough
+to be heard by every body,--
+
+"A mug of peer, if you pleashe."
+
+"I got some that'll make a Dutchman's head hum!" said Jim, leading the
+way into the little grog room.
+
+"That's Villars's Dutch boy," said one of the smokers in the
+barber-shop. "Beats all nater, how these Dutch will swill down any thing
+in the shape of beer!"
+
+This elegant observation may have had a grain of truth in it, as we who
+have Teutonic friends may have reason to know. However, the man had
+mistaken the boy this time.
+
+"It is not the peer I vants, it is Mr. Stackridge," whispered Carl, when
+alone with the proprietor.
+
+Jim regarded him doubtfully a moment, then said, "I reckon I shall have
+to open a cask in the suller. You jest tend bar for me while I am gone."
+
+He descended the stairs, closing the door after him. Carl, who thought
+of the schoolmaster in the hands of the mob, felt his heart swell and
+burn with anxiety at each moment's delay. Jim did not keep him long
+waiting.
+
+"This way, Carl, if you want some of the right sort," said the negro
+from the stairs.
+
+Carl went down in the darkness, Jim taking his hand to guide him. They
+entered a cellar, crowded with casks and boxes, where there was a dim
+lamp burning; but no human being was visible, until suddenly out of a
+low, dark passage, between some barrels, a stooping figure emerged,
+giving Carl a momentary start of alarm.
+
+"What's the trouble, Carl?"
+
+"O! Mishter Stackridge! is it you?" said Carl, as the figure stood erect
+in the dim light,--sallow, bony, grim, attired in coarse clothes. "The
+schoolmaster--that is the trouble!" and he hastily related what he had
+seen.
+
+"Wouldn't take the pistol? the fool!" muttered the farmer. "But I'll see
+what I can do for him." He grasped the boy's collar, and said in a
+suppressed but terribly earnest voice, "Swear never to breathe a word of
+what I'm going to show you!"
+
+"I shwear!" said Carl.
+
+"Come!"
+
+Stackridge took him by the wrist, and drew him after him into the
+passage. It was utterly dark, and Carl had to stoop in order to avoid
+hitting his head. As they approached the end of it, he could distinguish
+the sound of voices,--one louder than the rest giving the word of
+command.
+
+"_Order--arms!_"
+
+The farmer knocked on the head of a cask, which rolled aside, and opened
+the way into a cellar beyond, under an old storehouse, which was
+likewise a part of Barber Jim's property.
+
+The second cellar was much larger and better lighted than the first, and
+rendered picturesque by heavy festoons of cobwebs hanging from the dark
+beams above. The rays of the lamps flashed upon gun-barrels, and cast
+against the damp and mouldy walls gigantic shadows of groups of men.
+Some were conversing, others were practising the soldiers' drill.
+
+"Neighbors!" said Stackridge, in a voice which commanded instant
+attention, and drew around him and Carl an eager group. "It's just as I
+told you,--Ropes and his gang are lynching Hapgood!"
+
+"It's the fellow's own fault," said a stern, dark man, the same who had
+been drilling the men. "He should have taken care of himself."
+
+"Young Hapgood's a decent sort of cuss," said another whom Carl knew,--a
+farmer named Withers,--"and I like him. I believe he means well; but he
+ain't one of us."
+
+"I've been deceived in him," said a third. "He always minded his own
+business, and kept so quiet about our institutions, I never suspected he
+was anti-slavery till I talked with him t'other day about joining
+us--then he out with it."
+
+"He thinks we're all wrong," said a bigoted pro-slavery man named
+Deslow. "He says slavery's the cause of the war, and it's absurd in us
+to go in for the Union and slavery too!" For these men, though loyal to
+the government, and bitterly opposed to secession, were nearly all
+slaveholders or believers in slavery.
+
+"May be the fellow ain't far wrong there," said he who had been drilling
+his comrades. "I think myself slavery's the cause of the war, and that's
+what puts us in such a hard place. The time may come when we will have
+to take a different stand--go the whole figure with the free north, or
+drift with the cotton states. But that time hain't come yet."
+
+"But the time _has_ come," said Stackridge, impatiently, "to do
+something for Hapgood, if we intend to help him at all. While we are
+talking, he may be hanging."
+
+"And what can we do?" retorted the other. "We can't make a move for him
+without showing our hand, and it ain't time for that yet."
+
+"True enough, Captain Grudd," said Stackridge. "But three or four of us,
+with our revolvers, can happen that way, and take him out of the hands
+of Ropes and his cowardly crew without much difficulty. I, for one, am
+going."
+
+"Hapgood don't even believe in fighting!" observed Deslow, with immense
+disgust; "and blast me if I am going to fight _for_ him!"
+
+Carl was almost driven to despair by the indifference of these men and
+the time wasted in discussion. He could have hugged the grim and bony
+Stackridge when he saw him make a decided move at last. Three others
+volunteered to accompany them. The cask was once more rolled away from
+the entrance, and one by one they crept quickly through the passage into
+the first cellar.
+
+Stackridge preceded the rest, to see that the way was clear. There was
+no one at the bar; the door leading into the shop was closed; and Carl,
+following the four men, passed out by a long entry communicating with
+the street, the door of which was thrown open to the public on occasions
+when there was a great rush to Jim's bar, but which was fastened this
+night by a latch that could be lifted only from the inside.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+_A SEARCH FOR THE MISSING._
+
+
+The academy was situated in a retired spot, half a mile out of the
+village. Stackridge and his party were soon pushing rapidly towards it
+along the dark, unfrequented road. Carl ran on before, leading the way
+to the scene of the lynching.
+
+The place was deserted and silent. Only the cold wind swept the bleak
+wood-side, making melancholy moans among the trees. Overhead shone the
+stars, lighting dimly the desolation of the ground.
+
+"Now, where's yer tar-and-feathering party?" said Stackridge. "See here,
+Dutchy! ye hain't been foolin' us, have ye?"
+
+"I vish it vas notting but fooling!" said Carl, full of distress,
+fearing the worst. "We have come too late. The willains have took him
+off."
+
+"Feathers, men!" muttered Stackridge, picking up something from beneath
+his feet. "The boy's right! Now, which way have they gone?--that's the
+question."
+
+"Hark!" said Carl. "I see a man!"
+
+Indeed, just then a dim figure arose from the earth, and appeared slowly
+and painfully moving away.
+
+"Hold on there!" cried Stackridge. "Needn't be afeared of us. We're your
+friends."
+
+The figure stopped, uttering a deep groan.
+
+"Is it you, Hapgood?"
+
+"No," answered the most miserable voice in the world. "It's me."
+
+"Who's _me_?"
+
+"Pepperill--Dan Pepperill; ye know me, don't ye, Stackridge?"
+
+"You? you scoundrel!" said the farmer. "What have ye been doing to the
+schoolmaster? Answer me this minute, or I'll----"
+
+"O, don't, don't!" implored the wretch. "I'll answer, I'll tell every
+thing, only give me a chance!"
+
+"Be quick, then, and tell no lies!"
+
+The poor man looked around at his captors in the starlight, stooping
+dejectedly, and rubbing his bent knees.
+
+"I ain't to blame--I'll tell ye that to begin with. I've been jest
+knocked about, from post to pillar, and from pillar to post, till I
+don't know who's my friends and who ain't. I reckon more ain't than is!"
+added he, dismally.
+
+"That's neither here nor there!" said Stackridge. "Where's Hapgood?
+that's what I want to know."
+
+"Ye see," said Dan, endeavoring to collect his wits (you would have
+thought they were in his kneepans, and he was industriously rubbing them
+up), "Ropes sent me to tote the kittle home, and when I got back here, I
+be durned if they wasn't all gone, schoolmaster and all."
+
+"But what had they done to him?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm shore! That's what I was a comin' back fur to see. He
+let me down when I was hung up on the rail, and helped me home; and so I
+says to myself, says I, 'Why shouldn't I do as much by him?' so I come
+back, and found him gone."
+
+"What was in the kittle?" Stackridge took him by the throat.
+
+"O, don't go fur to layin' it to me, and I'll tell ye! Thar'd been tar
+in the kittle! It had been used to give him a coat. That's the fact,
+durn me if it ain't! They put it on with the broom--my broom--they made
+me bring my own broom, that's the everlastin' truth! made me do it
+myself, and spile my wife's best broom into the bargain!" And Pepperill
+sobbed.
+
+"You put on the tar?"
+
+"Don't kill me, and I'll own up! I did put on some on't, that's a fact.
+Ropes would a' killed me if I hadn't, and now you kill me fur doin' of
+it. He did knock me down, 'cause he said I didn't rub it on hard enough;
+and arter that he rubbed it himself."
+
+"What next, you scoundrel?"
+
+"Next, they rolled him in the feathers, and sent me, as I told ye, to
+tote the kittle home. Now don't, don't go fur to hang me, Mr.
+Stackridge! Help me, men! help me, Withers,--Devit! For he means to be
+the death of me, I'm shore!"
+
+Indeed, Stackridge was in a tremendous passion, and would, no doubt,
+have done the man some serious injury but for the timely interposition
+of Carl.
+
+"O, you're a good boy, Carl!" cried Dan, in an exstasy of terror and
+gratitude. "You know they druv me to it, don't ye? You know I wouldn't
+have gone fur to do it no how, if 't hadn't been to save my life. And as
+fur rubbing on the tar, I know'd they'd rub harder 'n I did; so I took
+holt, if only to do it more soft and gentle-like."
+
+Carl testified to Dan's apparent unwillingness to participate in the
+outrage; and Stackridge, finding that nothing more could be got out of
+the terror-stricken wretch, flung him off in great rage and disgust.
+
+"We must find what they have done with Hapgood," he said. "We're losing
+time here. We'll go to his boarding-place first."
+
+As Pepperill fell backwards upon some stones, and lay there helplessly,
+Carl ran to him to learn if he was hurt.
+
+"Wal, I be hurt some," murmured Dan; "a good deal in my back, and a
+durned sight more in my feelin's. As if I wan't sufferin' a'ready the
+pangs of death--wus'n death!--a thinkin' about the master, and what's
+been done to him, arter he'd been so kind to me--and thinkin' he'd think
+I'm the ongratefulest cuss out of the bad place!--and then to have it
+all laid on to me by Stackridge and the rest! that's the stun that hurts
+me wust of any!"
+
+Carl thought, if that was all, he could not assist him much; and he ran
+on after the men, leaving Pepperill snivelling like a whipped schoolboy
+on the stones.
+
+Penn's landlady, the worthy Mrs. Sprowl, lived in a lonesome house that
+stood far back in the fields, at least a dozen rods from the road. She
+was a widow, whose daughters were either married or dead, and whose only
+son was a rover, having been guilty of some crime that rendered it
+unsafe for him to visit his bereaved parent. Penn had chosen her house
+for his home, partly because she needed some such assistance in gaining
+a living, but chiefly, I think, because she did not own slaves. The
+other inmates of her solitary abode were two large, ferocious dogs,
+which she kept for the sake of their company and protection.
+
+But this night the house looked as if forsaken even by these. It was
+utterly dark and silent. When Stackridge shook the door, however, the
+illusion was dispelled by two fierce growls that resounded within.
+
+"Hello! Mrs. Sprowl!" shouted the farmer, shaking the door again, and
+knocking violently. "Let me in!"
+
+At that the growling broke into savage barks, which made Stackridge lay
+his hand on the revolver Carl had returned to him. A window was then
+cautiously opened, and a bit of night-cap exposed.
+
+"If it's you agin," said a shrill feminine voice, "I warn you to be
+gone! If you think I can't set the dogs on to you, because you've slep'
+in my house so long, you're very much mistaken. They'll tear you as they
+would a pa'tridge! Go away, go away, I tell ye; you've been the ruin of
+me, and I ain't a-going to resk my life a-harboring of you any longer."
+
+"Mrs. Sprowl!" answered the stern voice of the farmer.
+
+"Dear me! ain't it the schoolmaster?" cried the astonished lady. "I
+thought it was him come back agin to force his way into my house, after
+I've twice forbid him!"
+
+"Why forbid him?"
+
+"Is it you, Mr. Stackridge? Then I'll be free, and tell ye. I've been
+informed he's a dangerous man. I've been warned to shet my doors agin'
+him, if I wouldn't have my house pulled down on to my head."
+
+"Who warned you?"
+
+"Silas Ropes, this very night. He come to me, and says, says he, 'We've
+gin your abolition boarder a coat, which you must charge to his
+account;' for you see," added the head at the window, pathetically,
+"they took the bed he has slep' on, right out of my house, and I don't
+s'pose I shall see ary feather of that bed ever agin! live goose's
+feathers they was too! and a poor lone widder that could ill afford it!"
+
+"Where is the master?"
+
+"Wal, after Ropes and his friends was gone, he comes too, an awful
+lookin' object as ever you see! 'Mrs. Sprowl,' says he, 'don't be
+scared; it's only me; won't ye let me in?' for ye see, I'd shet the
+house agin' him in season, detarmined so dangerous a character should
+never darken my doors agin."
+
+"And he was naked!"
+
+"I 'spose he was, all but the feathers, and suthin' or other he seemed
+to have flung over him."
+
+"Such a night as this!" exclaimed Stackridge. "You're a heartless jade,
+Mrs. Sprowl!--I don't wonder the fellow hates slavery," he muttered to
+himself, "when it makes ruffians of the men and monsters even of the
+women!--Which way did he go?"
+
+"That's more'n I can tell!" answered the lady, sharply. "It's none o' my
+business where he goes, if he don't come here! That I won't have, call
+me what names you please!" And she shut the window.
+
+"Hang the critter! after all Hapgood has done for her!" said the
+indignant Stackridge,--for it was well-known that she was indebted to
+the gentle and generous Penn for many benefits. "But it's no use to
+stand here. We'll go to my house, men,--may be he's there."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+_CARL AND HIS FRIENDS._
+
+
+Carl Minnevich was the son of a German, who, in company with a brother,
+had come to America a few years before, and settled in Tennessee. There
+the Minneviches purchased a farm, and were beginning to prosper in their
+new home, when Carl's father suddenly died. The boy had lost his mother
+on the voyage to America. He was now an orphan, destined to experience
+all the humiliation, dependence, and wrong, which ever an orphan knew.
+
+Immediately the sole proprietorship of the farm, which had been bought
+by both, was assumed by the surviving brother. This man had a selfish,
+ill-tempered wife, and a family of great boys. Minnevich himself was
+naturally a good, honest man; but Frau Minnevich wanted the entire
+property for her own children, hated Carl because he was in the way, and
+treated him with cruelty. His big cousins followed their mother's
+example, and bullied him. How to obtain protection or redress he knew
+not. He was a stranger, speaking a strange tongue, in the land of his
+father's adoption. Ah, how often then did he think of the happy
+fatherland, before that luckless voyage was undertaken, when he still
+had his mother, and his friends, and all his little playfellows, whom he
+could never see more!
+
+So matters went on for a year or two, until the boy's grievances grew
+intolerable, and he one day took it into his head to please Frau
+Minnevich for once in his life, if never again. In the night time he
+made up a little bundle of his clothes, threw it out of the window, got
+out himself after it, climbed down upon the roof of the shed, jumped to
+the ground, and trudged away in the early morning starlight, a wanderer.
+It has been necessary to touch upon this point in Carl's history, in
+order to explain why it was he ever afterwards felt such deep gratitude
+towards those who befriended him in the hour of his need.
+
+For many days and nights he wandered among the hills of Tennessee,
+looking in vain for work, and begging his bread. Sometimes he almost
+wished himself a slave-boy, for then he would have had a home at least,
+if only a wretched cabin, and friends, if only negroes,--those
+oppressed, beaten, bought-and-sold, yet patient and cheerful people,
+whose lot seemed, after all, so much happier than his own. Carl had a
+large, warm heart, and he longed with infinite longing for somebody to
+love him and treat him kindly.
+
+At last, as he was sitting one cold evening by the road-side, weary,
+hungry, despondent, not knowing where he was to find his supper, and
+seeing nothing else for him to do but to lie down under some bush, there
+to shiver and starve till morning, a voice of unwonted kindness accosted
+him.
+
+"My poor boy, you seem to be in trouble; can I help you?"
+
+Poor Carl burst into tears. It was the voice of Penn Hapgood; and in its
+tones were sympathy, comfort, hope. Penn took him by the arm, and lifted
+him up, and carried his bundle for him, talking to him all the time so
+like a gentle and loving brother, that Carl said in the depths of his
+soul that he would some day repay him, if he lived; and he prayed God
+secretly that he might live, and be able some day to repay him for those
+sweet and gracious words.
+
+Penn never quitted him until he had found him a home; neither after that
+did he forget him. He took him into his school, gave him his tuition,
+and befriended him in a hundred little ways beside.
+
+And now the time had arrived when Penn himself stood in need of friends.
+The evening came, and Carl was missing from his new home.
+
+"Whar's dat ar boy took hisself to, I'd like to know!" scolded old Toby.
+"I'll clar away de table, and he'll lose his supper, if he stays anoder
+minute! Debil take me, if I don't!"
+
+He had made the same threat a dozen times, and still he kept Carl's
+potatoes hot for him, and the table waiting. For the old negro, though
+he loved dearly to show his importance by making a good deal of bluster
+about his work, had really one of the kindest hearts in the world, and
+was as devoted to the boy he scolded as any indulgent old grandmother.
+
+"The 'debil' will take you, sure enough, I'm afraid, Toby, if you appeal
+to him so often," said a mildly reproving voice.
+
+It was Mr. Villars, the old worn-out clergyman; a man of seventy
+winters, pale, white-haired, blind, feeble of body, yet strong and
+serene of soul. He came softly, groping his way into the kitchen, in
+order to put his feet to Toby's fire.
+
+"Laws, massa," said old Toby, grinning, "debil knows I ain't in 'arnest!
+he knows better'n to take me at my word, for I speaks his name widout no
+kind o' respec', allus, I does. Hyar's yer ol' easy char fur ye, Mass'
+Villars. Now you jes' make yerself comf'table." And he cleared a place
+on the stove-hearth for the old man's feet.
+
+"Thank you, Toby." With his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, his
+hands folded thoughtfully before his breast, and his beautiful old face
+smiling the kindness which his blind eyes could not _look_, Mr. Villars
+sat by the fire. "Where is Carl to-night, Toby?"
+
+"Dat ar's de question; dat's de pint, massa. Mos' I can say is, he ain't
+whar he ought to be, a eatin' ob his supper. Chocolate's all a bilin'
+away to nuffin! ketch dis chile tryin' to keep tings hot for his supper
+anoder time!" And Toby added, in a whisper expressive of great
+astonishment at himself, "What I eber took dat ar boy to keep fur's one
+ob de mysteries!"
+
+For Toby, though only a servant (indeed, he had formerly been a slave in
+the family), had had his own way so long in every thing that concerned
+the management of the household, that he had come to believe himself the
+proprietor, not only of the house and land, and poultry and pigs, but of
+the family itself. He owned "ol' Mass Villars," and an exceedingly
+precious piece of property he considered him, especially since he had
+become blind. He was likewise (in his own exalted imagination) sole
+inheritor and guardian-in-chief of "Miss Jinny," Mr. Villars's youngest
+daughter, child of his old age, of whom Mrs. Villars said, on her
+death-bed, "Take always good care of my darling, dear Toby!"--an
+injunction which the negro regarded as a sort of last will and testament
+bequeathing the girl to him beyond mortal question.
+
+There was, in fact, but one member of the household he did not
+exclusively claim. This was the married daughter, Salina, whose life had
+been embittered by a truant husband,--no other, in fact, than the erring
+son of the worthy Mrs. Sprowl. The day when the infatuated girl made a
+marriage so much beneath the family dignity, Toby, in great grief and
+indignation, gave her up. "I washes my hands ob her! she ain't no more a
+chile ob mine!" said the old servant, passionately weeping, as if the
+washing of his hands was to be literal, and no other fluid would serve
+his dark purpose but tears. And when, after Sprowl's desertion of her,
+she returned, humiliated and disgraced, to her father's house,--that is
+to say, Toby's house,--Toby had compassion on her, and took her in, but
+never set up any claim to her again.
+
+"Where is Carl? Hasn't Carl come yet?" asked a sweet but very anxious
+voice. And Virginia, the youngest daughter, stood in the kitchen door.
+
+"He hain't come yet, Miss Jinny; dat ar a fact!" said Toby. "'Pears like
+somefin's hap'en'd to dat ar boy. I neber knowed him stay out so, when
+dar's any eatin' gwine on,--for he's a master hand for his supper, dat
+boy ar! Laws, I hain't forgot how he laid in de vittles de fust night
+Massa Penn fetched him hyar! He was right hungry, he was, and he took
+holt powerful! 'I neber can keep dat ar boy in de world,' says I; 'he'll
+eat me clar out o' house an' home!' says I. But, arter all, it done my
+ol' heart good to see him put in, ebery ting 'peared to taste so d'effle
+good to him!" And Toby chuckled at the reminiscence.
+
+"My daughter," said Mr. Villars, softly.
+
+She was already standing behind his chair, and her trembling little
+hands were smoothing his brow, and her earnest face was looking pale and
+abstracted over him. He could not see her face, but he knew by her touch
+that the tender act was done some how mechanically to-night, and that
+she was thinking of other things. She started as he spoke, and, bending
+over him, kissed his white forehead.
+
+"I suspect," he went on, "that you know more of Carl than we do. Has he
+gone on some errand of yours?"
+
+"I will tell you, father!" It seemed as if her feelings had been long
+repressed, and it was a relief for her to speak at last. "Carl came to
+me, and said there was some mischief intended towards Penn. This was
+long before dark. And he asked permission to go and see what it was. I
+said, 'Go, but come right back, if there is no danger.' He went, and I
+have not seen him since."
+
+"Is this so? Why didn't you tell me before?"
+
+"Because, father, I did not wish to make you anxious. But now, if you
+will let Toby go----"
+
+"I'll go myself!" said the old man, starting up. "My staff, Toby! When I
+was out, I heard voices in the direction of the school-house,--I felt
+then a presentiment that something was happening to Penn. I can control
+the mob,--I can save him, if it is not too late." He grasped the staff
+Toby put into his hand.
+
+"O, father!" said the agitated girl; "are you able?"
+
+"Able, child? You shall see how strong I am when our friend is in
+danger."
+
+"Let me go, then, and guide you!" she exclaimed, glad he was so
+resolved, yet unwilling to trust him out of her sight.
+
+"No, daughter. Toby will be eyes for me. Yet I scarcely need even him. I
+can find my way as well as he can in the dark."
+
+The negro opened the door, and was leading out the blind old minister,
+when the light from within fell upon a singular object approaching the
+house. It started back again, like some guilty thing; but Toby had seen
+it. Toby uttered a shriek.
+
+"De debil! de debil hisself, massa!" and he pulled the old man back
+hurriedly into the house.
+
+"The devil, Toby? What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Villars.
+
+"O, laws, bress ye, massa, ye hain't got no eyes, and ye can't see!"
+said Toby, shutting the door in his fright, and rolling his eyes wildly.
+"It's de bery debil! he's come for dis niggah dis time, sartin'. Cos I,
+cos I 'pealed to him, as you said, massa! cos I's got de habit ob
+speakin' his name widout no kind o' respec'!"
+
+And he stood bracing himself, with his back against the door, as if
+determined that not even that powerful individual himself should get in.
+
+"You poor old simpleton!" said Mr. Villars, "there is no fiend except in
+your own imagination. Open the door!"
+
+"No, no, massa! He's dar! he's dar! He'll cotch old Toby, shore!" And
+the terrified black held the latch and pushed with all his might.
+
+"What did he see, Virginia?"
+
+"I don't know, father! There was certainly somebody, or something,--I
+could not distinguish what."
+
+"It's what I tell ye!" gibbered Toby. "I seed de great coarse har on his
+speckled legs, and de wings on his back, and a right smart bag in his
+hand to put dis niggah in!"
+
+"It might have been Carl," said Virginia.
+
+"No, no! Carl don't hab sech legs as dem ar! Carl don't hab sech great
+big large ears as dem ar! O good Lord! good Lord!" the negro's voice
+sank to a terrified whisper, "he's a-knockin' for me now!"
+
+"It's a very gentle rap for the devil," said Mr. Villars, who could not
+but be amused, notwithstanding the strange interruption of his purpose,
+and Toby's vexatious obstinacy in holding the door. "It's some stranger;
+let him in!"
+
+"No, no, no!" gasped the negro. "I won't say nuffin, and you tell him I
+ain't to home! Say I'se clar'd out, lef', gone you do'no' whar!"
+
+"Toby!" was called from without.
+
+"Dat's his voice! dat ar's his voice!" said Toby. And in his desperate
+pushing, he pushed his feet from under him, and fell at full length
+along the floor.
+
+"It's the voice of Penn Hapgood!" exclaimed the old minister. "Arise,
+quick, Toby, and open!"
+
+Toby rubbed his head and looked bewildered.
+
+"Are ye sartin ob dat, massa? Bress me, I breeve you're right, for
+oncet! It _ar_ Mass' Penn's voice, shore enough!"
+
+He opened the door, but started back again with another shriek,
+convinced for an instant that it was, after all, the devil, who had
+artfully borrowed Penn's voice to deceive him.
+
+But no! It was Penn himself, his hat and clothes in his hand, smeared
+with black tar and covered with feathers from head to foot; not even his
+features spared, nor yet his hair; on his cheeks great clumps of gray
+goose plumes, suggestive of diabolical ears, and with no other covering
+but this to shield him from the night wind, save the emptied bed-tick,
+which he had drawn over his shoulders, and which Toby had mistaken for
+Satanic wings.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+_A STRANGE COAT FOR A QUAKER._
+
+
+Now, Virginia Villars was the very last person by whom Penn would have
+wished to be seen. He was well aware how utterly grotesque and ludicrous
+he must appear. But he was not in a condition to be very fastidious on
+this point. Stunned by blows, stripped of his clothing (which could not
+be put on again, for reasons), cruelly suffering from the violence done
+him, exposed to the cold, excluded from Mrs. Sprowl's virtuous abode, he
+had no choice but to seek the protection of those whom he believed to be
+his truest friends.
+
+In the little sitting-room of the blind old minister he had always been
+gladly welcomed. Such minds as his were rare in Curryville. His purity
+of thought, his Christian charity, his ardent love of justice, and
+(quite as much as any thing) his delight in the free and friendly
+discussion of principles, whether moral, political, or theological, made
+him a great favorite with the lonely old man. His coming made the winter
+evenings bloom. Then the aged clergyman, deprived of sight, bereft of
+the companionship of books, and of the varied consolations of an active
+life, felt his heart warmed and his brain enlivened by the wine of
+conversation. He and Penn, to be sure, did not always agree. Especially
+on the subject of _non-resistance_ they had many warm and well-contested
+arguments; the young Quaker manifesting, by his zeal in the controversy,
+that he had an abundance of "fight" in him without knowing it.
+
+Nor to Mr. Villars alone did Penn's visits bring pleasure. They
+delighted equally young Carl and old Toby. And Virginia? Why, being
+altogether devoted to her blind parent, for whose happiness she could
+never do enough, she was, of course, enchanted with the attentions she
+saw Penn pay _him_. That was all; at least, the dear girl thought that
+was all.
+
+As for Salina, forsaken spouse of the gay Lysander Sprowl, she too,
+after sulkily brooding over her misfortunes all day, was glad enough to
+have any intelligent person come in and break the monotony of her sad
+life in the evening.
+
+Such were Penn's relations with the family to whom alone he durst apply
+for refuge in his distress. Others might indeed have ventured to shelter
+him; but they, like Stackridge, were hated Unionists, and any mercy
+shown to him would have brought evil upon themselves. Mr. Villars,
+however, blind and venerated old man, had sufficient influence over the
+people, Penn believed, to serve as a protection to his household even
+with him in it.
+
+So hither he came--how unwillingly let the proud and sensitive judge.
+For Penn, though belonging to the meekest of sects, was of a soul by
+nature aspiring and proud. He had the good sense to know that the
+outrage committed on him was in reality no disgrace, except to those
+guilty of perpetrating it. Yet no one likes to appear ridiculous. And
+the man of elevated spirit instinctively shrinks from making known his
+misfortunes even to his best friends; he is ashamed of that for which he
+is in no sense to blame, and he would rather suffer heroically in
+secret, than become an object of pity.
+
+Most of all, as I have said, Penn dreaded the pure Virginia's eyes. Mr.
+Villars could not see him, and for Salina he did not care
+much--singularly enough, for she alone was of an acrid and sarcastic
+temper. What he devoutly desired was, to creep quietly to the kitchen
+door, call out Carl if he was there, or secretly make known his
+condition to old Toby, and thus obtain admission to the house,
+seclusion, and assistance, without letting Virginia, or her father even,
+know of his presence.
+
+How this honest wish was thwarted we have seen. When the door was first
+opened, he had turned to fly. But that was cowardly; so he returned, and
+knocked, and called the negro by name, to reassure him. And the door was
+once more opened, and Virginia saw him--recognized him--knew in an
+instant what brutal deed had been done, and covered her eyes
+instinctively to shut out the hideous sight.
+
+But it was no time to indulge in feelings of false modesty, if she felt
+any. It was no time to be weak, or foolish, or frightened, or ashamed.
+
+"It is Penn!" she exclaimed in a burst of indignation and grief. "Toby!
+Toby! you great stupid----! what are you staring for? Take him in! why
+don't you? O, father!" And she threw herself on the old man's bosom, and
+hid her face.
+
+"What has happened to Penn?" asked the old man.
+
+"I have been tarred-and-feathered," answered Penn, entering, and closing
+the door behind him. "And I have been shut out of Mrs. Sprowl's house.
+This is my excuse for coming here. I must go somewhere, you know!"
+
+"And where but here?" answered the old man. He had suppressed an
+outburst of feeling, and now stood calm, compassionating, extending his
+hands,--his staff fallen upon the floor. "I feared it might come to
+this! Terrible times are upon us, and you are only one of the first to
+suffer. You did well to come to us. Are you hurt?"
+
+"I hardly know," replied Penn. "I beg of you, don't be alarmed or
+troubled. I hope you will excuse me. I know I am a fearful object to
+look at, and did not intend to be seen."
+
+He stood holding the bed-tick over him, and his clothes before him, to
+conceal as much as possible his hideous guise, suffering, in that moment
+of pause, unutterable things. Was ever a hero of romance in such a
+dismal plight? Surely no writer of fiction would venture to show his
+hero in so ridiculous and damaging an aspect. But this is not altogether
+a romance, and I must relate facts as they occurred.
+
+"Do not be sorry that I have seen you," said Virginia, lifting her face
+again, flashing with tears. "I see in this shameful disguise only the
+shame of those who have so cruelly treated you! Toby will help you. And
+there is Carl at last!"
+
+She retreated from the room by one door just as Carl and Stackridge
+entered by the other.
+
+Poor Penn! gentle and shrinking Penn! it was painful enough for him to
+meet even these coarser eyes, friendly though they were. The shock upon
+his system had been terrible; and now, his strength and resolution
+giving way, his bewildered senses began to reel, and he swooned in the
+farmer's arms.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+_THE TWO GUESTS._
+
+
+Virginia entered the sitting-room--the same where so many happy evenings
+had been enjoyed by the little family, in the society of him who now lay
+bruised, disfigured, and insensible in Toby's kitchen.
+
+She walked to and fro, she gazed from the windows out into the darkness,
+she threw herself on the lounge, scarce able to control the feelings of
+pity and indignation that agitated her. For almost the first time in her
+life she was fired with vindictiveness; she burned to see some swift and
+terrible retribution overtake the perpetrators of this atrocious deed.
+
+Mr. Villars soon came out to her. She hastened to lead him to a seat.
+
+"How is he?--much injured?" she asked.
+
+"He has been brutally used," said the old man. "But he is now in good
+hands. Where is Salina?"
+
+"I don't know. I had been to look for her, when I came and found you in
+the kitchen. I think she must have gone out."
+
+"Gone out, to-night? That is very strange!" The old man mused. "She will
+have to be told that Penn is in the house. But I think the knowledge of
+the fact ought to go no farther. Mr. Stackridge is of the same opinion.
+Now that they have begun to persecute him, they will never cease, so
+long as he remains alive within their reach."
+
+"And we must conceal him?"
+
+"Yes, until this storm blows over, or he can be safely got out of the
+state."
+
+"There is Salina now!" exclaimed the girl, hearing footsteps approach
+the piazza.
+
+"If it is, she is not alone," said the old man, whose blindness had
+rendered his hearing acute. "It is a man's step. Don't be agitated, my
+child. Much depends on our calmness and self-possession now. If it is a
+visitor, you must admit him, and appear as hospitable as usual."
+
+It was a visitor, and he came alone--a young fellow of dashy appearance,
+handsome black hair and whiskers, and very black eyes.
+
+"Mr. Bythewood, father," said Virginia, showing him immediately into the
+sitting-room.
+
+"I entreat you, do not rise!" said Mr. Bythewood, with exceeding
+affability, hastening to prevent that act of politeness on the part of
+the blind old man.
+
+"Did you not bring my daughter with you?" asked Mr. Villars.
+
+"Your daughter is here, sir;" and he of the handsome whiskers gave
+Virginia a most captivating bow and smile.
+
+"He means my sister," said Virginia. "She has gone out, and we are
+feeling somewhat anxious about her." She thought it best to say thus
+much, in order that, should the visitor perceive any strangeness or
+abstraction on her part, he might think it was caused by solicitude for
+the absent Salina.
+
+"Nothing can have happened to her, certainly," remarked Mr. Bythewood,
+seating himself in an attitude of luxurious ease, approaching almost to
+indolent recklessness. "We are the most chivalrous people in the world.
+There is no people, I think, on the face of the globe, among whom the
+innocent and defenceless are so perfectly secure."
+
+Virginia thought of the hapless victim of the mob in the kitchen yonder,
+and smiled politely.
+
+"I have no very great fears for her safety," said the old man. "Yet I
+have felt some anxiety to know the meaning of the noises I heard in the
+direction of the academy, an hour ago."
+
+Bythewood laughed, and stroked his glossy mustache.
+
+"I don't know, sir. I reckon, however, that the Yankee schoolmaster has
+been favored with a little demonstration of southern sentiment."
+
+"How! not mobbed?"
+
+"Call it what you please, sir," said Bythewood, with an air of
+pleasantry. "I think our people have been roused at last; and if so,
+they have probably given him a lesson he will never forget."
+
+"What do you mean by 'our people'?" the old man gravely inquired.
+
+"He means," said Virginia, with quiet but cutting irony, "the most
+chivalrous people in the world! among whom the innocent and defenceless
+are more secure than any where else on the globe!"
+
+"Precisely," said Mr. Bythewood, with a placid smile. "But among whom
+obnoxious persons, dangerous to our institutions, cannot be tolerated.
+As for this affair,"--carelessly, as if what had happened to Penn was of
+no particular consequence to anybody present, least of all to him,--"I
+don't know anything about it. Of course, I would never go near a popular
+demonstration of the kind. I don't say I approve of it, and I don't say
+I disapprove of it. These are no ordinary times, Mr. Villars. The south
+is already plunged into a revolution."
+
+"Indeed, I fear so!"
+
+"Fear so? I glory that it is so! We are about to build up the most
+magnificent empire on which the sun has ever shone!"
+
+"Cemented with the blood of our own brethren!" said the old man,
+solemnly.
+
+"There may be a little bloodshed, but not much. The Yankees won't fight.
+They are not a military people. Their armies will scatter before us like
+chaff before the wind. I know you don't think as I do. I respect the
+lingering attachment you feel for the old Union--it is very natural,"
+said Bythewood, indulgently.
+
+The old man smiled. His eyes were closed, and his hands were folded
+before him near his breast, in his favorite attitude. And he answered,--
+
+"You are very tolerant towards me, my young friend. It is because you
+consider me old, and helpless, and perhaps a little childish, no doubt.
+But hear my words. You are going to build up a magnificent empire,
+founded on--slavery. But I tell you, the ruin and desolation of our dear
+country--that will be your empire. And as for the institution you mean
+to perpetuate and strengthen, it will be crushed to atoms between the
+upper and nether millstones of the war you are bringing upon the
+nation."
+
+He spoke with the power of deep and earnest conviction, and the
+complacent Bythewood was for a moment abashed.
+
+"I was well aware of your opinions," he remarked, rallying presently.
+"It is useless for us to argue the point. And Virginia, I conceive, does
+not like politics. Will you favor us with a song, Virginia?"
+
+"With pleasure, if you wish it," said Virginia, with perfect civility,
+although a close observer might have seen how repulsive to her was the
+presence of this handsome, but selfish and unprincipled man. He was
+their guest; and she had been bred to habits of generous and
+self-sacrificing hospitality. However detested a visitor, he must be
+politely entertained. On this occasion, she led the way to the parlor,
+where the piano was,--all the more readily, perhaps, because it was
+still farther removed from the kitchen. Bythewood followed, supporting,
+with an ostentatious show of solicitude, the steps of the feeble old
+man.
+
+Bythewood named the pieces he wished her to sing, and bent graciously
+over the piano to turn the music-leaves for her, and applauded with
+enthusiasm. And so she entertained him. And all the while were passing
+around them scenes so very different! There was Penn, heroically
+stifling the groans of a wounded spirit, within sound of her sweet
+voice, and Bythewood so utterly ignorant of his presence there! A little
+farther off, and just outside the house, a young woman was even then
+parting, with whispers and mystery, from an adventurous rover. Still a
+little farther, in barber Jim's back room, Silas Ropes was treating his
+accomplices; and while these drank and blasphemed, close by, in the
+secret cellar, Stackridge's companions were practising the soldier's
+drill.
+
+Salina parted from the rover, and came into the house while Virginia was
+singing, throwing her bonnet negligently back, as she sat down.
+
+"Why, Salina! where have you been?" said Virginia, finishing a strain,
+and turning eagerly on the piano stool. "We have been wondering what had
+become of you!"
+
+"You need never wonder about me," said Salina, coldly. "I must go out
+and walk, even if I don't have time till after dark."
+
+She drummed upon the carpet with her foot, while her upper lip twitched
+nervously. It was a rather short lip, and she had an unconscious habit
+of hitching up one corner of it, still more closely, with a spiteful and
+impatient expression. Aside from this labial peculiarity (and perhaps
+the disproportionate prominence of a very large white forehead), her
+features were pretty enough, although they lacked the charming freshness
+of her younger sister's.
+
+Virginia knew well that the pretence of not getting time for her walk
+till after dark was absurd, but, perceiving the unhappy mood she was in,
+forbore to say so. And she resumed her task of entertaining Bythewood.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+_THE ROVER._
+
+
+Meanwhile the nocturnal acquaintance from whom Salina had parted took a
+last look at the house, and shook his envious head darkly at the room
+where the light and the music were; then, thrusting his hands into his
+pockets, with a swaggering air, went plodding on his lonely way across
+the fields, in the starlight.
+
+The direction he took was that from which Penn had arrived; and in the
+course of twenty minutes he approached the door of the solitary house
+with the dark windows and the dogs within. He walked all around, and
+seeing no light, nor any indication of life, drew near, and rapped
+softly on a pane.
+
+The dogs were roused in an instant, and barked furiously. Nothing
+daunted, he waited for a lull in the storm he had raised, and rapped
+again.
+
+"Who's there?" creaked the stridulous voice of good Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"_You know!_" said the rover, in a suppressed, confidential tone. "One
+who has a right."
+
+Now, the excellent relict of the late lamented Sprowl reflected,
+naturally, that, if anybody had a right there, it was he who paid her
+for his board in advance.
+
+"You, agin, after all, is it!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Couldn't you
+find nowhere else to go to? But if you imagine I've thought better on't,
+and will let you in, you're grandly mistaken! Go away this instant, or
+I'll let the dogs out!"
+
+"Let 'em out, and be----!"
+
+No matter about the last word of the rover's defiant answer. It was a
+very irritating word to the temper of the good Mrs. Sprowl. This was the
+first time (she thought) she had ever heard the mild and benignant
+schoolmaster swear; but she was not much surprised, believing that it
+was scarcely in the power of man to endure what he had that night
+endured, and not swear.
+
+"Look out for yourself then, you sir! for I shall take you at your
+word!" And there was a sound of slipping bolts, followed by the careful
+opening of the door.
+
+Out bounced the dogs, and leaped upon the intruder; but, instead of
+tearing him to pieces, they fell to caressing him in the most vivacious
+and triumphant manner.
+
+"Down, Brag! Off, Grip! Curse you!" And he kicked them till they yelped,
+for their too fond welcome.
+
+"How dare you, sir, use my dogs so!" screamed the lady within, enraged
+to think they had permitted that miserable schoolmaster to get the
+better of them.
+
+"I'll kick them, and you too, for this trick!" muttered the man. "I'll
+learn ye to shut me out, and make a row, when I'm coming to see you at
+the risk of my----"
+
+She cut him short, with a cry of amazement.
+
+"Lysander! is it you!"
+
+"Hold your noise!" said Lysander, pressing into the house. "Call my name
+again, and I'll choke you! Where's your schoolmaster? Won't he hear?"
+
+"Dear me! if it don't beat everything!" said Mrs. Sprowl in palpitating
+accents. "Don't you know I took you for the master!"
+
+"No, I didn't know it. This looks more like a welcome, though!" Lysander
+began to be mollified. "There, there! don't smother a fellow! One kiss
+is as good as fifty. The master is out, then? Anybody in the house?"
+
+"No, I'm so thankful! It seems quite providential! O, dearie, dearie,
+sonny dearie! I'm so glad to see you agin!"
+
+"Come! none of your sonny dearies! it makes me sick! Strike a light, and
+get me some supper, can't you?"
+
+"Yes, my boy, with all my heart! This is the happiest day I've seen----"
+
+"Ah, what's happened to-day?" said Lysander, treating with levity his
+mother's blissful confession.
+
+"I mean, this night! to have you back again! How could I mistake you for
+that dreadful schoolmaster!" Here her trembling fingers struck a match.
+
+"Draw the curtains," said Lysander, hastily executing his own order, as
+the blue sputter kindled up into a flame that lighted the room. "It
+ain't quite time for me to be seen here yet."
+
+"Where did you come from? What are you here for? O, my dear, dear
+Lysie!" (she gazed at him affectionately), "you ain't in no great
+danger, be you?"
+
+"That depends. Soon as Tennessee secedes, I shall be safe enough. I'm
+going to have a commission in the Confederate army, and that'll be
+protection from anything that might happen on account of old scores. I'm
+going to raise a company in this very place, and let the law touch me if
+it can!"
+
+He tossed his cap into a corner, and sprawled upon a chair before the
+stove, at which his devoted mother was already blowing her breath away
+in the endeavor to kindle a blaze. She stopped blowing to gape at his
+good news, turning up at him her low, skinny forehead, narrow nose, and
+close-set, winking eyes.
+
+"There! I declare!" said she. "I knowed my boy would come back to me
+some day a gentleman!"
+
+"A gentleman? I'm bound to be that!" said the man, with a braggart laugh
+and swagger. "I tell ye, mar, we're going to have the greatest
+confederacy ever was!"
+
+"Do tell if we be!" said the edified "mar."
+
+"Six months from now, you'll see the Yankees grovelling at our feet,
+begging for admission along with us. We'll have Washington, and all of
+the north we want, and defy the world!"
+
+"I want to know now!" said Mrs. Sprowl, overcome with admiration.
+
+"The slave-trade will be reopened, Yankee ships will bring us cargoes of
+splendid niggers, not a man in the south but'll be able to own three or
+four, they'll be so cheap, and we'll be so rich, you see," said
+Lysander.
+
+"You don't say, re'lly!"
+
+"That's the programme, mar! You'll see it all with your own eyes in six
+months."
+
+"Why, then, why _shouldn't_ the south secede!" replied "mar," hastening
+to put on the tea-kettle, and then to mix up a corn dodger for her son's
+supper. "I'm sure, we ought all on us to have our servants, and live
+without work; and I knowed all the time there was another side to what
+Penn Hapgood preaches (for he's dead set agin' secession), though I
+couldn't answer him as _you_ could, Lysie dear!"
+
+"Wal, never mind all that, but hurry up the grub!" said "Lysie dear,"
+putting sticks in the stove. "I hain't had a mouthful since breakfast."
+
+"You hain't seen _her_, of course," observed Mrs. Sprowl, mysteriously.
+
+"Her? who?"
+
+"Salina!" in a whisper, as if to be overheard by a mouse in the wall
+would have been fatal.
+
+"Wal, I have seen _her_, I reckon! Not an hour ago. By appointment. I
+wrote her I was coming, got a woman to direct the letter, and had a long
+talk with her to-night. What I want just now is, a little money, and
+she's got to raise it for me, and what she can't raise I shall look to
+you for."
+
+"O dear me! don't say money to me!" exclaimed the widow, alarmed.
+"Partic'larly now I've lost my best feather-bed and my boarder!"
+
+"What is it about your boarder? Out with it, and stop this hinting
+around!"
+
+Thus prompted, Mrs. Sprowl, who had indeed been waiting for the
+opportunity, related all she knew of what had happened to Penn. Lysander
+kindled up with interest as she proceeded, and finally broke forth with
+a startling oath.
+
+"And I can tell you where he has gone!" he said. "He's gone to the house
+I can't get into for love nor money! She refused me admission
+to-night--refused me money! but he is taken in, and their money will be
+lavished on him!"
+
+"But how do you know, my son,----"
+
+"How do I know he's there? Because, when I was with her in the orchard,
+we saw an object--she said it was some old nigger to see Toby--go into
+the kitchen. Then in a little while a man--it must have been Stackridge,
+if you say he was looking for him--went in with Carl, and didn't come
+out again, as I could see. I staid till the light from the kitchen went
+up into the bedroom, in the corner of the house this way. There's yer
+boarder, mar, I'll bet my life! But he won't be there long, I can tell
+ye!" laughed Lysander, maliciously.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+_TOBY'S PATIENT HAS A CALLER._
+
+
+Mr. Bythewood had now taken his departure; Salina had been intrusted
+with the secret; and Penn had been put to bed (as the rover correctly
+surmised) in the corner bedchamber.
+
+He had been diligently plucked; as much of the tar had been removed as
+could be easily taken off by methods known to Stackridge and Toby, and
+his wounds had been dressed. And there he lay, at last, in the soothing
+linen, exhausted and suffering, yet somehow happy, thinking with
+gratitude of the friends God had given him in his sore need.
+
+"Bress your heart, dear young massa!" said old Toby, standing by the bed
+(for he would not sit down), and regarding him with an unlimited variety
+of winks, and nods, and grins, expressive of satisfaction with his work;
+"ye're jest as comf'table now as am possible under de sarcumstances. If
+dar's anyting in dis yer world ye wants now, say de word, and ol'
+Toby'll jump at de chance to fetch 'em fur ye."
+
+"There is nothing I want now, good Toby, but that you and Carl should
+rest. You have done everything you can--and far more than I deserve. I
+will try to thank you when I am stronger."
+
+"Can't tink ob quittin' ye dis yer night, nohow, massa! Mr. Stackridge
+he's gone; Carl he can go to bed,--he ain't no 'count here, no way. But
+I'se took de job o' gitt'n you well, Mass' Penn, and I'se gwine to put
+it frew 'pon honor,--do it up han'some!"
+
+And notwithstanding Penn's remonstrances, the faithful black absolutely
+refused to leave him. Indeed, the most he could be prevailed upon to do
+for his own comfort, was to bring his blanket into the room, and promise
+that he would lie down upon it when he felt sleepy. Whether he kept his
+word or not, I cannot say; but there was no time during the night when,
+if Penn happened to stir uneasily, he did not see the earnest, tender,
+cheerful black face at his pillow in an instant, and hear the
+affectionate voice softly inquire,--
+
+"What can I do fur ye, massa? Ain't dar nuffin ol' Toby can be a doin'
+fur ye, jes' to pass away de time?"
+
+Sometimes it was water Penn wanted; but it did him really more good to
+witness the delight it gave Toby to wait upon him, than to drink the
+coolest and most delicious draught fresh from the well.
+
+At length Penn began to feel hot and stifled.
+
+"What have you hung over the window, Toby?"
+
+"Dat ar? 'Pears like dat ar's my blanket, sar. Ye see, 'twouldn't do,
+nohow, to let nary a chink o' light be seen from tudder side, 'cause dat
+'ud make folks s'pec' sumfin', dis yer time o' night. So I jes' sticks
+up my ol' blanket--'pears like I can sleep a heap better on de bar
+floor!"
+
+"But I must have some fresh air, you dear old hypocrite!" said Penn,
+deeply touched, for he knew that the African had deprived himself of his
+blanket because he did not wish to disturb him by leaving the room for
+another.
+
+"I'll fix him! Ill fix him!" said Toby. And he seemed raised to the very
+summit of happiness on discovering that there was something, requiring
+the exercise of his ingenuity, still to be done for his patient.
+
+After that Penn slept a little. "Tank de good Lord," said the old negro
+the next morning, "you're lookin' as chirk as can be! I'se a right smart
+hand fur to be nussin' ob de sick; and sakes! how I likes it! I'se gwine
+to hab you well, sar, 'fore eber a soul knows you'se in de house." Yet
+Toby's words expressed a great deal more confidence than he felt; for,
+though he had little apprehension of Penn's retreat being discovered, he
+saw how weak and feverish he was, and feared the necessity of sending
+for a doctor.
+
+Penn now insisted strongly that the old servant should not neglect his
+other duties for him.
+
+"Now you jes' be easy in yer mind on dat pint! Dar's Carl, tends to
+out-door 'rangements, and I'se got him larnt so's't he's bery good, bery
+good indeed, to look arter my cow, and my pigs, and sech like chores,
+when I'se got more 'portant tings on hand myself. And dar's Miss Jinny,
+she's glad enough to git de breakfust herself dis mornin'; only jes' I
+kind o' keeps an eye on her, so she shan't do nuffin wrong. She an'
+Massa Villars come to 'quire bery partic'lar 'bout you, 'fore you was
+awake, sar."
+
+These simple words seemed to flood Penn's heart with gratitude. Toby
+withdrew, but presently returned, bringing a salver.
+
+"Nuffin but a little broff, massa. And a toasted cracker."
+
+"O, you are too kind, Toby! Really, I can't eat this morning."
+
+"Can't eat, sar? I declar, now!" (in a whisper), "how disappinted she'll
+be!"
+
+"Who will be disappointed?"
+
+"Who? Miss Jinny, to be sure! She made de broff wid her own hands. Under
+my d'rections, ob course! But she would make 'em herself, and took a
+heap ob pains to hab 'em good, and put in de salt wid her own purty
+fingers, and looked as rosy a stirrin' and toastin' ober de fire as eber
+you see an angel, sar!"
+
+For some reason Penn began to think better of the broth, and, to Toby's
+infinite satisfaction, he consented to eat a little. Toby soon had him
+bolstered up in bed, and held the salver before him, and looked a
+perfect picture of epicurean enjoyment, just from seeing his patient
+eat.
+
+"It is delicious!" said Penn; at which brief eulogium the whole rich,
+exuberant, tropical soul of the unselfish African seemed to expand and
+blossom forth with joy. "I shall be sure to get well and strong soon,
+under such treatment. You must let Carl go to Mrs. Sprowl's and fetch my
+clothes; I shall want some of them when I get up."
+
+"Bress you, sar! you forgets nobody ain't to know whar you be! Mass'
+Villars he say so. You jes' lef' de clo'es alone, yit awhile. Wouldn't
+hab dat ar Widder Sprowl find out you'se in dis yer house, not if you'd
+gib me----"
+
+Rap, rap, at the chamber door; two light, hurried knocks.
+
+"Miss Jinny herself!" said old Toby, forgetting Mrs. Sprowl in an
+instant. And setting down the salver, he ran to the door.
+
+Penn heard quick whispers of consultation; then Toby came back, his eyes
+rolling and his ivory shining with a ludicrous expression of wrath and
+amazement.
+
+"It's de bery ol' hag herself! Speak de debil's name and he's allus at
+de door!"
+
+"Who? Mrs. Sprowl?"
+
+"Yes, sar! and I wish she was furder, sar! She's a 'quirin' fur
+you,--says she knows you'se in de house, and it's bery 'portant she must
+see ye. But, tank de Lord, massa!" chuckled the old negro, "Carl's
+forgot his English, and don't know nuffin what she wants! he, he, he! Or
+if she makes him und'stan' one ting, den he talks Dutch, and _she_ don't
+und'stan.' And so dey'se habin' it, fust one, den tudder, while Miss
+Jinny she hears 'em and comes fur to let us know. But how de ol' critter
+eber found you out, dat am one ob de mysteries!"
+
+"She merely guesses I am here," said Penn. "I'm only afraid Carl will
+overdo his part, and confirm her suspicions."
+
+"'Sh!" hissed Toby in sudden alarm. "She's a comin! She's a comin' right
+up to dis yer door!" And he flew to fasten it.
+
+He had scarcely done so when a hand tried the latch, and a voice
+called,--
+
+"Come! ye needn't, none of ye, try to impose on me! I know you're in
+this very room, Penn Hapgood, and you'll let me in, old friends so, I'm
+shore! I've bothered long enough with that stupid Dutch boy, and now
+Virginny wants to keep me, and talk with me; but I've nothing to do with
+nobody in this house but _you_!"
+
+Mrs. Sprowl had not been on amicable terms with her daughter-in-law's
+family since Salina and her husband separated; and this last declaration
+she made loud enough for all in the house to hear.
+
+Penn motioned for Toby to open the door, believing it the better way to
+admit the lady and conciliate her. But Toby shook his head--and his fist
+with grim defiance.
+
+"Wal!" said Mrs. Sprowl, "you can do as you please about lettin' a body
+in; but I'll give ye to understand one thing--I don't stir a foot from
+this door till it's opened. And if you want it kept secret that you're
+here, it'll be a great deal better for you, Penn Hapgood, to let me in,
+than to keep me standin' or settin' all day on the stairs."
+
+The idea of a long siege struck Toby with dismay. He hesitated; but Penn
+spoke.
+
+"I am very weak, and very ill, madam. But I have learned what it is to
+be driven from a door that should be opened to welcome me; and I am not
+willing, under any circumstances, to treat another as you last night
+treated me."
+
+This was spoken to the lady's face; for Toby, seeing that concealment
+was at an end, had slipped the bolt, and she had come in.
+
+"Wal! now! Mr. Hapgood!" she began, with a simper, which betrayed a
+little contrition and a good deal of crafty selfishness,--"you mustn't
+go to bein' too hard on me for that. Consider that I'm a poor widder,
+and my life war threatened, and I _had_ to do as I did."
+
+"Well, well," said Penn, "I certainly forgive you. Give her a chair,
+Toby."
+
+Toby placed the chair, and widow Sprowl sat down.
+
+"I couldn't be easy--old friends so--till I had come over to see how you
+be," she said, folding her hands, and regarding Penn with a solemn
+pucker of solicitude. "I know, 'twas a dreadful thing; but it's some
+comfort to think it's nothing I'm any ways to blame fur. It's hard
+enough for me to lose a boarder, jest at this time,--say nothing about a
+friend that's been jest like one of my own family, and that I've cooked,
+and washed, and ironed fur, as if he war my own son!"
+
+And Mrs. Sprowl wiped her eyes, while she carefully watched the effect
+of her words.
+
+"I acknowledge, you have cooked, washed, and ironed for me very
+faithfully," said Penn.
+
+"And I thought," said she,--"old friends so,--may be you wouldn't mind
+making me a present of the trifle you've paid over and above what's due
+for your board; for I'm a poor widder, as you know, and my only son is a
+wanderer on the face of the 'arth."
+
+Penn readily consented to make the present--perhaps reflecting that it
+would be equally impossible for him ever to board it out, or get her to
+return the money.
+
+"Then there's that old cloak of yourn," said Mrs. Sprowl,
+sympathizingly. "I believe you partly promised it to me, didn't you? I
+can manage to get me a cape out on't."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Penn, "you can have the cloak;" while Toby glared with
+rage behind her chair.
+
+"And I considered 'twouldn't be no more'n fair that you should pay for
+the----I don't see how in the world I can afford to lose it, bein' a
+poor widder, and live geeses' feathers at that, and my only son----" She
+hid her face in her apron, overcome with emotion.
+
+"What am I to pay for?" asked Penn.
+
+"Fur, you know," she said, "I never would have parted with it fur any
+money, and it will take at least ten dollars to replace it, which is
+hard, bein' a poor widder, and as strong a linen tick as ever you see,
+that I made myself, and that my blessed husband died on, and helped me
+pick the geese with his own hands; and I never thought, when I took you
+to board, that ever _that_ bed would be sacrificed by it,--for 'twas on
+your account, you are ware, it was took last night and done for."
+
+"And you think I ought to pay for the bed!" said Penn, as much
+astonished as if Silas Ropes had sent in his bill, "To 1 coat tar and
+feathers, $10.00."
+
+"They said I must look to you," whined the visitor; "and if you don't
+pay fur't, I don't know who will, I'm shore! for none of them have sot
+at my board, and drinked of my coffee, and e't of my good corn dodgers,
+and slep' in my best bed, all for four dollars fifty a week, washing and
+ironing throwed in, and a poor widder at that!"
+
+"Mrs. Sprowl," said Penn, laughing, ill as he was, "have the kindness
+not to tell any one that I am here, and as soon as I am able to do so, I
+will pay you for your excellent feather-bed."
+
+"Thank you,--very good in you, I'm shore!" said the worthy creature,
+brightening. "And if there's anything else among your things you can
+spare."
+
+"I'll see! I'll see!" said Penn, wearily. "Leave me now, do!"
+
+"But if you had a few dollars, this morning, towards the bed," she
+insisted, "for my son----" She almost betrayed herself; being about to
+say that Lysander had arrived, and must have money; but she coughed, and
+added, in a changed voice, "is a wanderer on the face of the 'arth."
+
+Penn, however, reflecting that she would have more encouragement to keep
+his secret if he held the reward in reserve, replied, that he could not
+possibly spare any money before collecting what was due him from the
+trustees of the Academy. Her countenance fell on hearing this; and,
+reluctantly abandoning the object of her mission, she took her leave,
+and went home to her hopeful son.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+_THE WIDOW'S GREEN CHEST._
+
+
+Mr. Villars had spoken truly when he said Penn's persecutors would not
+rest here. In fact, Mr. Ropes, and three of his accomplices, were even
+now on the way to Mrs. Sprowl's abode, to make inquiries concerning the
+schoolmaster.
+
+That lone creature had scarcely reached her own door when she saw them
+coming. Now, though Penn was not in the house, her son was. Great,
+therefore, was her trepidation at the sight of visitors; and she evinced
+such eagerness to assure them that the object of their pursuit was not
+there, and appeared altogether so frightened and guilty, that Ropes
+winked knowingly at his companions, and said,--
+
+"He's here, boys, safe enough."
+
+So they forced their way into the house; her increased tremor and
+confusion serving only to confirm them in their suspicions.
+
+"Not that we doubt your word in the least, Mrs. Sprowl,"--Ropes smiled
+sarcastically. "But of course you can't object to our searching the
+premises, for we're in the performance of a solemn dooty. Any whiskey in
+the house, widder?"
+
+The obliging lady went to find a bottle. She was gone so long, however,
+that the visitors became impatient. Ropes accordingly stationed two of
+his men at the doors, and with the third went in pursuit of Mrs. Sprowl,
+whom they met coming down stairs.
+
+"Keep your liquor up there, do ye?" said Ropes, significantly.
+
+"I--I thought--" Mrs. Sprowl gasped for breath before she could
+proceed--"the master had some in his room. But I can't find it. You are
+at liberty to--to look in his room, if you wants to."
+
+"Wal, it's our dooty to, I suppose. Meantime, you can be bringing the
+whiskey. Give some to the boys outside, then bring the bottle up to us.
+That's the way, Gad," said Silas, as she unwillingly obeyed; "allus be
+perlite to the sex, ye know."
+
+"Sartin! allus!" said Gad.
+
+It was evident these men fancied themselves polite.
+
+"But he ain't here," said Silas, just glancing into Penn's room, "or
+else she wouldn't have been so willing for us to search. Le's begin at
+the top of the house, and look along down." They entered a low-roofed,
+empty garret. "As we can't perceed without the whiskey, we'll wait here.
+Meantime, I'll tell you what you wanted to know."
+
+They sat down on a little old green chest, and Ropes, producing a plug
+of tobacco, gave his friend a bite, and took a bite himself.
+
+"What I'm going to say is in perfect confidence, between friends;"
+chewing and crossing his legs.
+
+Gad chewed, and crossed his legs, and said, "O, of course! in perfect
+confidence!"
+
+"Wal, then, I'll tell ye whar the money fur our job comes from. It comes
+from Gus Bythewood."
+
+"Sho!" said Gad, looking surprised at Silas.
+
+"Fact!" said Silas, looking wise at Gad.
+
+"But what's he so dead set agin' the master fur?"
+
+"I'll tell ye, Gad." And Mr. Ropes rested a finger confidingly on his
+friend's knee. "Fur as I kin jedge, Gus has a sneakin' notion arter that
+youngest Villars gal; Virginny, ye know."
+
+"Don't blame him!" chuckled Gad.
+
+"But ye see, thar's that Hapgood; he's a great favoryte with the
+Villarses, and Gus nat'rally wants to git him out of the way. It won't
+do, though, for him to have it known he has any thing to do with our
+operations. He pays us, and backs us up with plenty of cash if we get
+into trouble; but he keeps dark, you understand."
+
+"The master ought to be hung for his abolitionism!" said Gad, by way of
+self-excuse for being made a jealous man's tool.
+
+"That ar's jest my sentiment," replied Silas. "But then he's allus been
+a peaceable sort of chap, and held his tongue; so he might have been let
+alone some time yet, if it hadn't been for----What in time!"
+
+Ropes started, and changed color, glancing first at Gad, then down at
+the chest.
+
+"He's in it!" whispered Gad.
+
+Both jumped up, and, facing about, looked at the green lid, and at each
+other.
+
+The chest was so small it had not occurred to them that a man could get
+into it. Lysander had got into it, however, and there he lay, so
+cramped, and stifled, and compressed, that he could not endure the
+torture without an effort to ease it by moving a little. He had stirred;
+then all was still again.
+
+"Think he's heerd us?" said Silas.
+
+"Must have heerd something," said Gad.
+
+"Then he's as good as a dead man!"
+
+Silas drew his pistol, resolved to sacrifice the schoolmaster on the
+altar of secrecy. But as he was about to fire into the chest at a
+venture (for your cowardly assassin does not like to face his victim),
+the lid flew open, the chivalry stepped hastily back, and up rose out of
+the chest--not the schoolmaster, but--Lysander Sprowl.
+
+Silas had struck his head against a rafter, and was quite bewildered for
+a moment by the shock, the multitude of meteors that rushed across his
+firmament, and the sudden apparition. Gad, at the same time, stood ready
+to take a plunge down the stairs in case the schoolmaster should show
+fight.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the "wanderer on the face of the 'arth," straightening
+his limbs, and saluting with a reckless air, "I hope I see ye well.
+Never mind about shooting an old friend, Sile Ropes. I reckon we're
+about even; and I'll keep your secret, if you'll keep mine."
+
+"That's fair," said Ropes, recovering from the falling stars, and
+putting up his weapon. "Lysander, how are ye? Good joke, ain't it?" And
+they shook hands all around. "But whar's the schoolmaster?" And Silas
+rubbed his head.
+
+"I know all about the schoolmaster," said Lysander, stepping out of the
+chest; "he ain't in this house, but I know just where he is. And I
+reckon 'twill be for the interest of me and Gus Bythewood if we can have
+a little talk together, tell him. If he's got money to spare, that'll be
+to my advantage; and what I know will be to his advantage."
+
+So saying, Lysander closed the chest, and coolly invited the chivalry to
+resume their seats. They did so, much to the amazement of Mrs. Sprowl,
+who came up stairs with the whiskey, and found the "wanderer on the face
+of the 'arth" conversing in the most amicable manner with Gad and Silas.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+_SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY._
+
+
+If what Silas Ropes had said of his patron, Augustus Bythewood, was
+true, great must have been the chagrin of that chivalrous young
+gentleman when an interview was brought about between him and Lysander,
+and he learned that Penn, instead of being driven from the state, had
+found refuge in the family of Mr. Villars--that he was there even at the
+moment when he made his delightful little evening call, and was
+entertained so charmingly by Virginia.
+
+Bythewood gave Sprowl money, and Sprowl gave Bythewood information and
+advice. It was in accordance with the programme decided upon by these
+two worthies, that Mr. Ropes at the head of his gang presented himself
+the next night at Mr. Villars's door.
+
+Virginia, by her father's direction, admitted them. They crowded into
+the sitting-room, where the old man rose to receive them, with his usual
+urbanity.
+
+"Virginia, have chairs brought for all our friends. I cannot see to
+recognize them individually, but I salute them all."
+
+"No matter about the cheers," said Silas. "We can do our business
+standing. Sorry to trouble you with it, sir, but it's jest this. We
+understand you're harboring a Yankee abolitionist, and we've called to
+remind you that sech things can't be allowed in a well-regulated
+community."
+
+The old man, holding himself still erect with punctilious
+politeness,--for his guests were not seated,--and smiling with grand and
+venerable aspect, made reply in tones full of dignity and sweetness: "My
+friends, I am an old man; I am a native of Virginia, and a citizen of
+Tennessee; and all my life long I have been accustomed to regard the
+laws of hospitality as sacred."
+
+"My sentiments exactly. I won't hear a word said agin' southern
+horsepitality, or southern perliteness." Mr. Ropes illustrated his
+remark by spitting copious tobacco-juice on the floor. "Horsepitality I
+look upon as one of the stable institootions of our country."
+
+"No doubt it is so," said Mr. Villars, smiling at the unintentional pun.
+
+"That's one thing," added Silas; "but harboring a abolitionist is
+another. That's the question we've jest took the liberty to call and
+have a little quiet talk about, to-night."
+
+"Sit down, dear father, do!" entreated Virginia, remaining at his side
+in spite of her dread and abhorrence of these men. Holding his hand, and
+regarding him with pale and anxious looks, she endeavored with gentle
+force to get him into his chair. "My father is very feeble," she said,
+appealing to Silas, "and I beg you will have some consideration for
+him."
+
+"Sartin, sartin," said Silas. "Keep yer settin', keep yer settin', Mr.
+Villars."
+
+But the old man still remained upon his feet,--his tall, spare form,
+bent with age, his long, thin locks of white hair, and his wan,
+sightless, calm, and beautiful countenance presenting a wonderful
+contrast to the blooming figure at his side. It was a picture which
+might well command the respectful attention of Silas and his compeers.
+
+"My friends," he said, with a grave smile, "we men of the south are
+rather boastful of our hospitality. But true hospitality consists in
+something besides eating and drinking with those whose companionship is
+a sufficient recompense for all that we do for them. It clothes the
+naked, feeds the hungry, shelters the distressed. With the Arabs, even
+an enemy is sacred who happens to be a guest. Shall an old Virginian
+think less of the honor of his house than an Arab?"
+
+Silas looked abashed, silenced for a moment by these noble words, and
+the venerable and majestic mien of the blind old clergyman. It would not
+do, however, to give up his mission so; and after coughing, turning his
+quid, and spitting again, he replied,--
+
+"That'll do very well to talk, Mr. Villars. But come to the pint. You've
+got a Yankee abolitionist in your house--that you won't deny."
+
+"I have in my house," said the old man, "a person whose life is in
+danger from injuries received at your hands last night. He came to us in
+a condition which, I should have thought, would excite the pity of the
+hardest heart. Whether or not he is a Yankee abolitionist, I never
+inquired. It was enough for me that he was a fellow-creature in
+distress. He is well known in this community, where he has never been
+guilty of wrong towards any one; and, even if he were a dangerous
+person, he is not now in a condition to do mischief. Gentlemen, my guest
+is very ill with a fever."
+
+"Can't help that; you must git red of him," said Silas. "I'm a talking
+now for your own good as much as any body's, Mr. Villars. You're a man
+we all respect; but already you've made yourself a object of suspicion,
+by standing up fur the old rotten Union."
+
+"When I can no longer befriend my guests, or stand up for my country,
+then I shall have lived long enough!" said the old man, with impressive
+earnestness.
+
+"The old Union," said Gad, coming to the aid of Silas, "is played out.
+We couldn't have our rights, and so we secede."
+
+"What rights couldn't you have under the government left to us by
+Washington?"
+
+"That had become corrupted," said Mr. Ropes.
+
+"How corrupted, my friend?"
+
+"By the infernal anti-slavery element!"
+
+"You forget," said Mr. Villars, "that Washington, Jefferson, and indeed
+all the wisest and best men who assisted to frame the government under
+which we have been so prospered, were anti-slavery men."
+
+"Wal, I know, some on 'em hadn't got enlightened on the subject," Mr.
+Ropes admitted.
+
+"And do you know that if a stranger, endowed with all the virtues of
+those patriots, should come among you and preach the political doctrines
+of Washington and Jefferson, you would serve him as you served Penn
+Hapgood last night?"
+
+"Shouldn't wonder the least mite if we should!" Silas grinned. "But
+that's nothing to the purpose. We claim the right to carry our slaves
+into the territories, and Lincoln's party is pledged to keep 'em out,
+and that's cause enough for secession."
+
+"How many slaves do you own, Mr. Ropes?" Mr. Villars, still leaning on
+his daughter's arm, smiled as he put this mild question.
+
+"I--wal--truth is, I don't own nary slave myself--wish I did!" said
+Silas.
+
+"How many friends have you with you?"
+
+"'Lev'n," said Gad, rapidly counting his companions.
+
+"Well, of the eleven, how many own slaves?"
+
+"I do!" "I do!" spoke up two eager voices.
+
+"How many slaves do you own?"
+
+"I've got as right smart a little nigger boy as there is anywheres in
+Tennessee!" said the first, proudly.
+
+"How old is he?"
+
+"He'll be nine year' old next grass, I reckon."
+
+"Well, how many negroes has your friend?"
+
+"I've got one old woman, sir."
+
+"How old is she?"
+
+"Wal, plaguy nigh a hunderd,--old Bess, you know her."
+
+"Yes, I know old Bess; and an excellent creature she is. So it seems
+that you eleven men own two slaves. And these you wish to take into some
+of the territories, I suppose."
+
+The men looked foolish, and were obliged to own that they had never
+dreamed of conveying either the nine-year-old lad or the female
+centenarian out of the state of Tennessee.
+
+"Then what is the grievance you complain of?" asked the old man. They
+could not name any. "O, now, my friends, look you here! I believe in the
+right of revolution when a government oppresses a people beyond
+endurance. But in this case it appears, by your own showing, that not
+one of you has suffered any wrong, and that this is not a revolution in
+behalf of the poor and oppressed. If anybody is to be benefited by it,
+it is a few rich owners of slaves, who are prosperous enough already,
+and have really no cause of complaint. It is a revolution precipitated
+by political leaders, who wish to be rulers; and what grieves me at the
+heart is, that the poor and ignorant are thus permitting themselves to
+be made the tools of this tyranny, which will soon prove more despotic
+than it was possible for the dear old government ever to become. God
+bless my country! God bless my poor distracted country!"
+
+As he finished speaking, the old man sank down overcome with emotion
+upon his chair, clasping his daughter's hand, while tears ran down his
+cheeks.
+
+His argument was so unanswerable that nothing was left for Silas but to
+get angry.
+
+"I see you're not only a Unionist, but more'n half a Yankee abolitionist
+yourself! We didn't come here to listen to any sech incendiary talk.
+Kick out the schoolmaster, if you wouldn't git into trouble,--I warn
+you! That's the business we've come to see to, and you must tend to't."
+
+"Pity him--spare him!" cried Virginia, shielding her aged father as
+Ropes approached him. "He cannot turn a sick man out of his house, you
+know he cannot!"
+
+"You're partic'larly interested in the young man, hey?" said Ropes,
+grinning insolently.
+
+"I am interested that no harm comes either to my father or to his
+guests," said the girl. "Go, I implore you! As soon as Mr. Hapgood is
+able to leave us, he will do so,--he will have no wish to stay,--this I
+promise you."
+
+"I'll give him three days to quit the country," said Silas. "Only three
+days. He'd better be dead than found here at the end of that time.
+Gentlemen, we've performed this yer painful dooty; now le's adjourn to
+Barber Jim's and take a drink."
+
+With these words Mr. Ropes retired. While, however, he was treating his
+men to whiskey and cigars with Augustus Bythewood's money, advanced for
+the purpose, one of the eleven, separating himself from the rest,
+hurried back to the minister's house. He had taken part in the patriotic
+proceedings of his friends with great reluctance, as appeared from the
+manner in which he shrank from view in corners and behind the backs of
+his comrades, and drew down his woe-begone mouth, and rolled up his
+dismal eyes, during the entire interview. And he had returned now, at
+the risk of his life, to do Penn a service.
+
+He crept to the kitchen door, and knocked softly. Carl opened it. There
+stood the wretched figure, terrified, panting for breath.
+
+"Vat is it?" said Carl.
+
+"I've come fur to tell ye!" said the man, glancing timidly around into
+the darkness to see if he was followed. "They mean to kill him! They
+told you they'd give him three days, but they won't. I heard them saying
+so among themselves. They may be back this very night, for they'll all
+git drunk, and nothing will stop 'em then."
+
+Carl stared, as these hoarsely whispered words were poured forth rapidly
+by the frightened man at the door.
+
+"Come in, and shpeak to Mishter Willars."
+
+"No, no! I'll be killed if I'm found here!"
+
+But Carl, sturdy and resolute, had no idea of permitting him to deliver
+so hasty and alarming a message without subjecting him to a
+cross-examination. He had already got him by the collar, and now he
+dragged him into the house, the man not daring to resist for fear of
+outcry and exposure.
+
+"What is it?" asked Mr. Villars.
+
+"A wisitor!" said Carl. And he repeated Dan's statement, while Dan was
+recovering his breath.
+
+"Is this true, Mr. Pepperill?" asked the old man, deeply concerned.
+
+"Yes, I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.
+
+Virginia clung to her father's chair, white with apprehension. Toby was
+also present, having left his patient an instant to run down stairs, and
+learn what was the cause of this fresh disturbance.
+
+"He's a lyin' to ye, Mass' Villars; he's a lyin' to ye! White trash
+can't tell de troof if dey tries! Don't ye breeve a word he says,
+massa."
+
+Yet it was evident from the consternation the old negro's face betrayed
+that he believed Dan's story,--or at least feared it would prove true if
+he did not make haste and deny it stoutly; for Toby, like many persons
+with whiter skins, always felt on such occasions a vague faith that if
+he could get the bad news sufficiently denounced and discredited in
+season, all would be well. As if simply setting our minds against the
+truth would defeat it!
+
+"But they spoke of fittin' yer neck to a noose too!"
+
+"Mine? Ah, if nobody but myself was in danger, I should be well content!
+What do you think we ought to do, Mr. Pepperill?"
+
+"The master has done me a good turn, and I'll do him one, if I swing
+fur't!" said Dan, straightening himself with sudden courage. "Get him
+out 'fore they suspect what you're at, and I'll take him to my house and
+hide him, I be durned if I won't!"
+
+"It is a kind offer, and I thank you," said the old man. "But how can I
+resolve to send a guest from my house in this way? Not to save my own
+life would I do it!"
+
+"But to save his, father!"
+
+"It is only of him I am thinking, my child. Would it be safe to move
+him, Toby?"
+
+"Safe to move Massa Penn!" ejaculated the old negro, choking with wrath
+and grief. "Neber tink o' sech a ting, massa! He'd die, shore, widout I
+should go 'long wid him, and tote him in my ol' arms on a fedder-bed
+jes' like I would a leetle baby, and den stay and nuss him arter I got
+him dar. For dem 'ar white trash, what ye s'pose day knows 'bout takin'
+keer ob a sick gemman like him? It's a bery 'tic'lar case. He's got de
+delirimum a comin' on him now, and I can't be away from him a minute. I
+mus' go back to him dis bery minute!"
+
+And Toby departed, having suddenly conceived an idea of his own for
+hiding Penn in the barn until the danger was over.
+
+He had been absent from the room but a moment, however, when those
+remaining in it heard a wild outcry, and presently the old negro
+reappeared, inspired with superstitious terror, his eyes starting from
+their sockets, his tongue paralyzed.
+
+"What's the matter, Toby?" cried Virginia, perceiving that something
+really alarming had happened.
+
+The negro tried to speak, but his throat only gurgled incoherently,
+while the whites of his eyes kept rolling up like saucers.
+
+"Penn--has anything happened to Penn?" said Mr. Villars.
+
+"O, debil, debil, Lord bress us!" gibbered Toby.
+
+"Dead?" cried Virginia.
+
+"Gone! gone, missis!"
+
+Struck with consternation, but refusing to believe the words of the
+bewildered black, Virginia flew to the sick man's chamber.
+
+Then she understood the full meaning of Toby's words. Penn was not in
+his bed, nor in the room, nor anywhere in the house. He had disappeared
+suddenly, strangely, totally.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+_CHIVALROUS PROCEEDINGS._
+
+
+Thus the question of what should be done with his guest, which Mr.
+Villars knew not how to decide, had been decided for him.
+
+Great was the mystery. There was the bed precisely as Penn had left it a
+minute since. There was the candle dimly burning. The medicines remained
+just where Toby had placed them, on the table under the mirror. But the
+patient had vanished.
+
+What had become of him? It was believed that he was too ill to leave his
+bed without assistance. And, even though he had been strong, it was by
+no means probable that one so uniformly discreet in his conduct, and
+ever so regardful of the feelings of others, would have quitted the
+house in this abrupt and inexplicable manner.
+
+In vain the premises were searched. Not a trace of him could be anywhere
+discovered. Neither were there any indications of a struggle. Yet it was
+Toby's firm conviction that the ruffians had entered the house, and
+seized him; that Pepperill was in the plot, the object of whose visit
+was merely a diversion, while Ropes and the rest accomplished the
+abduction. This could not, of course, have been done without the aid of
+magic and the devil; but Toby believed in magic and the devil. The fact
+that Dan had taken advantage of the confusion to escape, appeared to the
+Ethiopian mind conclusive.
+
+Nor was the negro alone in his bewilderment. Carl was utterly
+confounded. The old clergyman, usually so calm, was deeply troubled;
+while Virginia herself, pierced with the keenest solicitude, could
+scarce keep her mind free from horrible and superstitious doubts. The
+doors between the sitting-room and back stairs were all wide open, and
+it seemed impossible that any one could have come in or gone out that
+way without being observed. On the other hand, to have reached the front
+stairs Penn must have passed through Salina's room. But Salina, who was
+in her room at the time, averred that she had not been disturbed, even
+by a sound.
+
+"He has got out the vinder," said Carl. But the window was fifteen feet
+from the ground.
+
+Thus all reasonable conjecture failed, and it seemed necessary to accept
+Toby's theory of the ruffians, magic, and the devil. Only one thing was
+certain: Penn was gone. And, as if to add to the extreme and painful
+perplexity of his friends, the clothes, which had been stripped from him
+by the lynchers, which he had brought away in his hands, and which had
+been hung up in his room by Toby, were left hanging there still,
+untouched.
+
+The family had not recovered from the dismay his disappearance
+occasioned, when they had cause to rejoice that he was gone. Ropes and
+his crew returned, as Pepperill had predicted. They were intoxicated and
+bloodthirsty. They had brought a rope, with which to hang their victim
+before the old clergyman's door. They were furious on finding he had
+eluded them, and searched the house with oaths and uproar. Virginia, on
+her knees, clung to her father, praying that he might not be harmed, and
+that Penn, whom all had been so anxious just now to find, might be safe
+from discovery.
+
+Exasperated by their unsuccessful search, the villains hesitated about
+laying violent hands on the blind old man, and concluded to wreak their
+vengeance on Toby. That he was a freed negro, was alone a sufficient
+offence in their eyes to merit a whipping. But he had done more; he had
+been devoted to the schoolmaster, and they believed he had concealed
+him. So they seized him, dragged him from the house, bared his back, and
+tied him to a tree.
+
+As long as the mob had confined itself to searching the premises, Mr.
+Villars had held his peace. But the moment his faithful old servant was
+in danger, he roused himself. He rushed to the door, bareheaded, his
+white hair flowing, his staff in his hand. Both his children accompanied
+him,--Salina, who was really not void of affection, appearing scarcely
+less anxious and indignant than her sister.
+
+There, in the light of a wood-pile to which fire had been set, stood the
+old negro, naked to the waist, lashed fast to the trunk, writhing with
+pain and terror; his brutal tormentors grouped around him in the glare
+of the flames, preparing, with laughter, oaths, and much loose,
+leisurely swaggering, to flay his flesh with rods.
+
+"My friends!" cried the old clergyman, with an energy that startled
+them, "what are you about to do?"
+
+"We're gwine to sarve this nigger," said the man Gad, "jest as every
+free nigger'll git sarved that's found in the state three months from
+now."
+
+"Free niggers is a nuisance," added Ropes, now very drunk, and very much
+inclined to make a speech on a barrel which his friends rolled out for
+him. "A nuisance!" he repeated, with a hiccough, steadying himself on
+his rostrum by holding a branch of the tree. "And let me say to you,
+feller-patriots, that one of the glorious fruits of secession is, that
+every free nigger in the state will either be sold for a slave, or druv
+out, or hung up. I tell you, gentlemen, we're a goin' to have our own
+way in these matters, spite of all the ministers in creation!"
+
+The men cheered, and one of them struck Toby a couple of preliminary
+blows, just to try his hand, and to add the poor old negro's howls to
+the chorus.
+
+"No doubt,"--the old clergyman's voice rose above the tumult,--"you will
+have your way for a season. You will commit injustice with a high hand.
+You will glut your cruelty upon the defenceless and oppressed. But, as
+there is a God in heaven,"--he lifted up his blind white face, and with
+his trembling hands shook his staff on high, like a prophet foretelling
+woe,--"as there is a God of justice and mercy who beholds this
+wickedness,--just so sure the hour of your retribution will come! so
+sure the treason you are breathing, and the despotism you are
+inaugurating, will prove a snare and a destruction to yourselves! Unbind
+that man! leave my house in peace! go home, and learn to practise a
+little of the mercy of which you will yourselves soon stand in need."
+His venerable aspect, and the power and authority of his words, awed
+even that drunken crew. But Silas, vain of his oratorical powers, was
+enraged that anybody should dispute his influence with the crowd.
+Holding the branch with one hand, and gesticulating violently with the
+other, he exclaimed,--
+
+"Who is boss here? Who ye goin' to mind? that old traitor, or me? I say,
+lick the nigger! We're a goin' to have our way now, and we're a goin' to
+have our way to the end of the 'arth, sure as I am a gentleman standing
+on this yer barrel!"
+
+To emphasize his declaration, he stamped with his foot; the head of the
+cask flew in, and down went orator, cask, and all, in a fashion rendered
+all the more ridiculous by the climax of oratory it illustrated.
+
+"Just so sure will your hollow and inhuman schemes fail from under your
+feet!" exclaimed Mr. Villars, as soon as he learned what had happened.
+"So surely and so suddenly will you fall."
+
+This incident occurred as Toby's flogging was about to begin in earnest.
+Virginia had instinctively covered her eyes to shut out the terrible
+sight, her ears to shut out the sounds of the beating and the poor old
+fellow's groans. Luckily, Silas had fallen partly in the barrel, and
+partly across the sharp edge of it, and being too tipsy to help himself,
+had been seriously hurt, and was now helpless. The ruffians hastened to
+extricate him, and raise him up. Carl, who, with an open knife concealed
+in his sleeve, had been waiting for an opportunity, darted at the tree,
+cut the negro's bonds in a twinkling, and set him free.
+
+Both took to their heels without an instant's delay. But the trick was
+discovered. They were pursued immediately. Carl was lively on his legs,
+as we know; but poor old Toby, never a good runner, and now stiff and
+decrepit with age, was no match even for the slowest of their pursuers.
+
+They ran straight into the orchard, hoping to lose themselves among the
+shadows. The glare of the burning wood-pile flickered but faintly and
+unsteadily among the trees. Carl might easily have escaped; but he
+thought only of Toby, and kept faithfully at his side, assisting him,
+urging him. A fence was near--if they could only reach that! But Toby
+was wheezing terribly, and the hand of the foremost ruffian was already
+extended to seize him.
+
+"Jump the vence over!" was Carl's parting injunction to the old negro,
+who made a last desperate effort to accomplish the feat; while Carl,
+turning sharp about, tripped the foot of him of the extended hand, and
+sent him headlong. The second pursuer he grappled, and both rolled upon
+the ground together.
+
+Favored by this diversion, Toby reached the fence, climbed it, and
+without looking how, he leaped, jumped down upon--a human figure,
+stretched there upon the ground!
+
+Notwithstanding his own danger, Toby thought of his patient, and
+stopped.
+
+"Is it you, massa?"
+
+The man rose slowly to his feet. It was not Penn; it was, on the
+contrary, the worst of Penn's enemies, who had stationed himself here,
+in order to observe, unseen, and from a safe distance, the operations of
+Silas Ropes and his band of patriots.
+
+"O, Massa Bythewood!" ejaculated Toby, inspired with sudden joy and
+hope; "help a poor old niggah! Help! De Villarses will remember it ob ye
+de longest day you live, if you on'y will."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Toby?" said Augustus, full of rage at having
+been thus discovered, yet assuming a gracious and patronizing manner.
+
+Toby did not make a very coherent reply; but probably the young
+gentleman was already sufficiently aware of what was going on. He had no
+especial regard for Toby, yet his credit with Virginia and her father
+was to be sustained. And so Toby was saved.
+
+Augustus met and rebuked his pursuers, released Carl, who was suffering
+at the hands of his antagonist, and led the way back to the house. There
+he expressed to Mr. Villars and his daughters the utmost regret and
+indignation for what had occurred, and took Mr. Ropes aside to
+remonstrate with him for such violent proceedings. His influence over
+that fallen orator was extraordinary. Ropes excused himself on the plea
+of his patriotic zeal, and called off his men.
+
+"How fortunate," said Augustus, conducting the old man, with an
+excessive show of deference and politeness, back into the
+sitting-room,--"how extremely fortunate that I happened to be walking
+this way! I trust no serious harm has been done, my dear Virginia?"
+
+Bythewood no doubt thought himself entitled to use this affectionate
+term, after the service he had rendered the family.
+
+After he was gone, Toby, having recovered from his fright and the
+fatigue of running, and got his clothes on again, rushed into the
+presence of his master and the young ladies.
+
+"I've seed Mass' Penn!" he said. "Arter Bythewood done got up from under
+de fence whar I jumped on him, I seed anoder man a crawlin' away on his
+hands and knees jest a little ways off. 'Twas Mass' Penn! I know 'twas
+Mass' Penn."
+
+But Toby was mistaken. The second figure he had seen was Mr. Lysander
+Sprowl, now the confidential adviser and secret companion of Augustus.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+_THE OLD CLERGYMAN'S NIGHTGOWN HAS AN ADVENTURE._
+
+
+Where, then, all this time, was Penn? He was himself almost as
+profoundly ignorant on that subject as anybody. For two or three hours
+he had been lost to himself no less than to his friends.
+
+When he recovered his consciousness he found that he was lying on the
+ground, in the open air, in what seemed a barren field, covered with
+rocks and stunted shrubs.
+
+How he came there he did not know. He had nothing on but his
+night-dress,--a loan from the old clergyman,--besides a blanket wrapped
+about him. His feet were bare, and he now perceived that they were
+painfully aching.
+
+Almost too weak to lift a hand to his head, he yet tried to sit up and
+look around him. All was darkness; not a sign of human habitation, not a
+twinkling light was visible. The cold night wind swept over him, sighing
+drearily among the leafless bushes. Chilled, shivering, his temples
+throbbing, his brain sick and giddy, he sat down again upon the rocks,
+so ill and suffering that he could scarcely feel astonishment at his
+situation, or care whether he lived or died.
+
+Where had he been during those hours of oblivion? He seemed to have
+slept, and to have had terrible dreams. Could he have remembered these
+dreams, it seemed to him that the whole mystery of his removal to this
+desolate spot would be explained. And he knew that it required but an
+effort of his will to remember them. But his soul was too weak: he could
+not make the effort.
+
+To get upon his feet and walk was impossible. What, then, was left him
+but to perish here, alone, uncared for, unconsoled by a word of love
+from any human being? Death he would have welcomed as a relief from his
+sufferings. Yet when he thought of his home far away, in the peaceful
+community of Friends, of his parents and sisters now anxiously expecting
+his return,--and again when he remembered the hospitable roof under
+which he lay, so tenderly nursed, but a little while ago, and thought of
+the blind old clergyman, of Virginia fresh as a rose, of kind-hearted
+Carl, and the affectionate old negro,--he was stung with the desire to
+live, and he called feebly,--
+
+"Toby! Toby!"
+
+Was his cry heard? Surely, there were footsteps on the rocks! And was
+not that a human form moving dimly between him and the sky? It passed
+on, and was lost in the shadows of the pines. Was it some animal, or
+only a phantom of his feverish brain?
+
+"Toby!" he called again, exerting all his force. But only the wailing
+wind answered him, and, overcome by the effort, he sunk into a swoon. In
+that swoon it seemed to him that Toby had heard his voice, and that he
+came to him. Hands, gentle human hands, groped on him, felt the blanket,
+felt his bare feet, and his head, pillowed on stones. Then there seemed
+to be two Tobys, one good and the other evil, holding a strange
+consultation over him, which he heard as in a dream.
+
+"We can't leave him dying here!" said the good Toby.
+
+"What dat to me, if him die, or whar him die?" said the other Toby.
+"Straight har!" He seemed to be feeling Penn's locks, in order to
+ascertain to which race he belonged. "Dat's nuff fur me! Lef him be, I
+tell ye, and come 'long!"
+
+"Straight hair or curly, it's all the same," said Toby the Good. "Take
+hold here; we must save him!"
+
+"Hyah-yah! ye don't cotch dis niggah!" chuckled Toby the Bad,
+maliciously. "Nuff more ob his kind, in all conscience! Reckon we kin
+spar' much as one! Hyah-yah!"
+
+Something like a quarrel ensued, the result of which was, that Toby the
+Good finally prevailed upon Toby the Malevolent to assist him. Then Penn
+was dreamily aware of being lifted in the strong arms of this double
+individual, and borne away, over rocks, and among thickets, along the
+mountain side; until even this misty ray of consciousness deserted him,
+and he fell into a stupor like death.
+
+And what was this he saw on awaking? Had he really died, and was this
+unearthly place a vestibule of the infernal regions? Days and nights of
+anguish, burning, and delirium, relieved at intervals by the same
+death-like stupor, had passed over him; and here he lay at length,
+exhausted, the terrible fever conquered, and his soul looking feebly
+forth and taking note of things.
+
+And strange enough things appeared to him! He was in an apartment of
+prodigious and uncouth architecture, dimly lighted from one side by some
+opening invisible to him, and by a blazing fire in a little fireplace
+built on the broad stone floor. The fireplace was without chimney, but a
+steady draught of air, from the side where the opening seemed to be,
+swept the smoke away into sombre recesses, where it mingled with the
+shadows of the place, and was lost in gloom which even the glare of the
+flames failed to illumine.
+
+Such a cavernous room Penn seemed to have seen in his dreams. The same
+irregular, rocky roof started up from the wall by his bed, and stretched
+away into vague and obscure distance. All was familiar to him, but all
+was somehow mixed up with frightful fantasies which had vanished with
+the fever that had so recently left him. The awful shapes, the struggles
+of demoniac men, the processions of strange and beautiful forms, which
+had visited him in his delirious visions,--all these were airy nothings;
+but the cave was real.
+
+Here he lay, on a rude bed constructed of four logs, forming the ends
+and sides, with canvas stretched across them, and secured with nails.
+Under him was a mattress of moss, over him a blanket like that which he
+remembered to have had wrapped about him last night in the field.
+
+Last night! Poor Penn was deeply perplexed when he endeavored to
+remember whether his mysterious awaking in the open air occurred last
+night, or many nights ago. He moved his head feebly to look for Toby.
+Which Toby? for all through his sufferings the same two Tobys, one good
+and the other evil, who had taken him from the field, had appeared still
+to attend him, and he now more than half expected to see the faithful
+old negro duplicated, and waiting upon him with two bodies and four
+hands.
+
+But neither the better nor even the worse half of that double being was
+near him now. Penn was alone, in that subterranean solitude. There
+burned the fire, the shadows flickered, the smoke floated away into the
+depths of the dark cavern, in such loneliness and silence as he had
+never experienced before. He would have thought himself in some grotto
+of the gnomes, or some awful cell of enchantment, whose supernatural
+fire never went out, and whose smoke rolled away into darkness the same
+perpetually,--but for the sound of the crackling flames, and the sight
+of piles of wood on the floor, so strongly suggestive of human agency.
+
+On one side was what appeared to be an artificial chamber built of
+stones, its door open towards the fire. Ranged about the cave, in
+something like regular order, were several massy blocks of different
+sizes, like the stools of a family of giants. But where were the giants?
+
+Ah, here came Toby at last, or, at any rate, the twin of him. He
+approached from the side where the daylight shone, bearing an armful of
+sticks, and whistling a low tune. With his broad back turned towards
+Penn, he crouched before the fire, which he poked and scolded with
+malicious energy, his grotesque and gigantic shadow projected on the
+wall of the cave.
+
+"Burn, ye debil! K-r-r-r! sputter! snap! git mad, why don't ye?"
+
+Then throwing himself back upon a heap of skins, with his heels at the
+fire, and his long arms swinging over his head, in a savage and
+picturesque attitude, he burst into a shout, like the cry of a wild
+beast. This he repeated several times, appearing to take delight in
+hearing the echoes resound through the cavern. Then he began to sing,
+keeping time with his feet, and pausing after each strain of his wild
+melody to hear it die away in the hollow depths of the cave.
+
+    "De glory ob de Lord, it am comin', it am comin',
+        De glory ob de Lord, let it come!
+    De angel ob de Lord, hear his trumpet, hear his trumpet,
+        De angel ob de Lord, he ar come!"
+
+At the last words, "_He ar come!_" a shadow darkened the entrance, and
+Penn looked, almost expecting to see a literal fulfilment of the
+prophecy. A form of imposing stature appeared. It was that of a negro
+upwards of six feet in height, magnificently proportioned, straight as a
+pillar, and black as ebony. He wore a dress of skins, carried a gun in
+his hand, and had an opossum slung over his shoulder.
+
+"Hush your noise!" he said to the singer, in a tone of authority.
+"Haven't I told you not to _wake him_?"
+
+"No fear o' dat!" chuckled the other. "Him's past dat! Ki! how fat he
+ar!" seizing the opossum, and beginning to dress him on the spot.
+
+"Past waking! I tell you he's asleep, and every thing depends on his
+waking up right. But you set up a howl that would disturb the dead!"
+
+"Howl! dat's what ye call singin'; me singin', Pomp."
+
+"Well, keep your singing to yourself till he is able to stand it, you
+unfeeling, ungrateful fellow!"
+
+"What dat ye call dis nigger?" cried the singer, jumping up in a
+passion, with his blood-stained knife in his hand. "Ongrateful! Say dat
+ar agin, will ye?"
+
+"Yes, Cudjo, as often as you please," said Pomp, calmly placing his gun
+in the artificial chamber. "You are an unfeeling, ungrateful fellow."
+
+He turned, and stood regarding him with a proud, lofty, compassionating
+smile. Cudjo's anger cooled at once. Penn had already recognized in them
+the twin Tobys of his dreams. And what a contrast between the two! There
+was Toby the Good, otherwise called Pomp, dignified, erect, of noble
+features; while before him cringed and grimaced Toby the Malign, alias
+Cudjo, ugly, deformed, with immensely long arms, short bow legs
+resembling a parenthesis, a body like a frog's, and the countenance of
+an ape.
+
+"You know," said Pomp, "you would have left this man to die there on the
+rocks, if it hadn't been for me."
+
+"Gorry! why not?" said Cudjo. "What's use ob all dis trouble on his
+'count?"
+
+"He has had trouble enough on our account," said Pomp.
+
+"On our 'count? Hiyah-yah!" laughed Cudjo, getting down on his knees
+over the opossum; "how ye make dat out, by?"
+
+"Pay attention, Cudjo, while I tell ye," said Pomp, stooping, and laying
+his finger on the deformed shoulder. Cudjo looked up, with his hands and
+knife still in the opossum's flesh. "This is the way of it, as I heard
+last night from Pepperill himself, who got into trouble, as you know, by
+befriending old Pete after his licking. And you know, don't you, how
+Pete came by his licking?"
+
+"Bein' out nights, totin' our meal and taters to de mountains,--dough I
+reckon de patrol didn't know nuffin' 'bout dat ar, or him wouldn't got
+off so easy!" said Cudjo.
+
+"Well, it was by befriending Pepperill, who had befriended Pete, who
+brings us meal and potatoes, that this man got the ill will of those
+villains. Do you understand?"
+
+"Say 'em over agin, Pomp. How, now? Lef me see! Dat ar's old Pete,"
+sticking up a finger to represent him. "Dat ar's Pepperill," sticking up
+a thumb. "Now, yonder is dis yer man, and here am we. Now, how is it,
+Pomp?"
+
+Pomp repeated his statement, and Cudjo, pointing to his long, black
+finger when Pete was alluded to, and tapping his thumb when Pepperill
+was mentioned, succeeded in understanding that it was indirectly in
+consequence of kindness shown to himself that Penn had come to grief.
+
+"Dat so, Pomp?" he said, seriously, in a changed voice. "Den 'pears like
+dar's two white men me don't wish dead as dis yer possom! Pepperills
+one, and him's tudder."
+
+Pomp, having made this explanation, walked softly to the bedside. He had
+not before perceived that Penn, lying so still there, was awake. His
+features lighted up with intelligence and sympathy on making the
+discovery, and finding him free from feverish symptoms.
+
+"Well, how are you getting on, sir?" he said, feeling Penn's pulse, and
+seating himself on one of the giant's stools near the bedstead.
+
+"Where am I?" was Penn's first anxious question.
+
+"I fancy you don't know very well where you are, sir," said the negro,
+with a smile; "and you don't know me either, do you?"
+
+"I think--you are my preserver--are you not?"
+
+"That's a subject we will not talk about just now, sir; for you must
+keep very quiet."
+
+"I know," said Penn, not to be put off so, "I owe my life to you!"
+
+"Dat's so! dat ar am a fac'!" cried Cudjo, approaching, and wrapping the
+warm opossum skin about his naked arm as he spoke. "Gorry! me sech a
+brute, me war for leavin' ye dar in de lot. But, Pomp, him wouldn't; so
+we toted you hyar, and him's doctored you right smart eber sence. He ar
+a great doctor, Pomp ar! Yah!" And Cudjo laughed, showing two tremendous
+rows of ivory glittering from ear to ear; capering, swinging the opossum
+skin over his head, and, on the whole, looking far more like a demon of
+the cave than a human being.
+
+"Go about your business, Cudjo!" said Pomp. "You mustn't mind his
+freaks, sir," turning to Penn. "You are a great deal better; and now, if
+you will only remain quiet and easy in your mind, there's no doubt but
+you will get along."
+
+Many questions concerning himself and his friends came crowding to
+Penn's lips; but the negro, with firm and gentle authority, silenced
+him.
+
+"By and by, sir, I will tell you everything you wish to know. But you
+must rest now, while I see to making you a suitable broth."
+
+And nothing was left for Penn but to obey.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+_A MAN'S STORY._
+
+
+Three days longer Penn lay there on his rude bed in the cave, helpless
+still, and still in ignorance.
+
+Pomp repeatedly assured him that all was well, and that he had no cause
+for anxiety, but refused to enlighten him. The negro's demeanor was well
+calculated to inspire calmness and trust. There was something truly
+grand and majestic, not only in his person, but in his character also.
+He was a superb man. Penn was never weary of watching him. He thought
+him the most perfect specimen of a gentleman he had ever seen; always
+cheerful, always courteous, always comporting himself with the ease of
+an equal in the presence of his guest. His strength was enormous. He
+lifted Penn in his arms as if he had been an infant. But his grace was
+no less than his vigor. He was, in short, a lion of a man.
+
+Cudjo was more like an ape. His gibberings, his grimaces, his antics,
+his delight in mischief, excited in the mind of the convalescent almost
+as much surprise as the other's princely deportment. For hours together
+he would lie watching those two wonderfully contrasted beings. Petulant
+and malicious as Cudjo appeared, he was completely under the control of
+his noble companion, who would often stand looking down at his tricks
+and deformity, with composedly folded arms and an air of patient
+indulgence and compassion beautiful to witness.
+
+Meanwhile Penn gradually regained his strength, so that on the fourth
+day Pomp permitted him to talk a little.
+
+"Tell me first about my friends," said Penn. "Are they well? Do they
+know where I am?"
+
+"I hope not, sir," said the negro, with a significant smile, seating
+himself on the giant's stool. "I trust that no one knows where you are."
+
+"What, then, must they think?" said Penn. "How did I leave them?"
+
+"That is what they are very much perplexed to find out, sir."
+
+"You have heard from them, then?"
+
+"O, yes; we have a way of getting news of people down there. Toby has
+nearly gone distracted on your account. He is positive that you are
+dead, for he believes you could never have got well out of his hands."
+
+"And Miss--Mr. Villars----?"
+
+"They have been so much disturbed about you, that I would have been glad
+to inform them of your safety, if I could. But not even they must know
+of this place."
+
+"Where am I, then?"
+
+"You are, as you perceive, in a cave. But I suppose you know so little
+how you came here that you would find some difficulty in tracing your
+way to us again?" This was spoken interrogatively, with an intelligent
+smile.
+
+"I am so ignorant of the place," said Penn, "that it may be in the
+planet Mars, for aught I know."
+
+"That is well! Now, sir," continued the negro, "since you have several
+times expressed your obligations to us for preserving your life, I wish
+to ask one favor in return. It is this. You are welcome to remain here
+as long as you find your stay beneficial; but when you conclude to go,
+we desire the privilege of conducting you away. That is not an
+unreasonable request?"
+
+"Far from it. And I pledge you my word to make no movement without your
+sanction, and to keep your secret sacredly. But tell me--will you
+not?--how you came to inhabit this dreadful place?"
+
+"Dreadful? There are worse places, my friend, than this. Is it gloomy?
+The house of bondage is gloomier. Is it damp? It is not with the cruel
+sweat and blood of the slave's brow and back. Is it cold? The hearts of
+our tyrants are colder."
+
+"I understand you," said Penn, whose suspicion was thus confirmed that
+these men were fugitives. "And I am deeply interested in you. How long
+have you lived here?"
+
+"Would you like to hear something of my story?" said the negro, the
+expression of his eyes growing deep and stern,--his black, closely
+curling beard stirring with a proud smile that curved his lips. "Perhaps
+it will amuse you."
+
+"Amuse me? No!" said Penn. "I know by your looks that it will not amuse:
+it will absorb me!"
+
+"Well, then," said Pomp, bearing his head upon his massy and flexible
+neck of polished ebony like a king, yet speaking in tones very gentle
+and low,--and he had a most mellow, musical, deep voice,--"you are
+talking with one who was born a slave."
+
+"You know what I think of that!" said Penn. "Even such a birth could not
+debase the manhood of one like you."
+
+"It might have done so under different circumstances. But I was so
+fortunate as to be brought up by a young master who was only too kind
+and indulgent to me, considering my station. We were playmates when
+children; and we were scarcely less intimate when we had both grown up
+to be men. He went to Paris to study medicine, and took me with him. I
+passed for his body servant, but I was rather his friend. He never took
+any important step in life without consulting me; and I am happy to
+know," added Pomp, with grand simplicity, "that my counsel was always
+good. He acknowledged as much on his death-bed. 'If I had taken your
+advice oftener,' said he, 'it would have been better for me. I always
+meant to reward you. You are to have your freedom--your freedom, my dear
+boy!'"
+
+The negro knitted his brows, his breath came thick, and there was a
+strange moisture in his eye.
+
+"I loved my master," he continued, with simple pathos. "And when I saw
+him troubled on my account, when he ought to have been thinking of his
+own soul, I begged him not to let a thought of me give him any
+uneasiness. My free papers had not been made out, and he was for sending
+at once for a notary. But his younger brother was with him--he who was
+to be his heir. 'Don't vex yourself about Pomp, Edwin,' said he. 'I will
+see that justice is done him.'
+
+"'Ah, thank you, brother!' said Edwin. 'You will set him free, and give
+him a few hundred dollars to begin life with. Promise that, and I will
+rest in peace.' For you must know Edwin had neither wife nor child, and
+I was the only person dependent on his bounty. He was not rich; he had
+spent a good part of his fortune abroad, and had but recently
+established himself in a successful practice in Montgomery. Yet he left
+enough so that his brother could have well afforded to give me my
+freedom, and a thousand dollars."
+
+"And did he not promise to do so?"
+
+"He promised readily enough. And so my master died, and was buried, and
+I--had another master. For a few days nothing was said about free
+papers; and I had been too much absorbed in grief for the only man I
+loved to think much about them. But when the estate was settled up, and
+my new master was preparing to return to his home here in Tennessee, I
+grew uneasy.
+
+"'Master,' said I, taking off my hat to him one morning, 'there is
+nothing more I can do for him who is gone; so I am thinking I would like
+to be for myself now, if you please.'
+
+"'For yourself, you black rascal?' said my new master, laughing in my
+face.
+
+"I wasn't used to being spoken to in that way, and it cut. But I kept
+down that which swelled up in here"--Pomp laid his hand on his
+heart--"and reminded him, respectfully as I could, of the doctor's last
+words about me, and of his promise.
+
+"'You fool!' said he, 'do you think I was in earnest?'
+
+"'If you were not,' said I, 'the doctor was.'
+
+"'And do you think,' said he, 'that I am to be bound by the last words
+of a man too far gone to know his own mind in the matter?'
+
+"'He always meant I should have my freedom,' I answered him, 'and always
+said so.'
+
+"'Then why didn't he give it to you before, instead of requiring me to
+make such a sacrifice? Come, come, Pomp!' he patted my shoulder; 'you
+are altogether too valuable a nigger to throw away. Why, people say you
+know almost as much about medicine as my brother did. You'll be an
+invaluable fellow to have on a plantation; you can doctor the field
+hands, and, may be, if you behave yourself, get a chance to prescribe
+for the family. Come, my boy, you musn't get foolish ideas of freedom
+into your head; they're what spoil a nigger, and they'll have to be
+whipped out of you, which would be too bad for a fine, handsome darkey
+like you.'
+
+"He patted my shoulder again, and looked as pleasant and flattering as
+if I had been a child to be coaxed,--I, as much a man, every bit, as
+he!" said Pomp, with a gleam of pride. "I could have torn him like a
+tiger for his insolence, his heartless injustice. But I repressed
+myself; I knew nothing was to be gained by violence.
+
+"'Master,' said I, 'what you say is no doubt very flattering. But I want
+what my master gave me--what you promised that I should have--I shall be
+contented with nothing else.'
+
+"'What! you persist?' he said, kindling up. 'Let me tell you now, Pomp,
+once for all, you'll have to be contented with a good deal less; and
+never mention the word "freedom" to me again if you would keep that
+precious hide of yours whole!'
+
+"I saw he meant it, and that there was no help for me. Despair and fury
+were in me. Then, for the only time in my life, I felt what it was to
+wish to murder a man. I could have smitten the life out of that smiling,
+handsome face of his! Thank God I was kept from that. I concealed what
+was burning within. Then first I learned to pray,--I learned to trust in
+God. And so better thoughts came to me; and I said, 'If he uses me well,
+I will serve him; if not, I will run for my life.'
+
+"Well, he brought me here to Tennessee. Here he was managing his aunt's
+estate, which she, soon dying, bequeathed to him. Up to this time I had
+got on very well; but he never liked me; he often said I knew too much,
+and was too proud. He was determined to humiliate me; so one day he said
+to me, 'Pomp, that Nance has been acting ugly of late, and you permit
+her.' I was a sort of overseer, you see. 'Now I'll tell you what I am
+going to have done. Nance is going to be whipped, and you are the fellow
+that's going to whip her.'
+
+"'Pardon, master,' said I, 'that's what I never did--to whip a woman.'
+
+"'Then it's time for you to begin. I've had enough of your fine manners,
+Pomp, and now you have got to come down a little.'
+
+"'I will do any thing you please to serve your interests, sir,' said I.
+'But whip a woman I never can, and never will. That's so, master.'
+
+"'You villain!' he shouted, seizing a riding whip, 'I'll teach you to
+defy my authority to my face!' And he sprang at me, furious with rage.
+
+"'Take care, sir!' I said, stepping back. ''Twill be better for both of
+us for you not to strike me!'
+
+"'What! you threaten, you villain?'
+
+"'I do not threaten, sir; but I say what I say. It will be better for
+both of us. You will never strike me twice. I tell you that.'
+
+"I reckon he saw something dangerous in me, as I said this, for, instead
+of striking, he immediately called for help. 'Sam! Harry! Nap! bind this
+devil! Be quick!'
+
+"'They won't do it!' said I. 'Woe to the man that lays a finger on me,
+be he master or be he slave!'
+
+"'I'll see about that!' said he, running into the house. He came out
+again in a minute with his rifle. I was standing there still, the boys
+all keeping a safe distance, not one daring to touch me.
+
+"'Master,' said I, 'hear one word. I am perfectly willing to die. Long
+enough you have robbed me of my liberty, and now you are welcome to what
+is less precious--my poor life. But for your own sake, for your dead
+brother's sake, let me warn you to beware what you do.'
+
+"I suppose the allusion to his injustice towards me maddened him. He
+levelled his piece, and pulled the trigger. Luckily the percussion was
+damp,--or else I should not be talking with you now. His aim was
+straight at my head. I did not give him time for a second attempt. I was
+on him in an instant. I beat him down, I trampled him with rage. I
+snatched his gun from him, and lifted it to smash his skull. Just then a
+voice cried, 'Don't, Pomp! don't kill master!'
+
+"It was Nance, pleading for the man who would have had her whipped. I
+couldn't stand that. Her mercy made me merciful. 'Good by, boys!' I
+said. They were all standing around, motionless with terror. 'Good by,
+Nance! I am off; live or die, I quit this man's service forever!'
+
+"So I left him," said Pomp, "and ran for the woods. I was soon ranging
+these mountains, free, a wild man whom not even their blood-hounds could
+catch. I took the gun with me--a good one: here it is." He removed the
+rifle from its crevice in the rocks. "Do you know that name? It is that
+of its former owner--the man who called himself my master. Do you think
+it was taking too much from one who would have robbed me of my soul?"
+
+He held the stock over the bed, so that Penn could make out the
+lettering. Delicately engraved on a surface of inlaid silver, was the
+well-known name,--
+
+    "_Augustus Bythewood._"
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+_AN ANTI-SLAVERY DOCUMENT ON BLACK PARCHMENT._
+
+
+Penn was not surprised at this discovery. He had already recognized in
+Pomp the hero of a story which he had heard before.
+
+"But all this happened before I came to Tennessee, did it not? Have you
+lived in this cave ever since?"
+
+"It is three years since I took to the mountains. But I have spent but a
+little of that time here. Sometimes, for weeks together, I am away,
+tramping the hills, exploring the forests, sleeping on the ground in the
+open air, living on fish, game, and fruits. That is in the summer time.
+Winters I burrow here."
+
+"If you are so independent in your movements, why have you never escaped
+to the north?"
+
+"Would I be any better off there? Does not the color of a negro's skin,
+even in your free states, render him an object of suspicion and hatred?
+What chance is there for a man like me?"
+
+"Little--very true!" said Penn, sadly, contemplating the form of the
+powerful and intelligent black, and thinking with indignation and shame
+of the prejudice which excludes men of his race from the privileges of
+free men, even in the free north.
+
+"These crags," said the African, "do not look scornfully upon me because
+of the color of my skin. The watercourses sing for me their gladdest
+songs, black as I am. And the serious trees seem to love me, even as I
+love them. It is a savage, lonely, but not unhappy life I lead--far
+better for a man like me than servitude here, or degradation at the
+north. I have one faithful human friend at least. Cudjo, cunning and
+capricious as he seems, is capable of genuine devotion."
+
+"Have you two been together long?"
+
+"One day, a few weeks after I took to the mountains, I was watching for
+an animal which I heard rustling the foliage of a tree that grows up out
+of a chasm. I held my gun ready to fire, when I perceived that my animal
+was something human. It climbed the tree, ran out on one of the
+branches, leaped, like a squirrel, to some bushes that grew in the wall
+of the chasm, and soon pulled itself up to the top. Then I saw that it
+was a man--and a black man. He came towards the spot where I was
+concealed, sauntering along, chewing now and then a leaf, and muttering
+to himself; appearing as happy as a savage in his native woods, and
+perfectly unconscious of being observed. Suddenly I rose up, levelling
+my gun. He uttered a yell of terror, and started to cast himself again
+into the chasm. But with a threat I prevented him, and he threw himself
+at my feet, begging me to grant him his life, and not to take him back
+to his master.
+
+"'Who is your master?' said I.
+
+"'Job Coombs was my master,' said he, 'but I left him.'
+
+"'You are Cudjo, then!' said I,--for I had heard of him. He ran away
+from a tolerably good master on account of unmercifully cruel treatment
+from the overseer. But as he had been frightfully cut up the night
+before he disappeared, it was generally believed he had crawled into a
+hole in the rocks somewhere, and died, and been eaten by buzzards. But
+it seems that he had been concealed and cured by an old slave on the
+plantation named Pete."
+
+"Coombs's Pete!" exclaimed Penn.
+
+"You have good cause to remember the name!" said Pomp. "As soon as Cudjo
+was well enough to tramp, he took to the mountains. It was a couple of
+years afterwards that I met him. We soon came to an understanding, and
+he conducted me to his cave. Here he lived. He has always kept up a
+communication with some of his friends--especially with old Pete, who
+often brings us provisions to a certain place, and supplies us with
+ammunition. We give him game and skins, which he disposes of when he
+can, generally to such men as Pepperill. He was going to Pepperill's
+house, after meeting Cudjo, that night when the patrolmen discovered and
+whipped him. That led to Pepperill's punishment, and that led to your
+being here."
+
+"Does old Pete visit you since?"
+
+"No, but he has sent us a message, and I have seen Pepperill."
+
+"Not here!"
+
+"Nobody ever comes here, sir. We have a place where we meet our friends;
+and as for Pepperill, I went to his house."
+
+"That was bold in you!"
+
+"Bold?" The negro smiled. "What will you say then when I tell you I have
+been in Bythewood's house, since I left him? I wanted my medicine-case,
+and the bullet-moulds that belong with the rifle. I entered his room,
+where he was asleep. I stood for a long time and looked at him by the
+moonlight. It was well for him he didn't wake!" said Pomp, with a
+dancing light in his eye. "He did not; he slept well! Having got what I
+wanted, I came away; but I had changed knives with him, and left mine
+sticking in the bedstead over his head, so that he might know I had been
+there, and not accuse any one else of the theft."
+
+"The sight of that knife must have given him a shudder, when he woke,
+and saw who had been there, and remembered his wrongs towards you!" said
+Penn.
+
+"Well it might!" said Pomp. "Come here, Cudjo."
+
+Cudjo had just entered the cave, bringing some partridges which he had
+caught in traps.
+
+"It's allus 'Cudjo! Cudjo do dis! Cudjo do dat!' What ye want o' Cudjo?"
+
+Pomp paid no heed to the ill-natured response, but said calmly,
+addressing Penn,--
+
+"I have told you my reasons for escaping out of slavery: now I will show
+you Cudjo's."
+
+The back of the deformed was stripped bare. Penn uttered a groan of
+horror at the sight.
+
+"Dem's what ye call lickins!" said Cudjo, with a hideous grin over his
+shoulder. "Dat ar am de oberseer's work."
+
+"Good Heaven!" said Penn, sick at the sight of the scars. "I can't
+endure it! Take him away!"
+
+"Don't be 'fraid!" said Cudjo. "Feel of 'em, sar!" And taking Penn's
+hand, he seemed to experience a vindictive joy in passing it over his
+lash-furrowed flesh. "Not much skin dar, hey? Rough streaks along dar,
+hey? Needn't pull your hand away dat fashion, and shet yer eyes, and
+look so white! It's all ober now. What if you'd seen dat back when 'twas
+fust cut up? or de mornin' arter? Shouldn't blame ye, if 't had made ye
+sick den!"
+
+"But what had you done to merit such cruelty?" exclaimed Penn, relieved
+when the back was covered.
+
+"What me done? De oberseer didn't hap'm to like me; dat's what me done.
+But he did hap'm to like my gal; dat's more what me done! So he cut me
+up wid his own hand,--said me sassy, and wouldn't work. Coombs, him's a
+good man 'nuff,--neber found no fault 'long wid him; but debil take dat
+ar Silas Ropes!"
+
+"Silas Ropes!"
+
+"Him was Coombs's oberseer dem times," said Cudjo. "Him gi' me de
+lickins; him got my gal--me owe him for dat!" And, with a ferocious
+grimace, clinching his hands together as if he felt his enemy's throat,
+he gave a yell of rage which resounded through the cavern.
+
+"Go about your work, Cudjo," said Pomp. "What do you think of that back,
+sir?"
+
+"It is the most powerful anti-slavery document I ever saw!" said Penn.
+
+"He is a native African," said Pomp. "He was brought to this country a
+young barbarian; and he has barely got civilized--hardly got
+Christianized yet! I will make him tell you more of his history some
+day. Then you will no longer wonder that his lessons in Christian love
+have not made a saint of him! Now you must rest, while I help him get
+dinner."
+
+The manner of cooking practised in the cave was exceedingly primitive.
+The partridges broiled over the fire, the potatoes roasted in the ashes,
+and the corn-cake baked in a kettle, the meal was prepared. The
+artificial chamber was Cudjo's pantry. One of the giant's stools, having
+a broad, flat surface, served as a table. On this were placed two or
+three pewter plates, and as many odd cups and saucers. Cudjo had an old
+coffee-pot, in which he made strong black coffee. He could afford,
+however, neither sugar nor milk.
+
+Penn's wants were first attended to. He picked the bones of a partridge
+lying in bed, and thought he had never tasted sweeter meat.
+
+"With how few things men can live, and be comfortable! and what simple
+fare suffices for a healthy appetite!" he said to himself, watching Pomp
+and Cudjo at their dinner. Pomp did not even drink coffee, but quenched
+his thirst with cold water dipped from a pool in the cave.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+_IN THE CAVE AND ON THE MOUNTAIN._
+
+
+That afternoon, as Penn was alone, the mystery of his removal from Mr.
+Villars's house was suddenly revealed to him.
+
+"I remember it very distinctly now," he said to Pomp, who presently came
+in and sat by his bed. "Ropes and his crew had been to the house for me.
+Sick and delirious as I was, I knew the danger to my friends, and it
+seemed to me that I _must_ leave the house. So I watched my opportunity,
+and when Toby left me for a minute, I darted through his room over the
+kitchen, climbed down from the window to the roof of the shed, and from
+there descended by an apple tree to the ground. This is the dream I have
+been trying to recall. It is all clear to me now. But I do not remember
+any thing more. The delirium must have given me preternatural strength,
+if I walked all the distance to the spot where you found me."
+
+"That you did walk it, your bruised and bleeding feet were a sufficient
+evidence," said the negro. "You had just such delirious attacks
+afterwards, when it was as much as Cudjo and I wanted to do to hold
+you."
+
+"And the blanket--it is Toby's blanket, which I caught up as I fled,"
+added Penn.
+
+He now became extremely anxious to communicate with his friends, to
+explain his conduct to them, and let them know of his safety. Besides,
+he was now getting sufficiently strong to sit up a little, and other
+clothing was necessary than the old minister's nightgown and Toby's
+blanket.
+
+"I have been thinking it all over," said Pomp, "and have concluded to
+pay your friends a visit."
+
+"No, no, my dear sir!" exclaimed Penn, with gratitude. "I can't let you
+incur any such danger on my account. I can never repay you for half you
+have done for me already!" And he pressed the negro's hand as no white
+man had ever pressed it since the death of his good master, Dr.
+Bythewood.
+
+Pomp was deeply affected. His great chest heaved, and his powerful
+features were charged with emotion.
+
+"The risk will not be great," said he. "I will take Cudjo with me, and
+between us we will manage to bring off your clothes."
+
+At night the two blacks departed, leaving Penn alone in the fire-lit
+cave, waiting for their return, picturing to himself all the
+difficulties of their adventure, and thinking with warm gratitude and
+admiration of Pomp, whose noble nature not even slavery could corrupt,
+whose benevolent heart not even wrong could embitter.
+
+It was late in the evening when the two messengers arrived at Mr.
+Villars's house. All was dark and still about the premises. But one
+light was visible, and that was in the room over the kitchen.
+
+"That is Toby's room," said Pomp. "Stay here, Cudjo, while I give him a
+call."
+
+"Stay yuself," said Cudjo, "and lef dis chil' go. Me know Toby; you
+don't."
+
+So Pomp remained on the watch while Cudjo climbed the tree by which Penn
+had descended, scrambled up over the shed-roof, reached the window,
+opened it, and thrust in his head.
+
+Toby, who was just going to bed, heard the movement, saw the frightful
+apparition, and with a shriek dove under the bed-clothes, where he lay
+in an agony of fear, completely hidden from sight, while Cudjo, grinning
+maliciously, climbed into the room.
+
+"See hyar, ye fool! none ob dat! none ob your playin' possum wid me!"
+said the visitor, rolling Toby over, while Toby held the clothes tighter
+and tighter, as if to show a lock of wool or the tip of an ear would
+have been fatal. "Me's Cudjo! don't ye know Cudjo? Me come for de
+gemman's clo'es!"
+
+"Hey? dat you, Cudjo?" said Toby, venturing at length to peep out.
+"Wha--wha--what de debil you want hyar?"
+
+"De gemman sent me. Dis yer letter's for your massy."
+
+"De gemman?" cried Toby, jumping up. "Not Mass' Penn? not Mass'
+Hapgood?"
+
+Immense was his astonishment on being assured that Penn was alive,
+recovering, and in need of garments. Carl, who had been awakened in the
+next room by the noise, now came in to see what was the matter. He
+recognized Penn's handwriting on the note, and immediately hastened with
+it to Virginia's room. A minute after she was reading it to her father
+at his bedside. It was written with a pencil on a leaf torn from a
+little blank book in which Pomp kept a sort of diary; but never had
+gilt-edged or perfumed billet afforded the blind old minister and his
+daughter such unalloyed delight.
+
+It was long past midnight when Pomp and Cudjo returned to the cave,
+bringing with them not only Penn's garments, but a goodly stock of
+provisions, which Cudjo had hinted to Toby would be acceptable, and,
+more precious still, a letter from Mr. Villars, written by his
+daughter's own hand.
+
+Penn now began to sit up a little every day. Gloomy as the cave was, it
+was not an unwholesome abode even for an invalid. The atmosphere was
+pure, cool, and bracing; the temperature uniform. Nor did Penn suffer
+inconvenience from dampness; though often, in the deep stillness of the
+night, he could hear the far-off, faint, and melancholy murmur of
+dropping water in the hollow recesses of the cavern beyond.
+
+One day, as soon as he was well enough for the undertaking, Pomp ordered
+Cudjo to light torches and show them the hidden wonders of his
+habitation. Cudjo was delighted with the honor. He ran on before, waving
+the flaring pine knots over his head, and shouting.
+
+Penn's astonishment was profound. Keen as had been his curiosity as to
+what was beyond the shadowy walls the fire dimly revealed, he had formed
+no conception of the extent and sublimity of the various galleries,
+chambers, glittering vaults, and falling waters, embosomed there in the
+mountain.
+
+"Dis yer all my own house!" Cudjo kept repeating, with fantastic
+grimaces of satisfaction. "Me found him all my own self. Nobody war eber
+hyar afore me; Pomp am de next; and you's de on'y white man eber seen
+dis yer cave."
+
+It grew light as they proceeded, Cudjo's torch paled, and the waters of
+a subterranean stream they were following caught gleams of the
+struggling day from another opening beyond. Climbing over fragments of
+huge tumbled rocks, and up an earthy bank, Penn found himself in the
+bottom of an immense chasm. It had apparently been formed by the sinking
+down of the roof of the cave, with a tremendous superincumbent weight of
+forest trees. There, on an island, so to speak, in the midst of the
+subterranean darkness, they were growing still, their lofty tops barely
+reaching the level of the mountain above.
+
+"It was out of this sink I saw the wild beast climbing, that turned out
+to be Cudjo," said Pomp.
+
+"Dat ar am de tree," said Cudjo. "No oder way but dat ar to get up out
+ob dis yer hole."
+
+"What a terrible place!" said Penn, little thinking at the time how much
+more terrible it was soon to become as a scene of deadly human conflict.
+
+Beyond the chasm the stream flowed on into still more remote parts of
+the cave. But Penn had seen enough for one day, and the torch-bearing
+Cudjo guided them back to the spot from which they had started.
+
+Penn had now completely won the confidence of the blacks, who no longer
+placed any restrictions on his movements. It had been their original
+purpose never to suffer him to leave the cave without being blindfolded.
+But now, having shown him one opening, they freely permitted him to pass
+out by the other. This was that by which he had been brought in, and
+which was used by the blacks themselves on all ordinary occasions. It
+was a mere fissure in the mountain, hidden from external view by
+thickets. Above rose steep ledges of rocks, thickly covered with earth
+and bushes. Below yawned an immense ravine, far down in the cool, dark
+depths of which a little streamlet flowed.
+
+Pomp piloted his guest through the thickets, and along a narrow shelf,
+from which the ascent to the barren ledges was easy. Upon these they sat
+down. It was a beautiful April day. This was Penn's first visit to the
+upper world since he was brought to the cave. The scene filled him with
+rapture; the loveliness of earth and sky intoxicated him. Here he was
+among the rugged ranges of the Cumberland Mountains, in the heart of
+Tennessee. On either hand they rolled away in tremendous billows of
+forest-crowned rocks. The ravines in their sides opened into little
+valleys, and these spread out into a broad and magnificent intervale,
+checkered with farms, streaked with roads, and dotted with dwellings.
+Spring seemed to have come in a night. It was chill March weather when
+Penn left the world, which was now warm with sweet south winds, and
+green with April verdure.
+
+"How beautiful, how beautiful!" said he, receiving, with the
+susceptibility of a convalescent, the exquisite impression made upon the
+senses by every sight and sound and odor. "O! and to think that all this
+divine loveliness is marred by the passions of men! Up here, what glory,
+what peace! Down yonder, what hatred, violence, and sin! No wonder,
+Pomp, you love the mountains so!"
+
+"It is doubtful if they leave the mountains in peace much longer," said
+Pomp. He had heard the night before that fighting had begun at
+Charleston, and the news had stirred his soul. "The country is all alive
+with excitement, and the waves of its fury will reach us here before
+long. Take this glass, sir: you can see soldiers marching through the
+streets."
+
+"They are marching past my school-house!" said Penn. He became very
+thoughtful. He knew that they were soldiers recruited in the cause of
+rebellion, although Tennessee had not yet seceded,--although the people
+had voted in February against secession: a dishonest governor, and a
+dishonest legislature, aided by reckless demagogues everywhere, being
+resolved upon precipitating the state into revolution, by fraud and
+force,--if not with the consent of the people, then without it. "I had
+hoped the storm would soon blow over, and that it would be safe for me
+to go peaceably about my business."
+
+"The storm," said Pomp, his soul dilating, his features kindling with a
+wild joy, "is hardly begun yet! The great problem of this age, in this
+country, is going to be solved in blood! This continent is going to
+shake with such a convulsion as was never before. It is going to shake
+till the last chain of the slave is shaken off, and the sin is punished,
+and God says, 'It is enough!'"
+
+He spoke with such thrilling earnestness that Penn regarded him in
+astonishment.
+
+"What makes you think so, Pomp?"
+
+"That I can't tell. The feeling rises up here,"--the negro laid his hand
+upon his massive chest,--"and that is all I know. It is strong as my
+life--it fills and burns me like fire! The day of deliverance for my
+race is at hand. That is the meaning of those soldiers down there,
+arming for they know not what."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+_PENN'S FOOT KNOCKS DOWN A MUSKET._
+
+
+Weeks passed. But now every day brought to Penn increasing anxiety of
+mind with regard to his situation. His abhorrence of war was as strong
+as ever; and his great principle of non-resistance had scarcely been
+shaken. But how was he to avoid participating in scenes of violence if
+he remained in Tennessee? And how was his escape from the state to be
+effected?
+
+"You are welcome to a home with us as long as you will stay," said Pomp.
+"I shall miss you--even Cudjo will hate to see you go."
+
+Penn thanked him, fully appreciating their kindness; but his heart was
+yearning for other things.
+
+Day after day he lingered still, however. The difficulties in the way of
+escape thickened, instead of diminishing. In February, as I have said,
+the people had voted against secession. Not content with this, the
+governor called an extra session of the legislature, which proceeded to
+carry the state out of the Union by fraud. On the sixth of May an
+ordinance of separation was passed, to be submitted to the vote of the
+people on the eighth of June. But without waiting for the will of the
+people to be made manifest, the authors of this treason went on to act
+precisely as if the state had seceded. A league was formed with the
+confederate states, the control of all the troops raised in Tennessee
+was given to Davis, and troops from the cotton states were rushed in to
+make good the work thus begun. The June election, which took place under
+this reign of terror, resulted as was to have been expected. Rebel
+soldiers guarded the polls. Few dared to vote openly the Union ticket;
+while those who deposited a close ticket were "spotted." Thus timid men
+were frightened from the ballot-box; while soldiers from the cotton
+states voted in their places. Then, as it was charged, there were the
+grossest frauds in counting the votes. And so Tennessee "seceded."
+
+The state authorities had also achieved a politic stroke by disarming
+the people. Every owner of a gun was compelled to deliver it up, or pay
+a heavy fine. The arms thus secured went to equip the troops raised for
+the Confederacy; while the Union cause was left crippled and
+defenceless. Many firelocks were of course kept concealed: some were
+taken to pieces, and the pieces scattered,--the barrel here, the stock
+there, and the lock in still another place,--to come together again only
+at the will of the owner: but, as a general thing, the loyalists could
+not be said to have arms. It was in those times that the precaution of
+Stackridge and his fellow-patriots was justified. The secrecy with which
+they had conducted their night-meetings and drills, though seemingly
+unnecessary at first, saved them from much inconvenience when the full
+tide of persecution set in. They were suspected indeed, and it was
+believed they had arms; but they still met in safety, and the place
+where their arms were deposited remained undiscovered.
+
+All this time, Penn had no money with which to defray the expenses of
+travel. When his school was broken up, several hundred dollars were due
+him for his services. This sum the trustees of the Academy placed to his
+credit in the Curryville Bank; but, in consequence of a recent
+enactment, designed to rob and annoy loyal men, he could not draw the
+money without appearing personally, and first taking the oath of
+allegiance to the confederate government. This, of course, was out of
+the question.
+
+Meanwhile he learned to rough it on the mountain with the fugitives.
+Pomp taught him the use of the rifle, and he was soon able to shoot,
+dress, and cook his own dinner. He grew robust with the exercise and
+exposure. But every day his longing eyes turned towards the valley where
+the friends were whom he loved, and whom he resolved at all hazards to
+visit again, if for the last time.
+
+At length, one morning at breakfast, he informed Pomp and Cudjo of his
+intention to leave them,--to return secretly to the village, place
+himself under the protection of certain Unionists he knew, and attempt,
+with their assistance, to make his way out of the state.
+
+"Why go down there at all?" said Pomp. "If you are determined to leave
+us, let me be your guide. I will take you over the mountains into
+Kentucky, where you will be safe. It will be a long, hard journey; but
+you are strong now; we will take it leisurely, killing our game by the
+way."
+
+"You are very kind--and----"
+
+Penn blushed and stammered. The truth was, he was willing to risk his
+life to see Virginia once more; and the thought of quitting the state
+without bidding her good by was intolerable to him.
+
+"And what?" said Pomp, smiling intelligently.
+
+"And I may possibly be glad to accept your proposal. But I am determined
+to try the other way first."
+
+Both Pomp and Cudjo endeavored to dissuade him from the undertaking, but
+in vain. That evening he took his departure. The blacks accompanied him
+to the foot of the mountain. Notwithstanding the friendship and
+gratitude he had all along felt towards them, he had not foreseen how
+painful would be the separation from them.
+
+"I never quitted friends more reluctantly!" he said, choked with his
+emotion. "Never, never shall I forget you--never shall I forget those
+rambles on the mountains, those days and nights in the cave! Let me hope
+we shall meet again, when I can make you some return for your kindness."
+
+"We may meet again, and sooner than you suppose," said Pomp. "If you
+find escape too difficult, be sure and come back to us. Ah, I seem to
+foresee that you will come back!"
+
+With this prediction ringing in his ears, and filling him with vague
+forebodings, Penn went his way; while the negroes, having shaken hands
+with him in sorrowful silence, returned to their savage mountain home,
+which had never looked so lonely to them as now, since their beloved and
+gentle guest had departed.
+
+The night was not dark, and Penn, having been guided to a bridle-path
+that led to the town, experienced no difficulty in finding his way on
+alone. He approached the minister's house from the fields. Although late
+in the evening, the windows were still lighted. He was surprised to see
+men walking to and fro by the house, and to hear their footsteps on the
+piazza floor. He drew near enough to discern that they carried muskets.
+Then the truth flashed upon him: they were soldiers guarding the house.
+
+Whether they were there to protect the venerable Unionist from
+mob-violence, or to prevent his escape, Penn could only conjecture. In
+either case it would have been extremely indiscreet for him to enter the
+house. Bitter disappointment filled him, mingled with apprehensions for
+the safety of his friends, and remorse at the thought that he himself
+had, although unintentionally, been instrumental in drawing down upon
+them the vengeance of the secessionists.
+
+Penn next thought of Stackridge. It was indeed upon that sturdy patriot
+that he relied chiefly for aid in leaving the state. He took a last,
+lingering look at the minister's house,--the windows whose cheerful
+light had so often greeted him on his way thither, in those delightful
+winter evenings which were gone, never to return,--the soldiers on the
+piazza, symbolizing the reign of terror that had commenced,--and with a
+deep inward prayer that God would shield with his all-powerful hand the
+beleaguered family, he once more crossed the fields.
+
+By a circuitous route he came in sight of Stackridge's house. There were
+lights there also, although it must have been now near midnight. And as
+Penn discerned them, he became aware of loud voices engaged in angry
+altercation around the farmer's door. It was no time for him to
+approach. He stole away as noiselessly as he had come. In the still,
+quiet night he paused, asking himself what he should do.
+
+The Academy was not far off. He remembered that he had left there, among
+other things, a pocket Bible, a gift from his sister, which he wished to
+preserve. Perhaps it was there still; perhaps he could get in and
+recover it. At all events, he had plenty of leisure on his hands, and
+could afford to make the trial.
+
+He heard the mounted patrol pass by, and waited for the sound of hoofs
+to die in the distance. Then cautiously he drew near the gloomy and
+silent school-house. Not doubting but the door was locked,--for he still
+had the key with him which he had turned for the last time when he
+walked out in defiance of the lynchers,--he resolved not to unlock it,
+but to keep in the rear of the building, and enter, if possible, by a
+window.
+
+The window was unfastened, as it had ever remained since he had opened
+it, on that memorable occasion, to communicate with Carl. Softly he
+raised the sash, and softly he crept in. His foot, however, struck an
+object on the desk, and swept it down. It fell with a loud, rattling
+sound upon the floor.
+
+It was a musket; the owner of which bounded up on the instant from a
+bench where he was lying, and seized Penn by the leg. The school-house
+had been turned into a barrack-room for recruits, and the late master
+found that he had descended upon a squad of confederate soldiers.
+
+Lights were struck, and the sleepy sentinels, rubbing their eyes open,
+recognized, struggling in the arms of their companion, the unfortunate
+young Quaker.
+
+"I knowed 'twas him! I knowed 'twas him!" cried his overjoyed captor,
+who proved to be no other than Silas Ropes's worthy friend Gad. "I heern
+him gittin' inter the winder, but I kept dark till he knocked my gun
+down; then I grabbed him! He's a traitor, and this time will meet a
+traitor's doom!"
+
+"My friends," said Penn, recovering from the agitation of his first
+surprise and struggle, "I am in your power. It is perhaps the best thing
+that could happen to me; for I have committed no crime, and I cannot
+doubt but that I shall receive justice all the sooner for this accident.
+You need not take the trouble to bind me; I shall not attempt to
+escape."
+
+His captors, however, among whom he recognized with some uneasiness more
+than one of those who had been engaged in lynching him, persisted in
+binding him upon a bench, in no very comfortable position, and then set
+a guard over him for the remainder of the night.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+_CONDEMNED TO DEATH._
+
+
+Early the next morning Virginia Villars overheard the soldiers
+conversing on the piazza. The mention of a certain name arrested her
+attention. She listened: what they said terrified her. Penn Hapgood had
+been apprehended during the night, and his trial by drum-head
+court-martial was at that moment proceeding.
+
+"Mr. Pepperill!" she called, in a scarcely audible whisper; and, looking
+around, Daniel saw her alarmed face at the window.
+
+Daniel was one of the soldiers who had been detailed to guard the house.
+Strongly against his will, he had been compelled to enlist, in order to
+avoid the persecutions of his secession neighbors. Such was already
+becoming the fate of many whose hearts were not in the cause, whose
+sympathies were all with the government against which they were forced
+to rebel.
+
+"What, marm?" said Pepperill, meekly.
+
+"Is it true what that man is saying?"
+
+"About the schoolmaster? I--I'm afeard it ar true! They've cotched him,
+marm, and there's men that's swore the death of him, marm."
+
+Virginia flew to inform her father. The old man rose up instantly,
+forgetting his blindness, forgetting his own feebleness, and the danger
+into which he would have rushed, to go and plead Penn's cause.
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, for him, the guard crossed their muskets before
+him, refusing to let him pass. Their orders were, not only to defend the
+house, but also to prevent his leaving it.
+
+"Then I will go alone!" said Carl, who was to have been his guide. And
+scarcely waiting to receive instructions from Virginia and her father,
+he ran out, slipping between the soldiers, who had no orders to detain
+any person but the minister, and ran to the Academy.
+
+The mockery of a trial was over. The prisoner had been condemned. The
+penalty pronounced against him was death. Already the noose was dangling
+from a tree, and some soldiers were bringing from the school-house a
+table to serve as a scaffold. Silas Ropes, who had a feather stuck in
+his cap, and wore an old rusty scabbard at his side, and flourished a
+sword, enjoying the title of "lieutenant," obtained for him through
+Bythewood's influence; Lysander Sprowl, who had been honored with a
+captaincy from the same source, and who, though a forger, and late a
+fugitive from justice, now boldly defied the power of the civil
+authorities to arrest him, trusting to that atrocious policy of the
+confederate government which virtually proclaimed to the robber and
+murderer, "Become, now, a traitor to your country, and all other crimes
+shall be forgiven you;"--these, and other persons of like character,
+appeared chiefly active in Penn's case. That they had no right whatever
+to constitute themselves a court-martial, and bring him to trial, they
+knew perfectly well. They had not waited even for a shadow of authority
+from their commanding officer. What they were about to do was nothing
+more nor less than murder.
+
+Penn, with his hands tied behind him, and surrounded by a violent
+rabble, some armed, and others unarmed, was already mounted upon the
+table, when Carl arrived, and attempted to force his way through the
+crowd.
+
+"Feller-citizens and soldiers!" cried Lieutenant Ropes, standing on a
+chair beside the scaffold, "this here man has jest been proved to be a
+traitor and a spy, and he is about to expatiate his guilt on the
+gallus."
+
+Two men then mounted the table, passed the noose over Penn's neck, drew
+it close, and leaped down again.
+
+"Now," said Ropes, "if you've got any confession to make 'fore the table
+is jerked out from under ye, you can ease your mind. Only le' me
+suggest, if you don't mean to confess, you'd better hold yer tongue."
+
+Penn, pale, but perfectly self-possessed, expecting no mercy, no
+reprieve, made answer in a clear, strong voice,--
+
+"I can't confess, for I am not guilty. I die an innocent man. I appeal
+to Heaven, before whose bar we must all appear, for the justice you deny
+me."
+
+In his shirt sleeves, his head uncovered, his feet bare, his naked
+throat enclosed by the murderous cord, his hands bound behind him, he
+stood awaiting his fate. Carl in the mean time struggled in vain to
+break through the ring of soldiers that surrounded the extemporized
+scaffold,--screamed in vain to obtain a hearing.
+
+"Let him go, and you may hang me in his place!"
+
+The soldiers answered with a brutal laugh,--as if there would be any
+satisfaction in hanging him! But the offer of self-sacrifice on the part
+of the devoted Carl touched one heart, at least. Penn, who had
+maintained a firm demeanor up to this time, was almost unmanned by it.
+
+"God bless you, dear Carl! Remember that I loved you. Be always honest
+and upright; then, if you die the victim of wrong, it will be your
+oppressors, not you, who will be most unhappy. Good by, dear Carl. Bear
+my farewell to those we love. Don't stay and see me die, I entreat you!"
+
+Yet Carl staid, sobbing with grief and rage.
+
+"Why don't you hurry up this business?" cried Lysander Sprowl, angrily,
+coming out of the school-house. "Somebody tie a handkerchief over his
+eyes, and get through some time to-day."
+
+"All right, cap'm," said Ropes. "Make ready now, boys, and take away
+this table in a hurry, when I give the word."
+
+"Hold on, there! What's going on?" cried an unexpected voice, and a
+recruiting officer from the village made his appearance, riding up on a
+white horse.
+
+The summary proceedings were stayed, and the case explained. The man
+listened with an air of grim official importance, his coarse red
+countenance betraying not a gleam of sympathy with the prisoner. Yet
+being the superior in rank to any officer present (Silas called him
+"kunnel"), besides being the only one of them all who had been regularly
+commissioned by the confederate government, this man held Penn's fate in
+his hands.
+
+"Hanging's too good for such scoundrels!" he said, frowning at the
+prisoner. "As for this particular case, there's only one thing to be
+said: his life shall be spared on only one condition."
+
+Carl's heart almost stood still, in his eagerness to listen. Even Penn
+felt a faint--a very faint--pulse of hope in his breast. The "kunnel"
+went on.
+
+"Let him take his choice--either to hang, or enlist. What do you say,
+youngster? Which do you prefer--the death of a traitor, or the glorious
+career of a soldier in the confederate army?"
+
+"It is impossible for me, sir," said Penn, in a voice of deep feeling
+and unalterable conviction--"it is impossible for me to bear arms
+against my country!"
+
+"But the Confederate States shall be your country, and a country to be
+proud of!" said the man.
+
+"I am a citizen of the United States; to the United States I owe
+allegiance," said Penn. "So far from being a traitor, I am willing to
+die rather than appear one."
+
+"Then you won't enlist?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Not even to save your life?"
+
+"Not even to save my life!"
+
+"Then," growled the man, turning away, "if you will be such a fool, I've
+nothing more to say."
+
+So it only remained for Penn to submit quietly to his fate. The
+executioners laid hold of the table, and waited for the order to remove
+it.
+
+But just then Carl, breaking through the crowd, threw himself before the
+officer's horse.
+
+"O, Colonel Derring! hear me--von vord!"
+
+"Von vord!" repeated the officer, with a coarse laugh, mocking him.
+"What's that, you Dutchman?"
+
+"You vill let him go, and I shall wolunteer in his place!" said Carl.
+
+"You!" The officer regarded him critically. Carl, though so young, was
+very sturdy. "You offer yourself as a substitute, eh, if I will spare
+his life?"
+
+"Carl!" cried Penn, "I forbid you! You shall not commit that sin for me!
+Better a thousand times that I should die than that you should be a
+rebel in arms against your country."
+
+"I have no country," answered Carl, ingeniously excusing himself. "I am
+vot this man says, a Tuchman. I vill enlisht mit him, and he vill shpare
+your life."
+
+"Boy, it's a bargain," said Colonel Derring, whose passion for obtaining
+recruits overruled every other consideration. "Cut that fellow's cords,
+lieutenant, and let him go. Come along with me, Dutchy."
+
+Ropes obeyed, and Penn, bewildered, almost stunned, by the sudden change
+in his destiny, saw himself released, and beheld, as in a dream, poor
+Carl marching off as his substitute to the recruiting station.
+
+"Now let me give you one word of advice," said Captain Sprowl in his
+ear. "Don't let another night find you within twenty miles of that
+halter there, if you wouldn't have your neck in it again."
+
+"Will you give me a safe conduct?" said Penn, who thought the advice
+excellent, and would have been only too glad to act upon it.
+
+"I've no authority," said Sprowl. "You must take care of yourself."
+
+Penn looked around upon the ferocious, disappointed faces watching him,
+and felt that he might about as well have been despatched in the first
+place, as to be let loose in the midst of such a pack of wolves
+thirsting for his blood. He did not despair, however, but, putting on
+his clothes, determined to make one final and desperate effort to
+escape.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+_THE ESCAPE._
+
+
+Walking off quickly across the field towards Mrs. Sprowl's house, he
+turned suddenly aside from the path and plunged into the woods.
+
+He soon perceived that he was followed. A man--only one--came through
+the undergrowth. Penn stopped. "God forgive me!" he said within himself;
+"but this is more than human nature can bear!" He had been, as it were,
+smitten on one cheek and on the other also: it was time to smite back.
+He picked up a club: his nerves became like steel as he grasped it: his
+eyes flashed fire.
+
+The man advanced; he was unarmed. Suddenly Penn dropped his club, and
+uttered a cry of joy. It was his friend Stackridge.
+
+"What! the Quaker will fight?" said the farmer, with a grim smile.
+
+"That shows," said Penn, bursting into tears as he wrung the farmer's
+hand, "that I have been driven nearly insane!"
+
+"It shows that some of the insanity has been driven out of you!" replied
+Stackridge, beginning to have hopes of him. "If you had taken my pistol
+and used it freely in the first place, or at least shown a good will to
+use it, you'd have proved yourself a good deal more of a man in my
+estimation, and been quite as well off."
+
+"Perhaps," murmured Penn, convinced that this passive submission to
+martyrdom was but a sorry part to play.
+
+"But now to business," said Stackridge. "You must get away as quickly
+and secretly as possible, unless you mean to stay and fight it out. I am
+here to help you. I have a horse in the woods here, at your disposal. I
+thought there might be such a thing as your slipping through their
+hands, and so I took this precaution. I will show you a bridle-road that
+will take you to the house of a friend of mine, who is a hearty
+Unionist. You can leave my horse with him. He will help you on to the
+house of some friend of his, who will do the same, and so you will
+manage to get out of the state. I advise you to travel by night, as a
+general thing; but just now it seems necessary that you should see a
+little hard riding by daylight. You'll find some luncheon in the
+saddlebags. When you get into some pretty thick woods, leave the road,
+and find a good place to tie up till night; then go on cautiously to my
+friend's house. I'll give you full directions, while we're finding the
+horse."
+
+They made haste to the spot where the animal was tied.
+
+"He has been well fed," said the farmer. "You will water him at the
+first brook you cross, and let him browse when you stop. Now just trade
+that coat for one that will make you look a little less like a Quaker
+schoolmaster."
+
+He had brought one of his own coats, which he made Penn put on, and then
+exchanged hats with him. Penn was admirably disguised. Brief, then, were
+the thanks he uttered from his overflowing heart, short the
+leave-takings. He was mounted. Stackridge led the horse through the
+bushes to the bridle-path.
+
+"Now, don't let the grass grow under your feet till you are at least
+five miles away. If you meet anybody, get along without words if you
+can; if you can't, let words come to blows as quick as you please, and
+then put faith in Dobbin's heels."
+
+Again, for the last time, he made Penn the offer of a pistol. There was
+no leisure for idle arguments on the subject. The weapon was accepted.
+The two wrung each other's hands in silence: there were tears in the
+eyes of both. Then Stackridge gave Dobbin a resounding slap, and the
+horse bounded away, bearing his rider swiftly out of sight in the woods.
+
+All this had passed so rapidly that Penn had scarcely time to think of
+any thing but the necessity of immediate flight. But during that
+solitary ride through the forest he had ample leisure for reflection. He
+thought of the mountain cave, whose gloomy but quiet shelter, whose dark
+but nevertheless humane and hospitable inmates he seemed to have quitted
+weeks ago, so crowded with experiences had been the few hours since last
+he shook Pomp and Cudjo by the hand. He thought of Virginia and her
+father, to visit whom for perhaps the last time he had incurred the risk
+of descending into the valley; whom now he felt, with a strangely
+swelling heart, that he might never see again. And he thought with
+grief, pity, and remorse of Carl, a rebel now for his sake.
+
+These things, and many more, agitated him as he spurred the farmer's
+horse along the narrow, shaded, lonesome path. He met an old man on
+horseback, with a bright-faced girl riding behind him on the crupper,
+who bade him a pleasant good morning, and pursued their way. Next came
+some boys driving mules laden with sacks of corn. At last Penn saw two
+men in butternut suits with muskets on their shoulders. He knew by their
+looks that they were secessionists hastening to join their friends in
+town. They regarded him suspiciously as he came galloping up. Penn
+perceived that some off-hand word was necessary in passing them.
+
+"Hurry on with those guns!" he cried; "they are wanted!"
+
+And he dashed away, as if his sole business was to hurry up guns for the
+confederate cause.
+
+He met with no other adventure that day. He followed Stackridge's
+directions implicitly, and at evening, leaving his horse tied in the
+woods, approached on foot the house to which he had been sent.
+
+He was cordially received by the same old man whom he had seen riding to
+town in the morning with a bright-faced girl clinging behind him. At a
+hint from Stackridge the man had hastily ridden home again, passing Penn
+at noon while he lay hidden in the woods; and here he was, honest,
+friendly, vigilant, to receive and protect his guest.
+
+"You did well," he said, "to turn off up the mountain; for I am not the
+only man that passed you there. You have been pursued. Three persons
+have gone on after you. I met them as I was going into town; they
+inquired of me if I had seen you, and when I got home I found they had
+passed here in search of you. They have not yet gone back."
+
+This was unpleasant news. Yet Penn was soon convinced that he had been
+extremely fortunate in thus throwing his pursuers off his track. It was
+far better that they should have gone on before him, than that they
+should be following close upon his heels.
+
+He staid with the farmer all night, and departed with him early the next
+morning to pursue his journey. It was not safe for him to keep the road,
+for he might at any moment meet his pursuers returning; accordingly, the
+old man showed him a circuitous route along the base of the mountains,
+which could be travelled only on foot, and by daylight.
+
+"Here I leave you," said his kind old guide, when they had reached the
+banks of a mountain stream. "Follow this run, and it will take you
+around to the road, about a mile this side of my brother's house.
+There's a bridge near which you can wait, when you get to it. If your
+pursuers go back past my house, then I will harness up and drive on to
+the bridge, and water my horse there. You will see me, and get in to
+ride, and I will take you to my brother's, and make some arrangement for
+helping you on still farther to night."
+
+So they parted; the lonely fugitive feeling that the kindness of a few
+such men, scattered like salt through the state, was enough to redeem it
+from the fate of Sodom, which otherwise, by its barbarism and injustice,
+it would have seemed to deserve.
+
+Following the stream in its windings through a wilderness of thickets
+and rocks, he reached the bridge about the middle of the afternoon. His
+progress had been leisurely. The day was warm, bright, and tranquil. The
+stream poured over ledges, or gushed among mossy stones, or tumbled down
+jagged rocks in flashing cascades. Its music filled him with memories of
+home, with love that swelled his heart to tears, with longings for peace
+and rest. Its coolness and beauty made a little Sabbath in his soul, a
+pause of holy calm, in the midst of the fear and tumult that lay before
+and behind him.
+
+During that long, solitary ramble he had pondered much the great
+question which had of late agitated his mind--the question which, in
+peaceful days, he had thought settled with his own conscience forever.
+But days of stern experience play sad havoc with theories not founded in
+experience. In all the ordinary emergencies of life Penn had found the
+doctrine of non-resistance to evil, of overcoming evil with good,
+beautiful and sublime. But had he not the morning before given way to a
+natural impulse, when he seized a club, firmly resolved to oppose force
+with force? The recollection of that incident had led him into a
+singular train of reasoning.
+
+"I know," he said, "that it is still the highest doctrine. But am I
+equal to it? Can I, under all circumstances, live up to it? I have seen
+something of the power and recklessness of the faction that would
+destroy my country. Would I wish to see my country submit? Never! Such
+submission would be the most unchristian thing it could do. It would be
+the abandonment of the cause of liberty; it would be to deliver up the
+whole land to the blighting despotism of slavery; it would postpone the
+millennium I hope for thousands of years. I see no other way than that
+the nation must resist; and what I would have the nation do I should be
+prepared, if called upon, to do myself. If this government were a
+Christian government I would have it use only Christian weapons, and no
+doubt those would be effectual for its preservation. But there never was
+a Christian government yet, and probably there will not be for an age or
+two. Governments are all founded on human policy, selfishness, and
+force. Or if _I_ was entirely a Christian, then _I_ would have no
+temptation, and no right, to use any but spiritual weapons. But until I
+attain to these, may I not use such weapons as I have?"
+
+These thoughts revolved slowly and somewhat confusedly in the young
+man's mind, when an incident occurred to bring form, sharply and
+suddenly, out of that chaos.
+
+He had reached the bridge. He looked up and down the road, and saw no
+human being. It was hardly time to expect the farmer yet; so he climbed
+down upon some dry stones in the bed of the stream, where he could watch
+for his coming, and be at the same time hidden from view and sheltered
+from the sun.
+
+He had not been long in that situation when he heard the sounds of
+hoofs. It was not his white-haired farmer whom he saw approaching, but
+two men on horseback. They were coming from the same direction in which
+he was looking for the old man. As they drew near, he discovered that
+one was a negro. The face of the other he recognized shortly afterwards.
+It was that of Mr. Augustus Bythewood, who was evidently taking
+advantage of the fine weather to make a little journey, accompanied by a
+black servant.
+
+Penn's heart contracted within him as he thought of his friend Pomp, and
+of the wrongs he had suffered at this man's hands. He thought of his own
+safety too, and crept under the bridge. He had time, however, before he
+disappeared, to catch a glimpse of three other horsemen coming from the
+north. His heart beat fast, for he knew in an instant that these were
+his pursuers returning.
+
+He had already prepared for himself a good hiding-place, in a cavity
+between the two logs that supported the bridge. Upon the butment, close
+under the trembling planks, he lay, when Bythewood and his man rode
+over. The dust rattled upon him through the cracks, and sifted down into
+the stream. The thundering and shaking of the planks ceased, but he
+listened in vain to hear the hoofs of the two horses clattering off in
+the distance. To his alarm he perceived that Bythewood and his man had
+halted on the other side of the bridge, and were going to water their
+horses in the bed of the stream. Clashing and rattling down the steep,
+stony banks, and plashing into the water, came the foam-streaked
+animals. The negro rode one, and led the other by the bridle. There he
+sat in the saddle, watching the eager drinking of the thirsty beasts,
+and pulling up their heads occasionally to prevent them from swallowing
+too fast or too much; all in full sight of the concealed schoolmaster.
+Bythewood, after dismounting, also walked down to the edge of the stream
+in full view.
+
+Such was the situation when the three horsemen from the north arrived.
+They all rode their animals down the bank into the water. Penn had not
+been mistaken as to their character and business. Two of them were the
+men who had adjusted the noose to his neck the day before. The third was
+no less a personage than Captain Lysander Sprowl. Penn lay breathless
+and trembling in his hiding-place; for those men were but a few yards
+from him, and all in such plain view that it seemed inevitable but they
+must discover him.
+
+"What luck?" said Bythewood, carelessly, seating himself on a rock and
+lighting a cigar.
+
+"The rascal has given us the slip," said Lysander, from his horse. "I
+believe we have passed him, and so, on our way back, we'll search the
+house of every man suspected of Union sentiments. He started off with
+Stackridge's horse, and we tracked him easy at first, but to-day we
+haven't once heard of him."
+
+"It's my opinion he don't intend to leave the state," said Bythewood,
+coolly smoking. "Sam, walk those horses up and down the road till I call
+you: I want a little private talk with the captain."
+
+The captain's attendants likewise took the hint, reined their horses up
+out of the water, rode over the shaking bridge and Penn's head under it,
+and proceeded to search the next house for him, while Sprowl was
+conversing with Augustus.
+
+"Let's go over the other side," said Bythewood, "where we can be in the
+shade. The sun is powerful hot."
+
+They accordingly walked over Penn's head a moment later, climbed down
+the same rocks he had descended, picked their way along the dry stones
+to the bridge, and took their seats in its shadow beneath him, and so
+near that he could easily have reached over and taken the captain's cap
+from his head!
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+_UNDER THE BRIDGE._
+
+
+"The colonel wasn't aware of your sentiments," said Sprowl, "or he
+wouldn't have let him off for fifty substitutes."
+
+"Or if you and Ropes," retorted Bythewood, "had only put through the job
+with the celerity I had a right to expect of you, he would have been
+strung up before the colonel had a chance to interfere." And he puffed
+impatiently a cloud of smoke, whose fragrance was wafted to the nostrils
+of the listener under the planks.
+
+"Well," said Lysander, accepting a cigar from his friend, "if he gets
+out of the state,"--biting off the end of it,--"and never shows himself
+here again,"--rubbing a match on the stones,--"you ought to be
+satisfied. If he stays, or comes back,"--smoking,--"then we'll just
+finish the little job we begun."
+
+Penn lay still as death. What his thoughts were I will not attempt to
+say; but it must have given him a curious sensation to hear the question
+of his life or death thus coolly discussed by his would-be assassins
+over their cigars.
+
+"Where are you bound?" asked Lysander.
+
+"O, a little pleasure excursion," said Bythewood. "There's to be some
+lively work at home this evening, and I thought I'd better be away."
+
+"What's going on?"
+
+"The colonel is going to make some arrests. About fifteen or twenty
+Union-shriekers will find themselves snapped up before they think of it.
+Stackridge among the first. 'Twas he, confound him! that helped the
+schoolmaster off."
+
+"Has the colonel orders to make the arrests?"
+
+"No, but he takes the responsibility. It's a military necessity, and the
+government will bear him out in it. Every man that has been known to
+drill in the Union Club, and has refused to deliver up his arms, must be
+secured. There's no other way of putting down these dangerous fellows,"
+said Augustus, running his jewelled fingers through his curls.
+
+"But why do you prefer to be away when the fun is going on?"
+
+"There may be somebody's name in the list on whose behalf I might be
+expected to intercede."
+
+"Not old Villars!" exclaimed Lysander.
+
+"Yes, old Villars!" laughed Augustus,--"if by that lively epithet you
+mean to designate your venerable father-in-law."
+
+"By George, though, Gus! ain't it almost too bad? What will folks say?"
+
+"Little care I! Old and blind as he is, he is really one of the most
+dangerous enemies to our cause. His influence is great with a certain
+class, and he never misses an opportunity to denounce secession. That he
+openly talks treason, and harbors and encourages traitors arming against
+the confederate government, is cause sufficient for arresting him with
+the others."
+
+"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better
+for our plans to have him out of the way."
+
+"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife
+will welcome you back again."
+
+"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably
+on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"
+
+There was another who saw too,--a sudden flash of light, as it were,
+revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the
+friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes,
+glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly
+head.
+
+"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.
+
+"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."
+
+"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will
+secure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, we
+will merely promise to do everything we can for him--and do nothing."
+
+"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"You shall have what you can get of it,--I don't care for the property!"
+replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man,
+foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into
+Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of
+until we have whipped the north."
+
+"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.
+
+"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.
+
+"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."
+
+So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on the
+stones,--Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge of
+the butment within an inch of Penn's leg.
+
+Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they passed out from the
+shadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidential
+discourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy.
+They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of each
+other,--Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastened
+to rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+_THE RETURN INTO DANGER._
+
+
+Trembling with excitement Penn got down from the butment, and peering
+over the bank, saw his enemies in the distance.
+
+What was to be done? Had he thought only of his own safety, his way
+would have been clear. But could he abandon his friends? forsake
+Virginia and her father when the toils of villany were tightening around
+them? leave Stackridge and his compatriots to their fate, when it might
+be in his power to forewarn and save them?
+
+How he, alone, suspected, pursued, and sorely in need of assistance
+himself, was to render assistance to others, he did not know. He did not
+pause to consider. He put his faith in the overruling providence of God.
+
+"With God's aid," he said, "I will save them or sacrifice myself."
+
+As for fighting, should fighting prove necessary, his mind was made up.
+The conversation of the villains under the bridge had settled that
+question.
+
+Instead, therefore, of waiting for the friend who was to help him on his
+journey, he leaped up from under the bridge, and set out at a fast walk
+to follow his pursuers back to town.
+
+He had travelled but a mile or two when he saw the farmer driving
+towards him in a wagon.
+
+"Are you lost? are you crazy?" cried the astonished old man. "You are
+going in the wrong direction! The men have been to my house, searched
+it, and passed on. Get in! get in!"
+
+"I will," said Penn; "but, Mr. Ellerton, you must turn back."
+
+He briefly related his adventure under the bridge. The old man listened
+with increasing amazement.
+
+"You are right! you are right!" he said. "We must get word to
+Stackridge, somehow!" And turning his wagon about, he drove back over
+the road as fast as his horse could carry them.
+
+It was sunset when they reached his house. There they unharnessed his
+horse and saddled him. The old man mounted.
+
+"I'll do my best," he said, "to see Stackridge, or some of them, in
+season. If I fail, may be you will succeed. But you'd better keep in the
+woods till dark."
+
+Ellerton rode off at a fast trot. Penn hastened to the woods, where
+Stackridge's horse was still concealed. The animal had been recently fed
+and watered, and was ready for a hard ride. The bridle was soon on his
+head, and Penn on his back, and he was making his way through the woods
+again towards home.
+
+As soon as it was dark, Penn came out into the open road; nor did he
+turn aside into the bridle-path when he reached it, because he wished to
+avoid travelling in company with Ellerton, who was to take that route.
+He also supposed that Sprowl's party would be returning that way. In
+this he was mistaken. Riding at a gallop through the darkness, his heart
+beating anxiously as the first twinkling lights of the town began to
+appear, he suddenly became aware of three horsemen riding but a short
+distance before him. They had evidently been drinking something stronger
+than water at the house of some good secessionist on the road, perhaps
+to console themselves for the loss of the schoolmaster,--for these were
+the excellent friends who were so eager to meet with him again! They
+were merry and talkative, and Penn, not ambitious of cultivating their
+acquaintance, checked his horse.
+
+It was too late. They had already perceived his approach, and hailed
+him.
+
+What should he do? To wheel about and flee would certainly excite their
+suspicions; they would be sure to pursue him; and though he might
+escape, his arrival in town would be thus perhaps fatally delayed. The
+arrests might be even at that moment taking place.
+
+He reflected, "There are but three of them; I may fight my way through,
+if it comes to that."
+
+Accordingly he rode boldly up to the assassins, and in a counterfeit
+voice, answered their hail. He was but little known to either of them,
+and there was a chance that, in the darkness, they might fail to
+recognize him.
+
+"Where you from?" demanded Sprowl.
+
+"From a little this side of Bald Mountain," said Penn,--which was true
+enough.
+
+"Where bound?"
+
+"Can't you see for yourself?" said Penn, assuming a reckless,
+independent air. "I am following my horse's nose, and that is going
+pretty straight into Curryville."
+
+"Glad of your company," said Sprowl, riding gayly alongside. "What's
+your business in town, stranger?"
+
+"Well," replied Penn, "I don't mind telling you that my business is to
+see if I and my horse can find something to do for old Tennessee."
+
+"Ah! cavalry?" suggested Lysander, well pleased.
+
+"I should prefer cavalry service to any other," answered Penn.
+
+"There's where you right," said Sprowl; and he proceeded to enlighten
+Penn on the prospects of raising a cavalry company in Curryville.
+
+"Did you meet any person on the road, travelling north?"
+
+"What sort of a person?"
+
+"A young feller, rather slim, brown hair, blue eyes, with a half-hung
+look, a perfect specimen of a sneaking abolition schoolmaster."
+
+"I--I don't remember meeting any such a person," said Penn, as if
+consulting his memory. "I met _two_ men, though, this side of old Bald.
+One of them was a rather gentlemanly-looking fellow; but I think his
+hair was black and curly."
+
+"The schoolmaster's har is wavy, and purty dark, I call it," said one of
+Sprowl's companions.
+
+"He must have been the man!" said Lysander, suddenly stopping his horse.
+"What sort of a chap was with him? Did he look like a Union-shrieker?"
+
+"Now I think of it," said Penn, "if that man wasn't a Unionist at heart,
+I am greatly mistaken. His sympathies are with the Lincolnites, I know
+by his looks!" He neglected to add, however, that the man was black.
+
+Sprowl was excited.
+
+"It was some tory, piloting the schoolmaster! Boys, we must wheel about!
+It never'll do for us to go home as long as we can hear of him alive in
+the state. Remember the pay promised, if we catch him."
+
+"Luck to you!" cried Penn, riding on, while Sprowl turned back in
+ludicrous pursuit of his own worthy friend, Mr. Augustus Bythewood, and
+his negro man Sam.
+
+Penn lost no time laughing at the joke. His heart was too full of
+trouble for that. It had seemed to him, at each moment of delay, that
+the blind old minister was even then being torn from his home--that he
+could hear Virginia's sobs of distress and cries for help. He urged his
+horse into a gallop once more, and struck into a path across the fields.
+He rode to the edge of the orchard, dismounted, tied the horse, and
+hastened on foot to the house.
+
+The guard was gone from the piazza, and all seemed quiet about the
+premises. The kitchen was dark. He advanced quickly, but noiselessly, to
+the door. It was open. He went in.
+
+"Toby!" No answer. "Carl! Carl!" he called in a louder voice. No Carl
+replied. Then he remembered--what it seemed so strange that he could
+even for an instant forget--that Carl was in the rebel ranks, for his
+sake.
+
+He had seen a light in the sitting-room. He found the door, and knocked.
+No answer came. He opened it softly, and entered. There burned the lamp
+on the table--there stood the vacant chairs--he was alone in the
+deserted room.
+
+"Virginia!"
+
+He started at his own voice, which sounded, in the hollow apartment,
+like the whisper of a ghost.
+
+He was proceeding still farther, wondering at the stillness, terrified
+by his own forebodings, feeling in his appalled heart the contrast
+between this night, and this strange, furtive visit, and the happy
+nights, and the many happy visits, he had made to his dear friends there
+only a few short months before,--pausing to assure himself that he was
+not walking in a dream,--when he heard a footstep, a flutter, and saw,
+spring towards him through the door, pale as an apparition, Virginia.
+Speechless with emotion, she could not utter his name, but she testified
+the joy with which she welcomed him by throwing herself, not into his
+arms, but upon them, as he extended his hands to greet her.
+
+"What has happened?" said Penn.
+
+"O, my father!" said the girl. And she bowed her face upon his arm,
+clinging to him as if he were her brother, her only support.
+
+"Where is he?" asked Penn, alarmed, and trembling with sympathy for that
+delicate, agitated, fair young creature, whom sorrow had so changed
+since he saw her last.
+
+"They have taken him--the soldiers!" she said.
+
+And by these words Penn knew that he had come too late.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+_STACKRIDGE'S COAT AND HAT GET ARRESTED._
+
+
+The outrage had been committed not more than twenty minutes before. Toby
+had followed his old master, to see what was to be done with him, and
+Virginia and her sister were in the street before the house, awaiting
+the negro's return, when Penn arrived.
+
+"You could have done no good, even if you had come sooner," said
+Virginia. "There is but one man who could have prevented this cruelty."
+
+"Why not send for him?"
+
+"Alas! he left town this very day. He is a secessionist; but he has
+great influence, and appears very friendly to us."
+
+Penn started, and looked at her keenly.
+
+"His name?"
+
+"Augustus Bythewood."
+
+Penn recoiled.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Virginia, that man is thy worst enemy? I did not tell thee how I
+learned that the arrests were to be made. But I will!" And he told her
+all.
+
+"O," said she, "if I had only believed what my heart has always said of
+that man, and trusted less to my eyes and ears, he would never have
+deceived me! If he, then, is an enemy, what hope is there? O, my
+father!"
+
+"Do not despair!" answered Penn, as cheerfully as he could. "Something
+may be done. Stackridge and his friends may have escaped. I will go and
+see if I can hear any thing of them. Have faith in our heavenly Father,
+my poor girl! be patient! be strong! All, I am sure, will yet be well."
+
+"But you too are in danger! You must not go!" she exclaimed,
+instinctively detaining him.
+
+"I am in greater danger here, perhaps, than elsewhere."
+
+"True, true! Go to your negro friends in the mountain--there is yet
+time! go!" and she hurriedly pushed him from her.
+
+"When I find that nothing can be done for thy father, then I will return
+to Pomp and Cudjo--not before."
+
+And he glided out of the back door just as Salina entered from the
+street.
+
+He left the horse where he had tied him, and hastened on foot to
+Stackridge's house.
+
+He approached with great caution. There was a light burning in the
+house, as on other summer evenings at that hour. The negroes--for
+Stackridge was a slaveholder--had retired to their quarters. There were
+no indications of any disturbance having taken place. Penn reconnoitred
+carefully, and, perceiving no one astir about the premises, advanced
+towards the door.
+
+"Halt!" shouted a voice of authority.
+
+And immediately two men jumped out from the well-curb, within which they
+had been concealed. Others at the same time rushed to the spot from dark
+corners, where they had lain in wait. Almost in an instant, and before
+he could recover from his astonishment, Penn found himself surrounded.
+
+"You are our prisoner, Mr. Stackridge!" And half a dozen bayonets
+converged at the focus of his breast.
+
+The young man comprehended the situation in a moment. Stackridge had not
+been arrested; he was absent from home; these ambushed soldiers had been
+awaiting his return; and they had mistaken the schoolmaster for the
+farmer.
+
+The night was just light enough to enable them to recognize the coat and
+hat which had been Stackridge's, and which Penn still wore as a
+disguise. Features they could not discern so easily. The prisoner made
+no resistance, for that would have been useless; no outcry, for that
+would have revealed to them their mistake. He submitted without a word;
+and they marched him away, just as his supposed wife and children flew
+to the door, calling frantically, "Father! father!" and lamenting his
+misfortune.
+
+By proclaiming his own identity, the prisoner would have gained nothing,
+probably, but a halter on the spot. On the other hand, by accepting the
+part forced upon him, he was at least gaining time. It might be, too,
+that he was rendering an important service to the real Stackridge by
+thus withdrawing the soldiers from their ambush, and giving him an
+opportunity to reach home and learn the danger he had escaped.
+
+These considerations passed rapidly through his mind. He slouched his
+hat over his eyes, and marched with sullen, stubborn mien. In this
+manner he was taken to the village, and conducted to an old storehouse,
+which had lately been turned into a guard-house by the confederate
+authorities.
+
+There was a great crowd around the dimly-lighted door, and other
+prisoners, similarly escorted, were going in. Amid the press and hurry,
+Penn passed the sentinels still unrecognized. He immediately found
+himself wedged in between the wall and a number of Tennessee Union men,
+some terrified into silence, others enraged and defiant, but all
+captives like himself.
+
+In the farther end of the room, at a desk behind the counter, with
+candles at each side, sat the confederate colonel to whom Penn owed his
+life. He seemed to be receiving the reports of those who had conducted
+the arrests, and to be examining the prisoners. Beside him sat his aids
+and clerks. Before him Penn knew that he must soon appear. He was in
+darkness and disguise as yet, but he could not long avoid facing the
+light and the eyes of those who knew him well. What, then, would be his
+fate? Would he be retained a prisoner, like the rest, or delivered over
+to the mob that sought his life? He had time to decide upon a course
+which he hoped might gain him some favor.
+
+Taking advantage of the shadow and confusion in which he was, he slipped
+off his disguise, and, elbowing his way through the crowd of prisoners,
+appeared, hat in hand and coat on arm, before the interior guard, and
+demanded to speak with the commanding officer.
+
+"Sir, who are you?" said the colonel, failing, at first, to recognize
+him. Upon which Mr. Ropes, who was at his side, swore a great oath that
+it was the schoolmaster himself.
+
+"But I have had no report of his arrest," cried the colonel. "How came
+you here, sir?"
+
+"I wish to place myself under your protection," said Penn. "You received
+a substitute in my place, and ordered me to be set at liberty. But your
+commands have been disregarded; I have been hunted for two days; and
+men, calling themselves confederate soldiers, are still pursuing me.
+Under these circumstances I have thought it best to appeal to you,
+relying upon your honor as a gentleman and an officer."
+
+"But how came you here? Who brought in this fellow?"
+
+Nobody could answer that question, although the leader of the party that
+had brought him in was at the very moment on the spot, waiting to make
+his report of Stackridge's arrest.
+
+As soon, therefore, as Penn could gain a hearing, he continued.
+
+"I came in, sir, with a crowd of soldiers and prisoners, none of whom
+recognized me. The sentinels no doubt supposed I was arrested, and so
+let me pass."
+
+"Well, sir, you have done a bold thing, and perhaps the best thing for
+you. Since you have voluntarily delivered yourself up, I shall feel
+bound to protect you. But I have only one of two alternatives to offer
+you--the same I offer to each of these worthy gentlemen here, giving
+them their choice. Take the oath of allegiance to the confederate
+government, and volunteer; that is one condition."
+
+"I am a northern man," replied Penn, "and owe allegiance to the United
+States; so that condition it is impossible for me to accept."
+
+"Very well; I'll give you time to think of it. In the mean while, my
+only means of affording the protection you demand will be to retain you
+a prisoner. Guard, take this man below."
+
+Not another word was said; and, indeed, Penn had already gained more
+than he hoped for, with the eyes of Lieutenant Ropes glaring on him so
+murderously. He was conducted to a stairway that led to the cellar, and
+ordered to descend. He obeyed, marching down between two soldiers on
+guard at the door, and two more at the foot of the stairs.
+
+It was a lugubrious subterranean apartment, lighted by a single lantern
+suspended from a beam. By its dim rays he discovered the figures of half
+a dozen fellow-prisoners; and, in the midst of the group, he recognized
+one, the sight of whom caused him to forget all his own misfortunes in
+an instant.
+
+"My dear Mr. Villars! I have found you at last!" he exclaimed, grasping
+the old clergyman's hand.
+
+"Penn, is it you?" said the blind old man.
+
+He was seated on a dry goods box. Trembling and feeble, he arose to
+greet his young friend, with a noble courtesy very beautiful and
+touching under the circumstances.
+
+"I cannot tell thee," said Penn, in a choked voice, "how grieved I am to
+see thee here!"
+
+"And grieved am I that you should see me here!" Mr. Villars replied. "I
+hoped you were a hundred miles away. I was never sorry to have your
+company till now! How does it happen?"
+
+Penn made him sit down again, giving him Stackridge's coat for a
+cushion, and related briefly his adventures.
+
+"It is very singular," said the old man, thoughtfully. "It seems almost
+providential that you are here."
+
+"I think it is so," said Penn. "I think I am here because I may be of
+service to you."
+
+"Ah!" replied the old man, with a tender smile, "my life is of but
+little value compared with yours. I am a worn-out servant; my day of
+usefulness is past; I am ready to go home. I do not speak repiningly,"
+he added. "If I can serve my country or my God by suffering--if nothing
+remains for me but that--then I will cheerfully suffer. Our heavenly
+Father orders all things; and I am content. All will be well with us, if
+we are obedient children; all will yet be well with our poor country, if
+it is true to itself and to Him."
+
+"O, do not say thy day of usefulness is past, as long as thou canst
+speak such words!" said Penn, deeply moved.
+
+"Thank God, I have faith! Even in this darkest hour of my life and of my
+country, I think I have more faith than ever. And I have love, too--love
+even for those violent men who have thrown us into this dungeon. They
+know not what they do. They act in ignorance and passion. They seek to
+destroy our dear old government; but they will only destroy what they
+are striving so madly to build up."
+
+"Yes," said one of the prisoners, "the institution will be ruined by
+those very men! They are worse than the abolitionists themselves; and I
+hate 'em worse!"
+
+"Hate their errors, Captain Grudd, hate their crimes, but hate no man,"
+Mr. Villars softly replied.
+
+"And you would have us submit to them?"
+
+"Submit, when you can do no better. But even for their sakes, even for
+the love of them, my friend, resist their crimes when you can. No man
+will stand by and see a maniac murder his wife and children. It will be
+better for the poor maddened wretch himself to prevent him; don't you
+think so, Penn?"
+
+"I do," said Penn, who knew that the argument was meant for himself, not
+for the rest. "I am thoroughly convinced. You were always right on that
+subject; and I was always wrong."
+
+"I perceive," said the old man, "that you have had experience. It is not
+I that have convinced you; it is the logic of events."
+
+One by one, the prisoners from above followed Penn down the dismal
+stairs. Only now and then a fainthearted Unionist consented to regain
+his liberty by taking the oath of allegiance, and "volunteering." At
+length the room above was cleared, and no more prisoners arrived. Penn,
+who had kept anxious watch for his friend Stackridge, was congratulating
+himself upon the perfect success of his stratagem, when the corporal who
+had brought him in came rushing down the stairs, accompanied by
+Lieutenant Ropes.
+
+"Stackridge!" he called, searching among the prisoners; "is Medad
+Stackridge here?"
+
+No man had seen him.
+
+"Then I tell you," said the corporal to Silas, "he is hid somewhere up
+stairs, or else he has escaped; for I can swear I arrested him."
+
+"I can swear you was drunk," said Silas, much disgusted. "You have let
+the wust man of the lot slip through your fingers; for it's certain he
+ain't here."
+
+Penn trembled for a minute. But both Ropes and the corporal passed him
+without a suspicion of what was agitating him; and he felt immensely
+relieved when they returned up the stairs, and the mystery remained
+unexplained.
+
+The prisoners in the cellar were about twelve in number. Nearly all were
+sturdy, earnest men. Penn noticed that they were not cast down by their
+misfortunes, but that they whispered among themselves, exchanging
+glances of intelligence and defiance. At length Captain Grudd came to
+him, and taking him aside, said,--
+
+"Well, professor, what do you think of the situation?"
+
+"We seem to be at the mercy of the villains," replied Penn.
+
+"Not so much at their mercy either, if we choose to be men! What we want
+to know is, will you join us? And if there should be a little fighting
+to do, will you help do it?"
+
+Penn grasped his hand. "Show me that we have any chance of escape, and I
+am with you!"
+
+"I thought you would come to it at last!" Grudd smiled grimly. "What we
+want, to begin with, is a few handy weapons. But we have all been
+disarmed. Have you anything? I noticed they did not search you, probably
+because you came voluntarily and gave yourself up."
+
+"I have Stackridge's pistol. It is in the coat Mr. Villars is sitting
+on."
+
+Grudd's eyes lighted up at this unexpected good news. "It will come in
+play! We must shoot or strangle these fellows, and have their
+guns,"--with a glance at the soldiers on guard.
+
+"But the room up stairs is full of soldiers, and there is a strong guard
+posted outside, probably surrounding the building."
+
+"We will have as little to do with them as possible. Young man, I have a
+secret for you. Do you know whose property this is?"
+
+"Barber Jim's, I believe."
+
+"And do you know there's a secret passage from this cellar into the
+cellar under Jim's shop? It was dug by Jim himself, as a hiding-place
+for his wife and children. He had bought them, but the heirs of their
+former owner had set up a claim to them. After that matter was settled,
+he showed Stackridge the place; and that's the way we came to make use
+of it. We stored our guns in the passage, and came through into this
+cellar at night to consult and drill. The store being shut, and the
+windows all fastened and boarded up, made a quiet place of it. As good
+luck would have it, the night before the military took possession, Jim
+warned us, and we carefully put back every stone in the wall, and left.
+But some of our guns are still in the passage, if they have not been
+discovered. We have only to open the wall again to get at them. But
+before that can be done, the guard must be disposed of."
+
+Penn, who had listened with intense interest to this recital, drew a
+long breath.
+
+"Is the passage behind the spot where Mr. Villars is sitting?"
+
+"Within three feet of the box."
+
+"Then I fear it is discovered. I heard a noise behind that wall not ten
+minutes ago."
+
+Grudd started. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"It must be Jim himself; or else we have been betrayed."
+
+"Was the secret known to many?"
+
+"To all our club, and one besides," said Grudd, frowning anxiously.
+"Stackridge made a mistake; I told him so!"
+
+"How?"
+
+"We were drilling here that night when Dutch Carl came to tell us you
+were in danger. Stackridge said he knew the boy, and would trust him. So
+he brought him in here. And Carl is now a rebel volunteer."
+
+"With him your secret is safe!" Penn hastened to assure the captain.
+"Stackridge was right. Carl----"
+
+He paused suddenly, looking at the stairs. Even while the boy's name was
+on his lips, the boy himself was entering the cellar. He carried a
+musket. He wore the confederate uniform. He was accompanied by Gad and
+an officer. They had come to relieve the guard. The men who had
+previously been on duty at the foot of the stairs retired with the
+officer, and Gad and Carl remained in their place.
+
+Penn at the sight was filled with painful solicitude. To have seen his
+young friend and pupil shoulder a confederate musket, knowing that it
+was the love of him that made him a rebel, would alone have been grief
+enough. How much worse, then, to see him placed here in a position where
+it might be necessary, in Grudd's opinion, to "shoot or strangle" him!
+But having once exchanged glances with the boy, Penn's mind was set at
+rest.
+
+"He has kept your secret," he said to Grudd. "He is very shrewd; and if
+we need help, he will help us."
+
+But the noise Penn had heard behind the wall was troubling the captain.
+They retired to that part of the cellar. They had been there but a short
+time when a very distinct knock was heard on the stones. It sounded like
+a signal. Grudd responded, striking the wall with his heel as he leaned
+his back against it. Then followed a low whistle in the passage. The
+captain's dark features lighted up.
+
+"We are safe!" he whispered in Penn's ear. "It is Stackridge himself!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+_THE FLIGHT OF THE PRISONERS._
+
+
+Then commenced strategy. The prisoners gathered in a group before the
+closed passage, and talked loud, while Grudd established a communication
+with Stackridge. In the course of an hour a single stone in the wall had
+been removed. Through the aperture thus formed a bottle was introduced.
+This Grudd pretended afterwards to take from his pocket; and having
+(apparently) drank, he offered it to his friends. All drank, or appeared
+to drink, in a manner that provoked Gad's thirst. He vowed that it was
+too bad that anything good should moisten the lips of tory prisoners
+while a soldier like him went thirsty.
+
+"I never saw the time, Gad," said the captain, "when I wouldn't share a
+bottle with you, and I will now."
+
+Gad held his gun with one hand and grasped the bottle with the other.
+Penn seized the moment when his eyes were directed upwards at the cobweb
+festoons that adorned the cellar, and the sound of gurgling was in his
+throat, to whisper in Carl's ear,--
+
+"Appear to drink, and by and by pass the bottle up stairs."
+
+Carl understood the game in an instant.
+
+"Here, you fish!" he said, in the midst of Gad's potation. "Leafe a
+little trop for me, vill you?"
+
+It was some time before the torrent in Gad's throat ceased its
+murmuring, and he removed his eyes from the cobwebs. Then, smacking his
+lips, and remarking that it was the right sort of stuff, he passed the
+bottle to Carl.
+
+"Who's the fish this time?" said he, enviously, after Carl had made
+believe swallow for a few seconds.
+
+He snatched the bottle, and was drinking as before, when the guard
+above, hearing what passed, called for a taste.
+
+"You shust vait a minute till Gad trinks it all up, then you shall pe
+velcome to vot ish left," said Carl. And, possessing himself of the
+bottle, he handed it up to his comrades.
+
+All the soldiers above were asleep except the sentinels. They drank
+freely, and returned the bottle to Gad. He had not finished it before he
+began to be overcome by drowsiness, its contents having been drugged for
+the occasion.
+
+He sat down on the stairs, and soon slid off upon the ground. Carl, who
+had not in reality swallowed a drop, followed his example. Their guns
+were then taken from them. Penn stole softly up the stairs, and
+reconnoitred while Grudd and his companions opened the passage in the
+wall.
+
+"All asleep!" Penn whispered, descending. "Carl!"
+
+Carl opened one eye, with a droll expression.
+
+"Are you asleep?"
+
+"Wery!" said Carl.
+
+"Will you stay here, or go with us?"
+
+"You vill take me prisoner?"
+
+"If you wish it."
+
+"Say you vill plow my brains out if I say vun vord, or make vun noise."
+
+"Come, come! there's no time for fooling, Carl!"
+
+"It ish no vooling!" And Carl insisted on Penn's making the threat.
+"Veil, then, I vill vake up and go 'long mit you."
+
+Mr. Villars had been for some time sleeping soundly; for it was now long
+past midnight, and weariness had overcome him. Penn awoke him; but the
+old man refused to escape. "Go without me. I shall be too great a burden
+for you." But not one of his fellow-prisoners would consent to leave him
+behind; and, listening to their expostulations, he at length arose to
+accompany them.
+
+Stackridge was in the passage, with the old man Ellerton, whom Penn had
+sent to warn him. They had brought a supply of ammunition for the guns,
+which they had loaded and placed ready for use. Penn, supporting and
+guiding the old minister, was the first to pass through into the cellar
+under Jim's shop. Stackridge, preceding them with a lantern, greeted
+their escape with silent and grim exultation. Carl came next. Then, one
+by one, the others followed, each grasping his gun; the rays of the
+lantern lighting up their determined faces, as they emerged from the low
+passage, and stood erect, an eager, whispering group, around Stackridge.
+
+Brief the consultation. Their plans were soon formed. Leaving Gad asleep
+in the cellar behind them; the guard asleep, the soldiers all asleep, in
+the room above; the sentinels outside the old storehouse keeping watch,
+pacing to and fro around the cellar, in which not a prisoner
+remained,--Stackridge and his companions filed out noiselessly through
+Jim's closed and silent shop, upon the other street, and took their way
+swiftly through the town.
+
+Having appointed a place of meeting with his friends, Penn left them,
+and hastened alone to Mr. Villars's house. The lights had long been out.
+But the sisters were awake; Virginia had not even gone to bed. She was
+sitting by her window, gazing out on the hushed, gloomy, breathless
+summer night,--waiting, waiting, she scarce knew for what,--when she was
+aware of a figure approaching, and knew Penn's light, quick tap at the
+door.
+
+She ran down to admit him. His story was quickly told. Toby was roused
+up; blankets were rolled together, and all the available provisions that
+could be carried were thrust into baskets.
+
+"How shall we get news to you? You will want to hear from your father."
+Penn hastily thought of a plan. "Send Toby to the round rock,--he knows
+where it is,--on the side of the mountain. Between nine and ten o'clock
+to-morrow night. I will try to communicate with him there." And Penn,
+bidding the young girl be of good cheer, departed as suddenly as he had
+arrived.
+
+The old negro accompanied him, assisting to carry the burdens. They
+found Stackridge's horse where he had been fastened. Penn made Toby
+mount, take a basket in each hand, and hold the blankets before him on
+the neck of the horse; then, seizing the bridle, and running by his
+side, he trotted the beast away across the field in a manner that shook
+the old negro up in lively style.
+
+"O, Massa Penn! I can't stan' dis yere! I's gwine all to pieces! I shall
+drap some o' dese yer tings, shore!"
+
+"You must stand it! hold on to them!" said Penn. "And now keep still,
+for we are near the road."
+
+The party had halted at the rendezvous. Mr. Villars, quite exhausted by
+his unusual exertions, was seated on the ground when Penn came up with
+Toby and the horse. Toby dismounted; the old minister mounted in his
+place, and the negro was sent back.
+
+All this passed swiftly and silently; the fugitives were once more on
+the march, Penn walking by the old man's side. Scarce a word was spoken;
+the tramp of feet and the sound of the horse's hoofs alone broke the
+silence of the night. Suddenly a voice hailed them:--
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+And they discovered some horsemen drawn up before them beside the road.
+It was the night-patrol.
+
+"Friends," answered Stackridge, marching straight on.
+
+"Halt, and give an account of yourselves!" shouted the patrol.
+
+"We are peaceable citizens, if let alone," said Stackridge. "You'd
+better not meddle with us."
+
+The horsemen waited for them to pass, then, firing their pistols at the
+fugitives, put spurs to their horses, and galloped away towards the
+village.
+
+"Don't fire!" cried Stackridge, as half a dozen pieces were levelled in
+the darkness. "We've no ammunition to throw away, and no time to lose.
+They'll give the alarm. Take straight to the mountains!"
+
+Nobody had been hit. Turning aside from the road, they took their way
+across the broad pasture lands that sloped upwards to the rocky hills.
+The dark valley spread beneath them; on the other side rose the dim
+outlines of the shadowy mountain range; over all spread a still,
+cloudless sky, thick-strewn with glittering star-dust.
+
+In the village, the ringing of bells startled the night with a wild
+clamor. Stackridge laughed.
+
+"They'll make noise enough now to wake Gad himself! But noise won't hurt
+anybody. Hear the drums!"
+
+"They are coming this way," said Penn.
+
+"Fools, to set out in pursuit of us with drums beating!" said Captain
+Grudd. "Very kind in them to give us notice! They should bring lighted
+torches, too."
+
+"Once in the mountains," said Stackridge, "we are safe. There we can
+defend ourselves against a hundred. Other Union men will join us, or
+bring us supplies. We ought to have made this move before; and I'm glad
+we've been forced to it at last. If every Union man in the south had
+made a bold stand in the beginning, this cursed rebellion never would
+have got such a start."
+
+Suddenly bells and drums were silent. "The less noise the more danger,"
+said Stackridge. The way was growing difficult for the horse's feet. The
+cow-paths, which it had been easy to follow at first, disappeared among
+the thickets. At length, on the crest of a hill, the party halted to
+rest.
+
+"Daylight!" said Stackridge, turning his face to the east.
+
+The sky was brightening; the shadows in the valley melted slowly away;
+far off the cocks crew.
+
+"Hark!" said the captain. "Do you hear anything?"
+
+"I heard a woice!" said Carl.
+
+"Hist!" said Penn. "Look yonder! there they come! around those bushes at
+the foot of the oak!"
+
+"Sure as fate, there they are!" said the captain.
+
+The fugitives crowded to his side, eager, grasping their gunstocks, and
+peering with intent eyes through the darkness in the direction in which
+he pointed.
+
+"Take the horse," said Stackridge to Penn, "and lead him up through that
+gap out of the reach of the bullets. We'll stay and give these rascals a
+lesson. Go along with him, Carl, if you don't want to fight your
+friends."
+
+There were not guns enough for all; and Grudd had Stackridge's revolver.
+There was nothing better, then, for Penn and Carl to do than to consent
+to this arrangement.
+
+Penn went before, leading the horse up the dry bed of a brook. Carl
+followed, urging the animal from behind. Mr. Villars rode with the
+baggage, which had been lashed to the saddle. Only the clashing of the
+iron hoofs on the stones broke the stillness of the morning in that
+mountain solitude. Stackridge and his compatriots had suddenly become
+invisible, crouching among bushes and behind rocks.
+
+The retreat of Penn and his companions was discovered by the pursuing
+party, who mistook it for a general flight of the fugitives. They rushed
+forward with a shout. They had a rugged and barren hill to ascend. Half
+way up the slope they saw flashes of fire burst from the rocks above,
+heard the rapid "crack--crackle--crack!" of a dozen pieces, and
+retreated in confusion down the hill again.
+
+Stackridge and his companions coolly proceeded to reload their guns.
+
+"They didn't know we had arms," said the farmer, with a grim smile.
+"They'll be more cautious now."
+
+"We've done for two or three of 'em!" said Captain Grudd. "There they
+lie; one is crawling off."
+
+"Let him crawl!" said Stackridge. "Sorry to kill any of 'em; but it's
+about time for 'em to know we're in 'arnest."
+
+"They've gone to cover in the laurels," said Grudd. "Let's shift our
+ground, and watch their movements."
+
+Penn and Carl in the mean time made haste to get the horse and his
+burden beyond the reach of bullets. They toiled up the bed of the brook
+until it was no longer passable. Huge bowlders lay jammed and crowded in
+clefts of the mountain before them. Penn remembered the spot. He had
+been there in spring, when down over the rocks, now covered with lichens
+and dry scum, poured an impetuous torrent.
+
+"Now I know where I am," he said. "I don't believe it is possible to get
+the horse any farther. We will wait here for our friends. Mr. Villars,
+if you will dismount, we will try to get you up on the bank."
+
+"I pity you, my children," said the old man. "You should never have
+encumbered yourselves with such a burden as I am. I can neither fight
+nor run. Is it sunrise yet?"
+
+"It is sunrise, and a beautiful morning! The fresh rays come to us here,
+sifted through the dewy trees. Sit down on this rock. Find the luncheon,
+Carl. Ah, Carl!"--Penn regarded the boy affectionately,--"I am glad to
+have you with me again, but I can't forget that you are a rebel! and a
+deserter!"
+
+"I a deserter? you mishtake," said Carl. "I am a prisoner."
+
+"You disobeyed me, Carl! I told you not to enlist. You did wrong."
+
+"Now shust listen," said Carl, "and I vill tell you. I did right. Cause
+vy. You are alive and vell now, ain't you?"
+
+Penn smilingly admitted the fact.
+
+"And that is petter as being hung?"
+
+"I am not so very certain of that, Carl!"
+
+"Vell, I am certain for you. Hanging ish no goot. Hunderts of vellers
+that don't like the rebels no more as you do, wolunteer rather than to
+be hung. Shows their goot sense."
+
+"But you have taken an oath--you are under a solemn engagement, Carl, to
+fight against the government."
+
+"You mishtake unce more--two times. I make a pargain. I say to that man,
+'You let Mishter Hapgoot go free, and not let him be hurt, and I vill be
+a rebel.' Vell, he agrees. But he don't keep his vord. He lets 'em go
+for to hang you vunce more. Now, if he preaks his part of the pargain,
+vy shouldn't I preak mine?"
+
+"Well, Carl," said Penn, laughing, while his eyes glistened, "I trust
+thy conscience is clear in the matter. I can only say that, though I
+don't approve of thy being a rebel, I love thee all the better for it.
+What do you think, Mr. Villars?"
+
+"Sometimes people do wrong from a motive so pure and disinterested that
+it sanctifies the action. This is Carl's case, I think."
+
+"Hello!" cried Carl, jumping up from the bank on which they were seated.
+"Guns! They are at it again! I vill go see!"
+
+The boy disappeared, scrambling down the dry bed of the torrent.
+
+The firing continued at irregular intervals for half an hour. Carl did
+not return. Penn grew anxious. He stood, intently listening, when he
+heard a noise behind him, and, turning quickly, saw the glimmer of
+musket-barrels over the rocks.
+
+"Fire!" said a voice.
+
+And Penn threw himself down under the bank just in time to avoid the
+discharge of half a dozen pieces aimed at his head.
+
+"What is the trouble?" asked the old man, who was lying on some blankets
+spread for him there in the shade.
+
+Before Penn could reply, Silas Ropes and six men came rushing down upon
+them. Stackridge had been out-generalled. Whilst he and his men were
+being diverted by a feigned attack in front, two different parties had
+been despatched by circuitous routes to get in his rear. In executing
+the part of the plan intrusted to him, Ropes had unexpectedly come upon
+the schoolmaster and his companion. A minute later both were seized and
+dragged up from the bed of the torrent.
+
+"Ye don't escape me this time!" said Silas, with brutal exultation. "Tie
+him up to the tree thar; serve the old one the same. We can't be
+bothered with prisoners."
+
+"What are you going to do to that helpless, blind old man?" cried Penn.
+"Do what you please with me; I expect no mercy,--I ask none. But I
+entreat you, respect his gray hair!"
+
+The appeal seemed to have some effect even on the savage-hearted Silas.
+He glanced at his men: they were evidently of the opinion that the
+slaughter of the old clergyman was uncalled for.
+
+"Wal, tie the old ranter, and leave him. Quick work, boys. Got the
+schoolmaster fast?"
+
+"All right," said the men.
+
+"Wal, now stand back here, and les' have a little bayonet practice."
+
+Penn knew very well what that meant. His clothes were stripped from him,
+in order to present a fair mark for the murderous steel; and he was
+bound to a tree.
+
+"One at a time," said Silas. "Try your hand, Griffin.
+_Charge--bayonet!_"
+
+In vain the old minister endeavored to make himself heard in his
+friend's behalf. He could only pray for him.
+
+Penn saw the ferocious soldier springing towards him, the deadly bayonet
+thrust straight at his heart. In an instant the murder would have been
+done. But when within two paces of his victim, the steel almost touching
+his breast, Griffin uttered a yell, dropped his gun, flung up his hands,
+and fell dead at Penn's feet.
+
+At the same moment a light curl of smoke was wafted from the heaped
+bowlders in the chasm above, and the echoes of a rifle-crack
+reverberated among the rocks.
+
+The assassins were terror-struck. They looked all around; not a human
+being was in sight. Distant firing proclaimed that Stackridge and his
+men were still engaged. The death that struck down Griffin seemed to
+have fallen from heaven. They waited but a moment, then fled
+precipitately, leaving Penn still bound, but uninjured, with the dead
+rebel at his feet.
+
+Then two figures came gliding swiftly down over the rocks. Penn uttered
+a cry of joy. It was Pomp and Cudjo.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+_THE DEAD REBEL'S MUSKET._
+
+
+Pomp came reloading his rifle, while Cudjo, knife in hand, flew at the
+cords that confined the schoolmaster.
+
+In his gratitude to Heaven and his deliverers, Penn could have hugged
+that grotesque, half-savage creature to his heart. But no time was to be
+lost. Snatching the knife, he hastened to release the bewildered
+clergyman.
+
+"Pomp, my noble fellow!" The negro turned from looking after the
+retreating rebels, with a gleam of triumph on his proud and lofty
+features: Penn wrung his hand. "You have twice saved my life--now let me
+ask one more favor of you! Take Mr. Villars to your cave--do for him
+what you have done for me. He is a much better Christian, and far more
+deserving of your kindness, than I ever was."
+
+"And you?" said Pomp, quietly.
+
+"I will take my chance with the others." And Penn in few words explained
+the occurrences of the night and morning.
+
+Pomp shrugged his shoulders frowningly. The time was at hand when he and
+Cudjo could no longer enjoy in freedom their wild mountain life; even
+they must soon be drawn into the great deadly struggle. This he foresaw,
+and his soul was darkened for a moment.
+
+"Cudjo! Shall we take this old man to our den?"
+
+"No, no! Don't ye take nobody dar! on'y Massa Hapgood."
+
+"But he is blind!" said Penn.
+
+"Others will come after who are not blind," said Pomp, his brow still
+stern and thoughtful.
+
+"My friends," interposed the old clergyman, mildly, "do nothing for me
+that will bring danger to yourselves, I entreat you!"
+
+These unselfish words, spoken with serious and benignant aspect, touched
+the generous chords in Pomp's breast.
+
+"Why should we blacks have anything to do with this quarrel?" he said
+with earnest feeling. "Your friends down there"--meaning Stackridge and
+his party--"are all slaveholders or pro-slavery men. Why should we care
+which side destroys the other?"
+
+"There is a God," answered Mr. Villars, with a beaming light in his
+unterrified countenance, "who is not prejudiced against color; who loves
+equally his black and his white children; and who, by means of this war
+that seems so needless and so cruel, is working out the redemption, not
+of the misguided white masters only, but also of the slave. Whether you
+will or not, this war concerns the black man, and he cannot long keep
+out of it. Then will you side with your avowed enemies, or with those
+who are already fighting in your cause without knowing it?"
+
+These words probed the deep convictions of Pomp's breast. He had from
+the first believed that the war meant death to slavery; although of late
+the persistent and almost universal cry of Union men for the "Union as
+it was,"--the Union with the injustice of slavery at its core,--had
+somewhat wearied his patience and weakened his faith.
+
+"Here, Cudjo! help get this horse up--we can find a path for him."
+
+Reluctantly Cudjo obeyed; and almost by main strength the two athletic
+blacks lifted and pulled the animal up the bank, and out of the chasm.
+
+Penn assisted his old friend to remount, then took leave of him.
+
+"I will be with you again soon!" he cried, hopefully, as the negroes
+urged the horse forward into the thickets.
+
+Then the young Quaker, left alone, turned to look at the dead rebel. For
+a moment horrible nausea and faintness made him lean against the tree
+for support. It was the first violent death of which he had ever been an
+eye-witness. He had known this man,--who was indeed the same Griffin,
+who had assisted the unwilling Pepperill to bring the tar-kettle to the
+wood-side on a certain memorable evening; ignorant, intemperate, too
+proud to work in a region where slavery made industry a disgrace, and
+yet a fierce champion of the system which was his greatest curse. Now
+there he lay, in his dirt, and rags, and blood, his neck shot through;
+the same expression of ferocious hate with which he had rushed to
+bayonet the schoolmaster still distorting his visage;--an object of
+horror and loathing. Was it not assuming a terrible responsibility to
+send this rampant sinner to his long account? Yet the choice was between
+his life and Penn's; and had not Pomp done well? Still Penn could not
+help feeling remorse and commiseration for the wretch.
+
+"Poor Griffin! I have no murderous hatred for such as you! But if you
+come in the way of my country's safety, or of the welfare of my friends,
+you must take the penalty!"
+
+He picked up the musket that had fallen at his feet where he stood
+bound. Then, stifling his disgust, he felt in the dead man's pockets for
+ammunition. Cartridges there were none; but in their place he found some
+bullets and a powder-flask. Then putting in practice the lessons he had
+learned of Pomp when they hunted together on the mountain, he loaded the
+gun, resolutely setting his teeth and drawing his breath hard when he
+thought of the different kind of game it might now be his duty to shoot.
+
+While thus occupied he heard footsteps that gave him a sudden start. He
+turned quickly, catching up the gun. To his immense relief he saw Pomp,
+approaching with a smile.
+
+"I thought you were with Mr. Villars!"
+
+"Cudjo has gone with him. I am going with you."
+
+"O Pomp!" cried Penn, with a joyful sense of reliance upon his powerful
+and sagacious black friend. "But is Mr. Villars safe?"
+
+"Cudjo is faithful," said Pomp. "He believes the old man is your friend,
+and a friend of the slave. Besides, I promised, if he would take him to
+the cave, that my next shot, if I have a chance, should be at his old
+acquaintance, Sile Ropes."
+
+Pomp took the lead, guiding Penn through hollows and among thickets to a
+ledge crowned with shrubs of savin, whose summit commanded a view of all
+that mountain-side.
+
+They crept among the bushes to the edge of the cliff. There they paused.
+Neither friend nor foe was in sight. No sound of fire-arms was
+heard,--only the birds were singing.
+
+Penn never forgot that scene. How fresh, and beautiful, and still the
+morning was! The sunlight flushed the craggy and wooded slopes. Far off,
+dim with early mist, lay the lovely hills and valleys of East Tennessee.
+On the north the peaks of the mountain range soared away, purple, rosy,
+glorious, in soft suffusing light. In the south-west other peaks
+receded, billowy and blue. And God's pure, deep sky was over all.
+
+Touched by the divine beauty of the day, Penn lay thinking with shame of
+the scenes of human folly and violence with which it had been
+desecrated, when the negro drew him softly by the sleeve.
+
+"Look yonder! down in the edge of that little grove!"
+
+Peering through an opening in the savins through which Pomp had thrust
+his rifle, Penn saw, stealing cautiously out of the grove, a man.
+
+"It is Stackridge! He is reconnoitring."
+
+"It is a retreat," said Pomp. "See, there they all come!"
+
+"Carl with the rest, showing them the way!" added Penn.
+
+He was watching with intense interest the movements of his friends, and
+rejoicing that no foe was in sight, when suddenly Pomp uttered a warning
+whisper.
+
+"Where? what?" said Penn, eagerly looking in the direction in which the
+negro pointed.
+
+Down at their left was a long line of dark thickets which marked the
+edge of a ravine; out of which he now saw emerging, one by one, a file
+of armed men. They climbed up a narrow and difficult pass, and halted on
+the skirts of the thicket. Ten--twelve--fifteen, Penn counted. It was
+the other party that had been sent out simultaneously with that under
+Lieutenant Ropes, to get in the rear of the fugitives. And they had
+succeeded. Only a bushy ridge concealed them from Stackridge's men, who
+were coming up under the shelter of the same ridge on the other side.
+
+Penn trembled with excitement as he saw the rebels cross swiftly
+forward, skulking among the bushes, to the summit of the ridge. The
+negro's eyes blazed, but he was perfectly cool. On one knee, his left
+foot advanced,--holding his rifle with one hand, and parting the bushes
+with the other,--he smiled as he observed the situation.
+
+"Here," said he to Penn, "rest your gun in this little crotch. Now can
+you see to take aim?"
+
+"Yes," said Penn, with his heart in his throat.
+
+"Calm your nerves! Everything depends on our first shot. Wait till I
+give the word. See! they have discovered Stackridge!"
+
+"We might shout, and warn him," said Penn, whose nature still shrank
+from using any more deadly means of saving his friends.
+
+"And so discover ourselves! That never'll do. Have you sighted your
+man?"
+
+"Yes--the one lying on his belly behind that cedar."
+
+"Very well! I'll take the fellow next him. The moment you have fired,
+keep perfectly still, only draw your gun back and load. Now--fire!"
+
+Just then Stackridge and his men, in full view of their hidden friends
+on the ledge, were appearing to the fifteen ambushed rebels also.
+Suddenly the loud bang of a musket, followed instantly by the sharp
+crack of a rifle, echoed down the mountain side. The rebel behind the
+cedar sprang to his feet, dropping his gun, and throwing up his hands,
+and rushed back down the ridge, screaming, "I'm hit! I'm hit!" while the
+man next him also attempted to rise, but fell again, Pomp having
+discreetly aimed at an exposed leg.
+
+"I'm glad we've only wounded them!" whispered Penn, very pale, his lips
+compressed, his eyes gleaming.
+
+"It has the effect!" said Pomp. "Your friends have discovered the
+ambush, thanks to that coward's uproar; and now the rascals are
+panic-struck! Fire again as they go into the ravine--powder alone will
+do now--a little noise will send them tumbling!"
+
+They accordingly fired blank discharges; at the same time Stackridge and
+his friends, recovering from their momentary astonishment, charged after
+the retreating rebels, who had barely time to carry off their wounded
+and escape into the ravine, when their pursuers scaled the ridge.
+
+"I'm off!" said Pomp, creeping back through the savins. "These men are
+not my friends, though they are yours. I'll go and look after Cudjo."
+And bounding down into a hollow, he was quickly out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+_BLACK AND WHITE._
+
+
+Penn attached his handkerchief to the end of the musket, and standing
+upon the ledge, waved it over the bushes. Carl, recognizing him, was the
+first to scramble up the height. The whole party followed, each sturdy
+patriot wringing the schoolmaster's hand with hearty congratulations
+when they learned what use he had made of the rebel musket.
+
+"But the whole credit of the manoeuvre belongs not to me, but to the
+negro Pomp!" And he related the story of his own rescue and theirs.
+
+The patriots looked grave.
+
+"Where is the fellow?" asked Stackridge.
+
+"Being a fugitive slave, he feared lest he should find little favor in
+the eyes of his master's neighbors," said Penn.
+
+"That's where he was right!" said Deslow, with a bigoted and unforgiving
+expression. "Nothing under the sun shall make me give encouragement to a
+nigger's running away."
+
+Two or three others nodded grim assent to this first principle of the
+slaveholder's discipline. Penn was fired with exasperation and scorn,
+and would have separated himself from these narrow-minded patriots on
+the spot, had not Stackridge jumped up from the ground upon which he had
+thrown himself, and, striking his gun barrel fiercely, exclaimed,--
+
+"Now, that's what I call cursed foolishness, Deslow! and every man that
+holds to that way of thinking had better go over to t'other side to
+oncet! If we can't make up our minds to sacrifice our property, and,
+what's more to some folks, our prejudices, in the cause we're fighting
+for, we may as well stop before we stir a step further. I'm a
+slaveholder, and always have been; but I swear, I can't say as I ever
+felt it was such a divine institution as some try to make it out, and I
+don't believe there's a man here that thinks in his heart that it's just
+right. And as for the niggers running away, my private sentiment is,
+that I don't blame 'em a mite. You or I, Deslow, would run in their
+place; you know you would." And Stackridge wiped his brow savagely.
+
+"And as for this particular case," said Captain Grudd, with a gleam of
+light in his lean and swarthy countenance, "don't le's be blind to our
+own interests; don't le's be downright fools. I've said from the first
+that slavery and the rebellion was brother and sister,--they go
+together; and I've made up my mind to stand by my country and the old
+flag, whatever comes of the institution." All, except the conservative
+Deslow, applauded this resolution. "Then consider," added the captain,
+his deliberate, impressive manner proving quite as effective as
+Stackridge's more excited and fiery style,--"here we are fighting for
+our very lives and liberties; and if, as I say, slavery's the cause of
+this war, then we're fighting against slavery, the best we can fix it.
+How monstrous absurd 'twill be, then, for us to refuse the assistance of
+any nigger that has it to give! Bythewood, Pomp's owner, is one of the
+hottest secessionists I know; and d'ye think I want Pomp sent back to
+him, to help that side, when he has shown that he can be of such mighty
+good service to us? I move that we send the professor to make a treaty
+with him. What do you say, Mr. Hapgood?"
+
+"I say," replied Penn with enthusiasm, "that he and Cudjo are in a
+condition to do infinitely more for us than we can do for them; and if
+their alliance can be secured, I say that we ought by all means to
+secure it."
+
+"That depends," said Grudd, "upon what we intend to do. Are we going to
+make a stand here, and see if the loyal part of old Tennessee will rise
+up and sustain us? or are we going to fight our way over the mountains,
+and never come back till a Union army comes with us to set things a
+little to rights here?"
+
+"Wa'al," said Withers, who concealed a hardy courage and earnest
+patriotism under a phlegmatic and droll exterior, "while we're
+discussin' that question, I reckon we may as well have breakfast. This
+is as good a place as any,--we can take turns keeping a lookout from
+that ledge."
+
+He proceeded to kindle a fire in the hollow. The fugitives, in passing a
+field of corn, had thrust into their pockets a plentiful supply of green
+ears, which they now husked and roasted. There was a spring in the rocks
+near by, from which they drank lying on their faces, and dipping in
+their beards. This was their breakfast; during which Penn's mission to
+the blacks was fully discussed, and finally decided upon.
+
+The meal concluded, the refugees resumed their march, and entered an
+immense thick wood farther up the mountain. In a cool and shadowy spot
+they halted once more; and here Penn took leave of them, setting out on
+his visit to the cave.
+
+He had a mile to travel over a rough, wild region, where the fires that
+had formerly devastated it had left the only visible marks of a near
+civilization. In a tranquil little dell that had grown up to wild grass,
+he came suddenly upon a horse feeding. It was Stackridge's useful nag,
+which looked up from his lofty grove-shaded pasture with a low whinny of
+recognition as Penn patted his neck and passed along.
+
+A furlong or two farther on the well-known ravine opened,--dark, silent,
+profound, with its shaggy sides, one in shadow and the other in the sun,
+and its little embowered brook trickling far down there amid mossy
+stones;--as lonesome, wild, and solitary as if no human eye had ever
+beheld it before.
+
+Penn glided over the ledges, and descended along the narrow shelf of
+rock, behind the thickets that screened the entrance to the cave.
+Sunlight, and mountain wind, and summer heat he left behind, and entered
+the cool, still, gloomy abode.
+
+Cudjo ran to the mouth of the cave to meet him. "Lef me frow dis yer
+blanket ober your shoulders, while ye cool off; cotch yer de'f cold, if
+ye don't. De ol' man's a 'speckin' ye."
+
+Penn was relieved to learn that Mr. Villars had arrived in safety, and
+gratified to find him lying comfortably on the bed conversing with Pomp.
+
+"By the blessing of God, I am very well indeed, my dear Penn. These
+excellent fellow-Christians have taken the best of care of me. The
+atmosphere of the cave, which I thought at first chilly, I now find
+deliciously pure and refreshing. And its gloom, you know, don't trouble
+me," added the blind old man with a smile. "Have you had any more
+trouble since Pomp left you?"
+
+"No," said Penn; "thanks to him. Pomp, our friends want to see you and
+thank you, and they have sent me to bring you to them."
+
+The negro merely shrugged his shoulders, and smiled.
+
+"What good der tanks do to we?" cried Cudjo. "Ain't one ob dem ar men
+but what would been glad to hab us cotched and licked for runnin' away,
+fur de 'xample to de tudder niggers."
+
+"If that was true of them once, it is not now," said Penn. "Yet, Pomp,
+if you feel that there is the least danger in going to them, do not go."
+
+"Danger?" The negro's proud and lofty look showed what he thought of
+that. "Cudjo, make Mr. Hapgood a cup of coffee; he looks tired. You have
+had a hard time, I reckon, since you left us."
+
+"Him stay wid us now till he chirk up again," said Cudjo, running to his
+coffee-box. "Him and de ol' gemman stay--nobody else."
+
+While the coffee was making, Penn, sitting on one of the stone blocks
+which he had named giant's stools, repeated such parts of the late
+breakfast talk of Stackridge and his friends as he thought would
+interest Pomp and win his confidence. Then he drank the strong, black
+beverage in silence, leaving the negro to his own reflections.
+
+"Are you going again?" said Pomp.
+
+"Yes; I promised them I would return."
+
+"Take some coffee and a kettle to boil it in; they will be glad of it, I
+should think."
+
+"O Pomp! you know how to do good even to your enemies! What shall I say
+to them for you?"
+
+"What I have to say to them I will say myself," said Pomp, taking his
+rifle in one hand, and the kettle in the other, to Cudjo's great wrath
+and disgust.
+
+He set out with Penn immediately. They found the patriots reposing
+themselves about the roots of the forest trees, on the banks of a stream
+that came gurgling and plashing down the mountain side. Above them
+spread the beautiful green tops of maples, tinted with sunshine and
+softly rustling in the breeze. The curving banks formed here a little
+natural amphitheatre, carpeted with moss and old leaves, on which they
+sat or reclined, with their hats off and their guns at their sides.
+
+A sentry posted on the edge of the forest brought in Penn and his
+companion. There was a stir of interest among the patriots, and some of
+them rose to their feet. Stackridge, Grudd, and two or three others
+cordially offered the negro their hands, and pledged him their gratitude
+and friendship. Pomp accepted these tokens of esteem in silence,--his
+countenance maintaining a somewhat haughty expression, his lips firm,
+his eyes kindling with a strange light.
+
+Penn took the kettle, and proceeded, with Carl's help, to make a fire
+and prepare coffee for the company, intently listening the while to all
+that was said.
+
+Jutting from one bank of the stream, which washed its base, was a huge,
+square block covered with dark-green moss. Upon this Pomp stepped, and
+rested his rifle upon it, and bared his massive and splendid head, and
+stood facing his auditors with a placid smile, under the canopy of
+leaves. There was not among them all so noble a figure of a man as he
+who stood upon the rock; and he seemed to have chosen this somewhat
+theatrical attitude in order to illustrate, by his own imposing personal
+presence, the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"You will excuse me, gentlemen, if I cannot forget that I am talking
+with those who buy and sell men like me!"
+
+Men like him! The suggestion seemed for a moment to strike the
+slave-owning patriots dumb with surprise and embarrassment.
+
+"No, no, Pomp," cried Stackridge, "not men like you--there are few like
+you anywhere."
+
+"I wish there was more like him, and that I owned a good gang of 'em!"
+muttered the man Deslow.
+
+"I don't," replied Withers, with a drawl which had a deep meaning in it;
+"twould be too much like sleeping on a row of powder barrels, with
+lighted candles stuck in the bung holes. Dangerous, them big knowin'
+niggers be."
+
+Pomp did not answer for a minute, but stood as if gathering power into
+himself, with one long, deep breath inflating his chest, and casting a
+glance upward through the sun-lit summer foliage.
+
+"You buy and sell men, and women, and children of my race. If I am not
+like them, it is because circumstances have lifted me out of the
+wretched condition in which it is your constant policy and endeavor to
+keep us. By your laws--the laws you make and uphold--I am this day
+claimed as a slave; by your laws I am hunted as a slave;--yes, some of
+you here have joined your neighbor in the hunt for me, as if I was no
+more than a wild beast to be hounded and shot down if I could not be
+caught. Now tell me what union or concord there can be between you and
+me!"
+
+"I own," said Deslow,--for Pomp's gleaming eyes had darted significant
+lightnings at him,--"I did once come up here with Bythewood to see if we
+could find you. Not that I had anything against you, Pomp,--not a thing;
+and as for your quarrel with your master, I ain't sure but you had the
+right on't; but you know as well as we do that we can't countenance a
+nigger's running away, under any circumstances."
+
+"No!" said Pomp, with sparkling sarcasm. "Your secessionist neighbors
+revolt against the mildest government in the world, and resort to
+bloodshed on account of some fancied wrongs. You revolt against them
+because you prefer the old government to theirs. Your forefathers went
+to war with the mother country on account of a few taxes. But a negro
+must not revolt, he must not even attempt to run away, although he feels
+the relentless heel of oppression grinding into the dust all his rights,
+all that is dear to him, all that he loves! A white man may take up arms
+to defend a bit of property; but a black man has no right to rise up and
+defend either his wife, or his child, or his liberty, or even his own
+life, against his master!"
+
+Only the narrow-minded Deslow had the confidence to meet this stunning
+argument, enforced as it was by the speaker's powerful manner, superb
+physical manhood, and superior intelligence.
+
+"You know, Pomp, that your condition, to begin with, is very different
+from that of any white man. Your relation to your master is not that of
+a man to his neighbor, or of a citizen to the government; it is that of
+property to its owner."
+
+"Property!" There was something almost wicked in the wild, bright glance
+with which the negro repeated this word. "How came we property, sir?"
+
+"Our laws make you so, and you have been acquired as property," said
+Deslow, not unkindly, but in his bigoted, obstinate way. "So, really,
+Pomp, you can't blame us for the view we take of it, though it does
+conflict a little with your choice in the matter."
+
+"But suppose I can show you that you are wrong, and that even by your
+own laws we are not, and cannot be, property?" said Pomp, with a
+princely courtesy, looking down from the rock upon Deslow, so evidently
+in every way his inferior. "I will admit your title to a lot of land you
+may purchase, or reclaim from nature; or to an animal you have captured,
+or bought, or raised. But a man's natural, original owner is--himself.
+Now, I never sold myself. My father never sold himself. My father was
+stolen by pirates on the coast of Africa, and brought to this country,
+and sold. The man who bought him bought what had been stolen. By your
+own laws you cannot hold stolen property. Though it is bought and sold a
+thousand times, let the original owner appear, and it is his,--nobody
+else has the shadow of a claim. My father was stolen property, if he was
+property at all. He was his own rightful owner. Though he had been
+robbed of himself, that made no difference with the justice of the case.
+It was so with my mother. It is so with me. It is the same with every
+black man on this continent. Not one ever sold himself, or can be sold,
+or can be owned. For to say that what a man steals or takes by force is
+his, to dispose of as he chooses, is to go back to barbarism: it is not
+the law of any Christian land. So much," added Pomp, blowing the words
+from him, as if all the false arguments in favor of slavery were no more
+to the man's soul, and its eternal, God-given rights, than the breath he
+blew contemptuously forth into those mountain woods,--"so much for the
+claim of PROPERTY!"
+
+Penn was so delighted with this triumphant declaration of principles
+that he could have flung his hat into the maple boughs and shouted
+"Bravo!" He deemed it discreet, however, to confine the expression of
+his enthusiasm to a tight grasp on Carl's sympathetic hand, and to watch
+the effect of the speech on the rest.
+
+"Deslow," laughed Stackridge, himself not ill pleased with Pomp's
+arguments, "what do you say to that?"
+
+"Wal," said Deslow, "I never thought on't in just that light before; and
+I own he makes out a pooty good show of a case. But yet--" He hesitated,
+scratching for an idea among the stiff black hair that grew on his low,
+wrinkled forehead.
+
+"But yet, but yet, but yet!" said Pomp, ironically. "It's so hard, when
+our selfish interests are at stake, to confess our injustice or give up
+a bad cause! But I did not come here to argue my right to my own
+manhood. I take it without arguing. Neither did I come to ask anything
+for myself. You can do nothing for me but get me into trouble. Yet I
+believe in the cause in which you have taken up arms. I have served you
+this morning without being asked by you to do it; and I may assist you
+again when the time comes. In the mean while, if you want anything that
+I have, it is yours; for I recognize that we are brothers, though you do
+not. But I will not join you, for I am neither slave nor inferior, and I
+have no wish to be acknowledged an equal." And Pomp stepped off the rock
+with an air that seemed to say, "_I_ know who is the equal of the best
+of you; and that is enough." If this man had any fault more prominent
+than another, it was pride; yet that haughty self-assertion which would
+have been offensive in a white man, was vastly becoming to the haughty
+and powerful black.
+
+"I, for one," said the impulsive Stackridge, again grasping his hand,
+"honor the position you take. What I wanted was to thank you for what
+you have done, and to promise that you are safe from danger as far as
+regards us. I'm glad you've got your liberty. I hope you will keep it.
+You deserve it. Every slave deserves the same that has the manliness to
+strike a blow for the good old government----"
+
+"That has kept him a slave," added Pomp, with a bitter smile.
+
+"Yes; and so much the more noble in him to fight for it!" said
+Stackridge. "Now, if you don't want to let us into the secrets of your
+way of life, I can't say I blame ye. We're glad to get the coffee; and
+if you've any game or potatoes on hand, that you can spare, we'll take
+'em, and pay ye when we have a chance to forage for ourselves, which
+won't be long first."
+
+"I have some salted bear's meat that you'll be welcome to; and may be
+Cudjo can spare a little meal." His eye rested on Carl, whose fidelity
+he knew. "Let that boy come with us! We will send the provisions by
+him."
+
+Carl was delighted with the honor, for Penn was likewise going back to
+Mr. Villars with the negro.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+_WHY AUGUSTUS DID NOT PROPOSE._
+
+
+The valiant confederates, returning from the pursuit of the escaped
+prisoners, proved themselves possessed of at least one important
+qualification for serving the rebel cause. They were able to give a
+marvellously good account of themselves. Whatever the military
+authorities may have thought of it, the people believed that the little
+band of Union men had been nearly annihilated.
+
+In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Augustus Bythewood returned home,
+and went in the evening to call upon, counsel, and console the daughters
+of the old man Villars.
+
+"O, Massa Bythewood!" cried Toby, in great joy at sight of him, "dey
+been killin' ol' massa up on de mountain; and de young ladies--O, Massa
+Bythewood! ye must do sumfin' for de young ladies and ol' massa!"
+
+Mr. Augustus flattered himself that he had arrived at just the right
+time.
+
+"My dear Virginia! you cannot conceive of my astonishment and grief on
+hearing what has happened to your family! I have but just this hour
+returned to town, or I should have hastened before to assure you that
+all I can do for you I will most gladly undertake. My very dear young
+lady, be comforted, I conjure you; for it grieves me to the heart to see
+how pale, how very pale and distressed, you look!"
+
+Thus the amiable, the chivalrous, the friendly Gus overflowed with
+eloquent sympathy and protestation, pressing affectionately the hand of
+the "very pale and distressed" fair one, and bowing low his dark,
+aristocratic southern curls over it; appearing, in short, the very
+courteous, noble, and devoted gentleman he wasn't.
+
+Virginia breathed hard, compressed her lips, white with indignation as
+well as with suffering, and let him act his part. And the confident
+lover did not dream that those eyes, red with grief and surrounded by
+dark circles, saw through all his hypocritical professions, or that the
+cold, passive little hand, abandoned through the apathy of despair to
+his caresses, would have been thrust into the fire, before ever he would
+have been allowed to win it.
+
+"Surely," she managed to say in a voice scarce above a whisper, "if ever
+we needed a true, disinterested friend, it is now. Sit down; and be so
+kind as to excuse me a moment. I will call my sister."
+
+So she withdrew. And Augustus smiled. "Now is my time!" he said
+complacently to himself, resolved to make an offer of that valuable hand
+of his that very night: forlorn, friendless, wretched, was it possible
+that she could refuse such a prize? So he sat, and fondled his curls,
+and practised sweet smiles, and sympathized with Salina when she came,
+and waited for Virginia,--little knowing what was to happen to her, and
+to him, and to all, before ever he saw that vanished face again.
+
+For Virginia had business on her hands that night. She remembered the
+hurried directions Penn had given for communicating with her father, and
+she was already preparing to send off Toby to the round rock.
+
+"Gracious, missis!" said the old negro, returning hastily to the kitchen
+door where she stood watching his departure, "dar's a man out dar, a
+waitin'! Did ye see him, missis?"
+
+She had indeed seen a human figure advance in the darkness, as if with
+intent to intercept or follow him. Perplexed and indignant at the
+discovery, she suffered the old servant to return into the house, and
+remained herself to see what became of the figure. It moved off a little
+way in the darkness, and disappeared.
+
+"Wha' sh'll we do?" Toby rolled up his eyes in consternation. "Do jes'
+speak to Mr. Bythewood, Miss Jinny; he's de bestist friend--he'll tell
+what to do."
+
+"No, no, Toby!" said Virginia, collecting herself, and speaking with
+decision. "He is the last person I would consult. Toby, you must try
+again; for either you or I must be at the rock before ten o'clock."
+
+"You, Miss Jinny? Who eber heern o' sich a ting!"
+
+"Go yourself, then, good Toby!" And she earnestly reminded him of the
+necessity.
+
+"O, yes, yes! I'll go! Massa can't lib widout ol' Toby, dat's a fac'!"
+
+But looking out again in the dark, his zeal was suddenly damped. "Dey
+cotch me, dey sarve me wus 'n dey sarved ol' Pete, shore! Can't help
+tinkin' ob dat!"
+
+Virginia saw what serious cause there was to dread such a catastrophe.
+But her resolution was unshaken.
+
+"Toby, listen. That man out there is a spy. His object is to see if any
+of our friends come to the house, or if we send to them. He won't molest
+you; but he may follow to see where you go. If he does, then make a wide
+circuit, and return home, and I will find some other means of
+communication."
+
+Thus encouraged, the negro set out a second time. Virginia followed him
+at a distance. She saw, as she anticipated, the figure start up again,
+and move off in the direction he was going. Toby accordingly commenced
+making a large detour through the fields, and both he and the shadow
+dogging him were soon out of sight.
+
+Then Virginia lost no time in executing the other plan at which she had
+hinted. Instead of returning, to give up the undertaking in despair, and
+listen to matrimonial proposals from Gus Bythewood, she took a long
+breath, gathered up her skirts, and set out for the mountain.
+
+There was a new moon, but it was hidden by clouds. Still the evening was
+not very dark. The long twilight of the summer day still lingered in the
+valley. Here and there she could distinguish landmarks,--a knoll, a
+rock, or a tree,--which gave her confidence. I will not say that she
+feared nothing. She was by nature timid, imaginative, and she feared
+many things. Her own footsteps were a terror to her. The moving of a
+bush in the wind, the starting of a rabbit from her path, caused her
+flesh to thrill. At sight of an object slowly and noiselessly emerging
+from the darkness and standing before her, motionless and spectral, she
+almost fainted, until she discovered that it was an old acquaintance, a
+tall pine stump. But all these childish terrors she resolutely overcame.
+Her heart never faltered in its purpose. Affection for her father,
+anxiety for his welfare, and, it may be, some little solicitude for her
+father's friend, who had appointed the tryst at the rock,--not with
+herself, indeed, but with Toby,--kept her firm and unwavering in her
+course. And beneath all, deep in her soul, was a strong religious sense,
+a faith in a divine guidance and protection.
+
+What most she feared was neither ghost nor wild beast of the mountains.
+She felt that, if she could avoid encountering the brutal soldiers of
+secession, keeping watch along the mountain-side, she would willingly
+risk everything else. With the utmost caution, with breathless tread,
+she drew near the road she was to cross. Her footsteps were less loud
+than her heart-beats. Dogs barked in the distance. In a pool near by,
+some happy frogs were singing. The shrill cry of a katydid came from a
+poplar tree by the road--"Katy did! Katy didn't!" with vehement
+iteration and contradiction. No other sounds; she waited and listened
+long; then glided across the road.
+
+She had come far from the village in order to avoid meeting any one. Her
+course now lay directly up the mountain-side. The round rock was a
+famous bowlder known to picnic parties that frequented the spot in
+summer to enjoy a view from its summit, and a luncheon under its shadow.
+She had been there a dozen times; but could she find it in the night? In
+vain, as she toiled upwards, she strained her eyes to see the huge dim
+stone jutting out from the shadowy rocks and bushes.
+
+At length a sudden light, faint and silvery, streamed down upon her. She
+looked and saw the clouds parted, and below them the crescent moon
+setting, like a cimeter of white flame withdrawn by an invisible hand
+behind the vast shadowy summit of the mountain. Almost at the same
+moment she discovered the object she sought. The rock was close before
+her; and close upon her right was the grove which she herself had so
+often helped to fill with singing and laughter. How little she felt like
+either singing or laughing now!
+
+She remembered--indeed, had she not remembered all the way?--that the
+last time she visited the spot it was in company with Penn. Now she had
+come to meet him again--how unmaidenly the act! In darkness, in
+loneliness, far from the village and its twinkling lights, to meet an
+attractive and a very good looking young man! What would the world say?
+Virginia did not care what the world would say. But now she began to
+question within herself, "What would Penn think?" and almost to shrink
+from meeting him. Strong, however, in her own conscious purity of heart,
+strong also in her confidence in him, she put behind her every unworthy
+thought, and sought the shelter of the rock.
+
+And there, after all her labors and fears, scratches in her flesh and
+rents in her clothes,--there she was alone. Penn had not come. Perhaps
+he would not come. It was by this time ten o'clock. What should she do?
+Remain, hoping that he would yet fulfil his promise? or return the way
+she came, unsatisfied, disheartened, weary, her heart and strength
+sustained by no word of comfort from him, by no tidings from her father?
+
+She waited. It was not long before her eager ear caught the sound of
+footsteps. An active figure was coming along the edge of the grove. How
+joyously her heart bounded! In order that Penn might not be too suddenly
+surprised at finding her in Toby's place, she stepped out from the
+shadow of the bowlder, and advanced to meet him. She shrank back again
+as suddenly, fear curdling her blood.
+
+The comer was not Penn. He wore the confederate uniform: this was what
+terrified her. She crouched down under the rock; but perceiving that the
+man did not pass by,--that he walked straight up to her,--she started
+forth again, in the vain hope to escape by flight. Almost at the first
+step she tripped and fell; and the hand of the confederate soldier was
+on her arm.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+_THE MEN WITH THE DARK LANTERN._
+
+
+The moon had now set, and it was dark. The frightened girl could not
+distinguish the features of him who bent over her; but through the
+trance of horror that was upon her, she recognized a voice.
+
+"Wirginie! I tought it vas you! Don't you know me, Wirginie?"
+
+No voice had ever before brought such joy to her soul.
+
+"O Carl! why didn't I know you?"
+
+"Vy not? Pecause maybe you vas looking for somepody else. Mishter
+Hapgoot came part vay mit me, but he vas so used up I made him shtop
+till I came to pring Toby up vere he is."
+
+Then Virginia, recovering from her agitation, had a score of questions
+to ask about her father, about the fight, and about Penn.
+
+"If you vill only go up, he vill tell you so much more as I can. Then
+you vill go and see your fahder. That vill be petter as going back
+to-night, vere there is no goot shtout fellow in the house to prewail on
+them willains to keep their dishtance."
+
+Even at the outset of her adventurous journey Virginia had felt a vague
+hope that she should visit her father before she returned. What the boy
+said inspired her with courage to proceed. She would go up as far as
+where Penn was waiting, at all events: then she would be guided by his
+advice.
+
+The two set out, Carl leading her by the hand, and assisting her. It
+grew darker and darker. The stars were hidden: the sky was almost
+completely overcast by black clouds. Slowly and with great difficulty
+they made their way among trees and bushes, through abrupt hollows, and
+over rocks. Virginia felt that she could have done nothing without Carl;
+and the thought of returning alone, in such darkness, down the mountain,
+made her shudder.
+
+But at length even Carl began to sweat with something besides the
+physical exertion required in making the ascent. His mind had grown
+exceedingly perturbed, and Virginia perceived that his course was
+wavering and uncertain.
+
+He stopped, blowing and wiping his face.
+
+"Dish ish de all confoundedesht, meanesht, mosht dishgusting road for a
+dark night the prince of darkness himself ever inwented!" he exclaimed,
+speaking unusually thick in his heat and excitement. "I shouldn't be
+wery much surprised if I vas a leetle out of the right vay. You shtay
+right here till I look."
+
+She sat down and waited. Intense darkness surrounded her; not a star was
+visible; she could not see her own hand. For a little while Carl's
+footsteps could be heard feeling for more familiar ground; and then,
+occasionally, the crackling of a dry twig, as he trod upon it, showed
+that he was not far off. Then he whistled; then he softly called,
+"Hello!" in the woods; moving all the time farther and farther away.
+
+Carl believed that Penn could not be far distant, and, in order to get
+an answering signal, he kept whistling and calling louder and louder. At
+length came a response--a low warning whistle. So he plodded on, and had
+nearly reached the spot where he was confident Penn was searching for
+him, when there came a rush of feet, and he was suddenly and violently
+seized by invisible assailants.
+
+"Got him?"
+
+"Yes! all right!"
+
+"Hang on to him! It's the Dutchman, ain't it? I thought I knew the
+brogue!"
+
+The last speaker was Lieutenant Silas Ropes; and Carl perceived that he
+had fallen into the hands of a squad of confederate soldiers. That he
+was vastly astonished and altogether disconcerted at first, we may well
+suppose. But Carl was not a lad to remain long bereft of his wits when
+they were so necessary to him.
+
+"Ho! vot for you choke a fellow so?" he indignantly demanded. "I vas
+treated petter as that ven I vas a prisoner."
+
+"What do you mean, you d--d deserter?"
+
+"Haven't I just got avay from Stackridge? and vasn't I running to find
+you as vast as ever a vellow could? And now you call me a deserter!"
+retorted Carl, aggrieved.
+
+"Running to find _us_!"
+
+"To be sure! Didn't I say, 'Is it you?' For they said you vas on the
+mountain. Though I did not think I should find you so easy!" which was
+indeed the truth.
+
+Carl persisted so earnestly in regarding the affair from this point of
+view, that his captors began to think it worth while to question him.
+
+"Vun of them vellows just says to me, he says, 'Shpeak vun vord, or make
+vun noise, and I vill plow your prains out!' I vasn't wery much in favor
+to have my prains plowed out, so I complied mit his wery urgent request.
+That's the vay they took me prisoner."
+
+"Wal," remarked Silas, "what he says may be true, but I don't believe
+nary word on't. Got his hands tied? Now lock arms with him, and bring
+him along."
+
+Carl was in despair at this mode of treatment, for it rendered escape
+impossible,--and what would become of Virginia? His anxiety for her
+safety became absolute terror when he discovered the errand on which
+these men were bound.
+
+By the light of a dark lantern they led him through the grove, across a
+brook that came tumbling down out of a wild black gorge, and up the
+mountain slope into the edge of the great forest above. Here they
+stopped.
+
+"This yer's a good place, boys, to begin. Kick the leaves together.
+That's the talk."
+
+They were in a leafy hollow of the dry woods. A blaze was soon kindled,
+which shot up in the darkness, and threw its ruddy glare upon the trunks
+and overhanging canopy of foliage, and upon the malignant, gleaming
+faces of the soldiers. Little effort was needed to insure the spreading
+of the flames. They ran over the ground, licking up the dry leaves,
+crackling the twigs, catching at the bark of trees, and filling the
+forest, late so silent and black, with their glow and roar.
+
+"That's to smoke out your d--d Union friends!" said Silas to Carl, with
+a hideous grin.
+
+Yes, Carl understood that well enough. In this same forest, on the banks
+of the brook above where it fell into the gorge, the patriots were
+encamped. And Virginia? Still believing that the worst that could happen
+to her would be to fall into the hands of these ruffians, the lad
+sweated in silent agony over the secret he was bound to keep.
+
+"What makes ye look so down-in-the-mouth, Dutchy? 'Fraid your friends
+will get scorched?"
+
+"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it vill
+them. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."
+
+"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looks
+as though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain't
+no leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gitting
+contrary!"
+
+Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell to
+gathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. The
+lad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. A
+soldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.
+
+"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look of
+terror. "Drop your knife, then!"
+
+"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"
+
+"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But Wirginie
+Willars--she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die?
+And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is
+nopody to let him know!"
+
+A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to
+listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's
+limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at
+him,--
+
+"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"
+
+So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a
+great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only
+hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to
+make good her retreat from the mountain.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+_BEAUTY AND THE BEAST._
+
+
+Unfortunately the poor girl had no suspicion of the mischance that had
+overtaken her guide. She heard voices, and believed that he had fallen
+in with some friends. Thus she waited, expecting momently that he would
+return to her. She saw a single gleam of light that vanished in the
+darkness. Then the voices grew fainter and fainter, and at length died
+in the distance. And she was once more utterly alone.
+
+Fearful doubt and uncertainty agitated her. In a moment of despair,
+yielding to the terrors of her situation, she wrung her hands and called
+on Carl imploringly not to abandon her, but to come back--"O, dear, dear
+Carl, come back!"
+
+Suddenly she checked herself. Why was she sitting there, wasting the
+time in tears and reproaches?
+
+"Poor Carl never meant to desert me in this way, I know. If I ever see
+him again, he will make me sorry that I have blamed him. No doubt he has
+done his best. But, whatever has become of him, I am sure he cannot find
+his way back to me now. I'll follow him; perhaps I may find him, or
+Penn, or some of their friends."
+
+She arose accordingly, and groped her way in the direction in which she
+had seen the light and heard the voices. And soon another and very
+different light gladdened her eyes--a faint glow, far off, as of a fire
+kindled among the forest trees. It was the camp of the patriots, she
+thought.
+
+She came to the brook, which, invisible, mysterious, murmuring, rolled
+along in the midnight blackness, and seemed too formidable for her to
+ford. She felt the cold rush of the hurrying water, the slippery slime
+of the mossy and treacherous stones, and withdrew her appalled hands. To
+find a shallow place to cross, she followed up the bank; and as the
+light was still before her, higher on the mountain, she kept on, groping
+among trees, climbing over logs and rocks, falling often, but always
+resolutely rising again, until, to her dismay, the glow began to
+disappear. She had, without knowing it, followed the stream up into the
+deep gorge through which it poured; and now the precipitous wood-crowned
+wall, rising beside her, overhanging her, shut out the last glimpse of
+the fire.
+
+She was by this time exceedingly fatigued. It seemed useless to advance
+farther; she felt certain that she was only getting deeper and deeper
+into the entangling difficulties of that unknown, horrible place.
+Neither had she the courage or strength to retrace her steps. Nothing
+then remained for her but to pass the remainder of the night where she
+was, and wait patiently for the morning.
+
+Little knowing that the light she had seen was the glare of the kindled
+forest, she endeavored to convince herself that she had nothing to fear.
+At all events, she knew that trembling and tears could avail her
+nothing. She had not ventured to call very loudly for help, fearing lest
+her voice might bring foe instead of friend. And now it occurred to her
+that perhaps Carl had been taken by the soldiers: yes, it must be so:
+she explained it all to herself, and wondered why she had not thought of
+it before. It would therefore be folly in her now to scream for aid.
+
+Comfortless, yet calm, she explored the ground for a resting-place. She
+cleared the twigs away from the roots of a tree, and laid herself down
+there on the moss and old leaves. Everything seemed dank with the
+never-failing dews of the deep and sheltered gorge; but she did not mind
+the dampness of her couch. A strong wind was rising, and the great trees
+above her swayed and moaned. She was vexed by mosquitoes that bit as if
+they then for the first time tasted blood, and never expected to taste
+it again; but she was too weary to care much for them either. She rested
+her arm on the mossy root; she rested her head on her arm; she drew her
+handkerchief over her face; she shut out from her soul all the miseries
+and dangers of her situation, and quietly said her prayers.
+
+There is nothing that calms the perturbations of the mind like that
+inward looking for the light of God's peace which descends upon us when
+in silence and sweet trust we pray to him. A delicious sense of repose
+ensued, and her thoughts floated off in dreams.
+
+She dreamed she was flying with her father from the fury of armed men.
+She led him into a wilderness; and it was night; and great rocks rose up
+suddenly before them in the gloom, and awful chasms yawned. Then she was
+wandering alone; she had lost her father, and was seeking him up and
+down. Then it seemed that Penn was by her side; and when she asked for
+her father he smilingly pointed upward at a wondrously beautiful light
+that shone from the summit of a hill. She sought to go up thither, but
+grew weary, and sat down to rest in a deep grove, with an ice-cold
+mountain stream dashing at her feet. Then the light on the hill became a
+lake of fire, and it poured its waves into the stream, and the stream
+flowed past her a roaring river of flame. Lightnings crackled in the air
+above her. Thunderbolts fell. The heat was intolerable. The river had
+overflowed, and set the world on fire. And she could not fly, for terror
+chained her limbs. She struggled, screamed, awoke. She started up. Her
+dream was a reality.
+
+Either the fire set by the soldiers had spread, driven by the wind over
+the dry leaves, into the grove below her, or else they had fired the
+grove itself on their retreat. Her eyes opened upon a vision of
+appalling brightness. For a moment she stood utterly dazzled and
+bewildered, not knowing where she was. Memory and reason were paralyzed:
+she could not remember, she could not think: amazement and terror
+possessed her.
+
+Instinctively shielding her eyes, she looked down. The ground where she
+had lain, the log, the sticks, the moss, and her handkerchief fallen
+upon it, were illumined with a glare brighter than noonday. At sight of
+the handkerchief came recollection. Her terrible adventure, the glow she
+had seen in the woods, her bed on the earth,--she remembered everything.
+And now the actual perils of her position became apparent to her
+returning faculties.
+
+Where all was blackness when she lay down, now all was preternatural
+light. Every bush and jutting rock of the wild overhanging cliffs stood
+out in fearful distinctness. The saplings and trees on their summits,
+fifty feet above her head, seemed huddling together, and leaning forward
+terror-stricken, in an atmosphere of whirling flame and smoke. Climb
+those cliffs she could not, though she were to die.
+
+She must then flee farther up into the deep and narrow gorge, or
+endeavor to escape by the way she had come. But the way she had come was
+fire.
+
+The conflagration already enveloped the mouth of the gorge, shutting her
+in. The trunks of near trees stood like the bars of a stupendous cage,
+through which she looked at the raging demons beyond. Burning limbs
+fell, shooting through the air with trails of flame. Every tree was a
+pillar of fire. Here a bough, still untouched, hung, dark and impassive,
+against the lurid, surging chaos. Then the whirlwind of heated air
+struck it, and you could see it writhe and twist, until its darkness
+burst into flame. There stood what was late a lordly maple, but
+now,--trunk, and limb, and branch,--a tree of living coal. And down
+under this gulf of fire flowed the brook, into which showers of sparks
+fell hissing, while over all, fearfully illumined clouds of smoke and
+cinders and leaves went rolling up into the sky.
+
+Virginia approached near enough to be impressed with the dreadful
+certainty that there was no outlet whatever, for any mortal foot, in
+that direction. Tortured by the heat, and pursued by lighted twigs, that
+fell like fiery darts around her, she fled back into the gorge.
+
+The conflagration was still spreading rapidly. The timber along both
+sides of the gorge, at its opening, began to burn upwards towards the
+summits of the cliffs. Soon the very spot where she had slept, and where
+she now paused once more in her terrible perplexity and fear, would be
+an abyss of flame.
+
+Again she took to flight, hasting along the edge of the stream, up into
+the heart of the gorge. Over roots of trees, over old decaying trunks,
+over barricades of dead limbs brought down by freshets and left lodged,
+she climbed, she sprang, she ran. All too brightly her way was lighted
+now. A ghastly yellow radiance was on every object. The waters sparkled
+and gleamed as they poured over the dark brown stones. Every slender,
+delicate fern, every poor little startled wild flower nestled in cool,
+dim nooks, was glaringly revealed. Little the frightened girl heeded
+these darlings of the forest now.
+
+All the way she looked eagerly for some slant or cleft in the mountain
+walls where she might hope to ascend. Here, over the accumulated soil of
+centuries, fastened by interwoven roots to the base of the cliff, she
+might have climbed a dozen feet or more. Yonder, by the aid of shrubs
+and boughs, she might have drawn herself up a few feet farther. But,
+wherever her eye ranged along the ledges above, she beheld them
+dizzy-steep and unscalable. And so she kept on until even the way before
+her was closed up.
+
+On the brink of a rock-rimmed, flashing basin she stopped. Down into
+this, from a shelf twenty feet in height, fell the brook in a bright,
+fire-tinted cascade. Fear-inspired as she was, she could not but pause
+and wonder at the strange beauty of the scene,--the plashy pool before
+her, the flame-color on the veil of silver foam dropped from the brow of
+the ledge, and--for a wild background to the picture--the wooded,
+fire-lit, shadowy gorge, opening on a higher level above.
+
+During the moment that she stood there, a great bird, like an owl, that
+had probably been driven from his hollow tree or fissure in the rocks by
+the conflagration, flapped past her face, almost touching her with his
+wings, and dashed blindly against the waterfall. He was swept down into
+the pool. After some violent fluttering and floundering in the water, he
+extricated himself, perched on a stone at its edge, shook out his wet
+feathers, and stared at her with large cat-like eyes, without fear. She
+was near enough to reach him with her hand; but either he was so dazzled
+and stunned that he took no notice of her, or else the greater terror
+had rendered him tame to human approach. She believed the latter was the
+case, and saw something exceedingly awful in the incident. When even the
+wild winged creatures of the forest were stricken down with fear, what
+cause had she to apprehend danger to herself!
+
+On reaching the waterfall she had felt for a moment that all was
+over--that certain death awaited her. Then, out of her very despair,
+came a gleam of hope. She might creep under the cascade, or behind it,
+and that would protect her. But when she looked up, and saw, around and
+above her, the forest trees with the frightful and ever-increasing glow
+upon them, and knew that they too soon must kindle, and thought of
+firebrands rained down upon her, and falling columns of fire filling the
+gorge with burning rubbish,--then her soul sickened: what protection
+would a little sheet of water prove against such furnace heat?
+
+No: she must escape, or perish. Beside the cascade there was a broken
+angle of the rocks, by which, if she could reach it, she might at least,
+she thought, climb to the upper part of the gorge. But the nearest
+foothold she could discover was ten feet above the basin, in sheer
+ascent. The ledge was dank and slippery with the dashing spray. Gain the
+top of it, however, she must. She ran up the embankment under the cliff.
+Here a sapling gave her support; she clung to a crevice or projection
+there; a drooping bough saved her from falling when the soft earth slid
+from beneath her feet farther on. So she climbed along the side of the
+precipice, until the broken corner of the cliff was hardly two yards off
+before her. Yes, a secure foothold was there, and above it rose
+irregular pointed stairs, leading steeply to the top of the cascade. O,
+to reach that shattered ledge! A space of perpendicular wall intervened.
+No shrub, no drooping bough, was there. Here was only a slight
+projection, just enough to rest the edge of a foot upon. She placed her
+foot upon it. She found a crevice above, and thrust her fingers into it
+as if there was no such thing as pain. She clung, she took a step--she
+was half a yard nearer the angle. But what next could she do? She was
+hanging in the air above the basin, into which the slightest slip would
+precipitate her. To change hands--relieve the one advanced and insert
+the fingers of the other in its place,--was a perilous undertaking. But
+she did it. Then she reached forward again with hand and foot, found
+another spot to cling to, and took another step. She was thankful for
+the great light that lighted the rocks before her. Close by now was the
+fractured angle of the cliff: one more step, and she could set her foot
+upon the nethermost stair. Her strength was almost gone; her hands,
+though insensible to pain, were conscious of slipping. To fall would be
+to lose all she had gained, and all the strength she had exhausted in
+the effort. Her feet now--or rather one of them--had a tolerably secure
+hold on the rib of the ledge. She made one last effort with her hands,
+and, just as she was falling, gave a spring. She knew that all was
+staked upon that one dizzy instant of time. But for that knowledge she
+could never have accomplished what she did. She fell forwards towards
+the angle, caught a point of the rock with her hands, and clung there
+until she had safely placed her feet.
+
+This done, it was absolutely necessary to stop a moment to rest. She
+looked downwards and behind her, to see what she had done. The sight
+made her dizzy--it seemed such a miracle that she could ever have scaled
+that wall!
+
+Nearer and louder roared the conflagration, and she had little time to
+delay. Her labor was not ended, neither was the danger past. She cast a
+hurried glance upwards over the ridge she was to climb, and advanced
+cautiously, step by step. Her soul kept saying within her, "I will not
+fall; I will not fall;" but she dared not look backwards again, lest
+even then she should grow giddy and miss her hold.
+
+As she ascended, the ridge inclined nearer and nearer to the side of the
+cascade, until she found the stones slimy and dripping. This was an
+unforeseen peril. Still she resolutely advanced, taking the utmost
+precaution at each step against slipping. At length she was at the top
+of the waterfall. She could look up into the upper gorge, and see the
+water come rushing down. There was space beside the brook for her to
+continue her flight; and the sides of the gorge above were far less
+steep and rugged than below. She was thrilled with hope. She had but one
+steep, high stair to surmount. She was getting her knee upon it, when a
+crashing sound in the underbrush arrested her attention. The crashing
+was followed by a commotion in the water, and she saw a huge black
+object plunge into the stream, and come sweeping down towards her.
+
+On it came, straight at the rock on which she clung, and from which a
+motion, a touch, might suffice to hurl her back into the lower gorge.
+She saw what it was; and for a moment she was frozen with terror. She
+was directly in its path: it would not stop for her. The sight of the
+blazing woods below, however, brought it to a sudden halt. And there,
+close by the brink of the waterfall, facing her, not a yard distant, in
+the full glare of the fire, it rose slowly on its hind feet to look--a
+monster of the forest, an immense black bear.
+
+And now, but for the nightmare of horror that was upon her, Virginia
+might have perceived that the forest _above_ the cascade was likewise
+wrapped in flames. The bear had been driven by the terror of them down
+the stream; and here, between the two fires, on the verge of the
+waterfall, the slight young girl and the great shaggy wild beast had
+met. She would have shrieked, but she had no voice. The bear also was
+silent; with his huge hairy bulk reared up before her, his paws pendant,
+and his jaws half open in a sort of stupid amazement, he stood and
+gazed, uttering never a growl.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+_IN THE BURNING WOODS._
+
+
+The incessant excitement and fatigue of the past few days had caused
+Penn to fall asleep almost immediately after Carl left him. The rude
+ground on which he stretched himself proved a blissful couch of repose.
+Virginia climbed the mountain to meet him, and no fine intuitive sense
+of her approach thrilled him with wakeful expectancy. Carl was captured,
+and still he slept. The lost young girl wandered within fifty yards of
+where he lay steeped in forgetfulness, dreaming, perhaps, of her; and
+all the time they were as unconscious of each other's presence as were
+Evangeline and her lover when they passed each other at night on the
+great river.
+
+Penn was the first to wake; and still his stupid heart whispered to him
+no syllable of the strange secret of the beautiful sleeper whom he might
+have looked down upon from the edge of the cliff so near.
+
+The grove had been but recently fired, and it would have been easy
+enough then for him to rush into the gorge and rescue her. From what
+terrors, from what perils would she have been saved! But he wasted the
+precious moments in staring amazement; then, thinking of his own safety,
+he commenced running _away_ from her,--his escape lighted by the same
+fatal flames that were enclosing her within the gorge.
+
+She never knew whether, on awaking, she cried for help or remained dumb;
+nor did it matter much then: he was already too far off to hear.
+
+The glow on the clouds lighted all the broad mountain side. Under the
+ruddy canopy he ran,--now through dimly illumined woods, and now over
+bare rocks faintly flushed by the glare of the sky.
+
+As he drew near the cave, he saw, on a rock high above him, a wild human
+figure making fantastic gestures, and prostrating itself towards the
+burning forests. He ran up to it, and, all out of breath, stood on the
+ledge.
+
+"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you doing here?"
+
+The negro made no reply, but, folding his arms above his head, spread
+them forth towards the fire, bowing himself again and again, until his
+forehead touched the stone.
+
+Penn shuddered with awe. For the first time in his life he found himself
+in the presence of an idolater. Cudjo belonged to a tribe of African
+fire-worshippers, from whom he had been stolen in his youth; and,
+although the sentiment of the old barbarous religion had smouldered for
+years forgotten in his breast, this night it had burst forth again,
+kindled by the terrible splendors of the burning mountain.
+
+Penn waited for him to rise, then grasped his arm. The negro, startled
+into a consciousness of his presence, stared at him wildly.
+
+"That is not God, Cudjo!"
+
+"No, no, not your God, massa! My God!" and the African smote his breast.
+"Me mos' forgit him; now me 'members! Him comin' fur burn up de white
+folks, and set de brack man free!"
+
+Penn stood silent, thinking the negro might not be altogether wrong. No
+doubt the dim, dark soul of him saw vaguely, with that prophetic sense
+which is in all races of men, a great truth. A fire was indeed
+coming--was already kindled--which was to set the bondman free: and God
+was in the fire. But of that mightier conflagration, the combustion of
+the forests was but a feeble type.
+
+Penn turned from Cudjo to watch the burning, and became aware of its
+threatening and rapidly increasing magnitude. The woods had been set in
+several places, but the different fires were fast growing into one,
+swept by a strong wind diagonally across and up the mountain. It seemed
+then as if nothing could prevent all the forest growths that lay to the
+southward and westward along the range from being consumed.
+
+As he gazed, he became extremely alarmed for the safety of Stackridge
+and his friends: and where all this time was Carl? In vain he questioned
+Cudjo. He turned, and was hastening to the cave when he met Pomp coming
+towards him. Tall, majestic, naked to the waist, wearing a garment of
+panther-skins, with the red gleam of the fire on his dusky face and
+limbs, the negro looked like a native monarch of the hills.
+
+"O Pomp! what a fire that is!"
+
+"What a fire it is going to be!" answered Pomp, with a lurid smile. "Our
+new neighbors have brought us bad luck. All those woods are gone. The
+fire is sweeping up directly towards us--it will pass over all the
+mountain--nothing will be left." Yet he spoke with a lofty calmness that
+astonished Penn.
+
+"And our friends!--Carl!--have you heard from them?"
+
+"I have not seen Carl since he left the cave with you, nor any of
+Stackridge's people to-night."
+
+"Then they are in the woods yet!"
+
+"Yes; unless they have been wise enough to get out of them! I was just
+starting out to look for them.--Who comes there?"--poising his rifle.
+
+"It's Carl!" exclaimed Penn, recognizing the confederate coat. But in an
+instant he saw his mistake.
+
+"It is one of Ropes's men!" said Pomp. "He has discovered us--he shall
+die for setting my mountains on fire!"
+
+"Hold!" Penn grasped his arm. "He is beckoning and calling!"
+
+Pomp frowned as he lowered his rifle, and waited for the soldier to come
+up.
+
+"What! is it you? I didn't know you in that dress, and came near
+shooting you, as you deserve, for wearing it!" And Pomp turned
+scornfully away.
+
+The comer was Dan Pepperill, breathless with haste, horror-struck,
+haggard. It was some time before he could reply to Penn's impetuous
+demand--what had brought him up thither?
+
+"Carl!" he gasped.
+
+"What has happened to Carl?"
+
+"Ben tuck! durned if he hain't! But that ar ain't the wust!"
+
+"What, then, is the worst?" for that seemed bad enough.
+
+"Virginny--Miss Villars!"
+
+"Virginia! what of her?"
+
+"She's down thar! in the fire!"
+
+"Virginia in the fire!"
+
+"She ar,--durned if she ain't! Carl said she war on the mountain, and
+wanted me to hurry up and help her or find you; and I'd a done it, but I
+couldn't git off till we was runnin' from the fires we'd sot; then I
+kinder got scattered a puppus; t'other ones hung on to Carl, though, so
+I had to come alone."
+
+Penn interrupted the loose and confused narrative--Virginia: had he
+_seen_ her?
+
+"Wal, I reckon I hev! Ye see I war huntin' fur her thar, above the round
+rock; fur Carl said,----"
+
+A short, sharp groan broke from the lips of Penn. At first the idea of
+Virginia being on the mountain had appeared to him incredible. But at
+the mention of the place of rendezvous the truth smote him: she had come
+up there with Toby, or in his stead. With spasmodic grip he wrung
+Pepperill's arm as if he would have wrung the truth out of him that way.
+
+"You saw her!--where?"
+
+His hoarse voice, his terrible look, bewildered the poor man more and
+more.
+
+"I war a tellin' ye! Don't break my arm, and don't look so durned f'erce
+at me, and I'll out with the hull story. Ye see, I warn't to blame, now,
+no how. They sot the fires; they sot the grove on our way back; and if I
+helped any, 'twas cause I had ter. But about _her_. Wal, I begun to the
+big rock, and war a-huntin' up along, till the grove got all in a blaze,
+and the red limbs begun ter fall, and I see 'twas high time for me to
+put. Says I ter myself, 'She hain't hyar; she ar off the mountain and
+safe ter hum afore this time, shore!' But jest then I heern a screech;
+it sounded right inter the grove, and I run up as clust ter the fire's I
+could, and looked, and thar I seen right in the middle on't, amongst the
+burnin' trees, a woman's gownd, and then a face: 'twas her face, I
+knowed it, fur she hadn't nary bunnit on, and the fire shone on it
+bright as lightnin'! But thar war half a acre o' blazin' timber atween
+her and me; and besides, I was so struck up all of a heap, I couldn't do
+nary thing fur nigh about a minute--I couldn't even holler ter let her
+know I war thar. And 'fore I knowed what I war about, durned if she
+hadn't gone!"
+
+Penn afterwards understood that Dan had actually had a glimpse of
+Virginia when she ran out to the entrance of the gorge, and stood there
+a moment in the terrible heat and glare.
+
+"Where--show me where!" he exclaimed with fierce vehemence, dragging
+Pepperill after him down the rocks.
+
+"It war a considerable piece this side the round rock, nigh the upper
+eend o' the grove," said Dan, in a jarred voice, clattering after him,
+as fast as he could. "I reckon I kin find it, if 'tain't too late."
+
+Too late? It must not be too late! Penn leaps down the ledges, and
+rushes through the thickets, as if he would overtake time itself. They
+reach the burning grove. Pepperill points out as nearly as he can the
+spot where he stood when he saw Virginia. Great God! if she was in
+there, what a frightful end was hers!
+
+"Daniel! are you sure?"--for Penn cannot, will not believe--it is too
+terrible!
+
+Daniel is very sure; and he withdraws from the insufferable heat, to
+which his companion appears insensible.
+
+"There is a gorge just above there; perhaps she escaped into the gorge.
+O, if I had known!" groans the half-distracted youth, thinking how near
+he must have been to her when the fire awoke him.
+
+He still hopes that Dan's vision of her in the fire was but the
+hallucination of a bewildered brain. Yet no effort will he spare, no
+danger will he shun. The entrance to the gorge is all a gulf of flame;
+and the woods are blazing upwards along the cliffs, and all the forest
+beyond is turning to a sea of fire. Yet the gorge must be reached. Back
+again up the steep slope they climb. Penn flies to the verge of the
+cliff. He looks down: the chasm is all a glare of light. There runs the
+red-gleaming brook. He sees the logs, the stones, the mosses, all the
+wild entanglement, deep below. But no Virginia. He runs almost into the
+crackling flames, in order to peer farther down the gorge. Then he darts
+away in the opposite direction, along the very brink of the precipice,
+among the fire-lit trees,--Pepperill stupidly following. He seizes hold
+of a sapling, and, with his foot braced against its root, swings his
+body forward over the chasm, the better to gaze into its depths. From
+that position he casts his eye up the gorge. He sees the cascade falling
+over the ledge in a sheet of ruddy foam. He discovers the upper gorge;
+sees a monster of the forest come plunging and plashing down to the
+fall, and there lift himself on his haunches to look;--and what is that
+other object, half hidden by a drooping bough? It is Virginia clinging
+to the rocks.
+
+A moment before, had Penn made the discovery of the young girl still
+unharmed by fire, his happiness would have been supreme. But now joy was
+checked by an appalling fear. The bear might seize her, or with a stroke
+of his paw hurl her from his path.
+
+Penn caught hold of the bough that impeded his view, and saw how
+precarious was her hold. He dared not so much as call to her, or shout
+to frighten the monster away, lest, her attention being for an instant
+distracted, she might turn her head, lose her balance, and fall
+backwards from the rocks.
+
+"Durned if she ain't thar!" said Dan, excitedly. "But she's got a
+powerful slim chance with the bar!"
+
+"Come with me!" said Penn.
+
+He ran to the upper gorge, showed himself on the bank above the cascade,
+and shouted. The bear, as he anticipated, turned and looked up at him.
+Virginia at the same time saw her deliverer.
+
+"Hold on! I'll be with you in a minute!" he cried in a voice heard above
+the noise of the waterfall and the roar of the conflagration.
+
+She clung fast, hope and gladness thrilling her soul, and giving her new
+strength.
+
+To reach her, Penn had a precipitous descent of near thirty feet to
+make. He did not pause to consider the difficulty of getting up again,
+or the peril of encountering the bear. He jumped down over a
+perpendicular ledge upon a projection ten feet below. Beyond that was a
+rapid slope covered with moss and thin patches of soil, with here and
+there a shrub, and here and there a tree. Striking his heels into the
+soil, and catching at whatever branch or stem presented itself, he took
+the plunge. Clinging, sliding, falling, he arrived at the bottom. In a
+posture half sitting, half standing, and considerably jarred, he found
+himself face to face with Bruin. The animal had settled down on all
+fours, and now, with his surly, depressed head turned sullenly to one
+side, he looked at Penn, and growled. Penn looked at him, and said
+nothing. He had heard of staring wild beasts out of countenance--an
+experiment that could be conducted strictly on peace principles, if the
+bear would only prove as good a Quaker as himself. He resolved to try
+it: indeed, all unarmed as he was, what else could he do? He might at
+least, by diverting the brute's attention, give Virginia time to get
+into a position of safety. So he stood up, and fixed his eyes on the
+red-blinking eyes of the ferocious beast. Something Bruin did not like:
+it might have been the youth's company and valiant bearing, but more
+probably his observation of the fire had satisfied him that he was out
+of his place. With another growl, that seemed to say, "All I ask is to
+be let alone," he seceded,--turning his head still more, twisting his
+body around, after it, and retreating up the gorge.
+
+In an instant Penn was at the young girl's side: his hand clasped hers;
+he drew her up over the rock.
+
+Not a word was uttered. He was too agitated to speak; and she, after the
+terror and the strain to which her nerves had been subjected so long,
+felt all her strength give way. But as he lifted her in his arms, a
+faint smile of happiness flitted over her white face, and her lips moved
+with a whisper of gratitude he did not hear.
+
+In spite of all the dangers behind them, and of the dangers still
+before, both felt, in that moment, a shock of mutual bliss. Neither had
+ever known till then how dear the other was.
+
+Pepperill had by this time leaped down upon the bulge of the bank. There
+he waited for them, shouting,--
+
+"Hurry up! the bar'll meet the fire up thar, and be comin' down agin!"
+
+Penn required no spur to his exertions: he knew too well the necessity
+of getting speedily beyond the reach, not of the bear only, but also of
+the fire, which threatened them now on three sides--below, above, and on
+the farther bank of the gorge.
+
+Clasping the burden more precious to him than life, resolved in his soul
+to part with it only with life, he toiled heavily up the bank, down
+which he had descended with such tremendous swiftness a few minutes
+before.
+
+But it was not in Virginia's nature to remain long a helpless
+encumbrance. Seeing the labor and peril still before them, her will
+returned, and with it her strength. She grasped a branch by which he was
+trying in vain with one hand, holding her with the other, to draw them
+both up a steep place. Her prompt action enabled him to seize the trunk
+of a young tree: she assisted still, and slipping from his hands, clung
+to it until he had reached the next tree above. He pulled her up after
+him, and then pushed her on still farther, until Pepperill could reach
+her from where he stood. A minute later the three were together on the
+summit of the slope.
+
+But now they had above them the ten feet of sheer perpendicularity down
+which Dan had indiscreetly jumped, following Penn's lead. A single hand
+above them would now be worth several hands below.
+
+"What a fool I war! durned if I warn't!" said Dan, endeavoring
+unsuccessfully to find a place by which he could reascend.
+
+"Get on my shoulders!" And Penn braced himself against the ledge.
+
+Dan made the attempt, but fell, and rolled down the bank.
+
+Just then a grinning black face appeared above.
+
+"Gib me de gal! gib me de gal!" and a prodigiously long arm reached
+down.
+
+"O Cudjo! you are an angel!" cried Penn, "Daniel! Here!"
+
+Pepperill was up the bank again in a minute, at Penn's side. They lifted
+Virginia above their heads. Holding on by a sapling with one hand, the
+negro extended the other far down over the ledge. Those miraculous arms
+of his seemed to have been made expressly for this service. He grasped a
+wrist of the girl; with the other hand she clung to his arm until he had
+drawn her up to the sapling; this she seized, and helped herself out.
+Then once more Penn gave Daniel his shoulder, while Cudjo gave him a
+hand from above; and Daniel was safe. Last of all, Penn remained.
+
+"Cotch holt hyar!" said Cudjo, extending towards him the end of a branch
+he had broken from a tree.
+
+To this Penn held fast, assisting himself with his feet against the
+ledge, while Cudjo and Dan hauled him up.
+
+"Good Cudjo! how came you here?"
+
+"Me see you and Pepperill a gwine inter de fire. So me foller."
+
+"This is the old man's daughter, Cudjo."
+
+Cudjo regarded the beautiful young girl with a look of vague wonder and
+admiration.
+
+"He remembers me," said Virginia. "I saw him the night he climbed in at
+Toby's window." She gave him her hand; it trembled with emotion. "I
+thank you, Cudjo, for what you have done for my father--and for me."
+
+"Now, Cudjo! show us the nearest and easiest path. We must take her to
+the cave--there is no other way."
+
+"You must be right spry, den!" said Cudjo. "De fire am a runnin' ober
+dat way powerful!"
+
+Indeed, it had already crossed the upper end of the gorge, where the
+forest brook fell into it; and, getting into some beds of leaves, and
+thence into dense and inflammable thickets, it was now blazing directly
+across their line of retreat.
+
+Penn would have carried Virginia in his arms, but she would not suffer
+him.
+
+"I can go where you can!" she cried, once more full of spirit and
+daring. "Just give me your hand--you shall see!"
+
+Penn took one of her hands, Pepperill the other, and with their aid,
+supporting her, lifting her, she sprang lightly up the ledges, and from
+rock to rock.
+
+Cudjo, carrying Dan's gun, ran on before, leading the way through
+hollows and among bushes, by a route known only to himself. So they
+reached a piece of woods, by the thin skirts of which he hoped to head
+off the fire. Too late--it was there before them. It ran swiftly among
+the fallen leaves and twigs, and spread far into the woods.
+
+The negro turned back. There was a wild grimace in his face, and a
+glitter in his eyes, as he threw up his hand, by way of signal that
+their flight in that direction was cut off.
+
+"Cudjo! what is to be done!" And Penn drew Virginia towards him with a
+look that showed his fears were all for her.
+
+"We can't git off down the mountain, nuther!" said Dan. "It's gittin'
+into the woods down thar. It'll be all around us in no time!"
+
+"You let Cudjo do what him pleases?" said the black.
+
+"I can trust you! Can you, Virginia?"
+
+"He should know what is best. Yes, I will trust him."
+
+"Take dat 'ar!" Pepperill received his gun. "Now you look out fur
+youselves. Me tote de gal."
+
+And catching up Virginia, before Penn could stop him, or question him,
+he rushed with her into the fire.
+
+Penn ran after him, perceiving at once the meaning of this bold act. The
+woods were not yet fairly kindled; only now and then the loose bark of a
+dry trunk was beginning to blaze. Cudjo leaped over the line of flame
+that was running along the ground, and bore Virginia high above it to
+the other side. Penn followed, and Dan came close behind. They then had
+before them a tract of blackened ground which the flames had swept,
+leaving here and there a dead limb or mat of leaves still burning.
+
+These little fires were easily avoided. But they soon came to another
+line of flame raging on the upper side of the burnt tract. They were
+almost out of the woods: only that red, crackling hedge fenced them in;
+but that they could not pass: the underbrush all along the forest edge
+was burning. And there they were, brought to a halt, half-stifled with
+smoke, in the midst of woods kindling and blazing all around them.
+
+"May as well pull up hyar, and take a bref," remarked Cudjo, grimly,
+placing Virginia on a log too dank with decay and moss to catch fire
+easily. "Den we's try 'em agin."
+
+A horrible suspicion crossed Penn's mind; the fanatical fire-worshipper
+had brought them there to destroy them--to sacrifice them to his god!
+
+"Virginia!"--eagerly laying hold of her arm,--"we must retreat! It will
+soon be too late! We can get out of the woods where we came in, if we go
+at once!"
+
+"Beg pardon, sar," said Cudjo, stamping out fire in the leaves by the
+end of the log,--and he looked up through the smoke at Penn, with the
+old malignant grin on his apish face.
+
+"What do you mean, Cudjo?" said Penn, in an agony of doubt.
+
+"Can't get back dat way, sar!"
+
+"Then you have led us here to destroy us!"
+
+"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was the negro's only reply.
+
+"Didn't we trust you? Haven't we come through fire, following you? O
+Cudjo! more than once you have helped to save my life! You have helped
+to save this life, dearer than mine! Why do you desert us now?"
+
+"'Sert you? Cudjo no 'sert you." But the negro spoke sullenly, and there
+was still a sparkle of malignancy in his look.
+
+"Then why do you stop here?"
+
+"Hugh! tink we's go trough dat fire like we done trough tudder?"
+
+"What then are we to do?"
+
+"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was once more the sullen response.
+
+Virginia, with her quick perceptions, saw at once what Penn was either
+too dull or too much excited to see. Cudjo felt himself aggrieved; but
+he was not unfaithful.
+
+"_I_ trust you, Cudjo!"--and she laid her hand frankly and confidingly
+on his shoulder. "Did I tremble, did I shrink when you carried me
+through the fire? I shall never forget how brave, how good you are! He
+trusts you too,--only he is so afraid for me! You can forgive that,
+Cudjo."
+
+"She is right," said Penn, though still in doubt. "If you know a way to
+save her, don't lose a moment!"
+
+"He knows; on'y let him take his time," said Pepperill, whose firm faith
+in the negro's good will shamed Penn for his distrust. And yet Pepperill
+did not love, as Penn loved, the girl whose life was in danger; and he
+had not seen the evidences of Cudjo's fire-worshipping fanaticism which
+Penn had seen.
+
+Under the influence of Virginia's gentle and soothing words, the glitter
+of resentment died out of the negro's face. But his aspect was still
+morose.
+
+"De fire take his time to burn out; so we's take our time too," said he.
+"You try your chance wid Cudjo agin, miss?"
+
+"Certainly! for I am sure you will take us safely through yet!" said
+Virginia, without a shadow of doubt or hesitation on her face, however
+dark may have been the shadow on her heart.
+
+The negro was evidently well pleased. He examined carefully the line of
+fire in the undergrowth. And now Penn discovered, what Cudjo had known
+very well from the first, that there were barren ledges above, and that
+the fire was rapidly burning itself out along their base. An opening
+through which a courageous and active man might dash unscathed soon
+presented itself. Then Cudjo waited no longer to "take bref." He caught
+Virginia in his arms, and bore her through the second line of fire, as
+he had borne her through the first, and placed her in safety on the
+rocks above.
+
+"Cudjo, my brave, my noble fellow!" said Penn, deeply affected, "I have
+wronged you; I confess it with shame. Forgive me!"
+
+"Cudjo hab nuffin to forgib," replied the negro, with a laugh of
+pleasure "Neber mention um, massa! All right now! Reckon we's better be
+gitt'n out o' dis yer smudge!"
+
+He showed the way, and Penn and Daniel helped Virginia up the rocks as
+before.
+
+They had reached a smooth and unsheltered ledge near the ravine, a
+little below the mouth of the cave, when a hideous and inhuman shriek
+rent the air.
+
+"What dat?" cried Cudjo, stopping short; and his visage in the smoky and
+lurid light looked wild with superstitious alarm.
+
+The sound was repeated, louder, nearer, more hideous than before,
+seeming to make the very atmosphere shudder above their heads.
+
+"Go on, Cudjo! go on!" Penn commanded.
+
+The terrified black crouched and gibbered, but would not stir. Then
+straightway a sharp clatter, as of iron hoofs flying at a furious
+gallop, resounded along the mountain-side. By a simultaneous impulse the
+little party huddled together, and turned their faces towards the fire,
+and saw coming down towards them a horse with the speed of the wind.
+
+"Stand close!" said Penn; and he threw himself before Virginia, to
+shield her, shouting and swinging his hat to frighten the animal from
+his course.
+
+"Stackridge's hoss!" exclaimed Cudjo, recovering from his fright,
+leaping up, and flinging abroad his long arms in the air. "Wiv some poor
+debil onter him's back!"
+
+It was so. The little group stood motionless, chilled with horror. The
+beast came thundering on, with lips of terror parted, nostrils wide and
+snorting, mane and tail flying in the wild air, hoofs striking fire from
+the rocks. A human being--a man--was lying close to his neck, and
+clinging fast: the face hidden by the tossing and streaming mane: a
+fearful ride! the mystery surrounding him, and the awful glare and
+smoke, enhancing the horror of it.
+
+Approaching the group on the ledge, the animal veered, and shot past
+them like a thunderbolt; clearing rocks, hollows, bushes, with
+incredible bounds; nearing the ravine, but halting not; dashing into the
+thickets there, missing suddenly the ground beneath his feet, striking
+only the air and yielding boughs with frantic hoofs; then plunging down
+with a dull, reverberant crash,--horse and unknown rider rolling
+together over rocks and spiked limbs to the bottom of the ravine.
+
+Then all was still again: it had passed like a vision of fear.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+_REFUGE._
+
+
+For a moment the little group stood dumb and motionless on the ledge, in
+the flare of the vast flame-curtains. They looked at each other. Penn
+was the first to speak.
+
+"Which of us goes down into the ravine?"
+
+"Wha' fur?" said Cudjo.
+
+"To find him!" And Penn gazed anxiously towards the thickets into which
+the horse and horseman had gone down.
+
+"Dat no good! Deader 'n de debil, shore!"
+
+"O, may be he is not!" exclaimed Virginia, full of compassion for the
+unfortunate unknown. "Do go and see, Cudjo!"
+
+"Fire'll be dar in less'n no time. Him nuffin to Cudjo. We's best be
+gwine." And the negro started off, doggedly, towards the cave.
+
+Then Penn took the resolution which he would have taken at once but for
+Virginia. "Stay with her, Daniel! I will go!"
+
+Virginia turned pale; she had not thought of that. But immediately she
+controlled her fears: she would not be selfish: if he was brave and
+generous enough to descend into the ravine for one he did not know, she
+would be equally brave and generous, and let him go. She clasped her
+hands together so that they should not hold him back, and forced her
+lips to say,--
+
+"I will wait for you here."
+
+"No, I be durned if ye shall! Hapgood, you stick to her: take this yer
+gun, and I'll slip down inter the holler, and see whuther the cuss's
+alive or dead, any how."
+
+"O, Mr. Pepperill, if you will!" said Virginia, overjoyed.
+
+Penn remonstrated,--rather feebly, it must be confessed, for the
+determination to part from her had cost him a struggle, and the
+privilege of keeping by her side till all danger was past, seemed too
+sweet to refuse.
+
+"I'll take her to her father, and hurry back, and meet you."
+
+"All right!" came the response from Dan, already far down the rocks.
+
+"The cave is close by," said Penn. "There is Cudjo, waiting for us!"
+
+Coming up with the black, and once more following his lead, they
+descended along the shelf of rocks, between the thickets and the
+overhanging ledge. So they came to the still dark jaws of the cavern. A
+grateful coolness breathed in their faces from within. But how dismal
+the entrance seemed to eyes lately dazzled by the blazing woods!
+Virginia clung tightly to Penn's hand, as they groped their way in.
+
+At first nothing was visible but a few smouldering embers, winking their
+sleepy eyes in the dark. Out of these Cudjo soon blew a little blaze,
+which he fed with sticks and bits of bark until it lighted up fitfully
+the dim interior and shadowy walls of his abode.
+
+Penn hushed Virginia with a finger on his lips, and restrained her from
+throwing herself forward upon the rude bed, where the blind old man was
+just awaking from a sound sleep.
+
+In that profound subterranean solitude the roar of the fiery breakers,
+dashing on the mountain side, was subdued to a faint murmur, less
+distinct than the dripping of water from roof to floor in the farther
+recesses of the cave. There, left alone, lulled by the dull, monotonous
+trickle,--thinking, if he heard the roar at all, that it was the
+mountain wind blowing among the pines,--Mr. Villars had slept tranquilly
+through all the horrors of that night.
+
+"Is it you, Penn? Safe again!" And sitting up, he grasped the young
+man's hand. "What news from my dear girl?--from my two dear girls?" he
+added, remembering Virginia was not his only child.
+
+"Toby did not come to the rock," said Penn, still holding Virginia back.
+
+"O! did he not?" It seemed a heavy disappointment; but the patient old
+man rallied straightway, saying, with his accustomed cheerfulness, "No
+doubt something hindered him; no doubt he would have come if he could.
+My poor, dear girl, how I wish I could have got word to her that I am
+safe! But I thank you all the same; it was kind in you to give yourself
+all that trouble."
+
+"I believe all is for the best," said Penn, his voice trembling.
+
+"No doubt, no doubt. It will be some time before I can have the
+consolation of my dear girl's presence again; I, who never knew till now
+how necessary she is to my happiness,--I may say, to my very life!" Mr.
+Villars wiped a tear he could not repress, and smiled. "Yes, Penn, God
+knows what is best for us all. His will be done!"
+
+But now Virginia could restrain herself no longer; her sobs would burst
+forth.
+
+"Father! father!"--throwing herself upon his neck. "O, my dear, dear
+father!"
+
+Penn had feared the effect of the sudden surprise upon the old and
+feeble man, and had meant to break the good news to him softly. But
+human nature was too strong; his own emotions had baffled him, and the
+pious little artifice proved a complete failure. So now he could do
+nothing but stand by and make grim faces, struggling to keep down what
+was mastering him, and turning away blindly from the bed.
+
+Even Cudjo appeared deeply affected, staring stupidly, and winking
+something like a tear from the whites of his eyes at sight of the father
+embracing his child, and the white locks mingling with the wet, tangled
+curls on her cheek. He was a ludicrous, pathetic object, winking and
+staring thus; and Penn laughed and cried too, at sight of him.
+
+"Luk dar!" said Cudjo, coming up to him, and pointing at the little
+walled chamber that served as his pantry. "She hab dat fur her dressum
+room. Sleep dar, too, if she likes."
+
+"Thank you, Cudjo! it will be very acceptable, I am sure."
+
+"Me clar it up fur her all scrumptious!" added the negro, with a grin.
+
+Penn had thought of that. But now he had other business on his hands: he
+must hasten to find Pepperill: nor could he keep anxious thoughts of
+Stackridge and his friends out of his mind. And Pomp--where all this
+time was Pomp? He had hoped to find him and the patriots all safely
+arrived in the cave.
+
+Virginia was seated on the bed by her father's side. Penn threw a
+blanket over the dear young shoulders, to shield her from the sudden
+cold of the cave; then left her relating her adventures,--beckoning to
+Cudjo, who followed him out.
+
+"Cudjo!"--the black glided to his side as they emerged from the
+ravine,--"you must go and find Pomp."
+
+Cudjo laughed and shrugged.
+
+"No use't! Reckon Pomp take keer o' hisself heap better'n we's take keer
+on him!"
+
+True. Pomp knew the woods. He was athletic, cautious, brave. But he had
+gone to extricate from peril others, in whose fate he himself might
+become involved. Cudjo refused to take this view of the matter; and it
+was evident that, while he comforted himself with his deep convictions
+of Pomp's ability to look out for his own safety, he was, to say the
+least, quite indifferent as to the welfare of the patriots.
+
+Forgetting Dan and the unknown horseman in his great solicitude for his
+absent friends, Penn climbed the ledges, and gazed away in the direction
+of the camp, and beheld the forest there a raging gulf of fire.
+
+Assuredly, they must have fled from it before this time; but whither had
+they gone? Had Pomp been able to find them? Or might they not all have
+become entangled in the intricacies of the wilderness until encompassed
+by the fire and destroyed?
+
+Penn watched in vain for their coming--in vain for some signal of their
+safety on the crags above the forest. Had they reached the crags, he
+thought he might discover them somewhere with a glass, so vividly were
+those grim rock-foreheads of the hills lighted up beneath the red sky.
+
+He sent Cudjo to find Dan, ran to the cave for Pomp's glass, and
+returned to the ledge. There he waited; there he watched; still in vain.
+Wider and wider, spread the destroying sea; fiercer and fiercer leaped
+the billows of flame--the billows that did not fall again, but broke
+away in rent sheets, in red-rolling scrolls, and vanished upward in
+their own smoke.
+
+And now Penn, lowering the glass, perceived what he must long since have
+been made aware of, had not the greater light concealed the less. It was
+morning; a dull and sunless dawn; the despairing daylight, filtered of
+all warmth and color, spreading dim and gray on the misty valleys, and
+on the sombre, far-off hills, under an interminable canopy of cloud.
+
+Pepperill came clambering up the rocks. Penn turned eagerly to meet and
+question him.
+
+"Find him?"
+
+"Wal, a piece on him."
+
+"Killed?"
+
+"I reckon he ar that!"
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Durned if I kin tell! He's jammed in thar 'twixt two gre't stuns, and
+the hoss is piled on top, and you can't see nary featur' of his face,
+only the legs,--but durned if I know the legs!"
+
+"Couldn't you move the horse?"
+
+"Nary a bit. His neck is broke, and he lays wedged so clust, right on
+top o' the poor cuss, 'twould take a yoke o' oxen to drag him out."
+
+"Are you sure the man is dead?"
+
+"Shore? I reckon! He had one arm loose. I jest lifted it, and it drapped
+jest like a club when I let go; then I see 'twas broke square off jest
+above the elbow, about where the backbone o' the hoss comes. Made me
+durned sick!"
+
+"What have you got in your hand?"
+
+"A boot--one o' his'n--thought I'd pull it off, his leg stuck up so kind
+o' handy; didn't know but some on ye might know the boot." And Dan held
+it up for Penn's inspection.
+
+"What is this on it? Blood?"
+
+"It ar so! Mebby it's the hoss's, and then agin mebby it's his'n; I
+hadn't noticed it afore."
+
+"I'll go back with you, Daniel. Together perhaps we can move the horse."
+
+"Ye're behind time for that! The fire's thar. I hadn't only jest time to
+git cl'ar on't myself. The poor cuss is a br'ilin'!"
+
+"K-r-r-r! hi! don't ye har me callin'!" Cudjo sprang up the ledge.
+"Fire's a comin' to de cave! All in de brush dar! Can't get in widout ye
+go now!"
+
+"And Pomp and the rest! They will be shut out, if they are not lost
+already!"
+
+"Pomp know well 'nuff what him 'bout, tell ye! Gorry, massa! ye got to
+come, if Cudjo hab to tote ye!"
+
+Yielding to his importunity, Penn quitted the ledge. On the shelf of
+rock Cudjo paused to gnash his teeth at the flames sweeping up towards
+them. He had long since recovered from his fit of superstitious frenzy.
+He had seen the fire burning the woods that sheltered him in his
+mountain retreat, instead of going intelligently to work to destroy the
+dwellings of the whites; and he no longer regarded it as a deity worthy
+of his worship.
+
+"All dis yer brush be burnt up! Den nuffin' to hide Cudjo's house!"
+
+"Don't despair, Cudjo. We will trust in Him who is God even of the
+fire."
+
+Even as Penn spoke, he felt a cool spatter on his hand. He looked up;
+sudden, plashy drops smote his face.
+
+"Rain! It is coming! Thank Heaven for the rain!"
+
+At the same time, the wind shifted, and blew fitful gusts down the
+mountain. Then it lulled; and the rain poured.
+
+"Cudjo, your thickets are saved!" said Penn, exultantly. Then
+immediately he thought of the absent ones, for whom the rain might be
+too late; of the beautiful forests, whose burning not cataracts could
+quench; of the unknown corpse far below in the ravine there, and the
+swift soul gone to God.
+
+"What news?" asked the old man as he entered the cave.
+
+"It is morning, and it rains; but your friends are still away.--The man
+is dead," aside to Virginia.
+
+"Heaven grant they be safe somewhere!" said the old man. "And Pomp?"
+
+"He is missing too."
+
+There was a long, deep silence. A painful suspense seemed to hold every
+heart still, while they listened. Suddenly a strange noise was heard, as
+of a ghost walking. Louder and louder it sounded, hollow, faint,
+far-off. Was it on the rocks over their heads? or in caverns beneath
+their feet?
+
+"Told ye so! told ye so!" said Cudjo, laughing with wild glee.
+
+The fire had burnt low again, and he was in the act of kindling it, when
+a novel idea seemed to strike him, and, seizing a pan, he inverted it
+over the little remnant of a flame. In an instant the cave was dark. It
+was some seconds before the eyes of the inmates grew accustomed to the
+gloom, and perceived the glimmer of mingled daylight and firelight that
+shone in at the entrance.
+
+"Luk a dar! luk a dar!" said Cudjo.
+
+And turning their eyes in the opposite direction, they saw a faint
+golden glow in the recesses of the cave. The footsteps approached; the
+glow increased; then the superb dark form of Pomp advanced in the light
+of his own torch. Penn hastened to meet him, and to demand tidings of
+Stackridge's party.
+
+Pomp first saluted Virginia, with somewhat lofty politeness, holding the
+torch above his head as he bowed. Then turning to Penn,--
+
+"Your friends are all safe, I believe."
+
+"All?" Penn eagerly asked, his thoughts on the luckless horseman. "None
+missing?"
+
+"There were three absent when I reached their camp. They had gone on a
+foraging expedition. I found the rest waiting for them, standing their
+ground against the fire, which was roaring up towards them at a
+tremendous rate. Soon the foragers came in. They brought a basket of
+potatoes and a bag of meal, but no meat. Withers had caught a pig, but
+it had got away from him before he could kill it, and he lost it in the
+dark. The others were cursing the rascals who had set the woods afire,
+but Withers lamented the pig.
+
+"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'you have not much time to mourn either for the
+woods or the pork. We must take care of ourselves.' And I offered to
+bring them here. But just then we heard a rushing noise; it sounded like
+some animal coming up the course of the brook; and the next minute it
+was amongst us--a big black bear, frightened out of his wits, singed by
+the fire, and furious."
+
+"Your acquaintance of the gorge, Virginia!" said Penn.
+
+"You will readily believe that such an unexpected supply of fresh meat,
+sent by Providence within their reach, proved a temptation to the
+hungry. Withers, in his hurry to make up for the loss of the pig, ran to
+head the fellow off, and attempted to stop him with his musket after it
+had missed fire. In an instant the gun was lying on the ground several
+yards off, and Withers was sprawling. The bear had done the little
+business for him with a single stroke of his paw; then he passed on,
+directly over Withers's body, which happened to be in his way, but which
+he minded no more than as if it had been a bundle of rags. All this time
+we couldn't fire a shot; there was the risk, you see, of hitting Withers
+instead of the bear. Even after he was knocked down, he seemed to think
+he had nothing more formidable than his stray pig to deal with, and
+tried to catch the bear by the tail as he ran over him."
+
+"So ye lost de bar!" cried Cudjo, greatly excited. "Fool, tink o'
+cotchin' on him by de tail!"
+
+"Still we couldn't fire, for he was on his legs again in a second,
+chasing the bear's tail directly before our muzzles," said Pomp, quietly
+laughing. "But luckily a stick flew up under his feet. Down he went
+again. That gave two or three of us a chance to send some lead after the
+beast. He got a wound--we tracked him by his blood on the ground--we
+could see it plain as day by the glare of light--it led straight towards
+the fire that was running up through the leaves and thickets on the
+north. I expected that when he met that he would turn again; but he did
+not: we were just in time to see him plough through it, and hear him
+growl and snarl at the flames that maddened him, and which he was
+foolish enough to stop and fight. Then he went on again. We followed.
+Nobody minded the scorching. We kept him in sight till he met the fire
+again--for it was now all around us. This time his heart failed him; he
+turned back only to meet us and get a handful of bullets in his head.
+That finished him, and he fell dead."
+
+"Poor brute!" said Mr. Villars; "he found his human enemies more
+merciless than the fire!"
+
+"That's so," said Pomp, with a smile. "But we had not much time to
+moralize on the subject then. The fire we had leaped through had become
+impassable behind us. The men hurried this way and that to find an
+outlet. They found only the fire--it was on every side of us like a
+sea--the spot where we were was only an island in the midst of it--that
+too would soon be covered. The bear was forgotten where he lay; the men
+grew wild with excitement, as again and again they attempted to break
+through different parts of the ring that was narrowing upon us, and
+failed. Brave men they are, but death by fire, you know, is too
+horrible!"
+
+"How large was this spot, this island?" asked Penn.
+
+"It might have comprised perhaps twenty acres when we first found
+ourselves enclosed in it. But every minute it was diminishing; and the
+heat there was something terrific. The men were rather surprised, after
+trying in vain on every side to discover a break in the circle of fire,
+to come back and find me calm.
+
+"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'keep cool. I understand this ground perhaps
+better than you do. Don't abandon your game; you have lost your meal and
+potatoes, and you will have need of the bear.'
+
+"'But what is the use of roast meat, if we are to be roasted too?' said
+Withers, who will always be droll, whatever happens.
+
+"Then Stackridge spoke. He proposed that they should place themselves
+under my command; for I knew the woods, and while they had been running
+to and fro in disorder, I had been carefully observing the ground, and
+forming my plans. I laughed within myself to see Deslow alone hang back;
+he was unwilling to owe his life to one of my complexion--one who had
+been a slave. For there are men, do you know," said Pomp, with a smile
+of mingled haughtiness and pity, "who would rather that even their
+country should perish than owe in any measure its salvation to the race
+they have always hated and wronged!"
+
+"I trust," said Mr. Villars, "that you had the noble satisfaction of
+teaching these men the lesson which our country too must learn before it
+can be worthy to be saved."
+
+"I showed them that even the despised black may, under God's providence,
+be of some use to white men, besides being their slave: I had that
+satisfaction!" said Pomp, proudly smiling. "Stackridge was right: I had
+observed: I saw what I could do. On one side was a chasm which you know,
+Mr. Hapgood."
+
+"Yes! I had thought of it! But I knew it was in the midst of the burning
+forest, and never supposed you could get to it."
+
+"The fire was beyond; and it also burned a little on the side nearest to
+us. But the vegetation there is thin, you remember. The chasm could be
+reached without difficulty.
+
+"'Follow me who will!' said I. 'The rest are at liberty to shirk for
+themselves.'
+
+"'Follow--where?' said Deslow. I couldn't help smiling at the man's
+distress. All the rest were prepared to obey my directions; and it was
+hard for him to separate himself from them. But it seemed harder still
+for him to trust in me. I was not a Moses; I could not take them through
+that Red Sea. What then?
+
+"I made for the chasm. All followed, even Deslow,--dragging and lugging
+the bear. We came to the brink. The place, I must confess, had an awful
+look, in the light of the trees burning all around it! Deslow was not
+the only one who shrank back then; for though the spot was known to some
+of them, they had never explored it, and could not guess what it led to.
+It was difficult, in the first place, to descend into it; it looked
+still more difficult ever to get out again; and there was nothing to
+prevent the burning limbs above from falling into it, or the trees that
+grew in it from catching fire. For this is the sink, Mr. Villars, which
+you have probably heard of,--where the woods have been undermined by the
+action of water in the limestone rocks, and an acre or more of the
+mountain has fallen in, with all its trees, so that what was once the
+roof of an immense cavern is now a little patch of the forest growing
+seventy feet below the surface of the earth. The sides are precipitous
+and projecting. Only one tree throws a strong branch upwards to the edge
+of the sink.
+
+"'This way, gentlemen,' said I, 'and you are safe!'
+
+"It was a trial of their faith; for I waited to explain nothing. First, I
+tumbled the bear off the brink. We heard him go crashing down into the
+abyss, and strike the bottom with a sound full of awfulness to the
+uninitiated. Then, with my rifle swung on my back, I seized the limb,
+and threw myself into the tree.
+
+"'Where he can go, we can!' I heard Stackridge say; and he followed me.
+I took his gun, and handed it to him again when he was safe in the tree.
+He did the same for another; and so all got into the branches, and
+climbed down after us. The trunk has no limbs within twenty feet of the
+bottom, but there is a smaller tree leaning into it which we got into,
+and so reached the ground.
+
+"'Now, gentlemen,' said I, when all were down, 'I will show you where
+you are.' And opening the bushes, I discovered a path leading down the
+rocks into the caverns, of which this cave is only a branch. Then I made
+them all take an oath never to betray the secret of what I had shown
+them. Then I lighted one of the torches Cudjo and I keep for our
+convenience when we come in that way, and gave it to them; lighted
+another for my own use; invited them to make themselves quite at home in
+my absence; left them to their reflections;--and here I am."
+
+Still the mystery with regard to the unknown horseman was in no wise
+explained. Pomp, informed of what had happened, arose hastily. Penn
+followed him from the cave. Pepperill accompanied them, to show the way.
+It was raining steadily; but the thickets in which lay the dead horse
+and his rider were burning still.
+
+"As I was going to Stackridge's camp," said Pomp, "I thought I saw a man
+crawling over the rocks above where the horse was tied. I ran up to find
+him, but he was gone. Peace to his ashes, if it was he!"
+
+"Won't be much o' the cuss left but ashes!" remarked Pepperill.
+
+Pomp ascended the ledges, and stood, silent and stern, gazing at the
+destruction of his beloved woods.
+
+The winds had died. The fires had evidently ceased to spread. Portions
+of the forest that had been kindled and not consumed were burning now
+with slow, sullen combustion, like brands without flame. Stripped of
+their foliage, shorn of their boughs, and seen in the dull and smoky
+daylight, through the rain, they looked like a forest of skeletons, all
+of glowing coal, brightening, darkening, and ever crumbling away.
+
+All at once Pomp seemed to rouse himself, and direct his attention more
+particularly at the part of the woods in which the patriots' camp had
+been.
+
+"Come with me, Pepperill, if you would help do a good job!"
+
+They started off, and were soon out of sight. As Penn turned from gazing
+after them, he heard a voice calling from the opposite side of the
+ravine. He looked, but could see no one. The figure to which the voice
+belonged was hidden by the bushes. The bushes moved, however; the figure
+was descending into the ravine. It arrived at the bottom, crossed, and
+began to ascend the steep side towards the cave. Penn concealed himself,
+and waited until it had nearly emerged from the thickets beneath him,
+and he could distinctly hear the breath of a man panting and blowing
+with the toil of climbing. Then a well-known voice said in a hoarse
+whisper,--
+
+"Massa Hapgood! dat you?"
+
+And peering over the bank, he saw, upturned in the rain and murky light,
+among the wet bushes, the black, grinning face of old Toby.
+
+He responded by reaching down, grasping the negro's hand, and drawing
+him up.
+
+The grin on the old man's face was a ghastly one, and his eyes rolled as
+he stammered forth,--
+
+"Miss Jinny--ye seen Miss Jinny?"
+
+Penn did not answer immediately; he was considering whether it would be
+safe to conduct Toby into the cave. Toby grew terrified.
+
+"Don't say ye hain't seen her, Massa Penn! ye kill ol' Toby if ye do! I
+done lost her!" And the poor old faithful fellow sobbed out his
+story,--how Virginia had disappeared, and how, on discovering the woods
+to be on fire, he had set out in search of her, and been wandering he
+scarcely knew where ever since. "Now don't say ye don't know nuffin'
+about her! don't say dat!" falling on his knees, and reaching up his
+hands beseechingly, as if he had only to prevail on Penn to _say_ that
+all was well with "Miss Jinny," and that would make it so. Such faith is
+in simple souls.
+
+"I'll say anything you wish me to, good old Toby! only give me a
+chance."
+
+"Den say you _has_ seen her."
+
+"I _has seen her_," repeated Penn.
+
+"O, bress you, Massa Penn! And she ar safe--say dat too!"
+
+"_She ar safe_," said Penn, laughing.
+
+"Bress ye for dat!" And Toby, weeping with joy, kissed the young man's
+hand again and again. "And ye knows whar she ar?"
+
+"Yes, Toby! So now get up: don't be kneeling on the rocks here in the
+rain!"
+
+"Jes' one word more! Say ye got her and ol' Massa Villars safe stowed
+away, and ye'll take me to see 'em; den dis ol' nigger'll bress you and
+de Lord and dem, and be willin' fur to die! only say dat, massa!"
+
+"Ah! did I promise to say all you wished?"
+
+"Yes, you did, you did so, Massa Penn!" cried Toby, triumphantly.
+
+"Then I suppose I must say that, too. So come, you dear old simpleton!
+Cudjo!" to the proprietor of the cave, who just then put out his head to
+reconnoitre, "Cudjo! Here is your friend Toby, come to pay his master
+and mistress a visit!"
+
+"What business he got hyar?" said Cudjo, crossly. "We's hab all de wuld,
+and creation besides, comin' bime-by!"
+
+"Cudjo! You knows ol' Toby, Cudjo!" said Toby, in the softest and most
+conciliatory tone imaginable.
+
+"Nose ye!" Cudjo snuffed disdainfully. "Yes! and wish you'd keep fudder
+off!"
+
+"Why, Cudjo! don't you 'member Toby? Las' time I seed you! ye 'member
+dat, Cudjo!"
+
+"Don't 'member nuffin'!"
+
+"'Twan't you, den, got inter my winder, and done skeert me mos' t' def
+'fore I found out 'twas my ol' 'quaintance Cudjo, come fur Massa Penn's
+clo'es! Dat ar wan't you, hey?" And Toby's honest indignation cropped
+out through the thin crust of deprecating obsequiousness which he still
+thought it politic to maintain.
+
+Penn got under the shelter of the ledge, and waited for the dispute to
+end. It was evident to him that Cudjo was not half so ill-natured as he
+appeared; but, feeling himself in a position of something like official
+importance, he had the human weakness to wish to make the most of it.
+
+"Your massa and missis bery well off. Dey in my house. No room dar for
+you. Ain't wanted hyar, nohow!" turning his back very much like a
+personage of lighter complexion, clad in brief authority.
+
+"Ain't wanted, Cudjo? You don't know what you's sayin' now. Whar my ol'
+massa and young missis is, dar ol' Toby's wanted. Can't lib widout me,
+dey can't! Ol' massa wants me to nuss him. Ye don't tink--you's a nigger
+widout no kind ob 'sideration, Cudjo."
+
+"Talk o' you nussin' him when him's got Pomp!"
+
+"Pomp! what can Pomp do? Wouldn't trust him to nuss a chick sicken!"
+Toby talked backwards in his excitement.
+
+"Ki! didn't him take Massa Hapgood and make him well? Don't ye know
+nuffin'?"
+
+Toby seemed staggered for a moment. But he rallied quickly, and said,--
+
+"He cure Massa Hapgood? He done jes' nuffin' 't all fur him. De fac's
+is, I had de nussin' on him for a spell at fust, and gib him a start.
+Dar's ebery ting in a start, Cudjo."
+
+"O, what a stupid nigger!" said Cudjo. "Hyar's Massa Hapgood hisself!
+leab it to him now!"
+
+"You are both right," said Penn. "Toby did nurse me, and give me a good
+start; for which I shall always thank him."
+
+"Dar! tol' ye so, tol' ye so!" said Toby.
+
+"But it was Pomp who afterwards cured me," added Penn.
+
+"Dar! tol' you so!" cried Cudjo, while Toby's countenance fell.
+
+"For while Toby is a capital nurse" (Toby brightened), "Pomp is a
+first-rate doctor" (Cudjo grinned). "So don't dispute any more. Shake
+hands with your old friend, Cudjo, and show him into your house."
+
+Cudjo was still reluctant; but just then occurred a pleasing incident,
+which made him feel good-natured towards everybody. Pomp and Pepperill
+arrived, bringing the bag of meal and the basket of potatoes which the
+bear-hunters had forsaken in the woods, and which the rain had preserved
+from the fire.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+_LYSANDER TAKES POSSESSION._
+
+
+Gad the "Sleeper" (he had earned that title) had been himself placed
+under guard for drinking too much of the prisoners' liquor, and
+suffering them to escape. Miserable, sullen, thirsty, he languished in
+confinement.
+
+"Let 'em shoot me, and done with it, if that's the penalty," said this
+chivalrous son of the south; "only give a feller suthin' to drink!"
+
+But that policy of the confederates, which opened the jails of the
+country, and put arms in the hands of the convicts, and pardoned every
+felon that would fight, might be expected to find a better use for an
+able-bodied fellow, like Gad, than to shoot him.
+
+The use they found for him was this: He had been a mighty hunter before
+the Lord, ere he became too besotted and lazy for such sport; and he
+professed to know the mountains better than any other man. Accordingly,
+on the recommendation of his friend Lieutenant Ropes, it was resolved to
+send him to spy out the position of the patriots. It was an enterprise
+of some danger, and, to encourage him in it, he was promised two
+things--pardon for his offence, and, what was of more importance to him,
+a bottle of old whiskey.
+
+"I'll see that you have light enough," said Ropes, significantly.
+
+It was the evening of the firing of the forests. How well the lieutenant
+fulfilled his part of the engagement, we have seen.
+
+Gad put the bottle in his pocket, and set off at dark by routes obscure
+and circuitous to get upon the trail of the patriots. How well _he_
+succeeded will appear by and by.
+
+The burning of the forests caused a great excitement in the valley,
+especially among those families whose husbands and fathers were known to
+have taken refuge in them. Who had committed the barbarous act? The
+confederates denounced it with virtuous indignation, charging the
+patriots with it, of course. There was in the village but one witness
+who could have disputed this charge, and he now occupied Gad's place in
+the guard-house. It was the deserter Carl.
+
+All the morning Gad's return was anxiously awaited. No doubt there were
+good reasons why he did not come. So said his friend Silas; and his
+friend Silas was right: there were good reasons.
+
+"Anyhow, I kep' my word--I giv him light enough, I reckon!" chuckled
+Silas.
+
+That was true: Gad had had light enough, and to spare.
+
+The rain continued all the morning. Perhaps that was what detained the
+scout; for it was known that he had a great aversion to water.
+
+In the afternoon came one with tidings from the mountain. It was not
+Gad. It was old Toby.
+
+He was seized by some soldiers and taken before Captain Sprowl, at the
+school-house.
+
+"Toby, you black devil, where have you been?" This was Lysander's
+chivalrous way of addressing an inferior whom he wished to terrify.
+
+Now, if there was a person in the world whom Toby detested, it was this
+roving Lysander, who had disgraced the Villars family by marrying into
+it. However, he concealed his contempt with a politic hypocrisy worthy
+of a whiter skin.
+
+"Please, sar," said the old negro, cap in hand, "I'se been lookin' for
+my ol' massa and my young missis."
+
+"Well, what luck, you lying scoundrel?"
+
+"O, no luck 't all, I 'sure you, sar!"
+
+"What! couldn't you find 'em? Don't you lie, you ----." (We may as well
+omit the captain's energetic epithets.)
+
+"O, sar!"--Toby looked up earnestly with counterfeit grief in his
+wrinkled old face,--"dey ain't nowhars on de face ob de 'arth!"
+
+"Not on the face of the earth!"
+
+"If dey is, den de fire's done burnt 'em all up. I seen, down in a big
+holler, a place whar somebody's been burnt, shore! Dar's a man, and a
+hoss on top on him, and de hoss's har am all burnt off, and de man's
+trouse's-legs am all burnt off too, and one foot's got a fried boot onto
+it, and tudder han't got nuffin' on, but jes' de skin and bone all
+roasted to a crisp; and I 'specs dar's 'nuff sight more dead folks down
+in dar, on'y I didn't da's to look, it make me feel so skeerylike!"
+
+All which, and much more, Toby related so circumstantially, that Captain
+Sprowl was strongly impressed with the truth of the story. Great,
+therefore, was the joy of the captain. Perhaps the patriots had been
+destroyed: he hoped so! Still more ardently he hoped that Virginia had
+perished with her father. For was he not the husband of Salina? and the
+snug little Villars property, did he not covet it?
+
+"Can you show me that spot, Toby?"
+
+"'Don'o', sar: I specs I could, sar."
+
+"Don't you forget about it! Now, Toby, go home to your mistress,--my
+wife's your mistress, you know,--and wait till you are wanted."
+
+"Yes, sar,"--bowing, and pulling his foretop.
+
+Captain Sprowl did not overhear the irrepressible chuckle of
+satisfaction in which the old negro indulged as he retired, or he would
+have perceived that he had been trifled with. We are apt to be extremely
+credulous when listening to what we wish to believe; and Lysander's
+delight left no room in his heart for suspicion. All he desired now was
+that Gad should appear and confirm Toby's report; for surely Gad must
+know something about the dead horse and the dead man under him; and why
+did not the fellow return?
+
+As for Toby, he hastened home as fast as his tired old legs could carry
+him, chuckling all the way over his lucky escape, and the cunning
+answers by which he had mystified the captain without telling a
+downright falsehood. "Ob course, dey ain't on de face ob de 'arth, long
+as dey's inside on't! Hi, hi, hi!"
+
+He did not greatly relish reporting himself to Salina: nevertheless, he
+had been ordered to do so, not only by the captain, but by those whose
+authority he respected more.
+
+Salina, though so bitter, was not without natural affection, and she had
+suffered much and waited anxiously ever since Toby, terrified into the
+avowal of his belief that Virginia was in the burning woods, had set out
+in search of her. She was not patient; she was wanting in religious
+trust. She had not slept. All night and all day she had tortured herself
+with terrible fancies. Instead of calming her spirit with prayer, she
+had kept it irritated with spiteful thoughts against what she deemed her
+evil destiny.
+
+There are certain natures to which every misfortune brings a blessing;
+for, whatever it may take away, it is sure to leave that divine
+influence which comes from resignation and a deepened sense of reliance
+upon God. Such a nature was the old clergyman's. Every blow his heart
+had received had softened it; and a softened heart is a well of interior
+happiness; it is more precious to its possessor than all outward gifts
+of friends and fortune. Such a nature, too, was Virginia's. She too,
+through all things, kept warm in her bosom that holy instinct of faith,
+that blessed babe named Love, ever humbly born, whose life within is a
+light that transfigures the world. To such, despair cannot come; for
+when the worst arrives, when all they cherished is gone, heaven is still
+left to them; and they look up and smile. To them sorrow is but a
+preparation for a diviner joy. All things indeed work together for their
+good; since, whether fair fortune comes, or ill, they possess the
+spiritual alchemy that transmutes it into blessing.
+
+This love, this faith, Salina lacked. She fostered in their place that
+selfishness and discontent which sour the soul. Every blow upon her
+heart had hardened it. Every trial embittered and angered her. Hence the
+swollen and flaming eyes, the impatient and scowling looks, with which
+she met the returning Toby.
+
+"Where is Virginia?"
+
+"Dat I can't bery well say, Miss Salina," replied Toby, scratching his
+woolly head. He would never sacrifice his family pride so far as to call
+her Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"How dare you come back without her?" And she heaped upon him the
+bitterest reproaches. It was he who, through his cowardice, had been the
+cause of Virginia's night adventure. It was he who had ruined everything
+by concealing her departure until it was too late. Then he might have
+found her, if he had so resolved. But if he could not, why had he
+remained absent all day?
+
+Under this sharp fire of accusations Toby stood with ludicrous
+indifference, grinning, and scratching his head. At length he scratched
+out of it a little roll of paper that had been confided to his wool for
+safe keeping, in case he should be seized and searched. It fell upon the
+floor. He hastily snatched it up, and gave it, with obsequious alacrity,
+to Mrs. Sprowl. She took, unrolled it, and read. It was a pencilled note
+in the handwriting of Virginia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Dear Sister: Thanks to a kind Providence and to kind friends, we are
+safe. I was rescued last night from the most frightful dangers in the
+burning woods. I had come, without your knowledge, to get news of our
+dear father. I am now with him. He has excellent shelter, and devoted
+attendants; but the comforts of his home are wanting, and I have learned
+how much he is dependent upon us for his happiness. For this reason I
+shall remain with him as long as I can. To relieve your mind we send
+Toby back to you. V."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening Captain Sprowl entered the house of the absent Mr. Villars
+with the air of one who had just come into possession of that little
+piece of property. He nodded with satisfaction at the walls, glanced
+approvingly at the furniture, curved his lip rather contemptuously at
+the books (as much as to say, "I'll sell off all that sort of rubbish"),
+and expressed decided pleasure at sight of old Toby. "Worth eight
+hundred dollars, that nigger is!" He had either forgotten that Mr.
+Villars had given Toby his freedom, or he believed that, under the new
+order of things, in a confederacy founded on slavery, such gifts would
+not be held valid.
+
+"Well, Sallie, my girl,"--throwing himself into the old clergyman's easy
+chair,--"here we are at home! Bring me the bootjack, Toby."
+
+"I don't know about your being at home!" said Salina, indignantly.
+
+And it was evident that Toby did not know about bringing the bootjack.
+He looked as if he would have preferred to jerk the chair from beneath
+the sprawling Lysander, and break it over him.
+
+"I suppose Toby has told you the news? Awful news! a fearful
+dispensation of Providence! Pepperill came in this afternoon and
+confirmed it. We thought he had deserted, but it appears he had only got
+lost in the woods. He reports some dead bodies in a ravine, and his
+account tallies very well with Toby's. We'll wear mourning, of course,
+Sallie."
+
+Lysander stroked his chin. Mrs. Lysander tapped the floor with her
+impatient foot, gnawed her lip, and scowled.
+
+"Come, my dear!" said the captain, coaxingly; "we may as well understand
+each other. Times is changed. I tell ye, I'm going to be one of the big
+men under the new government. Now, Sal, see here. I'm your husband, and
+there's no getting away from it. And what's the use of getting away from
+it, even if we could? Let's settle down, and be respectable. We've had
+quarrels enough, and I've got tired of 'em. Toby, why don't you bring
+that bootjack?"
+
+Lysander swung his chair around towards Salina. She turned hers away
+from him, still knitting her brows and gnawing that disdainful lip.
+
+"Now what's the use, Sal? Since the way is opened for us to live
+together again, why can't you make up your mind to it, let bygones be
+bygones, and begin life over again? When I was a poor devil, dodging the
+officers, and never daring to see you except in the dark, I couldn't
+blame you for feeling cross with me; for it was a cursed miserable state
+of things. But you're a captain's wife now. You'll be a general's wife
+by and by. I shall be off fighting the battles of my country, and you'll
+be proud to hear of my exploits."
+
+Salina was touched. Weary of the life she led, morbidly eager for
+change, she was a secessionist from the first, and had welcomed the war.
+Moreover, strange as it may seem, she loved this worthless Lysander. She
+hated him for the misery he had caused her; she was exceedingly bitter
+against him; yet love lurked under all. She was secretly proud to see
+him a captain. It was hard to forgive him for all the wrongs she had
+suffered; but her heart was lonely, and it yearned for reconciliation.
+Her scornful lip quivered, and there was a convulsive movement in her
+throat.
+
+"Go away!" she exclaimed, violently, as he approached to caress her. "I
+am as unhappy as I can be! O, if I had never seen you! Why do you come
+to torture me now?"
+
+This passion pleased Lysander: it was a sign that her spirit was
+breaking. He caught her in his arms, called her pet names, laughed, and
+kissed her. And this woman, after all, loved to be called pet names, and
+kissed.
+
+"Toby! you devil!" roared Lysander, "why don't you bring that bootjack?"
+
+The old negro stood behind the door, with the bootjack in his hand,
+furious, ready to hurl it at the captain's head. He hesitated a moment,
+then turned, discreetly, and flung it out of the kitchen window.
+
+"Ain't a bootjack nowars in de house, sar!"
+
+"Then come here yourself!"
+
+And the gay captain made a bootjack of the old negro.
+
+"Now shut up the house and go to bed!" he said, dismissing him with a
+kick.
+
+After Toby had retired, and Salina had wiped her eyes, and Lysander had
+got his feet comfortably installed in the old clergyman's slippers, the
+long-estranged couple grew affectionate and confidential.
+
+"Law, Sallie!" said the captain, caressingly, "we can be as happy as two
+pigs in clover!" And he proceeded to interpret, in plain prosaic detail,
+those blissful possibilities expressed by the choice poetic figure.
+
+It was evident to Salina that all his domestic plans were founded on the
+supposition that the slippers he had on were the dead man's shoes he had
+been waiting for. Was she shocked by this cold, atrocious spirit of
+calculation? At first she was; but since she had begun to pardon his
+faults, she could easily overlook that. She, who had lately been so
+spiteful and bitter, was now all charity towards this man. Even the
+image of her blind and aged father faded from her mind; even the pure
+and beautiful image of her sister grew dim; and the old, revivified
+attachment became supreme. Shall we condemn the weakness? Or shall we
+pity it, rather? So long her affections had been thwarted! So long she
+had carried that lonely and hungry heart! So long, like a starved, sick
+child, it had fretted and cried, till now, at last, nurture and warmth
+made it grateful and glad! A babe is a sacred thing; and so is love. But
+if you starve and beat them? Perhaps Salina's unhappiness of temper owed
+its development chiefly to this cause. No wonder, then, that we find her
+melancholy, morbid, unreasonable, and now so ready to cling again to
+this wretch, this scamp, her husband, forgiving all, forgetting all (for
+the moment at least), in the wild flood of love and tears that drowned
+the past.
+
+"O, yes! I do think we can be happy!" she said--"if you will only be
+kind and good to me! If not here, why, then, somewhere else; for place
+is of no consequence; all I want is love."
+
+"Ah!" said Lysander, knocking the ashes from his cigar, "but I have a
+fancy for this place! And what should we leave it for?"
+
+"Because--you know--there is no certainty--I believe father is alive
+yet, and well."
+
+"Not unless Toby lied to me!--Did he?"
+
+"Pshaw! you can't place any reliance on what Toby says!"--evasively.
+
+"But I tell you Pepperill confirms his report about the dead bodies in
+the ravine! Now, what do you know to the contrary?" Lysander appeared
+very much excited, and a quarrel was imminent. Salina dreaded a quarrel.
+She broke into a laugh.
+
+"The truth is, Toby did fool you. He couldn't help bragging to me about
+it."
+
+O Toby, Toby! that little innocent vanity of yours is destined to cost
+you, and others besides you, very dear! Lysander sprang upon his feet;
+his eyes sparkled with rage. Salina saw that it was now too late to keep
+the secret from him; there was no way but to tell him all. She showed
+Virginia's note. Virginia and her father alive and safe--that was what
+maddened Lysander!
+
+But where were they?
+
+Salina could not answer that question; for the most she had been able to
+get out of Toby was only a vague hint that they were hidden somewhere in
+a cave.
+
+"No matter!" said Lysander, with a diabolical laugh showing his clinched
+and tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll have the nigger licked! I'll have the
+truth out of him, or I'll have his life?"
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+_TOBY'S REWARD._
+
+
+Filled with disgust and wrath, Toby had obeyed the man who assumed to be
+his master, and gone to bed. But he was scarcely asleep, when he felt
+somebody shaking him, and awoke to see bending over him, with smiling
+countenance, lamp in hand, Captain Lysander.
+
+"What's wantin', sar?"
+
+"I want you to do an errand for me, Toby," Lysander kindly replied.
+
+"Wal, sar, I don'o', sar," said Toby, reluctant, sitting up in bed and
+rubbing his elbows. "You know I had a right smart tramp. I's a
+tuckered-out nigger, sar; dat's de troof."
+
+"Yes, you had a hard time, Toby. But you'll just run over to the
+school-house for me, I know. That's a good fellow!"
+
+Toby hardly knew what to make of Lysander's extraordinarily persuasive
+and indulgent manner. He didn't know before that a Sprowl could smile so
+pleasantly, and behave so much like a gentleman. Then, the captain had
+called him a good fellow, and his African soul was not above flattery.
+Weary, sleepy as he was, he felt strongly inclined to get up out of his
+delicious bed, and go and do Lysander's errand.
+
+"You've only to hand this note to Lieutenant Ropes. And I'll give you
+something when you come back--something you don't get every day, Toby!
+Something you've deserved, and ought to have had long ago!" And
+Lysander, all smiles, patted the old servant's shoulder.
+
+This was too much for Toby. He laughed with pleasure, got up, pulled on
+his clothes, took the note, and started off with alacrity, to convince
+the captain that he merited all the good that was said of him, and that
+indefinite "something" besides.
+
+What could that something be? He thought of many things by the way: a
+dollar; a knife; a new pair of boots with red tops, such as Lysander
+himself wore;--which last item reminded him of the bootjack he had been
+used for, and the kick he had received.
+
+He stopped in the street, his wrath rising up again at the recollection.
+"Good mind ter go back, and not do his old arrant." But then he thought
+of the smiles and compliments, and the promised reward. "Somefin' kinder
+decent 'bout dat mis'ble Sprowl, 'long wid a heap o' mean tings, arter
+all!" And he started on again.
+
+Lysander's note was in these words:--
+
+"Leiutent Ropes Send me with the bearrer of This 2 strappin felloes
+capble of doin a touhgh Job."
+
+This letter was duly signed, and duly delivered, and it brought the "2
+strappin felloes." The internal evidence it bore, that Lysander had not
+pursued his studies at school half as earnestly as he had of late
+pursued the schoolmaster, made no difference with the result.
+
+The two strapping fellows returned with Toby. They were raw recruits,
+who had travelled a long distance on foot in order to enlist in the
+confederate ranks. They had an unmistakable foreign air. They called
+themselves Germans. They were brothers.
+
+"All right, Toby!" said Lysander, well pleased. "What are you bowing and
+grinning at me for? O, I was to give you something!"
+
+"If you please, sar," said Toby--wretched, deceived, cajoled, devoted
+Toby.
+
+"Well, you go to the woodshed and bring the clothes line for these
+fellows--to make a swing for the ladies, you know--then I'll tell you
+what you're to have."
+
+"Sartin, sar." And Toby ran for the clothes line.
+
+"Good old Toby! Now, what you have deserved so long, and what these
+stout Dutchmen will proceed to give you, is the damnedest licking you
+ever had in your life!"
+
+Toby almost fainted; falling upon his knees, and rolling up his eyes in
+consternation. Sprowl smiled. The "Dutchmen" grinned. Just then Salina
+darted into the room.
+
+"Lysander! what are you going to do with that old man?"
+
+She put the demand sharply, her short upper lip quivering, cheeks
+flushed, eyes flaming.
+
+"I'm going to have him whipped."
+
+"No, you are not. You promised me you wouldn't. You told me that if he
+would go to the Academy for you, and be respectful, you would forgive
+him. If I had known what you were sending for, he should never have left
+this house. Now send those men back, and let him go."
+
+"Not exactly, my lady. I am master in this house, whatever turns up. I
+am this nigger's master, too."
+
+"You are not; you never were. Toby has his freedom. He shall not be
+whipped!" And with a gesture of authority, and with a stamp of her foot,
+Salina placed herself between the kneeling old servant and the grinning
+brothers.
+
+Alas! this woman's dream of love and happiness had been brief, as all
+such dreams, false in their very nature, must ever be. She loved him
+well enough to concede much. She was not going to quarrel with him any
+more. To avoid a threatened quarrel, she betrayed Toby. But she was not
+heartless: she had a sense of justice, pride, temper, an impetuous will,
+not yet given over in perpetuity to the keeping of her husband.
+
+The captain laughed devilishly, and threw his arms about his wife (this
+time in no loving embrace), and seizing her wrists, held them, and
+nodded to the soldiers to begin their work.
+
+They laid hold of Toby, still kneeling and pleading, bound his arms
+behind him with the cord, and then looked calmly at Lysander for
+instructions.
+
+"Take him to the shed," said the captain. "One of you carry this light.
+You can string him up to a crossbeam. If you don't understand how that's
+done, I'll go and show you. He's to have twenty lashes to begin with,
+for lying to me. Then he's to be whipped till he tells where our escaped
+prisoners are hid in the mountains. You understand?"
+
+"Ve unterstan," said the brothers, coldly.
+
+Toby groaned. They took hold of him, and dragged him away.
+
+"Now will you behave, my girl? A pretty row you're making! Ye see it's
+no use. I am master. The nigger'll only get it the worse for your
+interference."
+
+Lysander looked insolently in his wife's face. It was livid.
+
+"Hey?" he said. "One of your tantrums?"
+
+He placed her on a chair. She was rigid; she did not speak; he would
+have thought she was in a fit but for the eyes which she never took off
+of him--eyes fixed with deep, unutterable, deadly, despairing hate.
+
+"I reckon you'll behave--you'd better!" he said, shaking his finger
+warningly at her as he retired backwards from the room.
+
+She saw the door close behind him. She did not move: her eyes were still
+fixed on that door: heavy and cold as stone, she sat there, and gazed,
+with that same look of unutterable hate. Perhaps five minutes. Then she
+heard blows and shrieks. Toby's shrieks: he had no Carl now to rush in
+and cut his bands.
+
+The twenty lashes for lying had been administered on the negro's bare
+back. Then Lysander put the question: Was he prepared to tell all he
+knew about the fugitives and the cave?
+
+"O, pardon, sar! pardon, sar!" the old man implored; "I can't tell
+nuffin', dat am de troof!"
+
+"Work away, boys," said Lysander.
+
+Was it supposed that the good old practice of applying torture to
+enforce confession had long since been done away with? A great mistake,
+my friend. Driven from that ancient stronghold of conservatism, the
+Spanish Inquisition, it found refuge in this modern stronghold of
+conservatism, American Slavery. Here the records of its deeds are
+written on many a back.
+
+But Toby was not a slave. No matter for that. For in the school of
+slavery, this is the lesson that soon or late is learned: Not simply
+that there are two castes, freeman and slave; two races, white and
+black; but that there are two great classes, the rich and the poor, the
+strong and the weak, the lord and the laborer, one born to rule, and the
+other to be ruled. All, who are not masters, are, or ought to be,
+slaves: black or white, it makes no difference; and the slave has no
+rights. This is the first principle of human slavery. This every slave
+society tends directly to develop. It may be kept carefully out of
+sight, but there it lurks, in the hardened hearts of men, like water
+within rocks. It is forever gushing up in little springs of despotism.
+Once it burst forth in a vast convulsive flood, and that was the
+Rebellion.
+
+Although Lysander had never owned a slave, he had all his life breathed
+the atmosphere of the institution, and imbibed its spirit. He hated
+labor. He was ambitious. But he was poor. Like a flying fish, he had
+forced himself out of the lower element of society, to which he
+naturally belonged, and had long desperately endeavored to soar. The
+struggle it had cost him to attain his present position rendered him all
+the more violent in his hatred of the inferior class, and all the more
+eager to enjoy the privileges of the aristocracy. Do not blame this man
+too much. The injustice, the cruelty, the atrocious selfishness he
+displays, do not belong so much to the individual as to the institution.
+The milk of this wolf makes the child it nourishes wolfish.
+
+Torture to the extent of ten lashes was applied; then once more the
+question was put. Gashed, bleeding, strung up by his thumbs to the
+crossbeam; every blow of the extemporized whips extorting from him a
+howl of agony; no rescue at hand; Lysander looking on with a merciless
+smile; the brothers doing their assigned work with merciless
+nonchalance; well might poor Toby cry out, in the wild insanity of
+pain,--
+
+"Yes, sar! I'll tell, I'll tell, sar!"
+
+"Very good," said Lysander. "Let him breathe a minute, boys."
+
+But in that minute Toby gathered up his soul again, dismissed the
+traitor, Cowardice, and took counsel of his fidelity. Betray his good
+old master to these ruffians? Break his promise to Virginia, his oath to
+Cudjo and Pomp? No, he couldn't do that. He thought of Penn, who would
+certainly be hung if captured; and hung through his treachery!
+
+"Now, out with it," said Lysander. "All about the cave. And don't ye
+lie, for you'll have to go and show it to us when we're ready."'
+
+"I can't tell!" said Toby. "Dar ain't no cave! none't I knows
+about--dat's shore!" This was of course a downright lie; but it was told
+to save from ruin those he loved; and I do not think it stands charged
+against his soul on the books of the recording angel.
+
+"Ten more, boys," said Lysander.
+
+"O, wait, wait, sar!" shrieked Toby. "Des guv me time to tink!"
+
+He thought of ten lashes; ten more afterwards; and still another ten;
+for he knew that the whipping would not cease until either he betrayed
+the fugitives or died; and every lash was to him an agony.
+
+"Think quick," said Captain Sprowl.
+
+Just then the door, of the kitchen opened. Toby grasped wildly at that
+straw of hope. It broke instantly. The comer was Salina. She had had the
+power to betray him, but not the power to save. She stood with folded
+arms, and smiled.
+
+"I can't help you, Toby, but I can be revenged."
+
+"Hello!" cried Lysander, with a start. "What smoke is that?"
+
+She had left the door open, and a draught of air wafted a strange smell
+of burning cloth and pine wood to his nostrils.
+
+"Nothing," replied Salina, "only the house is afire."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+_CARL MAKES AN ENGAGEMENT._
+
+
+Lysander looked in through the doors and saw flames. She had touched the
+lamp to the sitting-room curtains, and they had ignited the wood-work.
+
+"Your own house," he said, furiously. "What a fiend!"
+
+"It was my father's house until you took possession of it," she
+answered. "Now it shall burn."
+
+If he had not already considered that he had an interest at stake, that
+gentle remark reminded him.
+
+"Boys! come quick! By----! we must put out the fire!"
+
+He rushed into the kitchen. The German brothers had come to execute his
+commands: whether to flay a negro or extinguish a fire, was to them a
+matter of indifference; and they followed him, seizing pails.
+
+Salina was prepared for the emergency. She held a butcher-knife
+concealed under her folded arms. With this she cut the cords above
+Toby's thumbs. It was done in an instant.
+
+"Now, take this and run! If they go to take you, kill them!"
+
+She thrust the handle of the knife into his hand, and pushed him from
+the shed. Terrified, bewildered, weak, he seemed moving in a kind of
+nightmare. But somehow he got around the corner of the shed, and
+disappeared in the darkness.
+
+The brothers saw him go. They were drawing water at the well, and
+handing it to Lysander in the house. But they had been told to hand
+water, not to catch the negro. So they looked placidly at each other,
+and said nothing.
+
+The fire was soon extinguished; and Lysander, with his coat off, pail in
+hand, excited, turned and saw his "fiend" of a wife seated composedly in
+a chair, regarding him with a smile sarcastic and triumphant. He uttered
+a frightful oath.
+
+"Any more of your tantrums, and I'll kill you!"
+
+"Any more of yours," she replied, "and I'll burn you up. I can set fires
+faster than you can put them out. I don't care for the house any more
+than I care for my life, and that's precious little."
+
+By the tone in which she said these words, level, determined, distinct,
+with that spice which compressed fury lends, Captain Lysander Sprowl
+knew perfectly well that she meant them.
+
+The brothers looked at each other intelligently. One said something in
+German, which we may translate by the words "Incompatibility of temper;"
+and he smiled with dry humor. The other responded in the same tongue,
+and with a sleepy nod, glancing phlegmatically at Sprowl. What he said
+may be rendered by the phrase--"Caught a Tartar."
+
+Although Lysander did not understand the idiom, he seemed to be quite of
+the Teutonic opinion. He regarded Mrs. Sprowl with a sort of impotent
+rage. If he was reckless, she had shown herself more reckless. Though he
+was so desperate, she had outdone him in desperation. He saw plainly
+that if he touched her now, that touch must be kindness, or it must be
+death.
+
+"Have you let Toby go?"
+
+"Yes," replied Salina.
+
+"We can catch him," said Lysander.
+
+"If you do you will be sorry. I warn you in season."
+
+Since she said so, Lysander did not doubt but that it would be so. He
+concluded, therefore, not to catch Toby--that night. Moreover, he
+resolved to go back to his quarters and sleep. He was afraid of that
+wildcat; he dreaded the thought of trusting himself in the house with
+her. He durst not kill her, and he durst not go to sleep, leaving her
+alive. The Germans, perceiving his fear, looked at each other and
+grunted. That grunt was the German for "mean cuss." They saw through
+Lysander.
+
+After all were gone, Salina went out and called Toby. The old negro had
+fled for his life, and did not hear. She returned into the house, the
+aspect of which was rendered all the more desolate and drear by the
+marks of fire, the water that drenched the floor, the smoky atmosphere,
+and the dim and bluish lamp-light. The unhappy woman sat down in the
+lonely apartment, and thought of her brief dream of happiness, of this
+last quarrel which could never be made up, and of the hopeless,
+loveless, miserable future, until it seemed that the last drop of
+womanly blood in her veins was turned to gall.
+
+At the same hour, not many miles away, on a rude couch in a mountain
+cave, by her father's side, Virginia was tranquilly sleeping, and
+dreaming of angel visits. Across the entrance of the cavern, like an
+ogre keeping guard, Cudjo was stretched on a bed of skins. The fire,
+which rarely went out, illumined faintly the subterranean gloom. By its
+light came one, and looked at the old man and his child sleeping there,
+so peacefully, so innocently, side by side. The face of the father was
+solemn, white, and calm; that of the maiden, smiling and sweet. The
+heart of the young man yearned within him; his eyes, as they gazed,
+filled with tears; and his lips murmured with pure emotion,--
+
+"O Lord, I thank thee for their sakes! O Lord, preserve them and bless
+them!"
+
+And he moved softly away, his whole soul suffused with ineffable
+tenderness towards that good old man and the dear, beautiful girl. He
+had stolen thither to see that all was well. All was indeed well. And
+now he retired once more to a recess in the rock, where he and Pomp had
+made their bed of blankets and dry moss.
+
+The footsteps on the solid floor of stone had not awakened her. And what
+was more remarkable, the lover's beating heart and worshipping gaze had
+not disturbed her slumber. But now the slightest movement on the part of
+her blind parent banishes sleep in an instant.
+
+"Daughter, are you here?"
+
+"I am here, father!"
+
+"Are you well, my child?"
+
+"O, very well! I have had such a sweet sleep! Can I do anything for
+you?"
+
+"Yes. Let me feel that you are near me. That is all." She kissed him.
+"Heaven is good to me!" he said.
+
+She watched him until he slept again. Then, her soul filled with
+thankfulness and peace, she closed her eyes once more, and happy
+thoughts became happy dreams.
+
+At about that time Salina threw herself despairingly upon her bed, at
+home, gnashing her teeth, and wishing she had never been born. And these
+two were sisters. And Salina had the house and all its comforts left to
+her, while Virginia had nothing of outward solace for her delicate
+nature but the rudest entertainment. So true it is that not place, and
+apparel, and pride make us happy, but piety, affection, and the
+disposition of the mind.
+
+The night passed, and morning dawned, and they who had slept awoke, and
+they who had not slept watched bitterly the quickening light which
+brought to them, not joy and refreshment, but only another phase of
+weariness and misery.
+
+Captain Lysander Sprowl was observed to be in a savage mood that day.
+The cares of married life did not agree with him: they do not with some
+people. Because Salina had baffled him, and Toby had escaped, his
+inferiors had to suffer. He was sharp even with Lieutenant Ropes, who
+came to report a fact of which he had received information.
+
+"Stackridge was in the village last night!"
+
+"What's that to me?" said Lysander.
+
+"The lieutenant-colonel--" whispered Silas. Sprowl grew attentive. By the
+lieutenant-colonel was meant no other person than Augustus Bythewood,
+who had received his commission the day before. Well might Lysander, at
+the mention of him to whom both these aspiring officers owed everything,
+bend a little and listen. Ropes proceeded. "He feels a cussed sight
+badder now he believes the gal is in a cave somewhars with the
+schoolmaster, than he did when he thought she was burnt up in the woods.
+He entirely approves of your conduct last night, and says Toby must be
+ketched, and the secret licked out of him. In the mean while he thinks
+sunthin' can be done with Stackridge's family. Stackridge was home last
+night, and of course his wife will know about the cave. The secret might
+be frightened out on her, or, I swear!" said Silas, "I wouldn't object
+to using a little of the same sort of coercion you tried with Toby; and
+Bythewood wouldn't nuther. Only, you understand, he musn't be supposed
+to know anything about it."
+
+Lysander's eyes gleamed. He showed his tobacco-stained teeth in a way
+that boded no good to any of the name of Stackridge.
+
+"Good idee?" said Silas, with a coarse and brutal grin.
+
+"Damned good!" said Lysander. Indeed, it just suited his ferocious mood.
+"Go yourself, lieutenant, and put it into execution."
+
+"There's one objection to that," replied Silas, thrusting a quid into
+his cheek. "I know the old woman so well. It's best that none of us in
+authority should be supposed to have a hand in't. Send somebody that
+don't know her, and that you can depend on to do the job up harnsome.
+How's them Dutchmen?"
+
+"Just the chaps!" said Lysander, growing good-natured as the pleasant
+idea of whipping a woman developed itself more and more to his
+appreciative mind.
+
+From flogging a slave, to flogging a free negro, the step is short and
+easy. From the familiar and long-established usage of beating
+slave-women, to the novel fashion of whipping the patriotic wives of
+Union men, the step is scarcely longer, or more difficult. Even the
+chivalrous Bythewood, who was certainly a gentleman in the common
+acceptation of the term, magnificently hospitable to his equals, gallant
+to excess among ladies worthy of his smiles,--yet who never interfered
+to prevent the flogging of slave-mothers on his estates,--saw nothing
+extraordinary or revolting in the idea of extorting a secret from a
+hated Union woman by means of the lash. To such gross appetites for
+cruelty as Ropes had cultivated, the thing relished hugely. The keen,
+malignant palate of Lysander tasted the flavor of a good joke in it.
+
+The project was freely discussed, and in the hilarity of their hearts
+the two officers let fall certain words, like crumbs from their table,
+which a miserable dog chanced to pick up.
+
+That miserable dog was Dan Pepperill, whose heart was so much bigger
+than his wit. He knew that mischief was meant towards Mrs. Stackridge.
+How could he warn her? The drums were already beating for company drill,
+and he despaired of doing anything to save her, when by good fortune--or
+is there something besides good fortune in such things?--he saw one of
+his children approaching.
+
+The little Pepperill came with a message from her mother. Dan heard it
+unheedingly, then whispered in the girl's ear,--
+
+"Go and tell Mrs. Stackridge her and the childern's invited over to our
+house this forenoon. Right away now! Partic'lar reasons, tell her!"
+added Dan, reflecting that ladies in Mrs. Stackridge's station did not
+visit those in his wife's without particular reasons.
+
+The child ran away, and Pepperill fell into the ranks, only to get
+repeatedly and severely reprimanded by the drill-officer for his
+heedlessness that morning. He did everything awkwardly, if not
+altogether wrong. His mind was on the child and the errand on which he
+had sent her, and he kept wondering within himself whether she would do
+it correctly (children are so apt to do errands amiss!), and whether
+Mrs. Stackridge would be wise enough, or humble enough, to go quietly
+and give Mrs. P. a call.
+
+After company drill the brothers were summoned, and Lysander gave them
+secret orders. They were to visit Stackridge's house, seize Mrs.
+Stackridge and compel her, by blows if necessary, to tell where her
+husband was concealed.
+
+"You understand?" said the captain.
+
+"Ve unterstan," said they, dryly.
+
+Scarcely had the brothers departed, when a prisoner was brought in. It
+was Toby, who had been caught endeavoring to make his way up into the
+mountains.
+
+"Now we've got the nigger, mabby we'd better send and call the Dutchmen
+back," said Silas Ropes.
+
+"No, no!" said Lysander, through his teeth. "'Twon't do any harm to give
+the jade a good dressing down. I wish every man, woman, and child, that
+shrieks for the old rotten Union, could be served in the same way."
+
+Having set his heart on this little indulgence, Sprowl could not easily
+be persuaded to give it up. It was absolutely necessary to his peace of
+mind that somebody should be flogged. The interesting affair with Toby,
+which had been so abruptly broken off,--left, like a novelette in the
+newspapers, to be continued,--must be concluded in some shape: it
+mattered little upon whose flesh the final chapters were struck off.
+
+In the mean time the recaptured negro was taken to the guard-house.
+There he found a sympathizing companion. It was Carl. To him he told his
+story, and showed his wounds, the sight of which filled the heart of the
+lad with rage, and pity, and grief.
+
+"Vot sort of Tutchmen vos they?" Toby described them. Carl's eyes
+kindled. "I shouldn't be wery much susprised," said he, "if they vos--no
+matter!"
+
+Lieutenant Ropes arrived, bringing into the guard-house a formidable
+cat-o'-nine-tails.
+
+"String that nigger up," said Silas.
+
+Ropes was not the man to await patiently the issue of the
+woman-whipping, while here was a chance for a little private sport. He
+remembered how Toby had got away from him once--that he too owed him a
+flogging. Debts of this kind, if no others, Silas delighted to pay; and
+accordingly the negro was strung up. It was well for the lieutenant that
+Carl had irons on his wrists.
+
+The sound of the poor old man's groans,--the sight of his gashed,
+oozing, and inflamed back, bared again to the whip,--was to Carl
+unendurable. But as it was not in his power to obey the impulse of his
+soul, to spring for a musket and slay that monster of cruelty, Ropes, on
+the spot,--he must try other means, perhaps equally unwise and
+desperate, to save Toby from torture.
+
+"Vait, sir, if you please, vun leetle moment," he called out to Silas.
+"I have a vord or two to shpeak."
+
+He had as yet, however, scarcely made up his mind what to propose. A
+moment's reflection convinced him that only one thing could purchase
+Toby's reprieve; and perhaps even that would fail. Regardless of
+consequences to himself, he resolved to try it.
+
+"I know petter as he does about the cave; I vos there," he cried out,
+boldly.
+
+"Hey? You offer yourself to be whipped in this old nigger's place?" said
+Ropes.
+
+"Not wery much," replied Carl. "I can go mit you or anypody you vill
+send, and show vair the cave is. I remember. But if you vill have me
+whipped, I shouldn't be wery much surprised if that vould make me to
+forget. Whippins," he added, significantly, "is wery pad for the
+memory."
+
+"You mean to say, if you are licked, then you won't tell?"
+
+"That ish the idea I vished to conwey."
+
+"We'll see about that." Silas laughed. "In the mean time we'll try what
+can be got out of this nigger."
+
+Toby, who had had a gleam of hope, now fell again into despair. Just
+then Captain Sprowl came in.
+
+"Hold! What are you doing with that nigger?"
+
+Silas explained, and Carl repeated his proposal. Lysander caught eagerly
+at it. He remembered Salina's warning, and was glad of any excuse to
+liberate the old negro.
+
+"You promise to take me to the cave?" Carl assented. "Why, then,
+lieutenant, that's all we want, and I order this boy to be set free."
+
+"This boy" was Toby, who was accordingly let off, to his own
+inexpressible joy and Ropes's infinite disgust.
+
+"If Carl he take de responsumbility to show de cave, dat ain't my fault.
+'Sides, dat boy am bright, he am; de secesh can't git much de start o'
+him!"
+
+Thus the old negro congratulated himself on his way home. At the same
+time Carl, still in irons, was saying to himself,--
+
+"So far so goot. If they had whipped Toby, two things vould be wery
+pad--the whipping, for one, and he would have told, for another. But I
+have made vun promise. It vas a pad promise, and a pad promise is petter
+proken as kept. But if I preak it, they vill preak my head. Vot shall I
+do? Now let me see!" said Carl.
+
+And he remained plunged in thought.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+_CAPTAIN LYSANDER'S JOKE._
+
+
+Since the time when she lost her best feather-bed and her boarder, the
+worthy widow Sprowl had suffered serious pecuniary embarrassment. She
+missed sadly the regular four dollars a week, and the irregular
+gratuities, she had received from Penn. So much secession had cost her,
+without yielding as yet any of its promised benefits. The Yankees had
+not stepped up with the alacrity expected of them, and thrust their
+servile necks into the yoke of their natural masters. The slave trade
+was not reopened. Niggers were not yet so cheap that every poor widow
+could, at a trifling expense, provide herself with several, and grow
+rich on their labor. In the pride of seeing her son made what she called
+a "capting," and in the hope of enjoying some of the golden fruits of
+his valor, she had given him her last penny, and received up to the
+present time not a penny from him in return. In short, Lysander was
+ungrateful, and the widow was a disappointed woman.
+
+So it happened that the sugar-bowl and tea-canister were often empty,
+and the poor widow had no legitimate means of replenishing them. In this
+extremity she resorted to borrowing. She borrowed of everybody, and
+never repaid. She borrowed even of the hated Unionists in the
+neighborhood, and confessed with bitterness to her son that she found
+them more ready to lend to her than the families of secessionists.
+
+Again, on the morning of the events related in the last chapter, she
+found herself in want of many things--tea, sugar, meal, beans, potatoes,
+snuff, and tobacco; for this excellent woman snuffed, "dipped," and
+smoked.
+
+"Where shall I go and borry to-day?" said she, counting her patrons, and
+the number of times she had been to borrow of each, on her fingers.
+"Thar's Mis' Stackridge. I hain't been to her but oncet. I'll go agin,
+and carry the big basket."
+
+With her basket on her arm, and an ancient brown bonnet (which had been
+black at the time of the demise of the late lamented Sprowl,) on her
+head, and a multitude of excuses on her tongue, she set out, and walked
+to the farmer's house. This had one of those great, shed-like openings
+through it, so common in Tennessee. A door on the left, as you entered
+this covered space, led to the kitchen and living-room of the family.
+Here the widow knocked.
+
+There was no response. She knocked again, with the same result. Then she
+pulled the latch-string--for the door even of this well-to-do farmer had
+a latch-string. She entered. The house was deserted.
+
+"Ain't to home, none of 'em, hey?" said the widow, peering about her
+with a disagreeable scowl. "House wan't locked, nuther. Wonder if Mis'
+Stackridge and the childern have gone to the mountains too? And whar's
+old Aunt Deb?"
+
+Her first feeling was that of resentment. What right had Mrs. Stackridge
+to be absent when she came to borrow? As she explored the pantry and
+closets, however, and became convinced that she was absolutely alone in
+a well-provisioned farm-house, her countenance lighted up with a smile.
+
+"I can borry what I want jest exac'ly as well as if Mis' Stackridge war
+to home," thought the widow.
+
+And she proceeded to fill her basket. She helped herself to a pan of
+meal, borrowing the pan with it. "I'll fetch home the pan," said she,
+"when I do the meal,"--exposing her craggy teeth with a grim smile. "If
+I don't before, I'm a feared Mis' Stackridge'll haf to wait for't a
+considerable spell! What's in this box? Coffee! May as well take box and
+all. Bring back the box when I do the coffee. Wish I could find some
+tobacky somewhars--wonder whar they keep their tobacky!"
+
+Now, the excellent creature did not indulge in these liberties without
+some apprehension that Mrs. Stackridge might return suddenly and
+interrupt them. Perhaps she had not followed Mr. Stackridge to the
+mountains. Perhaps she had only gone into the village to buy shoes for
+her children, or to call on a neighbor. "If she should come back and
+ketch me at it,--why, then, I'll tell her I'm only jest a borryin', and
+see what she'll do about it. The prop'ty of these yer durned
+Union-shriekers is all gwine to be confisticated, and I reckon I may as
+well take my sheer when I can git it. Thar's a paper o' black pepper,
+and I'll take it jest as 'tis. Thar's a jar o' lump butter,--wish I
+could tote jar and all!--have some of the lumps on a plate anyhow!"
+
+She had soon filled her basket, and was regretting she had not brought
+two, or a larger one, when a handsome, new tin pail, hanging in the
+pantry, caught her eye. "Been wantin' jest sich a pail as that, this
+long while!" And she proceeded to fill that also.
+
+Just as she was putting the cover on, she was very much startled by
+hearing footsteps at the door.
+
+"O, dear me! What shall I do? If it should be Mr. Stackridge! But it
+can't be him! If it's only Mis' Stackridge or one of the niggers, I'll
+face it out! They won't das' to make a fuss, for they're
+Union-shriekers, and my son's a capting in the confederate army!"
+
+Thump, thump, thump!--loud knocking at the door.
+
+"My, it's visitors! Who can it be?" She set down her pail and basket.
+"I'll act jest as if I had a right here, anyhow!"
+
+She was hesitating, when the string was pulled, and two strangers,
+stout, square built, with foreign looking faces, carrying muskets, and
+dressed in confederate uniform, entered.
+
+"Mrs. Stackridge?" said they, in a heavy Teutonic accent.
+
+"Ye--ye--yes--" stammered the widow, trying to hide the guilty basket
+and pail behind her skirts. "What do you want of Mis' Stackridge?"
+
+One of the strangers said to the other, in German, indicating the
+plunder,--
+
+"This is the woman. She is getting provisions ready to send to her
+husband in the mountains."
+
+"Let us see what there is good to eat," said the other.
+
+Mrs. Sprowl, although understanding no word that was spoken, perceived
+that the borrowed property formed the theme of their remarks.
+
+"Have some?" she hastened to say, with extreme politeness, as the
+Germans approached the provisions.
+
+"Tank ye," said they, finding some bread and cold meat. And they ate
+with appetite, exchanging glances, and grunting with satisfaction.
+
+"O, take all you want!" said the widow. "You're welcome to anything
+there is in the house, I'm shore!"--adding, within herself, "I am so
+glad these soldiers have come! Now, whatever is missing will be laid to
+them."
+
+"You de lady of de house?" said the foreigners, munching.
+
+"Yes, help yourselves!" smiled the hospitable widow.
+
+"You Mrs. Stackridge?" they inquired, more particularly.
+
+"Yes; take anything you like!" replied the widow.
+
+"Where your husband?"
+
+"My husband! my poor dear husband! he has been dead these----"
+
+She checked herself, remembering that the soldiers took her for Mrs.
+Stackridge. If she undeceived them, then they would know she had been
+stealing.
+
+"Dead?" The Germans shook their heads and smiled. "No! He was here last
+night. He was seen. You take dese tings to him up in de mountain."
+
+"Would you like some cheese?" said the embarrassed widow.
+
+"Tank ye. Dis is better as rations."
+
+Mrs. Sprowl returned to the pantry, in order to replace the provisions
+she had so generously given away, and prepared to depart with the basket
+and pail; inviting the guests repeatedly to make themselves quite at
+home, and to take whatever they could find.
+
+"Wait!" said they. Each had a knee on the floor, and one hand full of
+bread and cheese. They looked up at her with broad, complacent, unctuous
+faces, smiling, yet resolute. And one, with his unoccupied hand, laid
+hold of the handle of the basket, while the other detained the pail.
+"You will tell us where is your husband," said they.
+
+"O, dear me, I don't know! I'm a poor lone woman, and where my husband
+is I can't consaive, I'm shore!"
+
+"You will tell us where is your husband," repeated the men; and one of
+them, getting upon his feet, stood before her at the door.
+
+"He's on the mountain somewhars. I don't know whar, and I don't keer,"
+cried the widow, excited. There was something in the stolid, determined
+looks of the brothers she did not like. "He's a bad man, Mr. Stackridge
+is! I'm a secessionist myself. You are welcome to everything in the
+house--only let me go now."
+
+"You will not go," said the soldier at the door, "till you tell us. We
+come for dat."
+
+On entering, they had placed their muskets in the corner. The speaker
+took them, and handed one to his comrade. And now the widow observed
+that out of the muzzle of each protruded the butt-end of a small
+cowhide. Each soldier held his gun at his side, and laying hold of the
+said butt-end, drew out the long taper belly and dangling lash of the
+whip, like a black snake by the neck.
+
+The widow screamed.
+
+"It's all a mistake. Let me go! I ain't Mis' Stackridge"
+
+Nothing so natural as that the wife of the notorious Unionist should
+deny her identity at sight of the whips. The soldiers looked at each
+other, muttered something in German, smiled, and replaced their muskets
+in the corner.
+
+"You tell us where is your husband. Or else we whip you. Dat is our
+orders."
+
+This they said in low tones, with mild looks, and with a calmness which
+was frightful. The widow saw that she had to do with men who obeyed
+orders literally, and knew no mercy.
+
+"I hain't got no husband. I ain't Mis' Stackridge. I'm a poor lone
+widder, that jest come over here to borry a few things, and that's all."
+
+"Ve unterstan. You say shust now you are Mrs. Stackridge. Now you say
+not. Dat make no difruns. Ve know. You tell us where is your husband, or
+ve string you up."
+
+This speech was pronounced by both the foreigners, a sentence by each,
+alternately. At the conclusion one drew a strong cord from his pocket,
+while the other looked with satisfaction at certain hooks in the
+plastering overhead, designed originally for the support of a kitchen
+pole, but now destined for another use.
+
+"Don't you dast to tech me!" screamed the false Mrs. Stackridge. "I'm a
+secessionist myself, that hates the Union-shriekers wus'n you do, and
+I've got a son that's a capting, and a poor lone widder at that!"
+
+"Dat we don't know. What we know is, you tell what we say, or we whip
+you. Dat's Captain Shprowl's orders."
+
+"Capting Sprowl! That's my son! my own son! If he sent you, then it's
+all right!"
+
+"So we tink. All right." And the soldiers, seizing her, tied her thumbs
+as Lysander had taught them, passed the cords over the hook as they had
+passed the clothesline over the crossbeam the night before, and drew the
+shrieking woman's hands above her head, precisely as they had hauled up
+Toby's. They then turned her skirts up over her head, and fastened them.
+This also they had been instructed to do by Lysander. It was, you will
+say, shameful; for this woman was free and white. Had she been a slave,
+with a different complexion, although perhaps quite as white, would it
+have been any the less shameful? Answer, ye believers in the divine
+rights of slave-masters!
+
+"Now you vill tell?" said the phlegmatic Teutons, measuring out their
+whips.
+
+"Go for my son! My son is Capting Sprowl!" gasped the stifled and
+terror-stricken widow.
+
+"Dat trick won't do. You shpeak, or we shtrike."
+
+"It is true, it is true! I am Mrs. Sprowl, and my husband is dead, and
+my son is Capting Sprowl, and a poor lone widder, that if you strike her
+a single blow he'll have you took and hung!"
+
+"If he is your son, den by your own son's orders we whip you. He vill
+not hang us for dat. You vill not tell? Den we give you ten lash."
+
+Blow upon blow, shriek upon shriek, followed. The soldiers counted the
+strokes aloud, deliberately, conscientiously, as they gave them, "Vun,
+two, tree," &c, up to ten. There they stopped. But the screams did not
+stop. This punishment, which it was sport to inflict upon a faithful old
+negro, which it would have been such a good joke to have bestowed upon
+the wife of a stanch Unionist, was no sport, no joke, but altogether a
+tragic affair to thy mother, O Lysander!
+
+Then she, who had so often wished that she too owned slaves, that when
+she was angry she might have them strung up and flogged, knew by fearful
+experience what it was to be strung up and flogged. Then she, who
+sympathized with her son in his desire to see every man, woman, and
+child, that loved the old Union, served in this fashion, felt in her own
+writhing and bleeding flesh the stings of that inhuman vengeance.
+Terrible blunder, for which she had only herself to thank! Robbery of
+her neighbor's house--the dishonest "borrowing," not of these ill-gotten
+goods only, but also of her neighbor's name--had brought her, by what we
+call fatality, to this strait.
+
+Fatality is but another name for Providence.
+
+The soldiers waited for a lull in the shrieks, then put once more the
+question.
+
+"You tell now? Where is your husband? No? Den you git ten lash more.
+Always ten lash till you tell."
+
+A storm of incoherent denial, angry threats, sobs, and screams, was the
+response. One of the soldiers drew her skirts over her head again, and
+gave another pull at the cords that hauled up her thumbs, while the
+other stood off and measured out his whip.
+
+Just then the door opened, and Captain Sprowl looked in.
+
+"How are you getting on, boys?"
+
+The question was accompanied by an approving smile, which seemed to say,
+"I see you are getting on very well."
+
+"We whip her once. We give her ten lash. She not tell."
+
+"Very well. Give her ten more."
+
+The widow struggled and screamed. Had she recognized her son's voice?
+Muffled as she was, he did not recognize hers. Nor was it surprising
+that, in the unusual posture in which he found her, he did not know her
+from Mrs. Stackridge.
+
+He stood in the door and smiled while the soldier laid on.
+
+"Make it a dozen," he quietly remarked. "And smart ones, to wind up
+with!"
+
+So it happened that, thanks to her son's presence, the screeching victim
+got two "smart ones" additional.
+
+"Now uncover her face. Ease away on her thumbs a little. I'll question
+her mys--Good Lucifer!" exclaimed the captain, finding himself face to
+face with his own mother.
+
+Twenty-two lashes and the torture of the strung-up thumbs had proved too
+much even for the strong nerves of Widow Sprowl. She fell down in a
+swoon.
+
+Lysander, furious, whipped out his sword, and turned upon the soldiers.
+They quietly stepped back, and took their guns from the corner. He would
+certainly have killed one of them on the spot had he not seen by the
+glance of their eyes that the other would, at the same instant, as
+certainly have killed him.
+
+"You scoundrels! you have whipped my own mother!"
+
+"Captain," they calmly answered, "we opey orders."
+
+"Fools!"--and Lysander ground his teeth,--"you should have known!"
+
+"Captain," they replied, "if you not know, how should we know? We never
+see dis woman pefore. We come. We find her taking prowisions from de
+house. We say, 'She take dem to her husband in de mountains.' We say,
+'You Mrs. Stackridge?' She say yes to everyting. We not know she lie. We
+not know she steal. We not say, 'You somepody else.' We opey orders. We
+take and we whip her. You come in and say, 'Whip more.' We whip more.
+Now you say to us, 'Scoundrels!' You say, 'Fools!' We say, 'Captain, it
+was your orders; we opey.'"
+
+Having by a joint effort at sententious English pronounced this speech,
+the brothers stood stolidly awaiting the result; while the captain,
+still gnashing his teeth, bent over the prostrate form of his mother.
+
+"Bring some water and throw on her! you idiots!" he yelled at them.
+"Would you see her die?"
+
+They looked at each other. "Water?" Yes, that was what was wanted. They
+remembered their practice of the previous evening. One found a wooden
+pail. The other emptied upon the floor the contents of the tin pail the
+widow had "borrowed." They went to the well. They brought water. "To
+throw on her?" Yes, that was what he said. And together they dashed a
+sudden drenching flood over the poor woman, as if the swoon were another
+fire to be extinguished.
+
+These fellows obeyed orders literally--a merit which Lysander now failed
+to appreciate. He swore at them terribly. But he did not countermand his
+last order. Accordingly they proceeded stoically to bring more water.
+Lysander had got his mothers head on his knee, and she had just opened
+her eyes to look and her mouth to gasp, when there came another double
+ice-cold wave, blinding, stifling, drowning her. Too much of water hadst
+thou, poor lone widow!
+
+Lysander let fall the maternal head, and bounded to his feet, roaring
+with wrath. The brothers, imperturbable, with the empty pails at their
+sides, stared at him with mute wonder.
+
+"Captain, dat was your orders. You say, 'Pring vasser and trow on.' We
+pring vasser and trow on. Dat is all."
+
+"But I didn't tell you to fetch pailfuls!"
+
+This sentence rushed out of Lysander's soul like a rocket, culminated in
+a loud, explosive oath, and was followed by a shower of fiery curses
+falling harmless on the heads of the unmoved Teutons.
+
+They waited patiently until the pyrotechnic rain ceased, then answered,
+speaking alternately, each a sentence, as if with one mind, but with two
+organs.
+
+"Captain, you hear. Last night vas de house afire. You say, 'Pring
+vasser.' We pring a little. Den you say to us, 'Tarn you! why in hell
+you shtop?' And you say, 'Von I tell you pring vasser, pring till I say
+shtop.' Vun time more to-day you say, 'Pring vasser,' and you never say
+shtop. You say, 'Trow on.' We trow on. Vat you say we do. You not say
+vat you mean, dat is mishtake for you."
+
+It is not to be supposed that Lysander listened meekly to the end of
+this speech. He had caught the sound of voices without that interested
+him more; and, looking, he saw Mrs. Stackridge returning, with her
+children.
+
+The Pepperill young-one had faithfully done her errand; and the farmer's
+wife, believing something important was meant by it, had hastened to
+accept the singular and urgent invitation. But, arrived at the poor
+man's shanty, she was astonished to find Mrs. Pepperill astonished to
+see her. They talked the matter over, questioned the child, and finally
+concluded that Daniel had said something quite different, which the
+child had misunderstood.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Stackridge, after sitting a-while, "I reckon I may as
+well be going back, for I've left only old Aunt Deb to home, and she's
+scar't to death to be left alone these times; thinks the secesh
+soldiers'll kill her. But I tell her not to be afeared of 'em. I ain't!"
+
+So this woman, little knowing how much real cause she had to be afraid,
+returned home with her family. When near the house she met Gaff and
+Jake, negroes belonging to the farm, who had been in the field at work,
+running towards her, in great terror, declaring that they heard somebody
+killing Aunt Deb.
+
+"Nonsense!" said she; and in spite of their assurances and entreaties,
+she marched straight towards the door through which the captain saw her
+coming.
+
+"Clear out!" said Lysander to the soldiers. "Go to your quarters. I'll
+have your case attended to!" This was spoken very threateningly. Then,
+as soon as they were out of hearing, he said to Mrs. Stackridge, "I'm
+sorry to say a couple of my men have been plundering your house. Them
+Dutchmen you just saw go out. Worse, than that, my mother was going by,
+and she came in to save your stuff, and they, it seems, took her for
+you, and beat her. You see, they have beat her most to death," said
+Lysander.
+
+"Lordy massy!" said Mrs. Stackridge.
+
+"Do help me! do take off my clo'es! a poor lone widder!" faintly moaned
+Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"When I got here," added the captain, "she had fainted, and they had
+used her basket to pack things in, as you see, and filled this pail,
+which they emptied afterwards, so as to bring water and fetch her to.
+Scoundrels! I'm glad they ain't native-born southerners!"
+
+"And where is Aunt Deb?" said Mrs. Stackridge, hastening to raise the
+widow up.
+
+"I dono'; I hain't seen her. O, dear, them villains!" groaned Mrs.
+Sprowl. "I was just comin' over to borry a few things, you know."
+
+"Going by; she wasn't coming here," said Lysander.
+
+"Going by," repeated the widow. "O, shall I ever git over it! O, dear
+me, I'm all cut to pieces! A poor forlorn widder, and my only son--O,
+dear!"
+
+"Her only son," cried Lysander in a loud voice, "couldn't get here in
+time to prevent the outrage. That's what she wants to say. I leave her
+in your care, Mrs. Stackridge. She was doing a neighborly thing for you
+when she came in to stop the pillaging, and I'm sure you'll do as much
+for her."
+
+And the captain retired, his appetite for woman-whipping cloyed for the
+present.
+
+"Where is Aunt Deb?" repeated Mrs. Stackridge. "Aunt Deb!" she called,
+"where are you? I want you this minute!"
+
+"Here I is!" answered a voice from heaven, or at least from that
+direction.
+
+It was the voice of the old negress, who had hid herself in the
+chambers, and now spoke through a stove-pipe hole from which she had
+observed all that was passing from the time when the widow entered with
+her empty basket.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+_THE MOONLIGHT EXPEDITION._
+
+
+Toby had been released. Mrs. Stackridge had been whipped by proxy, and
+had kept her husband's secret. Gad, the spy, was still unaccountably
+absent. These three sources of information were, therefore, for the
+time, considered closed; and it was determined to have recourse to the
+fourth, namely, Carl.
+
+Here it should, perhaps, be explained that the confederate government,
+informed of the position of armed resistance assumed by the little band
+of patriots, had immediately telegraphed orders to recapture the
+insurgents. Among the Union-loving mountaineers of East Tennessee the
+mutterings of a threatened rebellion against the new despotism had long
+been heard, and it was deemed expedient to suppress at once this
+outbreak.
+
+"Try the ringleaders by drum-head court-martial, and, if guilty, hang
+them on the spot," said a second despatch.
+
+These instructions were purposely made public, in order to strike terror
+among the Unionists. They were discussed by the soldiers, and reached
+the ears of Carl.
+
+"Hang them on the spot." That meant Stackridge and Penn, and he knew not
+how many more. "And I," said Carl, "have agreed to show the vay to the
+cave."
+
+He was sweating fearfully over the dilemma in which he had placed
+himself, when a sergeant and two men came to conduct him to
+head-quarters.
+
+"Now it begins," said Carl to himself, drawing a deep breath.
+
+The irons remained on his wrists. In this plight he was brought into the
+presence of the red-faced colonel.
+
+"I hate a damned Dutchman!" said Lysander, who happened to be at
+head-quarters.
+
+He had had experience, and his prejudice was natural.
+
+The colonel poised his cigar, and regarded Carl sternly. The boy's heart
+throbbed anxiously, and he was afraid that he looked pale. Nevertheless,
+he stood calmly erect on his sturdy young legs, and answered the
+officer's frown with an expression of placid and innocent wonder.
+
+"Your name is Carl," said the colonel.
+
+"I sushpect that is true," replied Carl, on his guard against making
+inadvertent admissions.
+
+"Carl what?"
+
+"Minnevich."
+
+"Minny-fish? That's a scaly name. And they say you are a scaly fellow.
+What have you got those bracelets on for?"
+
+"That is vat I should pe wery much glad to find out," said Carl,
+affectionately regarding his handcuffs.
+
+"You are the fellow that enlisted to save the schoolmaster's neck, ain't
+you?"
+
+"I suppose that is true too."
+
+"Suppose? Don't you know?"
+
+"I thought I knowed, for you told me so; but as they vas hunting for him
+aftervards to hang him, I vas conwinced I vas mishtaken."
+
+This quiet reply, delivered in the lad's quaint style, with perfect
+deliberation, and with a countenance shining with simplicity, was in
+effect a keen thrust at the perfidy of the confederate officers. The
+colonel's face became a shade redder, if possible, and he frowningly
+exclaimed,--
+
+"And so you deserted!"
+
+"That," said Carl, "ish not quite so true."
+
+"What! you deny the fact?"
+
+"I peg your pardon, it ish not a fact. I vas took prisoner."
+
+"And do you maintain that you did not go willingly?"
+
+"I don't know just vat you mean by villingly. Ven vun of them fellows
+puts his muzzle to my head and says, 'You come mit us, and make no noise
+or I plow out your prains,' I vas prewailed upon to go. I vas more
+villing to go as I vas to have my prains spilt. If that is vat you mean
+by villing, I vas villing."
+
+"Why did they take you prisoner?"
+
+"Pecause. I vill tell you. Gad vas shleeping like thunder: you know vat
+I mean--shnoring. Nothing could make him vake up; so they let him
+shnore. But I vake up, and they say, I suppose, they must kill me or
+take me off, for if I vas left pehind I vould raise the alarm too soon."
+
+"Well, where did they take you?"
+
+Carl was silent a moment, then looking Colonel Derring full in the face,
+he said earnestly,--
+
+"They make me shwear I vould not tell."
+
+"Minny-fish," said the colonel, "this won't do. The secret is out, and
+it is too late for you to try to keep it back. Toby betrayed it. Mrs.
+Stackridge has been arrested, and she has confessed that her husband and
+his friends are hid in a cave. We sent out a scout, who has come in and
+corroborated both their statements. Gad discovered the cave; but he has
+sprained his ankle. He describes the spot accurately, but he's too lame
+to climb the hills again. What we want is a guide to go in his place.
+Now, Minny-fish, here's a chance for you to earn a pardon, and prove
+your loyalty. You promised Captain Sprowl, did you not, that you would
+conduct him to the cave?"
+
+Carl, overwhelmed by the colonel's confident assertions, breathed a
+moment, then replied,--
+
+"I pelieve I vas making him some promise."
+
+"Notwithstanding your oath that you would not tell?" said Lysander,
+eager to cross and corner him.
+
+"To show the vay, that is not to tell," replied Carl. "I shwore I vould
+not tell, and I shall not tell. But if you vill go mit me to the cave, I
+vill go mit you and take you. Then I keep my promise to you and my oath
+to them. You see, I did not shwear not to take you," he added, with a
+smile.
+
+With a smile on his face, but with profound perturbations of the soul.
+For he saw himself sinking deeper and deeper into this miry difficulty,
+and how he was to extricate himself without dragging his friends down,
+was still a terrible enigma.
+
+"I believe the boy is honest," said Derring. "Sergeant, have those irons
+taken off. Captain Sprowl, you will manage the affair, and take this boy
+as your guide. I advise you to trust him. But until he has thoroughly
+proved his honesty, keep a careful eye on him, and if you become
+convinced that he is deceiving you, shoot him down on the spot. I say,
+shoot him on the spot," repeated the colonel, impressively. "You both
+understand that. Do you, Minny-fish?"
+
+"I vas never shot," said Carl, "but I sushpect I know vat shooting is."
+And he smiled again, with trouble in his heart, that would have quite
+disconcerted a youth of less nerve and phlegm.
+
+"Well," said Captain Sprowl, "if you don't, you will know, if you
+undertake to play any of your Dutch tricks with me!"
+
+"O, sir!" said Carl, humbly, "if I knowed any trick I vouldn't ever
+think of playing it on you, you are so wery shmart!"
+
+"How do you know I am?" said Lysander, who felt flattered, and thought
+it would be interesting to hear the lad's reasons; for neither he, nor
+any one present, had perceived the craft and sarcasm concealed under
+that simple, earnest manner.
+
+"How do I know you are shmart? Pecause," replied Carl, "you have such a
+pig head. And such a pig nose. And such a pig mouth. That shows you are
+a pig man."
+
+This was said with an air of intense seriousness, which never changed
+amid the peals of laughter that followed. Nobody suspected Carl of an
+intentional joke; and the round-eyed innocent surprise with which he
+regarded the merriment added hugely to the humor of it. Everybody
+laughed except Lysander, who only grimaced a little to disguise his
+chagrin. This upstart officer was greatly disliked for his conceited
+ways, and it was not long before the "Dutch boy's compliments" became
+the joke of the camp, and wherever Lysander appeared some whisper was
+sure to be heard concerning either the "pig mouth," or "pig nose," of
+that truly "pig man."
+
+As for Carl, he had something far more serious to do than to laugh. How
+to circumvent the designs of these men? That was the question.
+
+In the first place, it is necessary to state that his conscience
+acquitted him entirely of all obligations to them or their cause. He was
+no secessionist. He had enlisted to save his benefactor and friend. He
+had said, "I will give you my services if you will give that man his
+life." They had immediately afterwards broken the contract by seeking to
+kill his friend, and he felt that he no longer owed them anything. But
+they held _him_ by force, against which he had no weapon but his own
+good wit. This, therefore, he determined to use, if possible, to their
+discomfiture, and the salvation of those to whom he owed everything. But
+how?
+
+He had saved Toby from torture and confession by promising what he never
+intended literally to perform.
+
+Once more in the guard-house, retained a prisoner until wanted as a
+guide, he reasoned with himself thus:--
+
+"If I do not go, then they vill make Gad go, lame or no lame, and he
+vill not be half so lucky to show the wrong road as I can be;"--for Carl
+never suspected that what had been said with regard to Mrs. Stackridge's
+arrest and confession, and Gad's successful reconnoissance and return,
+was all a lie framed to induce him to undertake this very thing. "And if
+I did not make pelieve I vas villing to go, then they vould not give me
+my hands free, and some chances for myself. I think there vill be some
+chances. But Sprowl is to watch, and be ready to shoot me down?" He
+shook his head dubiously, and added, "That is vat I do not like quite so
+vell!"
+
+He remained in a deep study until dusk. Then Captain Sprowl appeared,
+and said to him,--
+
+"Come! you are to go with me."
+
+Carl's heart gave a great bound; but he answered with an air of
+indifference,--
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"Yes. At once. Stir!"
+
+"I have not quite finished my supper; but I can put some of it in my
+pockets, and be eating on the road." And he added to himself, "I am glad
+it is in the night, for that vill be a wery good excuse if I should be
+so misfortunate as not to find the cave!"
+
+"Here," said Lysander, imperiously, giving him a twist and push,--"march
+before me! And fast! Now, not a word unless you are spoken to; and don't
+you dodge unless you want a shot."
+
+Thus instructed, Carl led the way. He did not speak, and he did not
+dodge. One circumstance overjoyed him. He saw no signs of a military
+expedition on foot. Was Lysander going alone with him to the mountains?
+"I sushpect I can find some trick for him, shmart as he is!" thought
+Carl.
+
+They left the town behind them. They took to the fields; they entered
+the shadow of the mountains, the western sky above whose tops was yet
+silvery bright with the shining wake of the sunset. A few faint stars
+were visible, and just a glimmer of moonlight was becoming apparent in
+the still twilight gloom.
+
+"We are going to have a quiet little adwenture together!" chuckled Carl.
+One thing was singular, however. Lysander did not tamely follow his
+lead: on the contrary, he directed him where to go; and Carl saw, to his
+dismay, that they were proceeding in a very direct route towards the
+cave.
+
+"Never mind! Ven ve come to some conwenient place maybe something vill
+happen," he said consolingly to himself.
+
+Then suddenly consternation met him, as it were face to face. The enigma
+was solved. From the crest of a knoll over which Lysander drove him like
+a lamb, he saw, lying on the ground in a little glen before them, the
+dark forms of some forty men.
+
+One of these rose to his feet and advanced to meet Lysander. It was
+Silas Ropes.
+
+"All ready?" said Sprowl.
+
+"Ready and waiting," said Silas.
+
+"Well, push on," said the captain. "We'll go to the dead bodies in the
+ravine first. Where's Pepperill?"
+
+"Here," replied Ropes; and at a summons Dan appeared.
+
+Carl's heart sank within him. Toby in the guard-house had told him about
+the dead bodies, and he knew that they were not far from the cave. He
+was aware, too, that Pepperill knew far more than one of such shallow
+mental resources and feeble will, wearing that uniform, and now in the
+power of these men, ought to know.
+
+There in the little moonlit glen they met and exchanged glances--the
+sturdy, calm-faced boy, and the weak-kneed, trembling man. Pepperill had
+not recovered from the terror with which he had been inspired, when
+summoned to guide a reconnoitring party to the ravine. But he had not
+yet lisped a syllable of what he knew concerning the cave. Carl gave him
+a look, and turned his eyes away again indifferently. That look said,
+"Be wery careful, Dan, and leave a good deal to me." And Dan, man as he
+was, felt somehow encouraged and strengthened by the presence of this
+boy.
+
+"Now, Pepperill," said Sprowl, "can you move ahead and make no mistake?"
+
+"I kin try," answered Pepperill, dismally. "But it's a heap harder to
+find the way in the night so; durned if 'tain't!"
+
+"None o' that, now, Dan," said Ropes, "or you'll git sunthin' to put
+sperrit inter ye!"
+
+Dan made no reply, but shivered. The mountain air was chill, the
+prospect dreary. Close by, the woods, blackened by the recent fire, lay
+shadowy and spectral in the moon. Far above, the dim summits towards
+which their course lay whitened silently. There was no noise but the low
+murmur of these men, bent on bloody purposes. No wonder Dan's teeth
+chattered.
+
+As for Carl, he killed a mosquito on his cheek, and smiled triumphantly.
+
+"You got a shlap, you warmint!" he said, as if he had no other care on
+his mind than the insect's slaughter.
+
+"Who told you to speak?" said Lysander sharply.
+
+"Vas that shpeaking?" Carl scratched his cheek complacently. "I vas only
+making a little obserwation to the mosquito."
+
+"Well, keep your observations to yourself!"
+
+"That is vat I vill try to do."
+
+The order to march was given. Lysander proceeded a few paces in advance,
+accompanied by Ropes and the two guides. The troops followed in silence,
+with dull, irregular tramp, filing through obscure hollows, over barren
+ridges crowned by a few thistles and mulleins, and by the edges of
+thickets which the fires had not reached. At length they came to a tract
+of the burned woods. The word "halt!" was whispered. The sound of
+tramping feet was suddenly hushed, and the slender column of troops,
+winding like a dark serpent up the side of the mountain, became
+motionless.
+
+"All right so far, Pepperill?"
+
+"Wal, I hain't made nary mistake yet, cap'm."
+
+Pepperill recognized the woods in which, when flying to the cave with
+Virginia, Penn, and Cudjo, they had found themselves surrounded by
+fires.
+
+"How far is it now to your ravine?"
+
+"Nigh on to half a mile, I reckon."
+
+"Shall we go through these woods?"
+
+"It's the nighest to go through 'em. But I s'pose we can git around if
+we try."
+
+"The moon sets early. We'd better take the nearest way," said the
+captain. "Well, Dutchy,"--for the first time deigning to consult
+Carl,--"this route is taking us to the cave, too, ain't it?"
+
+"Wery certain," said Carl, "prowided you go far enough, and turn often
+enough, and never lose the vay."
+
+"That'll be your risk, Dutchy. Look out for the landmarks, so that when
+Pepperill stops you can keep on."
+
+"I vill look out, but if they have all been purnt up since I vas here,
+how wery wexing!"
+
+This wood had been but partially consumed when the flames were checked
+by the rain. Many trunks were still standing, naked, charred, stretching
+their black despairing arms to the moon. The shadows of these ghostly
+trees slanted along the silent field of desolation, or lay entangled
+with the dark logs and limbs of trees which had fallen, and from which,
+at short distances, they were scarcely distinguishable. Here and there
+smouldered a heap of rubbish, its pallid smoke rising noiselessly in the
+bluish light. There were heaps of ashes still hot; half-burned brands
+sparkled in the darkness; and now and then a stump or branch emitted a
+still bright flame.
+
+Through this scene of blackness and ruin, rendered gloomily picturesque
+by the moonlight, the men picked their way. Not a word was spoken; but
+occasionally a muttered curse told that some ill-protected foot had come
+in contact with live cinders, or that some unlucky leg had slumped down
+into one of those mines of fire, formed by roots of old dead stumps,
+eaten slowly away to ashes under ground.
+
+Carl had hoped that the woods would prove impassable, and that the party
+would be compelled to turn back. That would gain for him time and
+opportunity. But the men pushed on. "Vill nothing happen?" he said to
+himself, in despair at seeing how directly they were travelling towards
+the cave. The burned tract was not extensive, and he soon saw,
+glimmering through the blackened columns, the clear moonlight on the
+slopes above.
+
+Pepperill, not daring to assume the responsibility of misleading the
+party, knew no better than to go stumbling straight on.
+
+"I vish he would shtumple and preak his shtupid neck!" thought Carl.
+
+They emerged from the burned woods, and came out upon the ledges beyond;
+and now the lad saw plainly where they were. On the left, the deep and
+quiet gulf of shadow was the ravine. They had but to follow this up, he
+knew not just how far, to reach the cave. And still Pepperill advanced.
+Carl's heart contracted. He knew that the critical moment of the night,
+for him and for his fugitive friends, was now at hand.
+
+"Do you see any landmarks yet?" Sprowl whispered to him.
+
+"I can almost see some," answered Carl, peering earnestly over a moonlit
+bushy space. "Ve shall pe coming to them py and py."
+
+"Do you know this ravine?"
+
+"I remember some rawines. I shouldn't be wery much surprised if this vas
+vun of 'em."
+
+"Look here," said Lysander. Carl looked, and saw a pistol-barrel.
+"Understand?"--significantly.
+
+"Is it for me?"' And Carl extended his hand ingenuously.
+
+"For you?--yes." But instead of giving the weapon to the boy, he
+returned it to his pocket, with a smile the boy did not like.
+
+"Ah, yes! a goot joke!" And Carl smiled too, his good-humored face
+beaming in the moon.
+
+At the same time he said to himself, "He hates me pecause I am Hapgood's
+friend; and he vill be much pleased to have cause to shoot me."
+
+Just then Dan stopped. Lysander put up his hand as a signal. The troops
+halted.
+
+"It's somewhars down in hyar, cap'm," Pepperill whispered.
+
+"It's a horrid place!" muttered Sprowl.
+
+"It ar so, durned if 'tain't!" said Dan, discouragingly.
+
+Before them yawned the ravine, bristling with half-burned saplings, and
+but partially illumined by the moon. The babble of the brook flowing
+through its hidden depths was faintly audible.
+
+"See the bodies anywhere?" said Lysander.
+
+"Can't see ary thing by this light," replied Dan. "But we can go down
+and find 'em."
+
+Sprowl did not much fancy the idea of descending.
+
+"It will be a waste of time to stop here," he said to Silas. "The live
+traitors are of more consequence than the dead ones. Supposing we go to
+the cave first, and come back and find the bodies afterwards. Have you
+got your bearings yet, Carl?"
+
+"I am peginning," said Carl, staring about him, with his hands in his
+pockets. "I think I vill have 'em soon."
+
+Sprowl looked at him with suppressed rage. "How cussed provoking!" he
+muttered.
+
+"It is--wery prowoking!" said Carl, looking at the moon. "Aggrawating!"
+
+"Well, make up your mind quick! What will you do?"
+
+Then it seemed as if a bright idea occurred to Carl.
+
+"I vill tell you. You go down and find the podies, and I vill be
+looking. Ven you come up again, I shouldn't be surprised if I could see
+vair the cave is."
+
+"Ropes," said Sprowl, "take a couple of men, and go down in there with
+Pepperill. I think it's best to stay with this boy."
+
+This arrangement did not please Carl at all; but, as he could not
+reasonably complain of it, he said, stoically, "Yes, it vill be petter
+so."
+
+Ropes selected his two men, and left the rest concealed in the shadows
+of the thickets.
+
+"If I could go up on the rocks there, I suppose I could see something,"
+said Carl.
+
+"Well, I'll go with you. I mean to give you a fair chance." Carl felt a
+secret hope. Once more alone with this villain, would not some
+interesting thing occur? "Wait, though!" said Sprowl; and he called a
+corporal to his side. "Come with us. Keep close to this boy. At the
+first sign of his giving us the slip, put your bayonet through him."
+
+"I will," said the corporal.
+
+This was discouraging again. But Carl looked up at the captain and
+smiled--his good-humored, placid smile.
+
+"You do right. But you vill see I shall not give you the shlip. Now
+come, and be wery still."
+
+In the mean time, Pepperill, with the three rebels, descended into the
+ravine. The spot where the dead man and horse had been was soon found.
+But now no dead man was to be seen. The horse had been removed from the
+rocks between which his back was wedged, and rolled down lower into the
+ravine. A broad, shallow hole had been dug there, as if to bury him. But
+the work had been interrupted. There was a shovel lying on the heap of
+earth. Near by was another spot where the soil had been recently
+stirred--a little mound: it was shaped like a grave.
+
+"They've buried the poor cuss hyar," said Dan.
+
+"We'll see." Ropes took the shovel. "They can't have put him in very
+deep, fur they've struck the rock in this yer t'other hole."
+
+He threw up a little dirt, then gave the shovel to one of the soldiers.
+The moon shone full upon the place. The man dug a few minutes, and came
+to something which was neither rock nor soil. He pulled it up. It was a
+man's arm.
+
+"You didn't guess fur from right this time, Dan! Scrape off a little
+more dirt, and we'll haul up the carcass. Needn't be partic'lar 'bout
+scrapin' very keerful, nuther. He's a mean shoat, whoever he is; one o'
+them cussed Union-shriekers. Wish they was all planted like he is! Hope
+we shall find five or six more. Ketch holt, Dan!"
+
+Dan caught hold. The body was dragged from the lonely resting-place to
+which it had been consigned. Parts of it, which had not been protected
+by the superincumbent bulk of the horse, were hideously burned. Ropes
+rolled it over on the back, and kicked it, to knock off the dirt. He
+turned up the face in the moonlight--a frightful face! One side was
+roasted; and what was left of the hair and beard was full of sand.
+
+"Damn him!" said Ropes, giving it a wipe with the spade.
+
+The eyes were open, and they too were full of sand.
+
+But the features were still recognizable. The men started back with
+horror. They knew their comrade. It was the spy who had been sent out to
+watch the fugitives. It was "the sleeper," whom nought could waken more.
+It was Gad.
+
+"Wal, if I ain't beat!" said Silas, with a ghastly look. "Fool! how did
+he come hyar?"
+
+This question has never been satisfactorily answered. The fatal leap of
+the terrified horse with his rider is known; but how came Gad on the
+horse? Those who knew the character of the man account for it in this
+way: He had been something of a horse-thief in his day; and it is
+supposed that, finding Stackridge's horse on the mountain, he fell once
+more into temptation. He was probably a little drunk at the time; and he
+was a man who would never walk if he could ride, especially when he was
+tipsy. So he mounted. But he had no sooner commenced the descent of the
+mountain, than the fire, which had been previously concealed from the
+animal by the clump of trees behind which he was hampered, burst upon
+his sight, and filled him with uncontrollable frenzy.
+
+Dan, who had witnessed the flight and plunge, could have contributed an
+item towards the solution of the mystery. But he opened not his mouth.
+
+"Them cussed traitors shall pay fur this!" said Ropes. This was the only
+consolatory thought that occurred to him. Having uttered it, he looked
+remorsefully at the spade with which he had rudely wiped the face of his
+dead friend. "I thought 'twas one o' them rotten scoundrels, or I--But
+never mind! Kiver him up agin, boys! We can't take him with us, and
+we've no time to lose."
+
+So they laid the corpse once more in the grave, and heaped the sand upon
+it.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+_CARL FINDS A GEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN._
+
+
+In the mean time Carl ascended the moonlit slope, with Sprowl's pistol
+on one side of him, and the corporal's bayonet on the other. Between the
+two he felt that he had little chance. But he did not despair. He
+reasoned thus with himself:--
+
+"These two men vill not think to take the cave alone. They must go back
+for re�nforcements. That shall make a diwersion in my favor. If I show
+them some dark place, and make them think it is there, they vill not go
+wery near to examine." And he arrived at this conclusion: "I suppose I
+shall inwent a cave."
+
+They were advancing cautiously towards the summit of a bushy ridge.
+Suddenly Carl stopped.
+
+"Anything?" said Sprowl. Carl nodded, with a pleased and confident
+smile. "What?"
+
+"You shall see wery soon. Shtoop low." He himself crouched close to the
+ground. The men followed his example. "Come a little more on. Now you
+see that rock?" Lysander saw it. "Vell, it is not there."
+
+They crept forward a little farther. Then Carl stopped again, and
+said,--
+
+"You see that tree?"
+
+"Which?"
+
+"All alone in the moonshine." Lysander perceived it.
+
+"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there."
+
+Again they advanced, and again he paused and pointed.
+
+"You see them little saplings?" Lysander distinguished them revealed
+against the sky.
+
+"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there neither."
+
+He was crawling on again, when Sprowl seized his collar.
+
+"What the devil do you mean?--if I see these things!"
+
+Carl turned on his side, smiled intelligently, and, beckoning the
+captain to bring his ear close, put his lips to it, covered them with
+his hand, with an air of secrecy, and whispered hoarsely,--
+
+"Landmarks!"
+
+"Ah! well!" said Lysander, suffering him to proceed.
+
+Carl crept slowly, raising his head at every moment to observe. The
+bayonet came behind; the captain continued at his side. "The further I
+take these willains from the others, the petter," thought he. At length
+he came in view of the high ledge upon which Penn had discovered Cudjo
+at his idolatrous devotions, on the night of the fire. The moon was
+getting behind the mountain, and there were dark shadows beneath this
+ledge. Though he should travel a mile, he might not find a more suitable
+spot to locate his fictitious cave. He hesitated; considered well; then
+gently tapped Lysander's arm.
+
+"You see vair the rock comes down? And some pushes just under it? Vell,
+the cave is pehind the pushes, ven you find it!" Which was indeed true.
+
+Lysander crept a few paces nearer, stealthily, flat on his belly, with
+his head slightly elevated, like a dark reptile gliding over the moonlit
+ground.
+
+"Now is my time!" thought Carl. His heart beat violently. He raised
+himself on his knees, preparing to spring. Lysander was at least ten
+feet in advance of him, and he thought he would risk the pistol. "I
+run--he fires--he vill miss me--I shall get avay." But the corporal?
+Just then he felt a piercing pressure in his side. It was the corporal,
+nudging him with the bayonet to make him lie down.
+
+"I vas shust going a little nearer."
+
+The corporal seemed satisfied with the explanation; but, as the boy
+advanced on his hands and knees, he advanced close behind him,--holding
+the bayoneted gun ready for a thrust.
+
+So Carl succeeded only in getting a little nearer Lysander, without
+increasing at all the distance between him and the corporal. It was a
+state of affairs that required serious consideration. He lay dawn again,
+and pretended to be anxiously looking for the mouth of the cave, whilst
+watching and reflecting.
+
+Just then occurred a circumstance which seemed almost providentially
+designed to favor the boy's strategy. Upon the ledge appeared two human
+figures, male and female, touched by the moonlight, and defined against
+the sky. They remained but a moment on the summit, then began to descend
+in the shadow of the ledge. Their movements were slow, uncertain,
+mysterious. Below the base of the rock they stood once more in the
+moonlight, and after appearing to consult together for a few seconds,
+disappeared behind the bushes where Carl had placed his imaginary cave.
+
+If Sprowl had any doubts on the subject before, he was now entirely
+satisfied. He believed the forms to be those of Virginia and the
+schoolmaster; they had been out to enjoy solitude and sentiment in the
+moonlight; and now they were returning reluctantly to the cave.
+
+"Wouldn't Gus be edified if he was in my place!" Lysander little thought
+that _he_ was the one to be edified,--as he would certainly have been,
+to an amazing degree, had he known the truth. "But we'll spoil their fun
+in a few minutes!" he said to himself, as he crept back towards his
+former position.
+
+As for Carl, it was he who had been most astonished by the phenomenon.
+No sooner had he invented a cave, than two phantoms made their
+appearance, and walked into it! The illusion was so perfect, that he
+himself was almost deceived by it. Only for an instant, however.
+Continuing to gaze, he had another glimpse of the apparitions, when,
+having merely passed behind the bushes, they came out beyond them, in
+the direction of the real cave, and were lost once more in shadow.
+Lysander, engaged in making his retrograde movement, did not notice this
+very important circumstance; and the corporal was too intently occupied
+in watching Carl to observe anything else.
+
+The captain got behind the shelter of a cluster of thistles, and
+beckoned for the two to approach.
+
+"Corporal," said he, "hurry back and tell Ropes to bring up his men.
+I'll wait here."
+
+The corporal crawled off.
+
+Carl heard the order, saw the movement, and felt thrilled to the heart's
+core with joy. He was now alone with the captain. And he was no longer
+unarmed. In creeping towards the thistles, he had laid his hand on a
+wonderful little stone. Somehow, his fingers had closed upon it. It was
+about the size of an apple, slightly flattened, rough, and heavy. "I
+thought," he said afterwards, "if anything vas to happen, that stone
+might be waluable." And so it proved. Lysander, considering that the
+cave was found, had become less suspicious. "These Dutch are stupid, and
+that's all," he thought.
+
+"You vas going to shoot me," said Carl, with an honest laugh at the
+ludicrousness of the idea.
+
+"And so I would," said Sprowl, with an oath, "if you hadn't brought us
+to the cave."
+
+"That means," thought Carl, "he vill kill me yet if he can, ven he finds
+out." He observed, also, that Sprowl, lying on his left side, had his
+right hand free, and near the pocket where his pistol was. It was not
+yet too late for him to be shot if he attempted an escape without first
+attempting something else. The violent beating of his heart recommenced.
+He felt a strange tremor of excitement thrilling through every nerve.
+His hand still held the pebble, covering and concealing it as he leaned
+forward on the ground. He crept a little nearer Lysander.
+
+"The vay they go into the cave," he said, "is wery queer."
+
+"How so?" asked the captain.
+
+They were facing each other. Carl drew still a little nearer, and raised
+himself slightly on the hand that grasped the geological specimen.
+
+"I promised to take you in. I vill take you in on vun condition."
+
+"Condition?" repeated Lysander.
+
+"That is vat I said. Vun leetle condition. Let me whishper."
+
+Carl put up his left hand as if to cover the communication he was about
+to breathe into Lysander's ear.
+
+"The condition--IS THIS!"
+
+As he uttered the last words, he seized Lysander's wrist with his left
+hand, and at the same instant, with a stroke rapid as lightning, smote
+him on the temple with the stone.
+
+All this, being interpreted, meant, "I take you to the cave on condition
+that you go as my prisoner." Thus Carl designed to keep his promise.
+
+As he struck he sprang up, to be ready for any emergency. He had
+expected a struggle, an outcry. He never dreamed that he could strike a
+man dead with a single blow!
+
+Without a shriek, without even a moan, Lysander merely sunk back upon
+the ground, gasped, shuddered, and lay still.
+
+Carl was stupefied. He looked at the prostrate man. Then he cast his eye
+all around him on the moonlit mountain slope. No one was in sight. Was
+this murder he had committed? He knelt down, bending over the horribly
+motionless form. He gazed on the ghastly-pale face, and saw issuing from
+the nostrils a dark stream. It was blood.
+
+Was it not all a dream? He still held the stone in his hand. He looked
+at it, and mechanically placed it in his pocket. Nothing now seemed left
+for him but to escape to the cave; and yet he remained fixed with horror
+to the spot, regarding what he had done.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+_CARL KEEPS HIS ENGAGEMENT._
+
+
+Of the two forms that had been seen on the ledge, the female was not
+Virginia, and the other was not Penn. A word of explanation is
+necessary.
+
+Filled with hatred for her husband,--filled with shame and disgust, too,
+on hearing how he had caused his own mother to be whipped (for the
+secret was out, thanks to Aunt Deb at the stove-pipe hole),--resolved in
+her soul never to forgive him, never even to see him again if she could
+help it, yet intolerably wretched in her loneliness,--Salina had that
+afternoon taken Toby into her counsel.
+
+"Toby, what are we to do?"
+
+"Dat's what I do'no' myself!" the sore old fellow confessed; even his
+superior wisdom, usually sufficient (in his own estimation) for the
+whole family, failing him now. "When it comes to lickin' white women and
+'spec'able servants, ain't nobody safe. I's glad ol' massa and Miss
+Jinny's safe up dar in de cave; and I on'y wish we war safe up dar too."
+
+"Toby," said Salina, "we will go there. Can you find the way?"
+
+"Reckon I kin," said Toby, delighted at the proposal.
+
+They set out early. They succeeded in reaching the woods without
+exciting suspicion. They kept well to the south, in order to approach
+the cave on the same side of the ravine from which Toby had discovered
+it, or rather Penn near the entrance of it, before. He thought he would
+be more sure to find it by that route. At the same time he avoided the
+burned woods, and, without knowing it, the soldiers.
+
+But, the best they could do, the daylight was gone when they came to the
+ravine; and Toby could not find the place where he had previously
+crossed. He passed beyond it. Then they crossed at random in the easiest
+place. Once on the side where the cave was, Toby decided that they were
+above it; and, owing to the steepness of the banks, it was necessary to
+go around over the rocks, at a short distance from the ravine, in order
+to reach the shelf behind the thickets. It was in making this movement
+that they had been seen to descend the ledge and pass behind the bushes
+at its base.
+
+"Now," said Toby, "you jes' wait while I makes a reckonoyster!"
+
+Salina, weary, sat down in the shadow of a juniper-tree.
+
+Toby made his reconnoissance, discovered nothing, and returned. She,
+sitting still there, had been more successful. She pointed.
+
+"What dar?" whispered Toby, frightened.
+
+"There is somebody. Don't you see? By those shrub-like things."
+
+"Dey ain't nobody dar!"--with a shiver.
+
+"Yes there is. I saw a man jump up. He is bending over something now,
+trying to lift it. It must be Penn, or some of his friends. Go softly,
+and see."
+
+Toby, imaginative, superstitious, did not like to move. But Salina urged
+him; and something must be done.
+
+"I--I's mos' afeard to! But dar's somebody, shore!"
+
+He advanced, with eyes strained wide and cold chills creeping over him.
+What was the man doing there? What was he trying to lift and drag along
+the ground? It was the body of another man.
+
+"Who dar?" said Toby.
+
+"Be quiet. Come here!" was the answer.
+
+"What! Carl! Carl! dat you? What you doin' dar? massy sakes!" said Toby.
+
+"I've got a prisoner," said Carl.
+
+"Dead! O de debil!" said Toby.
+
+"I've knocked him on the head a little, but he is not dead," said Carl.
+"Be still, for there's forty more vithin hearing!"
+
+Toby, with mouth agape, and hands on knees, crouching, looked in the
+face of the lifeless man. That jaunty mustache, with the blood from the
+nostrils trickling into it, was unmistakable.
+
+"Dat Sprowl!" ejaculated the old negro, with horrified recoil.
+
+"He won't hurt you! Take holt! I pelief Ropes is coming, mit his men,
+now!"
+
+"Le' 'm drap, den. Wha' ye totin' on him fur?"
+
+Carl had quite recovered from his stupefaction. His wits were clear
+again. Why did he not leave the body? His reasons against such a course
+were too many to be enumerated on the spot to Toby. In the first place,
+he had promised to take the captain to the cave; and he felt a stubborn
+pride in keeping his engagement. Secondly, the man might die if he
+abandoned him. Moreover, the troops arriving, and finding him, would
+know at once what had happened; while, on the contrary, if both Carl and
+the captain should be missing, it would be supposed that they had gone
+to make observations in another quarter; they would be waited for, and
+thus much time would be gained.
+
+Carl had all these arguments in his brain. But instead of stopping to
+explain anything, he once more, and alone, lifted the head and shoulders
+of the limp man, and recommenced bearing him along.
+
+"Toby, who is that?"
+
+"Dat am Miss Salina."
+
+Carl asked no explanations. "Vimmen scream sometimes. Tell her she is
+not to scream. You get her handkersheaf. And do not say it is Shprowl."
+
+"Who--what is it?" Salina inquired.
+
+"Our Carl! don't ye know?" said Toby. "He's got one ob dem secesh he's
+knocked on de head."
+
+"Has he killed him?"
+
+"Part killed him, and part took him prisoner,--about six o' one and half
+a dozen o' tudder. He say you's specfully 'quested not to scream; and he
+wants your hank'cher."
+
+"What does he want of it?"--giving it.
+
+"Dat he best know hisself; but if my 'pinion am axed, I should say, to
+wipe de fellah's nose wiv."
+
+Having delivered this profound judgment, Toby carried the handkerchief
+to Carl, who spread it over the wounded man's face.
+
+"That prewents her seeing him, and prewents his seeing the vay to the
+cave."
+
+"Who eber knowed you's sech a powerful smart chil'?" said old Toby,
+amazed.
+
+A new perception of Carl's character had burst suddenly, with a
+wonderful light, upon his dazzled understanding. In the terror of their
+first encounter, in this strange place, he had comprehended nothing of
+the situation. He had not even remembered that he last saw Carl in the
+guard-house, with irons on his wrists. It was like a fragment of some
+dream to find him here, holding the lifeless Lysander in his arms. But
+now he remembered; now he comprehended. Carl had saved him from torture
+by engaging to bring this man to the cave; whom by some miracle of
+courage and valor, he had overcome and captured, and brought thus far
+over the lonely rocks. All was yet vague to the old negro's mind; but it
+was nevertheless strange, great, prodigious. And this lad, this Carl,
+whom Penn had brought, a sort of vagabond, a little hungry beggar, to
+Mr. Villars's house--that is to say, Toby's; whom the vain, tender,
+pompous, affectionate old servant had had the immense satisfaction of
+adopting into the family, patronizing, scolding, tyrannizing over, and
+tenderly loving; who had always been to him "Dat chil'!" "dat
+good-for-nuffin'!" "dat mis'ble Carl!"--the same now loomed before his
+imagination a hero. The simple spreading of the handkerchief over the
+face appeared to him a master-stroke of cool sagacity. He himself, with
+all that stupendous wisdom of his, would not have thought of that! He
+actually found himself on the point of saying "Massa Carl!"
+
+Ah, this foolish old negro is not the only person who, in these times of
+national trouble, has been thus astonished! Carl is not the only hero
+who has suddenly emerged, to thrilled and wondering eyes, from the
+disguises of common life. How many a beloved "good-for-nothing" has gone
+from our streets and firesides, to reappear far off in a vision of
+glory! The school-fellows know not their comrade; the mother knows not
+her own son. The stripling, whose outgoing and incoming were so familiar
+to us,--impulsive, fun-loving, a little vain, a little selfish, apt to
+be cross when the supper was not ready, apt to come late and make you
+cross when the supper was ready and waiting,--who ever guessed what
+nobleness was in him! His country called, and he rose up a patriot. The
+fatigue of marches, the hardships of camp and bivouac, the hard fare,
+the injustice that must be submitted to, all the terrible trials of the
+body's strength and the soul's patient endurance,--these he bore with
+the superb buoyancy of spirit which denotes the hero. Who was it that
+caught up the colors, and rushed forward with them into the thick of the
+battle, after the fifth man who attempted it had been shot down? Not
+that village loafer, who used to go about the streets dressed so
+shabbily? Yes, the same. He fell, covered with wounds and glory. The
+rusty, and seemingly useless instrument we saw hang so long idle on the
+walls of society, none dreamed to be a trumpet of sonorous note until
+the Soul came and blew a blast. And what has become of that
+white-gloved, perfumed, handsome cousin of yours, devoted to his
+pleasures, weary even of those,--to whom life, with all its luxuries,
+had become a bore? He fell in the trenches at Wagner. He had
+distinguished himself by his daring, his hardihood, his fiery love of
+liberty. When the nation's alarum beat, his manhood stood erect; he
+shook himself; all his past frivolities were no more than dust to the
+mane of this young lion. The war has proved useful if only in this, that
+it has developed the latent heroism in our young men, and taught us what
+is in humanity, in our fellows, in ourselves. Because it has called into
+action all this generosity and courage, if for no other cause, let us
+forgive its cruelty, though the chair of the beloved one be vacant, the
+bed unslept in, and the hand cold that penned the letters in that sacred
+drawer, which cannot even now be opened without grief.
+
+As Toby had never been conscious what stuff there was in Carl, so he had
+never known how much he really loved, admired, and relied upon him. He
+stood staring at him there in the moonlight as if he then for the first
+time perceived what a little prodigy he was.
+
+"Take holt, why don't you?" said Carl.
+
+And this time Toby obeyed: he secretly acknowledged the authority of a
+master.
+
+"Sartin, sah!"
+
+He had checked himself when on the point of saying "Massa Carl;" but the
+respectful "sah" slipped from his tongue before he was aware of it.
+
+Among the bushes, and in the shadows of the rocks, they bore the body in
+swiftness and silence. Salina followed.
+
+In the cave the usual fire was burning; by the light of which only
+Virginia and her father were to be seen. The sisters fell into each
+other's arms. Salina was softened: here, after all her sufferings, was
+refuge at last: here, in the warmth of a father's and a sister's
+affection, was the only comfort she could hope for now, in the world she
+had found so bitter.
+
+"Who is with you?" said the old man. "Toby? and Carl? What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I vants Mr. Hapgood, or Pomp, or Cudjo!" said Carl, laying down his
+burden.
+
+"They have gone to bury the man in the rawine," said Virginia.
+
+Carl opened great eyes. "The man in the rawine? That's vair Ropes and
+the soldiers have gone."
+
+"What soldiers?--Who is this?"
+
+"This is their waliant captain! I am wery sorry, ladies, but I have
+given him a leetle nose-pleed. Some vater, Toby! Your handkersheaf,
+ma'am, and wery much obliged."
+
+Salina stooped to take the handkerchief. A flash of the fire shone upon
+the uncovered face. The eyes opened; they looked up, and met hers
+looking down.
+
+"Lysander!"
+
+"Sal, is it you? Where am I, anyhow?" And the husband tried to raise
+himself. "Carl, what's this?"
+
+"Don't be wiolent!" said Carl, gently laying him down again, "and I vill
+tell you. I vas your prisoner, and I vas showing you the cave. Veil,
+this is the cave; but things is a little inwerted. You are my prisoner."
+
+"Is that so?" said the astonished Lysander.
+
+"Wery much so," replied Carl.
+
+"Didn't somebody knock me on the head?"
+
+"I shouldn't be wastly surprised if somepody _did_ knock you on the
+head."
+
+"Was it you?"
+
+"I rather sushpect it vas me."
+
+Lysander rubbed his bruised temple feebly, looking amazed.
+
+"But how came _she_ here?"
+
+"It vas she and Toby we saw going into the cave."
+
+"What's that?"--to Toby, bringing a gourd.
+
+"It is vater; it vill improve your wysiognomy. You can trink a little.
+You feel pretty sound in your witals, don't you? I vas careful not to
+hurt your witals," said Carl, kindly, raising Sprowl's head and holding
+the water for him to drink.
+
+Lysander, ungrateful, instead of drinking, started up with sudden fury,
+struck the gourd from him with one hand, and thrust the other into the
+pocket where his pistol was, at last accounts.
+
+"Vat is vanting?" Carl inquired, complacently.
+
+Lysander, fumbling in vain for his weapon, muttered, "Vengeance!"
+
+"Wery good," said Carl. "Ve vill discuss the question of wengeance, if
+you like."' And drawing the pistol from _his_ pocket, he coolly
+presented it at Sprowl's head. "Vat for you dodge? You think, maybe, the
+discussion vould not be greatly to your adwantage?"
+
+Lysander felt for his sword, found that gone also, and muttered again,
+"Villain!"
+
+"Did somepody say somepody is a willain?" remarked Carl. "I should not
+be wery much surprised if that vas so. Willains nowdays is cheap. I have
+known a great wariety since secesh times pegan. But as for your
+particular case, sir, I peg to give some adwice. There is some ladies
+present, and you must keep quiet. Do you remember how I vas kept quiet
+ven I vas _your_ prisoner? I had pracelets on. And do you remember I vas
+putting some supper in my pocket ven you took me to show you the cave?
+Veil, I make von great mishtake; instead of supper, vat I vas putting in
+my pocket vas them wery pracelets!"
+
+And Carl produced the handcuffs. At that moment Penn and Cudjo arrived;
+and Lysander, observing them, submitted to his fate with beautiful
+resignation. The irons were put on, and Carl mounted guard over him with
+the pistol.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+_LOVE IN THE WILDERNESS._
+
+
+Cudjo was highly exasperated to find strangers in the cave. He became
+quickly reconciled to the presence of Virginia's sister, but not to that
+of Lysander. To pacify him, Carl made him a present of the sword which
+he had removed from the captain's noble person on arriving.
+
+Cudjo received the weapon with unbounded delight, and proceeded to
+adjust the belt to his own Ethiopian waist. It mattered little with him
+that he got the scabbard on the wrong side of his body: a sword was a
+sword; and he wore it in awkward and ridiculous fashion, strutting up
+and down in the fire-lighted cave, to the envy and disgust of old Toby,
+the rage of Lysander, and the amusement of the rest.
+
+Penn meanwhile related to his friends his evening's adventures. He had
+gone down to the ravine with the negroes to bury the horse and his dead
+rider. He was keeping watch while they worked; the man was interred, and
+they were digging a pit for the animal, when they discovered the
+approach of the soldiers, and retired to a hiding-place close by. There
+they lay concealed, whilst Ropes and his men descended to the spot,
+exhumed the corpse with Cudjo's shovel, made their comments upon it, and
+put it back into the ground. During this operation it had required all
+Pomp's authority, and the restraint of his strong hand, to keep Cudjo
+from pouncing upon his old enemy and former overseer, Silas Ropes.
+
+"There were three of us," said Penn, "and only three of them, besides
+Pepperill; and no doubt a struggle would have resulted in our favor. But
+we did not want to be troubled with prisoners; and Pomp and I could not
+see that anything was to be gained by killing them. Besides, we knew
+they had a strong reserve within call. So we waited patiently until they
+finished their work, and climbed up out of the ravine; then we climbed
+up after them. We thought their main object must be to find the cave,
+and Pomp strongly suspected Pepperill of treachery. We found a large
+number of soldiers lying under some bushes, and crept near enough to
+hear what they were saying. They were going to take the cave by
+surprise, and an order had just come for them to move farther up the
+mountain. They set off with scarcely any noise, reminding me of the
+'Forty Thieves,' as they filed away in the moonlight, and disappeared
+among the bushes and shadows. Pomp is on their trail now; he has his
+rifle with him, and it may be heard from if he sees them change their
+course and approach too near the cave."
+
+Penn had come in for his musket. It was the same that had fallen from
+the hands of the man Griffin at the moment when that unhappy rebel was
+in the act of charging bayonet at his breast. Assuring Virginia--who
+could not conceal her alarm at seeing him take it from its corner--that
+he was merely going out to reconnoitre, he left the cave.
+
+He was gone several hours. At length he and Pomp returned together. The
+moon had long since set, but it was beautiful starlight; and, themselves
+unseen, they had watched carefully the movements of the soldiers.
+
+"You would have laughed to have been in my place, Carl!" said Penn,
+laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of his beloved pupil.
+"They besieged the ledge where your imaginary cave is for full two hours
+after I went out, apparently without daring to go very near it."
+
+"I suppose," replied Carl, "they vas vaiting for me and the captain. It
+vas really too pad now for us to make them lose so much waluable time!
+But they vill excuse Mishter Shprowl; his absence is unawoidable." And
+lifting his brows with a commiserating expression, he gave a comical
+side-glance from under them at the languishing Lysander.
+
+All laughed at the lad's humor except the captain himself--and Salina.
+
+After besieging the imaginary cave as Penn had described, several of the
+confederates, he said, at last ventured with extreme caution to approach
+it.
+
+"And found," added Carl, "they had been made the wictims of von leetle
+stratagem!"
+
+"I suppose so," said Penn; "for immediately an unusual stir took place
+amongst them."
+
+"In searching for the entrance," laughed Pomp, leaning on his rifle,
+"they came close under a juniper-tree I had climbed into, and I could
+hear them cursing the little Dutchman----"
+
+"I suppose that vas me," smiled the good-natured Carl.
+
+"And the 'pig-headed captain' who had gone off with him."
+
+"The pig-headed captain is this indiwidual"--indicating Sprowl. "But it
+is wery unjust to be cursing him, for it vas not his fault. It vas my
+legs and Toby's that conweyed him; and he had a handkersheaf over his
+face for a wail."
+
+"I suspected how it was, even before I met Penn and learned what had
+happened. I am sorry to see this fellow in this place,"--Pomp turned a
+frowning look at the corner where Lysander lay,--"but now that he is
+here, he must stay."
+
+Carl, upon whom the only noticeable effect produced by his exciting
+adventure was a lively disposition to talk, quite unusual with him,
+entered upon a full explanation of the circumstances which had led to
+Lysander's capture. His narrative was altogether so simple, so honest,
+so droll, that even the bitter Salina had to smile at it, while all the
+rest, the old clergyman included, joined in a hearty laugh of admiring
+approval at its conclusion.
+
+"I don't see but that you did the best that could be done," said Pomp.
+"At all events, the villains seem to have been completely baffled. The
+last I saw of them they were retreating through the burned woods, as if
+afraid to have daylight find them on the mountain."
+
+The daylight had now come; and Penn, who went out to take an
+observation, could discover no trace of the vanished rebels. The eastern
+sky was like a sheet of diaphanous silver, faintly crimsoned above the
+edges of the hills with streaks of the brightening dawn. All the valley
+below was inundated by a lake of level mist, whose subtle wave made
+islands of the hills, and shining inlets of the intervales. Above this
+sea of white silence rose the mountain ranges, inexpressibly calm and
+beautiful, fresh from their bath of starlight and dew, and empurpled
+with softest tints of the early morning.
+
+Penn heard a footstep, and felt a touch on his arm. Was it the beauty of
+the earth and sky that made him shiver with so sudden and sweet a
+thrill? or was it the lovely presence at his side, in whom was
+incarnated, for him, all the beauty, all the light, all the joy of the
+universe?
+
+It was Virginia, who leaned so gently on his arm, that not the slight
+pressure of her weight, but rather the impalpable shock of bliss her
+very nearness brought, made him aware of her approach. Toby followed,
+supporting her along the shelf of rock--a dark cloud in the wake of that
+rosy and perfumed dawn.
+
+"O, how delicious it is out here!" said the voice, which, if we were to
+describe it from the lover's point of view, could be likened only to the
+songs of birds, the musical utterance of purest flutes, or the blowing
+of wild winds through those grand harp-strings, the mountain pines; for
+there was more of poetry and passion compressed in the heart of this
+quiet young Quaker than we shall venture to give breath to in these
+pages.
+
+"It is--delicious!" he quiveringly answered, in his happy confusion
+blending _her_ with his perception of the daybreak.
+
+She inhaled deep draughts of the mountain air.
+
+"How I love it! The breath of trees, and grass, and flowers is in
+it,--those dear friends of mine, that I pine for, shut up here in
+prison!"
+
+"Do you?" said Penn, vaguely, half wishing that he was a flower, a blade
+of grass, or a tree, so that she might pine for him.
+
+"The air of the cave," she said, "is cold; it is odorless. The cave
+seems to me like the great, chill hearts of some of your profound
+philosophers! Some of those tremendous books father makes me read to him
+came out of such hearts, I am sure; great hollow caverns, full of
+mystery and darkness, and so cold and dull they make me shudder to touch
+them;--but don't you, for the world, tell him I said so,--for, to please
+him, I let him think I am ever so much edified by everything that he
+likes."
+
+"What sort of books _do_ you like?"
+
+"O, I like books with daylight in them! I want them to be living,
+upper-air, joyous books. There must be sunshine, and birds, and
+brooks,--human nature, life, suffering, aspiration, and----"
+
+"And love?"
+
+"Of course, there should be a little love in books, since there is
+sometimes a little, I believe, in real life." But she touched this
+subject with such airy lightness,--just hovering over it for an instant,
+and then away, like a butterfly not to be caught,--that Penn felt a
+jealous trouble. "How long," she added immediately, "do you imagine we
+shall have to stay here?"
+
+"It is impossible to say," replied Penn, turning with reluctance to the
+more practical topic. "One would think that the government cannot leave
+us much longer subject to this atrocious tyranny. An army may be already
+marching to our relief. But it may be weeks, it may be months, and I am
+not sure," he added seriously, "but it may be years, before Tennessee is
+relieved."
+
+"Why, that is terrible! Toby says that poor old man, Mr. Ellerton, who
+assisted you to escape, was caught and hung by some of the soldiers
+yesterday."
+
+"I have no doubt but it is true. Although he had returned to his home,
+he was known to be a Unionist, and probably he was suspected of having
+aided us; in which case not even his white hairs could save him."
+
+"But it is horrible! They have commenced woman-whipping. And Toby says a
+negro was hung six times a couple of days ago, and afterwards cut to
+pieces, for saying to another negro he met, 'Good news; Lincoln's army
+is coming!' What is going to become of us, if relief doesn't arrive
+soon? O, to look at the beautiful world we are driven from by these
+wicked, wicked men!"
+
+"And are you so very weary of the cave?"
+
+Penn gave her a look full of electric tenderness, which seemed to say,
+"Have not I been with you? and am I nothing to you?"
+
+She smiled, and her voice was tremulous as she answered,--
+
+"I wish I could go out into the sunshine again! But I have not been
+unhappy. Indeed, I think I have been very happy."
+
+There was an indescribable pause; Virginia's eyes modestly veiled, her
+face suffused with a blissful light, as if her soul saw some soft and
+exquisite dream; while Penn's bosom swelled with the long undulations of
+hope and transport. Toby still lingered in the entrance of the cave.
+
+"Toby," said Penn, such a radiance flashing from his brow as the negro
+had never seen before, "my good Toby,"--and what ineffable human
+sympathy vibrated in his tones!--"I wish you would go in and tell our
+friends that the enemy has quite disappeared: will you?"
+
+"Yes, massa!" said Toby, a ray of that happiness penetrating even the
+old freedman's breast. For such is the beautiful law of our nature, that
+love cannot be concealed; it cannot be monopolized by one, nor yet by
+two; but when its divine glow is kindled in any soul, it beams forth
+from the eyes, it thrills in the tones of the voice, it breathes from
+all the invisible magnetic pores of being, and sheds sunshine and warmth
+on all.
+
+Toby went. Then an arm of manly strength, yet of all manly gentleness,
+stole about the waist of the girl, and drew her softly, close, closer;
+while something else, impalpable, ravishing, holy, drew her by a still
+more potent attraction; until, for the first time in her young and pure
+life, her mouth met another mouth with the soul's virgin kiss. Her lips
+had kissed many times before, but her soul never. How long it lasted,
+that sweet perturbation, that fervent experience of a touch, neither, I
+suppose, ever knew; for at such times a moment is an eternity. As a
+lightning flash in a dark night reveals, for a dazzling instant, a world
+concealed before, so the electric interchange of two hearts charged with
+love's lightning seems to open the very doors of infinity; and it is the
+glory of heaven that shines upon them.
+
+Not a word was spoken.
+
+Then Penn held Virginia before him, and looked deep into her eyes, and
+said, with a strange tremor of lip and voice,--using the gentle speech
+of the Friends, into which old familiar channel his thoughts flowed
+naturally in moments of strong feeling,--
+
+"Wherever this dear face smiles upon me, there is my sunshine. I must be
+very selfish; for notwithstanding all the dangers and discomforts by
+which I see thee and thy father surrounded, the hours we have passed
+together here have been the happiest of my life. Yea, and suffering and
+privation would be never anything to me, if I could always have thee
+with me, Virginia!"
+
+How different, meanwhile, was the scene within the cave! How chafed the
+fiery Lysander! How spitefully Salina bit her lips ever at sight of him!
+And these two had once been lovers, and had seen rainbows span their
+future also! Is it love that unites such, or is it only the yearning for
+love? For love, the reality, fuses all qualities, and brings into
+harmony all clashing chords.
+
+Toby entered, the gleam of others' happiness still in his countenance.
+
+"De enemy hab dis'peared; all gone down in de frog."
+
+"The frog, Toby?" said Mr. Villars.
+
+"Yes, sar; right smart frog down 'ar in de volley!"
+
+"He means, a fog in the walley," said Carl.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+_A COUNCIL OF WAR._
+
+
+Owing to the disturbances of the night the old clergyman had slept
+little. He now lay down on the couch, and soon sank into a profound
+slumber. When he awoke he heard the hum of voices. The cave was filled
+with armed men.
+
+"It is Mr. Stackridge and his friends," said Virginia. "They have come
+to hold a council of war; and they look upon you as their grand sachem."
+
+"I have brought them here," said Pomp, "at their request--all except
+Deslow."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Deslow, I believe, has deserted!" said Stackridge.
+
+"Ah! What makes you think so?"
+
+"Well, I've watched him right close, and I've seen a good deal of what's
+been working in his mind. He's one o' them fools that believe Slavery is
+God; and he can't get over it. Pomp, here, saved our lives in the fire
+the other night; and Deslow couldn't stand it. To owe his life to a
+runaway slave--that was too dreadful!" said Stackridge with savage
+sarcasm. "He's a man that would rather be roasted alive, and see his
+country ruined, I suppose, than do anything that might damage in the
+least degree his divine institution! There's the difference 'twixt him
+and me. Sence slavery has made war agin' the Union, and turned us out of
+our homes, I say, by the Lord! let it go down to hell, as it desarves!"
+
+"You use strong language, neighbor!"
+
+"I do; and it's time, I reckon, when strong language, and strong actions
+too, are called fur. You hate a man that you've befriended, and that's
+turned traitor agin' ye, worse'n you hate an open inemy, don't ye? Wal,
+I've befriended slavery, and it's turned traitor agin' me, and all I
+hold most sacred in this world, and I'm jest getting my eyes open to it;
+and so I say, let it go down! I've no patience with such men as Deslow,
+and I'm glad, on the whole, he's gone. He don't belong with us anyhow. I
+say, any man that loves any kind of property, or any party, or
+institution, better than he loves the old Union"--Stackridge said this
+with tears of passion in his eyes,--"such a man belongs with the rebels,
+and the sooner we sift 'em out of our ranks the better."
+
+"When did he go?"
+
+"Some of us were out foraging again last night; Withers and Deslow with
+the rest. Tell what he said to you, Withers."
+
+The group of fugitives had gathered about the bed on which the old
+clergyman sat. Withers was scraping his long horny nails with a huge
+jackknife.
+
+"He says to me, says he, 'Withers, we've got inter a bad scrape.' 'How
+so?' says I; for I thought we war gittin' out of a right bad scrape when
+we got out of that temp'rary jail. 'The wust hain't happened yet,' says
+he. 'That's bad,' says I, 'fur it's allus good fur a feller to know the
+wust has happened.' And so I told him a little story. Says I, 'When I
+was a little boy 'bout that high, I was helping my daddy one day secure
+some hay. Wal, it looked like rain, and we put in right smart till the
+fust sprinkles begun to fall,--great drops, big as ox-eyes,--and they
+skeert me, for I war awful 'fraid of gittin' wet. So what did I do but
+run and git under some boards. My daddy war so busy he didn't see me,
+till bime-by he come that way, rolling up the hay-cocks to kill, and
+looked, and thar I war under the pile o' boards, curled up like a
+hedgehog to keep dry. 'Josh,' says he, 'what ye doin' thar? Why ain't ye
+to work?' ''Fraid o' gittin' wet!' says I. 'Pon that he didn't say a
+word, but jest come and took me by the collar, and led me to a little
+run close by, and jest casoused me in the water, head over heels, and
+then jest pulled me out agin. 'Now,' says he, 'ye can go to work, and
+you won't be the leastest mite afeard o' gittin' wet. Wal, 'twas about
+so. I didn't mind the rain, arter that. 'Wal, Deslow,' says I, 'that
+larnt me a lesson; and ever sence I've always thought 'twas a good thing
+fur us, when trouble comes, to have the wust happen, and know it's the
+wust, fur then we'se prepared fur't, and ain't no longer to be skeert by
+a little shower.' That's what I said to Deslow." And Withers continued
+scraping his nails.
+
+"Very good philosophy, indeed!" said Mr. Villars. "And what did he
+reply?"
+
+"He said, when the wust happened to us, we'd find we had no home, no
+property, and no country left; and fur his part he had been thinking
+we'd better go and give ourselves up, make peace with the authorities,
+and take the oath of allegiance. 'Lincoln won't send no army to relieve
+us yet a-while,' says he, 'and even if he does, you know, victory for
+the Federals means the death of our institootions! So I see where the
+shoe pinched with him; and I said, 'If that continners to be your ways
+of thinkin', I hain't the least objections to partin' comp'ny with ye,
+as the house dog said to the skunk; only,' says I, 'don't ye go to
+betrayin' us, if you conclude to go.' Soon arter that we separated, and
+that's the last any on us have seen of him."
+
+"They've begun to whip women, too," said Stackridge. "But, by right good
+luck, when this scamp here--" glowering upon Lysander--"sent to have my
+wife whipped, he got his own mother whipped in her place! He's a
+connection o' your family, I know, Mr. Villars; but I never spile a
+story for relation's sake."
+
+"Nor need you, friend Stackridge. Sorry I am for that deluded young man;
+but he reaps what he has sown, and he has only himself to blame."
+
+"'Twas a regular secesh operation, that of having his own mother strung
+up," said Captain Grudd. "They are working against their own interests
+and families without knowing it. When they think they are destroying the
+Union, they are destroying their own honor and influence; for so it 'ill
+be sure to turn out."
+
+"It was Liberty they intended to have beaten," said Penn; "but they will
+find that it is the back of their own mother, Slavery, that receives the
+rods."
+
+"Just what I meant to say; but it took the professor to put it into the
+right shape. By the way, neighbors, we owe the professor an apology.
+Some of us found fault with his views of slavery and secession; but
+we've all come around to 'em pretty generally, I believe, by this time.
+Here's my hand, professor, and let me say I think you was right enough
+in all but one thing--your plaguy non-resistance."
+
+"He has thought better of that," said Mr. Villars, pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, zhentlemen," said Carl, anxious to exonerate his friend, "he has
+been conwerted."
+
+"We have found that out, to his credit," said Stackridge.
+
+And, one after another, all took Penn cordially by the hand.
+
+"We are all brothers in one cause, OUR COUNTRY," said Penn. Nor did he
+stop when the hand of the last patriot was shaken; he took the hand of
+Pomp also. "We are all men in the sight of God!" His heart was full;
+there was a thrill of fervent emotion in his voice. His calm young face,
+his firm and finely-cut features, always noticeable for a certain
+massiveness and strength, were singularly illumined. He went on, the
+light of the cave-fire throwing its ruddy flash on the group. "We are
+all His children. He has brought us together here for a purpose. The
+work to be done is for all men, for humanity: it is God's work. To that
+we should be willing to give everything--even our lives; even our
+selfish prejudices, dearer to some than their lives. I believe that upon
+the success of our cause depends, not the prosperity of any class of
+men, or of any race of men, only, but of all men, and all races. For
+America marches in the van of human progress, and if she falters, if she
+ignobly turns back, woe is to the world! Perhaps you do not see this
+yet; but never mind. One thing we all see--a path straight before us,
+our duty to our country. We must put every other consideration aside,
+forget all minor differences, and unite in this the defence of the
+nation's life."
+
+An involuntary burst of applause testified how ardently the hearts of
+the patriots responded to these words. Some wrung Penn's hand again.
+Pomp meanwhile, erect, and proud as a prince, with his arms folded upon
+his massive and swelling chest, smiled with deep and quiet satisfaction
+at the scene. There was another who smiled, too, her face suffused with
+love and pride ineffable, as her eyes watched the young Quaker, and her
+soul drank in his words.
+
+"That's the sentiment!" said Stackridge. "And now, what is to be done?
+We have been disappointed in one thing. Our friends don't join us. One
+reason is, no doubt, they hain't got arms. But the main reason is, they
+look upon our cause as desperate. Desperate or not, it can't be helped,
+as I see. With or without help, we must fight it through, or go back,
+like that putty-head Deslow, and take the oath of allegiance to the
+bogus government. Mr. Villars, you're wise, and we want your opinion."
+
+"That, I fear, will be worth little to you!" answered the old man,
+bowing his head with true humility. "It seems to me that you are not to
+rely upon any open assistance from your friends. And sorry I am to add,
+I think you should not rely, either, upon any immediate aid from the
+government. The government has its hands full. The time is coming when
+you who have eyes will see the old flag once more floating on the
+breezes of East Tennessee. But it may be long first. And in the mean
+time it is your duty to look out for yourselves."
+
+"That is it," said Stackridge. "But how?"
+
+"It seems to me that your retreat cannot remain long concealed.
+Therefore, this is what I advise. Make your preparations to disperse at
+any moment. You may be compelled to hide for months in the mountains and
+woods, hunted continually, and never permitted to sleep in safety twice
+in the same place. That will be the fate of hundreds. There is but one
+thing better for you to do. It is this. Force your way over the
+mountains into Kentucky, join the national army, and hasten its
+advance."
+
+"And you?" said Captain Grudd.
+
+The old man smiled with beautiful serenity.
+
+"Perhaps I shall have my choice, after all. You remember what that was?
+To remain in the hands of our enemies. I ought never to have attempted
+to escape. I cannot help myself; I am only a burden to you. My daughters
+cannot continue to be with me here in this cave; and, if I am to be
+separated from them, I may as well be in a confederate prison as
+elsewhere. If the traitors seek my life, they are welcome to it."
+
+"O, father! what do you say!" exclaimed Virginia, in terror at his
+words.
+
+"I advise what I feel to be best. I will give myself up to the military
+authorities. You, and Salina, if she chooses, will, I am certain, be
+permitted to go to your friends in Ohio. But before I take this step,
+let all here who have strong arms to lend their country be already on
+their way over the mountains. Penn and Carl must go with them. Nor do I
+forget Pomp and Cudjo. They shall go too, and you will protect them."
+
+Penn turned suddenly pale. It was the soundness of the good old man's
+counsel that terrified him. Separation from Virginia! She to be left at
+the mercy of the confederates! This was the one thing in the world he
+had personally to dread.
+
+"It may be good advice," he said. "It is certainly a noble
+self-sacrifice, Mr. Villars proposes. But I do not believe there is one
+here who will consent to it. I say, let us keep together. If necessary,
+we can die together. We cannot separate, if by so doing we must leave
+him behind."
+
+He spoke with intense feeling, yet his words were but feebly echoed by
+the patriots. The truth was, they were already convinced that they ought
+to be making their way out of the state, and had said so among
+themselves; but, being unwilling to abandon the old minister, and
+knowing well that he could never think of undertaking the terrible
+journey they saw before them, hither they had come to hear what he had
+to suggest.
+
+"What do you think, Pomp?" Penn asked, in despair.
+
+"I think that what Mr. Villars advises these men to do is the best
+thing."
+
+Penn was stupefied. He saw that he stood alone, opposed to the general
+opinion. And something within himself said that he was selfish, that he
+was wrong. He did not venture to glance at Virginia, but bent his eyes
+downward with a stunned expression at the floor of the cave.
+
+"But as for himself, and us, I am not so sure. There are recesses in
+this cave that cannot easily be discovered. He shall remain, and we will
+stay and take care of him, if he will."
+
+These calm words of the negro sounded like a reprieve to Penn's soul. He
+caught eagerly at the suggestion.
+
+"Yes, if there must be a separation, Pomp is right. If many go, it will
+be believed that all are gone, and the rest can remain in safety."
+
+"You are all too generous towards me," said the old minister. "But I
+have nothing more to say. I am very patient. I am willing to accept
+whatever God sends, and to wait his own blessed time for it. When you,
+Penn, were sick in my house, and the ruffians were coming to kill you,
+and I could not determine what to do, the question was decided for me:
+Providence decided it by taking you, by what seemed a miracle, beyond
+the reach of all of us. So I believe this question, which troubles us
+now, will be decided for us soon. Something is to happen that will show
+us plainly what must be done."
+
+So it was: something was indeed to happen, sooner even than he supposed.
+
+
+
+
+XL.
+
+_THE WONDERS OF THE CAVE._
+
+
+The other inmates of the cave had breakfasted whilst the old clergyman
+was asleep. Toby was now occupied in preparing his dish of coffee, and
+Mr. Villars invited the patriots to remain and take a cup with him.
+
+Penn noticed Cudjo's discontent at seeing Toby usurp his function. He
+remembered also a rare pleasure he had been promising himself whenever
+he should find Cudjo at leisure and circumstances favorable for his
+purpose.
+
+"Now is our time," he whispered Virginia. "Will Salina come too?"
+
+"What to do?" Salina asked.
+
+"To explore the cave," said Penn, courteously, yet trembling lest the
+invitation should be accepted.
+
+She excused herself: she was feeling extremely fatigued; much to Penn's
+relief--that is to say, regret, as he hypocritically gave her to
+understand.
+
+She smiled: though she had declined, Virginia was going, and she thought
+he looked consoled.
+
+"What does anybody care for me?" she said bitterly to herself.
+
+It was to save her the pain of a slight that Penn, always too honest to
+resort to dissimulation from selfish motives, had assumed towards her a
+regard he did not feel. But the little artifice failed. She saw she was
+not wanted, and was jealous--angry with him, with Virginia, with
+herself. For thus it is with the discontented and envious. They cannot
+endure to see others happy without them. They gladly make the most of a
+slight, pressing it like a thistle to the breast, and embracing it all
+the more fiercely as it pierces and wounds. But he who has humility and
+love in his heart says consolingly at such times, "If they can be happy
+without me, why, Heaven be thanked! If I am neglected, then I must draw
+upon the infinite resources within myself. And if I am unloved, whose
+fault is it but my own? I will cultivate that sweetness of soul, the
+grace, and goodness, and affection, which shall compel love!"
+
+Something like this Carl found occasion to say to himself; for if you
+think he saw the master he loved, and her who was dear to him as ever
+sister was to younger brother, depart with Cudjo and the torches,
+without longing to go with them and share their pleasure, you know not
+the heart of the boy. He was almost choking with tears as he saw the
+torches go out of sight. But just as he had arrived at this
+philosophical conclusion, O joy! what did he see? Penn returning! Yes,
+and hastening straight to him! "Carl, why don't you come too?"
+
+There was no mistaking the sincerity of Penn's frank, animated face.
+Again the tears came into Carl's eyes; but this time they were tears of
+gratitude.
+
+"Vould you really be pleased to have me?"
+
+"Certainly, Carl! Virginia and I both spoke of it, and wondered why we
+had not thought to ask you before."
+
+"Then I vill get my wery goot friend the captain to excuse me. I
+sushpect he vill be wexed to part from me; but I shall take care that
+the ties that bind us shall not be proken."
+
+In pursuance of this friendly design, Carl produced a good strong cord
+which he had found in the cave. This he attached to the handcuffs by a
+knot in the middle; then, carrying the two ends in opposite directions
+around one of the giant's stools, he fastened them securely on the side
+farthest from the prisoner. This done, he gave the pistol to Toby, and
+invested him with the important and highly gratifying office of guarding
+"dat Shprowl."
+
+"If you see him too much unhappy for my absence, and trying for some
+diwersion by making himself free," said Carl, instructing him in the use
+of the weapon, "you shall shust cock it _so_,--present it at his head or
+stomach, vichever is conwenient--_so_,--then pull the trigger as you
+please, till he is vunce more quiet. That is all. Now I shall say goot
+pie to him till I come pack."
+
+"Why don't you kill and eat him?" asked Withers, watching the boy's
+operations with humorous enjoyment.
+
+"Him?" said Carl, dryly. "Thank ye, sir; I am not fond of weal."
+
+As Pomp and the patriots remained in the cave, it was not anticipated
+that Lysander would give any trouble.
+
+With Carl at his side, Penn bore the torch above his head, and plunged
+into the darkness, which seemed to retreat before them only to reappear
+behind, surrounding and pursuing their little circle of light as it
+advanced.
+
+A gallery, tortuous, lofty, sculptured by the gnomes into grotesque and
+astonishing forms, led from the inhabited vestibule to the wonders
+beyond. They had gone but a few rods when they saw a faint glimmer
+before them, which increased to a mild yellowish radiance flickering on
+the walls. It was the light of Cudjo's torch.
+
+They found Cudjo and Virginia waiting for them at the entrance of a long
+and spacious hall, whose floor was heaped with fragments of rock, some
+of huge size, which had evidently fallen from the roof.
+
+"De cave whar us lives, des' like dis yer when me find um in de fust
+place," the negro was saying to Virginia. "Right smart stuns dar."
+
+"What did you do with them?"
+
+"Tuk all me could tote to make your little dressum-room wiv. Lef' de big
+'uns fur cheers when me hab comp'ny, hiah yah! When Pomp come, him help
+me place 'em around scrumptious like. Pomp bery strong--lif' like you
+neber see!"
+
+Climbing over the stones, they reached, at the farther end of the hall,
+an abrupt termination of the floor. A black abyss yawned beyond. In its
+invisible depths the moan of waters could be heard. Virginia, who had
+been thrilled with wonder and fear, standing in the hall of the stones,
+and thinking of those crushing masses showered from the roof, now found
+it impossible not to yield to the terrors of her excited imagination.
+
+"I cannot go any farther!" she said, recoiling from the gulf, and
+drawing Penn back from it.
+
+"Come right 'long!" cried Cudjo; "no trouble, missis!"
+
+"See, he has piled stones in here and made some very good and safe
+stairs. Take my torch, Carl, and follow; Cudjo will go before with his.
+Now, one step at a time. I will not let thee fall."
+
+Thus assured, she ventured to make the descent. A strong arm was about
+her waist; a strong and supporting spirit was at her side; and from that
+moment she felt no fear.
+
+The limestone, out of which the cave was formed, lay in nearly
+horizontal strata; and, at the bottom of Cudjo's stairs, they came upon
+another level floor. It was smooth and free from rubbish. A gray vault
+glimmered above their heads in the torchlight. The walls showed strange
+and grotesque forms in bas-relief, similar to those of the first
+gallery: here a couchant lion, so distinctly outlined that it seemed as
+if it must have been chiselled by human art; an Indian sitting in a
+posture of woe, with his face buried in his hands; an Arctic hunter
+wrestling with a polar bear; the head of a turbaned Turk; and, most
+wonderful of all, the semblance of a vine (Penn named it "Jonah's
+gourd"), which spread its massive branches on the wall, and, climbing
+under the arched roof, hung its heavy fruit above their heads.
+
+Close by "Jonah's gourd" a little stream gushed from the side of the
+rock, and fell into a fathomless well. The torches were held over it,
+and the visitors looked down. Solid darkness was below. Carl took from
+his pocket a stone.
+
+"It is the same," he said, "that Mishter Sprowl pumped his head against.
+I thought I should find some use for it; and now let's see."
+
+He dropped it into the well. It sunk without a sound, the noise of its
+distant fall being lost in the solemn and profound murmur of the
+descending water.
+
+"What make de cave, anyhow?" asked Cudjo.
+
+"The wery question I vas going to ask," said Carl.
+
+"It will take but a few words to tell you all I know about it," said
+Penn. "Water containing carbonic acid gas has the quality of dissolving
+such rock as this part of the mountain is made of. It is limestone; and
+the water, working its way through it, dissolves it as it would sugar,
+only very slowly. Do you understand?"
+
+"O, yes, massa! de carbunkum asses tote it away!"
+
+Penn smiled, and continued his explanation, addressing himself to Carl.
+
+"So, little by little, the interior of the rock is worn, until these
+great cavities are formed."
+
+"But what comes o' de rock?" cried Cudjo; "dat's de question!"
+
+"What becomes of the sugar that dissolves in your coffee?"
+
+"Soaks up, I reckon; so ye can't see it widout it settles."
+
+"Just so with the limestone, Cudjo. It _soaks up_, as you say. And
+see!--I will show you where a little of it has settled. Notice this long
+white spear hanging from the roof."
+
+"Dat? Dat ar a stun icicle. Me broke de pint off oncet, but 'pears like
+it growed agin. Times de water draps from it right smart."
+
+"A good idea--a stone icicle! It grew as an icicle grows downward from
+the eaves. It was formed by the particles of lime in the water, which
+have collected there and hardened into what is called _stalactite_.
+These curious smooth white folds of stone under it, which look so much
+like a cushion, were formed by the water as it dropped. This is called
+_stalagmite_."
+
+"Heap o' dem 'ar sticktights furder 'long hyar," observed Cudjo, anxious
+to be showing the wonders.
+
+They came into a vast chamber, from the floor of which rose against the
+darkness columns resembling a grove of petrified forest trees. The
+flaming torches, raised aloft in the midst of them, revealed, supported
+by them, a wonderful gothic roof, with cornice, and frieze, and groined
+arches, like the interior of a cathedral. A very distinct fresco could
+also be seen, formed by mineral incrustations, on the ceiling and walls.
+On a cloudy background could be traced forms of men and beasts, of
+forests and flowers, armies, castles, and ships, not sculptured like the
+figures before described, but designed by the subtile pencil of some
+sprite, who, Virginia suggested, must have been the subterranean brother
+of the Frost.
+
+"How wonderful!" she said. "And is it not strange how Nature copies
+herself, reproducing silently here in the dark the very same forms we
+find in the world above! Here is a rose, perfect!"
+
+"With petals of pure white gypsum," said Penn.
+
+Whilst they were talking, Cudjo passed on. They followed a little
+distance, then halted. The light of his torch had gone out in the
+blackness, and the sound of his footsteps had died away. Carl remained
+with the other torch; and there they stood together, without speaking,
+in the midst of immense darkness ingulfing their little isle of light,
+and silence the most intense.
+
+Suddenly they heard a voice far off, singing; then two, then three
+voices; then a chorus filling the heart of the mountain with a strange
+spiritual melody. Virginia was enraptured, and Carl amazed.
+
+Penn, who had known what was coming, looked upon them with pride and
+delight. At length the music, growing faint and fainter, melted and was
+lost in the mysterious vaults through which it had seemed to wander and
+soar away.
+
+It was a minute after all was still before either spoke.
+
+"Certainly," Virginia exclaimed, "if I had not heard of a similar effect
+produced in the Mammoth Cave, I should never have believed that
+marvellous chorus was sung by a single voice!"
+
+"A single woice!" repeated Carl, incredulous. "There vas more as a dozen
+woices!"
+
+"Right, Carl!" laughed Penn. "The first was Cudjo's; and all the rest
+were those, of the nymph Echo and her companions."
+
+They continued their course through the halls of the echoes, and soon
+came to an arched passage, at the entrance of which Penn paused and
+placed the torch in a niche. A projection of the rock prevented the
+light from shining before them, yet their way was softly illumined from
+beyond, as by a dim phosphorescence. They advanced, and in a moment
+their eyes, grown accustomed to the obscurity, came upon a scene of
+surprising and magical beauty.
+
+"The Grotto of Undine," said Penn.
+
+It was, to all appearances, a nearly spherical concavity, some thirty
+yards in length, and perhaps twenty in perpendicular diameter. Carl's
+torch was concealed in the niche, and Cudjo's was nowhere visible; yet
+the whole interior was luminous with a dim and silvery halo. A narrow
+corridor ran round the sides, and resembled a dark ring swimming in
+nebulous light, midway between the upper and nether hemispheres of the
+wondrous hollow globe. Within this horizontal rim, floor there was none;
+and they stood upon its brink; and, looking up, they saw the marvellous
+vault all sparkling with stars and beaming with pale, pendent, taper,
+crystalline flames, noiseless and still; and, looking down, beheld
+beneath their feet, and shining with a yet more soft and dreamy lustre,
+the perfect counterpart of the vault above.
+
+Penn held Virginia upon the verge. A bewildering ecstasy captivated her
+reason as she gazed. They seemed to be really in the grotto of some
+nymph who had fled the instant she saw her privacy invaded, or veiled
+the immortal mystery and loveliness of her charms in some mesh of the
+glimmering nimbus that baffled and entangled the sight. Save one or two
+stifled cries of rapture from Virginia and Carl, not a syllable was
+uttered: perfect stillness prevailed, until Penn said, in a whisper,--
+
+"Wouldst thou like to see the face of Undine? Bend forward. Do not fear:
+I hold thee!"
+
+By gentle compulsion he induced her to comply. She bent over the brink,
+and looked down, when, lo! out of the hazy effulgence beneath, emerged a
+face looking up at her--a face dimly seen, yet full of vague wonder and
+surprise--a face of unrivalled sweetness and beauty, Penn thought. What
+did Virginia think?--for it was the reflection of her own.
+
+"O, Penn! how it startled me!"
+
+"But isn't she a Grace? Isn't she loveliness itself?"
+
+"I hope you think so!" she whispered, with arch frankness, a sweet
+coquettish confidence ravishing to his soul.
+
+"I do!" And in the privacy of telling her so, his lips just brushed her
+ear. Did you ever, in whispering some secret trifle, some all-important,
+heavenly nothing, just brush the dearest little ear in the world with
+your lips? or, in listening to the syllables of divine nonsense, feel
+the warm breath and light touch of the magnetic thrilling mouth? Then
+you know something of what Penn and Virginia experienced for a brief
+moment in the Grotto of Undine.
+
+Just then a duplicate glow, like a double sunrise, one part above and
+the other below the horizon, appeared at the farther end of the grotto.
+It increased, until they saw come forth from behind an upright rock an
+upright torch; and at the same time, from behind a suspended rock
+beneath, an inverted torch. Immediately after two Cudjoes came in sight;
+one standing erect on the rock above, and the other standing upside down
+on--or rather under--the rock below.
+
+"Take your torch, Carl," said Penn, "and go around and meet him."
+
+The boy returned to the niche; and presently two Carls, with two
+torches, were seen moving around the rim of the corridor, one upright
+above, the other walking miraculously, head downwards, below.
+
+The two Carls had not reached the rock, when the two Cudjoes stooped,
+and took up each a stone and threw them. One fell _upward_ (so to
+speak), as the other fell downward: they met in the centre: there was a
+strange clash, which echoed through the hollow halls; and in a moment
+the entire nether hemisphere of the enchanted grotto was shattered into
+numberless flashing and undulating fragments.
+
+Virginia had already perceived that the appearance of a concave sphere
+was an illusion produced by the ceiling lighted by Cudjo's hidden torch,
+and mirrored in a floor of glassy water. Yet she was entirely unprepared
+for this astonishing result; and at sight of the Cudjo beneath
+instantaneously annihilated by the plashing of a stone, she started back
+with a scream. Fortunately, Penn still held her close, no doubt in a fit
+of abstraction, forgetting that his arms were no longer necessary to
+prevent her falling, as when she leaned to look at the shadowy Undine.
+
+"All those stalactites," said he, as the two torches were held towards
+the roof, "are of the most beautiful crystalline structure; and the
+spaces between are all studded with brilliant spars. The first time I
+was here, it was April; the mountain springs were full, and every one of
+these _stone icicles_ was dripping with water that percolated through
+the strata above. The effect was almost as surprising as what we saw
+before Cudjo cast the stone. The surface of the pool seemed all leaping
+and alive with perpetual showers of dancing pearls. But now the springs
+are low, or the water has found another channel. Yet this basin is
+always full."
+
+"Why, so it is! I had no idea the water was so near!" And Virginia,
+stooping, dipped her hand.
+
+The mirrored crystals were still coruscating and waving in the ripples,
+as they passed around the rim of rock, and followed Cudjo into a
+scarcely less beautiful chamber beyond.
+
+Here was no water; but in its place was a floor of alabaster, from which
+arose a great variety of pure white stalagmites, to meet each its twin
+stalactite pendent from above. In some cases they did actually meet and
+grow together in perfect pillars, reaching from floor to roof.
+
+"The stalagmites are very beautiful," said Virginia; "but the
+stalactites are still more beautiful."
+
+"I think," said Penn, "there is a moral truth symbolized by them. As the
+rock above gives forth its streaming life, it benefits and beautifies
+the rock below, while at the same time it adorns still more richly its
+own beautiful breast. So it always is with Charity: it blesses him that
+receives, but it blesses far more richly him that gives."
+
+"O, must we pass on?" said Virginia, casting longing eyes towards all
+those lovely forms.
+
+"We are to return the same way," replied Penn. "But now Cudjo seems to
+be in a hurry."
+
+"Dat's de last ob de sticktights," cried the black, standing at the end
+of the colonnade, and waving his torch above his head. "Now we's comin'
+to de run."
+
+"Come," said Penn, "and I will show thee what Hood must have meant by
+the 'dark arch of the black flowing river.'"
+
+A stupendous cavern of seemingly endless extent opened before them.
+Cudjo ran on ahead, shouting wildly under the hollow, reverberating
+dome, and waving his torch, which soon appeared far off, like a flaming
+star amid a night of darkness. Then there were two stars, which
+separated, and, standing one above the other, remained stationary.
+
+"Listen!" said Penn. And they heard the liquid murmur of flowing water.
+
+He took the torch from Carl, and advancing towards the right wall of the
+cavern, showed, flowing out of it, through a black, arched opening, a
+river of inky blackness. It rolled, with scarce a ripple, slow, and
+solemn, and still, out of that impenetrable mystery, and swept along
+between the wall on one side and a rocky bank on the other. By this bank
+they followed it, until they came to a natural bridge, formed by a
+limestone cliff, through which it had worn its channel, and under which
+it disappeared. On this bridge they found Cudjo perched above the water
+with his torch.
+
+They passed the bridge without crossing,--for the farther end abutted
+high upon the cavern wall,--and found the river again flowing out on the
+lower side. Few words were spoken. The vastness of the cave, the
+darkness, the mystery, the inky and solemn stream pursuing its noiseless
+course, impressed them all. Suddenly Virginia exclaimed,--
+
+"Light ahead!" though Carl was with her, and Cudjo now walked behind.
+
+It was a gray glimmer, which rapidly grew to daylight as they advanced.
+
+"It is the chasm, or sink, where the roof of the cave has fallen in,"
+said Penn.
+
+While he spoke, a muffled rustling of wings was heard above their heads.
+They looked up, and saw numbers of large black bats, startled by the
+torches, darting hither and thither under the dismal vault. Birds, too,
+flew out from their hiding-places as they advanced, and flapped and
+screamed in the awful gloom.
+
+To save the torches for their return, Cudjo now extinguished them. They
+walked in the brightening twilight along the bank of the stream, and
+found, to the surprise and delight of Virginia, some delicate ferns and
+pale green shrubs growing in the crevices of the rock. Vegetation
+increased as they proceeded, until they arrived at the sink, and saw
+before them steep banks covered with vines, thickets, and forest trees.
+
+The river, whose former course had evidently been stopped by the falling
+in of the forest, here made a curve to the right around the banks, and
+half disappeared in a channel it had hollowed for itself under the
+cliff. Here they left it, and climbed to the open day.
+
+"How strangely yellow the sunshine looks!" said Virginia. "It seems as
+though I had colored glasses on. And how sultry the air!"
+
+She looked up at the towering rocks that walled the chasm, and at the
+trees upon whose roots she stood, and whose tops waved in the summer
+breeze and sunshine, at the level of the mountain slope so far above.
+She could also see, on the summit of the cliffs, the charred skeletons
+of trees the late fire had destroyed.
+
+"It was here," said Penn, "that Stackridge and his friends escaped. This
+leaning tree with its low branches forms a sort of ladder to the limbs
+of that larger one; and by these it is easy to climb----"
+
+As he was speaking, all eyes were turned upwards; when suddenly Cudjo
+uttered a warning whistle, and dropped flat upon the ground.
+
+"A man!" said Carl, crouching at the foot of the tree.
+
+Penn did not fall or crouch, nor did Virginia scream, although, looking
+up through the scant leafage, they saw, standing on the cliff, and
+looking down straight at them, at the same time waving his hand
+exultantly, one whom they well knew--their enemy, Silas Ropes.
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+_PROMETHEUS BOUND._
+
+
+At the wave of the lieutenant's hand, a squad of soldiers rushed to the
+spot. In a minute their muskets were pointed downwards, and aimed.
+"Fly!" said Penn, thrusting Virginia from him. "Carl, take her away!"
+
+The boy drew her back down the rocks, following Cudjo, who was
+descending on all fours, like an ape. She turned her face in terror to
+look after Penn. There he stood, where she had left him, intrepid, his
+fine head uncovered, looking steadfastly up at the men on the cliff, and
+waving his hat, defiantly. At once she recognized his noble
+self-sacrifice. It was his object to attract their fire, and so shield
+her from the bullets as she fled.
+
+She struggled from Carl's grasp. "O, Penn," she cried, extending her
+hands beseechingly, and starting to return to him.
+
+"Fire!" shouted Silas Ropes.
+
+Crack! went a gun, immediately succeeded by an irregular volley, like a
+string of exploding fire-crackers. Penn, expecting death, saw first the
+rapid flashes, then the soldiers half concealed by the smoke of their
+own guns. The smoke cleared, and there he still stood, smiling--for
+Virginia was unhurt.
+
+"Your practice is very poor!" he shouted up at the soldiers; and,
+putting on his hat, he walked calmly away.
+
+The bullets had struck the trees and flattened on the stones all around
+him; but he was untouched. And before the rebels could reload their
+pieces, he was safe with his companions in the cavern.
+
+He found Cudjo hastily relighting his torch. Virginia was sitting on a
+stone where Carl had placed her; powerless with the reaction of fear;
+her countenance, white as that of a snow-image in the gloom, turned upon
+Penn as if she knew not whether it was really he, or his apparition. She
+did not rise to meet him. She could not speak. Her eyes were as the eyes
+of one that beholds a miracle of God's mercy.
+
+"Is no guns here?" cried Carl.
+
+"De men hab all urn's guns,"' said Cudjo, over his kindlings. "Me gwine
+fotch 'em!" And, his torch lighted, he darted away. In a minute he was
+out of sight and hearing; only the flame he bore could be seen dancing
+like an ignis fatuus in the darkness of the cavern.
+
+"O, if I had only that pistol, Carl!" said Penn. "I could manage to
+defend the chasm with it until they come. But wishes won't help us.
+Virginia, Deslow has turned traitor! He must have known his friends were
+going this morning to visit thy father, or else he could not so well
+have chosen his time for betraying them." He lighted his torch, and
+lifted Virginia to her feet. "Have no fear. Even if the rebels get
+possession here, the subterranean passages can be held by a dozen men
+against a hundred."
+
+"I am not afraid now; I am quite strong."
+
+"That is well. Carl, take the light and go with her."
+
+"And vat shall you do?"
+
+"I will stay and watch the movements of the soldiers."
+
+"Wery goot. But I have vun little obshection."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"You know the vay petter, and you vill take her safer as I can. But my
+eyes is wery wigorous, and I vill engage to vatch the cusses myself."
+
+"Thou art right, my Carl!" said Penn, who indeed felt that it was for
+him, and for no other, to convey Virginia back to her father and safety.
+
+He crept upon the rocks, and took a last observation of the cliffs. Not
+a soldier was in sight. But that fact did not delight him much.
+
+"They fear a possible shot or two. No doubt they are making
+preparations, and when all is ready they will descend. I only hope they
+will delay long enough! Farewell, Carl!"
+
+"Goot pie, Penn! Goot pie, Wirginie!" cried Carl, with stout heart and
+cheery voice. And as he saw them depart,--Penn's arm supporting
+her,--listened for the last murmur of their voices, and watched for the
+last glimmer of the torch as it was swallowed by the darkness, and he
+was left alone, he continued to smile grimly; but his eyes were dim.
+
+"They are wery happy together! And I susphect the time vill come ven he
+vill marry her; and then they vill neither of 'em care much for me.
+Veil, I shall love 'em, and wish 'em happy all the same!"
+
+With which thought he smiled still more resolutely than before, and
+squeezed the tears from his eyes very tenderly, in order, probably, to
+keep those useful organs as "wigorous" as possible for the work before
+him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handcuffed and securely bound to the rock, that modern Prometheus,
+Captain Lysander Sprowl, like his mythical prototype, felt the vulture's
+beak in his vitals. Chagrin devoured his liver. An overflow of southern
+bile was the result, and he turned yellow to the whites of his eyes.
+
+Old Toby noticed the phenomenon. Poor old Toby, with that foolish head
+and large tropical heart of his, knew no better than to feel a movement
+of compassion.
+
+"Kin uh do any ting fur ye, sar?"
+
+The unfeigned sympathy of the question gave the wily Prometheus his cue.
+He uttered a feeble moan, and studied to look as much sicker than he was
+as possible.
+
+Pity at the sight made the old negro forget much which a white man would
+have been apt to remember--the disgrace this wretch had brought upon
+"the family;" and the recent cruel whipping, from which his own back was
+still sore.
+
+"Ye pooty sick, sar?"
+
+"Water!" gasped Lysander.
+
+The patriots had finished their coffee and taken their guns. Toby ran to
+them.
+
+"Some on ye be so good as keep an eye skinned on de prisoner, while I's
+gittin' him a drink!"
+
+He hastened with the gourd to a dark interior niche where a little
+trickling spring dripped, drop by drop, into a basin hollowed in the
+rocky floor. As he bore it, cool and brimming, to his captive-patient,
+Withers said,--
+
+"I don't keer! it's a sight to make most white folks ashamed of their
+Christianity, to see that old nigger waiting on that rascal, 'fore his
+own back has done smarting!"
+
+"If, as I believe," said Mr. Villars, "men stand approved before God,
+not for their pride of intellect or of birth, but for the love that is
+in their hearts, who can doubt but there will be higher seats in heaven
+for many a poor black man than for their haughty masters?"
+
+"According to that," replied Withers, "maybe some besides the haughty
+masters will be a little astonished if they ever git into
+heaven--nigger-haters that won't set in a car, or a meeting-house, or to
+see a theatre-play, if there's a nigger allowed the same privilege! Now
+I never was any thing of an emancipationist; but by George! if there's
+anything I detest, it's this etarnal and unreasonable prejudice agin'
+niggers! How do you account for it, Mr. Villars?"
+
+"Prejudice," said the old man, "is always a mark of narrowness and
+ignorance. You might almost, I think, decide the question of a man's
+Christianity by his answer to this: 'What is your feeling towards the
+negro?' The larger his heart and mind, the more compassionate and
+generous will be his views. But where you find most bigotry and
+ignorance, there you will find the negro hated most violently. I think
+there are men in the free states whose sins of prejudice and blind
+passion against the unhappy race are greater than those of the
+slaveholders themselves."
+
+"Our interest is in our property--that's nat'ral; but what possesses
+them to want to see the nigger's face held tight to the grindstone, and
+never let up?" said Withers. "Their howl now is, 'Put down the
+rebellion! but don't tech slavery, and don't bring in the nigger!' As
+if, arter dogs had been killing my sheep, you should preach to me, 'Save
+your sheep, neighbor, but don't agitate the dog question! You mustn't
+tech the dogs!' I say, if the dogs begin the trouble, they must take the
+consequences, even if my dog's one."
+
+"They maintain," said Grudd, "that, no matter what slavery may have
+done, there is no power in the constitution to destroy it."
+
+"I am reminded of a story my daughter Virginia was reading to me not
+long ago,--how the great polar bear is sometimes killed. The hunter has
+a spear, near the pointed end of which is securely fastened a strong
+cross-piece. The bear, you know, is aggressive; he advances, meets the
+levelled shaft, seizes the cross-piece with his powerful arms, and with
+a growl of rage hugs the spear-head into his heart. Now, slavery is just
+such another great, stupid, ferocious monster. The constitution is the
+spear of Liberty. The cross-piece, if you like, is the republican policy
+which has been nailed to it, and which has given the bear a hold upon
+it. He is hugging it into his heart. He is destroying himself."
+
+The story was scarcely ended when Cudjo leaped into the circle,
+crying,--
+
+"De sogers! de sogers!"
+
+"Where?" said Pomp, instinctively springing to his rifle.
+
+"In de sink! Dey fire onto we and de young lady!"
+
+"Any one hurt?"
+
+"No. Massa Hapgood cotch de bullets in him's hat!" for this was the
+impression the negro had brought away with him. "Hull passel sogers!
+Sile Ropes,--seed him fust ob all!"
+
+It was some moments before the patriots fully comprehended this alarming
+intelligence. But Pomp understood it instantly.
+
+"Gentlemen, will you fight? Your side of the house is attacked!"
+
+There was a moment's confusion. Then those who had not already taken
+their guns, sprang to them. They had brought lanterns, which were now
+burning. They plunged into the gallery, following Pomp. Cudjo ran for
+his sword, drew it from the scabbard, and ran yelling after them.
+
+The sudden tumult died in the depths of the cavern; and all was still
+again before those left behind had recovered from their astonishment.
+
+There was one whose astonishment was largely mixed with joy. A moment
+since he was lying like a man near the last gasp; but now he started up,
+singularly forgetful of his dying condition, until reminded of it by
+feeling the restraint of the rope and seeing Toby. Lysander sank back
+with a groan.
+
+"'Pears like you's a little more chirk," said Toby.
+
+"My head! my head!" said Lysander. "My skull is fractured. Can't you
+loose the rope a little? The strain on my wrists is--" ending the
+sentence with a faint moan.
+
+Had Toby forgotten the strain on _his_ wrists, and the anguish of the
+thumbs, when this same cruel Lysander had him strung up?
+
+"Bery sorry, 'deed, sar! But I can't unloosen de rope fur ye."
+
+And, full of pity as he was, the old negro resolutely remained faithful
+to his charge. Sprowl tried complaints, coaxing, promises, but in vain.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "I have only one request to make. Let me see my
+wife, and ask her forgiveness before I die."
+
+"Dat am bery reason'ble; I'll speak to her, sar." And, without losing
+sight of his prisoner, Toby went to Cudjo's pantry, now Virginia's
+dressing-room, into which Salina had retreated, and notified her of the
+dying request.
+
+Salina was in one of her most discontented moods. What had she fled to
+the mountain for? she angrily asked herself. After the first gush of
+grateful emotion on meeting her father and sister, she had begun quickly
+to see that she was not wanted there. Then she looked around
+despairingly on the dismal accommodations of the cave. She had not that
+sustaining affection, that nobleness of purpose, which enabled her
+father and sister to endure so cheerfully all the hardships of their
+present situation. The rude, coarse life up there, the inconveniences,
+the miseries, which provoked only smiles of patience from them, filled
+her with disgust and spleen.
+
+But there was one sorer sight to those irritated eyes than all else they
+saw--her captive husband. She could not forget that he _was_ her
+husband; and, whether she loved or hated him, she could not bear to
+witness his degradation. Yet she could not keep her eyes off of him; and
+so she had shut herself up.
+
+"He wishes to speak with me? To ask my forgiveness? Well! he shall have
+a chance!"
+
+She went and stood over the prisoner, looking down upon him coldly, but
+with compressed lips.
+
+"Well, what do you want of me?"
+
+Sprowl made a motion for Toby to retire. Humbly the old negro obeyed,
+feeling that he ought not to intrude upon the interview; yet keeping his
+eye still on the prisoner, and his hand on the pistol.
+
+"Sal,"--in a low voice, looking up at her, and showing his manacled
+hands,--"are you pleased to see me in this condition?"
+
+"I'd rather see you dead! If I were you, I'd kill myself!"
+
+"There's a knife on the table behind you. Give it to me, free my hands,
+and you won't have to repeat your advice."
+
+She merely glanced over her shoulder at the knife, then bent her
+scowling looks once more on him.
+
+"A captain in the confederate army! outwitted and taken prisoner by a
+boy! kept a prisoner by an old negro! This, then, is the military glory
+you bragged of in advance! And I was going to be so proud of being your
+wife! Well, I am proud!"
+
+There was gall in her words. They made Lysander writhe.
+
+"Bad luck will happen, you know. Once out of this scrape, you'll see
+what I'll do! Come, Sal, now be good to me."
+
+"Good to you! I've tried that, and what did I get for it?"
+
+"I own I've given you good cause to hate me. I'm sorry for it. The truth
+is, we never understood each other, Sal. You was always quick and sharp
+yourself; you'll confess that. You know how easy it is to irritate me;
+and I'm a devil when in a passion. But all that's past. Hate me, if you
+will--I deserve it. But you don't want to see me eternally disgraced, I
+know."
+
+She laughed disdainfully. "If you will disgrace yourself, how can I help
+it?"
+
+"The other end of the cave is attacked, and it is sure to be carried. I
+shall soon be in the hands of my own men. If I don't succeed in doing
+something for myself first, it'll be impossible for me to regain the
+position I've lost."
+
+"Well, do something for yourself! What hinders you?"
+
+"This cursed rope! I wouldn't mind the handcuffs if the rope was away.
+Just a touch with that knife--that's all, Sal."
+
+"Yes! and then what would you do?"
+
+"Run."
+
+"And lose no time in sending your men to attack this end of the cave,
+too! O, I know you!"
+
+"I swear to you, Sal! I never will take advantage of it in that way, if
+you will do me just this little favor. It will be worth my life to me;
+and it shall cost you nothing, nor your friends."
+
+"Hush! I know too well what your promises amount to. How can I depend
+even upon your oath? There's no truth or honor in you!"
+
+"Well?" said Lysander, despairingly.
+
+"Well, I am going to help you, for all that. Only it must not appear as
+if I did it. And you shall keep your oath,--or one of us shall die for
+it! Now be still!"
+
+She walked back past the block that served as a table, and, when between
+it and Toby, quietly took the knife from it, concealing it in her
+sleeve.
+
+"Don't come for me to hear any more dying requests," she said to the old
+negro, with a sneer. "Your prisoner will survive. Only give him a little
+coffee, if there is any. Here is some: I will wait upon him."
+
+And, carrying the coffee, she dropped the knife at Lysander's side.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+_PROMETHEUS UNBOUND._
+
+
+Five minutes later Penn and Virginia arrived. Penn ran eagerly for his
+musket. At the same time, looking about the cave, he was surprised to
+see only the old clergyman sitting by the fire, and Prometheus reclining
+by his rock.
+
+"Where is Salina? Where is Toby?"
+
+"Toby has just left his charge to see what discovery Salina has made
+outside. She went out previously and thought she saw soldiers."
+
+At that moment Toby came running in.
+
+"Dar's some men way down by the ravine! O, sar! I's bery glad you's
+come, sar!"
+
+Having announced the discovery, and greeted Penn and Virginia, he went
+to look at his prisoner. He had been absent from him but a minute: he
+found him lying as he had left him, and did not reflect, simple old
+soul, how much may be secretly accomplished by a desperate villain in
+that brief space of time.
+
+Penn took Pomp's glass, climbed along the rocky shelf, peered over the
+thickets, and saw on the bank of the ravine, where Salina pointed them
+out to him, several men. They were some distance below Gad's Leap (as he
+named the place where the spy met his death), and seemed to be occupied
+in extinguishing a fire. He levelled the glass. The recent burning of
+the trees and undergrowth had cleared the field for its operation. His
+eye sparkled as he lowered it.
+
+"I recognize one of our friends in a new uniform!"--handing the glass to
+Salina.
+
+Returning to the cave, he added, in Virginia's ear,--
+
+"Augustus Bythewood!"
+
+The bright young brow contracted: "Not coming here?"
+
+"I trust not. Yet his proximity means mischief. Pomp will be
+interested!"
+
+He took his torch and gun. There was no time for adieus. In a moment he
+was gone. There was one who had been waiting with anxious eyes and
+handcuffed hands to see him go.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Villars had called Toby to him, and said, in a low
+voice,--
+
+"Is all right with your prisoner?"
+
+"O, yes; he am bery quiet, 'pears like."
+
+"You must look out for him. He is crafty. I feel that all is not right.
+When you were out, I thought I heard something like the sawing or
+tearing of a cord. Look to him, Toby."
+
+"O, yes, sar, I shall!" And the confident old negro approached the rock.
+
+There lay the rope about the base of it, still firmly tied on the side
+opposite the prisoner. And there crouched he, in the same posture of
+durance as before, except that now he had his legs well under him. His
+handcuffed hands lay on the rope.
+
+"Right glad ter see ye convanescent, sar!"
+
+Toby was bending over, examining his captive with a grin of
+satisfaction; when the latter, in a weak voice, made a humble request.
+
+"I wish you would put on my cap."
+
+"Wiv all de pleasure in de wuld, sar."
+
+The cap had been thrown off purposely. Unsuspecting old Toby! The pistol
+was in his pocket. He stooped to pick up the cap and place it on
+Sprowl's head; when, like a jumping devil in a box when the cover is
+touched, up leaped Lysander on his legs, knocking him down with the
+handcuffs, and springing over him.
+
+Before the old man was fully aware of what had happened, and long before
+he had regained his feet, Lysander was in the thickets. In his hurry he
+thrust his wife remorselessly from the ledge before him, and flung her
+rudely down upon the sharp boughs and stones, as he sped by her. There
+Toby found her, when he came too late with his pistol. Her hands were
+cut; but she did not care for her hands. Ingratitude wounds more cruelly
+than sharp-edged rocks.
+
+Penn had judged correctly in two particulars. Deslow had turned traitor.
+And the personage in the new uniform down by the ravine was
+Lieutenant-Colonel Bythewood.
+
+Deslow had gone straight to head-quarters after quitting Withers the
+previous night, given himself up, taken the oath of allegiance to the
+confederacy, and engaged to join the army or provide a substitute. As if
+this were not enough, he had also been required to expose the secret
+retreat of his late companions. To this, we know not whether
+reluctantly, he had consented; and it was this act of treachery that had
+brought Silas Ropes to the sink, and Bythewood to the ravine.
+
+Advantage had been taken of the fog in the morning to march back again,
+up the mountain, the men who had marched down, baffled and inglorious,
+after the wild-goose chase Carl led them the night before. Bythewood
+commanded the expedition at his own request, being particularly
+interested in two persons it was designed to capture--Virginia and Pomp.
+It is supposed that he took a sinister interest in Penn also.
+
+But Bythewood was not anxious to deprive Ropes of his laurels; and
+perhaps he felt himself to be too fine a gentleman to mix in a vulgar
+fight. He accordingly sent Ropes forward to surprise the patriots at the
+sink, while he moved with a small force cautiously up towards Gad's
+Leap, with two objects in view. One was, to make some discovery, if
+possible, with regard to the missing Lysander; the other, to intercept
+the retreat of the fugitives, should they be driven from the cave
+through the opening unknown to Deslow, but which he believed to be in
+this direction.
+
+The firing on the right apprised Augustus that the attack had commenced.
+This was the signal for him to advance boldly up from the ravine, and
+establish himself on an elevation commanding a view of the slopes. Here
+he had been discovered very opportunely by Salina, who was seeking some
+pretext for calling Toby from his prisoner. In the shade of some bushes
+that had escaped the fire, he sat comfortably smoking his cigar on one
+end of a log, which was smoking on its own account at the other end.
+
+"Put out that fire, some of you," said Augustus.
+
+This was scarcely done, when suddenly a man came leaping down the slope,
+holding his hands together in a very singular manner. Bythewood started
+to his feet.
+
+"Deuce take me!" said he, "if it ain't Lysander! But what's the matter
+with his hands, sergeant?"
+
+"Looks to me as though he had bracelets on," replied the experienced
+sergeant.
+
+Some men were despatched to meet and bring the captain in. The sergeant
+found a key in his pocket to unlock the handcuffs. Then Lysander told
+the story of his capture, which, though modified to suit himself,
+excited Bythewood's derision. This stung the proud captain, who, to wash
+the stain from his honor, proposed to take a squad of men and surprise
+the cave.
+
+Fired by the prospect of seeing Virginia in his power, Augustus had but
+one important order to give: "Bring your prisoners to me here!"
+
+Instead of proceeding directly to the cave, Lysander used strategy. He
+knew that if his movements were observed, and their object suspected,
+Virginia would have ample time to escape with her father and old Toby
+into the interior caverns, where it might be extremely difficult to
+discover them. He accordingly started in the direction of the sink, as
+if with intent to re�nforce the soldiers fighting there; then, dropping
+suddenly into a hollow, he made a short turn to the left, and advanced
+swiftly, under cover of rocks and bushes, towards the ledge that
+concealed the cave.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"How _could_ you let him go, Toby!" cried Virginia, filled with
+consternation at the prisoner's escape. For she saw all the mischievous
+consequences that were likely to follow in the track of that fatal
+error: Cudjo's secret, so long faithfully kept, now in evil hour
+betrayed; the cave attacked and captured, and the brave men fighting at
+the sink, believing their retreat secure, taken suddenly in the rear;
+and so disaster, if not death, resulting to her father, to Penn, to all.
+
+The anguish of her tones pierced the poor old negro's soul.
+
+"Dunno', missis, no more'n you do! 'Pears like he done gnawed off de
+rope wiv his teef!" For Lysander, having used the knife, had hidden it
+under the skins on which he sat.
+
+Then Salina spoke, and denounced herself. After all the pains she had
+taken to conceal her agency in Sprowl's escape,--inconsistent,
+impetuous, filled with rage against herself and him,--she exclaimed,--
+
+"I did it! Here is the knife I gave him!"
+
+Virginia stood white and dumb, looking at her sister. Toby could only
+tear his old white wool and groan.
+
+"Salina," said her father, solemnly, "you have done a very treacherous
+and wicked thing! I pity you!"
+
+Severest reproaches could not have stung her as these words, and the
+terrified look of her sister, stung the proud and sensitive Salina.
+
+"I have done a damnable thing! I know it. Do you ask what made me? The
+devil made me. I knew it was the devil at the time; but I did it."
+
+"O, what shall we do, father?" said Virginia.
+
+"There is nothing you can do, my daughter, unless you can reach our
+friends and warn them."
+
+"O," she said, in despair, "there is not a lamp or a torch! All have
+been taken!"
+
+"And it is well! It would take you at least an hour to go and return;
+and that man--" Mr. Villars would never, if he could help it, speak
+Lysander's name--"will be here again before that time, if he is coming."
+
+"He is not coming," said Salina. "He swore to me that he would not take
+advantage of his escape to betray or injure any of you. He will keep his
+oath. If he does not----"
+
+She paused. There was a long, painful silence; the old man musing,
+Virginia wringing her hands, Toby keeping watch outside.
+
+"Listen!" said Salina. "I am a woman. But I will defend this place. I
+will stand there, and not a man shall enter till I am dead. As for you,
+Jinny, take _him_, and go. You can hide somewhere in the caves. Leave me
+and Toby. I will not ask you to forgive me; but perhaps some time you
+will think differently of me from what you do now."
+
+"Sister!" said Virginia, with emotion, "I do forgive you! God will
+forgive you too; for he knows better than we do how unhappy you have
+been, and that you could not, perhaps, have done differently from what
+you have done."
+
+Salina was touched. She threw her arms about Virginia's neck.
+
+"O, I have been a bad, selfish girl! I have made both you and father
+very unhappy; and you have been only too kind to me always! Now leave me
+alone--go! I hope I shall not trouble you much longer."
+
+She brushed back her hair from her large white forehead, and smiled a
+strange and vacant smile. Virginia saw that her wish was to die.
+
+"Sister," she said gently, "we will all stay together, if you stay. We
+must not give up this place! Our friends are lost--we are lost--if we
+give it up! Perhaps we can do something. Indeed, I think we can! If we
+only had arms! Women have used arms before now!"
+
+Toby entered. "Dey ain't comin' dis yer way, nohow! Dey's gwine off to
+de norf, hull passel on 'em."
+
+"Give me that pistol, Toby," said Salina. "You can use Cudjo's axe, if
+we are attacked. Place it where you can reach it, and then return to
+your lookout. Don't be deceived; but warn us at once if there is
+danger."
+
+"My children," said the old man, "come near to me! I would I could look
+upon you once; for I feel that a separation is near. Dear
+daughters!"--he took a hand of each,--"if I am to leave you, grieve not
+for me; but love one another. Love one another. To you, Salina, more
+especially, I say this; for though I know that deep down in your heart
+there is a fountain of affection, you are apt to repress your best
+feelings, and to cherish uncharitable thoughts. For your own good, O, do
+not do so any more! Believe in God. Be a child of God. Then no
+misfortune can happen to you. My children, there is no great misfortune,
+other than this--to lose our faith in God, and our love for one another.
+I do not fear bodily harm, for that is comparatively nothing. For many
+years I have been blind; yet have I been blest with sight; for night and
+day I have seen God. And as there is a more precious sight than that of
+the eyes, so there is a more precious life than this of the body. The
+life of the spirit is love and faith. Let me know that you have this,
+and I shall no longer fear for you. You will be happy, wherever you are.
+Why is it I feel such trust that Virginia will be provided for? Salina,
+let your heart be like hers, and I shall no longer fear for you!"
+
+"I wish it was! I wish it was!" said Salina, pouring out the anguish of
+her heart in those words. "But I cannot make it so. I cannot be good! I
+am--Salina! Is there fatality in a name?"
+
+"I know the infirmity of your natural disposition, my child. I know,
+too, what circumstances have done to embitter it. Our heavenly Father
+will take all that into account. Yet there is no one who has not within
+himself faults and temptations to contend with. Many have far greater
+than yours to combat, and yet they conquer gloriously. I cannot say
+more. My children, the hour has come which is to decide much for us all.
+Remember my legacy to you,--Have Faith and Love."
+
+They knelt before him. He laid his hands upon their heads, and in a
+brief and fervent prayer blessed them. Both were sobbing. Tears ran down
+his cheeks also; but his countenance was bright in its uplifted
+serenity, wearing a strange expression of grandeur and of joy.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+_THE COMBAT._
+
+
+Pomp, rifle in hand, bearing a torch, led the patriots on their rapid
+return through the caverns.
+
+"Lights down!" he said, as they approached the vicinity of the sink. "We
+shall see them; but they must not see us."
+
+They halted at the natural bridge; the torch was extinguished, and the
+patriots placed their lanterns under a rock. They then advanced as
+swiftly as possible in the obscurity, along the bank of the stream. In
+the hall of the bats they met Carl, who had seen their lights and come
+towards them.
+
+"Hurry! hurry!" he said. "They are coming down the trees like the
+devil's monkeys! a whole carawan proke loose!"
+
+Captain Grudd commanded the patriots; but Pomp commanded Captain Grudd.
+
+"Quick, and make no noise! We have every advantage; the darkness is on
+our side--those loose rocks will shelter us."
+
+They advanced until within a hundred yards of where the shaft of
+daylight came down. There they could distinguish, in the shining cleft
+under the brow of the cavern, and above the rocky embankment, the forms
+of their assailants. Some had already gained a footing. Others were
+descending the tree-trunks in a dark chain, each link the body of a
+rebel.
+
+"We must stop that!" said Pomp.
+
+The men were deployed forward rapidly, and a halt ordered, each choosing
+his position.
+
+"Ready! Aim!"
+
+At that moment, half a dozen men of the attacking party advanced,
+feeling their way over the rocks down which Penn and his companions had
+been seen to escape. The leader, shielding his eyes with his hand,
+peered into the gloom of the cavern. Coming from the light, he could see
+nothing distinctly. Suddenly he paused: had he heard the words of
+command whispered? or was he impressed by the awful mystery and silence?
+
+"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.
+
+Instantly a jagged line of flashes leaped across the breast of the
+darkness, accompanied by a detonation truly terrible. Each gun with its
+echoes, in those cavernous solitudes, thundered like a whole park of
+artillery: what, then, was the effect of the volley? The patriots were
+themselves appalled by it. The mountain trembled, and a gusty roar swept
+through its shuddering chambers, throbbing and pulsing long after the
+smoke of the discharge had cleared away.
+
+Pomp laughed quietly, while Withers exclaimed, "By the Etarnal! if I
+didn't fancy the hull ruf of the mountain had caved in!"
+
+"Load!" said Captain Grudd, sternly.
+
+The rebels advancing over the rocks had suddenly disappeared, having
+either fallen in the crevices or scrambled back up the bank while hidden
+from view by the smoke. The chain descending the tree had broken; those
+near the ground leaped down or slid, while those above seemed seized by
+a wild impulse to climb back with all haste to the summit of the wall. A
+few threw away their guns, which fell upon the heads of those below. At
+the same time those below might have been seen scampering to places of
+shelter behind rocks and trees.
+
+If ever panic were excusable, this surely was. Since the patriots were
+terrified by their own firing, we need not wonder at the alarm of the
+rebels. Some had seen the flashes sever the darkness, and their comrades
+fall; while all had felt the earthquake and the thundering. To those at
+the entrance it had seemed that these were the jaws and throat of a
+monster mountain-huge, which at their approach spat flame and bellowed.
+
+"Now is our time! Clear them out!" said Grudd.
+
+"Rush in and finish them with the bayonet!" said Stackridge. Six of the
+guns had bayonets, and his was one of them.
+
+"Not yet!" said Pomp. "They will fire on you from above. We must first
+attend to that. Shall I show you? Then do as I do!"
+
+Instinctively they accepted his lead. Loading his piece, he ran forward
+until, himself concealed under the brow of the cavern, he could see the
+rebels in the tree and on the cliff.
+
+"Once more! All together!" he said, taking aim. "Give the word,
+captain!"
+
+The men knelt among the loosely tumbled rocks, which served at once as a
+breastwork and as rests for their guns. The projecting roof of the cave
+was over them; through the obscure opening they pointed their pieces.
+Above them, in the full light, were the frightened confederates, some on
+the tree, some on the cliff, some leaping from the tree to the cliff;
+while their comrades in the sink lurked on the side opposite that where
+the patriots were.
+
+"Take the cusses on the top of the rocks!" said Stackridge. "The rest
+are harmless."
+
+"It's all them in the tree can do to take keer of themselves," added
+Withers. "Reg'lar secesh! All they ax is to be let alone."
+
+Grudd gave the word. Flame from a dozen muzzles shot upwards from the
+edge of the pit. When the smoke rolled away, the cliff was cleared. Not
+a rebel was to be seen, except those in the tree franticly scrambling to
+get out, and two others. One of these had fallen on the cliff: his head
+and one arm hung horribly over the brink. The other, in his too eager
+haste to escape from the tree, had slipped from the limb, and been saved
+from dashing to pieces on the rocks below only by a projection of the
+wall, to which he had caught, and where he now clung, a dozen feet from
+the top, and far above the river that rolled black and slow in its
+channel beneath the cliff.
+
+"Now with your bayonets!" said Pomp. "This way!"
+
+There were six bayonets before; now there were eight.
+
+"That Carl is worth his weight in gold!" said the enthusiastic
+Stackridge.
+
+While the patriots, preparing for their second volley, were getting
+positions among the rocks on the left, Carl had crept up the embankment
+in front, and brought away two muskets from two dead rebels. These were
+they who had fallen at the first fire. Both guns had bayonets. Pomp took
+one; Carl kept the other. Cudjo with his sword accompanied the charging
+party; Grudd and the rest remaining at their post, ready to pick off any
+rebel that should appear on the cliff.
+
+Swift and stealthy as a panther, Pomp crept around still farther to the
+left, under the projecting wall, raising his head cautiously now and
+then to look for the fugitives.
+
+"As I expected! They are over there, afraid to follow the stream into
+the cave, and hesitating whether to make a rush for the tree. All
+ready?"
+
+He looked around on his little force and smiled. Instead of eight
+bayonets, there were now nine. Penn had arrived.
+
+"All ready!" answered Stackridge.
+
+Pomp bounded upon the rocks and over them, with a yell which the rest
+took up as they followed, charging headlong after him. Cudjo,
+brandishing his sword, leaped and yelled with the foremost--a figure
+fantastically terrible. Penn, with the fiery Stackridge on one side, and
+his beloved Carl on the other, forgot that he had ever been a Quaker,
+hating strife. Not that he loved it now; but, remembering that these
+were the deadly foes of his country, and of those he loved, and feeling
+it a righteous duty to exterminate them, he went to the work, not like
+an apprentice, but a master,--without fear, self-possessed, impetuous,
+kindled with fierce excitement.
+
+The rebels in the sink, fifteen in number, had had time to rally from
+their panic; and they now seemed inclined to make resistance. They were
+behind a natural breastwork, similar to that which had sheltered the
+patriots on the other side. They levelled their guns hastily and fired.
+One of the patriots fell: it was Withers.
+
+"Give it to them!" shouted Pomp.
+
+"Every cussed scoundrel of 'em!" Stackridge cried.
+
+"Kill! kill! kill!" shrieked Cudjo.
+
+"Surrender! surrender!" thundered Penn.
+
+With such cries they charged over the rocks, straight at the faces and
+breasts of the confederates. Some turned to fly; but beyond them was the
+unknown darkness into which the river flowed: they recoiled aghast from
+that. A few stood their ground. The bayonet, which Penn had first made
+acquaintance with when it was thrust at his own breast, he shoved
+through the shoulder of a rebel whose clubbed musket was descending on
+Carl's head. Three inches of the blade come out of his back; and,
+bearing him downwards in his irresistible onset, Penn literally pinned
+him to the ground. Cudjo slashed another hideously across the face with
+the sword. Pomp took the first prisoner: it was Dan Pepperill. The rest
+soon followed Dan's example, cried quarter, and threw down their arms.
+
+"Quarter!" gasped the wretch Penn had pinned.
+
+"You spoke too late--I am sorry!" said Penn, with austere pity, as,
+placing his foot across the man's armpit to hold him while he pulled, he
+put forth his strength, and drew out the steel. A gush of blood
+followed, and, with a groan, the soldier swooned.
+
+"It is one of them wagabonds that gave you the tar and fedders!" said
+Carl.
+
+"And assisted at my hanging afterwards!" added Penn, remembering the
+ghastly face.
+
+Thus retribution followed these men. Gad and Griffin he had seen dead.
+Was it any satisfaction for him to feel that he was thus avenged? I
+think, not much. The devil of revenge had no place in his soul; and
+never for any personal wrong he had received would he have wished to see
+bloody violence done.
+
+The prisoners were disarmed, and ordered to remain where they were.
+
+"Bring the wounded to me," said Pomp, hastening back to the spot where
+Withers had fallen.
+
+Stackridge and another were lifting the fallen patriot and bearing him
+to the shelter of the cave. Pomp assisted, skilfully and tenderly. Then
+followed those who bore away the wounded prisoners and the guns that had
+been captured. Pepperill had been ordered to help. He and Carl carried
+the man whose face Cudjo had slashed. This was the only rebel who had
+fought obstinately: he had not given up until an arm was broken, and he
+was blinded by his own blood. Penn and Devitt brought up the rear with
+the swooning soldier. When half way over they were fired upon by the
+rebels rallying to the edge of the cliff. Grudd and his men responded
+sharply, covering their retreat. Penn felt a bullet graze his shoulder.
+It made but a slight flesh wound there; but, passing down, it entered
+the heart of the wounded man, whose swoon became the swoon of death.
+This was the only serious result of the confederate fire.
+
+"I am glad I did not kill him!" said Penn, as they laid the corpse
+beside the stream.
+
+Then out of the mask of blood which covered the face of the stout fellow
+who had fought so well, there issued a voice that spoke, in a strange
+tongue, these words:--
+
+"_Was hat man mir gethan? Wo bin ich, mutter?_"
+
+But the words were not strange to Carl; neither was the voice strange.
+
+"Fritz! Fritz!" he answered, in the same language, "is it you?"
+
+"I am Fritz Minnevich; that is true. And you, I think, are my cousin
+Carl."
+
+They laid the wounded man near the stream, where Pomp was examining
+Withers's hurt.
+
+"O, Fritz!" said Carl, "how came you here?"
+
+"They said the Yankees were coming to take our farm. So Hans and I
+enlisted to fight. I got in here because I was ordered. We do as we are
+ordered. It was we who whipped the woman. We whipped her well. I hope my
+good looks will not be spoiled; for that would grieve our mother."
+
+Thus the soldier talked in his native tongue, while Carl, in sorrow and
+silence, washed the blood from his face. He remembered he was his
+father's brother's son; a good fellow, in his way; dull, but faithful;
+and he had not always treated him cruelly. Indeed, Carl thought not of
+his cruelty now at all, but only of the good times they had had
+together, in days when they were friends, and Frau Minnevich had not
+taught her boys to be as ill-natured as herself.
+
+"What for do you do this, Carl?" said Fritz. "There is no cause that you
+should be kind to me. I did you some ill turns. You did right to run
+away. But our father swears you shall have your share of the property if
+you ever come back for it, and the Yankees do not take it."
+
+"It is all lies they tell you about the Yankees!" said Carl. "O Pomp!
+this is my cousin--see what you can do for him."
+
+Pomp had been reluctantly convinced that he could do nothing for
+Withers: his wound was mortal. And Withers had said to him, in cheerful,
+feeble tones, "I feel I'm about to the eend of my tether. So don't waste
+yer time on me."
+
+So Pomp turned his attention to the Minnevich. But Penn and Stackridge
+remained with the dying patriot.
+
+"Wish ye had a Union flag to wrap me in when I'm dead, boys! That's what
+I've fit fur; that's what I meant to die fur, if 'twas so ordered. It's
+all right, boys! Jest look arter my family a little, won't ye? And don't
+give up old Tennessee!"
+
+These were his last words.
+
+Penn and Stackridge rejoined their comrades in the fight.
+
+"Shoot him! shoot him! shoot him!" cried Cudjo, in a frenzy of
+excitement, pointing at the rebel who had fallen from the tree upon the
+projection of the chasm wall. "Him dar! Dat Sile Ropes!"
+
+"Ropes?" said Penn, looking up through the opening. "That he!"--raising
+his gun. "But he can do no harm there; and he can't get out."
+
+"Don' ye see? Dey's got a rope to help him wif! Gib him a shot fust! O,
+gib him a shot!"
+
+The projection to which the lieutenant clung was a broken shelf less
+than half a yard in breadth. There he cowered in abject terror betwixt
+two dangers, that of falling if he attempted to move, and that of being
+picked off if he remained stationary and in sight. To avoid both, he got
+upon his hands and knees, and hid his face in the angle of the ledge,
+leaving the posterior part of his person prominent, no doubt thinking,
+like an ostrich, that if his head was in a hole, he was safe. The very
+ludicrousness of his situation saved him. The patriots reserved him to
+laugh at, and fired over him at the rebels on the cliff. At each shot,
+Silas could be seen to root his nose still more industriously into the
+rock. At length, however, as Cudjo had declared, a rope was brought and
+let down to him.
+
+"Take hold there!" shouted the rebels on the cliff. Ropes could feel the
+cord dangling on his back. "Tie it around your waist!"
+
+Silas, without daring to look up, put out his hand, which groped
+awkwardly and blindly for the rope as it swung to and fro all around it.
+Finally, he seized it, but ran imminent risk of falling as he drew it
+under his body. At length he seemed to have it secured; but in his hurry
+and trepidation he had fastened it considerably nearer his hips than his
+arms. The result, when the rebels above began to haul, can be imagined.
+Hips and heels were hoisted, while arms and head hung down, causing him
+to resemble very strikingly a frog hooked on for bait at the end of a
+fish-line. The affrighted face drawn out of its hole, looked down
+ridiculously hideous into the rocky and bristling gulf over which he
+swung.
+
+"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.
+
+The volley was aimed, not at Silas, but at those who were hauling him
+up. Cudjo shrieked with frantic joy, expecting to see his old enemy
+plunge head foremost among the stones on the bank of the stream. Such,
+no doubt, would have been the result, but for one sturdy and brave
+fellow at the rope. The rest, struck either with bullets or terror, fell
+back, loosing their hold. But this man clung fast, imperturbable. Alone,
+slowly, hand over hand, he hauled and hauled; grim, unterrified,
+faithful. But it was a tedious and laborious task for one, even the
+stoutest. The man had but a precarious foothold, and the rope rubbed
+hard on the edge of the cliff. Cudjo shrieked again, this time with
+despair at seeing his former overseer about to escape.
+
+"That's a plucky fellow!" said Stackridge, with stern admiration of the
+soldier's courage. "I like his grit; but he must stop that!"
+
+He reached for a loaded gun. He took Carl's. The boy turned pale, but
+said never a word, setting his lips firmly as he looked up at the cliff.
+Silas was swinging. The soldier was pulling in the rope, hitch by hitch,
+over the ledge. Stackridge took deliberate aim, and fired.
+
+For a moment no very surprising effect was perceptible, only the man
+stopped hauling. Then he went down on one knee, paying out several
+inches of the rope, and letting the suspended Silas dip accordingly. It
+became evident that he was hit; he still grasped the rope, but it began
+to glide through his hands. Silas set up a howl.
+
+"Hold me! hold me!"--at the same time extending all his fingers to grasp
+the rocks.
+
+The brave fellow made one last effort, and took a turn of the rope about
+his wrist. It did not slip through his hands any more. But soon _he_
+began to slip--forward--forward--on both knees now--his head reeling
+like that of a drunken man, and at last pitching heavily over the cliff.
+
+Some of the cowards who had deserted their post sprang to save him; but
+too late: the man was gone.
+
+It was fortunate for Silas that he had been let down several feet thus
+gradually. He was near the ledge from which he had been lifted, and had
+just time to grasp it again and crawl upon it, when the man fell,
+turning a complete somerset over him, fearful to witness! revolving
+slowly in his swift descent through the air; still holding with
+tenacious grip the rope; plunging through the boughs like a mere log
+tumbled from the cliff, and striking the rocks below--dead.
+
+He had taken the rope with him; and Silas had been preserved from
+sharing his fate only by a lucky accident. The knot at his hips loosened
+itself as he clutched the ledge, and let the coil fly off as the man
+shot down.
+
+Not a gun was fired: rebels and patriots seemed struck dumb with horror
+at the brave fellow's fate. Then Carl whispered,--
+
+"That vas my other cousin! That vas Hans!"
+
+"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you about?" cried Penn.
+
+The black did not answer. Beside himself with excitement, he ran to the
+leaning tree and climbed it like an ape. The naked sword gleamed among
+the twigs. Reaching the trunk of the tall tree he ascended that as
+nimbly, never stopping until he had reached the upper limbs. There was
+one that branched towards the ledge where Silas clung. At a glance
+choosing that, Cudjo ran out upon it, until it bent beneath his weight.
+There he tried in vain to reach his ancient enemy with the sword; the
+distance was too great, even for his long arms.
+
+"Sile Ropes! ye ol' oberseer! g'e know Cudjo? Me Cudjo!" he yelled,
+slashing the end of the branch as if it had been his victim's flesh.
+"'Member de lickins? 'Member my gal ye got away? Now ye git yer pay!"
+
+While he was raving thus, one of the soldiers above, sheltering himself
+from the fire of the patriots by lying almost flat on the ground,
+levelled his gun at the half-crazed negro's breast, and pulled the
+trigger.
+
+A flash--a report--the sword fell, and went clattering down upon the
+rocks. Cudjo turned one wild look upward, clapping his hand to his
+breast. Then, with a terrible grimace, he cast his eyes down again at
+Ropes,--crept still farther out on the branch,--and leaped.
+
+Silas had his nose in the angle of the ledge again, and scarcely knew
+what had happened until he felt the negro alight on his back and fling
+his arms about him.
+
+"Cudjo shot! Cudjo die! But you go too, Sile Ropes!"
+
+As he gibbered forth these words, his long hands found the lieutenant's
+throat, and tightened upon it. A fearfully quiet moment ensued; then
+living and dying rolled together from the ledge, and dropped into the
+chasm. They struck the body of the dead Hans; that broke the fall; and
+Cudjo was beneath his victim. Ropes, stunned only, struggled to rise;
+but, held in that deadly embrace, he only succeeded in rolling himself
+down the embankment, Cudjo accompanying. The stream flowed beneath,
+black, with scarce a murmur. Silas neither saw nor heard it; but,
+continuing to struggle, and so continuing to roll, he reached the verge
+of the rocks, and fell with a splash into the current.
+
+Penn ran to the spot just in time to see the two bodies disappear
+together; the dying Cudjo and the drowning Silas sinking as one, and
+drifting away into the cavernous darkness of the subterranean river.
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+_HOW AUGUSTUS FINALLY PROPOSED._
+
+
+After this there was a lull; and Penn, who had forgotten every thing
+else whilst the conflict was raging, remembered that he had seen
+Bythewood at the ravine, and hastened to inform Pomp of the
+circumstance.
+
+The death of Cudjo had plunged Pomp into a fit of stern, sad reverie.
+His surgical task performed, he stood leaning on his rifle, gazing
+abstractedly at the darkly gliding waves, when Penn's communication
+roused him.
+
+"Ha!" said he, with a slight start. "We must look to that! The danger
+here is over for the present, and two or three of us can be spared."
+
+"Shall I go, too?" said Carl. "It is time I vas seeing to my prisoner."
+
+"Come," said Pomp. And the three set out to return.
+
+Having but slight anticipations of trouble from the side of the ravine,
+they came suddenly, wholly unprepared, upon a scene which filled them
+with horror and amazement.
+
+The prisoner, as we know, had fled. We left him on his way back to the
+cave with a squad of men. Since which time, this is what had occurred.
+
+The assailants had approached so stealthily over the ledges, below which
+Toby was stationed, looking intently for them in another direction, that
+he had no suspicions of their coming until they suddenly dropped upon
+him as from the clouds. He had no time to run for his axe; and he had
+scarcely given the alarm when he was overpowered, knocked down, and
+rolled out of the way off the rocks.
+
+The assailants then, with Lysander at their head, rushed to the entrance
+of the cave. But there they encountered unexpected resistance: the two
+sisters--Salina with the pistol, Virginia with the axe.
+
+"Hello! Sal!" cried Lysander, recoiling into the arms of his men; "what
+the devil do you mean?"
+
+"I mean to kill you, or any man that sets foot in this place! That is
+what I mean!"
+
+There could be no doubt about it: her eyes, her attitude, her whole
+form, from head to foot, looked what she said. She was flushed; a smile
+of wild and reckless scorn curved her mouth, and her countenance gleamed
+with a wicked light.
+
+By her side was Virginia, with the uplifted axe, expressing no less
+determination by her posture and looks, though she did not speak, though
+there was no smile on her pale lips, and though her features were as
+white as death.
+
+"It's no use, gals!" said Sprowl. "Don't make fools of yourselves! You
+won't be hurt; but I'm bound to come in!"'
+
+"Do not attempt it! You have broken your oath to me. But I have made an
+oath I shall not break!"
+
+What that oath was Salina did not say; but Lysander's changing color
+betrayed that he guessed it pretty well.
+
+"I don't care a d--n for you! Virginia, drop that axe, and come out here
+with your father, and I pledge my sacred honor that neither of you shall
+receive the least harm."
+
+"Your sacred honor!" sneered Salina.
+
+But Virginia said nothing. She stood like a clothed statue; only the
+eyes through which the fire of the excited spirit shone were not those
+of a statue; and the advanced white arm, beautiful and bare, from which
+the loose sleeve fell as it reared the axe, was of God's sculpture, not
+man's.
+
+She seemed not to hear Lysander; for the promise of safety for herself
+was as nothing to her: she felt that she was there to defend, with her
+life, if needs were, the friends whom he had betrayed. Only a holy and
+great purpose like this could have nerved that gentle nature for such
+work, and made those tender sinews firm as steel.
+
+There was something slightly devilish in the aspect of Salina; but
+Virginia was all the angel; yet it was the angel roused to strife.
+
+"Call off your gals, Mr. Villars!" said Sprowl.
+
+"Lysander!" said the solemn voice of the old minister from within, "hear
+me! We are but three here, as you see: a blind and helpless old man and
+two girls. Why do you follow to persecute us? Go your way, and learn to
+be a man. The business you are engaged in is unworthy of a man. My
+daughters do right to defend this place, which you, false and
+ungrateful, have betrayed. Attempt nothing farther; for we are not
+afraid to die!"
+
+"Go in, boys!" shouted Lysander, himself shrinking aside to let the
+soldiers pass.
+
+Salina fired the pistol--not at the soldiers.
+
+"She has shot me!" said Lysander, staggering back. "Kill the fiend! kill
+her!"
+
+Instantly two bayonets darted at her breast. One of them was struck down
+by Virginia's axe, which half severed the soldier's wrist. But before
+the axe could rise and descend again, the other bayonet had done its
+work; and the soldiers rushed in.
+
+It was all over in a minute. The axe was seized and wrenched violently
+away. Toby lay senseless on the rocks without. Lysander was leaning
+dizzily, clutching at the ledge, a ghastly whiteness settling about the
+gay mustache, and a strange glassiness dimming his eyes. The soldiers
+had possession. Virginia was a prisoner, and her father; but not Salina.
+There was the body which had been hers, transfixed by the bayonet, and
+fallen upon the ground: that was palpable: but who shall capture the
+escaping soul?
+
+When Penn and his companions arrived, not a living person was there; but
+alone, stretched upon the cold stone floor, where the gray light from
+the entrance fell,--pulseless, pallid, with pale hands crossed
+peacefully on her breast, hiding the wound, and features faintly smiling
+in their stony calm,--lay the corpse of her that was Salina. The fair
+cup that had brimmed with the bitterness of life was shattered. The soul
+that drank thereat had fled away in haughtiness and scorn.
+
+Toby, groaning on the stones outside, felt somebody shaking him, and
+heard the voice of Carl asking how he was.
+
+"Dunno'; sort o' common," said the old negro, trying to rise.
+
+He knew nothing of what had happened, except that he had been fallen
+upon and beaten down: for the rest, it was useless to question him: not
+even Penn's agonies of doubt and fear could rouse his recollection.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lieutenant-colonel Bythewood had committed the error of an officer green
+in his profession. The cave surprised, and the prisoners taken, the men
+retired in all haste, simply because they had received no orders to the
+contrary. Thus no advantage whatever was taken of the very important
+position which had been gained.
+
+Leaving the dead behind, and carrying off the wounded and the prisoners,
+the sergeant, upon whom the command devolved after his captain was
+disabled, lost no time in reporting to the lieutenant-colonel.
+
+Augustus stood up to receive the report and the prisoners,--extremely
+pale, but appearing preternaturally courteous and composed. He bowed
+very low to the old clergyman (who, he forgot, could not witness and
+appreciate that graceful act of homage), and expressed infinite regret
+that "his duty had rendered it necessary," and so forth. Then turning to
+Virginia, whose look was scarcely less stony than that of her dead
+sister in the cave, he bowed low to her also, but without speaking, and
+without raising his eyes to her face.
+
+"Have this old gentleman carried to his own house, and see that every
+attention is paid to him."
+
+"And my daughter?" said the blind old man, meekly.
+
+"She shall follow you. I will myself accompany her."
+
+"And my dead child up yonder?"
+
+"She shall be brought to you at the earliest possible moment."
+
+"And my faithful servant?"
+
+"He shall be cared for."
+
+"Thank you." And Mr. Villars bowed his white head upon his breast.
+
+"Take the captain immediately to the hospital! And you fellow with the
+hacked wrist, go with him."
+
+The number of men required to execute these orders (since both the old
+clergyman and the wounded captain had to be carried) left Augustus
+almost alone with Virginia. Having previously sent off all his available
+force to Ropes at the sink, in answer to a pressing call for
+re�nforcements, he had now only the sergeant and two men at his beck.
+But perhaps this was as he wished it to be. He approached Virginia, and,
+bowing formally, still without speaking, offered her his arm.
+
+"Thank you. I can walk without assistance." Like marble still, but with
+the same wild fire in her eyes. "The only favor I ask of you is to be
+permitted to leave you."
+
+Bythewood made a motion to the sergeant, who removed his men farther
+off.
+
+"I wish to have a few words of conversation with you, Miss Villars. I
+beg you to be seated here in the shade."
+
+Virginia remained standing, regarding him with features pale and firm as
+when she held the axe. It was evident to her that here was another
+struggle before her, scarcely less to be dreaded than the first.
+Augustus looked at her, and smiled pallidly.
+
+"If eyes could kill, Miss Villars, I think yours would kill me!"
+
+"If polite cruelty can kill, YOU HAVE killed my sister!"
+
+"O, I beg your pardon, dear Miss Villars, but it was not I!"
+
+"I beg no pardon, but I say it WAS you! And now you will murder my
+father--perhaps me."
+
+"O, my excellent young lady, how you have misunderstood me! By Heaven, I
+swear!"--his voice shook with sincere emotion,--"if I have committed a
+fault, it has been for the love of you! Such faults surely may be
+pardoned. Virginia! will you accept my life as an atonement for all I
+have done amiss? You shall bear my name, possess my wealth, and, if you
+do not like the cause I am engaged in, I will throw up my commission
+to-morrow. I will take you to France--Italy--Switzerland--wherever you
+wish to go. Nor do I forget your father. Whatever you ask for him shall
+be granted. I have money--influence--position--every thing that can make
+you happy."
+
+There was a minute's pause, the intense glances of the girl piercing
+through and through that pale, polite mask to his soul. A selfish,
+chivalrous man; not a great villain, by any means; moved by a genuine,
+eager, unscrupulous passion for her--sincere at least in that; one who
+might be influenced to good, and made a most convenient and devoted
+husband: this she saw.
+
+"Well, what more?"
+
+"What more? Ah, you are thinking of your friends--I should say, of your
+friend! It is natural. I have no ill will against him. Whatever you ask
+for him shall be granted. At a word from me, the fighting up there
+ceases; and he and the rest shall be permitted to go wherever they
+choose, unharmed."
+
+"Well, and if I reject your generous offer?"
+
+Augustus smiled as he answered, with a hard, inexorable purpose in his
+tones,--
+
+"Then, much as I love you, I can do nothing!"
+
+"Nothing for my father?"
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"Nor for me?"
+
+"Not even for you!"
+
+"Why, then, God pity us all!" said Virginia, calmly.
+
+"Truly you may say, God pity you! For do you know what will happen? Your
+father will die in prison: you will never see him again. Your friends
+will be massacred to a man. I will be frank with you: to a man they will
+be given to the sword. They are but a dozen; we are fifty--a hundred--a
+thousand, if necessary. The sink has already been taken, and a force is
+on its way to occupy this end of the cave. If your friends hold out,
+they will be starved. If they fight, they will be bayoneted and shot. If
+they surrender, every living man of them shall be hung. There is no help
+for them. Lincoln's army, that has been coming so long, is a chimera; it
+will never come. The power is all in our hands; and not even God can
+help them. That sounds blasphemous, I know; but it is true. They are
+doomed. But I can save them--and you can save them."
+
+"And what is to become of me?" asked Virginia, calmly as before.
+
+"Your future is entirely in your own hands. On the one side, what I have
+promised. On the other----" Augustus thought he heard a crackling of
+sticks, and looked around.
+
+"On the other,"--Virginia took up the unfinished speech,--"the fate of a
+friendless, fatherless, Union-loving woman in this chivalrous south! I
+know how you treat such women. I know what awaits me on that side. And I
+accept it. My friends can die. My father can die; and I can. All this I
+accept; all the rest, you and your offers, I reject. I would not be your
+wife to save the world. Because I not only do not love you, but because
+I detest you. You have my answer."
+
+With swelling breast and set teeth Augustus kept his eyes upon her for
+full a minute, then replied, in a low voice shaken by passion,--
+
+"I hoped your decision would be different. But it is spoken. I cannot
+hope to change it?"
+
+"Can you change these rocks under our feet with empty words?" she said,
+with a white smile.
+
+"All is over, then! Without cause you hate me, Miss Villars. Hitherto,
+in all that has happened to you and your friends, I have been blameless.
+If in the future I am not so, remember it is your own fault."
+
+Then the fire flashed into Virginia's cheeks, and indignation rang in
+her tones as she denounced the falsehood.
+
+"Hitherto, in the wrong that has happened to me and my friends, you have
+NOT been blameless! In the future you cannot do more to injure us than
+you have already done, or meant to do. Look at me, and listen while I
+prove what I say."
+
+Again there was a slight noise in the thicket behind them, and he would
+have been glad to make that an excuse for leaving her a moment; but her
+spirit held him.
+
+"I listen," he said, inwardly quaking at he knew not what.
+
+"Do you remember the night my father was arrested?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And how you that day took a journey to be away from us in our trouble?"
+
+"I certainly took a short journey that day, but--" his eyes flickering
+with the uneasiness of guilt.
+
+"And do you remember a conversation you had with Lysander under a
+bridge?"
+
+His face suddenly flushed purple. "The villain has betrayed me!" he
+thought. Then he stammered, "I hope you have not been listening to any
+of that fellow's slanders!"
+
+"You talked with Lysander under the bridge. Your conversation was heard,
+every word of it, by a third person, who lay concealed under the planks,
+behind you."
+
+"A villanous spy!" articulated Augustus.
+
+"No spy--but the man you two were at that moment seeking to kill: Penn
+Hapgood, the Schoolmaster."
+
+It was a blow. Poor Bythewood, too luxurious and inert to be a great
+villain, was only a weak one; and, wounded in his most sensitive point,
+his pride, he writhed for a space with unutterable chagrin and rage.
+Then he recovered himself. He had heard the worst; and now there was
+nothing left for him but to cast down and trample with his feet (so to
+speak) the mask that had been torn from his face.
+
+"Very well! You think you know me, then!"--He seized her wrists.--"Now
+hear me! I am not to be spurned like a dog, even by the foot of the
+woman I love. You reject, despise, insult me. As for me, I say this: all
+shall be as I have pronounced. Your father, your lover,--not Fate itself
+shall intervene to save them! And as for you----"
+
+Again he heard a rustling by the ravine; this time so near that it
+startled him. He looked quickly around, and saw, slowly peering through
+the bushes, a dark human face. Had it been the terrible front of the
+Fate he had just defied, the soul of Augustus Bythewood could not have
+shrunk with a more sudden and appalling fear. It was the face of Pomp.
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+_MASTER AND SLAVE CHANGE PLACES._
+
+
+The sergeant and his men were several rods distant: the bush through
+which that menacing visage peered was within as many feet. Augustus
+reached for his revolver.
+
+"Make a single move--speak a single word--and you are food for the
+buzzards!" came a whisper from the bush that well might chill his blood.
+"You know this rifle--and you know me!" And in the negro's face shone a
+persuasive glitter of the old, untamable, torrid ferocity of his
+tribe--not pleasing to Augustus.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"Give your revolver to that girl--instantly!"
+
+"I have men within call!"
+
+"So have I."
+
+Through the bush, advancing noiselessly, came the straight steel barrel
+of a rifle that had never missed fire but once: that was when it had
+been aimed by Augustus at the head of Pomp. Now it was aimed by Pomp at
+the head of Augustus; and it was hardly to be expected that it would be
+so obliging as to remember that one fault, and, for the sake of
+fairness, repeat it, now that positions were reversed. Bythewood
+hesitated, in mortal fear.
+
+"Obey me! I shall not speak again!"
+
+And there was heard in the bush another slight noise, too short, quick,
+and clicking, to be the crackle of a twig. Neither was that pleasing to
+the mind of Augustus. He turned, and with trembling hand made Virginia a
+present of the revolver.
+
+"Do you know how to use it?" Pomp asked. She nodded, breathless. "And
+you will use it if necessary?" She nodded again, and held the weapon
+prepared. "Now,"--to Bythewood,--"send those men away."
+
+"What do you mean to do?"
+
+"I mean to spare their lives and yours, if you obey me. To kill you
+without much delay if you do not."
+
+"If you shoot,"--Bythewood was beginning to regain his dignity,--"they
+will rush to the spot before you can escape, and avenge me well!"
+
+A superb, masterful smile mounted to the ebon visage, and the answer
+came from the bush,--
+
+"Look where the bowlder lies, up there by the ravine. You will see a
+twinkle of steel among the leaves. There are guns aimed at your men. You
+understand."
+
+Perhaps Augustus did not distinguish the guns; but he understood. At a
+signal, his men would be shot down.
+
+"I would prefer not to shed blood. So decide and that quickly!" said
+Pomp.
+
+"And if I comply?"
+
+"Comply readily with all I shall demand of you, and not a hair of
+your head shall be harmed. Now I count ten. At the word ten, I send
+a bullet through your heart if those men are still there." He
+commenced, like one telling the strokes of a tolling bell:
+"One----two----three----four----five----"
+
+"Sergeant," called Augustus, "take your men and report to Lieutenant
+Ropes at the sink."
+
+"A fine time to be taken up with a love affair!" growled the sergeant,
+as he obeyed.
+
+"Now what?" said Bythewood, under an air of bravado concealing the
+despair of his heart.
+
+"Come!" said Pomp, with savage impatience,--for he knew well that, if
+Bythewood had not yet learned of Ropes's death, messengers must be on
+the way to him, and therefore not a moment was to be lost. He opened the
+bushes. Augustus crept into them: Virginia followed. But then suddenly
+the negro seemed to change his plans, the spirit and firmness of the
+girl inspiring him with a fresh idea.
+
+"Miss Villars, we are going to the cave. Look down the ravine
+there;--you see this path is rough."
+
+"O, I can go anywhere, you know!"
+
+"But haste is necessary. You shall return the way you came. Take this
+man with you. If you are seen by his soldiers, they will think all is
+well. Make him go before. Shoot him if he turns his head. Dare you?"
+
+"I will!" said Virginia.
+
+"Keep near the ravine. My rifle will be there. If you have any
+difficulty, I will end it. Now march!"--thrusting Bythewood out of the
+thicket.--"Straight on!--Carry your pistol cocked, young lady!"
+
+Bitterly then did the noble Augustus repent him of having sent his guard
+away: "I ought to have died first!" But it was too late to recall them;
+and there was no way left him but to yield--or appear to yield--implicit
+obedience.
+
+What a situation for a son of the chivalrous south! He had reviled
+Lysander for having been made prisoner by a boy; and here was he, the
+haughty, the proud, the ambitious, overawed by a negro's threats, and
+carried away captive by a girl! However, he had a hope--a desperate one,
+indeed. He would watch for an opportunity, wheel suddenly upon Virginia,
+seize the pistol, and escape,--risking a shot from it, which he knew she
+was firmly determined to deliver in case of need (for had he not seen
+the soldier's gashed wrist?)--and risking also (what was more serious
+still) a shot from the rifle in the ravine.
+
+But when they came to the bowlder, there the resolution he had taken
+fell back leaden and dead upon his heart. He had, on reflection,
+concluded that the twinkle of guns in the leaves there was but a fiction
+of the wily African brain. As he passed, however, he perceived two guns
+peeping through. He knew not what exultant hearts were behind
+them,--what eager eyes beneath the boughs were watching him, led thus
+tamely into captivity; but he was impressed with a wholesome respect for
+them, and from that moment thought no more of escape.
+
+As Virginia approached the cave with her prisoner, the two guns, having
+followed them closely all the way, came up out of the ravine. They were
+accompanied by Penn and Carl. In the gladness of that sight Virginia
+almost forgot her dead sister and her captive father. Those two dear
+familiar faces beamed upon her with joy and triumph. But there was one
+who was not so glad. This Quaker schoolmaster, turned fighting man, was
+the last person Augustus (who was unpleasantly reminded of the
+conversation under the bridge) would have wished to see under such
+embarrassing circumstances.
+
+In the cave was Toby, wailing over the dead body of Salina. But at sight
+of the living sister he rose up and was comforted.
+
+Pomp had remained to cover the retreat. When all were safely arrived, he
+came bounding into the cave, jubilant. His bold and sagacious plans were
+thus far successful; and it only remained to carry them out with the
+same inexorable energy.
+
+"Sit here." Augustus took one of the giant's stools. "I have a few words
+to say to this man: in the mean while, one of you"--turning to Penn and
+Carl--"hasten to the sink, and ask Stackridge to send me as many men as
+he can spare. Bring a couple of the prisoners--we shall need them."
+
+"I'll go!" Carl cried with alacrity.
+
+"And," added Pomp, "if there are any wounded needing my assistance, have
+them brought here. I shall not, probably, be able to go to them."
+
+While he was giving these directions, with the air of one who felt that
+he had a momentous task before him, Bythewood sat on the rock, his head
+heavy and hot, his feet like clods of ice, and his heart collapsing with
+intolerable suspense. The gloom of the cave, and the strangeness of all
+things in it; the sight of the corpse near the entrance,--of Toby, at
+Virginia's suggestion, wiping up the pools of blood,--Virginia herself
+perfectly calm; Penn carefully untying and straightening the pieces of
+rope that had served to bind Lysander,--all this impressed him
+powerfully.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "I am to be treated as a prisoner of war."
+
+Pomp smiled. "Answer me a question. If you had caught me, would you have
+treated me as a prisoner of war?--Yes or no; we have no time for
+parley."
+
+"No," said Augustus, frankly.
+
+"Very well! I have caught you!"
+
+Fearfully significant words to the prisoner, who remembered all his
+injustice to this man, and the tortures he had prepared for him when he
+should be taken! But he had not been taken. On the contrary, he, the
+slave, could stand there, calm and smiling, before him, the master, and
+say, with peculiar and compressed emphasis, "_Very well! I have caught
+you!_"
+
+"You promised that not a hair of my head should be injured."
+
+"The hair of your head is not the flesh of your body. No, I will not
+injure _the hair_!"--Pomp waited for his prisoner to take in all the
+horrible suggestiveness of this equivocation; then resumed. "Is not that
+what you would have said to me if you had found me in your power after
+making me such a promise? The black man has no rights which the white
+man is bound to respect! The most solemn pledges made by one of your
+race to one of mine are to be heeded only so long as suits your
+convenience. Did you not promise your dying brother in your presence to
+give me my freedom? Answer,--yes or no."
+
+"Yes," faltered Augustus.
+
+"And did you give it me?"
+
+"No." And Augustus felt that out of his own mouth he was condemned.
+
+"Well, I shall keep my promise better than you kept yours. Comply with
+all I demand of you (this is what I said), and no part of you, neither
+flesh nor hair, shall be harmed."
+
+"What do you demand of me?"
+
+"This. Here are pen and ink. Write as I dictate."
+
+"What?"
+
+"An order to have the fighting on your side discontinued, and your
+forces withdrawn."
+
+Augustus hesitated to take the pen.
+
+"I have no words to waste. If you do not comply readily with what I
+require, it is no object for me that you should comply at all."
+
+Penn came and stood by Pomp, looking calm and determined as he. Virginia
+came also, and looked upon the prisoner, without a smile, without a
+frown, but strangely serious and still. These were the three against
+whom he had sinned in the days of his power and pride; and now his shame
+was bare before them. He took the quill, bit the feather-end of it in
+supreme perplexity of soul, then wrote.
+
+"Very well," said Pomp, reading the order. "But you have forgotten to
+sign it." Augustus signed. "Now write again. A letter to your colonel.
+Mr. Hapgood, please dictate the terms."
+
+Penn understood the whole scheme; he had consulted with Virginia, and he
+was prepared.
+
+"A safe conduct for Mr. Villars, his daughter and servants, beyond the
+confederate lines. This is all I have to insist upon."
+
+"I," said Pomp, "ask more. The man who betrayed us must be sent here."
+
+"If you mean Sprowl," said Bythewood, "his wife has no doubt saved the
+trouble."
+
+"Not Sprowl, but Deslow."
+
+Bythewood was terrified. Pomp had spoken with the positiveness of clear
+knowledge and unalterable determination. But how was it possible to
+comply with his demand? Deslow had been promised not only pardon, but
+protection from the very men he betrayed! Therefore he could not be
+given up to them without the most cowardly and shameful perfidy.
+
+"I have no influence whatever with the military authorities," the
+prisoner said, after taking ample time for consideration.
+
+"You forget what you boasted to Sprowl, under the bridge," said Penn.
+
+"You forget what you just now boasted to me," said Virginia.
+
+"Call it boasting," said Bythewood, doggedly. "Absolutely, I have not
+the power to effect what you require."
+
+"It is your misfortune, then," said Pomp. "To have boasted so, and now
+to fail to perform, will simply cost you your life. Will you write? or
+not?"
+
+The prisoner remained sullen, abject, silent, for some seconds. Then,
+with a deep breath which shook all his frame, and an expression of the
+most agonizing despair on his face, he took the pen.
+
+"I will write; but I assure you it will do no good."
+
+"So much the worse for you," was the grim response.
+
+Mechanically and briefly Bythewood drew up a paper, signed his name, and
+shoved it across the table.
+
+"Does that suit you?"
+
+Pomp did not offer to take it.
+
+"If it suits you, well. I shall not read it. It is not the letter that
+interests us; it is the result."
+
+Bythewood suddenly drew back the paper, pondered its contents a moment,
+and cast it into the fire.
+
+"I think I had better write another."
+
+"I think so too. I fear you have not done what you might to impress upon
+the colonel's mind the importance of these simple terms--a safe conduct
+for Mr. Villars and family, the troops withdrawn entirely from the
+mountains, and Deslow delivered here to-night. This is plain enough; and
+you see the rest of us ask nothing for ourselves. I advise you to write
+freely. Open your mind to your friend. And beware,"--Pomp perceived by a
+strange expression which had come into the prisoner's face that this
+counsel was necessary,--"beware that he does not misunderstand you, and
+send a force to rescue you from our hands. If such a thing is attempted,
+this cave will be found barricaded. With what, you wonder? With those
+stones? With your dead body, my friend!"
+
+After that hint, it was evident Augustus did not choose to write what
+had first entered his mind on learning that his address to the colonel
+was not to be examined. Penn handed him a fresh sheet, and he filled
+it--a long and confidential letter, of which we regret that no copy now
+exists.
+
+Before it was finished, Carl returned, accompanied by four of the
+patriots and two of the prisoners. One of these last was Pepperill. He
+was immediately paroled, and sent off to the sink with the order that
+had been previously written. The letter completed, it was folded,
+sealed, and despatched by the other prisoner to Colonel Derring's
+head-quarters.
+
+"Do you believe Deslow will be delivered up?" said Stackridge, in
+consultation with Penn in a corner of the cave; the farmer's gray eye
+gleaming with anticipated vengeance.
+
+"I believe the confederate authorities, as a general thing, are capable
+of any meanness. Their policy is fraud, their whole system is one of
+injustice and selfishness. If Derring, who is Bythewood's devoted
+friend, can find means to give up the traitor without too gross an
+exposure of his perfidy, he will do it. But I regret that Pomp insisted
+on that hard condition. He was determined, and it was useless to reason
+with him."
+
+"And he is right!" said Stackridge. "Deslow, if guilty, must pay for
+this day's work!"
+
+"There is no doubt of his guilt. Pepperill knew of it--he whispered it
+to Pomp at the sink."
+
+"Then Deslow dies the death! He was sworn to us! He was sworn to
+Pomp; and Pomp had saved his life! The blood of Withers, my best
+friend----" The farmer's voice was lost in a throe of rage and grief.
+
+"And the blood of Cudjo, whom Pomp loved!" said Penn. "I feel all you
+feel--all Pomp feels. But for me, I would leave vengeance with the
+Lord."
+
+"So would I," said Pomp, standing behind him, composed and grand. "And I
+would be the Lord's instrument, when called. I am called. Deslow comes
+to me, or I go to him."
+
+"Then the Lord have mercy on his soul!"
+
+
+
+
+XLVI.
+
+_THE TRAITOR._
+
+
+The news of the disaster at the sink, and of the loss of prisoners, had
+reached Colonel Derring, and he was preparing to forward re�nforcements,
+when Bythewood's letter arrived.
+
+Of the colonel's reflections on the receipt of that singular missive
+little is known. He was unwontedly cross and abstracted for an hour. At
+the end of that time he asked for the renegade Deslow.
+
+At the end of another hour Deslow had been found and brought to
+head-quarters. The colonel, having now quite recovered his equanimity of
+temper, received him with the most flattering attentions.
+
+"You have done an honorable and patriotic work, Mr. Deslow. Your friends
+are coming to terms. Bythewood is at this moment engaged in an amicable
+conference with them. Your example has had a most salutary effect. They
+all desire to give themselves up on similar terms. But they will not
+believe as yet that you have been pardoned and received into favor."
+
+The dark brow of the traitor brightened.
+
+"And they have no suspicions?"
+
+"None whatever. They do not imagine you had anything to do with the
+discovery of their retreat. Now, I've been thinking you might help along
+matters immensely, if you would go up and join Bythewood, and represent
+to your friends the folly of holding out any longer, and show them the
+advantage of following your example."
+
+Deslow felt strong misgivings about undertaking this delicate business.
+But persuasions, flatteries, and promises prevailed upon him at last.
+And at sundown he set out, accompanied by the man who had brought
+Bythewood's letter.
+
+In consequence of the messenger's long absence, it was beginning to be
+feared, by those who had sent him, that he had gone on a fruitless
+errand. Evening came. There was sadness on the faces of Penn and
+Virginia, as they sat by the corpse of Salina. Pomp was gloomy and
+silent. Bythewood, bound to Lysander's rock, sat waiting, with feelings
+we will not seek to penetrate, for the answer to his letter. In that
+letter he had mentioned, among other things, a certain pair of horses
+that were in his stable. Had he known that the colonel, during his hour
+of moroseness, had gone over to look at these horses, and that he was
+now driving them about the village, well satisfied with the munificent
+bribe, he would, no doubt, have felt easier in his mind.
+
+"You will not go to your father to-night," said Penn, having looked out
+into the gathering darkness, and returned to Virginia's side. "We have
+one night more together. May be it is the last."
+
+Carl was comforting his wounded cousin, who had been brought and placed
+on some skins on the floor. The patriots were holding a consultation.
+Suddenly the sentinel at the door announced an arrival; and to the
+amazement of all, the messenger entered, followed by Deslow.
+
+The traitor came in, smiling in most friendly fashion upon his late
+companions, even offering his hand to Pomp, who did not accept it. Then
+he saw in the faces that looked upon him a stern and terrible triumph.
+By the rock he beheld Bythewood bound. And his heart sank.
+
+The messenger brought a letter for Augustus. Pomp took it.
+
+"This interests us!" he said, breaking the seal. "Excuse me, sir!"--to
+Bythewood.--"I was once your servant; and I had forgotten that
+circumstances have slightly changed! As your hands are confined, I will
+read it for you."
+
+He read aloud.
+
+     "Dear Gus: This is an awful bad scrape you have got into; but I
+     suppose I must get you out of it. Villars shall have passports, and
+     an escort, if he likes. I'll keep the soldiers from the mountains.
+     The hardest thing to arrange is the Deslow affair. I don't care a
+     curse for the fellow but I don't want the name of giving him up.
+     So, if I succeed in sending him, keep mum. Probably _he_ never will
+     come away to tell a tale."
+
+     "Yours, etc., Derring."
+
+     "P. S. Thank you for the horses."
+
+Then Pomp turned and looked upon the traitor, who had been himself
+betrayed. His ghastly face was of the color of grayish yellow parchment.
+His hat was in his hand, and his short, stiff hair stood erect with
+terror. If up to this moment there had been any doubt of his guilt in
+Pomp's mind, it vanished. The wretch had not the power to proclaim his
+innocence, or to plead for mercy. No explanations were needed: he
+understood all: with that vivid perception of truth which often comes
+with the approach of death, he knew that he was there to die.
+
+"Have you anything to confess?" Pomp said to him, with the solemnity of
+a priest preparing a sacrifice. "If so, speak, for your time is short."
+
+Deslow said nothing: indeed, his organs of speech were paralyzed.
+
+"Very well: then I will tell you, we know all. We trusted you. You have
+betrayed us. Withers is dead: you killed him. Cudjo is dead: his blood
+is upon your soul. For this you are now to die."
+
+There was another besides Deslow whom these calm and terrible words
+appalled. It was Bythewood, who feared lest, after all he had
+accomplished, his turn might come next.
+
+It was some time before the fear-stricken culprit could recover the
+power of speech. Then, in a sudden, hoarse, and scarcely articulate
+shriek, his voice burst forth:--
+
+"Save me! save me!"
+
+He rushed to where the patriots stood. But they thrust him back sternly.
+
+"This is Pomp's business. Deal with him!"
+
+"Will no one save me? Will no one speak for my life?" These words were
+ejaculated with the ghastly accent and volubility of terror.
+
+"Your life is forfeited. Pomp saved it once; now he takes it. It is
+just," said Stackridge.
+
+"My God! my God! my God!" Thrice the doomed man uttered that sacred name
+with wild despair, and with intervals of strange and silent horror
+between. "Then I must die!"
+
+"_I_ will speak for you," said a voice of solemn compassion. And Penn
+stepped forward.
+
+"You? you? you will?"
+
+"Do not hope too much. Pomp is inexorable as he is just. But I will
+plead for you."
+
+"O, do! do! There is something in his face--I cannot bear it--but you
+can move him!"
+
+Pomp was leaning thoughtfully by one of the giant's stools. Penn drew
+near to him. Deslow crouched behind, his whole frame shaking visibly.
+
+"Pomp, if you love me, grant me this one favor. Leave this wretch to his
+God. What satisfaction can there be in taking the life of so degraded
+and abject a creature?"
+
+"There is satisfaction in justice," replied Pomp, quietly smiling.
+
+"O, but the satisfaction there is in mercy is infinitely sweeter!
+Forgiveness is a holy thing, Pomp! It brings the blessing of Heaven with
+it, and it is more effective than vengeance. This man has a wife; he has
+children; think of them!"
+
+These words, and many more to the same purpose, Penn poured forth with
+all the earnestness of his soul. He pleaded; he argued; he left no means
+untried to melt that adamantine will. In vain all. When he finished,
+Pomp took his hand in one of his, and laying the other kindly on his
+shoulder, said in his deepest, tenderest tones,--
+
+"I have heard you because I love you. What you say is just. But another
+thing is just--that this man should die. Ask anything but this of me,
+and you will see how gladly I will grant all you desire."
+
+"I have done."--Penn turned sadly away.--"It is as I feared. Deslow, I
+will not flatter you. There is no hope."
+
+Then Deslow, regaining somewhat of his manhood, drew himself up, and
+prepared to meet his fate.
+
+"Soon?" he asked, more firmly than he had yet spoken.
+
+"Now," said Pomp. He lighted a lantern. "You must go with me. There are
+eyes here that would not look upon your death." He took his rifle. "Go
+before." And he conducted his victim into the recesses in the cave.
+
+They came to the well, into the unfathomable mystery of which Carl had
+dropped the stone. There Pomp stopped.
+
+"This is your grave. Would you take a look at it?" He held the lantern
+over the fearful place. The falling waters made in those unimaginable
+depths the noise of far-off thunders. Half dead with fear already, the
+wretch looked down into the hideous pit.
+
+"Must I die?" he uttered in a ghastly whisper.
+
+"You must! I will shoot you first in mercy to you; for I am not cruel.
+Have you prayers to make? I will wait."
+
+Deslow sank upon his knees. He tried to confess himself to God, to
+commit his soul with decency into His hands. But the words of his
+petition stuck in his throat: the dread of immediate death absorbed all
+feeling else.
+
+Pomp, who had retired a short distance, supposed he had made an end.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked, placing his lantern on the rock, and poising
+his rifle.
+
+"I cannot pray!" said Deslow. "Send for a minister--for Mr. Villars!--I
+cannot die so."
+
+"It is too late," answered Pomp, sorrowful, yet stern. "Mr. Villars has
+been carried away by the soldiers you sent. If you cannot pray for
+yourself, then there is none to pray for you."
+
+Scarce had he spoken, when out of the darkness behind him came a voice,
+saying with solemn sweetness, as if an angel responded from the
+invisible profound,--
+
+"I will pray for him!"
+
+He turned, and saw in the lantern's misty glimmer a spectral form
+advancing. It drew near. It was a female figure, shadowy, noiseless; the
+right hand raised with piteous entreaty; the countenance pale to
+whiteness,--its fresh and youthful beauty clothed with sadness and
+compassion as with a veil.
+
+It was Virginia. All the way through the dismal galleries of the cave,
+and down Cudjo's stairs, she had followed the executioner and his
+victim, in order to plead at the last moment for that mercy for which
+Penn had pleaded in vain.
+
+Struck with amazement, Pomp gazed at her for a moment as if she had been
+really a spirit.
+
+"How came you here?"
+
+She laid one hand upon his arm; with the other she pointed upwards; her
+eyes all the while shining upon him with a wondrous brilliancy, which
+was of the spirit indeed, and not of the flesh.
+
+"Heaven sent me to pray for him--and for you."
+
+"For me, Miss Villars?"
+
+"For you, Pomp!"--Her voice also had that strange melting quality which
+comes only from the soul. It was low, and full of love and sorrow. "For
+if you slay this man, then you will have more need of prayers than he."
+
+Pomp was shaken. The touch on his arm, the tones of that voice, the
+electric light of those inspired eyes, moved him with a power that
+penetrated to his inmost soul. Yet he retained his haughty firmness, and
+said coldly,--
+
+"If there had been mercy for this man, Penn would have obtained it. The
+hardest thing I ever did was to deny him. What is there to be said which
+he did not say?"
+
+"O, he spoke earnestly and well!" replied Virginia. "I wondered how you
+could listen to him and not yield. But he is a man; and as a man he gave
+up all hope when reason failed, and he saw you so implacable. But I
+would never have given up. I would have clung to your knees, and
+pleaded with you so long as there was breath in me to ask or heart
+to feel. I would not have let you go till you had shown mercy to
+this poor man!"--(Deslow had crawled to her feet: there he knelt
+grovelling),--"and to yourself, Pomp! If he dies repenting, and you kill
+him unrelenting, I would rather be he than you. When we shut the gate of
+mercy on others we shut it on ourselves. For all that you have done for
+my father and friends, and for me, I am filled with gratitude and
+friendship. Your manly traits have inspired me with an admiration that
+was almost hero-worship. For this reason I would save you from a great
+crime. O, Pomp, if only for my sake, do not annihilate the noble and
+grand image of you which has built itself up in my heart, and leave only
+the memory of a strange horror and dread in its place!"
+
+Pomp had turned his eyes away from hers, knowing that if he continued to
+be fascinated by them, he must end by yielding. He drooped his head,
+leaning on his rifle, and looking down upon the wretch at their feet. A
+strong convulsion shook his whole frame, as she ceased speaking. There
+was silence for some seconds. Then he spoke, still without raising his
+eyes, in a deep, subdued voice.
+
+"This man is the hater of my race. He is of those who rob us of our
+labor, our lives, our wives, and children, and happiness. They enslave
+both body and soul. They damn us with ignorance and vice. To take from
+us the profits of our toil is little; but they take from us our manhood
+also. Yet here he came, and accepted life and safety at my hands. He
+made an oath, and I made an oath. His oath was never to betray my poor
+Cudjo's secret. The oath I made was to kill him as I would a dog if his
+should be broken. It has been broken. My poor Cudjo is dead. Withers is
+dead. Your sister is dead. I see it to be just that this traitor too
+should now die!"
+
+Again he poised his rifle. But Virginia threw herself upon the victim,
+covering with her own pure bosom his miserable, guilty breast.
+
+Pomp smiled. "Do not fear. For your sake I have pardoned him."
+
+"O, this is the noblest act of your life, Pomp!" she exclaimed, clasping
+his hand with joy and gratitude.
+
+He looked in her face. A great weight was taken from his soul. His
+countenance was bright and glad.
+
+"Do you think it was not a bitter cup for me? You have taken it from me,
+and I thank you. But Bythewood must not know I have relented. We have
+yet a work to do with him."
+
+Then those who had been left behind in the cave, listening for the
+death-signal, heard the report of a rifle ringing through the chambers
+of rock. Not long after Pomp and Virginia returned; and Deslow was not
+with them. Augustus heard--Augustus saw--nor knew he any reason why the
+fate of Deslow should not presently be his own.
+
+"Is justice done?" said Stackridge, with stern eyes fixed on Pomp.
+
+"Is justice done?" said Pomp, turning to Virginia.
+
+"Justice is done!" she answered, in a serious, firm voice.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII.
+
+_BREAD ON THE WATERS._
+
+
+The next morning a singular procession set out from the cave. Stretchers
+had been framed of the trunks and boughs of saplings, and upon these the
+dead and wounded of yesterday were placed. They were borne by the
+prisoners of yesterday, who had been paroled for the purpose. Carl
+walked by the side of the litter that conveyed his cousin Fritz, talking
+cheerfully to him in their native tongue. Behind them was carried the
+dead body of Salina, followed by old Toby with uncovered head. With him
+went Pepperill, charged with the important business of seeing that all
+was done for the Villars family which had been stipulated, and of
+reporting to Pomp at the cave afterwards.
+
+Last of all came Virginia, leaning on Penn's arm. He was speaking to her
+earnestly, in low, quivering tones: she listened with downcast
+countenance, full of all tender and sad emotions; for they were about to
+part.
+
+Pepperill was intrusted with a second letter from Bythewood to the
+colonel, couched in these terms:--
+
+"_Deslow was taken last night, and slaughtered in cold blood. The same
+will happen to me if all is not done as agreed. I am to be retained as a
+hostage until Pepperill's return. For Heaven's sake, help Mr. Villars
+and his family off with all convenient despatch, and oblige,_" &c.
+
+Virginia was going to try her fortune with her father; but Penn's lot
+was cast with his friends who remained at the cave. From these he could
+not honorably separate himself until all danger was over; and, much as
+he longed to accompany her, he knew well that, even if he should be
+permitted to do so, his presence would be productive of little good to
+either her or her father. Moreover, it had been wisely resolved not to
+demand too much of the military authorities. A safe conduct could be
+granted with good grace to a blind old minister and his daughter, but
+not to men who had been in arms against the confederate government. Nor
+was it thought best to trust or tempt too far these minions of the new
+slave despotism, whose recklessness of obligations which interest or
+revenge prompted them to evade, was so notorious.
+
+Penn would have attended Virginia to the base of the mountain, risking
+all things for the melancholy pleasure of prolonging these last moments.
+But this she would not permit. Hard as it was to utter the word of
+separation,--to see him return to those solitary and dangerous rocks,
+not knowing that he would ever be able to leave them, or that she would
+ever see him again in this world;--still, her love was greater than her
+selfishness, and she had strength even for that.
+
+"No farther now! O, you must go no farther!" And, resolutely pausing,
+she called to Carl,--for Carl's lot too lay with his. Toby and Pepperill
+also stopped.
+
+"Daniel," said Penn, with impressive solemnity, "into thy hands I commit
+this precious charge. Be faithful. Good Toby, I trust we shall meet
+again in God's good time. Farewell! farewell!"
+
+And the procession went its way; only Penn and Carl remained gazing
+after it long, with hearts too full for words.
+
+When it was out of sight, and they were turning silently to retrace
+their steps, they saw a man come out of the woods, and beckon to them.
+It was a negro--it was Barber Jim.
+
+Permitted to approach, he told his story. Since the escape of the
+arrested Unionists through his cellar, he had been an object of
+suspicion; and last night his house had been attacked by a mob. He had
+managed to escape, and was now hiding in the woods to save his life.
+
+"Deslow betrayed you with the rest," said Penn; "that explains it."
+
+"My wife--my two daughters: what will become of them?" said the wretched
+man. "And my property, that I have been all this while laying up for
+them!"
+
+"Do not despair, my friend. Your property is mostly real estate, and
+cannot be so easily appropriated to rebel uses, as the money deposited
+for me in the bank, from which I was never allowed to draw it! It will
+wait for you. A kind Providence will care for your family, I am sure. As
+for you, I do not see what else you can do but share our fortunes. There
+is one comfort for you,--we are all about as badly off as yourself."
+
+"You shall have your pick of some muskets," said Carl, gayly; "and you
+vill find us as jolly a set of wagabonds as ever you saw!"
+
+"Have you plenty of arms?"
+
+"Arms is more plenty as prowisions. Vat is vanted is wittles. Vat is
+vanted most is wegetables. Bears and vild turkeys inwite themselves to
+be shot, but potatoes keep wery shy, and ve suffers for sour krout."
+
+Barber Jim mused. "I will go with you. I am glad," he added, as if to
+himself, "that I paid Toby off as I did."
+
+What he meant by this last remark will be seen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Villars had taken the precaution to invest his available funds in
+Ohio Railroad stock some time before. Arrived in Cincinnati, he would be
+able to reap the advantages of this timely forethought. But in the mean
+time the expenses of a long journey must be defrayed; and he found it
+impossible now to raise money on his house or household goods. All the
+ready cash he could command was barely sufficient to afford a decent
+burial to his daughter. He was discussing this serious difficulty with
+Virginia, whilst preparations for Salina's funeral and their own
+departure were going forward simultaneously, when Toby came trotting in,
+jubilant and breathless, and laid a little dirty bag in his lap.
+
+"I's fotched 'em! dar ye got 'em, massa!" And the old negro wiped the
+sweat from his shining face.
+
+"What, Toby! Money!" (for the little bag was heavy). "Where did you get
+it?"
+
+"Gold, sar! Gold, Miss Jinny! Needn't look 'spicious! I neber got 'em by
+no underground means!" (He meant to say _underhand_.) "I'll jes' 'splain
+'bout dat. Ye see, Massa Villars, eber sence ye gib me my freedom, ye
+been payin' me right smart wages,--seben dollah a monf! Dunno' how much
+dat ar fur a year, but I reckon it ar a heap! An' you rec'lec' you says
+to me, you says, 'Hire it out to some honest man, Toby, and ye kin draw
+inference on it,' you says. So what does I do but go and pay it all to
+Barber Jim fast as eber you pays me. 'Pears like I neber knowed how much
+I was wuf, till tudder day he says to me, 'Toby,' he says, 'times is so
+mighty skeery I's afeard to keep yer money for ye any longer; hyar 'tis
+fur ye, all in gold.' So he gibs it to me in dis yer little bag, an' I
+takes it, an' goes an' buries it 'hind de cow shed, whar 'twould keep
+sweet, ye know, fur de family. An' hyar it ar, shore enough, massa, jes'
+de ting fur dis yer 'casion!"
+
+"So you got it by _underground means_, after all!" said Virginia, with
+mingled laughter and tears, opening the bag and pouring out the bright
+eagles.
+
+The old clergyman was silent for a space, overcome with emotion.
+
+"God bless you for a faithful servant, Toby! and Barber Jim for an
+honest man."
+
+"Dat's nuffin!" said Toby, snuffing and winking ludicrously. "Why
+shouldn't a cullud pusson hab de right to be honest, well as white
+folks? If you's gwine to tank anybody, ye better jes' tink and tank
+yersef! Who gib ol' Toby his freedom, an' den 'pose to pay him wages?
+Reckon if 't hadn't been fur dat, massa, I neber should hab de bressed
+chance to do dis yer little ting fur de family!"
+
+"We will thank only our heavenly Father, whose tender care we will never
+doubt, after this!" said the old minister, with deep and solemn joy.
+
+"Wust on't is, Jim hissef's got inter trouble now," said Toby. "He hab
+to put fur de woods; an' his family wants to git to de norf, whar dey
+tinks he'll mabby be gwine to meet 'em; but dey can't seem to manage
+it."
+
+"O, father, I have an idea! You will have a right to take your
+_servants_ with you; and Jim's wife and daughters might pass as
+servants."
+
+"I shall be rejoiced to help them in any way. Go and find them, Toby.
+Thus the bread we cast on the water sometimes returns to us _before_
+many days!"
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII.
+
+_EMANCIPATION OF THE BONDMEN.--CONCLUSION._
+
+
+A week had elapsed since Augustus became a captive; when, one cloudy
+afternoon, Dan Pepperill returned alone to the mountain cave. Pomp met
+him at the entrance.
+
+"All safe?"
+
+"I be durned if they ain't!" said Dan, exultant. "The ol' man, and the
+nigger, and the gal, and Jim's wife and darters inter the bargain! Went
+with 'em myself all the way, by stage and rail, till I seen 'em over the
+line inter ol' Kentuck'. Durned if I didn't wish I war gwine for good
+myself."
+
+"You shall go now if you will. I have been waiting only for you. Cudjo
+is dead. All the rest are gone. There is nothing to keep me here. Will
+you go back to the rebels, or make a push with us for the free states?
+Speak quick!"
+
+Pepperill only groaned.
+
+"Nine more have joined since Jim came. They make a strong party, all
+armed, and determined to fight their way through. They are already
+twenty miles away; but we will overtake them to-morrow. I am to guide
+them. I know every cave and defile. Will you come?"
+
+"Pomp, ye know I'd be plaguy glad ter; but 'tain't so ter be! I hain't
+no gre't fancy fur this secesh business, that ar' a fact. But I'm in
+fur't, and I reckon I sh'll haf' ter put it through;" and Dan heaved a
+deep sigh of regret. Without knowing it, he was a fatalist. Being too
+weak or inert to resist the hand of despotism laid upon him, he yielded
+to its weight and accepted it as destiny. The rebel ranks have been
+filled with such.
+
+Pomp smiled with mingled pity and derision. "Good by, then! I hope this
+war will do something for your class as well as for mine--you need it as
+much! Wait here, and you shall have company."
+
+He took a lantern, and entered the interior chamber of the cave. After
+the lapse of many minutes he returned, dragging, as from a dungeon, into
+the light of day, a wretch who could scarcely have expected ever to
+behold that blessed boon again,--he was so abject, so filled with joy
+and trembling. It was Deslow. Then turning to the corner where Augustus
+sat confined, the negro cut his bonds and lifted him to his feet. Poor
+Bythewood, rheumatic, stiff in the joints, and terribly wasted by
+anxiety and chagrin, presented a scarcely less piteous spectacle than
+Deslow; nor were his fallen spirits revived by the sight of this craven,
+whom he had supposed to be long since past the memory of the wrong he
+had done him, and the earthly passion for revenge.
+
+"My friends," said Pomp, leading them to the entrance, and showing them
+to each other in the gray glimmer of that cloudy afternoon, "our little
+accounts are now closed for the present, and my business with you ends.
+You are at liberty to depart. Deslow, do not hate too bitterly this man
+for betraying you into my hands. Remember that you set the example of
+treachery, and that the cause to which you are both sworn is itself
+founded on treachery. As for you, Mr. Bythewood, I trust that you will
+pardon the inconvenience I have found it necessary to subject you to. I
+have restrained you of your liberty for some days. You restrained me of
+mine for nearly as many years. I have no longer any ill will towards
+either of you. Go in peace. I emancipate you. I shall not hunt you with
+hounds, because I have been your master for a little while. I shall not
+put iron collars on your necks. I shall neither brand nor beat you. You
+are free! Does the word sound pleasant to your ears? Think then of those
+to whom it would sound just as sweet. Has the rule of a hard master
+seemed grievous to you? Remember those to whom it is no less grievous.
+If might makes right, then you have been as much my property as ever
+black man was yours. Is there no law, no justice, but the power of the
+strongest? You have had a few days' experience of that power, and can
+judge what a life's experience of it might be. Reflect upon it, my
+friends."
+
+He led them to the opening of the cave. Then he pointed to the clouds.
+"You cannot see the sun; but the sun is there. You do not see God,
+through the troubled affairs of this world; but God is over all. He
+governs, although you have left him quite out of your plans. Your plans
+are, no doubt, very great and mighty,--but see!"--passing over his knee
+the cord with which Bythewood had been bound. "This is the chain with
+which you bind my brothers and sisters. It is strong. You have drawn it
+very tight about them. But you thought to draw it tighter still, to hold
+them fast forever; and look, you have broken it!"
+
+So saying, he displayed with a smile the two fragments of the rope that
+had snapped like a mere string in his hands.
+
+"So tyranny is made to defeat itself!"--trampling the ends under his
+feet. "I have said it. Remember!"
+
+Uttering these last words, he walked backwards slowly, resumed his rifle
+and lantern, and disappeared in the dark recesses of the cave. The freed
+prisoners then, joining Pepperill, took their way slowly down the
+mountain, sadder if not wiser men.
+
+The reappearance of Bythewood was a signal for sending immediately two
+full companies to capture the cave. They succeeded; but they captured
+nothing else. Pomp, escaping through the sink, was already miles away on
+the trail of the refugees.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus ends the story of Cudjo's Cave. Other conclusion, to give it
+dramatic completeness, it ought, perhaps, to have; but the struggles, of
+which we have here witnessed the beginning, have not yet ended [Nov.,
+1863]; and one can scarcely be expected to describe events before they
+transpire.
+
+We may add, however, that Mr. Villars, Virginia, and Toby, arrived
+safely at their destination,--a small town on the borders of
+Ohio,--where they were cordially welcomed by relatives of the family.
+There, three weeks later, they were visited by two very suspicious
+looking characters,--one a bronzed and bearded young man, robust, rough,
+with an eye like an eagle's gleaming from under his old slouched hat,
+whom nobody, I am sure, would ever have taken for a Quaker schoolmaster;
+the other a stout, ruddy, blue-eyed, laughing, ragged lad of sixteen,
+who certainly did not pass for a rebel deserter. Strange to say, these
+pilgrims of the dusty roads and rocky wildernesses were welcomed (not to
+speak it profanely) like angels from heaven by the old man, his
+daughter, and Toby,--their brown hands shaken, their coarse, torn
+clothes embraced, and their sunburnt faces kissed, with a rapture
+amazing to strangers of the household. They were travelling (as the
+younger remarked in an accent which betrayed his Teutonic origin) to
+"Pennsylwany," the home of the elder; and they had come thus far out of
+their way to make this angels' visit.
+
+With these two Barber Jim had journeyed as far as Cincinnati, where he
+found his family comfortably provided for by persons to whose
+benevolence Mr. Villars had recommended them. The other refugees had
+also got safely over the mountains, after a march full of toils and
+dangers; and nearly all were now in the federal camps. A long history,
+full of deep and painful interest, might be written concerning the
+subsequent fortunes of these men, and of their families and neighbors
+left behind,--a history of hardships, of forced separations and ruined
+homes,--of starvation in woods and caves to which loyal citizens were
+driven by the rage of persecution,--and of terrible retribution.
+Stackridge, Grudd, and many of their brother refugees, had the joy of
+participating in those military movements of last summer, by which East
+Tennessee was relieved; of beholding the tremendous ruin which the blind
+pride of their foes had pulled down upon itself; and of witnessing the
+jubilee of a patriotic people released from a remorseless and unsparing
+tyranny.
+
+A word of Pomp. Have you read the newspaper stories of a certain negro
+scout, who, by his intrepidity, intelligence, and wonderful celerity of
+movement, has rendered such important services to the Army of the
+Cumberland? He is the man.
+
+Dan Pepperill fell in the battle of Stone River, fighting in a cause he
+never loved--the type of many such. Bythewood, after losing his
+influence at home, and trying various fortunes, became attached to the
+staff of the notorious Roger A. Pryor, in whose disgrace he shared, when
+that long-haired rebel chief was reduced to the ranks for cowardice.
+
+As for Carl, he is now a stalwart corporal in the --th Pennsylvania
+regiment. He serves under a dear friend of his, known as the "Fighting
+Quaker," and distinguished for that rare combination of military and
+moral qualities which constitutes the true hero.
+
+I regret that I cannot brighten these prosaic last pages with the halo
+of a wedding. But Penn had said, "Our country first!" and Virginia,
+heroic as he, had answered bravely, "Go!" Whether they will ever be
+happily united on earth, who can say? But this we know: the golden halo
+of the love that maketh one has crowned their united souls, and, with
+perfect patience and perfect trust, they wait.
+
+
+
+
+_L'ENVOY._
+
+
+The foregoing pages are, as the writer sincerely believes, true to
+history and life in all important particulars. In order to give form and
+unity to the narrative, characters and incidents have been brought
+together within a much narrower compass, both of time and space, than
+they actually occupied: events have been described as occurring in the
+summer of 1861, many of which did not take place till some months later;
+and certain other liberties have been taken with facts. Two separate and
+distinct caves have been connected, in the story, by expanding both into
+one, which is for the most part imaginary, but which, I trust, will not
+be considered as a too improbable fiction in a region where caves and
+"sinks" abound.
+
+Lastly, is an apology needed for the scenes of violence here
+depicted?--Neither do I, O gentle reader, delight in them. But the book
+that would be a mirror of evil times, must show some repulsive features.
+And this book was written, not to please merely, but for a sterner
+purpose.
+
+For peaceful days, a peaceful and sunny literature: and may Heaven
+hasten the time when there shall be no more strife, and no more human
+bondage; when under the folds of the starry flag, from the lake chain to
+the gulf, and from sea to sea, freedom, and peace, and righteousness
+shall reign; when all men shall love each other, and the nations shall
+know God!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUDJO'S CAVE ***
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
+
+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: Cudjo's Cave
+
+Author: J. T. Trowbridge
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31406]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUDJO'S CAVE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
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+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>CUDJO'S CAVE.</h1>
+
+<h2>BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE</h2>
+
+<h3>AUTHOR OF "NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD," "THE DRUMMER BOY," ETC.</h3>
+
+
+<h4>BOSTON:<br />
+J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY.<br />
+1864.</h4>
+
+<h4>Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by<br />
+J. T. TROWBRIDGE,<br />
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.</h4>
+
+<h4>ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED<br />
+BY THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,<br />
+4 SPRING LANE.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/title.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap">The Schoolmaster in Trouble</span></a><br />
+<a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap">Penn and the Ruffians</span></a><br />
+<a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap">The Secret Cellar</span></a><br />
+<a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">The Search for the Missing</span></a><br />
+<a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">Carl and his Friends</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">A Strange Coat for a Quaker</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">The Two Guests</span></a><br />
+<a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">The Rover</span></a><br />
+<a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">Toby's Patient has a Caller</span></a><br />
+<a href="#X">X. <span class="smcap">The Widow's Green Chest</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XI">XI. <span class="smcap">Southern Hospitality</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XII">XII. <span class="smcap">Chivalrous Proceedings</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIII">XIII. <span class="smcap">The Old Clergyman's Nightgown has an Adventure</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIV">XIV. <span class="smcap">A Man's Story</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XV">XV. <span class="smcap">An Anti-Slavery Document on Black Parchment</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVI">XVI. <span class="smcap">In the Cave and on the Mountain</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVII">XVII. <span class="smcap">Penn's Foot Knocks Down a Musket</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XVIII">XVIII. <span class="smcap">Condemned to Death</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XIX">XIX. <span class="smcap">The Escape</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XX">XX. <span class="smcap">Under the Bridge</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXI">XXI. <span class="smcap">The Return into Danger</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXII">XXII. <span class="smcap">Stackridge's Coat and Hat get Arrested</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIII">XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Flight of the Prisoners</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIV">XXIV. <span class="smcap">The Dead Rebel's Musket</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXV">XXV. <span class="smcap">Black and White</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVI">XXVI. <span class="smcap">Why Augustus did not Propose</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVII">XXVII. <span class="smcap">The Men with the Dark Lantern</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII. <span class="smcap">Beauty and the Beast</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXIX">XXIX. <span class="smcap">In the Burning Woods</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXX">XXX. <span class="smcap">Refuge</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXI">XXXI. <span class="smcap">Lysander Takes Possession</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXII">XXXII. <span class="smcap">Toby's Reward</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXIII">XXXIII. <span class="smcap">Carl Makes an Engagement</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXIV">XXXIV. <span class="smcap">Captain Lysander's Joke</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXV">XXXV. <span class="smcap">The Moonlight Expedition</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXVI">XXXVI. <span class="smcap">Carl finds a Geological Specimen</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXVII">XXXVII. <span class="smcap">Carl Keeps his Engagement</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXVIII">XXXVIII. <span class="smcap">Love in the Wilderness</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XXXIX">XXXIX. <span class="smcap">A Council of War</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XL">XL. <span class="smcap">The Wonders of the Cave</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLI">XLI. <span class="smcap">Prometheus Bound</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLII">XLII. <span class="smcap">Prometheus Unbound</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLIII">XLIII. <span class="smcap">The Combat</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLIV">XLIV. <span class="smcap">How Augustus Finally Proposed</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLV">XLV. <span class="smcap">Master and Slave Change Places</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLVI">XLVI. <span class="smcap">The Traitor</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLVII">XLVII. <span class="smcap">Bread on the Waters</span></a><br />
+<a href="#XLVIII">XLVIII. <span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></a><br />
+<a href="#LENVOY"><span class="smcap">L'Envoy</span>.</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CUDJO'S CAVE.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE SCHOOLMASTER IN TROUBLE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Carl crept stealthily up the bank, and, peering through the window, saw
+the master writing at his desk.</p>
+
+<p>In his neat Quaker garb, his slender form bent over his task, his calm
+young face dimly seen in profile, there he sat. The room was growing
+dark; the glow of a March sunset was fading fast from the paper on which
+the swift pen traced these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Tennessee is getting too hot for me. My school is nearly broken up, and
+my farther stay here is becoming not only useless, but dangerous. There
+are many loyal men in the neighborhood, but they are overawed by the
+reckless violence of the secessionists. Mobs sanctioned by self-styled
+vigilance committees override all law and order. As I write, I can hear
+the yells of a drunken rabble before my school-house door. I am an
+especial object of hatred to them on account of my northern birth and
+principles. They have warned me to leave the state, they have threatened
+me with southern vengeance, but thus far I have escaped injury. How long
+this reign of terror is to last, or what is to be the end&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A rap on the window drew the writer's attention, and, looking up, he
+saw, against the twilight sky, the broad German face of the boy Carl
+darkening the pane. He stepped to raise the sash.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Carl?"</p>
+
+<p>The lad glanced quickly around, first over one shoulder, then the other,
+and said, in a hoarse whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Shpeak wery low!"</p>
+
+<p>"Was it you that rapped before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have rapped tree times, not loud, pecause I vas afraid the men would
+hear."</p>
+
+<p>"What men are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Wigilance Committee's men! They have some tar in a kettle. They
+have made a fire unter it, and I hear some of 'em say, 'Run, boys, and
+pring some fedders.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Tar and feathers!" The young man grew pale. "They have threatened it,
+but they will not dare!"</p>
+
+<p>"They vill dare do anything; but you shall prewent 'em! See vat I have
+prought you!" Carl opened his jacket, and showed the handle of a
+revolver. "Stackridge sent it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hide it! hide it!" said the master, quickly. "He offered it to me
+himself. I told him I could not take it."</p>
+
+<p>"He said, may be when you smell tar and see fedders, you vill change
+your mind," answered Carl.</p>
+
+<p>The schoolmaster smiled. The pallor of fear which had surprised him for
+an instant, had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in a different creed from Mr. Stackridge's, honest man as he
+is. I shall not resist evil, but overcome evil with good, if I can; if I
+cannot, I shall suffer it."</p>
+
+<p>"You show you vill shoot some of 'em, and they vill let you go," said
+Carl, not understanding the nobler doctrine. "Shooting vill do some of
+them willains some good!" his placid blue eyes kindling, as if he would
+like to do a little of the shooting. "You take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the young man, firmly. "Such weapons are not for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Wery vell!" Carl buttoned his jacket over the revolver. "Then you come
+mit me, if you please. Get out of the vinder and run. That is pest, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, my lad. I may as well meet these men first as last."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I vill go and pring help!" suddenly exclaimed, the boy; and away
+he scampered across the fields, leaving the young man alone in the
+darkening school-room.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a very pleasant situation to be in, you may well believe. As
+he closed the sash, a faint odor of tar was wafted in on the evening
+breeze. The voices of the ruffians at the door grew louder and more
+menacing. He knew they were only waiting for the tar to heat, for the
+shadows of night to thicken, and for him to make his appearance. He
+returned to his desk, but it was now too dark to write. He could barely
+see to sign his name and superscribe the envelope. This done, he
+buttoned his straight-fitting brown coat, put on his modest hat, and
+stood pondering in his mind what he should do.</p>
+
+<p>A young man scarcely twenty years old, reared in the quiet atmosphere of
+a community of Friends, and as unaccustomed, hitherto, to scenes of
+strife and violence as the most innocent child,&mdash;such was Penn Hapgood,
+teacher of the "Academy" (as the school was proudly named) in
+Curryville. This was the first great trial of his faith and courage. He
+had not taken Carl's advice, and run, because he did not believe that he
+could escape the danger in that way. And as for fighting, that was not
+in his heart any more than it was in his creed. But to say he did not
+dread to meet his foes at the door, that he felt no fear, would be
+speaking falsely. He was afraid. His entire nature, delicate body and
+still more delicate soul, shrank from the ordeal. He went to the outer
+door, and laid his hand on the bolt, but could not, for a long time,
+summon resolution to open it.</p>
+
+<p>As he hesitated, there came a loud thump on one of the panels which
+nearly crushed it in, and filled the hollow building with ominous
+echoes.</p>
+
+<p>"Make ready in thar, you hound of a abolitionist!" shouted a brutal
+voice; "we're about ready fur ye!" Penn's hand drew back. I dare say it
+trembled, I dare say his face turned white again, as he felt the danger
+so near. How could he confront, with his sensitive spirit, those
+merciless, coarse men?</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait a little," he thought within himself. "Perhaps Carl <i>will</i>
+bring help."</p>
+
+<p>There were good sturdy Unionists in the place, men who, unlike the
+Pennsylvania schoolmaster, believed in opposing evil with evil, force by
+force. Only last night, one of them entered this very school-room,
+bolted the door carefully, and sat down to unfold to the young master a
+scheme for resisting the plans of the secessionists. It was a league for
+circumventing treason; for keeping Tennessee in the Union; for
+preserving their homes and families from the horrors of the impending
+civil war. The conspirators had arms concealed; they met in secret
+places; they were watching for the hour to strike. Would the
+schoolmaster join them? Strange to say, they believed in him as a man
+who had abilities as a leader, "an undeveloped fighting man"&mdash;he, Penn
+Hapgood, the Quaker! Penn smiled, as he declined the farmer's offer of a
+commission in the secret militia, and refused to accept the weapon of
+self-defence which the same earnest Unionist had proffered him again,
+through Carl, the German boy, this night.</p>
+
+<p>Penn thought of these men now, and hoped that Carl would haste and bring
+them to the rescue. Then immediately he blushed at his own cowardly
+inconsistency; for something in his heart said that he ought not to wish
+others to do for him what he had conscientious scruples against doing
+for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go out!" he said, sternly, to his trembling heart.</p>
+
+<p>But he would first make a reconnoissance through the keyhole. He looked,
+and saw one ruffian stirring the fire under the tar kettle, another
+displaying a rope, and two others alternately drinking from a bottle. He
+started back, as the thundering on the panel was repeated, and the same
+voice roared out, "You kin be takin' off them clo'es of yourn; the tar
+is about het!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait a few minutes longer for Carl!" said Penn to himself, with a
+long breath.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, Carl was not just now in a situation to render much
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Although he had arrived unseen at the window, he did not retire
+undiscovered. He had run but a short distance when a gruff voice ordered
+him to stop. He had a way, however, of misunderstanding English when he
+chose, and interpreted the command to mean, run faster. Receiving it in
+that sense, he obeyed. Somebody behind him began to run too. In short,
+it was a chase; and Carl, glancing backwards, saw long-legged Silas
+Ropes, one of the ringleaders of the mob, taking appalling strides after
+him, across the open field.</p>
+
+<p>There were some woods about a quarter of a mile away, and Carl made for
+them, trusting to their shelter and the shades of night to favor his
+escape. He was fifteen years old, strong, and an excellent runner. He
+did not again look behind to see if Silas was gaining on him, but
+attended strictly to his own business, which was, to get into the
+thickets as soon as possible. His success seemed almost certain; a few
+rods more, and the undergrowth would be reached; and he was
+congratulating himself on having thus led away from the schoolmaster one
+of his most desperate enemies, when he rushed suddenly almost into the
+arms of two men,&mdash;or rather, into a feather-bed, which they were
+fetching by the corner of the wood lot.</p>
+
+<p>"Ketch that Dutchman!" roared Silas. And they "ketched" him.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the Dutchman done?" said one of the men, throwing himself lazily
+on the feather-bed, while his companion held Carl for his pursuer.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Carl, opening his eyes with placid wonder. "I
+tought he vas vanting to run a race mit me."</p>
+
+<p>"A race, you fool!" said Silas, seizing and shaking him. "Didn't you
+hear me tell ye to stop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you say <i>shtop</i>?" asked Carl, with a broad smile. "It ish wery
+queer! Ven it sounded so much as if you said <i>shtep</i>! so I <i>shtepped</i>
+just as fast as I could."</p>
+
+<p>"What was you thar at the winder fur?"</p>
+
+<p>"Vot vinder?" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Academy," said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"O! to pe sure! I vas there," said Carl. "Pecause I left my books in
+there last week, and I vas going to get 'em. But I saw somebody in the
+house, and I vas afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it the schoolmaster?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't be wery much surprised if it vas the schoolmaster," said
+Carl, with blooming simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>"You lying rascal! what did you say to him through the winder?"</p>
+
+<p>Carl looked all around with an expression of mild wonder, as if
+expecting somebody else to answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you speak?" And Silas gave his arm a fierce wrench.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat did you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said, you lying rascal!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not my name," said Carl, "and I tought you vas shpeaking to
+somebody else. I tought you vas conwersing mit this man," pointing at
+the fellow on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Dan Pepperill!" said Silas, turning angrily on the recumbent figure,
+"what are you stretching your lazy bones thar fur? We're waiting fur
+them feathers, and you'll git a coat yourself, if you don't show a
+little more of the sperrit of a gentleman! You don't act as if your
+heart was in this yer act of dooty we're performin', any more'n as if
+you was a northern mudsill yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, the truth is," said Dan Pepperill, reluctantly getting up from the
+bed, and preparing to shoulder it, "the schoolmaster has allus treated
+me well, and though I hate his principles,&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't hate his principles, neither! You're more'n half a
+abolitionist yourself! And I swear to gosh," said Silas, "if you don't
+do your part now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will! I'm a-going to!" said Dan, with something like a groan.
+"Though, as I said, he has allus used me well&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Shet up!" Silas administered a kick, which Dan adroitly caught in the
+bed. Mr. Ropes got his foot embarrassed in the feathers, lost his
+balance, and fell. Dan, either by mistake or design, fell also, tumbling
+the bed in a smothering mass over the screaming mouth and coarse red
+nose of the prostrate Silas.</p>
+
+<p>The third man, who was guarding Carl, began to laugh. Carl laughed too,
+as if it was the greatest joke in the world; to enhance the fun of
+which, he gave his man a sudden push forwards, tripped him as he went,
+and so flung him headlong upon the struggling heap. This pleasant feat
+accomplished, he turned to run; but changed his mind almost instantly;
+and, instead of plunging into the undergrowth, threw himself upon the
+accumulating pile.</p>
+
+<p>There he scrambled, and kicked, with his heels in the air, and rolled
+over the topmost man, who rolled over Mr. Pepperill, who rolled over the
+feather-bed, which rolled again over Mr. Ropes, in a most lively and
+edifying manner.</p>
+
+<p>At this interesting juncture Carl's reason for changing his mind and
+remaining, became manifest. Two more of the chivalry from the tar kettle
+came rushing to the spot, and would speedily have seized him had he
+attempted to get off. So he staid, thinking he might be helping the
+master in this way as well as any other.</p>
+
+<p>And now the miscellaneous heap of legs and feathers began to resolve
+itself into its original elements. First Carl was pulled off by one of
+the new comers; then Dan and the man Carl had sent to comfort him fell
+to blows, clinched each other, and rolled upon the earth; and lastly,
+Mr. Silas Ropes arose, choked with passion and feathers, from under the
+rent and bursting bed. The two squabbling men were also quickly on their
+feet, Mr. Pepperill proving too much for his antagonist.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you pitch into me fur?" demanded Silas, threatening his friend
+Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"What did Gad pitch into me fur?" said the irate Dan, shaking his fist
+at Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you push and jump on to me fur?" said Gad, clutching Carl, who
+was still laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the wrath of the whole party was turned against the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Pless me!" said he, staring innocently, "I tought it vas all for
+shport!"</p>
+
+<p>The furious Mr. Ropes was about to convince him, by some violent act, of
+his mistake, when cries from the direction of the school-house called
+his attention.</p>
+
+<p>"See what's there, boys!" said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"Durn me," said Mr. Pepperill, looking across the field as he brushed
+the feathers from his clothes, "if it ain't the master himself!"</p>
+
+<p>In fact, Penn had by this time summoned courage to slip back the bolt,
+throw open the school-house door, and come out.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen who were heating the tar and drinking from the bottle were
+taken by surprise. They had not expected that the fellow would come out
+at all, but wait to be dragged out. Their natural conclusion was, that
+he was armed; for he appeared with as calm and determined a front as if
+he had been perfectly safe from injury himself, while it was in his
+power to do them some fatal mischief. They could not understand how the
+mere consciousness of his own uprightness, and a sense of reliance on
+the arm of eternal justice, could inspire a man with courage to face so
+many.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said Penn, as they beset him with threats and blasphemy,
+"I have never injured one of you, and you will not harm me."</p>
+
+<p>And as if some deity held an invisible shield above him, he passed by;
+and they, in their astonishment, durst not even lay their hands upon
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I've hearn tell he was a Quaker, and wouldn't fight," muttered one;
+"but I see a revolver under his coat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Sile? Where's Sile Ropes?" cried others, who, though themselves
+unwilling to assume the responsibility of seizing the young master,
+would have been glad to see Silas attempt it.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the joy of Carl when he saw Mr. Hapgood walking through the
+guard of ruffians untouched. But, a moment after, he uttered an
+involuntary groan of despair. It was Penn's custom to cross the fields
+in going from the Academy to the house where he boarded, and his path
+wound by the edge of the woods, where Silas and his accomplices were at
+this moment gathering up the spilt feathers.</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" said Mr. Ropes, crouching down in order to remain concealed
+from Penn's view. "This is as comf'table a place to do our dooty by him
+as any to be found. Keep dark, boys, and let him come!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>PENN AND THE RUFFIANS</i>.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Penn traversed the field, followed by the gang from the school-house. As
+he approached the woods, Silas and his friends rose up before him. He
+was thus surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought you'd come and meet us half way, did ye?" said Mr. Ropes,
+striding across his path. "Very accommodating in you, to be shore!" And
+he laughed a brutal laugh, which was echoed by all his friends except
+Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not come to meet you," replied Penn, "but I am going about my
+own private business, and wish to pass on."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, you can't pass on till we've settled a small account with you
+that's been standing a little too long a'ready. Bring that tar, some on
+ye! Come, Pepperill! show your sperrit!"</p>
+
+<p>This Pepperill was a ragged, lank, starved-looking man, whose appearance
+was on this occasion rendered ludicrous by the feathers sticking all
+over him, and by an expression of dejection which <i>would</i> draw down the
+corners of his miserable mouth and roll up his piteous eyes,
+notwithstanding his efforts to appear, what Silas termed, "sperrited."</p>
+
+<p>"You, too, among my enemies, Daniel!" said Penn, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>It was a look of grief, not of anger, which he turned on the wretched
+man. Poor Pepperill could not stand it.</p>
+
+<p>"I own, I own," he stammered forth, a picture of mingled fear and
+contrition, "you've allus used me well, Mr. Hapgood,&mdash;but," he hastened
+to add, with a scared glance at Silas, "I hate your principles!"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Dan Pepperill!" remarked Mr. Ropes, with grim significance,
+"you better shet your yaup, and be a bringin' that ar kittle!"</p>
+
+<p>Dan groaned, and departed. Penn smiled bitterly. "I have always used him
+well; and this is the return I get!" He thought of another evening, but
+little more than a week since, when, passing by this very path, he heard
+a deeper groan than that which the wretch had just uttered. He turned
+aside into the edge of the woods, and there beheld an object to excite
+at once his laughter and compassion. What he saw was this.</p>
+
+<p>Dan Pepperill, astride a rail; his hands tied together above it, and his
+feet similarly bound beneath. The rail had been taken from a fence a
+mile away, and he had been carried all that distance on the shoulders of
+some of these very men. They had taken turns with him, and when, tired
+at last, had placed the rail in the crotches of two convenient saplings,
+and there left him. The crotch in front was considerably higher than
+that behind, which circumstance gave him the appearance of clinging to
+the back of an animal in the act of rearing frightfully, and exposed a
+delicate part of his apparel that had been sadly rent by contact with
+splinters. And there the wretch was clinging and groaning when Penn came
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"For the love of the Lord!" said Dan, "take me down!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is the matter? How came you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a dead man; that's the matter! I've been wipped to death, and then
+rode on a rail; that's the way I come here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whipped! what for?" said Penn, losing no time in cutting the sufferer's
+bonds.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye see," said Dan, when taken down and laid upon the ground, "the
+patrolmen found Combs's boy Pete out t'other night without a pass, and
+took him and tied him to a tree, and licked him."</p>
+
+<p>The "boy Pete" was a negro man upwards of fifty years old, owned by the
+said Combs.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, ye see, jest cause I found him, and took him home with me, and
+washed his back fur him, and bound cotton on to it, and kep' him over
+night, and gin him a good breakfast, and a drink o' suthin' strong in
+the morning, and then went home with him, and talked with his master
+so'st he wouldn't git another licking,&mdash;just for that, Sile Ropes and
+his gang took me and served me wus'n ever they served him!" And the
+broken-spirited man cried like a child at the recollection of his
+injuries.</p>
+
+<p>He was one of the "white trash" of the south, whom even the negroes
+belonging to good families look down upon; a weak, degraded,
+kind-hearted man, whose offence was not simply that he had shown mercy
+to the "boy Pete," after his flogging, but that he associated on
+familiar terms with such negroes as were not too proud to cultivate his
+acquaintance, and secretly sold them whiskey. After repeated warnings,
+he had been flogged, and treated to a ride on a three-cornered rail, and
+hung up to reflect upon his ungentlemanly conduct and its sad
+consequences.</p>
+
+<p>At sight of him, Penn, who knew nothing of his selling whiskey to the
+blacks, or of any other offence against the laws or prejudices of the
+community, than that of befriending a beaten and bleeding slave, felt
+his indignation roused and his sympathies excited.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a dreadful state of society in which such outrages are tolerated!"
+he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> say, dreadful!" sobbed Mr. Pepperill.</p>
+
+<p>"The good Samaritan himself would be in danger of a beating here!" said
+Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what good smart 'un you mean," replied the weeping Dan,
+whose knowledge of Scripture was extremely limited, "but I bet he'd git
+some, ef he didn't keep his eyes peeled!" And he wiped his nose with his
+sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>Penn smiled at the man's ignorance, and said, as he lifted him up,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Daniel, do you know that it is partly your own fault that this
+deplorable state of things exists?"</p>
+
+<p>"How's it my fault, I'd like to know?" whimpered Daniel.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, I'll help thee home, and tell thee what I mean, by the way," said
+Penn, using the idiom of his sect, into which familiar manner of speech
+he naturally fell when talking confidentially with any one.</p>
+
+<p>"I am stiff as any old spavined hoss!" whined the poor fellow,
+straightening his legs, and attempting to walk.</p>
+
+<p>Penn helped him home as he promised, and comforted him, and said to him
+many things, which he little supposed were destined to be brought
+against him so soon, and by this very Daniel Pepperill.</p>
+
+<p>This was the way of it. When it was known that Penn had befriended the
+friend of the blacks, Silas Ropes paid Dan a second visit, and by
+threats of vengeance, on the one hand, and promises of forgiveness and
+treatment "like a gentleman," on the other, extorted from him a
+confession of all Penn had said and done.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Dan," said Mr. Ropes, patronizingly, "I'll tell ye what you do.
+You jine with us, and show yourself a man of sperrit, a payin' off this
+yer abolitionist for his outrageous interference in our affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Sile," interrupted Dan, earnestly, "what 'ge mean I'm to do? Turn agin'
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," replied Mr. Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"Sile," said Dan, excitedly, "I be durned if I do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, I swear to gosh!" said Sile, spitting a great stream of tobacco
+juice across Mrs. Pepperill's not very clean floor, "you'll have a dose
+yourself before another sun, which like as not'll be your last!"</p>
+
+<p>This terrible menace produced its desired effect; and the unwilling Dan
+was here, this night, one of Penn's persecutors, in consequence.</p>
+
+<p>It was not enough that he had shown his "sperrit" by fetching the
+victim's own bed from his boarding-house, telling his landlady, the
+worthy Mrs. Sprowl, that Sile said she must "charge it to her abolition
+boarder." He must now show still more "sperrit" by bringing the tar. A
+well-worn broom had been borrowed of Mrs. Pepperill, by those who knew
+best how the tar in such cases should be applied: the handle of this was
+thrust by one of the men, named Griffin, through the bail of the kettle,
+and Dan was ordered to "ketch holt o' t'other eend," and help carry.</p>
+
+<p>Dan "ketched holt" accordingly. But never was kettle so heavy as that;
+its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly the
+broom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt his
+laudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for his
+benefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether.
+But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and the
+next instant flourished the club over Dan's head.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean tu! it slipped!" shrieked the terrified wretch. After
+which he durst no more attempt to thwart the chivalrous designs of his
+friends, but carried the tar like a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"This way!" said Silas, getting the escaped feathers into a pile with
+his foot. "Thar! set it down. Now, sir," throwing away his own coat,
+"peel off them clo'es o' yourn, Mr. Schoolmaster, mighty quick, if you
+don't want 'em peeled off fur ye!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn gave no sign of compliance, but fixed his eye steadfastly upon Mr.
+Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"I insist," said he,&mdash;for he had already made the request while the men
+were bringing the tar,&mdash;"on knowing what I have done to merit this
+treatment."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, that I don't mind tellin' ye," said Silas, "for we've all night
+for this yer little job before us. Dan Pepperill, stand up here!"</p>
+
+<p>Dan came forward, appearing extremely low-spirited and weak in the
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, Daniel, who are to bear witness against me?" said Penn, in a
+voice of singular gentleness, which chimed in like a sweet and solemn
+bell after the harsh clangor of Silas's ruffian tones.</p>
+
+<p>Dan rolled up his eyes, hugged his tattered elbows, and gave a dismal
+groan.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" said Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knocked
+him down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turned
+from the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart is
+a-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country.
+Ain't it, Dan?&mdash;say yes," he hissed in his ear, giving him a second
+slap, "or else&mdash;you know!"</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord, yes!" ejaculated Dan, with a start of terror. "What Mr. Ropes
+says is perfectly&mdash;perfectly&mdash;jes' so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your heart is a-burnin', ain't it?" said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye&mdash;yes! I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"This man," continued Ropes, who prided himself on being a great orator,
+with power to "fire the southern heart," and never neglected an occasion
+to show himself off in that capacity,&mdash;"this individgle ye see afore ye,
+gentlemen,"&mdash;once more hitting Dan, this time with the toe of his boot,
+gently, to indicate the subject of his remarks,&mdash;"was lately as
+low-minded a peep as ever you see. He had no more conscience than to
+'sociate with niggers, and sell 'em liquor, and even give 'em liquor
+when they couldn't pay fur't; and you all know how he degraded himself
+by takin' Combs's Pete into his house and doin' for him arter he'd been
+very properly licked by the patrol. All which, I am happy to say, the
+deluded man sincerely repents of, and promises to behave more like a
+gentleman in futur'. Don't you, Dan?"</p>
+
+<p>As Dan, attempting to speak, only gasped, Ropes administered a sharp
+poke in his ribs, whispering fiercely,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Say you do, mighty quick, or I'll&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>"O! I repents! I&mdash;I be durned if I don't!" said Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, as to you!" Silas turned on the schoolmaster. "Your offence in
+gineral is bein' a northern abolitionist. Besides which, your offences
+in partic'ler is these. Not contented with teachin' the Academy, which
+was well enough, since it is necessary that a few should have larnin',
+so the may know how to govern the rest,&mdash;not contented with that, you
+must run the thing into the ground, by settin' up a evenin' school, and
+offerin' to larn readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, free gratis, to
+whosomever wanted to 'tend. Which is contrary to the sperrit of our
+institootions, as you have been warned more 'n oncet. That's charge
+Number Two. Charge Number Three is, that you stand up for the old rotten
+Union, and tell folks, every chance you git, that secession, that noble
+right of southerners, is a villanous scheme, that'll ruin the south, if
+persisted in, and plunge the whole nation into war. Your very words, I
+believe. Can you deny it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, I have said something very much like that, and it is my
+honest conviction," replied Penn, firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, take notice!" said Mr. Ropes. "We will now pass on to charge
+Number Four, and be brief, for the tar is a-coolin'. Suthin' like eight
+days ago, when the afore-mentioned Dan Pepperill was in the waller of
+his degradation, some noble-souled sons of the sunny south"&mdash;the orator
+smiled with pleasant significance&mdash;"lifted him up, and hung him up to
+air, in the crotches of two trees, jest by the edge of the woods here,
+and went home to supper, intending to come back and finish the purifying
+process begun with him later in the evenin'. But what did you do, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, but come along and take him down, prematoorely, and go to
+corruptin' him agin with your vile northern principles! Didn't he, Dan?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I dun know" faltered Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you do know, too! Didn't he corrupt you?"</p>
+
+<p>These words being accompanied by a severe hint from Sile's boot, Mr.
+Pepperill remembered that Penn <i>did</i> corrupt him.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I hadn't took ye in season, you'd have returned to your
+base-born mire, wouldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I would," the miserable Dan admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal! now!"&mdash;Sile spread his palm over the tar to see if it retained its
+temperature,&mdash;"hurry up, Dan, and tell us all this northern agitator
+said to you that night."</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord!" groaned Pepperill, "my memory is so short!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bring that rope, boys! and give him suthin' to stretch it!" said Silas,
+growing impatient.</p>
+
+<p>Dan, knowing that stretching his memory in the manner threatened,
+implied that his neck was to be stretched along with it, made haste to
+remember.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said Penn, interrupting the poor man's forced and
+disconnected testimony, "let me spare him the pain of bearing witness
+against me. I recall perfectly well every thing I said to him that
+night. I said it was a shame that such outrages as had been committed on
+him should be tolerated in a civilized society. I told him it was partly
+his own fault that such a state of things existed. I said, 'It is owing
+to the ignorance and degradation of you poor whites that a barbarous
+system is allowed to flourish and tyrannize over you.' I said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here Penn was interrupted by a violent outcry, the majority of the
+persons present coming under the head of "poor whites."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him go on! let him perceed!" said Silas. "What did you mean by
+'barbarous system'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I meant," replied Penn, all fear vanishing in the glow of righteous
+indignation which filled him,&mdash;"I meant the system which makes it a
+crime to teach a man to read&mdash;a punishable offence to befriend the poor
+and down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes it
+dangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to a
+person towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy which
+others have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You've
+said more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of a
+mild coat of tar and feathers."</p>
+
+<p>"I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands;
+so I thought I might as well be plain with you."</p>
+
+<p>"And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys,
+strip him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which they
+mistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I have
+said has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow me
+to speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crime
+against your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?"</p>
+
+<p>"We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the man
+called Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; I
+cannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have never
+interfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, or
+injurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but,
+whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient and
+faithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, a
+simple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harm
+to no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites.
+How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Not
+many, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?"
+interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, what
+good would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sech
+low, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at the
+north."</p>
+
+<p>"The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alone
+makes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, had
+the common school education of the north, you would not be engaged in
+such business; you would be ashamed of assaulting a peaceable man on
+account of his opinions; you would know that the man who comes to teach
+you is your best friend. If you were not ignorant men, you, who do not
+own slaves, would know that slavery is the worst enemy of your
+prosperity, and you would not be made its willing tools."</p>
+
+<p>The firm dignity of the youth, assisted by the illusion that prevailed
+concerning a revolver in his pocket, had kept his foes at bay, and
+gained him a hearing. He now attempted to pass on, when the man Gad,
+stepping behind him, raised the broom-handle, and dealt him a stunning
+blow on the back of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Down with him!" "Strip him!" "Give him a thrashing first!" "Hang him!"</p>
+
+<p>And the ruffians threw themselves furiously upon the fallen man.</p>
+
+<p>"Whar's that Dutch boy?" cried Silas. "I meant he should help Dan lay on
+the tar."</p>
+
+<p>But Carl was nowhere to be seen, having taken advantage of the confusion
+and darkness to escape into the woods.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE SECRET CELLAR.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>No sooner did the lad feel himself safe from pursuit, than he made his
+way out of the woods again, and ran with all speed to Mr. Stackridge's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>To his dismay he learned that that stanch Unionist was absent from home.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he in the willage?" said the breathless Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon he is," said the farmer's wife; adding in a whisper,&mdash;for she
+guessed the nature of Carl's business,&mdash;"inquire for him down to barber
+Jim's." And she told him what to say to the barber.</p>
+
+<p>Barber Jim was a colored man, who had demonstrated the ability of the
+African to take care of himself, by purchasing first his own freedom of
+his mistress, buying his wife and children afterwards, and then
+accumulating a property as much more valuable than all Silas Ropes and
+his poor white minions possessed, as his mind was superior to their
+combined intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Jim had accomplished this by uniting with industrious habits a natural
+shrewdness, which enabled him to make the most of his labor and of his
+means. He owned the most flourishing barber-shop in the place, and kept
+in connection with it (I am sorry to say) a bar, at which he dealt out
+to his customers some very bad liquors at very good prices. Had Jim been
+a white man, he would not, of course, have stooped to make money by any
+such low business as rum-selling&mdash;O, no! but being only a "nigger," what
+else could you expect of him?</p>
+
+<p>Well, on this very evening Jim's place began to be thronged almost
+before it was dark. A few came in to be shaved, while many more passed
+through the shop into the little bar-room beyond. What was curious, some
+went in who appeared never to come out again; Mr. Stackridge among the
+number.</p>
+
+<p>It was not to get shaved, nor yet to get tipsy, that this man visited
+Jim's premises. The moment they were alone together in the bar-room, he
+gave the proprietor a knowing wink.</p>
+
+<p>"Many there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon about a dozen," said Jim. "Go in?" Stackridge nodded; and with
+a grin Jim opened a private door communicating with some back stairs,
+down which his visitor went groping his way in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>Customers came and went; now and then one disappeared similarly down the
+back stairs; many remained in the barber's shop to smoke, and discuss in
+loud tones the exciting question of the day&mdash;secession; when, lastly, a
+boy of fifteen came rushing in. His face was flushed with running, and
+he was quite out of breath.</p>
+
+<p>"What's wanting, Carl?" said the barber. "A shave?"</p>
+
+<p>This was one of Jim's jokes, at which his customers laughed, to the
+boy's confusion, for his cheeks were as smooth as a peach.</p>
+
+<p>"I vants to find Mishter Stackridge," said the lad.</p>
+
+<p>"He ain't here," said Jim, looking around the room.</p>
+
+<p>"It is something wery partic'lar. One of his pigs have got choked mit a
+cob, and he must go home and unchoke him."</p>
+
+<p>This was what Carl had been directed by the farmer's wife to say to the
+barber, in case he should profess ignorance concerning her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Pity about the pig," said Jim. "Mabby Stackridge'll be in bime-by. Any
+thing else I can do for ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Carl stepped up to the barber, and said in a hoarse whisper, loud enough
+to be heard by every body,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A mug of peer, if you pleashe."</p>
+
+<p>"I got some that'll make a Dutchman's head hum!" said Jim, leading the
+way into the little grog room.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Villars's Dutch boy," said one of the smokers in the
+barber-shop. "Beats all nater, how these Dutch will swill down any thing
+in the shape of beer!"</p>
+
+<p>This elegant observation may have had a grain of truth in it, as we who
+have Teutonic friends may have reason to know. However, the man had
+mistaken the boy this time.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the peer I vants, it is Mr. Stackridge," whispered Carl, when
+alone with the proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>Jim regarded him doubtfully a moment, then said, "I reckon I shall have
+to open a cask in the suller. You jest tend bar for me while I am gone."</p>
+
+<p>He descended the stairs, closing the door after him. Carl, who thought
+of the schoolmaster in the hands of the mob, felt his heart swell and
+burn with anxiety at each moment's delay. Jim did not keep him long
+waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"This way, Carl, if you want some of the right sort," said the negro
+from the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Carl went down in the darkness, Jim taking his hand to guide him. They
+entered a cellar, crowded with casks and boxes, where there was a dim
+lamp burning; but no human being was visible, until suddenly out of a
+low, dark passage, between some barrels, a stooping figure emerged,
+giving Carl a momentary start of alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the trouble, Carl?"</p>
+
+<p>"O! Mishter Stackridge! is it you?" said Carl, as the figure stood erect
+in the dim light,&mdash;sallow, bony, grim, attired in coarse clothes. "The
+schoolmaster&mdash;that is the trouble!" and he hastily related what he had
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't take the pistol? the fool!" muttered the farmer. "But I'll see
+what I can do for him." He grasped the boy's collar, and said in a
+suppressed but terribly earnest voice, "Swear never to breathe a word of
+what I'm going to show you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shwear!" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!"</p>
+
+<p>Stackridge took him by the wrist, and drew him after him into the
+passage. It was utterly dark, and Carl had to stoop in order to avoid
+hitting his head. As they approached the end of it, he could distinguish
+the sound of voices,&mdash;one louder than the rest giving the word of
+command.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Order&mdash;arms!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The farmer knocked on the head of a cask, which rolled aside, and opened
+the way into a cellar beyond, under an old storehouse, which was
+likewise a part of Barber Jim's property.</p>
+
+<p>The second cellar was much larger and better lighted than the first, and
+rendered picturesque by heavy festoons of cobwebs hanging from the dark
+beams above. The rays of the lamps flashed upon gun-barrels, and cast
+against the damp and mouldy walls gigantic shadows of groups of men.
+Some were conversing, others were practising the soldiers' drill.</p>
+
+<p>"Neighbors!" said Stackridge, in a voice which commanded instant
+attention, and drew around him and Carl an eager group. "It's just as I
+told you,&mdash;Ropes and his gang are lynching Hapgood!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the fellow's own fault," said a stern, dark man, the same who had
+been drilling the men. "He should have taken care of himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Young Hapgood's a decent sort of cuss," said another whom Carl knew,&mdash;a
+farmer named Withers,&mdash;"and I like him. I believe he means well; but he
+ain't one of us."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been deceived in him," said a third. "He always minded his own
+business, and kept so quiet about our institutions, I never suspected he
+was anti-slavery till I talked with him t'other day about joining
+us&mdash;then he out with it."</p>
+
+<p>"He thinks we're all wrong," said a bigoted pro-slavery man named
+Deslow. "He says slavery's the cause of the war, and it's absurd in us
+to go in for the Union and slavery too!" For these men, though loyal to
+the government, and bitterly opposed to secession, were nearly all
+slaveholders or believers in slavery.</p>
+
+<p>"May be the fellow ain't far wrong there," said he who had been drilling
+his comrades. "I think myself slavery's the cause of the war, and that's
+what puts us in such a hard place. The time may come when we will have
+to take a different stand&mdash;go the whole figure with the free north, or
+drift with the cotton states. But that time hain't come yet."</p>
+
+<p>"But the time <i>has</i> come," said Stackridge, impatiently, "to do
+something for Hapgood, if we intend to help him at all. While we are
+talking, he may be hanging."</p>
+
+<p>"And what can we do?" retorted the other. "We can't make a move for him
+without showing our hand, and it ain't time for that yet."</p>
+
+<p>"True enough, Captain Grudd," said Stackridge. "But three or four of us,
+with our revolvers, can happen that way, and take him out of the hands
+of Ropes and his cowardly crew without much difficulty. I, for one, am
+going."</p>
+
+<p>"Hapgood don't even believe in fighting!" observed Deslow, with immense
+disgust; "and blast me if I am going to fight <i>for</i> him!"</p>
+
+<p>Carl was almost driven to despair by the indifference of these men and
+the time wasted in discussion. He could have hugged the grim and bony
+Stackridge when he saw him make a decided move at last. Three others
+volunteered to accompany them. The cask was once more rolled away from
+the entrance, and one by one they crept quickly through the passage into
+the first cellar.</p>
+
+<p>Stackridge preceded the rest, to see that the way was clear. There was
+no one at the bar; the door leading into the shop was closed; and Carl,
+following the four men, passed out by a long entry communicating with
+the street, the door of which was thrown open to the public on occasions
+when there was a great rush to Jim's bar, but which was fastened this
+night by a latch that could be lifted only from the inside.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A SEARCH FOR THE MISSING.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The academy was situated in a retired spot, half a mile out of the
+village. Stackridge and his party were soon pushing rapidly towards it
+along the dark, unfrequented road. Carl ran on before, leading the way
+to the scene of the lynching.</p>
+
+<p>The place was deserted and silent. Only the cold wind swept the bleak
+wood-side, making melancholy moans among the trees. Overhead shone the
+stars, lighting dimly the desolation of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, where's yer tar-and-feathering party?" said Stackridge. "See here,
+Dutchy! ye hain't been foolin' us, have ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"I vish it vas notting but fooling!" said Carl, full of distress,
+fearing the worst. "We have come too late. The willains have took him
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"Feathers, men!" muttered Stackridge, picking up something from beneath
+his feet. "The boy's right! Now, which way have they gone?&mdash;that's the
+question."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!" said Carl. "I see a man!"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, just then a dim figure arose from the earth, and appeared slowly
+and painfully moving away.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on there!" cried Stackridge. "Needn't be afeared of us. We're your
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>The figure stopped, uttering a deep groan.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, Hapgood?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the most miserable voice in the world. "It's me."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pepperill&mdash;Dan Pepperill; ye know me, don't ye, Stackridge?"</p>
+
+<p>"You? you scoundrel!" said the farmer. "What have ye been doing to the
+schoolmaster? Answer me this minute, or I'll&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"O, don't, don't!" implored the wretch. "I'll answer, I'll tell every
+thing, only give me a chance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be quick, then, and tell no lies!"</p>
+
+<p>The poor man looked around at his captors in the starlight, stooping
+dejectedly, and rubbing his bent knees.</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't to blame&mdash;I'll tell ye that to begin with. I've been jest
+knocked about, from post to pillar, and from pillar to post, till I
+don't know who's my friends and who ain't. I reckon more ain't than is!"
+added he, dismally.</p>
+
+<p>"That's neither here nor there!" said Stackridge. "Where's Hapgood?
+that's what I want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye see," said Dan, endeavoring to collect his wits (you would have
+thought they were in his kneepans, and he was industriously rubbing them
+up), "Ropes sent me to tote the kittle home, and when I got back here, I
+be durned if they wasn't all gone, schoolmaster and all."</p>
+
+<p>"But what had they done to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, I'm shore! That's what I was a comin' back fur to see. He
+let me down when I was hung up on the rail, and helped me home; and so I
+says to myself, says I, 'Why shouldn't I do as much by him?' so I come
+back, and found him gone."</p>
+
+<p>"What was in the kittle?" Stackridge took him by the throat.</p>
+
+<p>"O, don't go fur to layin' it to me, and I'll tell ye! Thar'd been tar
+in the kittle! It had been used to give him a coat. That's the fact,
+durn me if it ain't! They put it on with the broom&mdash;my broom&mdash;they made
+me bring my own broom, that's the everlastin' truth! made me do it
+myself, and spile my wife's best broom into the bargain!" And Pepperill
+sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>"You put on the tar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't kill me, and I'll own up! I did put on some on't, that's a fact.
+Ropes would a' killed me if I hadn't, and now you kill me fur doin' of
+it. He did knock me down, 'cause he said I didn't rub it on hard enough;
+and arter that he rubbed it himself."</p>
+
+<p>"What next, you scoundrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Next, they rolled him in the feathers, and sent me, as I told ye, to
+tote the kittle home. Now don't, don't go fur to hang me, Mr.
+Stackridge! Help me, men! help me, Withers,&mdash;Devit! For he means to be
+the death of me, I'm shore!"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Stackridge was in a tremendous passion, and would, no doubt,
+have done the man some serious injury but for the timely interposition
+of Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"O, you're a good boy, Carl!" cried Dan, in an exstasy of terror and
+gratitude. "You know they druv me to it, don't ye? You know I wouldn't
+have gone fur to do it no how, if 't hadn't been to save my life. And as
+fur rubbing on the tar, I know'd they'd rub harder 'n I did; so I took
+holt, if only to do it more soft and gentle-like."</p>
+
+<p>Carl testified to Dan's apparent unwillingness to participate in the
+outrage; and Stackridge, finding that nothing more could be got out of
+the terror-stricken wretch, flung him off in great rage and disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"We must find what they have done with Hapgood," he said. "We're losing
+time here. We'll go to his boarding-place first."</p>
+
+<p>As Pepperill fell backwards upon some stones, and lay there helplessly,
+Carl ran to him to learn if he was hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I be hurt some," murmured Dan; "a good deal in my back, and a
+durned sight more in my feelin's. As if I wan't sufferin' a'ready the
+pangs of death&mdash;wus'n death!&mdash;a thinkin' about the master, and what's
+been done to him, arter he'd been so kind to me&mdash;and thinkin' he'd think
+I'm the ongratefulest cuss out of the bad place!&mdash;and then to have it
+all laid on to me by Stackridge and the rest! that's the stun that hurts
+me wust of any!"</p>
+
+<p>Carl thought, if that was all, he could not assist him much; and he ran
+on after the men, leaving Pepperill snivelling like a whipped schoolboy
+on the stones.</p>
+
+<p>Penn's landlady, the worthy Mrs. Sprowl, lived in a lonesome house that
+stood far back in the fields, at least a dozen rods from the road. She
+was a widow, whose daughters were either married or dead, and whose only
+son was a rover, having been guilty of some crime that rendered it
+unsafe for him to visit his bereaved parent. Penn had chosen her house
+for his home, partly because she needed some such assistance in gaining
+a living, but chiefly, I think, because she did not own slaves. The
+other inmates of her solitary abode were two large, ferocious dogs,
+which she kept for the sake of their company and protection.</p>
+
+<p>But this night the house looked as if forsaken even by these. It was
+utterly dark and silent. When Stackridge shook the door, however, the
+illusion was dispelled by two fierce growls that resounded within.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Mrs. Sprowl!" shouted the farmer, shaking the door again, and
+knocking violently. "Let me in!"</p>
+
+<p>At that the growling broke into savage barks, which made Stackridge lay
+his hand on the revolver Carl had returned to him. A window was then
+cautiously opened, and a bit of night-cap exposed.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's you agin," said a shrill feminine voice, "I warn you to be
+gone! If you think I can't set the dogs on to you, because you've slep'
+in my house so long, you're very much mistaken. They'll tear you as they
+would a pa'tridge! Go away, go away, I tell ye; you've been the ruin of
+me, and I ain't a-going to resk my life a-harboring of you any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Sprowl!" answered the stern voice of the farmer.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! ain't it the schoolmaster?" cried the astonished lady. "I
+thought it was him come back agin to force his way into my house, after
+I've twice forbid him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why forbid him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, Mr. Stackridge? Then I'll be free, and tell ye. I've been
+informed he's a dangerous man. I've been warned to shet my doors agin'
+him, if I wouldn't have my house pulled down on to my head."</p>
+
+<p>"Who warned you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silas Ropes, this very night. He come to me, and says, says he, 'We've
+gin your abolition boarder a coat, which you must charge to his
+account;' for you see," added the head at the window, pathetically,
+"they took the bed he has slep' on, right out of my house, and I don't
+s'pose I shall see ary feather of that bed ever agin! live goose's
+feathers they was too! and a poor lone widder that could ill afford it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, after Ropes and his friends was gone, he comes too, an awful
+lookin' object as ever you see! 'Mrs. Sprowl,' says he, 'don't be
+scared; it's only me; won't ye let me in?' for ye see, I'd shet the
+house agin' him in season, detarmined so dangerous a character should
+never darken my doors agin."</p>
+
+<p>"And he was naked!"</p>
+
+<p>"I 'spose he was, all but the feathers, and suthin' or other he seemed
+to have flung over him."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a night as this!" exclaimed Stackridge. "You're a heartless jade,
+Mrs. Sprowl!&mdash;I don't wonder the fellow hates slavery," he muttered to
+himself, "when it makes ruffians of the men and monsters even of the
+women!&mdash;Which way did he go?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's more'n I can tell!" answered the lady, sharply. "It's none o' my
+business where he goes, if he don't come here! That I won't have, call
+me what names you please!" And she shut the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang the critter! after all Hapgood has done for her!" said the
+indignant Stackridge,&mdash;for it was well-known that she was indebted to
+the gentle and generous Penn for many benefits. "But it's no use to
+stand here. We'll go to my house, men,&mdash;may be he's there."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CARL AND HIS FRIENDS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Carl Minnevich was the son of a German, who, in company with a brother,
+had come to America a few years before, and settled in Tennessee. There
+the Minneviches purchased a farm, and were beginning to prosper in their
+new home, when Carl's father suddenly died. The boy had lost his mother
+on the voyage to America. He was now an orphan, destined to experience
+all the humiliation, dependence, and wrong, which ever an orphan knew.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the sole proprietorship of the farm, which had been bought
+by both, was assumed by the surviving brother. This man had a selfish,
+ill-tempered wife, and a family of great boys. Minnevich himself was
+naturally a good, honest man; but Frau Minnevich wanted the entire
+property for her own children, hated Carl because he was in the way, and
+treated him with cruelty. His big cousins followed their mother's
+example, and bullied him. How to obtain protection or redress he knew
+not. He was a stranger, speaking a strange tongue, in the land of his
+father's adoption. Ah, how often then did he think of the happy
+fatherland, before that luckless voyage was undertaken, when he still
+had his mother, and his friends, and all his little playfellows, whom he
+could never see more!</p>
+
+<p>So matters went on for a year or two, until the boy's grievances grew
+intolerable, and he one day took it into his head to please Frau
+Minnevich for once in his life, if never again. In the night time he
+made up a little bundle of his clothes, threw it out of the window, got
+out himself after it, climbed down upon the roof of the shed, jumped to
+the ground, and trudged away in the early morning starlight, a wanderer.
+It has been necessary to touch upon this point in Carl's history, in
+order to explain why it was he ever afterwards felt such deep gratitude
+towards those who befriended him in the hour of his need.</p>
+
+<p>For many days and nights he wandered among the hills of Tennessee,
+looking in vain for work, and begging his bread. Sometimes he almost
+wished himself a slave-boy, for then he would have had a home at least,
+if only a wretched cabin, and friends, if only negroes,&mdash;those
+oppressed, beaten, bought-and-sold, yet patient and cheerful people,
+whose lot seemed, after all, so much happier than his own. Carl had a
+large, warm heart, and he longed with infinite longing for somebody to
+love him and treat him kindly.</p>
+
+<p>At last, as he was sitting one cold evening by the road-side, weary,
+hungry, despondent, not knowing where he was to find his supper, and
+seeing nothing else for him to do but to lie down under some bush, there
+to shiver and starve till morning, a voice of unwonted kindness accosted
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor boy, you seem to be in trouble; can I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Carl burst into tears. It was the voice of Penn Hapgood; and in its
+tones were sympathy, comfort, hope. Penn took him by the arm, and lifted
+him up, and carried his bundle for him, talking to him all the time so
+like a gentle and loving brother, that Carl said in the depths of his
+soul that he would some day repay him, if he lived; and he prayed God
+secretly that he might live, and be able some day to repay him for those
+sweet and gracious words.</p>
+
+<p>Penn never quitted him until he had found him a home; neither after that
+did he forget him. He took him into his school, gave him his tuition,
+and befriended him in a hundred little ways beside.</p>
+
+<p>And now the time had arrived when Penn himself stood in need of friends.
+The evening came, and Carl was missing from his new home.</p>
+
+<p>"Whar's dat ar boy took hisself to, I'd like to know!" scolded old Toby.
+"I'll clar away de table, and he'll lose his supper, if he stays anoder
+minute! Debil take me, if I don't!"</p>
+
+<p>He had made the same threat a dozen times, and still he kept Carl's
+potatoes hot for him, and the table waiting. For the old negro, though
+he loved dearly to show his importance by making a good deal of bluster
+about his work, had really one of the kindest hearts in the world, and
+was as devoted to the boy he scolded as any indulgent old grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>"The 'debil' will take you, sure enough, I'm afraid, Toby, if you appeal
+to him so often," said a mildly reproving voice.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Villars, the old worn-out clergyman; a man of seventy
+winters, pale, white-haired, blind, feeble of body, yet strong and
+serene of soul. He came softly, groping his way into the kitchen, in
+order to put his feet to Toby's fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Laws, massa," said old Toby, grinning, "debil knows I ain't in 'arnest!
+he knows better'n to take me at my word, for I speaks his name widout no
+kind o' respec', allus, I does. Hyar's yer ol' easy char fur ye, Mass'
+Villars. Now you jes' make yerself comf'table." And he cleared a place
+on the stove-hearth for the old man's feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Toby." With his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, his
+hands folded thoughtfully before his breast, and his beautiful old face
+smiling the kindness which his blind eyes could not <i>look</i>, Mr. Villars
+sat by the fire. "Where is Carl to-night, Toby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat ar's de question; dat's de pint, massa. Mos' I can say is, he ain't
+whar he ought to be, a eatin' ob his supper. Chocolate's all a bilin'
+away to nuffin! ketch dis chile tryin' to keep tings hot for his supper
+anoder time!" And Toby added, in a whisper expressive of great
+astonishment at himself, "What I eber took dat ar boy to keep fur's one
+ob de mysteries!"</p>
+
+<p>For Toby, though only a servant (indeed, he had formerly been a slave in
+the family), had had his own way so long in every thing that concerned
+the management of the household, that he had come to believe himself the
+proprietor, not only of the house and land, and poultry and pigs, but of
+the family itself. He owned "ol' Mass Villars," and an exceedingly
+precious piece of property he considered him, especially since he had
+become blind. He was likewise (in his own exalted imagination) sole
+inheritor and guardian-in-chief of "Miss Jinny," Mr. Villars's youngest
+daughter, child of his old age, of whom Mrs. Villars said, on her
+death-bed, "Take always good care of my darling, dear Toby!"&mdash;an
+injunction which the negro regarded as a sort of last will and testament
+bequeathing the girl to him beyond mortal question.</p>
+
+<p>There was, in fact, but one member of the household he did not
+exclusively claim. This was the married daughter, Salina, whose life had
+been embittered by a truant husband,&mdash;no other, in fact, than the erring
+son of the worthy Mrs. Sprowl. The day when the infatuated girl made a
+marriage so much beneath the family dignity, Toby, in great grief and
+indignation, gave her up. "I washes my hands ob her! she ain't no more a
+chile ob mine!" said the old servant, passionately weeping, as if the
+washing of his hands was to be literal, and no other fluid would serve
+his dark purpose but tears. And when, after Sprowl's desertion of her,
+she returned, humiliated and disgraced, to her father's house,&mdash;that is
+to say, Toby's house,&mdash;Toby had compassion on her, and took her in, but
+never set up any claim to her again.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Carl? Hasn't Carl come yet?" asked a sweet but very anxious
+voice. And Virginia, the youngest daughter, stood in the kitchen door.</p>
+
+<p>"He hain't come yet, Miss Jinny; dat ar a fact!" said Toby. "'Pears like
+somefin's hap'en'd to dat ar boy. I neber knowed him stay out so, when
+dar's any eatin' gwine on,&mdash;for he's a master hand for his supper, dat
+boy ar! Laws, I hain't forgot how he laid in de vittles de fust night
+Massa Penn fetched him hyar! He was right hungry, he was, and he took
+holt powerful! 'I neber can keep dat ar boy in de world,' says I; 'he'll
+eat me clar out o' house an' home!' says I. But, arter all, it done my
+ol' heart good to see him put in, ebery ting 'peared to taste so d'effle
+good to him!" And Toby chuckled at the reminiscence.</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter," said Mr. Villars, softly.</p>
+
+<p>She was already standing behind his chair, and her trembling little
+hands were smoothing his brow, and her earnest face was looking pale and
+abstracted over him. He could not see her face, but he knew by her touch
+that the tender act was done some how mechanically to-night, and that
+she was thinking of other things. She started as he spoke, and, bending
+over him, kissed his white forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect," he went on, "that you know more of Carl than we do. Has he
+gone on some errand of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you, father!" It seemed as if her feelings had been long
+repressed, and it was a relief for her to speak at last. "Carl came to
+me, and said there was some mischief intended towards Penn. This was
+long before dark. And he asked permission to go and see what it was. I
+said, 'Go, but come right back, if there is no danger.' He went, and I
+have not seen him since."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this so? Why didn't you tell me before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, father, I did not wish to make you anxious. But now, if you
+will let Toby go&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go myself!" said the old man, starting up. "My staff, Toby! When I
+was out, I heard voices in the direction of the school-house,&mdash;I felt
+then a presentiment that something was happening to Penn. I can control
+the mob,&mdash;I can save him, if it is not too late." He grasped the staff
+Toby put into his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"O, father!" said the agitated girl; "are you able?"</p>
+
+<p>"Able, child? You shall see how strong I am when our friend is in
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go, then, and guide you!" she exclaimed, glad he was so
+resolved, yet unwilling to trust him out of her sight.</p>
+
+<p>"No, daughter. Toby will be eyes for me. Yet I scarcely need even him. I
+can find my way as well as he can in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>The negro opened the door, and was leading out the blind old minister,
+when the light from within fell upon a singular object approaching the
+house. It started back again, like some guilty thing; but Toby had seen
+it. Toby uttered a shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"De debil! de debil hisself, massa!" and he pulled the old man back
+hurriedly into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil, Toby? What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"O, laws, bress ye, massa, ye hain't got no eyes, and ye can't see!"
+said Toby, shutting the door in his fright, and rolling his eyes wildly.
+"It's de bery debil! he's come for dis niggah dis time, sartin'. Cos I,
+cos I 'pealed to him, as you said, massa! cos I's got de habit ob
+speakin' his name widout no kind o' respec'!"</p>
+
+<p>And he stood bracing himself, with his back against the door, as if
+determined that not even that powerful individual himself should get in.</p>
+
+<p>"You poor old simpleton!" said Mr. Villars, "there is no fiend except in
+your own imagination. Open the door!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, massa! He's dar! he's dar! He'll cotch old Toby, shore!" And
+the terrified black held the latch and pushed with all his might.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he see, Virginia?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, father! There was certainly somebody, or something,&mdash;I
+could not distinguish what."</p>
+
+<p>"It's what I tell ye!" gibbered Toby. "I seed de great coarse har on his
+speckled legs, and de wings on his back, and a right smart bag in his
+hand to put dis niggah in!"</p>
+
+<p>"It might have been Carl," said Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Carl don't hab sech legs as dem ar! Carl don't hab sech great
+big large ears as dem ar! O good Lord! good Lord!" the negro's voice
+sank to a terrified whisper, "he's a-knockin' for me now!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a very gentle rap for the devil," said Mr. Villars, who could not
+but be amused, notwithstanding the strange interruption of his purpose,
+and Toby's vexatious obstinacy in holding the door. "It's some stranger;
+let him in!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no!" gasped the negro. "I won't say nuffin, and you tell him I
+ain't to home! Say I'se clar'd out, lef', gone you do'no' whar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Toby!" was called from without.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's his voice! dat ar's his voice!" said Toby. And in his desperate
+pushing, he pushed his feet from under him, and fell at full length
+along the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the voice of Penn Hapgood!" exclaimed the old minister. "Arise,
+quick, Toby, and open!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby rubbed his head and looked bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>"Are ye sartin ob dat, massa? Bress me, I breeve you're right, for
+oncet! It <i>ar</i> Mass' Penn's voice, shore enough!"</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door, but started back again with another shriek,
+convinced for an instant that it was, after all, the devil, who had
+artfully borrowed Penn's voice to deceive him.</p>
+
+<p>But no! It was Penn himself, his hat and clothes in his hand, smeared
+with black tar and covered with feathers from head to foot; not even his
+features spared, nor yet his hair; on his cheeks great clumps of gray
+goose plumes, suggestive of diabolical ears, and with no other covering
+but this to shield him from the night wind, save the emptied bed-tick,
+which he had drawn over his shoulders, and which Toby had mistaken for
+Satanic wings.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A STRANGE COAT FOR A QUAKER.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Now, Virginia Villars was the very last person by whom Penn would have
+wished to be seen. He was well aware how utterly grotesque and ludicrous
+he must appear. But he was not in a condition to be very fastidious on
+this point. Stunned by blows, stripped of his clothing (which could not
+be put on again, for reasons), cruelly suffering from the violence done
+him, exposed to the cold, excluded from Mrs. Sprowl's virtuous abode, he
+had no choice but to seek the protection of those whom he believed to be
+his truest friends.</p>
+
+<p>In the little sitting-room of the blind old minister he had always been
+gladly welcomed. Such minds as his were rare in Curryville. His purity
+of thought, his Christian charity, his ardent love of justice, and
+(quite as much as any thing) his delight in the free and friendly
+discussion of principles, whether moral, political, or theological, made
+him a great favorite with the lonely old man. His coming made the winter
+evenings bloom. Then the aged clergyman, deprived of sight, bereft of
+the companionship of books, and of the varied consolations of an active
+life, felt his heart warmed and his brain enlivened by the wine of
+conversation. He and Penn, to be sure, did not always agree. Especially
+on the subject of <i>non-resistance</i> they had many warm and well-contested
+arguments; the young Quaker manifesting, by his zeal in the controversy,
+that he had an abundance of "fight" in him without knowing it.</p>
+
+<p>Nor to Mr. Villars alone did Penn's visits bring pleasure. They
+delighted equally young Carl and old Toby. And Virginia? Why, being
+altogether devoted to her blind parent, for whose happiness she could
+never do enough, she was, of course, enchanted with the attentions she
+saw Penn pay <i>him</i>. That was all; at least, the dear girl thought that
+was all.</p>
+
+<p>As for Salina, forsaken spouse of the gay Lysander Sprowl, she too,
+after sulkily brooding over her misfortunes all day, was glad enough to
+have any intelligent person come in and break the monotony of her sad
+life in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Such were Penn's relations with the family to whom alone he durst apply
+for refuge in his distress. Others might indeed have ventured to shelter
+him; but they, like Stackridge, were hated Unionists, and any mercy
+shown to him would have brought evil upon themselves. Mr. Villars,
+however, blind and venerated old man, had sufficient influence over the
+people, Penn believed, to serve as a protection to his household even
+with him in it.</p>
+
+<p>So hither he came&mdash;how unwillingly let the proud and sensitive judge.
+For Penn, though belonging to the meekest of sects, was of a soul by
+nature aspiring and proud. He had the good sense to know that the
+outrage committed on him was in reality no disgrace, except to those
+guilty of perpetrating it. Yet no one likes to appear ridiculous. And
+the man of elevated spirit instinctively shrinks from making known his
+misfortunes even to his best friends; he is ashamed of that for which he
+is in no sense to blame, and he would rather suffer heroically in
+secret, than become an object of pity.</p>
+
+<p>Most of all, as I have said, Penn dreaded the pure Virginia's eyes. Mr.
+Villars could not see him, and for Salina he did not care
+much&mdash;singularly enough, for she alone was of an acrid and sarcastic
+temper. What he devoutly desired was, to creep quietly to the kitchen
+door, call out Carl if he was there, or secretly make known his
+condition to old Toby, and thus obtain admission to the house,
+seclusion, and assistance, without letting Virginia, or her father even,
+know of his presence.</p>
+
+<p>How this honest wish was thwarted we have seen. When the door was first
+opened, he had turned to fly. But that was cowardly; so he returned, and
+knocked, and called the negro by name, to reassure him. And the door was
+once more opened, and Virginia saw him&mdash;recognized him&mdash;knew in an
+instant what brutal deed had been done, and covered her eyes
+instinctively to shut out the hideous sight.</p>
+
+<p>But it was no time to indulge in feelings of false modesty, if she felt
+any. It was no time to be weak, or foolish, or frightened, or ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Penn!" she exclaimed in a burst of indignation and grief. "Toby!
+Toby! you great stupid&mdash;&mdash;! what are you staring for? Take him in! why
+don't you? O, father!" And she threw herself on the old man's bosom, and
+hid her face.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened to Penn?" asked the old man.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been tarred-and-feathered," answered Penn, entering, and closing
+the door behind him. "And I have been shut out of Mrs. Sprowl's house.
+This is my excuse for coming here. I must go somewhere, you know!"</p>
+
+<p>"And where but here?" answered the old man. He had suppressed an
+outburst of feeling, and now stood calm, compassionating, extending his
+hands,&mdash;his staff fallen upon the floor. "I feared it might come to
+this! Terrible times are upon us, and you are only one of the first to
+suffer. You did well to come to us. Are you hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know," replied Penn. "I beg of you, don't be alarmed or
+troubled. I hope you will excuse me. I know I am a fearful object to
+look at, and did not intend to be seen."</p>
+
+<p>He stood holding the bed-tick over him, and his clothes before him, to
+conceal as much as possible his hideous guise, suffering, in that moment
+of pause, unutterable things. Was ever a hero of romance in such a
+dismal plight? Surely no writer of fiction would venture to show his
+hero in so ridiculous and damaging an aspect. But this is not altogether
+a romance, and I must relate facts as they occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be sorry that I have seen you," said Virginia, lifting her face
+again, flashing with tears. "I see in this shameful disguise only the
+shame of those who have so cruelly treated you! Toby will help you. And
+there is Carl at last!"</p>
+
+<p>She retreated from the room by one door just as Carl and Stackridge
+entered by the other.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Penn! gentle and shrinking Penn! it was painful enough for him to
+meet even these coarser eyes, friendly though they were. The shock upon
+his system had been terrible; and now, his strength and resolution
+giving way, his bewildered senses began to reel, and he swooned in the
+farmer's arms.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE TWO GUESTS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Virginia entered the sitting-room&mdash;the same where so many happy evenings
+had been enjoyed by the little family, in the society of him who now lay
+bruised, disfigured, and insensible in Toby's kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>She walked to and fro, she gazed from the windows out into the darkness,
+she threw herself on the lounge, scarce able to control the feelings of
+pity and indignation that agitated her. For almost the first time in her
+life she was fired with vindictiveness; she burned to see some swift and
+terrible retribution overtake the perpetrators of this atrocious deed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Villars soon came out to her. She hastened to lead him to a seat.</p>
+
+<p>"How is he?&mdash;much injured?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been brutally used," said the old man. "But he is now in good
+hands. Where is Salina?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I had been to look for her, when I came and found you in
+the kitchen. I think she must have gone out."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone out, to-night? That is very strange!" The old man mused. "She will
+have to be told that Penn is in the house. But I think the knowledge of
+the fact ought to go no farther. Mr. Stackridge is of the same opinion.
+Now that they have begun to persecute him, they will never cease, so
+long as he remains alive within their reach."</p>
+
+<p>"And we must conceal him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, until this storm blows over, or he can be safely got out of the
+state."</p>
+
+<p>"There is Salina now!" exclaimed the girl, hearing footsteps approach
+the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is, she is not alone," said the old man, whose blindness had
+rendered his hearing acute. "It is a man's step. Don't be agitated, my
+child. Much depends on our calmness and self-possession now. If it is a
+visitor, you must admit him, and appear as hospitable as usual."</p>
+
+<p>It was a visitor, and he came alone&mdash;a young fellow of dashy appearance,
+handsome black hair and whiskers, and very black eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bythewood, father," said Virginia, showing him immediately into the
+sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"I entreat you, do not rise!" said Mr. Bythewood, with exceeding
+affability, hastening to prevent that act of politeness on the part of
+the blind old man.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not bring my daughter with you?" asked Mr. Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"Your daughter is here, sir;" and he of the handsome whiskers gave
+Virginia a most captivating bow and smile.</p>
+
+<p>"He means my sister," said Virginia. "She has gone out, and we are
+feeling somewhat anxious about her." She thought it best to say thus
+much, in order that, should the visitor perceive any strangeness or
+abstraction on her part, he might think it was caused by solicitude for
+the absent Salina.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing can have happened to her, certainly," remarked Mr. Bythewood,
+seating himself in an attitude of luxurious ease, approaching almost to
+indolent recklessness. "We are the most chivalrous people in the world.
+There is no people, I think, on the face of the globe, among whom the
+innocent and defenceless are so perfectly secure."</p>
+
+<p>Virginia thought of the hapless victim of the mob in the kitchen yonder,
+and smiled politely.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no very great fears for her safety," said the old man. "Yet I
+have felt some anxiety to know the meaning of the noises I heard in the
+direction of the academy, an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood laughed, and stroked his glossy mustache.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, sir. I reckon, however, that the Yankee schoolmaster has
+been favored with a little demonstration of southern sentiment."</p>
+
+<p>"How! not mobbed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Call it what you please, sir," said Bythewood, with an air of
+pleasantry. "I think our people have been roused at last; and if so,
+they have probably given him a lesson he will never forget."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by 'our people'?" the old man gravely inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"He means," said Virginia, with quiet but cutting irony, "the most
+chivalrous people in the world! among whom the innocent and defenceless
+are more secure than any where else on the globe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," said Mr. Bythewood, with a placid smile. "But among whom
+obnoxious persons, dangerous to our institutions, cannot be tolerated.
+As for this affair,"&mdash;carelessly, as if what had happened to Penn was of
+no particular consequence to anybody present, least of all to him,&mdash;"I
+don't know anything about it. Of course, I would never go near a popular
+demonstration of the kind. I don't say I approve of it, and I don't say
+I disapprove of it. These are no ordinary times, Mr. Villars. The south
+is already plunged into a revolution."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I fear so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fear so? I glory that it is so! We are about to build up the most
+magnificent empire on which the sun has ever shone!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cemented with the blood of our own brethren!" said the old man,
+solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"There may be a little bloodshed, but not much. The Yankees won't fight.
+They are not a military people. Their armies will scatter before us like
+chaff before the wind. I know you don't think as I do. I respect the
+lingering attachment you feel for the old Union&mdash;it is very natural,"
+said Bythewood, indulgently.</p>
+
+<p>The old man smiled. His eyes were closed, and his hands were folded
+before him near his breast, in his favorite attitude. And he answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are very tolerant towards me, my young friend. It is because you
+consider me old, and helpless, and perhaps a little childish, no doubt.
+But hear my words. You are going to build up a magnificent empire,
+founded on&mdash;slavery. But I tell you, the ruin and desolation of our dear
+country&mdash;that will be your empire. And as for the institution you mean
+to perpetuate and strengthen, it will be crushed to atoms between the
+upper and nether millstones of the war you are bringing upon the
+nation."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with the power of deep and earnest conviction, and the
+complacent Bythewood was for a moment abashed.</p>
+
+<p>"I was well aware of your opinions," he remarked, rallying presently.
+"It is useless for us to argue the point. And Virginia, I conceive, does
+not like politics. Will you favor us with a song, Virginia?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure, if you wish it," said Virginia, with perfect civility,
+although a close observer might have seen how repulsive to her was the
+presence of this handsome, but selfish and unprincipled man. He was
+their guest; and she had been bred to habits of generous and
+self-sacrificing hospitality. However detested a visitor, he must be
+politely entertained. On this occasion, she led the way to the parlor,
+where the piano was,&mdash;all the more readily, perhaps, because it was
+still farther removed from the kitchen. Bythewood followed, supporting,
+with an ostentatious show of solicitude, the steps of the feeble old
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood named the pieces he wished her to sing, and bent graciously
+over the piano to turn the music-leaves for her, and applauded with
+enthusiasm. And so she entertained him. And all the while were passing
+around them scenes so very different! There was Penn, heroically
+stifling the groans of a wounded spirit, within sound of her sweet
+voice, and Bythewood so utterly ignorant of his presence there! A little
+farther off, and just outside the house, a young woman was even then
+parting, with whispers and mystery, from an adventurous rover. Still a
+little farther, in barber Jim's back room, Silas Ropes was treating his
+accomplices; and while these drank and blasphemed, close by, in the
+secret cellar, Stackridge's companions were practising the soldier's
+drill.</p>
+
+<p>Salina parted from the rover, and came into the house while Virginia was
+singing, throwing her bonnet negligently back, as she sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Salina! where have you been?" said Virginia, finishing a strain,
+and turning eagerly on the piano stool. "We have been wondering what had
+become of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"You need never wonder about me," said Salina, coldly. "I must go out
+and walk, even if I don't have time till after dark."</p>
+
+<p>She drummed upon the carpet with her foot, while her upper lip twitched
+nervously. It was a rather short lip, and she had an unconscious habit
+of hitching up one corner of it, still more closely, with a spiteful and
+impatient expression. Aside from this labial peculiarity (and perhaps
+the disproportionate prominence of a very large white forehead), her
+features were pretty enough, although they lacked the charming freshness
+of her younger sister's.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia knew well that the pretence of not getting time for her walk
+till after dark was absurd, but, perceiving the unhappy mood she was in,
+forbore to say so. And she resumed her task of entertaining Bythewood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE ROVER.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile the nocturnal acquaintance from whom Salina had parted took a
+last look at the house, and shook his envious head darkly at the room
+where the light and the music were; then, thrusting his hands into his
+pockets, with a swaggering air, went plodding on his lonely way across
+the fields, in the starlight.</p>
+
+<p>The direction he took was that from which Penn had arrived; and in the
+course of twenty minutes he approached the door of the solitary house
+with the dark windows and the dogs within. He walked all around, and
+seeing no light, nor any indication of life, drew near, and rapped
+softly on a pane.</p>
+
+<p>The dogs were roused in an instant, and barked furiously. Nothing
+daunted, he waited for a lull in the storm he had raised, and rapped
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's there?" creaked the stridulous voice of good Mrs. Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You know!</i>" said the rover, in a suppressed, confidential tone. "One
+who has a right."</p>
+
+<p>Now, the excellent relict of the late lamented Sprowl reflected,
+naturally, that, if anybody had a right there, it was he who paid her
+for his board in advance.</p>
+
+<p>"You, agin, after all, is it!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Couldn't you
+find nowhere else to go to? But if you imagine I've thought better on't,
+and will let you in, you're grandly mistaken! Go away this instant, or
+I'll let the dogs out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let 'em out, and be&mdash;&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>No matter about the last word of the rover's defiant answer. It was a
+very irritating word to the temper of the good Mrs. Sprowl. This was the
+first time (she thought) she had ever heard the mild and benignant
+schoolmaster swear; but she was not much surprised, believing that it
+was scarcely in the power of man to endure what he had that night
+endured, and not swear.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out for yourself then, you sir! for I shall take you at your
+word!" And there was a sound of slipping bolts, followed by the careful
+opening of the door.</p>
+
+<p>Out bounced the dogs, and leaped upon the intruder; but, instead of
+tearing him to pieces, they fell to caressing him in the most vivacious
+and triumphant manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Down, Brag! Off, Grip! Curse you!" And he kicked them till they yelped,
+for their too fond welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you, sir, use my dogs so!" screamed the lady within, enraged
+to think they had permitted that miserable schoolmaster to get the
+better of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll kick them, and you too, for this trick!" muttered the man. "I'll
+learn ye to shut me out, and make a row, when I'm coming to see you at
+the risk of my&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She cut him short, with a cry of amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Lysander! is it you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your noise!" said Lysander, pressing into the house. "Call my name
+again, and I'll choke you! Where's your schoolmaster? Won't he hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! if it don't beat everything!" said Mrs. Sprowl in palpitating
+accents. "Don't you know I took you for the master!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't know it. This looks more like a welcome, though!" Lysander
+began to be mollified. "There, there! don't smother a fellow! One kiss
+is as good as fifty. The master is out, then? Anybody in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm so thankful! It seems quite providential! O, dearie, dearie,
+sonny dearie! I'm so glad to see you agin!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come! none of your sonny dearies! it makes me sick! Strike a light, and
+get me some supper, can't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my boy, with all my heart! This is the happiest day I've seen&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, what's happened to-day?" said Lysander, treating with levity his
+mother's blissful confession.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, this night! to have you back again! How could I mistake you for
+that dreadful schoolmaster!" Here her trembling fingers struck a match.</p>
+
+<p>"Draw the curtains," said Lysander, hastily executing his own order, as
+the blue sputter kindled up into a flame that lighted the room. "It
+ain't quite time for me to be seen here yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you come from? What are you here for? O, my dear, dear
+Lysie!" (she gazed at him affectionately), "you ain't in no great
+danger, be you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That depends. Soon as Tennessee secedes, I shall be safe enough. I'm
+going to have a commission in the Confederate army, and that'll be
+protection from anything that might happen on account of old scores. I'm
+going to raise a company in this very place, and let the law touch me if
+it can!"</p>
+
+<p>He tossed his cap into a corner, and sprawled upon a chair before the
+stove, at which his devoted mother was already blowing her breath away
+in the endeavor to kindle a blaze. She stopped blowing to gape at his
+good news, turning up at him her low, skinny forehead, narrow nose, and
+close-set, winking eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"There! I declare!" said she. "I knowed my boy would come back to me
+some day a gentleman!"</p>
+
+<p>"A gentleman? I'm bound to be that!" said the man, with a braggart laugh
+and swagger. "I tell ye, mar, we're going to have the greatest
+confederacy ever was!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell if we be!" said the edified "mar."</p>
+
+<p>"Six months from now, you'll see the Yankees grovelling at our feet,
+begging for admission along with us. We'll have Washington, and all of
+the north we want, and defy the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know now!" said Mrs. Sprowl, overcome with admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"The slave-trade will be reopened, Yankee ships will bring us cargoes of
+splendid niggers, not a man in the south but'll be able to own three or
+four, they'll be so cheap, and we'll be so rich, you see," said
+Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say, re'lly!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the programme, mar! You'll see it all with your own eyes in six
+months."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, why <i>shouldn't</i> the south secede!" replied "mar," hastening
+to put on the tea-kettle, and then to mix up a corn dodger for her son's
+supper. "I'm sure, we ought all on us to have our servants, and live
+without work; and I knowed all the time there was another side to what
+Penn Hapgood preaches (for he's dead set agin' secession), though I
+couldn't answer him as <i>you</i> could, Lysie dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, never mind all that, but hurry up the grub!" said "Lysie dear,"
+putting sticks in the stove. "I hain't had a mouthful since breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"You hain't seen <i>her</i>, of course," observed Mrs. Sprowl, mysteriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Her? who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Salina!" in a whisper, as if to be overheard by a mouse in the wall
+would have been fatal.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I have seen <i>her</i>, I reckon! Not an hour ago. By appointment. I
+wrote her I was coming, got a woman to direct the letter, and had a long
+talk with her to-night. What I want just now is, a little money, and
+she's got to raise it for me, and what she can't raise I shall look to
+you for."</p>
+
+<p>"O dear me! don't say money to me!" exclaimed the widow, alarmed.
+"Partic'larly now I've lost my best feather-bed and my boarder!"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it about your boarder? Out with it, and stop this hinting
+around!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus prompted, Mrs. Sprowl, who had indeed been waiting for the
+opportunity, related all she knew of what had happened to Penn. Lysander
+kindled up with interest as she proceeded, and finally broke forth with
+a startling oath.</p>
+
+<p>"And I can tell you where he has gone!" he said. "He's gone to the house
+I can't get into for love nor money! She refused me admission
+to-night&mdash;refused me money! but he is taken in, and their money will be
+lavished on him!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how do you know, my son,&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know he's there? Because, when I was with her in the orchard,
+we saw an object&mdash;she said it was some old nigger to see Toby&mdash;go into
+the kitchen. Then in a little while a man&mdash;it must have been Stackridge,
+if you say he was looking for him&mdash;went in with Carl, and didn't come
+out again, as I could see. I staid till the light from the kitchen went
+up into the bedroom, in the corner of the house this way. There's yer
+boarder, mar, I'll bet my life! But he won't be there long, I can tell
+ye!" laughed Lysander, maliciously.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>TOBY'S PATIENT HAS A CALLER.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Bythewood had now taken his departure; Salina had been intrusted
+with the secret; and Penn had been put to bed (as the rover correctly
+surmised) in the corner bedchamber.</p>
+
+<p>He had been diligently plucked; as much of the tar had been removed as
+could be easily taken off by methods known to Stackridge and Toby, and
+his wounds had been dressed. And there he lay, at last, in the soothing
+linen, exhausted and suffering, yet somehow happy, thinking with
+gratitude of the friends God had given him in his sore need.</p>
+
+<p>"Bress your heart, dear young massa!" said old Toby, standing by the bed
+(for he would not sit down), and regarding him with an unlimited variety
+of winks, and nods, and grins, expressive of satisfaction with his work;
+"ye're jest as comf'table now as am possible under de sarcumstances. If
+dar's anyting in dis yer world ye wants now, say de word, and ol'
+Toby'll jump at de chance to fetch 'em fur ye."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing I want now, good Toby, but that you and Carl should
+rest. You have done everything you can&mdash;and far more than I deserve. I
+will try to thank you when I am stronger."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't tink ob quittin' ye dis yer night, nohow, massa! Mr. Stackridge
+he's gone; Carl he can go to bed,&mdash;he ain't no 'count here, no way. But
+I'se took de job o' gitt'n you well, Mass' Penn, and I'se gwine to put
+it frew 'pon honor,&mdash;do it up han'some!"</p>
+
+<p>And notwithstanding Penn's remonstrances, the faithful black absolutely
+refused to leave him. Indeed, the most he could be prevailed upon to do
+for his own comfort, was to bring his blanket into the room, and promise
+that he would lie down upon it when he felt sleepy. Whether he kept his
+word or not, I cannot say; but there was no time during the night when,
+if Penn happened to stir uneasily, he did not see the earnest, tender,
+cheerful black face at his pillow in an instant, and hear the
+affectionate voice softly inquire,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What can I do fur ye, massa? Ain't dar nuffin ol' Toby can be a doin'
+fur ye, jes' to pass away de time?"</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it was water Penn wanted; but it did him really more good to
+witness the delight it gave Toby to wait upon him, than to drink the
+coolest and most delicious draught fresh from the well.</p>
+
+<p>At length Penn began to feel hot and stifled.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you hung over the window, Toby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat ar? 'Pears like dat ar's my blanket, sar. Ye see, 'twouldn't do,
+nohow, to let nary a chink o' light be seen from tudder side, 'cause dat
+'ud make folks s'pec' sumfin', dis yer time o' night. So I jes' sticks
+up my ol' blanket&mdash;'pears like I can sleep a heap better on de bar
+floor!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I must have some fresh air, you dear old hypocrite!" said Penn,
+deeply touched, for he knew that the African had deprived himself of his
+blanket because he did not wish to disturb him by leaving the room for
+another.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fix him! Ill fix him!" said Toby. And he seemed raised to the very
+summit of happiness on discovering that there was something, requiring
+the exercise of his ingenuity, still to be done for his patient.</p>
+
+<p>After that Penn slept a little. "Tank de good Lord," said the old negro
+the next morning, "you're lookin' as chirk as can be! I'se a right smart
+hand fur to be nussin' ob de sick; and sakes! how I likes it! I'se gwine
+to hab you well, sar, 'fore eber a soul knows you'se in de house." Yet
+Toby's words expressed a great deal more confidence than he felt; for,
+though he had little apprehension of Penn's retreat being discovered, he
+saw how weak and feverish he was, and feared the necessity of sending
+for a doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Penn now insisted strongly that the old servant should not neglect his
+other duties for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you jes' be easy in yer mind on dat pint! Dar's Carl, tends to
+out-door 'rangements, and I'se got him larnt so's't he's bery good, bery
+good indeed, to look arter my cow, and my pigs, and sech like chores,
+when I'se got more 'portant tings on hand myself. And dar's Miss Jinny,
+she's glad enough to git de breakfust herself dis mornin'; only jes' I
+kind o' keeps an eye on her, so she shan't do nuffin wrong. She an'
+Massa Villars come to 'quire bery partic'lar 'bout you, 'fore you was
+awake, sar."</p>
+
+<p>These simple words seemed to flood Penn's heart with gratitude. Toby
+withdrew, but presently returned, bringing a salver.</p>
+
+<p>"Nuffin but a little broff, massa. And a toasted cracker."</p>
+
+<p>"O, you are too kind, Toby! Really, I can't eat this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't eat, sar? I declar, now!" (in a whisper), "how disappinted she'll
+be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who will be disappointed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Miss Jinny, to be sure! She made de broff wid her own hands. Under
+my d'rections, ob course! But she would make 'em herself, and took a
+heap ob pains to hab 'em good, and put in de salt wid her own purty
+fingers, and looked as rosy a stirrin' and toastin' ober de fire as eber
+you see an angel, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>For some reason Penn began to think better of the broth, and, to Toby's
+infinite satisfaction, he consented to eat a little. Toby soon had him
+bolstered up in bed, and held the salver before him, and looked a
+perfect picture of epicurean enjoyment, just from seeing his patient
+eat.</p>
+
+<p>"It is delicious!" said Penn; at which brief eulogium the whole rich,
+exuberant, tropical soul of the unselfish African seemed to expand and
+blossom forth with joy. "I shall be sure to get well and strong soon,
+under such treatment. You must let Carl go to Mrs. Sprowl's and fetch my
+clothes; I shall want some of them when I get up."</p>
+
+<p>"Bress you, sar! you forgets nobody ain't to know whar you be! Mass'
+Villars he say so. You jes' lef' de clo'es alone, yit awhile. Wouldn't
+hab dat ar Widder Sprowl find out you'se in dis yer house, not if you'd
+gib me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Rap, rap, at the chamber door; two light, hurried knocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Jinny herself!" said old Toby, forgetting Mrs. Sprowl in an
+instant. And setting down the salver, he ran to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Penn heard quick whispers of consultation; then Toby came back, his eyes
+rolling and his ivory shining with a ludicrous expression of wrath and
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"It's de bery ol' hag herself! Speak de debil's name and he's allus at
+de door!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who? Mrs. Sprowl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sar! and I wish she was furder, sar! She's a 'quirin' fur
+you,&mdash;says she knows you'se in de house, and it's bery 'portant she must
+see ye. But, tank de Lord, massa!" chuckled the old negro, "Carl's
+forgot his English, and don't know nuffin what she wants! he, he, he! Or
+if she makes him und'stan' one ting, den he talks Dutch, and <i>she</i> don't
+und'stan.' And so dey'se habin' it, fust one, den tudder, while Miss
+Jinny she hears 'em and comes fur to let us know. But how de ol' critter
+eber found you out, dat am one ob de mysteries!"</p>
+
+<p>"She merely guesses I am here," said Penn. "I'm only afraid Carl will
+overdo his part, and confirm her suspicions."</p>
+
+<p>"'Sh!" hissed Toby in sudden alarm. "She's a comin! She's a comin' right
+up to dis yer door!" And he flew to fasten it.</p>
+
+<p>He had scarcely done so when a hand tried the latch, and a voice
+called,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come! ye needn't, none of ye, try to impose on me! I know you're in
+this very room, Penn Hapgood, and you'll let me in, old friends so, I'm
+shore! I've bothered long enough with that stupid Dutch boy, and now
+Virginny wants to keep me, and talk with me; but I've nothing to do with
+nobody in this house but <i>you</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Sprowl had not been on amicable terms with her daughter-in-law's
+family since Salina and her husband separated; and this last declaration
+she made loud enough for all in the house to hear.</p>
+
+<p>Penn motioned for Toby to open the door, believing it the better way to
+admit the lady and conciliate her. But Toby shook his head&mdash;and his fist
+with grim defiance.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal!" said Mrs. Sprowl, "you can do as you please about lettin' a body
+in; but I'll give ye to understand one thing&mdash;I don't stir a foot from
+this door till it's opened. And if you want it kept secret that you're
+here, it'll be a great deal better for you, Penn Hapgood, to let me in,
+than to keep me standin' or settin' all day on the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>The idea of a long siege struck Toby with dismay. He hesitated; but Penn
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very weak, and very ill, madam. But I have learned what it is to
+be driven from a door that should be opened to welcome me; and I am not
+willing, under any circumstances, to treat another as you last night
+treated me."</p>
+
+<p>This was spoken to the lady's face; for Toby, seeing that concealment
+was at an end, had slipped the bolt, and she had come in.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal! now! Mr. Hapgood!" she began, with a simper, which betrayed a
+little contrition and a good deal of crafty selfishness,&mdash;"you mustn't
+go to bein' too hard on me for that. Consider that I'm a poor widder,
+and my life war threatened, and I <i>had</i> to do as I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said Penn, "I certainly forgive you. Give her a chair,
+Toby."</p>
+
+<p>Toby placed the chair, and widow Sprowl sat down.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't be easy&mdash;old friends so&mdash;till I had come over to see how you
+be," she said, folding her hands, and regarding Penn with a solemn
+pucker of solicitude. "I know, 'twas a dreadful thing; but it's some
+comfort to think it's nothing I'm any ways to blame fur. It's hard
+enough for me to lose a boarder, jest at this time,&mdash;say nothing about a
+friend that's been jest like one of my own family, and that I've cooked,
+and washed, and ironed fur, as if he war my own son!"</p>
+
+<p>And Mrs. Sprowl wiped her eyes, while she carefully watched the effect
+of her words.</p>
+
+<p>"I acknowledge, you have cooked, washed, and ironed for me very
+faithfully," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"And I thought," said she,&mdash;"old friends so,&mdash;may be you wouldn't mind
+making me a present of the trifle you've paid over and above what's due
+for your board; for I'm a poor widder, as you know, and my only son is a
+wanderer on the face of the 'arth."</p>
+
+<p>Penn readily consented to make the present&mdash;perhaps reflecting that it
+would be equally impossible for him ever to board it out, or get her to
+return the money.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there's that old cloak of yourn," said Mrs. Sprowl,
+sympathizingly. "I believe you partly promised it to me, didn't you? I
+can manage to get me a cape out on't."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," said Penn, "you can have the cloak;" while Toby glared with
+rage behind her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"And I considered 'twouldn't be no more'n fair that you should pay for
+the&mdash;&mdash;I don't see how in the world I can afford to lose it, bein' a
+poor widder, and live geeses' feathers at that, and my only son&mdash;&mdash;" She
+hid her face in her apron, overcome with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to pay for?" asked Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Fur, you know," she said, "I never would have parted with it fur any
+money, and it will take at least ten dollars to replace it, which is
+hard, bein' a poor widder, and as strong a linen tick as ever you see,
+that I made myself, and that my blessed husband died on, and helped me
+pick the geese with his own hands; and I never thought, when I took you
+to board, that ever <i>that</i> bed would be sacrificed by it,&mdash;for 'twas on
+your account, you are ware, it was took last night and done for."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think I ought to pay for the bed!" said Penn, as much
+astonished as if Silas Ropes had sent in his bill, "To 1 coat tar and
+feathers, $10.00."</p>
+
+<p>"They said I must look to you," whined the visitor; "and if you don't
+pay fur't, I don't know who will, I'm shore! for none of them have sot
+at my board, and drinked of my coffee, and e't of my good corn dodgers,
+and slep' in my best bed, all for four dollars fifty a week, washing and
+ironing throwed in, and a poor widder at that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Sprowl," said Penn, laughing, ill as he was, "have the kindness
+not to tell any one that I am here, and as soon as I am able to do so, I
+will pay you for your excellent feather-bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you,&mdash;very good in you, I'm shore!" said the worthy creature,
+brightening. "And if there's anything else among your things you can
+spare."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see! I'll see!" said Penn, wearily. "Leave me now, do!"</p>
+
+<p>"But if you had a few dollars, this morning, towards the bed," she
+insisted, "for my son&mdash;&mdash;" She almost betrayed herself; being about to
+say that Lysander had arrived, and must have money; but she coughed, and
+added, in a changed voice, "is a wanderer on the face of the 'arth."</p>
+
+<p>Penn, however, reflecting that she would have more encouragement to keep
+his secret if he held the reward in reserve, replied, that he could not
+possibly spare any money before collecting what was due him from the
+trustees of the Academy. Her countenance fell on hearing this; and,
+reluctantly abandoning the object of her mission, she took her leave,
+and went home to her hopeful son.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE WIDOW'S GREEN CHEST.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Villars had spoken truly when he said Penn's persecutors would not
+rest here. In fact, Mr. Ropes, and three of his accomplices, were even
+now on the way to Mrs. Sprowl's abode, to make inquiries concerning the
+schoolmaster.</p>
+
+<p>That lone creature had scarcely reached her own door when she saw them
+coming. Now, though Penn was not in the house, her son was. Great,
+therefore, was her trepidation at the sight of visitors; and she evinced
+such eagerness to assure them that the object of their pursuit was not
+there, and appeared altogether so frightened and guilty, that Ropes
+winked knowingly at his companions, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He's here, boys, safe enough."</p>
+
+<p>So they forced their way into the house; her increased tremor and
+confusion serving only to confirm them in their suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that we doubt your word in the least, Mrs. Sprowl,"&mdash;Ropes smiled
+sarcastically. "But of course you can't object to our searching the
+premises, for we're in the performance of a solemn dooty. Any whiskey in
+the house, widder?"</p>
+
+<p>The obliging lady went to find a bottle. She was gone so long, however,
+that the visitors became impatient. Ropes accordingly stationed two of
+his men at the doors, and with the third went in pursuit of Mrs. Sprowl,
+whom they met coming down stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your liquor up there, do ye?" said Ropes, significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I thought&mdash;" Mrs. Sprowl gasped for breath before she could
+proceed&mdash;"the master had some in his room. But I can't find it. You are
+at liberty to&mdash;to look in his room, if you wants to."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, it's our dooty to, I suppose. Meantime, you can be bringing the
+whiskey. Give some to the boys outside, then bring the bottle up to us.
+That's the way, Gad," said Silas, as she unwillingly obeyed; "allus be
+perlite to the sex, ye know."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartin! allus!" said Gad.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident these men fancied themselves polite.</p>
+
+<p>"But he ain't here," said Silas, just glancing into Penn's room, "or
+else she wouldn't have been so willing for us to search. Le's begin at
+the top of the house, and look along down." They entered a low-roofed,
+empty garret. "As we can't perceed without the whiskey, we'll wait here.
+Meantime, I'll tell you what you wanted to know."</p>
+
+<p>They sat down on a little old green chest, and Ropes, producing a plug
+of tobacco, gave his friend a bite, and took a bite himself.</p>
+
+<p>"What I'm going to say is in perfect confidence, between friends;"
+chewing and crossing his legs.</p>
+
+<p>Gad chewed, and crossed his legs, and said, "O, of course! in perfect
+confidence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, then, I'll tell ye whar the money fur our job comes from. It comes
+from Gus Bythewood."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho!" said Gad, looking surprised at Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"Fact!" said Silas, looking wise at Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"But what's he so dead set agin' the master fur?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell ye, Gad." And Mr. Ropes rested a finger confidingly on his
+friend's knee. "Fur as I kin jedge, Gus has a sneakin' notion arter that
+youngest Villars gal; Virginny, ye know."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't blame him!" chuckled Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"But ye see, thar's that Hapgood; he's a great favoryte with the
+Villarses, and Gus nat'rally wants to git him out of the way. It won't
+do, though, for him to have it known he has any thing to do with our
+operations. He pays us, and backs us up with plenty of cash if we get
+into trouble; but he keeps dark, you understand."</p>
+
+<p>"The master ought to be hung for his abolitionism!" said Gad, by way of
+self-excuse for being made a jealous man's tool.</p>
+
+<p>"That ar's jest my sentiment," replied Silas. "But then he's allus been
+a peaceable sort of chap, and held his tongue; so he might have been let
+alone some time yet, if it hadn't been for&mdash;&mdash;What in time!"</p>
+
+<p>Ropes started, and changed color, glancing first at Gad, then down at
+the chest.</p>
+
+<p>"He's in it!" whispered Gad.</p>
+
+<p>Both jumped up, and, facing about, looked at the green lid, and at each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>The chest was so small it had not occurred to them that a man could get
+into it. Lysander had got into it, however, and there he lay, so
+cramped, and stifled, and compressed, that he could not endure the
+torture without an effort to ease it by moving a little. He had stirred;
+then all was still again.</p>
+
+<p>"Think he's heerd us?" said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"Must have heerd something," said Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he's as good as a dead man!"</p>
+
+<p>Silas drew his pistol, resolved to sacrifice the schoolmaster on the
+altar of secrecy. But as he was about to fire into the chest at a
+venture (for your cowardly assassin does not like to face his victim),
+the lid flew open, the chivalry stepped hastily back, and up rose out of
+the chest&mdash;not the schoolmaster, but&mdash;Lysander Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>Silas had struck his head against a rafter, and was quite bewildered for
+a moment by the shock, the multitude of meteors that rushed across his
+firmament, and the sudden apparition. Gad, at the same time, stood ready
+to take a plunge down the stairs in case the schoolmaster should show
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said the "wanderer on the face of the 'arth," straightening
+his limbs, and saluting with a reckless air, "I hope I see ye well.
+Never mind about shooting an old friend, Sile Ropes. I reckon we're
+about even; and I'll keep your secret, if you'll keep mine."</p>
+
+<p>"That's fair," said Ropes, recovering from the falling stars, and
+putting up his weapon. "Lysander, how are ye? Good joke, ain't it?" And
+they shook hands all around. "But whar's the schoolmaster?" And Silas
+rubbed his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I know all about the schoolmaster," said Lysander, stepping out of the
+chest; "he ain't in this house, but I know just where he is. And I
+reckon 'twill be for the interest of me and Gus Bythewood if we can have
+a little talk together, tell him. If he's got money to spare, that'll be
+to my advantage; and what I know will be to his advantage."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, Lysander closed the chest, and coolly invited the chivalry to
+resume their seats. They did so, much to the amazement of Mrs. Sprowl,
+who came up stairs with the whiskey, and found the "wanderer on the face
+of the 'arth" conversing in the most amicable manner with Gad and Silas.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>If what Silas Ropes had said of his patron, Augustus Bythewood, was
+true, great must have been the chagrin of that chivalrous young
+gentleman when an interview was brought about between him and Lysander,
+and he learned that Penn, instead of being driven from the state, had
+found refuge in the family of Mr. Villars&mdash;that he was there even at the
+moment when he made his delightful little evening call, and was
+entertained so charmingly by Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood gave Sprowl money, and Sprowl gave Bythewood information and
+advice. It was in accordance with the programme decided upon by these
+two worthies, that Mr. Ropes at the head of his gang presented himself
+the next night at Mr. Villars's door.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia, by her father's direction, admitted them. They crowded into
+the sitting-room, where the old man rose to receive them, with his usual
+urbanity.</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia, have chairs brought for all our friends. I cannot see to
+recognize them individually, but I salute them all."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter about the cheers," said Silas. "We can do our business
+standing. Sorry to trouble you with it, sir, but it's jest this. We
+understand you're harboring a Yankee abolitionist, and we've called to
+remind you that sech things can't be allowed in a well-regulated
+community."</p>
+
+<p>The old man, holding himself still erect with punctilious
+politeness,&mdash;for his guests were not seated,&mdash;and smiling with grand and
+venerable aspect, made reply in tones full of dignity and sweetness: "My
+friends, I am an old man; I am a native of Virginia, and a citizen of
+Tennessee; and all my life long I have been accustomed to regard the
+laws of hospitality as sacred."</p>
+
+<p>"My sentiments exactly. I won't hear a word said agin' southern
+horsepitality, or southern perliteness." Mr. Ropes illustrated his
+remark by spitting copious tobacco-juice on the floor. "Horsepitality I
+look upon as one of the stable institootions of our country."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt it is so," said Mr. Villars, smiling at the unintentional pun.</p>
+
+<p>"That's one thing," added Silas; "but harboring a abolitionist is
+another. That's the question we've jest took the liberty to call and
+have a little quiet talk about, to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, dear father, do!" entreated Virginia, remaining at his side
+in spite of her dread and abhorrence of these men. Holding his hand, and
+regarding him with pale and anxious looks, she endeavored with gentle
+force to get him into his chair. "My father is very feeble," she said,
+appealing to Silas, "and I beg you will have some consideration for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartin, sartin," said Silas. "Keep yer settin', keep yer settin', Mr.
+Villars."</p>
+
+<p>But the old man still remained upon his feet,&mdash;his tall, spare form,
+bent with age, his long, thin locks of white hair, and his wan,
+sightless, calm, and beautiful countenance presenting a wonderful
+contrast to the blooming figure at his side. It was a picture which
+might well command the respectful attention of Silas and his compeers.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," he said, with a grave smile, "we men of the south are
+rather boastful of our hospitality. But true hospitality consists in
+something besides eating and drinking with those whose companionship is
+a sufficient recompense for all that we do for them. It clothes the
+naked, feeds the hungry, shelters the distressed. With the Arabs, even
+an enemy is sacred who happens to be a guest. Shall an old Virginian
+think less of the honor of his house than an Arab?"</p>
+
+<p>Silas looked abashed, silenced for a moment by these noble words, and
+the venerable and majestic mien of the blind old clergyman. It would not
+do, however, to give up his mission so; and after coughing, turning his
+quid, and spitting again, he replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That'll do very well to talk, Mr. Villars. But come to the pint. You've
+got a Yankee abolitionist in your house&mdash;that you won't deny."</p>
+
+<p>"I have in my house," said the old man, "a person whose life is in
+danger from injuries received at your hands last night. He came to us in
+a condition which, I should have thought, would excite the pity of the
+hardest heart. Whether or not he is a Yankee abolitionist, I never
+inquired. It was enough for me that he was a fellow-creature in
+distress. He is well known in this community, where he has never been
+guilty of wrong towards any one; and, even if he were a dangerous
+person, he is not now in a condition to do mischief. Gentlemen, my guest
+is very ill with a fever."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't help that; you must git red of him," said Silas. "I'm a talking
+now for your own good as much as any body's, Mr. Villars. You're a man
+we all respect; but already you've made yourself a object of suspicion,
+by standing up fur the old rotten Union."</p>
+
+<p>"When I can no longer befriend my guests, or stand up for my country,
+then I shall have lived long enough!" said the old man, with impressive
+earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"The old Union," said Gad, coming to the aid of Silas, "is played out.
+We couldn't have our rights, and so we secede."</p>
+
+<p>"What rights couldn't you have under the government left to us by
+Washington?"</p>
+
+<p>"That had become corrupted," said Mr. Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"How corrupted, my friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the infernal anti-slavery element!"</p>
+
+<p>"You forget," said Mr. Villars, "that Washington, Jefferson, and indeed
+all the wisest and best men who assisted to frame the government under
+which we have been so prospered, were anti-slavery men."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I know, some on 'em hadn't got enlightened on the subject," Mr.
+Ropes admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know that if a stranger, endowed with all the virtues of
+those patriots, should come among you and preach the political doctrines
+of Washington and Jefferson, you would serve him as you served Penn
+Hapgood last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shouldn't wonder the least mite if we should!" Silas grinned. "But
+that's nothing to the purpose. We claim the right to carry our slaves
+into the territories, and Lincoln's party is pledged to keep 'em out,
+and that's cause enough for secession."</p>
+
+<p>"How many slaves do you own, Mr. Ropes?" Mr. Villars, still leaning on
+his daughter's arm, smiled as he put this mild question.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;wal&mdash;truth is, I don't own nary slave myself&mdash;wish I did!" said
+Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"How many friends have you with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Lev'n," said Gad, rapidly counting his companions.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of the eleven, how many own slaves?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do!" "I do!" spoke up two eager voices.</p>
+
+<p>"How many slaves do you own?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got as right smart a little nigger boy as there is anywheres in
+Tennessee!" said the first, proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"How old is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be nine year' old next grass, I reckon."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how many negroes has your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've got one old woman, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How old is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, plaguy nigh a hunderd,&mdash;old Bess, you know her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know old Bess; and an excellent creature she is. So it seems
+that you eleven men own two slaves. And these you wish to take into some
+of the territories, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>The men looked foolish, and were obliged to own that they had never
+dreamed of conveying either the nine-year-old lad or the female
+centenarian out of the state of Tennessee.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is the grievance you complain of?" asked the old man. They
+could not name any. "O, now, my friends, look you here! I believe in the
+right of revolution when a government oppresses a people beyond
+endurance. But in this case it appears, by your own showing, that not
+one of you has suffered any wrong, and that this is not a revolution in
+behalf of the poor and oppressed. If anybody is to be benefited by it,
+it is a few rich owners of slaves, who are prosperous enough already,
+and have really no cause of complaint. It is a revolution precipitated
+by political leaders, who wish to be rulers; and what grieves me at the
+heart is, that the poor and ignorant are thus permitting themselves to
+be made the tools of this tyranny, which will soon prove more despotic
+than it was possible for the dear old government ever to become. God
+bless my country! God bless my poor distracted country!"</p>
+
+<p>As he finished speaking, the old man sank down overcome with emotion
+upon his chair, clasping his daughter's hand, while tears ran down his
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>His argument was so unanswerable that nothing was left for Silas but to
+get angry.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you're not only a Unionist, but more'n half a Yankee abolitionist
+yourself! We didn't come here to listen to any sech incendiary talk.
+Kick out the schoolmaster, if you wouldn't git into trouble,&mdash;I warn
+you! That's the business we've come to see to, and you must tend to't."</p>
+
+<p>"Pity him&mdash;spare him!" cried Virginia, shielding her aged father as
+Ropes approached him. "He cannot turn a sick man out of his house, you
+know he cannot!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're partic'larly interested in the young man, hey?" said Ropes,
+grinning insolently.</p>
+
+<p>"I am interested that no harm comes either to my father or to his
+guests," said the girl. "Go, I implore you! As soon as Mr. Hapgood is
+able to leave us, he will do so,&mdash;he will have no wish to stay,&mdash;this I
+promise you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll give him three days to quit the country," said Silas. "Only three
+days. He'd better be dead than found here at the end of that time.
+Gentlemen, we've performed this yer painful dooty; now le's adjourn to
+Barber Jim's and take a drink."</p>
+
+<p>With these words Mr. Ropes retired. While, however, he was treating his
+men to whiskey and cigars with Augustus Bythewood's money, advanced for
+the purpose, one of the eleven, separating himself from the rest,
+hurried back to the minister's house. He had taken part in the patriotic
+proceedings of his friends with great reluctance, as appeared from the
+manner in which he shrank from view in corners and behind the backs of
+his comrades, and drew down his woe-begone mouth, and rolled up his
+dismal eyes, during the entire interview. And he had returned now, at
+the risk of his life, to do Penn a service.</p>
+
+<p>He crept to the kitchen door, and knocked softly. Carl opened it. There
+stood the wretched figure, terrified, panting for breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat is it?" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come fur to tell ye!" said the man, glancing timidly around into
+the darkness to see if he was followed. "They mean to kill him! They
+told you they'd give him three days, but they won't. I heard them saying
+so among themselves. They may be back this very night, for they'll all
+git drunk, and nothing will stop 'em then."</p>
+
+<p>Carl stared, as these hoarsely whispered words were poured forth rapidly
+by the frightened man at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, and shpeak to Mishter Willars."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! I'll be killed if I'm found here!"</p>
+
+<p>But Carl, sturdy and resolute, had no idea of permitting him to deliver
+so hasty and alarming a message without subjecting him to a
+cross-examination. He had already got him by the collar, and now he
+dragged him into the house, the man not daring to resist for fear of
+outcry and exposure.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Mr. Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"A wisitor!" said Carl. And he repeated Dan's statement, while Dan was
+recovering his breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this true, Mr. Pepperill?" asked the old man, deeply concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia clung to her father's chair, white with apprehension. Toby was
+also present, having left his patient an instant to run down stairs, and
+learn what was the cause of this fresh disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a lyin' to ye, Mass' Villars; he's a lyin' to ye! White trash
+can't tell de troof if dey tries! Don't ye breeve a word he says,
+massa."</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was evident from the consternation the old negro's face betrayed
+that he believed Dan's story,&mdash;or at least feared it would prove true if
+he did not make haste and deny it stoutly; for Toby, like many persons
+with whiter skins, always felt on such occasions a vague faith that if
+he could get the bad news sufficiently denounced and discredited in
+season, all would be well. As if simply setting our minds against the
+truth would defeat it!</p>
+
+<p>"But they spoke of fittin' yer neck to a noose too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mine? Ah, if nobody but myself was in danger, I should be well content!
+What do you think we ought to do, Mr. Pepperill?"</p>
+
+<p>"The master has done me a good turn, and I'll do him one, if I swing
+fur't!" said Dan, straightening himself with sudden courage. "Get him
+out 'fore they suspect what you're at, and I'll take him to my house and
+hide him, I be durned if I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a kind offer, and I thank you," said the old man. "But how can I
+resolve to send a guest from my house in this way? Not to save my own
+life would I do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"But to save his, father!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is only of him I am thinking, my child. Would it be safe to move
+him, Toby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Safe to move Massa Penn!" ejaculated the old negro, choking with wrath
+and grief. "Neber tink o' sech a ting, massa! He'd die, shore, widout I
+should go 'long wid him, and tote him in my ol' arms on a fedder-bed
+jes' like I would a leetle baby, and den stay and nuss him arter I got
+him dar. For dem 'ar white trash, what ye s'pose day knows 'bout takin'
+keer ob a sick gemman like him? It's a bery 'tic'lar case. He's got de
+delirimum a comin' on him now, and I can't be away from him a minute. I
+mus' go back to him dis bery minute!"</p>
+
+<p>And Toby departed, having suddenly conceived an idea of his own for
+hiding Penn in the barn until the danger was over.</p>
+
+<p>He had been absent from the room but a moment, however, when those
+remaining in it heard a wild outcry, and presently the old negro
+reappeared, inspired with superstitious terror, his eyes starting from
+their sockets, his tongue paralyzed.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Toby?" cried Virginia, perceiving that something
+really alarming had happened.</p>
+
+<p>The negro tried to speak, but his throat only gurgled incoherently,
+while the whites of his eyes kept rolling up like saucers.</p>
+
+<p>"Penn&mdash;has anything happened to Penn?" said Mr. Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"O, debil, debil, Lord bress us!" gibbered Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead?" cried Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone! gone, missis!"</p>
+
+<p>Struck with consternation, but refusing to believe the words of the
+bewildered black, Virginia flew to the sick man's chamber.</p>
+
+<p>Then she understood the full meaning of Toby's words. Penn was not in
+his bed, nor in the room, nor anywhere in the house. He had disappeared
+suddenly, strangely, totally.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CHIVALROUS PROCEEDINGS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Thus the question of what should be done with his guest, which Mr.
+Villars knew not how to decide, had been decided for him.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the mystery. There was the bed precisely as Penn had left it a
+minute since. There was the candle dimly burning. The medicines remained
+just where Toby had placed them, on the table under the mirror. But the
+patient had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>What had become of him? It was believed that he was too ill to leave his
+bed without assistance. And, even though he had been strong, it was by
+no means probable that one so uniformly discreet in his conduct, and
+ever so regardful of the feelings of others, would have quitted the
+house in this abrupt and inexplicable manner.</p>
+
+<p>In vain the premises were searched. Not a trace of him could be anywhere
+discovered. Neither were there any indications of a struggle. Yet it was
+Toby's firm conviction that the ruffians had entered the house, and
+seized him; that Pepperill was in the plot, the object of whose visit
+was merely a diversion, while Ropes and the rest accomplished the
+abduction. This could not, of course, have been done without the aid of
+magic and the devil; but Toby believed in magic and the devil. The fact
+that Dan had taken advantage of the confusion to escape, appeared to the
+Ethiopian mind conclusive.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the negro alone in his bewilderment. Carl was utterly
+confounded. The old clergyman, usually so calm, was deeply troubled;
+while Virginia herself, pierced with the keenest solicitude, could
+scarce keep her mind free from horrible and superstitious doubts. The
+doors between the sitting-room and back stairs were all wide open, and
+it seemed impossible that any one could have come in or gone out that
+way without being observed. On the other hand, to have reached the front
+stairs Penn must have passed through Salina's room. But Salina, who was
+in her room at the time, averred that she had not been disturbed, even
+by a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"He has got out the vinder," said Carl. But the window was fifteen feet
+from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Thus all reasonable conjecture failed, and it seemed necessary to accept
+Toby's theory of the ruffians, magic, and the devil. Only one thing was
+certain: Penn was gone. And, as if to add to the extreme and painful
+perplexity of his friends, the clothes, which had been stripped from him
+by the lynchers, which he had brought away in his hands, and which had
+been hung up in his room by Toby, were left hanging there still,
+untouched.</p>
+
+<p>The family had not recovered from the dismay his disappearance
+occasioned, when they had cause to rejoice that he was gone. Ropes and
+his crew returned, as Pepperill had predicted. They were intoxicated and
+bloodthirsty. They had brought a rope, with which to hang their victim
+before the old clergyman's door. They were furious on finding he had
+eluded them, and searched the house with oaths and uproar. Virginia, on
+her knees, clung to her father, praying that he might not be harmed, and
+that Penn, whom all had been so anxious just now to find, might be safe
+from discovery.</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated by their unsuccessful search, the villains hesitated about
+laying violent hands on the blind old man, and concluded to wreak their
+vengeance on Toby. That he was a freed negro, was alone a sufficient
+offence in their eyes to merit a whipping. But he had done more; he had
+been devoted to the schoolmaster, and they believed he had concealed
+him. So they seized him, dragged him from the house, bared his back, and
+tied him to a tree.</p>
+
+<p>As long as the mob had confined itself to searching the premises, Mr.
+Villars had held his peace. But the moment his faithful old servant was
+in danger, he roused himself. He rushed to the door, bareheaded, his
+white hair flowing, his staff in his hand. Both his children accompanied
+him,&mdash;Salina, who was really not void of affection, appearing scarcely
+less anxious and indignant than her sister.</p>
+
+<p>There, in the light of a wood-pile to which fire had been set, stood the
+old negro, naked to the waist, lashed fast to the trunk, writhing with
+pain and terror; his brutal tormentors grouped around him in the glare
+of the flames, preparing, with laughter, oaths, and much loose,
+leisurely swaggering, to flay his flesh with rods.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends!" cried the old clergyman, with an energy that startled
+them, "what are you about to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're gwine to sarve this nigger," said the man Gad, "jest as every
+free nigger'll git sarved that's found in the state three months from
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Free niggers is a nuisance," added Ropes, now very drunk, and very much
+inclined to make a speech on a barrel which his friends rolled out for
+him. "A nuisance!" he repeated, with a hiccough, steadying himself on
+his rostrum by holding a branch of the tree. "And let me say to you,
+feller-patriots, that one of the glorious fruits of secession is, that
+every free nigger in the state will either be sold for a slave, or druv
+out, or hung up. I tell you, gentlemen, we're a goin' to have our own
+way in these matters, spite of all the ministers in creation!"</p>
+
+<p>The men cheered, and one of them struck Toby a couple of preliminary
+blows, just to try his hand, and to add the poor old negro's howls to
+the chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt,"&mdash;the old clergyman's voice rose above the tumult,&mdash;"you will
+have your way for a season. You will commit injustice with a high hand.
+You will glut your cruelty upon the defenceless and oppressed. But, as
+there is a God in heaven,"&mdash;he lifted up his blind white face, and with
+his trembling hands shook his staff on high, like a prophet foretelling
+woe,&mdash;"as there is a God of justice and mercy who beholds this
+wickedness,&mdash;just so sure the hour of your retribution will come! so
+sure the treason you are breathing, and the despotism you are
+inaugurating, will prove a snare and a destruction to yourselves! Unbind
+that man! leave my house in peace! go home, and learn to practise a
+little of the mercy of which you will yourselves soon stand in need."
+His venerable aspect, and the power and authority of his words, awed
+even that drunken crew. But Silas, vain of his oratorical powers, was
+enraged that anybody should dispute his influence with the crowd.
+Holding the branch with one hand, and gesticulating violently with the
+other, he exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who is boss here? Who ye goin' to mind? that old traitor, or me? I say,
+lick the nigger! We're a goin' to have our way now, and we're a goin' to
+have our way to the end of the 'arth, sure as I am a gentleman standing
+on this yer barrel!"</p>
+
+<p>To emphasize his declaration, he stamped with his foot; the head of the
+cask flew in, and down went orator, cask, and all, in a fashion rendered
+all the more ridiculous by the climax of oratory it illustrated.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so sure will your hollow and inhuman schemes fail from under your
+feet!" exclaimed Mr. Villars, as soon as he learned what had happened.
+"So surely and so suddenly will you fall."</p>
+
+<p>This incident occurred as Toby's flogging was about to begin in earnest.
+Virginia had instinctively covered her eyes to shut out the terrible
+sight, her ears to shut out the sounds of the beating and the poor old
+fellow's groans. Luckily, Silas had fallen partly in the barrel, and
+partly across the sharp edge of it, and being too tipsy to help himself,
+had been seriously hurt, and was now helpless. The ruffians hastened to
+extricate him, and raise him up. Carl, who, with an open knife concealed
+in his sleeve, had been waiting for an opportunity, darted at the tree,
+cut the negro's bonds in a twinkling, and set him free.</p>
+
+<p>Both took to their heels without an instant's delay. But the trick was
+discovered. They were pursued immediately. Carl was lively on his legs,
+as we know; but poor old Toby, never a good runner, and now stiff and
+decrepit with age, was no match even for the slowest of their pursuers.</p>
+
+<p>They ran straight into the orchard, hoping to lose themselves among the
+shadows. The glare of the burning wood-pile flickered but faintly and
+unsteadily among the trees. Carl might easily have escaped; but he
+thought only of Toby, and kept faithfully at his side, assisting him,
+urging him. A fence was near&mdash;if they could only reach that! But Toby
+was wheezing terribly, and the hand of the foremost ruffian was already
+extended to seize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Jump the vence over!" was Carl's parting injunction to the old negro,
+who made a last desperate effort to accomplish the feat; while Carl,
+turning sharp about, tripped the foot of him of the extended hand, and
+sent him headlong. The second pursuer he grappled, and both rolled upon
+the ground together.</p>
+
+<p>Favored by this diversion, Toby reached the fence, climbed it, and
+without looking how, he leaped, jumped down upon&mdash;a human figure,
+stretched there upon the ground!</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his own danger, Toby thought of his patient, and
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, massa?"</p>
+
+<p>The man rose slowly to his feet. It was not Penn; it was, on the
+contrary, the worst of Penn's enemies, who had stationed himself here,
+in order to observe, unseen, and from a safe distance, the operations of
+Silas Ropes and his band of patriots.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Massa Bythewood!" ejaculated Toby, inspired with sudden joy and
+hope; "help a poor old niggah! Help! De Villarses will remember it ob ye
+de longest day you live, if you on'y will."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter, Toby?" said Augustus, full of rage at having
+been thus discovered, yet assuming a gracious and patronizing manner.</p>
+
+<p>Toby did not make a very coherent reply; but probably the young
+gentleman was already sufficiently aware of what was going on. He had no
+especial regard for Toby, yet his credit with Virginia and her father
+was to be sustained. And so Toby was saved.</p>
+
+<p>Augustus met and rebuked his pursuers, released Carl, who was suffering
+at the hands of his antagonist, and led the way back to the house. There
+he expressed to Mr. Villars and his daughters the utmost regret and
+indignation for what had occurred, and took Mr. Ropes aside to
+remonstrate with him for such violent proceedings. His influence over
+that fallen orator was extraordinary. Ropes excused himself on the plea
+of his patriotic zeal, and called off his men.</p>
+
+<p>"How fortunate," said Augustus, conducting the old man, with an
+excessive show of deference and politeness, back into the
+sitting-room,&mdash;"how extremely fortunate that I happened to be walking
+this way! I trust no serious harm has been done, my dear Virginia?"</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood no doubt thought himself entitled to use this affectionate
+term, after the service he had rendered the family.</p>
+
+<p>After he was gone, Toby, having recovered from his fright and the
+fatigue of running, and got his clothes on again, rushed into the
+presence of his master and the young ladies.</p>
+
+<p>"I've seed Mass' Penn!" he said. "Arter Bythewood done got up from under
+de fence whar I jumped on him, I seed anoder man a crawlin' away on his
+hands and knees jest a little ways off. 'Twas Mass' Penn! I know 'twas
+Mass' Penn."</p>
+
+<p>But Toby was mistaken. The second figure he had seen was Mr. Lysander
+Sprowl, now the confidential adviser and secret companion of Augustus.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE OLD CLERGYMAN'S NIGHTGOWN HAS AN ADVENTURE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Where, then, all this time, was Penn? He was himself almost as
+profoundly ignorant on that subject as anybody. For two or three hours
+he had been lost to himself no less than to his friends.</p>
+
+<p>When he recovered his consciousness he found that he was lying on the
+ground, in the open air, in what seemed a barren field, covered with
+rocks and stunted shrubs.</p>
+
+<p>How he came there he did not know. He had nothing on but his
+night-dress,&mdash;a loan from the old clergyman,&mdash;besides a blanket wrapped
+about him. His feet were bare, and he now perceived that they were
+painfully aching.</p>
+
+<p>Almost too weak to lift a hand to his head, he yet tried to sit up and
+look around him. All was darkness; not a sign of human habitation, not a
+twinkling light was visible. The cold night wind swept over him, sighing
+drearily among the leafless bushes. Chilled, shivering, his temples
+throbbing, his brain sick and giddy, he sat down again upon the rocks,
+so ill and suffering that he could scarcely feel astonishment at his
+situation, or care whether he lived or died.</p>
+
+<p>Where had he been during those hours of oblivion? He seemed to have
+slept, and to have had terrible dreams. Could he have remembered these
+dreams, it seemed to him that the whole mystery of his removal to this
+desolate spot would be explained. And he knew that it required but an
+effort of his will to remember them. But his soul was too weak: he could
+not make the effort.</p>
+
+<p>To get upon his feet and walk was impossible. What, then, was left him
+but to perish here, alone, uncared for, unconsoled by a word of love
+from any human being? Death he would have welcomed as a relief from his
+sufferings. Yet when he thought of his home far away, in the peaceful
+community of Friends, of his parents and sisters now anxiously expecting
+his return,&mdash;and again when he remembered the hospitable roof under
+which he lay, so tenderly nursed, but a little while ago, and thought of
+the blind old clergyman, of Virginia fresh as a rose, of kind-hearted
+Carl, and the affectionate old negro,&mdash;he was stung with the desire to
+live, and he called feebly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Toby! Toby!"</p>
+
+<p>Was his cry heard? Surely, there were footsteps on the rocks! And was
+not that a human form moving dimly between him and the sky? It passed
+on, and was lost in the shadows of the pines. Was it some animal, or
+only a phantom of his feverish brain?</p>
+
+<p>"Toby!" he called again, exerting all his force. But only the wailing
+wind answered him, and, overcome by the effort, he sunk into a swoon. In
+that swoon it seemed to him that Toby had heard his voice, and that he
+came to him. Hands, gentle human hands, groped on him, felt the blanket,
+felt his bare feet, and his head, pillowed on stones. Then there seemed
+to be two Tobys, one good and the other evil, holding a strange
+consultation over him, which he heard as in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't leave him dying here!" said the good Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"What dat to me, if him die, or whar him die?" said the other Toby.
+"Straight har!" He seemed to be feeling Penn's locks, in order to
+ascertain to which race he belonged. "Dat's nuff fur me! Lef him be, I
+tell ye, and come 'long!"</p>
+
+<p>"Straight hair or curly, it's all the same," said Toby the Good. "Take
+hold here; we must save him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hyah-yah! ye don't cotch dis niggah!" chuckled Toby the Bad,
+maliciously. "Nuff more ob his kind, in all conscience! Reckon we kin
+spar' much as one! Hyah-yah!"</p>
+
+<p>Something like a quarrel ensued, the result of which was, that Toby the
+Good finally prevailed upon Toby the Malevolent to assist him. Then Penn
+was dreamily aware of being lifted in the strong arms of this double
+individual, and borne away, over rocks, and among thickets, along the
+mountain side; until even this misty ray of consciousness deserted him,
+and he fell into a stupor like death.</p>
+
+<p>And what was this he saw on awaking? Had he really died, and was this
+unearthly place a vestibule of the infernal regions? Days and nights of
+anguish, burning, and delirium, relieved at intervals by the same
+death-like stupor, had passed over him; and here he lay at length,
+exhausted, the terrible fever conquered, and his soul looking feebly
+forth and taking note of things.</p>
+
+<p>And strange enough things appeared to him! He was in an apartment of
+prodigious and uncouth architecture, dimly lighted from one side by some
+opening invisible to him, and by a blazing fire in a little fireplace
+built on the broad stone floor. The fireplace was without chimney, but a
+steady draught of air, from the side where the opening seemed to be,
+swept the smoke away into sombre recesses, where it mingled with the
+shadows of the place, and was lost in gloom which even the glare of the
+flames failed to illumine.</p>
+
+<p>Such a cavernous room Penn seemed to have seen in his dreams. The same
+irregular, rocky roof started up from the wall by his bed, and stretched
+away into vague and obscure distance. All was familiar to him, but all
+was somehow mixed up with frightful fantasies which had vanished with
+the fever that had so recently left him. The awful shapes, the struggles
+of demoniac men, the processions of strange and beautiful forms, which
+had visited him in his delirious visions,&mdash;all these were airy nothings;
+but the cave was real.</p>
+
+<p>Here he lay, on a rude bed constructed of four logs, forming the ends
+and sides, with canvas stretched across them, and secured with nails.
+Under him was a mattress of moss, over him a blanket like that which he
+remembered to have had wrapped about him last night in the field.</p>
+
+<p>Last night! Poor Penn was deeply perplexed when he endeavored to
+remember whether his mysterious awaking in the open air occurred last
+night, or many nights ago. He moved his head feebly to look for Toby.
+Which Toby? for all through his sufferings the same two Tobys, one good
+and the other evil, who had taken him from the field, had appeared still
+to attend him, and he now more than half expected to see the faithful
+old negro duplicated, and waiting upon him with two bodies and four
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>But neither the better nor even the worse half of that double being was
+near him now. Penn was alone, in that subterranean solitude. There
+burned the fire, the shadows flickered, the smoke floated away into the
+depths of the dark cavern, in such loneliness and silence as he had
+never experienced before. He would have thought himself in some grotto
+of the gnomes, or some awful cell of enchantment, whose supernatural
+fire never went out, and whose smoke rolled away into darkness the same
+perpetually,&mdash;but for the sound of the crackling flames, and the sight
+of piles of wood on the floor, so strongly suggestive of human agency.</p>
+
+<p>On one side was what appeared to be an artificial chamber built of
+stones, its door open towards the fire. Ranged about the cave, in
+something like regular order, were several massy blocks of different
+sizes, like the stools of a family of giants. But where were the giants?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, here came Toby at last, or, at any rate, the twin of him. He
+approached from the side where the daylight shone, bearing an armful of
+sticks, and whistling a low tune. With his broad back turned towards
+Penn, he crouched before the fire, which he poked and scolded with
+malicious energy, his grotesque and gigantic shadow projected on the
+wall of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Burn, ye debil! K-r-r-r! sputter! snap! git mad, why don't ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Then throwing himself back upon a heap of skins, with his heels at the
+fire, and his long arms swinging over his head, in a savage and
+picturesque attitude, he burst into a shout, like the cry of a wild
+beast. This he repeated several times, appearing to take delight in
+hearing the echoes resound through the cavern. Then he began to sing,
+keeping time with his feet, and pausing after each strain of his wild
+melody to hear it die away in the hollow depths of the cave.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"De glory ob de Lord, it am comin', it am comin',<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">De glory ob de Lord, let it come!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">De angel ob de Lord, hear his trumpet, hear his trumpet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">De angel ob de Lord, he ar come!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the last words, "<i>He ar come!</i>" a shadow darkened the entrance, and
+Penn looked, almost expecting to see a literal fulfilment of the
+prophecy. A form of imposing stature appeared. It was that of a negro
+upwards of six feet in height, magnificently proportioned, straight as a
+pillar, and black as ebony. He wore a dress of skins, carried a gun in
+his hand, and had an opossum slung over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush your noise!" he said to the singer, in a tone of authority.
+"Haven't I told you not to <i>wake him</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"No fear o' dat!" chuckled the other. "Him's past dat! Ki! how fat he
+ar!" seizing the opossum, and beginning to dress him on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Past waking! I tell you he's asleep, and every thing depends on his
+waking up right. But you set up a howl that would disturb the dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"Howl! dat's what ye call singin'; me singin', Pomp."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, keep your singing to yourself till he is able to stand it, you
+unfeeling, ungrateful fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"What dat ye call dis nigger?" cried the singer, jumping up in a
+passion, with his blood-stained knife in his hand. "Ongrateful! Say dat
+ar agin, will ye?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Cudjo, as often as you please," said Pomp, calmly placing his gun
+in the artificial chamber. "You are an unfeeling, ungrateful fellow."</p>
+
+<p>He turned, and stood regarding him with a proud, lofty, compassionating
+smile. Cudjo's anger cooled at once. Penn had already recognized in them
+the twin Tobys of his dreams. And what a contrast between the two! There
+was Toby the Good, otherwise called Pomp, dignified, erect, of noble
+features; while before him cringed and grimaced Toby the Malign, alias
+Cudjo, ugly, deformed, with immensely long arms, short bow legs
+resembling a parenthesis, a body like a frog's, and the countenance of
+an ape.</p>
+
+<p>"You know," said Pomp, "you would have left this man to die there on the
+rocks, if it hadn't been for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Gorry! why not?" said Cudjo. "What's use ob all dis trouble on his
+'count?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has had trouble enough on our account," said Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"On our 'count? Hiyah-yah!" laughed Cudjo, getting down on his knees
+over the opossum; "how ye make dat out, by?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pay attention, Cudjo, while I tell ye," said Pomp, stooping, and laying
+his finger on the deformed shoulder. Cudjo looked up, with his hands and
+knife still in the opossum's flesh. "This is the way of it, as I heard
+last night from Pepperill himself, who got into trouble, as you know, by
+befriending old Pete after his licking. And you know, don't you, how
+Pete came by his licking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bein' out nights, totin' our meal and taters to de mountains,&mdash;dough I
+reckon de patrol didn't know nuffin' 'bout dat ar, or him wouldn't got
+off so easy!" said Cudjo.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was by befriending Pepperill, who had befriended Pete, who
+brings us meal and potatoes, that this man got the ill will of those
+villains. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say 'em over agin, Pomp. How, now? Lef me see! Dat ar's old Pete,"
+sticking up a finger to represent him. "Dat ar's Pepperill," sticking up
+a thumb. "Now, yonder is dis yer man, and here am we. Now, how is it,
+Pomp?"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp repeated his statement, and Cudjo, pointing to his long, black
+finger when Pete was alluded to, and tapping his thumb when Pepperill
+was mentioned, succeeded in understanding that it was indirectly in
+consequence of kindness shown to himself that Penn had come to grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat so, Pomp?" he said, seriously, in a changed voice. "Den 'pears like
+dar's two white men me don't wish dead as dis yer possom! Pepperills
+one, and him's tudder."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp, having made this explanation, walked softly to the bedside. He had
+not before perceived that Penn, lying so still there, was awake. His
+features lighted up with intelligence and sympathy on making the
+discovery, and finding him free from feverish symptoms.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how are you getting on, sir?" he said, feeling Penn's pulse, and
+seating himself on one of the giant's stools near the bedstead.</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I?" was Penn's first anxious question.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy you don't know very well where you are, sir," said the negro,
+with a smile; "and you don't know me either, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think&mdash;you are my preserver&mdash;are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a subject we will not talk about just now, sir; for you must
+keep very quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Penn, not to be put off so, "I owe my life to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's so! dat ar am a fac'!" cried Cudjo, approaching, and wrapping the
+warm opossum skin about his naked arm as he spoke. "Gorry! me sech a
+brute, me war for leavin' ye dar in de lot. But, Pomp, him wouldn't; so
+we toted you hyar, and him's doctored you right smart eber sence. He ar
+a great doctor, Pomp ar! Yah!" And Cudjo laughed, showing two tremendous
+rows of ivory glittering from ear to ear; capering, swinging the opossum
+skin over his head, and, on the whole, looking far more like a demon of
+the cave than a human being.</p>
+
+<p>"Go about your business, Cudjo!" said Pomp. "You mustn't mind his
+freaks, sir," turning to Penn. "You are a great deal better; and now, if
+you will only remain quiet and easy in your mind, there's no doubt but
+you will get along."</p>
+
+<p>Many questions concerning himself and his friends came crowding to
+Penn's lips; but the negro, with firm and gentle authority, silenced
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"By and by, sir, I will tell you everything you wish to know. But you
+must rest now, while I see to making you a suitable broth."</p>
+
+<p>And nothing was left for Penn but to obey.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A MAN'S STORY.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Three days longer Penn lay there on his rude bed in the cave, helpless
+still, and still in ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp repeatedly assured him that all was well, and that he had no cause
+for anxiety, but refused to enlighten him. The negro's demeanor was well
+calculated to inspire calmness and trust. There was something truly
+grand and majestic, not only in his person, but in his character also.
+He was a superb man. Penn was never weary of watching him. He thought
+him the most perfect specimen of a gentleman he had ever seen; always
+cheerful, always courteous, always comporting himself with the ease of
+an equal in the presence of his guest. His strength was enormous. He
+lifted Penn in his arms as if he had been an infant. But his grace was
+no less than his vigor. He was, in short, a lion of a man.</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo was more like an ape. His gibberings, his grimaces, his antics,
+his delight in mischief, excited in the mind of the convalescent almost
+as much surprise as the other's princely deportment. For hours together
+he would lie watching those two wonderfully contrasted beings. Petulant
+and malicious as Cudjo appeared, he was completely under the control of
+his noble companion, who would often stand looking down at his tricks
+and deformity, with composedly folded arms and an air of patient
+indulgence and compassion beautiful to witness.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Penn gradually regained his strength, so that on the fourth
+day Pomp permitted him to talk a little.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me first about my friends," said Penn. "Are they well? Do they
+know where I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, sir," said the negro, with a significant smile, seating
+himself on the giant's stool. "I trust that no one knows where you are."</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, must they think?" said Penn. "How did I leave them?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what they are very much perplexed to find out, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard from them, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes; we have a way of getting news of people down there. Toby has
+nearly gone distracted on your account. He is positive that you are
+dead, for he believes you could never have got well out of his hands."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss&mdash;Mr. Villars&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"They have been so much disturbed about you, that I would have been glad
+to inform them of your safety, if I could. But not even they must know
+of this place."</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are, as you perceive, in a cave. But I suppose you know so little
+how you came here that you would find some difficulty in tracing your
+way to us again?" This was spoken interrogatively, with an intelligent
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so ignorant of the place," said Penn, "that it may be in the
+planet Mars, for aught I know."</p>
+
+<p>"That is well! Now, sir," continued the negro, "since you have several
+times expressed your obligations to us for preserving your life, I wish
+to ask one favor in return. It is this. You are welcome to remain here
+as long as you find your stay beneficial; but when you conclude to go,
+we desire the privilege of conducting you away. That is not an
+unreasonable request?"</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it. And I pledge you my word to make no movement without your
+sanction, and to keep your secret sacredly. But tell me&mdash;will you
+not?&mdash;how you came to inhabit this dreadful place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadful? There are worse places, my friend, than this. Is it gloomy?
+The house of bondage is gloomier. Is it damp? It is not with the cruel
+sweat and blood of the slave's brow and back. Is it cold? The hearts of
+our tyrants are colder."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand you," said Penn, whose suspicion was thus confirmed that
+these men were fugitives. "And I am deeply interested in you. How long
+have you lived here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to hear something of my story?" said the negro, the
+expression of his eyes growing deep and stern,&mdash;his black, closely
+curling beard stirring with a proud smile that curved his lips. "Perhaps
+it will amuse you."</p>
+
+<p>"Amuse me? No!" said Penn. "I know by your looks that it will not amuse:
+it will absorb me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said Pomp, bearing his head upon his massy and flexible
+neck of polished ebony like a king, yet speaking in tones very gentle
+and low,&mdash;and he had a most mellow, musical, deep voice,&mdash;"you are
+talking with one who was born a slave."</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I think of that!" said Penn. "Even such a birth could not
+debase the manhood of one like you."</p>
+
+<p>"It might have done so under different circumstances. But I was so
+fortunate as to be brought up by a young master who was only too kind
+and indulgent to me, considering my station. We were playmates when
+children; and we were scarcely less intimate when we had both grown up
+to be men. He went to Paris to study medicine, and took me with him. I
+passed for his body servant, but I was rather his friend. He never took
+any important step in life without consulting me; and I am happy to
+know," added Pomp, with grand simplicity, "that my counsel was always
+good. He acknowledged as much on his death-bed. 'If I had taken your
+advice oftener,' said he, 'it would have been better for me. I always
+meant to reward you. You are to have your freedom&mdash;your freedom, my dear
+boy!'"</p>
+
+<p>The negro knitted his brows, his breath came thick, and there was a
+strange moisture in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I loved my master," he continued, with simple pathos. "And when I saw
+him troubled on my account, when he ought to have been thinking of his
+own soul, I begged him not to let a thought of me give him any
+uneasiness. My free papers had not been made out, and he was for sending
+at once for a notary. But his younger brother was with him&mdash;he who was
+to be his heir. 'Don't vex yourself about Pomp, Edwin,' said he. 'I will
+see that justice is done him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, thank you, brother!' said Edwin. 'You will set him free, and give
+him a few hundred dollars to begin life with. Promise that, and I will
+rest in peace.' For you must know Edwin had neither wife nor child, and
+I was the only person dependent on his bounty. He was not rich; he had
+spent a good part of his fortune abroad, and had but recently
+established himself in a successful practice in Montgomery. Yet he left
+enough so that his brother could have well afforded to give me my
+freedom, and a thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he not promise to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"He promised readily enough. And so my master died, and was buried, and
+I&mdash;had another master. For a few days nothing was said about free
+papers; and I had been too much absorbed in grief for the only man I
+loved to think much about them. But when the estate was settled up, and
+my new master was preparing to return to his home here in Tennessee, I
+grew uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"'Master,' said I, taking off my hat to him one morning, 'there is
+nothing more I can do for him who is gone; so I am thinking I would like
+to be for myself now, if you please.'</p>
+
+<p>"'For yourself, you black rascal?' said my new master, laughing in my
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't used to being spoken to in that way, and it cut. But I kept
+down that which swelled up in here"&mdash;Pomp laid his hand on his
+heart&mdash;"and reminded him, respectfully as I could, of the doctor's last
+words about me, and of his promise.</p>
+
+<p>"'You fool!' said he, 'do you think I was in earnest?'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you were not,' said I, 'the doctor was.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And do you think,' said he, 'that I am to be bound by the last words
+of a man too far gone to know his own mind in the matter?'</p>
+
+<p>"'He always meant I should have my freedom,' I answered him, 'and always
+said so.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then why didn't he give it to you before, instead of requiring me to
+make such a sacrifice? Come, come, Pomp!' he patted my shoulder; 'you
+are altogether too valuable a nigger to throw away. Why, people say you
+know almost as much about medicine as my brother did. You'll be an
+invaluable fellow to have on a plantation; you can doctor the field
+hands, and, may be, if you behave yourself, get a chance to prescribe
+for the family. Come, my boy, you musn't get foolish ideas of freedom
+into your head; they're what spoil a nigger, and they'll have to be
+whipped out of you, which would be too bad for a fine, handsome darkey
+like you.'</p>
+
+<p>"He patted my shoulder again, and looked as pleasant and flattering as
+if I had been a child to be coaxed,&mdash;I, as much a man, every bit, as
+he!" said Pomp, with a gleam of pride. "I could have torn him like a
+tiger for his insolence, his heartless injustice. But I repressed
+myself; I knew nothing was to be gained by violence.</p>
+
+<p>"'Master,' said I, 'what you say is no doubt very flattering. But I want
+what my master gave me&mdash;what you promised that I should have&mdash;I shall be
+contented with nothing else.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What! you persist?' he said, kindling up. 'Let me tell you now, Pomp,
+once for all, you'll have to be contented with a good deal less; and
+never mention the word "freedom" to me again if you would keep that
+precious hide of yours whole!'</p>
+
+<p>"I saw he meant it, and that there was no help for me. Despair and fury
+were in me. Then, for the only time in my life, I felt what it was to
+wish to murder a man. I could have smitten the life out of that smiling,
+handsome face of his! Thank God I was kept from that. I concealed what
+was burning within. Then first I learned to pray,&mdash;I learned to trust in
+God. And so better thoughts came to me; and I said, 'If he uses me well,
+I will serve him; if not, I will run for my life.'</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he brought me here to Tennessee. Here he was managing his aunt's
+estate, which she, soon dying, bequeathed to him. Up to this time I had
+got on very well; but he never liked me; he often said I knew too much,
+and was too proud. He was determined to humiliate me; so one day he said
+to me, 'Pomp, that Nance has been acting ugly of late, and you permit
+her.' I was a sort of overseer, you see. 'Now I'll tell you what I am
+going to have done. Nance is going to be whipped, and you are the fellow
+that's going to whip her.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Pardon, master,' said I, 'that's what I never did&mdash;to whip a woman.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then it's time for you to begin. I've had enough of your fine manners,
+Pomp, and now you have got to come down a little.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will do any thing you please to serve your interests, sir,' said I.
+'But whip a woman I never can, and never will. That's so, master.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You villain!' he shouted, seizing a riding whip, 'I'll teach you to
+defy my authority to my face!' And he sprang at me, furious with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"'Take care, sir!' I said, stepping back. ''Twill be better for both of
+us for you not to strike me!'</p>
+
+<p>"'What! you threaten, you villain?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I do not threaten, sir; but I say what I say. It will be better for
+both of us. You will never strike me twice. I tell you that.'</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon he saw something dangerous in me, as I said this, for, instead
+of striking, he immediately called for help. 'Sam! Harry! Nap! bind this
+devil! Be quick!'</p>
+
+<p>"'They won't do it!' said I. 'Woe to the man that lays a finger on me,
+be he master or be he slave!'</p>
+
+<p>"'I'll see about that!' said he, running into the house. He came out
+again in a minute with his rifle. I was standing there still, the boys
+all keeping a safe distance, not one daring to touch me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Master,' said I, 'hear one word. I am perfectly willing to die. Long
+enough you have robbed me of my liberty, and now you are welcome to what
+is less precious&mdash;my poor life. But for your own sake, for your dead
+brother's sake, let me warn you to beware what you do.'</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the allusion to his injustice towards me maddened him. He
+levelled his piece, and pulled the trigger. Luckily the percussion was
+damp,&mdash;or else I should not be talking with you now. His aim was
+straight at my head. I did not give him time for a second attempt. I was
+on him in an instant. I beat him down, I trampled him with rage. I
+snatched his gun from him, and lifted it to smash his skull. Just then a
+voice cried, 'Don't, Pomp! don't kill master!'</p>
+
+<p>"It was Nance, pleading for the man who would have had her whipped. I
+couldn't stand that. Her mercy made me merciful. 'Good by, boys!' I
+said. They were all standing around, motionless with terror. 'Good by,
+Nance! I am off; live or die, I quit this man's service forever!'</p>
+
+<p>"So I left him," said Pomp, "and ran for the woods. I was soon ranging
+these mountains, free, a wild man whom not even their blood-hounds could
+catch. I took the gun with me&mdash;a good one: here it is." He removed the
+rifle from its crevice in the rocks. "Do you know that name? It is that
+of its former owner&mdash;the man who called himself my master. Do you think
+it was taking too much from one who would have robbed me of my soul?"</p>
+
+<p>He held the stock over the bed, so that Penn could make out the
+lettering. Delicately engraved on a surface of inlaid silver, was the
+well-known name,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"<i>Augustus Bythewood.</i>"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>AN ANTI-SLAVERY DOCUMENT ON BLACK PARCHMENT.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Penn was not surprised at this discovery. He had already recognized in
+Pomp the hero of a story which he had heard before.</p>
+
+<p>"But all this happened before I came to Tennessee, did it not? Have you
+lived in this cave ever since?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is three years since I took to the mountains. But I have spent but a
+little of that time here. Sometimes, for weeks together, I am away,
+tramping the hills, exploring the forests, sleeping on the ground in the
+open air, living on fish, game, and fruits. That is in the summer time.
+Winters I burrow here."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are so independent in your movements, why have you never escaped
+to the north?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would I be any better off there? Does not the color of a negro's skin,
+even in your free states, render him an object of suspicion and hatred?
+What chance is there for a man like me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Little&mdash;very true!" said Penn, sadly, contemplating the form of the
+powerful and intelligent black, and thinking with indignation and shame
+of the prejudice which excludes men of his race from the privileges of
+free men, even in the free north.</p>
+
+<p>"These crags," said the African, "do not look scornfully upon me because
+of the color of my skin. The watercourses sing for me their gladdest
+songs, black as I am. And the serious trees seem to love me, even as I
+love them. It is a savage, lonely, but not unhappy life I lead&mdash;far
+better for a man like me than servitude here, or degradation at the
+north. I have one faithful human friend at least. Cudjo, cunning and
+capricious as he seems, is capable of genuine devotion."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you two been together long?"</p>
+
+<p>"One day, a few weeks after I took to the mountains, I was watching for
+an animal which I heard rustling the foliage of a tree that grows up out
+of a chasm. I held my gun ready to fire, when I perceived that my animal
+was something human. It climbed the tree, ran out on one of the
+branches, leaped, like a squirrel, to some bushes that grew in the wall
+of the chasm, and soon pulled itself up to the top. Then I saw that it
+was a man&mdash;and a black man. He came towards the spot where I was
+concealed, sauntering along, chewing now and then a leaf, and muttering
+to himself; appearing as happy as a savage in his native woods, and
+perfectly unconscious of being observed. Suddenly I rose up, levelling
+my gun. He uttered a yell of terror, and started to cast himself again
+into the chasm. But with a threat I prevented him, and he threw himself
+at my feet, begging me to grant him his life, and not to take him back
+to his master.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who is your master?' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'Job Coombs was my master,' said he, 'but I left him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You are Cudjo, then!' said I,&mdash;for I had heard of him. He ran away
+from a tolerably good master on account of unmercifully cruel treatment
+from the overseer. But as he had been frightfully cut up the night
+before he disappeared, it was generally believed he had crawled into a
+hole in the rocks somewhere, and died, and been eaten by buzzards. But
+it seems that he had been concealed and cured by an old slave on the
+plantation named Pete."</p>
+
+<p>"Coombs's Pete!" exclaimed Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"You have good cause to remember the name!" said Pomp. "As soon as Cudjo
+was well enough to tramp, he took to the mountains. It was a couple of
+years afterwards that I met him. We soon came to an understanding, and
+he conducted me to his cave. Here he lived. He has always kept up a
+communication with some of his friends&mdash;especially with old Pete, who
+often brings us provisions to a certain place, and supplies us with
+ammunition. We give him game and skins, which he disposes of when he
+can, generally to such men as Pepperill. He was going to Pepperill's
+house, after meeting Cudjo, that night when the patrolmen discovered and
+whipped him. That led to Pepperill's punishment, and that led to your
+being here."</p>
+
+<p>"Does old Pete visit you since?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but he has sent us a message, and I have seen Pepperill."</p>
+
+<p>"Not here!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody ever comes here, sir. We have a place where we meet our friends;
+and as for Pepperill, I went to his house."</p>
+
+<p>"That was bold in you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bold?" The negro smiled. "What will you say then when I tell you I have
+been in Bythewood's house, since I left him? I wanted my medicine-case,
+and the bullet-moulds that belong with the rifle. I entered his room,
+where he was asleep. I stood for a long time and looked at him by the
+moonlight. It was well for him he didn't wake!" said Pomp, with a
+dancing light in his eye. "He did not; he slept well! Having got what I
+wanted, I came away; but I had changed knives with him, and left mine
+sticking in the bedstead over his head, so that he might know I had been
+there, and not accuse any one else of the theft."</p>
+
+<p>"The sight of that knife must have given him a shudder, when he woke,
+and saw who had been there, and remembered his wrongs towards you!" said
+Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Well it might!" said Pomp. "Come here, Cudjo."</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo had just entered the cave, bringing some partridges which he had
+caught in traps.</p>
+
+<p>"It's allus 'Cudjo! Cudjo do dis! Cudjo do dat!' What ye want o' Cudjo?"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp paid no heed to the ill-natured response, but said calmly,
+addressing Penn,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you my reasons for escaping out of slavery: now I will show
+you Cudjo's."</p>
+
+<p>The back of the deformed was stripped bare. Penn uttered a groan of
+horror at the sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Dem's what ye call lickins!" said Cudjo, with a hideous grin over his
+shoulder. "Dat ar am de oberseer's work."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heaven!" said Penn, sick at the sight of the scars. "I can't
+endure it! Take him away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be 'fraid!" said Cudjo. "Feel of 'em, sar!" And taking Penn's
+hand, he seemed to experience a vindictive joy in passing it over his
+lash-furrowed flesh. "Not much skin dar, hey? Rough streaks along dar,
+hey? Needn't pull your hand away dat fashion, and shet yer eyes, and
+look so white! It's all ober now. What if you'd seen dat back when 'twas
+fust cut up? or de mornin' arter? Shouldn't blame ye, if 't had made ye
+sick den!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what had you done to merit such cruelty?" exclaimed Penn, relieved
+when the back was covered.</p>
+
+<p>"What me done? De oberseer didn't hap'm to like me; dat's what me done.
+But he did hap'm to like my gal; dat's more what me done! So he cut me
+up wid his own hand,&mdash;said me sassy, and wouldn't work. Coombs, him's a
+good man 'nuff,&mdash;neber found no fault 'long wid him; but debil take dat
+ar Silas Ropes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Silas Ropes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Him was Coombs's oberseer dem times," said Cudjo. "Him gi' me de
+lickins; him got my gal&mdash;me owe him for dat!" And, with a ferocious
+grimace, clinching his hands together as if he felt his enemy's throat,
+he gave a yell of rage which resounded through the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>"Go about your work, Cudjo," said Pomp. "What do you think of that back,
+sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the most powerful anti-slavery document I ever saw!" said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a native African," said Pomp. "He was brought to this country a
+young barbarian; and he has barely got civilized&mdash;hardly got
+Christianized yet! I will make him tell you more of his history some
+day. Then you will no longer wonder that his lessons in Christian love
+have not made a saint of him! Now you must rest, while I help him get
+dinner."</p>
+
+<p>The manner of cooking practised in the cave was exceedingly primitive.
+The partridges broiled over the fire, the potatoes roasted in the ashes,
+and the corn-cake baked in a kettle, the meal was prepared. The
+artificial chamber was Cudjo's pantry. One of the giant's stools, having
+a broad, flat surface, served as a table. On this were placed two or
+three pewter plates, and as many odd cups and saucers. Cudjo had an old
+coffee-pot, in which he made strong black coffee. He could afford,
+however, neither sugar nor milk.</p>
+
+<p>Penn's wants were first attended to. He picked the bones of a partridge
+lying in bed, and thought he had never tasted sweeter meat.</p>
+
+<p>"With how few things men can live, and be comfortable! and what simple
+fare suffices for a healthy appetite!" he said to himself, watching Pomp
+and Cudjo at their dinner. Pomp did not even drink coffee, but quenched
+his thirst with cold water dipped from a pool in the cave.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>IN THE CAVE AND ON THE MOUNTAIN.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>That afternoon, as Penn was alone, the mystery of his removal from Mr.
+Villars's house was suddenly revealed to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I remember it very distinctly now," he said to Pomp, who presently came
+in and sat by his bed. "Ropes and his crew had been to the house for me.
+Sick and delirious as I was, I knew the danger to my friends, and it
+seemed to me that I <i>must</i> leave the house. So I watched my opportunity,
+and when Toby left me for a minute, I darted through his room over the
+kitchen, climbed down from the window to the roof of the shed, and from
+there descended by an apple tree to the ground. This is the dream I have
+been trying to recall. It is all clear to me now. But I do not remember
+any thing more. The delirium must have given me preternatural strength,
+if I walked all the distance to the spot where you found me."</p>
+
+<p>"That you did walk it, your bruised and bleeding feet were a sufficient
+evidence," said the negro. "You had just such delirious attacks
+afterwards, when it was as much as Cudjo and I wanted to do to hold
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"And the blanket&mdash;it is Toby's blanket, which I caught up as I fled,"
+added Penn.</p>
+
+<p>He now became extremely anxious to communicate with his friends, to
+explain his conduct to them, and let them know of his safety. Besides,
+he was now getting sufficiently strong to sit up a little, and other
+clothing was necessary than the old minister's nightgown and Toby's
+blanket.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking it all over," said Pomp, "and have concluded to
+pay your friends a visit."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, my dear sir!" exclaimed Penn, with gratitude. "I can't let you
+incur any such danger on my account. I can never repay you for half you
+have done for me already!" And he pressed the negro's hand as no white
+man had ever pressed it since the death of his good master, Dr.
+Bythewood.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp was deeply affected. His great chest heaved, and his powerful
+features were charged with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"The risk will not be great," said he. "I will take Cudjo with me, and
+between us we will manage to bring off your clothes."</p>
+
+<p>At night the two blacks departed, leaving Penn alone in the fire-lit
+cave, waiting for their return, picturing to himself all the
+difficulties of their adventure, and thinking with warm gratitude and
+admiration of Pomp, whose noble nature not even slavery could corrupt,
+whose benevolent heart not even wrong could embitter.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the evening when the two messengers arrived at Mr.
+Villars's house. All was dark and still about the premises. But one
+light was visible, and that was in the room over the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Toby's room," said Pomp. "Stay here, Cudjo, while I give him a
+call."</p>
+
+<p>"Stay yuself," said Cudjo, "and lef dis chil' go. Me know Toby; you
+don't."</p>
+
+<p>So Pomp remained on the watch while Cudjo climbed the tree by which Penn
+had descended, scrambled up over the shed-roof, reached the window,
+opened it, and thrust in his head.</p>
+
+<p>Toby, who was just going to bed, heard the movement, saw the frightful
+apparition, and with a shriek dove under the bed-clothes, where he lay
+in an agony of fear, completely hidden from sight, while Cudjo, grinning
+maliciously, climbed into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"See hyar, ye fool! none ob dat! none ob your playin' possum wid me!"
+said the visitor, rolling Toby over, while Toby held the clothes tighter
+and tighter, as if to show a lock of wool or the tip of an ear would
+have been fatal. "Me's Cudjo! don't ye know Cudjo? Me come for de
+gemman's clo'es!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hey? dat you, Cudjo?" said Toby, venturing at length to peep out.
+"Wha&mdash;wha&mdash;what de debil you want hyar?"</p>
+
+<p>"De gemman sent me. Dis yer letter's for your massy."</p>
+
+<p>"De gemman?" cried Toby, jumping up. "Not Mass' Penn? not Mass'
+Hapgood?"</p>
+
+<p>Immense was his astonishment on being assured that Penn was alive,
+recovering, and in need of garments. Carl, who had been awakened in the
+next room by the noise, now came in to see what was the matter. He
+recognized Penn's handwriting on the note, and immediately hastened with
+it to Virginia's room. A minute after she was reading it to her father
+at his bedside. It was written with a pencil on a leaf torn from a
+little blank book in which Pomp kept a sort of diary; but never had
+gilt-edged or perfumed billet afforded the blind old minister and his
+daughter such unalloyed delight.</p>
+
+<p>It was long past midnight when Pomp and Cudjo returned to the cave,
+bringing with them not only Penn's garments, but a goodly stock of
+provisions, which Cudjo had hinted to Toby would be acceptable, and,
+more precious still, a letter from Mr. Villars, written by his
+daughter's own hand.</p>
+
+<p>Penn now began to sit up a little every day. Gloomy as the cave was, it
+was not an unwholesome abode even for an invalid. The atmosphere was
+pure, cool, and bracing; the temperature uniform. Nor did Penn suffer
+inconvenience from dampness; though often, in the deep stillness of the
+night, he could hear the far-off, faint, and melancholy murmur of
+dropping water in the hollow recesses of the cavern beyond.</p>
+
+<p>One day, as soon as he was well enough for the undertaking, Pomp ordered
+Cudjo to light torches and show them the hidden wonders of his
+habitation. Cudjo was delighted with the honor. He ran on before, waving
+the flaring pine knots over his head, and shouting.</p>
+
+<p>Penn's astonishment was profound. Keen as had been his curiosity as to
+what was beyond the shadowy walls the fire dimly revealed, he had formed
+no conception of the extent and sublimity of the various galleries,
+chambers, glittering vaults, and falling waters, embosomed there in the
+mountain.</p>
+
+<p>"Dis yer all my own house!" Cudjo kept repeating, with fantastic
+grimaces of satisfaction. "Me found him all my own self. Nobody war eber
+hyar afore me; Pomp am de next; and you's de on'y white man eber seen
+dis yer cave."</p>
+
+<p>It grew light as they proceeded, Cudjo's torch paled, and the waters of
+a subterranean stream they were following caught gleams of the
+struggling day from another opening beyond. Climbing over fragments of
+huge tumbled rocks, and up an earthy bank, Penn found himself in the
+bottom of an immense chasm. It had apparently been formed by the sinking
+down of the roof of the cave, with a tremendous superincumbent weight of
+forest trees. There, on an island, so to speak, in the midst of the
+subterranean darkness, they were growing still, their lofty tops barely
+reaching the level of the mountain above.</p>
+
+<p>"It was out of this sink I saw the wild beast climbing, that turned out
+to be Cudjo," said Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat ar am de tree," said Cudjo. "No oder way but dat ar to get up out
+ob dis yer hole."</p>
+
+<p>"What a terrible place!" said Penn, little thinking at the time how much
+more terrible it was soon to become as a scene of deadly human conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the chasm the stream flowed on into still more remote parts of
+the cave. But Penn had seen enough for one day, and the torch-bearing
+Cudjo guided them back to the spot from which they had started.</p>
+
+<p>Penn had now completely won the confidence of the blacks, who no longer
+placed any restrictions on his movements. It had been their original
+purpose never to suffer him to leave the cave without being blindfolded.
+But now, having shown him one opening, they freely permitted him to pass
+out by the other. This was that by which he had been brought in, and
+which was used by the blacks themselves on all ordinary occasions. It
+was a mere fissure in the mountain, hidden from external view by
+thickets. Above rose steep ledges of rocks, thickly covered with earth
+and bushes. Below yawned an immense ravine, far down in the cool, dark
+depths of which a little streamlet flowed.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp piloted his guest through the thickets, and along a narrow shelf,
+from which the ascent to the barren ledges was easy. Upon these they sat
+down. It was a beautiful April day. This was Penn's first visit to the
+upper world since he was brought to the cave. The scene filled him with
+rapture; the loveliness of earth and sky intoxicated him. Here he was
+among the rugged ranges of the Cumberland Mountains, in the heart of
+Tennessee. On either hand they rolled away in tremendous billows of
+forest-crowned rocks. The ravines in their sides opened into little
+valleys, and these spread out into a broad and magnificent intervale,
+checkered with farms, streaked with roads, and dotted with dwellings.
+Spring seemed to have come in a night. It was chill March weather when
+Penn left the world, which was now warm with sweet south winds, and
+green with April verdure.</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful, how beautiful!" said he, receiving, with the
+susceptibility of a convalescent, the exquisite impression made upon the
+senses by every sight and sound and odor. "O! and to think that all this
+divine loveliness is marred by the passions of men! Up here, what glory,
+what peace! Down yonder, what hatred, violence, and sin! No wonder,
+Pomp, you love the mountains so!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is doubtful if they leave the mountains in peace much longer," said
+Pomp. He had heard the night before that fighting had begun at
+Charleston, and the news had stirred his soul. "The country is all alive
+with excitement, and the waves of its fury will reach us here before
+long. Take this glass, sir: you can see soldiers marching through the
+streets."</p>
+
+<p>"They are marching past my school-house!" said Penn. He became very
+thoughtful. He knew that they were soldiers recruited in the cause of
+rebellion, although Tennessee had not yet seceded,&mdash;although the people
+had voted in February against secession: a dishonest governor, and a
+dishonest legislature, aided by reckless demagogues everywhere, being
+resolved upon precipitating the state into revolution, by fraud and
+force,&mdash;if not with the consent of the people, then without it. "I had
+hoped the storm would soon blow over, and that it would be safe for me
+to go peaceably about my business."</p>
+
+<p>"The storm," said Pomp, his soul dilating, his features kindling with a
+wild joy, "is hardly begun yet! The great problem of this age, in this
+country, is going to be solved in blood! This continent is going to
+shake with such a convulsion as was never before. It is going to shake
+till the last chain of the slave is shaken off, and the sin is punished,
+and God says, 'It is enough!'"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with such thrilling earnestness that Penn regarded him in
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think so, Pomp?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I can't tell. The feeling rises up here,"&mdash;the negro laid his hand
+upon his massive chest,&mdash;"and that is all I know. It is strong as my
+life&mdash;it fills and burns me like fire! The day of deliverance for my
+race is at hand. That is the meaning of those soldiers down there,
+arming for they know not what."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>PENN'S FOOT KNOCKS DOWN A MUSKET.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Weeks passed. But now every day brought to Penn increasing anxiety of
+mind with regard to his situation. His abhorrence of war was as strong
+as ever; and his great principle of non-resistance had scarcely been
+shaken. But how was he to avoid participating in scenes of violence if
+he remained in Tennessee? And how was his escape from the state to be
+effected?</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome to a home with us as long as you will stay," said Pomp.
+"I shall miss you&mdash;even Cudjo will hate to see you go."</p>
+
+<p>Penn thanked him, fully appreciating their kindness; but his heart was
+yearning for other things.</p>
+
+<p>Day after day he lingered still, however. The difficulties in the way of
+escape thickened, instead of diminishing. In February, as I have said,
+the people had voted against secession. Not content with this, the
+governor called an extra session of the legislature, which proceeded to
+carry the state out of the Union by fraud. On the sixth of May an
+ordinance of separation was passed, to be submitted to the vote of the
+people on the eighth of June. But without waiting for the will of the
+people to be made manifest, the authors of this treason went on to act
+precisely as if the state had seceded. A league was formed with the
+confederate states, the control of all the troops raised in Tennessee
+was given to Davis, and troops from the cotton states were rushed in to
+make good the work thus begun. The June election, which took place under
+this reign of terror, resulted as was to have been expected. Rebel
+soldiers guarded the polls. Few dared to vote openly the Union ticket;
+while those who deposited a close ticket were "spotted." Thus timid men
+were frightened from the ballot-box; while soldiers from the cotton
+states voted in their places. Then, as it was charged, there were the
+grossest frauds in counting the votes. And so Tennessee "seceded."</p>
+
+<p>The state authorities had also achieved a politic stroke by disarming
+the people. Every owner of a gun was compelled to deliver it up, or pay
+a heavy fine. The arms thus secured went to equip the troops raised for
+the Confederacy; while the Union cause was left crippled and
+defenceless. Many firelocks were of course kept concealed: some were
+taken to pieces, and the pieces scattered,&mdash;the barrel here, the stock
+there, and the lock in still another place,&mdash;to come together again only
+at the will of the owner: but, as a general thing, the loyalists could
+not be said to have arms. It was in those times that the precaution of
+Stackridge and his fellow-patriots was justified. The secrecy with which
+they had conducted their night-meetings and drills, though seemingly
+unnecessary at first, saved them from much inconvenience when the full
+tide of persecution set in. They were suspected indeed, and it was
+believed they had arms; but they still met in safety, and the place
+where their arms were deposited remained undiscovered.</p>
+
+<p>All this time, Penn had no money with which to defray the expenses of
+travel. When his school was broken up, several hundred dollars were due
+him for his services. This sum the trustees of the Academy placed to his
+credit in the Curryville Bank; but, in consequence of a recent
+enactment, designed to rob and annoy loyal men, he could not draw the
+money without appearing personally, and first taking the oath of
+allegiance to the confederate government. This, of course, was out of
+the question.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile he learned to rough it on the mountain with the fugitives.
+Pomp taught him the use of the rifle, and he was soon able to shoot,
+dress, and cook his own dinner. He grew robust with the exercise and
+exposure. But every day his longing eyes turned towards the valley where
+the friends were whom he loved, and whom he resolved at all hazards to
+visit again, if for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>At length, one morning at breakfast, he informed Pomp and Cudjo of his
+intention to leave them,&mdash;to return secretly to the village, place
+himself under the protection of certain Unionists he knew, and attempt,
+with their assistance, to make his way out of the state.</p>
+
+<p>"Why go down there at all?" said Pomp. "If you are determined to leave
+us, let me be your guide. I will take you over the mountains into
+Kentucky, where you will be safe. It will be a long, hard journey; but
+you are strong now; we will take it leisurely, killing our game by the
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Penn blushed and stammered. The truth was, he was willing to risk his
+life to see Virginia once more; and the thought of quitting the state
+without bidding her good by was intolerable to him.</p>
+
+<p>"And what?" said Pomp, smiling intelligently.</p>
+
+<p>"And I may possibly be glad to accept your proposal. But I am determined
+to try the other way first."</p>
+
+<p>Both Pomp and Cudjo endeavored to dissuade him from the undertaking, but
+in vain. That evening he took his departure. The blacks accompanied him
+to the foot of the mountain. Notwithstanding the friendship and
+gratitude he had all along felt towards them, he had not foreseen how
+painful would be the separation from them.</p>
+
+<p>"I never quitted friends more reluctantly!" he said, choked with his
+emotion. "Never, never shall I forget you&mdash;never shall I forget those
+rambles on the mountains, those days and nights in the cave! Let me hope
+we shall meet again, when I can make you some return for your kindness."</p>
+
+<p>"We may meet again, and sooner than you suppose," said Pomp. "If you
+find escape too difficult, be sure and come back to us. Ah, I seem to
+foresee that you will come back!"</p>
+
+<p>With this prediction ringing in his ears, and filling him with vague
+forebodings, Penn went his way; while the negroes, having shaken hands
+with him in sorrowful silence, returned to their savage mountain home,
+which had never looked so lonely to them as now, since their beloved and
+gentle guest had departed.</p>
+
+<p>The night was not dark, and Penn, having been guided to a bridle-path
+that led to the town, experienced no difficulty in finding his way on
+alone. He approached the minister's house from the fields. Although late
+in the evening, the windows were still lighted. He was surprised to see
+men walking to and fro by the house, and to hear their footsteps on the
+piazza floor. He drew near enough to discern that they carried muskets.
+Then the truth flashed upon him: they were soldiers guarding the house.</p>
+
+<p>Whether they were there to protect the venerable Unionist from
+mob-violence, or to prevent his escape, Penn could only conjecture. In
+either case it would have been extremely indiscreet for him to enter the
+house. Bitter disappointment filled him, mingled with apprehensions for
+the safety of his friends, and remorse at the thought that he himself
+had, although unintentionally, been instrumental in drawing down upon
+them the vengeance of the secessionists.</p>
+
+<p>Penn next thought of Stackridge. It was indeed upon that sturdy patriot
+that he relied chiefly for aid in leaving the state. He took a last,
+lingering look at the minister's house,&mdash;the windows whose cheerful
+light had so often greeted him on his way thither, in those delightful
+winter evenings which were gone, never to return,&mdash;the soldiers on the
+piazza, symbolizing the reign of terror that had commenced,&mdash;and with a
+deep inward prayer that God would shield with his all-powerful hand the
+beleaguered family, he once more crossed the fields.</p>
+
+<p>By a circuitous route he came in sight of Stackridge's house. There were
+lights there also, although it must have been now near midnight. And as
+Penn discerned them, he became aware of loud voices engaged in angry
+altercation around the farmer's door. It was no time for him to
+approach. He stole away as noiselessly as he had come. In the still,
+quiet night he paused, asking himself what he should do.</p>
+
+<p>The Academy was not far off. He remembered that he had left there, among
+other things, a pocket Bible, a gift from his sister, which he wished to
+preserve. Perhaps it was there still; perhaps he could get in and
+recover it. At all events, he had plenty of leisure on his hands, and
+could afford to make the trial.</p>
+
+<p>He heard the mounted patrol pass by, and waited for the sound of hoofs
+to die in the distance. Then cautiously he drew near the gloomy and
+silent school-house. Not doubting but the door was locked,&mdash;for he still
+had the key with him which he had turned for the last time when he
+walked out in defiance of the lynchers,&mdash;he resolved not to unlock it,
+but to keep in the rear of the building, and enter, if possible, by a
+window.</p>
+
+<p>The window was unfastened, as it had ever remained since he had opened
+it, on that memorable occasion, to communicate with Carl. Softly he
+raised the sash, and softly he crept in. His foot, however, struck an
+object on the desk, and swept it down. It fell with a loud, rattling
+sound upon the floor.</p>
+
+<p>It was a musket; the owner of which bounded up on the instant from a
+bench where he was lying, and seized Penn by the leg. The school-house
+had been turned into a barrack-room for recruits, and the late master
+found that he had descended upon a squad of confederate soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>Lights were struck, and the sleepy sentinels, rubbing their eyes open,
+recognized, struggling in the arms of their companion, the unfortunate
+young Quaker.</p>
+
+<p>"I knowed 'twas him! I knowed 'twas him!" cried his overjoyed captor,
+who proved to be no other than Silas Ropes's worthy friend Gad. "I heern
+him gittin' inter the winder, but I kept dark till he knocked my gun
+down; then I grabbed him! He's a traitor, and this time will meet a
+traitor's doom!"</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said Penn, recovering from the agitation of his first
+surprise and struggle, "I am in your power. It is perhaps the best thing
+that could happen to me; for I have committed no crime, and I cannot
+doubt but that I shall receive justice all the sooner for this accident.
+You need not take the trouble to bind me; I shall not attempt to
+escape."</p>
+
+<p>His captors, however, among whom he recognized with some uneasiness more
+than one of those who had been engaged in lynching him, persisted in
+binding him upon a bench, in no very comfortable position, and then set
+a guard over him for the remainder of the night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CONDEMNED TO DEATH.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Early the next morning Virginia Villars overheard the soldiers
+conversing on the piazza. The mention of a certain name arrested her
+attention. She listened: what they said terrified her. Penn Hapgood had
+been apprehended during the night, and his trial by drum-head
+court-martial was at that moment proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Pepperill!" she called, in a scarcely audible whisper; and, looking
+around, Daniel saw her alarmed face at the window.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel was one of the soldiers who had been detailed to guard the house.
+Strongly against his will, he had been compelled to enlist, in order to
+avoid the persecutions of his secession neighbors. Such was already
+becoming the fate of many whose hearts were not in the cause, whose
+sympathies were all with the government against which they were forced
+to rebel.</p>
+
+<p>"What, marm?" said Pepperill, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true what that man is saying?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the schoolmaster? I&mdash;I'm afeard it ar true! They've cotched him,
+marm, and there's men that's swore the death of him, marm."</p>
+
+<p>Virginia flew to inform her father. The old man rose up instantly,
+forgetting his blindness, forgetting his own feebleness, and the danger
+into which he would have rushed, to go and plead Penn's cause.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, perhaps, for him, the guard crossed their muskets before
+him, refusing to let him pass. Their orders were, not only to defend the
+house, but also to prevent his leaving it.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will go alone!" said Carl, who was to have been his guide. And
+scarcely waiting to receive instructions from Virginia and her father,
+he ran out, slipping between the soldiers, who had no orders to detain
+any person but the minister, and ran to the Academy.</p>
+
+<p>The mockery of a trial was over. The prisoner had been condemned. The
+penalty pronounced against him was death. Already the noose was dangling
+from a tree, and some soldiers were bringing from the school-house a
+table to serve as a scaffold. Silas Ropes, who had a feather stuck in
+his cap, and wore an old rusty scabbard at his side, and flourished a
+sword, enjoying the title of "lieutenant," obtained for him through
+Bythewood's influence; Lysander Sprowl, who had been honored with a
+captaincy from the same source, and who, though a forger, and late a
+fugitive from justice, now boldly defied the power of the civil
+authorities to arrest him, trusting to that atrocious policy of the
+confederate government which virtually proclaimed to the robber and
+murderer, "Become, now, a traitor to your country, and all other crimes
+shall be forgiven you;"&mdash;these, and other persons of like character,
+appeared chiefly active in Penn's case. That they had no right whatever
+to constitute themselves a court-martial, and bring him to trial, they
+knew perfectly well. They had not waited even for a shadow of authority
+from their commanding officer. What they were about to do was nothing
+more nor less than murder.</p>
+
+<p>Penn, with his hands tied behind him, and surrounded by a violent
+rabble, some armed, and others unarmed, was already mounted upon the
+table, when Carl arrived, and attempted to force his way through the
+crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"Feller-citizens and soldiers!" cried Lieutenant Ropes, standing on a
+chair beside the scaffold, "this here man has jest been proved to be a
+traitor and a spy, and he is about to expatiate his guilt on the
+gallus."</p>
+
+<p>Two men then mounted the table, passed the noose over Penn's neck, drew
+it close, and leaped down again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Ropes, "if you've got any confession to make 'fore the table
+is jerked out from under ye, you can ease your mind. Only le' me
+suggest, if you don't mean to confess, you'd better hold yer tongue."</p>
+
+<p>Penn, pale, but perfectly self-possessed, expecting no mercy, no
+reprieve, made answer in a clear, strong voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I can't confess, for I am not guilty. I die an innocent man. I appeal
+to Heaven, before whose bar we must all appear, for the justice you deny
+me."</p>
+
+<p>In his shirt sleeves, his head uncovered, his feet bare, his naked
+throat enclosed by the murderous cord, his hands bound behind him, he
+stood awaiting his fate. Carl in the mean time struggled in vain to
+break through the ring of soldiers that surrounded the extemporized
+scaffold,&mdash;screamed in vain to obtain a hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him go, and you may hang me in his place!"</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers answered with a brutal laugh,&mdash;as if there would be any
+satisfaction in hanging him! But the offer of self-sacrifice on the part
+of the devoted Carl touched one heart, at least. Penn, who had
+maintained a firm demeanor up to this time, was almost unmanned by it.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you, dear Carl! Remember that I loved you. Be always honest
+and upright; then, if you die the victim of wrong, it will be your
+oppressors, not you, who will be most unhappy. Good by, dear Carl. Bear
+my farewell to those we love. Don't stay and see me die, I entreat you!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet Carl staid, sobbing with grief and rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you hurry up this business?" cried Lysander Sprowl, angrily,
+coming out of the school-house. "Somebody tie a handkerchief over his
+eyes, and get through some time to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, cap'm," said Ropes. "Make ready now, boys, and take away
+this table in a hurry, when I give the word."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, there! What's going on?" cried an unexpected voice, and a
+recruiting officer from the village made his appearance, riding up on a
+white horse.</p>
+
+<p>The summary proceedings were stayed, and the case explained. The man
+listened with an air of grim official importance, his coarse red
+countenance betraying not a gleam of sympathy with the prisoner. Yet
+being the superior in rank to any officer present (Silas called him
+"kunnel"), besides being the only one of them all who had been regularly
+commissioned by the confederate government, this man held Penn's fate in
+his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Hanging's too good for such scoundrels!" he said, frowning at the
+prisoner. "As for this particular case, there's only one thing to be
+said: his life shall be spared on only one condition."</p>
+
+<p>Carl's heart almost stood still, in his eagerness to listen. Even Penn
+felt a faint&mdash;a very faint&mdash;pulse of hope in his breast. The "kunnel"
+went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him take his choice&mdash;either to hang, or enlist. What do you say,
+youngster? Which do you prefer&mdash;the death of a traitor, or the glorious
+career of a soldier in the confederate army?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible for me, sir," said Penn, in a voice of deep feeling
+and unalterable conviction&mdash;"it is impossible for me to bear arms
+against my country!"</p>
+
+<p>"But the Confederate States shall be your country, and a country to be
+proud of!" said the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a citizen of the United States; to the United States I owe
+allegiance," said Penn. "So far from being a traitor, I am willing to
+die rather than appear one."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't enlist?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even to save your life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even to save my life!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then," growled the man, turning away, "if you will be such a fool, I've
+nothing more to say."</p>
+
+<p>So it only remained for Penn to submit quietly to his fate. The
+executioners laid hold of the table, and waited for the order to remove
+it.</p>
+
+<p>But just then Carl, breaking through the crowd, threw himself before the
+officer's horse.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Colonel Derring! hear me&mdash;von vord!"</p>
+
+<p>"Von vord!" repeated the officer, with a coarse laugh, mocking him.
+"What's that, you Dutchman?"</p>
+
+<p>"You vill let him go, and I shall wolunteer in his place!" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" The officer regarded him critically. Carl, though so young, was
+very sturdy. "You offer yourself as a substitute, eh, if I will spare
+his life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Carl!" cried Penn, "I forbid you! You shall not commit that sin for me!
+Better a thousand times that I should die than that you should be a
+rebel in arms against your country."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no country," answered Carl, ingeniously excusing himself. "I am
+vot this man says, a Tuchman. I vill enlisht mit him, and he vill shpare
+your life."</p>
+
+<p>"Boy, it's a bargain," said Colonel Derring, whose passion for obtaining
+recruits overruled every other consideration. "Cut that fellow's cords,
+lieutenant, and let him go. Come along with me, Dutchy."</p>
+
+<p>Ropes obeyed, and Penn, bewildered, almost stunned, by the sudden change
+in his destiny, saw himself released, and beheld, as in a dream, poor
+Carl marching off as his substitute to the recruiting station.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let me give you one word of advice," said Captain Sprowl in his
+ear. "Don't let another night find you within twenty miles of that
+halter there, if you wouldn't have your neck in it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me a safe conduct?" said Penn, who thought the advice
+excellent, and would have been only too glad to act upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"I've no authority," said Sprowl. "You must take care of yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Penn looked around upon the ferocious, disappointed faces watching him,
+and felt that he might about as well have been despatched in the first
+place, as to be let loose in the midst of such a pack of wolves
+thirsting for his blood. He did not despair, however, but, putting on
+his clothes, determined to make one final and desperate effort to
+escape.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE ESCAPE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Walking off quickly across the field towards Mrs. Sprowl's house, he
+turned suddenly aside from the path and plunged into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>He soon perceived that he was followed. A man&mdash;only one&mdash;came through
+the undergrowth. Penn stopped. "God forgive me!" he said within himself;
+"but this is more than human nature can bear!" He had been, as it were,
+smitten on one cheek and on the other also: it was time to smite back.
+He picked up a club: his nerves became like steel as he grasped it: his
+eyes flashed fire.</p>
+
+<p>The man advanced; he was unarmed. Suddenly Penn dropped his club, and
+uttered a cry of joy. It was his friend Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"What! the Quaker will fight?" said the farmer, with a grim smile.</p>
+
+<p>"That shows," said Penn, bursting into tears as he wrung the farmer's
+hand, "that I have been driven nearly insane!"</p>
+
+<p>"It shows that some of the insanity has been driven out of you!" replied
+Stackridge, beginning to have hopes of him. "If you had taken my pistol
+and used it freely in the first place, or at least shown a good will to
+use it, you'd have proved yourself a good deal more of a man in my
+estimation, and been quite as well off."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," murmured Penn, convinced that this passive submission to
+martyrdom was but a sorry part to play.</p>
+
+<p>"But now to business," said Stackridge. "You must get away as quickly
+and secretly as possible, unless you mean to stay and fight it out. I am
+here to help you. I have a horse in the woods here, at your disposal. I
+thought there might be such a thing as your slipping through their
+hands, and so I took this precaution. I will show you a bridle-road that
+will take you to the house of a friend of mine, who is a hearty
+Unionist. You can leave my horse with him. He will help you on to the
+house of some friend of his, who will do the same, and so you will
+manage to get out of the state. I advise you to travel by night, as a
+general thing; but just now it seems necessary that you should see a
+little hard riding by daylight. You'll find some luncheon in the
+saddlebags. When you get into some pretty thick woods, leave the road,
+and find a good place to tie up till night; then go on cautiously to my
+friend's house. I'll give you full directions, while we're finding the
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>They made haste to the spot where the animal was tied.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been well fed," said the farmer. "You will water him at the
+first brook you cross, and let him browse when you stop. Now just trade
+that coat for one that will make you look a little less like a Quaker
+schoolmaster."</p>
+
+<p>He had brought one of his own coats, which he made Penn put on, and then
+exchanged hats with him. Penn was admirably disguised. Brief, then, were
+the thanks he uttered from his overflowing heart, short the
+leave-takings. He was mounted. Stackridge led the horse through the
+bushes to the bridle-path.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't let the grass grow under your feet till you are at least
+five miles away. If you meet anybody, get along without words if you
+can; if you can't, let words come to blows as quick as you please, and
+then put faith in Dobbin's heels."</p>
+
+<p>Again, for the last time, he made Penn the offer of a pistol. There was
+no leisure for idle arguments on the subject. The weapon was accepted.
+The two wrung each other's hands in silence: there were tears in the
+eyes of both. Then Stackridge gave Dobbin a resounding slap, and the
+horse bounded away, bearing his rider swiftly out of sight in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>All this had passed so rapidly that Penn had scarcely time to think of
+any thing but the necessity of immediate flight. But during that
+solitary ride through the forest he had ample leisure for reflection. He
+thought of the mountain cave, whose gloomy but quiet shelter, whose dark
+but nevertheless humane and hospitable inmates he seemed to have quitted
+weeks ago, so crowded with experiences had been the few hours since last
+he shook Pomp and Cudjo by the hand. He thought of Virginia and her
+father, to visit whom for perhaps the last time he had incurred the risk
+of descending into the valley; whom now he felt, with a strangely
+swelling heart, that he might never see again. And he thought with
+grief, pity, and remorse of Carl, a rebel now for his sake.</p>
+
+<p>These things, and many more, agitated him as he spurred the farmer's
+horse along the narrow, shaded, lonesome path. He met an old man on
+horseback, with a bright-faced girl riding behind him on the crupper,
+who bade him a pleasant good morning, and pursued their way. Next came
+some boys driving mules laden with sacks of corn. At last Penn saw two
+men in butternut suits with muskets on their shoulders. He knew by their
+looks that they were secessionists hastening to join their friends in
+town. They regarded him suspiciously as he came galloping up. Penn
+perceived that some off-hand word was necessary in passing them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry on with those guns!" he cried; "they are wanted!"</p>
+
+<p>And he dashed away, as if his sole business was to hurry up guns for the
+confederate cause.</p>
+
+<p>He met with no other adventure that day. He followed Stackridge's
+directions implicitly, and at evening, leaving his horse tied in the
+woods, approached on foot the house to which he had been sent.</p>
+
+<p>He was cordially received by the same old man whom he had seen riding to
+town in the morning with a bright-faced girl clinging behind him. At a
+hint from Stackridge the man had hastily ridden home again, passing Penn
+at noon while he lay hidden in the woods; and here he was, honest,
+friendly, vigilant, to receive and protect his guest.</p>
+
+<p>"You did well," he said, "to turn off up the mountain; for I am not the
+only man that passed you there. You have been pursued. Three persons
+have gone on after you. I met them as I was going into town; they
+inquired of me if I had seen you, and when I got home I found they had
+passed here in search of you. They have not yet gone back."</p>
+
+<p>This was unpleasant news. Yet Penn was soon convinced that he had been
+extremely fortunate in thus throwing his pursuers off his track. It was
+far better that they should have gone on before him, than that they
+should be following close upon his heels.</p>
+
+<p>He staid with the farmer all night, and departed with him early the next
+morning to pursue his journey. It was not safe for him to keep the road,
+for he might at any moment meet his pursuers returning; accordingly, the
+old man showed him a circuitous route along the base of the mountains,
+which could be travelled only on foot, and by daylight.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I leave you," said his kind old guide, when they had reached the
+banks of a mountain stream. "Follow this run, and it will take you
+around to the road, about a mile this side of my brother's house.
+There's a bridge near which you can wait, when you get to it. If your
+pursuers go back past my house, then I will harness up and drive on to
+the bridge, and water my horse there. You will see me, and get in to
+ride, and I will take you to my brother's, and make some arrangement for
+helping you on still farther to night."</p>
+
+<p>So they parted; the lonely fugitive feeling that the kindness of a few
+such men, scattered like salt through the state, was enough to redeem it
+from the fate of Sodom, which otherwise, by its barbarism and injustice,
+it would have seemed to deserve.</p>
+
+<p>Following the stream in its windings through a wilderness of thickets
+and rocks, he reached the bridge about the middle of the afternoon. His
+progress had been leisurely. The day was warm, bright, and tranquil. The
+stream poured over ledges, or gushed among mossy stones, or tumbled down
+jagged rocks in flashing cascades. Its music filled him with memories of
+home, with love that swelled his heart to tears, with longings for peace
+and rest. Its coolness and beauty made a little Sabbath in his soul, a
+pause of holy calm, in the midst of the fear and tumult that lay before
+and behind him.</p>
+
+<p>During that long, solitary ramble he had pondered much the great
+question which had of late agitated his mind&mdash;the question which, in
+peaceful days, he had thought settled with his own conscience forever.
+But days of stern experience play sad havoc with theories not founded in
+experience. In all the ordinary emergencies of life Penn had found the
+doctrine of non-resistance to evil, of overcoming evil with good,
+beautiful and sublime. But had he not the morning before given way to a
+natural impulse, when he seized a club, firmly resolved to oppose force
+with force? The recollection of that incident had led him into a
+singular train of reasoning.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he said, "that it is still the highest doctrine. But am I
+equal to it? Can I, under all circumstances, live up to it? I have seen
+something of the power and recklessness of the faction that would
+destroy my country. Would I wish to see my country submit? Never! Such
+submission would be the most unchristian thing it could do. It would be
+the abandonment of the cause of liberty; it would be to deliver up the
+whole land to the blighting despotism of slavery; it would postpone the
+millennium I hope for thousands of years. I see no other way than that
+the nation must resist; and what I would have the nation do I should be
+prepared, if called upon, to do myself. If this government were a
+Christian government I would have it use only Christian weapons, and no
+doubt those would be effectual for its preservation. But there never was
+a Christian government yet, and probably there will not be for an age or
+two. Governments are all founded on human policy, selfishness, and
+force. Or if <i>I</i> was entirely a Christian, then <i>I</i> would have no
+temptation, and no right, to use any but spiritual weapons. But until I
+attain to these, may I not use such weapons as I have?"</p>
+
+<p>These thoughts revolved slowly and somewhat confusedly in the young
+man's mind, when an incident occurred to bring form, sharply and
+suddenly, out of that chaos.</p>
+
+<p>He had reached the bridge. He looked up and down the road, and saw no
+human being. It was hardly time to expect the farmer yet; so he climbed
+down upon some dry stones in the bed of the stream, where he could watch
+for his coming, and be at the same time hidden from view and sheltered
+from the sun.</p>
+
+<p>He had not been long in that situation when he heard the sounds of
+hoofs. It was not his white-haired farmer whom he saw approaching, but
+two men on horseback. They were coming from the same direction in which
+he was looking for the old man. As they drew near, he discovered that
+one was a negro. The face of the other he recognized shortly afterwards.
+It was that of Mr. Augustus Bythewood, who was evidently taking
+advantage of the fine weather to make a little journey, accompanied by a
+black servant.</p>
+
+<p>Penn's heart contracted within him as he thought of his friend Pomp, and
+of the wrongs he had suffered at this man's hands. He thought of his own
+safety too, and crept under the bridge. He had time, however, before he
+disappeared, to catch a glimpse of three other horsemen coming from the
+north. His heart beat fast, for he knew in an instant that these were
+his pursuers returning.</p>
+
+<p>He had already prepared for himself a good hiding-place, in a cavity
+between the two logs that supported the bridge. Upon the butment, close
+under the trembling planks, he lay, when Bythewood and his man rode
+over. The dust rattled upon him through the cracks, and sifted down into
+the stream. The thundering and shaking of the planks ceased, but he
+listened in vain to hear the hoofs of the two horses clattering off in
+the distance. To his alarm he perceived that Bythewood and his man had
+halted on the other side of the bridge, and were going to water their
+horses in the bed of the stream. Clashing and rattling down the steep,
+stony banks, and plashing into the water, came the foam-streaked
+animals. The negro rode one, and led the other by the bridle. There he
+sat in the saddle, watching the eager drinking of the thirsty beasts,
+and pulling up their heads occasionally to prevent them from swallowing
+too fast or too much; all in full sight of the concealed schoolmaster.
+Bythewood, after dismounting, also walked down to the edge of the stream
+in full view.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the situation when the three horsemen from the north arrived.
+They all rode their animals down the bank into the water. Penn had not
+been mistaken as to their character and business. Two of them were the
+men who had adjusted the noose to his neck the day before. The third was
+no less a personage than Captain Lysander Sprowl. Penn lay breathless
+and trembling in his hiding-place; for those men were but a few yards
+from him, and all in such plain view that it seemed inevitable but they
+must discover him.</p>
+
+<p>"What luck?" said Bythewood, carelessly, seating himself on a rock and
+lighting a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"The rascal has given us the slip," said Lysander, from his horse. "I
+believe we have passed him, and so, on our way back, we'll search the
+house of every man suspected of Union sentiments. He started off with
+Stackridge's horse, and we tracked him easy at first, but to-day we
+haven't once heard of him."</p>
+
+<p>"It's my opinion he don't intend to leave the state," said Bythewood,
+coolly smoking. "Sam, walk those horses up and down the road till I call
+you: I want a little private talk with the captain."</p>
+
+<p>The captain's attendants likewise took the hint, reined their horses up
+out of the water, rode over the shaking bridge and Penn's head under it,
+and proceeded to search the next house for him, while Sprowl was
+conversing with Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go over the other side," said Bythewood, "where we can be in the
+shade. The sun is powerful hot."</p>
+
+<p>They accordingly walked over Penn's head a moment later, climbed down
+the same rocks he had descended, picked their way along the dry stones
+to the bridge, and took their seats in its shadow beneath him, and so
+near that he could easily have reached over and taken the captain's cap
+from his head!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>UNDER THE BRIDGE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"The colonel wasn't aware of your sentiments," said Sprowl, "or he
+wouldn't have let him off for fifty substitutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Or if you and Ropes," retorted Bythewood, "had only put through the job
+with the celerity I had a right to expect of you, he would have been
+strung up before the colonel had a chance to interfere." And he puffed
+impatiently a cloud of smoke, whose fragrance was wafted to the nostrils
+of the listener under the planks.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lysander, accepting a cigar from his friend, "if he gets
+out of the state,"&mdash;biting off the end of it,&mdash;"and never shows himself
+here again,"&mdash;rubbing a match on the stones,&mdash;"you ought to be
+satisfied. If he stays, or comes back,"&mdash;smoking,&mdash;"then we'll just
+finish the little job we begun."</p>
+
+<p>Penn lay still as death. What his thoughts were I will not attempt to
+say; but it must have given him a curious sensation to hear the question
+of his life or death thus coolly discussed by his would-be assassins
+over their cigars.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you bound?" asked Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"O, a little pleasure excursion," said Bythewood. "There's to be some
+lively work at home this evening, and I thought I'd better be away."</p>
+
+<p>"What's going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"The colonel is going to make some arrests. About fifteen or twenty
+Union-shriekers will find themselves snapped up before they think of it.
+Stackridge among the first. 'Twas he, confound him! that helped the
+schoolmaster off."</p>
+
+<p>"Has the colonel orders to make the arrests?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but he takes the responsibility. It's a military necessity, and the
+government will bear him out in it. Every man that has been known to
+drill in the Union Club, and has refused to deliver up his arms, must be
+secured. There's no other way of putting down these dangerous fellows,"
+said Augustus, running his jewelled fingers through his curls.</p>
+
+<p>"But why do you prefer to be away when the fun is going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"There may be somebody's name in the list on whose behalf I might be
+expected to intercede."</p>
+
+<p>"Not old Villars!" exclaimed Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, old Villars!" laughed Augustus,&mdash;"if by that lively epithet you
+mean to designate your venerable father-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>"By George, though, Gus! ain't it almost too bad? What will folks say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Little care I! Old and blind as he is, he is really one of the most
+dangerous enemies to our cause. His influence is great with a certain
+class, and he never misses an opportunity to denounce secession. That he
+openly talks treason, and harbors and encourages traitors arming against
+the confederate government, is cause sufficient for arresting him with
+the others."</p>
+
+<p>"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better
+for our plans to have him out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife
+will welcome you back again."</p>
+
+<p>"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably
+on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"</p>
+
+<p>There was another who saw too,&mdash;a sudden flash of light, as it were,
+revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the
+friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes,
+glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will
+secure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, we
+will merely promise to do everything we can for him&mdash;and do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have what you can get of it,&mdash;I don't care for the property!"
+replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man,
+foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into
+Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of
+until we have whipped the north."</p>
+
+<p>"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."</p>
+
+<p>So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on the
+stones,&mdash;Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge of
+the butment within an inch of Penn's leg.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they passed out from the
+shadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidential
+discourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy.
+They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of each
+other,&mdash;Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastened
+to rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE RETURN INTO DANGER.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Trembling with excitement Penn got down from the butment, and peering
+over the bank, saw his enemies in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>What was to be done? Had he thought only of his own safety, his way
+would have been clear. But could he abandon his friends? forsake
+Virginia and her father when the toils of villany were tightening around
+them? leave Stackridge and his compatriots to their fate, when it might
+be in his power to forewarn and save them?</p>
+
+<p>How he, alone, suspected, pursued, and sorely in need of assistance
+himself, was to render assistance to others, he did not know. He did not
+pause to consider. He put his faith in the overruling providence of God.</p>
+
+<p>"With God's aid," he said, "I will save them or sacrifice myself."</p>
+
+<p>As for fighting, should fighting prove necessary, his mind was made up.
+The conversation of the villains under the bridge had settled that
+question.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, therefore, of waiting for the friend who was to help him on his
+journey, he leaped up from under the bridge, and set out at a fast walk
+to follow his pursuers back to town.</p>
+
+<p>He had travelled but a mile or two when he saw the farmer driving
+towards him in a wagon.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you lost? are you crazy?" cried the astonished old man. "You are
+going in the wrong direction! The men have been to my house, searched
+it, and passed on. Get in! get in!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Penn; "but, Mr. Ellerton, you must turn back."</p>
+
+<p>He briefly related his adventure under the bridge. The old man listened
+with increasing amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right! you are right!" he said. "We must get word to
+Stackridge, somehow!" And turning his wagon about, he drove back over
+the road as fast as his horse could carry them.</p>
+
+<p>It was sunset when they reached his house. There they unharnessed his
+horse and saddled him. The old man mounted.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best," he said, "to see Stackridge, or some of them, in
+season. If I fail, may be you will succeed. But you'd better keep in the
+woods till dark."</p>
+
+<p>Ellerton rode off at a fast trot. Penn hastened to the woods, where
+Stackridge's horse was still concealed. The animal had been recently fed
+and watered, and was ready for a hard ride. The bridle was soon on his
+head, and Penn on his back, and he was making his way through the woods
+again towards home.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it was dark, Penn came out into the open road; nor did he
+turn aside into the bridle-path when he reached it, because he wished to
+avoid travelling in company with Ellerton, who was to take that route.
+He also supposed that Sprowl's party would be returning that way. In
+this he was mistaken. Riding at a gallop through the darkness, his heart
+beating anxiously as the first twinkling lights of the town began to
+appear, he suddenly became aware of three horsemen riding but a short
+distance before him. They had evidently been drinking something stronger
+than water at the house of some good secessionist on the road, perhaps
+to console themselves for the loss of the schoolmaster,&mdash;for these were
+the excellent friends who were so eager to meet with him again! They
+were merry and talkative, and Penn, not ambitious of cultivating their
+acquaintance, checked his horse.</p>
+
+<p>It was too late. They had already perceived his approach, and hailed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>What should he do? To wheel about and flee would certainly excite their
+suspicions; they would be sure to pursue him; and though he might
+escape, his arrival in town would be thus perhaps fatally delayed. The
+arrests might be even at that moment taking place.</p>
+
+<p>He reflected, "There are but three of them; I may fight my way through,
+if it comes to that."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly he rode boldly up to the assassins, and in a counterfeit
+voice, answered their hail. He was but little known to either of them,
+and there was a chance that, in the darkness, they might fail to
+recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Where you from?" demanded Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"From a little this side of Bald Mountain," said Penn,&mdash;which was true
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Where bound?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see for yourself?" said Penn, assuming a reckless,
+independent air. "I am following my horse's nose, and that is going
+pretty straight into Curryville."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad of your company," said Sprowl, riding gayly alongside. "What's
+your business in town, stranger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied Penn, "I don't mind telling you that my business is to
+see if I and my horse can find something to do for old Tennessee."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! cavalry?" suggested Lysander, well pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"I should prefer cavalry service to any other," answered Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"There's where you right," said Sprowl; and he proceeded to enlighten
+Penn on the prospects of raising a cavalry company in Curryville.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet any person on the road, travelling north?"</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a person?"</p>
+
+<p>"A young feller, rather slim, brown hair, blue eyes, with a half-hung
+look, a perfect specimen of a sneaking abolition schoolmaster."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't remember meeting any such a person," said Penn, as if
+consulting his memory. "I met <i>two</i> men, though, this side of old Bald.
+One of them was a rather gentlemanly-looking fellow; but I think his
+hair was black and curly."</p>
+
+<p>"The schoolmaster's har is wavy, and purty dark, I call it," said one of
+Sprowl's companions.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have been the man!" said Lysander, suddenly stopping his horse.
+"What sort of a chap was with him? Did he look like a Union-shrieker?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now I think of it," said Penn, "if that man wasn't a Unionist at heart,
+I am greatly mistaken. His sympathies are with the Lincolnites, I know
+by his looks!" He neglected to add, however, that the man was black.</p>
+
+<p>Sprowl was excited.</p>
+
+<p>"It was some tory, piloting the schoolmaster! Boys, we must wheel about!
+It never'll do for us to go home as long as we can hear of him alive in
+the state. Remember the pay promised, if we catch him."</p>
+
+<p>"Luck to you!" cried Penn, riding on, while Sprowl turned back in
+ludicrous pursuit of his own worthy friend, Mr. Augustus Bythewood, and
+his negro man Sam.</p>
+
+<p>Penn lost no time laughing at the joke. His heart was too full of
+trouble for that. It had seemed to him, at each moment of delay, that
+the blind old minister was even then being torn from his home&mdash;that he
+could hear Virginia's sobs of distress and cries for help. He urged his
+horse into a gallop once more, and struck into a path across the fields.
+He rode to the edge of the orchard, dismounted, tied the horse, and
+hastened on foot to the house.</p>
+
+<p>The guard was gone from the piazza, and all seemed quiet about the
+premises. The kitchen was dark. He advanced quickly, but noiselessly, to
+the door. It was open. He went in.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby!" No answer. "Carl! Carl!" he called in a louder voice. No Carl
+replied. Then he remembered&mdash;what it seemed so strange that he could
+even for an instant forget&mdash;that Carl was in the rebel ranks, for his
+sake.</p>
+
+<p>He had seen a light in the sitting-room. He found the door, and knocked.
+No answer came. He opened it softly, and entered. There burned the lamp
+on the table&mdash;there stood the vacant chairs&mdash;he was alone in the
+deserted room.</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia!"</p>
+
+<p>He started at his own voice, which sounded, in the hollow apartment,
+like the whisper of a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>He was proceeding still farther, wondering at the stillness, terrified
+by his own forebodings, feeling in his appalled heart the contrast
+between this night, and this strange, furtive visit, and the happy
+nights, and the many happy visits, he had made to his dear friends there
+only a few short months before,&mdash;pausing to assure himself that he was
+not walking in a dream,&mdash;when he heard a footstep, a flutter, and saw,
+spring towards him through the door, pale as an apparition, Virginia.
+Speechless with emotion, she could not utter his name, but she testified
+the joy with which she welcomed him by throwing herself, not into his
+arms, but upon them, as he extended his hands to greet her.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?" said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"O, my father!" said the girl. And she bowed her face upon his arm,
+clinging to him as if he were her brother, her only support.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" asked Penn, alarmed, and trembling with sympathy for that
+delicate, agitated, fair young creature, whom sorrow had so changed
+since he saw her last.</p>
+
+<p>"They have taken him&mdash;the soldiers!" she said.</p>
+
+<p>And by these words Penn knew that he had come too late.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>STACKRIDGE'S COAT AND HAT GET ARRESTED.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The outrage had been committed not more than twenty minutes before. Toby
+had followed his old master, to see what was to be done with him, and
+Virginia and her sister were in the street before the house, awaiting
+the negro's return, when Penn arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"You could have done no good, even if you had come sooner," said
+Virginia. "There is but one man who could have prevented this cruelty."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not send for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! he left town this very day. He is a secessionist; but he has
+great influence, and appears very friendly to us."</p>
+
+<p>Penn started, and looked at her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>"His name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Augustus Bythewood."</p>
+
+<p>Penn recoiled.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia, that man is thy worst enemy? I did not tell thee how I
+learned that the arrests were to be made. But I will!" And he told her
+all.</p>
+
+<p>"O," said she, "if I had only believed what my heart has always said of
+that man, and trusted less to my eyes and ears, he would never have
+deceived me! If he, then, is an enemy, what hope is there? O, my
+father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not despair!" answered Penn, as cheerfully as he could. "Something
+may be done. Stackridge and his friends may have escaped. I will go and
+see if I can hear any thing of them. Have faith in our heavenly Father,
+my poor girl! be patient! be strong! All, I am sure, will yet be well."</p>
+
+<p>"But you too are in danger! You must not go!" she exclaimed,
+instinctively detaining him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in greater danger here, perhaps, than elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"True, true! Go to your negro friends in the mountain&mdash;there is yet
+time! go!" and she hurriedly pushed him from her.</p>
+
+<p>"When I find that nothing can be done for thy father, then I will return
+to Pomp and Cudjo&mdash;not before."</p>
+
+<p>And he glided out of the back door just as Salina entered from the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>He left the horse where he had tied him, and hastened on foot to
+Stackridge's house.</p>
+
+<p>He approached with great caution. There was a light burning in the
+house, as on other summer evenings at that hour. The negroes&mdash;for
+Stackridge was a slaveholder&mdash;had retired to their quarters. There were
+no indications of any disturbance having taken place. Penn reconnoitred
+carefully, and, perceiving no one astir about the premises, advanced
+towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt!" shouted a voice of authority.</p>
+
+<p>And immediately two men jumped out from the well-curb, within which they
+had been concealed. Others at the same time rushed to the spot from dark
+corners, where they had lain in wait. Almost in an instant, and before
+he could recover from his astonishment, Penn found himself surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>"You are our prisoner, Mr. Stackridge!" And half a dozen bayonets
+converged at the focus of his breast.</p>
+
+<p>The young man comprehended the situation in a moment. Stackridge had not
+been arrested; he was absent from home; these ambushed soldiers had been
+awaiting his return; and they had mistaken the schoolmaster for the
+farmer.</p>
+
+<p>The night was just light enough to enable them to recognize the coat and
+hat which had been Stackridge's, and which Penn still wore as a
+disguise. Features they could not discern so easily. The prisoner made
+no resistance, for that would have been useless; no outcry, for that
+would have revealed to them their mistake. He submitted without a word;
+and they marched him away, just as his supposed wife and children flew
+to the door, calling frantically, "Father! father!" and lamenting his
+misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>By proclaiming his own identity, the prisoner would have gained nothing,
+probably, but a halter on the spot. On the other hand, by accepting the
+part forced upon him, he was at least gaining time. It might be, too,
+that he was rendering an important service to the real Stackridge by
+thus withdrawing the soldiers from their ambush, and giving him an
+opportunity to reach home and learn the danger he had escaped.</p>
+
+<p>These considerations passed rapidly through his mind. He slouched his
+hat over his eyes, and marched with sullen, stubborn mien. In this
+manner he was taken to the village, and conducted to an old storehouse,
+which had lately been turned into a guard-house by the confederate
+authorities.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great crowd around the dimly-lighted door, and other
+prisoners, similarly escorted, were going in. Amid the press and hurry,
+Penn passed the sentinels still unrecognized. He immediately found
+himself wedged in between the wall and a number of Tennessee Union men,
+some terrified into silence, others enraged and defiant, but all
+captives like himself.</p>
+
+<p>In the farther end of the room, at a desk behind the counter, with
+candles at each side, sat the confederate colonel to whom Penn owed his
+life. He seemed to be receiving the reports of those who had conducted
+the arrests, and to be examining the prisoners. Beside him sat his aids
+and clerks. Before him Penn knew that he must soon appear. He was in
+darkness and disguise as yet, but he could not long avoid facing the
+light and the eyes of those who knew him well. What, then, would be his
+fate? Would he be retained a prisoner, like the rest, or delivered over
+to the mob that sought his life? He had time to decide upon a course
+which he hoped might gain him some favor.</p>
+
+<p>Taking advantage of the shadow and confusion in which he was, he slipped
+off his disguise, and, elbowing his way through the crowd of prisoners,
+appeared, hat in hand and coat on arm, before the interior guard, and
+demanded to speak with the commanding officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, who are you?" said the colonel, failing, at first, to recognize
+him. Upon which Mr. Ropes, who was at his side, swore a great oath that
+it was the schoolmaster himself.</p>
+
+<p>"But I have had no report of his arrest," cried the colonel. "How came
+you here, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to place myself under your protection," said Penn. "You received
+a substitute in my place, and ordered me to be set at liberty. But your
+commands have been disregarded; I have been hunted for two days; and
+men, calling themselves confederate soldiers, are still pursuing me.
+Under these circumstances I have thought it best to appeal to you,
+relying upon your honor as a gentleman and an officer."</p>
+
+<p>"But how came you here? Who brought in this fellow?"</p>
+
+<p>Nobody could answer that question, although the leader of the party that
+had brought him in was at the very moment on the spot, waiting to make
+his report of Stackridge's arrest.</p>
+
+<p>As soon, therefore, as Penn could gain a hearing, he continued.</p>
+
+<p>"I came in, sir, with a crowd of soldiers and prisoners, none of whom
+recognized me. The sentinels no doubt supposed I was arrested, and so
+let me pass."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, you have done a bold thing, and perhaps the best thing for
+you. Since you have voluntarily delivered yourself up, I shall feel
+bound to protect you. But I have only one of two alternatives to offer
+you&mdash;the same I offer to each of these worthy gentlemen here, giving
+them their choice. Take the oath of allegiance to the confederate
+government, and volunteer; that is one condition."</p>
+
+<p>"I am a northern man," replied Penn, "and owe allegiance to the United
+States; so that condition it is impossible for me to accept."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; I'll give you time to think of it. In the mean while, my
+only means of affording the protection you demand will be to retain you
+a prisoner. Guard, take this man below."</p>
+
+<p>Not another word was said; and, indeed, Penn had already gained more
+than he hoped for, with the eyes of Lieutenant Ropes glaring on him so
+murderously. He was conducted to a stairway that led to the cellar, and
+ordered to descend. He obeyed, marching down between two soldiers on
+guard at the door, and two more at the foot of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was a lugubrious subterranean apartment, lighted by a single lantern
+suspended from a beam. By its dim rays he discovered the figures of half
+a dozen fellow-prisoners; and, in the midst of the group, he recognized
+one, the sight of whom caused him to forget all his own misfortunes in
+an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mr. Villars! I have found you at last!" he exclaimed, grasping
+the old clergyman's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Penn, is it you?" said the blind old man.</p>
+
+<p>He was seated on a dry goods box. Trembling and feeble, he arose to
+greet his young friend, with a noble courtesy very beautiful and
+touching under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell thee," said Penn, in a choked voice, "how grieved I am to
+see thee here!"</p>
+
+<p>"And grieved am I that you should see me here!" Mr. Villars replied. "I
+hoped you were a hundred miles away. I was never sorry to have your
+company till now! How does it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>Penn made him sit down again, giving him Stackridge's coat for a
+cushion, and related briefly his adventures.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very singular," said the old man, thoughtfully. "It seems almost
+providential that you are here."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is so," said Penn. "I think I am here because I may be of
+service to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" replied the old man, with a tender smile, "my life is of but
+little value compared with yours. I am a worn-out servant; my day of
+usefulness is past; I am ready to go home. I do not speak repiningly,"
+he added. "If I can serve my country or my God by suffering&mdash;if nothing
+remains for me but that&mdash;then I will cheerfully suffer. Our heavenly
+Father orders all things; and I am content. All will be well with us, if
+we are obedient children; all will yet be well with our poor country, if
+it is true to itself and to Him."</p>
+
+<p>"O, do not say thy day of usefulness is past, as long as thou canst
+speak such words!" said Penn, deeply moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, I have faith! Even in this darkest hour of my life and of my
+country, I think I have more faith than ever. And I have love, too&mdash;love
+even for those violent men who have thrown us into this dungeon. They
+know not what they do. They act in ignorance and passion. They seek to
+destroy our dear old government; but they will only destroy what they
+are striving so madly to build up."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said one of the prisoners, "the institution will be ruined by
+those very men! They are worse than the abolitionists themselves; and I
+hate 'em worse!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hate their errors, Captain Grudd, hate their crimes, but hate no man,"
+Mr. Villars softly replied.</p>
+
+<p>"And you would have us submit to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Submit, when you can do no better. But even for their sakes, even for
+the love of them, my friend, resist their crimes when you can. No man
+will stand by and see a maniac murder his wife and children. It will be
+better for the poor maddened wretch himself to prevent him; don't you
+think so, Penn?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Penn, who knew that the argument was meant for himself, not
+for the rest. "I am thoroughly convinced. You were always right on that
+subject; and I was always wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"I perceive," said the old man, "that you have had experience. It is not
+I that have convinced you; it is the logic of events."</p>
+
+<p>One by one, the prisoners from above followed Penn down the dismal
+stairs. Only now and then a fainthearted Unionist consented to regain
+his liberty by taking the oath of allegiance, and "volunteering." At
+length the room above was cleared, and no more prisoners arrived. Penn,
+who had kept anxious watch for his friend Stackridge, was congratulating
+himself upon the perfect success of his stratagem, when the corporal who
+had brought him in came rushing down the stairs, accompanied by
+Lieutenant Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"Stackridge!" he called, searching among the prisoners; "is Medad
+Stackridge here?"</p>
+
+<p>No man had seen him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I tell you," said the corporal to Silas, "he is hid somewhere up
+stairs, or else he has escaped; for I can swear I arrested him."</p>
+
+<p>"I can swear you was drunk," said Silas, much disgusted. "You have let
+the wust man of the lot slip through your fingers; for it's certain he
+ain't here."</p>
+
+<p>Penn trembled for a minute. But both Ropes and the corporal passed him
+without a suspicion of what was agitating him; and he felt immensely
+relieved when they returned up the stairs, and the mystery remained
+unexplained.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners in the cellar were about twelve in number. Nearly all were
+sturdy, earnest men. Penn noticed that they were not cast down by their
+misfortunes, but that they whispered among themselves, exchanging
+glances of intelligence and defiance. At length Captain Grudd came to
+him, and taking him aside, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, professor, what do you think of the situation?"</p>
+
+<p>"We seem to be at the mercy of the villains," replied Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so much at their mercy either, if we choose to be men! What we want
+to know is, will you join us? And if there should be a little fighting
+to do, will you help do it?"</p>
+
+<p>Penn grasped his hand. "Show me that we have any chance of escape, and I
+am with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would come to it at last!" Grudd smiled grimly. "What we
+want, to begin with, is a few handy weapons. But we have all been
+disarmed. Have you anything? I noticed they did not search you, probably
+because you came voluntarily and gave yourself up."</p>
+
+<p>"I have Stackridge's pistol. It is in the coat Mr. Villars is sitting
+on."</p>
+
+<p>Grudd's eyes lighted up at this unexpected good news. "It will come in
+play! We must shoot or strangle these fellows, and have their
+guns,"&mdash;with a glance at the soldiers on guard.</p>
+
+<p>"But the room up stairs is full of soldiers, and there is a strong guard
+posted outside, probably surrounding the building."</p>
+
+<p>"We will have as little to do with them as possible. Young man, I have a
+secret for you. Do you know whose property this is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Barber Jim's, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know there's a secret passage from this cellar into the
+cellar under Jim's shop? It was dug by Jim himself, as a hiding-place
+for his wife and children. He had bought them, but the heirs of their
+former owner had set up a claim to them. After that matter was settled,
+he showed Stackridge the place; and that's the way we came to make use
+of it. We stored our guns in the passage, and came through into this
+cellar at night to consult and drill. The store being shut, and the
+windows all fastened and boarded up, made a quiet place of it. As good
+luck would have it, the night before the military took possession, Jim
+warned us, and we carefully put back every stone in the wall, and left.
+But some of our guns are still in the passage, if they have not been
+discovered. We have only to open the wall again to get at them. But
+before that can be done, the guard must be disposed of."</p>
+
+<p>Penn, who had listened with intense interest to this recital, drew a
+long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the passage behind the spot where Mr. Villars is sitting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Within three feet of the box."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I fear it is discovered. I heard a noise behind that wall not ten
+minutes ago."</p>
+
+<p>Grudd started. "Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be Jim himself; or else we have been betrayed."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the secret known to many?"</p>
+
+<p>"To all our club, and one besides," said Grudd, frowning anxiously.
+"Stackridge made a mistake; I told him so!"</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were drilling here that night when Dutch Carl came to tell us you
+were in danger. Stackridge said he knew the boy, and would trust him. So
+he brought him in here. And Carl is now a rebel volunteer."</p>
+
+<p>"With him your secret is safe!" Penn hastened to assure the captain.
+"Stackridge was right. Carl&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused suddenly, looking at the stairs. Even while the boy's name was
+on his lips, the boy himself was entering the cellar. He carried a
+musket. He wore the confederate uniform. He was accompanied by Gad and
+an officer. They had come to relieve the guard. The men who had
+previously been on duty at the foot of the stairs retired with the
+officer, and Gad and Carl remained in their place.</p>
+
+<p>Penn at the sight was filled with painful solicitude. To have seen his
+young friend and pupil shoulder a confederate musket, knowing that it
+was the love of him that made him a rebel, would alone have been grief
+enough. How much worse, then, to see him placed here in a position where
+it might be necessary, in Grudd's opinion, to "shoot or strangle" him!
+But having once exchanged glances with the boy, Penn's mind was set at
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>"He has kept your secret," he said to Grudd. "He is very shrewd; and if
+we need help, he will help us."</p>
+
+<p>But the noise Penn had heard behind the wall was troubling the captain.
+They retired to that part of the cellar. They had been there but a short
+time when a very distinct knock was heard on the stones. It sounded like
+a signal. Grudd responded, striking the wall with his heel as he leaned
+his back against it. Then followed a low whistle in the passage. The
+captain's dark features lighted up.</p>
+
+<p>"We are safe!" he whispered in Penn's ear. "It is Stackridge himself!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE FLIGHT OF THE PRISONERS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Then commenced strategy. The prisoners gathered in a group before the
+closed passage, and talked loud, while Grudd established a communication
+with Stackridge. In the course of an hour a single stone in the wall had
+been removed. Through the aperture thus formed a bottle was introduced.
+This Grudd pretended afterwards to take from his pocket; and having
+(apparently) drank, he offered it to his friends. All drank, or appeared
+to drink, in a manner that provoked Gad's thirst. He vowed that it was
+too bad that anything good should moisten the lips of tory prisoners
+while a soldier like him went thirsty.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw the time, Gad," said the captain, "when I wouldn't share a
+bottle with you, and I will now."</p>
+
+<p>Gad held his gun with one hand and grasped the bottle with the other.
+Penn seized the moment when his eyes were directed upwards at the cobweb
+festoons that adorned the cellar, and the sound of gurgling was in his
+throat, to whisper in Carl's ear,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Appear to drink, and by and by pass the bottle up stairs."</p>
+
+<p>Carl understood the game in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you fish!" he said, in the midst of Gad's potation. "Leafe a
+little trop for me, vill you?"</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before the torrent in Gad's throat ceased its
+murmuring, and he removed his eyes from the cobwebs. Then, smacking his
+lips, and remarking that it was the right sort of stuff, he passed the
+bottle to Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's the fish this time?" said he, enviously, after Carl had made
+believe swallow for a few seconds.</p>
+
+<p>He snatched the bottle, and was drinking as before, when the guard
+above, hearing what passed, called for a taste.</p>
+
+<p>"You shust vait a minute till Gad trinks it all up, then you shall pe
+velcome to vot ish left," said Carl. And, possessing himself of the
+bottle, he handed it up to his comrades.</p>
+
+<p>All the soldiers above were asleep except the sentinels. They drank
+freely, and returned the bottle to Gad. He had not finished it before he
+began to be overcome by drowsiness, its contents having been drugged for
+the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>He sat down on the stairs, and soon slid off upon the ground. Carl, who
+had not in reality swallowed a drop, followed his example. Their guns
+were then taken from them. Penn stole softly up the stairs, and
+reconnoitred while Grudd and his companions opened the passage in the
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>"All asleep!" Penn whispered, descending. "Carl!"</p>
+
+<p>Carl opened one eye, with a droll expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wery!" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you stay here, or go with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"You vill take me prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"Say you vill plow my brains out if I say vun vord, or make vun noise."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come! there's no time for fooling, Carl!"</p>
+
+<p>"It ish no vooling!" And Carl insisted on Penn's making the threat.
+"Veil, then, I vill vake up and go 'long mit you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Villars had been for some time sleeping soundly; for it was now long
+past midnight, and weariness had overcome him. Penn awoke him; but the
+old man refused to escape. "Go without me. I shall be too great a burden
+for you." But not one of his fellow-prisoners would consent to leave him
+behind; and, listening to their expostulations, he at length arose to
+accompany them.</p>
+
+<p>Stackridge was in the passage, with the old man Ellerton, whom Penn had
+sent to warn him. They had brought a supply of ammunition for the guns,
+which they had loaded and placed ready for use. Penn, supporting and
+guiding the old minister, was the first to pass through into the cellar
+under Jim's shop. Stackridge, preceding them with a lantern, greeted
+their escape with silent and grim exultation. Carl came next. Then, one
+by one, the others followed, each grasping his gun; the rays of the
+lantern lighting up their determined faces, as they emerged from the low
+passage, and stood erect, an eager, whispering group, around Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>Brief the consultation. Their plans were soon formed. Leaving Gad asleep
+in the cellar behind them; the guard asleep, the soldiers all asleep, in
+the room above; the sentinels outside the old storehouse keeping watch,
+pacing to and fro around the cellar, in which not a prisoner
+remained,&mdash;Stackridge and his companions filed out noiselessly through
+Jim's closed and silent shop, upon the other street, and took their way
+swiftly through the town.</p>
+
+<p>Having appointed a place of meeting with his friends, Penn left them,
+and hastened alone to Mr. Villars's house. The lights had long been out.
+But the sisters were awake; Virginia had not even gone to bed. She was
+sitting by her window, gazing out on the hushed, gloomy, breathless
+summer night,&mdash;waiting, waiting, she scarce knew for what,&mdash;when she was
+aware of a figure approaching, and knew Penn's light, quick tap at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>She ran down to admit him. His story was quickly told. Toby was roused
+up; blankets were rolled together, and all the available provisions that
+could be carried were thrust into baskets.</p>
+
+<p>"How shall we get news to you? You will want to hear from your father."
+Penn hastily thought of a plan. "Send Toby to the round rock,&mdash;he knows
+where it is,&mdash;on the side of the mountain. Between nine and ten o'clock
+to-morrow night. I will try to communicate with him there." And Penn,
+bidding the young girl be of good cheer, departed as suddenly as he had
+arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The old negro accompanied him, assisting to carry the burdens. They
+found Stackridge's horse where he had been fastened. Penn made Toby
+mount, take a basket in each hand, and hold the blankets before him on
+the neck of the horse; then, seizing the bridle, and running by his
+side, he trotted the beast away across the field in a manner that shook
+the old negro up in lively style.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Massa Penn! I can't stan' dis yere! I's gwine all to pieces! I shall
+drap some o' dese yer tings, shore!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must stand it! hold on to them!" said Penn. "And now keep still,
+for we are near the road."</p>
+
+<p>The party had halted at the rendezvous. Mr. Villars, quite exhausted by
+his unusual exertions, was seated on the ground when Penn came up with
+Toby and the horse. Toby dismounted; the old minister mounted in his
+place, and the negro was sent back.</p>
+
+<p>All this passed swiftly and silently; the fugitives were once more on
+the march, Penn walking by the old man's side. Scarce a word was spoken;
+the tramp of feet and the sound of the horse's hoofs alone broke the
+silence of the night. Suddenly a voice hailed them:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who goes there?"</p>
+
+<p>And they discovered some horsemen drawn up before them beside the road.
+It was the night-patrol.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," answered Stackridge, marching straight on.</p>
+
+<p>"Halt, and give an account of yourselves!" shouted the patrol.</p>
+
+<p>"We are peaceable citizens, if let alone," said Stackridge. "You'd
+better not meddle with us."</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen waited for them to pass, then, firing their pistols at the
+fugitives, put spurs to their horses, and galloped away towards the
+village.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fire!" cried Stackridge, as half a dozen pieces were levelled in
+the darkness. "We've no ammunition to throw away, and no time to lose.
+They'll give the alarm. Take straight to the mountains!"</p>
+
+<p>Nobody had been hit. Turning aside from the road, they took their way
+across the broad pasture lands that sloped upwards to the rocky hills.
+The dark valley spread beneath them; on the other side rose the dim
+outlines of the shadowy mountain range; over all spread a still,
+cloudless sky, thick-strewn with glittering star-dust.</p>
+
+<p>In the village, the ringing of bells startled the night with a wild
+clamor. Stackridge laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"They'll make noise enough now to wake Gad himself! But noise won't hurt
+anybody. Hear the drums!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming this way," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Fools, to set out in pursuit of us with drums beating!" said Captain
+Grudd. "Very kind in them to give us notice! They should bring lighted
+torches, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Once in the mountains," said Stackridge, "we are safe. There we can
+defend ourselves against a hundred. Other Union men will join us, or
+bring us supplies. We ought to have made this move before; and I'm glad
+we've been forced to it at last. If every Union man in the south had
+made a bold stand in the beginning, this cursed rebellion never would
+have got such a start."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly bells and drums were silent. "The less noise the more danger,"
+said Stackridge. The way was growing difficult for the horse's feet. The
+cow-paths, which it had been easy to follow at first, disappeared among
+the thickets. At length, on the crest of a hill, the party halted to
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Daylight!" said Stackridge, turning his face to the east.</p>
+
+<p>The sky was brightening; the shadows in the valley melted slowly away;
+far off the cocks crew.</p>
+
+<p>"Hark!" said the captain. "Do you hear anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard a woice!" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist!" said Penn. "Look yonder! there they come! around those bushes at
+the foot of the oak!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure as fate, there they are!" said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>The fugitives crowded to his side, eager, grasping their gunstocks, and
+peering with intent eyes through the darkness in the direction in which
+he pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the horse," said Stackridge to Penn, "and lead him up through that
+gap out of the reach of the bullets. We'll stay and give these rascals a
+lesson. Go along with him, Carl, if you don't want to fight your
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>There were not guns enough for all; and Grudd had Stackridge's revolver.
+There was nothing better, then, for Penn and Carl to do than to consent
+to this arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>Penn went before, leading the horse up the dry bed of a brook. Carl
+followed, urging the animal from behind. Mr. Villars rode with the
+baggage, which had been lashed to the saddle. Only the clashing of the
+iron hoofs on the stones broke the stillness of the morning in that
+mountain solitude. Stackridge and his compatriots had suddenly become
+invisible, crouching among bushes and behind rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The retreat of Penn and his companions was discovered by the pursuing
+party, who mistook it for a general flight of the fugitives. They rushed
+forward with a shout. They had a rugged and barren hill to ascend. Half
+way up the slope they saw flashes of fire burst from the rocks above,
+heard the rapid "crack&mdash;crackle&mdash;crack!" of a dozen pieces, and
+retreated in confusion down the hill again.</p>
+
+<p>Stackridge and his companions coolly proceeded to reload their guns.</p>
+
+<p>"They didn't know we had arms," said the farmer, with a grim smile.
+"They'll be more cautious now."</p>
+
+<p>"We've done for two or three of 'em!" said Captain Grudd. "There they
+lie; one is crawling off."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him crawl!" said Stackridge. "Sorry to kill any of 'em; but it's
+about time for 'em to know we're in 'arnest."</p>
+
+<p>"They've gone to cover in the laurels," said Grudd. "Let's shift our
+ground, and watch their movements."</p>
+
+<p>Penn and Carl in the mean time made haste to get the horse and his
+burden beyond the reach of bullets. They toiled up the bed of the brook
+until it was no longer passable. Huge bowlders lay jammed and crowded in
+clefts of the mountain before them. Penn remembered the spot. He had
+been there in spring, when down over the rocks, now covered with lichens
+and dry scum, poured an impetuous torrent.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I know where I am," he said. "I don't believe it is possible to get
+the horse any farther. We will wait here for our friends. Mr. Villars,
+if you will dismount, we will try to get you up on the bank."</p>
+
+<p>"I pity you, my children," said the old man. "You should never have
+encumbered yourselves with such a burden as I am. I can neither fight
+nor run. Is it sunrise yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is sunrise, and a beautiful morning! The fresh rays come to us here,
+sifted through the dewy trees. Sit down on this rock. Find the luncheon,
+Carl. Ah, Carl!"&mdash;Penn regarded the boy affectionately,&mdash;"I am glad to
+have you with me again, but I can't forget that you are a rebel! and a
+deserter!"</p>
+
+<p>"I a deserter? you mishtake," said Carl. "I am a prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"You disobeyed me, Carl! I told you not to enlist. You did wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Now shust listen," said Carl, "and I vill tell you. I did right. Cause
+vy. You are alive and vell now, ain't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Penn smilingly admitted the fact.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is petter as being hung?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so very certain of that, Carl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vell, I am certain for you. Hanging ish no goot. Hunderts of vellers
+that don't like the rebels no more as you do, wolunteer rather than to
+be hung. Shows their goot sense."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have taken an oath&mdash;you are under a solemn engagement, Carl, to
+fight against the government."</p>
+
+<p>"You mishtake unce more&mdash;two times. I make a pargain. I say to that man,
+'You let Mishter Hapgoot go free, and not let him be hurt, and I vill be
+a rebel.' Vell, he agrees. But he don't keep his vord. He lets 'em go
+for to hang you vunce more. Now, if he preaks his part of the pargain,
+vy shouldn't I preak mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Carl," said Penn, laughing, while his eyes glistened, "I trust
+thy conscience is clear in the matter. I can only say that, though I
+don't approve of thy being a rebel, I love thee all the better for it.
+What do you think, Mr. Villars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes people do wrong from a motive so pure and disinterested that
+it sanctifies the action. This is Carl's case, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" cried Carl, jumping up from the bank on which they were seated.
+"Guns! They are at it again! I vill go see!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy disappeared, scrambling down the dry bed of the torrent.</p>
+
+<p>The firing continued at irregular intervals for half an hour. Carl did
+not return. Penn grew anxious. He stood, intently listening, when he
+heard a noise behind him, and, turning quickly, saw the glimmer of
+musket-barrels over the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>And Penn threw himself down under the bank just in time to avoid the
+discharge of half a dozen pieces aimed at his head.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the trouble?" asked the old man, who was lying on some blankets
+spread for him there in the shade.</p>
+
+<p>Before Penn could reply, Silas Ropes and six men came rushing down upon
+them. Stackridge had been out-generalled. Whilst he and his men were
+being diverted by a feigned attack in front, two different parties had
+been despatched by circuitous routes to get in his rear. In executing
+the part of the plan intrusted to him, Ropes had unexpectedly come upon
+the schoolmaster and his companion. A minute later both were seized and
+dragged up from the bed of the torrent.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye don't escape me this time!" said Silas, with brutal exultation. "Tie
+him up to the tree thar; serve the old one the same. We can't be
+bothered with prisoners."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do to that helpless, blind old man?" cried Penn.
+"Do what you please with me; I expect no mercy,&mdash;I ask none. But I
+entreat you, respect his gray hair!"</p>
+
+<p>The appeal seemed to have some effect even on the savage-hearted Silas.
+He glanced at his men: they were evidently of the opinion that the
+slaughter of the old clergyman was uncalled for.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, tie the old ranter, and leave him. Quick work, boys. Got the
+schoolmaster fast?"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the men.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, now stand back here, and les' have a little bayonet practice."</p>
+
+<p>Penn knew very well what that meant. His clothes were stripped from him,
+in order to present a fair mark for the murderous steel; and he was
+bound to a tree.</p>
+
+<p>"One at a time," said Silas. "Try your hand, Griffin.
+<i>Charge&mdash;bayonet!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>In vain the old minister endeavored to make himself heard in his
+friend's behalf. He could only pray for him.</p>
+
+<p>Penn saw the ferocious soldier springing towards him, the deadly bayonet
+thrust straight at his heart. In an instant the murder would have been
+done. But when within two paces of his victim, the steel almost touching
+his breast, Griffin uttered a yell, dropped his gun, flung up his hands,
+and fell dead at Penn's feet.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment a light curl of smoke was wafted from the heaped
+bowlders in the chasm above, and the echoes of a rifle-crack
+reverberated among the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The assassins were terror-struck. They looked all around; not a human
+being was in sight. Distant firing proclaimed that Stackridge and his
+men were still engaged. The death that struck down Griffin seemed to
+have fallen from heaven. They waited but a moment, then fled
+precipitately, leaving Penn still bound, but uninjured, with the dead
+rebel at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Then two figures came gliding swiftly down over the rocks. Penn uttered
+a cry of joy. It was Pomp and Cudjo.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE DEAD REBEL'S MUSKET.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Pomp came reloading his rifle, while Cudjo, knife in hand, flew at the
+cords that confined the schoolmaster.</p>
+
+<p>In his gratitude to Heaven and his deliverers, Penn could have hugged
+that grotesque, half-savage creature to his heart. But no time was to be
+lost. Snatching the knife, he hastened to release the bewildered
+clergyman.</p>
+
+<p>"Pomp, my noble fellow!" The negro turned from looking after the
+retreating rebels, with a gleam of triumph on his proud and lofty
+features: Penn wrung his hand. "You have twice saved my life&mdash;now let me
+ask one more favor of you! Take Mr. Villars to your cave&mdash;do for him
+what you have done for me. He is a much better Christian, and far more
+deserving of your kindness, than I ever was."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?" said Pomp, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will take my chance with the others." And Penn in few words explained
+the occurrences of the night and morning.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp shrugged his shoulders frowningly. The time was at hand when he and
+Cudjo could no longer enjoy in freedom their wild mountain life; even
+they must soon be drawn into the great deadly struggle. This he foresaw,
+and his soul was darkened for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo! Shall we take this old man to our den?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Don't ye take nobody dar! on'y Massa Hapgood."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is blind!" said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Others will come after who are not blind," said Pomp, his brow still
+stern and thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," interposed the old clergyman, mildly, "do nothing for me
+that will bring danger to yourselves, I entreat you!"</p>
+
+<p>These unselfish words, spoken with serious and benignant aspect, touched
+the generous chords in Pomp's breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we blacks have anything to do with this quarrel?" he said
+with earnest feeling. "Your friends down there"&mdash;meaning Stackridge and
+his party&mdash;"are all slaveholders or pro-slavery men. Why should we care
+which side destroys the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a God," answered Mr. Villars, with a beaming light in his
+unterrified countenance, "who is not prejudiced against color; who loves
+equally his black and his white children; and who, by means of this war
+that seems so needless and so cruel, is working out the redemption, not
+of the misguided white masters only, but also of the slave. Whether you
+will or not, this war concerns the black man, and he cannot long keep
+out of it. Then will you side with your avowed enemies, or with those
+who are already fighting in your cause without knowing it?"</p>
+
+<p>These words probed the deep convictions of Pomp's breast. He had from
+the first believed that the war meant death to slavery; although of late
+the persistent and almost universal cry of Union men for the "Union as
+it was,"&mdash;the Union with the injustice of slavery at its core,&mdash;had
+somewhat wearied his patience and weakened his faith.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Cudjo! help get this horse up&mdash;we can find a path for him."</p>
+
+<p>Reluctantly Cudjo obeyed; and almost by main strength the two athletic
+blacks lifted and pulled the animal up the bank, and out of the chasm.</p>
+
+<p>Penn assisted his old friend to remount, then took leave of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will be with you again soon!" he cried, hopefully, as the negroes
+urged the horse forward into the thickets.</p>
+
+<p>Then the young Quaker, left alone, turned to look at the dead rebel. For
+a moment horrible nausea and faintness made him lean against the tree
+for support. It was the first violent death of which he had ever been an
+eye-witness. He had known this man,&mdash;who was indeed the same Griffin,
+who had assisted the unwilling Pepperill to bring the tar-kettle to the
+wood-side on a certain memorable evening; ignorant, intemperate, too
+proud to work in a region where slavery made industry a disgrace, and
+yet a fierce champion of the system which was his greatest curse. Now
+there he lay, in his dirt, and rags, and blood, his neck shot through;
+the same expression of ferocious hate with which he had rushed to
+bayonet the schoolmaster still distorting his visage;&mdash;an object of
+horror and loathing. Was it not assuming a terrible responsibility to
+send this rampant sinner to his long account? Yet the choice was between
+his life and Penn's; and had not Pomp done well? Still Penn could not
+help feeling remorse and commiseration for the wretch.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Griffin! I have no murderous hatred for such as you! But if you
+come in the way of my country's safety, or of the welfare of my friends,
+you must take the penalty!"</p>
+
+<p>He picked up the musket that had fallen at his feet where he stood
+bound. Then, stifling his disgust, he felt in the dead man's pockets for
+ammunition. Cartridges there were none; but in their place he found some
+bullets and a powder-flask. Then putting in practice the lessons he had
+learned of Pomp when they hunted together on the mountain, he loaded the
+gun, resolutely setting his teeth and drawing his breath hard when he
+thought of the different kind of game it might now be his duty to shoot.</p>
+
+<p>While thus occupied he heard footsteps that gave him a sudden start. He
+turned quickly, catching up the gun. To his immense relief he saw Pomp,
+approaching with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were with Mr. Villars!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo has gone with him. I am going with you."</p>
+
+<p>"O Pomp!" cried Penn, with a joyful sense of reliance upon his powerful
+and sagacious black friend. "But is Mr. Villars safe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo is faithful," said Pomp. "He believes the old man is your friend,
+and a friend of the slave. Besides, I promised, if he would take him to
+the cave, that my next shot, if I have a chance, should be at his old
+acquaintance, Sile Ropes."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp took the lead, guiding Penn through hollows and among thickets to a
+ledge crowned with shrubs of savin, whose summit commanded a view of all
+that mountain-side.</p>
+
+<p>They crept among the bushes to the edge of the cliff. There they paused.
+Neither friend nor foe was in sight. No sound of fire-arms was
+heard,&mdash;only the birds were singing.</p>
+
+<p>Penn never forgot that scene. How fresh, and beautiful, and still the
+morning was! The sunlight flushed the craggy and wooded slopes. Far off,
+dim with early mist, lay the lovely hills and valleys of East Tennessee.
+On the north the peaks of the mountain range soared away, purple, rosy,
+glorious, in soft suffusing light. In the south-west other peaks
+receded, billowy and blue. And God's pure, deep sky was over all.</p>
+
+<p>Touched by the divine beauty of the day, Penn lay thinking with shame of
+the scenes of human folly and violence with which it had been
+desecrated, when the negro drew him softly by the sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Look yonder! down in the edge of that little grove!"</p>
+
+<p>Peering through an opening in the savins through which Pomp had thrust
+his rifle, Penn saw, stealing cautiously out of the grove, a man.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Stackridge! He is reconnoitring."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a retreat," said Pomp. "See, there they all come!"</p>
+
+<p>"Carl with the rest, showing them the way!" added Penn.</p>
+
+<p>He was watching with intense interest the movements of his friends, and
+rejoicing that no foe was in sight, when suddenly Pomp uttered a warning
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Where? what?" said Penn, eagerly looking in the direction in which the
+negro pointed.</p>
+
+<p>Down at their left was a long line of dark thickets which marked the
+edge of a ravine; out of which he now saw emerging, one by one, a file
+of armed men. They climbed up a narrow and difficult pass, and halted on
+the skirts of the thicket. Ten&mdash;twelve&mdash;fifteen, Penn counted. It was
+the other party that had been sent out simultaneously with that under
+Lieutenant Ropes, to get in the rear of the fugitives. And they had
+succeeded. Only a bushy ridge concealed them from Stackridge's men, who
+were coming up under the shelter of the same ridge on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Penn trembled with excitement as he saw the rebels cross swiftly
+forward, skulking among the bushes, to the summit of the ridge. The
+negro's eyes blazed, but he was perfectly cool. On one knee, his left
+foot advanced,&mdash;holding his rifle with one hand, and parting the bushes
+with the other,&mdash;he smiled as he observed the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said he to Penn, "rest your gun in this little crotch. Now can
+you see to take aim?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Penn, with his heart in his throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Calm your nerves! Everything depends on our first shot. Wait till I
+give the word. See! they have discovered Stackridge!"</p>
+
+<p>"We might shout, and warn him," said Penn, whose nature still shrank
+from using any more deadly means of saving his friends.</p>
+
+<p>"And so discover ourselves! That never'll do. Have you sighted your
+man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;the one lying on his belly behind that cedar."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! I'll take the fellow next him. The moment you have fired,
+keep perfectly still, only draw your gun back and load. Now&mdash;fire!"</p>
+
+<p>Just then Stackridge and his men, in full view of their hidden friends
+on the ledge, were appearing to the fifteen ambushed rebels also.
+Suddenly the loud bang of a musket, followed instantly by the sharp
+crack of a rifle, echoed down the mountain side. The rebel behind the
+cedar sprang to his feet, dropping his gun, and throwing up his hands,
+and rushed back down the ridge, screaming, "I'm hit! I'm hit!" while the
+man next him also attempted to rise, but fell again, Pomp having
+discreetly aimed at an exposed leg.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad we've only wounded them!" whispered Penn, very pale, his lips
+compressed, his eyes gleaming.</p>
+
+<p>"It has the effect!" said Pomp. "Your friends have discovered the
+ambush, thanks to that coward's uproar; and now the rascals are
+panic-struck! Fire again as they go into the ravine&mdash;powder alone will
+do now&mdash;a little noise will send them tumbling!"</p>
+
+<p>They accordingly fired blank discharges; at the same time Stackridge and
+his friends, recovering from their momentary astonishment, charged after
+the retreating rebels, who had barely time to carry off their wounded
+and escape into the ravine, when their pursuers scaled the ridge.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm off!" said Pomp, creeping back through the savins. "These men are
+not my friends, though they are yours. I'll go and look after Cudjo."
+And bounding down into a hollow, he was quickly out of sight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>BLACK AND WHITE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Penn attached his handkerchief to the end of the musket, and standing
+upon the ledge, waved it over the bushes. Carl, recognizing him, was the
+first to scramble up the height. The whole party followed, each sturdy
+patriot wringing the schoolmaster's hand with hearty congratulations
+when they learned what use he had made of the rebel musket.</p>
+
+<p>"But the whole credit of the manoeuvre belongs not to me, but to the
+negro Pomp!" And he related the story of his own rescue and theirs.</p>
+
+<p>The patriots looked grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the fellow?" asked Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Being a fugitive slave, he feared lest he should find little favor in
+the eyes of his master's neighbors," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"That's where he was right!" said Deslow, with a bigoted and unforgiving
+expression. "Nothing under the sun shall make me give encouragement to a
+nigger's running away."</p>
+
+<p>Two or three others nodded grim assent to this first principle of the
+slaveholder's discipline. Penn was fired with exasperation and scorn,
+and would have separated himself from these narrow-minded patriots on
+the spot, had not Stackridge jumped up from the ground upon which he had
+thrown himself, and, striking his gun barrel fiercely, exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's what I call cursed foolishness, Deslow! and every man that
+holds to that way of thinking had better go over to t'other side to
+oncet! If we can't make up our minds to sacrifice our property, and,
+what's more to some folks, our prejudices, in the cause we're fighting
+for, we may as well stop before we stir a step further. I'm a
+slaveholder, and always have been; but I swear, I can't say as I ever
+felt it was such a divine institution as some try to make it out, and I
+don't believe there's a man here that thinks in his heart that it's just
+right. And as for the niggers running away, my private sentiment is,
+that I don't blame 'em a mite. You or I, Deslow, would run in their
+place; you know you would." And Stackridge wiped his brow savagely.</p>
+
+<p>"And as for this particular case," said Captain Grudd, with a gleam of
+light in his lean and swarthy countenance, "don't le's be blind to our
+own interests; don't le's be downright fools. I've said from the first
+that slavery and the rebellion was brother and sister,&mdash;they go
+together; and I've made up my mind to stand by my country and the old
+flag, whatever comes of the institution." All, except the conservative
+Deslow, applauded this resolution. "Then consider," added the captain,
+his deliberate, impressive manner proving quite as effective as
+Stackridge's more excited and fiery style,&mdash;"here we are fighting for
+our very lives and liberties; and if, as I say, slavery's the cause of
+this war, then we're fighting against slavery, the best we can fix it.
+How monstrous absurd 'twill be, then, for us to refuse the assistance of
+any nigger that has it to give! Bythewood, Pomp's owner, is one of the
+hottest secessionists I know; and d'ye think I want Pomp sent back to
+him, to help that side, when he has shown that he can be of such mighty
+good service to us? I move that we send the professor to make a treaty
+with him. What do you say, Mr. Hapgood?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say," replied Penn with enthusiasm, "that he and Cudjo are in a
+condition to do infinitely more for us than we can do for them; and if
+their alliance can be secured, I say that we ought by all means to
+secure it."</p>
+
+<p>"That depends," said Grudd, "upon what we intend to do. Are we going to
+make a stand here, and see if the loyal part of old Tennessee will rise
+up and sustain us? or are we going to fight our way over the mountains,
+and never come back till a Union army comes with us to set things a
+little to rights here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wa'al," said Withers, who concealed a hardy courage and earnest
+patriotism under a phlegmatic and droll exterior, "while we're
+discussin' that question, I reckon we may as well have breakfast. This
+is as good a place as any,&mdash;we can take turns keeping a lookout from
+that ledge."</p>
+
+<p>He proceeded to kindle a fire in the hollow. The fugitives, in passing a
+field of corn, had thrust into their pockets a plentiful supply of green
+ears, which they now husked and roasted. There was a spring in the rocks
+near by, from which they drank lying on their faces, and dipping in
+their beards. This was their breakfast; during which Penn's mission to
+the blacks was fully discussed, and finally decided upon.</p>
+
+<p>The meal concluded, the refugees resumed their march, and entered an
+immense thick wood farther up the mountain. In a cool and shadowy spot
+they halted once more; and here Penn took leave of them, setting out on
+his visit to the cave.</p>
+
+<p>He had a mile to travel over a rough, wild region, where the fires that
+had formerly devastated it had left the only visible marks of a near
+civilization. In a tranquil little dell that had grown up to wild grass,
+he came suddenly upon a horse feeding. It was Stackridge's useful nag,
+which looked up from his lofty grove-shaded pasture with a low whinny of
+recognition as Penn patted his neck and passed along.</p>
+
+<p>A furlong or two farther on the well-known ravine opened,&mdash;dark, silent,
+profound, with its shaggy sides, one in shadow and the other in the sun,
+and its little embowered brook trickling far down there amid mossy
+stones;&mdash;as lonesome, wild, and solitary as if no human eye had ever
+beheld it before.</p>
+
+<p>Penn glided over the ledges, and descended along the narrow shelf of
+rock, behind the thickets that screened the entrance to the cave.
+Sunlight, and mountain wind, and summer heat he left behind, and entered
+the cool, still, gloomy abode.</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo ran to the mouth of the cave to meet him. "Lef me frow dis yer
+blanket ober your shoulders, while ye cool off; cotch yer de'f cold, if
+ye don't. De ol' man's a 'speckin' ye."</p>
+
+<p>Penn was relieved to learn that Mr. Villars had arrived in safety, and
+gratified to find him lying comfortably on the bed conversing with Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"By the blessing of God, I am very well indeed, my dear Penn. These
+excellent fellow-Christians have taken the best of care of me. The
+atmosphere of the cave, which I thought at first chilly, I now find
+deliciously pure and refreshing. And its gloom, you know, don't trouble
+me," added the blind old man with a smile. "Have you had any more
+trouble since Pomp left you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Penn; "thanks to him. Pomp, our friends want to see you and
+thank you, and they have sent me to bring you to them."</p>
+
+<p>The negro merely shrugged his shoulders, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"What good der tanks do to we?" cried Cudjo. "Ain't one ob dem ar men
+but what would been glad to hab us cotched and licked for runnin' away,
+fur de 'xample to de tudder niggers."</p>
+
+<p>"If that was true of them once, it is not now," said Penn. "Yet, Pomp,
+if you feel that there is the least danger in going to them, do not go."</p>
+
+<p>"Danger?" The negro's proud and lofty look showed what he thought of
+that. "Cudjo, make Mr. Hapgood a cup of coffee; he looks tired. You have
+had a hard time, I reckon, since you left us."</p>
+
+<p>"Him stay wid us now till he chirk up again," said Cudjo, running to his
+coffee-box. "Him and de ol' gemman stay&mdash;nobody else."</p>
+
+<p>While the coffee was making, Penn, sitting on one of the stone blocks
+which he had named giant's stools, repeated such parts of the late
+breakfast talk of Stackridge and his friends as he thought would
+interest Pomp and win his confidence. Then he drank the strong, black
+beverage in silence, leaving the negro to his own reflections.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going again?" said Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I promised them I would return."</p>
+
+<p>"Take some coffee and a kettle to boil it in; they will be glad of it, I
+should think."</p>
+
+<p>"O Pomp! you know how to do good even to your enemies! What shall I say
+to them for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What I have to say to them I will say myself," said Pomp, taking his
+rifle in one hand, and the kettle in the other, to Cudjo's great wrath
+and disgust.</p>
+
+<p>He set out with Penn immediately. They found the patriots reposing
+themselves about the roots of the forest trees, on the banks of a stream
+that came gurgling and plashing down the mountain side. Above them
+spread the beautiful green tops of maples, tinted with sunshine and
+softly rustling in the breeze. The curving banks formed here a little
+natural amphitheatre, carpeted with moss and old leaves, on which they
+sat or reclined, with their hats off and their guns at their sides.</p>
+
+<p>A sentry posted on the edge of the forest brought in Penn and his
+companion. There was a stir of interest among the patriots, and some of
+them rose to their feet. Stackridge, Grudd, and two or three others
+cordially offered the negro their hands, and pledged him their gratitude
+and friendship. Pomp accepted these tokens of esteem in silence,&mdash;his
+countenance maintaining a somewhat haughty expression, his lips firm,
+his eyes kindling with a strange light.</p>
+
+<p>Penn took the kettle, and proceeded, with Carl's help, to make a fire
+and prepare coffee for the company, intently listening the while to all
+that was said.</p>
+
+<p>Jutting from one bank of the stream, which washed its base, was a huge,
+square block covered with dark-green moss. Upon this Pomp stepped, and
+rested his rifle upon it, and bared his massive and splendid head, and
+stood facing his auditors with a placid smile, under the canopy of
+leaves. There was not among them all so noble a figure of a man as he
+who stood upon the rock; and he seemed to have chosen this somewhat
+theatrical attitude in order to illustrate, by his own imposing personal
+presence, the words that rose to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You will excuse me, gentlemen, if I cannot forget that I am talking
+with those who buy and sell men like me!"</p>
+
+<p>Men like him! The suggestion seemed for a moment to strike the
+slave-owning patriots dumb with surprise and embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Pomp," cried Stackridge, "not men like you&mdash;there are few like
+you anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish there was more like him, and that I owned a good gang of 'em!"
+muttered the man Deslow.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't," replied Withers, with a drawl which had a deep meaning in it;
+"twould be too much like sleeping on a row of powder barrels, with
+lighted candles stuck in the bung holes. Dangerous, them big knowin'
+niggers be."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp did not answer for a minute, but stood as if gathering power into
+himself, with one long, deep breath inflating his chest, and casting a
+glance upward through the sun-lit summer foliage.</p>
+
+<p>"You buy and sell men, and women, and children of my race. If I am not
+like them, it is because circumstances have lifted me out of the
+wretched condition in which it is your constant policy and endeavor to
+keep us. By your laws&mdash;the laws you make and uphold&mdash;I am this day
+claimed as a slave; by your laws I am hunted as a slave;&mdash;yes, some of
+you here have joined your neighbor in the hunt for me, as if I was no
+more than a wild beast to be hounded and shot down if I could not be
+caught. Now tell me what union or concord there can be between you and
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I own," said Deslow,&mdash;for Pomp's gleaming eyes had darted significant
+lightnings at him,&mdash;"I did once come up here with Bythewood to see if we
+could find you. Not that I had anything against you, Pomp,&mdash;not a thing;
+and as for your quarrel with your master, I ain't sure but you had the
+right on't; but you know as well as we do that we can't countenance a
+nigger's running away, under any circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Pomp, with sparkling sarcasm. "Your secessionist neighbors
+revolt against the mildest government in the world, and resort to
+bloodshed on account of some fancied wrongs. You revolt against them
+because you prefer the old government to theirs. Your forefathers went
+to war with the mother country on account of a few taxes. But a negro
+must not revolt, he must not even attempt to run away, although he feels
+the relentless heel of oppression grinding into the dust all his rights,
+all that is dear to him, all that he loves! A white man may take up arms
+to defend a bit of property; but a black man has no right to rise up and
+defend either his wife, or his child, or his liberty, or even his own
+life, against his master!"</p>
+
+<p>Only the narrow-minded Deslow had the confidence to meet this stunning
+argument, enforced as it was by the speaker's powerful manner, superb
+physical manhood, and superior intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Pomp, that your condition, to begin with, is very different
+from that of any white man. Your relation to your master is not that of
+a man to his neighbor, or of a citizen to the government; it is that of
+property to its owner."</p>
+
+<p>"Property!" There was something almost wicked in the wild, bright glance
+with which the negro repeated this word. "How came we property, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our laws make you so, and you have been acquired as property," said
+Deslow, not unkindly, but in his bigoted, obstinate way. "So, really,
+Pomp, you can't blame us for the view we take of it, though it does
+conflict a little with your choice in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose I can show you that you are wrong, and that even by your
+own laws we are not, and cannot be, property?" said Pomp, with a
+princely courtesy, looking down from the rock upon Deslow, so evidently
+in every way his inferior. "I will admit your title to a lot of land you
+may purchase, or reclaim from nature; or to an animal you have captured,
+or bought, or raised. But a man's natural, original owner is&mdash;himself.
+Now, I never sold myself. My father never sold himself. My father was
+stolen by pirates on the coast of Africa, and brought to this country,
+and sold. The man who bought him bought what had been stolen. By your
+own laws you cannot hold stolen property. Though it is bought and sold a
+thousand times, let the original owner appear, and it is his,&mdash;nobody
+else has the shadow of a claim. My father was stolen property, if he was
+property at all. He was his own rightful owner. Though he had been
+robbed of himself, that made no difference with the justice of the case.
+It was so with my mother. It is so with me. It is the same with every
+black man on this continent. Not one ever sold himself, or can be sold,
+or can be owned. For to say that what a man steals or takes by force is
+his, to dispose of as he chooses, is to go back to barbarism: it is not
+the law of any Christian land. So much," added Pomp, blowing the words
+from him, as if all the false arguments in favor of slavery were no more
+to the man's soul, and its eternal, God-given rights, than the breath he
+blew contemptuously forth into those mountain woods,&mdash;"so much for the
+claim of PROPERTY!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn was so delighted with this triumphant declaration of principles
+that he could have flung his hat into the maple boughs and shouted
+"Bravo!" He deemed it discreet, however, to confine the expression of
+his enthusiasm to a tight grasp on Carl's sympathetic hand, and to watch
+the effect of the speech on the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Deslow," laughed Stackridge, himself not ill pleased with Pomp's
+arguments, "what do you say to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal," said Deslow, "I never thought on't in just that light before; and
+I own he makes out a pooty good show of a case. But yet&mdash;" He hesitated,
+scratching for an idea among the stiff black hair that grew on his low,
+wrinkled forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"But yet, but yet, but yet!" said Pomp, ironically. "It's so hard, when
+our selfish interests are at stake, to confess our injustice or give up
+a bad cause! But I did not come here to argue my right to my own
+manhood. I take it without arguing. Neither did I come to ask anything
+for myself. You can do nothing for me but get me into trouble. Yet I
+believe in the cause in which you have taken up arms. I have served you
+this morning without being asked by you to do it; and I may assist you
+again when the time comes. In the mean while, if you want anything that
+I have, it is yours; for I recognize that we are brothers, though you do
+not. But I will not join you, for I am neither slave nor inferior, and I
+have no wish to be acknowledged an equal." And Pomp stepped off the rock
+with an air that seemed to say, "<i>I</i> know who is the equal of the best
+of you; and that is enough." If this man had any fault more prominent
+than another, it was pride; yet that haughty self-assertion which would
+have been offensive in a white man, was vastly becoming to the haughty
+and powerful black.</p>
+
+<p>"I, for one," said the impulsive Stackridge, again grasping his hand,
+"honor the position you take. What I wanted was to thank you for what
+you have done, and to promise that you are safe from danger as far as
+regards us. I'm glad you've got your liberty. I hope you will keep it.
+You deserve it. Every slave deserves the same that has the manliness to
+strike a blow for the good old government&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That has kept him a slave," added Pomp, with a bitter smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and so much the more noble in him to fight for it!" said
+Stackridge. "Now, if you don't want to let us into the secrets of your
+way of life, I can't say I blame ye. We're glad to get the coffee; and
+if you've any game or potatoes on hand, that you can spare, we'll take
+'em, and pay ye when we have a chance to forage for ourselves, which
+won't be long first."</p>
+
+<p>"I have some salted bear's meat that you'll be welcome to; and may be
+Cudjo can spare a little meal." His eye rested on Carl, whose fidelity
+he knew. "Let that boy come with us! We will send the provisions by
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Carl was delighted with the honor, for Penn was likewise going back to
+Mr. Villars with the negro.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>WHY AUGUSTUS DID NOT PROPOSE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The valiant confederates, returning from the pursuit of the escaped
+prisoners, proved themselves possessed of at least one important
+qualification for serving the rebel cause. They were able to give a
+marvellously good account of themselves. Whatever the military
+authorities may have thought of it, the people believed that the little
+band of Union men had been nearly annihilated.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Augustus Bythewood returned home,
+and went in the evening to call upon, counsel, and console the daughters
+of the old man Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Massa Bythewood!" cried Toby, in great joy at sight of him, "dey
+been killin' ol' massa up on de mountain; and de young ladies&mdash;O, Massa
+Bythewood! ye must do sumfin' for de young ladies and ol' massa!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Augustus flattered himself that he had arrived at just the right
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Virginia! you cannot conceive of my astonishment and grief on
+hearing what has happened to your family! I have but just this hour
+returned to town, or I should have hastened before to assure you that
+all I can do for you I will most gladly undertake. My very dear young
+lady, be comforted, I conjure you; for it grieves me to the heart to see
+how pale, how very pale and distressed, you look!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus the amiable, the chivalrous, the friendly Gus overflowed with
+eloquent sympathy and protestation, pressing affectionately the hand of
+the "very pale and distressed" fair one, and bowing low his dark,
+aristocratic southern curls over it; appearing, in short, the very
+courteous, noble, and devoted gentleman he wasn't.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia breathed hard, compressed her lips, white with indignation as
+well as with suffering, and let him act his part. And the confident
+lover did not dream that those eyes, red with grief and surrounded by
+dark circles, saw through all his hypocritical professions, or that the
+cold, passive little hand, abandoned through the apathy of despair to
+his caresses, would have been thrust into the fire, before ever he would
+have been allowed to win it.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," she managed to say in a voice scarce above a whisper, "if ever
+we needed a true, disinterested friend, it is now. Sit down; and be so
+kind as to excuse me a moment. I will call my sister."</p>
+
+<p>So she withdrew. And Augustus smiled. "Now is my time!" he said
+complacently to himself, resolved to make an offer of that valuable hand
+of his that very night: forlorn, friendless, wretched, was it possible
+that she could refuse such a prize? So he sat, and fondled his curls,
+and practised sweet smiles, and sympathized with Salina when she came,
+and waited for Virginia,&mdash;little knowing what was to happen to her, and
+to him, and to all, before ever he saw that vanished face again.</p>
+
+<p>For Virginia had business on her hands that night. She remembered the
+hurried directions Penn had given for communicating with her father, and
+she was already preparing to send off Toby to the round rock.</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious, missis!" said the old negro, returning hastily to the kitchen
+door where she stood watching his departure, "dar's a man out dar, a
+waitin'! Did ye see him, missis?"</p>
+
+<p>She had indeed seen a human figure advance in the darkness, as if with
+intent to intercept or follow him. Perplexed and indignant at the
+discovery, she suffered the old servant to return into the house, and
+remained herself to see what became of the figure. It moved off a little
+way in the darkness, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Wha' sh'll we do?" Toby rolled up his eyes in consternation. "Do jes'
+speak to Mr. Bythewood, Miss Jinny; he's de bestist friend&mdash;he'll tell
+what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Toby!" said Virginia, collecting herself, and speaking with
+decision. "He is the last person I would consult. Toby, you must try
+again; for either you or I must be at the rock before ten o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"You, Miss Jinny? Who eber heern o' sich a ting!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go yourself, then, good Toby!" And she earnestly reminded him of the
+necessity.</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes, yes! I'll go! Massa can't lib widout ol' Toby, dat's a fac'!"</p>
+
+<p>But looking out again in the dark, his zeal was suddenly damped. "Dey
+cotch me, dey sarve me wus 'n dey sarved ol' Pete, shore! Can't help
+tinkin' ob dat!"</p>
+
+<p>Virginia saw what serious cause there was to dread such a catastrophe.
+But her resolution was unshaken.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby, listen. That man out there is a spy. His object is to see if any
+of our friends come to the house, or if we send to them. He won't molest
+you; but he may follow to see where you go. If he does, then make a wide
+circuit, and return home, and I will find some other means of
+communication."</p>
+
+<p>Thus encouraged, the negro set out a second time. Virginia followed him
+at a distance. She saw, as she anticipated, the figure start up again,
+and move off in the direction he was going. Toby accordingly commenced
+making a large detour through the fields, and both he and the shadow
+dogging him were soon out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>Then Virginia lost no time in executing the other plan at which she had
+hinted. Instead of returning, to give up the undertaking in despair, and
+listen to matrimonial proposals from Gus Bythewood, she took a long
+breath, gathered up her skirts, and set out for the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>There was a new moon, but it was hidden by clouds. Still the evening was
+not very dark. The long twilight of the summer day still lingered in the
+valley. Here and there she could distinguish landmarks,&mdash;a knoll, a
+rock, or a tree,&mdash;which gave her confidence. I will not say that she
+feared nothing. She was by nature timid, imaginative, and she feared
+many things. Her own footsteps were a terror to her. The moving of a
+bush in the wind, the starting of a rabbit from her path, caused her
+flesh to thrill. At sight of an object slowly and noiselessly emerging
+from the darkness and standing before her, motionless and spectral, she
+almost fainted, until she discovered that it was an old acquaintance, a
+tall pine stump. But all these childish terrors she resolutely overcame.
+Her heart never faltered in its purpose. Affection for her father,
+anxiety for his welfare, and, it may be, some little solicitude for her
+father's friend, who had appointed the tryst at the rock,&mdash;not with
+herself, indeed, but with Toby,&mdash;kept her firm and unwavering in her
+course. And beneath all, deep in her soul, was a strong religious sense,
+a faith in a divine guidance and protection.</p>
+
+<p>What most she feared was neither ghost nor wild beast of the mountains.
+She felt that, if she could avoid encountering the brutal soldiers of
+secession, keeping watch along the mountain-side, she would willingly
+risk everything else. With the utmost caution, with breathless tread,
+she drew near the road she was to cross. Her footsteps were less loud
+than her heart-beats. Dogs barked in the distance. In a pool near by,
+some happy frogs were singing. The shrill cry of a katydid came from a
+poplar tree by the road&mdash;"Katy did! Katy didn't!" with vehement
+iteration and contradiction. No other sounds; she waited and listened
+long; then glided across the road.</p>
+
+<p>She had come far from the village in order to avoid meeting any one. Her
+course now lay directly up the mountain-side. The round rock was a
+famous bowlder known to picnic parties that frequented the spot in
+summer to enjoy a view from its summit, and a luncheon under its shadow.
+She had been there a dozen times; but could she find it in the night? In
+vain, as she toiled upwards, she strained her eyes to see the huge dim
+stone jutting out from the shadowy rocks and bushes.</p>
+
+<p>At length a sudden light, faint and silvery, streamed down upon her. She
+looked and saw the clouds parted, and below them the crescent moon
+setting, like a cimeter of white flame withdrawn by an invisible hand
+behind the vast shadowy summit of the mountain. Almost at the same
+moment she discovered the object she sought. The rock was close before
+her; and close upon her right was the grove which she herself had so
+often helped to fill with singing and laughter. How little she felt like
+either singing or laughing now!</p>
+
+<p>She remembered&mdash;indeed, had she not remembered all the way?&mdash;that the
+last time she visited the spot it was in company with Penn. Now she had
+come to meet him again&mdash;how unmaidenly the act! In darkness, in
+loneliness, far from the village and its twinkling lights, to meet an
+attractive and a very good looking young man! What would the world say?
+Virginia did not care what the world would say. But now she began to
+question within herself, "What would Penn think?" and almost to shrink
+from meeting him. Strong, however, in her own conscious purity of heart,
+strong also in her confidence in him, she put behind her every unworthy
+thought, and sought the shelter of the rock.</p>
+
+<p>And there, after all her labors and fears, scratches in her flesh and
+rents in her clothes,&mdash;there she was alone. Penn had not come. Perhaps
+he would not come. It was by this time ten o'clock. What should she do?
+Remain, hoping that he would yet fulfil his promise? or return the way
+she came, unsatisfied, disheartened, weary, her heart and strength
+sustained by no word of comfort from him, by no tidings from her father?</p>
+
+<p>She waited. It was not long before her eager ear caught the sound of
+footsteps. An active figure was coming along the edge of the grove. How
+joyously her heart bounded! In order that Penn might not be too suddenly
+surprised at finding her in Toby's place, she stepped out from the
+shadow of the bowlder, and advanced to meet him. She shrank back again
+as suddenly, fear curdling her blood.</p>
+
+<p>The comer was not Penn. He wore the confederate uniform: this was what
+terrified her. She crouched down under the rock; but perceiving that the
+man did not pass by,&mdash;that he walked straight up to her,&mdash;she started
+forth again, in the vain hope to escape by flight. Almost at the first
+step she tripped and fell; and the hand of the confederate soldier was
+on her arm.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE MEN WITH THE DARK LANTERN.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The moon had now set, and it was dark. The frightened girl could not
+distinguish the features of him who bent over her; but through the
+trance of horror that was upon her, she recognized a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Wirginie! I tought it vas you! Don't you know me, Wirginie?"</p>
+
+<p>No voice had ever before brought such joy to her soul.</p>
+
+<p>"O Carl! why didn't I know you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Vy not? Pecause maybe you vas looking for somepody else. Mishter
+Hapgoot came part vay mit me, but he vas so used up I made him shtop
+till I came to pring Toby up vere he is."</p>
+
+<p>Then Virginia, recovering from her agitation, had a score of questions
+to ask about her father, about the fight, and about Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"If you vill only go up, he vill tell you so much more as I can. Then
+you vill go and see your fahder. That vill be petter as going back
+to-night, vere there is no goot shtout fellow in the house to prewail on
+them willains to keep their dishtance."</p>
+
+<p>Even at the outset of her adventurous journey Virginia had felt a vague
+hope that she should visit her father before she returned. What the boy
+said inspired her with courage to proceed. She would go up as far as
+where Penn was waiting, at all events: then she would be guided by his
+advice.</p>
+
+<p>The two set out, Carl leading her by the hand, and assisting her. It
+grew darker and darker. The stars were hidden: the sky was almost
+completely overcast by black clouds. Slowly and with great difficulty
+they made their way among trees and bushes, through abrupt hollows, and
+over rocks. Virginia felt that she could have done nothing without Carl;
+and the thought of returning alone, in such darkness, down the mountain,
+made her shudder.</p>
+
+<p>But at length even Carl began to sweat with something besides the
+physical exertion required in making the ascent. His mind had grown
+exceedingly perturbed, and Virginia perceived that his course was
+wavering and uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, blowing and wiping his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Dish ish de all confoundedesht, meanesht, mosht dishgusting road for a
+dark night the prince of darkness himself ever inwented!" he exclaimed,
+speaking unusually thick in his heat and excitement. "I shouldn't be
+wery much surprised if I vas a leetle out of the right vay. You shtay
+right here till I look."</p>
+
+<p>She sat down and waited. Intense darkness surrounded her; not a star was
+visible; she could not see her own hand. For a little while Carl's
+footsteps could be heard feeling for more familiar ground; and then,
+occasionally, the crackling of a dry twig, as he trod upon it, showed
+that he was not far off. Then he whistled; then he softly called,
+"Hello!" in the woods; moving all the time farther and farther away.</p>
+
+<p>Carl believed that Penn could not be far distant, and, in order to get
+an answering signal, he kept whistling and calling louder and louder. At
+length came a response&mdash;a low warning whistle. So he plodded on, and had
+nearly reached the spot where he was confident Penn was searching for
+him, when there came a rush of feet, and he was suddenly and violently
+seized by invisible assailants.</p>
+
+<p>"Got him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hang on to him! It's the Dutchman, ain't it? I thought I knew the
+brogue!"</p>
+
+<p>The last speaker was Lieutenant Silas Ropes; and Carl perceived that he
+had fallen into the hands of a squad of confederate soldiers. That he
+was vastly astonished and altogether disconcerted at first, we may well
+suppose. But Carl was not a lad to remain long bereft of his wits when
+they were so necessary to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! vot for you choke a fellow so?" he indignantly demanded. "I vas
+treated petter as that ven I vas a prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, you d&mdash;d deserter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I just got avay from Stackridge? and vasn't I running to find
+you as vast as ever a vellow could? And now you call me a deserter!"
+retorted Carl, aggrieved.</p>
+
+<p>"Running to find <i>us</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure! Didn't I say, 'Is it you?' For they said you vas on the
+mountain. Though I did not think I should find you so easy!" which was
+indeed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Carl persisted so earnestly in regarding the affair from this point of
+view, that his captors began to think it worth while to question him.</p>
+
+<p>"Vun of them vellows just says to me, he says, 'Shpeak vun vord, or make
+vun noise, and I vill plow your prains out!' I vasn't wery much in favor
+to have my prains plowed out, so I complied mit his wery urgent request.
+That's the vay they took me prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal," remarked Silas, "what he says may be true, but I don't believe
+nary word on't. Got his hands tied? Now lock arms with him, and bring
+him along."</p>
+
+<p>Carl was in despair at this mode of treatment, for it rendered escape
+impossible,&mdash;and what would become of Virginia? His anxiety for her
+safety became absolute terror when he discovered the errand on which
+these men were bound.</p>
+
+<p>By the light of a dark lantern they led him through the grove, across a
+brook that came tumbling down out of a wild black gorge, and up the
+mountain slope into the edge of the great forest above. Here they
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"This yer's a good place, boys, to begin. Kick the leaves together.
+That's the talk."</p>
+
+<p>They were in a leafy hollow of the dry woods. A blaze was soon kindled,
+which shot up in the darkness, and threw its ruddy glare upon the trunks
+and overhanging canopy of foliage, and upon the malignant, gleaming
+faces of the soldiers. Little effort was needed to insure the spreading
+of the flames. They ran over the ground, licking up the dry leaves,
+crackling the twigs, catching at the bark of trees, and filling the
+forest, late so silent and black, with their glow and roar.</p>
+
+<p>"That's to smoke out your d&mdash;d Union friends!" said Silas to Carl, with
+a hideous grin.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Carl understood that well enough. In this same forest, on the banks
+of the brook above where it fell into the gorge, the patriots were
+encamped. And Virginia? Still believing that the worst that could happen
+to her would be to fall into the hands of these ruffians, the lad
+sweated in silent agony over the secret he was bound to keep.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes ye look so down-in-the-mouth, Dutchy? 'Fraid your friends
+will get scorched?"</p>
+
+<p>"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it vill
+them. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looks
+as though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain't
+no leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gitting
+contrary!"</p>
+
+<p>Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell to
+gathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. The
+lad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. A
+soldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.</p>
+
+<p>"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look of
+terror. "Drop your knife, then!"</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But Wirginie
+Willars&mdash;she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die?
+And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is
+nopody to let him know!"</p>
+
+<p>A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to
+listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's
+limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at
+him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"</p>
+
+<p>So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a
+great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only
+hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to
+make good her retreat from the mountain.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Unfortunately the poor girl had no suspicion of the mischance that had
+overtaken her guide. She heard voices, and believed that he had fallen
+in with some friends. Thus she waited, expecting momently that he would
+return to her. She saw a single gleam of light that vanished in the
+darkness. Then the voices grew fainter and fainter, and at length died
+in the distance. And she was once more utterly alone.</p>
+
+<p>Fearful doubt and uncertainty agitated her. In a moment of despair,
+yielding to the terrors of her situation, she wrung her hands and called
+on Carl imploringly not to abandon her, but to come back&mdash;"O, dear, dear
+Carl, come back!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she checked herself. Why was she sitting there, wasting the
+time in tears and reproaches?</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Carl never meant to desert me in this way, I know. If I ever see
+him again, he will make me sorry that I have blamed him. No doubt he has
+done his best. But, whatever has become of him, I am sure he cannot find
+his way back to me now. I'll follow him; perhaps I may find him, or
+Penn, or some of their friends."</p>
+
+<p>She arose accordingly, and groped her way in the direction in which she
+had seen the light and heard the voices. And soon another and very
+different light gladdened her eyes&mdash;a faint glow, far off, as of a fire
+kindled among the forest trees. It was the camp of the patriots, she
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>She came to the brook, which, invisible, mysterious, murmuring, rolled
+along in the midnight blackness, and seemed too formidable for her to
+ford. She felt the cold rush of the hurrying water, the slippery slime
+of the mossy and treacherous stones, and withdrew her appalled hands. To
+find a shallow place to cross, she followed up the bank; and as the
+light was still before her, higher on the mountain, she kept on, groping
+among trees, climbing over logs and rocks, falling often, but always
+resolutely rising again, until, to her dismay, the glow began to
+disappear. She had, without knowing it, followed the stream up into the
+deep gorge through which it poured; and now the precipitous wood-crowned
+wall, rising beside her, overhanging her, shut out the last glimpse of
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p>She was by this time exceedingly fatigued. It seemed useless to advance
+farther; she felt certain that she was only getting deeper and deeper
+into the entangling difficulties of that unknown, horrible place.
+Neither had she the courage or strength to retrace her steps. Nothing
+then remained for her but to pass the remainder of the night where she
+was, and wait patiently for the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Little knowing that the light she had seen was the glare of the kindled
+forest, she endeavored to convince herself that she had nothing to fear.
+At all events, she knew that trembling and tears could avail her
+nothing. She had not ventured to call very loudly for help, fearing lest
+her voice might bring foe instead of friend. And now it occurred to her
+that perhaps Carl had been taken by the soldiers: yes, it must be so:
+she explained it all to herself, and wondered why she had not thought of
+it before. It would therefore be folly in her now to scream for aid.</p>
+
+<p>Comfortless, yet calm, she explored the ground for a resting-place. She
+cleared the twigs away from the roots of a tree, and laid herself down
+there on the moss and old leaves. Everything seemed dank with the
+never-failing dews of the deep and sheltered gorge; but she did not mind
+the dampness of her couch. A strong wind was rising, and the great trees
+above her swayed and moaned. She was vexed by mosquitoes that bit as if
+they then for the first time tasted blood, and never expected to taste
+it again; but she was too weary to care much for them either. She rested
+her arm on the mossy root; she rested her head on her arm; she drew her
+handkerchief over her face; she shut out from her soul all the miseries
+and dangers of her situation, and quietly said her prayers.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that calms the perturbations of the mind like that
+inward looking for the light of God's peace which descends upon us when
+in silence and sweet trust we pray to him. A delicious sense of repose
+ensued, and her thoughts floated off in dreams.</p>
+
+<p>She dreamed she was flying with her father from the fury of armed men.
+She led him into a wilderness; and it was night; and great rocks rose up
+suddenly before them in the gloom, and awful chasms yawned. Then she was
+wandering alone; she had lost her father, and was seeking him up and
+down. Then it seemed that Penn was by her side; and when she asked for
+her father he smilingly pointed upward at a wondrously beautiful light
+that shone from the summit of a hill. She sought to go up thither, but
+grew weary, and sat down to rest in a deep grove, with an ice-cold
+mountain stream dashing at her feet. Then the light on the hill became a
+lake of fire, and it poured its waves into the stream, and the stream
+flowed past her a roaring river of flame. Lightnings crackled in the air
+above her. Thunderbolts fell. The heat was intolerable. The river had
+overflowed, and set the world on fire. And she could not fly, for terror
+chained her limbs. She struggled, screamed, awoke. She started up. Her
+dream was a reality.</p>
+
+<p>Either the fire set by the soldiers had spread, driven by the wind over
+the dry leaves, into the grove below her, or else they had fired the
+grove itself on their retreat. Her eyes opened upon a vision of
+appalling brightness. For a moment she stood utterly dazzled and
+bewildered, not knowing where she was. Memory and reason were paralyzed:
+she could not remember, she could not think: amazement and terror
+possessed her.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively shielding her eyes, she looked down. The ground where she
+had lain, the log, the sticks, the moss, and her handkerchief fallen
+upon it, were illumined with a glare brighter than noonday. At sight of
+the handkerchief came recollection. Her terrible adventure, the glow she
+had seen in the woods, her bed on the earth,&mdash;she remembered everything.
+And now the actual perils of her position became apparent to her
+returning faculties.</p>
+
+<p>Where all was blackness when she lay down, now all was preternatural
+light. Every bush and jutting rock of the wild overhanging cliffs stood
+out in fearful distinctness. The saplings and trees on their summits,
+fifty feet above her head, seemed huddling together, and leaning forward
+terror-stricken, in an atmosphere of whirling flame and smoke. Climb
+those cliffs she could not, though she were to die.</p>
+
+<p>She must then flee farther up into the deep and narrow gorge, or
+endeavor to escape by the way she had come. But the way she had come was
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>The conflagration already enveloped the mouth of the gorge, shutting her
+in. The trunks of near trees stood like the bars of a stupendous cage,
+through which she looked at the raging demons beyond. Burning limbs
+fell, shooting through the air with trails of flame. Every tree was a
+pillar of fire. Here a bough, still untouched, hung, dark and impassive,
+against the lurid, surging chaos. Then the whirlwind of heated air
+struck it, and you could see it writhe and twist, until its darkness
+burst into flame. There stood what was late a lordly maple, but
+now,&mdash;trunk, and limb, and branch,&mdash;a tree of living coal. And down
+under this gulf of fire flowed the brook, into which showers of sparks
+fell hissing, while over all, fearfully illumined clouds of smoke and
+cinders and leaves went rolling up into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia approached near enough to be impressed with the dreadful
+certainty that there was no outlet whatever, for any mortal foot, in
+that direction. Tortured by the heat, and pursued by lighted twigs, that
+fell like fiery darts around her, she fled back into the gorge.</p>
+
+<p>The conflagration was still spreading rapidly. The timber along both
+sides of the gorge, at its opening, began to burn upwards towards the
+summits of the cliffs. Soon the very spot where she had slept, and where
+she now paused once more in her terrible perplexity and fear, would be
+an abyss of flame.</p>
+
+<p>Again she took to flight, hasting along the edge of the stream, up into
+the heart of the gorge. Over roots of trees, over old decaying trunks,
+over barricades of dead limbs brought down by freshets and left lodged,
+she climbed, she sprang, she ran. All too brightly her way was lighted
+now. A ghastly yellow radiance was on every object. The waters sparkled
+and gleamed as they poured over the dark brown stones. Every slender,
+delicate fern, every poor little startled wild flower nestled in cool,
+dim nooks, was glaringly revealed. Little the frightened girl heeded
+these darlings of the forest now.</p>
+
+<p>All the way she looked eagerly for some slant or cleft in the mountain
+walls where she might hope to ascend. Here, over the accumulated soil of
+centuries, fastened by interwoven roots to the base of the cliff, she
+might have climbed a dozen feet or more. Yonder, by the aid of shrubs
+and boughs, she might have drawn herself up a few feet farther. But,
+wherever her eye ranged along the ledges above, she beheld them
+dizzy-steep and unscalable. And so she kept on until even the way before
+her was closed up.</p>
+
+<p>On the brink of a rock-rimmed, flashing basin she stopped. Down into
+this, from a shelf twenty feet in height, fell the brook in a bright,
+fire-tinted cascade. Fear-inspired as she was, she could not but pause
+and wonder at the strange beauty of the scene,&mdash;the plashy pool before
+her, the flame-color on the veil of silver foam dropped from the brow of
+the ledge, and&mdash;for a wild background to the picture&mdash;the wooded,
+fire-lit, shadowy gorge, opening on a higher level above.</p>
+
+<p>During the moment that she stood there, a great bird, like an owl, that
+had probably been driven from his hollow tree or fissure in the rocks by
+the conflagration, flapped past her face, almost touching her with his
+wings, and dashed blindly against the waterfall. He was swept down into
+the pool. After some violent fluttering and floundering in the water, he
+extricated himself, perched on a stone at its edge, shook out his wet
+feathers, and stared at her with large cat-like eyes, without fear. She
+was near enough to reach him with her hand; but either he was so dazzled
+and stunned that he took no notice of her, or else the greater terror
+had rendered him tame to human approach. She believed the latter was the
+case, and saw something exceedingly awful in the incident. When even the
+wild winged creatures of the forest were stricken down with fear, what
+cause had she to apprehend danger to herself!</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the waterfall she had felt for a moment that all was
+over&mdash;that certain death awaited her. Then, out of her very despair,
+came a gleam of hope. She might creep under the cascade, or behind it,
+and that would protect her. But when she looked up, and saw, around and
+above her, the forest trees with the frightful and ever-increasing glow
+upon them, and knew that they too soon must kindle, and thought of
+firebrands rained down upon her, and falling columns of fire filling the
+gorge with burning rubbish,&mdash;then her soul sickened: what protection
+would a little sheet of water prove against such furnace heat?</p>
+
+<p>No: she must escape, or perish. Beside the cascade there was a broken
+angle of the rocks, by which, if she could reach it, she might at least,
+she thought, climb to the upper part of the gorge. But the nearest
+foothold she could discover was ten feet above the basin, in sheer
+ascent. The ledge was dank and slippery with the dashing spray. Gain the
+top of it, however, she must. She ran up the embankment under the cliff.
+Here a sapling gave her support; she clung to a crevice or projection
+there; a drooping bough saved her from falling when the soft earth slid
+from beneath her feet farther on. So she climbed along the side of the
+precipice, until the broken corner of the cliff was hardly two yards off
+before her. Yes, a secure foothold was there, and above it rose
+irregular pointed stairs, leading steeply to the top of the cascade. O,
+to reach that shattered ledge! A space of perpendicular wall intervened.
+No shrub, no drooping bough, was there. Here was only a slight
+projection, just enough to rest the edge of a foot upon. She placed her
+foot upon it. She found a crevice above, and thrust her fingers into it
+as if there was no such thing as pain. She clung, she took a step&mdash;she
+was half a yard nearer the angle. But what next could she do? She was
+hanging in the air above the basin, into which the slightest slip would
+precipitate her. To change hands&mdash;relieve the one advanced and insert
+the fingers of the other in its place,&mdash;was a perilous undertaking. But
+she did it. Then she reached forward again with hand and foot, found
+another spot to cling to, and took another step. She was thankful for
+the great light that lighted the rocks before her. Close by now was the
+fractured angle of the cliff: one more step, and she could set her foot
+upon the nethermost stair. Her strength was almost gone; her hands,
+though insensible to pain, were conscious of slipping. To fall would be
+to lose all she had gained, and all the strength she had exhausted in
+the effort. Her feet now&mdash;or rather one of them&mdash;had a tolerably secure
+hold on the rib of the ledge. She made one last effort with her hands,
+and, just as she was falling, gave a spring. She knew that all was
+staked upon that one dizzy instant of time. But for that knowledge she
+could never have accomplished what she did. She fell forwards towards
+the angle, caught a point of the rock with her hands, and clung there
+until she had safely placed her feet.</p>
+
+<p>This done, it was absolutely necessary to stop a moment to rest. She
+looked downwards and behind her, to see what she had done. The sight
+made her dizzy&mdash;it seemed such a miracle that she could ever have scaled
+that wall!</p>
+
+<p>Nearer and louder roared the conflagration, and she had little time to
+delay. Her labor was not ended, neither was the danger past. She cast a
+hurried glance upwards over the ridge she was to climb, and advanced
+cautiously, step by step. Her soul kept saying within her, "I will not
+fall; I will not fall;" but she dared not look backwards again, lest
+even then she should grow giddy and miss her hold.</p>
+
+<p>As she ascended, the ridge inclined nearer and nearer to the side of the
+cascade, until she found the stones slimy and dripping. This was an
+unforeseen peril. Still she resolutely advanced, taking the utmost
+precaution at each step against slipping. At length she was at the top
+of the waterfall. She could look up into the upper gorge, and see the
+water come rushing down. There was space beside the brook for her to
+continue her flight; and the sides of the gorge above were far less
+steep and rugged than below. She was thrilled with hope. She had but one
+steep, high stair to surmount. She was getting her knee upon it, when a
+crashing sound in the underbrush arrested her attention. The crashing
+was followed by a commotion in the water, and she saw a huge black
+object plunge into the stream, and come sweeping down towards her.</p>
+
+<p>On it came, straight at the rock on which she clung, and from which a
+motion, a touch, might suffice to hurl her back into the lower gorge.
+She saw what it was; and for a moment she was frozen with terror. She
+was directly in its path: it would not stop for her. The sight of the
+blazing woods below, however, brought it to a sudden halt. And there,
+close by the brink of the waterfall, facing her, not a yard distant, in
+the full glare of the fire, it rose slowly on its hind feet to look&mdash;a
+monster of the forest, an immense black bear.</p>
+
+<p>And now, but for the nightmare of horror that was upon her, Virginia
+might have perceived that the forest <i>above</i> the cascade was likewise
+wrapped in flames. The bear had been driven by the terror of them down
+the stream; and here, between the two fires, on the verge of the
+waterfall, the slight young girl and the great shaggy wild beast had
+met. She would have shrieked, but she had no voice. The bear also was
+silent; with his huge hairy bulk reared up before her, his paws pendant,
+and his jaws half open in a sort of stupid amazement, he stood and
+gazed, uttering never a growl.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>IN THE BURNING WOODS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The incessant excitement and fatigue of the past few days had caused
+Penn to fall asleep almost immediately after Carl left him. The rude
+ground on which he stretched himself proved a blissful couch of repose.
+Virginia climbed the mountain to meet him, and no fine intuitive sense
+of her approach thrilled him with wakeful expectancy. Carl was captured,
+and still he slept. The lost young girl wandered within fifty yards of
+where he lay steeped in forgetfulness, dreaming, perhaps, of her; and
+all the time they were as unconscious of each other's presence as were
+Evangeline and her lover when they passed each other at night on the
+great river.</p>
+
+<p>Penn was the first to wake; and still his stupid heart whispered to him
+no syllable of the strange secret of the beautiful sleeper whom he might
+have looked down upon from the edge of the cliff so near.</p>
+
+<p>The grove had been but recently fired, and it would have been easy
+enough then for him to rush into the gorge and rescue her. From what
+terrors, from what perils would she have been saved! But he wasted the
+precious moments in staring amazement; then, thinking of his own safety,
+he commenced running <i>away</i> from her,&mdash;his escape lighted by the same
+fatal flames that were enclosing her within the gorge.</p>
+
+<p>She never knew whether, on awaking, she cried for help or remained dumb;
+nor did it matter much then: he was already too far off to hear.</p>
+
+<p>The glow on the clouds lighted all the broad mountain side. Under the
+ruddy canopy he ran,&mdash;now through dimly illumined woods, and now over
+bare rocks faintly flushed by the glare of the sky.</p>
+
+<p>As he drew near the cave, he saw, on a rock high above him, a wild human
+figure making fantastic gestures, and prostrating itself towards the
+burning forests. He ran up to it, and, all out of breath, stood on the
+ledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>The negro made no reply, but, folding his arms above his head, spread
+them forth towards the fire, bowing himself again and again, until his
+forehead touched the stone.</p>
+
+<p>Penn shuddered with awe. For the first time in his life he found himself
+in the presence of an idolater. Cudjo belonged to a tribe of African
+fire-worshippers, from whom he had been stolen in his youth; and,
+although the sentiment of the old barbarous religion had smouldered for
+years forgotten in his breast, this night it had burst forth again,
+kindled by the terrible splendors of the burning mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Penn waited for him to rise, then grasped his arm. The negro, startled
+into a consciousness of his presence, stared at him wildly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not God, Cudjo!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, not your God, massa! My God!" and the African smote his breast.
+"Me mos' forgit him; now me 'members! Him comin' fur burn up de white
+folks, and set de brack man free!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn stood silent, thinking the negro might not be altogether wrong. No
+doubt the dim, dark soul of him saw vaguely, with that prophetic sense
+which is in all races of men, a great truth. A fire was indeed
+coming&mdash;was already kindled&mdash;which was to set the bondman free: and God
+was in the fire. But of that mightier conflagration, the combustion of
+the forests was but a feeble type.</p>
+
+<p>Penn turned from Cudjo to watch the burning, and became aware of its
+threatening and rapidly increasing magnitude. The woods had been set in
+several places, but the different fires were fast growing into one,
+swept by a strong wind diagonally across and up the mountain. It seemed
+then as if nothing could prevent all the forest growths that lay to the
+southward and westward along the range from being consumed.</p>
+
+<p>As he gazed, he became extremely alarmed for the safety of Stackridge
+and his friends: and where all this time was Carl? In vain he questioned
+Cudjo. He turned, and was hastening to the cave when he met Pomp coming
+towards him. Tall, majestic, naked to the waist, wearing a garment of
+panther-skins, with the red gleam of the fire on his dusky face and
+limbs, the negro looked like a native monarch of the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"O Pomp! what a fire that is!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a fire it is going to be!" answered Pomp, with a lurid smile. "Our
+new neighbors have brought us bad luck. All those woods are gone. The
+fire is sweeping up directly towards us&mdash;it will pass over all the
+mountain&mdash;nothing will be left." Yet he spoke with a lofty calmness that
+astonished Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"And our friends!&mdash;Carl!&mdash;have you heard from them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not seen Carl since he left the cave with you, nor any of
+Stackridge's people to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Then they are in the woods yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; unless they have been wise enough to get out of them! I was just
+starting out to look for them.&mdash;Who comes there?"&mdash;poising his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Carl!" exclaimed Penn, recognizing the confederate coat. But in an
+instant he saw his mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of Ropes's men!" said Pomp. "He has discovered us&mdash;he shall
+die for setting my mountains on fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold!" Penn grasped his arm. "He is beckoning and calling!"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp frowned as he lowered his rifle, and waited for the soldier to come
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"What! is it you? I didn't know you in that dress, and came near
+shooting you, as you deserve, for wearing it!" And Pomp turned
+scornfully away.</p>
+
+<p>The comer was Dan Pepperill, breathless with haste, horror-struck,
+haggard. It was some time before he could reply to Penn's impetuous
+demand&mdash;what had brought him up thither?</p>
+
+<p>"Carl!" he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened to Carl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ben tuck! durned if he hain't! But that ar ain't the wust!"</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, is the worst?" for that seemed bad enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Virginny&mdash;Miss Villars!"</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia! what of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's down thar! in the fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia in the fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"She ar,&mdash;durned if she ain't! Carl said she war on the mountain, and
+wanted me to hurry up and help her or find you; and I'd a done it, but I
+couldn't git off till we was runnin' from the fires we'd sot; then I
+kinder got scattered a puppus; t'other ones hung on to Carl, though, so
+I had to come alone."</p>
+
+<p>Penn interrupted the loose and confused narrative&mdash;Virginia: had he
+<i>seen</i> her?</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I reckon I hev! Ye see I war huntin' fur her thar, above the round
+rock; fur Carl said,&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A short, sharp groan broke from the lips of Penn. At first the idea of
+Virginia being on the mountain had appeared to him incredible. But at
+the mention of the place of rendezvous the truth smote him: she had come
+up there with Toby, or in his stead. With spasmodic grip he wrung
+Pepperill's arm as if he would have wrung the truth out of him that way.</p>
+
+<p>"You saw her!&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+<p>His hoarse voice, his terrible look, bewildered the poor man more and
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"I war a tellin' ye! Don't break my arm, and don't look so durned f'erce
+at me, and I'll out with the hull story. Ye see, I warn't to blame, now,
+no how. They sot the fires; they sot the grove on our way back; and if I
+helped any, 'twas cause I had ter. But about <i>her</i>. Wal, I begun to the
+big rock, and war a-huntin' up along, till the grove got all in a blaze,
+and the red limbs begun ter fall, and I see 'twas high time for me to
+put. Says I ter myself, 'She hain't hyar; she ar off the mountain and
+safe ter hum afore this time, shore!' But jest then I heern a screech;
+it sounded right inter the grove, and I run up as clust ter the fire's I
+could, and looked, and thar I seen right in the middle on't, amongst the
+burnin' trees, a woman's gownd, and then a face: 'twas her face, I
+knowed it, fur she hadn't nary bunnit on, and the fire shone on it
+bright as lightnin'! But thar war half a acre o' blazin' timber atween
+her and me; and besides, I was so struck up all of a heap, I couldn't do
+nary thing fur nigh about a minute&mdash;I couldn't even holler ter let her
+know I war thar. And 'fore I knowed what I war about, durned if she
+hadn't gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn afterwards understood that Dan had actually had a glimpse of
+Virginia when she ran out to the entrance of the gorge, and stood there
+a moment in the terrible heat and glare.</p>
+
+<p>"Where&mdash;show me where!" he exclaimed with fierce vehemence, dragging
+Pepperill after him down the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"It war a considerable piece this side the round rock, nigh the upper
+eend o' the grove," said Dan, in a jarred voice, clattering after him,
+as fast as he could. "I reckon I kin find it, if 'tain't too late."</p>
+
+<p>Too late? It must not be too late! Penn leaps down the ledges, and
+rushes through the thickets, as if he would overtake time itself. They
+reach the burning grove. Pepperill points out as nearly as he can the
+spot where he stood when he saw Virginia. Great God! if she was in
+there, what a frightful end was hers!</p>
+
+<p>"Daniel! are you sure?"&mdash;for Penn cannot, will not believe&mdash;it is too
+terrible!</p>
+
+<p>Daniel is very sure; and he withdraws from the insufferable heat, to
+which his companion appears insensible.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a gorge just above there; perhaps she escaped into the gorge.
+O, if I had known!" groans the half-distracted youth, thinking how near
+he must have been to her when the fire awoke him.</p>
+
+<p>He still hopes that Dan's vision of her in the fire was but the
+hallucination of a bewildered brain. Yet no effort will he spare, no
+danger will he shun. The entrance to the gorge is all a gulf of flame;
+and the woods are blazing upwards along the cliffs, and all the forest
+beyond is turning to a sea of fire. Yet the gorge must be reached. Back
+again up the steep slope they climb. Penn flies to the verge of the
+cliff. He looks down: the chasm is all a glare of light. There runs the
+red-gleaming brook. He sees the logs, the stones, the mosses, all the
+wild entanglement, deep below. But no Virginia. He runs almost into the
+crackling flames, in order to peer farther down the gorge. Then he darts
+away in the opposite direction, along the very brink of the precipice,
+among the fire-lit trees,&mdash;Pepperill stupidly following. He seizes hold
+of a sapling, and, with his foot braced against its root, swings his
+body forward over the chasm, the better to gaze into its depths. From
+that position he casts his eye up the gorge. He sees the cascade falling
+over the ledge in a sheet of ruddy foam. He discovers the upper gorge;
+sees a monster of the forest come plunging and plashing down to the
+fall, and there lift himself on his haunches to look;&mdash;and what is that
+other object, half hidden by a drooping bough? It is Virginia clinging
+to the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>A moment before, had Penn made the discovery of the young girl still
+unharmed by fire, his happiness would have been supreme. But now joy was
+checked by an appalling fear. The bear might seize her, or with a stroke
+of his paw hurl her from his path.</p>
+
+<p>Penn caught hold of the bough that impeded his view, and saw how
+precarious was her hold. He dared not so much as call to her, or shout
+to frighten the monster away, lest, her attention being for an instant
+distracted, she might turn her head, lose her balance, and fall
+backwards from the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Durned if she ain't thar!" said Dan, excitedly. "But she's got a
+powerful slim chance with the bar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me!" said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>He ran to the upper gorge, showed himself on the bank above the cascade,
+and shouted. The bear, as he anticipated, turned and looked up at him.
+Virginia at the same time saw her deliverer.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on! I'll be with you in a minute!" he cried in a voice heard above
+the noise of the waterfall and the roar of the conflagration.</p>
+
+<p>She clung fast, hope and gladness thrilling her soul, and giving her new
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>To reach her, Penn had a precipitous descent of near thirty feet to
+make. He did not pause to consider the difficulty of getting up again,
+or the peril of encountering the bear. He jumped down over a
+perpendicular ledge upon a projection ten feet below. Beyond that was a
+rapid slope covered with moss and thin patches of soil, with here and
+there a shrub, and here and there a tree. Striking his heels into the
+soil, and catching at whatever branch or stem presented itself, he took
+the plunge. Clinging, sliding, falling, he arrived at the bottom. In a
+posture half sitting, half standing, and considerably jarred, he found
+himself face to face with Bruin. The animal had settled down on all
+fours, and now, with his surly, depressed head turned sullenly to one
+side, he looked at Penn, and growled. Penn looked at him, and said
+nothing. He had heard of staring wild beasts out of countenance&mdash;an
+experiment that could be conducted strictly on peace principles, if the
+bear would only prove as good a Quaker as himself. He resolved to try
+it: indeed, all unarmed as he was, what else could he do? He might at
+least, by diverting the brute's attention, give Virginia time to get
+into a position of safety. So he stood up, and fixed his eyes on the
+red-blinking eyes of the ferocious beast. Something Bruin did not like:
+it might have been the youth's company and valiant bearing, but more
+probably his observation of the fire had satisfied him that he was out
+of his place. With another growl, that seemed to say, "All I ask is to
+be let alone," he seceded,&mdash;turning his head still more, twisting his
+body around, after it, and retreating up the gorge.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant Penn was at the young girl's side: his hand clasped hers;
+he drew her up over the rock.</p>
+
+<p>Not a word was uttered. He was too agitated to speak; and she, after the
+terror and the strain to which her nerves had been subjected so long,
+felt all her strength give way. But as he lifted her in his arms, a
+faint smile of happiness flitted over her white face, and her lips moved
+with a whisper of gratitude he did not hear.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all the dangers behind them, and of the dangers still
+before, both felt, in that moment, a shock of mutual bliss. Neither had
+ever known till then how dear the other was.</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill had by this time leaped down upon the bulge of the bank. There
+he waited for them, shouting,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up! the bar'll meet the fire up thar, and be comin' down agin!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn required no spur to his exertions: he knew too well the necessity
+of getting speedily beyond the reach, not of the bear only, but also of
+the fire, which threatened them now on three sides&mdash;below, above, and on
+the farther bank of the gorge.</p>
+
+<p>Clasping the burden more precious to him than life, resolved in his soul
+to part with it only with life, he toiled heavily up the bank, down
+which he had descended with such tremendous swiftness a few minutes
+before.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not in Virginia's nature to remain long a helpless
+encumbrance. Seeing the labor and peril still before them, her will
+returned, and with it her strength. She grasped a branch by which he was
+trying in vain with one hand, holding her with the other, to draw them
+both up a steep place. Her prompt action enabled him to seize the trunk
+of a young tree: she assisted still, and slipping from his hands, clung
+to it until he had reached the next tree above. He pulled her up after
+him, and then pushed her on still farther, until Pepperill could reach
+her from where he stood. A minute later the three were together on the
+summit of the slope.</p>
+
+<p>But now they had above them the ten feet of sheer perpendicularity down
+which Dan had indiscreetly jumped, following Penn's lead. A single hand
+above them would now be worth several hands below.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fool I war! durned if I warn't!" said Dan, endeavoring
+unsuccessfully to find a place by which he could reascend.</p>
+
+<p>"Get on my shoulders!" And Penn braced himself against the ledge.</p>
+
+<p>Dan made the attempt, but fell, and rolled down the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a grinning black face appeared above.</p>
+
+<p>"Gib me de gal! gib me de gal!" and a prodigiously long arm reached
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"O Cudjo! you are an angel!" cried Penn, "Daniel! Here!"</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill was up the bank again in a minute, at Penn's side. They lifted
+Virginia above their heads. Holding on by a sapling with one hand, the
+negro extended the other far down over the ledge. Those miraculous arms
+of his seemed to have been made expressly for this service. He grasped a
+wrist of the girl; with the other hand she clung to his arm until he had
+drawn her up to the sapling; this she seized, and helped herself out.
+Then once more Penn gave Daniel his shoulder, while Cudjo gave him a
+hand from above; and Daniel was safe. Last of all, Penn remained.</p>
+
+<p>"Cotch holt hyar!" said Cudjo, extending towards him the end of a branch
+he had broken from a tree.</p>
+
+<p>To this Penn held fast, assisting himself with his feet against the
+ledge, while Cudjo and Dan hauled him up.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Cudjo! how came you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Me see you and Pepperill a gwine inter de fire. So me foller."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the old man's daughter, Cudjo."</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo regarded the beautiful young girl with a look of vague wonder and
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"He remembers me," said Virginia. "I saw him the night he climbed in at
+Toby's window." She gave him her hand; it trembled with emotion. "I
+thank you, Cudjo, for what you have done for my father&mdash;and for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Cudjo! show us the nearest and easiest path. We must take her to
+the cave&mdash;there is no other way."</p>
+
+<p>"You must be right spry, den!" said Cudjo. "De fire am a runnin' ober
+dat way powerful!"</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it had already crossed the upper end of the gorge, where the
+forest brook fell into it; and, getting into some beds of leaves, and
+thence into dense and inflammable thickets, it was now blazing directly
+across their line of retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Penn would have carried Virginia in his arms, but she would not suffer
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I can go where you can!" she cried, once more full of spirit and
+daring. "Just give me your hand&mdash;you shall see!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn took one of her hands, Pepperill the other, and with their aid,
+supporting her, lifting her, she sprang lightly up the ledges, and from
+rock to rock.</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo, carrying Dan's gun, ran on before, leading the way through
+hollows and among bushes, by a route known only to himself. So they
+reached a piece of woods, by the thin skirts of which he hoped to head
+off the fire. Too late&mdash;it was there before them. It ran swiftly among
+the fallen leaves and twigs, and spread far into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>The negro turned back. There was a wild grimace in his face, and a
+glitter in his eyes, as he threw up his hand, by way of signal that
+their flight in that direction was cut off.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo! what is to be done!" And Penn drew Virginia towards him with a
+look that showed his fears were all for her.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't git off down the mountain, nuther!" said Dan. "It's gittin'
+into the woods down thar. It'll be all around us in no time!"</p>
+
+<p>"You let Cudjo do what him pleases?" said the black.</p>
+
+<p>"I can trust you! Can you, Virginia?"</p>
+
+<p>"He should know what is best. Yes, I will trust him."</p>
+
+<p>"Take dat 'ar!" Pepperill received his gun. "Now you look out fur
+youselves. Me tote de gal."</p>
+
+<p>And catching up Virginia, before Penn could stop him, or question him,
+he rushed with her into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Penn ran after him, perceiving at once the meaning of this bold act. The
+woods were not yet fairly kindled; only now and then the loose bark of a
+dry trunk was beginning to blaze. Cudjo leaped over the line of flame
+that was running along the ground, and bore Virginia high above it to
+the other side. Penn followed, and Dan came close behind. They then had
+before them a tract of blackened ground which the flames had swept,
+leaving here and there a dead limb or mat of leaves still burning.</p>
+
+<p>These little fires were easily avoided. But they soon came to another
+line of flame raging on the upper side of the burnt tract. They were
+almost out of the woods: only that red, crackling hedge fenced them in;
+but that they could not pass: the underbrush all along the forest edge
+was burning. And there they were, brought to a halt, half-stifled with
+smoke, in the midst of woods kindling and blazing all around them.</p>
+
+<p>"May as well pull up hyar, and take a bref," remarked Cudjo, grimly,
+placing Virginia on a log too dank with decay and moss to catch fire
+easily. "Den we's try 'em agin."</p>
+
+<p>A horrible suspicion crossed Penn's mind; the fanatical fire-worshipper
+had brought them there to destroy them&mdash;to sacrifice them to his god!</p>
+
+<p>"Virginia!"&mdash;eagerly laying hold of her arm,&mdash;"we must retreat! It will
+soon be too late! We can get out of the woods where we came in, if we go
+at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, sar," said Cudjo, stamping out fire in the leaves by the
+end of the log,&mdash;and he looked up through the smoke at Penn, with the
+old malignant grin on his apish face.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Cudjo?" said Penn, in an agony of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't get back dat way, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have led us here to destroy us!"</p>
+
+<p>"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was the negro's only reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't we trust you? Haven't we come through fire, following you? O
+Cudjo! more than once you have helped to save my life! You have helped
+to save this life, dearer than mine! Why do you desert us now?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Sert you? Cudjo no 'sert you." But the negro spoke sullenly, and there
+was still a sparkle of malignancy in his look.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you stop here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh! tink we's go trough dat fire like we done trough tudder?"</p>
+
+<p>"What then are we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was once more the sullen response.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia, with her quick perceptions, saw at once what Penn was either
+too dull or too much excited to see. Cudjo felt himself aggrieved; but
+he was not unfaithful.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> trust you, Cudjo!"&mdash;and she laid her hand frankly and confidingly
+on his shoulder. "Did I tremble, did I shrink when you carried me
+through the fire? I shall never forget how brave, how good you are! He
+trusts you too,&mdash;only he is so afraid for me! You can forgive that,
+Cudjo."</p>
+
+<p>"She is right," said Penn, though still in doubt. "If you know a way to
+save her, don't lose a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows; on'y let him take his time," said Pepperill, whose firm faith
+in the negro's good will shamed Penn for his distrust. And yet Pepperill
+did not love, as Penn loved, the girl whose life was in danger; and he
+had not seen the evidences of Cudjo's fire-worshipping fanaticism which
+Penn had seen.</p>
+
+<p>Under the influence of Virginia's gentle and soothing words, the glitter
+of resentment died out of the negro's face. But his aspect was still
+morose.</p>
+
+<p>"De fire take his time to burn out; so we's take our time too," said he.
+"You try your chance wid Cudjo agin, miss?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly! for I am sure you will take us safely through yet!" said
+Virginia, without a shadow of doubt or hesitation on her face, however
+dark may have been the shadow on her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The negro was evidently well pleased. He examined carefully the line of
+fire in the undergrowth. And now Penn discovered, what Cudjo had known
+very well from the first, that there were barren ledges above, and that
+the fire was rapidly burning itself out along their base. An opening
+through which a courageous and active man might dash unscathed soon
+presented itself. Then Cudjo waited no longer to "take bref." He caught
+Virginia in his arms, and bore her through the second line of fire, as
+he had borne her through the first, and placed her in safety on the
+rocks above.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo, my brave, my noble fellow!" said Penn, deeply affected, "I have
+wronged you; I confess it with shame. Forgive me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo hab nuffin to forgib," replied the negro, with a laugh of
+pleasure "Neber mention um, massa! All right now! Reckon we's better be
+gitt'n out o' dis yer smudge!"</p>
+
+<p>He showed the way, and Penn and Daniel helped Virginia up the rocks as
+before.</p>
+
+<p>They had reached a smooth and unsheltered ledge near the ravine, a
+little below the mouth of the cave, when a hideous and inhuman shriek
+rent the air.</p>
+
+<p>"What dat?" cried Cudjo, stopping short; and his visage in the smoky and
+lurid light looked wild with superstitious alarm.</p>
+
+<p>The sound was repeated, louder, nearer, more hideous than before,
+seeming to make the very atmosphere shudder above their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Cudjo! go on!" Penn commanded.</p>
+
+<p>The terrified black crouched and gibbered, but would not stir. Then
+straightway a sharp clatter, as of iron hoofs flying at a furious
+gallop, resounded along the mountain-side. By a simultaneous impulse the
+little party huddled together, and turned their faces towards the fire,
+and saw coming down towards them a horse with the speed of the wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand close!" said Penn; and he threw himself before Virginia, to
+shield her, shouting and swinging his hat to frighten the animal from
+his course.</p>
+
+<p>"Stackridge's hoss!" exclaimed Cudjo, recovering from his fright,
+leaping up, and flinging abroad his long arms in the air. "Wiv some poor
+debil onter him's back!"</p>
+
+<p>It was so. The little group stood motionless, chilled with horror. The
+beast came thundering on, with lips of terror parted, nostrils wide and
+snorting, mane and tail flying in the wild air, hoofs striking fire from
+the rocks. A human being&mdash;a man&mdash;was lying close to his neck, and
+clinging fast: the face hidden by the tossing and streaming mane: a
+fearful ride! the mystery surrounding him, and the awful glare and
+smoke, enhancing the horror of it.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching the group on the ledge, the animal veered, and shot past
+them like a thunderbolt; clearing rocks, hollows, bushes, with
+incredible bounds; nearing the ravine, but halting not; dashing into the
+thickets there, missing suddenly the ground beneath his feet, striking
+only the air and yielding boughs with frantic hoofs; then plunging down
+with a dull, reverberant crash,&mdash;horse and unknown rider rolling
+together over rocks and spiked limbs to the bottom of the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Then all was still again: it had passed like a vision of fear.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>REFUGE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>For a moment the little group stood dumb and motionless on the ledge, in
+the flare of the vast flame-curtains. They looked at each other. Penn
+was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Which of us goes down into the ravine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wha' fur?" said Cudjo.</p>
+
+<p>"To find him!" And Penn gazed anxiously towards the thickets into which
+the horse and horseman had gone down.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat no good! Deader 'n de debil, shore!"</p>
+
+<p>"O, may be he is not!" exclaimed Virginia, full of compassion for the
+unfortunate unknown. "Do go and see, Cudjo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fire'll be dar in less'n no time. Him nuffin to Cudjo. We's best be
+gwine." And the negro started off, doggedly, towards the cave.</p>
+
+<p>Then Penn took the resolution which he would have taken at once but for
+Virginia. "Stay with her, Daniel! I will go!"</p>
+
+<p>Virginia turned pale; she had not thought of that. But immediately she
+controlled her fears: she would not be selfish: if he was brave and
+generous enough to descend into the ravine for one he did not know, she
+would be equally brave and generous, and let him go. She clasped her
+hands together so that they should not hold him back, and forced her
+lips to say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait for you here."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I be durned if ye shall! Hapgood, you stick to her: take this yer
+gun, and I'll slip down inter the holler, and see whuther the cuss's
+alive or dead, any how."</p>
+
+<p>"O, Mr. Pepperill, if you will!" said Virginia, overjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>Penn remonstrated,&mdash;rather feebly, it must be confessed, for the
+determination to part from her had cost him a struggle, and the
+privilege of keeping by her side till all danger was past, seemed too
+sweet to refuse.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take her to her father, and hurry back, and meet you."</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" came the response from Dan, already far down the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"The cave is close by," said Penn. "There is Cudjo, waiting for us!"</p>
+
+<p>Coming up with the black, and once more following his lead, they
+descended along the shelf of rocks, between the thickets and the
+overhanging ledge. So they came to the still dark jaws of the cavern. A
+grateful coolness breathed in their faces from within. But how dismal
+the entrance seemed to eyes lately dazzled by the blazing woods!
+Virginia clung tightly to Penn's hand, as they groped their way in.</p>
+
+<p>At first nothing was visible but a few smouldering embers, winking their
+sleepy eyes in the dark. Out of these Cudjo soon blew a little blaze,
+which he fed with sticks and bits of bark until it lighted up fitfully
+the dim interior and shadowy walls of his abode.</p>
+
+<p>Penn hushed Virginia with a finger on his lips, and restrained her from
+throwing herself forward upon the rude bed, where the blind old man was
+just awaking from a sound sleep.</p>
+
+<p>In that profound subterranean solitude the roar of the fiery breakers,
+dashing on the mountain side, was subdued to a faint murmur, less
+distinct than the dripping of water from roof to floor in the farther
+recesses of the cave. There, left alone, lulled by the dull, monotonous
+trickle,&mdash;thinking, if he heard the roar at all, that it was the
+mountain wind blowing among the pines,&mdash;Mr. Villars had slept tranquilly
+through all the horrors of that night.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, Penn? Safe again!" And sitting up, he grasped the young
+man's hand. "What news from my dear girl?&mdash;from my two dear girls?" he
+added, remembering Virginia was not his only child.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby did not come to the rock," said Penn, still holding Virginia back.</p>
+
+<p>"O! did he not?" It seemed a heavy disappointment; but the patient old
+man rallied straightway, saying, with his accustomed cheerfulness, "No
+doubt something hindered him; no doubt he would have come if he could.
+My poor, dear girl, how I wish I could have got word to her that I am
+safe! But I thank you all the same; it was kind in you to give yourself
+all that trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe all is for the best," said Penn, his voice trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt, no doubt. It will be some time before I can have the
+consolation of my dear girl's presence again; I, who never knew till now
+how necessary she is to my happiness,&mdash;I may say, to my very life!" Mr.
+Villars wiped a tear he could not repress, and smiled. "Yes, Penn, God
+knows what is best for us all. His will be done!"</p>
+
+<p>But now Virginia could restrain herself no longer; her sobs would burst
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>"Father! father!"&mdash;throwing herself upon his neck. "O, my dear, dear
+father!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn had feared the effect of the sudden surprise upon the old and
+feeble man, and had meant to break the good news to him softly. But
+human nature was too strong; his own emotions had baffled him, and the
+pious little artifice proved a complete failure. So now he could do
+nothing but stand by and make grim faces, struggling to keep down what
+was mastering him, and turning away blindly from the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Even Cudjo appeared deeply affected, staring stupidly, and winking
+something like a tear from the whites of his eyes at sight of the father
+embracing his child, and the white locks mingling with the wet, tangled
+curls on her cheek. He was a ludicrous, pathetic object, winking and
+staring thus; and Penn laughed and cried too, at sight of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Luk dar!" said Cudjo, coming up to him, and pointing at the little
+walled chamber that served as his pantry. "She hab dat fur her dressum
+room. Sleep dar, too, if she likes."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Cudjo! it will be very acceptable, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Me clar it up fur her all scrumptious!" added the negro, with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>Penn had thought of that. But now he had other business on his hands: he
+must hasten to find Pepperill: nor could he keep anxious thoughts of
+Stackridge and his friends out of his mind. And Pomp&mdash;where all this
+time was Pomp? He had hoped to find him and the patriots all safely
+arrived in the cave.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia was seated on the bed by her father's side. Penn threw a
+blanket over the dear young shoulders, to shield her from the sudden
+cold of the cave; then left her relating her adventures,&mdash;beckoning to
+Cudjo, who followed him out.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo!"&mdash;the black glided to his side as they emerged from the
+ravine,&mdash;"you must go and find Pomp."</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo laughed and shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>"No use't! Reckon Pomp take keer o' hisself heap better'n we's take keer
+on him!"</p>
+
+<p>True. Pomp knew the woods. He was athletic, cautious, brave. But he had
+gone to extricate from peril others, in whose fate he himself might
+become involved. Cudjo refused to take this view of the matter; and it
+was evident that, while he comforted himself with his deep convictions
+of Pomp's ability to look out for his own safety, he was, to say the
+least, quite indifferent as to the welfare of the patriots.</p>
+
+<p>Forgetting Dan and the unknown horseman in his great solicitude for his
+absent friends, Penn climbed the ledges, and gazed away in the direction
+of the camp, and beheld the forest there a raging gulf of fire.</p>
+
+<p>Assuredly, they must have fled from it before this time; but whither had
+they gone? Had Pomp been able to find them? Or might they not all have
+become entangled in the intricacies of the wilderness until encompassed
+by the fire and destroyed?</p>
+
+<p>Penn watched in vain for their coming&mdash;in vain for some signal of their
+safety on the crags above the forest. Had they reached the crags, he
+thought he might discover them somewhere with a glass, so vividly were
+those grim rock-foreheads of the hills lighted up beneath the red sky.</p>
+
+<p>He sent Cudjo to find Dan, ran to the cave for Pomp's glass, and
+returned to the ledge. There he waited; there he watched; still in vain.
+Wider and wider, spread the destroying sea; fiercer and fiercer leaped
+the billows of flame&mdash;the billows that did not fall again, but broke
+away in rent sheets, in red-rolling scrolls, and vanished upward in
+their own smoke.</p>
+
+<p>And now Penn, lowering the glass, perceived what he must long since have
+been made aware of, had not the greater light concealed the less. It was
+morning; a dull and sunless dawn; the despairing daylight, filtered of
+all warmth and color, spreading dim and gray on the misty valleys, and
+on the sombre, far-off hills, under an interminable canopy of cloud.</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill came clambering up the rocks. Penn turned eagerly to meet and
+question him.</p>
+
+<p>"Find him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, a piece on him."</p>
+
+<p>"Killed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon he ar that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Durned if I kin tell! He's jammed in thar 'twixt two gre't stuns, and
+the hoss is piled on top, and you can't see nary featur' of his face,
+only the legs,&mdash;but durned if I know the legs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you move the horse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nary a bit. His neck is broke, and he lays wedged so clust, right on
+top o' the poor cuss, 'twould take a yoke o' oxen to drag him out."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure the man is dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shore? I reckon! He had one arm loose. I jest lifted it, and it drapped
+jest like a club when I let go; then I see 'twas broke square off jest
+above the elbow, about where the backbone o' the hoss comes. Made me
+durned sick!"</p>
+
+<p>"What have you got in your hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"A boot&mdash;one o' his'n&mdash;thought I'd pull it off, his leg stuck up so kind
+o' handy; didn't know but some on ye might know the boot." And Dan held
+it up for Penn's inspection.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this on it? Blood?"</p>
+
+<p>"It ar so! Mebby it's the hoss's, and then agin mebby it's his'n; I
+hadn't noticed it afore."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go back with you, Daniel. Together perhaps we can move the horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye're behind time for that! The fire's thar. I hadn't only jest time to
+git cl'ar on't myself. The poor cuss is a br'ilin'!"</p>
+
+<p>"K-r-r-r! hi! don't ye har me callin'!" Cudjo sprang up the ledge.
+"Fire's a comin' to de cave! All in de brush dar! Can't get in widout ye
+go now!"</p>
+
+<p>"And Pomp and the rest! They will be shut out, if they are not lost
+already!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pomp know well 'nuff what him 'bout, tell ye! Gorry, massa! ye got to
+come, if Cudjo hab to tote ye!"</p>
+
+<p>Yielding to his importunity, Penn quitted the ledge. On the shelf of
+rock Cudjo paused to gnash his teeth at the flames sweeping up towards
+them. He had long since recovered from his fit of superstitious frenzy.
+He had seen the fire burning the woods that sheltered him in his
+mountain retreat, instead of going intelligently to work to destroy the
+dwellings of the whites; and he no longer regarded it as a deity worthy
+of his worship.</p>
+
+<p>"All dis yer brush be burnt up! Den nuffin' to hide Cudjo's house!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't despair, Cudjo. We will trust in Him who is God even of the
+fire."</p>
+
+<p>Even as Penn spoke, he felt a cool spatter on his hand. He looked up;
+sudden, plashy drops smote his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Rain! It is coming! Thank Heaven for the rain!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, the wind shifted, and blew fitful gusts down the
+mountain. Then it lulled; and the rain poured.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo, your thickets are saved!" said Penn, exultantly. Then
+immediately he thought of the absent ones, for whom the rain might be
+too late; of the beautiful forests, whose burning not cataracts could
+quench; of the unknown corpse far below in the ravine there, and the
+swift soul gone to God.</p>
+
+<p>"What news?" asked the old man as he entered the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"It is morning, and it rains; but your friends are still away.&mdash;The man
+is dead," aside to Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven grant they be safe somewhere!" said the old man. "And Pomp?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is missing too."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long, deep silence. A painful suspense seemed to hold every
+heart still, while they listened. Suddenly a strange noise was heard, as
+of a ghost walking. Louder and louder it sounded, hollow, faint,
+far-off. Was it on the rocks over their heads? or in caverns beneath
+their feet?</p>
+
+<p>"Told ye so! told ye so!" said Cudjo, laughing with wild glee.</p>
+
+<p>The fire had burnt low again, and he was in the act of kindling it, when
+a novel idea seemed to strike him, and, seizing a pan, he inverted it
+over the little remnant of a flame. In an instant the cave was dark. It
+was some seconds before the eyes of the inmates grew accustomed to the
+gloom, and perceived the glimmer of mingled daylight and firelight that
+shone in at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Luk a dar! luk a dar!" said Cudjo.</p>
+
+<p>And turning their eyes in the opposite direction, they saw a faint
+golden glow in the recesses of the cave. The footsteps approached; the
+glow increased; then the superb dark form of Pomp advanced in the light
+of his own torch. Penn hastened to meet him, and to demand tidings of
+Stackridge's party.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp first saluted Virginia, with somewhat lofty politeness, holding the
+torch above his head as he bowed. Then turning to Penn,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your friends are all safe, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"All?" Penn eagerly asked, his thoughts on the luckless horseman. "None
+missing?"</p>
+
+<p>"There were three absent when I reached their camp. They had gone on a
+foraging expedition. I found the rest waiting for them, standing their
+ground against the fire, which was roaring up towards them at a
+tremendous rate. Soon the foragers came in. They brought a basket of
+potatoes and a bag of meal, but no meat. Withers had caught a pig, but
+it had got away from him before he could kill it, and he lost it in the
+dark. The others were cursing the rascals who had set the woods afire,
+but Withers lamented the pig.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'you have not much time to mourn either for the
+woods or the pork. We must take care of ourselves.' And I offered to
+bring them here. But just then we heard a rushing noise; it sounded like
+some animal coming up the course of the brook; and the next minute it
+was amongst us&mdash;a big black bear, frightened out of his wits, singed by
+the fire, and furious."</p>
+
+<p>"Your acquaintance of the gorge, Virginia!" said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"You will readily believe that such an unexpected supply of fresh meat,
+sent by Providence within their reach, proved a temptation to the
+hungry. Withers, in his hurry to make up for the loss of the pig, ran to
+head the fellow off, and attempted to stop him with his musket after it
+had missed fire. In an instant the gun was lying on the ground several
+yards off, and Withers was sprawling. The bear had done the little
+business for him with a single stroke of his paw; then he passed on,
+directly over Withers's body, which happened to be in his way, but which
+he minded no more than as if it had been a bundle of rags. All this time
+we couldn't fire a shot; there was the risk, you see, of hitting Withers
+instead of the bear. Even after he was knocked down, he seemed to think
+he had nothing more formidable than his stray pig to deal with, and
+tried to catch the bear by the tail as he ran over him."</p>
+
+<p>"So ye lost de bar!" cried Cudjo, greatly excited. "Fool, tink o'
+cotchin' on him by de tail!"</p>
+
+<p>"Still we couldn't fire, for he was on his legs again in a second,
+chasing the bear's tail directly before our muzzles," said Pomp, quietly
+laughing. "But luckily a stick flew up under his feet. Down he went
+again. That gave two or three of us a chance to send some lead after the
+beast. He got a wound&mdash;we tracked him by his blood on the ground&mdash;we
+could see it plain as day by the glare of light&mdash;it led straight towards
+the fire that was running up through the leaves and thickets on the
+north. I expected that when he met that he would turn again; but he did
+not: we were just in time to see him plough through it, and hear him
+growl and snarl at the flames that maddened him, and which he was
+foolish enough to stop and fight. Then he went on again. We followed.
+Nobody minded the scorching. We kept him in sight till he met the fire
+again&mdash;for it was now all around us. This time his heart failed him; he
+turned back only to meet us and get a handful of bullets in his head.
+That finished him, and he fell dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor brute!" said Mr. Villars; "he found his human enemies more
+merciless than the fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said Pomp, with a smile. "But we had not much time to
+moralize on the subject then. The fire we had leaped through had become
+impassable behind us. The men hurried this way and that to find an
+outlet. They found only the fire&mdash;it was on every side of us like a
+sea&mdash;the spot where we were was only an island in the midst of it&mdash;that
+too would soon be covered. The bear was forgotten where he lay; the men
+grew wild with excitement, as again and again they attempted to break
+through different parts of the ring that was narrowing upon us, and
+failed. Brave men they are, but death by fire, you know, is too
+horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>"How large was this spot, this island?" asked Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"It might have comprised perhaps twenty acres when we first found
+ourselves enclosed in it. But every minute it was diminishing; and the
+heat there was something terrific. The men were rather surprised, after
+trying in vain on every side to discover a break in the circle of fire,
+to come back and find me calm.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'keep cool. I understand this ground perhaps
+better than you do. Don't abandon your game; you have lost your meal and
+potatoes, and you will have need of the bear.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But what is the use of roast meat, if we are to be roasted too?' said
+Withers, who will always be droll, whatever happens.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Stackridge spoke. He proposed that they should place themselves
+under my command; for I knew the woods, and while they had been running
+to and fro in disorder, I had been carefully observing the ground, and
+forming my plans. I laughed within myself to see Deslow alone hang back;
+he was unwilling to owe his life to one of my complexion&mdash;one who had
+been a slave. For there are men, do you know," said Pomp, with a smile
+of mingled haughtiness and pity, "who would rather that even their
+country should perish than owe in any measure its salvation to the race
+they have always hated and wronged!"</p>
+
+<p>"I trust," said Mr. Villars, "that you had the noble satisfaction of
+teaching these men the lesson which our country too must learn before it
+can be worthy to be saved."</p>
+
+<p>"I showed them that even the despised black may, under God's providence,
+be of some use to white men, besides being their slave: I had that
+satisfaction!" said Pomp, proudly smiling. "Stackridge was right: I had
+observed: I saw what I could do. On one side was a chasm which you know,
+Mr. Hapgood."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! I had thought of it! But I knew it was in the midst of the burning
+forest, and never supposed you could get to it."</p>
+
+<p>"The fire was beyond; and it also burned a little on the side nearest to
+us. But the vegetation there is thin, you remember. The chasm could be
+reached without difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"'Follow me who will!' said I. 'The rest are at liberty to shirk for
+themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Follow&mdash;where?' said Deslow. I couldn't help smiling at the man's
+distress. All the rest were prepared to obey my directions; and it was
+hard for him to separate himself from them. But it seemed harder still
+for him to trust in me. I was not a Moses; I could not take them through
+that Red Sea. What then?</p>
+
+<p>"I made for the chasm. All followed, even Deslow,&mdash;dragging and lugging
+the bear. We came to the brink. The place, I must confess, had an awful
+look, in the light of the trees burning all around it! Deslow was not
+the only one who shrank back then; for though the spot was known to some
+of them, they had never explored it, and could not guess what it led to.
+It was difficult, in the first place, to descend into it; it looked
+still more difficult ever to get out again; and there was nothing to
+prevent the burning limbs above from falling into it, or the trees that
+grew in it from catching fire. For this is the sink, Mr. Villars, which
+you have probably heard of,&mdash;where the woods have been undermined by the
+action of water in the limestone rocks, and an acre or more of the
+mountain has fallen in, with all its trees, so that what was once the
+roof of an immense cavern is now a little patch of the forest growing
+seventy feet below the surface of the earth. The sides are precipitous
+and projecting. Only one tree throws a strong branch upwards to the edge
+of the sink.</p>
+
+<p>"'This way, gentlemen,' said I, 'and you are safe!'</p>
+
+<p>"It was a trial of their faith; for I waited to explain nothing. First, I
+tumbled the bear off the brink. We heard him go crashing down into the
+abyss, and strike the bottom with a sound full of awfulness to the
+uninitiated. Then, with my rifle swung on my back, I seized the limb,
+and threw myself into the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where he can go, we can!' I heard Stackridge say; and he followed me.
+I took his gun, and handed it to him again when he was safe in the tree.
+He did the same for another; and so all got into the branches, and
+climbed down after us. The trunk has no limbs within twenty feet of the
+bottom, but there is a smaller tree leaning into it which we got into,
+and so reached the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"'Now, gentlemen,' said I, when all were down, 'I will show you where
+you are.' And opening the bushes, I discovered a path leading down the
+rocks into the caverns, of which this cave is only a branch. Then I made
+them all take an oath never to betray the secret of what I had shown
+them. Then I lighted one of the torches Cudjo and I keep for our
+convenience when we come in that way, and gave it to them; lighted
+another for my own use; invited them to make themselves quite at home in
+my absence; left them to their reflections;&mdash;and here I am."</p>
+
+<p>Still the mystery with regard to the unknown horseman was in no wise
+explained. Pomp, informed of what had happened, arose hastily. Penn
+followed him from the cave. Pepperill accompanied them, to show the way.
+It was raining steadily; but the thickets in which lay the dead horse
+and his rider were burning still.</p>
+
+<p>"As I was going to Stackridge's camp," said Pomp, "I thought I saw a man
+crawling over the rocks above where the horse was tied. I ran up to find
+him, but he was gone. Peace to his ashes, if it was he!"</p>
+
+<p>"Won't be much o' the cuss left but ashes!" remarked Pepperill.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp ascended the ledges, and stood, silent and stern, gazing at the
+destruction of his beloved woods.</p>
+
+<p>The winds had died. The fires had evidently ceased to spread. Portions
+of the forest that had been kindled and not consumed were burning now
+with slow, sullen combustion, like brands without flame. Stripped of
+their foliage, shorn of their boughs, and seen in the dull and smoky
+daylight, through the rain, they looked like a forest of skeletons, all
+of glowing coal, brightening, darkening, and ever crumbling away.</p>
+
+<p>All at once Pomp seemed to rouse himself, and direct his attention more
+particularly at the part of the woods in which the patriots' camp had
+been.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me, Pepperill, if you would help do a good job!"</p>
+
+<p>They started off, and were soon out of sight. As Penn turned from gazing
+after them, he heard a voice calling from the opposite side of the
+ravine. He looked, but could see no one. The figure to which the voice
+belonged was hidden by the bushes. The bushes moved, however; the figure
+was descending into the ravine. It arrived at the bottom, crossed, and
+began to ascend the steep side towards the cave. Penn concealed himself,
+and waited until it had nearly emerged from the thickets beneath him,
+and he could distinctly hear the breath of a man panting and blowing
+with the toil of climbing. Then a well-known voice said in a hoarse
+whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Massa Hapgood! dat you?"</p>
+
+<p>And peering over the bank, he saw, upturned in the rain and murky light,
+among the wet bushes, the black, grinning face of old Toby.</p>
+
+<p>He responded by reaching down, grasping the negro's hand, and drawing
+him up.</p>
+
+<p>The grin on the old man's face was a ghastly one, and his eyes rolled as
+he stammered forth,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Jinny&mdash;ye seen Miss Jinny?"</p>
+
+<p>Penn did not answer immediately; he was considering whether it would be
+safe to conduct Toby into the cave. Toby grew terrified.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say ye hain't seen her, Massa Penn! ye kill ol' Toby if ye do! I
+done lost her!" And the poor old faithful fellow sobbed out his
+story,&mdash;how Virginia had disappeared, and how, on discovering the woods
+to be on fire, he had set out in search of her, and been wandering he
+scarcely knew where ever since. "Now don't say ye don't know nuffin'
+about her! don't say dat!" falling on his knees, and reaching up his
+hands beseechingly, as if he had only to prevail on Penn to <i>say</i> that
+all was well with "Miss Jinny," and that would make it so. Such faith is
+in simple souls.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say anything you wish me to, good old Toby! only give me a
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Den say you <i>has</i> seen her."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>has seen her</i>," repeated Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"O, bress you, Massa Penn! And she ar safe&mdash;say dat too!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>She ar safe</i>," said Penn, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Bress ye for dat!" And Toby, weeping with joy, kissed the young man's
+hand again and again. "And ye knows whar she ar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Toby! So now get up: don't be kneeling on the rocks here in the
+rain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jes' one word more! Say ye got her and ol' Massa Villars safe stowed
+away, and ye'll take me to see 'em; den dis ol' nigger'll bress you and
+de Lord and dem, and be willin' fur to die! only say dat, massa!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! did I promise to say all you wished?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did, you did so, Massa Penn!" cried Toby, triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose I must say that, too. So come, you dear old simpleton!
+Cudjo!" to the proprietor of the cave, who just then put out his head to
+reconnoitre, "Cudjo! Here is your friend Toby, come to pay his master
+and mistress a visit!"</p>
+
+<p>"What business he got hyar?" said Cudjo, crossly. "We's hab all de wuld,
+and creation besides, comin' bime-by!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo! You knows ol' Toby, Cudjo!" said Toby, in the softest and most
+conciliatory tone imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>"Nose ye!" Cudjo snuffed disdainfully. "Yes! and wish you'd keep fudder
+off!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cudjo! don't you 'member Toby? Las' time I seed you! ye 'member
+dat, Cudjo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't 'member nuffin'!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Twan't you, den, got inter my winder, and done skeert me mos' t' def
+'fore I found out 'twas my ol' 'quaintance Cudjo, come fur Massa Penn's
+clo'es! Dat ar wan't you, hey?" And Toby's honest indignation cropped
+out through the thin crust of deprecating obsequiousness which he still
+thought it politic to maintain.</p>
+
+<p>Penn got under the shelter of the ledge, and waited for the dispute to
+end. It was evident to him that Cudjo was not half so ill-natured as he
+appeared; but, feeling himself in a position of something like official
+importance, he had the human weakness to wish to make the most of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Your massa and missis bery well off. Dey in my house. No room dar for
+you. Ain't wanted hyar, nohow!" turning his back very much like a
+personage of lighter complexion, clad in brief authority.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't wanted, Cudjo? You don't know what you's sayin' now. Whar my ol'
+massa and young missis is, dar ol' Toby's wanted. Can't lib widout me,
+dey can't! Ol' massa wants me to nuss him. Ye don't tink&mdash;you's a nigger
+widout no kind ob 'sideration, Cudjo."</p>
+
+<p>"Talk o' you nussin' him when him's got Pomp!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pomp! what can Pomp do? Wouldn't trust him to nuss a chick sicken!"
+Toby talked backwards in his excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Ki! didn't him take Massa Hapgood and make him well? Don't ye know
+nuffin'?"</p>
+
+<p>Toby seemed staggered for a moment. But he rallied quickly, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He cure Massa Hapgood? He done jes' nuffin' 't all fur him. De fac's
+is, I had de nussin' on him for a spell at fust, and gib him a start.
+Dar's ebery ting in a start, Cudjo."</p>
+
+<p>"O, what a stupid nigger!" said Cudjo. "Hyar's Massa Hapgood hisself!
+leab it to him now!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are both right," said Penn. "Toby did nurse me, and give me a good
+start; for which I shall always thank him."</p>
+
+<p>"Dar! tol' ye so, tol' ye so!" said Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"But it was Pomp who afterwards cured me," added Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"Dar! tol' you so!" cried Cudjo, while Toby's countenance fell.</p>
+
+<p>"For while Toby is a capital nurse" (Toby brightened), "Pomp is a
+first-rate doctor" (Cudjo grinned). "So don't dispute any more. Shake
+hands with your old friend, Cudjo, and show him into your house."</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo was still reluctant; but just then occurred a pleasing incident,
+which made him feel good-natured towards everybody. Pomp and Pepperill
+arrived, bringing the bag of meal and the basket of potatoes which the
+bear-hunters had forsaken in the woods, and which the rain had preserved
+from the fire.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>LYSANDER TAKES POSSESSION.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Gad the "Sleeper" (he had earned that title) had been himself placed
+under guard for drinking too much of the prisoners' liquor, and
+suffering them to escape. Miserable, sullen, thirsty, he languished in
+confinement.</p>
+
+<p>"Let 'em shoot me, and done with it, if that's the penalty," said this
+chivalrous son of the south; "only give a feller suthin' to drink!"</p>
+
+<p>But that policy of the confederates, which opened the jails of the
+country, and put arms in the hands of the convicts, and pardoned every
+felon that would fight, might be expected to find a better use for an
+able-bodied fellow, like Gad, than to shoot him.</p>
+
+<p>The use they found for him was this: He had been a mighty hunter before
+the Lord, ere he became too besotted and lazy for such sport; and he
+professed to know the mountains better than any other man. Accordingly,
+on the recommendation of his friend Lieutenant Ropes, it was resolved to
+send him to spy out the position of the patriots. It was an enterprise
+of some danger, and, to encourage him in it, he was promised two
+things&mdash;pardon for his offence, and, what was of more importance to him,
+a bottle of old whiskey.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see that you have light enough," said Ropes, significantly.</p>
+
+<p>It was the evening of the firing of the forests. How well the lieutenant
+fulfilled his part of the engagement, we have seen.</p>
+
+<p>Gad put the bottle in his pocket, and set off at dark by routes obscure
+and circuitous to get upon the trail of the patriots. How well <i>he</i>
+succeeded will appear by and by.</p>
+
+<p>The burning of the forests caused a great excitement in the valley,
+especially among those families whose husbands and fathers were known to
+have taken refuge in them. Who had committed the barbarous act? The
+confederates denounced it with virtuous indignation, charging the
+patriots with it, of course. There was in the village but one witness
+who could have disputed this charge, and he now occupied Gad's place in
+the guard-house. It was the deserter Carl.</p>
+
+<p>All the morning Gad's return was anxiously awaited. No doubt there were
+good reasons why he did not come. So said his friend Silas; and his
+friend Silas was right: there were good reasons.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, I kep' my word&mdash;I giv him light enough, I reckon!" chuckled
+Silas.</p>
+
+<p>That was true: Gad had had light enough, and to spare.</p>
+
+<p>The rain continued all the morning. Perhaps that was what detained the
+scout; for it was known that he had a great aversion to water.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon came one with tidings from the mountain. It was not
+Gad. It was old Toby.</p>
+
+<p>He was seized by some soldiers and taken before Captain Sprowl, at the
+school-house.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby, you black devil, where have you been?" This was Lysander's
+chivalrous way of addressing an inferior whom he wished to terrify.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if there was a person in the world whom Toby detested, it was this
+roving Lysander, who had disgraced the Villars family by marrying into
+it. However, he concealed his contempt with a politic hypocrisy worthy
+of a whiter skin.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sar," said the old negro, cap in hand, "I'se been lookin' for
+my ol' massa and my young missis."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what luck, you lying scoundrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, no luck 't all, I 'sure you, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>"What! couldn't you find 'em? Don't you lie, you &mdash;&mdash;." (We may as well
+omit the captain's energetic epithets.)</p>
+
+<p>"O, sar!"&mdash;Toby looked up earnestly with counterfeit grief in his
+wrinkled old face,&mdash;"dey ain't nowhars on de face ob de 'arth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not on the face of the earth!"</p>
+
+<p>"If dey is, den de fire's done burnt 'em all up. I seen, down in a big
+holler, a place whar somebody's been burnt, shore! Dar's a man, and a
+hoss on top on him, and de hoss's har am all burnt off, and de man's
+trouse's-legs am all burnt off too, and one foot's got a fried boot onto
+it, and tudder han't got nuffin' on, but jes' de skin and bone all
+roasted to a crisp; and I 'specs dar's 'nuff sight more dead folks down
+in dar, on'y I didn't da's to look, it make me feel so skeerylike!"</p>
+
+<p>All which, and much more, Toby related so circumstantially, that Captain
+Sprowl was strongly impressed with the truth of the story. Great,
+therefore, was the joy of the captain. Perhaps the patriots had been
+destroyed: he hoped so! Still more ardently he hoped that Virginia had
+perished with her father. For was he not the husband of Salina? and the
+snug little Villars property, did he not covet it?</p>
+
+<p>"Can you show me that spot, Toby?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Don'o', sar: I specs I could, sar."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you forget about it! Now, Toby, go home to your mistress,&mdash;my
+wife's your mistress, you know,&mdash;and wait till you are wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sar,"&mdash;bowing, and pulling his foretop.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Sprowl did not overhear the irrepressible chuckle of
+satisfaction in which the old negro indulged as he retired, or he would
+have perceived that he had been trifled with. We are apt to be extremely
+credulous when listening to what we wish to believe; and Lysander's
+delight left no room in his heart for suspicion. All he desired now was
+that Gad should appear and confirm Toby's report; for surely Gad must
+know something about the dead horse and the dead man under him; and why
+did not the fellow return?</p>
+
+<p>As for Toby, he hastened home as fast as his tired old legs could carry
+him, chuckling all the way over his lucky escape, and the cunning
+answers by which he had mystified the captain without telling a
+downright falsehood. "Ob course, dey ain't on de face ob de 'arth, long
+as dey's inside on't! Hi, hi, hi!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not greatly relish reporting himself to Salina: nevertheless, he
+had been ordered to do so, not only by the captain, but by those whose
+authority he respected more.</p>
+
+<p>Salina, though so bitter, was not without natural affection, and she had
+suffered much and waited anxiously ever since Toby, terrified into the
+avowal of his belief that Virginia was in the burning woods, had set out
+in search of her. She was not patient; she was wanting in religious
+trust. She had not slept. All night and all day she had tortured herself
+with terrible fancies. Instead of calming her spirit with prayer, she
+had kept it irritated with spiteful thoughts against what she deemed her
+evil destiny.</p>
+
+<p>There are certain natures to which every misfortune brings a blessing;
+for, whatever it may take away, it is sure to leave that divine
+influence which comes from resignation and a deepened sense of reliance
+upon God. Such a nature was the old clergyman's. Every blow his heart
+had received had softened it; and a softened heart is a well of interior
+happiness; it is more precious to its possessor than all outward gifts
+of friends and fortune. Such a nature, too, was Virginia's. She too,
+through all things, kept warm in her bosom that holy instinct of faith,
+that blessed babe named Love, ever humbly born, whose life within is a
+light that transfigures the world. To such, despair cannot come; for
+when the worst arrives, when all they cherished is gone, heaven is still
+left to them; and they look up and smile. To them sorrow is but a
+preparation for a diviner joy. All things indeed work together for their
+good; since, whether fair fortune comes, or ill, they possess the
+spiritual alchemy that transmutes it into blessing.</p>
+
+<p>This love, this faith, Salina lacked. She fostered in their place that
+selfishness and discontent which sour the soul. Every blow upon her
+heart had hardened it. Every trial embittered and angered her. Hence the
+swollen and flaming eyes, the impatient and scowling looks, with which
+she met the returning Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Virginia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat I can't bery well say, Miss Salina," replied Toby, scratching his
+woolly head. He would never sacrifice his family pride so far as to call
+her Mrs. Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"How dare you come back without her?" And she heaped upon him the
+bitterest reproaches. It was he who, through his cowardice, had been the
+cause of Virginia's night adventure. It was he who had ruined everything
+by concealing her departure until it was too late. Then he might have
+found her, if he had so resolved. But if he could not, why had he
+remained absent all day?</p>
+
+<p>Under this sharp fire of accusations Toby stood with ludicrous
+indifference, grinning, and scratching his head. At length he scratched
+out of it a little roll of paper that had been confided to his wool for
+safe keeping, in case he should be seized and searched. It fell upon the
+floor. He hastily snatched it up, and gave it, with obsequious alacrity,
+to Mrs. Sprowl. She took, unrolled it, and read. It was a pencilled note
+in the handwriting of Virginia.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sister</span>: Thanks to a kind Providence and to kind friends, we are
+safe. I was rescued last night from the most frightful dangers in the
+burning woods. I had come, without your knowledge, to get news of our
+dear father. I am now with him. He has excellent shelter, and devoted
+attendants; but the comforts of his home are wanting, and I have learned
+how much he is dependent upon us for his happiness. For this reason I
+shall remain with him as long as I can. To relieve your mind we send
+Toby back to you. V."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>That evening Captain Sprowl entered the house of the absent Mr. Villars
+with the air of one who had just come into possession of that little
+piece of property. He nodded with satisfaction at the walls, glanced
+approvingly at the furniture, curved his lip rather contemptuously at
+the books (as much as to say, "I'll sell off all that sort of rubbish"),
+and expressed decided pleasure at sight of old Toby. "Worth eight
+hundred dollars, that nigger is!" He had either forgotten that Mr.
+Villars had given Toby his freedom, or he believed that, under the new
+order of things, in a confederacy founded on slavery, such gifts would
+not be held valid.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sallie, my girl,"&mdash;throwing himself into the old clergyman's easy
+chair,&mdash;"here we are at home! Bring me the bootjack, Toby."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about your being at home!" said Salina, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>And it was evident that Toby did not know about bringing the bootjack.
+He looked as if he would have preferred to jerk the chair from beneath
+the sprawling Lysander, and break it over him.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Toby has told you the news? Awful news! a fearful
+dispensation of Providence! Pepperill came in this afternoon and
+confirmed it. We thought he had deserted, but it appears he had only got
+lost in the woods. He reports some dead bodies in a ravine, and his
+account tallies very well with Toby's. We'll wear mourning, of course,
+Sallie."</p>
+
+<p>Lysander stroked his chin. Mrs. Lysander tapped the floor with her
+impatient foot, gnawed her lip, and scowled.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, my dear!" said the captain, coaxingly; "we may as well understand
+each other. Times is changed. I tell ye, I'm going to be one of the big
+men under the new government. Now, Sal, see here. I'm your husband, and
+there's no getting away from it. And what's the use of getting away from
+it, even if we could? Let's settle down, and be respectable. We've had
+quarrels enough, and I've got tired of 'em. Toby, why don't you bring
+that bootjack?"</p>
+
+<p>Lysander swung his chair around towards Salina. She turned hers away
+from him, still knitting her brows and gnawing that disdainful lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what's the use, Sal? Since the way is opened for us to live
+together again, why can't you make up your mind to it, let bygones be
+bygones, and begin life over again? When I was a poor devil, dodging the
+officers, and never daring to see you except in the dark, I couldn't
+blame you for feeling cross with me; for it was a cursed miserable state
+of things. But you're a captain's wife now. You'll be a general's wife
+by and by. I shall be off fighting the battles of my country, and you'll
+be proud to hear of my exploits."</p>
+
+<p>Salina was touched. Weary of the life she led, morbidly eager for
+change, she was a secessionist from the first, and had welcomed the war.
+Moreover, strange as it may seem, she loved this worthless Lysander. She
+hated him for the misery he had caused her; she was exceedingly bitter
+against him; yet love lurked under all. She was secretly proud to see
+him a captain. It was hard to forgive him for all the wrongs she had
+suffered; but her heart was lonely, and it yearned for reconciliation.
+Her scornful lip quivered, and there was a convulsive movement in her
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away!" she exclaimed, violently, as he approached to caress her. "I
+am as unhappy as I can be! O, if I had never seen you! Why do you come
+to torture me now?"</p>
+
+<p>This passion pleased Lysander: it was a sign that her spirit was
+breaking. He caught her in his arms, called her pet names, laughed, and
+kissed her. And this woman, after all, loved to be called pet names, and
+kissed.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby! you devil!" roared Lysander, "why don't you bring that bootjack?"</p>
+
+<p>The old negro stood behind the door, with the bootjack in his hand,
+furious, ready to hurl it at the captain's head. He hesitated a moment,
+then turned, discreetly, and flung it out of the kitchen window.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't a bootjack nowars in de house, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then come here yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>And the gay captain made a bootjack of the old negro.</p>
+
+<p>"Now shut up the house and go to bed!" he said, dismissing him with a
+kick.</p>
+
+<p>After Toby had retired, and Salina had wiped her eyes, and Lysander had
+got his feet comfortably installed in the old clergyman's slippers, the
+long-estranged couple grew affectionate and confidential.</p>
+
+<p>"Law, Sallie!" said the captain, caressingly, "we can be as happy as two
+pigs in clover!" And he proceeded to interpret, in plain prosaic detail,
+those blissful possibilities expressed by the choice poetic figure.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident to Salina that all his domestic plans were founded on the
+supposition that the slippers he had on were the dead man's shoes he had
+been waiting for. Was she shocked by this cold, atrocious spirit of
+calculation? At first she was; but since she had begun to pardon his
+faults, she could easily overlook that. She, who had lately been so
+spiteful and bitter, was now all charity towards this man. Even the
+image of her blind and aged father faded from her mind; even the pure
+and beautiful image of her sister grew dim; and the old, revivified
+attachment became supreme. Shall we condemn the weakness? Or shall we
+pity it, rather? So long her affections had been thwarted! So long she
+had carried that lonely and hungry heart! So long, like a starved, sick
+child, it had fretted and cried, till now, at last, nurture and warmth
+made it grateful and glad! A babe is a sacred thing; and so is love. But
+if you starve and beat them? Perhaps Salina's unhappiness of temper owed
+its development chiefly to this cause. No wonder, then, that we find her
+melancholy, morbid, unreasonable, and now so ready to cling again to
+this wretch, this scamp, her husband, forgiving all, forgetting all (for
+the moment at least), in the wild flood of love and tears that drowned
+the past.</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes! I do think we can be happy!" she said&mdash;"if you will only be
+kind and good to me! If not here, why, then, somewhere else; for place
+is of no consequence; all I want is love."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Lysander, knocking the ashes from his cigar, "but I have a
+fancy for this place! And what should we leave it for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;you know&mdash;there is no certainty&mdash;I believe father is alive
+yet, and well."</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless Toby lied to me!&mdash;Did he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! you can't place any reliance on what Toby says!"&mdash;evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you Pepperill confirms his report about the dead bodies in
+the ravine! Now, what do you know to the contrary?" Lysander appeared
+very much excited, and a quarrel was imminent. Salina dreaded a quarrel.
+She broke into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"The truth is, Toby did fool you. He couldn't help bragging to me about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>O Toby, Toby! that little innocent vanity of yours is destined to cost
+you, and others besides you, very dear! Lysander sprang upon his feet;
+his eyes sparkled with rage. Salina saw that it was now too late to keep
+the secret from him; there was no way but to tell him all. She showed
+Virginia's note. Virginia and her father alive and safe&mdash;that was what
+maddened Lysander!</p>
+
+<p>But where were they?</p>
+
+<p>Salina could not answer that question; for the most she had been able to
+get out of Toby was only a vague hint that they were hidden somewhere in
+a cave.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter!" said Lysander, with a diabolical laugh showing his clinched
+and tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll have the nigger licked! I'll have the
+truth out of him, or I'll have his life?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>TOBY'S REWARD.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Filled with disgust and wrath, Toby had obeyed the man who assumed to be
+his master, and gone to bed. But he was scarcely asleep, when he felt
+somebody shaking him, and awoke to see bending over him, with smiling
+countenance, lamp in hand, Captain Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"What's wantin', sar?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to do an errand for me, Toby," Lysander kindly replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, sar, I don'o', sar," said Toby, reluctant, sitting up in bed and
+rubbing his elbows. "You know I had a right smart tramp. I's a
+tuckered-out nigger, sar; dat's de troof."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you had a hard time, Toby. But you'll just run over to the
+school-house for me, I know. That's a good fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby hardly knew what to make of Lysander's extraordinarily persuasive
+and indulgent manner. He didn't know before that a Sprowl could smile so
+pleasantly, and behave so much like a gentleman. Then, the captain had
+called him a good fellow, and his African soul was not above flattery.
+Weary, sleepy as he was, he felt strongly inclined to get up out of his
+delicious bed, and go and do Lysander's errand.</p>
+
+<p>"You've only to hand this note to Lieutenant Ropes. And I'll give you
+something when you come back&mdash;something you don't get every day, Toby!
+Something you've deserved, and ought to have had long ago!" And
+Lysander, all smiles, patted the old servant's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for Toby. He laughed with pleasure, got up, pulled on
+his clothes, took the note, and started off with alacrity, to convince
+the captain that he merited all the good that was said of him, and that
+indefinite "something" besides.</p>
+
+<p>What could that something be? He thought of many things by the way: a
+dollar; a knife; a new pair of boots with red tops, such as Lysander
+himself wore;&mdash;which last item reminded him of the bootjack he had been
+used for, and the kick he had received.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped in the street, his wrath rising up again at the recollection.
+"Good mind ter go back, and not do his old arrant." But then he thought
+of the smiles and compliments, and the promised reward. "Somefin' kinder
+decent 'bout dat mis'ble Sprowl, 'long wid a heap o' mean tings, arter
+all!" And he started on again.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander's note was in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Leiutent Ropes Send me with the bearrer of This 2 strappin felloes
+capble of doin a touhgh Job."</p>
+
+<p>This letter was duly signed, and duly delivered, and it brought the "2
+strappin felloes." The internal evidence it bore, that Lysander had not
+pursued his studies at school half as earnestly as he had of late
+pursued the schoolmaster, made no difference with the result.</p>
+
+<p>The two strapping fellows returned with Toby. They were raw recruits,
+who had travelled a long distance on foot in order to enlist in the
+confederate ranks. They had an unmistakable foreign air. They called
+themselves Germans. They were brothers.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Toby!" said Lysander, well pleased. "What are you bowing and
+grinning at me for? O, I was to give you something!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sar," said Toby&mdash;wretched, deceived, cajoled, devoted
+Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you go to the woodshed and bring the clothes line for these
+fellows&mdash;to make a swing for the ladies, you know&mdash;then I'll tell you
+what you're to have."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartin, sar." And Toby ran for the clothes line.</p>
+
+<p>"Good old Toby! Now, what you have deserved so long, and what these
+stout Dutchmen will proceed to give you, is the damnedest licking you
+ever had in your life!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby almost fainted; falling upon his knees, and rolling up his eyes in
+consternation. Sprowl smiled. The "Dutchmen" grinned. Just then Salina
+darted into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Lysander! what are you going to do with that old man?"</p>
+
+<p>She put the demand sharply, her short upper lip quivering, cheeks
+flushed, eyes flaming.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to have him whipped."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you are not. You promised me you wouldn't. You told me that if he
+would go to the Academy for you, and be respectful, you would forgive
+him. If I had known what you were sending for, he should never have left
+this house. Now send those men back, and let him go."</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, my lady. I am master in this house, whatever turns up. I
+am this nigger's master, too."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not; you never were. Toby has his freedom. He shall not be
+whipped!" And with a gesture of authority, and with a stamp of her foot,
+Salina placed herself between the kneeling old servant and the grinning
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! this woman's dream of love and happiness had been brief, as all
+such dreams, false in their very nature, must ever be. She loved him
+well enough to concede much. She was not going to quarrel with him any
+more. To avoid a threatened quarrel, she betrayed Toby. But she was not
+heartless: she had a sense of justice, pride, temper, an impetuous will,
+not yet given over in perpetuity to the keeping of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>The captain laughed devilishly, and threw his arms about his wife (this
+time in no loving embrace), and seizing her wrists, held them, and
+nodded to the soldiers to begin their work.</p>
+
+<p>They laid hold of Toby, still kneeling and pleading, bound his arms
+behind him with the cord, and then looked calmly at Lysander for
+instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him to the shed," said the captain. "One of you carry this light.
+You can string him up to a crossbeam. If you don't understand how that's
+done, I'll go and show you. He's to have twenty lashes to begin with,
+for lying to me. Then he's to be whipped till he tells where our escaped
+prisoners are hid in the mountains. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ve unterstan," said the brothers, coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Toby groaned. They took hold of him, and dragged him away.</p>
+
+<p>"Now will you behave, my girl? A pretty row you're making! Ye see it's
+no use. I am master. The nigger'll only get it the worse for your
+interference."</p>
+
+<p>Lysander looked insolently in his wife's face. It was livid.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey?" he said. "One of your tantrums?"</p>
+
+<p>He placed her on a chair. She was rigid; she did not speak; he would
+have thought she was in a fit but for the eyes which she never took off
+of him&mdash;eyes fixed with deep, unutterable, deadly, despairing hate.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you'll behave&mdash;you'd better!" he said, shaking his finger
+warningly at her as he retired backwards from the room.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the door close behind him. She did not move: her eyes were still
+fixed on that door: heavy and cold as stone, she sat there, and gazed,
+with that same look of unutterable hate. Perhaps five minutes. Then she
+heard blows and shrieks. Toby's shrieks: he had no Carl now to rush in
+and cut his bands.</p>
+
+<p>The twenty lashes for lying had been administered on the negro's bare
+back. Then Lysander put the question: Was he prepared to tell all he
+knew about the fugitives and the cave?</p>
+
+<p>"O, pardon, sar! pardon, sar!" the old man implored; "I can't tell
+nuffin', dat am de troof!"</p>
+
+<p>"Work away, boys," said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>Was it supposed that the good old practice of applying torture to
+enforce confession had long since been done away with? A great mistake,
+my friend. Driven from that ancient stronghold of conservatism, the
+Spanish Inquisition, it found refuge in this modern stronghold of
+conservatism, American Slavery. Here the records of its deeds are
+written on many a back.</p>
+
+<p>But Toby was not a slave. No matter for that. For in the school of
+slavery, this is the lesson that soon or late is learned: Not simply
+that there are two castes, freeman and slave; two races, white and
+black; but that there are two great classes, the rich and the poor, the
+strong and the weak, the lord and the laborer, one born to rule, and the
+other to be ruled. All, who are not masters, are, or ought to be,
+slaves: black or white, it makes no difference; and the slave has no
+rights. This is the first principle of human slavery. This every slave
+society tends directly to develop. It may be kept carefully out of
+sight, but there it lurks, in the hardened hearts of men, like water
+within rocks. It is forever gushing up in little springs of despotism.
+Once it burst forth in a vast convulsive flood, and that was the
+Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>Although Lysander had never owned a slave, he had all his life breathed
+the atmosphere of the institution, and imbibed its spirit. He hated
+labor. He was ambitious. But he was poor. Like a flying fish, he had
+forced himself out of the lower element of society, to which he
+naturally belonged, and had long desperately endeavored to soar. The
+struggle it had cost him to attain his present position rendered him all
+the more violent in his hatred of the inferior class, and all the more
+eager to enjoy the privileges of the aristocracy. Do not blame this man
+too much. The injustice, the cruelty, the atrocious selfishness he
+displays, do not belong so much to the individual as to the institution.
+The milk of this wolf makes the child it nourishes wolfish.</p>
+
+<p>Torture to the extent of ten lashes was applied; then once more the
+question was put. Gashed, bleeding, strung up by his thumbs to the
+crossbeam; every blow of the extemporized whips extorting from him a
+howl of agony; no rescue at hand; Lysander looking on with a merciless
+smile; the brothers doing their assigned work with merciless
+nonchalance; well might poor Toby cry out, in the wild insanity of
+pain,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sar! I'll tell, I'll tell, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," said Lysander. "Let him breathe a minute, boys."</p>
+
+<p>But in that minute Toby gathered up his soul again, dismissed the
+traitor, Cowardice, and took counsel of his fidelity. Betray his good
+old master to these ruffians? Break his promise to Virginia, his oath to
+Cudjo and Pomp? No, he couldn't do that. He thought of Penn, who would
+certainly be hung if captured; and hung through his treachery!</p>
+
+<p>"Now, out with it," said Lysander. "All about the cave. And don't ye
+lie, for you'll have to go and show it to us when we're ready."'</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell!" said Toby. "Dar ain't no cave! none't I knows
+about&mdash;dat's shore!" This was of course a downright lie; but it was told
+to save from ruin those he loved; and I do not think it stands charged
+against his soul on the books of the recording angel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten more, boys," said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"O, wait, wait, sar!" shrieked Toby. "Des guv me time to tink!"</p>
+
+<p>He thought of ten lashes; ten more afterwards; and still another ten;
+for he knew that the whipping would not cease until either he betrayed
+the fugitives or died; and every lash was to him an agony.</p>
+
+<p>"Think quick," said Captain Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door, of the kitchen opened. Toby grasped wildly at that
+straw of hope. It broke instantly. The comer was Salina. She had had the
+power to betray him, but not the power to save. She stood with folded
+arms, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help you, Toby, but I can be revenged."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" cried Lysander, with a start. "What smoke is that?"</p>
+
+<p>She had left the door open, and a draught of air wafted a strange smell
+of burning cloth and pine wood to his nostrils.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," replied Salina, "only the house is afire."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CARL MAKES AN ENGAGEMENT.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Lysander looked in through the doors and saw flames. She had touched the
+lamp to the sitting-room curtains, and they had ignited the wood-work.</p>
+
+<p>"Your own house," he said, furiously. "What a fiend!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was my father's house until you took possession of it," she
+answered. "Now it shall burn."</p>
+
+<p>If he had not already considered that he had an interest at stake, that
+gentle remark reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys! come quick! By&mdash;&mdash;! we must put out the fire!"</p>
+
+<p>He rushed into the kitchen. The German brothers had come to execute his
+commands: whether to flay a negro or extinguish a fire, was to them a
+matter of indifference; and they followed him, seizing pails.</p>
+
+<p>Salina was prepared for the emergency. She held a butcher-knife
+concealed under her folded arms. With this she cut the cords above
+Toby's thumbs. It was done in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, take this and run! If they go to take you, kill them!"</p>
+
+<p>She thrust the handle of the knife into his hand, and pushed him from
+the shed. Terrified, bewildered, weak, he seemed moving in a kind of
+nightmare. But somehow he got around the corner of the shed, and
+disappeared in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The brothers saw him go. They were drawing water at the well, and
+handing it to Lysander in the house. But they had been told to hand
+water, not to catch the negro. So they looked placidly at each other,
+and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The fire was soon extinguished; and Lysander, with his coat off, pail in
+hand, excited, turned and saw his "fiend" of a wife seated composedly in
+a chair, regarding him with a smile sarcastic and triumphant. He uttered
+a frightful oath.</p>
+
+<p>"Any more of your tantrums, and I'll kill you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Any more of yours," she replied, "and I'll burn you up. I can set fires
+faster than you can put them out. I don't care for the house any more
+than I care for my life, and that's precious little."</p>
+
+<p>By the tone in which she said these words, level, determined, distinct,
+with that spice which compressed fury lends, Captain Lysander Sprowl
+knew perfectly well that she meant them.</p>
+
+<p>The brothers looked at each other intelligently. One said something in
+German, which we may translate by the words "Incompatibility of temper;"
+and he smiled with dry humor. The other responded in the same tongue,
+and with a sleepy nod, glancing phlegmatically at Sprowl. What he said
+may be rendered by the phrase&mdash;"Caught a Tartar."</p>
+
+<p>Although Lysander did not understand the idiom, he seemed to be quite of
+the Teutonic opinion. He regarded Mrs. Sprowl with a sort of impotent
+rage. If he was reckless, she had shown herself more reckless. Though he
+was so desperate, she had outdone him in desperation. He saw plainly
+that if he touched her now, that touch must be kindness, or it must be
+death.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you let Toby go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Salina.</p>
+
+<p>"We can catch him," said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do you will be sorry. I warn you in season."</p>
+
+<p>Since she said so, Lysander did not doubt but that it would be so. He
+concluded, therefore, not to catch Toby&mdash;that night. Moreover, he
+resolved to go back to his quarters and sleep. He was afraid of that
+wildcat; he dreaded the thought of trusting himself in the house with
+her. He durst not kill her, and he durst not go to sleep, leaving her
+alive. The Germans, perceiving his fear, looked at each other and
+grunted. That grunt was the German for "mean cuss." They saw through
+Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>After all were gone, Salina went out and called Toby. The old negro had
+fled for his life, and did not hear. She returned into the house, the
+aspect of which was rendered all the more desolate and drear by the
+marks of fire, the water that drenched the floor, the smoky atmosphere,
+and the dim and bluish lamp-light. The unhappy woman sat down in the
+lonely apartment, and thought of her brief dream of happiness, of this
+last quarrel which could never be made up, and of the hopeless,
+loveless, miserable future, until it seemed that the last drop of
+womanly blood in her veins was turned to gall.</p>
+
+<p>At the same hour, not many miles away, on a rude couch in a mountain
+cave, by her father's side, Virginia was tranquilly sleeping, and
+dreaming of angel visits. Across the entrance of the cavern, like an
+ogre keeping guard, Cudjo was stretched on a bed of skins. The fire,
+which rarely went out, illumined faintly the subterranean gloom. By its
+light came one, and looked at the old man and his child sleeping there,
+so peacefully, so innocently, side by side. The face of the father was
+solemn, white, and calm; that of the maiden, smiling and sweet. The
+heart of the young man yearned within him; his eyes, as they gazed,
+filled with tears; and his lips murmured with pure emotion,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord, I thank thee for their sakes! O Lord, preserve them and bless
+them!"</p>
+
+<p>And he moved softly away, his whole soul suffused with ineffable
+tenderness towards that good old man and the dear, beautiful girl. He
+had stolen thither to see that all was well. All was indeed well. And
+now he retired once more to a recess in the rock, where he and Pomp had
+made their bed of blankets and dry moss.</p>
+
+<p>The footsteps on the solid floor of stone had not awakened her. And what
+was more remarkable, the lover's beating heart and worshipping gaze had
+not disturbed her slumber. But now the slightest movement on the part of
+her blind parent banishes sleep in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"Daughter, are you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am here, father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you well, my child?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, very well! I have had such a sweet sleep! Can I do anything for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Let me feel that you are near me. That is all." She kissed him.
+"Heaven is good to me!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>She watched him until he slept again. Then, her soul filled with
+thankfulness and peace, she closed her eyes once more, and happy
+thoughts became happy dreams.</p>
+
+<p>At about that time Salina threw herself despairingly upon her bed, at
+home, gnashing her teeth, and wishing she had never been born. And these
+two were sisters. And Salina had the house and all its comforts left to
+her, while Virginia had nothing of outward solace for her delicate
+nature but the rudest entertainment. So true it is that not place, and
+apparel, and pride make us happy, but piety, affection, and the
+disposition of the mind.</p>
+
+<p>The night passed, and morning dawned, and they who had slept awoke, and
+they who had not slept watched bitterly the quickening light which
+brought to them, not joy and refreshment, but only another phase of
+weariness and misery.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Lysander Sprowl was observed to be in a savage mood that day.
+The cares of married life did not agree with him: they do not with some
+people. Because Salina had baffled him, and Toby had escaped, his
+inferiors had to suffer. He was sharp even with Lieutenant Ropes, who
+came to report a fact of which he had received information.</p>
+
+<p>"Stackridge was in the village last night!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's that to me?" said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"The lieutenant-colonel&mdash;" whispered Silas. Sprowl grew attentive. By the
+lieutenant-colonel was meant no other person than Augustus Bythewood,
+who had received his commission the day before. Well might Lysander, at
+the mention of him to whom both these aspiring officers owed everything,
+bend a little and listen. Ropes proceeded. "He feels a cussed sight
+badder now he believes the gal is in a cave somewhars with the
+schoolmaster, than he did when he thought she was burnt up in the woods.
+He entirely approves of your conduct last night, and says Toby must be
+ketched, and the secret licked out of him. In the mean while he thinks
+sunthin' can be done with Stackridge's family. Stackridge was home last
+night, and of course his wife will know about the cave. The secret might
+be frightened out on her, or, I swear!" said Silas, "I wouldn't object
+to using a little of the same sort of coercion you tried with Toby; and
+Bythewood wouldn't nuther. Only, you understand, he musn't be supposed
+to know anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>Lysander's eyes gleamed. He showed his tobacco-stained teeth in a way
+that boded no good to any of the name of Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Good idee?" said Silas, with a coarse and brutal grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Damned good!" said Lysander. Indeed, it just suited his ferocious mood.
+"Go yourself, lieutenant, and put it into execution."</p>
+
+<p>"There's one objection to that," replied Silas, thrusting a quid into
+his cheek. "I know the old woman so well. It's best that none of us in
+authority should be supposed to have a hand in't. Send somebody that
+don't know her, and that you can depend on to do the job up harnsome.
+How's them Dutchmen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just the chaps!" said Lysander, growing good-natured as the pleasant
+idea of whipping a woman developed itself more and more to his
+appreciative mind.</p>
+
+<p>From flogging a slave, to flogging a free negro, the step is short and
+easy. From the familiar and long-established usage of beating
+slave-women, to the novel fashion of whipping the patriotic wives of
+Union men, the step is scarcely longer, or more difficult. Even the
+chivalrous Bythewood, who was certainly a gentleman in the common
+acceptation of the term, magnificently hospitable to his equals, gallant
+to excess among ladies worthy of his smiles,&mdash;yet who never interfered
+to prevent the flogging of slave-mothers on his estates,&mdash;saw nothing
+extraordinary or revolting in the idea of extorting a secret from a
+hated Union woman by means of the lash. To such gross appetites for
+cruelty as Ropes had cultivated, the thing relished hugely. The keen,
+malignant palate of Lysander tasted the flavor of a good joke in it.</p>
+
+<p>The project was freely discussed, and in the hilarity of their hearts
+the two officers let fall certain words, like crumbs from their table,
+which a miserable dog chanced to pick up.</p>
+
+<p>That miserable dog was Dan Pepperill, whose heart was so much bigger
+than his wit. He knew that mischief was meant towards Mrs. Stackridge.
+How could he warn her? The drums were already beating for company drill,
+and he despaired of doing anything to save her, when by good fortune&mdash;or
+is there something besides good fortune in such things?&mdash;he saw one of
+his children approaching.</p>
+
+<p>The little Pepperill came with a message from her mother. Dan heard it
+unheedingly, then whispered in the girl's ear,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Go and tell Mrs. Stackridge her and the childern's invited over to our
+house this forenoon. Right away now! Partic'lar reasons, tell her!"
+added Dan, reflecting that ladies in Mrs. Stackridge's station did not
+visit those in his wife's without particular reasons.</p>
+
+<p>The child ran away, and Pepperill fell into the ranks, only to get
+repeatedly and severely reprimanded by the drill-officer for his
+heedlessness that morning. He did everything awkwardly, if not
+altogether wrong. His mind was on the child and the errand on which he
+had sent her, and he kept wondering within himself whether she would do
+it correctly (children are so apt to do errands amiss!), and whether
+Mrs. Stackridge would be wise enough, or humble enough, to go quietly
+and give Mrs. P. a call.</p>
+
+<p>After company drill the brothers were summoned, and Lysander gave them
+secret orders. They were to visit Stackridge's house, seize Mrs.
+Stackridge and compel her, by blows if necessary, to tell where her
+husband was concealed.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand?" said the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Ve unterstan," said they, dryly.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the brothers departed, when a prisoner was brought in. It
+was Toby, who had been caught endeavoring to make his way up into the
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we've got the nigger, mabby we'd better send and call the Dutchmen
+back," said Silas Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Lysander, through his teeth. "'Twon't do any harm to give
+the jade a good dressing down. I wish every man, woman, and child, that
+shrieks for the old rotten Union, could be served in the same way."</p>
+
+<p>Having set his heart on this little indulgence, Sprowl could not easily
+be persuaded to give it up. It was absolutely necessary to his peace of
+mind that somebody should be flogged. The interesting affair with Toby,
+which had been so abruptly broken off,&mdash;left, like a novelette in the
+newspapers, to be continued,&mdash;must be concluded in some shape: it
+mattered little upon whose flesh the final chapters were struck off.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time the recaptured negro was taken to the guard-house.
+There he found a sympathizing companion. It was Carl. To him he told his
+story, and showed his wounds, the sight of which filled the heart of the
+lad with rage, and pity, and grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Vot sort of Tutchmen vos they?" Toby described them. Carl's eyes
+kindled. "I shouldn't be wery much susprised," said he, "if they vos&mdash;no
+matter!"</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Ropes arrived, bringing into the guard-house a formidable
+cat-o'-nine-tails.</p>
+
+<p>"String that nigger up," said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>Ropes was not the man to await patiently the issue of the
+woman-whipping, while here was a chance for a little private sport. He
+remembered how Toby had got away from him once&mdash;that he too owed him a
+flogging. Debts of this kind, if no others, Silas delighted to pay; and
+accordingly the negro was strung up. It was well for the lieutenant that
+Carl had irons on his wrists.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of the poor old man's groans,&mdash;the sight of his gashed,
+oozing, and inflamed back, bared again to the whip,&mdash;was to Carl
+unendurable. But as it was not in his power to obey the impulse of his
+soul, to spring for a musket and slay that monster of cruelty, Ropes, on
+the spot,&mdash;he must try other means, perhaps equally unwise and
+desperate, to save Toby from torture.</p>
+
+<p>"Vait, sir, if you please, vun leetle moment," he called out to Silas.
+"I have a vord or two to shpeak."</p>
+
+<p>He had as yet, however, scarcely made up his mind what to propose. A
+moment's reflection convinced him that only one thing could purchase
+Toby's reprieve; and perhaps even that would fail. Regardless of
+consequences to himself, he resolved to try it.</p>
+
+<p>"I know petter as he does about the cave; I vos there," he cried out,
+boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey? You offer yourself to be whipped in this old nigger's place?" said
+Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"Not wery much," replied Carl. "I can go mit you or anypody you vill
+send, and show vair the cave is. I remember. But if you vill have me
+whipped, I shouldn't be wery much surprised if that vould make me to
+forget. Whippins," he added, significantly, "is wery pad for the
+memory."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say, if you are licked, then you won't tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"That ish the idea I vished to conwey."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about that." Silas laughed. "In the mean time we'll try what
+can be got out of this nigger."</p>
+
+<p>Toby, who had had a gleam of hope, now fell again into despair. Just
+then Captain Sprowl came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold! What are you doing with that nigger?"</p>
+
+<p>Silas explained, and Carl repeated his proposal. Lysander caught eagerly
+at it. He remembered Salina's warning, and was glad of any excuse to
+liberate the old negro.</p>
+
+<p>"You promise to take me to the cave?" Carl assented. "Why, then,
+lieutenant, that's all we want, and I order this boy to be set free."</p>
+
+<p>"This boy" was Toby, who was accordingly let off, to his own
+inexpressible joy and Ropes's infinite disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"If Carl he take de responsumbility to show de cave, dat ain't my fault.
+'Sides, dat boy am bright, he am; de secesh can't git much de start o'
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus the old negro congratulated himself on his way home. At the same
+time Carl, still in irons, was saying to himself,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So far so goot. If they had whipped Toby, two things vould be wery
+pad&mdash;the whipping, for one, and he would have told, for another. But I
+have made vun promise. It vas a pad promise, and a pad promise is petter
+proken as kept. But if I preak it, they vill preak my head. Vot shall I
+do? Now let me see!" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>And he remained plunged in thought.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CAPTAIN LYSANDER'S JOKE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Since the time when she lost her best feather-bed and her boarder, the
+worthy widow Sprowl had suffered serious pecuniary embarrassment. She
+missed sadly the regular four dollars a week, and the irregular
+gratuities, she had received from Penn. So much secession had cost her,
+without yielding as yet any of its promised benefits. The Yankees had
+not stepped up with the alacrity expected of them, and thrust their
+servile necks into the yoke of their natural masters. The slave trade
+was not reopened. Niggers were not yet so cheap that every poor widow
+could, at a trifling expense, provide herself with several, and grow
+rich on their labor. In the pride of seeing her son made what she called
+a "capting," and in the hope of enjoying some of the golden fruits of
+his valor, she had given him her last penny, and received up to the
+present time not a penny from him in return. In short, Lysander was
+ungrateful, and the widow was a disappointed woman.</p>
+
+<p>So it happened that the sugar-bowl and tea-canister were often empty,
+and the poor widow had no legitimate means of replenishing them. In this
+extremity she resorted to borrowing. She borrowed of everybody, and
+never repaid. She borrowed even of the hated Unionists in the
+neighborhood, and confessed with bitterness to her son that she found
+them more ready to lend to her than the families of secessionists.</p>
+
+<p>Again, on the morning of the events related in the last chapter, she
+found herself in want of many things&mdash;tea, sugar, meal, beans, potatoes,
+snuff, and tobacco; for this excellent woman snuffed, "dipped," and
+smoked.</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall I go and borry to-day?" said she, counting her patrons, and
+the number of times she had been to borrow of each, on her fingers.
+"Thar's Mis' Stackridge. I hain't been to her but oncet. I'll go agin,
+and carry the big basket."</p>
+
+<p>With her basket on her arm, and an ancient brown bonnet (which had been
+black at the time of the demise of the late lamented Sprowl,) on her
+head, and a multitude of excuses on her tongue, she set out, and walked
+to the farmer's house. This had one of those great, shed-like openings
+through it, so common in Tennessee. A door on the left, as you entered
+this covered space, led to the kitchen and living-room of the family.
+Here the widow knocked.</p>
+
+<p>There was no response. She knocked again, with the same result. Then she
+pulled the latch-string&mdash;for the door even of this well-to-do farmer had
+a latch-string. She entered. The house was deserted.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't to home, none of 'em, hey?" said the widow, peering about her
+with a disagreeable scowl. "House wan't locked, nuther. Wonder if Mis'
+Stackridge and the childern have gone to the mountains too? And whar's
+old Aunt Deb?"</p>
+
+<p>Her first feeling was that of resentment. What right had Mrs. Stackridge
+to be absent when she came to borrow? As she explored the pantry and
+closets, however, and became convinced that she was absolutely alone in
+a well-provisioned farm-house, her countenance lighted up with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I can borry what I want jest exac'ly as well as if Mis' Stackridge war
+to home," thought the widow.</p>
+
+<p>And she proceeded to fill her basket. She helped herself to a pan of
+meal, borrowing the pan with it. "I'll fetch home the pan," said she,
+"when I do the meal,"&mdash;exposing her craggy teeth with a grim smile. "If
+I don't before, I'm a feared Mis' Stackridge'll haf to wait for't a
+considerable spell! What's in this box? Coffee! May as well take box and
+all. Bring back the box when I do the coffee. Wish I could find some
+tobacky somewhars&mdash;wonder whar they keep their tobacky!"</p>
+
+<p>Now, the excellent creature did not indulge in these liberties without
+some apprehension that Mrs. Stackridge might return suddenly and
+interrupt them. Perhaps she had not followed Mr. Stackridge to the
+mountains. Perhaps she had only gone into the village to buy shoes for
+her children, or to call on a neighbor. "If she should come back and
+ketch me at it,&mdash;why, then, I'll tell her I'm only jest a borryin', and
+see what she'll do about it. The prop'ty of these yer durned
+Union-shriekers is all gwine to be confisticated, and I reckon I may as
+well take my sheer when I can git it. Thar's a paper o' black pepper,
+and I'll take it jest as 'tis. Thar's a jar o' lump butter,&mdash;wish I
+could tote jar and all!&mdash;have some of the lumps on a plate anyhow!"</p>
+
+<p>She had soon filled her basket, and was regretting she had not brought
+two, or a larger one, when a handsome, new tin pail, hanging in the
+pantry, caught her eye. "Been wantin' jest sich a pail as that, this
+long while!" And she proceeded to fill that also.</p>
+
+<p>Just as she was putting the cover on, she was very much startled by
+hearing footsteps at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"O, dear me! What shall I do? If it should be Mr. Stackridge! But it
+can't be him! If it's only Mis' Stackridge or one of the niggers, I'll
+face it out! They won't das' to make a fuss, for they're
+Union-shriekers, and my son's a capting in the confederate army!"</p>
+
+<p>Thump, thump, thump!&mdash;loud knocking at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"My, it's visitors! Who can it be?" She set down her pail and basket.
+"I'll act jest as if I had a right here, anyhow!"</p>
+
+<p>She was hesitating, when the string was pulled, and two strangers,
+stout, square built, with foreign looking faces, carrying muskets, and
+dressed in confederate uniform, entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Stackridge?" said they, in a heavy Teutonic accent.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye&mdash;ye&mdash;yes&mdash;" stammered the widow, trying to hide the guilty basket
+and pail behind her skirts. "What do you want of Mis' Stackridge?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the strangers said to the other, in German, indicating the
+plunder,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This is the woman. She is getting provisions ready to send to her
+husband in the mountains."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see what there is good to eat," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Sprowl, although understanding no word that was spoken, perceived
+that the borrowed property formed the theme of their remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"Have some?" she hastened to say, with extreme politeness, as the
+Germans approached the provisions.</p>
+
+<p>"Tank ye," said they, finding some bread and cold meat. And they ate
+with appetite, exchanging glances, and grunting with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"O, take all you want!" said the widow. "You're welcome to anything
+there is in the house, I'm shore!"&mdash;adding, within herself, "I am so
+glad these soldiers have come! Now, whatever is missing will be laid to
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"You de lady of de house?" said the foreigners, munching.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, help yourselves!" smiled the hospitable widow.</p>
+
+<p>"You Mrs. Stackridge?" they inquired, more particularly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; take anything you like!" replied the widow.</p>
+
+<p>"Where your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"My husband! my poor dear husband! he has been dead these&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She checked herself, remembering that the soldiers took her for Mrs.
+Stackridge. If she undeceived them, then they would know she had been
+stealing.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead?" The Germans shook their heads and smiled. "No! He was here last
+night. He was seen. You take dese tings to him up in de mountain."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like some cheese?" said the embarrassed widow.</p>
+
+<p>"Tank ye. Dis is better as rations."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Sprowl returned to the pantry, in order to replace the provisions
+she had so generously given away, and prepared to depart with the basket
+and pail; inviting the guests repeatedly to make themselves quite at
+home, and to take whatever they could find.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" said they. Each had a knee on the floor, and one hand full of
+bread and cheese. They looked up at her with broad, complacent, unctuous
+faces, smiling, yet resolute. And one, with his unoccupied hand, laid
+hold of the handle of the basket, while the other detained the pail.
+"You will tell us where is your husband," said they.</p>
+
+<p>"O, dear me, I don't know! I'm a poor lone woman, and where my husband
+is I can't consaive, I'm shore!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will tell us where is your husband," repeated the men; and one of
+them, getting upon his feet, stood before her at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"He's on the mountain somewhars. I don't know whar, and I don't keer,"
+cried the widow, excited. There was something in the stolid, determined
+looks of the brothers she did not like. "He's a bad man, Mr. Stackridge
+is! I'm a secessionist myself. You are welcome to everything in the
+house&mdash;only let me go now."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not go," said the soldier at the door, "till you tell us. We
+come for dat."</p>
+
+<p>On entering, they had placed their muskets in the corner. The speaker
+took them, and handed one to his comrade. And now the widow observed
+that out of the muzzle of each protruded the butt-end of a small
+cowhide. Each soldier held his gun at his side, and laying hold of the
+said butt-end, drew out the long taper belly and dangling lash of the
+whip, like a black snake by the neck.</p>
+
+<p>The widow screamed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all a mistake. Let me go! I ain't Mis' Stackridge"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing so natural as that the wife of the notorious Unionist should
+deny her identity at sight of the whips. The soldiers looked at each
+other, muttered something in German, smiled, and replaced their muskets
+in the corner.</p>
+
+<p>"You tell us where is your husband. Or else we whip you. Dat is our
+orders."</p>
+
+<p>This they said in low tones, with mild looks, and with a calmness which
+was frightful. The widow saw that she had to do with men who obeyed
+orders literally, and knew no mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"I hain't got no husband. I ain't Mis' Stackridge. I'm a poor lone
+widder, that jest come over here to borry a few things, and that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Ve unterstan. You say shust now you are Mrs. Stackridge. Now you say
+not. Dat make no difruns. Ve know. You tell us where is your husband, or
+ve string you up."</p>
+
+<p>This speech was pronounced by both the foreigners, a sentence by each,
+alternately. At the conclusion one drew a strong cord from his pocket,
+while the other looked with satisfaction at certain hooks in the
+plastering overhead, designed originally for the support of a kitchen
+pole, but now destined for another use.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you dast to tech me!" screamed the false Mrs. Stackridge. "I'm a
+secessionist myself, that hates the Union-shriekers wus'n you do, and
+I've got a son that's a capting, and a poor lone widder at that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat we don't know. What we know is, you tell what we say, or we whip
+you. Dat's Captain Shprowl's orders."</p>
+
+<p>"Capting Sprowl! That's my son! my own son! If he sent you, then it's
+all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"So we tink. All right." And the soldiers, seizing her, tied her thumbs
+as Lysander had taught them, passed the cords over the hook as they had
+passed the clothesline over the crossbeam the night before, and drew the
+shrieking woman's hands above her head, precisely as they had hauled up
+Toby's. They then turned her skirts up over her head, and fastened them.
+This also they had been instructed to do by Lysander. It was, you will
+say, shameful; for this woman was free and white. Had she been a slave,
+with a different complexion, although perhaps quite as white, would it
+have been any the less shameful? Answer, ye believers in the divine
+rights of slave-masters!</p>
+
+<p>"Now you vill tell?" said the phlegmatic Teutons, measuring out their
+whips.</p>
+
+<p>"Go for my son! My son is Capting Sprowl!" gasped the stifled and
+terror-stricken widow.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat trick won't do. You shpeak, or we shtrike."</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, it is true! I am Mrs. Sprowl, and my husband is dead, and
+my son is Capting Sprowl, and a poor lone widder, that if you strike her
+a single blow he'll have you took and hung!"</p>
+
+<p>"If he is your son, den by your own son's orders we whip you. He vill
+not hang us for dat. You vill not tell? Den we give you ten lash."</p>
+
+<p>Blow upon blow, shriek upon shriek, followed. The soldiers counted the
+strokes aloud, deliberately, conscientiously, as they gave them, "Vun,
+two, tree," &amp;c., up to ten. There they stopped. But the screams did not
+stop. This punishment, which it was sport to inflict upon a faithful old
+negro, which it would have been such a good joke to have bestowed upon
+the wife of a stanch Unionist, was no sport, no joke, but altogether a
+tragic affair to thy mother, O Lysander!</p>
+
+<p>Then she, who had so often wished that she too owned slaves, that when
+she was angry she might have them strung up and flogged, knew by fearful
+experience what it was to be strung up and flogged. Then she, who
+sympathized with her son in his desire to see every man, woman, and
+child, that loved the old Union, served in this fashion, felt in her own
+writhing and bleeding flesh the stings of that inhuman vengeance.
+Terrible blunder, for which she had only herself to thank! Robbery of
+her neighbor's house&mdash;the dishonest "borrowing," not of these ill-gotten
+goods only, but also of her neighbor's name&mdash;had brought her, by what we
+call fatality, to this strait.</p>
+
+<p>Fatality is but another name for Providence.</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers waited for a lull in the shrieks, then put once more the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"You tell now? Where is your husband? No? Den you git ten lash more.
+Always ten lash till you tell."</p>
+
+<p>A storm of incoherent denial, angry threats, sobs, and screams, was the
+response. One of the soldiers drew her skirts over her head again, and
+gave another pull at the cords that hauled up her thumbs, while the
+other stood off and measured out his whip.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door opened, and Captain Sprowl looked in.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you getting on, boys?"</p>
+
+<p>The question was accompanied by an approving smile, which seemed to say,
+"I see you are getting on very well."</p>
+
+<p>"We whip her once. We give her ten lash. She not tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Give her ten more."</p>
+
+<p>The widow struggled and screamed. Had she recognized her son's voice?
+Muffled as she was, he did not recognize hers. Nor was it surprising
+that, in the unusual posture in which he found her, he did not know her
+from Mrs. Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>He stood in the door and smiled while the soldier laid on.</p>
+
+<p>"Make it a dozen," he quietly remarked. "And smart ones, to wind up
+with!"</p>
+
+<p>So it happened that, thanks to her son's presence, the screeching victim
+got two "smart ones" additional.</p>
+
+<p>"Now uncover her face. Ease away on her thumbs a little. I'll question
+her mys&mdash;Good Lucifer!" exclaimed the captain, finding himself face to
+face with his own mother.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-two lashes and the torture of the strung-up thumbs had proved too
+much even for the strong nerves of Widow Sprowl. She fell down in a
+swoon.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander, furious, whipped out his sword, and turned upon the soldiers.
+They quietly stepped back, and took their guns from the corner. He would
+certainly have killed one of them on the spot had he not seen by the
+glance of their eyes that the other would, at the same instant, as
+certainly have killed him.</p>
+
+<p>"You scoundrels! you have whipped my own mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," they calmly answered, "we opey orders."</p>
+
+<p>"Fools!"&mdash;and Lysander ground his teeth,&mdash;"you should have known!"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," they replied, "if you not know, how should we know? We never
+see dis woman pefore. We come. We find her taking prowisions from de
+house. We say, 'She take dem to her husband in de mountains.' We say,
+'You Mrs. Stackridge?' She say yes to everyting. We not know she lie. We
+not know she steal. We not say, 'You somepody else.' We opey orders. We
+take and we whip her. You come in and say, 'Whip more.' We whip more.
+Now you say to us, 'Scoundrels!' You say, 'Fools!' We say, 'Captain, it
+was your orders; we opey.'"</p>
+
+<p>Having by a joint effort at sententious English pronounced this speech,
+the brothers stood stolidly awaiting the result; while the captain,
+still gnashing his teeth, bent over the prostrate form of his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring some water and throw on her! you idiots!" he yelled at them.
+"Would you see her die?"</p>
+
+<p>They looked at each other. "Water?" Yes, that was what was wanted. They
+remembered their practice of the previous evening. One found a wooden
+pail. The other emptied upon the floor the contents of the tin pail the
+widow had "borrowed." They went to the well. They brought water. "To
+throw on her?" Yes, that was what he said. And together they dashed a
+sudden drenching flood over the poor woman, as if the swoon were another
+fire to be extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>These fellows obeyed orders literally&mdash;a merit which Lysander now failed
+to appreciate. He swore at them terribly. But he did not countermand his
+last order. Accordingly they proceeded stoically to bring more water.
+Lysander had got his mothers head on his knee, and she had just opened
+her eyes to look and her mouth to gasp, when there came another double
+ice-cold wave, blinding, stifling, drowning her. Too much of water hadst
+thou, poor lone widow!</p>
+
+<p>Lysander let fall the maternal head, and bounded to his feet, roaring
+with wrath. The brothers, imperturbable, with the empty pails at their
+sides, stared at him with mute wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain, dat was your orders. You say, 'Pring vasser and trow on.' We
+pring vasser and trow on. Dat is all."</p>
+
+<p>"But I didn't tell you to fetch pailfuls!"</p>
+
+<p>This sentence rushed out of Lysander's soul like a rocket, culminated in
+a loud, explosive oath, and was followed by a shower of fiery curses
+falling harmless on the heads of the unmoved Teutons.</p>
+
+<p>They waited patiently until the pyrotechnic rain ceased, then answered,
+speaking alternately, each a sentence, as if with one mind, but with two
+organs.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain, you hear. Last night vas de house afire. You say, 'Pring
+vasser.' We pring a little. Den you say to us, 'Tarn you! why in hell
+you shtop?' And you say, 'Von I tell you pring vasser, pring till I say
+shtop.' Vun time more to-day you say, 'Pring vasser,' and you never say
+shtop. You say, 'Trow on.' We trow on. Vat you say we do. You not say
+vat you mean, dat is mishtake for you."</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be supposed that Lysander listened meekly to the end of
+this speech. He had caught the sound of voices without that interested
+him more; and, looking, he saw Mrs. Stackridge returning, with her
+children.</p>
+
+<p>The Pepperill young-one had faithfully done her errand; and the farmer's
+wife, believing something important was meant by it, had hastened to
+accept the singular and urgent invitation. But, arrived at the poor
+man's shanty, she was astonished to find Mrs. Pepperill astonished to
+see her. They talked the matter over, questioned the child, and finally
+concluded that Daniel had said something quite different, which the
+child had misunderstood.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mrs. Stackridge, after sitting a-while, "I reckon I may as
+well be going back, for I've left only old Aunt Deb to home, and she's
+scar't to death to be left alone these times; thinks the secesh
+soldiers'll kill her. But I tell her not to be afeared of 'em. I ain't!"</p>
+
+<p>So this woman, little knowing how much real cause she had to be afraid,
+returned home with her family. When near the house she met Gaff and
+Jake, negroes belonging to the farm, who had been in the field at work,
+running towards her, in great terror, declaring that they heard somebody
+killing Aunt Deb.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said she; and in spite of their assurances and entreaties,
+she marched straight towards the door through which the captain saw her
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Clear out!" said Lysander to the soldiers. "Go to your quarters. I'll
+have your case attended to!" This was spoken very threateningly. Then,
+as soon as they were out of hearing, he said to Mrs. Stackridge, "I'm
+sorry to say a couple of my men have been plundering your house. Them
+Dutchmen you just saw go out. Worse, than that, my mother was going by,
+and she came in to save your stuff, and they, it seems, took her for
+you, and beat her. You see, they have beat her most to death," said
+Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"Lordy massy!" said Mrs. Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Do help me! do take off my clo'es! a poor lone widder!" faintly moaned
+Mrs. Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"When I got here," added the captain, "she had fainted, and they had
+used her basket to pack things in, as you see, and filled this pail,
+which they emptied afterwards, so as to bring water and fetch her to.
+Scoundrels! I'm glad they ain't native-born southerners!"</p>
+
+<p>"And where is Aunt Deb?" said Mrs. Stackridge, hastening to raise the
+widow up.</p>
+
+<p>"I dono'; I hain't seen her. O, dear, them villains!" groaned Mrs.
+Sprowl. "I was just comin' over to borry a few things, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Going by; she wasn't coming here," said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"Going by," repeated the widow. "O, shall I ever git over it! O, dear
+me, I'm all cut to pieces! A poor forlorn widder, and my only son&mdash;O,
+dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Her only son," cried Lysander in a loud voice, "couldn't get here in
+time to prevent the outrage. That's what she wants to say. I leave her
+in your care, Mrs. Stackridge. She was doing a neighborly thing for you
+when she came in to stop the pillaging, and I'm sure you'll do as much
+for her."</p>
+
+<p>And the captain retired, his appetite for woman-whipping cloyed for the
+present.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Aunt Deb?" repeated Mrs. Stackridge. "Aunt Deb!" she called,
+"where are you? I want you this minute!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here I is!" answered a voice from heaven, or at least from that
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>It was the voice of the old negress, who had hid herself in the
+chambers, and now spoke through a stove-pipe hole from which she had
+observed all that was passing from the time when the widow entered with
+her empty basket.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE MOONLIGHT EXPEDITION.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Toby had been released. Mrs. Stackridge had been whipped by proxy, and
+had kept her husband's secret. Gad, the spy, was still unaccountably
+absent. These three sources of information were, therefore, for the
+time, considered closed; and it was determined to have recourse to the
+fourth, namely, Carl.</p>
+
+<p>Here it should, perhaps, be explained that the confederate government,
+informed of the position of armed resistance assumed by the little band
+of patriots, had immediately telegraphed orders to recapture the
+insurgents. Among the Union-loving mountaineers of East Tennessee the
+mutterings of a threatened rebellion against the new despotism had long
+been heard, and it was deemed expedient to suppress at once this
+outbreak.</p>
+
+<p>"Try the ringleaders by drum-head court-martial, and, if guilty, hang
+them on the spot," said a second despatch.</p>
+
+<p>These instructions were purposely made public, in order to strike terror
+among the Unionists. They were discussed by the soldiers, and reached
+the ears of Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang them on the spot." That meant Stackridge and Penn, and he knew not
+how many more. "And I," said Carl, "have agreed to show the vay to the
+cave."</p>
+
+<p>He was sweating fearfully over the dilemma in which he had placed
+himself, when a sergeant and two men came to conduct him to
+head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it begins," said Carl to himself, drawing a deep breath.</p>
+
+<p>The irons remained on his wrists. In this plight he was brought into the
+presence of the red-faced colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate a damned Dutchman!" said Lysander, who happened to be at
+head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>He had had experience, and his prejudice was natural.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel poised his cigar, and regarded Carl sternly. The boy's heart
+throbbed anxiously, and he was afraid that he looked pale. Nevertheless,
+he stood calmly erect on his sturdy young legs, and answered the
+officer's frown with an expression of placid and innocent wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name is Carl," said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"I sushpect that is true," replied Carl, on his guard against making
+inadvertent admissions.</p>
+
+<p>"Carl what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Minnevich."</p>
+
+<p>"Minny-fish? That's a scaly name. And they say you are a scaly fellow.
+What have you got those bracelets on for?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is vat I should pe wery much glad to find out," said Carl,
+affectionately regarding his handcuffs.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the fellow that enlisted to save the schoolmaster's neck, ain't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that is true too."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose? Don't you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I knowed, for you told me so; but as they vas hunting for him
+aftervards to hang him, I vas conwinced I vas mishtaken."</p>
+
+<p>This quiet reply, delivered in the lad's quaint style, with perfect
+deliberation, and with a countenance shining with simplicity, was in
+effect a keen thrust at the perfidy of the confederate officers. The
+colonel's face became a shade redder, if possible, and he frowningly
+exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And so you deserted!"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Carl, "ish not quite so true."</p>
+
+<p>"What! you deny the fact?"</p>
+
+<p>"I peg your pardon, it ish not a fact. I vas took prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you maintain that you did not go willingly?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know just vat you mean by villingly. Ven vun of them fellows
+puts his muzzle to my head and says, 'You come mit us, and make no noise
+or I plow out your prains,' I vas prewailed upon to go. I vas more
+villing to go as I vas to have my prains spilt. If that is vat you mean
+by villing, I vas villing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did they take you prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pecause. I vill tell you. Gad vas shleeping like thunder: you know vat
+I mean&mdash;shnoring. Nothing could make him vake up; so they let him
+shnore. But I vake up, and they say, I suppose, they must kill me or
+take me off, for if I vas left pehind I vould raise the alarm too soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where did they take you?"</p>
+
+<p>Carl was silent a moment, then looking Colonel Derring full in the face,
+he said earnestly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They make me shwear I vould not tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Minny-fish," said the colonel, "this won't do. The secret is out, and
+it is too late for you to try to keep it back. Toby betrayed it. Mrs.
+Stackridge has been arrested, and she has confessed that her husband and
+his friends are hid in a cave. We sent out a scout, who has come in and
+corroborated both their statements. Gad discovered the cave; but he has
+sprained his ankle. He describes the spot accurately, but he's too lame
+to climb the hills again. What we want is a guide to go in his place.
+Now, Minny-fish, here's a chance for you to earn a pardon, and prove
+your loyalty. You promised Captain Sprowl, did you not, that you would
+conduct him to the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>Carl, overwhelmed by the colonel's confident assertions, breathed a
+moment, then replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I pelieve I vas making him some promise."</p>
+
+<p>"Notwithstanding your oath that you would not tell?" said Lysander,
+eager to cross and corner him.</p>
+
+<p>"To show the vay, that is not to tell," replied Carl. "I shwore I vould
+not tell, and I shall not tell. But if you vill go mit me to the cave, I
+vill go mit you and take you. Then I keep my promise to you and my oath
+to them. You see, I did not shwear not to take you," he added, with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>With a smile on his face, but with profound perturbations of the soul.
+For he saw himself sinking deeper and deeper into this miry difficulty,
+and how he was to extricate himself without dragging his friends down,
+was still a terrible enigma.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe the boy is honest," said Derring. "Sergeant, have those irons
+taken off. Captain Sprowl, you will manage the affair, and take this boy
+as your guide. I advise you to trust him. But until he has thoroughly
+proved his honesty, keep a careful eye on him, and if you become
+convinced that he is deceiving you, shoot him down on the spot. I say,
+shoot him on the spot," repeated the colonel, impressively. "You both
+understand that. Do you, Minny-fish?"</p>
+
+<p>"I vas never shot," said Carl, "but I sushpect I know vat shooting is."
+And he smiled again, with trouble in his heart, that would have quite
+disconcerted a youth of less nerve and phlegm.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Captain Sprowl, "if you don't, you will know, if you
+undertake to play any of your Dutch tricks with me!"</p>
+
+<p>"O, sir!" said Carl, humbly, "if I knowed any trick I vouldn't ever
+think of playing it on you, you are so wery shmart!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know I am?" said Lysander, who felt flattered, and thought
+it would be interesting to hear the lad's reasons; for neither he, nor
+any one present, had perceived the craft and sarcasm concealed under
+that simple, earnest manner.</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know you are shmart? Pecause," replied Carl, "you have such a
+pig head. And such a pig nose. And such a pig mouth. That shows you are
+a pig man."</p>
+
+<p>This was said with an air of intense seriousness, which never changed
+amid the peals of laughter that followed. Nobody suspected Carl of an
+intentional joke; and the round-eyed innocent surprise with which he
+regarded the merriment added hugely to the humor of it. Everybody
+laughed except Lysander, who only grimaced a little to disguise his
+chagrin. This upstart officer was greatly disliked for his conceited
+ways, and it was not long before the "Dutch boy's compliments" became
+the joke of the camp, and wherever Lysander appeared some whisper was
+sure to be heard concerning either the "pig mouth," or "pig nose," of
+that truly "pig man."</p>
+
+<p>As for Carl, he had something far more serious to do than to laugh. How
+to circumvent the designs of these men? That was the question.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, it is necessary to state that his conscience
+acquitted him entirely of all obligations to them or their cause. He was
+no secessionist. He had enlisted to save his benefactor and friend. He
+had said, "I will give you my services if you will give that man his
+life." They had immediately afterwards broken the contract by seeking to
+kill his friend, and he felt that he no longer owed them anything. But
+they held <i>him</i> by force, against which he had no weapon but his own
+good wit. This, therefore, he determined to use, if possible, to their
+discomfiture, and the salvation of those to whom he owed everything. But
+how?</p>
+
+<p>He had saved Toby from torture and confession by promising what he never
+intended literally to perform.</p>
+
+<p>Once more in the guard-house, retained a prisoner until wanted as a
+guide, he reasoned with himself thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not go, then they vill make Gad go, lame or no lame, and he
+vill not be half so lucky to show the wrong road as I can be;"&mdash;for Carl
+never suspected that what had been said with regard to Mrs. Stackridge's
+arrest and confession, and Gad's successful reconnoissance and return,
+was all a lie framed to induce him to undertake this very thing. "And if
+I did not make pelieve I vas villing to go, then they vould not give me
+my hands free, and some chances for myself. I think there vill be some
+chances. But Sprowl is to watch, and be ready to shoot me down?" He
+shook his head dubiously, and added, "That is vat I do not like quite so
+vell!"</p>
+
+<p>He remained in a deep study until dusk. Then Captain Sprowl appeared,
+and said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Come! you are to go with me."</p>
+
+<p>Carl's heart gave a great bound; but he answered with an air of
+indifference,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. At once. Stir!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not quite finished my supper; but I can put some of it in my
+pockets, and be eating on the road." And he added to himself, "I am glad
+it is in the night, for that vill be a wery good excuse if I should be
+so misfortunate as not to find the cave!"</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said Lysander, imperiously, giving him a twist and push,&mdash;"march
+before me! And fast! Now, not a word unless you are spoken to; and don't
+you dodge unless you want a shot."</p>
+
+<p>Thus instructed, Carl led the way. He did not speak, and he did not
+dodge. One circumstance overjoyed him. He saw no signs of a military
+expedition on foot. Was Lysander going alone with him to the mountains?
+"I sushpect I can find some trick for him, shmart as he is!" thought
+Carl.</p>
+
+<p>They left the town behind them. They took to the fields; they entered
+the shadow of the mountains, the western sky above whose tops was yet
+silvery bright with the shining wake of the sunset. A few faint stars
+were visible, and just a glimmer of moonlight was becoming apparent in
+the still twilight gloom.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to have a quiet little adwenture together!" chuckled Carl.
+One thing was singular, however. Lysander did not tamely follow his
+lead: on the contrary, he directed him where to go; and Carl saw, to his
+dismay, that they were proceeding in a very direct route towards the
+cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! Ven ve come to some conwenient place maybe something vill
+happen," he said consolingly to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly consternation met him, as it were face to face. The enigma
+was solved. From the crest of a knoll over which Lysander drove him like
+a lamb, he saw, lying on the ground in a little glen before them, the
+dark forms of some forty men.</p>
+
+<p>One of these rose to his feet and advanced to meet Lysander. It was
+Silas Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready?" said Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready and waiting," said Silas.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, push on," said the captain. "We'll go to the dead bodies in the
+ravine first. Where's Pepperill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here," replied Ropes; and at a summons Dan appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Carl's heart sank within him. Toby in the guard-house had told him about
+the dead bodies, and he knew that they were not far from the cave. He
+was aware, too, that Pepperill knew far more than one of such shallow
+mental resources and feeble will, wearing that uniform, and now in the
+power of these men, ought to know.</p>
+
+<p>There in the little moonlit glen they met and exchanged glances&mdash;the
+sturdy, calm-faced boy, and the weak-kneed, trembling man. Pepperill had
+not recovered from the terror with which he had been inspired, when
+summoned to guide a reconnoitring party to the ravine. But he had not
+yet lisped a syllable of what he knew concerning the cave. Carl gave him
+a look, and turned his eyes away again indifferently. That look said,
+"Be wery careful, Dan, and leave a good deal to me." And Dan, man as he
+was, felt somehow encouraged and strengthened by the presence of this
+boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Pepperill," said Sprowl, "can you move ahead and make no mistake?"</p>
+
+<p>"I kin try," answered Pepperill, dismally. "But it's a heap harder to
+find the way in the night so; durned if 'tain't!"</p>
+
+<p>"None o' that, now, Dan," said Ropes, "or you'll git sunthin' to put
+sperrit inter ye!"</p>
+
+<p>Dan made no reply, but shivered. The mountain air was chill, the
+prospect dreary. Close by, the woods, blackened by the recent fire, lay
+shadowy and spectral in the moon. Far above, the dim summits towards
+which their course lay whitened silently. There was no noise but the low
+murmur of these men, bent on bloody purposes. No wonder Dan's teeth
+chattered.</p>
+
+<p>As for Carl, he killed a mosquito on his cheek, and smiled triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You got a shlap, you warmint!" he said, as if he had no other care on
+his mind than the insect's slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you to speak?" said Lysander sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Vas that shpeaking?" Carl scratched his cheek complacently. "I vas only
+making a little obserwation to the mosquito."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, keep your observations to yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is vat I vill try to do."</p>
+
+<p>The order to march was given. Lysander proceeded a few paces in advance,
+accompanied by Ropes and the two guides. The troops followed in silence,
+with dull, irregular tramp, filing through obscure hollows, over barren
+ridges crowned by a few thistles and mulleins, and by the edges of
+thickets which the fires had not reached. At length they came to a tract
+of the burned woods. The word "halt!" was whispered. The sound of
+tramping feet was suddenly hushed, and the slender column of troops,
+winding like a dark serpent up the side of the mountain, became
+motionless.</p>
+
+<p>"All right so far, Pepperill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I hain't made nary mistake yet, cap'm."</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill recognized the woods in which, when flying to the cave with
+Virginia, Penn, and Cudjo, they had found themselves surrounded by
+fires.</p>
+
+<p>"How far is it now to your ravine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nigh on to half a mile, I reckon."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go through these woods?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the nighest to go through 'em. But I s'pose we can git around if
+we try."</p>
+
+<p>"The moon sets early. We'd better take the nearest way," said the
+captain. "Well, Dutchy,"&mdash;for the first time deigning to consult
+Carl,&mdash;"this route is taking us to the cave, too, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wery certain," said Carl, "prowided you go far enough, and turn often
+enough, and never lose the vay."</p>
+
+<p>"That'll be your risk, Dutchy. Look out for the landmarks, so that when
+Pepperill stops you can keep on."</p>
+
+<p>"I vill look out, but if they have all been purnt up since I vas here,
+how wery wexing!"</p>
+
+<p>This wood had been but partially consumed when the flames were checked
+by the rain. Many trunks were still standing, naked, charred, stretching
+their black despairing arms to the moon. The shadows of these ghostly
+trees slanted along the silent field of desolation, or lay entangled
+with the dark logs and limbs of trees which had fallen, and from which,
+at short distances, they were scarcely distinguishable. Here and there
+smouldered a heap of rubbish, its pallid smoke rising noiselessly in the
+bluish light. There were heaps of ashes still hot; half-burned brands
+sparkled in the darkness; and now and then a stump or branch emitted a
+still bright flame.</p>
+
+<p>Through this scene of blackness and ruin, rendered gloomily picturesque
+by the moonlight, the men picked their way. Not a word was spoken; but
+occasionally a muttered curse told that some ill-protected foot had come
+in contact with live cinders, or that some unlucky leg had slumped down
+into one of those mines of fire, formed by roots of old dead stumps,
+eaten slowly away to ashes under ground.</p>
+
+<p>Carl had hoped that the woods would prove impassable, and that the party
+would be compelled to turn back. That would gain for him time and
+opportunity. But the men pushed on. "Vill nothing happen?" he said to
+himself, in despair at seeing how directly they were travelling towards
+the cave. The burned tract was not extensive, and he soon saw,
+glimmering through the blackened columns, the clear moonlight on the
+slopes above.</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill, not daring to assume the responsibility of misleading the
+party, knew no better than to go stumbling straight on.</p>
+
+<p>"I vish he would shtumple and preak his shtupid neck!" thought Carl.</p>
+
+<p>They emerged from the burned woods, and came out upon the ledges beyond;
+and now the lad saw plainly where they were. On the left, the deep and
+quiet gulf of shadow was the ravine. They had but to follow this up, he
+knew not just how far, to reach the cave. And still Pepperill advanced.
+Carl's heart contracted. He knew that the critical moment of the night,
+for him and for his fugitive friends, was now at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see any landmarks yet?" Sprowl whispered to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I can almost see some," answered Carl, peering earnestly over a moonlit
+bushy space. "Ve shall pe coming to them py and py."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know this ravine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember some rawines. I shouldn't be wery much surprised if this vas
+vun of 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said Lysander. Carl looked, and saw a pistol-barrel.
+"Understand?"&mdash;significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it for me?"' And Carl extended his hand ingenuously.</p>
+
+<p>"For you?&mdash;yes." But instead of giving the weapon to the boy, he
+returned it to his pocket, with a smile the boy did not like.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes! a goot joke!" And Carl smiled too, his good-humored face
+beaming in the moon.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time he said to himself, "He hates me pecause I am Hapgood's
+friend; and he vill be much pleased to have cause to shoot me."</p>
+
+<p>Just then Dan stopped. Lysander put up his hand as a signal. The troops
+halted.</p>
+
+<p>"It's somewhars down in hyar, cap'm," Pepperill whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a horrid place!" muttered Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"It ar so, durned if 'tain't!" said Dan, discouragingly.</p>
+
+<p>Before them yawned the ravine, bristling with half-burned saplings, and
+but partially illumined by the moon. The babble of the brook flowing
+through its hidden depths was faintly audible.</p>
+
+<p>"See the bodies anywhere?" said Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't see ary thing by this light," replied Dan. "But we can go down
+and find 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Sprowl did not much fancy the idea of descending.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a waste of time to stop here," he said to Silas. "The live
+traitors are of more consequence than the dead ones. Supposing we go to
+the cave first, and come back and find the bodies afterwards. Have you
+got your bearings yet, Carl?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am peginning," said Carl, staring about him, with his hands in his
+pockets. "I think I vill have 'em soon."</p>
+
+<p>Sprowl looked at him with suppressed rage. "How cussed provoking!" he
+muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is&mdash;wery prowoking!" said Carl, looking at the moon. "Aggrawating!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, make up your mind quick! What will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>Then it seemed as if a bright idea occurred to Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"I vill tell you. You go down and find the podies, and I vill be
+looking. Ven you come up again, I shouldn't be surprised if I could see
+vair the cave is."</p>
+
+<p>"Ropes," said Sprowl, "take a couple of men, and go down in there with
+Pepperill. I think it's best to stay with this boy."</p>
+
+<p>This arrangement did not please Carl at all; but, as he could not
+reasonably complain of it, he said, stoically, "Yes, it vill be petter
+so."</p>
+
+<p>Ropes selected his two men, and left the rest concealed in the shadows
+of the thickets.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could go up on the rocks there, I suppose I could see something,"
+said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll go with you. I mean to give you a fair chance." Carl felt a
+secret hope. Once more alone with this villain, would not some
+interesting thing occur? "Wait, though!" said Sprowl; and he called a
+corporal to his side. "Come with us. Keep close to this boy. At the
+first sign of his giving us the slip, put your bayonet through him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said the corporal.</p>
+
+<p>This was discouraging again. But Carl looked up at the captain and
+smiled&mdash;his good-humored, placid smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You do right. But you vill see I shall not give you the shlip. Now
+come, and be wery still."</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, Pepperill, with the three rebels, descended into the
+ravine. The spot where the dead man and horse had been was soon found.
+But now no dead man was to be seen. The horse had been removed from the
+rocks between which his back was wedged, and rolled down lower into the
+ravine. A broad, shallow hole had been dug there, as if to bury him. But
+the work had been interrupted. There was a shovel lying on the heap of
+earth. Near by was another spot where the soil had been recently
+stirred&mdash;a little mound: it was shaped like a grave.</p>
+
+<p>"They've buried the poor cuss hyar," said Dan.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see." Ropes took the shovel. "They can't have put him in very
+deep, fur they've struck the rock in this yer t'other hole."</p>
+
+<p>He threw up a little dirt, then gave the shovel to one of the soldiers.
+The moon shone full upon the place. The man dug a few minutes, and came
+to something which was neither rock nor soil. He pulled it up. It was a
+man's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't guess fur from right this time, Dan! Scrape off a little
+more dirt, and we'll haul up the carcass. Needn't be partic'lar 'bout
+scrapin' very keerful, nuther. He's a mean shoat, whoever he is; one o'
+them cussed Union-shriekers. Wish they was all planted like he is! Hope
+we shall find five or six more. Ketch holt, Dan!"</p>
+
+<p>Dan caught hold. The body was dragged from the lonely resting-place to
+which it had been consigned. Parts of it, which had not been protected
+by the superincumbent bulk of the horse, were hideously burned. Ropes
+rolled it over on the back, and kicked it, to knock off the dirt. He
+turned up the face in the moonlight&mdash;a frightful face! One side was
+roasted; and what was left of the hair and beard was full of sand.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn him!" said Ropes, giving it a wipe with the spade.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes were open, and they too were full of sand.</p>
+
+<p>But the features were still recognizable. The men started back with
+horror. They knew their comrade. It was the spy who had been sent out to
+watch the fugitives. It was "the sleeper," whom nought could waken more.
+It was Gad.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, if I ain't beat!" said Silas, with a ghastly look. "Fool! how did
+he come hyar?"</p>
+
+<p>This question has never been satisfactorily answered. The fatal leap of
+the terrified horse with his rider is known; but how came Gad on the
+horse? Those who knew the character of the man account for it in this
+way: He had been something of a horse-thief in his day; and it is
+supposed that, finding Stackridge's horse on the mountain, he fell once
+more into temptation. He was probably a little drunk at the time; and he
+was a man who would never walk if he could ride, especially when he was
+tipsy. So he mounted. But he had no sooner commenced the descent of the
+mountain, than the fire, which had been previously concealed from the
+animal by the clump of trees behind which he was hampered, burst upon
+his sight, and filled him with uncontrollable frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>Dan, who had witnessed the flight and plunge, could have contributed an
+item towards the solution of the mystery. But he opened not his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Them cussed traitors shall pay fur this!" said Ropes. This was the only
+consolatory thought that occurred to him. Having uttered it, he looked
+remorsefully at the spade with which he had rudely wiped the face of his
+dead friend. "I thought 'twas one o' them rotten scoundrels, or I&mdash;But
+never mind! Kiver him up agin, boys! We can't take him with us, and
+we've no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>So they laid the corpse once more in the grave, and heaped the sand upon
+it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CARL FINDS A GEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the mean time Carl ascended the moonlit slope, with Sprowl's pistol
+on one side of him, and the corporal's bayonet on the other. Between the
+two he felt that he had little chance. But he did not despair. He
+reasoned thus with himself:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"These two men vill not think to take the cave alone. They must go back
+for re�nforcements. That shall make a diwersion in my favor. If I show
+them some dark place, and make them think it is there, they vill not go
+wery near to examine." And he arrived at this conclusion: "I suppose I
+shall inwent a cave."</p>
+
+<p>They were advancing cautiously towards the summit of a bushy ridge.
+Suddenly Carl stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything?" said Sprowl. Carl nodded, with a pleased and confident
+smile. "What?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see wery soon. Shtoop low." He himself crouched close to the
+ground. The men followed his example. "Come a little more on. Now you
+see that rock?" Lysander saw it. "Vell, it is not there."</p>
+
+<p>They crept forward a little farther. Then Carl stopped again, and
+said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You see that tree?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which?"</p>
+
+<p>"All alone in the moonshine." Lysander perceived it.</p>
+
+<p>"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there."</p>
+
+<p>Again they advanced, and again he paused and pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"You see them little saplings?" Lysander distinguished them revealed
+against the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there neither."</p>
+
+<p>He was crawling on again, when Sprowl seized his collar.</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil do you mean?&mdash;if I see these things!"</p>
+
+<p>Carl turned on his side, smiled intelligently, and, beckoning the
+captain to bring his ear close, put his lips to it, covered them with
+his hand, with an air of secrecy, and whispered hoarsely,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Landmarks!</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! well!" said Lysander, suffering him to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>Carl crept slowly, raising his head at every moment to observe. The
+bayonet came behind; the captain continued at his side. "The further I
+take these willains from the others, the petter," thought he. At length
+he came in view of the high ledge upon which Penn had discovered Cudjo
+at his idolatrous devotions, on the night of the fire. The moon was
+getting behind the mountain, and there were dark shadows beneath this
+ledge. Though he should travel a mile, he might not find a more suitable
+spot to locate his fictitious cave. He hesitated; considered well; then
+gently tapped Lysander's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You see vair the rock comes down? And some pushes just under it? Vell,
+the cave is pehind the pushes, ven you find it!" Which was indeed true.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander crept a few paces nearer, stealthily, flat on his belly, with
+his head slightly elevated, like a dark reptile gliding over the moonlit
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Now is my time!" thought Carl. His heart beat violently. He raised
+himself on his knees, preparing to spring. Lysander was at least ten
+feet in advance of him, and he thought he would risk the pistol. "I
+run&mdash;he fires&mdash;he vill miss me&mdash;I shall get avay." But the corporal?
+Just then he felt a piercing pressure in his side. It was the corporal,
+nudging him with the bayonet to make him lie down.</p>
+
+<p>"I vas shust going a little nearer."</p>
+
+<p>The corporal seemed satisfied with the explanation; but, as the boy
+advanced on his hands and knees, he advanced close behind him,&mdash;holding
+the bayoneted gun ready for a thrust.</p>
+
+<p>So Carl succeeded only in getting a little nearer Lysander, without
+increasing at all the distance between him and the corporal. It was a
+state of affairs that required serious consideration. He lay dawn again,
+and pretended to be anxiously looking for the mouth of the cave, whilst
+watching and reflecting.</p>
+
+<p>Just then occurred a circumstance which seemed almost providentially
+designed to favor the boy's strategy. Upon the ledge appeared two human
+figures, male and female, touched by the moonlight, and defined against
+the sky. They remained but a moment on the summit, then began to descend
+in the shadow of the ledge. Their movements were slow, uncertain,
+mysterious. Below the base of the rock they stood once more in the
+moonlight, and after appearing to consult together for a few seconds,
+disappeared behind the bushes where Carl had placed his imaginary cave.</p>
+
+<p>If Sprowl had any doubts on the subject before, he was now entirely
+satisfied. He believed the forms to be those of Virginia and the
+schoolmaster; they had been out to enjoy solitude and sentiment in the
+moonlight; and now they were returning reluctantly to the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't Gus be edified if he was in my place!" Lysander little thought
+that <i>he</i> was the one to be edified,&mdash;as he would certainly have been,
+to an amazing degree, had he known the truth. "But we'll spoil their fun
+in a few minutes!" he said to himself, as he crept back towards his
+former position.</p>
+
+<p>As for Carl, it was he who had been most astonished by the phenomenon.
+No sooner had he invented a cave, than two phantoms made their
+appearance, and walked into it! The illusion was so perfect, that he
+himself was almost deceived by it. Only for an instant, however.
+Continuing to gaze, he had another glimpse of the apparitions, when,
+having merely passed behind the bushes, they came out beyond them, in
+the direction of the real cave, and were lost once more in shadow.
+Lysander, engaged in making his retrograde movement, did not notice this
+very important circumstance; and the corporal was too intently occupied
+in watching Carl to observe anything else.</p>
+
+<p>The captain got behind the shelter of a cluster of thistles, and
+beckoned for the two to approach.</p>
+
+<p>"Corporal," said he, "hurry back and tell Ropes to bring up his men.
+I'll wait here."</p>
+
+<p>The corporal crawled off.</p>
+
+<p>Carl heard the order, saw the movement, and felt thrilled to the heart's
+core with joy. He was now alone with the captain. And he was no longer
+unarmed. In creeping towards the thistles, he had laid his hand on a
+wonderful little stone. Somehow, his fingers had closed upon it. It was
+about the size of an apple, slightly flattened, rough, and heavy. "I
+thought," he said afterwards, "if anything vas to happen, that stone
+might be waluable." And so it proved. Lysander, considering that the
+cave was found, had become less suspicious. "These Dutch are stupid, and
+that's all," he thought.</p>
+
+<p>"You vas going to shoot me," said Carl, with an honest laugh at the
+ludicrousness of the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"And so I would," said Sprowl, with an oath, "if you hadn't brought us
+to the cave."</p>
+
+<p>"That means," thought Carl, "he vill kill me yet if he can, ven he finds
+out." He observed, also, that Sprowl, lying on his left side, had his
+right hand free, and near the pocket where his pistol was. It was not
+yet too late for him to be shot if he attempted an escape without first
+attempting something else. The violent beating of his heart recommenced.
+He felt a strange tremor of excitement thrilling through every nerve.
+His hand still held the pebble, covering and concealing it as he leaned
+forward on the ground. He crept a little nearer Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"The vay they go into the cave," he said, "is wery queer."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" asked the captain.</p>
+
+<p>They were facing each other. Carl drew still a little nearer, and raised
+himself slightly on the hand that grasped the geological specimen.</p>
+
+<p>"I promised to take you in. I vill take you in on vun condition."</p>
+
+<p>"Condition?" repeated Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"That is vat I said. Vun leetle condition. Let me whishper."</p>
+
+<p>Carl put up his left hand as if to cover the communication he was about
+to breathe into Lysander's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"The condition&mdash;IS THIS!"</p>
+
+<p>As he uttered the last words, he seized Lysander's wrist with his left
+hand, and at the same instant, with a stroke rapid as lightning, smote
+him on the temple with the stone.</p>
+
+<p>All this, being interpreted, meant, "I take you to the cave on condition
+that you go as my prisoner." Thus Carl designed to keep his promise.</p>
+
+<p>As he struck he sprang up, to be ready for any emergency. He had
+expected a struggle, an outcry. He never dreamed that he could strike a
+man dead with a single blow!</p>
+
+<p>Without a shriek, without even a moan, Lysander merely sunk back upon
+the ground, gasped, shuddered, and lay still.</p>
+
+<p>Carl was stupefied. He looked at the prostrate man. Then he cast his eye
+all around him on the moonlit mountain slope. No one was in sight. Was
+this murder he had committed? He knelt down, bending over the horribly
+motionless form. He gazed on the ghastly-pale face, and saw issuing from
+the nostrils a dark stream. It was blood.</p>
+
+<p>Was it not all a dream? He still held the stone in his hand. He looked
+at it, and mechanically placed it in his pocket. Nothing now seemed left
+for him but to escape to the cave; and yet he remained fixed with horror
+to the spot, regarding what he had done.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>CARL KEEPS HIS ENGAGEMENT.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Of the two forms that had been seen on the ledge, the female was not
+Virginia, and the other was not Penn. A word of explanation is
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Filled with hatred for her husband,&mdash;filled with shame and disgust, too,
+on hearing how he had caused his own mother to be whipped (for the
+secret was out, thanks to Aunt Deb at the stove-pipe hole),&mdash;resolved in
+her soul never to forgive him, never even to see him again if she could
+help it, yet intolerably wretched in her loneliness,&mdash;Salina had that
+afternoon taken Toby into her counsel.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby, what are we to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's what I do'no' myself!" the sore old fellow confessed; even his
+superior wisdom, usually sufficient (in his own estimation) for the
+whole family, failing him now. "When it comes to lickin' white women and
+'spec'able servants, ain't nobody safe. I's glad ol' massa and Miss
+Jinny's safe up dar in de cave; and I on'y wish we war safe up dar too."</p>
+
+<p>"Toby," said Salina, "we will go there. Can you find the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Reckon I kin," said Toby, delighted at the proposal.</p>
+
+<p>They set out early. They succeeded in reaching the woods without
+exciting suspicion. They kept well to the south, in order to approach
+the cave on the same side of the ravine from which Toby had discovered
+it, or rather Penn near the entrance of it, before. He thought he would
+be more sure to find it by that route. At the same time he avoided the
+burned woods, and, without knowing it, the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>But, the best they could do, the daylight was gone when they came to the
+ravine; and Toby could not find the place where he had previously
+crossed. He passed beyond it. Then they crossed at random in the easiest
+place. Once on the side where the cave was, Toby decided that they were
+above it; and, owing to the steepness of the banks, it was necessary to
+go around over the rocks, at a short distance from the ravine, in order
+to reach the shelf behind the thickets. It was in making this movement
+that they had been seen to descend the ledge and pass behind the bushes
+at its base.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Toby, "you jes' wait while I makes a reckonoyster!"</p>
+
+<p>Salina, weary, sat down in the shadow of a juniper-tree.</p>
+
+<p>Toby made his reconnoissance, discovered nothing, and returned. She,
+sitting still there, had been more successful. She pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"What dar?" whispered Toby, frightened.</p>
+
+<p>"There is somebody. Don't you see? By those shrub-like things."</p>
+
+<p>"Dey ain't nobody dar!"&mdash;with a shiver.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes there is. I saw a man jump up. He is bending over something now,
+trying to lift it. It must be Penn, or some of his friends. Go softly,
+and see."</p>
+
+<p>Toby, imaginative, superstitious, did not like to move. But Salina urged
+him; and something must be done.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I's mos' afeard to! But dar's somebody, shore!"</p>
+
+<p>He advanced, with eyes strained wide and cold chills creeping over him.
+What was the man doing there? What was he trying to lift and drag along
+the ground? It was the body of another man.</p>
+
+<p>"Who dar?" said Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet. Come here!" was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"What! Carl! Carl! dat you? What you doin' dar? massy sakes!" said Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got a prisoner," said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead! O de debil!" said Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"I've knocked him on the head a little, but he is not dead," said Carl.
+"Be still, for there's forty more vithin hearing!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby, with mouth agape, and hands on knees, crouching, looked in the
+face of the lifeless man. That jaunty mustache, with the blood from the
+nostrils trickling into it, was unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat Sprowl!" ejaculated the old negro, with horrified recoil.</p>
+
+<p>"He won't hurt you! Take holt! I pelief Ropes is coming, mit his men,
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Le' 'm drap, den. Wha' ye totin' on him fur?"</p>
+
+<p>Carl had quite recovered from his stupefaction. His wits were clear
+again. Why did he not leave the body? His reasons against such a course
+were too many to be enumerated on the spot to Toby. In the first place,
+he had promised to take the captain to the cave; and he felt a stubborn
+pride in keeping his engagement. Secondly, the man might die if he
+abandoned him. Moreover, the troops arriving, and finding him, would
+know at once what had happened; while, on the contrary, if both Carl and
+the captain should be missing, it would be supposed that they had gone
+to make observations in another quarter; they would be waited for, and
+thus much time would be gained.</p>
+
+<p>Carl had all these arguments in his brain. But instead of stopping to
+explain anything, he once more, and alone, lifted the head and shoulders
+of the limp man, and recommenced bearing him along.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby, who is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat am Miss Salina."</p>
+
+<p>Carl asked no explanations. "Vimmen scream sometimes. Tell her she is
+not to scream. You get her handkersheaf. And do not say it is Shprowl."</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;what is it?" Salina inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Our Carl! don't ye know?" said Toby. "He's got one ob dem secesh he's
+knocked on de head."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he killed him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Part killed him, and part took him prisoner,&mdash;about six o' one and half
+a dozen o' tudder. He say you's specfully 'quested not to scream; and he
+wants your hank'cher."</p>
+
+<p>"What does he want of it?"&mdash;giving it.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat he best know hisself; but if my 'pinion am axed, I should say, to
+wipe de fellah's nose wiv."</p>
+
+<p>Having delivered this profound judgment, Toby carried the handkerchief
+to Carl, who spread it over the wounded man's face.</p>
+
+<p>"That prewents her seeing him, and prewents his seeing the vay to the
+cave."</p>
+
+<p>"Who eber knowed you's sech a powerful smart chil'?" said old Toby,
+amazed.</p>
+
+<p>A new perception of Carl's character had burst suddenly, with a
+wonderful light, upon his dazzled understanding. In the terror of their
+first encounter, in this strange place, he had comprehended nothing of
+the situation. He had not even remembered that he last saw Carl in the
+guard-house, with irons on his wrists. It was like a fragment of some
+dream to find him here, holding the lifeless Lysander in his arms. But
+now he remembered; now he comprehended. Carl had saved him from torture
+by engaging to bring this man to the cave; whom by some miracle of
+courage and valor, he had overcome and captured, and brought thus far
+over the lonely rocks. All was yet vague to the old negro's mind; but it
+was nevertheless strange, great, prodigious. And this lad, this Carl,
+whom Penn had brought, a sort of vagabond, a little hungry beggar, to
+Mr. Villars's house&mdash;that is to say, Toby's; whom the vain, tender,
+pompous, affectionate old servant had had the immense satisfaction of
+adopting into the family, patronizing, scolding, tyrannizing over, and
+tenderly loving; who had always been to him "Dat chil'!" "dat
+good-for-nuffin'!" "dat mis'ble Carl!"&mdash;the same now loomed before his
+imagination a hero. The simple spreading of the handkerchief over the
+face appeared to him a master-stroke of cool sagacity. He himself, with
+all that stupendous wisdom of his, would not have thought of that! He
+actually found himself on the point of saying "Massa Carl!"</p>
+
+<p>Ah, this foolish old negro is not the only person who, in these times of
+national trouble, has been thus astonished! Carl is not the only hero
+who has suddenly emerged, to thrilled and wondering eyes, from the
+disguises of common life. How many a beloved "good-for-nothing" has gone
+from our streets and firesides, to reappear far off in a vision of
+glory! The school-fellows know not their comrade; the mother knows not
+her own son. The stripling, whose outgoing and incoming were so familiar
+to us,&mdash;impulsive, fun-loving, a little vain, a little selfish, apt to
+be cross when the supper was not ready, apt to come late and make you
+cross when the supper was ready and waiting,&mdash;who ever guessed what
+nobleness was in him! His country called, and he rose up a patriot. The
+fatigue of marches, the hardships of camp and bivouac, the hard fare,
+the injustice that must be submitted to, all the terrible trials of the
+body's strength and the soul's patient endurance,&mdash;these he bore with
+the superb buoyancy of spirit which denotes the hero. Who was it that
+caught up the colors, and rushed forward with them into the thick of the
+battle, after the fifth man who attempted it had been shot down? Not
+that village loafer, who used to go about the streets dressed so
+shabbily? Yes, the same. He fell, covered with wounds and glory. The
+rusty, and seemingly useless instrument we saw hang so long idle on the
+walls of society, none dreamed to be a trumpet of sonorous note until
+the Soul came and blew a blast. And what has become of that
+white-gloved, perfumed, handsome cousin of yours, devoted to his
+pleasures, weary even of those,&mdash;to whom life, with all its luxuries,
+had become a bore? He fell in the trenches at Wagner. He had
+distinguished himself by his daring, his hardihood, his fiery love of
+liberty. When the nation's alarum beat, his manhood stood erect; he
+shook himself; all his past frivolities were no more than dust to the
+mane of this young lion. The war has proved useful if only in this, that
+it has developed the latent heroism in our young men, and taught us what
+is in humanity, in our fellows, in ourselves. Because it has called into
+action all this generosity and courage, if for no other cause, let us
+forgive its cruelty, though the chair of the beloved one be vacant, the
+bed unslept in, and the hand cold that penned the letters in that sacred
+drawer, which cannot even now be opened without grief.</p>
+
+<p>As Toby had never been conscious what stuff there was in Carl, so he had
+never known how much he really loved, admired, and relied upon him. He
+stood staring at him there in the moonlight as if he then for the first
+time perceived what a little prodigy he was.</p>
+
+<p>"Take holt, why don't you?" said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>And this time Toby obeyed: he secretly acknowledged the authority of a
+master.</p>
+
+<p>"Sartin, sah!"</p>
+
+<p>He had checked himself when on the point of saying "Massa Carl;" but the
+respectful "sah" slipped from his tongue before he was aware of it.</p>
+
+<p>Among the bushes, and in the shadows of the rocks, they bore the body in
+swiftness and silence. Salina followed.</p>
+
+<p>In the cave the usual fire was burning; by the light of which only
+Virginia and her father were to be seen. The sisters fell into each
+other's arms. Salina was softened: here, after all her sufferings, was
+refuge at last: here, in the warmth of a father's and a sister's
+affection, was the only comfort she could hope for now, in the world she
+had found so bitter.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is with you?" said the old man. "Toby? and Carl? What is the
+matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I vants Mr. Hapgood, or Pomp, or Cudjo!" said Carl, laying down his
+burden.</p>
+
+<p>"They have gone to bury the man in the rawine," said Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>Carl opened great eyes. "The man in the rawine? That's vair Ropes and
+the soldiers have gone."</p>
+
+<p>"What soldiers?&mdash;Who is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is their waliant captain! I am wery sorry, ladies, but I have
+given him a leetle nose-pleed. Some vater, Toby! Your handkersheaf,
+ma'am, and wery much obliged."</p>
+
+<p>Salina stooped to take the handkerchief. A flash of the fire shone upon
+the uncovered face. The eyes opened; they looked up, and met hers
+looking down.</p>
+
+<p>"Lysander!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sal, is it you? Where am I, anyhow?" And the husband tried to raise
+himself. "Carl, what's this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be wiolent!" said Carl, gently laying him down again, "and I vill
+tell you. I vas your prisoner, and I vas showing you the cave. Veil,
+this is the cave; but things is a little inwerted. You are my prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?" said the astonished Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>"Wery much so," replied Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't somebody knock me on the head?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't be wastly surprised if somepody <i>did</i> knock you on the
+head."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I rather sushpect it vas me."</p>
+
+<p>Lysander rubbed his bruised temple feebly, looking amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"But how came <i>she</i> here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It vas she and Toby we saw going into the cave."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?"&mdash;to Toby, bringing a gourd.</p>
+
+<p>"It is vater; it vill improve your wysiognomy. You can trink a little.
+You feel pretty sound in your witals, don't you? I vas careful not to
+hurt your witals," said Carl, kindly, raising Sprowl's head and holding
+the water for him to drink.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander, ungrateful, instead of drinking, started up with sudden fury,
+struck the gourd from him with one hand, and thrust the other into the
+pocket where his pistol was, at last accounts.</p>
+
+<p>"Vat is vanting?" Carl inquired, complacently.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander, fumbling in vain for his weapon, muttered, "Vengeance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wery good," said Carl. "Ve vill discuss the question of wengeance, if
+you like."' And drawing the pistol from <i>his</i> pocket, he coolly
+presented it at Sprowl's head. "Vat for you dodge? You think, maybe, the
+discussion vould not be greatly to your adwantage?"</p>
+
+<p>Lysander felt for his sword, found that gone also, and muttered again,
+"Villain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did somepody say somepody is a willain?" remarked Carl. "I should not
+be wery much surprised if that vas so. Willains nowdays is cheap. I have
+known a great wariety since secesh times pegan. But as for your
+particular case, sir, I peg to give some adwice. There is some ladies
+present, and you must keep quiet. Do you remember how I vas kept quiet
+ven I vas <i>your</i> prisoner? I had pracelets on. And do you remember I vas
+putting some supper in my pocket ven you took me to show you the cave?
+Veil, I make von great mishtake; instead of supper, vat I vas putting in
+my pocket vas them wery pracelets!"</p>
+
+<p>And Carl produced the handcuffs. At that moment Penn and Cudjo arrived;
+and Lysander, observing them, submitted to his fate with beautiful
+resignation. The irons were put on, and Carl mounted guard over him with
+the pistol.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a>XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>LOVE IN THE WILDERNESS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Cudjo was highly exasperated to find strangers in the cave. He became
+quickly reconciled to the presence of Virginia's sister, but not to that
+of Lysander. To pacify him, Carl made him a present of the sword which
+he had removed from the captain's noble person on arriving.</p>
+
+<p>Cudjo received the weapon with unbounded delight, and proceeded to
+adjust the belt to his own Ethiopian waist. It mattered little with him
+that he got the scabbard on the wrong side of his body: a sword was a
+sword; and he wore it in awkward and ridiculous fashion, strutting up
+and down in the fire-lighted cave, to the envy and disgust of old Toby,
+the rage of Lysander, and the amusement of the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Penn meanwhile related to his friends his evening's adventures. He had
+gone down to the ravine with the negroes to bury the horse and his dead
+rider. He was keeping watch while they worked; the man was interred, and
+they were digging a pit for the animal, when they discovered the
+approach of the soldiers, and retired to a hiding-place close by. There
+they lay concealed, whilst Ropes and his men descended to the spot,
+exhumed the corpse with Cudjo's shovel, made their comments upon it, and
+put it back into the ground. During this operation it had required all
+Pomp's authority, and the restraint of his strong hand, to keep Cudjo
+from pouncing upon his old enemy and former overseer, Silas Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>"There were three of us," said Penn, "and only three of them, besides
+Pepperill; and no doubt a struggle would have resulted in our favor. But
+we did not want to be troubled with prisoners; and Pomp and I could not
+see that anything was to be gained by killing them. Besides, we knew
+they had a strong reserve within call. So we waited patiently until they
+finished their work, and climbed up out of the ravine; then we climbed
+up after them. We thought their main object must be to find the cave,
+and Pomp strongly suspected Pepperill of treachery. We found a large
+number of soldiers lying under some bushes, and crept near enough to
+hear what they were saying. They were going to take the cave by
+surprise, and an order had just come for them to move farther up the
+mountain. They set off with scarcely any noise, reminding me of the
+'Forty Thieves,' as they filed away in the moonlight, and disappeared
+among the bushes and shadows. Pomp is on their trail now; he has his
+rifle with him, and it may be heard from if he sees them change their
+course and approach too near the cave."</p>
+
+<p>Penn had come in for his musket. It was the same that had fallen from
+the hands of the man Griffin at the moment when that unhappy rebel was
+in the act of charging bayonet at his breast. Assuring Virginia&mdash;who
+could not conceal her alarm at seeing him take it from its corner&mdash;that
+he was merely going out to reconnoitre, he left the cave.</p>
+
+<p>He was gone several hours. At length he and Pomp returned together. The
+moon had long since set, but it was beautiful starlight; and, themselves
+unseen, they had watched carefully the movements of the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"You would have laughed to have been in my place, Carl!" said Penn,
+laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of his beloved pupil.
+"They besieged the ledge where your imaginary cave is for full two hours
+after I went out, apparently without daring to go very near it."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," replied Carl, "they vas vaiting for me and the captain. It
+vas really too pad now for us to make them lose so much waluable time!
+But they vill excuse Mishter Shprowl; his absence is unawoidable." And
+lifting his brows with a commiserating expression, he gave a comical
+side-glance from under them at the languishing Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>All laughed at the lad's humor except the captain himself&mdash;and Salina.</p>
+
+<p>After besieging the imaginary cave as Penn had described, several of the
+confederates, he said, at last ventured with extreme caution to approach
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"And found," added Carl, "they had been made the wictims of von leetle
+stratagem!"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," said Penn; "for immediately an unusual stir took place
+amongst them."</p>
+
+<p>"In searching for the entrance," laughed Pomp, leaning on his rifle,
+"they came close under a juniper-tree I had climbed into, and I could
+hear them cursing the little Dutchman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that vas me," smiled the good-natured Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"And the 'pig-headed captain' who had gone off with him."</p>
+
+<p>"The pig-headed captain is this indiwidual"&mdash;indicating Sprowl. "But it
+is wery unjust to be cursing him, for it vas not his fault. It vas my
+legs and Toby's that conweyed him; and he had a handkersheaf over his
+face for a wail."</p>
+
+<p>"I suspected how it was, even before I met Penn and learned what had
+happened. I am sorry to see this fellow in this place,"&mdash;Pomp turned a
+frowning look at the corner where Lysander lay,&mdash;"but now that he is
+here, he must stay."</p>
+
+<p>Carl, upon whom the only noticeable effect produced by his exciting
+adventure was a lively disposition to talk, quite unusual with him,
+entered upon a full explanation of the circumstances which had led to
+Lysander's capture. His narrative was altogether so simple, so honest,
+so droll, that even the bitter Salina had to smile at it, while all the
+rest, the old clergyman included, joined in a hearty laugh of admiring
+approval at its conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see but that you did the best that could be done," said Pomp.
+"At all events, the villains seem to have been completely baffled. The
+last I saw of them they were retreating through the burned woods, as if
+afraid to have daylight find them on the mountain."</p>
+
+<p>The daylight had now come; and Penn, who went out to take an
+observation, could discover no trace of the vanished rebels. The eastern
+sky was like a sheet of diaphanous silver, faintly crimsoned above the
+edges of the hills with streaks of the brightening dawn. All the valley
+below was inundated by a lake of level mist, whose subtle wave made
+islands of the hills, and shining inlets of the intervales. Above this
+sea of white silence rose the mountain ranges, inexpressibly calm and
+beautiful, fresh from their bath of starlight and dew, and empurpled
+with softest tints of the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>Penn heard a footstep, and felt a touch on his arm. Was it the beauty of
+the earth and sky that made him shiver with so sudden and sweet a
+thrill? or was it the lovely presence at his side, in whom was
+incarnated, for him, all the beauty, all the light, all the joy of the
+universe?</p>
+
+<p>It was Virginia, who leaned so gently on his arm, that not the slight
+pressure of her weight, but rather the impalpable shock of bliss her
+very nearness brought, made him aware of her approach. Toby followed,
+supporting her along the shelf of rock&mdash;a dark cloud in the wake of that
+rosy and perfumed dawn.</p>
+
+<p>"O, how delicious it is out here!" said the voice, which, if we were to
+describe it from the lover's point of view, could be likened only to the
+songs of birds, the musical utterance of purest flutes, or the blowing
+of wild winds through those grand harp-strings, the mountain pines; for
+there was more of poetry and passion compressed in the heart of this
+quiet young Quaker than we shall venture to give breath to in these
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>"It is&mdash;delicious!" he quiveringly answered, in his happy confusion
+blending <i>her</i> with his perception of the daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>She inhaled deep draughts of the mountain air.</p>
+
+<p>"How I love it! The breath of trees, and grass, and flowers is in
+it,&mdash;those dear friends of mine, that I pine for, shut up here in
+prison!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" said Penn, vaguely, half wishing that he was a flower, a blade
+of grass, or a tree, so that she might pine for him.</p>
+
+<p>"The air of the cave," she said, "is cold; it is odorless. The cave
+seems to me like the great, chill hearts of some of your profound
+philosophers! Some of those tremendous books father makes me read to him
+came out of such hearts, I am sure; great hollow caverns, full of
+mystery and darkness, and so cold and dull they make me shudder to touch
+them;&mdash;but don't you, for the world, tell him I said so,&mdash;for, to please
+him, I let him think I am ever so much edified by everything that he
+likes."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of books <i>do</i> you like?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, I like books with daylight in them! I want them to be living,
+upper-air, joyous books. There must be sunshine, and birds, and
+brooks,&mdash;human nature, life, suffering, aspiration, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And love?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, there should be a little love in books, since there is
+sometimes a little, I believe, in real life." But she touched this
+subject with such airy lightness,&mdash;just hovering over it for an instant,
+and then away, like a butterfly not to be caught,&mdash;that Penn felt a
+jealous trouble. "How long," she added immediately, "do you imagine we
+shall have to stay here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible to say," replied Penn, turning with reluctance to the
+more practical topic. "One would think that the government cannot leave
+us much longer subject to this atrocious tyranny. An army may be already
+marching to our relief. But it may be weeks, it may be months, and I am
+not sure," he added seriously, "but it may be years, before Tennessee is
+relieved."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is terrible! Toby says that poor old man, Mr. Ellerton, who
+assisted you to escape, was caught and hung by some of the soldiers
+yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt but it is true. Although he had returned to his home,
+he was known to be a Unionist, and probably he was suspected of having
+aided us; in which case not even his white hairs could save him."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is horrible! They have commenced woman-whipping. And Toby says a
+negro was hung six times a couple of days ago, and afterwards cut to
+pieces, for saying to another negro he met, 'Good news; Lincoln's army
+is coming!' What is going to become of us, if relief doesn't arrive
+soon? O, to look at the beautiful world we are driven from by these
+wicked, wicked men!"</p>
+
+<p>"And are you so very weary of the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>Penn gave her a look full of electric tenderness, which seemed to say,
+"Have not I been with you? and am I nothing to you?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled, and her voice was tremulous as she answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could go out into the sunshine again! But I have not been
+unhappy. Indeed, I think I have been very happy."</p>
+
+<p>There was an indescribable pause; Virginia's eyes modestly veiled, her
+face suffused with a blissful light, as if her soul saw some soft and
+exquisite dream; while Penn's bosom swelled with the long undulations of
+hope and transport. Toby still lingered in the entrance of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Toby," said Penn, such a radiance flashing from his brow as the negro
+had never seen before, "my good Toby,"&mdash;and what ineffable human
+sympathy vibrated in his tones!&mdash;"I wish you would go in and tell our
+friends that the enemy has quite disappeared: will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, massa!" said Toby, a ray of that happiness penetrating even the
+old freedman's breast. For such is the beautiful law of our nature, that
+love cannot be concealed; it cannot be monopolized by one, nor yet by
+two; but when its divine glow is kindled in any soul, it beams forth
+from the eyes, it thrills in the tones of the voice, it breathes from
+all the invisible magnetic pores of being, and sheds sunshine and warmth
+on all.</p>
+
+<p>Toby went. Then an arm of manly strength, yet of all manly gentleness,
+stole about the waist of the girl, and drew her softly, close, closer;
+while something else, impalpable, ravishing, holy, drew her by a still
+more potent attraction; until, for the first time in her young and pure
+life, her mouth met another mouth with the soul's virgin kiss. Her lips
+had kissed many times before, but her soul never. How long it lasted,
+that sweet perturbation, that fervent experience of a touch, neither, I
+suppose, ever knew; for at such times a moment is an eternity. As a
+lightning flash in a dark night reveals, for a dazzling instant, a world
+concealed before, so the electric interchange of two hearts charged with
+love's lightning seems to open the very doors of infinity; and it is the
+glory of heaven that shines upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Not a word was spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Then Penn held Virginia before him, and looked deep into her eyes, and
+said, with a strange tremor of lip and voice,&mdash;using the gentle speech
+of the Friends, into which old familiar channel his thoughts flowed
+naturally in moments of strong feeling,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Wherever this dear face smiles upon me, there is my sunshine. I must be
+very selfish; for notwithstanding all the dangers and discomforts by
+which I see thee and thy father surrounded, the hours we have passed
+together here have been the happiest of my life. Yea, and suffering and
+privation would be never anything to me, if I could always have thee
+with me, Virginia!"</p>
+
+<p>How different, meanwhile, was the scene within the cave! How chafed the
+fiery Lysander! How spitefully Salina bit her lips ever at sight of him!
+And these two had once been lovers, and had seen rainbows span their
+future also! Is it love that unites such, or is it only the yearning for
+love? For love, the reality, fuses all qualities, and brings into
+harmony all clashing chords.</p>
+
+<p>Toby entered, the gleam of others' happiness still in his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"De enemy hab dis'peared; all gone down in de frog."</p>
+
+<p>"The frog, Toby?" said Mr. Villars.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sar; right smart frog down 'ar in de volley!"</p>
+
+<p>"He means, a fog in the walley," said Carl.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"></a>XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A COUNCIL OF WAR.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Owing to the disturbances of the night the old clergyman had slept
+little. He now lay down on the couch, and soon sank into a profound
+slumber. When he awoke he heard the hum of voices. The cave was filled
+with armed men.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mr. Stackridge and his friends," said Virginia. "They have come
+to hold a council of war; and they look upon you as their grand sachem."</p>
+
+<p>"I have brought them here," said Pomp, "at their request&mdash;all except
+Deslow."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Deslow, I believe, has deserted!" said Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! What makes you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've watched him right close, and I've seen a good deal of what's
+been working in his mind. He's one o' them fools that believe Slavery is
+God; and he can't get over it. Pomp, here, saved our lives in the fire
+the other night; and Deslow couldn't stand it. To owe his life to a
+runaway slave&mdash;that was too dreadful!" said Stackridge with savage
+sarcasm. "He's a man that would rather be roasted alive, and see his
+country ruined, I suppose, than do anything that might damage in the
+least degree his divine institution! There's the difference 'twixt him
+and me. Sence slavery has made war agin' the Union, and turned us out of
+our homes, I say, by the Lord! let it go down to hell, as it desarves!"</p>
+
+<p>"You use strong language, neighbor!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do; and it's time, I reckon, when strong language, and strong actions
+too, are called fur. You hate a man that you've befriended, and that's
+turned traitor agin' ye, worse'n you hate an open inemy, don't ye? Wal,
+I've befriended slavery, and it's turned traitor agin' me, and all I
+hold most sacred in this world, and I'm jest getting my eyes open to it;
+and so I say, let it go down! I've no patience with such men as Deslow,
+and I'm glad, on the whole, he's gone. He don't belong with us anyhow. I
+say, any man that loves any kind of property, or any party, or
+institution, better than he loves the old Union"&mdash;Stackridge said this
+with tears of passion in his eyes,&mdash;"such a man belongs with the rebels,
+and the sooner we sift 'em out of our ranks the better."</p>
+
+<p>"When did he go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some of us were out foraging again last night; Withers and Deslow with
+the rest. Tell what he said to you, Withers."</p>
+
+<p>The group of fugitives had gathered about the bed on which the old
+clergyman sat. Withers was scraping his long horny nails with a huge
+jackknife.</p>
+
+<p>"He says to me, says he, 'Withers, we've got inter a bad scrape.' 'How
+so?' says I; for I thought we war gittin' out of a right bad scrape when
+we got out of that temp'rary jail. 'The wust hain't happened yet,' says
+he. 'That's bad,' says I, 'fur it's allus good fur a feller to know the
+wust has happened.' And so I told him a little story. Says I, 'When I
+was a little boy 'bout that high, I was helping my daddy one day secure
+some hay. Wal, it looked like rain, and we put in right smart till the
+fust sprinkles begun to fall,&mdash;great drops, big as ox-eyes,&mdash;and they
+skeert me, for I war awful 'fraid of gittin' wet. So what did I do but
+run and git under some boards. My daddy war so busy he didn't see me,
+till bime-by he come that way, rolling up the hay-cocks to kill, and
+looked, and thar I war under the pile o' boards, curled up like a
+hedgehog to keep dry. 'Josh,' says he, 'what ye doin' thar? Why ain't ye
+to work?' ''Fraid o' gittin' wet!' says I. 'Pon that he didn't say a
+word, but jest come and took me by the collar, and led me to a little
+run close by, and jest casoused me in the water, head over heels, and
+then jest pulled me out agin. 'Now,' says he, 'ye can go to work, and
+you won't be the leastest mite afeard o' gittin' wet. Wal, 'twas about
+so. I didn't mind the rain, arter that. 'Wal, Deslow,' says I, 'that
+larnt me a lesson; and ever sence I've always thought 'twas a good thing
+fur us, when trouble comes, to have the wust happen, and know it's the
+wust, fur then we'se prepared fur't, and ain't no longer to be skeert by
+a little shower.' That's what I said to Deslow." And Withers continued
+scraping his nails.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good philosophy, indeed!" said Mr. Villars. "And what did he
+reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said, when the wust happened to us, we'd find we had no home, no
+property, and no country left; and fur his part he had been thinking
+we'd better go and give ourselves up, make peace with the authorities,
+and take the oath of allegiance. 'Lincoln won't send no army to relieve
+us yet a-while,' says he, 'and even if he does, you know, victory for
+the Federals means the death of our institootions! So I see where the
+shoe pinched with him; and I said, 'If that continners to be your ways
+of thinkin', I hain't the least objections to partin' comp'ny with ye,
+as the house dog said to the skunk; only,' says I, 'don't ye go to
+betrayin' us, if you conclude to go.' Soon arter that we separated, and
+that's the last any on us have seen of him."</p>
+
+<p>"They've begun to whip women, too," said Stackridge. "But, by right good
+luck, when this scamp here&mdash;" glowering upon Lysander&mdash;"sent to have my
+wife whipped, he got his own mother whipped in her place! He's a
+connection o' your family, I know, Mr. Villars; but I never spile a
+story for relation's sake."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor need you, friend Stackridge. Sorry I am for that deluded young man;
+but he reaps what he has sown, and he has only himself to blame."</p>
+
+<p>"'Twas a regular secesh operation, that of having his own mother strung
+up," said Captain Grudd. "They are working against their own interests
+and families without knowing it. When they think they are destroying the
+Union, they are destroying their own honor and influence; for so it 'ill
+be sure to turn out."</p>
+
+<p>"It was Liberty they intended to have beaten," said Penn; "but they will
+find that it is the back of their own mother, Slavery, that receives the
+rods."</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I meant to say; but it took the professor to put it into the
+right shape. By the way, neighbors, we owe the professor an apology.
+Some of us found fault with his views of slavery and secession; but
+we've all come around to 'em pretty generally, I believe, by this time.
+Here's my hand, professor, and let me say I think you was right enough
+in all but one thing&mdash;your plaguy non-resistance."</p>
+
+<p>"He has thought better of that," said Mr. Villars, pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, zhentlemen," said Carl, anxious to exonerate his friend, "he has
+been conwerted."</p>
+
+<p>"We have found that out, to his credit," said Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>And, one after another, all took Penn cordially by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"We are all brothers in one cause, OUR COUNTRY," said Penn. Nor did he
+stop when the hand of the last patriot was shaken; he took the hand of
+Pomp also. "We are all men in the sight of God!" His heart was full;
+there was a thrill of fervent emotion in his voice. His calm young face,
+his firm and finely-cut features, always noticeable for a certain
+massiveness and strength, were singularly illumined. He went on, the
+light of the cave-fire throwing its ruddy flash on the group. "We are
+all His children. He has brought us together here for a purpose. The
+work to be done is for all men, for humanity: it is God's work. To that
+we should be willing to give everything&mdash;even our lives; even our
+selfish prejudices, dearer to some than their lives. I believe that upon
+the success of our cause depends, not the prosperity of any class of
+men, or of any race of men, only, but of all men, and all races. For
+America marches in the van of human progress, and if she falters, if she
+ignobly turns back, woe is to the world! Perhaps you do not see this
+yet; but never mind. One thing we all see&mdash;a path straight before us,
+our duty to our country. We must put every other consideration aside,
+forget all minor differences, and unite in this the defence of the
+nation's life."</p>
+
+<p>An involuntary burst of applause testified how ardently the hearts of
+the patriots responded to these words. Some wrung Penn's hand again.
+Pomp meanwhile, erect, and proud as a prince, with his arms folded upon
+his massive and swelling chest, smiled with deep and quiet satisfaction
+at the scene. There was another who smiled, too, her face suffused with
+love and pride ineffable, as her eyes watched the young Quaker, and her
+soul drank in his words.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the sentiment!" said Stackridge. "And now, what is to be done?
+We have been disappointed in one thing. Our friends don't join us. One
+reason is, no doubt, they hain't got arms. But the main reason is, they
+look upon our cause as desperate. Desperate or not, it can't be helped,
+as I see. With or without help, we must fight it through, or go back,
+like that putty-head Deslow, and take the oath of allegiance to the
+bogus government. Mr. Villars, you're wise, and we want your opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"That, I fear, will be worth little to you!" answered the old man,
+bowing his head with true humility. "It seems to me that you are not to
+rely upon any open assistance from your friends. And sorry I am to add,
+I think you should not rely, either, upon any immediate aid from the
+government. The government has its hands full. The time is coming when
+you who have eyes will see the old flag once more floating on the
+breezes of East Tennessee. But it may be long first. And in the mean
+time it is your duty to look out for yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"That is it," said Stackridge. "But how?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that your retreat cannot remain long concealed.
+Therefore, this is what I advise. Make your preparations to disperse at
+any moment. You may be compelled to hide for months in the mountains and
+woods, hunted continually, and never permitted to sleep in safety twice
+in the same place. That will be the fate of hundreds. There is but one
+thing better for you to do. It is this. Force your way over the
+mountains into Kentucky, join the national army, and hasten its
+advance."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?" said Captain Grudd.</p>
+
+<p>The old man smiled with beautiful serenity.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I shall have my choice, after all. You remember what that was?
+To remain in the hands of our enemies. I ought never to have attempted
+to escape. I cannot help myself; I am only a burden to you. My daughters
+cannot continue to be with me here in this cave; and, if I am to be
+separated from them, I may as well be in a confederate prison as
+elsewhere. If the traitors seek my life, they are welcome to it."</p>
+
+<p>"O, father! what do you say!" exclaimed Virginia, in terror at his
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"I advise what I feel to be best. I will give myself up to the military
+authorities. You, and Salina, if she chooses, will, I am certain, be
+permitted to go to your friends in Ohio. But before I take this step,
+let all here who have strong arms to lend their country be already on
+their way over the mountains. Penn and Carl must go with them. Nor do I
+forget Pomp and Cudjo. They shall go too, and you will protect them."</p>
+
+<p>Penn turned suddenly pale. It was the soundness of the good old man's
+counsel that terrified him. Separation from Virginia! She to be left at
+the mercy of the confederates! This was the one thing in the world he
+had personally to dread.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be good advice," he said. "It is certainly a noble
+self-sacrifice, Mr. Villars proposes. But I do not believe there is one
+here who will consent to it. I say, let us keep together. If necessary,
+we can die together. We cannot separate, if by so doing we must leave
+him behind."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with intense feeling, yet his words were but feebly echoed by
+the patriots. The truth was, they were already convinced that they ought
+to be making their way out of the state, and had said so among
+themselves; but, being unwilling to abandon the old minister, and
+knowing well that he could never think of undertaking the terrible
+journey they saw before them, hither they had come to hear what he had
+to suggest.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, Pomp?" Penn asked, in despair.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that what Mr. Villars advises these men to do is the best
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>Penn was stupefied. He saw that he stood alone, opposed to the general
+opinion. And something within himself said that he was selfish, that he
+was wrong. He did not venture to glance at Virginia, but bent his eyes
+downward with a stunned expression at the floor of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"But as for himself, and us, I am not so sure. There are recesses in
+this cave that cannot easily be discovered. He shall remain, and we will
+stay and take care of him, if he will."</p>
+
+<p>These calm words of the negro sounded like a reprieve to Penn's soul. He
+caught eagerly at the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if there must be a separation, Pomp is right. If many go, it will
+be believed that all are gone, and the rest can remain in safety."</p>
+
+<p>"You are all too generous towards me," said the old minister. "But I
+have nothing more to say. I am very patient. I am willing to accept
+whatever God sends, and to wait his own blessed time for it. When you,
+Penn, were sick in my house, and the ruffians were coming to kill you,
+and I could not determine what to do, the question was decided for me:
+Providence decided it by taking you, by what seemed a miracle, beyond
+the reach of all of us. So I believe this question, which troubles us
+now, will be decided for us soon. Something is to happen that will show
+us plainly what must be done."</p>
+
+<p>So it was: something was indeed to happen, sooner even than he supposed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XL" id="XL"></a>XL.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE WONDERS OF THE CAVE.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The other inmates of the cave had breakfasted whilst the old clergyman
+was asleep. Toby was now occupied in preparing his dish of coffee, and
+Mr. Villars invited the patriots to remain and take a cup with him.</p>
+
+<p>Penn noticed Cudjo's discontent at seeing Toby usurp his function. He
+remembered also a rare pleasure he had been promising himself whenever
+he should find Cudjo at leisure and circumstances favorable for his
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Now is our time," he whispered Virginia. "Will Salina come too?"</p>
+
+<p>"What to do?" Salina asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To explore the cave," said Penn, courteously, yet trembling lest the
+invitation should be accepted.</p>
+
+<p>She excused herself: she was feeling extremely fatigued; much to Penn's
+relief&mdash;that is to say, regret, as he hypocritically gave her to
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled: though she had declined, Virginia was going, and she thought
+he looked consoled.</p>
+
+<p>"What does anybody care for me?" she said bitterly to herself.</p>
+
+<p>It was to save her the pain of a slight that Penn, always too honest to
+resort to dissimulation from selfish motives, had assumed towards her a
+regard he did not feel. But the little artifice failed. She saw she was
+not wanted, and was jealous&mdash;angry with him, with Virginia, with
+herself. For thus it is with the discontented and envious. They cannot
+endure to see others happy without them. They gladly make the most of a
+slight, pressing it like a thistle to the breast, and embracing it all
+the more fiercely as it pierces and wounds. But he who has humility and
+love in his heart says consolingly at such times, "If they can be happy
+without me, why, Heaven be thanked! If I am neglected, then I must draw
+upon the infinite resources within myself. And if I am unloved, whose
+fault is it but my own? I will cultivate that sweetness of soul, the
+grace, and goodness, and affection, which shall compel love!"</p>
+
+<p>Something like this Carl found occasion to say to himself; for if you
+think he saw the master he loved, and her who was dear to him as ever
+sister was to younger brother, depart with Cudjo and the torches,
+without longing to go with them and share their pleasure, you know not
+the heart of the boy. He was almost choking with tears as he saw the
+torches go out of sight. But just as he had arrived at this
+philosophical conclusion, O joy! what did he see? Penn returning! Yes,
+and hastening straight to him! "Carl, why don't you come too?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistaking the sincerity of Penn's frank, animated face.
+Again the tears came into Carl's eyes; but this time they were tears of
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Vould you really be pleased to have me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Carl! Virginia and I both spoke of it, and wondered why we
+had not thought to ask you before."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I vill get my wery goot friend the captain to excuse me. I
+sushpect he vill be wexed to part from me; but I shall take care that
+the ties that bind us shall not be proken."</p>
+
+<p>In pursuance of this friendly design, Carl produced a good strong cord
+which he had found in the cave. This he attached to the handcuffs by a
+knot in the middle; then, carrying the two ends in opposite directions
+around one of the giant's stools, he fastened them securely on the side
+farthest from the prisoner. This done, he gave the pistol to Toby, and
+invested him with the important and highly gratifying office of guarding
+"dat Shprowl."</p>
+
+<p>"If you see him too much unhappy for my absence, and trying for some
+diwersion by making himself free," said Carl, instructing him in the use
+of the weapon, "you shall shust cock it <i>so</i>,&mdash;present it at his head or
+stomach, vichever is conwenient&mdash;<i>so</i>,&mdash;then pull the trigger as you
+please, till he is vunce more quiet. That is all. Now I shall say goot
+pie to him till I come pack."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you kill and eat him?" asked Withers, watching the boy's
+operations with humorous enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"Him?" said Carl, dryly. "Thank ye, sir; I am not fond of weal."</p>
+
+<p>As Pomp and the patriots remained in the cave, it was not anticipated
+that Lysander would give any trouble.</p>
+
+<p>With Carl at his side, Penn bore the torch above his head, and plunged
+into the darkness, which seemed to retreat before them only to reappear
+behind, surrounding and pursuing their little circle of light as it
+advanced.</p>
+
+<p>A gallery, tortuous, lofty, sculptured by the gnomes into grotesque and
+astonishing forms, led from the inhabited vestibule to the wonders
+beyond. They had gone but a few rods when they saw a faint glimmer
+before them, which increased to a mild yellowish radiance flickering on
+the walls. It was the light of Cudjo's torch.</p>
+
+<p>They found Cudjo and Virginia waiting for them at the entrance of a long
+and spacious hall, whose floor was heaped with fragments of rock, some
+of huge size, which had evidently fallen from the roof.</p>
+
+<p>"De cave whar us lives, des' like dis yer when me find um in de fust
+place," the negro was saying to Virginia. "Right smart stuns dar."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do with them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tuk all me could tote to make your little dressum-room wiv. Lef' de big
+'uns fur cheers when me hab comp'ny, hiah yah! When Pomp come, him help
+me place 'em around scrumptious like. Pomp bery strong&mdash;lif' like you
+neber see!"</p>
+
+<p>Climbing over the stones, they reached, at the farther end of the hall,
+an abrupt termination of the floor. A black abyss yawned beyond. In its
+invisible depths the moan of waters could be heard. Virginia, who had
+been thrilled with wonder and fear, standing in the hall of the stones,
+and thinking of those crushing masses showered from the roof, now found
+it impossible not to yield to the terrors of her excited imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot go any farther!" she said, recoiling from the gulf, and
+drawing Penn back from it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come right 'long!" cried Cudjo; "no trouble, missis!"</p>
+
+<p>"See, he has piled stones in here and made some very good and safe
+stairs. Take my torch, Carl, and follow; Cudjo will go before with his.
+Now, one step at a time. I will not let thee fall."</p>
+
+<p>Thus assured, she ventured to make the descent. A strong arm was about
+her waist; a strong and supporting spirit was at her side; and from that
+moment she felt no fear.</p>
+
+<p>The limestone, out of which the cave was formed, lay in nearly
+horizontal strata; and, at the bottom of Cudjo's stairs, they came upon
+another level floor. It was smooth and free from rubbish. A gray vault
+glimmered above their heads in the torchlight. The walls showed strange
+and grotesque forms in bas-relief, similar to those of the first
+gallery: here a couchant lion, so distinctly outlined that it seemed as
+if it must have been chiselled by human art; an Indian sitting in a
+posture of woe, with his face buried in his hands; an Arctic hunter
+wrestling with a polar bear; the head of a turbaned Turk; and, most
+wonderful of all, the semblance of a vine (Penn named it "Jonah's
+gourd"), which spread its massive branches on the wall, and, climbing
+under the arched roof, hung its heavy fruit above their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Close by "Jonah's gourd" a little stream gushed from the side of the
+rock, and fell into a fathomless well. The torches were held over it,
+and the visitors looked down. Solid darkness was below. Carl took from
+his pocket a stone.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the same," he said, "that Mishter Sprowl pumped his head against.
+I thought I should find some use for it; and now let's see."</p>
+
+<p>He dropped it into the well. It sunk without a sound, the noise of its
+distant fall being lost in the solemn and profound murmur of the
+descending water.</p>
+
+<p>"What make de cave, anyhow?" asked Cudjo.</p>
+
+<p>"The wery question I vas going to ask," said Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"It will take but a few words to tell you all I know about it," said
+Penn. "Water containing carbonic acid gas has the quality of dissolving
+such rock as this part of the mountain is made of. It is limestone; and
+the water, working its way through it, dissolves it as it would sugar,
+only very slowly. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes, massa! de carbunkum asses tote it away!"</p>
+
+<p>Penn smiled, and continued his explanation, addressing himself to Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"So, little by little, the interior of the rock is worn, until these
+great cavities are formed."</p>
+
+<p>"But what comes o' de rock?" cried Cudjo; "dat's de question!"</p>
+
+<p>"What becomes of the sugar that dissolves in your coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Soaks up, I reckon; so ye can't see it widout it settles."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so with the limestone, Cudjo. It <i>soaks up</i>, as you say. And
+see!&mdash;I will show you where a little of it has settled. Notice this long
+white spear hanging from the roof."</p>
+
+<p>"Dat? Dat ar a stun icicle. Me broke de pint off oncet, but 'pears like
+it growed agin. Times de water draps from it right smart."</p>
+
+<p>"A good idea&mdash;a stone icicle! It grew as an icicle grows downward from
+the eaves. It was formed by the particles of lime in the water, which
+have collected there and hardened into what is called <i>stalactite</i>.
+These curious smooth white folds of stone under it, which look so much
+like a cushion, were formed by the water as it dropped. This is called
+<i>stalagmite</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Heap o' dem 'ar sticktights furder 'long hyar," observed Cudjo, anxious
+to be showing the wonders.</p>
+
+<p>They came into a vast chamber, from the floor of which rose against the
+darkness columns resembling a grove of petrified forest trees. The
+flaming torches, raised aloft in the midst of them, revealed, supported
+by them, a wonderful gothic roof, with cornice, and frieze, and groined
+arches, like the interior of a cathedral. A very distinct fresco could
+also be seen, formed by mineral incrustations, on the ceiling and walls.
+On a cloudy background could be traced forms of men and beasts, of
+forests and flowers, armies, castles, and ships, not sculptured like the
+figures before described, but designed by the subtile pencil of some
+sprite, who, Virginia suggested, must have been the subterranean brother
+of the Frost.</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderful!" she said. "And is it not strange how Nature copies
+herself, reproducing silently here in the dark the very same forms we
+find in the world above! Here is a rose, perfect!"</p>
+
+<p>"With petals of pure white gypsum," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst they were talking, Cudjo passed on. They followed a little
+distance, then halted. The light of his torch had gone out in the
+blackness, and the sound of his footsteps had died away. Carl remained
+with the other torch; and there they stood together, without speaking,
+in the midst of immense darkness ingulfing their little isle of light,
+and silence the most intense.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly they heard a voice far off, singing; then two, then three
+voices; then a chorus filling the heart of the mountain with a strange
+spiritual melody. Virginia was enraptured, and Carl amazed.</p>
+
+<p>Penn, who had known what was coming, looked upon them with pride and
+delight. At length the music, growing faint and fainter, melted and was
+lost in the mysterious vaults through which it had seemed to wander and
+soar away.</p>
+
+<p>It was a minute after all was still before either spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," Virginia exclaimed, "if I had not heard of a similar effect
+produced in the Mammoth Cave, I should never have believed that
+marvellous chorus was sung by a single voice!"</p>
+
+<p>"A single woice!" repeated Carl, incredulous. "There vas more as a dozen
+woices!"</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Carl!" laughed Penn. "The first was Cudjo's; and all the rest
+were those, of the nymph Echo and her companions."</p>
+
+<p>They continued their course through the halls of the echoes, and soon
+came to an arched passage, at the entrance of which Penn paused and
+placed the torch in a niche. A projection of the rock prevented the
+light from shining before them, yet their way was softly illumined from
+beyond, as by a dim phosphorescence. They advanced, and in a moment
+their eyes, grown accustomed to the obscurity, came upon a scene of
+surprising and magical beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"The Grotto of Undine," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>It was, to all appearances, a nearly spherical concavity, some thirty
+yards in length, and perhaps twenty in perpendicular diameter. Carl's
+torch was concealed in the niche, and Cudjo's was nowhere visible; yet
+the whole interior was luminous with a dim and silvery halo. A narrow
+corridor ran round the sides, and resembled a dark ring swimming in
+nebulous light, midway between the upper and nether hemispheres of the
+wondrous hollow globe. Within this horizontal rim, floor there was none;
+and they stood upon its brink; and, looking up, they saw the marvellous
+vault all sparkling with stars and beaming with pale, pendent, taper,
+crystalline flames, noiseless and still; and, looking down, beheld
+beneath their feet, and shining with a yet more soft and dreamy lustre,
+the perfect counterpart of the vault above.</p>
+
+<p>Penn held Virginia upon the verge. A bewildering ecstasy captivated her
+reason as she gazed. They seemed to be really in the grotto of some
+nymph who had fled the instant she saw her privacy invaded, or veiled
+the immortal mystery and loveliness of her charms in some mesh of the
+glimmering nimbus that baffled and entangled the sight. Save one or two
+stifled cries of rapture from Virginia and Carl, not a syllable was
+uttered: perfect stillness prevailed, until Penn said, in a whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldst thou like to see the face of Undine? Bend forward. Do not fear:
+I hold thee!"</p>
+
+<p>By gentle compulsion he induced her to comply. She bent over the brink,
+and looked down, when, lo! out of the hazy effulgence beneath, emerged a
+face looking up at her&mdash;a face dimly seen, yet full of vague wonder and
+surprise&mdash;a face of unrivalled sweetness and beauty, Penn thought. What
+did Virginia think?&mdash;for it was the reflection of her own.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Penn! how it startled me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't she a Grace? Isn't she loveliness itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you think so!" she whispered, with arch frankness, a sweet
+coquettish confidence ravishing to his soul.</p>
+
+<p>"I do!" And in the privacy of telling her so, his lips just brushed her
+ear. Did you ever, in whispering some secret trifle, some all-important,
+heavenly nothing, just brush the dearest little ear in the world with
+your lips? or, in listening to the syllables of divine nonsense, feel
+the warm breath and light touch of the magnetic thrilling mouth? Then
+you know something of what Penn and Virginia experienced for a brief
+moment in the Grotto of Undine.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a duplicate glow, like a double sunrise, one part above and
+the other below the horizon, appeared at the farther end of the grotto.
+It increased, until they saw come forth from behind an upright rock an
+upright torch; and at the same time, from behind a suspended rock
+beneath, an inverted torch. Immediately after two Cudjoes came in sight;
+one standing erect on the rock above, and the other standing upside down
+on&mdash;or rather under&mdash;the rock below.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your torch, Carl," said Penn, "and go around and meet him."</p>
+
+<p>The boy returned to the niche; and presently two Carls, with two
+torches, were seen moving around the rim of the corridor, one upright
+above, the other walking miraculously, head downwards, below.</p>
+
+<p>The two Carls had not reached the rock, when the two Cudjoes stooped,
+and took up each a stone and threw them. One fell <i>upward</i> (so to
+speak), as the other fell downward: they met in the centre: there was a
+strange clash, which echoed through the hollow halls; and in a moment
+the entire nether hemisphere of the enchanted grotto was shattered into
+numberless flashing and undulating fragments.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia had already perceived that the appearance of a concave sphere
+was an illusion produced by the ceiling lighted by Cudjo's hidden torch,
+and mirrored in a floor of glassy water. Yet she was entirely unprepared
+for this astonishing result; and at sight of the Cudjo beneath
+instantaneously annihilated by the plashing of a stone, she started back
+with a scream. Fortunately, Penn still held her close, no doubt in a fit
+of abstraction, forgetting that his arms were no longer necessary to
+prevent her falling, as when she leaned to look at the shadowy Undine.</p>
+
+<p>"All those stalactites," said he, as the two torches were held towards
+the roof, "are of the most beautiful crystalline structure; and the
+spaces between are all studded with brilliant spars. The first time I
+was here, it was April; the mountain springs were full, and every one of
+these <i>stone icicles</i> was dripping with water that percolated through
+the strata above. The effect was almost as surprising as what we saw
+before Cudjo cast the stone. The surface of the pool seemed all leaping
+and alive with perpetual showers of dancing pearls. But now the springs
+are low, or the water has found another channel. Yet this basin is
+always full."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, so it is! I had no idea the water was so near!" And Virginia,
+stooping, dipped her hand.</p>
+
+<p>The mirrored crystals were still coruscating and waving in the ripples,
+as they passed around the rim of rock, and followed Cudjo into a
+scarcely less beautiful chamber beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Here was no water; but in its place was a floor of alabaster, from which
+arose a great variety of pure white stalagmites, to meet each its twin
+stalactite pendent from above. In some cases they did actually meet and
+grow together in perfect pillars, reaching from floor to roof.</p>
+
+<p>"The stalagmites are very beautiful," said Virginia; "but the
+stalactites are still more beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Penn, "there is a moral truth symbolized by them. As the
+rock above gives forth its streaming life, it benefits and beautifies
+the rock below, while at the same time it adorns still more richly its
+own beautiful breast. So it always is with Charity: it blesses him that
+receives, but it blesses far more richly him that gives."</p>
+
+<p>"O, must we pass on?" said Virginia, casting longing eyes towards all
+those lovely forms.</p>
+
+<p>"We are to return the same way," replied Penn. "But now Cudjo seems to
+be in a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's de last ob de sticktights," cried the black, standing at the end
+of the colonnade, and waving his torch above his head. "Now we's comin'
+to de run."</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Penn, "and I will show thee what Hood must have meant by
+the 'dark arch of the black flowing river.'"</p>
+
+<p>A stupendous cavern of seemingly endless extent opened before them.
+Cudjo ran on ahead, shouting wildly under the hollow, reverberating
+dome, and waving his torch, which soon appeared far off, like a flaming
+star amid a night of darkness. Then there were two stars, which
+separated, and, standing one above the other, remained stationary.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" said Penn. And they heard the liquid murmur of flowing water.</p>
+
+<p>He took the torch from Carl, and advancing towards the right wall of the
+cavern, showed, flowing out of it, through a black, arched opening, a
+river of inky blackness. It rolled, with scarce a ripple, slow, and
+solemn, and still, out of that impenetrable mystery, and swept along
+between the wall on one side and a rocky bank on the other. By this bank
+they followed it, until they came to a natural bridge, formed by a
+limestone cliff, through which it had worn its channel, and under which
+it disappeared. On this bridge they found Cudjo perched above the water
+with his torch.</p>
+
+<p>They passed the bridge without crossing,&mdash;for the farther end abutted
+high upon the cavern wall,&mdash;and found the river again flowing out on the
+lower side. Few words were spoken. The vastness of the cave, the
+darkness, the mystery, the inky and solemn stream pursuing its noiseless
+course, impressed them all. Suddenly Virginia exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Light ahead!" though Carl was with her, and Cudjo now walked behind.</p>
+
+<p>It was a gray glimmer, which rapidly grew to daylight as they advanced.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the chasm, or sink, where the roof of the cave has fallen in,"
+said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>While he spoke, a muffled rustling of wings was heard above their heads.
+They looked up, and saw numbers of large black bats, startled by the
+torches, darting hither and thither under the dismal vault. Birds, too,
+flew out from their hiding-places as they advanced, and flapped and
+screamed in the awful gloom.</p>
+
+<p>To save the torches for their return, Cudjo now extinguished them. They
+walked in the brightening twilight along the bank of the stream, and
+found, to the surprise and delight of Virginia, some delicate ferns and
+pale green shrubs growing in the crevices of the rock. Vegetation
+increased as they proceeded, until they arrived at the sink, and saw
+before them steep banks covered with vines, thickets, and forest trees.</p>
+
+<p>The river, whose former course had evidently been stopped by the falling
+in of the forest, here made a curve to the right around the banks, and
+half disappeared in a channel it had hollowed for itself under the
+cliff. Here they left it, and climbed to the open day.</p>
+
+<p>"How strangely yellow the sunshine looks!" said Virginia. "It seems as
+though I had colored glasses on. And how sultry the air!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at the towering rocks that walled the chasm, and at the
+trees upon whose roots she stood, and whose tops waved in the summer
+breeze and sunshine, at the level of the mountain slope so far above.
+She could also see, on the summit of the cliffs, the charred skeletons
+of trees the late fire had destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"It was here," said Penn, "that Stackridge and his friends escaped. This
+leaning tree with its low branches forms a sort of ladder to the limbs
+of that larger one; and by these it is easy to climb&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>As he was speaking, all eyes were turned upwards; when suddenly Cudjo
+uttered a warning whistle, and dropped flat upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"A man!" said Carl, crouching at the foot of the tree.</p>
+
+<p>Penn did not fall or crouch, nor did Virginia scream, although, looking
+up through the scant leafage, they saw, standing on the cliff, and
+looking down straight at them, at the same time waving his hand
+exultantly, one whom they well knew&mdash;their enemy, <span class="smcap">Silas Ropes</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLI" id="XLI"></a>XLI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>PROMETHEUS BOUND.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>At the wave of the lieutenant's hand, a squad of soldiers rushed to the
+spot. In a minute their muskets were pointed downwards, and aimed.
+"Fly!" said Penn, thrusting Virginia from him. "Carl, take her away!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy drew her back down the rocks, following Cudjo, who was
+descending on all fours, like an ape. She turned her face in terror to
+look after Penn. There he stood, where she had left him, intrepid, his
+fine head uncovered, looking steadfastly up at the men on the cliff, and
+waving his hat, defiantly. At once she recognized his noble
+self-sacrifice. It was his object to attract their fire, and so shield
+her from the bullets as she fled.</p>
+
+<p>She struggled from Carl's grasp. "O, Penn," she cried, extending her
+hands beseechingly, and starting to return to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" shouted Silas Ropes.</p>
+
+<p>Crack! went a gun, immediately succeeded by an irregular volley, like a
+string of exploding fire-crackers. Penn, expecting death, saw first the
+rapid flashes, then the soldiers half concealed by the smoke of their
+own guns. The smoke cleared, and there he still stood, smiling&mdash;for
+Virginia was unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>"Your practice is very poor!" he shouted up at the soldiers; and,
+putting on his hat, he walked calmly away.</p>
+
+<p>The bullets had struck the trees and flattened on the stones all around
+him; but he was untouched. And before the rebels could reload their
+pieces, he was safe with his companions in the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>He found Cudjo hastily relighting his torch. Virginia was sitting on a
+stone where Carl had placed her; powerless with the reaction of fear;
+her countenance, white as that of a snow-image in the gloom, turned upon
+Penn as if she knew not whether it was really he, or his apparition. She
+did not rise to meet him. She could not speak. Her eyes were as the eyes
+of one that beholds a miracle of God's mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"Is no guns here?" cried Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"De men hab all urn's guns,"' said Cudjo, over his kindlings. "Me gwine
+fotch 'em!" And, his torch lighted, he darted away. In a minute he was
+out of sight and hearing; only the flame he bore could be seen dancing
+like an ignis fatuus in the darkness of the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>"O, if I had only that pistol, Carl!" said Penn. "I could manage to
+defend the chasm with it until they come. But wishes won't help us.
+Virginia, Deslow has turned traitor! He must have known his friends were
+going this morning to visit thy father, or else he could not so well
+have chosen his time for betraying them." He lighted his torch, and
+lifted Virginia to her feet. "Have no fear. Even if the rebels get
+possession here, the subterranean passages can be held by a dozen men
+against a hundred."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid now; I am quite strong."</p>
+
+<p>"That is well. Carl, take the light and go with her."</p>
+
+<p>"And vat shall you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will stay and watch the movements of the soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>"Wery goot. But I have vun little obshection."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know the vay petter, and you vill take her safer as I can. But my
+eyes is wery wigorous, and I vill engage to vatch the cusses myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art right, my Carl!" said Penn, who indeed felt that it was for
+him, and for no other, to convey Virginia back to her father and safety.</p>
+
+<p>He crept upon the rocks, and took a last observation of the cliffs. Not
+a soldier was in sight. But that fact did not delight him much.</p>
+
+<p>"They fear a possible shot or two. No doubt they are making
+preparations, and when all is ready they will descend. I only hope they
+will delay long enough! Farewell, Carl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Goot pie, Penn! Goot pie, Wirginie!" cried Carl, with stout heart and
+cheery voice. And as he saw them depart,&mdash;Penn's arm supporting
+her,&mdash;listened for the last murmur of their voices, and watched for the
+last glimmer of the torch as it was swallowed by the darkness, and he
+was left alone, he continued to smile grimly; but his eyes were dim.</p>
+
+<p>"They are wery happy together! And I susphect the time vill come ven he
+vill marry her; and then they vill neither of 'em care much for me.
+Veil, I shall love 'em, and wish 'em happy all the same!"</p>
+
+<p>With which thought he smiled still more resolutely than before, and
+squeezed the tears from his eyes very tenderly, in order, probably, to
+keep those useful organs as "wigorous" as possible for the work before
+him.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Handcuffed and securely bound to the rock, that modern Prometheus,
+Captain Lysander Sprowl, like his mythical prototype, felt the vulture's
+beak in his vitals. Chagrin devoured his liver. An overflow of southern
+bile was the result, and he turned yellow to the whites of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Old Toby noticed the phenomenon. Poor old Toby, with that foolish head
+and large tropical heart of his, knew no better than to feel a movement
+of compassion.</p>
+
+<p>"Kin uh do any ting fur ye, sar?"</p>
+
+<p>The unfeigned sympathy of the question gave the wily Prometheus his cue.
+He uttered a feeble moan, and studied to look as much sicker than he was
+as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Pity at the sight made the old negro forget much which a white man would
+have been apt to remember&mdash;the disgrace this wretch had brought upon
+"the family;" and the recent cruel whipping, from which his own back was
+still sore.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye pooty sick, sar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Water!" gasped Lysander.</p>
+
+<p>The patriots had finished their coffee and taken their guns. Toby ran to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Some on ye be so good as keep an eye skinned on de prisoner, while I's
+gittin' him a drink!"</p>
+
+<p>He hastened with the gourd to a dark interior niche where a little
+trickling spring dripped, drop by drop, into a basin hollowed in the
+rocky floor. As he bore it, cool and brimming, to his captive-patient,
+Withers said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I don't keer! it's a sight to make most white folks ashamed of their
+Christianity, to see that old nigger waiting on that rascal, 'fore his
+own back has done smarting!"</p>
+
+<p>"If, as I believe," said Mr. Villars, "men stand approved before God,
+not for their pride of intellect or of birth, but for the love that is
+in their hearts, who can doubt but there will be higher seats in heaven
+for many a poor black man than for their haughty masters?"</p>
+
+<p>"According to that," replied Withers, "maybe some besides the haughty
+masters will be a little astonished if they ever git into
+heaven&mdash;nigger-haters that won't set in a car, or a meeting-house, or to
+see a theatre-play, if there's a nigger allowed the same privilege! Now
+I never was any thing of an emancipationist; but by George! if there's
+anything I detest, it's this etarnal and unreasonable prejudice agin'
+niggers! How do you account for it, Mr. Villars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Prejudice," said the old man, "is always a mark of narrowness and
+ignorance. You might almost, I think, decide the question of a man's
+Christianity by his answer to this: 'What is your feeling towards the
+negro?' The larger his heart and mind, the more compassionate and
+generous will be his views. But where you find most bigotry and
+ignorance, there you will find the negro hated most violently. I think
+there are men in the free states whose sins of prejudice and blind
+passion against the unhappy race are greater than those of the
+slaveholders themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Our interest is in our property&mdash;that's nat'ral; but what possesses
+them to want to see the nigger's face held tight to the grindstone, and
+never let up?" said Withers. "Their howl now is, 'Put down the
+rebellion! but don't tech slavery, and don't bring in the nigger!' As
+if, arter dogs had been killing my sheep, you should preach to me, 'Save
+your sheep, neighbor, but don't agitate the dog question! You mustn't
+tech the dogs!' I say, if the dogs begin the trouble, they must take the
+consequences, even if my dog's one."</p>
+
+<p>"They maintain," said Grudd, "that, no matter what slavery may have
+done, there is no power in the constitution to destroy it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am reminded of a story my daughter Virginia was reading to me not
+long ago,&mdash;how the great polar bear is sometimes killed. The hunter has
+a spear, near the pointed end of which is securely fastened a strong
+cross-piece. The bear, you know, is aggressive; he advances, meets the
+levelled shaft, seizes the cross-piece with his powerful arms, and with
+a growl of rage hugs the spear-head into his heart. Now, slavery is just
+such another great, stupid, ferocious monster. The constitution is the
+spear of Liberty. The cross-piece, if you like, is the republican policy
+which has been nailed to it, and which has given the bear a hold upon
+it. He is hugging it into his heart. He is destroying himself."</p>
+
+<p>The story was scarcely ended when Cudjo leaped into the circle,
+crying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"De sogers! de sogers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" said Pomp, instinctively springing to his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>"In de sink! Dey fire onto we and de young lady!"</p>
+
+<p>"Any one hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Massa Hapgood cotch de bullets in him's hat!" for this was the
+impression the negro had brought away with him. "Hull passel sogers!
+Sile Ropes,&mdash;seed him fust ob all!"</p>
+
+<p>It was some moments before the patriots fully comprehended this alarming
+intelligence. But Pomp understood it instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, will you fight? Your side of the house is attacked!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's confusion. Then those who had not already taken
+their guns, sprang to them. They had brought lanterns, which were now
+burning. They plunged into the gallery, following Pomp. Cudjo ran for
+his sword, drew it from the scabbard, and ran yelling after them.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden tumult died in the depths of the cavern; and all was still
+again before those left behind had recovered from their astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>There was one whose astonishment was largely mixed with joy. A moment
+since he was lying like a man near the last gasp; but now he started up,
+singularly forgetful of his dying condition, until reminded of it by
+feeling the restraint of the rope and seeing Toby. Lysander sank back
+with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Pears like you's a little more chirk," said Toby.</p>
+
+<p>"My head! my head!" said Lysander. "My skull is fractured. Can't you
+loose the rope a little? The strain on my wrists is&mdash;" ending the
+sentence with a faint moan.</p>
+
+<p>Had Toby forgotten the strain on <i>his</i> wrists, and the anguish of the
+thumbs, when this same cruel Lysander had him strung up?</p>
+
+<p>"Bery sorry, 'deed, sar! But I can't unloosen de rope fur ye."</p>
+
+<p>And, full of pity as he was, the old negro resolutely remained faithful
+to his charge. Sprowl tried complaints, coaxing, promises, but in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said he, "I have only one request to make. Let me see my
+wife, and ask her forgiveness before I die."</p>
+
+<p>"Dat am bery reason'ble; I'll speak to her, sar." And, without losing
+sight of his prisoner, Toby went to Cudjo's pantry, now Virginia's
+dressing-room, into which Salina had retreated, and notified her of the
+dying request.</p>
+
+<p>Salina was in one of her most discontented moods. What had she fled to
+the mountain for? she angrily asked herself. After the first gush of
+grateful emotion on meeting her father and sister, she had begun quickly
+to see that she was not wanted there. Then she looked around
+despairingly on the dismal accommodations of the cave. She had not that
+sustaining affection, that nobleness of purpose, which enabled her
+father and sister to endure so cheerfully all the hardships of their
+present situation. The rude, coarse life up there, the inconveniences,
+the miseries, which provoked only smiles of patience from them, filled
+her with disgust and spleen.</p>
+
+<p>But there was one sorer sight to those irritated eyes than all else they
+saw&mdash;her captive husband. She could not forget that he <i>was</i> her
+husband; and, whether she loved or hated him, she could not bear to
+witness his degradation. Yet she could not keep her eyes off of him; and
+so she had shut herself up.</p>
+
+<p>"He wishes to speak with me? To ask my forgiveness? Well! he shall have
+a chance!"</p>
+
+<p>She went and stood over the prisoner, looking down upon him coldly, but
+with compressed lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you want of me?"</p>
+
+<p>Sprowl made a motion for Toby to retire. Humbly the old negro obeyed,
+feeling that he ought not to intrude upon the interview; yet keeping his
+eye still on the prisoner, and his hand on the pistol.</p>
+
+<p>"Sal,"&mdash;in a low voice, looking up at her, and showing his manacled
+hands,&mdash;"are you pleased to see me in this condition?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather see you dead! If I were you, I'd kill myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's a knife on the table behind you. Give it to me, free my hands,
+and you won't have to repeat your advice."</p>
+
+<p>She merely glanced over her shoulder at the knife, then bent her
+scowling looks once more on him.</p>
+
+<p>"A captain in the confederate army! outwitted and taken prisoner by a
+boy! kept a prisoner by an old negro! This, then, is the military glory
+you bragged of in advance! And I was going to be so proud of being your
+wife! Well, I am proud!"</p>
+
+<p>There was gall in her words. They made Lysander writhe.</p>
+
+<p>"Bad luck will happen, you know. Once out of this scrape, you'll see
+what I'll do! Come, Sal, now be good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Good to you! I've tried that, and what did I get for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I own I've given you good cause to hate me. I'm sorry for it. The truth
+is, we never understood each other, Sal. You was always quick and sharp
+yourself; you'll confess that. You know how easy it is to irritate me;
+and I'm a devil when in a passion. But all that's past. Hate me, if you
+will&mdash;I deserve it. But you don't want to see me eternally disgraced, I
+know."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed disdainfully. "If you will disgrace yourself, how can I help
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The other end of the cave is attacked, and it is sure to be carried. I
+shall soon be in the hands of my own men. If I don't succeed in doing
+something for myself first, it'll be impossible for me to regain the
+position I've lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, do something for yourself! What hinders you?"</p>
+
+<p>"This cursed rope! I wouldn't mind the handcuffs if the rope was away.
+Just a touch with that knife&mdash;that's all, Sal."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! and then what would you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Run."</p>
+
+<p>"And lose no time in sending your men to attack this end of the cave,
+too! O, I know you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I swear to you, Sal! I never will take advantage of it in that way, if
+you will do me just this little favor. It will be worth my life to me;
+and it shall cost you nothing, nor your friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! I know too well what your promises amount to. How can I depend
+even upon your oath? There's no truth or honor in you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Lysander, despairingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am going to help you, for all that. Only it must not appear as
+if I did it. And you shall keep your oath,&mdash;or one of us shall die for
+it! Now be still!"</p>
+
+<p>She walked back past the block that served as a table, and, when between
+it and Toby, quietly took the knife from it, concealing it in her
+sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't come for me to hear any more dying requests," she said to the old
+negro, with a sneer. "Your prisoner will survive. Only give him a little
+coffee, if there is any. Here is some: I will wait upon him."</p>
+
+<p>And, carrying the coffee, she dropped the knife at Lysander's side.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLII" id="XLII"></a>XLII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>PROMETHEUS UNBOUND.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Five minutes later Penn and Virginia arrived. Penn ran eagerly for his
+musket. At the same time, looking about the cave, he was surprised to
+see only the old clergyman sitting by the fire, and Prometheus reclining
+by his rock.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Salina? Where is Toby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Toby has just left his charge to see what discovery Salina has made
+outside. She went out previously and thought she saw soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Toby came running in.</p>
+
+<p>"Dar's some men way down by the ravine! O, sar! I's bery glad you's
+come, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>Having announced the discovery, and greeted Penn and Virginia, he went
+to look at his prisoner. He had been absent from him but a minute: he
+found him lying as he had left him, and did not reflect, simple old
+soul, how much may be secretly accomplished by a desperate villain in
+that brief space of time.</p>
+
+<p>Penn took Pomp's glass, climbed along the rocky shelf, peered over the
+thickets, and saw on the bank of the ravine, where Salina pointed them
+out to him, several men. They were some distance below Gad's Leap (as he
+named the place where the spy met his death), and seemed to be occupied
+in extinguishing a fire. He levelled the glass. The recent burning of
+the trees and undergrowth had cleared the field for its operation. His
+eye sparkled as he lowered it.</p>
+
+<p>"I recognize one of our friends in a new uniform!"&mdash;handing the glass to
+Salina.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the cave, he added, in Virginia's ear,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Augustus Bythewood!"</p>
+
+<p>The bright young brow contracted: "Not coming here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I trust not. Yet his proximity means mischief. Pomp will be
+interested!"</p>
+
+<p>He took his torch and gun. There was no time for adieus. In a moment he
+was gone. There was one who had been waiting with anxious eyes and
+handcuffed hands to see him go.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Mr. Villars had called Toby to him, and said, in a low
+voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is all right with your prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes; he am bery quiet, 'pears like."</p>
+
+<p>"You must look out for him. He is crafty. I feel that all is not right.
+When you were out, I thought I heard something like the sawing or
+tearing of a cord. Look to him, Toby."</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes, sar, I shall!" And the confident old negro approached the rock.</p>
+
+<p>There lay the rope about the base of it, still firmly tied on the side
+opposite the prisoner. And there crouched he, in the same posture of
+durance as before, except that now he had his legs well under him. His
+handcuffed hands lay on the rope.</p>
+
+<p>"Right glad ter see ye convanescent, sar!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby was bending over, examining his captive with a grin of
+satisfaction; when the latter, in a weak voice, made a humble request.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would put on my cap."</p>
+
+<p>"Wiv all de pleasure in de wuld, sar."</p>
+
+<p>The cap had been thrown off purposely. Unsuspecting old Toby! The pistol
+was in his pocket. He stooped to pick up the cap and place it on
+Sprowl's head; when, like a jumping devil in a box when the cover is
+touched, up leaped Lysander on his legs, knocking him down with the
+handcuffs, and springing over him.</p>
+
+<p>Before the old man was fully aware of what had happened, and long before
+he had regained his feet, Lysander was in the thickets. In his hurry he
+thrust his wife remorselessly from the ledge before him, and flung her
+rudely down upon the sharp boughs and stones, as he sped by her. There
+Toby found her, when he came too late with his pistol. Her hands were
+cut; but she did not care for her hands. Ingratitude wounds more cruelly
+than sharp-edged rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Penn had judged correctly in two particulars. Deslow had turned traitor.
+And the personage in the new uniform down by the ravine was
+Lieutenant-Colonel Bythewood.</p>
+
+<p>Deslow had gone straight to head-quarters after quitting Withers the
+previous night, given himself up, taken the oath of allegiance to the
+confederacy, and engaged to join the army or provide a substitute. As if
+this were not enough, he had also been required to expose the secret
+retreat of his late companions. To this, we know not whether
+reluctantly, he had consented; and it was this act of treachery that had
+brought Silas Ropes to the sink, and Bythewood to the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>Advantage had been taken of the fog in the morning to march back again,
+up the mountain, the men who had marched down, baffled and inglorious,
+after the wild-goose chase Carl led them the night before. Bythewood
+commanded the expedition at his own request, being particularly
+interested in two persons it was designed to capture&mdash;Virginia and Pomp.
+It is supposed that he took a sinister interest in Penn also.</p>
+
+<p>But Bythewood was not anxious to deprive Ropes of his laurels; and
+perhaps he felt himself to be too fine a gentleman to mix in a vulgar
+fight. He accordingly sent Ropes forward to surprise the patriots at the
+sink, while he moved with a small force cautiously up towards Gad's
+Leap, with two objects in view. One was, to make some discovery, if
+possible, with regard to the missing Lysander; the other, to intercept
+the retreat of the fugitives, should they be driven from the cave
+through the opening unknown to Deslow, but which he believed to be in
+this direction.</p>
+
+<p>The firing on the right apprised Augustus that the attack had commenced.
+This was the signal for him to advance boldly up from the ravine, and
+establish himself on an elevation commanding a view of the slopes. Here
+he had been discovered very opportunely by Salina, who was seeking some
+pretext for calling Toby from his prisoner. In the shade of some bushes
+that had escaped the fire, he sat comfortably smoking his cigar on one
+end of a log, which was smoking on its own account at the other end.</p>
+
+<p>"Put out that fire, some of you," said Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>This was scarcely done, when suddenly a man came leaping down the slope,
+holding his hands together in a very singular manner. Bythewood started
+to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Deuce take me!" said he, "if it ain't Lysander! But what's the matter
+with his hands, sergeant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Looks to me as though he had bracelets on," replied the experienced
+sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>Some men were despatched to meet and bring the captain in. The sergeant
+found a key in his pocket to unlock the handcuffs. Then Lysander told
+the story of his capture, which, though modified to suit himself,
+excited Bythewood's derision. This stung the proud captain, who, to wash
+the stain from his honor, proposed to take a squad of men and surprise
+the cave.</p>
+
+<p>Fired by the prospect of seeing Virginia in his power, Augustus had but
+one important order to give: "Bring your prisoners to me here!"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of proceeding directly to the cave, Lysander used strategy. He
+knew that if his movements were observed, and their object suspected,
+Virginia would have ample time to escape with her father and old Toby
+into the interior caverns, where it might be extremely difficult to
+discover them. He accordingly started in the direction of the sink, as
+if with intent to re�nforce the soldiers fighting there; then, dropping
+suddenly into a hollow, he made a short turn to the left, and advanced
+swiftly, under cover of rocks and bushes, towards the ledge that
+concealed the cave.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"How <i>could</i> you let him go, Toby!" cried Virginia, filled with
+consternation at the prisoner's escape. For she saw all the mischievous
+consequences that were likely to follow in the track of that fatal
+error: Cudjo's secret, so long faithfully kept, now in evil hour
+betrayed; the cave attacked and captured, and the brave men fighting at
+the sink, believing their retreat secure, taken suddenly in the rear;
+and so disaster, if not death, resulting to her father, to Penn, to all.</p>
+
+<p>The anguish of her tones pierced the poor old negro's soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Dunno', missis, no more'n you do! 'Pears like he done gnawed off de
+rope wiv his teef!" For Lysander, having used the knife, had hidden it
+under the skins on which he sat.</p>
+
+<p>Then Salina spoke, and denounced herself. After all the pains she had
+taken to conceal her agency in Sprowl's escape,&mdash;inconsistent,
+impetuous, filled with rage against herself and him,&mdash;she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I did it! Here is the knife I gave him!"</p>
+
+<p>Virginia stood white and dumb, looking at her sister. Toby could only
+tear his old white wool and groan.</p>
+
+<p>"Salina," said her father, solemnly, "you have done a very treacherous
+and wicked thing! I pity you!"</p>
+
+<p>Severest reproaches could not have stung her as these words, and the
+terrified look of her sister, stung the proud and sensitive Salina.</p>
+
+<p>"I have done a damnable thing! I know it. Do you ask what made me? The
+devil made me. I knew it was the devil at the time; but I did it."</p>
+
+<p>"O, what shall we do, father?" said Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing you can do, my daughter, unless you can reach our
+friends and warn them."</p>
+
+<p>"O," she said, in despair, "there is not a lamp or a torch! All have
+been taken!"</p>
+
+<p>"And it is well! It would take you at least an hour to go and return;
+and that man&mdash;" Mr. Villars would never, if he could help it, speak
+Lysander's name&mdash;"will be here again before that time, if he is coming."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not coming," said Salina. "He swore to me that he would not take
+advantage of his escape to betray or injure any of you. He will keep his
+oath. If he does not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She paused. There was a long, painful silence; the old man musing,
+Virginia wringing her hands, Toby keeping watch outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen!" said Salina. "I am a woman. But I will defend this place. I
+will stand there, and not a man shall enter till I am dead. As for you,
+Jinny, take <i>him</i>, and go. You can hide somewhere in the caves. Leave me
+and Toby. I will not ask you to forgive me; but perhaps some time you
+will think differently of me from what you do now."</p>
+
+<p>"Sister!" said Virginia, with emotion, "I do forgive you! God will
+forgive you too; for he knows better than we do how unhappy you have
+been, and that you could not, perhaps, have done differently from what
+you have done."</p>
+
+<p>Salina was touched. She threw her arms about Virginia's neck.</p>
+
+<p>"O, I have been a bad, selfish girl! I have made both you and father
+very unhappy; and you have been only too kind to me always! Now leave me
+alone&mdash;go! I hope I shall not trouble you much longer."</p>
+
+<p>She brushed back her hair from her large white forehead, and smiled a
+strange and vacant smile. Virginia saw that her wish was to die.</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," she said gently, "we will all stay together, if you stay. We
+must not give up this place! Our friends are lost&mdash;we are lost&mdash;if we
+give it up! Perhaps we can do something. Indeed, I think we can! If we
+only had arms! Women have used arms before now!"</p>
+
+<p>Toby entered. "Dey ain't comin' dis yer way, nohow! Dey's gwine off to
+de norf, hull passel on 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me that pistol, Toby," said Salina. "You can use Cudjo's axe, if
+we are attacked. Place it where you can reach it, and then return to
+your lookout. Don't be deceived; but warn us at once if there is
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>"My children," said the old man, "come near to me! I would I could look
+upon you once; for I feel that a separation is near. Dear
+daughters!"&mdash;he took a hand of each,&mdash;"if I am to leave you, grieve not
+for me; but love one another. <span class="smcap">Love one another.</span> To you, Salina, more
+especially, I say this; for though I know that deep down in your heart
+there is a fountain of affection, you are apt to repress your best
+feelings, and to cherish uncharitable thoughts. For your own good, O, do
+not do so any more! Believe in God. Be a child of God. Then no
+misfortune can happen to you. My children, there is no great misfortune,
+other than this&mdash;to lose our faith in God, and our love for one another.
+I do not fear bodily harm, for that is comparatively nothing. For many
+years I have been blind; yet have I been blest with sight; for night and
+day I have seen God. And as there is a more precious sight than that of
+the eyes, so there is a more precious life than this of the body. The
+life of the spirit is love and faith. Let me know that you have this,
+and I shall no longer fear for you. You will be happy, wherever you are.
+Why is it I feel such trust that Virginia will be provided for? Salina,
+let your heart be like hers, and I shall no longer fear for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it was! I wish it was!" said Salina, pouring out the anguish of
+her heart in those words. "But I cannot make it so. I cannot be good! I
+am&mdash;Salina! Is there fatality in a name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know the infirmity of your natural disposition, my child. I know,
+too, what circumstances have done to embitter it. Our heavenly Father
+will take all that into account. Yet there is no one who has not within
+himself faults and temptations to contend with. Many have far greater
+than yours to combat, and yet they conquer gloriously. I cannot say
+more. My children, the hour has come which is to decide much for us all.
+Remember my legacy to you,&mdash;<span class="smcap">Have Faith and Love.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>They knelt before him. He laid his hands upon their heads, and in a
+brief and fervent prayer blessed them. Both were sobbing. Tears ran down
+his cheeks also; but his countenance was bright in its uplifted
+serenity, wearing a strange expression of grandeur and of joy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLIII" id="XLIII"></a>XLIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE COMBAT.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Pomp, rifle in hand, bearing a torch, led the patriots on their rapid
+return through the caverns.</p>
+
+<p>"Lights down!" he said, as they approached the vicinity of the sink. "We
+shall see them; but they must not see us."</p>
+
+<p>They halted at the natural bridge; the torch was extinguished, and the
+patriots placed their lanterns under a rock. They then advanced as
+swiftly as possible in the obscurity, along the bank of the stream. In
+the hall of the bats they met Carl, who had seen their lights and come
+towards them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry! hurry!" he said. "They are coming down the trees like the
+devil's monkeys! a whole carawan proke loose!"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Grudd commanded the patriots; but Pomp commanded Captain Grudd.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, and make no noise! We have every advantage; the darkness is on
+our side&mdash;those loose rocks will shelter us."</p>
+
+<p>They advanced until within a hundred yards of where the shaft of
+daylight came down. There they could distinguish, in the shining cleft
+under the brow of the cavern, and above the rocky embankment, the forms
+of their assailants. Some had already gained a footing. Others were
+descending the tree-trunks in a dark chain, each link the body of a
+rebel.</p>
+
+<p>"We must stop that!" said Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>The men were deployed forward rapidly, and a halt ordered, each choosing
+his position.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready! Aim!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, half a dozen men of the attacking party advanced,
+feeling their way over the rocks down which Penn and his companions had
+been seen to escape. The leader, shielding his eyes with his hand,
+peered into the gloom of the cavern. Coming from the light, he could see
+nothing distinctly. Suddenly he paused: had he heard the words of
+command whispered? or was he impressed by the awful mystery and silence?</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly a jagged line of flashes leaped across the breast of the
+darkness, accompanied by a detonation truly terrible. Each gun with its
+echoes, in those cavernous solitudes, thundered like a whole park of
+artillery: what, then, was the effect of the volley? The patriots were
+themselves appalled by it. The mountain trembled, and a gusty roar swept
+through its shuddering chambers, throbbing and pulsing long after the
+smoke of the discharge had cleared away.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp laughed quietly, while Withers exclaimed, "By the Etarnal! if I
+didn't fancy the hull ruf of the mountain had caved in!"</p>
+
+<p>"Load!" said Captain Grudd, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>The rebels advancing over the rocks had suddenly disappeared, having
+either fallen in the crevices or scrambled back up the bank while hidden
+from view by the smoke. The chain descending the tree had broken; those
+near the ground leaped down or slid, while those above seemed seized by
+a wild impulse to climb back with all haste to the summit of the wall. A
+few threw away their guns, which fell upon the heads of those below. At
+the same time those below might have been seen scampering to places of
+shelter behind rocks and trees.</p>
+
+<p>If ever panic were excusable, this surely was. Since the patriots were
+terrified by their own firing, we need not wonder at the alarm of the
+rebels. Some had seen the flashes sever the darkness, and their comrades
+fall; while all had felt the earthquake and the thundering. To those at
+the entrance it had seemed that these were the jaws and throat of a
+monster mountain-huge, which at their approach spat flame and bellowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now is our time! Clear them out!" said Grudd.</p>
+
+<p>"Rush in and finish them with the bayonet!" said Stackridge. Six of the
+guns had bayonets, and his was one of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet!" said Pomp. "They will fire on you from above. We must first
+attend to that. Shall I show you? Then do as I do!"</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively they accepted his lead. Loading his piece, he ran forward
+until, himself concealed under the brow of the cavern, he could see the
+rebels in the tree and on the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>"Once more! All together!" he said, taking aim. "Give the word,
+captain!"</p>
+
+<p>The men knelt among the loosely tumbled rocks, which served at once as a
+breastwork and as rests for their guns. The projecting roof of the cave
+was over them; through the obscure opening they pointed their pieces.
+Above them, in the full light, were the frightened confederates, some on
+the tree, some on the cliff, some leaping from the tree to the cliff;
+while their comrades in the sink lurked on the side opposite that where
+the patriots were.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the cusses on the top of the rocks!" said Stackridge. "The rest
+are harmless."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all them in the tree can do to take keer of themselves," added
+Withers. "Reg'lar secesh! All they ax is to be let alone."</p>
+
+<p>Grudd gave the word. Flame from a dozen muzzles shot upwards from the
+edge of the pit. When the smoke rolled away, the cliff was cleared. Not
+a rebel was to be seen, except those in the tree franticly scrambling to
+get out, and two others. One of these had fallen on the cliff: his head
+and one arm hung horribly over the brink. The other, in his too eager
+haste to escape from the tree, had slipped from the limb, and been saved
+from dashing to pieces on the rocks below only by a projection of the
+wall, to which he had caught, and where he now clung, a dozen feet from
+the top, and far above the river that rolled black and slow in its
+channel beneath the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>"Now with your bayonets!" said Pomp. "This way!"</p>
+
+<p>There were six bayonets before; now there were eight.</p>
+
+<p>"That Carl is worth his weight in gold!" said the enthusiastic
+Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>While the patriots, preparing for their second volley, were getting
+positions among the rocks on the left, Carl had crept up the embankment
+in front, and brought away two muskets from two dead rebels. These were
+they who had fallen at the first fire. Both guns had bayonets. Pomp took
+one; Carl kept the other. Cudjo with his sword accompanied the charging
+party; Grudd and the rest remaining at their post, ready to pick off any
+rebel that should appear on the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Swift and stealthy as a panther, Pomp crept around still farther to the
+left, under the projecting wall, raising his head cautiously now and
+then to look for the fugitives.</p>
+
+<p>"As I expected! They are over there, afraid to follow the stream into
+the cave, and hesitating whether to make a rush for the tree. All
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked around on his little force and smiled. Instead of eight
+bayonets, there were now nine. Penn had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready!" answered Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp bounded upon the rocks and over them, with a yell which the rest
+took up as they followed, charging headlong after him. Cudjo,
+brandishing his sword, leaped and yelled with the foremost&mdash;a figure
+fantastically terrible. Penn, with the fiery Stackridge on one side, and
+his beloved Carl on the other, forgot that he had ever been a Quaker,
+hating strife. Not that he loved it now; but, remembering that these
+were the deadly foes of his country, and of those he loved, and feeling
+it a righteous duty to exterminate them, he went to the work, not like
+an apprentice, but a master,&mdash;without fear, self-possessed, impetuous,
+kindled with fierce excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The rebels in the sink, fifteen in number, had had time to rally from
+their panic; and they now seemed inclined to make resistance. They were
+behind a natural breastwork, similar to that which had sheltered the
+patriots on the other side. They levelled their guns hastily and fired.
+One of the patriots fell: it was Withers.</p>
+
+<p>"Give it to them!" shouted Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"Every cussed scoundrel of 'em!" Stackridge cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill! kill! kill!" shrieked Cudjo.</p>
+
+<p>"Surrender! surrender!" thundered Penn.</p>
+
+<p>With such cries they charged over the rocks, straight at the faces and
+breasts of the confederates. Some turned to fly; but beyond them was the
+unknown darkness into which the river flowed: they recoiled aghast from
+that. A few stood their ground. The bayonet, which Penn had first made
+acquaintance with when it was thrust at his own breast, he shoved
+through the shoulder of a rebel whose clubbed musket was descending on
+Carl's head. Three inches of the blade come out of his back; and,
+bearing him downwards in his irresistible onset, Penn literally pinned
+him to the ground. Cudjo slashed another hideously across the face with
+the sword. Pomp took the first prisoner: it was Dan Pepperill. The rest
+soon followed Dan's example, cried quarter, and threw down their arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Quarter!" gasped the wretch Penn had pinned.</p>
+
+<p>"You spoke too late&mdash;I am sorry!" said Penn, with austere pity, as,
+placing his foot across the man's armpit to hold him while he pulled, he
+put forth his strength, and drew out the steel. A gush of blood
+followed, and, with a groan, the soldier swooned.</p>
+
+<p>"It is one of them wagabonds that gave you the tar and fedders!" said
+Carl.</p>
+
+<p>"And assisted at my hanging afterwards!" added Penn, remembering the
+ghastly face.</p>
+
+<p>Thus retribution followed these men. Gad and Griffin he had seen dead.
+Was it any satisfaction for him to feel that he was thus avenged? I
+think, not much. The devil of revenge had no place in his soul; and
+never for any personal wrong he had received would he have wished to see
+bloody violence done.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners were disarmed, and ordered to remain where they were.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring the wounded to me," said Pomp, hastening back to the spot where
+Withers had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Stackridge and another were lifting the fallen patriot and bearing him
+to the shelter of the cave. Pomp assisted, skilfully and tenderly. Then
+followed those who bore away the wounded prisoners and the guns that had
+been captured. Pepperill had been ordered to help. He and Carl carried
+the man whose face Cudjo had slashed. This was the only rebel who had
+fought obstinately: he had not given up until an arm was broken, and he
+was blinded by his own blood. Penn and Devitt brought up the rear with
+the swooning soldier. When half way over they were fired upon by the
+rebels rallying to the edge of the cliff. Grudd and his men responded
+sharply, covering their retreat. Penn felt a bullet graze his shoulder.
+It made but a slight flesh wound there; but, passing down, it entered
+the heart of the wounded man, whose swoon became the swoon of death.
+This was the only serious result of the confederate fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad I did not kill him!" said Penn, as they laid the corpse
+beside the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Then out of the mask of blood which covered the face of the stout fellow
+who had fought so well, there issued a voice that spoke, in a strange
+tongue, these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Was hat man mir gethan? Wo bin ich, mutter?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>But the words were not strange to Carl; neither was the voice strange.</p>
+
+<p>"Fritz! Fritz!" he answered, in the same language, "is it you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Fritz Minnevich; that is true. And you, I think, are my cousin
+Carl."</p>
+
+<p>They laid the wounded man near the stream, where Pomp was examining
+Withers's hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Fritz!" said Carl, "how came you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"They said the Yankees were coming to take our farm. So Hans and I
+enlisted to fight. I got in here because I was ordered. We do as we are
+ordered. It was we who whipped the woman. We whipped her well. I hope my
+good looks will not be spoiled; for that would grieve our mother."</p>
+
+<p>Thus the soldier talked in his native tongue, while Carl, in sorrow and
+silence, washed the blood from his face. He remembered he was his
+father's brother's son; a good fellow, in his way; dull, but faithful;
+and he had not always treated him cruelly. Indeed, Carl thought not of
+his cruelty now at all, but only of the good times they had had
+together, in days when they were friends, and Frau Minnevich had not
+taught her boys to be as ill-natured as herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What for do you do this, Carl?" said Fritz. "There is no cause that you
+should be kind to me. I did you some ill turns. You did right to run
+away. But our father swears you shall have your share of the property if
+you ever come back for it, and the Yankees do not take it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all lies they tell you about the Yankees!" said Carl. "O Pomp!
+this is my cousin&mdash;see what you can do for him."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp had been reluctantly convinced that he could do nothing for
+Withers: his wound was mortal. And Withers had said to him, in cheerful,
+feeble tones, "I feel I'm about to the eend of my tether. So don't waste
+yer time on me."</p>
+
+<p>So Pomp turned his attention to the Minnevich. But Penn and Stackridge
+remained with the dying patriot.</p>
+
+<p>"Wish ye had a Union flag to wrap me in when I'm dead, boys! That's what
+I've fit fur; that's what I meant to die fur, if 'twas so ordered. It's
+all right, boys! Jest look arter my family a little, won't ye? And don't
+give up old Tennessee!"</p>
+
+<p>These were his last words.</p>
+
+<p>Penn and Stackridge rejoined their comrades in the fight.</p>
+
+<p>"Shoot him! shoot him! shoot him!" cried Cudjo, in a frenzy of
+excitement, pointing at the rebel who had fallen from the tree upon the
+projection of the chasm wall. "Him dar! Dat Sile Ropes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ropes?" said Penn, looking up through the opening. "That he!"&mdash;raising
+his gun. "But he can do no harm there; and he can't get out."</p>
+
+<p>"Don' ye see? Dey's got a rope to help him wif! Gib him a shot fust! O,
+gib him a shot!"</p>
+
+<p>The projection to which the lieutenant clung was a broken shelf less
+than half a yard in breadth. There he cowered in abject terror betwixt
+two dangers, that of falling if he attempted to move, and that of being
+picked off if he remained stationary and in sight. To avoid both, he got
+upon his hands and knees, and hid his face in the angle of the ledge,
+leaving the posterior part of his person prominent, no doubt thinking,
+like an ostrich, that if his head was in a hole, he was safe. The very
+ludicrousness of his situation saved him. The patriots reserved him to
+laugh at, and fired over him at the rebels on the cliff. At each shot,
+Silas could be seen to root his nose still more industriously into the
+rock. At length, however, as Cudjo had declared, a rope was brought and
+let down to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Take hold there!" shouted the rebels on the cliff. Ropes could feel the
+cord dangling on his back. "Tie it around your waist!"</p>
+
+<p>Silas, without daring to look up, put out his hand, which groped
+awkwardly and blindly for the rope as it swung to and fro all around it.
+Finally, he seized it, but ran imminent risk of falling as he drew it
+under his body. At length he seemed to have it secured; but in his hurry
+and trepidation he had fastened it considerably nearer his hips than his
+arms. The result, when the rebels above began to haul, can be imagined.
+Hips and heels were hoisted, while arms and head hung down, causing him
+to resemble very strikingly a frog hooked on for bait at the end of a
+fish-line. The affrighted face drawn out of its hole, looked down
+ridiculously hideous into the rocky and bristling gulf over which he
+swung.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.</p>
+
+<p>The volley was aimed, not at Silas, but at those who were hauling him
+up. Cudjo shrieked with frantic joy, expecting to see his old enemy
+plunge head foremost among the stones on the bank of the stream. Such,
+no doubt, would have been the result, but for one sturdy and brave
+fellow at the rope. The rest, struck either with bullets or terror, fell
+back, loosing their hold. But this man clung fast, imperturbable. Alone,
+slowly, hand over hand, he hauled and hauled; grim, unterrified,
+faithful. But it was a tedious and laborious task for one, even the
+stoutest. The man had but a precarious foothold, and the rope rubbed
+hard on the edge of the cliff. Cudjo shrieked again, this time with
+despair at seeing his former overseer about to escape.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a plucky fellow!" said Stackridge, with stern admiration of the
+soldier's courage. "I like his grit; but he must stop that!"</p>
+
+<p>He reached for a loaded gun. He took Carl's. The boy turned pale, but
+said never a word, setting his lips firmly as he looked up at the cliff.
+Silas was swinging. The soldier was pulling in the rope, hitch by hitch,
+over the ledge. Stackridge took deliberate aim, and fired.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment no very surprising effect was perceptible, only the man
+stopped hauling. Then he went down on one knee, paying out several
+inches of the rope, and letting the suspended Silas dip accordingly. It
+became evident that he was hit; he still grasped the rope, but it began
+to glide through his hands. Silas set up a howl.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold me! hold me!"&mdash;at the same time extending all his fingers to grasp
+the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The brave fellow made one last effort, and took a turn of the rope about
+his wrist. It did not slip through his hands any more. But soon <i>he</i>
+began to slip&mdash;forward&mdash;forward&mdash;on both knees now&mdash;his head reeling
+like that of a drunken man, and at last pitching heavily over the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the cowards who had deserted their post sprang to save him; but
+too late: the man was gone.</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate for Silas that he had been let down several feet thus
+gradually. He was near the ledge from which he had been lifted, and had
+just time to grasp it again and crawl upon it, when the man fell,
+turning a complete somerset over him, fearful to witness! revolving
+slowly in his swift descent through the air; still holding with
+tenacious grip the rope; plunging through the boughs like a mere log
+tumbled from the cliff, and striking the rocks below&mdash;dead.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken the rope with him; and Silas had been preserved from
+sharing his fate only by a lucky accident. The knot at his hips loosened
+itself as he clutched the ledge, and let the coil fly off as the man
+shot down.</p>
+
+<p>Not a gun was fired: rebels and patriots seemed struck dumb with horror
+at the brave fellow's fate. Then Carl whispered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That vas my other cousin! That vas Hans!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you about?" cried Penn.</p>
+
+<p>The black did not answer. Beside himself with excitement, he ran to the
+leaning tree and climbed it like an ape. The naked sword gleamed among
+the twigs. Reaching the trunk of the tall tree he ascended that as
+nimbly, never stopping until he had reached the upper limbs. There was
+one that branched towards the ledge where Silas clung. At a glance
+choosing that, Cudjo ran out upon it, until it bent beneath his weight.
+There he tried in vain to reach his ancient enemy with the sword; the
+distance was too great, even for his long arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Sile Ropes! ye ol' oberseer! g'e know Cudjo? Me Cudjo!" he yelled,
+slashing the end of the branch as if it had been his victim's flesh.
+"'Member de lickins? 'Member my gal ye got away? Now ye git yer pay!"</p>
+
+<p>While he was raving thus, one of the soldiers above, sheltering himself
+from the fire of the patriots by lying almost flat on the ground,
+levelled his gun at the half-crazed negro's breast, and pulled the
+trigger.</p>
+
+<p>A flash&mdash;a report&mdash;the sword fell, and went clattering down upon the
+rocks. Cudjo turned one wild look upward, clapping his hand to his
+breast. Then, with a terrible grimace, he cast his eyes down again at
+Ropes,&mdash;crept still farther out on the branch,&mdash;and leaped.</p>
+
+<p>Silas had his nose in the angle of the ledge again, and scarcely knew
+what had happened until he felt the negro alight on his back and fling
+his arms about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Cudjo shot! Cudjo die! But you go too, Sile Ropes!"</p>
+
+<p>As he gibbered forth these words, his long hands found the lieutenant's
+throat, and tightened upon it. A fearfully quiet moment ensued; then
+living and dying rolled together from the ledge, and dropped into the
+chasm. They struck the body of the dead Hans; that broke the fall; and
+Cudjo was beneath his victim. Ropes, stunned only, struggled to rise;
+but, held in that deadly embrace, he only succeeded in rolling himself
+down the embankment, Cudjo accompanying. The stream flowed beneath,
+black, with scarce a murmur. Silas neither saw nor heard it; but,
+continuing to struggle, and so continuing to roll, he reached the verge
+of the rocks, and fell with a splash into the current.</p>
+
+<p>Penn ran to the spot just in time to see the two bodies disappear
+together; the dying Cudjo and the drowning Silas sinking as one, and
+drifting away into the cavernous darkness of the subterranean river.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLIV" id="XLIV"></a>XLIV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>HOW AUGUSTUS FINALLY PROPOSED.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>After this there was a lull; and Penn, who had forgotten every thing
+else whilst the conflict was raging, remembered that he had seen
+Bythewood at the ravine, and hastened to inform Pomp of the
+circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Cudjo had plunged Pomp into a fit of stern, sad reverie.
+His surgical task performed, he stood leaning on his rifle, gazing
+abstractedly at the darkly gliding waves, when Penn's communication
+roused him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" said he, with a slight start. "We must look to that! The danger
+here is over for the present, and two or three of us can be spared."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I go, too?" said Carl. "It is time I vas seeing to my prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Pomp. And the three set out to return.</p>
+
+<p>Having but slight anticipations of trouble from the side of the ravine,
+they came suddenly, wholly unprepared, upon a scene which filled them
+with horror and amazement.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner, as we know, had fled. We left him on his way back to the
+cave with a squad of men. Since which time, this is what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The assailants had approached so stealthily over the ledges, below which
+Toby was stationed, looking intently for them in another direction, that
+he had no suspicions of their coming until they suddenly dropped upon
+him as from the clouds. He had no time to run for his axe; and he had
+scarcely given the alarm when he was overpowered, knocked down, and
+rolled out of the way off the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>The assailants then, with Lysander at their head, rushed to the entrance
+of the cave. But there they encountered unexpected resistance: the two
+sisters&mdash;Salina with the pistol, Virginia with the axe.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Sal!" cried Lysander, recoiling into the arms of his men; "what
+the devil do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to kill you, or any man that sets foot in this place! That is
+what I mean!"</p>
+
+<p>There could be no doubt about it: her eyes, her attitude, her whole
+form, from head to foot, looked what she said. She was flushed; a smile
+of wild and reckless scorn curved her mouth, and her countenance gleamed
+with a wicked light.</p>
+
+<p>By her side was Virginia, with the uplifted axe, expressing no less
+determination by her posture and looks, though she did not speak, though
+there was no smile on her pale lips, and though her features were as
+white as death.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no use, gals!" said Sprowl. "Don't make fools of yourselves! You
+won't be hurt; but I'm bound to come in!"'</p>
+
+<p>"Do not attempt it! You have broken your oath to me. But I have made an
+oath I shall not break!"</p>
+
+<p>What that oath was Salina did not say; but Lysander's changing color
+betrayed that he guessed it pretty well.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care a d&mdash;n for you! Virginia, drop that axe, and come out here
+with your father, and I pledge my sacred honor that neither of you shall
+receive the least harm."</p>
+
+<p>"Your sacred honor!" sneered Salina.</p>
+
+<p>But Virginia said nothing. She stood like a clothed statue; only the
+eyes through which the fire of the excited spirit shone were not those
+of a statue; and the advanced white arm, beautiful and bare, from which
+the loose sleeve fell as it reared the axe, was of God's sculpture, not
+man's.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed not to hear Lysander; for the promise of safety for herself
+was as nothing to her: she felt that she was there to defend, with her
+life, if needs were, the friends whom he had betrayed. Only a holy and
+great purpose like this could have nerved that gentle nature for such
+work, and made those tender sinews firm as steel.</p>
+
+<p>There was something slightly devilish in the aspect of Salina; but
+Virginia was all the angel; yet it was the angel roused to strife.</p>
+
+<p>"Call off your gals, Mr. Villars!" said Sprowl.</p>
+
+<p>"Lysander!" said the solemn voice of the old minister from within, "hear
+me! We are but three here, as you see: a blind and helpless old man and
+two girls. Why do you follow to persecute us? Go your way, and learn to
+be a man. The business you are engaged in is unworthy of a man. My
+daughters do right to defend this place, which you, false and
+ungrateful, have betrayed. Attempt nothing farther; for we are not
+afraid to die!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go in, boys!" shouted Lysander, himself shrinking aside to let the
+soldiers pass.</p>
+
+<p>Salina fired the pistol&mdash;not at the soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>"She has shot me!" said Lysander, staggering back. "Kill the fiend! kill
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly two bayonets darted at her breast. One of them was struck down
+by Virginia's axe, which half severed the soldier's wrist. But before
+the axe could rise and descend again, the other bayonet had done its
+work; and the soldiers rushed in.</p>
+
+<p>It was all over in a minute. The axe was seized and wrenched violently
+away. Toby lay senseless on the rocks without. Lysander was leaning
+dizzily, clutching at the ledge, a ghastly whiteness settling about the
+gay mustache, and a strange glassiness dimming his eyes. The soldiers
+had possession. Virginia was a prisoner, and her father; but not Salina.
+There was the body which had been hers, transfixed by the bayonet, and
+fallen upon the ground: that was palpable: but who shall capture the
+escaping soul?</p>
+
+<p>When Penn and his companions arrived, not a living person was there; but
+alone, stretched upon the cold stone floor, where the gray light from
+the entrance fell,&mdash;pulseless, pallid, with pale hands crossed
+peacefully on her breast, hiding the wound, and features faintly smiling
+in their stony calm,&mdash;lay the corpse of her that was Salina. The fair
+cup that had brimmed with the bitterness of life was shattered. The soul
+that drank thereat had fled away in haughtiness and scorn.</p>
+
+<p>Toby, groaning on the stones outside, felt somebody shaking him, and
+heard the voice of Carl asking how he was.</p>
+
+<p>"Dunno'; sort o' common," said the old negro, trying to rise.</p>
+
+<p>He knew nothing of what had happened, except that he had been fallen
+upon and beaten down: for the rest, it was useless to question him: not
+even Penn's agonies of doubt and fear could rouse his recollection.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Lieutenant-colonel Bythewood had committed the error of an officer green
+in his profession. The cave surprised, and the prisoners taken, the men
+retired in all haste, simply because they had received no orders to the
+contrary. Thus no advantage whatever was taken of the very important
+position which had been gained.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the dead behind, and carrying off the wounded and the prisoners,
+the sergeant, upon whom the command devolved after his captain was
+disabled, lost no time in reporting to the lieutenant-colonel.</p>
+
+<p>Augustus stood up to receive the report and the prisoners,&mdash;extremely
+pale, but appearing preternaturally courteous and composed. He bowed
+very low to the old clergyman (who, he forgot, could not witness and
+appreciate that graceful act of homage), and expressed infinite regret
+that "his duty had rendered it necessary," and so forth. Then turning to
+Virginia, whose look was scarcely less stony than that of her dead
+sister in the cave, he bowed low to her also, but without speaking, and
+without raising his eyes to her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Have this old gentleman carried to his own house, and see that every
+attention is paid to him."</p>
+
+<p>"And my daughter?" said the blind old man, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"She shall follow you. I will myself accompany her."</p>
+
+<p>"And my dead child up yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"She shall be brought to you at the earliest possible moment."</p>
+
+<p>"And my faithful servant?"</p>
+
+<p>"He shall be cared for."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you." And Mr. Villars bowed his white head upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the captain immediately to the hospital! And you fellow with the
+hacked wrist, go with him."</p>
+
+<p>The number of men required to execute these orders (since both the old
+clergyman and the wounded captain had to be carried) left Augustus
+almost alone with Virginia. Having previously sent off all his available
+force to Ropes at the sink, in answer to a pressing call for
+re�nforcements, he had now only the sergeant and two men at his beck.
+But perhaps this was as he wished it to be. He approached Virginia, and,
+bowing formally, still without speaking, offered her his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. I can walk without assistance." Like marble still, but with
+the same wild fire in her eyes. "The only favor I ask of you is to be
+permitted to leave you."</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood made a motion to the sergeant, who removed his men farther
+off.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to have a few words of conversation with you, Miss Villars. I
+beg you to be seated here in the shade."</p>
+
+<p>Virginia remained standing, regarding him with features pale and firm as
+when she held the axe. It was evident to her that here was another
+struggle before her, scarcely less to be dreaded than the first.
+Augustus looked at her, and smiled pallidly.</p>
+
+<p>"If eyes could kill, Miss Villars, I think yours would kill me!"</p>
+
+<p>"If polite cruelty can kill, YOU HAVE killed my sister!"</p>
+
+<p>"O, I beg your pardon, dear Miss Villars, but it was not I!"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg no pardon, but I say it WAS you! And now you will murder my
+father&mdash;perhaps me."</p>
+
+<p>"O, my excellent young lady, how you have misunderstood me! By Heaven, I
+swear!"&mdash;his voice shook with sincere emotion,&mdash;"if I have committed a
+fault, it has been for the love of you! Such faults surely may be
+pardoned. Virginia! will you accept my life as an atonement for all I
+have done amiss? You shall bear my name, possess my wealth, and, if you
+do not like the cause I am engaged in, I will throw up my commission
+to-morrow. I will take you to France&mdash;Italy&mdash;Switzerland&mdash;wherever you
+wish to go. Nor do I forget your father. Whatever you ask for him shall
+be granted. I have money&mdash;influence&mdash;position&mdash;every thing that can make
+you happy."</p>
+
+<p>There was a minute's pause, the intense glances of the girl piercing
+through and through that pale, polite mask to his soul. A selfish,
+chivalrous man; not a great villain, by any means; moved by a genuine,
+eager, unscrupulous passion for her&mdash;sincere at least in that; one who
+might be influenced to good, and made a most convenient and devoted
+husband: this she saw.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what more?"</p>
+
+<p>"What more? Ah, you are thinking of your friends&mdash;I should say, of your
+friend! It is natural. I have no ill will against him. Whatever you ask
+for him shall be granted. At a word from me, the fighting up there
+ceases; and he and the rest shall be permitted to go wherever they
+choose, unharmed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and if I reject your generous offer?"</p>
+
+<p>Augustus smiled as he answered, with a hard, inexorable purpose in his
+tones,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then, much as I love you, I can do nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing for my father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, then, God pity us all!" said Virginia, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly you may say, God pity you! For do you know what will happen? Your
+father will die in prison: you will never see him again. Your friends
+will be massacred to a man. I will be frank with you: to a man they will
+be given to the sword. They are but a dozen; we are fifty&mdash;a hundred&mdash;a
+thousand, if necessary. The sink has already been taken, and a force is
+on its way to occupy this end of the cave. If your friends hold out,
+they will be starved. If they fight, they will be bayoneted and shot. If
+they surrender, every living man of them shall be hung. There is no help
+for them. Lincoln's army, that has been coming so long, is a chimera; it
+will never come. The power is all in our hands; and not even God can
+help them. That sounds blasphemous, I know; but it is true. They are
+doomed. But I can save them&mdash;and you can save them."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is to become of me?" asked Virginia, calmly as before.</p>
+
+<p>"Your future is entirely in your own hands. On the one side, what I have
+promised. On the other&mdash;&mdash;" Augustus thought he heard a crackling of
+sticks, and looked around.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other,"&mdash;Virginia took up the unfinished speech,&mdash;"the fate of a
+friendless, fatherless, Union-loving woman in this chivalrous south! I
+know how you treat such women. I know what awaits me on that side. And I
+accept it. My friends can die. My father can die; and I can. All this I
+accept; all the rest, you and your offers, I reject. I would not be your
+wife to save the world. Because I not only do not love you, but because
+I detest you. You have my answer."</p>
+
+<p>With swelling breast and set teeth Augustus kept his eyes upon her for
+full a minute, then replied, in a low voice shaken by passion,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I hoped your decision would be different. But it is spoken. I cannot
+hope to change it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you change these rocks under our feet with empty words?" she said,
+with a white smile.</p>
+
+<p>"All is over, then! Without cause you hate me, Miss Villars. Hitherto,
+in all that has happened to you and your friends, I have been blameless.
+If in the future I am not so, remember it is your own fault."</p>
+
+<p>Then the fire flashed into Virginia's cheeks, and indignation rang in
+her tones as she denounced the falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>"Hitherto, in the wrong that has happened to me and my friends, you have
+NOT been blameless! In the future you cannot do more to injure us than
+you have already done, or meant to do. Look at me, and listen while I
+prove what I say."</p>
+
+<p>Again there was a slight noise in the thicket behind them, and he would
+have been glad to make that an excuse for leaving her a moment; but her
+spirit held him.</p>
+
+<p>"I listen," he said, inwardly quaking at he knew not what.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember the night my father was arrested?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"And how you that day took a journey to be away from us in our trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly took a short journey that day, but&mdash;" his eyes flickering
+with the uneasiness of guilt.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you remember a conversation you had with Lysander under a
+bridge?"</p>
+
+<p>His face suddenly flushed purple. "The villain has betrayed me!" he
+thought. Then he stammered, "I hope you have not been listening to any
+of that fellow's slanders!"</p>
+
+<p>"You talked with Lysander under the bridge. Your conversation was heard,
+every word of it, by a third person, who lay concealed under the planks,
+behind you."</p>
+
+<p>"A villanous spy!" articulated Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>"No spy&mdash;but the man you two were at that moment seeking to kill: <span class="smcap">Penn
+Hapgood, the Schoolmaster</span>."</p>
+
+<p>It was a blow. Poor Bythewood, too luxurious and inert to be a great
+villain, was only a weak one; and, wounded in his most sensitive point,
+his pride, he writhed for a space with unutterable chagrin and rage.
+Then he recovered himself. He had heard the worst; and now there was
+nothing left for him but to cast down and trample with his feet (so to
+speak) the mask that had been torn from his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! You think you know me, then!"&mdash;He seized her wrists.&mdash;"Now
+hear me! I am not to be spurned like a dog, even by the foot of the
+woman I love. You reject, despise, insult me. As for me, I say this: all
+shall be as I have pronounced. Your father, your lover,&mdash;not Fate itself
+shall intervene to save them! And as for you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Again he heard a rustling by the ravine; this time so near that it
+startled him. He looked quickly around, and saw, slowly peering through
+the bushes, a dark human face. Had it been the terrible front of the
+Fate he had just defied, the soul of Augustus Bythewood could not have
+shrunk with a more sudden and appalling fear. It was the face of Pomp.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLV" id="XLV"></a>XLV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>MASTER AND SLAVE CHANGE PLACES.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The sergeant and his men were several rods distant: the bush through
+which that menacing visage peered was within as many feet. Augustus
+reached for his revolver.</p>
+
+<p>"Make a single move&mdash;speak a single word&mdash;and you are food for the
+buzzards!" came a whisper from the bush that well might chill his blood.
+"You know this rifle&mdash;and you know me!" And in the negro's face shone a
+persuasive glitter of the old, untamable, torrid ferocity of his
+tribe&mdash;not pleasing to Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give your revolver to that girl&mdash;instantly!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have men within call!"</p>
+
+<p>"So have I."</p>
+
+<p>Through the bush, advancing noiselessly, came the straight steel barrel
+of a rifle that had never missed fire but once: that was when it had
+been aimed by Augustus at the head of Pomp. Now it was aimed by Pomp at
+the head of Augustus; and it was hardly to be expected that it would be
+so obliging as to remember that one fault, and, for the sake of
+fairness, repeat it, now that positions were reversed. Bythewood
+hesitated, in mortal fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Obey me! I shall not speak again!"</p>
+
+<p>And there was heard in the bush another slight noise, too short, quick,
+and clicking, to be the crackle of a twig. Neither was that pleasing to
+the mind of Augustus. He turned, and with trembling hand made Virginia a
+present of the revolver.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how to use it?" Pomp asked. She nodded, breathless. "And
+you will use it if necessary?" She nodded again, and held the weapon
+prepared. "Now,"&mdash;to Bythewood,&mdash;"send those men away."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to spare their lives and yours, if you obey me. To kill you
+without much delay if you do not."</p>
+
+<p>"If you shoot,"&mdash;Bythewood was beginning to regain his dignity,&mdash;"they
+will rush to the spot before you can escape, and avenge me well!"</p>
+
+<p>A superb, masterful smile mounted to the ebon visage, and the answer
+came from the bush,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Look where the bowlder lies, up there by the ravine. You will see a
+twinkle of steel among the leaves. There are guns aimed at your men. You
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Augustus did not distinguish the guns; but he understood. At a
+signal, his men would be shot down.</p>
+
+<p>"I would prefer not to shed blood. So decide and that quickly!" said
+Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I comply?"</p>
+
+<p>"Comply readily with all I shall demand of you, and not a hair of
+your head shall be harmed. Now I count ten. At the word ten, I send
+a bullet through your heart if those men are still there." He
+commenced, like one telling the strokes of a tolling bell:
+"One&mdash;&mdash;two&mdash;&mdash;three&mdash;&mdash;four&mdash;&mdash;five&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sergeant," called Augustus, "take your men and report to Lieutenant
+Ropes at the sink."</p>
+
+<p>"A fine time to be taken up with a love affair!" growled the sergeant,
+as he obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what?" said Bythewood, under an air of bravado concealing the
+despair of his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" said Pomp, with savage impatience,&mdash;for he knew well that, if
+Bythewood had not yet learned of Ropes's death, messengers must be on
+the way to him, and therefore not a moment was to be lost. He opened the
+bushes. Augustus crept into them: Virginia followed. But then suddenly
+the negro seemed to change his plans, the spirit and firmness of the
+girl inspiring him with a fresh idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Villars, we are going to the cave. Look down the ravine
+there;&mdash;you see this path is rough."</p>
+
+<p>"O, I can go anywhere, you know!"</p>
+
+<p>"But haste is necessary. You shall return the way you came. Take this
+man with you. If you are seen by his soldiers, they will think all is
+well. Make him go before. Shoot him if he turns his head. Dare you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will!" said Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep near the ravine. My rifle will be there. If you have any
+difficulty, I will end it. Now march!"&mdash;thrusting Bythewood out of the
+thicket.&mdash;"Straight on!&mdash;Carry your pistol cocked, young lady!"</p>
+
+<p>Bitterly then did the noble Augustus repent him of having sent his guard
+away: "I ought to have died first!" But it was too late to recall them;
+and there was no way left him but to yield&mdash;or appear to yield&mdash;implicit
+obedience.</p>
+
+<p>What a situation for a son of the chivalrous south! He had reviled
+Lysander for having been made prisoner by a boy; and here was he, the
+haughty, the proud, the ambitious, overawed by a negro's threats, and
+carried away captive by a girl! However, he had a hope&mdash;a desperate one,
+indeed. He would watch for an opportunity, wheel suddenly upon Virginia,
+seize the pistol, and escape,&mdash;risking a shot from it, which he knew she
+was firmly determined to deliver in case of need (for had he not seen
+the soldier's gashed wrist?)&mdash;and risking also (what was more serious
+still) a shot from the rifle in the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>But when they came to the bowlder, there the resolution he had taken
+fell back leaden and dead upon his heart. He had, on reflection,
+concluded that the twinkle of guns in the leaves there was but a fiction
+of the wily African brain. As he passed, however, he perceived two guns
+peeping through. He knew not what exultant hearts were behind
+them,&mdash;what eager eyes beneath the boughs were watching him, led thus
+tamely into captivity; but he was impressed with a wholesome respect for
+them, and from that moment thought no more of escape.</p>
+
+<p>As Virginia approached the cave with her prisoner, the two guns, having
+followed them closely all the way, came up out of the ravine. They were
+accompanied by Penn and Carl. In the gladness of that sight Virginia
+almost forgot her dead sister and her captive father. Those two dear
+familiar faces beamed upon her with joy and triumph. But there was one
+who was not so glad. This Quaker schoolmaster, turned fighting man, was
+the last person Augustus (who was unpleasantly reminded of the
+conversation under the bridge) would have wished to see under such
+embarrassing circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>In the cave was Toby, wailing over the dead body of Salina. But at sight
+of the living sister he rose up and was comforted.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp had remained to cover the retreat. When all were safely arrived, he
+came bounding into the cave, jubilant. His bold and sagacious plans were
+thus far successful; and it only remained to carry them out with the
+same inexorable energy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit here." Augustus took one of the giant's stools. "I have a few words
+to say to this man: in the mean while, one of you"&mdash;turning to Penn and
+Carl&mdash;"hasten to the sink, and ask Stackridge to send me as many men as
+he can spare. Bring a couple of the prisoners&mdash;we shall need them."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go!" Carl cried with alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>"And," added Pomp, "if there are any wounded needing my assistance, have
+them brought here. I shall not, probably, be able to go to them."</p>
+
+<p>While he was giving these directions, with the air of one who felt that
+he had a momentous task before him, Bythewood sat on the rock, his head
+heavy and hot, his feet like clods of ice, and his heart collapsing with
+intolerable suspense. The gloom of the cave, and the strangeness of all
+things in it; the sight of the corpse near the entrance,&mdash;of Toby, at
+Virginia's suggestion, wiping up the pools of blood,&mdash;Virginia herself
+perfectly calm; Penn carefully untying and straightening the pieces of
+rope that had served to bind Lysander,&mdash;all this impressed him
+powerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said he, "I am to be treated as a prisoner of war."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp smiled. "Answer me a question. If you had caught me, would you have
+treated me as a prisoner of war?&mdash;Yes or no; we have no time for
+parley."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Augustus, frankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! I have caught you!"</p>
+
+<p>Fearfully significant words to the prisoner, who remembered all his
+injustice to this man, and the tortures he had prepared for him when he
+should be taken! But he had not been taken. On the contrary, he, the
+slave, could stand there, calm and smiling, before him, the master, and
+say, with peculiar and compressed emphasis, "<i>Very well! I have caught
+you!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"You promised that not a hair of my head should be injured."</p>
+
+<p>"The hair of your head is not the flesh of your body. No, I will not
+injure <i>the hair</i>!"&mdash;Pomp waited for his prisoner to take in all the
+horrible suggestiveness of this equivocation; then resumed. "Is not that
+what you would have said to me if you had found me in your power after
+making me such a promise? The black man has no rights which the white
+man is bound to respect! The most solemn pledges made by one of your
+race to one of mine are to be heeded only so long as suits your
+convenience. Did you not promise your dying brother in your presence to
+give me my freedom? Answer,&mdash;yes or no."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," faltered Augustus.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you give it me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." And Augustus felt that out of his own mouth he was condemned.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I shall keep my promise better than you kept yours. Comply with
+all I demand of you (this is what I said), and no part of you, neither
+flesh nor hair, shall be harmed."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you demand of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"This. Here are pen and ink. Write as I dictate."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"An order to have the fighting on your side discontinued, and your
+forces withdrawn."</p>
+
+<p>Augustus hesitated to take the pen.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no words to waste. If you do not comply readily with what I
+require, it is no object for me that you should comply at all."</p>
+
+<p>Penn came and stood by Pomp, looking calm and determined as he. Virginia
+came also, and looked upon the prisoner, without a smile, without a
+frown, but strangely serious and still. These were the three against
+whom he had sinned in the days of his power and pride; and now his shame
+was bare before them. He took the quill, bit the feather-end of it in
+supreme perplexity of soul, then wrote.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Pomp, reading the order. "But you have forgotten to
+sign it." Augustus signed. "Now write again. A letter to your colonel.
+Mr. Hapgood, please dictate the terms."</p>
+
+<p>Penn understood the whole scheme; he had consulted with Virginia, and he
+was prepared.</p>
+
+<p>"A safe conduct for Mr. Villars, his daughter and servants, beyond the
+confederate lines. This is all I have to insist upon."</p>
+
+<p>"I," said Pomp, "ask more. The man who betrayed us must be sent here."</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean Sprowl," said Bythewood, "his wife has no doubt saved the
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Not Sprowl, but <span class="smcap">Deslow</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood was terrified. Pomp had spoken with the positiveness of clear
+knowledge and unalterable determination. But how was it possible to
+comply with his demand? Deslow had been promised not only pardon, but
+protection from the very men he betrayed! Therefore he could not be
+given up to them without the most cowardly and shameful perfidy.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no influence whatever with the military authorities," the
+prisoner said, after taking ample time for consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget what you boasted to Sprowl, under the bridge," said Penn.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget what you just now boasted to me," said Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"Call it boasting," said Bythewood, doggedly. "Absolutely, I have not
+the power to effect what you require."</p>
+
+<p>"It is your misfortune, then," said Pomp. "To have boasted so, and now
+to fail to perform, will simply cost you your life. Will you write? or
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner remained sullen, abject, silent, for some seconds. Then,
+with a deep breath which shook all his frame, and an expression of the
+most agonizing despair on his face, he took the pen.</p>
+
+<p>"I will write; but I assure you it will do no good."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the worse for you," was the grim response.</p>
+
+<p>Mechanically and briefly Bythewood drew up a paper, signed his name, and
+shoved it across the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Does that suit you?"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp did not offer to take it.</p>
+
+<p>"If it suits you, well. I shall not read it. It is not the letter that
+interests us; it is the result."</p>
+
+<p>Bythewood suddenly drew back the paper, pondered its contents a moment,
+and cast it into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I had better write another."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so too. I fear you have not done what you might to impress upon
+the colonel's mind the importance of these simple terms&mdash;a safe conduct
+for Mr. Villars and family, the troops withdrawn entirely from the
+mountains, and Deslow delivered here to-night. This is plain enough; and
+you see the rest of us ask nothing for ourselves. I advise you to write
+freely. Open your mind to your friend. And beware,"&mdash;Pomp perceived by a
+strange expression which had come into the prisoner's face that this
+counsel was necessary,&mdash;"beware that he does not misunderstand you, and
+send a force to rescue you from our hands. If such a thing is attempted,
+this cave will be found barricaded. With what, you wonder? With those
+stones? With your dead body, my friend!"</p>
+
+<p>After that hint, it was evident Augustus did not choose to write what
+had first entered his mind on learning that his address to the colonel
+was not to be examined. Penn handed him a fresh sheet, and he filled
+it&mdash;a long and confidential letter, of which we regret that no copy now
+exists.</p>
+
+<p>Before it was finished, Carl returned, accompanied by four of the
+patriots and two of the prisoners. One of these last was Pepperill. He
+was immediately paroled, and sent off to the sink with the order that
+had been previously written. The letter completed, it was folded,
+sealed, and despatched by the other prisoner to Colonel Derring's
+head-quarters.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe Deslow will be delivered up?" said Stackridge, in
+consultation with Penn in a corner of the cave; the farmer's gray eye
+gleaming with anticipated vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe the confederate authorities, as a general thing, are capable
+of any meanness. Their policy is fraud, their whole system is one of
+injustice and selfishness. If Derring, who is Bythewood's devoted
+friend, can find means to give up the traitor without too gross an
+exposure of his perfidy, he will do it. But I regret that Pomp insisted
+on that hard condition. He was determined, and it was useless to reason
+with him."</p>
+
+<p>"And he is right!" said Stackridge. "Deslow, if guilty, must pay for
+this day's work!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt of his guilt. Pepperill knew of it&mdash;he whispered it
+to Pomp at the sink."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Deslow dies the death! He was sworn to us! He was sworn to
+Pomp; and Pomp had saved his life! The blood of Withers, my best
+friend&mdash;&mdash;" The farmer's voice was lost in a throe of rage and grief.</p>
+
+<p>"And the blood of Cudjo, whom Pomp loved!" said Penn. "I feel all you
+feel&mdash;all Pomp feels. But for me, I would leave vengeance with the
+Lord."</p>
+
+<p>"So would I," said Pomp, standing behind him, composed and grand. "And I
+would be the Lord's instrument, when called. I am called. Deslow comes
+to me, or I go to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the Lord have mercy on his soul!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVI" id="XLVI"></a>XLVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE TRAITOR.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The news of the disaster at the sink, and of the loss of prisoners, had
+reached Colonel Derring, and he was preparing to forward re�nforcements,
+when Bythewood's letter arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Of the colonel's reflections on the receipt of that singular missive
+little is known. He was unwontedly cross and abstracted for an hour. At
+the end of that time he asked for the renegade Deslow.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of another hour Deslow had been found and brought to
+head-quarters. The colonel, having now quite recovered his equanimity of
+temper, received him with the most flattering attentions.</p>
+
+<p>"You have done an honorable and patriotic work, Mr. Deslow. Your friends
+are coming to terms. Bythewood is at this moment engaged in an amicable
+conference with them. Your example has had a most salutary effect. They
+all desire to give themselves up on similar terms. But they will not
+believe as yet that you have been pardoned and received into favor."</p>
+
+<p>The dark brow of the traitor brightened.</p>
+
+<p>"And they have no suspicions?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever. They do not imagine you had anything to do with the
+discovery of their retreat. Now, I've been thinking you might help along
+matters immensely, if you would go up and join Bythewood, and represent
+to your friends the folly of holding out any longer, and show them the
+advantage of following your example."</p>
+
+<p>Deslow felt strong misgivings about undertaking this delicate business.
+But persuasions, flatteries, and promises prevailed upon him at last.
+And at sundown he set out, accompanied by the man who had brought
+Bythewood's letter.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the messenger's long absence, it was beginning to be
+feared, by those who had sent him, that he had gone on a fruitless
+errand. Evening came. There was sadness on the faces of Penn and
+Virginia, as they sat by the corpse of Salina. Pomp was gloomy and
+silent. Bythewood, bound to Lysander's rock, sat waiting, with feelings
+we will not seek to penetrate, for the answer to his letter. In that
+letter he had mentioned, among other things, a certain pair of horses
+that were in his stable. Had he known that the colonel, during his hour
+of moroseness, had gone over to look at these horses, and that he was
+now driving them about the village, well satisfied with the munificent
+bribe, he would, no doubt, have felt easier in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not go to your father to-night," said Penn, having looked out
+into the gathering darkness, and returned to Virginia's side. "We have
+one night more together. May be it is the last."</p>
+
+<p>Carl was comforting his wounded cousin, who had been brought and placed
+on some skins on the floor. The patriots were holding a consultation.
+Suddenly the sentinel at the door announced an arrival; and to the
+amazement of all, the messenger entered, followed by Deslow.</p>
+
+<p>The traitor came in, smiling in most friendly fashion upon his late
+companions, even offering his hand to Pomp, who did not accept it. Then
+he saw in the faces that looked upon him a stern and terrible triumph.
+By the rock he beheld Bythewood bound. And his heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>The messenger brought a letter for Augustus. Pomp took it.</p>
+
+<p>"This interests us!" he said, breaking the seal. "Excuse me, sir!"&mdash;to
+Bythewood.&mdash;"I was once your servant; and I had forgotten that
+circumstances have slightly changed! As your hands are confined, I will
+read it for you."</p>
+
+<p>He read aloud.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Gus</span>: This is an awful bad scrape you have got into; but I
+suppose I must get you out of it. Villars shall have passports, and
+an escort, if he likes. I'll keep the soldiers from the mountains.
+The hardest thing to arrange is the Deslow affair. I don't care a
+curse for the fellow but I don't want the name of giving him up.
+So, if I succeed in sending him, keep mum. Probably <i>he</i> never will
+come away to tell a tale."</p>
+
+<p>"Yours, etc., <span class="smcap">Derring</span>."</p>
+
+<p>"P. S. Thank you for the horses."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Then Pomp turned and looked upon the traitor, who had been himself
+betrayed. His ghastly face was of the color of grayish yellow parchment.
+His hat was in his hand, and his short, stiff hair stood erect with
+terror. If up to this moment there had been any doubt of his guilt in
+Pomp's mind, it vanished. The wretch had not the power to proclaim his
+innocence, or to plead for mercy. No explanations were needed: he
+understood all: with that vivid perception of truth which often comes
+with the approach of death, he knew that he was there to die.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything to confess?" Pomp said to him, with the solemnity of
+a priest preparing a sacrifice. "If so, speak, for your time is short."</p>
+
+<p>Deslow said nothing: indeed, his organs of speech were paralyzed.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well: then I will tell you, we know all. We trusted you. You have
+betrayed us. Withers is dead: you killed him. Cudjo is dead: his blood
+is upon your soul. For this you are now to die."</p>
+
+<p>There was another besides Deslow whom these calm and terrible words
+appalled. It was Bythewood, who feared lest, after all he had
+accomplished, his turn might come next.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before the fear-stricken culprit could recover the
+power of speech. Then, in a sudden, hoarse, and scarcely articulate
+shriek, his voice burst forth:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Save me! save me!"</p>
+
+<p>He rushed to where the patriots stood. But they thrust him back sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Pomp's business. Deal with him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will no one save me? Will no one speak for my life?" These words were
+ejaculated with the ghastly accent and volubility of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Your life is forfeited. Pomp saved it once; now he takes it. It is
+just," said Stackridge.</p>
+
+<p>"My God! my God! my God!" Thrice the doomed man uttered that sacred name
+with wild despair, and with intervals of strange and silent horror
+between. "Then I must die!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> will speak for you," said a voice of solemn compassion. And Penn
+stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"You? you? you will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not hope too much. Pomp is inexorable as he is just. But I will
+plead for you."</p>
+
+<p>"O, do! do! There is something in his face&mdash;I cannot bear it&mdash;but you
+can move him!"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp was leaning thoughtfully by one of the giant's stools. Penn drew
+near to him. Deslow crouched behind, his whole frame shaking visibly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pomp, if you love me, grant me this one favor. Leave this wretch to his
+God. What satisfaction can there be in taking the life of so degraded
+and abject a creature?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is satisfaction in justice," replied Pomp, quietly smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"O, but the satisfaction there is in mercy is infinitely sweeter!
+Forgiveness is a holy thing, Pomp! It brings the blessing of Heaven with
+it, and it is more effective than vengeance. This man has a wife; he has
+children; think of them!"</p>
+
+<p>These words, and many more to the same purpose, Penn poured forth with
+all the earnestness of his soul. He pleaded; he argued; he left no means
+untried to melt that adamantine will. In vain all. When he finished,
+Pomp took his hand in one of his, and laying the other kindly on his
+shoulder, said in his deepest, tenderest tones,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard you because I love you. What you say is just. But another
+thing is just&mdash;that this man should die. Ask anything but this of me,
+and you will see how gladly I will grant all you desire."</p>
+
+<p>"I have done."&mdash;Penn turned sadly away.&mdash;"It is as I feared. Deslow, I
+will not flatter you. There is no hope."</p>
+
+<p>Then Deslow, regaining somewhat of his manhood, drew himself up, and
+prepared to meet his fate.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon?" he asked, more firmly than he had yet spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Pomp. He lighted a lantern. "You must go with me. There are
+eyes here that would not look upon your death." He took his rifle. "Go
+before." And he conducted his victim into the recesses in the cave.</p>
+
+<p>They came to the well, into the unfathomable mystery of which Carl had
+dropped the stone. There Pomp stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"This is your grave. Would you take a look at it?" He held the lantern
+over the fearful place. The falling waters made in those unimaginable
+depths the noise of far-off thunders. Half dead with fear already, the
+wretch looked down into the hideous pit.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I die?" he uttered in a ghastly whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"You must! I will shoot you first in mercy to you; for I am not cruel.
+Have you prayers to make? I will wait."</p>
+
+<p>Deslow sank upon his knees. He tried to confess himself to God, to
+commit his soul with decency into His hands. But the words of his
+petition stuck in his throat: the dread of immediate death absorbed all
+feeling else.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp, who had retired a short distance, supposed he had made an end.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready?" he asked, placing his lantern on the rock, and poising
+his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot pray!" said Deslow. "Send for a minister&mdash;for Mr. Villars!&mdash;I
+cannot die so."</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late," answered Pomp, sorrowful, yet stern. "Mr. Villars has
+been carried away by the soldiers you sent. If you cannot pray for
+yourself, then there is none to pray for you."</p>
+
+<p>Scarce had he spoken, when out of the darkness behind him came a voice,
+saying with solemn sweetness, as if an angel responded from the
+invisible profound,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will pray for him!"</p>
+
+<p>He turned, and saw in the lantern's misty glimmer a spectral form
+advancing. It drew near. It was a female figure, shadowy, noiseless; the
+right hand raised with piteous entreaty; the countenance pale to
+whiteness,&mdash;its fresh and youthful beauty clothed with sadness and
+compassion as with a veil.</p>
+
+<p>It was Virginia. All the way through the dismal galleries of the cave,
+and down Cudjo's stairs, she had followed the executioner and his
+victim, in order to plead at the last moment for that mercy for which
+Penn had pleaded in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Struck with amazement, Pomp gazed at her for a moment as if she had been
+really a spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"How came you here?"</p>
+
+<p>She laid one hand upon his arm; with the other she pointed upwards; her
+eyes all the while shining upon him with a wondrous brilliancy, which
+was of the spirit indeed, and not of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven sent me to pray for him&mdash;and for you."</p>
+
+<p>"For me, Miss Villars?"</p>
+
+<p>"For you, Pomp!"&mdash;Her voice also had that strange melting quality which
+comes only from the soul. It was low, and full of love and sorrow. "For
+if you slay this man, then you will have more need of prayers than he."</p>
+
+<p>Pomp was shaken. The touch on his arm, the tones of that voice, the
+electric light of those inspired eyes, moved him with a power that
+penetrated to his inmost soul. Yet he retained his haughty firmness, and
+said coldly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If there had been mercy for this man, Penn would have obtained it. The
+hardest thing I ever did was to deny him. What is there to be said which
+he did not say?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, he spoke earnestly and well!" replied Virginia. "I wondered how you
+could listen to him and not yield. But he is a man; and as a man he gave
+up all hope when reason failed, and he saw you so implacable. But I
+would never have given up. I would have clung to your knees, and
+pleaded with you so long as there was breath in me to ask or heart
+to feel. I would not have let you go till you had shown mercy to
+this poor man!"&mdash;(Deslow had crawled to her feet: there he knelt
+grovelling),&mdash;"and to yourself, Pomp! If he dies repenting, and you kill
+him unrelenting, I would rather be he than you. When we shut the gate of
+mercy on others we shut it on ourselves. For all that you have done for
+my father and friends, and for me, I am filled with gratitude and
+friendship. Your manly traits have inspired me with an admiration that
+was almost hero-worship. For this reason I would save you from a great
+crime. O, Pomp, if only for my sake, do not annihilate the noble and
+grand image of you which has built itself up in my heart, and leave only
+the memory of a strange horror and dread in its place!"</p>
+
+<p>Pomp had turned his eyes away from hers, knowing that if he continued to
+be fascinated by them, he must end by yielding. He drooped his head,
+leaning on his rifle, and looking down upon the wretch at their feet. A
+strong convulsion shook his whole frame, as she ceased speaking. There
+was silence for some seconds. Then he spoke, still without raising his
+eyes, in a deep, subdued voice.</p>
+
+<p>"This man is the hater of my race. He is of those who rob us of our
+labor, our lives, our wives, and children, and happiness. They enslave
+both body and soul. They damn us with ignorance and vice. To take from
+us the profits of our toil is little; but they take from us our manhood
+also. Yet here he came, and accepted life and safety at my hands. He
+made an oath, and I made an oath. His oath was never to betray my poor
+Cudjo's secret. The oath I made was to kill him as I would a dog if his
+should be broken. It has been broken. My poor Cudjo is dead. Withers is
+dead. Your sister is dead. I see it to be just that this traitor too
+should now die!"</p>
+
+<p>Again he poised his rifle. But Virginia threw herself upon the victim,
+covering with her own pure bosom his miserable, guilty breast.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp smiled. "Do not fear. For your sake I have pardoned him."</p>
+
+<p>"O, this is the noblest act of your life, Pomp!" she exclaimed, clasping
+his hand with joy and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>He looked in her face. A great weight was taken from his soul. His
+countenance was bright and glad.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it was not a bitter cup for me? You have taken it from me,
+and I thank you. But Bythewood must not know I have relented. We have
+yet a work to do with him."</p>
+
+<p>Then those who had been left behind in the cave, listening for the
+death-signal, heard the report of a rifle ringing through the chambers
+of rock. Not long after Pomp and Virginia returned; and Deslow was not
+with them. Augustus heard&mdash;Augustus saw&mdash;nor knew he any reason why the
+fate of Deslow should not presently be his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Is justice done?" said Stackridge, with stern eyes fixed on Pomp.</p>
+
+<p>"Is justice done?" said Pomp, turning to Virginia.</p>
+
+<p>"Justice is done!" she answered, in a serious, firm voice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVII" id="XLVII"></a>XLVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>BREAD ON THE WATERS.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The next morning a singular procession set out from the cave. Stretchers
+had been framed of the trunks and boughs of saplings, and upon these the
+dead and wounded of yesterday were placed. They were borne by the
+prisoners of yesterday, who had been paroled for the purpose. Carl
+walked by the side of the litter that conveyed his cousin Fritz, talking
+cheerfully to him in their native tongue. Behind them was carried the
+dead body of Salina, followed by old Toby with uncovered head. With him
+went Pepperill, charged with the important business of seeing that all
+was done for the Villars family which had been stipulated, and of
+reporting to Pomp at the cave afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Last of all came Virginia, leaning on Penn's arm. He was speaking to her
+earnestly, in low, quivering tones: she listened with downcast
+countenance, full of all tender and sad emotions; for they were about to
+part.</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill was intrusted with a second letter from Bythewood to the
+colonel, couched in these terms:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Deslow was taken last night, and slaughtered in cold blood. The same
+will happen to me if all is not done as agreed. I am to be retained as a
+hostage until Pepperill's return. For Heaven's sake, help Mr. Villars
+and his family off with all convenient despatch, and oblige,</i>" &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Virginia was going to try her fortune with her father; but Penn's lot
+was cast with his friends who remained at the cave. From these he could
+not honorably separate himself until all danger was over; and, much as
+he longed to accompany her, he knew well that, even if he should be
+permitted to do so, his presence would be productive of little good to
+either her or her father. Moreover, it had been wisely resolved not to
+demand too much of the military authorities. A safe conduct could be
+granted with good grace to a blind old minister and his daughter, but
+not to men who had been in arms against the confederate government. Nor
+was it thought best to trust or tempt too far these minions of the new
+slave despotism, whose recklessness of obligations which interest or
+revenge prompted them to evade, was so notorious.</p>
+
+<p>Penn would have attended Virginia to the base of the mountain, risking
+all things for the melancholy pleasure of prolonging these last moments.
+But this she would not permit. Hard as it was to utter the word of
+separation,&mdash;to see him return to those solitary and dangerous rocks,
+not knowing that he would ever be able to leave them, or that she would
+ever see him again in this world;&mdash;still, her love was greater than her
+selfishness, and she had strength even for that.</p>
+
+<p>"No farther now! O, you must go no farther!" And, resolutely pausing,
+she called to Carl,&mdash;for Carl's lot too lay with his. Toby and Pepperill
+also stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Daniel," said Penn, with impressive solemnity, "into thy hands I commit
+this precious charge. Be faithful. Good Toby, I trust we shall meet
+again in God's good time. Farewell! farewell!"</p>
+
+<p>And the procession went its way; only Penn and Carl remained gazing
+after it long, with hearts too full for words.</p>
+
+<p>When it was out of sight, and they were turning silently to retrace
+their steps, they saw a man come out of the woods, and beckon to them.
+It was a negro&mdash;it was Barber Jim.</p>
+
+<p>Permitted to approach, he told his story. Since the escape of the
+arrested Unionists through his cellar, he had been an object of
+suspicion; and last night his house had been attacked by a mob. He had
+managed to escape, and was now hiding in the woods to save his life.</p>
+
+<p>"Deslow betrayed you with the rest," said Penn; "that explains it."</p>
+
+<p>"My wife&mdash;my two daughters: what will become of them?" said the wretched
+man. "And my property, that I have been all this while laying up for
+them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not despair, my friend. Your property is mostly real estate, and
+cannot be so easily appropriated to rebel uses, as the money deposited
+for me in the bank, from which I was never allowed to draw it! It will
+wait for you. A kind Providence will care for your family, I am sure. As
+for you, I do not see what else you can do but share our fortunes. There
+is one comfort for you,&mdash;we are all about as badly off as yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have your pick of some muskets," said Carl, gayly; "and you
+vill find us as jolly a set of wagabonds as ever you saw!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you plenty of arms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Arms is more plenty as prowisions. Vat is vanted is wittles. Vat is
+vanted most is wegetables. Bears and vild turkeys inwite themselves to
+be shot, but potatoes keep wery shy, and ve suffers for sour krout."</p>
+
+<p>Barber Jim mused. "I will go with you. I am glad," he added, as if to
+himself, "that I paid Toby off as I did."</p>
+
+<p>What he meant by this last remark will be seen.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Mr. Villars had taken the precaution to invest his available funds in
+Ohio Railroad stock some time before. Arrived in Cincinnati, he would be
+able to reap the advantages of this timely forethought. But in the mean
+time the expenses of a long journey must be defrayed; and he found it
+impossible now to raise money on his house or household goods. All the
+ready cash he could command was barely sufficient to afford a decent
+burial to his daughter. He was discussing this serious difficulty with
+Virginia, whilst preparations for Salina's funeral and their own
+departure were going forward simultaneously, when Toby came trotting in,
+jubilant and breathless, and laid a little dirty bag in his lap.</p>
+
+<p>"I's fotched 'em! dar ye got 'em, massa!" And the old negro wiped the
+sweat from his shining face.</p>
+
+<p>"What, Toby! Money!" (for the little bag was heavy). "Where did you get
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gold, sar! Gold, Miss Jinny! Needn't look 'spicious! I neber got 'em by
+no underground means!" (He meant to say <i>underhand</i>.) "I'll jes' 'splain
+'bout dat. Ye see, Massa Villars, eber sence ye gib me my freedom, ye
+been payin' me right smart wages,&mdash;seben dollah a monf! Dunno' how much
+dat ar fur a year, but I reckon it ar a heap! An' you rec'lec' you says
+to me, you says, 'Hire it out to some honest man, Toby, and ye kin draw
+inference on it,' you says. So what does I do but go and pay it all to
+Barber Jim fast as eber you pays me. 'Pears like I neber knowed how much
+I was wuf, till tudder day he says to me, 'Toby,' he says, 'times is so
+mighty skeery I's afeard to keep yer money for ye any longer; hyar 'tis
+fur ye, all in gold.' So he gibs it to me in dis yer little bag, an' I
+takes it, an' goes an' buries it 'hind de cow shed, whar 'twould keep
+sweet, ye know, fur de family. An' hyar it ar, shore enough, massa, jes'
+de ting fur dis yer 'casion!"</p>
+
+<p>"So you got it by <i>underground means</i>, after all!" said Virginia, with
+mingled laughter and tears, opening the bag and pouring out the bright
+eagles.</p>
+
+<p>The old clergyman was silent for a space, overcome with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you for a faithful servant, Toby! and Barber Jim for an
+honest man."</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's nuffin!" said Toby, snuffing and winking ludicrously. "Why
+shouldn't a cullud pusson hab de right to be honest, well as white
+folks? If you's gwine to tank anybody, ye better jes' tink and tank
+yersef! Who gib ol' Toby his freedom, an' den 'pose to pay him wages?
+Reckon if 't hadn't been fur dat, massa, I neber should hab de bressed
+chance to do dis yer little ting fur de family!"</p>
+
+<p>"We will thank only our heavenly Father, whose tender care we will never
+doubt, after this!" said the old minister, with deep and solemn joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Wust on't is, Jim hissef's got inter trouble now," said Toby. "He hab
+to put fur de woods; an' his family wants to git to de norf, whar dey
+tinks he'll mabby be gwine to meet 'em; but dey can't seem to manage
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"O, father, I have an idea! You will have a right to take your
+<i>servants</i> with you; and Jim's wife and daughters might pass as
+servants."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be rejoiced to help them in any way. Go and find them, Toby.
+Thus the bread we cast on the water sometimes returns to us <i>before</i>
+many days!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVIII" id="XLVIII"></a>XLVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>EMANCIPATION OF THE BONDMEN.&mdash;CONCLUSION.</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>A week had elapsed since Augustus became a captive; when, one cloudy
+afternoon, Dan Pepperill returned alone to the mountain cave. Pomp met
+him at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"All safe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I be durned if they ain't!" said Dan, exultant. "The ol' man, and the
+nigger, and the gal, and Jim's wife and darters inter the bargain! Went
+with 'em myself all the way, by stage and rail, till I seen 'em over the
+line inter ol' Kentuck'. Durned if I didn't wish I war gwine for good
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall go now if you will. I have been waiting only for you. Cudjo
+is dead. All the rest are gone. There is nothing to keep me here. Will
+you go back to the rebels, or make a push with us for the free states?
+Speak quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Pepperill only groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"Nine more have joined since Jim came. They make a strong party, all
+armed, and determined to fight their way through. They are already
+twenty miles away; but we will overtake them to-morrow. I am to guide
+them. I know every cave and defile. Will you come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pomp, ye know I'd be plaguy glad ter; but 'tain't so ter be! I hain't
+no gre't fancy fur this secesh business, that ar' a fact. But I'm in
+fur't, and I reckon I sh'll haf' ter put it through;" and Dan heaved a
+deep sigh of regret. Without knowing it, he was a fatalist. Being too
+weak or inert to resist the hand of despotism laid upon him, he yielded
+to its weight and accepted it as destiny. The rebel ranks have been
+filled with such.</p>
+
+<p>Pomp smiled with mingled pity and derision. "Good by, then! I hope this
+war will do something for your class as well as for mine&mdash;you need it as
+much! Wait here, and you shall have company."</p>
+
+<p>He took a lantern, and entered the interior chamber of the cave. After
+the lapse of many minutes he returned, dragging, as from a dungeon, into
+the light of day, a wretch who could scarcely have expected ever to
+behold that blessed boon again,&mdash;he was so abject, so filled with joy
+and trembling. It was Deslow. Then turning to the corner where Augustus
+sat confined, the negro cut his bonds and lifted him to his feet. Poor
+Bythewood, rheumatic, stiff in the joints, and terribly wasted by
+anxiety and chagrin, presented a scarcely less piteous spectacle than
+Deslow; nor were his fallen spirits revived by the sight of this craven,
+whom he had supposed to be long since past the memory of the wrong he
+had done him, and the earthly passion for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said Pomp, leading them to the entrance, and showing them
+to each other in the gray glimmer of that cloudy afternoon, "our little
+accounts are now closed for the present, and my business with you ends.
+You are at liberty to depart. Deslow, do not hate too bitterly this man
+for betraying you into my hands. Remember that you set the example of
+treachery, and that the cause to which you are both sworn is itself
+founded on treachery. As for you, Mr. Bythewood, I trust that you will
+pardon the inconvenience I have found it necessary to subject you to. I
+have restrained you of your liberty for some days. You restrained me of
+mine for nearly as many years. I have no longer any ill will towards
+either of you. Go in peace. I emancipate you. I shall not hunt you with
+hounds, because I have been your master for a little while. I shall not
+put iron collars on your necks. I shall neither brand nor beat you. You
+are free! Does the word sound pleasant to your ears? Think then of those
+to whom it would sound just as sweet. Has the rule of a hard master
+seemed grievous to you? Remember those to whom it is no less grievous.
+If might makes right, then you have been as much my property as ever
+black man was yours. Is there no law, no justice, but the power of the
+strongest? You have had a few days' experience of that power, and can
+judge what a life's experience of it might be. Reflect upon it, my
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>He led them to the opening of the cave. Then he pointed to the clouds.
+"You cannot see the sun; but the sun is there. You do not see God,
+through the troubled affairs of this world; but God is over all. He
+governs, although you have left him quite out of your plans. Your plans
+are, no doubt, very great and mighty,&mdash;but see!"&mdash;passing over his knee
+the cord with which Bythewood had been bound. "This is the chain with
+which you bind my brothers and sisters. It is strong. You have drawn it
+very tight about them. But you thought to draw it tighter still, to hold
+them fast forever; and look, you have broken it!"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he displayed with a smile the two fragments of the rope that
+had snapped like a mere string in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"So tyranny is made to defeat itself!"&mdash;trampling the ends under his
+feet. "I have said it. Remember!"</p>
+
+<p>Uttering these last words, he walked backwards slowly, resumed his rifle
+and lantern, and disappeared in the dark recesses of the cave. The freed
+prisoners then, joining Pepperill, took their way slowly down the
+mountain, sadder if not wiser men.</p>
+
+<p>The reappearance of Bythewood was a signal for sending immediately two
+full companies to capture the cave. They succeeded; but they captured
+nothing else. Pomp, escaping through the sink, was already miles away on
+the trail of the refugees.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Thus ends the story of Cudjo's Cave. Other conclusion, to give it
+dramatic completeness, it ought, perhaps, to have; but the struggles, of
+which we have here witnessed the beginning, have not yet ended [Nov.,
+1863]; and one can scarcely be expected to describe events before they
+transpire.</p>
+
+<p>We may add, however, that Mr. Villars, Virginia, and Toby, arrived
+safely at their destination,&mdash;a small town on the borders of
+Ohio,&mdash;where they were cordially welcomed by relatives of the family.
+There, three weeks later, they were visited by two very suspicious
+looking characters,&mdash;one a bronzed and bearded young man, robust, rough,
+with an eye like an eagle's gleaming from under his old slouched hat,
+whom nobody, I am sure, would ever have taken for a Quaker schoolmaster;
+the other a stout, ruddy, blue-eyed, laughing, ragged lad of sixteen,
+who certainly did not pass for a rebel deserter. Strange to say, these
+pilgrims of the dusty roads and rocky wildernesses were welcomed (not to
+speak it profanely) like angels from heaven by the old man, his
+daughter, and Toby,&mdash;their brown hands shaken, their coarse, torn
+clothes embraced, and their sunburnt faces kissed, with a rapture
+amazing to strangers of the household. They were travelling (as the
+younger remarked in an accent which betrayed his Teutonic origin) to
+"Pennsylwany," the home of the elder; and they had come thus far out of
+their way to make this angels' visit.</p>
+
+<p>With these two Barber Jim had journeyed as far as Cincinnati, where he
+found his family comfortably provided for by persons to whose
+benevolence Mr. Villars had recommended them. The other refugees had
+also got safely over the mountains, after a march full of toils and
+dangers; and nearly all were now in the federal camps. A long history,
+full of deep and painful interest, might be written concerning the
+subsequent fortunes of these men, and of their families and neighbors
+left behind,&mdash;a history of hardships, of forced separations and ruined
+homes,&mdash;of starvation in woods and caves to which loyal citizens were
+driven by the rage of persecution,&mdash;and of terrible retribution.
+Stackridge, Grudd, and many of their brother refugees, had the joy of
+participating in those military movements of last summer, by which East
+Tennessee was relieved; of beholding the tremendous ruin which the blind
+pride of their foes had pulled down upon itself; and of witnessing the
+jubilee of a patriotic people released from a remorseless and unsparing
+tyranny.</p>
+
+<p>A word of Pomp. Have you read the newspaper stories of a certain negro
+scout, who, by his intrepidity, intelligence, and wonderful celerity of
+movement, has rendered such important services to the Army of the
+Cumberland? He is the man.</p>
+
+<p>Dan Pepperill fell in the battle of Stone River, fighting in a cause he
+never loved&mdash;the type of many such. Bythewood, after losing his
+influence at home, and trying various fortunes, became attached to the
+staff of the notorious Roger A. Pryor, in whose disgrace he shared, when
+that long-haired rebel chief was reduced to the ranks for cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>As for Carl, he is now a stalwart corporal in the &mdash;th Pennsylvania
+regiment. He serves under a dear friend of his, known as the "Fighting
+Quaker," and distinguished for that rare combination of military and
+moral qualities which constitutes the true hero.</p>
+
+<p>I regret that I cannot brighten these prosaic last pages with the halo
+of a wedding. But Penn had said, "Our country first!" and Virginia,
+heroic as he, had answered bravely, "Go!" Whether they will ever be
+happily united on earth, who can say? But this we know: the golden halo
+of the love that maketh one has crowned their united souls, and, with
+perfect patience and perfect trust, they wait.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LENVOY" id="LENVOY"></a><i>L'ENVOY.</i></h2>
+
+
+<p>The foregoing pages are, as the writer sincerely believes, true to
+history and life in all important particulars. In order to give form and
+unity to the narrative, characters and incidents have been brought
+together within a much narrower compass, both of time and space, than
+they actually occupied: events have been described as occurring in the
+summer of 1861, many of which did not take place till some months later;
+and certain other liberties have been taken with facts. Two separate and
+distinct caves have been connected, in the story, by expanding both into
+one, which is for the most part imaginary, but which, I trust, will not
+be considered as a too improbable fiction in a region where caves and
+"sinks" abound.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, is an apology needed for the scenes of violence here
+depicted?&mdash;Neither do I, O gentle reader, delight in them. But the book
+that would be a mirror of evil times, must show some repulsive features.
+And this book was written, not to please merely, but for a sterner
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>For peaceful days, a peaceful and sunny literature: and may Heaven
+hasten the time when there shall be no more strife, and no more human
+bondage; when under the folds of the starry flag, from the lake chain to
+the gulf, and from sea to sea, freedom, and peace, and righteousness
+shall reign; when all men shall love each other, and the nations shall
+know God!</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
+
+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: Cudjo's Cave
+
+Author: J. T. Trowbridge
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31406]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUDJO'S CAVE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  CUDJO'S CAVE.
+
+                               BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE
+
+              AUTHOR OF "NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD," "THE DRUMMER BOY," ETC.
+
+
+
+BOSTON:
+J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY.
+1864.
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
+J. T. TROWBRIDGE,
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
+of Massachusetts.
+
+ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
+BY THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
+4 SPRING LANE.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+I. The Schoolmaster in Trouble
+
+II. Penn and the Ruffians
+
+III. The Secret Cellar
+
+IV. The Search for the Missing
+
+V. Carl and his Friends
+
+VI. A Strange Coat for a Quaker
+
+VII. The Two Guests
+
+VIII. The Rover
+
+IX. Toby's Patient has a Caller
+
+X. The Widow's Green Chest
+
+XI. Southern Hospitality
+
+XII. Chivalrous Proceedings
+
+XIII. The Old Clergyman's Nightgown has an Adventure
+
+XIV. A Man's Story
+
+XV. An Anti-Slavery Document on Black Parchment
+
+XVI. In the Cave and on the Mountain
+
+XVII. Penn's Foot Knocks Down a Musket
+
+XVIII. Condemned to Death
+
+XIX. The Escape
+
+XX. Under the Bridge
+
+XXI. The Return into Danger
+
+XXII. Stackridge's Coat and Hat get Arrested
+
+XXIII. The Flight of the Prisoners
+
+XXIV. The Dead Rebel's Musket
+
+XXV. Black and White
+
+XXVI. Why Augustus did not Propose
+
+XXVII. The Men with the Dark Lantern
+
+XXVIII. Beauty and the Beast
+
+XXIX. In the Burning Woods
+
+XXX. Refuge
+
+XXXI. Lysander Takes Possession
+
+XXXII. Toby's Reward
+
+XXXIII. Carl Makes an Engagement
+
+XXXIV. Captain Lysander's Joke
+
+XXXV. The Moonlight Expedition
+
+XXXVI. Carl finds a Geological Specimen
+
+XXXVII. Carl Keeps his Engagement
+
+XXXVIII. Love in the Wilderness
+
+XXXIX. A Council of War
+
+XL. The Wonders of the Cave
+
+XLI. Prometheus Bound
+
+XLII. Prometheus Unbound
+
+XLIII. The Combat
+
+XLIV. How Augustus Finally Proposed
+
+XLV. Master and Slave Change Places
+
+XLVI. The Traitor
+
+XLVII. Bread on the Waters
+
+XLVIII. Conclusion
+
+L'Envoy
+
+
+
+
+CUDJO'S CAVE.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+_THE SCHOOLMASTER IN TROUBLE._
+
+
+Carl crept stealthily up the bank, and, peering through the window, saw
+the master writing at his desk.
+
+In his neat Quaker garb, his slender form bent over his task, his calm
+young face dimly seen in profile, there he sat. The room was growing
+dark; the glow of a March sunset was fading fast from the paper on which
+the swift pen traced these words:--
+
+"Tennessee is getting too hot for me. My school is nearly broken up, and
+my farther stay here is becoming not only useless, but dangerous. There
+are many loyal men in the neighborhood, but they are overawed by the
+reckless violence of the secessionists. Mobs sanctioned by self-styled
+vigilance committees override all law and order. As I write, I can hear
+the yells of a drunken rabble before my school-house door. I am an
+especial object of hatred to them on account of my northern birth and
+principles. They have warned me to leave the state, they have threatened
+me with southern vengeance, but thus far I have escaped injury. How long
+this reign of terror is to last, or what is to be the end----"
+
+A rap on the window drew the writer's attention, and, looking up, he
+saw, against the twilight sky, the broad German face of the boy Carl
+darkening the pane. He stepped to raise the sash.
+
+"What is it, Carl?"
+
+The lad glanced quickly around, first over one shoulder, then the other,
+and said, in a hoarse whisper,--
+
+"Shpeak wery low!"
+
+"Was it you that rapped before?"
+
+"I have rapped tree times, not loud, pecause I vas afraid the men would
+hear."
+
+"What men are they?"
+
+"The Wigilance Committee's men! They have some tar in a kettle. They
+have made a fire unter it, and I hear some of 'em say, 'Run, boys, and
+pring some fedders.'"
+
+"Tar and feathers!" The young man grew pale. "They have threatened it,
+but they will not dare!"
+
+"They vill dare do anything; but you shall prewent 'em! See vat I have
+prought you!" Carl opened his jacket, and showed the handle of a
+revolver. "Stackridge sent it."
+
+"Hide it! hide it!" said the master, quickly. "He offered it to me
+himself. I told him I could not take it."
+
+"He said, may be when you smell tar and see fedders, you vill change
+your mind," answered Carl.
+
+The schoolmaster smiled. The pallor of fear which had surprised him for
+an instant, had vanished.
+
+"I believe in a different creed from Mr. Stackridge's, honest man as he
+is. I shall not resist evil, but overcome evil with good, if I can; if I
+cannot, I shall suffer it."
+
+"You show you vill shoot some of 'em, and they vill let you go," said
+Carl, not understanding the nobler doctrine. "Shooting vill do some of
+them willains some good!" his placid blue eyes kindling, as if he would
+like to do a little of the shooting. "You take it?"
+
+"No," said the young man, firmly. "Such weapons are not for me."
+
+"Wery vell!" Carl buttoned his jacket over the revolver. "Then you come
+mit me, if you please. Get out of the vinder and run. That is pest, I
+suppose."
+
+"No, no, my lad. I may as well meet these men first as last."
+
+"Then I vill go and pring help!" suddenly exclaimed, the boy; and away
+he scampered across the fields, leaving the young man alone in the
+darkening school-room.
+
+It was not a very pleasant situation to be in, you may well believe. As
+he closed the sash, a faint odor of tar was wafted in on the evening
+breeze. The voices of the ruffians at the door grew louder and more
+menacing. He knew they were only waiting for the tar to heat, for the
+shadows of night to thicken, and for him to make his appearance. He
+returned to his desk, but it was now too dark to write. He could barely
+see to sign his name and superscribe the envelope. This done, he
+buttoned his straight-fitting brown coat, put on his modest hat, and
+stood pondering in his mind what he should do.
+
+A young man scarcely twenty years old, reared in the quiet atmosphere of
+a community of Friends, and as unaccustomed, hitherto, to scenes of
+strife and violence as the most innocent child,--such was Penn Hapgood,
+teacher of the "Academy" (as the school was proudly named) in
+Curryville. This was the first great trial of his faith and courage. He
+had not taken Carl's advice, and run, because he did not believe that he
+could escape the danger in that way. And as for fighting, that was not
+in his heart any more than it was in his creed. But to say he did not
+dread to meet his foes at the door, that he felt no fear, would be
+speaking falsely. He was afraid. His entire nature, delicate body and
+still more delicate soul, shrank from the ordeal. He went to the outer
+door, and laid his hand on the bolt, but could not, for a long time,
+summon resolution to open it.
+
+As he hesitated, there came a loud thump on one of the panels which
+nearly crushed it in, and filled the hollow building with ominous
+echoes.
+
+"Make ready in thar, you hound of a abolitionist!" shouted a brutal
+voice; "we're about ready fur ye!" Penn's hand drew back. I dare say it
+trembled, I dare say his face turned white again, as he felt the danger
+so near. How could he confront, with his sensitive spirit, those
+merciless, coarse men?
+
+"I'll wait a little," he thought within himself. "Perhaps Carl _will_
+bring help."
+
+There were good sturdy Unionists in the place, men who, unlike the
+Pennsylvania schoolmaster, believed in opposing evil with evil, force by
+force. Only last night, one of them entered this very school-room,
+bolted the door carefully, and sat down to unfold to the young master a
+scheme for resisting the plans of the secessionists. It was a league for
+circumventing treason; for keeping Tennessee in the Union; for
+preserving their homes and families from the horrors of the impending
+civil war. The conspirators had arms concealed; they met in secret
+places; they were watching for the hour to strike. Would the
+schoolmaster join them? Strange to say, they believed in him as a man
+who had abilities as a leader, "an undeveloped fighting man"--he, Penn
+Hapgood, the Quaker! Penn smiled, as he declined the farmer's offer of a
+commission in the secret militia, and refused to accept the weapon of
+self-defence which the same earnest Unionist had proffered him again,
+through Carl, the German boy, this night.
+
+Penn thought of these men now, and hoped that Carl would haste and bring
+them to the rescue. Then immediately he blushed at his own cowardly
+inconsistency; for something in his heart said that he ought not to wish
+others to do for him what he had conscientious scruples against doing
+for himself.
+
+"I'll go out!" he said, sternly, to his trembling heart.
+
+But he would first make a reconnoissance through the keyhole. He looked,
+and saw one ruffian stirring the fire under the tar kettle, another
+displaying a rope, and two others alternately drinking from a bottle. He
+started back, as the thundering on the panel was repeated, and the same
+voice roared out, "You kin be takin' off them clo'es of yourn; the tar
+is about het!"
+
+"I'll wait a few minutes longer for Carl!" said Penn to himself, with a
+long breath.
+
+Unfortunately, Carl was not just now in a situation to render much
+assistance.
+
+Although he had arrived unseen at the window, he did not retire
+undiscovered. He had run but a short distance when a gruff voice ordered
+him to stop. He had a way, however, of misunderstanding English when he
+chose, and interpreted the command to mean, run faster. Receiving it in
+that sense, he obeyed. Somebody behind him began to run too. In short,
+it was a chase; and Carl, glancing backwards, saw long-legged Silas
+Ropes, one of the ringleaders of the mob, taking appalling strides after
+him, across the open field.
+
+There were some woods about a quarter of a mile away, and Carl made for
+them, trusting to their shelter and the shades of night to favor his
+escape. He was fifteen years old, strong, and an excellent runner. He
+did not again look behind to see if Silas was gaining on him, but
+attended strictly to his own business, which was, to get into the
+thickets as soon as possible. His success seemed almost certain; a few
+rods more, and the undergrowth would be reached; and he was
+congratulating himself on having thus led away from the schoolmaster one
+of his most desperate enemies, when he rushed suddenly almost into the
+arms of two men,--or rather, into a feather-bed, which they were
+fetching by the corner of the wood lot.
+
+"Ketch that Dutchman!" roared Silas. And they "ketched" him.
+
+"What's the Dutchman done?" said one of the men, throwing himself lazily
+on the feather-bed, while his companion held Carl for his pursuer.
+
+"I don't know," said Carl, opening his eyes with placid wonder. "I
+tought he vas vanting to run a race mit me."
+
+"A race, you fool!" said Silas, seizing and shaking him. "Didn't you
+hear me tell ye to stop?"
+
+"Did you say _shtop_?" asked Carl, with a broad smile. "It ish wery
+queer! Ven it sounded so much as if you said _shtep_! so I _shtepped_
+just as fast as I could."
+
+"What was you thar at the winder fur?"
+
+"Vot vinder?" said Carl.
+
+"Of the Academy," said Silas.
+
+"O! to pe sure! I vas there," said Carl. "Pecause I left my books in
+there last week, and I vas going to get 'em. But I saw somebody in the
+house, and I vas afraid."
+
+"Wasn't it the schoolmaster?"
+
+"I shouldn't be wery much surprised if it vas the schoolmaster," said
+Carl, with blooming simplicity.
+
+"You lying rascal! what did you say to him through the winder?"
+
+Carl looked all around with an expression of mild wonder, as if
+expecting somebody else to answer.
+
+"Why don't you speak?" And Silas gave his arm a fierce wrench.
+
+"Vat did you say?"
+
+"I said, you lying rascal!----"
+
+"That is not my name," said Carl, "and I tought you vas shpeaking to
+somebody else. I tought you vas conwersing mit this man," pointing at
+the fellow on the bed.
+
+"Dan Pepperill!" said Silas, turning angrily on the recumbent figure,
+"what are you stretching your lazy bones thar fur? We're waiting fur
+them feathers, and you'll git a coat yourself, if you don't show a
+little more of the sperrit of a gentleman! You don't act as if your
+heart was in this yer act of dooty we're performin', any more'n as if
+you was a northern mudsill yourself!"
+
+"Wal, the truth is," said Dan Pepperill, reluctantly getting up from the
+bed, and preparing to shoulder it, "the schoolmaster has allus treated
+me well, and though I hate his principles,----"
+
+"You don't hate his principles, neither! You're more'n half a
+abolitionist yourself! And I swear to gosh," said Silas, "if you don't
+do your part now----"
+
+"I will! I'm a-going to!" said Dan, with something like a groan.
+"Though, as I said, he has allus used me well----"
+
+"Shet up!" Silas administered a kick, which Dan adroitly caught in the
+bed. Mr. Ropes got his foot embarrassed in the feathers, lost his
+balance, and fell. Dan, either by mistake or design, fell also, tumbling
+the bed in a smothering mass over the screaming mouth and coarse red
+nose of the prostrate Silas.
+
+The third man, who was guarding Carl, began to laugh. Carl laughed too,
+as if it was the greatest joke in the world; to enhance the fun of
+which, he gave his man a sudden push forwards, tripped him as he went,
+and so flung him headlong upon the struggling heap. This pleasant feat
+accomplished, he turned to run; but changed his mind almost instantly;
+and, instead of plunging into the undergrowth, threw himself upon the
+accumulating pile.
+
+There he scrambled, and kicked, with his heels in the air, and rolled
+over the topmost man, who rolled over Mr. Pepperill, who rolled over the
+feather-bed, which rolled again over Mr. Ropes, in a most lively and
+edifying manner.
+
+At this interesting juncture Carl's reason for changing his mind and
+remaining, became manifest. Two more of the chivalry from the tar kettle
+came rushing to the spot, and would speedily have seized him had he
+attempted to get off. So he staid, thinking he might be helping the
+master in this way as well as any other.
+
+And now the miscellaneous heap of legs and feathers began to resolve
+itself into its original elements. First Carl was pulled off by one of
+the new comers; then Dan and the man Carl had sent to comfort him fell
+to blows, clinched each other, and rolled upon the earth; and lastly,
+Mr. Silas Ropes arose, choked with passion and feathers, from under the
+rent and bursting bed. The two squabbling men were also quickly on their
+feet, Mr. Pepperill proving too much for his antagonist.
+
+"What did you pitch into me fur?" demanded Silas, threatening his friend
+Dan.
+
+"What did Gad pitch into me fur?" said the irate Dan, shaking his fist
+at Gad.
+
+"What did you push and jump on to me fur?" said Gad, clutching Carl, who
+was still laughing.
+
+Thus the wrath of the whole party was turned against the boy.
+
+"Pless me!" said he, staring innocently, "I tought it vas all for
+shport!"
+
+The furious Mr. Ropes was about to convince him, by some violent act, of
+his mistake, when cries from the direction of the school-house called
+his attention.
+
+"See what's there, boys!" said Silas.
+
+"Durn me," said Mr. Pepperill, looking across the field as he brushed
+the feathers from his clothes, "if it ain't the master himself!"
+
+In fact, Penn had by this time summoned courage to slip back the bolt,
+throw open the school-house door, and come out.
+
+The gentlemen who were heating the tar and drinking from the bottle were
+taken by surprise. They had not expected that the fellow would come out
+at all, but wait to be dragged out. Their natural conclusion was, that
+he was armed; for he appeared with as calm and determined a front as if
+he had been perfectly safe from injury himself, while it was in his
+power to do them some fatal mischief. They could not understand how the
+mere consciousness of his own uprightness, and a sense of reliance on
+the arm of eternal justice, could inspire a man with courage to face so
+many.
+
+"My friends," said Penn, as they beset him with threats and blasphemy,
+"I have never injured one of you, and you will not harm me."
+
+And as if some deity held an invisible shield above him, he passed by;
+and they, in their astonishment, durst not even lay their hands upon
+him.
+
+"I've hearn tell he was a Quaker, and wouldn't fight," muttered one;
+"but I see a revolver under his coat!"
+
+"Where's Sile? Where's Sile Ropes?" cried others, who, though themselves
+unwilling to assume the responsibility of seizing the young master,
+would have been glad to see Silas attempt it.
+
+Great was the joy of Carl when he saw Mr. Hapgood walking through the
+guard of ruffians untouched. But, a moment after, he uttered an
+involuntary groan of despair. It was Penn's custom to cross the fields
+in going from the Academy to the house where he boarded, and his path
+wound by the edge of the woods, where Silas and his accomplices were at
+this moment gathering up the spilt feathers.
+
+"All right!" said Mr. Ropes, crouching down in order to remain concealed
+from Penn's view. "This is as comf'table a place to do our dooty by him
+as any to be found. Keep dark, boys, and let him come!"
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+_PENN AND THE RUFFIANS_.
+
+
+Penn traversed the field, followed by the gang from the school-house. As
+he approached the woods, Silas and his friends rose up before him. He
+was thus surrounded.
+
+"Thought you'd come and meet us half way, did ye?" said Mr. Ropes,
+striding across his path. "Very accommodating in you, to be shore!" And
+he laughed a brutal laugh, which was echoed by all his friends except
+Dan.
+
+"I have not come to meet you," replied Penn, "but I am going about my
+own private business, and wish to pass on."
+
+"Wal, you can't pass on till we've settled a small account with you
+that's been standing a little too long a'ready. Bring that tar, some on
+ye! Come, Pepperill! show your sperrit!"
+
+This Pepperill was a ragged, lank, starved-looking man, whose appearance
+was on this occasion rendered ludicrous by the feathers sticking all
+over him, and by an expression of dejection which _would_ draw down the
+corners of his miserable mouth and roll up his piteous eyes,
+notwithstanding his efforts to appear, what Silas termed, "sperrited."
+
+"You, too, among my enemies, Daniel!" said Penn, reproachfully.
+
+It was a look of grief, not of anger, which he turned on the wretched
+man. Poor Pepperill could not stand it.
+
+"I own, I own," he stammered forth, a picture of mingled fear and
+contrition, "you've allus used me well, Mr. Hapgood,--but," he hastened
+to add, with a scared glance at Silas, "I hate your principles!"
+
+"Look here, Dan Pepperill!" remarked Mr. Ropes, with grim significance,
+"you better shet your yaup, and be a bringin' that ar kittle!"
+
+Dan groaned, and departed. Penn smiled bitterly. "I have always used him
+well; and this is the return I get!" He thought of another evening, but
+little more than a week since, when, passing by this very path, he heard
+a deeper groan than that which the wretch had just uttered. He turned
+aside into the edge of the woods, and there beheld an object to excite
+at once his laughter and compassion. What he saw was this.
+
+Dan Pepperill, astride a rail; his hands tied together above it, and his
+feet similarly bound beneath. The rail had been taken from a fence a
+mile away, and he had been carried all that distance on the shoulders of
+some of these very men. They had taken turns with him, and when, tired
+at last, had placed the rail in the crotches of two convenient saplings,
+and there left him. The crotch in front was considerably higher than
+that behind, which circumstance gave him the appearance of clinging to
+the back of an animal in the act of rearing frightfully, and exposed a
+delicate part of his apparel that had been sadly rent by contact with
+splinters. And there the wretch was clinging and groaning when Penn came
+up.
+
+"For the love of the Lord!" said Dan, "take me down!"
+
+"Why, what is the matter? How came you here?"
+
+"I'm a dead man; that's the matter! I've been wipped to death, and then
+rode on a rail; that's the way I come here!"
+
+"Whipped! what for?" said Penn, losing no time in cutting the sufferer's
+bonds.
+
+"Ye see," said Dan, when taken down and laid upon the ground, "the
+patrolmen found Combs's boy Pete out t'other night without a pass, and
+took him and tied him to a tree, and licked him."
+
+The "boy Pete" was a negro man upwards of fifty years old, owned by the
+said Combs.
+
+"Wal, ye see, jest cause I found him, and took him home with me, and
+washed his back fur him, and bound cotton on to it, and kep' him over
+night, and gin him a good breakfast, and a drink o' suthin' strong in
+the morning, and then went home with him, and talked with his master
+so'st he wouldn't git another licking,--just for that, Sile Ropes and
+his gang took me and served me wus'n ever they served him!" And the
+broken-spirited man cried like a child at the recollection of his
+injuries.
+
+He was one of the "white trash" of the south, whom even the negroes
+belonging to good families look down upon; a weak, degraded,
+kind-hearted man, whose offence was not simply that he had shown mercy
+to the "boy Pete," after his flogging, but that he associated on
+familiar terms with such negroes as were not too proud to cultivate his
+acquaintance, and secretly sold them whiskey. After repeated warnings,
+he had been flogged, and treated to a ride on a three-cornered rail, and
+hung up to reflect upon his ungentlemanly conduct and its sad
+consequences.
+
+At sight of him, Penn, who knew nothing of his selling whiskey to the
+blacks, or of any other offence against the laws or prejudices of the
+community, than that of befriending a beaten and bleeding slave, felt
+his indignation roused and his sympathies excited.
+
+"It's a dreadful state of society in which such outrages are tolerated!"
+he exclaimed.
+
+"_I_ say, dreadful!" sobbed Mr. Pepperill.
+
+"The good Samaritan himself would be in danger of a beating here!" said
+Penn.
+
+"I don't know what good smart 'un you mean," replied the weeping Dan,
+whose knowledge of Scripture was extremely limited, "but I bet he'd git
+some, ef he didn't keep his eyes peeled!" And he wiped his nose with his
+sleeve.
+
+Penn smiled at the man's ignorance, and said, as he lifted him up,--
+
+"Friend Daniel, do you know that it is partly your own fault that this
+deplorable state of things exists?"
+
+"How's it my fault, I'd like to know?" whimpered Daniel.
+
+"Come, I'll help thee home, and tell thee what I mean, by the way," said
+Penn, using the idiom of his sect, into which familiar manner of speech
+he naturally fell when talking confidentially with any one.
+
+"I am stiff as any old spavined hoss!" whined the poor fellow,
+straightening his legs, and attempting to walk.
+
+Penn helped him home as he promised, and comforted him, and said to him
+many things, which he little supposed were destined to be brought
+against him so soon, and by this very Daniel Pepperill.
+
+This was the way of it. When it was known that Penn had befriended the
+friend of the blacks, Silas Ropes paid Dan a second visit, and by
+threats of vengeance, on the one hand, and promises of forgiveness and
+treatment "like a gentleman," on the other, extorted from him a
+confession of all Penn had said and done.
+
+"Now, Dan," said Mr. Ropes, patronizingly, "I'll tell ye what you do.
+You jine with us, and show yourself a man of sperrit, a payin' off this
+yer abolitionist for his outrageous interference in our affairs."
+
+"Sile," interrupted Dan, earnestly, "what 'ge mean I'm to do? Turn agin'
+him?"
+
+"Exactly," replied Mr. Ropes.
+
+"Sile," said Dan, excitedly, "I be durned if I do!"
+
+"Then, I swear to gosh!" said Sile, spitting a great stream of tobacco
+juice across Mrs. Pepperill's not very clean floor, "you'll have a dose
+yourself before another sun, which like as not'll be your last!"
+
+This terrible menace produced its desired effect; and the unwilling Dan
+was here, this night, one of Penn's persecutors, in consequence.
+
+It was not enough that he had shown his "sperrit" by fetching the
+victim's own bed from his boarding-house, telling his landlady, the
+worthy Mrs. Sprowl, that Sile said she must "charge it to her abolition
+boarder." He must now show still more "sperrit" by bringing the tar. A
+well-worn broom had been borrowed of Mrs. Pepperill, by those who knew
+best how the tar in such cases should be applied: the handle of this was
+thrust by one of the men, named Griffin, through the bail of the kettle,
+and Dan was ordered to "ketch holt o' t'other eend," and help carry.
+
+Dan "ketched holt" accordingly. But never was kettle so heavy as that;
+its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly the
+broom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt his
+laudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for his
+benefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether.
+But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and the
+next instant flourished the club over Dan's head.
+
+"I didn't mean tu! it slipped!" shrieked the terrified wretch. After
+which he durst no more attempt to thwart the chivalrous designs of his
+friends, but carried the tar like a gentleman.
+
+"This way!" said Silas, getting the escaped feathers into a pile with
+his foot. "Thar! set it down. Now, sir," throwing away his own coat,
+"peel off them clo'es o' yourn, Mr. Schoolmaster, mighty quick, if you
+don't want 'em peeled off fur ye!"
+
+Penn gave no sign of compliance, but fixed his eye steadfastly upon Mr.
+Ropes.
+
+"I insist," said he,--for he had already made the request while the men
+were bringing the tar,--"on knowing what I have done to merit this
+treatment."
+
+"Wal, that I don't mind tellin' ye," said Silas, "for we've all night
+for this yer little job before us. Dan Pepperill, stand up here!"
+
+Dan came forward, appearing extremely low-spirited and weak in the
+knees.
+
+"Is it you, Daniel, who are to bear witness against me?" said Penn, in a
+voice of singular gentleness, which chimed in like a sweet and solemn
+bell after the harsh clangor of Silas's ruffian tones.
+
+Dan rolled up his eyes, hugged his tattered elbows, and gave a dismal
+groan.
+
+"Come!" said Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knocked
+him down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turned
+from the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart is
+a-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country.
+Ain't it, Dan?--say yes," he hissed in his ear, giving him a second
+slap, "or else--you know!"
+
+"O Lord, yes!" ejaculated Dan, with a start of terror. "What Mr. Ropes
+says is perfectly--perfectly--jes' so!"
+
+"Your heart is a-burnin', ain't it?" said Silas.
+
+"Ye--yes! I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.
+
+"This man," continued Ropes, who prided himself on being a great orator,
+with power to "fire the southern heart," and never neglected an occasion
+to show himself off in that capacity,--"this individgle ye see afore ye,
+gentlemen,"--once more hitting Dan, this time with the toe of his boot,
+gently, to indicate the subject of his remarks,--"was lately as
+low-minded a peep as ever you see. He had no more conscience than to
+'sociate with niggers, and sell 'em liquor, and even give 'em liquor
+when they couldn't pay fur't; and you all know how he degraded himself
+by takin' Combs's Pete into his house and doin' for him arter he'd been
+very properly licked by the patrol. All which, I am happy to say, the
+deluded man sincerely repents of, and promises to behave more like a
+gentleman in futur'. Don't you, Dan?"
+
+As Dan, attempting to speak, only gasped, Ropes administered a sharp
+poke in his ribs, whispering fiercely,--
+
+"Say you do, mighty quick, or I'll----!"
+
+"O! I repents! I--I be durned if I don't!" said Dan.
+
+"And now, as to you!" Silas turned on the schoolmaster. "Your offence in
+gineral is bein' a northern abolitionist. Besides which, your offences
+in partic'ler is these. Not contented with teachin' the Academy, which
+was well enough, since it is necessary that a few should have larnin',
+so the may know how to govern the rest,--not contented with that, you
+must run the thing into the ground, by settin' up a evenin' school, and
+offerin' to larn readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, free gratis, to
+whosomever wanted to 'tend. Which is contrary to the sperrit of our
+institootions, as you have been warned more 'n oncet. That's charge
+Number Two. Charge Number Three is, that you stand up for the old rotten
+Union, and tell folks, every chance you git, that secession, that noble
+right of southerners, is a villanous scheme, that'll ruin the south, if
+persisted in, and plunge the whole nation into war. Your very words, I
+believe. Can you deny it?"
+
+"Certainly, I have said something very much like that, and it is my
+honest conviction," replied Penn, firmly.
+
+"Gentlemen, take notice!" said Mr. Ropes. "We will now pass on to charge
+Number Four, and be brief, for the tar is a-coolin'. Suthin' like eight
+days ago, when the afore-mentioned Dan Pepperill was in the waller of
+his degradation, some noble-souled sons of the sunny south"--the orator
+smiled with pleasant significance--"lifted him up, and hung him up to
+air, in the crotches of two trees, jest by the edge of the woods here,
+and went home to supper, intending to come back and finish the purifying
+process begun with him later in the evenin'. But what did you do, Mr.
+Schoolmaster, but come along and take him down, prematoorely, and go to
+corruptin' him agin with your vile northern principles! Didn't he, Dan?"
+
+"I--I dun know" faltered Dan.
+
+"Yes, you do know, too! Didn't he corrupt you?"
+
+These words being accompanied by a severe hint from Sile's boot, Mr.
+Pepperill remembered that Penn _did_ corrupt him.
+
+"And if I hadn't took ye in season, you'd have returned to your
+base-born mire, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I suppose I would," the miserable Dan admitted.
+
+"Wal! now!"--Sile spread his palm over the tar to see if it retained its
+temperature,--"hurry up, Dan, and tell us all this northern agitator
+said to you that night."
+
+"O Lord!" groaned Pepperill, "my memory is so short!"
+
+"Bring that rope, boys! and give him suthin' to stretch it!" said Silas,
+growing impatient.
+
+Dan, knowing that stretching his memory in the manner threatened,
+implied that his neck was to be stretched along with it, made haste to
+remember.
+
+"My friends," said Penn, interrupting the poor man's forced and
+disconnected testimony, "let me spare him the pain of bearing witness
+against me. I recall perfectly well every thing I said to him that
+night. I said it was a shame that such outrages as had been committed on
+him should be tolerated in a civilized society. I told him it was partly
+his own fault that such a state of things existed. I said, 'It is owing
+to the ignorance and degradation of you poor whites that a barbarous
+system is allowed to flourish and tyrannize over you.' I said----"
+
+But here Penn was interrupted by a violent outcry, the majority of the
+persons present coming under the head of "poor whites."
+
+"Let him go on! let him perceed!" said Silas. "What did you mean by
+'barbarous system'?"
+
+"I meant," replied Penn, all fear vanishing in the glow of righteous
+indignation which filled him,--"I meant the system which makes it a
+crime to teach a man to read--a punishable offence to befriend the poor
+and down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes it
+dangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to a
+person towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy which
+others have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system----"
+
+"Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You've
+said more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of a
+mild coat of tar and feathers."
+
+"I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands;
+so I thought I might as well be plain with you."
+
+"And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys,
+strip him!"
+
+"Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which they
+mistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I have
+said has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow me
+to speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crime
+against your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?"
+
+"We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the man
+called Gad.
+
+"You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another.
+
+"If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; I
+cannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have never
+interfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, or
+injurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but,
+whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient and
+faithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, a
+simple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harm
+to no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites.
+How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Not
+many, I am sure."
+
+"What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?"
+interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, what
+good would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sech
+low, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at the
+north."
+
+"The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alone
+makes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, had
+the common school education of the north, you would not be engaged in
+such business; you would be ashamed of assaulting a peaceable man on
+account of his opinions; you would know that the man who comes to teach
+you is your best friend. If you were not ignorant men, you, who do not
+own slaves, would know that slavery is the worst enemy of your
+prosperity, and you would not be made its willing tools."
+
+The firm dignity of the youth, assisted by the illusion that prevailed
+concerning a revolver in his pocket, had kept his foes at bay, and
+gained him a hearing. He now attempted to pass on, when the man Gad,
+stepping behind him, raised the broom-handle, and dealt him a stunning
+blow on the back of the head.
+
+"Down with him!" "Strip him!" "Give him a thrashing first!" "Hang him!"
+
+And the ruffians threw themselves furiously upon the fallen man.
+
+"Whar's that Dutch boy?" cried Silas. "I meant he should help Dan lay on
+the tar."
+
+But Carl was nowhere to be seen, having taken advantage of the confusion
+and darkness to escape into the woods.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+_THE SECRET CELLAR._
+
+
+No sooner did the lad feel himself safe from pursuit, than he made his
+way out of the woods again, and ran with all speed to Mr. Stackridge's
+house.
+
+To his dismay he learned that that stanch Unionist was absent from home.
+
+"Is he in the willage?" said the breathless Carl.
+
+"I reckon he is," said the farmer's wife; adding in a whisper,--for she
+guessed the nature of Carl's business,--"inquire for him down to barber
+Jim's." And she told him what to say to the barber.
+
+Barber Jim was a colored man, who had demonstrated the ability of the
+African to take care of himself, by purchasing first his own freedom of
+his mistress, buying his wife and children afterwards, and then
+accumulating a property as much more valuable than all Silas Ropes and
+his poor white minions possessed, as his mind was superior to their
+combined intelligence.
+
+Jim had accomplished this by uniting with industrious habits a natural
+shrewdness, which enabled him to make the most of his labor and of his
+means. He owned the most flourishing barber-shop in the place, and kept
+in connection with it (I am sorry to say) a bar, at which he dealt out
+to his customers some very bad liquors at very good prices. Had Jim been
+a white man, he would not, of course, have stooped to make money by any
+such low business as rum-selling--O, no! but being only a "nigger," what
+else could you expect of him?
+
+Well, on this very evening Jim's place began to be thronged almost
+before it was dark. A few came in to be shaved, while many more passed
+through the shop into the little bar-room beyond. What was curious, some
+went in who appeared never to come out again; Mr. Stackridge among the
+number.
+
+It was not to get shaved, nor yet to get tipsy, that this man visited
+Jim's premises. The moment they were alone together in the bar-room, he
+gave the proprietor a knowing wink.
+
+"Many there?"
+
+"I reckon about a dozen," said Jim. "Go in?" Stackridge nodded; and with
+a grin Jim opened a private door communicating with some back stairs,
+down which his visitor went groping his way in the dark.
+
+Customers came and went; now and then one disappeared similarly down the
+back stairs; many remained in the barber's shop to smoke, and discuss in
+loud tones the exciting question of the day--secession; when, lastly, a
+boy of fifteen came rushing in. His face was flushed with running, and
+he was quite out of breath.
+
+"What's wanting, Carl?" said the barber. "A shave?"
+
+This was one of Jim's jokes, at which his customers laughed, to the
+boy's confusion, for his cheeks were as smooth as a peach.
+
+"I vants to find Mishter Stackridge," said the lad.
+
+"He ain't here," said Jim, looking around the room.
+
+"It is something wery partic'lar. One of his pigs have got choked mit a
+cob, and he must go home and unchoke him."
+
+This was what Carl had been directed by the farmer's wife to say to the
+barber, in case he should profess ignorance concerning her husband.
+
+"Pity about the pig," said Jim. "Mabby Stackridge'll be in bime-by. Any
+thing else I can do for ye?"
+
+Carl stepped up to the barber, and said in a hoarse whisper, loud enough
+to be heard by every body,--
+
+"A mug of peer, if you pleashe."
+
+"I got some that'll make a Dutchman's head hum!" said Jim, leading the
+way into the little grog room.
+
+"That's Villars's Dutch boy," said one of the smokers in the
+barber-shop. "Beats all nater, how these Dutch will swill down any thing
+in the shape of beer!"
+
+This elegant observation may have had a grain of truth in it, as we who
+have Teutonic friends may have reason to know. However, the man had
+mistaken the boy this time.
+
+"It is not the peer I vants, it is Mr. Stackridge," whispered Carl, when
+alone with the proprietor.
+
+Jim regarded him doubtfully a moment, then said, "I reckon I shall have
+to open a cask in the suller. You jest tend bar for me while I am gone."
+
+He descended the stairs, closing the door after him. Carl, who thought
+of the schoolmaster in the hands of the mob, felt his heart swell and
+burn with anxiety at each moment's delay. Jim did not keep him long
+waiting.
+
+"This way, Carl, if you want some of the right sort," said the negro
+from the stairs.
+
+Carl went down in the darkness, Jim taking his hand to guide him. They
+entered a cellar, crowded with casks and boxes, where there was a dim
+lamp burning; but no human being was visible, until suddenly out of a
+low, dark passage, between some barrels, a stooping figure emerged,
+giving Carl a momentary start of alarm.
+
+"What's the trouble, Carl?"
+
+"O! Mishter Stackridge! is it you?" said Carl, as the figure stood erect
+in the dim light,--sallow, bony, grim, attired in coarse clothes. "The
+schoolmaster--that is the trouble!" and he hastily related what he had
+seen.
+
+"Wouldn't take the pistol? the fool!" muttered the farmer. "But I'll see
+what I can do for him." He grasped the boy's collar, and said in a
+suppressed but terribly earnest voice, "Swear never to breathe a word of
+what I'm going to show you!"
+
+"I shwear!" said Carl.
+
+"Come!"
+
+Stackridge took him by the wrist, and drew him after him into the
+passage. It was utterly dark, and Carl had to stoop in order to avoid
+hitting his head. As they approached the end of it, he could distinguish
+the sound of voices,--one louder than the rest giving the word of
+command.
+
+"_Order--arms!_"
+
+The farmer knocked on the head of a cask, which rolled aside, and opened
+the way into a cellar beyond, under an old storehouse, which was
+likewise a part of Barber Jim's property.
+
+The second cellar was much larger and better lighted than the first, and
+rendered picturesque by heavy festoons of cobwebs hanging from the dark
+beams above. The rays of the lamps flashed upon gun-barrels, and cast
+against the damp and mouldy walls gigantic shadows of groups of men.
+Some were conversing, others were practising the soldiers' drill.
+
+"Neighbors!" said Stackridge, in a voice which commanded instant
+attention, and drew around him and Carl an eager group. "It's just as I
+told you,--Ropes and his gang are lynching Hapgood!"
+
+"It's the fellow's own fault," said a stern, dark man, the same who had
+been drilling the men. "He should have taken care of himself."
+
+"Young Hapgood's a decent sort of cuss," said another whom Carl knew,--a
+farmer named Withers,--"and I like him. I believe he means well; but he
+ain't one of us."
+
+"I've been deceived in him," said a third. "He always minded his own
+business, and kept so quiet about our institutions, I never suspected he
+was anti-slavery till I talked with him t'other day about joining
+us--then he out with it."
+
+"He thinks we're all wrong," said a bigoted pro-slavery man named
+Deslow. "He says slavery's the cause of the war, and it's absurd in us
+to go in for the Union and slavery too!" For these men, though loyal to
+the government, and bitterly opposed to secession, were nearly all
+slaveholders or believers in slavery.
+
+"May be the fellow ain't far wrong there," said he who had been drilling
+his comrades. "I think myself slavery's the cause of the war, and that's
+what puts us in such a hard place. The time may come when we will have
+to take a different stand--go the whole figure with the free north, or
+drift with the cotton states. But that time hain't come yet."
+
+"But the time _has_ come," said Stackridge, impatiently, "to do
+something for Hapgood, if we intend to help him at all. While we are
+talking, he may be hanging."
+
+"And what can we do?" retorted the other. "We can't make a move for him
+without showing our hand, and it ain't time for that yet."
+
+"True enough, Captain Grudd," said Stackridge. "But three or four of us,
+with our revolvers, can happen that way, and take him out of the hands
+of Ropes and his cowardly crew without much difficulty. I, for one, am
+going."
+
+"Hapgood don't even believe in fighting!" observed Deslow, with immense
+disgust; "and blast me if I am going to fight _for_ him!"
+
+Carl was almost driven to despair by the indifference of these men and
+the time wasted in discussion. He could have hugged the grim and bony
+Stackridge when he saw him make a decided move at last. Three others
+volunteered to accompany them. The cask was once more rolled away from
+the entrance, and one by one they crept quickly through the passage into
+the first cellar.
+
+Stackridge preceded the rest, to see that the way was clear. There was
+no one at the bar; the door leading into the shop was closed; and Carl,
+following the four men, passed out by a long entry communicating with
+the street, the door of which was thrown open to the public on occasions
+when there was a great rush to Jim's bar, but which was fastened this
+night by a latch that could be lifted only from the inside.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+_A SEARCH FOR THE MISSING._
+
+
+The academy was situated in a retired spot, half a mile out of the
+village. Stackridge and his party were soon pushing rapidly towards it
+along the dark, unfrequented road. Carl ran on before, leading the way
+to the scene of the lynching.
+
+The place was deserted and silent. Only the cold wind swept the bleak
+wood-side, making melancholy moans among the trees. Overhead shone the
+stars, lighting dimly the desolation of the ground.
+
+"Now, where's yer tar-and-feathering party?" said Stackridge. "See here,
+Dutchy! ye hain't been foolin' us, have ye?"
+
+"I vish it vas notting but fooling!" said Carl, full of distress,
+fearing the worst. "We have come too late. The willains have took him
+off."
+
+"Feathers, men!" muttered Stackridge, picking up something from beneath
+his feet. "The boy's right! Now, which way have they gone?--that's the
+question."
+
+"Hark!" said Carl. "I see a man!"
+
+Indeed, just then a dim figure arose from the earth, and appeared slowly
+and painfully moving away.
+
+"Hold on there!" cried Stackridge. "Needn't be afeared of us. We're your
+friends."
+
+The figure stopped, uttering a deep groan.
+
+"Is it you, Hapgood?"
+
+"No," answered the most miserable voice in the world. "It's me."
+
+"Who's _me_?"
+
+"Pepperill--Dan Pepperill; ye know me, don't ye, Stackridge?"
+
+"You? you scoundrel!" said the farmer. "What have ye been doing to the
+schoolmaster? Answer me this minute, or I'll----"
+
+"O, don't, don't!" implored the wretch. "I'll answer, I'll tell every
+thing, only give me a chance!"
+
+"Be quick, then, and tell no lies!"
+
+The poor man looked around at his captors in the starlight, stooping
+dejectedly, and rubbing his bent knees.
+
+"I ain't to blame--I'll tell ye that to begin with. I've been jest
+knocked about, from post to pillar, and from pillar to post, till I
+don't know who's my friends and who ain't. I reckon more ain't than is!"
+added he, dismally.
+
+"That's neither here nor there!" said Stackridge. "Where's Hapgood?
+that's what I want to know."
+
+"Ye see," said Dan, endeavoring to collect his wits (you would have
+thought they were in his kneepans, and he was industriously rubbing them
+up), "Ropes sent me to tote the kittle home, and when I got back here, I
+be durned if they wasn't all gone, schoolmaster and all."
+
+"But what had they done to him?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm shore! That's what I was a comin' back fur to see. He
+let me down when I was hung up on the rail, and helped me home; and so I
+says to myself, says I, 'Why shouldn't I do as much by him?' so I come
+back, and found him gone."
+
+"What was in the kittle?" Stackridge took him by the throat.
+
+"O, don't go fur to layin' it to me, and I'll tell ye! Thar'd been tar
+in the kittle! It had been used to give him a coat. That's the fact,
+durn me if it ain't! They put it on with the broom--my broom--they made
+me bring my own broom, that's the everlastin' truth! made me do it
+myself, and spile my wife's best broom into the bargain!" And Pepperill
+sobbed.
+
+"You put on the tar?"
+
+"Don't kill me, and I'll own up! I did put on some on't, that's a fact.
+Ropes would a' killed me if I hadn't, and now you kill me fur doin' of
+it. He did knock me down, 'cause he said I didn't rub it on hard enough;
+and arter that he rubbed it himself."
+
+"What next, you scoundrel?"
+
+"Next, they rolled him in the feathers, and sent me, as I told ye, to
+tote the kittle home. Now don't, don't go fur to hang me, Mr.
+Stackridge! Help me, men! help me, Withers,--Devit! For he means to be
+the death of me, I'm shore!"
+
+Indeed, Stackridge was in a tremendous passion, and would, no doubt,
+have done the man some serious injury but for the timely interposition
+of Carl.
+
+"O, you're a good boy, Carl!" cried Dan, in an exstasy of terror and
+gratitude. "You know they druv me to it, don't ye? You know I wouldn't
+have gone fur to do it no how, if 't hadn't been to save my life. And as
+fur rubbing on the tar, I know'd they'd rub harder 'n I did; so I took
+holt, if only to do it more soft and gentle-like."
+
+Carl testified to Dan's apparent unwillingness to participate in the
+outrage; and Stackridge, finding that nothing more could be got out of
+the terror-stricken wretch, flung him off in great rage and disgust.
+
+"We must find what they have done with Hapgood," he said. "We're losing
+time here. We'll go to his boarding-place first."
+
+As Pepperill fell backwards upon some stones, and lay there helplessly,
+Carl ran to him to learn if he was hurt.
+
+"Wal, I be hurt some," murmured Dan; "a good deal in my back, and a
+durned sight more in my feelin's. As if I wan't sufferin' a'ready the
+pangs of death--wus'n death!--a thinkin' about the master, and what's
+been done to him, arter he'd been so kind to me--and thinkin' he'd think
+I'm the ongratefulest cuss out of the bad place!--and then to have it
+all laid on to me by Stackridge and the rest! that's the stun that hurts
+me wust of any!"
+
+Carl thought, if that was all, he could not assist him much; and he ran
+on after the men, leaving Pepperill snivelling like a whipped schoolboy
+on the stones.
+
+Penn's landlady, the worthy Mrs. Sprowl, lived in a lonesome house that
+stood far back in the fields, at least a dozen rods from the road. She
+was a widow, whose daughters were either married or dead, and whose only
+son was a rover, having been guilty of some crime that rendered it
+unsafe for him to visit his bereaved parent. Penn had chosen her house
+for his home, partly because she needed some such assistance in gaining
+a living, but chiefly, I think, because she did not own slaves. The
+other inmates of her solitary abode were two large, ferocious dogs,
+which she kept for the sake of their company and protection.
+
+But this night the house looked as if forsaken even by these. It was
+utterly dark and silent. When Stackridge shook the door, however, the
+illusion was dispelled by two fierce growls that resounded within.
+
+"Hello! Mrs. Sprowl!" shouted the farmer, shaking the door again, and
+knocking violently. "Let me in!"
+
+At that the growling broke into savage barks, which made Stackridge lay
+his hand on the revolver Carl had returned to him. A window was then
+cautiously opened, and a bit of night-cap exposed.
+
+"If it's you agin," said a shrill feminine voice, "I warn you to be
+gone! If you think I can't set the dogs on to you, because you've slep'
+in my house so long, you're very much mistaken. They'll tear you as they
+would a pa'tridge! Go away, go away, I tell ye; you've been the ruin of
+me, and I ain't a-going to resk my life a-harboring of you any longer."
+
+"Mrs. Sprowl!" answered the stern voice of the farmer.
+
+"Dear me! ain't it the schoolmaster?" cried the astonished lady. "I
+thought it was him come back agin to force his way into my house, after
+I've twice forbid him!"
+
+"Why forbid him?"
+
+"Is it you, Mr. Stackridge? Then I'll be free, and tell ye. I've been
+informed he's a dangerous man. I've been warned to shet my doors agin'
+him, if I wouldn't have my house pulled down on to my head."
+
+"Who warned you?"
+
+"Silas Ropes, this very night. He come to me, and says, says he, 'We've
+gin your abolition boarder a coat, which you must charge to his
+account;' for you see," added the head at the window, pathetically,
+"they took the bed he has slep' on, right out of my house, and I don't
+s'pose I shall see ary feather of that bed ever agin! live goose's
+feathers they was too! and a poor lone widder that could ill afford it!"
+
+"Where is the master?"
+
+"Wal, after Ropes and his friends was gone, he comes too, an awful
+lookin' object as ever you see! 'Mrs. Sprowl,' says he, 'don't be
+scared; it's only me; won't ye let me in?' for ye see, I'd shet the
+house agin' him in season, detarmined so dangerous a character should
+never darken my doors agin."
+
+"And he was naked!"
+
+"I 'spose he was, all but the feathers, and suthin' or other he seemed
+to have flung over him."
+
+"Such a night as this!" exclaimed Stackridge. "You're a heartless jade,
+Mrs. Sprowl!--I don't wonder the fellow hates slavery," he muttered to
+himself, "when it makes ruffians of the men and monsters even of the
+women!--Which way did he go?"
+
+"That's more'n I can tell!" answered the lady, sharply. "It's none o' my
+business where he goes, if he don't come here! That I won't have, call
+me what names you please!" And she shut the window.
+
+"Hang the critter! after all Hapgood has done for her!" said the
+indignant Stackridge,--for it was well-known that she was indebted to
+the gentle and generous Penn for many benefits. "But it's no use to
+stand here. We'll go to my house, men,--may be he's there."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+_CARL AND HIS FRIENDS._
+
+
+Carl Minnevich was the son of a German, who, in company with a brother,
+had come to America a few years before, and settled in Tennessee. There
+the Minneviches purchased a farm, and were beginning to prosper in their
+new home, when Carl's father suddenly died. The boy had lost his mother
+on the voyage to America. He was now an orphan, destined to experience
+all the humiliation, dependence, and wrong, which ever an orphan knew.
+
+Immediately the sole proprietorship of the farm, which had been bought
+by both, was assumed by the surviving brother. This man had a selfish,
+ill-tempered wife, and a family of great boys. Minnevich himself was
+naturally a good, honest man; but Frau Minnevich wanted the entire
+property for her own children, hated Carl because he was in the way, and
+treated him with cruelty. His big cousins followed their mother's
+example, and bullied him. How to obtain protection or redress he knew
+not. He was a stranger, speaking a strange tongue, in the land of his
+father's adoption. Ah, how often then did he think of the happy
+fatherland, before that luckless voyage was undertaken, when he still
+had his mother, and his friends, and all his little playfellows, whom he
+could never see more!
+
+So matters went on for a year or two, until the boy's grievances grew
+intolerable, and he one day took it into his head to please Frau
+Minnevich for once in his life, if never again. In the night time he
+made up a little bundle of his clothes, threw it out of the window, got
+out himself after it, climbed down upon the roof of the shed, jumped to
+the ground, and trudged away in the early morning starlight, a wanderer.
+It has been necessary to touch upon this point in Carl's history, in
+order to explain why it was he ever afterwards felt such deep gratitude
+towards those who befriended him in the hour of his need.
+
+For many days and nights he wandered among the hills of Tennessee,
+looking in vain for work, and begging his bread. Sometimes he almost
+wished himself a slave-boy, for then he would have had a home at least,
+if only a wretched cabin, and friends, if only negroes,--those
+oppressed, beaten, bought-and-sold, yet patient and cheerful people,
+whose lot seemed, after all, so much happier than his own. Carl had a
+large, warm heart, and he longed with infinite longing for somebody to
+love him and treat him kindly.
+
+At last, as he was sitting one cold evening by the road-side, weary,
+hungry, despondent, not knowing where he was to find his supper, and
+seeing nothing else for him to do but to lie down under some bush, there
+to shiver and starve till morning, a voice of unwonted kindness accosted
+him.
+
+"My poor boy, you seem to be in trouble; can I help you?"
+
+Poor Carl burst into tears. It was the voice of Penn Hapgood; and in its
+tones were sympathy, comfort, hope. Penn took him by the arm, and lifted
+him up, and carried his bundle for him, talking to him all the time so
+like a gentle and loving brother, that Carl said in the depths of his
+soul that he would some day repay him, if he lived; and he prayed God
+secretly that he might live, and be able some day to repay him for those
+sweet and gracious words.
+
+Penn never quitted him until he had found him a home; neither after that
+did he forget him. He took him into his school, gave him his tuition,
+and befriended him in a hundred little ways beside.
+
+And now the time had arrived when Penn himself stood in need of friends.
+The evening came, and Carl was missing from his new home.
+
+"Whar's dat ar boy took hisself to, I'd like to know!" scolded old Toby.
+"I'll clar away de table, and he'll lose his supper, if he stays anoder
+minute! Debil take me, if I don't!"
+
+He had made the same threat a dozen times, and still he kept Carl's
+potatoes hot for him, and the table waiting. For the old negro, though
+he loved dearly to show his importance by making a good deal of bluster
+about his work, had really one of the kindest hearts in the world, and
+was as devoted to the boy he scolded as any indulgent old grandmother.
+
+"The 'debil' will take you, sure enough, I'm afraid, Toby, if you appeal
+to him so often," said a mildly reproving voice.
+
+It was Mr. Villars, the old worn-out clergyman; a man of seventy
+winters, pale, white-haired, blind, feeble of body, yet strong and
+serene of soul. He came softly, groping his way into the kitchen, in
+order to put his feet to Toby's fire.
+
+"Laws, massa," said old Toby, grinning, "debil knows I ain't in 'arnest!
+he knows better'n to take me at my word, for I speaks his name widout no
+kind o' respec', allus, I does. Hyar's yer ol' easy char fur ye, Mass'
+Villars. Now you jes' make yerself comf'table." And he cleared a place
+on the stove-hearth for the old man's feet.
+
+"Thank you, Toby." With his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, his
+hands folded thoughtfully before his breast, and his beautiful old face
+smiling the kindness which his blind eyes could not _look_, Mr. Villars
+sat by the fire. "Where is Carl to-night, Toby?"
+
+"Dat ar's de question; dat's de pint, massa. Mos' I can say is, he ain't
+whar he ought to be, a eatin' ob his supper. Chocolate's all a bilin'
+away to nuffin! ketch dis chile tryin' to keep tings hot for his supper
+anoder time!" And Toby added, in a whisper expressive of great
+astonishment at himself, "What I eber took dat ar boy to keep fur's one
+ob de mysteries!"
+
+For Toby, though only a servant (indeed, he had formerly been a slave in
+the family), had had his own way so long in every thing that concerned
+the management of the household, that he had come to believe himself the
+proprietor, not only of the house and land, and poultry and pigs, but of
+the family itself. He owned "ol' Mass Villars," and an exceedingly
+precious piece of property he considered him, especially since he had
+become blind. He was likewise (in his own exalted imagination) sole
+inheritor and guardian-in-chief of "Miss Jinny," Mr. Villars's youngest
+daughter, child of his old age, of whom Mrs. Villars said, on her
+death-bed, "Take always good care of my darling, dear Toby!"--an
+injunction which the negro regarded as a sort of last will and testament
+bequeathing the girl to him beyond mortal question.
+
+There was, in fact, but one member of the household he did not
+exclusively claim. This was the married daughter, Salina, whose life had
+been embittered by a truant husband,--no other, in fact, than the erring
+son of the worthy Mrs. Sprowl. The day when the infatuated girl made a
+marriage so much beneath the family dignity, Toby, in great grief and
+indignation, gave her up. "I washes my hands ob her! she ain't no more a
+chile ob mine!" said the old servant, passionately weeping, as if the
+washing of his hands was to be literal, and no other fluid would serve
+his dark purpose but tears. And when, after Sprowl's desertion of her,
+she returned, humiliated and disgraced, to her father's house,--that is
+to say, Toby's house,--Toby had compassion on her, and took her in, but
+never set up any claim to her again.
+
+"Where is Carl? Hasn't Carl come yet?" asked a sweet but very anxious
+voice. And Virginia, the youngest daughter, stood in the kitchen door.
+
+"He hain't come yet, Miss Jinny; dat ar a fact!" said Toby. "'Pears like
+somefin's hap'en'd to dat ar boy. I neber knowed him stay out so, when
+dar's any eatin' gwine on,--for he's a master hand for his supper, dat
+boy ar! Laws, I hain't forgot how he laid in de vittles de fust night
+Massa Penn fetched him hyar! He was right hungry, he was, and he took
+holt powerful! 'I neber can keep dat ar boy in de world,' says I; 'he'll
+eat me clar out o' house an' home!' says I. But, arter all, it done my
+ol' heart good to see him put in, ebery ting 'peared to taste so d'effle
+good to him!" And Toby chuckled at the reminiscence.
+
+"My daughter," said Mr. Villars, softly.
+
+She was already standing behind his chair, and her trembling little
+hands were smoothing his brow, and her earnest face was looking pale and
+abstracted over him. He could not see her face, but he knew by her touch
+that the tender act was done some how mechanically to-night, and that
+she was thinking of other things. She started as he spoke, and, bending
+over him, kissed his white forehead.
+
+"I suspect," he went on, "that you know more of Carl than we do. Has he
+gone on some errand of yours?"
+
+"I will tell you, father!" It seemed as if her feelings had been long
+repressed, and it was a relief for her to speak at last. "Carl came to
+me, and said there was some mischief intended towards Penn. This was
+long before dark. And he asked permission to go and see what it was. I
+said, 'Go, but come right back, if there is no danger.' He went, and I
+have not seen him since."
+
+"Is this so? Why didn't you tell me before?"
+
+"Because, father, I did not wish to make you anxious. But now, if you
+will let Toby go----"
+
+"I'll go myself!" said the old man, starting up. "My staff, Toby! When I
+was out, I heard voices in the direction of the school-house,--I felt
+then a presentiment that something was happening to Penn. I can control
+the mob,--I can save him, if it is not too late." He grasped the staff
+Toby put into his hand.
+
+"O, father!" said the agitated girl; "are you able?"
+
+"Able, child? You shall see how strong I am when our friend is in
+danger."
+
+"Let me go, then, and guide you!" she exclaimed, glad he was so
+resolved, yet unwilling to trust him out of her sight.
+
+"No, daughter. Toby will be eyes for me. Yet I scarcely need even him. I
+can find my way as well as he can in the dark."
+
+The negro opened the door, and was leading out the blind old minister,
+when the light from within fell upon a singular object approaching the
+house. It started back again, like some guilty thing; but Toby had seen
+it. Toby uttered a shriek.
+
+"De debil! de debil hisself, massa!" and he pulled the old man back
+hurriedly into the house.
+
+"The devil, Toby? What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Villars.
+
+"O, laws, bress ye, massa, ye hain't got no eyes, and ye can't see!"
+said Toby, shutting the door in his fright, and rolling his eyes wildly.
+"It's de bery debil! he's come for dis niggah dis time, sartin'. Cos I,
+cos I 'pealed to him, as you said, massa! cos I's got de habit ob
+speakin' his name widout no kind o' respec'!"
+
+And he stood bracing himself, with his back against the door, as if
+determined that not even that powerful individual himself should get in.
+
+"You poor old simpleton!" said Mr. Villars, "there is no fiend except in
+your own imagination. Open the door!"
+
+"No, no, massa! He's dar! he's dar! He'll cotch old Toby, shore!" And
+the terrified black held the latch and pushed with all his might.
+
+"What did he see, Virginia?"
+
+"I don't know, father! There was certainly somebody, or something,--I
+could not distinguish what."
+
+"It's what I tell ye!" gibbered Toby. "I seed de great coarse har on his
+speckled legs, and de wings on his back, and a right smart bag in his
+hand to put dis niggah in!"
+
+"It might have been Carl," said Virginia.
+
+"No, no! Carl don't hab sech legs as dem ar! Carl don't hab sech great
+big large ears as dem ar! O good Lord! good Lord!" the negro's voice
+sank to a terrified whisper, "he's a-knockin' for me now!"
+
+"It's a very gentle rap for the devil," said Mr. Villars, who could not
+but be amused, notwithstanding the strange interruption of his purpose,
+and Toby's vexatious obstinacy in holding the door. "It's some stranger;
+let him in!"
+
+"No, no, no!" gasped the negro. "I won't say nuffin, and you tell him I
+ain't to home! Say I'se clar'd out, lef', gone you do'no' whar!"
+
+"Toby!" was called from without.
+
+"Dat's his voice! dat ar's his voice!" said Toby. And in his desperate
+pushing, he pushed his feet from under him, and fell at full length
+along the floor.
+
+"It's the voice of Penn Hapgood!" exclaimed the old minister. "Arise,
+quick, Toby, and open!"
+
+Toby rubbed his head and looked bewildered.
+
+"Are ye sartin ob dat, massa? Bress me, I breeve you're right, for
+oncet! It _ar_ Mass' Penn's voice, shore enough!"
+
+He opened the door, but started back again with another shriek,
+convinced for an instant that it was, after all, the devil, who had
+artfully borrowed Penn's voice to deceive him.
+
+But no! It was Penn himself, his hat and clothes in his hand, smeared
+with black tar and covered with feathers from head to foot; not even his
+features spared, nor yet his hair; on his cheeks great clumps of gray
+goose plumes, suggestive of diabolical ears, and with no other covering
+but this to shield him from the night wind, save the emptied bed-tick,
+which he had drawn over his shoulders, and which Toby had mistaken for
+Satanic wings.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+_A STRANGE COAT FOR A QUAKER._
+
+
+Now, Virginia Villars was the very last person by whom Penn would have
+wished to be seen. He was well aware how utterly grotesque and ludicrous
+he must appear. But he was not in a condition to be very fastidious on
+this point. Stunned by blows, stripped of his clothing (which could not
+be put on again, for reasons), cruelly suffering from the violence done
+him, exposed to the cold, excluded from Mrs. Sprowl's virtuous abode, he
+had no choice but to seek the protection of those whom he believed to be
+his truest friends.
+
+In the little sitting-room of the blind old minister he had always been
+gladly welcomed. Such minds as his were rare in Curryville. His purity
+of thought, his Christian charity, his ardent love of justice, and
+(quite as much as any thing) his delight in the free and friendly
+discussion of principles, whether moral, political, or theological, made
+him a great favorite with the lonely old man. His coming made the winter
+evenings bloom. Then the aged clergyman, deprived of sight, bereft of
+the companionship of books, and of the varied consolations of an active
+life, felt his heart warmed and his brain enlivened by the wine of
+conversation. He and Penn, to be sure, did not always agree. Especially
+on the subject of _non-resistance_ they had many warm and well-contested
+arguments; the young Quaker manifesting, by his zeal in the controversy,
+that he had an abundance of "fight" in him without knowing it.
+
+Nor to Mr. Villars alone did Penn's visits bring pleasure. They
+delighted equally young Carl and old Toby. And Virginia? Why, being
+altogether devoted to her blind parent, for whose happiness she could
+never do enough, she was, of course, enchanted with the attentions she
+saw Penn pay _him_. That was all; at least, the dear girl thought that
+was all.
+
+As for Salina, forsaken spouse of the gay Lysander Sprowl, she too,
+after sulkily brooding over her misfortunes all day, was glad enough to
+have any intelligent person come in and break the monotony of her sad
+life in the evening.
+
+Such were Penn's relations with the family to whom alone he durst apply
+for refuge in his distress. Others might indeed have ventured to shelter
+him; but they, like Stackridge, were hated Unionists, and any mercy
+shown to him would have brought evil upon themselves. Mr. Villars,
+however, blind and venerated old man, had sufficient influence over the
+people, Penn believed, to serve as a protection to his household even
+with him in it.
+
+So hither he came--how unwillingly let the proud and sensitive judge.
+For Penn, though belonging to the meekest of sects, was of a soul by
+nature aspiring and proud. He had the good sense to know that the
+outrage committed on him was in reality no disgrace, except to those
+guilty of perpetrating it. Yet no one likes to appear ridiculous. And
+the man of elevated spirit instinctively shrinks from making known his
+misfortunes even to his best friends; he is ashamed of that for which he
+is in no sense to blame, and he would rather suffer heroically in
+secret, than become an object of pity.
+
+Most of all, as I have said, Penn dreaded the pure Virginia's eyes. Mr.
+Villars could not see him, and for Salina he did not care
+much--singularly enough, for she alone was of an acrid and sarcastic
+temper. What he devoutly desired was, to creep quietly to the kitchen
+door, call out Carl if he was there, or secretly make known his
+condition to old Toby, and thus obtain admission to the house,
+seclusion, and assistance, without letting Virginia, or her father even,
+know of his presence.
+
+How this honest wish was thwarted we have seen. When the door was first
+opened, he had turned to fly. But that was cowardly; so he returned, and
+knocked, and called the negro by name, to reassure him. And the door was
+once more opened, and Virginia saw him--recognized him--knew in an
+instant what brutal deed had been done, and covered her eyes
+instinctively to shut out the hideous sight.
+
+But it was no time to indulge in feelings of false modesty, if she felt
+any. It was no time to be weak, or foolish, or frightened, or ashamed.
+
+"It is Penn!" she exclaimed in a burst of indignation and grief. "Toby!
+Toby! you great stupid----! what are you staring for? Take him in! why
+don't you? O, father!" And she threw herself on the old man's bosom, and
+hid her face.
+
+"What has happened to Penn?" asked the old man.
+
+"I have been tarred-and-feathered," answered Penn, entering, and closing
+the door behind him. "And I have been shut out of Mrs. Sprowl's house.
+This is my excuse for coming here. I must go somewhere, you know!"
+
+"And where but here?" answered the old man. He had suppressed an
+outburst of feeling, and now stood calm, compassionating, extending his
+hands,--his staff fallen upon the floor. "I feared it might come to
+this! Terrible times are upon us, and you are only one of the first to
+suffer. You did well to come to us. Are you hurt?"
+
+"I hardly know," replied Penn. "I beg of you, don't be alarmed or
+troubled. I hope you will excuse me. I know I am a fearful object to
+look at, and did not intend to be seen."
+
+He stood holding the bed-tick over him, and his clothes before him, to
+conceal as much as possible his hideous guise, suffering, in that moment
+of pause, unutterable things. Was ever a hero of romance in such a
+dismal plight? Surely no writer of fiction would venture to show his
+hero in so ridiculous and damaging an aspect. But this is not altogether
+a romance, and I must relate facts as they occurred.
+
+"Do not be sorry that I have seen you," said Virginia, lifting her face
+again, flashing with tears. "I see in this shameful disguise only the
+shame of those who have so cruelly treated you! Toby will help you. And
+there is Carl at last!"
+
+She retreated from the room by one door just as Carl and Stackridge
+entered by the other.
+
+Poor Penn! gentle and shrinking Penn! it was painful enough for him to
+meet even these coarser eyes, friendly though they were. The shock upon
+his system had been terrible; and now, his strength and resolution
+giving way, his bewildered senses began to reel, and he swooned in the
+farmer's arms.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+_THE TWO GUESTS._
+
+
+Virginia entered the sitting-room--the same where so many happy evenings
+had been enjoyed by the little family, in the society of him who now lay
+bruised, disfigured, and insensible in Toby's kitchen.
+
+She walked to and fro, she gazed from the windows out into the darkness,
+she threw herself on the lounge, scarce able to control the feelings of
+pity and indignation that agitated her. For almost the first time in her
+life she was fired with vindictiveness; she burned to see some swift and
+terrible retribution overtake the perpetrators of this atrocious deed.
+
+Mr. Villars soon came out to her. She hastened to lead him to a seat.
+
+"How is he?--much injured?" she asked.
+
+"He has been brutally used," said the old man. "But he is now in good
+hands. Where is Salina?"
+
+"I don't know. I had been to look for her, when I came and found you in
+the kitchen. I think she must have gone out."
+
+"Gone out, to-night? That is very strange!" The old man mused. "She will
+have to be told that Penn is in the house. But I think the knowledge of
+the fact ought to go no farther. Mr. Stackridge is of the same opinion.
+Now that they have begun to persecute him, they will never cease, so
+long as he remains alive within their reach."
+
+"And we must conceal him?"
+
+"Yes, until this storm blows over, or he can be safely got out of the
+state."
+
+"There is Salina now!" exclaimed the girl, hearing footsteps approach
+the piazza.
+
+"If it is, she is not alone," said the old man, whose blindness had
+rendered his hearing acute. "It is a man's step. Don't be agitated, my
+child. Much depends on our calmness and self-possession now. If it is a
+visitor, you must admit him, and appear as hospitable as usual."
+
+It was a visitor, and he came alone--a young fellow of dashy appearance,
+handsome black hair and whiskers, and very black eyes.
+
+"Mr. Bythewood, father," said Virginia, showing him immediately into the
+sitting-room.
+
+"I entreat you, do not rise!" said Mr. Bythewood, with exceeding
+affability, hastening to prevent that act of politeness on the part of
+the blind old man.
+
+"Did you not bring my daughter with you?" asked Mr. Villars.
+
+"Your daughter is here, sir;" and he of the handsome whiskers gave
+Virginia a most captivating bow and smile.
+
+"He means my sister," said Virginia. "She has gone out, and we are
+feeling somewhat anxious about her." She thought it best to say thus
+much, in order that, should the visitor perceive any strangeness or
+abstraction on her part, he might think it was caused by solicitude for
+the absent Salina.
+
+"Nothing can have happened to her, certainly," remarked Mr. Bythewood,
+seating himself in an attitude of luxurious ease, approaching almost to
+indolent recklessness. "We are the most chivalrous people in the world.
+There is no people, I think, on the face of the globe, among whom the
+innocent and defenceless are so perfectly secure."
+
+Virginia thought of the hapless victim of the mob in the kitchen yonder,
+and smiled politely.
+
+"I have no very great fears for her safety," said the old man. "Yet I
+have felt some anxiety to know the meaning of the noises I heard in the
+direction of the academy, an hour ago."
+
+Bythewood laughed, and stroked his glossy mustache.
+
+"I don't know, sir. I reckon, however, that the Yankee schoolmaster has
+been favored with a little demonstration of southern sentiment."
+
+"How! not mobbed?"
+
+"Call it what you please, sir," said Bythewood, with an air of
+pleasantry. "I think our people have been roused at last; and if so,
+they have probably given him a lesson he will never forget."
+
+"What do you mean by 'our people'?" the old man gravely inquired.
+
+"He means," said Virginia, with quiet but cutting irony, "the most
+chivalrous people in the world! among whom the innocent and defenceless
+are more secure than any where else on the globe!"
+
+"Precisely," said Mr. Bythewood, with a placid smile. "But among whom
+obnoxious persons, dangerous to our institutions, cannot be tolerated.
+As for this affair,"--carelessly, as if what had happened to Penn was of
+no particular consequence to anybody present, least of all to him,--"I
+don't know anything about it. Of course, I would never go near a popular
+demonstration of the kind. I don't say I approve of it, and I don't say
+I disapprove of it. These are no ordinary times, Mr. Villars. The south
+is already plunged into a revolution."
+
+"Indeed, I fear so!"
+
+"Fear so? I glory that it is so! We are about to build up the most
+magnificent empire on which the sun has ever shone!"
+
+"Cemented with the blood of our own brethren!" said the old man,
+solemnly.
+
+"There may be a little bloodshed, but not much. The Yankees won't fight.
+They are not a military people. Their armies will scatter before us like
+chaff before the wind. I know you don't think as I do. I respect the
+lingering attachment you feel for the old Union--it is very natural,"
+said Bythewood, indulgently.
+
+The old man smiled. His eyes were closed, and his hands were folded
+before him near his breast, in his favorite attitude. And he answered,--
+
+"You are very tolerant towards me, my young friend. It is because you
+consider me old, and helpless, and perhaps a little childish, no doubt.
+But hear my words. You are going to build up a magnificent empire,
+founded on--slavery. But I tell you, the ruin and desolation of our dear
+country--that will be your empire. And as for the institution you mean
+to perpetuate and strengthen, it will be crushed to atoms between the
+upper and nether millstones of the war you are bringing upon the
+nation."
+
+He spoke with the power of deep and earnest conviction, and the
+complacent Bythewood was for a moment abashed.
+
+"I was well aware of your opinions," he remarked, rallying presently.
+"It is useless for us to argue the point. And Virginia, I conceive, does
+not like politics. Will you favor us with a song, Virginia?"
+
+"With pleasure, if you wish it," said Virginia, with perfect civility,
+although a close observer might have seen how repulsive to her was the
+presence of this handsome, but selfish and unprincipled man. He was
+their guest; and she had been bred to habits of generous and
+self-sacrificing hospitality. However detested a visitor, he must be
+politely entertained. On this occasion, she led the way to the parlor,
+where the piano was,--all the more readily, perhaps, because it was
+still farther removed from the kitchen. Bythewood followed, supporting,
+with an ostentatious show of solicitude, the steps of the feeble old
+man.
+
+Bythewood named the pieces he wished her to sing, and bent graciously
+over the piano to turn the music-leaves for her, and applauded with
+enthusiasm. And so she entertained him. And all the while were passing
+around them scenes so very different! There was Penn, heroically
+stifling the groans of a wounded spirit, within sound of her sweet
+voice, and Bythewood so utterly ignorant of his presence there! A little
+farther off, and just outside the house, a young woman was even then
+parting, with whispers and mystery, from an adventurous rover. Still a
+little farther, in barber Jim's back room, Silas Ropes was treating his
+accomplices; and while these drank and blasphemed, close by, in the
+secret cellar, Stackridge's companions were practising the soldier's
+drill.
+
+Salina parted from the rover, and came into the house while Virginia was
+singing, throwing her bonnet negligently back, as she sat down.
+
+"Why, Salina! where have you been?" said Virginia, finishing a strain,
+and turning eagerly on the piano stool. "We have been wondering what had
+become of you!"
+
+"You need never wonder about me," said Salina, coldly. "I must go out
+and walk, even if I don't have time till after dark."
+
+She drummed upon the carpet with her foot, while her upper lip twitched
+nervously. It was a rather short lip, and she had an unconscious habit
+of hitching up one corner of it, still more closely, with a spiteful and
+impatient expression. Aside from this labial peculiarity (and perhaps
+the disproportionate prominence of a very large white forehead), her
+features were pretty enough, although they lacked the charming freshness
+of her younger sister's.
+
+Virginia knew well that the pretence of not getting time for her walk
+till after dark was absurd, but, perceiving the unhappy mood she was in,
+forbore to say so. And she resumed her task of entertaining Bythewood.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+_THE ROVER._
+
+
+Meanwhile the nocturnal acquaintance from whom Salina had parted took a
+last look at the house, and shook his envious head darkly at the room
+where the light and the music were; then, thrusting his hands into his
+pockets, with a swaggering air, went plodding on his lonely way across
+the fields, in the starlight.
+
+The direction he took was that from which Penn had arrived; and in the
+course of twenty minutes he approached the door of the solitary house
+with the dark windows and the dogs within. He walked all around, and
+seeing no light, nor any indication of life, drew near, and rapped
+softly on a pane.
+
+The dogs were roused in an instant, and barked furiously. Nothing
+daunted, he waited for a lull in the storm he had raised, and rapped
+again.
+
+"Who's there?" creaked the stridulous voice of good Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"_You know!_" said the rover, in a suppressed, confidential tone. "One
+who has a right."
+
+Now, the excellent relict of the late lamented Sprowl reflected,
+naturally, that, if anybody had a right there, it was he who paid her
+for his board in advance.
+
+"You, agin, after all, is it!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Couldn't you
+find nowhere else to go to? But if you imagine I've thought better on't,
+and will let you in, you're grandly mistaken! Go away this instant, or
+I'll let the dogs out!"
+
+"Let 'em out, and be----!"
+
+No matter about the last word of the rover's defiant answer. It was a
+very irritating word to the temper of the good Mrs. Sprowl. This was the
+first time (she thought) she had ever heard the mild and benignant
+schoolmaster swear; but she was not much surprised, believing that it
+was scarcely in the power of man to endure what he had that night
+endured, and not swear.
+
+"Look out for yourself then, you sir! for I shall take you at your
+word!" And there was a sound of slipping bolts, followed by the careful
+opening of the door.
+
+Out bounced the dogs, and leaped upon the intruder; but, instead of
+tearing him to pieces, they fell to caressing him in the most vivacious
+and triumphant manner.
+
+"Down, Brag! Off, Grip! Curse you!" And he kicked them till they yelped,
+for their too fond welcome.
+
+"How dare you, sir, use my dogs so!" screamed the lady within, enraged
+to think they had permitted that miserable schoolmaster to get the
+better of them.
+
+"I'll kick them, and you too, for this trick!" muttered the man. "I'll
+learn ye to shut me out, and make a row, when I'm coming to see you at
+the risk of my----"
+
+She cut him short, with a cry of amazement.
+
+"Lysander! is it you!"
+
+"Hold your noise!" said Lysander, pressing into the house. "Call my name
+again, and I'll choke you! Where's your schoolmaster? Won't he hear?"
+
+"Dear me! if it don't beat everything!" said Mrs. Sprowl in palpitating
+accents. "Don't you know I took you for the master!"
+
+"No, I didn't know it. This looks more like a welcome, though!" Lysander
+began to be mollified. "There, there! don't smother a fellow! One kiss
+is as good as fifty. The master is out, then? Anybody in the house?"
+
+"No, I'm so thankful! It seems quite providential! O, dearie, dearie,
+sonny dearie! I'm so glad to see you agin!"
+
+"Come! none of your sonny dearies! it makes me sick! Strike a light, and
+get me some supper, can't you?"
+
+"Yes, my boy, with all my heart! This is the happiest day I've seen----"
+
+"Ah, what's happened to-day?" said Lysander, treating with levity his
+mother's blissful confession.
+
+"I mean, this night! to have you back again! How could I mistake you for
+that dreadful schoolmaster!" Here her trembling fingers struck a match.
+
+"Draw the curtains," said Lysander, hastily executing his own order, as
+the blue sputter kindled up into a flame that lighted the room. "It
+ain't quite time for me to be seen here yet."
+
+"Where did you come from? What are you here for? O, my dear, dear
+Lysie!" (she gazed at him affectionately), "you ain't in no great
+danger, be you?"
+
+"That depends. Soon as Tennessee secedes, I shall be safe enough. I'm
+going to have a commission in the Confederate army, and that'll be
+protection from anything that might happen on account of old scores. I'm
+going to raise a company in this very place, and let the law touch me if
+it can!"
+
+He tossed his cap into a corner, and sprawled upon a chair before the
+stove, at which his devoted mother was already blowing her breath away
+in the endeavor to kindle a blaze. She stopped blowing to gape at his
+good news, turning up at him her low, skinny forehead, narrow nose, and
+close-set, winking eyes.
+
+"There! I declare!" said she. "I knowed my boy would come back to me
+some day a gentleman!"
+
+"A gentleman? I'm bound to be that!" said the man, with a braggart laugh
+and swagger. "I tell ye, mar, we're going to have the greatest
+confederacy ever was!"
+
+"Do tell if we be!" said the edified "mar."
+
+"Six months from now, you'll see the Yankees grovelling at our feet,
+begging for admission along with us. We'll have Washington, and all of
+the north we want, and defy the world!"
+
+"I want to know now!" said Mrs. Sprowl, overcome with admiration.
+
+"The slave-trade will be reopened, Yankee ships will bring us cargoes of
+splendid niggers, not a man in the south but'll be able to own three or
+four, they'll be so cheap, and we'll be so rich, you see," said
+Lysander.
+
+"You don't say, re'lly!"
+
+"That's the programme, mar! You'll see it all with your own eyes in six
+months."
+
+"Why, then, why _shouldn't_ the south secede!" replied "mar," hastening
+to put on the tea-kettle, and then to mix up a corn dodger for her son's
+supper. "I'm sure, we ought all on us to have our servants, and live
+without work; and I knowed all the time there was another side to what
+Penn Hapgood preaches (for he's dead set agin' secession), though I
+couldn't answer him as _you_ could, Lysie dear!"
+
+"Wal, never mind all that, but hurry up the grub!" said "Lysie dear,"
+putting sticks in the stove. "I hain't had a mouthful since breakfast."
+
+"You hain't seen _her_, of course," observed Mrs. Sprowl, mysteriously.
+
+"Her? who?"
+
+"Salina!" in a whisper, as if to be overheard by a mouse in the wall
+would have been fatal.
+
+"Wal, I have seen _her_, I reckon! Not an hour ago. By appointment. I
+wrote her I was coming, got a woman to direct the letter, and had a long
+talk with her to-night. What I want just now is, a little money, and
+she's got to raise it for me, and what she can't raise I shall look to
+you for."
+
+"O dear me! don't say money to me!" exclaimed the widow, alarmed.
+"Partic'larly now I've lost my best feather-bed and my boarder!"
+
+"What is it about your boarder? Out with it, and stop this hinting
+around!"
+
+Thus prompted, Mrs. Sprowl, who had indeed been waiting for the
+opportunity, related all she knew of what had happened to Penn. Lysander
+kindled up with interest as she proceeded, and finally broke forth with
+a startling oath.
+
+"And I can tell you where he has gone!" he said. "He's gone to the house
+I can't get into for love nor money! She refused me admission
+to-night--refused me money! but he is taken in, and their money will be
+lavished on him!"
+
+"But how do you know, my son,----"
+
+"How do I know he's there? Because, when I was with her in the orchard,
+we saw an object--she said it was some old nigger to see Toby--go into
+the kitchen. Then in a little while a man--it must have been Stackridge,
+if you say he was looking for him--went in with Carl, and didn't come
+out again, as I could see. I staid till the light from the kitchen went
+up into the bedroom, in the corner of the house this way. There's yer
+boarder, mar, I'll bet my life! But he won't be there long, I can tell
+ye!" laughed Lysander, maliciously.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+_TOBY'S PATIENT HAS A CALLER._
+
+
+Mr. Bythewood had now taken his departure; Salina had been intrusted
+with the secret; and Penn had been put to bed (as the rover correctly
+surmised) in the corner bedchamber.
+
+He had been diligently plucked; as much of the tar had been removed as
+could be easily taken off by methods known to Stackridge and Toby, and
+his wounds had been dressed. And there he lay, at last, in the soothing
+linen, exhausted and suffering, yet somehow happy, thinking with
+gratitude of the friends God had given him in his sore need.
+
+"Bress your heart, dear young massa!" said old Toby, standing by the bed
+(for he would not sit down), and regarding him with an unlimited variety
+of winks, and nods, and grins, expressive of satisfaction with his work;
+"ye're jest as comf'table now as am possible under de sarcumstances. If
+dar's anyting in dis yer world ye wants now, say de word, and ol'
+Toby'll jump at de chance to fetch 'em fur ye."
+
+"There is nothing I want now, good Toby, but that you and Carl should
+rest. You have done everything you can--and far more than I deserve. I
+will try to thank you when I am stronger."
+
+"Can't tink ob quittin' ye dis yer night, nohow, massa! Mr. Stackridge
+he's gone; Carl he can go to bed,--he ain't no 'count here, no way. But
+I'se took de job o' gitt'n you well, Mass' Penn, and I'se gwine to put
+it frew 'pon honor,--do it up han'some!"
+
+And notwithstanding Penn's remonstrances, the faithful black absolutely
+refused to leave him. Indeed, the most he could be prevailed upon to do
+for his own comfort, was to bring his blanket into the room, and promise
+that he would lie down upon it when he felt sleepy. Whether he kept his
+word or not, I cannot say; but there was no time during the night when,
+if Penn happened to stir uneasily, he did not see the earnest, tender,
+cheerful black face at his pillow in an instant, and hear the
+affectionate voice softly inquire,--
+
+"What can I do fur ye, massa? Ain't dar nuffin ol' Toby can be a doin'
+fur ye, jes' to pass away de time?"
+
+Sometimes it was water Penn wanted; but it did him really more good to
+witness the delight it gave Toby to wait upon him, than to drink the
+coolest and most delicious draught fresh from the well.
+
+At length Penn began to feel hot and stifled.
+
+"What have you hung over the window, Toby?"
+
+"Dat ar? 'Pears like dat ar's my blanket, sar. Ye see, 'twouldn't do,
+nohow, to let nary a chink o' light be seen from tudder side, 'cause dat
+'ud make folks s'pec' sumfin', dis yer time o' night. So I jes' sticks
+up my ol' blanket--'pears like I can sleep a heap better on de bar
+floor!"
+
+"But I must have some fresh air, you dear old hypocrite!" said Penn,
+deeply touched, for he knew that the African had deprived himself of his
+blanket because he did not wish to disturb him by leaving the room for
+another.
+
+"I'll fix him! Ill fix him!" said Toby. And he seemed raised to the very
+summit of happiness on discovering that there was something, requiring
+the exercise of his ingenuity, still to be done for his patient.
+
+After that Penn slept a little. "Tank de good Lord," said the old negro
+the next morning, "you're lookin' as chirk as can be! I'se a right smart
+hand fur to be nussin' ob de sick; and sakes! how I likes it! I'se gwine
+to hab you well, sar, 'fore eber a soul knows you'se in de house." Yet
+Toby's words expressed a great deal more confidence than he felt; for,
+though he had little apprehension of Penn's retreat being discovered, he
+saw how weak and feverish he was, and feared the necessity of sending
+for a doctor.
+
+Penn now insisted strongly that the old servant should not neglect his
+other duties for him.
+
+"Now you jes' be easy in yer mind on dat pint! Dar's Carl, tends to
+out-door 'rangements, and I'se got him larnt so's't he's bery good, bery
+good indeed, to look arter my cow, and my pigs, and sech like chores,
+when I'se got more 'portant tings on hand myself. And dar's Miss Jinny,
+she's glad enough to git de breakfust herself dis mornin'; only jes' I
+kind o' keeps an eye on her, so she shan't do nuffin wrong. She an'
+Massa Villars come to 'quire bery partic'lar 'bout you, 'fore you was
+awake, sar."
+
+These simple words seemed to flood Penn's heart with gratitude. Toby
+withdrew, but presently returned, bringing a salver.
+
+"Nuffin but a little broff, massa. And a toasted cracker."
+
+"O, you are too kind, Toby! Really, I can't eat this morning."
+
+"Can't eat, sar? I declar, now!" (in a whisper), "how disappinted she'll
+be!"
+
+"Who will be disappointed?"
+
+"Who? Miss Jinny, to be sure! She made de broff wid her own hands. Under
+my d'rections, ob course! But she would make 'em herself, and took a
+heap ob pains to hab 'em good, and put in de salt wid her own purty
+fingers, and looked as rosy a stirrin' and toastin' ober de fire as eber
+you see an angel, sar!"
+
+For some reason Penn began to think better of the broth, and, to Toby's
+infinite satisfaction, he consented to eat a little. Toby soon had him
+bolstered up in bed, and held the salver before him, and looked a
+perfect picture of epicurean enjoyment, just from seeing his patient
+eat.
+
+"It is delicious!" said Penn; at which brief eulogium the whole rich,
+exuberant, tropical soul of the unselfish African seemed to expand and
+blossom forth with joy. "I shall be sure to get well and strong soon,
+under such treatment. You must let Carl go to Mrs. Sprowl's and fetch my
+clothes; I shall want some of them when I get up."
+
+"Bress you, sar! you forgets nobody ain't to know whar you be! Mass'
+Villars he say so. You jes' lef' de clo'es alone, yit awhile. Wouldn't
+hab dat ar Widder Sprowl find out you'se in dis yer house, not if you'd
+gib me----"
+
+Rap, rap, at the chamber door; two light, hurried knocks.
+
+"Miss Jinny herself!" said old Toby, forgetting Mrs. Sprowl in an
+instant. And setting down the salver, he ran to the door.
+
+Penn heard quick whispers of consultation; then Toby came back, his eyes
+rolling and his ivory shining with a ludicrous expression of wrath and
+amazement.
+
+"It's de bery ol' hag herself! Speak de debil's name and he's allus at
+de door!"
+
+"Who? Mrs. Sprowl?"
+
+"Yes, sar! and I wish she was furder, sar! She's a 'quirin' fur
+you,--says she knows you'se in de house, and it's bery 'portant she must
+see ye. But, tank de Lord, massa!" chuckled the old negro, "Carl's
+forgot his English, and don't know nuffin what she wants! he, he, he! Or
+if she makes him und'stan' one ting, den he talks Dutch, and _she_ don't
+und'stan.' And so dey'se habin' it, fust one, den tudder, while Miss
+Jinny she hears 'em and comes fur to let us know. But how de ol' critter
+eber found you out, dat am one ob de mysteries!"
+
+"She merely guesses I am here," said Penn. "I'm only afraid Carl will
+overdo his part, and confirm her suspicions."
+
+"'Sh!" hissed Toby in sudden alarm. "She's a comin! She's a comin' right
+up to dis yer door!" And he flew to fasten it.
+
+He had scarcely done so when a hand tried the latch, and a voice
+called,--
+
+"Come! ye needn't, none of ye, try to impose on me! I know you're in
+this very room, Penn Hapgood, and you'll let me in, old friends so, I'm
+shore! I've bothered long enough with that stupid Dutch boy, and now
+Virginny wants to keep me, and talk with me; but I've nothing to do with
+nobody in this house but _you_!"
+
+Mrs. Sprowl had not been on amicable terms with her daughter-in-law's
+family since Salina and her husband separated; and this last declaration
+she made loud enough for all in the house to hear.
+
+Penn motioned for Toby to open the door, believing it the better way to
+admit the lady and conciliate her. But Toby shook his head--and his fist
+with grim defiance.
+
+"Wal!" said Mrs. Sprowl, "you can do as you please about lettin' a body
+in; but I'll give ye to understand one thing--I don't stir a foot from
+this door till it's opened. And if you want it kept secret that you're
+here, it'll be a great deal better for you, Penn Hapgood, to let me in,
+than to keep me standin' or settin' all day on the stairs."
+
+The idea of a long siege struck Toby with dismay. He hesitated; but Penn
+spoke.
+
+"I am very weak, and very ill, madam. But I have learned what it is to
+be driven from a door that should be opened to welcome me; and I am not
+willing, under any circumstances, to treat another as you last night
+treated me."
+
+This was spoken to the lady's face; for Toby, seeing that concealment
+was at an end, had slipped the bolt, and she had come in.
+
+"Wal! now! Mr. Hapgood!" she began, with a simper, which betrayed a
+little contrition and a good deal of crafty selfishness,--"you mustn't
+go to bein' too hard on me for that. Consider that I'm a poor widder,
+and my life war threatened, and I _had_ to do as I did."
+
+"Well, well," said Penn, "I certainly forgive you. Give her a chair,
+Toby."
+
+Toby placed the chair, and widow Sprowl sat down.
+
+"I couldn't be easy--old friends so--till I had come over to see how you
+be," she said, folding her hands, and regarding Penn with a solemn
+pucker of solicitude. "I know, 'twas a dreadful thing; but it's some
+comfort to think it's nothing I'm any ways to blame fur. It's hard
+enough for me to lose a boarder, jest at this time,--say nothing about a
+friend that's been jest like one of my own family, and that I've cooked,
+and washed, and ironed fur, as if he war my own son!"
+
+And Mrs. Sprowl wiped her eyes, while she carefully watched the effect
+of her words.
+
+"I acknowledge, you have cooked, washed, and ironed for me very
+faithfully," said Penn.
+
+"And I thought," said she,--"old friends so,--may be you wouldn't mind
+making me a present of the trifle you've paid over and above what's due
+for your board; for I'm a poor widder, as you know, and my only son is a
+wanderer on the face of the 'arth."
+
+Penn readily consented to make the present--perhaps reflecting that it
+would be equally impossible for him ever to board it out, or get her to
+return the money.
+
+"Then there's that old cloak of yourn," said Mrs. Sprowl,
+sympathizingly. "I believe you partly promised it to me, didn't you? I
+can manage to get me a cape out on't."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Penn, "you can have the cloak;" while Toby glared with
+rage behind her chair.
+
+"And I considered 'twouldn't be no more'n fair that you should pay for
+the----I don't see how in the world I can afford to lose it, bein' a
+poor widder, and live geeses' feathers at that, and my only son----" She
+hid her face in her apron, overcome with emotion.
+
+"What am I to pay for?" asked Penn.
+
+"Fur, you know," she said, "I never would have parted with it fur any
+money, and it will take at least ten dollars to replace it, which is
+hard, bein' a poor widder, and as strong a linen tick as ever you see,
+that I made myself, and that my blessed husband died on, and helped me
+pick the geese with his own hands; and I never thought, when I took you
+to board, that ever _that_ bed would be sacrificed by it,--for 'twas on
+your account, you are ware, it was took last night and done for."
+
+"And you think I ought to pay for the bed!" said Penn, as much
+astonished as if Silas Ropes had sent in his bill, "To 1 coat tar and
+feathers, $10.00."
+
+"They said I must look to you," whined the visitor; "and if you don't
+pay fur't, I don't know who will, I'm shore! for none of them have sot
+at my board, and drinked of my coffee, and e't of my good corn dodgers,
+and slep' in my best bed, all for four dollars fifty a week, washing and
+ironing throwed in, and a poor widder at that!"
+
+"Mrs. Sprowl," said Penn, laughing, ill as he was, "have the kindness
+not to tell any one that I am here, and as soon as I am able to do so, I
+will pay you for your excellent feather-bed."
+
+"Thank you,--very good in you, I'm shore!" said the worthy creature,
+brightening. "And if there's anything else among your things you can
+spare."
+
+"I'll see! I'll see!" said Penn, wearily. "Leave me now, do!"
+
+"But if you had a few dollars, this morning, towards the bed," she
+insisted, "for my son----" She almost betrayed herself; being about to
+say that Lysander had arrived, and must have money; but she coughed, and
+added, in a changed voice, "is a wanderer on the face of the 'arth."
+
+Penn, however, reflecting that she would have more encouragement to keep
+his secret if he held the reward in reserve, replied, that he could not
+possibly spare any money before collecting what was due him from the
+trustees of the Academy. Her countenance fell on hearing this; and,
+reluctantly abandoning the object of her mission, she took her leave,
+and went home to her hopeful son.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+_THE WIDOW'S GREEN CHEST._
+
+
+Mr. Villars had spoken truly when he said Penn's persecutors would not
+rest here. In fact, Mr. Ropes, and three of his accomplices, were even
+now on the way to Mrs. Sprowl's abode, to make inquiries concerning the
+schoolmaster.
+
+That lone creature had scarcely reached her own door when she saw them
+coming. Now, though Penn was not in the house, her son was. Great,
+therefore, was her trepidation at the sight of visitors; and she evinced
+such eagerness to assure them that the object of their pursuit was not
+there, and appeared altogether so frightened and guilty, that Ropes
+winked knowingly at his companions, and said,--
+
+"He's here, boys, safe enough."
+
+So they forced their way into the house; her increased tremor and
+confusion serving only to confirm them in their suspicions.
+
+"Not that we doubt your word in the least, Mrs. Sprowl,"--Ropes smiled
+sarcastically. "But of course you can't object to our searching the
+premises, for we're in the performance of a solemn dooty. Any whiskey in
+the house, widder?"
+
+The obliging lady went to find a bottle. She was gone so long, however,
+that the visitors became impatient. Ropes accordingly stationed two of
+his men at the doors, and with the third went in pursuit of Mrs. Sprowl,
+whom they met coming down stairs.
+
+"Keep your liquor up there, do ye?" said Ropes, significantly.
+
+"I--I thought--" Mrs. Sprowl gasped for breath before she could
+proceed--"the master had some in his room. But I can't find it. You are
+at liberty to--to look in his room, if you wants to."
+
+"Wal, it's our dooty to, I suppose. Meantime, you can be bringing the
+whiskey. Give some to the boys outside, then bring the bottle up to us.
+That's the way, Gad," said Silas, as she unwillingly obeyed; "allus be
+perlite to the sex, ye know."
+
+"Sartin! allus!" said Gad.
+
+It was evident these men fancied themselves polite.
+
+"But he ain't here," said Silas, just glancing into Penn's room, "or
+else she wouldn't have been so willing for us to search. Le's begin at
+the top of the house, and look along down." They entered a low-roofed,
+empty garret. "As we can't perceed without the whiskey, we'll wait here.
+Meantime, I'll tell you what you wanted to know."
+
+They sat down on a little old green chest, and Ropes, producing a plug
+of tobacco, gave his friend a bite, and took a bite himself.
+
+"What I'm going to say is in perfect confidence, between friends;"
+chewing and crossing his legs.
+
+Gad chewed, and crossed his legs, and said, "O, of course! in perfect
+confidence!"
+
+"Wal, then, I'll tell ye whar the money fur our job comes from. It comes
+from Gus Bythewood."
+
+"Sho!" said Gad, looking surprised at Silas.
+
+"Fact!" said Silas, looking wise at Gad.
+
+"But what's he so dead set agin' the master fur?"
+
+"I'll tell ye, Gad." And Mr. Ropes rested a finger confidingly on his
+friend's knee. "Fur as I kin jedge, Gus has a sneakin' notion arter that
+youngest Villars gal; Virginny, ye know."
+
+"Don't blame him!" chuckled Gad.
+
+"But ye see, thar's that Hapgood; he's a great favoryte with the
+Villarses, and Gus nat'rally wants to git him out of the way. It won't
+do, though, for him to have it known he has any thing to do with our
+operations. He pays us, and backs us up with plenty of cash if we get
+into trouble; but he keeps dark, you understand."
+
+"The master ought to be hung for his abolitionism!" said Gad, by way of
+self-excuse for being made a jealous man's tool.
+
+"That ar's jest my sentiment," replied Silas. "But then he's allus been
+a peaceable sort of chap, and held his tongue; so he might have been let
+alone some time yet, if it hadn't been for----What in time!"
+
+Ropes started, and changed color, glancing first at Gad, then down at
+the chest.
+
+"He's in it!" whispered Gad.
+
+Both jumped up, and, facing about, looked at the green lid, and at each
+other.
+
+The chest was so small it had not occurred to them that a man could get
+into it. Lysander had got into it, however, and there he lay, so
+cramped, and stifled, and compressed, that he could not endure the
+torture without an effort to ease it by moving a little. He had stirred;
+then all was still again.
+
+"Think he's heerd us?" said Silas.
+
+"Must have heerd something," said Gad.
+
+"Then he's as good as a dead man!"
+
+Silas drew his pistol, resolved to sacrifice the schoolmaster on the
+altar of secrecy. But as he was about to fire into the chest at a
+venture (for your cowardly assassin does not like to face his victim),
+the lid flew open, the chivalry stepped hastily back, and up rose out of
+the chest--not the schoolmaster, but--Lysander Sprowl.
+
+Silas had struck his head against a rafter, and was quite bewildered for
+a moment by the shock, the multitude of meteors that rushed across his
+firmament, and the sudden apparition. Gad, at the same time, stood ready
+to take a plunge down the stairs in case the schoolmaster should show
+fight.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the "wanderer on the face of the 'arth," straightening
+his limbs, and saluting with a reckless air, "I hope I see ye well.
+Never mind about shooting an old friend, Sile Ropes. I reckon we're
+about even; and I'll keep your secret, if you'll keep mine."
+
+"That's fair," said Ropes, recovering from the falling stars, and
+putting up his weapon. "Lysander, how are ye? Good joke, ain't it?" And
+they shook hands all around. "But whar's the schoolmaster?" And Silas
+rubbed his head.
+
+"I know all about the schoolmaster," said Lysander, stepping out of the
+chest; "he ain't in this house, but I know just where he is. And I
+reckon 'twill be for the interest of me and Gus Bythewood if we can have
+a little talk together, tell him. If he's got money to spare, that'll be
+to my advantage; and what I know will be to his advantage."
+
+So saying, Lysander closed the chest, and coolly invited the chivalry to
+resume their seats. They did so, much to the amazement of Mrs. Sprowl,
+who came up stairs with the whiskey, and found the "wanderer on the face
+of the 'arth" conversing in the most amicable manner with Gad and Silas.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+_SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY._
+
+
+If what Silas Ropes had said of his patron, Augustus Bythewood, was
+true, great must have been the chagrin of that chivalrous young
+gentleman when an interview was brought about between him and Lysander,
+and he learned that Penn, instead of being driven from the state, had
+found refuge in the family of Mr. Villars--that he was there even at the
+moment when he made his delightful little evening call, and was
+entertained so charmingly by Virginia.
+
+Bythewood gave Sprowl money, and Sprowl gave Bythewood information and
+advice. It was in accordance with the programme decided upon by these
+two worthies, that Mr. Ropes at the head of his gang presented himself
+the next night at Mr. Villars's door.
+
+Virginia, by her father's direction, admitted them. They crowded into
+the sitting-room, where the old man rose to receive them, with his usual
+urbanity.
+
+"Virginia, have chairs brought for all our friends. I cannot see to
+recognize them individually, but I salute them all."
+
+"No matter about the cheers," said Silas. "We can do our business
+standing. Sorry to trouble you with it, sir, but it's jest this. We
+understand you're harboring a Yankee abolitionist, and we've called to
+remind you that sech things can't be allowed in a well-regulated
+community."
+
+The old man, holding himself still erect with punctilious
+politeness,--for his guests were not seated,--and smiling with grand and
+venerable aspect, made reply in tones full of dignity and sweetness: "My
+friends, I am an old man; I am a native of Virginia, and a citizen of
+Tennessee; and all my life long I have been accustomed to regard the
+laws of hospitality as sacred."
+
+"My sentiments exactly. I won't hear a word said agin' southern
+horsepitality, or southern perliteness." Mr. Ropes illustrated his
+remark by spitting copious tobacco-juice on the floor. "Horsepitality I
+look upon as one of the stable institootions of our country."
+
+"No doubt it is so," said Mr. Villars, smiling at the unintentional pun.
+
+"That's one thing," added Silas; "but harboring a abolitionist is
+another. That's the question we've jest took the liberty to call and
+have a little quiet talk about, to-night."
+
+"Sit down, dear father, do!" entreated Virginia, remaining at his side
+in spite of her dread and abhorrence of these men. Holding his hand, and
+regarding him with pale and anxious looks, she endeavored with gentle
+force to get him into his chair. "My father is very feeble," she said,
+appealing to Silas, "and I beg you will have some consideration for
+him."
+
+"Sartin, sartin," said Silas. "Keep yer settin', keep yer settin', Mr.
+Villars."
+
+But the old man still remained upon his feet,--his tall, spare form,
+bent with age, his long, thin locks of white hair, and his wan,
+sightless, calm, and beautiful countenance presenting a wonderful
+contrast to the blooming figure at his side. It was a picture which
+might well command the respectful attention of Silas and his compeers.
+
+"My friends," he said, with a grave smile, "we men of the south are
+rather boastful of our hospitality. But true hospitality consists in
+something besides eating and drinking with those whose companionship is
+a sufficient recompense for all that we do for them. It clothes the
+naked, feeds the hungry, shelters the distressed. With the Arabs, even
+an enemy is sacred who happens to be a guest. Shall an old Virginian
+think less of the honor of his house than an Arab?"
+
+Silas looked abashed, silenced for a moment by these noble words, and
+the venerable and majestic mien of the blind old clergyman. It would not
+do, however, to give up his mission so; and after coughing, turning his
+quid, and spitting again, he replied,--
+
+"That'll do very well to talk, Mr. Villars. But come to the pint. You've
+got a Yankee abolitionist in your house--that you won't deny."
+
+"I have in my house," said the old man, "a person whose life is in
+danger from injuries received at your hands last night. He came to us in
+a condition which, I should have thought, would excite the pity of the
+hardest heart. Whether or not he is a Yankee abolitionist, I never
+inquired. It was enough for me that he was a fellow-creature in
+distress. He is well known in this community, where he has never been
+guilty of wrong towards any one; and, even if he were a dangerous
+person, he is not now in a condition to do mischief. Gentlemen, my guest
+is very ill with a fever."
+
+"Can't help that; you must git red of him," said Silas. "I'm a talking
+now for your own good as much as any body's, Mr. Villars. You're a man
+we all respect; but already you've made yourself a object of suspicion,
+by standing up fur the old rotten Union."
+
+"When I can no longer befriend my guests, or stand up for my country,
+then I shall have lived long enough!" said the old man, with impressive
+earnestness.
+
+"The old Union," said Gad, coming to the aid of Silas, "is played out.
+We couldn't have our rights, and so we secede."
+
+"What rights couldn't you have under the government left to us by
+Washington?"
+
+"That had become corrupted," said Mr. Ropes.
+
+"How corrupted, my friend?"
+
+"By the infernal anti-slavery element!"
+
+"You forget," said Mr. Villars, "that Washington, Jefferson, and indeed
+all the wisest and best men who assisted to frame the government under
+which we have been so prospered, were anti-slavery men."
+
+"Wal, I know, some on 'em hadn't got enlightened on the subject," Mr.
+Ropes admitted.
+
+"And do you know that if a stranger, endowed with all the virtues of
+those patriots, should come among you and preach the political doctrines
+of Washington and Jefferson, you would serve him as you served Penn
+Hapgood last night?"
+
+"Shouldn't wonder the least mite if we should!" Silas grinned. "But
+that's nothing to the purpose. We claim the right to carry our slaves
+into the territories, and Lincoln's party is pledged to keep 'em out,
+and that's cause enough for secession."
+
+"How many slaves do you own, Mr. Ropes?" Mr. Villars, still leaning on
+his daughter's arm, smiled as he put this mild question.
+
+"I--wal--truth is, I don't own nary slave myself--wish I did!" said
+Silas.
+
+"How many friends have you with you?"
+
+"'Lev'n," said Gad, rapidly counting his companions.
+
+"Well, of the eleven, how many own slaves?"
+
+"I do!" "I do!" spoke up two eager voices.
+
+"How many slaves do you own?"
+
+"I've got as right smart a little nigger boy as there is anywheres in
+Tennessee!" said the first, proudly.
+
+"How old is he?"
+
+"He'll be nine year' old next grass, I reckon."
+
+"Well, how many negroes has your friend?"
+
+"I've got one old woman, sir."
+
+"How old is she?"
+
+"Wal, plaguy nigh a hunderd,--old Bess, you know her."
+
+"Yes, I know old Bess; and an excellent creature she is. So it seems
+that you eleven men own two slaves. And these you wish to take into some
+of the territories, I suppose."
+
+The men looked foolish, and were obliged to own that they had never
+dreamed of conveying either the nine-year-old lad or the female
+centenarian out of the state of Tennessee.
+
+"Then what is the grievance you complain of?" asked the old man. They
+could not name any. "O, now, my friends, look you here! I believe in the
+right of revolution when a government oppresses a people beyond
+endurance. But in this case it appears, by your own showing, that not
+one of you has suffered any wrong, and that this is not a revolution in
+behalf of the poor and oppressed. If anybody is to be benefited by it,
+it is a few rich owners of slaves, who are prosperous enough already,
+and have really no cause of complaint. It is a revolution precipitated
+by political leaders, who wish to be rulers; and what grieves me at the
+heart is, that the poor and ignorant are thus permitting themselves to
+be made the tools of this tyranny, which will soon prove more despotic
+than it was possible for the dear old government ever to become. God
+bless my country! God bless my poor distracted country!"
+
+As he finished speaking, the old man sank down overcome with emotion
+upon his chair, clasping his daughter's hand, while tears ran down his
+cheeks.
+
+His argument was so unanswerable that nothing was left for Silas but to
+get angry.
+
+"I see you're not only a Unionist, but more'n half a Yankee abolitionist
+yourself! We didn't come here to listen to any sech incendiary talk.
+Kick out the schoolmaster, if you wouldn't git into trouble,--I warn
+you! That's the business we've come to see to, and you must tend to't."
+
+"Pity him--spare him!" cried Virginia, shielding her aged father as
+Ropes approached him. "He cannot turn a sick man out of his house, you
+know he cannot!"
+
+"You're partic'larly interested in the young man, hey?" said Ropes,
+grinning insolently.
+
+"I am interested that no harm comes either to my father or to his
+guests," said the girl. "Go, I implore you! As soon as Mr. Hapgood is
+able to leave us, he will do so,--he will have no wish to stay,--this I
+promise you."
+
+"I'll give him three days to quit the country," said Silas. "Only three
+days. He'd better be dead than found here at the end of that time.
+Gentlemen, we've performed this yer painful dooty; now le's adjourn to
+Barber Jim's and take a drink."
+
+With these words Mr. Ropes retired. While, however, he was treating his
+men to whiskey and cigars with Augustus Bythewood's money, advanced for
+the purpose, one of the eleven, separating himself from the rest,
+hurried back to the minister's house. He had taken part in the patriotic
+proceedings of his friends with great reluctance, as appeared from the
+manner in which he shrank from view in corners and behind the backs of
+his comrades, and drew down his woe-begone mouth, and rolled up his
+dismal eyes, during the entire interview. And he had returned now, at
+the risk of his life, to do Penn a service.
+
+He crept to the kitchen door, and knocked softly. Carl opened it. There
+stood the wretched figure, terrified, panting for breath.
+
+"Vat is it?" said Carl.
+
+"I've come fur to tell ye!" said the man, glancing timidly around into
+the darkness to see if he was followed. "They mean to kill him! They
+told you they'd give him three days, but they won't. I heard them saying
+so among themselves. They may be back this very night, for they'll all
+git drunk, and nothing will stop 'em then."
+
+Carl stared, as these hoarsely whispered words were poured forth rapidly
+by the frightened man at the door.
+
+"Come in, and shpeak to Mishter Willars."
+
+"No, no! I'll be killed if I'm found here!"
+
+But Carl, sturdy and resolute, had no idea of permitting him to deliver
+so hasty and alarming a message without subjecting him to a
+cross-examination. He had already got him by the collar, and now he
+dragged him into the house, the man not daring to resist for fear of
+outcry and exposure.
+
+"What is it?" asked Mr. Villars.
+
+"A wisitor!" said Carl. And he repeated Dan's statement, while Dan was
+recovering his breath.
+
+"Is this true, Mr. Pepperill?" asked the old man, deeply concerned.
+
+"Yes, I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.
+
+Virginia clung to her father's chair, white with apprehension. Toby was
+also present, having left his patient an instant to run down stairs, and
+learn what was the cause of this fresh disturbance.
+
+"He's a lyin' to ye, Mass' Villars; he's a lyin' to ye! White trash
+can't tell de troof if dey tries! Don't ye breeve a word he says,
+massa."
+
+Yet it was evident from the consternation the old negro's face betrayed
+that he believed Dan's story,--or at least feared it would prove true if
+he did not make haste and deny it stoutly; for Toby, like many persons
+with whiter skins, always felt on such occasions a vague faith that if
+he could get the bad news sufficiently denounced and discredited in
+season, all would be well. As if simply setting our minds against the
+truth would defeat it!
+
+"But they spoke of fittin' yer neck to a noose too!"
+
+"Mine? Ah, if nobody but myself was in danger, I should be well content!
+What do you think we ought to do, Mr. Pepperill?"
+
+"The master has done me a good turn, and I'll do him one, if I swing
+fur't!" said Dan, straightening himself with sudden courage. "Get him
+out 'fore they suspect what you're at, and I'll take him to my house and
+hide him, I be durned if I won't!"
+
+"It is a kind offer, and I thank you," said the old man. "But how can I
+resolve to send a guest from my house in this way? Not to save my own
+life would I do it!"
+
+"But to save his, father!"
+
+"It is only of him I am thinking, my child. Would it be safe to move
+him, Toby?"
+
+"Safe to move Massa Penn!" ejaculated the old negro, choking with wrath
+and grief. "Neber tink o' sech a ting, massa! He'd die, shore, widout I
+should go 'long wid him, and tote him in my ol' arms on a fedder-bed
+jes' like I would a leetle baby, and den stay and nuss him arter I got
+him dar. For dem 'ar white trash, what ye s'pose day knows 'bout takin'
+keer ob a sick gemman like him? It's a bery 'tic'lar case. He's got de
+delirimum a comin' on him now, and I can't be away from him a minute. I
+mus' go back to him dis bery minute!"
+
+And Toby departed, having suddenly conceived an idea of his own for
+hiding Penn in the barn until the danger was over.
+
+He had been absent from the room but a moment, however, when those
+remaining in it heard a wild outcry, and presently the old negro
+reappeared, inspired with superstitious terror, his eyes starting from
+their sockets, his tongue paralyzed.
+
+"What's the matter, Toby?" cried Virginia, perceiving that something
+really alarming had happened.
+
+The negro tried to speak, but his throat only gurgled incoherently,
+while the whites of his eyes kept rolling up like saucers.
+
+"Penn--has anything happened to Penn?" said Mr. Villars.
+
+"O, debil, debil, Lord bress us!" gibbered Toby.
+
+"Dead?" cried Virginia.
+
+"Gone! gone, missis!"
+
+Struck with consternation, but refusing to believe the words of the
+bewildered black, Virginia flew to the sick man's chamber.
+
+Then she understood the full meaning of Toby's words. Penn was not in
+his bed, nor in the room, nor anywhere in the house. He had disappeared
+suddenly, strangely, totally.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+_CHIVALROUS PROCEEDINGS._
+
+
+Thus the question of what should be done with his guest, which Mr.
+Villars knew not how to decide, had been decided for him.
+
+Great was the mystery. There was the bed precisely as Penn had left it a
+minute since. There was the candle dimly burning. The medicines remained
+just where Toby had placed them, on the table under the mirror. But the
+patient had vanished.
+
+What had become of him? It was believed that he was too ill to leave his
+bed without assistance. And, even though he had been strong, it was by
+no means probable that one so uniformly discreet in his conduct, and
+ever so regardful of the feelings of others, would have quitted the
+house in this abrupt and inexplicable manner.
+
+In vain the premises were searched. Not a trace of him could be anywhere
+discovered. Neither were there any indications of a struggle. Yet it was
+Toby's firm conviction that the ruffians had entered the house, and
+seized him; that Pepperill was in the plot, the object of whose visit
+was merely a diversion, while Ropes and the rest accomplished the
+abduction. This could not, of course, have been done without the aid of
+magic and the devil; but Toby believed in magic and the devil. The fact
+that Dan had taken advantage of the confusion to escape, appeared to the
+Ethiopian mind conclusive.
+
+Nor was the negro alone in his bewilderment. Carl was utterly
+confounded. The old clergyman, usually so calm, was deeply troubled;
+while Virginia herself, pierced with the keenest solicitude, could
+scarce keep her mind free from horrible and superstitious doubts. The
+doors between the sitting-room and back stairs were all wide open, and
+it seemed impossible that any one could have come in or gone out that
+way without being observed. On the other hand, to have reached the front
+stairs Penn must have passed through Salina's room. But Salina, who was
+in her room at the time, averred that she had not been disturbed, even
+by a sound.
+
+"He has got out the vinder," said Carl. But the window was fifteen feet
+from the ground.
+
+Thus all reasonable conjecture failed, and it seemed necessary to accept
+Toby's theory of the ruffians, magic, and the devil. Only one thing was
+certain: Penn was gone. And, as if to add to the extreme and painful
+perplexity of his friends, the clothes, which had been stripped from him
+by the lynchers, which he had brought away in his hands, and which had
+been hung up in his room by Toby, were left hanging there still,
+untouched.
+
+The family had not recovered from the dismay his disappearance
+occasioned, when they had cause to rejoice that he was gone. Ropes and
+his crew returned, as Pepperill had predicted. They were intoxicated and
+bloodthirsty. They had brought a rope, with which to hang their victim
+before the old clergyman's door. They were furious on finding he had
+eluded them, and searched the house with oaths and uproar. Virginia, on
+her knees, clung to her father, praying that he might not be harmed, and
+that Penn, whom all had been so anxious just now to find, might be safe
+from discovery.
+
+Exasperated by their unsuccessful search, the villains hesitated about
+laying violent hands on the blind old man, and concluded to wreak their
+vengeance on Toby. That he was a freed negro, was alone a sufficient
+offence in their eyes to merit a whipping. But he had done more; he had
+been devoted to the schoolmaster, and they believed he had concealed
+him. So they seized him, dragged him from the house, bared his back, and
+tied him to a tree.
+
+As long as the mob had confined itself to searching the premises, Mr.
+Villars had held his peace. But the moment his faithful old servant was
+in danger, he roused himself. He rushed to the door, bareheaded, his
+white hair flowing, his staff in his hand. Both his children accompanied
+him,--Salina, who was really not void of affection, appearing scarcely
+less anxious and indignant than her sister.
+
+There, in the light of a wood-pile to which fire had been set, stood the
+old negro, naked to the waist, lashed fast to the trunk, writhing with
+pain and terror; his brutal tormentors grouped around him in the glare
+of the flames, preparing, with laughter, oaths, and much loose,
+leisurely swaggering, to flay his flesh with rods.
+
+"My friends!" cried the old clergyman, with an energy that startled
+them, "what are you about to do?"
+
+"We're gwine to sarve this nigger," said the man Gad, "jest as every
+free nigger'll git sarved that's found in the state three months from
+now."
+
+"Free niggers is a nuisance," added Ropes, now very drunk, and very much
+inclined to make a speech on a barrel which his friends rolled out for
+him. "A nuisance!" he repeated, with a hiccough, steadying himself on
+his rostrum by holding a branch of the tree. "And let me say to you,
+feller-patriots, that one of the glorious fruits of secession is, that
+every free nigger in the state will either be sold for a slave, or druv
+out, or hung up. I tell you, gentlemen, we're a goin' to have our own
+way in these matters, spite of all the ministers in creation!"
+
+The men cheered, and one of them struck Toby a couple of preliminary
+blows, just to try his hand, and to add the poor old negro's howls to
+the chorus.
+
+"No doubt,"--the old clergyman's voice rose above the tumult,--"you will
+have your way for a season. You will commit injustice with a high hand.
+You will glut your cruelty upon the defenceless and oppressed. But, as
+there is a God in heaven,"--he lifted up his blind white face, and with
+his trembling hands shook his staff on high, like a prophet foretelling
+woe,--"as there is a God of justice and mercy who beholds this
+wickedness,--just so sure the hour of your retribution will come! so
+sure the treason you are breathing, and the despotism you are
+inaugurating, will prove a snare and a destruction to yourselves! Unbind
+that man! leave my house in peace! go home, and learn to practise a
+little of the mercy of which you will yourselves soon stand in need."
+His venerable aspect, and the power and authority of his words, awed
+even that drunken crew. But Silas, vain of his oratorical powers, was
+enraged that anybody should dispute his influence with the crowd.
+Holding the branch with one hand, and gesticulating violently with the
+other, he exclaimed,--
+
+"Who is boss here? Who ye goin' to mind? that old traitor, or me? I say,
+lick the nigger! We're a goin' to have our way now, and we're a goin' to
+have our way to the end of the 'arth, sure as I am a gentleman standing
+on this yer barrel!"
+
+To emphasize his declaration, he stamped with his foot; the head of the
+cask flew in, and down went orator, cask, and all, in a fashion rendered
+all the more ridiculous by the climax of oratory it illustrated.
+
+"Just so sure will your hollow and inhuman schemes fail from under your
+feet!" exclaimed Mr. Villars, as soon as he learned what had happened.
+"So surely and so suddenly will you fall."
+
+This incident occurred as Toby's flogging was about to begin in earnest.
+Virginia had instinctively covered her eyes to shut out the terrible
+sight, her ears to shut out the sounds of the beating and the poor old
+fellow's groans. Luckily, Silas had fallen partly in the barrel, and
+partly across the sharp edge of it, and being too tipsy to help himself,
+had been seriously hurt, and was now helpless. The ruffians hastened to
+extricate him, and raise him up. Carl, who, with an open knife concealed
+in his sleeve, had been waiting for an opportunity, darted at the tree,
+cut the negro's bonds in a twinkling, and set him free.
+
+Both took to their heels without an instant's delay. But the trick was
+discovered. They were pursued immediately. Carl was lively on his legs,
+as we know; but poor old Toby, never a good runner, and now stiff and
+decrepit with age, was no match even for the slowest of their pursuers.
+
+They ran straight into the orchard, hoping to lose themselves among the
+shadows. The glare of the burning wood-pile flickered but faintly and
+unsteadily among the trees. Carl might easily have escaped; but he
+thought only of Toby, and kept faithfully at his side, assisting him,
+urging him. A fence was near--if they could only reach that! But Toby
+was wheezing terribly, and the hand of the foremost ruffian was already
+extended to seize him.
+
+"Jump the vence over!" was Carl's parting injunction to the old negro,
+who made a last desperate effort to accomplish the feat; while Carl,
+turning sharp about, tripped the foot of him of the extended hand, and
+sent him headlong. The second pursuer he grappled, and both rolled upon
+the ground together.
+
+Favored by this diversion, Toby reached the fence, climbed it, and
+without looking how, he leaped, jumped down upon--a human figure,
+stretched there upon the ground!
+
+Notwithstanding his own danger, Toby thought of his patient, and
+stopped.
+
+"Is it you, massa?"
+
+The man rose slowly to his feet. It was not Penn; it was, on the
+contrary, the worst of Penn's enemies, who had stationed himself here,
+in order to observe, unseen, and from a safe distance, the operations of
+Silas Ropes and his band of patriots.
+
+"O, Massa Bythewood!" ejaculated Toby, inspired with sudden joy and
+hope; "help a poor old niggah! Help! De Villarses will remember it ob ye
+de longest day you live, if you on'y will."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Toby?" said Augustus, full of rage at having
+been thus discovered, yet assuming a gracious and patronizing manner.
+
+Toby did not make a very coherent reply; but probably the young
+gentleman was already sufficiently aware of what was going on. He had no
+especial regard for Toby, yet his credit with Virginia and her father
+was to be sustained. And so Toby was saved.
+
+Augustus met and rebuked his pursuers, released Carl, who was suffering
+at the hands of his antagonist, and led the way back to the house. There
+he expressed to Mr. Villars and his daughters the utmost regret and
+indignation for what had occurred, and took Mr. Ropes aside to
+remonstrate with him for such violent proceedings. His influence over
+that fallen orator was extraordinary. Ropes excused himself on the plea
+of his patriotic zeal, and called off his men.
+
+"How fortunate," said Augustus, conducting the old man, with an
+excessive show of deference and politeness, back into the
+sitting-room,--"how extremely fortunate that I happened to be walking
+this way! I trust no serious harm has been done, my dear Virginia?"
+
+Bythewood no doubt thought himself entitled to use this affectionate
+term, after the service he had rendered the family.
+
+After he was gone, Toby, having recovered from his fright and the
+fatigue of running, and got his clothes on again, rushed into the
+presence of his master and the young ladies.
+
+"I've seed Mass' Penn!" he said. "Arter Bythewood done got up from under
+de fence whar I jumped on him, I seed anoder man a crawlin' away on his
+hands and knees jest a little ways off. 'Twas Mass' Penn! I know 'twas
+Mass' Penn."
+
+But Toby was mistaken. The second figure he had seen was Mr. Lysander
+Sprowl, now the confidential adviser and secret companion of Augustus.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+_THE OLD CLERGYMAN'S NIGHTGOWN HAS AN ADVENTURE._
+
+
+Where, then, all this time, was Penn? He was himself almost as
+profoundly ignorant on that subject as anybody. For two or three hours
+he had been lost to himself no less than to his friends.
+
+When he recovered his consciousness he found that he was lying on the
+ground, in the open air, in what seemed a barren field, covered with
+rocks and stunted shrubs.
+
+How he came there he did not know. He had nothing on but his
+night-dress,--a loan from the old clergyman,--besides a blanket wrapped
+about him. His feet were bare, and he now perceived that they were
+painfully aching.
+
+Almost too weak to lift a hand to his head, he yet tried to sit up and
+look around him. All was darkness; not a sign of human habitation, not a
+twinkling light was visible. The cold night wind swept over him, sighing
+drearily among the leafless bushes. Chilled, shivering, his temples
+throbbing, his brain sick and giddy, he sat down again upon the rocks,
+so ill and suffering that he could scarcely feel astonishment at his
+situation, or care whether he lived or died.
+
+Where had he been during those hours of oblivion? He seemed to have
+slept, and to have had terrible dreams. Could he have remembered these
+dreams, it seemed to him that the whole mystery of his removal to this
+desolate spot would be explained. And he knew that it required but an
+effort of his will to remember them. But his soul was too weak: he could
+not make the effort.
+
+To get upon his feet and walk was impossible. What, then, was left him
+but to perish here, alone, uncared for, unconsoled by a word of love
+from any human being? Death he would have welcomed as a relief from his
+sufferings. Yet when he thought of his home far away, in the peaceful
+community of Friends, of his parents and sisters now anxiously expecting
+his return,--and again when he remembered the hospitable roof under
+which he lay, so tenderly nursed, but a little while ago, and thought of
+the blind old clergyman, of Virginia fresh as a rose, of kind-hearted
+Carl, and the affectionate old negro,--he was stung with the desire to
+live, and he called feebly,--
+
+"Toby! Toby!"
+
+Was his cry heard? Surely, there were footsteps on the rocks! And was
+not that a human form moving dimly between him and the sky? It passed
+on, and was lost in the shadows of the pines. Was it some animal, or
+only a phantom of his feverish brain?
+
+"Toby!" he called again, exerting all his force. But only the wailing
+wind answered him, and, overcome by the effort, he sunk into a swoon. In
+that swoon it seemed to him that Toby had heard his voice, and that he
+came to him. Hands, gentle human hands, groped on him, felt the blanket,
+felt his bare feet, and his head, pillowed on stones. Then there seemed
+to be two Tobys, one good and the other evil, holding a strange
+consultation over him, which he heard as in a dream.
+
+"We can't leave him dying here!" said the good Toby.
+
+"What dat to me, if him die, or whar him die?" said the other Toby.
+"Straight har!" He seemed to be feeling Penn's locks, in order to
+ascertain to which race he belonged. "Dat's nuff fur me! Lef him be, I
+tell ye, and come 'long!"
+
+"Straight hair or curly, it's all the same," said Toby the Good. "Take
+hold here; we must save him!"
+
+"Hyah-yah! ye don't cotch dis niggah!" chuckled Toby the Bad,
+maliciously. "Nuff more ob his kind, in all conscience! Reckon we kin
+spar' much as one! Hyah-yah!"
+
+Something like a quarrel ensued, the result of which was, that Toby the
+Good finally prevailed upon Toby the Malevolent to assist him. Then Penn
+was dreamily aware of being lifted in the strong arms of this double
+individual, and borne away, over rocks, and among thickets, along the
+mountain side; until even this misty ray of consciousness deserted him,
+and he fell into a stupor like death.
+
+And what was this he saw on awaking? Had he really died, and was this
+unearthly place a vestibule of the infernal regions? Days and nights of
+anguish, burning, and delirium, relieved at intervals by the same
+death-like stupor, had passed over him; and here he lay at length,
+exhausted, the terrible fever conquered, and his soul looking feebly
+forth and taking note of things.
+
+And strange enough things appeared to him! He was in an apartment of
+prodigious and uncouth architecture, dimly lighted from one side by some
+opening invisible to him, and by a blazing fire in a little fireplace
+built on the broad stone floor. The fireplace was without chimney, but a
+steady draught of air, from the side where the opening seemed to be,
+swept the smoke away into sombre recesses, where it mingled with the
+shadows of the place, and was lost in gloom which even the glare of the
+flames failed to illumine.
+
+Such a cavernous room Penn seemed to have seen in his dreams. The same
+irregular, rocky roof started up from the wall by his bed, and stretched
+away into vague and obscure distance. All was familiar to him, but all
+was somehow mixed up with frightful fantasies which had vanished with
+the fever that had so recently left him. The awful shapes, the struggles
+of demoniac men, the processions of strange and beautiful forms, which
+had visited him in his delirious visions,--all these were airy nothings;
+but the cave was real.
+
+Here he lay, on a rude bed constructed of four logs, forming the ends
+and sides, with canvas stretched across them, and secured with nails.
+Under him was a mattress of moss, over him a blanket like that which he
+remembered to have had wrapped about him last night in the field.
+
+Last night! Poor Penn was deeply perplexed when he endeavored to
+remember whether his mysterious awaking in the open air occurred last
+night, or many nights ago. He moved his head feebly to look for Toby.
+Which Toby? for all through his sufferings the same two Tobys, one good
+and the other evil, who had taken him from the field, had appeared still
+to attend him, and he now more than half expected to see the faithful
+old negro duplicated, and waiting upon him with two bodies and four
+hands.
+
+But neither the better nor even the worse half of that double being was
+near him now. Penn was alone, in that subterranean solitude. There
+burned the fire, the shadows flickered, the smoke floated away into the
+depths of the dark cavern, in such loneliness and silence as he had
+never experienced before. He would have thought himself in some grotto
+of the gnomes, or some awful cell of enchantment, whose supernatural
+fire never went out, and whose smoke rolled away into darkness the same
+perpetually,--but for the sound of the crackling flames, and the sight
+of piles of wood on the floor, so strongly suggestive of human agency.
+
+On one side was what appeared to be an artificial chamber built of
+stones, its door open towards the fire. Ranged about the cave, in
+something like regular order, were several massy blocks of different
+sizes, like the stools of a family of giants. But where were the giants?
+
+Ah, here came Toby at last, or, at any rate, the twin of him. He
+approached from the side where the daylight shone, bearing an armful of
+sticks, and whistling a low tune. With his broad back turned towards
+Penn, he crouched before the fire, which he poked and scolded with
+malicious energy, his grotesque and gigantic shadow projected on the
+wall of the cave.
+
+"Burn, ye debil! K-r-r-r! sputter! snap! git mad, why don't ye?"
+
+Then throwing himself back upon a heap of skins, with his heels at the
+fire, and his long arms swinging over his head, in a savage and
+picturesque attitude, he burst into a shout, like the cry of a wild
+beast. This he repeated several times, appearing to take delight in
+hearing the echoes resound through the cavern. Then he began to sing,
+keeping time with his feet, and pausing after each strain of his wild
+melody to hear it die away in the hollow depths of the cave.
+
+    "De glory ob de Lord, it am comin', it am comin',
+        De glory ob de Lord, let it come!
+    De angel ob de Lord, hear his trumpet, hear his trumpet,
+        De angel ob de Lord, he ar come!"
+
+At the last words, "_He ar come!_" a shadow darkened the entrance, and
+Penn looked, almost expecting to see a literal fulfilment of the
+prophecy. A form of imposing stature appeared. It was that of a negro
+upwards of six feet in height, magnificently proportioned, straight as a
+pillar, and black as ebony. He wore a dress of skins, carried a gun in
+his hand, and had an opossum slung over his shoulder.
+
+"Hush your noise!" he said to the singer, in a tone of authority.
+"Haven't I told you not to _wake him_?"
+
+"No fear o' dat!" chuckled the other. "Him's past dat! Ki! how fat he
+ar!" seizing the opossum, and beginning to dress him on the spot.
+
+"Past waking! I tell you he's asleep, and every thing depends on his
+waking up right. But you set up a howl that would disturb the dead!"
+
+"Howl! dat's what ye call singin'; me singin', Pomp."
+
+"Well, keep your singing to yourself till he is able to stand it, you
+unfeeling, ungrateful fellow!"
+
+"What dat ye call dis nigger?" cried the singer, jumping up in a
+passion, with his blood-stained knife in his hand. "Ongrateful! Say dat
+ar agin, will ye?"
+
+"Yes, Cudjo, as often as you please," said Pomp, calmly placing his gun
+in the artificial chamber. "You are an unfeeling, ungrateful fellow."
+
+He turned, and stood regarding him with a proud, lofty, compassionating
+smile. Cudjo's anger cooled at once. Penn had already recognized in them
+the twin Tobys of his dreams. And what a contrast between the two! There
+was Toby the Good, otherwise called Pomp, dignified, erect, of noble
+features; while before him cringed and grimaced Toby the Malign, alias
+Cudjo, ugly, deformed, with immensely long arms, short bow legs
+resembling a parenthesis, a body like a frog's, and the countenance of
+an ape.
+
+"You know," said Pomp, "you would have left this man to die there on the
+rocks, if it hadn't been for me."
+
+"Gorry! why not?" said Cudjo. "What's use ob all dis trouble on his
+'count?"
+
+"He has had trouble enough on our account," said Pomp.
+
+"On our 'count? Hiyah-yah!" laughed Cudjo, getting down on his knees
+over the opossum; "how ye make dat out, by?"
+
+"Pay attention, Cudjo, while I tell ye," said Pomp, stooping, and laying
+his finger on the deformed shoulder. Cudjo looked up, with his hands and
+knife still in the opossum's flesh. "This is the way of it, as I heard
+last night from Pepperill himself, who got into trouble, as you know, by
+befriending old Pete after his licking. And you know, don't you, how
+Pete came by his licking?"
+
+"Bein' out nights, totin' our meal and taters to de mountains,--dough I
+reckon de patrol didn't know nuffin' 'bout dat ar, or him wouldn't got
+off so easy!" said Cudjo.
+
+"Well, it was by befriending Pepperill, who had befriended Pete, who
+brings us meal and potatoes, that this man got the ill will of those
+villains. Do you understand?"
+
+"Say 'em over agin, Pomp. How, now? Lef me see! Dat ar's old Pete,"
+sticking up a finger to represent him. "Dat ar's Pepperill," sticking up
+a thumb. "Now, yonder is dis yer man, and here am we. Now, how is it,
+Pomp?"
+
+Pomp repeated his statement, and Cudjo, pointing to his long, black
+finger when Pete was alluded to, and tapping his thumb when Pepperill
+was mentioned, succeeded in understanding that it was indirectly in
+consequence of kindness shown to himself that Penn had come to grief.
+
+"Dat so, Pomp?" he said, seriously, in a changed voice. "Den 'pears like
+dar's two white men me don't wish dead as dis yer possom! Pepperills
+one, and him's tudder."
+
+Pomp, having made this explanation, walked softly to the bedside. He had
+not before perceived that Penn, lying so still there, was awake. His
+features lighted up with intelligence and sympathy on making the
+discovery, and finding him free from feverish symptoms.
+
+"Well, how are you getting on, sir?" he said, feeling Penn's pulse, and
+seating himself on one of the giant's stools near the bedstead.
+
+"Where am I?" was Penn's first anxious question.
+
+"I fancy you don't know very well where you are, sir," said the negro,
+with a smile; "and you don't know me either, do you?"
+
+"I think--you are my preserver--are you not?"
+
+"That's a subject we will not talk about just now, sir; for you must
+keep very quiet."
+
+"I know," said Penn, not to be put off so, "I owe my life to you!"
+
+"Dat's so! dat ar am a fac'!" cried Cudjo, approaching, and wrapping the
+warm opossum skin about his naked arm as he spoke. "Gorry! me sech a
+brute, me war for leavin' ye dar in de lot. But, Pomp, him wouldn't; so
+we toted you hyar, and him's doctored you right smart eber sence. He ar
+a great doctor, Pomp ar! Yah!" And Cudjo laughed, showing two tremendous
+rows of ivory glittering from ear to ear; capering, swinging the opossum
+skin over his head, and, on the whole, looking far more like a demon of
+the cave than a human being.
+
+"Go about your business, Cudjo!" said Pomp. "You mustn't mind his
+freaks, sir," turning to Penn. "You are a great deal better; and now, if
+you will only remain quiet and easy in your mind, there's no doubt but
+you will get along."
+
+Many questions concerning himself and his friends came crowding to
+Penn's lips; but the negro, with firm and gentle authority, silenced
+him.
+
+"By and by, sir, I will tell you everything you wish to know. But you
+must rest now, while I see to making you a suitable broth."
+
+And nothing was left for Penn but to obey.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+_A MAN'S STORY._
+
+
+Three days longer Penn lay there on his rude bed in the cave, helpless
+still, and still in ignorance.
+
+Pomp repeatedly assured him that all was well, and that he had no cause
+for anxiety, but refused to enlighten him. The negro's demeanor was well
+calculated to inspire calmness and trust. There was something truly
+grand and majestic, not only in his person, but in his character also.
+He was a superb man. Penn was never weary of watching him. He thought
+him the most perfect specimen of a gentleman he had ever seen; always
+cheerful, always courteous, always comporting himself with the ease of
+an equal in the presence of his guest. His strength was enormous. He
+lifted Penn in his arms as if he had been an infant. But his grace was
+no less than his vigor. He was, in short, a lion of a man.
+
+Cudjo was more like an ape. His gibberings, his grimaces, his antics,
+his delight in mischief, excited in the mind of the convalescent almost
+as much surprise as the other's princely deportment. For hours together
+he would lie watching those two wonderfully contrasted beings. Petulant
+and malicious as Cudjo appeared, he was completely under the control of
+his noble companion, who would often stand looking down at his tricks
+and deformity, with composedly folded arms and an air of patient
+indulgence and compassion beautiful to witness.
+
+Meanwhile Penn gradually regained his strength, so that on the fourth
+day Pomp permitted him to talk a little.
+
+"Tell me first about my friends," said Penn. "Are they well? Do they
+know where I am?"
+
+"I hope not, sir," said the negro, with a significant smile, seating
+himself on the giant's stool. "I trust that no one knows where you are."
+
+"What, then, must they think?" said Penn. "How did I leave them?"
+
+"That is what they are very much perplexed to find out, sir."
+
+"You have heard from them, then?"
+
+"O, yes; we have a way of getting news of people down there. Toby has
+nearly gone distracted on your account. He is positive that you are
+dead, for he believes you could never have got well out of his hands."
+
+"And Miss--Mr. Villars----?"
+
+"They have been so much disturbed about you, that I would have been glad
+to inform them of your safety, if I could. But not even they must know
+of this place."
+
+"Where am I, then?"
+
+"You are, as you perceive, in a cave. But I suppose you know so little
+how you came here that you would find some difficulty in tracing your
+way to us again?" This was spoken interrogatively, with an intelligent
+smile.
+
+"I am so ignorant of the place," said Penn, "that it may be in the
+planet Mars, for aught I know."
+
+"That is well! Now, sir," continued the negro, "since you have several
+times expressed your obligations to us for preserving your life, I wish
+to ask one favor in return. It is this. You are welcome to remain here
+as long as you find your stay beneficial; but when you conclude to go,
+we desire the privilege of conducting you away. That is not an
+unreasonable request?"
+
+"Far from it. And I pledge you my word to make no movement without your
+sanction, and to keep your secret sacredly. But tell me--will you
+not?--how you came to inhabit this dreadful place?"
+
+"Dreadful? There are worse places, my friend, than this. Is it gloomy?
+The house of bondage is gloomier. Is it damp? It is not with the cruel
+sweat and blood of the slave's brow and back. Is it cold? The hearts of
+our tyrants are colder."
+
+"I understand you," said Penn, whose suspicion was thus confirmed that
+these men were fugitives. "And I am deeply interested in you. How long
+have you lived here?"
+
+"Would you like to hear something of my story?" said the negro, the
+expression of his eyes growing deep and stern,--his black, closely
+curling beard stirring with a proud smile that curved his lips. "Perhaps
+it will amuse you."
+
+"Amuse me? No!" said Penn. "I know by your looks that it will not amuse:
+it will absorb me!"
+
+"Well, then," said Pomp, bearing his head upon his massy and flexible
+neck of polished ebony like a king, yet speaking in tones very gentle
+and low,--and he had a most mellow, musical, deep voice,--"you are
+talking with one who was born a slave."
+
+"You know what I think of that!" said Penn. "Even such a birth could not
+debase the manhood of one like you."
+
+"It might have done so under different circumstances. But I was so
+fortunate as to be brought up by a young master who was only too kind
+and indulgent to me, considering my station. We were playmates when
+children; and we were scarcely less intimate when we had both grown up
+to be men. He went to Paris to study medicine, and took me with him. I
+passed for his body servant, but I was rather his friend. He never took
+any important step in life without consulting me; and I am happy to
+know," added Pomp, with grand simplicity, "that my counsel was always
+good. He acknowledged as much on his death-bed. 'If I had taken your
+advice oftener,' said he, 'it would have been better for me. I always
+meant to reward you. You are to have your freedom--your freedom, my dear
+boy!'"
+
+The negro knitted his brows, his breath came thick, and there was a
+strange moisture in his eye.
+
+"I loved my master," he continued, with simple pathos. "And when I saw
+him troubled on my account, when he ought to have been thinking of his
+own soul, I begged him not to let a thought of me give him any
+uneasiness. My free papers had not been made out, and he was for sending
+at once for a notary. But his younger brother was with him--he who was
+to be his heir. 'Don't vex yourself about Pomp, Edwin,' said he. 'I will
+see that justice is done him.'
+
+"'Ah, thank you, brother!' said Edwin. 'You will set him free, and give
+him a few hundred dollars to begin life with. Promise that, and I will
+rest in peace.' For you must know Edwin had neither wife nor child, and
+I was the only person dependent on his bounty. He was not rich; he had
+spent a good part of his fortune abroad, and had but recently
+established himself in a successful practice in Montgomery. Yet he left
+enough so that his brother could have well afforded to give me my
+freedom, and a thousand dollars."
+
+"And did he not promise to do so?"
+
+"He promised readily enough. And so my master died, and was buried, and
+I--had another master. For a few days nothing was said about free
+papers; and I had been too much absorbed in grief for the only man I
+loved to think much about them. But when the estate was settled up, and
+my new master was preparing to return to his home here in Tennessee, I
+grew uneasy.
+
+"'Master,' said I, taking off my hat to him one morning, 'there is
+nothing more I can do for him who is gone; so I am thinking I would like
+to be for myself now, if you please.'
+
+"'For yourself, you black rascal?' said my new master, laughing in my
+face.
+
+"I wasn't used to being spoken to in that way, and it cut. But I kept
+down that which swelled up in here"--Pomp laid his hand on his
+heart--"and reminded him, respectfully as I could, of the doctor's last
+words about me, and of his promise.
+
+"'You fool!' said he, 'do you think I was in earnest?'
+
+"'If you were not,' said I, 'the doctor was.'
+
+"'And do you think,' said he, 'that I am to be bound by the last words
+of a man too far gone to know his own mind in the matter?'
+
+"'He always meant I should have my freedom,' I answered him, 'and always
+said so.'
+
+"'Then why didn't he give it to you before, instead of requiring me to
+make such a sacrifice? Come, come, Pomp!' he patted my shoulder; 'you
+are altogether too valuable a nigger to throw away. Why, people say you
+know almost as much about medicine as my brother did. You'll be an
+invaluable fellow to have on a plantation; you can doctor the field
+hands, and, may be, if you behave yourself, get a chance to prescribe
+for the family. Come, my boy, you musn't get foolish ideas of freedom
+into your head; they're what spoil a nigger, and they'll have to be
+whipped out of you, which would be too bad for a fine, handsome darkey
+like you.'
+
+"He patted my shoulder again, and looked as pleasant and flattering as
+if I had been a child to be coaxed,--I, as much a man, every bit, as
+he!" said Pomp, with a gleam of pride. "I could have torn him like a
+tiger for his insolence, his heartless injustice. But I repressed
+myself; I knew nothing was to be gained by violence.
+
+"'Master,' said I, 'what you say is no doubt very flattering. But I want
+what my master gave me--what you promised that I should have--I shall be
+contented with nothing else.'
+
+"'What! you persist?' he said, kindling up. 'Let me tell you now, Pomp,
+once for all, you'll have to be contented with a good deal less; and
+never mention the word "freedom" to me again if you would keep that
+precious hide of yours whole!'
+
+"I saw he meant it, and that there was no help for me. Despair and fury
+were in me. Then, for the only time in my life, I felt what it was to
+wish to murder a man. I could have smitten the life out of that smiling,
+handsome face of his! Thank God I was kept from that. I concealed what
+was burning within. Then first I learned to pray,--I learned to trust in
+God. And so better thoughts came to me; and I said, 'If he uses me well,
+I will serve him; if not, I will run for my life.'
+
+"Well, he brought me here to Tennessee. Here he was managing his aunt's
+estate, which she, soon dying, bequeathed to him. Up to this time I had
+got on very well; but he never liked me; he often said I knew too much,
+and was too proud. He was determined to humiliate me; so one day he said
+to me, 'Pomp, that Nance has been acting ugly of late, and you permit
+her.' I was a sort of overseer, you see. 'Now I'll tell you what I am
+going to have done. Nance is going to be whipped, and you are the fellow
+that's going to whip her.'
+
+"'Pardon, master,' said I, 'that's what I never did--to whip a woman.'
+
+"'Then it's time for you to begin. I've had enough of your fine manners,
+Pomp, and now you have got to come down a little.'
+
+"'I will do any thing you please to serve your interests, sir,' said I.
+'But whip a woman I never can, and never will. That's so, master.'
+
+"'You villain!' he shouted, seizing a riding whip, 'I'll teach you to
+defy my authority to my face!' And he sprang at me, furious with rage.
+
+"'Take care, sir!' I said, stepping back. ''Twill be better for both of
+us for you not to strike me!'
+
+"'What! you threaten, you villain?'
+
+"'I do not threaten, sir; but I say what I say. It will be better for
+both of us. You will never strike me twice. I tell you that.'
+
+"I reckon he saw something dangerous in me, as I said this, for, instead
+of striking, he immediately called for help. 'Sam! Harry! Nap! bind this
+devil! Be quick!'
+
+"'They won't do it!' said I. 'Woe to the man that lays a finger on me,
+be he master or be he slave!'
+
+"'I'll see about that!' said he, running into the house. He came out
+again in a minute with his rifle. I was standing there still, the boys
+all keeping a safe distance, not one daring to touch me.
+
+"'Master,' said I, 'hear one word. I am perfectly willing to die. Long
+enough you have robbed me of my liberty, and now you are welcome to what
+is less precious--my poor life. But for your own sake, for your dead
+brother's sake, let me warn you to beware what you do.'
+
+"I suppose the allusion to his injustice towards me maddened him. He
+levelled his piece, and pulled the trigger. Luckily the percussion was
+damp,--or else I should not be talking with you now. His aim was
+straight at my head. I did not give him time for a second attempt. I was
+on him in an instant. I beat him down, I trampled him with rage. I
+snatched his gun from him, and lifted it to smash his skull. Just then a
+voice cried, 'Don't, Pomp! don't kill master!'
+
+"It was Nance, pleading for the man who would have had her whipped. I
+couldn't stand that. Her mercy made me merciful. 'Good by, boys!' I
+said. They were all standing around, motionless with terror. 'Good by,
+Nance! I am off; live or die, I quit this man's service forever!'
+
+"So I left him," said Pomp, "and ran for the woods. I was soon ranging
+these mountains, free, a wild man whom not even their blood-hounds could
+catch. I took the gun with me--a good one: here it is." He removed the
+rifle from its crevice in the rocks. "Do you know that name? It is that
+of its former owner--the man who called himself my master. Do you think
+it was taking too much from one who would have robbed me of my soul?"
+
+He held the stock over the bed, so that Penn could make out the
+lettering. Delicately engraved on a surface of inlaid silver, was the
+well-known name,--
+
+    "_Augustus Bythewood._"
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+_AN ANTI-SLAVERY DOCUMENT ON BLACK PARCHMENT._
+
+
+Penn was not surprised at this discovery. He had already recognized in
+Pomp the hero of a story which he had heard before.
+
+"But all this happened before I came to Tennessee, did it not? Have you
+lived in this cave ever since?"
+
+"It is three years since I took to the mountains. But I have spent but a
+little of that time here. Sometimes, for weeks together, I am away,
+tramping the hills, exploring the forests, sleeping on the ground in the
+open air, living on fish, game, and fruits. That is in the summer time.
+Winters I burrow here."
+
+"If you are so independent in your movements, why have you never escaped
+to the north?"
+
+"Would I be any better off there? Does not the color of a negro's skin,
+even in your free states, render him an object of suspicion and hatred?
+What chance is there for a man like me?"
+
+"Little--very true!" said Penn, sadly, contemplating the form of the
+powerful and intelligent black, and thinking with indignation and shame
+of the prejudice which excludes men of his race from the privileges of
+free men, even in the free north.
+
+"These crags," said the African, "do not look scornfully upon me because
+of the color of my skin. The watercourses sing for me their gladdest
+songs, black as I am. And the serious trees seem to love me, even as I
+love them. It is a savage, lonely, but not unhappy life I lead--far
+better for a man like me than servitude here, or degradation at the
+north. I have one faithful human friend at least. Cudjo, cunning and
+capricious as he seems, is capable of genuine devotion."
+
+"Have you two been together long?"
+
+"One day, a few weeks after I took to the mountains, I was watching for
+an animal which I heard rustling the foliage of a tree that grows up out
+of a chasm. I held my gun ready to fire, when I perceived that my animal
+was something human. It climbed the tree, ran out on one of the
+branches, leaped, like a squirrel, to some bushes that grew in the wall
+of the chasm, and soon pulled itself up to the top. Then I saw that it
+was a man--and a black man. He came towards the spot where I was
+concealed, sauntering along, chewing now and then a leaf, and muttering
+to himself; appearing as happy as a savage in his native woods, and
+perfectly unconscious of being observed. Suddenly I rose up, levelling
+my gun. He uttered a yell of terror, and started to cast himself again
+into the chasm. But with a threat I prevented him, and he threw himself
+at my feet, begging me to grant him his life, and not to take him back
+to his master.
+
+"'Who is your master?' said I.
+
+"'Job Coombs was my master,' said he, 'but I left him.'
+
+"'You are Cudjo, then!' said I,--for I had heard of him. He ran away
+from a tolerably good master on account of unmercifully cruel treatment
+from the overseer. But as he had been frightfully cut up the night
+before he disappeared, it was generally believed he had crawled into a
+hole in the rocks somewhere, and died, and been eaten by buzzards. But
+it seems that he had been concealed and cured by an old slave on the
+plantation named Pete."
+
+"Coombs's Pete!" exclaimed Penn.
+
+"You have good cause to remember the name!" said Pomp. "As soon as Cudjo
+was well enough to tramp, he took to the mountains. It was a couple of
+years afterwards that I met him. We soon came to an understanding, and
+he conducted me to his cave. Here he lived. He has always kept up a
+communication with some of his friends--especially with old Pete, who
+often brings us provisions to a certain place, and supplies us with
+ammunition. We give him game and skins, which he disposes of when he
+can, generally to such men as Pepperill. He was going to Pepperill's
+house, after meeting Cudjo, that night when the patrolmen discovered and
+whipped him. That led to Pepperill's punishment, and that led to your
+being here."
+
+"Does old Pete visit you since?"
+
+"No, but he has sent us a message, and I have seen Pepperill."
+
+"Not here!"
+
+"Nobody ever comes here, sir. We have a place where we meet our friends;
+and as for Pepperill, I went to his house."
+
+"That was bold in you!"
+
+"Bold?" The negro smiled. "What will you say then when I tell you I have
+been in Bythewood's house, since I left him? I wanted my medicine-case,
+and the bullet-moulds that belong with the rifle. I entered his room,
+where he was asleep. I stood for a long time and looked at him by the
+moonlight. It was well for him he didn't wake!" said Pomp, with a
+dancing light in his eye. "He did not; he slept well! Having got what I
+wanted, I came away; but I had changed knives with him, and left mine
+sticking in the bedstead over his head, so that he might know I had been
+there, and not accuse any one else of the theft."
+
+"The sight of that knife must have given him a shudder, when he woke,
+and saw who had been there, and remembered his wrongs towards you!" said
+Penn.
+
+"Well it might!" said Pomp. "Come here, Cudjo."
+
+Cudjo had just entered the cave, bringing some partridges which he had
+caught in traps.
+
+"It's allus 'Cudjo! Cudjo do dis! Cudjo do dat!' What ye want o' Cudjo?"
+
+Pomp paid no heed to the ill-natured response, but said calmly,
+addressing Penn,--
+
+"I have told you my reasons for escaping out of slavery: now I will show
+you Cudjo's."
+
+The back of the deformed was stripped bare. Penn uttered a groan of
+horror at the sight.
+
+"Dem's what ye call lickins!" said Cudjo, with a hideous grin over his
+shoulder. "Dat ar am de oberseer's work."
+
+"Good Heaven!" said Penn, sick at the sight of the scars. "I can't
+endure it! Take him away!"
+
+"Don't be 'fraid!" said Cudjo. "Feel of 'em, sar!" And taking Penn's
+hand, he seemed to experience a vindictive joy in passing it over his
+lash-furrowed flesh. "Not much skin dar, hey? Rough streaks along dar,
+hey? Needn't pull your hand away dat fashion, and shet yer eyes, and
+look so white! It's all ober now. What if you'd seen dat back when 'twas
+fust cut up? or de mornin' arter? Shouldn't blame ye, if 't had made ye
+sick den!"
+
+"But what had you done to merit such cruelty?" exclaimed Penn, relieved
+when the back was covered.
+
+"What me done? De oberseer didn't hap'm to like me; dat's what me done.
+But he did hap'm to like my gal; dat's more what me done! So he cut me
+up wid his own hand,--said me sassy, and wouldn't work. Coombs, him's a
+good man 'nuff,--neber found no fault 'long wid him; but debil take dat
+ar Silas Ropes!"
+
+"Silas Ropes!"
+
+"Him was Coombs's oberseer dem times," said Cudjo. "Him gi' me de
+lickins; him got my gal--me owe him for dat!" And, with a ferocious
+grimace, clinching his hands together as if he felt his enemy's throat,
+he gave a yell of rage which resounded through the cavern.
+
+"Go about your work, Cudjo," said Pomp. "What do you think of that back,
+sir?"
+
+"It is the most powerful anti-slavery document I ever saw!" said Penn.
+
+"He is a native African," said Pomp. "He was brought to this country a
+young barbarian; and he has barely got civilized--hardly got
+Christianized yet! I will make him tell you more of his history some
+day. Then you will no longer wonder that his lessons in Christian love
+have not made a saint of him! Now you must rest, while I help him get
+dinner."
+
+The manner of cooking practised in the cave was exceedingly primitive.
+The partridges broiled over the fire, the potatoes roasted in the ashes,
+and the corn-cake baked in a kettle, the meal was prepared. The
+artificial chamber was Cudjo's pantry. One of the giant's stools, having
+a broad, flat surface, served as a table. On this were placed two or
+three pewter plates, and as many odd cups and saucers. Cudjo had an old
+coffee-pot, in which he made strong black coffee. He could afford,
+however, neither sugar nor milk.
+
+Penn's wants were first attended to. He picked the bones of a partridge
+lying in bed, and thought he had never tasted sweeter meat.
+
+"With how few things men can live, and be comfortable! and what simple
+fare suffices for a healthy appetite!" he said to himself, watching Pomp
+and Cudjo at their dinner. Pomp did not even drink coffee, but quenched
+his thirst with cold water dipped from a pool in the cave.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+_IN THE CAVE AND ON THE MOUNTAIN._
+
+
+That afternoon, as Penn was alone, the mystery of his removal from Mr.
+Villars's house was suddenly revealed to him.
+
+"I remember it very distinctly now," he said to Pomp, who presently came
+in and sat by his bed. "Ropes and his crew had been to the house for me.
+Sick and delirious as I was, I knew the danger to my friends, and it
+seemed to me that I _must_ leave the house. So I watched my opportunity,
+and when Toby left me for a minute, I darted through his room over the
+kitchen, climbed down from the window to the roof of the shed, and from
+there descended by an apple tree to the ground. This is the dream I have
+been trying to recall. It is all clear to me now. But I do not remember
+any thing more. The delirium must have given me preternatural strength,
+if I walked all the distance to the spot where you found me."
+
+"That you did walk it, your bruised and bleeding feet were a sufficient
+evidence," said the negro. "You had just such delirious attacks
+afterwards, when it was as much as Cudjo and I wanted to do to hold
+you."
+
+"And the blanket--it is Toby's blanket, which I caught up as I fled,"
+added Penn.
+
+He now became extremely anxious to communicate with his friends, to
+explain his conduct to them, and let them know of his safety. Besides,
+he was now getting sufficiently strong to sit up a little, and other
+clothing was necessary than the old minister's nightgown and Toby's
+blanket.
+
+"I have been thinking it all over," said Pomp, "and have concluded to
+pay your friends a visit."
+
+"No, no, my dear sir!" exclaimed Penn, with gratitude. "I can't let you
+incur any such danger on my account. I can never repay you for half you
+have done for me already!" And he pressed the negro's hand as no white
+man had ever pressed it since the death of his good master, Dr.
+Bythewood.
+
+Pomp was deeply affected. His great chest heaved, and his powerful
+features were charged with emotion.
+
+"The risk will not be great," said he. "I will take Cudjo with me, and
+between us we will manage to bring off your clothes."
+
+At night the two blacks departed, leaving Penn alone in the fire-lit
+cave, waiting for their return, picturing to himself all the
+difficulties of their adventure, and thinking with warm gratitude and
+admiration of Pomp, whose noble nature not even slavery could corrupt,
+whose benevolent heart not even wrong could embitter.
+
+It was late in the evening when the two messengers arrived at Mr.
+Villars's house. All was dark and still about the premises. But one
+light was visible, and that was in the room over the kitchen.
+
+"That is Toby's room," said Pomp. "Stay here, Cudjo, while I give him a
+call."
+
+"Stay yuself," said Cudjo, "and lef dis chil' go. Me know Toby; you
+don't."
+
+So Pomp remained on the watch while Cudjo climbed the tree by which Penn
+had descended, scrambled up over the shed-roof, reached the window,
+opened it, and thrust in his head.
+
+Toby, who was just going to bed, heard the movement, saw the frightful
+apparition, and with a shriek dove under the bed-clothes, where he lay
+in an agony of fear, completely hidden from sight, while Cudjo, grinning
+maliciously, climbed into the room.
+
+"See hyar, ye fool! none ob dat! none ob your playin' possum wid me!"
+said the visitor, rolling Toby over, while Toby held the clothes tighter
+and tighter, as if to show a lock of wool or the tip of an ear would
+have been fatal. "Me's Cudjo! don't ye know Cudjo? Me come for de
+gemman's clo'es!"
+
+"Hey? dat you, Cudjo?" said Toby, venturing at length to peep out.
+"Wha--wha--what de debil you want hyar?"
+
+"De gemman sent me. Dis yer letter's for your massy."
+
+"De gemman?" cried Toby, jumping up. "Not Mass' Penn? not Mass'
+Hapgood?"
+
+Immense was his astonishment on being assured that Penn was alive,
+recovering, and in need of garments. Carl, who had been awakened in the
+next room by the noise, now came in to see what was the matter. He
+recognized Penn's handwriting on the note, and immediately hastened with
+it to Virginia's room. A minute after she was reading it to her father
+at his bedside. It was written with a pencil on a leaf torn from a
+little blank book in which Pomp kept a sort of diary; but never had
+gilt-edged or perfumed billet afforded the blind old minister and his
+daughter such unalloyed delight.
+
+It was long past midnight when Pomp and Cudjo returned to the cave,
+bringing with them not only Penn's garments, but a goodly stock of
+provisions, which Cudjo had hinted to Toby would be acceptable, and,
+more precious still, a letter from Mr. Villars, written by his
+daughter's own hand.
+
+Penn now began to sit up a little every day. Gloomy as the cave was, it
+was not an unwholesome abode even for an invalid. The atmosphere was
+pure, cool, and bracing; the temperature uniform. Nor did Penn suffer
+inconvenience from dampness; though often, in the deep stillness of the
+night, he could hear the far-off, faint, and melancholy murmur of
+dropping water in the hollow recesses of the cavern beyond.
+
+One day, as soon as he was well enough for the undertaking, Pomp ordered
+Cudjo to light torches and show them the hidden wonders of his
+habitation. Cudjo was delighted with the honor. He ran on before, waving
+the flaring pine knots over his head, and shouting.
+
+Penn's astonishment was profound. Keen as had been his curiosity as to
+what was beyond the shadowy walls the fire dimly revealed, he had formed
+no conception of the extent and sublimity of the various galleries,
+chambers, glittering vaults, and falling waters, embosomed there in the
+mountain.
+
+"Dis yer all my own house!" Cudjo kept repeating, with fantastic
+grimaces of satisfaction. "Me found him all my own self. Nobody war eber
+hyar afore me; Pomp am de next; and you's de on'y white man eber seen
+dis yer cave."
+
+It grew light as they proceeded, Cudjo's torch paled, and the waters of
+a subterranean stream they were following caught gleams of the
+struggling day from another opening beyond. Climbing over fragments of
+huge tumbled rocks, and up an earthy bank, Penn found himself in the
+bottom of an immense chasm. It had apparently been formed by the sinking
+down of the roof of the cave, with a tremendous superincumbent weight of
+forest trees. There, on an island, so to speak, in the midst of the
+subterranean darkness, they were growing still, their lofty tops barely
+reaching the level of the mountain above.
+
+"It was out of this sink I saw the wild beast climbing, that turned out
+to be Cudjo," said Pomp.
+
+"Dat ar am de tree," said Cudjo. "No oder way but dat ar to get up out
+ob dis yer hole."
+
+"What a terrible place!" said Penn, little thinking at the time how much
+more terrible it was soon to become as a scene of deadly human conflict.
+
+Beyond the chasm the stream flowed on into still more remote parts of
+the cave. But Penn had seen enough for one day, and the torch-bearing
+Cudjo guided them back to the spot from which they had started.
+
+Penn had now completely won the confidence of the blacks, who no longer
+placed any restrictions on his movements. It had been their original
+purpose never to suffer him to leave the cave without being blindfolded.
+But now, having shown him one opening, they freely permitted him to pass
+out by the other. This was that by which he had been brought in, and
+which was used by the blacks themselves on all ordinary occasions. It
+was a mere fissure in the mountain, hidden from external view by
+thickets. Above rose steep ledges of rocks, thickly covered with earth
+and bushes. Below yawned an immense ravine, far down in the cool, dark
+depths of which a little streamlet flowed.
+
+Pomp piloted his guest through the thickets, and along a narrow shelf,
+from which the ascent to the barren ledges was easy. Upon these they sat
+down. It was a beautiful April day. This was Penn's first visit to the
+upper world since he was brought to the cave. The scene filled him with
+rapture; the loveliness of earth and sky intoxicated him. Here he was
+among the rugged ranges of the Cumberland Mountains, in the heart of
+Tennessee. On either hand they rolled away in tremendous billows of
+forest-crowned rocks. The ravines in their sides opened into little
+valleys, and these spread out into a broad and magnificent intervale,
+checkered with farms, streaked with roads, and dotted with dwellings.
+Spring seemed to have come in a night. It was chill March weather when
+Penn left the world, which was now warm with sweet south winds, and
+green with April verdure.
+
+"How beautiful, how beautiful!" said he, receiving, with the
+susceptibility of a convalescent, the exquisite impression made upon the
+senses by every sight and sound and odor. "O! and to think that all this
+divine loveliness is marred by the passions of men! Up here, what glory,
+what peace! Down yonder, what hatred, violence, and sin! No wonder,
+Pomp, you love the mountains so!"
+
+"It is doubtful if they leave the mountains in peace much longer," said
+Pomp. He had heard the night before that fighting had begun at
+Charleston, and the news had stirred his soul. "The country is all alive
+with excitement, and the waves of its fury will reach us here before
+long. Take this glass, sir: you can see soldiers marching through the
+streets."
+
+"They are marching past my school-house!" said Penn. He became very
+thoughtful. He knew that they were soldiers recruited in the cause of
+rebellion, although Tennessee had not yet seceded,--although the people
+had voted in February against secession: a dishonest governor, and a
+dishonest legislature, aided by reckless demagogues everywhere, being
+resolved upon precipitating the state into revolution, by fraud and
+force,--if not with the consent of the people, then without it. "I had
+hoped the storm would soon blow over, and that it would be safe for me
+to go peaceably about my business."
+
+"The storm," said Pomp, his soul dilating, his features kindling with a
+wild joy, "is hardly begun yet! The great problem of this age, in this
+country, is going to be solved in blood! This continent is going to
+shake with such a convulsion as was never before. It is going to shake
+till the last chain of the slave is shaken off, and the sin is punished,
+and God says, 'It is enough!'"
+
+He spoke with such thrilling earnestness that Penn regarded him in
+astonishment.
+
+"What makes you think so, Pomp?"
+
+"That I can't tell. The feeling rises up here,"--the negro laid his hand
+upon his massive chest,--"and that is all I know. It is strong as my
+life--it fills and burns me like fire! The day of deliverance for my
+race is at hand. That is the meaning of those soldiers down there,
+arming for they know not what."
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+_PENN'S FOOT KNOCKS DOWN A MUSKET._
+
+
+Weeks passed. But now every day brought to Penn increasing anxiety of
+mind with regard to his situation. His abhorrence of war was as strong
+as ever; and his great principle of non-resistance had scarcely been
+shaken. But how was he to avoid participating in scenes of violence if
+he remained in Tennessee? And how was his escape from the state to be
+effected?
+
+"You are welcome to a home with us as long as you will stay," said Pomp.
+"I shall miss you--even Cudjo will hate to see you go."
+
+Penn thanked him, fully appreciating their kindness; but his heart was
+yearning for other things.
+
+Day after day he lingered still, however. The difficulties in the way of
+escape thickened, instead of diminishing. In February, as I have said,
+the people had voted against secession. Not content with this, the
+governor called an extra session of the legislature, which proceeded to
+carry the state out of the Union by fraud. On the sixth of May an
+ordinance of separation was passed, to be submitted to the vote of the
+people on the eighth of June. But without waiting for the will of the
+people to be made manifest, the authors of this treason went on to act
+precisely as if the state had seceded. A league was formed with the
+confederate states, the control of all the troops raised in Tennessee
+was given to Davis, and troops from the cotton states were rushed in to
+make good the work thus begun. The June election, which took place under
+this reign of terror, resulted as was to have been expected. Rebel
+soldiers guarded the polls. Few dared to vote openly the Union ticket;
+while those who deposited a close ticket were "spotted." Thus timid men
+were frightened from the ballot-box; while soldiers from the cotton
+states voted in their places. Then, as it was charged, there were the
+grossest frauds in counting the votes. And so Tennessee "seceded."
+
+The state authorities had also achieved a politic stroke by disarming
+the people. Every owner of a gun was compelled to deliver it up, or pay
+a heavy fine. The arms thus secured went to equip the troops raised for
+the Confederacy; while the Union cause was left crippled and
+defenceless. Many firelocks were of course kept concealed: some were
+taken to pieces, and the pieces scattered,--the barrel here, the stock
+there, and the lock in still another place,--to come together again only
+at the will of the owner: but, as a general thing, the loyalists could
+not be said to have arms. It was in those times that the precaution of
+Stackridge and his fellow-patriots was justified. The secrecy with which
+they had conducted their night-meetings and drills, though seemingly
+unnecessary at first, saved them from much inconvenience when the full
+tide of persecution set in. They were suspected indeed, and it was
+believed they had arms; but they still met in safety, and the place
+where their arms were deposited remained undiscovered.
+
+All this time, Penn had no money with which to defray the expenses of
+travel. When his school was broken up, several hundred dollars were due
+him for his services. This sum the trustees of the Academy placed to his
+credit in the Curryville Bank; but, in consequence of a recent
+enactment, designed to rob and annoy loyal men, he could not draw the
+money without appearing personally, and first taking the oath of
+allegiance to the confederate government. This, of course, was out of
+the question.
+
+Meanwhile he learned to rough it on the mountain with the fugitives.
+Pomp taught him the use of the rifle, and he was soon able to shoot,
+dress, and cook his own dinner. He grew robust with the exercise and
+exposure. But every day his longing eyes turned towards the valley where
+the friends were whom he loved, and whom he resolved at all hazards to
+visit again, if for the last time.
+
+At length, one morning at breakfast, he informed Pomp and Cudjo of his
+intention to leave them,--to return secretly to the village, place
+himself under the protection of certain Unionists he knew, and attempt,
+with their assistance, to make his way out of the state.
+
+"Why go down there at all?" said Pomp. "If you are determined to leave
+us, let me be your guide. I will take you over the mountains into
+Kentucky, where you will be safe. It will be a long, hard journey; but
+you are strong now; we will take it leisurely, killing our game by the
+way."
+
+"You are very kind--and----"
+
+Penn blushed and stammered. The truth was, he was willing to risk his
+life to see Virginia once more; and the thought of quitting the state
+without bidding her good by was intolerable to him.
+
+"And what?" said Pomp, smiling intelligently.
+
+"And I may possibly be glad to accept your proposal. But I am determined
+to try the other way first."
+
+Both Pomp and Cudjo endeavored to dissuade him from the undertaking, but
+in vain. That evening he took his departure. The blacks accompanied him
+to the foot of the mountain. Notwithstanding the friendship and
+gratitude he had all along felt towards them, he had not foreseen how
+painful would be the separation from them.
+
+"I never quitted friends more reluctantly!" he said, choked with his
+emotion. "Never, never shall I forget you--never shall I forget those
+rambles on the mountains, those days and nights in the cave! Let me hope
+we shall meet again, when I can make you some return for your kindness."
+
+"We may meet again, and sooner than you suppose," said Pomp. "If you
+find escape too difficult, be sure and come back to us. Ah, I seem to
+foresee that you will come back!"
+
+With this prediction ringing in his ears, and filling him with vague
+forebodings, Penn went his way; while the negroes, having shaken hands
+with him in sorrowful silence, returned to their savage mountain home,
+which had never looked so lonely to them as now, since their beloved and
+gentle guest had departed.
+
+The night was not dark, and Penn, having been guided to a bridle-path
+that led to the town, experienced no difficulty in finding his way on
+alone. He approached the minister's house from the fields. Although late
+in the evening, the windows were still lighted. He was surprised to see
+men walking to and fro by the house, and to hear their footsteps on the
+piazza floor. He drew near enough to discern that they carried muskets.
+Then the truth flashed upon him: they were soldiers guarding the house.
+
+Whether they were there to protect the venerable Unionist from
+mob-violence, or to prevent his escape, Penn could only conjecture. In
+either case it would have been extremely indiscreet for him to enter the
+house. Bitter disappointment filled him, mingled with apprehensions for
+the safety of his friends, and remorse at the thought that he himself
+had, although unintentionally, been instrumental in drawing down upon
+them the vengeance of the secessionists.
+
+Penn next thought of Stackridge. It was indeed upon that sturdy patriot
+that he relied chiefly for aid in leaving the state. He took a last,
+lingering look at the minister's house,--the windows whose cheerful
+light had so often greeted him on his way thither, in those delightful
+winter evenings which were gone, never to return,--the soldiers on the
+piazza, symbolizing the reign of terror that had commenced,--and with a
+deep inward prayer that God would shield with his all-powerful hand the
+beleaguered family, he once more crossed the fields.
+
+By a circuitous route he came in sight of Stackridge's house. There were
+lights there also, although it must have been now near midnight. And as
+Penn discerned them, he became aware of loud voices engaged in angry
+altercation around the farmer's door. It was no time for him to
+approach. He stole away as noiselessly as he had come. In the still,
+quiet night he paused, asking himself what he should do.
+
+The Academy was not far off. He remembered that he had left there, among
+other things, a pocket Bible, a gift from his sister, which he wished to
+preserve. Perhaps it was there still; perhaps he could get in and
+recover it. At all events, he had plenty of leisure on his hands, and
+could afford to make the trial.
+
+He heard the mounted patrol pass by, and waited for the sound of hoofs
+to die in the distance. Then cautiously he drew near the gloomy and
+silent school-house. Not doubting but the door was locked,--for he still
+had the key with him which he had turned for the last time when he
+walked out in defiance of the lynchers,--he resolved not to unlock it,
+but to keep in the rear of the building, and enter, if possible, by a
+window.
+
+The window was unfastened, as it had ever remained since he had opened
+it, on that memorable occasion, to communicate with Carl. Softly he
+raised the sash, and softly he crept in. His foot, however, struck an
+object on the desk, and swept it down. It fell with a loud, rattling
+sound upon the floor.
+
+It was a musket; the owner of which bounded up on the instant from a
+bench where he was lying, and seized Penn by the leg. The school-house
+had been turned into a barrack-room for recruits, and the late master
+found that he had descended upon a squad of confederate soldiers.
+
+Lights were struck, and the sleepy sentinels, rubbing their eyes open,
+recognized, struggling in the arms of their companion, the unfortunate
+young Quaker.
+
+"I knowed 'twas him! I knowed 'twas him!" cried his overjoyed captor,
+who proved to be no other than Silas Ropes's worthy friend Gad. "I heern
+him gittin' inter the winder, but I kept dark till he knocked my gun
+down; then I grabbed him! He's a traitor, and this time will meet a
+traitor's doom!"
+
+"My friends," said Penn, recovering from the agitation of his first
+surprise and struggle, "I am in your power. It is perhaps the best thing
+that could happen to me; for I have committed no crime, and I cannot
+doubt but that I shall receive justice all the sooner for this accident.
+You need not take the trouble to bind me; I shall not attempt to
+escape."
+
+His captors, however, among whom he recognized with some uneasiness more
+than one of those who had been engaged in lynching him, persisted in
+binding him upon a bench, in no very comfortable position, and then set
+a guard over him for the remainder of the night.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+_CONDEMNED TO DEATH._
+
+
+Early the next morning Virginia Villars overheard the soldiers
+conversing on the piazza. The mention of a certain name arrested her
+attention. She listened: what they said terrified her. Penn Hapgood had
+been apprehended during the night, and his trial by drum-head
+court-martial was at that moment proceeding.
+
+"Mr. Pepperill!" she called, in a scarcely audible whisper; and, looking
+around, Daniel saw her alarmed face at the window.
+
+Daniel was one of the soldiers who had been detailed to guard the house.
+Strongly against his will, he had been compelled to enlist, in order to
+avoid the persecutions of his secession neighbors. Such was already
+becoming the fate of many whose hearts were not in the cause, whose
+sympathies were all with the government against which they were forced
+to rebel.
+
+"What, marm?" said Pepperill, meekly.
+
+"Is it true what that man is saying?"
+
+"About the schoolmaster? I--I'm afeard it ar true! They've cotched him,
+marm, and there's men that's swore the death of him, marm."
+
+Virginia flew to inform her father. The old man rose up instantly,
+forgetting his blindness, forgetting his own feebleness, and the danger
+into which he would have rushed, to go and plead Penn's cause.
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, for him, the guard crossed their muskets before
+him, refusing to let him pass. Their orders were, not only to defend the
+house, but also to prevent his leaving it.
+
+"Then I will go alone!" said Carl, who was to have been his guide. And
+scarcely waiting to receive instructions from Virginia and her father,
+he ran out, slipping between the soldiers, who had no orders to detain
+any person but the minister, and ran to the Academy.
+
+The mockery of a trial was over. The prisoner had been condemned. The
+penalty pronounced against him was death. Already the noose was dangling
+from a tree, and some soldiers were bringing from the school-house a
+table to serve as a scaffold. Silas Ropes, who had a feather stuck in
+his cap, and wore an old rusty scabbard at his side, and flourished a
+sword, enjoying the title of "lieutenant," obtained for him through
+Bythewood's influence; Lysander Sprowl, who had been honored with a
+captaincy from the same source, and who, though a forger, and late a
+fugitive from justice, now boldly defied the power of the civil
+authorities to arrest him, trusting to that atrocious policy of the
+confederate government which virtually proclaimed to the robber and
+murderer, "Become, now, a traitor to your country, and all other crimes
+shall be forgiven you;"--these, and other persons of like character,
+appeared chiefly active in Penn's case. That they had no right whatever
+to constitute themselves a court-martial, and bring him to trial, they
+knew perfectly well. They had not waited even for a shadow of authority
+from their commanding officer. What they were about to do was nothing
+more nor less than murder.
+
+Penn, with his hands tied behind him, and surrounded by a violent
+rabble, some armed, and others unarmed, was already mounted upon the
+table, when Carl arrived, and attempted to force his way through the
+crowd.
+
+"Feller-citizens and soldiers!" cried Lieutenant Ropes, standing on a
+chair beside the scaffold, "this here man has jest been proved to be a
+traitor and a spy, and he is about to expatiate his guilt on the
+gallus."
+
+Two men then mounted the table, passed the noose over Penn's neck, drew
+it close, and leaped down again.
+
+"Now," said Ropes, "if you've got any confession to make 'fore the table
+is jerked out from under ye, you can ease your mind. Only le' me
+suggest, if you don't mean to confess, you'd better hold yer tongue."
+
+Penn, pale, but perfectly self-possessed, expecting no mercy, no
+reprieve, made answer in a clear, strong voice,--
+
+"I can't confess, for I am not guilty. I die an innocent man. I appeal
+to Heaven, before whose bar we must all appear, for the justice you deny
+me."
+
+In his shirt sleeves, his head uncovered, his feet bare, his naked
+throat enclosed by the murderous cord, his hands bound behind him, he
+stood awaiting his fate. Carl in the mean time struggled in vain to
+break through the ring of soldiers that surrounded the extemporized
+scaffold,--screamed in vain to obtain a hearing.
+
+"Let him go, and you may hang me in his place!"
+
+The soldiers answered with a brutal laugh,--as if there would be any
+satisfaction in hanging him! But the offer of self-sacrifice on the part
+of the devoted Carl touched one heart, at least. Penn, who had
+maintained a firm demeanor up to this time, was almost unmanned by it.
+
+"God bless you, dear Carl! Remember that I loved you. Be always honest
+and upright; then, if you die the victim of wrong, it will be your
+oppressors, not you, who will be most unhappy. Good by, dear Carl. Bear
+my farewell to those we love. Don't stay and see me die, I entreat you!"
+
+Yet Carl staid, sobbing with grief and rage.
+
+"Why don't you hurry up this business?" cried Lysander Sprowl, angrily,
+coming out of the school-house. "Somebody tie a handkerchief over his
+eyes, and get through some time to-day."
+
+"All right, cap'm," said Ropes. "Make ready now, boys, and take away
+this table in a hurry, when I give the word."
+
+"Hold on, there! What's going on?" cried an unexpected voice, and a
+recruiting officer from the village made his appearance, riding up on a
+white horse.
+
+The summary proceedings were stayed, and the case explained. The man
+listened with an air of grim official importance, his coarse red
+countenance betraying not a gleam of sympathy with the prisoner. Yet
+being the superior in rank to any officer present (Silas called him
+"kunnel"), besides being the only one of them all who had been regularly
+commissioned by the confederate government, this man held Penn's fate in
+his hands.
+
+"Hanging's too good for such scoundrels!" he said, frowning at the
+prisoner. "As for this particular case, there's only one thing to be
+said: his life shall be spared on only one condition."
+
+Carl's heart almost stood still, in his eagerness to listen. Even Penn
+felt a faint--a very faint--pulse of hope in his breast. The "kunnel"
+went on.
+
+"Let him take his choice--either to hang, or enlist. What do you say,
+youngster? Which do you prefer--the death of a traitor, or the glorious
+career of a soldier in the confederate army?"
+
+"It is impossible for me, sir," said Penn, in a voice of deep feeling
+and unalterable conviction--"it is impossible for me to bear arms
+against my country!"
+
+"But the Confederate States shall be your country, and a country to be
+proud of!" said the man.
+
+"I am a citizen of the United States; to the United States I owe
+allegiance," said Penn. "So far from being a traitor, I am willing to
+die rather than appear one."
+
+"Then you won't enlist?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Not even to save your life?"
+
+"Not even to save my life!"
+
+"Then," growled the man, turning away, "if you will be such a fool, I've
+nothing more to say."
+
+So it only remained for Penn to submit quietly to his fate. The
+executioners laid hold of the table, and waited for the order to remove
+it.
+
+But just then Carl, breaking through the crowd, threw himself before the
+officer's horse.
+
+"O, Colonel Derring! hear me--von vord!"
+
+"Von vord!" repeated the officer, with a coarse laugh, mocking him.
+"What's that, you Dutchman?"
+
+"You vill let him go, and I shall wolunteer in his place!" said Carl.
+
+"You!" The officer regarded him critically. Carl, though so young, was
+very sturdy. "You offer yourself as a substitute, eh, if I will spare
+his life?"
+
+"Carl!" cried Penn, "I forbid you! You shall not commit that sin for me!
+Better a thousand times that I should die than that you should be a
+rebel in arms against your country."
+
+"I have no country," answered Carl, ingeniously excusing himself. "I am
+vot this man says, a Tuchman. I vill enlisht mit him, and he vill shpare
+your life."
+
+"Boy, it's a bargain," said Colonel Derring, whose passion for obtaining
+recruits overruled every other consideration. "Cut that fellow's cords,
+lieutenant, and let him go. Come along with me, Dutchy."
+
+Ropes obeyed, and Penn, bewildered, almost stunned, by the sudden change
+in his destiny, saw himself released, and beheld, as in a dream, poor
+Carl marching off as his substitute to the recruiting station.
+
+"Now let me give you one word of advice," said Captain Sprowl in his
+ear. "Don't let another night find you within twenty miles of that
+halter there, if you wouldn't have your neck in it again."
+
+"Will you give me a safe conduct?" said Penn, who thought the advice
+excellent, and would have been only too glad to act upon it.
+
+"I've no authority," said Sprowl. "You must take care of yourself."
+
+Penn looked around upon the ferocious, disappointed faces watching him,
+and felt that he might about as well have been despatched in the first
+place, as to be let loose in the midst of such a pack of wolves
+thirsting for his blood. He did not despair, however, but, putting on
+his clothes, determined to make one final and desperate effort to
+escape.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+_THE ESCAPE._
+
+
+Walking off quickly across the field towards Mrs. Sprowl's house, he
+turned suddenly aside from the path and plunged into the woods.
+
+He soon perceived that he was followed. A man--only one--came through
+the undergrowth. Penn stopped. "God forgive me!" he said within himself;
+"but this is more than human nature can bear!" He had been, as it were,
+smitten on one cheek and on the other also: it was time to smite back.
+He picked up a club: his nerves became like steel as he grasped it: his
+eyes flashed fire.
+
+The man advanced; he was unarmed. Suddenly Penn dropped his club, and
+uttered a cry of joy. It was his friend Stackridge.
+
+"What! the Quaker will fight?" said the farmer, with a grim smile.
+
+"That shows," said Penn, bursting into tears as he wrung the farmer's
+hand, "that I have been driven nearly insane!"
+
+"It shows that some of the insanity has been driven out of you!" replied
+Stackridge, beginning to have hopes of him. "If you had taken my pistol
+and used it freely in the first place, or at least shown a good will to
+use it, you'd have proved yourself a good deal more of a man in my
+estimation, and been quite as well off."
+
+"Perhaps," murmured Penn, convinced that this passive submission to
+martyrdom was but a sorry part to play.
+
+"But now to business," said Stackridge. "You must get away as quickly
+and secretly as possible, unless you mean to stay and fight it out. I am
+here to help you. I have a horse in the woods here, at your disposal. I
+thought there might be such a thing as your slipping through their
+hands, and so I took this precaution. I will show you a bridle-road that
+will take you to the house of a friend of mine, who is a hearty
+Unionist. You can leave my horse with him. He will help you on to the
+house of some friend of his, who will do the same, and so you will
+manage to get out of the state. I advise you to travel by night, as a
+general thing; but just now it seems necessary that you should see a
+little hard riding by daylight. You'll find some luncheon in the
+saddlebags. When you get into some pretty thick woods, leave the road,
+and find a good place to tie up till night; then go on cautiously to my
+friend's house. I'll give you full directions, while we're finding the
+horse."
+
+They made haste to the spot where the animal was tied.
+
+"He has been well fed," said the farmer. "You will water him at the
+first brook you cross, and let him browse when you stop. Now just trade
+that coat for one that will make you look a little less like a Quaker
+schoolmaster."
+
+He had brought one of his own coats, which he made Penn put on, and then
+exchanged hats with him. Penn was admirably disguised. Brief, then, were
+the thanks he uttered from his overflowing heart, short the
+leave-takings. He was mounted. Stackridge led the horse through the
+bushes to the bridle-path.
+
+"Now, don't let the grass grow under your feet till you are at least
+five miles away. If you meet anybody, get along without words if you
+can; if you can't, let words come to blows as quick as you please, and
+then put faith in Dobbin's heels."
+
+Again, for the last time, he made Penn the offer of a pistol. There was
+no leisure for idle arguments on the subject. The weapon was accepted.
+The two wrung each other's hands in silence: there were tears in the
+eyes of both. Then Stackridge gave Dobbin a resounding slap, and the
+horse bounded away, bearing his rider swiftly out of sight in the woods.
+
+All this had passed so rapidly that Penn had scarcely time to think of
+any thing but the necessity of immediate flight. But during that
+solitary ride through the forest he had ample leisure for reflection. He
+thought of the mountain cave, whose gloomy but quiet shelter, whose dark
+but nevertheless humane and hospitable inmates he seemed to have quitted
+weeks ago, so crowded with experiences had been the few hours since last
+he shook Pomp and Cudjo by the hand. He thought of Virginia and her
+father, to visit whom for perhaps the last time he had incurred the risk
+of descending into the valley; whom now he felt, with a strangely
+swelling heart, that he might never see again. And he thought with
+grief, pity, and remorse of Carl, a rebel now for his sake.
+
+These things, and many more, agitated him as he spurred the farmer's
+horse along the narrow, shaded, lonesome path. He met an old man on
+horseback, with a bright-faced girl riding behind him on the crupper,
+who bade him a pleasant good morning, and pursued their way. Next came
+some boys driving mules laden with sacks of corn. At last Penn saw two
+men in butternut suits with muskets on their shoulders. He knew by their
+looks that they were secessionists hastening to join their friends in
+town. They regarded him suspiciously as he came galloping up. Penn
+perceived that some off-hand word was necessary in passing them.
+
+"Hurry on with those guns!" he cried; "they are wanted!"
+
+And he dashed away, as if his sole business was to hurry up guns for the
+confederate cause.
+
+He met with no other adventure that day. He followed Stackridge's
+directions implicitly, and at evening, leaving his horse tied in the
+woods, approached on foot the house to which he had been sent.
+
+He was cordially received by the same old man whom he had seen riding to
+town in the morning with a bright-faced girl clinging behind him. At a
+hint from Stackridge the man had hastily ridden home again, passing Penn
+at noon while he lay hidden in the woods; and here he was, honest,
+friendly, vigilant, to receive and protect his guest.
+
+"You did well," he said, "to turn off up the mountain; for I am not the
+only man that passed you there. You have been pursued. Three persons
+have gone on after you. I met them as I was going into town; they
+inquired of me if I had seen you, and when I got home I found they had
+passed here in search of you. They have not yet gone back."
+
+This was unpleasant news. Yet Penn was soon convinced that he had been
+extremely fortunate in thus throwing his pursuers off his track. It was
+far better that they should have gone on before him, than that they
+should be following close upon his heels.
+
+He staid with the farmer all night, and departed with him early the next
+morning to pursue his journey. It was not safe for him to keep the road,
+for he might at any moment meet his pursuers returning; accordingly, the
+old man showed him a circuitous route along the base of the mountains,
+which could be travelled only on foot, and by daylight.
+
+"Here I leave you," said his kind old guide, when they had reached the
+banks of a mountain stream. "Follow this run, and it will take you
+around to the road, about a mile this side of my brother's house.
+There's a bridge near which you can wait, when you get to it. If your
+pursuers go back past my house, then I will harness up and drive on to
+the bridge, and water my horse there. You will see me, and get in to
+ride, and I will take you to my brother's, and make some arrangement for
+helping you on still farther to night."
+
+So they parted; the lonely fugitive feeling that the kindness of a few
+such men, scattered like salt through the state, was enough to redeem it
+from the fate of Sodom, which otherwise, by its barbarism and injustice,
+it would have seemed to deserve.
+
+Following the stream in its windings through a wilderness of thickets
+and rocks, he reached the bridge about the middle of the afternoon. His
+progress had been leisurely. The day was warm, bright, and tranquil. The
+stream poured over ledges, or gushed among mossy stones, or tumbled down
+jagged rocks in flashing cascades. Its music filled him with memories of
+home, with love that swelled his heart to tears, with longings for peace
+and rest. Its coolness and beauty made a little Sabbath in his soul, a
+pause of holy calm, in the midst of the fear and tumult that lay before
+and behind him.
+
+During that long, solitary ramble he had pondered much the great
+question which had of late agitated his mind--the question which, in
+peaceful days, he had thought settled with his own conscience forever.
+But days of stern experience play sad havoc with theories not founded in
+experience. In all the ordinary emergencies of life Penn had found the
+doctrine of non-resistance to evil, of overcoming evil with good,
+beautiful and sublime. But had he not the morning before given way to a
+natural impulse, when he seized a club, firmly resolved to oppose force
+with force? The recollection of that incident had led him into a
+singular train of reasoning.
+
+"I know," he said, "that it is still the highest doctrine. But am I
+equal to it? Can I, under all circumstances, live up to it? I have seen
+something of the power and recklessness of the faction that would
+destroy my country. Would I wish to see my country submit? Never! Such
+submission would be the most unchristian thing it could do. It would be
+the abandonment of the cause of liberty; it would be to deliver up the
+whole land to the blighting despotism of slavery; it would postpone the
+millennium I hope for thousands of years. I see no other way than that
+the nation must resist; and what I would have the nation do I should be
+prepared, if called upon, to do myself. If this government were a
+Christian government I would have it use only Christian weapons, and no
+doubt those would be effectual for its preservation. But there never was
+a Christian government yet, and probably there will not be for an age or
+two. Governments are all founded on human policy, selfishness, and
+force. Or if _I_ was entirely a Christian, then _I_ would have no
+temptation, and no right, to use any but spiritual weapons. But until I
+attain to these, may I not use such weapons as I have?"
+
+These thoughts revolved slowly and somewhat confusedly in the young
+man's mind, when an incident occurred to bring form, sharply and
+suddenly, out of that chaos.
+
+He had reached the bridge. He looked up and down the road, and saw no
+human being. It was hardly time to expect the farmer yet; so he climbed
+down upon some dry stones in the bed of the stream, where he could watch
+for his coming, and be at the same time hidden from view and sheltered
+from the sun.
+
+He had not been long in that situation when he heard the sounds of
+hoofs. It was not his white-haired farmer whom he saw approaching, but
+two men on horseback. They were coming from the same direction in which
+he was looking for the old man. As they drew near, he discovered that
+one was a negro. The face of the other he recognized shortly afterwards.
+It was that of Mr. Augustus Bythewood, who was evidently taking
+advantage of the fine weather to make a little journey, accompanied by a
+black servant.
+
+Penn's heart contracted within him as he thought of his friend Pomp, and
+of the wrongs he had suffered at this man's hands. He thought of his own
+safety too, and crept under the bridge. He had time, however, before he
+disappeared, to catch a glimpse of three other horsemen coming from the
+north. His heart beat fast, for he knew in an instant that these were
+his pursuers returning.
+
+He had already prepared for himself a good hiding-place, in a cavity
+between the two logs that supported the bridge. Upon the butment, close
+under the trembling planks, he lay, when Bythewood and his man rode
+over. The dust rattled upon him through the cracks, and sifted down into
+the stream. The thundering and shaking of the planks ceased, but he
+listened in vain to hear the hoofs of the two horses clattering off in
+the distance. To his alarm he perceived that Bythewood and his man had
+halted on the other side of the bridge, and were going to water their
+horses in the bed of the stream. Clashing and rattling down the steep,
+stony banks, and plashing into the water, came the foam-streaked
+animals. The negro rode one, and led the other by the bridle. There he
+sat in the saddle, watching the eager drinking of the thirsty beasts,
+and pulling up their heads occasionally to prevent them from swallowing
+too fast or too much; all in full sight of the concealed schoolmaster.
+Bythewood, after dismounting, also walked down to the edge of the stream
+in full view.
+
+Such was the situation when the three horsemen from the north arrived.
+They all rode their animals down the bank into the water. Penn had not
+been mistaken as to their character and business. Two of them were the
+men who had adjusted the noose to his neck the day before. The third was
+no less a personage than Captain Lysander Sprowl. Penn lay breathless
+and trembling in his hiding-place; for those men were but a few yards
+from him, and all in such plain view that it seemed inevitable but they
+must discover him.
+
+"What luck?" said Bythewood, carelessly, seating himself on a rock and
+lighting a cigar.
+
+"The rascal has given us the slip," said Lysander, from his horse. "I
+believe we have passed him, and so, on our way back, we'll search the
+house of every man suspected of Union sentiments. He started off with
+Stackridge's horse, and we tracked him easy at first, but to-day we
+haven't once heard of him."
+
+"It's my opinion he don't intend to leave the state," said Bythewood,
+coolly smoking. "Sam, walk those horses up and down the road till I call
+you: I want a little private talk with the captain."
+
+The captain's attendants likewise took the hint, reined their horses up
+out of the water, rode over the shaking bridge and Penn's head under it,
+and proceeded to search the next house for him, while Sprowl was
+conversing with Augustus.
+
+"Let's go over the other side," said Bythewood, "where we can be in the
+shade. The sun is powerful hot."
+
+They accordingly walked over Penn's head a moment later, climbed down
+the same rocks he had descended, picked their way along the dry stones
+to the bridge, and took their seats in its shadow beneath him, and so
+near that he could easily have reached over and taken the captain's cap
+from his head!
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+_UNDER THE BRIDGE._
+
+
+"The colonel wasn't aware of your sentiments," said Sprowl, "or he
+wouldn't have let him off for fifty substitutes."
+
+"Or if you and Ropes," retorted Bythewood, "had only put through the job
+with the celerity I had a right to expect of you, he would have been
+strung up before the colonel had a chance to interfere." And he puffed
+impatiently a cloud of smoke, whose fragrance was wafted to the nostrils
+of the listener under the planks.
+
+"Well," said Lysander, accepting a cigar from his friend, "if he gets
+out of the state,"--biting off the end of it,--"and never shows himself
+here again,"--rubbing a match on the stones,--"you ought to be
+satisfied. If he stays, or comes back,"--smoking,--"then we'll just
+finish the little job we begun."
+
+Penn lay still as death. What his thoughts were I will not attempt to
+say; but it must have given him a curious sensation to hear the question
+of his life or death thus coolly discussed by his would-be assassins
+over their cigars.
+
+"Where are you bound?" asked Lysander.
+
+"O, a little pleasure excursion," said Bythewood. "There's to be some
+lively work at home this evening, and I thought I'd better be away."
+
+"What's going on?"
+
+"The colonel is going to make some arrests. About fifteen or twenty
+Union-shriekers will find themselves snapped up before they think of it.
+Stackridge among the first. 'Twas he, confound him! that helped the
+schoolmaster off."
+
+"Has the colonel orders to make the arrests?"
+
+"No, but he takes the responsibility. It's a military necessity, and the
+government will bear him out in it. Every man that has been known to
+drill in the Union Club, and has refused to deliver up his arms, must be
+secured. There's no other way of putting down these dangerous fellows,"
+said Augustus, running his jewelled fingers through his curls.
+
+"But why do you prefer to be away when the fun is going on?"
+
+"There may be somebody's name in the list on whose behalf I might be
+expected to intercede."
+
+"Not old Villars!" exclaimed Lysander.
+
+"Yes, old Villars!" laughed Augustus,--"if by that lively epithet you
+mean to designate your venerable father-in-law."
+
+"By George, though, Gus! ain't it almost too bad? What will folks say?"
+
+"Little care I! Old and blind as he is, he is really one of the most
+dangerous enemies to our cause. His influence is great with a certain
+class, and he never misses an opportunity to denounce secession. That he
+openly talks treason, and harbors and encourages traitors arming against
+the confederate government, is cause sufficient for arresting him with
+the others."
+
+"Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be better
+for our plans to have him out of the way."
+
+"Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wife
+will welcome you back again."
+
+"And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorably
+on a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"
+
+There was another who saw too,--a sudden flash of light, as it were,
+revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of the
+friendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes,
+glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curly
+head.
+
+"If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.
+
+"The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."
+
+"Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we will
+secure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, we
+will merely promise to do everything we can for him--and do nothing."
+
+"And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.
+
+"You shall have what you can get of it,--I don't care for the property!"
+replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man,
+foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means into
+Ohio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold of
+until we have whipped the north."
+
+"That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.
+
+"Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.
+
+"And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."
+
+So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on the
+stones,--Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge of
+the butment within an inch of Penn's leg.
+
+Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they passed out from the
+shadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidential
+discourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy.
+They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of each
+other,--Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastened
+to rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+_THE RETURN INTO DANGER._
+
+
+Trembling with excitement Penn got down from the butment, and peering
+over the bank, saw his enemies in the distance.
+
+What was to be done? Had he thought only of his own safety, his way
+would have been clear. But could he abandon his friends? forsake
+Virginia and her father when the toils of villany were tightening around
+them? leave Stackridge and his compatriots to their fate, when it might
+be in his power to forewarn and save them?
+
+How he, alone, suspected, pursued, and sorely in need of assistance
+himself, was to render assistance to others, he did not know. He did not
+pause to consider. He put his faith in the overruling providence of God.
+
+"With God's aid," he said, "I will save them or sacrifice myself."
+
+As for fighting, should fighting prove necessary, his mind was made up.
+The conversation of the villains under the bridge had settled that
+question.
+
+Instead, therefore, of waiting for the friend who was to help him on his
+journey, he leaped up from under the bridge, and set out at a fast walk
+to follow his pursuers back to town.
+
+He had travelled but a mile or two when he saw the farmer driving
+towards him in a wagon.
+
+"Are you lost? are you crazy?" cried the astonished old man. "You are
+going in the wrong direction! The men have been to my house, searched
+it, and passed on. Get in! get in!"
+
+"I will," said Penn; "but, Mr. Ellerton, you must turn back."
+
+He briefly related his adventure under the bridge. The old man listened
+with increasing amazement.
+
+"You are right! you are right!" he said. "We must get word to
+Stackridge, somehow!" And turning his wagon about, he drove back over
+the road as fast as his horse could carry them.
+
+It was sunset when they reached his house. There they unharnessed his
+horse and saddled him. The old man mounted.
+
+"I'll do my best," he said, "to see Stackridge, or some of them, in
+season. If I fail, may be you will succeed. But you'd better keep in the
+woods till dark."
+
+Ellerton rode off at a fast trot. Penn hastened to the woods, where
+Stackridge's horse was still concealed. The animal had been recently fed
+and watered, and was ready for a hard ride. The bridle was soon on his
+head, and Penn on his back, and he was making his way through the woods
+again towards home.
+
+As soon as it was dark, Penn came out into the open road; nor did he
+turn aside into the bridle-path when he reached it, because he wished to
+avoid travelling in company with Ellerton, who was to take that route.
+He also supposed that Sprowl's party would be returning that way. In
+this he was mistaken. Riding at a gallop through the darkness, his heart
+beating anxiously as the first twinkling lights of the town began to
+appear, he suddenly became aware of three horsemen riding but a short
+distance before him. They had evidently been drinking something stronger
+than water at the house of some good secessionist on the road, perhaps
+to console themselves for the loss of the schoolmaster,--for these were
+the excellent friends who were so eager to meet with him again! They
+were merry and talkative, and Penn, not ambitious of cultivating their
+acquaintance, checked his horse.
+
+It was too late. They had already perceived his approach, and hailed
+him.
+
+What should he do? To wheel about and flee would certainly excite their
+suspicions; they would be sure to pursue him; and though he might
+escape, his arrival in town would be thus perhaps fatally delayed. The
+arrests might be even at that moment taking place.
+
+He reflected, "There are but three of them; I may fight my way through,
+if it comes to that."
+
+Accordingly he rode boldly up to the assassins, and in a counterfeit
+voice, answered their hail. He was but little known to either of them,
+and there was a chance that, in the darkness, they might fail to
+recognize him.
+
+"Where you from?" demanded Sprowl.
+
+"From a little this side of Bald Mountain," said Penn,--which was true
+enough.
+
+"Where bound?"
+
+"Can't you see for yourself?" said Penn, assuming a reckless,
+independent air. "I am following my horse's nose, and that is going
+pretty straight into Curryville."
+
+"Glad of your company," said Sprowl, riding gayly alongside. "What's
+your business in town, stranger?"
+
+"Well," replied Penn, "I don't mind telling you that my business is to
+see if I and my horse can find something to do for old Tennessee."
+
+"Ah! cavalry?" suggested Lysander, well pleased.
+
+"I should prefer cavalry service to any other," answered Penn.
+
+"There's where you right," said Sprowl; and he proceeded to enlighten
+Penn on the prospects of raising a cavalry company in Curryville.
+
+"Did you meet any person on the road, travelling north?"
+
+"What sort of a person?"
+
+"A young feller, rather slim, brown hair, blue eyes, with a half-hung
+look, a perfect specimen of a sneaking abolition schoolmaster."
+
+"I--I don't remember meeting any such a person," said Penn, as if
+consulting his memory. "I met _two_ men, though, this side of old Bald.
+One of them was a rather gentlemanly-looking fellow; but I think his
+hair was black and curly."
+
+"The schoolmaster's har is wavy, and purty dark, I call it," said one of
+Sprowl's companions.
+
+"He must have been the man!" said Lysander, suddenly stopping his horse.
+"What sort of a chap was with him? Did he look like a Union-shrieker?"
+
+"Now I think of it," said Penn, "if that man wasn't a Unionist at heart,
+I am greatly mistaken. His sympathies are with the Lincolnites, I know
+by his looks!" He neglected to add, however, that the man was black.
+
+Sprowl was excited.
+
+"It was some tory, piloting the schoolmaster! Boys, we must wheel about!
+It never'll do for us to go home as long as we can hear of him alive in
+the state. Remember the pay promised, if we catch him."
+
+"Luck to you!" cried Penn, riding on, while Sprowl turned back in
+ludicrous pursuit of his own worthy friend, Mr. Augustus Bythewood, and
+his negro man Sam.
+
+Penn lost no time laughing at the joke. His heart was too full of
+trouble for that. It had seemed to him, at each moment of delay, that
+the blind old minister was even then being torn from his home--that he
+could hear Virginia's sobs of distress and cries for help. He urged his
+horse into a gallop once more, and struck into a path across the fields.
+He rode to the edge of the orchard, dismounted, tied the horse, and
+hastened on foot to the house.
+
+The guard was gone from the piazza, and all seemed quiet about the
+premises. The kitchen was dark. He advanced quickly, but noiselessly, to
+the door. It was open. He went in.
+
+"Toby!" No answer. "Carl! Carl!" he called in a louder voice. No Carl
+replied. Then he remembered--what it seemed so strange that he could
+even for an instant forget--that Carl was in the rebel ranks, for his
+sake.
+
+He had seen a light in the sitting-room. He found the door, and knocked.
+No answer came. He opened it softly, and entered. There burned the lamp
+on the table--there stood the vacant chairs--he was alone in the
+deserted room.
+
+"Virginia!"
+
+He started at his own voice, which sounded, in the hollow apartment,
+like the whisper of a ghost.
+
+He was proceeding still farther, wondering at the stillness, terrified
+by his own forebodings, feeling in his appalled heart the contrast
+between this night, and this strange, furtive visit, and the happy
+nights, and the many happy visits, he had made to his dear friends there
+only a few short months before,--pausing to assure himself that he was
+not walking in a dream,--when he heard a footstep, a flutter, and saw,
+spring towards him through the door, pale as an apparition, Virginia.
+Speechless with emotion, she could not utter his name, but she testified
+the joy with which she welcomed him by throwing herself, not into his
+arms, but upon them, as he extended his hands to greet her.
+
+"What has happened?" said Penn.
+
+"O, my father!" said the girl. And she bowed her face upon his arm,
+clinging to him as if he were her brother, her only support.
+
+"Where is he?" asked Penn, alarmed, and trembling with sympathy for that
+delicate, agitated, fair young creature, whom sorrow had so changed
+since he saw her last.
+
+"They have taken him--the soldiers!" she said.
+
+And by these words Penn knew that he had come too late.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+_STACKRIDGE'S COAT AND HAT GET ARRESTED._
+
+
+The outrage had been committed not more than twenty minutes before. Toby
+had followed his old master, to see what was to be done with him, and
+Virginia and her sister were in the street before the house, awaiting
+the negro's return, when Penn arrived.
+
+"You could have done no good, even if you had come sooner," said
+Virginia. "There is but one man who could have prevented this cruelty."
+
+"Why not send for him?"
+
+"Alas! he left town this very day. He is a secessionist; but he has
+great influence, and appears very friendly to us."
+
+Penn started, and looked at her keenly.
+
+"His name?"
+
+"Augustus Bythewood."
+
+Penn recoiled.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Virginia, that man is thy worst enemy? I did not tell thee how I
+learned that the arrests were to be made. But I will!" And he told her
+all.
+
+"O," said she, "if I had only believed what my heart has always said of
+that man, and trusted less to my eyes and ears, he would never have
+deceived me! If he, then, is an enemy, what hope is there? O, my
+father!"
+
+"Do not despair!" answered Penn, as cheerfully as he could. "Something
+may be done. Stackridge and his friends may have escaped. I will go and
+see if I can hear any thing of them. Have faith in our heavenly Father,
+my poor girl! be patient! be strong! All, I am sure, will yet be well."
+
+"But you too are in danger! You must not go!" she exclaimed,
+instinctively detaining him.
+
+"I am in greater danger here, perhaps, than elsewhere."
+
+"True, true! Go to your negro friends in the mountain--there is yet
+time! go!" and she hurriedly pushed him from her.
+
+"When I find that nothing can be done for thy father, then I will return
+to Pomp and Cudjo--not before."
+
+And he glided out of the back door just as Salina entered from the
+street.
+
+He left the horse where he had tied him, and hastened on foot to
+Stackridge's house.
+
+He approached with great caution. There was a light burning in the
+house, as on other summer evenings at that hour. The negroes--for
+Stackridge was a slaveholder--had retired to their quarters. There were
+no indications of any disturbance having taken place. Penn reconnoitred
+carefully, and, perceiving no one astir about the premises, advanced
+towards the door.
+
+"Halt!" shouted a voice of authority.
+
+And immediately two men jumped out from the well-curb, within which they
+had been concealed. Others at the same time rushed to the spot from dark
+corners, where they had lain in wait. Almost in an instant, and before
+he could recover from his astonishment, Penn found himself surrounded.
+
+"You are our prisoner, Mr. Stackridge!" And half a dozen bayonets
+converged at the focus of his breast.
+
+The young man comprehended the situation in a moment. Stackridge had not
+been arrested; he was absent from home; these ambushed soldiers had been
+awaiting his return; and they had mistaken the schoolmaster for the
+farmer.
+
+The night was just light enough to enable them to recognize the coat and
+hat which had been Stackridge's, and which Penn still wore as a
+disguise. Features they could not discern so easily. The prisoner made
+no resistance, for that would have been useless; no outcry, for that
+would have revealed to them their mistake. He submitted without a word;
+and they marched him away, just as his supposed wife and children flew
+to the door, calling frantically, "Father! father!" and lamenting his
+misfortune.
+
+By proclaiming his own identity, the prisoner would have gained nothing,
+probably, but a halter on the spot. On the other hand, by accepting the
+part forced upon him, he was at least gaining time. It might be, too,
+that he was rendering an important service to the real Stackridge by
+thus withdrawing the soldiers from their ambush, and giving him an
+opportunity to reach home and learn the danger he had escaped.
+
+These considerations passed rapidly through his mind. He slouched his
+hat over his eyes, and marched with sullen, stubborn mien. In this
+manner he was taken to the village, and conducted to an old storehouse,
+which had lately been turned into a guard-house by the confederate
+authorities.
+
+There was a great crowd around the dimly-lighted door, and other
+prisoners, similarly escorted, were going in. Amid the press and hurry,
+Penn passed the sentinels still unrecognized. He immediately found
+himself wedged in between the wall and a number of Tennessee Union men,
+some terrified into silence, others enraged and defiant, but all
+captives like himself.
+
+In the farther end of the room, at a desk behind the counter, with
+candles at each side, sat the confederate colonel to whom Penn owed his
+life. He seemed to be receiving the reports of those who had conducted
+the arrests, and to be examining the prisoners. Beside him sat his aids
+and clerks. Before him Penn knew that he must soon appear. He was in
+darkness and disguise as yet, but he could not long avoid facing the
+light and the eyes of those who knew him well. What, then, would be his
+fate? Would he be retained a prisoner, like the rest, or delivered over
+to the mob that sought his life? He had time to decide upon a course
+which he hoped might gain him some favor.
+
+Taking advantage of the shadow and confusion in which he was, he slipped
+off his disguise, and, elbowing his way through the crowd of prisoners,
+appeared, hat in hand and coat on arm, before the interior guard, and
+demanded to speak with the commanding officer.
+
+"Sir, who are you?" said the colonel, failing, at first, to recognize
+him. Upon which Mr. Ropes, who was at his side, swore a great oath that
+it was the schoolmaster himself.
+
+"But I have had no report of his arrest," cried the colonel. "How came
+you here, sir?"
+
+"I wish to place myself under your protection," said Penn. "You received
+a substitute in my place, and ordered me to be set at liberty. But your
+commands have been disregarded; I have been hunted for two days; and
+men, calling themselves confederate soldiers, are still pursuing me.
+Under these circumstances I have thought it best to appeal to you,
+relying upon your honor as a gentleman and an officer."
+
+"But how came you here? Who brought in this fellow?"
+
+Nobody could answer that question, although the leader of the party that
+had brought him in was at the very moment on the spot, waiting to make
+his report of Stackridge's arrest.
+
+As soon, therefore, as Penn could gain a hearing, he continued.
+
+"I came in, sir, with a crowd of soldiers and prisoners, none of whom
+recognized me. The sentinels no doubt supposed I was arrested, and so
+let me pass."
+
+"Well, sir, you have done a bold thing, and perhaps the best thing for
+you. Since you have voluntarily delivered yourself up, I shall feel
+bound to protect you. But I have only one of two alternatives to offer
+you--the same I offer to each of these worthy gentlemen here, giving
+them their choice. Take the oath of allegiance to the confederate
+government, and volunteer; that is one condition."
+
+"I am a northern man," replied Penn, "and owe allegiance to the United
+States; so that condition it is impossible for me to accept."
+
+"Very well; I'll give you time to think of it. In the mean while, my
+only means of affording the protection you demand will be to retain you
+a prisoner. Guard, take this man below."
+
+Not another word was said; and, indeed, Penn had already gained more
+than he hoped for, with the eyes of Lieutenant Ropes glaring on him so
+murderously. He was conducted to a stairway that led to the cellar, and
+ordered to descend. He obeyed, marching down between two soldiers on
+guard at the door, and two more at the foot of the stairs.
+
+It was a lugubrious subterranean apartment, lighted by a single lantern
+suspended from a beam. By its dim rays he discovered the figures of half
+a dozen fellow-prisoners; and, in the midst of the group, he recognized
+one, the sight of whom caused him to forget all his own misfortunes in
+an instant.
+
+"My dear Mr. Villars! I have found you at last!" he exclaimed, grasping
+the old clergyman's hand.
+
+"Penn, is it you?" said the blind old man.
+
+He was seated on a dry goods box. Trembling and feeble, he arose to
+greet his young friend, with a noble courtesy very beautiful and
+touching under the circumstances.
+
+"I cannot tell thee," said Penn, in a choked voice, "how grieved I am to
+see thee here!"
+
+"And grieved am I that you should see me here!" Mr. Villars replied. "I
+hoped you were a hundred miles away. I was never sorry to have your
+company till now! How does it happen?"
+
+Penn made him sit down again, giving him Stackridge's coat for a
+cushion, and related briefly his adventures.
+
+"It is very singular," said the old man, thoughtfully. "It seems almost
+providential that you are here."
+
+"I think it is so," said Penn. "I think I am here because I may be of
+service to you."
+
+"Ah!" replied the old man, with a tender smile, "my life is of but
+little value compared with yours. I am a worn-out servant; my day of
+usefulness is past; I am ready to go home. I do not speak repiningly,"
+he added. "If I can serve my country or my God by suffering--if nothing
+remains for me but that--then I will cheerfully suffer. Our heavenly
+Father orders all things; and I am content. All will be well with us, if
+we are obedient children; all will yet be well with our poor country, if
+it is true to itself and to Him."
+
+"O, do not say thy day of usefulness is past, as long as thou canst
+speak such words!" said Penn, deeply moved.
+
+"Thank God, I have faith! Even in this darkest hour of my life and of my
+country, I think I have more faith than ever. And I have love, too--love
+even for those violent men who have thrown us into this dungeon. They
+know not what they do. They act in ignorance and passion. They seek to
+destroy our dear old government; but they will only destroy what they
+are striving so madly to build up."
+
+"Yes," said one of the prisoners, "the institution will be ruined by
+those very men! They are worse than the abolitionists themselves; and I
+hate 'em worse!"
+
+"Hate their errors, Captain Grudd, hate their crimes, but hate no man,"
+Mr. Villars softly replied.
+
+"And you would have us submit to them?"
+
+"Submit, when you can do no better. But even for their sakes, even for
+the love of them, my friend, resist their crimes when you can. No man
+will stand by and see a maniac murder his wife and children. It will be
+better for the poor maddened wretch himself to prevent him; don't you
+think so, Penn?"
+
+"I do," said Penn, who knew that the argument was meant for himself, not
+for the rest. "I am thoroughly convinced. You were always right on that
+subject; and I was always wrong."
+
+"I perceive," said the old man, "that you have had experience. It is not
+I that have convinced you; it is the logic of events."
+
+One by one, the prisoners from above followed Penn down the dismal
+stairs. Only now and then a fainthearted Unionist consented to regain
+his liberty by taking the oath of allegiance, and "volunteering." At
+length the room above was cleared, and no more prisoners arrived. Penn,
+who had kept anxious watch for his friend Stackridge, was congratulating
+himself upon the perfect success of his stratagem, when the corporal who
+had brought him in came rushing down the stairs, accompanied by
+Lieutenant Ropes.
+
+"Stackridge!" he called, searching among the prisoners; "is Medad
+Stackridge here?"
+
+No man had seen him.
+
+"Then I tell you," said the corporal to Silas, "he is hid somewhere up
+stairs, or else he has escaped; for I can swear I arrested him."
+
+"I can swear you was drunk," said Silas, much disgusted. "You have let
+the wust man of the lot slip through your fingers; for it's certain he
+ain't here."
+
+Penn trembled for a minute. But both Ropes and the corporal passed him
+without a suspicion of what was agitating him; and he felt immensely
+relieved when they returned up the stairs, and the mystery remained
+unexplained.
+
+The prisoners in the cellar were about twelve in number. Nearly all were
+sturdy, earnest men. Penn noticed that they were not cast down by their
+misfortunes, but that they whispered among themselves, exchanging
+glances of intelligence and defiance. At length Captain Grudd came to
+him, and taking him aside, said,--
+
+"Well, professor, what do you think of the situation?"
+
+"We seem to be at the mercy of the villains," replied Penn.
+
+"Not so much at their mercy either, if we choose to be men! What we want
+to know is, will you join us? And if there should be a little fighting
+to do, will you help do it?"
+
+Penn grasped his hand. "Show me that we have any chance of escape, and I
+am with you!"
+
+"I thought you would come to it at last!" Grudd smiled grimly. "What we
+want, to begin with, is a few handy weapons. But we have all been
+disarmed. Have you anything? I noticed they did not search you, probably
+because you came voluntarily and gave yourself up."
+
+"I have Stackridge's pistol. It is in the coat Mr. Villars is sitting
+on."
+
+Grudd's eyes lighted up at this unexpected good news. "It will come in
+play! We must shoot or strangle these fellows, and have their
+guns,"--with a glance at the soldiers on guard.
+
+"But the room up stairs is full of soldiers, and there is a strong guard
+posted outside, probably surrounding the building."
+
+"We will have as little to do with them as possible. Young man, I have a
+secret for you. Do you know whose property this is?"
+
+"Barber Jim's, I believe."
+
+"And do you know there's a secret passage from this cellar into the
+cellar under Jim's shop? It was dug by Jim himself, as a hiding-place
+for his wife and children. He had bought them, but the heirs of their
+former owner had set up a claim to them. After that matter was settled,
+he showed Stackridge the place; and that's the way we came to make use
+of it. We stored our guns in the passage, and came through into this
+cellar at night to consult and drill. The store being shut, and the
+windows all fastened and boarded up, made a quiet place of it. As good
+luck would have it, the night before the military took possession, Jim
+warned us, and we carefully put back every stone in the wall, and left.
+But some of our guns are still in the passage, if they have not been
+discovered. We have only to open the wall again to get at them. But
+before that can be done, the guard must be disposed of."
+
+Penn, who had listened with intense interest to this recital, drew a
+long breath.
+
+"Is the passage behind the spot where Mr. Villars is sitting?"
+
+"Within three feet of the box."
+
+"Then I fear it is discovered. I heard a noise behind that wall not ten
+minutes ago."
+
+Grudd started. "Are you sure?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"It must be Jim himself; or else we have been betrayed."
+
+"Was the secret known to many?"
+
+"To all our club, and one besides," said Grudd, frowning anxiously.
+"Stackridge made a mistake; I told him so!"
+
+"How?"
+
+"We were drilling here that night when Dutch Carl came to tell us you
+were in danger. Stackridge said he knew the boy, and would trust him. So
+he brought him in here. And Carl is now a rebel volunteer."
+
+"With him your secret is safe!" Penn hastened to assure the captain.
+"Stackridge was right. Carl----"
+
+He paused suddenly, looking at the stairs. Even while the boy's name was
+on his lips, the boy himself was entering the cellar. He carried a
+musket. He wore the confederate uniform. He was accompanied by Gad and
+an officer. They had come to relieve the guard. The men who had
+previously been on duty at the foot of the stairs retired with the
+officer, and Gad and Carl remained in their place.
+
+Penn at the sight was filled with painful solicitude. To have seen his
+young friend and pupil shoulder a confederate musket, knowing that it
+was the love of him that made him a rebel, would alone have been grief
+enough. How much worse, then, to see him placed here in a position where
+it might be necessary, in Grudd's opinion, to "shoot or strangle" him!
+But having once exchanged glances with the boy, Penn's mind was set at
+rest.
+
+"He has kept your secret," he said to Grudd. "He is very shrewd; and if
+we need help, he will help us."
+
+But the noise Penn had heard behind the wall was troubling the captain.
+They retired to that part of the cellar. They had been there but a short
+time when a very distinct knock was heard on the stones. It sounded like
+a signal. Grudd responded, striking the wall with his heel as he leaned
+his back against it. Then followed a low whistle in the passage. The
+captain's dark features lighted up.
+
+"We are safe!" he whispered in Penn's ear. "It is Stackridge himself!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+_THE FLIGHT OF THE PRISONERS._
+
+
+Then commenced strategy. The prisoners gathered in a group before the
+closed passage, and talked loud, while Grudd established a communication
+with Stackridge. In the course of an hour a single stone in the wall had
+been removed. Through the aperture thus formed a bottle was introduced.
+This Grudd pretended afterwards to take from his pocket; and having
+(apparently) drank, he offered it to his friends. All drank, or appeared
+to drink, in a manner that provoked Gad's thirst. He vowed that it was
+too bad that anything good should moisten the lips of tory prisoners
+while a soldier like him went thirsty.
+
+"I never saw the time, Gad," said the captain, "when I wouldn't share a
+bottle with you, and I will now."
+
+Gad held his gun with one hand and grasped the bottle with the other.
+Penn seized the moment when his eyes were directed upwards at the cobweb
+festoons that adorned the cellar, and the sound of gurgling was in his
+throat, to whisper in Carl's ear,--
+
+"Appear to drink, and by and by pass the bottle up stairs."
+
+Carl understood the game in an instant.
+
+"Here, you fish!" he said, in the midst of Gad's potation. "Leafe a
+little trop for me, vill you?"
+
+It was some time before the torrent in Gad's throat ceased its
+murmuring, and he removed his eyes from the cobwebs. Then, smacking his
+lips, and remarking that it was the right sort of stuff, he passed the
+bottle to Carl.
+
+"Who's the fish this time?" said he, enviously, after Carl had made
+believe swallow for a few seconds.
+
+He snatched the bottle, and was drinking as before, when the guard
+above, hearing what passed, called for a taste.
+
+"You shust vait a minute till Gad trinks it all up, then you shall pe
+velcome to vot ish left," said Carl. And, possessing himself of the
+bottle, he handed it up to his comrades.
+
+All the soldiers above were asleep except the sentinels. They drank
+freely, and returned the bottle to Gad. He had not finished it before he
+began to be overcome by drowsiness, its contents having been drugged for
+the occasion.
+
+He sat down on the stairs, and soon slid off upon the ground. Carl, who
+had not in reality swallowed a drop, followed his example. Their guns
+were then taken from them. Penn stole softly up the stairs, and
+reconnoitred while Grudd and his companions opened the passage in the
+wall.
+
+"All asleep!" Penn whispered, descending. "Carl!"
+
+Carl opened one eye, with a droll expression.
+
+"Are you asleep?"
+
+"Wery!" said Carl.
+
+"Will you stay here, or go with us?"
+
+"You vill take me prisoner?"
+
+"If you wish it."
+
+"Say you vill plow my brains out if I say vun vord, or make vun noise."
+
+"Come, come! there's no time for fooling, Carl!"
+
+"It ish no vooling!" And Carl insisted on Penn's making the threat.
+"Veil, then, I vill vake up and go 'long mit you."
+
+Mr. Villars had been for some time sleeping soundly; for it was now long
+past midnight, and weariness had overcome him. Penn awoke him; but the
+old man refused to escape. "Go without me. I shall be too great a burden
+for you." But not one of his fellow-prisoners would consent to leave him
+behind; and, listening to their expostulations, he at length arose to
+accompany them.
+
+Stackridge was in the passage, with the old man Ellerton, whom Penn had
+sent to warn him. They had brought a supply of ammunition for the guns,
+which they had loaded and placed ready for use. Penn, supporting and
+guiding the old minister, was the first to pass through into the cellar
+under Jim's shop. Stackridge, preceding them with a lantern, greeted
+their escape with silent and grim exultation. Carl came next. Then, one
+by one, the others followed, each grasping his gun; the rays of the
+lantern lighting up their determined faces, as they emerged from the low
+passage, and stood erect, an eager, whispering group, around Stackridge.
+
+Brief the consultation. Their plans were soon formed. Leaving Gad asleep
+in the cellar behind them; the guard asleep, the soldiers all asleep, in
+the room above; the sentinels outside the old storehouse keeping watch,
+pacing to and fro around the cellar, in which not a prisoner
+remained,--Stackridge and his companions filed out noiselessly through
+Jim's closed and silent shop, upon the other street, and took their way
+swiftly through the town.
+
+Having appointed a place of meeting with his friends, Penn left them,
+and hastened alone to Mr. Villars's house. The lights had long been out.
+But the sisters were awake; Virginia had not even gone to bed. She was
+sitting by her window, gazing out on the hushed, gloomy, breathless
+summer night,--waiting, waiting, she scarce knew for what,--when she was
+aware of a figure approaching, and knew Penn's light, quick tap at the
+door.
+
+She ran down to admit him. His story was quickly told. Toby was roused
+up; blankets were rolled together, and all the available provisions that
+could be carried were thrust into baskets.
+
+"How shall we get news to you? You will want to hear from your father."
+Penn hastily thought of a plan. "Send Toby to the round rock,--he knows
+where it is,--on the side of the mountain. Between nine and ten o'clock
+to-morrow night. I will try to communicate with him there." And Penn,
+bidding the young girl be of good cheer, departed as suddenly as he had
+arrived.
+
+The old negro accompanied him, assisting to carry the burdens. They
+found Stackridge's horse where he had been fastened. Penn made Toby
+mount, take a basket in each hand, and hold the blankets before him on
+the neck of the horse; then, seizing the bridle, and running by his
+side, he trotted the beast away across the field in a manner that shook
+the old negro up in lively style.
+
+"O, Massa Penn! I can't stan' dis yere! I's gwine all to pieces! I shall
+drap some o' dese yer tings, shore!"
+
+"You must stand it! hold on to them!" said Penn. "And now keep still,
+for we are near the road."
+
+The party had halted at the rendezvous. Mr. Villars, quite exhausted by
+his unusual exertions, was seated on the ground when Penn came up with
+Toby and the horse. Toby dismounted; the old minister mounted in his
+place, and the negro was sent back.
+
+All this passed swiftly and silently; the fugitives were once more on
+the march, Penn walking by the old man's side. Scarce a word was spoken;
+the tramp of feet and the sound of the horse's hoofs alone broke the
+silence of the night. Suddenly a voice hailed them:--
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+And they discovered some horsemen drawn up before them beside the road.
+It was the night-patrol.
+
+"Friends," answered Stackridge, marching straight on.
+
+"Halt, and give an account of yourselves!" shouted the patrol.
+
+"We are peaceable citizens, if let alone," said Stackridge. "You'd
+better not meddle with us."
+
+The horsemen waited for them to pass, then, firing their pistols at the
+fugitives, put spurs to their horses, and galloped away towards the
+village.
+
+"Don't fire!" cried Stackridge, as half a dozen pieces were levelled in
+the darkness. "We've no ammunition to throw away, and no time to lose.
+They'll give the alarm. Take straight to the mountains!"
+
+Nobody had been hit. Turning aside from the road, they took their way
+across the broad pasture lands that sloped upwards to the rocky hills.
+The dark valley spread beneath them; on the other side rose the dim
+outlines of the shadowy mountain range; over all spread a still,
+cloudless sky, thick-strewn with glittering star-dust.
+
+In the village, the ringing of bells startled the night with a wild
+clamor. Stackridge laughed.
+
+"They'll make noise enough now to wake Gad himself! But noise won't hurt
+anybody. Hear the drums!"
+
+"They are coming this way," said Penn.
+
+"Fools, to set out in pursuit of us with drums beating!" said Captain
+Grudd. "Very kind in them to give us notice! They should bring lighted
+torches, too."
+
+"Once in the mountains," said Stackridge, "we are safe. There we can
+defend ourselves against a hundred. Other Union men will join us, or
+bring us supplies. We ought to have made this move before; and I'm glad
+we've been forced to it at last. If every Union man in the south had
+made a bold stand in the beginning, this cursed rebellion never would
+have got such a start."
+
+Suddenly bells and drums were silent. "The less noise the more danger,"
+said Stackridge. The way was growing difficult for the horse's feet. The
+cow-paths, which it had been easy to follow at first, disappeared among
+the thickets. At length, on the crest of a hill, the party halted to
+rest.
+
+"Daylight!" said Stackridge, turning his face to the east.
+
+The sky was brightening; the shadows in the valley melted slowly away;
+far off the cocks crew.
+
+"Hark!" said the captain. "Do you hear anything?"
+
+"I heard a woice!" said Carl.
+
+"Hist!" said Penn. "Look yonder! there they come! around those bushes at
+the foot of the oak!"
+
+"Sure as fate, there they are!" said the captain.
+
+The fugitives crowded to his side, eager, grasping their gunstocks, and
+peering with intent eyes through the darkness in the direction in which
+he pointed.
+
+"Take the horse," said Stackridge to Penn, "and lead him up through that
+gap out of the reach of the bullets. We'll stay and give these rascals a
+lesson. Go along with him, Carl, if you don't want to fight your
+friends."
+
+There were not guns enough for all; and Grudd had Stackridge's revolver.
+There was nothing better, then, for Penn and Carl to do than to consent
+to this arrangement.
+
+Penn went before, leading the horse up the dry bed of a brook. Carl
+followed, urging the animal from behind. Mr. Villars rode with the
+baggage, which had been lashed to the saddle. Only the clashing of the
+iron hoofs on the stones broke the stillness of the morning in that
+mountain solitude. Stackridge and his compatriots had suddenly become
+invisible, crouching among bushes and behind rocks.
+
+The retreat of Penn and his companions was discovered by the pursuing
+party, who mistook it for a general flight of the fugitives. They rushed
+forward with a shout. They had a rugged and barren hill to ascend. Half
+way up the slope they saw flashes of fire burst from the rocks above,
+heard the rapid "crack--crackle--crack!" of a dozen pieces, and
+retreated in confusion down the hill again.
+
+Stackridge and his companions coolly proceeded to reload their guns.
+
+"They didn't know we had arms," said the farmer, with a grim smile.
+"They'll be more cautious now."
+
+"We've done for two or three of 'em!" said Captain Grudd. "There they
+lie; one is crawling off."
+
+"Let him crawl!" said Stackridge. "Sorry to kill any of 'em; but it's
+about time for 'em to know we're in 'arnest."
+
+"They've gone to cover in the laurels," said Grudd. "Let's shift our
+ground, and watch their movements."
+
+Penn and Carl in the mean time made haste to get the horse and his
+burden beyond the reach of bullets. They toiled up the bed of the brook
+until it was no longer passable. Huge bowlders lay jammed and crowded in
+clefts of the mountain before them. Penn remembered the spot. He had
+been there in spring, when down over the rocks, now covered with lichens
+and dry scum, poured an impetuous torrent.
+
+"Now I know where I am," he said. "I don't believe it is possible to get
+the horse any farther. We will wait here for our friends. Mr. Villars,
+if you will dismount, we will try to get you up on the bank."
+
+"I pity you, my children," said the old man. "You should never have
+encumbered yourselves with such a burden as I am. I can neither fight
+nor run. Is it sunrise yet?"
+
+"It is sunrise, and a beautiful morning! The fresh rays come to us here,
+sifted through the dewy trees. Sit down on this rock. Find the luncheon,
+Carl. Ah, Carl!"--Penn regarded the boy affectionately,--"I am glad to
+have you with me again, but I can't forget that you are a rebel! and a
+deserter!"
+
+"I a deserter? you mishtake," said Carl. "I am a prisoner."
+
+"You disobeyed me, Carl! I told you not to enlist. You did wrong."
+
+"Now shust listen," said Carl, "and I vill tell you. I did right. Cause
+vy. You are alive and vell now, ain't you?"
+
+Penn smilingly admitted the fact.
+
+"And that is petter as being hung?"
+
+"I am not so very certain of that, Carl!"
+
+"Vell, I am certain for you. Hanging ish no goot. Hunderts of vellers
+that don't like the rebels no more as you do, wolunteer rather than to
+be hung. Shows their goot sense."
+
+"But you have taken an oath--you are under a solemn engagement, Carl, to
+fight against the government."
+
+"You mishtake unce more--two times. I make a pargain. I say to that man,
+'You let Mishter Hapgoot go free, and not let him be hurt, and I vill be
+a rebel.' Vell, he agrees. But he don't keep his vord. He lets 'em go
+for to hang you vunce more. Now, if he preaks his part of the pargain,
+vy shouldn't I preak mine?"
+
+"Well, Carl," said Penn, laughing, while his eyes glistened, "I trust
+thy conscience is clear in the matter. I can only say that, though I
+don't approve of thy being a rebel, I love thee all the better for it.
+What do you think, Mr. Villars?"
+
+"Sometimes people do wrong from a motive so pure and disinterested that
+it sanctifies the action. This is Carl's case, I think."
+
+"Hello!" cried Carl, jumping up from the bank on which they were seated.
+"Guns! They are at it again! I vill go see!"
+
+The boy disappeared, scrambling down the dry bed of the torrent.
+
+The firing continued at irregular intervals for half an hour. Carl did
+not return. Penn grew anxious. He stood, intently listening, when he
+heard a noise behind him, and, turning quickly, saw the glimmer of
+musket-barrels over the rocks.
+
+"Fire!" said a voice.
+
+And Penn threw himself down under the bank just in time to avoid the
+discharge of half a dozen pieces aimed at his head.
+
+"What is the trouble?" asked the old man, who was lying on some blankets
+spread for him there in the shade.
+
+Before Penn could reply, Silas Ropes and six men came rushing down upon
+them. Stackridge had been out-generalled. Whilst he and his men were
+being diverted by a feigned attack in front, two different parties had
+been despatched by circuitous routes to get in his rear. In executing
+the part of the plan intrusted to him, Ropes had unexpectedly come upon
+the schoolmaster and his companion. A minute later both were seized and
+dragged up from the bed of the torrent.
+
+"Ye don't escape me this time!" said Silas, with brutal exultation. "Tie
+him up to the tree thar; serve the old one the same. We can't be
+bothered with prisoners."
+
+"What are you going to do to that helpless, blind old man?" cried Penn.
+"Do what you please with me; I expect no mercy,--I ask none. But I
+entreat you, respect his gray hair!"
+
+The appeal seemed to have some effect even on the savage-hearted Silas.
+He glanced at his men: they were evidently of the opinion that the
+slaughter of the old clergyman was uncalled for.
+
+"Wal, tie the old ranter, and leave him. Quick work, boys. Got the
+schoolmaster fast?"
+
+"All right," said the men.
+
+"Wal, now stand back here, and les' have a little bayonet practice."
+
+Penn knew very well what that meant. His clothes were stripped from him,
+in order to present a fair mark for the murderous steel; and he was
+bound to a tree.
+
+"One at a time," said Silas. "Try your hand, Griffin.
+_Charge--bayonet!_"
+
+In vain the old minister endeavored to make himself heard in his
+friend's behalf. He could only pray for him.
+
+Penn saw the ferocious soldier springing towards him, the deadly bayonet
+thrust straight at his heart. In an instant the murder would have been
+done. But when within two paces of his victim, the steel almost touching
+his breast, Griffin uttered a yell, dropped his gun, flung up his hands,
+and fell dead at Penn's feet.
+
+At the same moment a light curl of smoke was wafted from the heaped
+bowlders in the chasm above, and the echoes of a rifle-crack
+reverberated among the rocks.
+
+The assassins were terror-struck. They looked all around; not a human
+being was in sight. Distant firing proclaimed that Stackridge and his
+men were still engaged. The death that struck down Griffin seemed to
+have fallen from heaven. They waited but a moment, then fled
+precipitately, leaving Penn still bound, but uninjured, with the dead
+rebel at his feet.
+
+Then two figures came gliding swiftly down over the rocks. Penn uttered
+a cry of joy. It was Pomp and Cudjo.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+_THE DEAD REBEL'S MUSKET._
+
+
+Pomp came reloading his rifle, while Cudjo, knife in hand, flew at the
+cords that confined the schoolmaster.
+
+In his gratitude to Heaven and his deliverers, Penn could have hugged
+that grotesque, half-savage creature to his heart. But no time was to be
+lost. Snatching the knife, he hastened to release the bewildered
+clergyman.
+
+"Pomp, my noble fellow!" The negro turned from looking after the
+retreating rebels, with a gleam of triumph on his proud and lofty
+features: Penn wrung his hand. "You have twice saved my life--now let me
+ask one more favor of you! Take Mr. Villars to your cave--do for him
+what you have done for me. He is a much better Christian, and far more
+deserving of your kindness, than I ever was."
+
+"And you?" said Pomp, quietly.
+
+"I will take my chance with the others." And Penn in few words explained
+the occurrences of the night and morning.
+
+Pomp shrugged his shoulders frowningly. The time was at hand when he and
+Cudjo could no longer enjoy in freedom their wild mountain life; even
+they must soon be drawn into the great deadly struggle. This he foresaw,
+and his soul was darkened for a moment.
+
+"Cudjo! Shall we take this old man to our den?"
+
+"No, no! Don't ye take nobody dar! on'y Massa Hapgood."
+
+"But he is blind!" said Penn.
+
+"Others will come after who are not blind," said Pomp, his brow still
+stern and thoughtful.
+
+"My friends," interposed the old clergyman, mildly, "do nothing for me
+that will bring danger to yourselves, I entreat you!"
+
+These unselfish words, spoken with serious and benignant aspect, touched
+the generous chords in Pomp's breast.
+
+"Why should we blacks have anything to do with this quarrel?" he said
+with earnest feeling. "Your friends down there"--meaning Stackridge and
+his party--"are all slaveholders or pro-slavery men. Why should we care
+which side destroys the other?"
+
+"There is a God," answered Mr. Villars, with a beaming light in his
+unterrified countenance, "who is not prejudiced against color; who loves
+equally his black and his white children; and who, by means of this war
+that seems so needless and so cruel, is working out the redemption, not
+of the misguided white masters only, but also of the slave. Whether you
+will or not, this war concerns the black man, and he cannot long keep
+out of it. Then will you side with your avowed enemies, or with those
+who are already fighting in your cause without knowing it?"
+
+These words probed the deep convictions of Pomp's breast. He had from
+the first believed that the war meant death to slavery; although of late
+the persistent and almost universal cry of Union men for the "Union as
+it was,"--the Union with the injustice of slavery at its core,--had
+somewhat wearied his patience and weakened his faith.
+
+"Here, Cudjo! help get this horse up--we can find a path for him."
+
+Reluctantly Cudjo obeyed; and almost by main strength the two athletic
+blacks lifted and pulled the animal up the bank, and out of the chasm.
+
+Penn assisted his old friend to remount, then took leave of him.
+
+"I will be with you again soon!" he cried, hopefully, as the negroes
+urged the horse forward into the thickets.
+
+Then the young Quaker, left alone, turned to look at the dead rebel. For
+a moment horrible nausea and faintness made him lean against the tree
+for support. It was the first violent death of which he had ever been an
+eye-witness. He had known this man,--who was indeed the same Griffin,
+who had assisted the unwilling Pepperill to bring the tar-kettle to the
+wood-side on a certain memorable evening; ignorant, intemperate, too
+proud to work in a region where slavery made industry a disgrace, and
+yet a fierce champion of the system which was his greatest curse. Now
+there he lay, in his dirt, and rags, and blood, his neck shot through;
+the same expression of ferocious hate with which he had rushed to
+bayonet the schoolmaster still distorting his visage;--an object of
+horror and loathing. Was it not assuming a terrible responsibility to
+send this rampant sinner to his long account? Yet the choice was between
+his life and Penn's; and had not Pomp done well? Still Penn could not
+help feeling remorse and commiseration for the wretch.
+
+"Poor Griffin! I have no murderous hatred for such as you! But if you
+come in the way of my country's safety, or of the welfare of my friends,
+you must take the penalty!"
+
+He picked up the musket that had fallen at his feet where he stood
+bound. Then, stifling his disgust, he felt in the dead man's pockets for
+ammunition. Cartridges there were none; but in their place he found some
+bullets and a powder-flask. Then putting in practice the lessons he had
+learned of Pomp when they hunted together on the mountain, he loaded the
+gun, resolutely setting his teeth and drawing his breath hard when he
+thought of the different kind of game it might now be his duty to shoot.
+
+While thus occupied he heard footsteps that gave him a sudden start. He
+turned quickly, catching up the gun. To his immense relief he saw Pomp,
+approaching with a smile.
+
+"I thought you were with Mr. Villars!"
+
+"Cudjo has gone with him. I am going with you."
+
+"O Pomp!" cried Penn, with a joyful sense of reliance upon his powerful
+and sagacious black friend. "But is Mr. Villars safe?"
+
+"Cudjo is faithful," said Pomp. "He believes the old man is your friend,
+and a friend of the slave. Besides, I promised, if he would take him to
+the cave, that my next shot, if I have a chance, should be at his old
+acquaintance, Sile Ropes."
+
+Pomp took the lead, guiding Penn through hollows and among thickets to a
+ledge crowned with shrubs of savin, whose summit commanded a view of all
+that mountain-side.
+
+They crept among the bushes to the edge of the cliff. There they paused.
+Neither friend nor foe was in sight. No sound of fire-arms was
+heard,--only the birds were singing.
+
+Penn never forgot that scene. How fresh, and beautiful, and still the
+morning was! The sunlight flushed the craggy and wooded slopes. Far off,
+dim with early mist, lay the lovely hills and valleys of East Tennessee.
+On the north the peaks of the mountain range soared away, purple, rosy,
+glorious, in soft suffusing light. In the south-west other peaks
+receded, billowy and blue. And God's pure, deep sky was over all.
+
+Touched by the divine beauty of the day, Penn lay thinking with shame of
+the scenes of human folly and violence with which it had been
+desecrated, when the negro drew him softly by the sleeve.
+
+"Look yonder! down in the edge of that little grove!"
+
+Peering through an opening in the savins through which Pomp had thrust
+his rifle, Penn saw, stealing cautiously out of the grove, a man.
+
+"It is Stackridge! He is reconnoitring."
+
+"It is a retreat," said Pomp. "See, there they all come!"
+
+"Carl with the rest, showing them the way!" added Penn.
+
+He was watching with intense interest the movements of his friends, and
+rejoicing that no foe was in sight, when suddenly Pomp uttered a warning
+whisper.
+
+"Where? what?" said Penn, eagerly looking in the direction in which the
+negro pointed.
+
+Down at their left was a long line of dark thickets which marked the
+edge of a ravine; out of which he now saw emerging, one by one, a file
+of armed men. They climbed up a narrow and difficult pass, and halted on
+the skirts of the thicket. Ten--twelve--fifteen, Penn counted. It was
+the other party that had been sent out simultaneously with that under
+Lieutenant Ropes, to get in the rear of the fugitives. And they had
+succeeded. Only a bushy ridge concealed them from Stackridge's men, who
+were coming up under the shelter of the same ridge on the other side.
+
+Penn trembled with excitement as he saw the rebels cross swiftly
+forward, skulking among the bushes, to the summit of the ridge. The
+negro's eyes blazed, but he was perfectly cool. On one knee, his left
+foot advanced,--holding his rifle with one hand, and parting the bushes
+with the other,--he smiled as he observed the situation.
+
+"Here," said he to Penn, "rest your gun in this little crotch. Now can
+you see to take aim?"
+
+"Yes," said Penn, with his heart in his throat.
+
+"Calm your nerves! Everything depends on our first shot. Wait till I
+give the word. See! they have discovered Stackridge!"
+
+"We might shout, and warn him," said Penn, whose nature still shrank
+from using any more deadly means of saving his friends.
+
+"And so discover ourselves! That never'll do. Have you sighted your
+man?"
+
+"Yes--the one lying on his belly behind that cedar."
+
+"Very well! I'll take the fellow next him. The moment you have fired,
+keep perfectly still, only draw your gun back and load. Now--fire!"
+
+Just then Stackridge and his men, in full view of their hidden friends
+on the ledge, were appearing to the fifteen ambushed rebels also.
+Suddenly the loud bang of a musket, followed instantly by the sharp
+crack of a rifle, echoed down the mountain side. The rebel behind the
+cedar sprang to his feet, dropping his gun, and throwing up his hands,
+and rushed back down the ridge, screaming, "I'm hit! I'm hit!" while the
+man next him also attempted to rise, but fell again, Pomp having
+discreetly aimed at an exposed leg.
+
+"I'm glad we've only wounded them!" whispered Penn, very pale, his lips
+compressed, his eyes gleaming.
+
+"It has the effect!" said Pomp. "Your friends have discovered the
+ambush, thanks to that coward's uproar; and now the rascals are
+panic-struck! Fire again as they go into the ravine--powder alone will
+do now--a little noise will send them tumbling!"
+
+They accordingly fired blank discharges; at the same time Stackridge and
+his friends, recovering from their momentary astonishment, charged after
+the retreating rebels, who had barely time to carry off their wounded
+and escape into the ravine, when their pursuers scaled the ridge.
+
+"I'm off!" said Pomp, creeping back through the savins. "These men are
+not my friends, though they are yours. I'll go and look after Cudjo."
+And bounding down into a hollow, he was quickly out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+_BLACK AND WHITE._
+
+
+Penn attached his handkerchief to the end of the musket, and standing
+upon the ledge, waved it over the bushes. Carl, recognizing him, was the
+first to scramble up the height. The whole party followed, each sturdy
+patriot wringing the schoolmaster's hand with hearty congratulations
+when they learned what use he had made of the rebel musket.
+
+"But the whole credit of the manoeuvre belongs not to me, but to the
+negro Pomp!" And he related the story of his own rescue and theirs.
+
+The patriots looked grave.
+
+"Where is the fellow?" asked Stackridge.
+
+"Being a fugitive slave, he feared lest he should find little favor in
+the eyes of his master's neighbors," said Penn.
+
+"That's where he was right!" said Deslow, with a bigoted and unforgiving
+expression. "Nothing under the sun shall make me give encouragement to a
+nigger's running away."
+
+Two or three others nodded grim assent to this first principle of the
+slaveholder's discipline. Penn was fired with exasperation and scorn,
+and would have separated himself from these narrow-minded patriots on
+the spot, had not Stackridge jumped up from the ground upon which he had
+thrown himself, and, striking his gun barrel fiercely, exclaimed,--
+
+"Now, that's what I call cursed foolishness, Deslow! and every man that
+holds to that way of thinking had better go over to t'other side to
+oncet! If we can't make up our minds to sacrifice our property, and,
+what's more to some folks, our prejudices, in the cause we're fighting
+for, we may as well stop before we stir a step further. I'm a
+slaveholder, and always have been; but I swear, I can't say as I ever
+felt it was such a divine institution as some try to make it out, and I
+don't believe there's a man here that thinks in his heart that it's just
+right. And as for the niggers running away, my private sentiment is,
+that I don't blame 'em a mite. You or I, Deslow, would run in their
+place; you know you would." And Stackridge wiped his brow savagely.
+
+"And as for this particular case," said Captain Grudd, with a gleam of
+light in his lean and swarthy countenance, "don't le's be blind to our
+own interests; don't le's be downright fools. I've said from the first
+that slavery and the rebellion was brother and sister,--they go
+together; and I've made up my mind to stand by my country and the old
+flag, whatever comes of the institution." All, except the conservative
+Deslow, applauded this resolution. "Then consider," added the captain,
+his deliberate, impressive manner proving quite as effective as
+Stackridge's more excited and fiery style,--"here we are fighting for
+our very lives and liberties; and if, as I say, slavery's the cause of
+this war, then we're fighting against slavery, the best we can fix it.
+How monstrous absurd 'twill be, then, for us to refuse the assistance of
+any nigger that has it to give! Bythewood, Pomp's owner, is one of the
+hottest secessionists I know; and d'ye think I want Pomp sent back to
+him, to help that side, when he has shown that he can be of such mighty
+good service to us? I move that we send the professor to make a treaty
+with him. What do you say, Mr. Hapgood?"
+
+"I say," replied Penn with enthusiasm, "that he and Cudjo are in a
+condition to do infinitely more for us than we can do for them; and if
+their alliance can be secured, I say that we ought by all means to
+secure it."
+
+"That depends," said Grudd, "upon what we intend to do. Are we going to
+make a stand here, and see if the loyal part of old Tennessee will rise
+up and sustain us? or are we going to fight our way over the mountains,
+and never come back till a Union army comes with us to set things a
+little to rights here?"
+
+"Wa'al," said Withers, who concealed a hardy courage and earnest
+patriotism under a phlegmatic and droll exterior, "while we're
+discussin' that question, I reckon we may as well have breakfast. This
+is as good a place as any,--we can take turns keeping a lookout from
+that ledge."
+
+He proceeded to kindle a fire in the hollow. The fugitives, in passing a
+field of corn, had thrust into their pockets a plentiful supply of green
+ears, which they now husked and roasted. There was a spring in the rocks
+near by, from which they drank lying on their faces, and dipping in
+their beards. This was their breakfast; during which Penn's mission to
+the blacks was fully discussed, and finally decided upon.
+
+The meal concluded, the refugees resumed their march, and entered an
+immense thick wood farther up the mountain. In a cool and shadowy spot
+they halted once more; and here Penn took leave of them, setting out on
+his visit to the cave.
+
+He had a mile to travel over a rough, wild region, where the fires that
+had formerly devastated it had left the only visible marks of a near
+civilization. In a tranquil little dell that had grown up to wild grass,
+he came suddenly upon a horse feeding. It was Stackridge's useful nag,
+which looked up from his lofty grove-shaded pasture with a low whinny of
+recognition as Penn patted his neck and passed along.
+
+A furlong or two farther on the well-known ravine opened,--dark, silent,
+profound, with its shaggy sides, one in shadow and the other in the sun,
+and its little embowered brook trickling far down there amid mossy
+stones;--as lonesome, wild, and solitary as if no human eye had ever
+beheld it before.
+
+Penn glided over the ledges, and descended along the narrow shelf of
+rock, behind the thickets that screened the entrance to the cave.
+Sunlight, and mountain wind, and summer heat he left behind, and entered
+the cool, still, gloomy abode.
+
+Cudjo ran to the mouth of the cave to meet him. "Lef me frow dis yer
+blanket ober your shoulders, while ye cool off; cotch yer de'f cold, if
+ye don't. De ol' man's a 'speckin' ye."
+
+Penn was relieved to learn that Mr. Villars had arrived in safety, and
+gratified to find him lying comfortably on the bed conversing with Pomp.
+
+"By the blessing of God, I am very well indeed, my dear Penn. These
+excellent fellow-Christians have taken the best of care of me. The
+atmosphere of the cave, which I thought at first chilly, I now find
+deliciously pure and refreshing. And its gloom, you know, don't trouble
+me," added the blind old man with a smile. "Have you had any more
+trouble since Pomp left you?"
+
+"No," said Penn; "thanks to him. Pomp, our friends want to see you and
+thank you, and they have sent me to bring you to them."
+
+The negro merely shrugged his shoulders, and smiled.
+
+"What good der tanks do to we?" cried Cudjo. "Ain't one ob dem ar men
+but what would been glad to hab us cotched and licked for runnin' away,
+fur de 'xample to de tudder niggers."
+
+"If that was true of them once, it is not now," said Penn. "Yet, Pomp,
+if you feel that there is the least danger in going to them, do not go."
+
+"Danger?" The negro's proud and lofty look showed what he thought of
+that. "Cudjo, make Mr. Hapgood a cup of coffee; he looks tired. You have
+had a hard time, I reckon, since you left us."
+
+"Him stay wid us now till he chirk up again," said Cudjo, running to his
+coffee-box. "Him and de ol' gemman stay--nobody else."
+
+While the coffee was making, Penn, sitting on one of the stone blocks
+which he had named giant's stools, repeated such parts of the late
+breakfast talk of Stackridge and his friends as he thought would
+interest Pomp and win his confidence. Then he drank the strong, black
+beverage in silence, leaving the negro to his own reflections.
+
+"Are you going again?" said Pomp.
+
+"Yes; I promised them I would return."
+
+"Take some coffee and a kettle to boil it in; they will be glad of it, I
+should think."
+
+"O Pomp! you know how to do good even to your enemies! What shall I say
+to them for you?"
+
+"What I have to say to them I will say myself," said Pomp, taking his
+rifle in one hand, and the kettle in the other, to Cudjo's great wrath
+and disgust.
+
+He set out with Penn immediately. They found the patriots reposing
+themselves about the roots of the forest trees, on the banks of a stream
+that came gurgling and plashing down the mountain side. Above them
+spread the beautiful green tops of maples, tinted with sunshine and
+softly rustling in the breeze. The curving banks formed here a little
+natural amphitheatre, carpeted with moss and old leaves, on which they
+sat or reclined, with their hats off and their guns at their sides.
+
+A sentry posted on the edge of the forest brought in Penn and his
+companion. There was a stir of interest among the patriots, and some of
+them rose to their feet. Stackridge, Grudd, and two or three others
+cordially offered the negro their hands, and pledged him their gratitude
+and friendship. Pomp accepted these tokens of esteem in silence,--his
+countenance maintaining a somewhat haughty expression, his lips firm,
+his eyes kindling with a strange light.
+
+Penn took the kettle, and proceeded, with Carl's help, to make a fire
+and prepare coffee for the company, intently listening the while to all
+that was said.
+
+Jutting from one bank of the stream, which washed its base, was a huge,
+square block covered with dark-green moss. Upon this Pomp stepped, and
+rested his rifle upon it, and bared his massive and splendid head, and
+stood facing his auditors with a placid smile, under the canopy of
+leaves. There was not among them all so noble a figure of a man as he
+who stood upon the rock; and he seemed to have chosen this somewhat
+theatrical attitude in order to illustrate, by his own imposing personal
+presence, the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"You will excuse me, gentlemen, if I cannot forget that I am talking
+with those who buy and sell men like me!"
+
+Men like him! The suggestion seemed for a moment to strike the
+slave-owning patriots dumb with surprise and embarrassment.
+
+"No, no, Pomp," cried Stackridge, "not men like you--there are few like
+you anywhere."
+
+"I wish there was more like him, and that I owned a good gang of 'em!"
+muttered the man Deslow.
+
+"I don't," replied Withers, with a drawl which had a deep meaning in it;
+"twould be too much like sleeping on a row of powder barrels, with
+lighted candles stuck in the bung holes. Dangerous, them big knowin'
+niggers be."
+
+Pomp did not answer for a minute, but stood as if gathering power into
+himself, with one long, deep breath inflating his chest, and casting a
+glance upward through the sun-lit summer foliage.
+
+"You buy and sell men, and women, and children of my race. If I am not
+like them, it is because circumstances have lifted me out of the
+wretched condition in which it is your constant policy and endeavor to
+keep us. By your laws--the laws you make and uphold--I am this day
+claimed as a slave; by your laws I am hunted as a slave;--yes, some of
+you here have joined your neighbor in the hunt for me, as if I was no
+more than a wild beast to be hounded and shot down if I could not be
+caught. Now tell me what union or concord there can be between you and
+me!"
+
+"I own," said Deslow,--for Pomp's gleaming eyes had darted significant
+lightnings at him,--"I did once come up here with Bythewood to see if we
+could find you. Not that I had anything against you, Pomp,--not a thing;
+and as for your quarrel with your master, I ain't sure but you had the
+right on't; but you know as well as we do that we can't countenance a
+nigger's running away, under any circumstances."
+
+"No!" said Pomp, with sparkling sarcasm. "Your secessionist neighbors
+revolt against the mildest government in the world, and resort to
+bloodshed on account of some fancied wrongs. You revolt against them
+because you prefer the old government to theirs. Your forefathers went
+to war with the mother country on account of a few taxes. But a negro
+must not revolt, he must not even attempt to run away, although he feels
+the relentless heel of oppression grinding into the dust all his rights,
+all that is dear to him, all that he loves! A white man may take up arms
+to defend a bit of property; but a black man has no right to rise up and
+defend either his wife, or his child, or his liberty, or even his own
+life, against his master!"
+
+Only the narrow-minded Deslow had the confidence to meet this stunning
+argument, enforced as it was by the speaker's powerful manner, superb
+physical manhood, and superior intelligence.
+
+"You know, Pomp, that your condition, to begin with, is very different
+from that of any white man. Your relation to your master is not that of
+a man to his neighbor, or of a citizen to the government; it is that of
+property to its owner."
+
+"Property!" There was something almost wicked in the wild, bright glance
+with which the negro repeated this word. "How came we property, sir?"
+
+"Our laws make you so, and you have been acquired as property," said
+Deslow, not unkindly, but in his bigoted, obstinate way. "So, really,
+Pomp, you can't blame us for the view we take of it, though it does
+conflict a little with your choice in the matter."
+
+"But suppose I can show you that you are wrong, and that even by your
+own laws we are not, and cannot be, property?" said Pomp, with a
+princely courtesy, looking down from the rock upon Deslow, so evidently
+in every way his inferior. "I will admit your title to a lot of land you
+may purchase, or reclaim from nature; or to an animal you have captured,
+or bought, or raised. But a man's natural, original owner is--himself.
+Now, I never sold myself. My father never sold himself. My father was
+stolen by pirates on the coast of Africa, and brought to this country,
+and sold. The man who bought him bought what had been stolen. By your
+own laws you cannot hold stolen property. Though it is bought and sold a
+thousand times, let the original owner appear, and it is his,--nobody
+else has the shadow of a claim. My father was stolen property, if he was
+property at all. He was his own rightful owner. Though he had been
+robbed of himself, that made no difference with the justice of the case.
+It was so with my mother. It is so with me. It is the same with every
+black man on this continent. Not one ever sold himself, or can be sold,
+or can be owned. For to say that what a man steals or takes by force is
+his, to dispose of as he chooses, is to go back to barbarism: it is not
+the law of any Christian land. So much," added Pomp, blowing the words
+from him, as if all the false arguments in favor of slavery were no more
+to the man's soul, and its eternal, God-given rights, than the breath he
+blew contemptuously forth into those mountain woods,--"so much for the
+claim of PROPERTY!"
+
+Penn was so delighted with this triumphant declaration of principles
+that he could have flung his hat into the maple boughs and shouted
+"Bravo!" He deemed it discreet, however, to confine the expression of
+his enthusiasm to a tight grasp on Carl's sympathetic hand, and to watch
+the effect of the speech on the rest.
+
+"Deslow," laughed Stackridge, himself not ill pleased with Pomp's
+arguments, "what do you say to that?"
+
+"Wal," said Deslow, "I never thought on't in just that light before; and
+I own he makes out a pooty good show of a case. But yet--" He hesitated,
+scratching for an idea among the stiff black hair that grew on his low,
+wrinkled forehead.
+
+"But yet, but yet, but yet!" said Pomp, ironically. "It's so hard, when
+our selfish interests are at stake, to confess our injustice or give up
+a bad cause! But I did not come here to argue my right to my own
+manhood. I take it without arguing. Neither did I come to ask anything
+for myself. You can do nothing for me but get me into trouble. Yet I
+believe in the cause in which you have taken up arms. I have served you
+this morning without being asked by you to do it; and I may assist you
+again when the time comes. In the mean while, if you want anything that
+I have, it is yours; for I recognize that we are brothers, though you do
+not. But I will not join you, for I am neither slave nor inferior, and I
+have no wish to be acknowledged an equal." And Pomp stepped off the rock
+with an air that seemed to say, "_I_ know who is the equal of the best
+of you; and that is enough." If this man had any fault more prominent
+than another, it was pride; yet that haughty self-assertion which would
+have been offensive in a white man, was vastly becoming to the haughty
+and powerful black.
+
+"I, for one," said the impulsive Stackridge, again grasping his hand,
+"honor the position you take. What I wanted was to thank you for what
+you have done, and to promise that you are safe from danger as far as
+regards us. I'm glad you've got your liberty. I hope you will keep it.
+You deserve it. Every slave deserves the same that has the manliness to
+strike a blow for the good old government----"
+
+"That has kept him a slave," added Pomp, with a bitter smile.
+
+"Yes; and so much the more noble in him to fight for it!" said
+Stackridge. "Now, if you don't want to let us into the secrets of your
+way of life, I can't say I blame ye. We're glad to get the coffee; and
+if you've any game or potatoes on hand, that you can spare, we'll take
+'em, and pay ye when we have a chance to forage for ourselves, which
+won't be long first."
+
+"I have some salted bear's meat that you'll be welcome to; and may be
+Cudjo can spare a little meal." His eye rested on Carl, whose fidelity
+he knew. "Let that boy come with us! We will send the provisions by
+him."
+
+Carl was delighted with the honor, for Penn was likewise going back to
+Mr. Villars with the negro.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+_WHY AUGUSTUS DID NOT PROPOSE._
+
+
+The valiant confederates, returning from the pursuit of the escaped
+prisoners, proved themselves possessed of at least one important
+qualification for serving the rebel cause. They were able to give a
+marvellously good account of themselves. Whatever the military
+authorities may have thought of it, the people believed that the little
+band of Union men had been nearly annihilated.
+
+In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Augustus Bythewood returned home,
+and went in the evening to call upon, counsel, and console the daughters
+of the old man Villars.
+
+"O, Massa Bythewood!" cried Toby, in great joy at sight of him, "dey
+been killin' ol' massa up on de mountain; and de young ladies--O, Massa
+Bythewood! ye must do sumfin' for de young ladies and ol' massa!"
+
+Mr. Augustus flattered himself that he had arrived at just the right
+time.
+
+"My dear Virginia! you cannot conceive of my astonishment and grief on
+hearing what has happened to your family! I have but just this hour
+returned to town, or I should have hastened before to assure you that
+all I can do for you I will most gladly undertake. My very dear young
+lady, be comforted, I conjure you; for it grieves me to the heart to see
+how pale, how very pale and distressed, you look!"
+
+Thus the amiable, the chivalrous, the friendly Gus overflowed with
+eloquent sympathy and protestation, pressing affectionately the hand of
+the "very pale and distressed" fair one, and bowing low his dark,
+aristocratic southern curls over it; appearing, in short, the very
+courteous, noble, and devoted gentleman he wasn't.
+
+Virginia breathed hard, compressed her lips, white with indignation as
+well as with suffering, and let him act his part. And the confident
+lover did not dream that those eyes, red with grief and surrounded by
+dark circles, saw through all his hypocritical professions, or that the
+cold, passive little hand, abandoned through the apathy of despair to
+his caresses, would have been thrust into the fire, before ever he would
+have been allowed to win it.
+
+"Surely," she managed to say in a voice scarce above a whisper, "if ever
+we needed a true, disinterested friend, it is now. Sit down; and be so
+kind as to excuse me a moment. I will call my sister."
+
+So she withdrew. And Augustus smiled. "Now is my time!" he said
+complacently to himself, resolved to make an offer of that valuable hand
+of his that very night: forlorn, friendless, wretched, was it possible
+that she could refuse such a prize? So he sat, and fondled his curls,
+and practised sweet smiles, and sympathized with Salina when she came,
+and waited for Virginia,--little knowing what was to happen to her, and
+to him, and to all, before ever he saw that vanished face again.
+
+For Virginia had business on her hands that night. She remembered the
+hurried directions Penn had given for communicating with her father, and
+she was already preparing to send off Toby to the round rock.
+
+"Gracious, missis!" said the old negro, returning hastily to the kitchen
+door where she stood watching his departure, "dar's a man out dar, a
+waitin'! Did ye see him, missis?"
+
+She had indeed seen a human figure advance in the darkness, as if with
+intent to intercept or follow him. Perplexed and indignant at the
+discovery, she suffered the old servant to return into the house, and
+remained herself to see what became of the figure. It moved off a little
+way in the darkness, and disappeared.
+
+"Wha' sh'll we do?" Toby rolled up his eyes in consternation. "Do jes'
+speak to Mr. Bythewood, Miss Jinny; he's de bestist friend--he'll tell
+what to do."
+
+"No, no, Toby!" said Virginia, collecting herself, and speaking with
+decision. "He is the last person I would consult. Toby, you must try
+again; for either you or I must be at the rock before ten o'clock."
+
+"You, Miss Jinny? Who eber heern o' sich a ting!"
+
+"Go yourself, then, good Toby!" And she earnestly reminded him of the
+necessity.
+
+"O, yes, yes! I'll go! Massa can't lib widout ol' Toby, dat's a fac'!"
+
+But looking out again in the dark, his zeal was suddenly damped. "Dey
+cotch me, dey sarve me wus 'n dey sarved ol' Pete, shore! Can't help
+tinkin' ob dat!"
+
+Virginia saw what serious cause there was to dread such a catastrophe.
+But her resolution was unshaken.
+
+"Toby, listen. That man out there is a spy. His object is to see if any
+of our friends come to the house, or if we send to them. He won't molest
+you; but he may follow to see where you go. If he does, then make a wide
+circuit, and return home, and I will find some other means of
+communication."
+
+Thus encouraged, the negro set out a second time. Virginia followed him
+at a distance. She saw, as she anticipated, the figure start up again,
+and move off in the direction he was going. Toby accordingly commenced
+making a large detour through the fields, and both he and the shadow
+dogging him were soon out of sight.
+
+Then Virginia lost no time in executing the other plan at which she had
+hinted. Instead of returning, to give up the undertaking in despair, and
+listen to matrimonial proposals from Gus Bythewood, she took a long
+breath, gathered up her skirts, and set out for the mountain.
+
+There was a new moon, but it was hidden by clouds. Still the evening was
+not very dark. The long twilight of the summer day still lingered in the
+valley. Here and there she could distinguish landmarks,--a knoll, a
+rock, or a tree,--which gave her confidence. I will not say that she
+feared nothing. She was by nature timid, imaginative, and she feared
+many things. Her own footsteps were a terror to her. The moving of a
+bush in the wind, the starting of a rabbit from her path, caused her
+flesh to thrill. At sight of an object slowly and noiselessly emerging
+from the darkness and standing before her, motionless and spectral, she
+almost fainted, until she discovered that it was an old acquaintance, a
+tall pine stump. But all these childish terrors she resolutely overcame.
+Her heart never faltered in its purpose. Affection for her father,
+anxiety for his welfare, and, it may be, some little solicitude for her
+father's friend, who had appointed the tryst at the rock,--not with
+herself, indeed, but with Toby,--kept her firm and unwavering in her
+course. And beneath all, deep in her soul, was a strong religious sense,
+a faith in a divine guidance and protection.
+
+What most she feared was neither ghost nor wild beast of the mountains.
+She felt that, if she could avoid encountering the brutal soldiers of
+secession, keeping watch along the mountain-side, she would willingly
+risk everything else. With the utmost caution, with breathless tread,
+she drew near the road she was to cross. Her footsteps were less loud
+than her heart-beats. Dogs barked in the distance. In a pool near by,
+some happy frogs were singing. The shrill cry of a katydid came from a
+poplar tree by the road--"Katy did! Katy didn't!" with vehement
+iteration and contradiction. No other sounds; she waited and listened
+long; then glided across the road.
+
+She had come far from the village in order to avoid meeting any one. Her
+course now lay directly up the mountain-side. The round rock was a
+famous bowlder known to picnic parties that frequented the spot in
+summer to enjoy a view from its summit, and a luncheon under its shadow.
+She had been there a dozen times; but could she find it in the night? In
+vain, as she toiled upwards, she strained her eyes to see the huge dim
+stone jutting out from the shadowy rocks and bushes.
+
+At length a sudden light, faint and silvery, streamed down upon her. She
+looked and saw the clouds parted, and below them the crescent moon
+setting, like a cimeter of white flame withdrawn by an invisible hand
+behind the vast shadowy summit of the mountain. Almost at the same
+moment she discovered the object she sought. The rock was close before
+her; and close upon her right was the grove which she herself had so
+often helped to fill with singing and laughter. How little she felt like
+either singing or laughing now!
+
+She remembered--indeed, had she not remembered all the way?--that the
+last time she visited the spot it was in company with Penn. Now she had
+come to meet him again--how unmaidenly the act! In darkness, in
+loneliness, far from the village and its twinkling lights, to meet an
+attractive and a very good looking young man! What would the world say?
+Virginia did not care what the world would say. But now she began to
+question within herself, "What would Penn think?" and almost to shrink
+from meeting him. Strong, however, in her own conscious purity of heart,
+strong also in her confidence in him, she put behind her every unworthy
+thought, and sought the shelter of the rock.
+
+And there, after all her labors and fears, scratches in her flesh and
+rents in her clothes,--there she was alone. Penn had not come. Perhaps
+he would not come. It was by this time ten o'clock. What should she do?
+Remain, hoping that he would yet fulfil his promise? or return the way
+she came, unsatisfied, disheartened, weary, her heart and strength
+sustained by no word of comfort from him, by no tidings from her father?
+
+She waited. It was not long before her eager ear caught the sound of
+footsteps. An active figure was coming along the edge of the grove. How
+joyously her heart bounded! In order that Penn might not be too suddenly
+surprised at finding her in Toby's place, she stepped out from the
+shadow of the bowlder, and advanced to meet him. She shrank back again
+as suddenly, fear curdling her blood.
+
+The comer was not Penn. He wore the confederate uniform: this was what
+terrified her. She crouched down under the rock; but perceiving that the
+man did not pass by,--that he walked straight up to her,--she started
+forth again, in the vain hope to escape by flight. Almost at the first
+step she tripped and fell; and the hand of the confederate soldier was
+on her arm.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+_THE MEN WITH THE DARK LANTERN._
+
+
+The moon had now set, and it was dark. The frightened girl could not
+distinguish the features of him who bent over her; but through the
+trance of horror that was upon her, she recognized a voice.
+
+"Wirginie! I tought it vas you! Don't you know me, Wirginie?"
+
+No voice had ever before brought such joy to her soul.
+
+"O Carl! why didn't I know you?"
+
+"Vy not? Pecause maybe you vas looking for somepody else. Mishter
+Hapgoot came part vay mit me, but he vas so used up I made him shtop
+till I came to pring Toby up vere he is."
+
+Then Virginia, recovering from her agitation, had a score of questions
+to ask about her father, about the fight, and about Penn.
+
+"If you vill only go up, he vill tell you so much more as I can. Then
+you vill go and see your fahder. That vill be petter as going back
+to-night, vere there is no goot shtout fellow in the house to prewail on
+them willains to keep their dishtance."
+
+Even at the outset of her adventurous journey Virginia had felt a vague
+hope that she should visit her father before she returned. What the boy
+said inspired her with courage to proceed. She would go up as far as
+where Penn was waiting, at all events: then she would be guided by his
+advice.
+
+The two set out, Carl leading her by the hand, and assisting her. It
+grew darker and darker. The stars were hidden: the sky was almost
+completely overcast by black clouds. Slowly and with great difficulty
+they made their way among trees and bushes, through abrupt hollows, and
+over rocks. Virginia felt that she could have done nothing without Carl;
+and the thought of returning alone, in such darkness, down the mountain,
+made her shudder.
+
+But at length even Carl began to sweat with something besides the
+physical exertion required in making the ascent. His mind had grown
+exceedingly perturbed, and Virginia perceived that his course was
+wavering and uncertain.
+
+He stopped, blowing and wiping his face.
+
+"Dish ish de all confoundedesht, meanesht, mosht dishgusting road for a
+dark night the prince of darkness himself ever inwented!" he exclaimed,
+speaking unusually thick in his heat and excitement. "I shouldn't be
+wery much surprised if I vas a leetle out of the right vay. You shtay
+right here till I look."
+
+She sat down and waited. Intense darkness surrounded her; not a star was
+visible; she could not see her own hand. For a little while Carl's
+footsteps could be heard feeling for more familiar ground; and then,
+occasionally, the crackling of a dry twig, as he trod upon it, showed
+that he was not far off. Then he whistled; then he softly called,
+"Hello!" in the woods; moving all the time farther and farther away.
+
+Carl believed that Penn could not be far distant, and, in order to get
+an answering signal, he kept whistling and calling louder and louder. At
+length came a response--a low warning whistle. So he plodded on, and had
+nearly reached the spot where he was confident Penn was searching for
+him, when there came a rush of feet, and he was suddenly and violently
+seized by invisible assailants.
+
+"Got him?"
+
+"Yes! all right!"
+
+"Hang on to him! It's the Dutchman, ain't it? I thought I knew the
+brogue!"
+
+The last speaker was Lieutenant Silas Ropes; and Carl perceived that he
+had fallen into the hands of a squad of confederate soldiers. That he
+was vastly astonished and altogether disconcerted at first, we may well
+suppose. But Carl was not a lad to remain long bereft of his wits when
+they were so necessary to him.
+
+"Ho! vot for you choke a fellow so?" he indignantly demanded. "I vas
+treated petter as that ven I vas a prisoner."
+
+"What do you mean, you d--d deserter?"
+
+"Haven't I just got avay from Stackridge? and vasn't I running to find
+you as vast as ever a vellow could? And now you call me a deserter!"
+retorted Carl, aggrieved.
+
+"Running to find _us_!"
+
+"To be sure! Didn't I say, 'Is it you?' For they said you vas on the
+mountain. Though I did not think I should find you so easy!" which was
+indeed the truth.
+
+Carl persisted so earnestly in regarding the affair from this point of
+view, that his captors began to think it worth while to question him.
+
+"Vun of them vellows just says to me, he says, 'Shpeak vun vord, or make
+vun noise, and I vill plow your prains out!' I vasn't wery much in favor
+to have my prains plowed out, so I complied mit his wery urgent request.
+That's the vay they took me prisoner."
+
+"Wal," remarked Silas, "what he says may be true, but I don't believe
+nary word on't. Got his hands tied? Now lock arms with him, and bring
+him along."
+
+Carl was in despair at this mode of treatment, for it rendered escape
+impossible,--and what would become of Virginia? His anxiety for her
+safety became absolute terror when he discovered the errand on which
+these men were bound.
+
+By the light of a dark lantern they led him through the grove, across a
+brook that came tumbling down out of a wild black gorge, and up the
+mountain slope into the edge of the great forest above. Here they
+stopped.
+
+"This yer's a good place, boys, to begin. Kick the leaves together.
+That's the talk."
+
+They were in a leafy hollow of the dry woods. A blaze was soon kindled,
+which shot up in the darkness, and threw its ruddy glare upon the trunks
+and overhanging canopy of foliage, and upon the malignant, gleaming
+faces of the soldiers. Little effort was needed to insure the spreading
+of the flames. They ran over the ground, licking up the dry leaves,
+crackling the twigs, catching at the bark of trees, and filling the
+forest, late so silent and black, with their glow and roar.
+
+"That's to smoke out your d--d Union friends!" said Silas to Carl, with
+a hideous grin.
+
+Yes, Carl understood that well enough. In this same forest, on the banks
+of the brook above where it fell into the gorge, the patriots were
+encamped. And Virginia? Still believing that the worst that could happen
+to her would be to fall into the hands of these ruffians, the lad
+sweated in silent agony over the secret he was bound to keep.
+
+"What makes ye look so down-in-the-mouth, Dutchy? 'Fraid your friends
+will get scorched?"
+
+"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it vill
+them. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."
+
+"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looks
+as though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain't
+no leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gitting
+contrary!"
+
+Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell to
+gathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. The
+lad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. A
+soldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.
+
+"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look of
+terror. "Drop your knife, then!"
+
+"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"
+
+"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But Wirginie
+Willars--she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die?
+And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is
+nopody to let him know!"
+
+A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to
+listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's
+limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at
+him,--
+
+"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"
+
+So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a
+great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only
+hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to
+make good her retreat from the mountain.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+_BEAUTY AND THE BEAST._
+
+
+Unfortunately the poor girl had no suspicion of the mischance that had
+overtaken her guide. She heard voices, and believed that he had fallen
+in with some friends. Thus she waited, expecting momently that he would
+return to her. She saw a single gleam of light that vanished in the
+darkness. Then the voices grew fainter and fainter, and at length died
+in the distance. And she was once more utterly alone.
+
+Fearful doubt and uncertainty agitated her. In a moment of despair,
+yielding to the terrors of her situation, she wrung her hands and called
+on Carl imploringly not to abandon her, but to come back--"O, dear, dear
+Carl, come back!"
+
+Suddenly she checked herself. Why was she sitting there, wasting the
+time in tears and reproaches?
+
+"Poor Carl never meant to desert me in this way, I know. If I ever see
+him again, he will make me sorry that I have blamed him. No doubt he has
+done his best. But, whatever has become of him, I am sure he cannot find
+his way back to me now. I'll follow him; perhaps I may find him, or
+Penn, or some of their friends."
+
+She arose accordingly, and groped her way in the direction in which she
+had seen the light and heard the voices. And soon another and very
+different light gladdened her eyes--a faint glow, far off, as of a fire
+kindled among the forest trees. It was the camp of the patriots, she
+thought.
+
+She came to the brook, which, invisible, mysterious, murmuring, rolled
+along in the midnight blackness, and seemed too formidable for her to
+ford. She felt the cold rush of the hurrying water, the slippery slime
+of the mossy and treacherous stones, and withdrew her appalled hands. To
+find a shallow place to cross, she followed up the bank; and as the
+light was still before her, higher on the mountain, she kept on, groping
+among trees, climbing over logs and rocks, falling often, but always
+resolutely rising again, until, to her dismay, the glow began to
+disappear. She had, without knowing it, followed the stream up into the
+deep gorge through which it poured; and now the precipitous wood-crowned
+wall, rising beside her, overhanging her, shut out the last glimpse of
+the fire.
+
+She was by this time exceedingly fatigued. It seemed useless to advance
+farther; she felt certain that she was only getting deeper and deeper
+into the entangling difficulties of that unknown, horrible place.
+Neither had she the courage or strength to retrace her steps. Nothing
+then remained for her but to pass the remainder of the night where she
+was, and wait patiently for the morning.
+
+Little knowing that the light she had seen was the glare of the kindled
+forest, she endeavored to convince herself that she had nothing to fear.
+At all events, she knew that trembling and tears could avail her
+nothing. She had not ventured to call very loudly for help, fearing lest
+her voice might bring foe instead of friend. And now it occurred to her
+that perhaps Carl had been taken by the soldiers: yes, it must be so:
+she explained it all to herself, and wondered why she had not thought of
+it before. It would therefore be folly in her now to scream for aid.
+
+Comfortless, yet calm, she explored the ground for a resting-place. She
+cleared the twigs away from the roots of a tree, and laid herself down
+there on the moss and old leaves. Everything seemed dank with the
+never-failing dews of the deep and sheltered gorge; but she did not mind
+the dampness of her couch. A strong wind was rising, and the great trees
+above her swayed and moaned. She was vexed by mosquitoes that bit as if
+they then for the first time tasted blood, and never expected to taste
+it again; but she was too weary to care much for them either. She rested
+her arm on the mossy root; she rested her head on her arm; she drew her
+handkerchief over her face; she shut out from her soul all the miseries
+and dangers of her situation, and quietly said her prayers.
+
+There is nothing that calms the perturbations of the mind like that
+inward looking for the light of God's peace which descends upon us when
+in silence and sweet trust we pray to him. A delicious sense of repose
+ensued, and her thoughts floated off in dreams.
+
+She dreamed she was flying with her father from the fury of armed men.
+She led him into a wilderness; and it was night; and great rocks rose up
+suddenly before them in the gloom, and awful chasms yawned. Then she was
+wandering alone; she had lost her father, and was seeking him up and
+down. Then it seemed that Penn was by her side; and when she asked for
+her father he smilingly pointed upward at a wondrously beautiful light
+that shone from the summit of a hill. She sought to go up thither, but
+grew weary, and sat down to rest in a deep grove, with an ice-cold
+mountain stream dashing at her feet. Then the light on the hill became a
+lake of fire, and it poured its waves into the stream, and the stream
+flowed past her a roaring river of flame. Lightnings crackled in the air
+above her. Thunderbolts fell. The heat was intolerable. The river had
+overflowed, and set the world on fire. And she could not fly, for terror
+chained her limbs. She struggled, screamed, awoke. She started up. Her
+dream was a reality.
+
+Either the fire set by the soldiers had spread, driven by the wind over
+the dry leaves, into the grove below her, or else they had fired the
+grove itself on their retreat. Her eyes opened upon a vision of
+appalling brightness. For a moment she stood utterly dazzled and
+bewildered, not knowing where she was. Memory and reason were paralyzed:
+she could not remember, she could not think: amazement and terror
+possessed her.
+
+Instinctively shielding her eyes, she looked down. The ground where she
+had lain, the log, the sticks, the moss, and her handkerchief fallen
+upon it, were illumined with a glare brighter than noonday. At sight of
+the handkerchief came recollection. Her terrible adventure, the glow she
+had seen in the woods, her bed on the earth,--she remembered everything.
+And now the actual perils of her position became apparent to her
+returning faculties.
+
+Where all was blackness when she lay down, now all was preternatural
+light. Every bush and jutting rock of the wild overhanging cliffs stood
+out in fearful distinctness. The saplings and trees on their summits,
+fifty feet above her head, seemed huddling together, and leaning forward
+terror-stricken, in an atmosphere of whirling flame and smoke. Climb
+those cliffs she could not, though she were to die.
+
+She must then flee farther up into the deep and narrow gorge, or
+endeavor to escape by the way she had come. But the way she had come was
+fire.
+
+The conflagration already enveloped the mouth of the gorge, shutting her
+in. The trunks of near trees stood like the bars of a stupendous cage,
+through which she looked at the raging demons beyond. Burning limbs
+fell, shooting through the air with trails of flame. Every tree was a
+pillar of fire. Here a bough, still untouched, hung, dark and impassive,
+against the lurid, surging chaos. Then the whirlwind of heated air
+struck it, and you could see it writhe and twist, until its darkness
+burst into flame. There stood what was late a lordly maple, but
+now,--trunk, and limb, and branch,--a tree of living coal. And down
+under this gulf of fire flowed the brook, into which showers of sparks
+fell hissing, while over all, fearfully illumined clouds of smoke and
+cinders and leaves went rolling up into the sky.
+
+Virginia approached near enough to be impressed with the dreadful
+certainty that there was no outlet whatever, for any mortal foot, in
+that direction. Tortured by the heat, and pursued by lighted twigs, that
+fell like fiery darts around her, she fled back into the gorge.
+
+The conflagration was still spreading rapidly. The timber along both
+sides of the gorge, at its opening, began to burn upwards towards the
+summits of the cliffs. Soon the very spot where she had slept, and where
+she now paused once more in her terrible perplexity and fear, would be
+an abyss of flame.
+
+Again she took to flight, hasting along the edge of the stream, up into
+the heart of the gorge. Over roots of trees, over old decaying trunks,
+over barricades of dead limbs brought down by freshets and left lodged,
+she climbed, she sprang, she ran. All too brightly her way was lighted
+now. A ghastly yellow radiance was on every object. The waters sparkled
+and gleamed as they poured over the dark brown stones. Every slender,
+delicate fern, every poor little startled wild flower nestled in cool,
+dim nooks, was glaringly revealed. Little the frightened girl heeded
+these darlings of the forest now.
+
+All the way she looked eagerly for some slant or cleft in the mountain
+walls where she might hope to ascend. Here, over the accumulated soil of
+centuries, fastened by interwoven roots to the base of the cliff, she
+might have climbed a dozen feet or more. Yonder, by the aid of shrubs
+and boughs, she might have drawn herself up a few feet farther. But,
+wherever her eye ranged along the ledges above, she beheld them
+dizzy-steep and unscalable. And so she kept on until even the way before
+her was closed up.
+
+On the brink of a rock-rimmed, flashing basin she stopped. Down into
+this, from a shelf twenty feet in height, fell the brook in a bright,
+fire-tinted cascade. Fear-inspired as she was, she could not but pause
+and wonder at the strange beauty of the scene,--the plashy pool before
+her, the flame-color on the veil of silver foam dropped from the brow of
+the ledge, and--for a wild background to the picture--the wooded,
+fire-lit, shadowy gorge, opening on a higher level above.
+
+During the moment that she stood there, a great bird, like an owl, that
+had probably been driven from his hollow tree or fissure in the rocks by
+the conflagration, flapped past her face, almost touching her with his
+wings, and dashed blindly against the waterfall. He was swept down into
+the pool. After some violent fluttering and floundering in the water, he
+extricated himself, perched on a stone at its edge, shook out his wet
+feathers, and stared at her with large cat-like eyes, without fear. She
+was near enough to reach him with her hand; but either he was so dazzled
+and stunned that he took no notice of her, or else the greater terror
+had rendered him tame to human approach. She believed the latter was the
+case, and saw something exceedingly awful in the incident. When even the
+wild winged creatures of the forest were stricken down with fear, what
+cause had she to apprehend danger to herself!
+
+On reaching the waterfall she had felt for a moment that all was
+over--that certain death awaited her. Then, out of her very despair,
+came a gleam of hope. She might creep under the cascade, or behind it,
+and that would protect her. But when she looked up, and saw, around and
+above her, the forest trees with the frightful and ever-increasing glow
+upon them, and knew that they too soon must kindle, and thought of
+firebrands rained down upon her, and falling columns of fire filling the
+gorge with burning rubbish,--then her soul sickened: what protection
+would a little sheet of water prove against such furnace heat?
+
+No: she must escape, or perish. Beside the cascade there was a broken
+angle of the rocks, by which, if she could reach it, she might at least,
+she thought, climb to the upper part of the gorge. But the nearest
+foothold she could discover was ten feet above the basin, in sheer
+ascent. The ledge was dank and slippery with the dashing spray. Gain the
+top of it, however, she must. She ran up the embankment under the cliff.
+Here a sapling gave her support; she clung to a crevice or projection
+there; a drooping bough saved her from falling when the soft earth slid
+from beneath her feet farther on. So she climbed along the side of the
+precipice, until the broken corner of the cliff was hardly two yards off
+before her. Yes, a secure foothold was there, and above it rose
+irregular pointed stairs, leading steeply to the top of the cascade. O,
+to reach that shattered ledge! A space of perpendicular wall intervened.
+No shrub, no drooping bough, was there. Here was only a slight
+projection, just enough to rest the edge of a foot upon. She placed her
+foot upon it. She found a crevice above, and thrust her fingers into it
+as if there was no such thing as pain. She clung, she took a step--she
+was half a yard nearer the angle. But what next could she do? She was
+hanging in the air above the basin, into which the slightest slip would
+precipitate her. To change hands--relieve the one advanced and insert
+the fingers of the other in its place,--was a perilous undertaking. But
+she did it. Then she reached forward again with hand and foot, found
+another spot to cling to, and took another step. She was thankful for
+the great light that lighted the rocks before her. Close by now was the
+fractured angle of the cliff: one more step, and she could set her foot
+upon the nethermost stair. Her strength was almost gone; her hands,
+though insensible to pain, were conscious of slipping. To fall would be
+to lose all she had gained, and all the strength she had exhausted in
+the effort. Her feet now--or rather one of them--had a tolerably secure
+hold on the rib of the ledge. She made one last effort with her hands,
+and, just as she was falling, gave a spring. She knew that all was
+staked upon that one dizzy instant of time. But for that knowledge she
+could never have accomplished what she did. She fell forwards towards
+the angle, caught a point of the rock with her hands, and clung there
+until she had safely placed her feet.
+
+This done, it was absolutely necessary to stop a moment to rest. She
+looked downwards and behind her, to see what she had done. The sight
+made her dizzy--it seemed such a miracle that she could ever have scaled
+that wall!
+
+Nearer and louder roared the conflagration, and she had little time to
+delay. Her labor was not ended, neither was the danger past. She cast a
+hurried glance upwards over the ridge she was to climb, and advanced
+cautiously, step by step. Her soul kept saying within her, "I will not
+fall; I will not fall;" but she dared not look backwards again, lest
+even then she should grow giddy and miss her hold.
+
+As she ascended, the ridge inclined nearer and nearer to the side of the
+cascade, until she found the stones slimy and dripping. This was an
+unforeseen peril. Still she resolutely advanced, taking the utmost
+precaution at each step against slipping. At length she was at the top
+of the waterfall. She could look up into the upper gorge, and see the
+water come rushing down. There was space beside the brook for her to
+continue her flight; and the sides of the gorge above were far less
+steep and rugged than below. She was thrilled with hope. She had but one
+steep, high stair to surmount. She was getting her knee upon it, when a
+crashing sound in the underbrush arrested her attention. The crashing
+was followed by a commotion in the water, and she saw a huge black
+object plunge into the stream, and come sweeping down towards her.
+
+On it came, straight at the rock on which she clung, and from which a
+motion, a touch, might suffice to hurl her back into the lower gorge.
+She saw what it was; and for a moment she was frozen with terror. She
+was directly in its path: it would not stop for her. The sight of the
+blazing woods below, however, brought it to a sudden halt. And there,
+close by the brink of the waterfall, facing her, not a yard distant, in
+the full glare of the fire, it rose slowly on its hind feet to look--a
+monster of the forest, an immense black bear.
+
+And now, but for the nightmare of horror that was upon her, Virginia
+might have perceived that the forest _above_ the cascade was likewise
+wrapped in flames. The bear had been driven by the terror of them down
+the stream; and here, between the two fires, on the verge of the
+waterfall, the slight young girl and the great shaggy wild beast had
+met. She would have shrieked, but she had no voice. The bear also was
+silent; with his huge hairy bulk reared up before her, his paws pendant,
+and his jaws half open in a sort of stupid amazement, he stood and
+gazed, uttering never a growl.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+_IN THE BURNING WOODS._
+
+
+The incessant excitement and fatigue of the past few days had caused
+Penn to fall asleep almost immediately after Carl left him. The rude
+ground on which he stretched himself proved a blissful couch of repose.
+Virginia climbed the mountain to meet him, and no fine intuitive sense
+of her approach thrilled him with wakeful expectancy. Carl was captured,
+and still he slept. The lost young girl wandered within fifty yards of
+where he lay steeped in forgetfulness, dreaming, perhaps, of her; and
+all the time they were as unconscious of each other's presence as were
+Evangeline and her lover when they passed each other at night on the
+great river.
+
+Penn was the first to wake; and still his stupid heart whispered to him
+no syllable of the strange secret of the beautiful sleeper whom he might
+have looked down upon from the edge of the cliff so near.
+
+The grove had been but recently fired, and it would have been easy
+enough then for him to rush into the gorge and rescue her. From what
+terrors, from what perils would she have been saved! But he wasted the
+precious moments in staring amazement; then, thinking of his own safety,
+he commenced running _away_ from her,--his escape lighted by the same
+fatal flames that were enclosing her within the gorge.
+
+She never knew whether, on awaking, she cried for help or remained dumb;
+nor did it matter much then: he was already too far off to hear.
+
+The glow on the clouds lighted all the broad mountain side. Under the
+ruddy canopy he ran,--now through dimly illumined woods, and now over
+bare rocks faintly flushed by the glare of the sky.
+
+As he drew near the cave, he saw, on a rock high above him, a wild human
+figure making fantastic gestures, and prostrating itself towards the
+burning forests. He ran up to it, and, all out of breath, stood on the
+ledge.
+
+"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you doing here?"
+
+The negro made no reply, but, folding his arms above his head, spread
+them forth towards the fire, bowing himself again and again, until his
+forehead touched the stone.
+
+Penn shuddered with awe. For the first time in his life he found himself
+in the presence of an idolater. Cudjo belonged to a tribe of African
+fire-worshippers, from whom he had been stolen in his youth; and,
+although the sentiment of the old barbarous religion had smouldered for
+years forgotten in his breast, this night it had burst forth again,
+kindled by the terrible splendors of the burning mountain.
+
+Penn waited for him to rise, then grasped his arm. The negro, startled
+into a consciousness of his presence, stared at him wildly.
+
+"That is not God, Cudjo!"
+
+"No, no, not your God, massa! My God!" and the African smote his breast.
+"Me mos' forgit him; now me 'members! Him comin' fur burn up de white
+folks, and set de brack man free!"
+
+Penn stood silent, thinking the negro might not be altogether wrong. No
+doubt the dim, dark soul of him saw vaguely, with that prophetic sense
+which is in all races of men, a great truth. A fire was indeed
+coming--was already kindled--which was to set the bondman free: and God
+was in the fire. But of that mightier conflagration, the combustion of
+the forests was but a feeble type.
+
+Penn turned from Cudjo to watch the burning, and became aware of its
+threatening and rapidly increasing magnitude. The woods had been set in
+several places, but the different fires were fast growing into one,
+swept by a strong wind diagonally across and up the mountain. It seemed
+then as if nothing could prevent all the forest growths that lay to the
+southward and westward along the range from being consumed.
+
+As he gazed, he became extremely alarmed for the safety of Stackridge
+and his friends: and where all this time was Carl? In vain he questioned
+Cudjo. He turned, and was hastening to the cave when he met Pomp coming
+towards him. Tall, majestic, naked to the waist, wearing a garment of
+panther-skins, with the red gleam of the fire on his dusky face and
+limbs, the negro looked like a native monarch of the hills.
+
+"O Pomp! what a fire that is!"
+
+"What a fire it is going to be!" answered Pomp, with a lurid smile. "Our
+new neighbors have brought us bad luck. All those woods are gone. The
+fire is sweeping up directly towards us--it will pass over all the
+mountain--nothing will be left." Yet he spoke with a lofty calmness that
+astonished Penn.
+
+"And our friends!--Carl!--have you heard from them?"
+
+"I have not seen Carl since he left the cave with you, nor any of
+Stackridge's people to-night."
+
+"Then they are in the woods yet!"
+
+"Yes; unless they have been wise enough to get out of them! I was just
+starting out to look for them.--Who comes there?"--poising his rifle.
+
+"It's Carl!" exclaimed Penn, recognizing the confederate coat. But in an
+instant he saw his mistake.
+
+"It is one of Ropes's men!" said Pomp. "He has discovered us--he shall
+die for setting my mountains on fire!"
+
+"Hold!" Penn grasped his arm. "He is beckoning and calling!"
+
+Pomp frowned as he lowered his rifle, and waited for the soldier to come
+up.
+
+"What! is it you? I didn't know you in that dress, and came near
+shooting you, as you deserve, for wearing it!" And Pomp turned
+scornfully away.
+
+The comer was Dan Pepperill, breathless with haste, horror-struck,
+haggard. It was some time before he could reply to Penn's impetuous
+demand--what had brought him up thither?
+
+"Carl!" he gasped.
+
+"What has happened to Carl?"
+
+"Ben tuck! durned if he hain't! But that ar ain't the wust!"
+
+"What, then, is the worst?" for that seemed bad enough.
+
+"Virginny--Miss Villars!"
+
+"Virginia! what of her?"
+
+"She's down thar! in the fire!"
+
+"Virginia in the fire!"
+
+"She ar,--durned if she ain't! Carl said she war on the mountain, and
+wanted me to hurry up and help her or find you; and I'd a done it, but I
+couldn't git off till we was runnin' from the fires we'd sot; then I
+kinder got scattered a puppus; t'other ones hung on to Carl, though, so
+I had to come alone."
+
+Penn interrupted the loose and confused narrative--Virginia: had he
+_seen_ her?
+
+"Wal, I reckon I hev! Ye see I war huntin' fur her thar, above the round
+rock; fur Carl said,----"
+
+A short, sharp groan broke from the lips of Penn. At first the idea of
+Virginia being on the mountain had appeared to him incredible. But at
+the mention of the place of rendezvous the truth smote him: she had come
+up there with Toby, or in his stead. With spasmodic grip he wrung
+Pepperill's arm as if he would have wrung the truth out of him that way.
+
+"You saw her!--where?"
+
+His hoarse voice, his terrible look, bewildered the poor man more and
+more.
+
+"I war a tellin' ye! Don't break my arm, and don't look so durned f'erce
+at me, and I'll out with the hull story. Ye see, I warn't to blame, now,
+no how. They sot the fires; they sot the grove on our way back; and if I
+helped any, 'twas cause I had ter. But about _her_. Wal, I begun to the
+big rock, and war a-huntin' up along, till the grove got all in a blaze,
+and the red limbs begun ter fall, and I see 'twas high time for me to
+put. Says I ter myself, 'She hain't hyar; she ar off the mountain and
+safe ter hum afore this time, shore!' But jest then I heern a screech;
+it sounded right inter the grove, and I run up as clust ter the fire's I
+could, and looked, and thar I seen right in the middle on't, amongst the
+burnin' trees, a woman's gownd, and then a face: 'twas her face, I
+knowed it, fur she hadn't nary bunnit on, and the fire shone on it
+bright as lightnin'! But thar war half a acre o' blazin' timber atween
+her and me; and besides, I was so struck up all of a heap, I couldn't do
+nary thing fur nigh about a minute--I couldn't even holler ter let her
+know I war thar. And 'fore I knowed what I war about, durned if she
+hadn't gone!"
+
+Penn afterwards understood that Dan had actually had a glimpse of
+Virginia when she ran out to the entrance of the gorge, and stood there
+a moment in the terrible heat and glare.
+
+"Where--show me where!" he exclaimed with fierce vehemence, dragging
+Pepperill after him down the rocks.
+
+"It war a considerable piece this side the round rock, nigh the upper
+eend o' the grove," said Dan, in a jarred voice, clattering after him,
+as fast as he could. "I reckon I kin find it, if 'tain't too late."
+
+Too late? It must not be too late! Penn leaps down the ledges, and
+rushes through the thickets, as if he would overtake time itself. They
+reach the burning grove. Pepperill points out as nearly as he can the
+spot where he stood when he saw Virginia. Great God! if she was in
+there, what a frightful end was hers!
+
+"Daniel! are you sure?"--for Penn cannot, will not believe--it is too
+terrible!
+
+Daniel is very sure; and he withdraws from the insufferable heat, to
+which his companion appears insensible.
+
+"There is a gorge just above there; perhaps she escaped into the gorge.
+O, if I had known!" groans the half-distracted youth, thinking how near
+he must have been to her when the fire awoke him.
+
+He still hopes that Dan's vision of her in the fire was but the
+hallucination of a bewildered brain. Yet no effort will he spare, no
+danger will he shun. The entrance to the gorge is all a gulf of flame;
+and the woods are blazing upwards along the cliffs, and all the forest
+beyond is turning to a sea of fire. Yet the gorge must be reached. Back
+again up the steep slope they climb. Penn flies to the verge of the
+cliff. He looks down: the chasm is all a glare of light. There runs the
+red-gleaming brook. He sees the logs, the stones, the mosses, all the
+wild entanglement, deep below. But no Virginia. He runs almost into the
+crackling flames, in order to peer farther down the gorge. Then he darts
+away in the opposite direction, along the very brink of the precipice,
+among the fire-lit trees,--Pepperill stupidly following. He seizes hold
+of a sapling, and, with his foot braced against its root, swings his
+body forward over the chasm, the better to gaze into its depths. From
+that position he casts his eye up the gorge. He sees the cascade falling
+over the ledge in a sheet of ruddy foam. He discovers the upper gorge;
+sees a monster of the forest come plunging and plashing down to the
+fall, and there lift himself on his haunches to look;--and what is that
+other object, half hidden by a drooping bough? It is Virginia clinging
+to the rocks.
+
+A moment before, had Penn made the discovery of the young girl still
+unharmed by fire, his happiness would have been supreme. But now joy was
+checked by an appalling fear. The bear might seize her, or with a stroke
+of his paw hurl her from his path.
+
+Penn caught hold of the bough that impeded his view, and saw how
+precarious was her hold. He dared not so much as call to her, or shout
+to frighten the monster away, lest, her attention being for an instant
+distracted, she might turn her head, lose her balance, and fall
+backwards from the rocks.
+
+"Durned if she ain't thar!" said Dan, excitedly. "But she's got a
+powerful slim chance with the bar!"
+
+"Come with me!" said Penn.
+
+He ran to the upper gorge, showed himself on the bank above the cascade,
+and shouted. The bear, as he anticipated, turned and looked up at him.
+Virginia at the same time saw her deliverer.
+
+"Hold on! I'll be with you in a minute!" he cried in a voice heard above
+the noise of the waterfall and the roar of the conflagration.
+
+She clung fast, hope and gladness thrilling her soul, and giving her new
+strength.
+
+To reach her, Penn had a precipitous descent of near thirty feet to
+make. He did not pause to consider the difficulty of getting up again,
+or the peril of encountering the bear. He jumped down over a
+perpendicular ledge upon a projection ten feet below. Beyond that was a
+rapid slope covered with moss and thin patches of soil, with here and
+there a shrub, and here and there a tree. Striking his heels into the
+soil, and catching at whatever branch or stem presented itself, he took
+the plunge. Clinging, sliding, falling, he arrived at the bottom. In a
+posture half sitting, half standing, and considerably jarred, he found
+himself face to face with Bruin. The animal had settled down on all
+fours, and now, with his surly, depressed head turned sullenly to one
+side, he looked at Penn, and growled. Penn looked at him, and said
+nothing. He had heard of staring wild beasts out of countenance--an
+experiment that could be conducted strictly on peace principles, if the
+bear would only prove as good a Quaker as himself. He resolved to try
+it: indeed, all unarmed as he was, what else could he do? He might at
+least, by diverting the brute's attention, give Virginia time to get
+into a position of safety. So he stood up, and fixed his eyes on the
+red-blinking eyes of the ferocious beast. Something Bruin did not like:
+it might have been the youth's company and valiant bearing, but more
+probably his observation of the fire had satisfied him that he was out
+of his place. With another growl, that seemed to say, "All I ask is to
+be let alone," he seceded,--turning his head still more, twisting his
+body around, after it, and retreating up the gorge.
+
+In an instant Penn was at the young girl's side: his hand clasped hers;
+he drew her up over the rock.
+
+Not a word was uttered. He was too agitated to speak; and she, after the
+terror and the strain to which her nerves had been subjected so long,
+felt all her strength give way. But as he lifted her in his arms, a
+faint smile of happiness flitted over her white face, and her lips moved
+with a whisper of gratitude he did not hear.
+
+In spite of all the dangers behind them, and of the dangers still
+before, both felt, in that moment, a shock of mutual bliss. Neither had
+ever known till then how dear the other was.
+
+Pepperill had by this time leaped down upon the bulge of the bank. There
+he waited for them, shouting,--
+
+"Hurry up! the bar'll meet the fire up thar, and be comin' down agin!"
+
+Penn required no spur to his exertions: he knew too well the necessity
+of getting speedily beyond the reach, not of the bear only, but also of
+the fire, which threatened them now on three sides--below, above, and on
+the farther bank of the gorge.
+
+Clasping the burden more precious to him than life, resolved in his soul
+to part with it only with life, he toiled heavily up the bank, down
+which he had descended with such tremendous swiftness a few minutes
+before.
+
+But it was not in Virginia's nature to remain long a helpless
+encumbrance. Seeing the labor and peril still before them, her will
+returned, and with it her strength. She grasped a branch by which he was
+trying in vain with one hand, holding her with the other, to draw them
+both up a steep place. Her prompt action enabled him to seize the trunk
+of a young tree: she assisted still, and slipping from his hands, clung
+to it until he had reached the next tree above. He pulled her up after
+him, and then pushed her on still farther, until Pepperill could reach
+her from where he stood. A minute later the three were together on the
+summit of the slope.
+
+But now they had above them the ten feet of sheer perpendicularity down
+which Dan had indiscreetly jumped, following Penn's lead. A single hand
+above them would now be worth several hands below.
+
+"What a fool I war! durned if I warn't!" said Dan, endeavoring
+unsuccessfully to find a place by which he could reascend.
+
+"Get on my shoulders!" And Penn braced himself against the ledge.
+
+Dan made the attempt, but fell, and rolled down the bank.
+
+Just then a grinning black face appeared above.
+
+"Gib me de gal! gib me de gal!" and a prodigiously long arm reached
+down.
+
+"O Cudjo! you are an angel!" cried Penn, "Daniel! Here!"
+
+Pepperill was up the bank again in a minute, at Penn's side. They lifted
+Virginia above their heads. Holding on by a sapling with one hand, the
+negro extended the other far down over the ledge. Those miraculous arms
+of his seemed to have been made expressly for this service. He grasped a
+wrist of the girl; with the other hand she clung to his arm until he had
+drawn her up to the sapling; this she seized, and helped herself out.
+Then once more Penn gave Daniel his shoulder, while Cudjo gave him a
+hand from above; and Daniel was safe. Last of all, Penn remained.
+
+"Cotch holt hyar!" said Cudjo, extending towards him the end of a branch
+he had broken from a tree.
+
+To this Penn held fast, assisting himself with his feet against the
+ledge, while Cudjo and Dan hauled him up.
+
+"Good Cudjo! how came you here?"
+
+"Me see you and Pepperill a gwine inter de fire. So me foller."
+
+"This is the old man's daughter, Cudjo."
+
+Cudjo regarded the beautiful young girl with a look of vague wonder and
+admiration.
+
+"He remembers me," said Virginia. "I saw him the night he climbed in at
+Toby's window." She gave him her hand; it trembled with emotion. "I
+thank you, Cudjo, for what you have done for my father--and for me."
+
+"Now, Cudjo! show us the nearest and easiest path. We must take her to
+the cave--there is no other way."
+
+"You must be right spry, den!" said Cudjo. "De fire am a runnin' ober
+dat way powerful!"
+
+Indeed, it had already crossed the upper end of the gorge, where the
+forest brook fell into it; and, getting into some beds of leaves, and
+thence into dense and inflammable thickets, it was now blazing directly
+across their line of retreat.
+
+Penn would have carried Virginia in his arms, but she would not suffer
+him.
+
+"I can go where you can!" she cried, once more full of spirit and
+daring. "Just give me your hand--you shall see!"
+
+Penn took one of her hands, Pepperill the other, and with their aid,
+supporting her, lifting her, she sprang lightly up the ledges, and from
+rock to rock.
+
+Cudjo, carrying Dan's gun, ran on before, leading the way through
+hollows and among bushes, by a route known only to himself. So they
+reached a piece of woods, by the thin skirts of which he hoped to head
+off the fire. Too late--it was there before them. It ran swiftly among
+the fallen leaves and twigs, and spread far into the woods.
+
+The negro turned back. There was a wild grimace in his face, and a
+glitter in his eyes, as he threw up his hand, by way of signal that
+their flight in that direction was cut off.
+
+"Cudjo! what is to be done!" And Penn drew Virginia towards him with a
+look that showed his fears were all for her.
+
+"We can't git off down the mountain, nuther!" said Dan. "It's gittin'
+into the woods down thar. It'll be all around us in no time!"
+
+"You let Cudjo do what him pleases?" said the black.
+
+"I can trust you! Can you, Virginia?"
+
+"He should know what is best. Yes, I will trust him."
+
+"Take dat 'ar!" Pepperill received his gun. "Now you look out fur
+youselves. Me tote de gal."
+
+And catching up Virginia, before Penn could stop him, or question him,
+he rushed with her into the fire.
+
+Penn ran after him, perceiving at once the meaning of this bold act. The
+woods were not yet fairly kindled; only now and then the loose bark of a
+dry trunk was beginning to blaze. Cudjo leaped over the line of flame
+that was running along the ground, and bore Virginia high above it to
+the other side. Penn followed, and Dan came close behind. They then had
+before them a tract of blackened ground which the flames had swept,
+leaving here and there a dead limb or mat of leaves still burning.
+
+These little fires were easily avoided. But they soon came to another
+line of flame raging on the upper side of the burnt tract. They were
+almost out of the woods: only that red, crackling hedge fenced them in;
+but that they could not pass: the underbrush all along the forest edge
+was burning. And there they were, brought to a halt, half-stifled with
+smoke, in the midst of woods kindling and blazing all around them.
+
+"May as well pull up hyar, and take a bref," remarked Cudjo, grimly,
+placing Virginia on a log too dank with decay and moss to catch fire
+easily. "Den we's try 'em agin."
+
+A horrible suspicion crossed Penn's mind; the fanatical fire-worshipper
+had brought them there to destroy them--to sacrifice them to his god!
+
+"Virginia!"--eagerly laying hold of her arm,--"we must retreat! It will
+soon be too late! We can get out of the woods where we came in, if we go
+at once!"
+
+"Beg pardon, sar," said Cudjo, stamping out fire in the leaves by the
+end of the log,--and he looked up through the smoke at Penn, with the
+old malignant grin on his apish face.
+
+"What do you mean, Cudjo?" said Penn, in an agony of doubt.
+
+"Can't get back dat way, sar!"
+
+"Then you have led us here to destroy us!"
+
+"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was the negro's only reply.
+
+"Didn't we trust you? Haven't we come through fire, following you? O
+Cudjo! more than once you have helped to save my life! You have helped
+to save this life, dearer than mine! Why do you desert us now?"
+
+"'Sert you? Cudjo no 'sert you." But the negro spoke sullenly, and there
+was still a sparkle of malignancy in his look.
+
+"Then why do you stop here?"
+
+"Hugh! tink we's go trough dat fire like we done trough tudder?"
+
+"What then are we to do?"
+
+"You's no longer trust Cudjo!" was once more the sullen response.
+
+Virginia, with her quick perceptions, saw at once what Penn was either
+too dull or too much excited to see. Cudjo felt himself aggrieved; but
+he was not unfaithful.
+
+"_I_ trust you, Cudjo!"--and she laid her hand frankly and confidingly
+on his shoulder. "Did I tremble, did I shrink when you carried me
+through the fire? I shall never forget how brave, how good you are! He
+trusts you too,--only he is so afraid for me! You can forgive that,
+Cudjo."
+
+"She is right," said Penn, though still in doubt. "If you know a way to
+save her, don't lose a moment!"
+
+"He knows; on'y let him take his time," said Pepperill, whose firm faith
+in the negro's good will shamed Penn for his distrust. And yet Pepperill
+did not love, as Penn loved, the girl whose life was in danger; and he
+had not seen the evidences of Cudjo's fire-worshipping fanaticism which
+Penn had seen.
+
+Under the influence of Virginia's gentle and soothing words, the glitter
+of resentment died out of the negro's face. But his aspect was still
+morose.
+
+"De fire take his time to burn out; so we's take our time too," said he.
+"You try your chance wid Cudjo agin, miss?"
+
+"Certainly! for I am sure you will take us safely through yet!" said
+Virginia, without a shadow of doubt or hesitation on her face, however
+dark may have been the shadow on her heart.
+
+The negro was evidently well pleased. He examined carefully the line of
+fire in the undergrowth. And now Penn discovered, what Cudjo had known
+very well from the first, that there were barren ledges above, and that
+the fire was rapidly burning itself out along their base. An opening
+through which a courageous and active man might dash unscathed soon
+presented itself. Then Cudjo waited no longer to "take bref." He caught
+Virginia in his arms, and bore her through the second line of fire, as
+he had borne her through the first, and placed her in safety on the
+rocks above.
+
+"Cudjo, my brave, my noble fellow!" said Penn, deeply affected, "I have
+wronged you; I confess it with shame. Forgive me!"
+
+"Cudjo hab nuffin to forgib," replied the negro, with a laugh of
+pleasure "Neber mention um, massa! All right now! Reckon we's better be
+gitt'n out o' dis yer smudge!"
+
+He showed the way, and Penn and Daniel helped Virginia up the rocks as
+before.
+
+They had reached a smooth and unsheltered ledge near the ravine, a
+little below the mouth of the cave, when a hideous and inhuman shriek
+rent the air.
+
+"What dat?" cried Cudjo, stopping short; and his visage in the smoky and
+lurid light looked wild with superstitious alarm.
+
+The sound was repeated, louder, nearer, more hideous than before,
+seeming to make the very atmosphere shudder above their heads.
+
+"Go on, Cudjo! go on!" Penn commanded.
+
+The terrified black crouched and gibbered, but would not stir. Then
+straightway a sharp clatter, as of iron hoofs flying at a furious
+gallop, resounded along the mountain-side. By a simultaneous impulse the
+little party huddled together, and turned their faces towards the fire,
+and saw coming down towards them a horse with the speed of the wind.
+
+"Stand close!" said Penn; and he threw himself before Virginia, to
+shield her, shouting and swinging his hat to frighten the animal from
+his course.
+
+"Stackridge's hoss!" exclaimed Cudjo, recovering from his fright,
+leaping up, and flinging abroad his long arms in the air. "Wiv some poor
+debil onter him's back!"
+
+It was so. The little group stood motionless, chilled with horror. The
+beast came thundering on, with lips of terror parted, nostrils wide and
+snorting, mane and tail flying in the wild air, hoofs striking fire from
+the rocks. A human being--a man--was lying close to his neck, and
+clinging fast: the face hidden by the tossing and streaming mane: a
+fearful ride! the mystery surrounding him, and the awful glare and
+smoke, enhancing the horror of it.
+
+Approaching the group on the ledge, the animal veered, and shot past
+them like a thunderbolt; clearing rocks, hollows, bushes, with
+incredible bounds; nearing the ravine, but halting not; dashing into the
+thickets there, missing suddenly the ground beneath his feet, striking
+only the air and yielding boughs with frantic hoofs; then plunging down
+with a dull, reverberant crash,--horse and unknown rider rolling
+together over rocks and spiked limbs to the bottom of the ravine.
+
+Then all was still again: it had passed like a vision of fear.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+_REFUGE._
+
+
+For a moment the little group stood dumb and motionless on the ledge, in
+the flare of the vast flame-curtains. They looked at each other. Penn
+was the first to speak.
+
+"Which of us goes down into the ravine?"
+
+"Wha' fur?" said Cudjo.
+
+"To find him!" And Penn gazed anxiously towards the thickets into which
+the horse and horseman had gone down.
+
+"Dat no good! Deader 'n de debil, shore!"
+
+"O, may be he is not!" exclaimed Virginia, full of compassion for the
+unfortunate unknown. "Do go and see, Cudjo!"
+
+"Fire'll be dar in less'n no time. Him nuffin to Cudjo. We's best be
+gwine." And the negro started off, doggedly, towards the cave.
+
+Then Penn took the resolution which he would have taken at once but for
+Virginia. "Stay with her, Daniel! I will go!"
+
+Virginia turned pale; she had not thought of that. But immediately she
+controlled her fears: she would not be selfish: if he was brave and
+generous enough to descend into the ravine for one he did not know, she
+would be equally brave and generous, and let him go. She clasped her
+hands together so that they should not hold him back, and forced her
+lips to say,--
+
+"I will wait for you here."
+
+"No, I be durned if ye shall! Hapgood, you stick to her: take this yer
+gun, and I'll slip down inter the holler, and see whuther the cuss's
+alive or dead, any how."
+
+"O, Mr. Pepperill, if you will!" said Virginia, overjoyed.
+
+Penn remonstrated,--rather feebly, it must be confessed, for the
+determination to part from her had cost him a struggle, and the
+privilege of keeping by her side till all danger was past, seemed too
+sweet to refuse.
+
+"I'll take her to her father, and hurry back, and meet you."
+
+"All right!" came the response from Dan, already far down the rocks.
+
+"The cave is close by," said Penn. "There is Cudjo, waiting for us!"
+
+Coming up with the black, and once more following his lead, they
+descended along the shelf of rocks, between the thickets and the
+overhanging ledge. So they came to the still dark jaws of the cavern. A
+grateful coolness breathed in their faces from within. But how dismal
+the entrance seemed to eyes lately dazzled by the blazing woods!
+Virginia clung tightly to Penn's hand, as they groped their way in.
+
+At first nothing was visible but a few smouldering embers, winking their
+sleepy eyes in the dark. Out of these Cudjo soon blew a little blaze,
+which he fed with sticks and bits of bark until it lighted up fitfully
+the dim interior and shadowy walls of his abode.
+
+Penn hushed Virginia with a finger on his lips, and restrained her from
+throwing herself forward upon the rude bed, where the blind old man was
+just awaking from a sound sleep.
+
+In that profound subterranean solitude the roar of the fiery breakers,
+dashing on the mountain side, was subdued to a faint murmur, less
+distinct than the dripping of water from roof to floor in the farther
+recesses of the cave. There, left alone, lulled by the dull, monotonous
+trickle,--thinking, if he heard the roar at all, that it was the
+mountain wind blowing among the pines,--Mr. Villars had slept tranquilly
+through all the horrors of that night.
+
+"Is it you, Penn? Safe again!" And sitting up, he grasped the young
+man's hand. "What news from my dear girl?--from my two dear girls?" he
+added, remembering Virginia was not his only child.
+
+"Toby did not come to the rock," said Penn, still holding Virginia back.
+
+"O! did he not?" It seemed a heavy disappointment; but the patient old
+man rallied straightway, saying, with his accustomed cheerfulness, "No
+doubt something hindered him; no doubt he would have come if he could.
+My poor, dear girl, how I wish I could have got word to her that I am
+safe! But I thank you all the same; it was kind in you to give yourself
+all that trouble."
+
+"I believe all is for the best," said Penn, his voice trembling.
+
+"No doubt, no doubt. It will be some time before I can have the
+consolation of my dear girl's presence again; I, who never knew till now
+how necessary she is to my happiness,--I may say, to my very life!" Mr.
+Villars wiped a tear he could not repress, and smiled. "Yes, Penn, God
+knows what is best for us all. His will be done!"
+
+But now Virginia could restrain herself no longer; her sobs would burst
+forth.
+
+"Father! father!"--throwing herself upon his neck. "O, my dear, dear
+father!"
+
+Penn had feared the effect of the sudden surprise upon the old and
+feeble man, and had meant to break the good news to him softly. But
+human nature was too strong; his own emotions had baffled him, and the
+pious little artifice proved a complete failure. So now he could do
+nothing but stand by and make grim faces, struggling to keep down what
+was mastering him, and turning away blindly from the bed.
+
+Even Cudjo appeared deeply affected, staring stupidly, and winking
+something like a tear from the whites of his eyes at sight of the father
+embracing his child, and the white locks mingling with the wet, tangled
+curls on her cheek. He was a ludicrous, pathetic object, winking and
+staring thus; and Penn laughed and cried too, at sight of him.
+
+"Luk dar!" said Cudjo, coming up to him, and pointing at the little
+walled chamber that served as his pantry. "She hab dat fur her dressum
+room. Sleep dar, too, if she likes."
+
+"Thank you, Cudjo! it will be very acceptable, I am sure."
+
+"Me clar it up fur her all scrumptious!" added the negro, with a grin.
+
+Penn had thought of that. But now he had other business on his hands: he
+must hasten to find Pepperill: nor could he keep anxious thoughts of
+Stackridge and his friends out of his mind. And Pomp--where all this
+time was Pomp? He had hoped to find him and the patriots all safely
+arrived in the cave.
+
+Virginia was seated on the bed by her father's side. Penn threw a
+blanket over the dear young shoulders, to shield her from the sudden
+cold of the cave; then left her relating her adventures,--beckoning to
+Cudjo, who followed him out.
+
+"Cudjo!"--the black glided to his side as they emerged from the
+ravine,--"you must go and find Pomp."
+
+Cudjo laughed and shrugged.
+
+"No use't! Reckon Pomp take keer o' hisself heap better'n we's take keer
+on him!"
+
+True. Pomp knew the woods. He was athletic, cautious, brave. But he had
+gone to extricate from peril others, in whose fate he himself might
+become involved. Cudjo refused to take this view of the matter; and it
+was evident that, while he comforted himself with his deep convictions
+of Pomp's ability to look out for his own safety, he was, to say the
+least, quite indifferent as to the welfare of the patriots.
+
+Forgetting Dan and the unknown horseman in his great solicitude for his
+absent friends, Penn climbed the ledges, and gazed away in the direction
+of the camp, and beheld the forest there a raging gulf of fire.
+
+Assuredly, they must have fled from it before this time; but whither had
+they gone? Had Pomp been able to find them? Or might they not all have
+become entangled in the intricacies of the wilderness until encompassed
+by the fire and destroyed?
+
+Penn watched in vain for their coming--in vain for some signal of their
+safety on the crags above the forest. Had they reached the crags, he
+thought he might discover them somewhere with a glass, so vividly were
+those grim rock-foreheads of the hills lighted up beneath the red sky.
+
+He sent Cudjo to find Dan, ran to the cave for Pomp's glass, and
+returned to the ledge. There he waited; there he watched; still in vain.
+Wider and wider, spread the destroying sea; fiercer and fiercer leaped
+the billows of flame--the billows that did not fall again, but broke
+away in rent sheets, in red-rolling scrolls, and vanished upward in
+their own smoke.
+
+And now Penn, lowering the glass, perceived what he must long since have
+been made aware of, had not the greater light concealed the less. It was
+morning; a dull and sunless dawn; the despairing daylight, filtered of
+all warmth and color, spreading dim and gray on the misty valleys, and
+on the sombre, far-off hills, under an interminable canopy of cloud.
+
+Pepperill came clambering up the rocks. Penn turned eagerly to meet and
+question him.
+
+"Find him?"
+
+"Wal, a piece on him."
+
+"Killed?"
+
+"I reckon he ar that!"
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Durned if I kin tell! He's jammed in thar 'twixt two gre't stuns, and
+the hoss is piled on top, and you can't see nary featur' of his face,
+only the legs,--but durned if I know the legs!"
+
+"Couldn't you move the horse?"
+
+"Nary a bit. His neck is broke, and he lays wedged so clust, right on
+top o' the poor cuss, 'twould take a yoke o' oxen to drag him out."
+
+"Are you sure the man is dead?"
+
+"Shore? I reckon! He had one arm loose. I jest lifted it, and it drapped
+jest like a club when I let go; then I see 'twas broke square off jest
+above the elbow, about where the backbone o' the hoss comes. Made me
+durned sick!"
+
+"What have you got in your hand?"
+
+"A boot--one o' his'n--thought I'd pull it off, his leg stuck up so kind
+o' handy; didn't know but some on ye might know the boot." And Dan held
+it up for Penn's inspection.
+
+"What is this on it? Blood?"
+
+"It ar so! Mebby it's the hoss's, and then agin mebby it's his'n; I
+hadn't noticed it afore."
+
+"I'll go back with you, Daniel. Together perhaps we can move the horse."
+
+"Ye're behind time for that! The fire's thar. I hadn't only jest time to
+git cl'ar on't myself. The poor cuss is a br'ilin'!"
+
+"K-r-r-r! hi! don't ye har me callin'!" Cudjo sprang up the ledge.
+"Fire's a comin' to de cave! All in de brush dar! Can't get in widout ye
+go now!"
+
+"And Pomp and the rest! They will be shut out, if they are not lost
+already!"
+
+"Pomp know well 'nuff what him 'bout, tell ye! Gorry, massa! ye got to
+come, if Cudjo hab to tote ye!"
+
+Yielding to his importunity, Penn quitted the ledge. On the shelf of
+rock Cudjo paused to gnash his teeth at the flames sweeping up towards
+them. He had long since recovered from his fit of superstitious frenzy.
+He had seen the fire burning the woods that sheltered him in his
+mountain retreat, instead of going intelligently to work to destroy the
+dwellings of the whites; and he no longer regarded it as a deity worthy
+of his worship.
+
+"All dis yer brush be burnt up! Den nuffin' to hide Cudjo's house!"
+
+"Don't despair, Cudjo. We will trust in Him who is God even of the
+fire."
+
+Even as Penn spoke, he felt a cool spatter on his hand. He looked up;
+sudden, plashy drops smote his face.
+
+"Rain! It is coming! Thank Heaven for the rain!"
+
+At the same time, the wind shifted, and blew fitful gusts down the
+mountain. Then it lulled; and the rain poured.
+
+"Cudjo, your thickets are saved!" said Penn, exultantly. Then
+immediately he thought of the absent ones, for whom the rain might be
+too late; of the beautiful forests, whose burning not cataracts could
+quench; of the unknown corpse far below in the ravine there, and the
+swift soul gone to God.
+
+"What news?" asked the old man as he entered the cave.
+
+"It is morning, and it rains; but your friends are still away.--The man
+is dead," aside to Virginia.
+
+"Heaven grant they be safe somewhere!" said the old man. "And Pomp?"
+
+"He is missing too."
+
+There was a long, deep silence. A painful suspense seemed to hold every
+heart still, while they listened. Suddenly a strange noise was heard, as
+of a ghost walking. Louder and louder it sounded, hollow, faint,
+far-off. Was it on the rocks over their heads? or in caverns beneath
+their feet?
+
+"Told ye so! told ye so!" said Cudjo, laughing with wild glee.
+
+The fire had burnt low again, and he was in the act of kindling it, when
+a novel idea seemed to strike him, and, seizing a pan, he inverted it
+over the little remnant of a flame. In an instant the cave was dark. It
+was some seconds before the eyes of the inmates grew accustomed to the
+gloom, and perceived the glimmer of mingled daylight and firelight that
+shone in at the entrance.
+
+"Luk a dar! luk a dar!" said Cudjo.
+
+And turning their eyes in the opposite direction, they saw a faint
+golden glow in the recesses of the cave. The footsteps approached; the
+glow increased; then the superb dark form of Pomp advanced in the light
+of his own torch. Penn hastened to meet him, and to demand tidings of
+Stackridge's party.
+
+Pomp first saluted Virginia, with somewhat lofty politeness, holding the
+torch above his head as he bowed. Then turning to Penn,--
+
+"Your friends are all safe, I believe."
+
+"All?" Penn eagerly asked, his thoughts on the luckless horseman. "None
+missing?"
+
+"There were three absent when I reached their camp. They had gone on a
+foraging expedition. I found the rest waiting for them, standing their
+ground against the fire, which was roaring up towards them at a
+tremendous rate. Soon the foragers came in. They brought a basket of
+potatoes and a bag of meal, but no meat. Withers had caught a pig, but
+it had got away from him before he could kill it, and he lost it in the
+dark. The others were cursing the rascals who had set the woods afire,
+but Withers lamented the pig.
+
+"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'you have not much time to mourn either for the
+woods or the pork. We must take care of ourselves.' And I offered to
+bring them here. But just then we heard a rushing noise; it sounded like
+some animal coming up the course of the brook; and the next minute it
+was amongst us--a big black bear, frightened out of his wits, singed by
+the fire, and furious."
+
+"Your acquaintance of the gorge, Virginia!" said Penn.
+
+"You will readily believe that such an unexpected supply of fresh meat,
+sent by Providence within their reach, proved a temptation to the
+hungry. Withers, in his hurry to make up for the loss of the pig, ran to
+head the fellow off, and attempted to stop him with his musket after it
+had missed fire. In an instant the gun was lying on the ground several
+yards off, and Withers was sprawling. The bear had done the little
+business for him with a single stroke of his paw; then he passed on,
+directly over Withers's body, which happened to be in his way, but which
+he minded no more than as if it had been a bundle of rags. All this time
+we couldn't fire a shot; there was the risk, you see, of hitting Withers
+instead of the bear. Even after he was knocked down, he seemed to think
+he had nothing more formidable than his stray pig to deal with, and
+tried to catch the bear by the tail as he ran over him."
+
+"So ye lost de bar!" cried Cudjo, greatly excited. "Fool, tink o'
+cotchin' on him by de tail!"
+
+"Still we couldn't fire, for he was on his legs again in a second,
+chasing the bear's tail directly before our muzzles," said Pomp, quietly
+laughing. "But luckily a stick flew up under his feet. Down he went
+again. That gave two or three of us a chance to send some lead after the
+beast. He got a wound--we tracked him by his blood on the ground--we
+could see it plain as day by the glare of light--it led straight towards
+the fire that was running up through the leaves and thickets on the
+north. I expected that when he met that he would turn again; but he did
+not: we were just in time to see him plough through it, and hear him
+growl and snarl at the flames that maddened him, and which he was
+foolish enough to stop and fight. Then he went on again. We followed.
+Nobody minded the scorching. We kept him in sight till he met the fire
+again--for it was now all around us. This time his heart failed him; he
+turned back only to meet us and get a handful of bullets in his head.
+That finished him, and he fell dead."
+
+"Poor brute!" said Mr. Villars; "he found his human enemies more
+merciless than the fire!"
+
+"That's so," said Pomp, with a smile. "But we had not much time to
+moralize on the subject then. The fire we had leaped through had become
+impassable behind us. The men hurried this way and that to find an
+outlet. They found only the fire--it was on every side of us like a
+sea--the spot where we were was only an island in the midst of it--that
+too would soon be covered. The bear was forgotten where he lay; the men
+grew wild with excitement, as again and again they attempted to break
+through different parts of the ring that was narrowing upon us, and
+failed. Brave men they are, but death by fire, you know, is too
+horrible!"
+
+"How large was this spot, this island?" asked Penn.
+
+"It might have comprised perhaps twenty acres when we first found
+ourselves enclosed in it. But every minute it was diminishing; and the
+heat there was something terrific. The men were rather surprised, after
+trying in vain on every side to discover a break in the circle of fire,
+to come back and find me calm.
+
+"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'keep cool. I understand this ground perhaps
+better than you do. Don't abandon your game; you have lost your meal and
+potatoes, and you will have need of the bear.'
+
+"'But what is the use of roast meat, if we are to be roasted too?' said
+Withers, who will always be droll, whatever happens.
+
+"Then Stackridge spoke. He proposed that they should place themselves
+under my command; for I knew the woods, and while they had been running
+to and fro in disorder, I had been carefully observing the ground, and
+forming my plans. I laughed within myself to see Deslow alone hang back;
+he was unwilling to owe his life to one of my complexion--one who had
+been a slave. For there are men, do you know," said Pomp, with a smile
+of mingled haughtiness and pity, "who would rather that even their
+country should perish than owe in any measure its salvation to the race
+they have always hated and wronged!"
+
+"I trust," said Mr. Villars, "that you had the noble satisfaction of
+teaching these men the lesson which our country too must learn before it
+can be worthy to be saved."
+
+"I showed them that even the despised black may, under God's providence,
+be of some use to white men, besides being their slave: I had that
+satisfaction!" said Pomp, proudly smiling. "Stackridge was right: I had
+observed: I saw what I could do. On one side was a chasm which you know,
+Mr. Hapgood."
+
+"Yes! I had thought of it! But I knew it was in the midst of the burning
+forest, and never supposed you could get to it."
+
+"The fire was beyond; and it also burned a little on the side nearest to
+us. But the vegetation there is thin, you remember. The chasm could be
+reached without difficulty.
+
+"'Follow me who will!' said I. 'The rest are at liberty to shirk for
+themselves.'
+
+"'Follow--where?' said Deslow. I couldn't help smiling at the man's
+distress. All the rest were prepared to obey my directions; and it was
+hard for him to separate himself from them. But it seemed harder still
+for him to trust in me. I was not a Moses; I could not take them through
+that Red Sea. What then?
+
+"I made for the chasm. All followed, even Deslow,--dragging and lugging
+the bear. We came to the brink. The place, I must confess, had an awful
+look, in the light of the trees burning all around it! Deslow was not
+the only one who shrank back then; for though the spot was known to some
+of them, they had never explored it, and could not guess what it led to.
+It was difficult, in the first place, to descend into it; it looked
+still more difficult ever to get out again; and there was nothing to
+prevent the burning limbs above from falling into it, or the trees that
+grew in it from catching fire. For this is the sink, Mr. Villars, which
+you have probably heard of,--where the woods have been undermined by the
+action of water in the limestone rocks, and an acre or more of the
+mountain has fallen in, with all its trees, so that what was once the
+roof of an immense cavern is now a little patch of the forest growing
+seventy feet below the surface of the earth. The sides are precipitous
+and projecting. Only one tree throws a strong branch upwards to the edge
+of the sink.
+
+"'This way, gentlemen,' said I, 'and you are safe!'
+
+"It was a trial of their faith; for I waited to explain nothing. First, I
+tumbled the bear off the brink. We heard him go crashing down into the
+abyss, and strike the bottom with a sound full of awfulness to the
+uninitiated. Then, with my rifle swung on my back, I seized the limb,
+and threw myself into the tree.
+
+"'Where he can go, we can!' I heard Stackridge say; and he followed me.
+I took his gun, and handed it to him again when he was safe in the tree.
+He did the same for another; and so all got into the branches, and
+climbed down after us. The trunk has no limbs within twenty feet of the
+bottom, but there is a smaller tree leaning into it which we got into,
+and so reached the ground.
+
+"'Now, gentlemen,' said I, when all were down, 'I will show you where
+you are.' And opening the bushes, I discovered a path leading down the
+rocks into the caverns, of which this cave is only a branch. Then I made
+them all take an oath never to betray the secret of what I had shown
+them. Then I lighted one of the torches Cudjo and I keep for our
+convenience when we come in that way, and gave it to them; lighted
+another for my own use; invited them to make themselves quite at home in
+my absence; left them to their reflections;--and here I am."
+
+Still the mystery with regard to the unknown horseman was in no wise
+explained. Pomp, informed of what had happened, arose hastily. Penn
+followed him from the cave. Pepperill accompanied them, to show the way.
+It was raining steadily; but the thickets in which lay the dead horse
+and his rider were burning still.
+
+"As I was going to Stackridge's camp," said Pomp, "I thought I saw a man
+crawling over the rocks above where the horse was tied. I ran up to find
+him, but he was gone. Peace to his ashes, if it was he!"
+
+"Won't be much o' the cuss left but ashes!" remarked Pepperill.
+
+Pomp ascended the ledges, and stood, silent and stern, gazing at the
+destruction of his beloved woods.
+
+The winds had died. The fires had evidently ceased to spread. Portions
+of the forest that had been kindled and not consumed were burning now
+with slow, sullen combustion, like brands without flame. Stripped of
+their foliage, shorn of their boughs, and seen in the dull and smoky
+daylight, through the rain, they looked like a forest of skeletons, all
+of glowing coal, brightening, darkening, and ever crumbling away.
+
+All at once Pomp seemed to rouse himself, and direct his attention more
+particularly at the part of the woods in which the patriots' camp had
+been.
+
+"Come with me, Pepperill, if you would help do a good job!"
+
+They started off, and were soon out of sight. As Penn turned from gazing
+after them, he heard a voice calling from the opposite side of the
+ravine. He looked, but could see no one. The figure to which the voice
+belonged was hidden by the bushes. The bushes moved, however; the figure
+was descending into the ravine. It arrived at the bottom, crossed, and
+began to ascend the steep side towards the cave. Penn concealed himself,
+and waited until it had nearly emerged from the thickets beneath him,
+and he could distinctly hear the breath of a man panting and blowing
+with the toil of climbing. Then a well-known voice said in a hoarse
+whisper,--
+
+"Massa Hapgood! dat you?"
+
+And peering over the bank, he saw, upturned in the rain and murky light,
+among the wet bushes, the black, grinning face of old Toby.
+
+He responded by reaching down, grasping the negro's hand, and drawing
+him up.
+
+The grin on the old man's face was a ghastly one, and his eyes rolled as
+he stammered forth,--
+
+"Miss Jinny--ye seen Miss Jinny?"
+
+Penn did not answer immediately; he was considering whether it would be
+safe to conduct Toby into the cave. Toby grew terrified.
+
+"Don't say ye hain't seen her, Massa Penn! ye kill ol' Toby if ye do! I
+done lost her!" And the poor old faithful fellow sobbed out his
+story,--how Virginia had disappeared, and how, on discovering the woods
+to be on fire, he had set out in search of her, and been wandering he
+scarcely knew where ever since. "Now don't say ye don't know nuffin'
+about her! don't say dat!" falling on his knees, and reaching up his
+hands beseechingly, as if he had only to prevail on Penn to _say_ that
+all was well with "Miss Jinny," and that would make it so. Such faith is
+in simple souls.
+
+"I'll say anything you wish me to, good old Toby! only give me a
+chance."
+
+"Den say you _has_ seen her."
+
+"I _has seen her_," repeated Penn.
+
+"O, bress you, Massa Penn! And she ar safe--say dat too!"
+
+"_She ar safe_," said Penn, laughing.
+
+"Bress ye for dat!" And Toby, weeping with joy, kissed the young man's
+hand again and again. "And ye knows whar she ar?"
+
+"Yes, Toby! So now get up: don't be kneeling on the rocks here in the
+rain!"
+
+"Jes' one word more! Say ye got her and ol' Massa Villars safe stowed
+away, and ye'll take me to see 'em; den dis ol' nigger'll bress you and
+de Lord and dem, and be willin' fur to die! only say dat, massa!"
+
+"Ah! did I promise to say all you wished?"
+
+"Yes, you did, you did so, Massa Penn!" cried Toby, triumphantly.
+
+"Then I suppose I must say that, too. So come, you dear old simpleton!
+Cudjo!" to the proprietor of the cave, who just then put out his head to
+reconnoitre, "Cudjo! Here is your friend Toby, come to pay his master
+and mistress a visit!"
+
+"What business he got hyar?" said Cudjo, crossly. "We's hab all de wuld,
+and creation besides, comin' bime-by!"
+
+"Cudjo! You knows ol' Toby, Cudjo!" said Toby, in the softest and most
+conciliatory tone imaginable.
+
+"Nose ye!" Cudjo snuffed disdainfully. "Yes! and wish you'd keep fudder
+off!"
+
+"Why, Cudjo! don't you 'member Toby? Las' time I seed you! ye 'member
+dat, Cudjo!"
+
+"Don't 'member nuffin'!"
+
+"'Twan't you, den, got inter my winder, and done skeert me mos' t' def
+'fore I found out 'twas my ol' 'quaintance Cudjo, come fur Massa Penn's
+clo'es! Dat ar wan't you, hey?" And Toby's honest indignation cropped
+out through the thin crust of deprecating obsequiousness which he still
+thought it politic to maintain.
+
+Penn got under the shelter of the ledge, and waited for the dispute to
+end. It was evident to him that Cudjo was not half so ill-natured as he
+appeared; but, feeling himself in a position of something like official
+importance, he had the human weakness to wish to make the most of it.
+
+"Your massa and missis bery well off. Dey in my house. No room dar for
+you. Ain't wanted hyar, nohow!" turning his back very much like a
+personage of lighter complexion, clad in brief authority.
+
+"Ain't wanted, Cudjo? You don't know what you's sayin' now. Whar my ol'
+massa and young missis is, dar ol' Toby's wanted. Can't lib widout me,
+dey can't! Ol' massa wants me to nuss him. Ye don't tink--you's a nigger
+widout no kind ob 'sideration, Cudjo."
+
+"Talk o' you nussin' him when him's got Pomp!"
+
+"Pomp! what can Pomp do? Wouldn't trust him to nuss a chick sicken!"
+Toby talked backwards in his excitement.
+
+"Ki! didn't him take Massa Hapgood and make him well? Don't ye know
+nuffin'?"
+
+Toby seemed staggered for a moment. But he rallied quickly, and said,--
+
+"He cure Massa Hapgood? He done jes' nuffin' 't all fur him. De fac's
+is, I had de nussin' on him for a spell at fust, and gib him a start.
+Dar's ebery ting in a start, Cudjo."
+
+"O, what a stupid nigger!" said Cudjo. "Hyar's Massa Hapgood hisself!
+leab it to him now!"
+
+"You are both right," said Penn. "Toby did nurse me, and give me a good
+start; for which I shall always thank him."
+
+"Dar! tol' ye so, tol' ye so!" said Toby.
+
+"But it was Pomp who afterwards cured me," added Penn.
+
+"Dar! tol' you so!" cried Cudjo, while Toby's countenance fell.
+
+"For while Toby is a capital nurse" (Toby brightened), "Pomp is a
+first-rate doctor" (Cudjo grinned). "So don't dispute any more. Shake
+hands with your old friend, Cudjo, and show him into your house."
+
+Cudjo was still reluctant; but just then occurred a pleasing incident,
+which made him feel good-natured towards everybody. Pomp and Pepperill
+arrived, bringing the bag of meal and the basket of potatoes which the
+bear-hunters had forsaken in the woods, and which the rain had preserved
+from the fire.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+_LYSANDER TAKES POSSESSION._
+
+
+Gad the "Sleeper" (he had earned that title) had been himself placed
+under guard for drinking too much of the prisoners' liquor, and
+suffering them to escape. Miserable, sullen, thirsty, he languished in
+confinement.
+
+"Let 'em shoot me, and done with it, if that's the penalty," said this
+chivalrous son of the south; "only give a feller suthin' to drink!"
+
+But that policy of the confederates, which opened the jails of the
+country, and put arms in the hands of the convicts, and pardoned every
+felon that would fight, might be expected to find a better use for an
+able-bodied fellow, like Gad, than to shoot him.
+
+The use they found for him was this: He had been a mighty hunter before
+the Lord, ere he became too besotted and lazy for such sport; and he
+professed to know the mountains better than any other man. Accordingly,
+on the recommendation of his friend Lieutenant Ropes, it was resolved to
+send him to spy out the position of the patriots. It was an enterprise
+of some danger, and, to encourage him in it, he was promised two
+things--pardon for his offence, and, what was of more importance to him,
+a bottle of old whiskey.
+
+"I'll see that you have light enough," said Ropes, significantly.
+
+It was the evening of the firing of the forests. How well the lieutenant
+fulfilled his part of the engagement, we have seen.
+
+Gad put the bottle in his pocket, and set off at dark by routes obscure
+and circuitous to get upon the trail of the patriots. How well _he_
+succeeded will appear by and by.
+
+The burning of the forests caused a great excitement in the valley,
+especially among those families whose husbands and fathers were known to
+have taken refuge in them. Who had committed the barbarous act? The
+confederates denounced it with virtuous indignation, charging the
+patriots with it, of course. There was in the village but one witness
+who could have disputed this charge, and he now occupied Gad's place in
+the guard-house. It was the deserter Carl.
+
+All the morning Gad's return was anxiously awaited. No doubt there were
+good reasons why he did not come. So said his friend Silas; and his
+friend Silas was right: there were good reasons.
+
+"Anyhow, I kep' my word--I giv him light enough, I reckon!" chuckled
+Silas.
+
+That was true: Gad had had light enough, and to spare.
+
+The rain continued all the morning. Perhaps that was what detained the
+scout; for it was known that he had a great aversion to water.
+
+In the afternoon came one with tidings from the mountain. It was not
+Gad. It was old Toby.
+
+He was seized by some soldiers and taken before Captain Sprowl, at the
+school-house.
+
+"Toby, you black devil, where have you been?" This was Lysander's
+chivalrous way of addressing an inferior whom he wished to terrify.
+
+Now, if there was a person in the world whom Toby detested, it was this
+roving Lysander, who had disgraced the Villars family by marrying into
+it. However, he concealed his contempt with a politic hypocrisy worthy
+of a whiter skin.
+
+"Please, sar," said the old negro, cap in hand, "I'se been lookin' for
+my ol' massa and my young missis."
+
+"Well, what luck, you lying scoundrel?"
+
+"O, no luck 't all, I 'sure you, sar!"
+
+"What! couldn't you find 'em? Don't you lie, you ----." (We may as well
+omit the captain's energetic epithets.)
+
+"O, sar!"--Toby looked up earnestly with counterfeit grief in his
+wrinkled old face,--"dey ain't nowhars on de face ob de 'arth!"
+
+"Not on the face of the earth!"
+
+"If dey is, den de fire's done burnt 'em all up. I seen, down in a big
+holler, a place whar somebody's been burnt, shore! Dar's a man, and a
+hoss on top on him, and de hoss's har am all burnt off, and de man's
+trouse's-legs am all burnt off too, and one foot's got a fried boot onto
+it, and tudder han't got nuffin' on, but jes' de skin and bone all
+roasted to a crisp; and I 'specs dar's 'nuff sight more dead folks down
+in dar, on'y I didn't da's to look, it make me feel so skeerylike!"
+
+All which, and much more, Toby related so circumstantially, that Captain
+Sprowl was strongly impressed with the truth of the story. Great,
+therefore, was the joy of the captain. Perhaps the patriots had been
+destroyed: he hoped so! Still more ardently he hoped that Virginia had
+perished with her father. For was he not the husband of Salina? and the
+snug little Villars property, did he not covet it?
+
+"Can you show me that spot, Toby?"
+
+"'Don'o', sar: I specs I could, sar."
+
+"Don't you forget about it! Now, Toby, go home to your mistress,--my
+wife's your mistress, you know,--and wait till you are wanted."
+
+"Yes, sar,"--bowing, and pulling his foretop.
+
+Captain Sprowl did not overhear the irrepressible chuckle of
+satisfaction in which the old negro indulged as he retired, or he would
+have perceived that he had been trifled with. We are apt to be extremely
+credulous when listening to what we wish to believe; and Lysander's
+delight left no room in his heart for suspicion. All he desired now was
+that Gad should appear and confirm Toby's report; for surely Gad must
+know something about the dead horse and the dead man under him; and why
+did not the fellow return?
+
+As for Toby, he hastened home as fast as his tired old legs could carry
+him, chuckling all the way over his lucky escape, and the cunning
+answers by which he had mystified the captain without telling a
+downright falsehood. "Ob course, dey ain't on de face ob de 'arth, long
+as dey's inside on't! Hi, hi, hi!"
+
+He did not greatly relish reporting himself to Salina: nevertheless, he
+had been ordered to do so, not only by the captain, but by those whose
+authority he respected more.
+
+Salina, though so bitter, was not without natural affection, and she had
+suffered much and waited anxiously ever since Toby, terrified into the
+avowal of his belief that Virginia was in the burning woods, had set out
+in search of her. She was not patient; she was wanting in religious
+trust. She had not slept. All night and all day she had tortured herself
+with terrible fancies. Instead of calming her spirit with prayer, she
+had kept it irritated with spiteful thoughts against what she deemed her
+evil destiny.
+
+There are certain natures to which every misfortune brings a blessing;
+for, whatever it may take away, it is sure to leave that divine
+influence which comes from resignation and a deepened sense of reliance
+upon God. Such a nature was the old clergyman's. Every blow his heart
+had received had softened it; and a softened heart is a well of interior
+happiness; it is more precious to its possessor than all outward gifts
+of friends and fortune. Such a nature, too, was Virginia's. She too,
+through all things, kept warm in her bosom that holy instinct of faith,
+that blessed babe named Love, ever humbly born, whose life within is a
+light that transfigures the world. To such, despair cannot come; for
+when the worst arrives, when all they cherished is gone, heaven is still
+left to them; and they look up and smile. To them sorrow is but a
+preparation for a diviner joy. All things indeed work together for their
+good; since, whether fair fortune comes, or ill, they possess the
+spiritual alchemy that transmutes it into blessing.
+
+This love, this faith, Salina lacked. She fostered in their place that
+selfishness and discontent which sour the soul. Every blow upon her
+heart had hardened it. Every trial embittered and angered her. Hence the
+swollen and flaming eyes, the impatient and scowling looks, with which
+she met the returning Toby.
+
+"Where is Virginia?"
+
+"Dat I can't bery well say, Miss Salina," replied Toby, scratching his
+woolly head. He would never sacrifice his family pride so far as to call
+her Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"How dare you come back without her?" And she heaped upon him the
+bitterest reproaches. It was he who, through his cowardice, had been the
+cause of Virginia's night adventure. It was he who had ruined everything
+by concealing her departure until it was too late. Then he might have
+found her, if he had so resolved. But if he could not, why had he
+remained absent all day?
+
+Under this sharp fire of accusations Toby stood with ludicrous
+indifference, grinning, and scratching his head. At length he scratched
+out of it a little roll of paper that had been confided to his wool for
+safe keeping, in case he should be seized and searched. It fell upon the
+floor. He hastily snatched it up, and gave it, with obsequious alacrity,
+to Mrs. Sprowl. She took, unrolled it, and read. It was a pencilled note
+in the handwriting of Virginia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Dear Sister: Thanks to a kind Providence and to kind friends, we are
+safe. I was rescued last night from the most frightful dangers in the
+burning woods. I had come, without your knowledge, to get news of our
+dear father. I am now with him. He has excellent shelter, and devoted
+attendants; but the comforts of his home are wanting, and I have learned
+how much he is dependent upon us for his happiness. For this reason I
+shall remain with him as long as I can. To relieve your mind we send
+Toby back to you. V."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening Captain Sprowl entered the house of the absent Mr. Villars
+with the air of one who had just come into possession of that little
+piece of property. He nodded with satisfaction at the walls, glanced
+approvingly at the furniture, curved his lip rather contemptuously at
+the books (as much as to say, "I'll sell off all that sort of rubbish"),
+and expressed decided pleasure at sight of old Toby. "Worth eight
+hundred dollars, that nigger is!" He had either forgotten that Mr.
+Villars had given Toby his freedom, or he believed that, under the new
+order of things, in a confederacy founded on slavery, such gifts would
+not be held valid.
+
+"Well, Sallie, my girl,"--throwing himself into the old clergyman's easy
+chair,--"here we are at home! Bring me the bootjack, Toby."
+
+"I don't know about your being at home!" said Salina, indignantly.
+
+And it was evident that Toby did not know about bringing the bootjack.
+He looked as if he would have preferred to jerk the chair from beneath
+the sprawling Lysander, and break it over him.
+
+"I suppose Toby has told you the news? Awful news! a fearful
+dispensation of Providence! Pepperill came in this afternoon and
+confirmed it. We thought he had deserted, but it appears he had only got
+lost in the woods. He reports some dead bodies in a ravine, and his
+account tallies very well with Toby's. We'll wear mourning, of course,
+Sallie."
+
+Lysander stroked his chin. Mrs. Lysander tapped the floor with her
+impatient foot, gnawed her lip, and scowled.
+
+"Come, my dear!" said the captain, coaxingly; "we may as well understand
+each other. Times is changed. I tell ye, I'm going to be one of the big
+men under the new government. Now, Sal, see here. I'm your husband, and
+there's no getting away from it. And what's the use of getting away from
+it, even if we could? Let's settle down, and be respectable. We've had
+quarrels enough, and I've got tired of 'em. Toby, why don't you bring
+that bootjack?"
+
+Lysander swung his chair around towards Salina. She turned hers away
+from him, still knitting her brows and gnawing that disdainful lip.
+
+"Now what's the use, Sal? Since the way is opened for us to live
+together again, why can't you make up your mind to it, let bygones be
+bygones, and begin life over again? When I was a poor devil, dodging the
+officers, and never daring to see you except in the dark, I couldn't
+blame you for feeling cross with me; for it was a cursed miserable state
+of things. But you're a captain's wife now. You'll be a general's wife
+by and by. I shall be off fighting the battles of my country, and you'll
+be proud to hear of my exploits."
+
+Salina was touched. Weary of the life she led, morbidly eager for
+change, she was a secessionist from the first, and had welcomed the war.
+Moreover, strange as it may seem, she loved this worthless Lysander. She
+hated him for the misery he had caused her; she was exceedingly bitter
+against him; yet love lurked under all. She was secretly proud to see
+him a captain. It was hard to forgive him for all the wrongs she had
+suffered; but her heart was lonely, and it yearned for reconciliation.
+Her scornful lip quivered, and there was a convulsive movement in her
+throat.
+
+"Go away!" she exclaimed, violently, as he approached to caress her. "I
+am as unhappy as I can be! O, if I had never seen you! Why do you come
+to torture me now?"
+
+This passion pleased Lysander: it was a sign that her spirit was
+breaking. He caught her in his arms, called her pet names, laughed, and
+kissed her. And this woman, after all, loved to be called pet names, and
+kissed.
+
+"Toby! you devil!" roared Lysander, "why don't you bring that bootjack?"
+
+The old negro stood behind the door, with the bootjack in his hand,
+furious, ready to hurl it at the captain's head. He hesitated a moment,
+then turned, discreetly, and flung it out of the kitchen window.
+
+"Ain't a bootjack nowars in de house, sar!"
+
+"Then come here yourself!"
+
+And the gay captain made a bootjack of the old negro.
+
+"Now shut up the house and go to bed!" he said, dismissing him with a
+kick.
+
+After Toby had retired, and Salina had wiped her eyes, and Lysander had
+got his feet comfortably installed in the old clergyman's slippers, the
+long-estranged couple grew affectionate and confidential.
+
+"Law, Sallie!" said the captain, caressingly, "we can be as happy as two
+pigs in clover!" And he proceeded to interpret, in plain prosaic detail,
+those blissful possibilities expressed by the choice poetic figure.
+
+It was evident to Salina that all his domestic plans were founded on the
+supposition that the slippers he had on were the dead man's shoes he had
+been waiting for. Was she shocked by this cold, atrocious spirit of
+calculation? At first she was; but since she had begun to pardon his
+faults, she could easily overlook that. She, who had lately been so
+spiteful and bitter, was now all charity towards this man. Even the
+image of her blind and aged father faded from her mind; even the pure
+and beautiful image of her sister grew dim; and the old, revivified
+attachment became supreme. Shall we condemn the weakness? Or shall we
+pity it, rather? So long her affections had been thwarted! So long she
+had carried that lonely and hungry heart! So long, like a starved, sick
+child, it had fretted and cried, till now, at last, nurture and warmth
+made it grateful and glad! A babe is a sacred thing; and so is love. But
+if you starve and beat them? Perhaps Salina's unhappiness of temper owed
+its development chiefly to this cause. No wonder, then, that we find her
+melancholy, morbid, unreasonable, and now so ready to cling again to
+this wretch, this scamp, her husband, forgiving all, forgetting all (for
+the moment at least), in the wild flood of love and tears that drowned
+the past.
+
+"O, yes! I do think we can be happy!" she said--"if you will only be
+kind and good to me! If not here, why, then, somewhere else; for place
+is of no consequence; all I want is love."
+
+"Ah!" said Lysander, knocking the ashes from his cigar, "but I have a
+fancy for this place! And what should we leave it for?"
+
+"Because--you know--there is no certainty--I believe father is alive
+yet, and well."
+
+"Not unless Toby lied to me!--Did he?"
+
+"Pshaw! you can't place any reliance on what Toby says!"--evasively.
+
+"But I tell you Pepperill confirms his report about the dead bodies in
+the ravine! Now, what do you know to the contrary?" Lysander appeared
+very much excited, and a quarrel was imminent. Salina dreaded a quarrel.
+She broke into a laugh.
+
+"The truth is, Toby did fool you. He couldn't help bragging to me about
+it."
+
+O Toby, Toby! that little innocent vanity of yours is destined to cost
+you, and others besides you, very dear! Lysander sprang upon his feet;
+his eyes sparkled with rage. Salina saw that it was now too late to keep
+the secret from him; there was no way but to tell him all. She showed
+Virginia's note. Virginia and her father alive and safe--that was what
+maddened Lysander!
+
+But where were they?
+
+Salina could not answer that question; for the most she had been able to
+get out of Toby was only a vague hint that they were hidden somewhere in
+a cave.
+
+"No matter!" said Lysander, with a diabolical laugh showing his clinched
+and tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll have the nigger licked! I'll have the
+truth out of him, or I'll have his life?"
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+_TOBY'S REWARD._
+
+
+Filled with disgust and wrath, Toby had obeyed the man who assumed to be
+his master, and gone to bed. But he was scarcely asleep, when he felt
+somebody shaking him, and awoke to see bending over him, with smiling
+countenance, lamp in hand, Captain Lysander.
+
+"What's wantin', sar?"
+
+"I want you to do an errand for me, Toby," Lysander kindly replied.
+
+"Wal, sar, I don'o', sar," said Toby, reluctant, sitting up in bed and
+rubbing his elbows. "You know I had a right smart tramp. I's a
+tuckered-out nigger, sar; dat's de troof."
+
+"Yes, you had a hard time, Toby. But you'll just run over to the
+school-house for me, I know. That's a good fellow!"
+
+Toby hardly knew what to make of Lysander's extraordinarily persuasive
+and indulgent manner. He didn't know before that a Sprowl could smile so
+pleasantly, and behave so much like a gentleman. Then, the captain had
+called him a good fellow, and his African soul was not above flattery.
+Weary, sleepy as he was, he felt strongly inclined to get up out of his
+delicious bed, and go and do Lysander's errand.
+
+"You've only to hand this note to Lieutenant Ropes. And I'll give you
+something when you come back--something you don't get every day, Toby!
+Something you've deserved, and ought to have had long ago!" And
+Lysander, all smiles, patted the old servant's shoulder.
+
+This was too much for Toby. He laughed with pleasure, got up, pulled on
+his clothes, took the note, and started off with alacrity, to convince
+the captain that he merited all the good that was said of him, and that
+indefinite "something" besides.
+
+What could that something be? He thought of many things by the way: a
+dollar; a knife; a new pair of boots with red tops, such as Lysander
+himself wore;--which last item reminded him of the bootjack he had been
+used for, and the kick he had received.
+
+He stopped in the street, his wrath rising up again at the recollection.
+"Good mind ter go back, and not do his old arrant." But then he thought
+of the smiles and compliments, and the promised reward. "Somefin' kinder
+decent 'bout dat mis'ble Sprowl, 'long wid a heap o' mean tings, arter
+all!" And he started on again.
+
+Lysander's note was in these words:--
+
+"Leiutent Ropes Send me with the bearrer of This 2 strappin felloes
+capble of doin a touhgh Job."
+
+This letter was duly signed, and duly delivered, and it brought the "2
+strappin felloes." The internal evidence it bore, that Lysander had not
+pursued his studies at school half as earnestly as he had of late
+pursued the schoolmaster, made no difference with the result.
+
+The two strapping fellows returned with Toby. They were raw recruits,
+who had travelled a long distance on foot in order to enlist in the
+confederate ranks. They had an unmistakable foreign air. They called
+themselves Germans. They were brothers.
+
+"All right, Toby!" said Lysander, well pleased. "What are you bowing and
+grinning at me for? O, I was to give you something!"
+
+"If you please, sar," said Toby--wretched, deceived, cajoled, devoted
+Toby.
+
+"Well, you go to the woodshed and bring the clothes line for these
+fellows--to make a swing for the ladies, you know--then I'll tell you
+what you're to have."
+
+"Sartin, sar." And Toby ran for the clothes line.
+
+"Good old Toby! Now, what you have deserved so long, and what these
+stout Dutchmen will proceed to give you, is the damnedest licking you
+ever had in your life!"
+
+Toby almost fainted; falling upon his knees, and rolling up his eyes in
+consternation. Sprowl smiled. The "Dutchmen" grinned. Just then Salina
+darted into the room.
+
+"Lysander! what are you going to do with that old man?"
+
+She put the demand sharply, her short upper lip quivering, cheeks
+flushed, eyes flaming.
+
+"I'm going to have him whipped."
+
+"No, you are not. You promised me you wouldn't. You told me that if he
+would go to the Academy for you, and be respectful, you would forgive
+him. If I had known what you were sending for, he should never have left
+this house. Now send those men back, and let him go."
+
+"Not exactly, my lady. I am master in this house, whatever turns up. I
+am this nigger's master, too."
+
+"You are not; you never were. Toby has his freedom. He shall not be
+whipped!" And with a gesture of authority, and with a stamp of her foot,
+Salina placed herself between the kneeling old servant and the grinning
+brothers.
+
+Alas! this woman's dream of love and happiness had been brief, as all
+such dreams, false in their very nature, must ever be. She loved him
+well enough to concede much. She was not going to quarrel with him any
+more. To avoid a threatened quarrel, she betrayed Toby. But she was not
+heartless: she had a sense of justice, pride, temper, an impetuous will,
+not yet given over in perpetuity to the keeping of her husband.
+
+The captain laughed devilishly, and threw his arms about his wife (this
+time in no loving embrace), and seizing her wrists, held them, and
+nodded to the soldiers to begin their work.
+
+They laid hold of Toby, still kneeling and pleading, bound his arms
+behind him with the cord, and then looked calmly at Lysander for
+instructions.
+
+"Take him to the shed," said the captain. "One of you carry this light.
+You can string him up to a crossbeam. If you don't understand how that's
+done, I'll go and show you. He's to have twenty lashes to begin with,
+for lying to me. Then he's to be whipped till he tells where our escaped
+prisoners are hid in the mountains. You understand?"
+
+"Ve unterstan," said the brothers, coldly.
+
+Toby groaned. They took hold of him, and dragged him away.
+
+"Now will you behave, my girl? A pretty row you're making! Ye see it's
+no use. I am master. The nigger'll only get it the worse for your
+interference."
+
+Lysander looked insolently in his wife's face. It was livid.
+
+"Hey?" he said. "One of your tantrums?"
+
+He placed her on a chair. She was rigid; she did not speak; he would
+have thought she was in a fit but for the eyes which she never took off
+of him--eyes fixed with deep, unutterable, deadly, despairing hate.
+
+"I reckon you'll behave--you'd better!" he said, shaking his finger
+warningly at her as he retired backwards from the room.
+
+She saw the door close behind him. She did not move: her eyes were still
+fixed on that door: heavy and cold as stone, she sat there, and gazed,
+with that same look of unutterable hate. Perhaps five minutes. Then she
+heard blows and shrieks. Toby's shrieks: he had no Carl now to rush in
+and cut his bands.
+
+The twenty lashes for lying had been administered on the negro's bare
+back. Then Lysander put the question: Was he prepared to tell all he
+knew about the fugitives and the cave?
+
+"O, pardon, sar! pardon, sar!" the old man implored; "I can't tell
+nuffin', dat am de troof!"
+
+"Work away, boys," said Lysander.
+
+Was it supposed that the good old practice of applying torture to
+enforce confession had long since been done away with? A great mistake,
+my friend. Driven from that ancient stronghold of conservatism, the
+Spanish Inquisition, it found refuge in this modern stronghold of
+conservatism, American Slavery. Here the records of its deeds are
+written on many a back.
+
+But Toby was not a slave. No matter for that. For in the school of
+slavery, this is the lesson that soon or late is learned: Not simply
+that there are two castes, freeman and slave; two races, white and
+black; but that there are two great classes, the rich and the poor, the
+strong and the weak, the lord and the laborer, one born to rule, and the
+other to be ruled. All, who are not masters, are, or ought to be,
+slaves: black or white, it makes no difference; and the slave has no
+rights. This is the first principle of human slavery. This every slave
+society tends directly to develop. It may be kept carefully out of
+sight, but there it lurks, in the hardened hearts of men, like water
+within rocks. It is forever gushing up in little springs of despotism.
+Once it burst forth in a vast convulsive flood, and that was the
+Rebellion.
+
+Although Lysander had never owned a slave, he had all his life breathed
+the atmosphere of the institution, and imbibed its spirit. He hated
+labor. He was ambitious. But he was poor. Like a flying fish, he had
+forced himself out of the lower element of society, to which he
+naturally belonged, and had long desperately endeavored to soar. The
+struggle it had cost him to attain his present position rendered him all
+the more violent in his hatred of the inferior class, and all the more
+eager to enjoy the privileges of the aristocracy. Do not blame this man
+too much. The injustice, the cruelty, the atrocious selfishness he
+displays, do not belong so much to the individual as to the institution.
+The milk of this wolf makes the child it nourishes wolfish.
+
+Torture to the extent of ten lashes was applied; then once more the
+question was put. Gashed, bleeding, strung up by his thumbs to the
+crossbeam; every blow of the extemporized whips extorting from him a
+howl of agony; no rescue at hand; Lysander looking on with a merciless
+smile; the brothers doing their assigned work with merciless
+nonchalance; well might poor Toby cry out, in the wild insanity of
+pain,--
+
+"Yes, sar! I'll tell, I'll tell, sar!"
+
+"Very good," said Lysander. "Let him breathe a minute, boys."
+
+But in that minute Toby gathered up his soul again, dismissed the
+traitor, Cowardice, and took counsel of his fidelity. Betray his good
+old master to these ruffians? Break his promise to Virginia, his oath to
+Cudjo and Pomp? No, he couldn't do that. He thought of Penn, who would
+certainly be hung if captured; and hung through his treachery!
+
+"Now, out with it," said Lysander. "All about the cave. And don't ye
+lie, for you'll have to go and show it to us when we're ready."'
+
+"I can't tell!" said Toby. "Dar ain't no cave! none't I knows
+about--dat's shore!" This was of course a downright lie; but it was told
+to save from ruin those he loved; and I do not think it stands charged
+against his soul on the books of the recording angel.
+
+"Ten more, boys," said Lysander.
+
+"O, wait, wait, sar!" shrieked Toby. "Des guv me time to tink!"
+
+He thought of ten lashes; ten more afterwards; and still another ten;
+for he knew that the whipping would not cease until either he betrayed
+the fugitives or died; and every lash was to him an agony.
+
+"Think quick," said Captain Sprowl.
+
+Just then the door, of the kitchen opened. Toby grasped wildly at that
+straw of hope. It broke instantly. The comer was Salina. She had had the
+power to betray him, but not the power to save. She stood with folded
+arms, and smiled.
+
+"I can't help you, Toby, but I can be revenged."
+
+"Hello!" cried Lysander, with a start. "What smoke is that?"
+
+She had left the door open, and a draught of air wafted a strange smell
+of burning cloth and pine wood to his nostrils.
+
+"Nothing," replied Salina, "only the house is afire."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+_CARL MAKES AN ENGAGEMENT._
+
+
+Lysander looked in through the doors and saw flames. She had touched the
+lamp to the sitting-room curtains, and they had ignited the wood-work.
+
+"Your own house," he said, furiously. "What a fiend!"
+
+"It was my father's house until you took possession of it," she
+answered. "Now it shall burn."
+
+If he had not already considered that he had an interest at stake, that
+gentle remark reminded him.
+
+"Boys! come quick! By----! we must put out the fire!"
+
+He rushed into the kitchen. The German brothers had come to execute his
+commands: whether to flay a negro or extinguish a fire, was to them a
+matter of indifference; and they followed him, seizing pails.
+
+Salina was prepared for the emergency. She held a butcher-knife
+concealed under her folded arms. With this she cut the cords above
+Toby's thumbs. It was done in an instant.
+
+"Now, take this and run! If they go to take you, kill them!"
+
+She thrust the handle of the knife into his hand, and pushed him from
+the shed. Terrified, bewildered, weak, he seemed moving in a kind of
+nightmare. But somehow he got around the corner of the shed, and
+disappeared in the darkness.
+
+The brothers saw him go. They were drawing water at the well, and
+handing it to Lysander in the house. But they had been told to hand
+water, not to catch the negro. So they looked placidly at each other,
+and said nothing.
+
+The fire was soon extinguished; and Lysander, with his coat off, pail in
+hand, excited, turned and saw his "fiend" of a wife seated composedly in
+a chair, regarding him with a smile sarcastic and triumphant. He uttered
+a frightful oath.
+
+"Any more of your tantrums, and I'll kill you!"
+
+"Any more of yours," she replied, "and I'll burn you up. I can set fires
+faster than you can put them out. I don't care for the house any more
+than I care for my life, and that's precious little."
+
+By the tone in which she said these words, level, determined, distinct,
+with that spice which compressed fury lends, Captain Lysander Sprowl
+knew perfectly well that she meant them.
+
+The brothers looked at each other intelligently. One said something in
+German, which we may translate by the words "Incompatibility of temper;"
+and he smiled with dry humor. The other responded in the same tongue,
+and with a sleepy nod, glancing phlegmatically at Sprowl. What he said
+may be rendered by the phrase--"Caught a Tartar."
+
+Although Lysander did not understand the idiom, he seemed to be quite of
+the Teutonic opinion. He regarded Mrs. Sprowl with a sort of impotent
+rage. If he was reckless, she had shown herself more reckless. Though he
+was so desperate, she had outdone him in desperation. He saw plainly
+that if he touched her now, that touch must be kindness, or it must be
+death.
+
+"Have you let Toby go?"
+
+"Yes," replied Salina.
+
+"We can catch him," said Lysander.
+
+"If you do you will be sorry. I warn you in season."
+
+Since she said so, Lysander did not doubt but that it would be so. He
+concluded, therefore, not to catch Toby--that night. Moreover, he
+resolved to go back to his quarters and sleep. He was afraid of that
+wildcat; he dreaded the thought of trusting himself in the house with
+her. He durst not kill her, and he durst not go to sleep, leaving her
+alive. The Germans, perceiving his fear, looked at each other and
+grunted. That grunt was the German for "mean cuss." They saw through
+Lysander.
+
+After all were gone, Salina went out and called Toby. The old negro had
+fled for his life, and did not hear. She returned into the house, the
+aspect of which was rendered all the more desolate and drear by the
+marks of fire, the water that drenched the floor, the smoky atmosphere,
+and the dim and bluish lamp-light. The unhappy woman sat down in the
+lonely apartment, and thought of her brief dream of happiness, of this
+last quarrel which could never be made up, and of the hopeless,
+loveless, miserable future, until it seemed that the last drop of
+womanly blood in her veins was turned to gall.
+
+At the same hour, not many miles away, on a rude couch in a mountain
+cave, by her father's side, Virginia was tranquilly sleeping, and
+dreaming of angel visits. Across the entrance of the cavern, like an
+ogre keeping guard, Cudjo was stretched on a bed of skins. The fire,
+which rarely went out, illumined faintly the subterranean gloom. By its
+light came one, and looked at the old man and his child sleeping there,
+so peacefully, so innocently, side by side. The face of the father was
+solemn, white, and calm; that of the maiden, smiling and sweet. The
+heart of the young man yearned within him; his eyes, as they gazed,
+filled with tears; and his lips murmured with pure emotion,--
+
+"O Lord, I thank thee for their sakes! O Lord, preserve them and bless
+them!"
+
+And he moved softly away, his whole soul suffused with ineffable
+tenderness towards that good old man and the dear, beautiful girl. He
+had stolen thither to see that all was well. All was indeed well. And
+now he retired once more to a recess in the rock, where he and Pomp had
+made their bed of blankets and dry moss.
+
+The footsteps on the solid floor of stone had not awakened her. And what
+was more remarkable, the lover's beating heart and worshipping gaze had
+not disturbed her slumber. But now the slightest movement on the part of
+her blind parent banishes sleep in an instant.
+
+"Daughter, are you here?"
+
+"I am here, father!"
+
+"Are you well, my child?"
+
+"O, very well! I have had such a sweet sleep! Can I do anything for
+you?"
+
+"Yes. Let me feel that you are near me. That is all." She kissed him.
+"Heaven is good to me!" he said.
+
+She watched him until he slept again. Then, her soul filled with
+thankfulness and peace, she closed her eyes once more, and happy
+thoughts became happy dreams.
+
+At about that time Salina threw herself despairingly upon her bed, at
+home, gnashing her teeth, and wishing she had never been born. And these
+two were sisters. And Salina had the house and all its comforts left to
+her, while Virginia had nothing of outward solace for her delicate
+nature but the rudest entertainment. So true it is that not place, and
+apparel, and pride make us happy, but piety, affection, and the
+disposition of the mind.
+
+The night passed, and morning dawned, and they who had slept awoke, and
+they who had not slept watched bitterly the quickening light which
+brought to them, not joy and refreshment, but only another phase of
+weariness and misery.
+
+Captain Lysander Sprowl was observed to be in a savage mood that day.
+The cares of married life did not agree with him: they do not with some
+people. Because Salina had baffled him, and Toby had escaped, his
+inferiors had to suffer. He was sharp even with Lieutenant Ropes, who
+came to report a fact of which he had received information.
+
+"Stackridge was in the village last night!"
+
+"What's that to me?" said Lysander.
+
+"The lieutenant-colonel--" whispered Silas. Sprowl grew attentive. By the
+lieutenant-colonel was meant no other person than Augustus Bythewood,
+who had received his commission the day before. Well might Lysander, at
+the mention of him to whom both these aspiring officers owed everything,
+bend a little and listen. Ropes proceeded. "He feels a cussed sight
+badder now he believes the gal is in a cave somewhars with the
+schoolmaster, than he did when he thought she was burnt up in the woods.
+He entirely approves of your conduct last night, and says Toby must be
+ketched, and the secret licked out of him. In the mean while he thinks
+sunthin' can be done with Stackridge's family. Stackridge was home last
+night, and of course his wife will know about the cave. The secret might
+be frightened out on her, or, I swear!" said Silas, "I wouldn't object
+to using a little of the same sort of coercion you tried with Toby; and
+Bythewood wouldn't nuther. Only, you understand, he musn't be supposed
+to know anything about it."
+
+Lysander's eyes gleamed. He showed his tobacco-stained teeth in a way
+that boded no good to any of the name of Stackridge.
+
+"Good idee?" said Silas, with a coarse and brutal grin.
+
+"Damned good!" said Lysander. Indeed, it just suited his ferocious mood.
+"Go yourself, lieutenant, and put it into execution."
+
+"There's one objection to that," replied Silas, thrusting a quid into
+his cheek. "I know the old woman so well. It's best that none of us in
+authority should be supposed to have a hand in't. Send somebody that
+don't know her, and that you can depend on to do the job up harnsome.
+How's them Dutchmen?"
+
+"Just the chaps!" said Lysander, growing good-natured as the pleasant
+idea of whipping a woman developed itself more and more to his
+appreciative mind.
+
+From flogging a slave, to flogging a free negro, the step is short and
+easy. From the familiar and long-established usage of beating
+slave-women, to the novel fashion of whipping the patriotic wives of
+Union men, the step is scarcely longer, or more difficult. Even the
+chivalrous Bythewood, who was certainly a gentleman in the common
+acceptation of the term, magnificently hospitable to his equals, gallant
+to excess among ladies worthy of his smiles,--yet who never interfered
+to prevent the flogging of slave-mothers on his estates,--saw nothing
+extraordinary or revolting in the idea of extorting a secret from a
+hated Union woman by means of the lash. To such gross appetites for
+cruelty as Ropes had cultivated, the thing relished hugely. The keen,
+malignant palate of Lysander tasted the flavor of a good joke in it.
+
+The project was freely discussed, and in the hilarity of their hearts
+the two officers let fall certain words, like crumbs from their table,
+which a miserable dog chanced to pick up.
+
+That miserable dog was Dan Pepperill, whose heart was so much bigger
+than his wit. He knew that mischief was meant towards Mrs. Stackridge.
+How could he warn her? The drums were already beating for company drill,
+and he despaired of doing anything to save her, when by good fortune--or
+is there something besides good fortune in such things?--he saw one of
+his children approaching.
+
+The little Pepperill came with a message from her mother. Dan heard it
+unheedingly, then whispered in the girl's ear,--
+
+"Go and tell Mrs. Stackridge her and the childern's invited over to our
+house this forenoon. Right away now! Partic'lar reasons, tell her!"
+added Dan, reflecting that ladies in Mrs. Stackridge's station did not
+visit those in his wife's without particular reasons.
+
+The child ran away, and Pepperill fell into the ranks, only to get
+repeatedly and severely reprimanded by the drill-officer for his
+heedlessness that morning. He did everything awkwardly, if not
+altogether wrong. His mind was on the child and the errand on which he
+had sent her, and he kept wondering within himself whether she would do
+it correctly (children are so apt to do errands amiss!), and whether
+Mrs. Stackridge would be wise enough, or humble enough, to go quietly
+and give Mrs. P. a call.
+
+After company drill the brothers were summoned, and Lysander gave them
+secret orders. They were to visit Stackridge's house, seize Mrs.
+Stackridge and compel her, by blows if necessary, to tell where her
+husband was concealed.
+
+"You understand?" said the captain.
+
+"Ve unterstan," said they, dryly.
+
+Scarcely had the brothers departed, when a prisoner was brought in. It
+was Toby, who had been caught endeavoring to make his way up into the
+mountains.
+
+"Now we've got the nigger, mabby we'd better send and call the Dutchmen
+back," said Silas Ropes.
+
+"No, no!" said Lysander, through his teeth. "'Twon't do any harm to give
+the jade a good dressing down. I wish every man, woman, and child, that
+shrieks for the old rotten Union, could be served in the same way."
+
+Having set his heart on this little indulgence, Sprowl could not easily
+be persuaded to give it up. It was absolutely necessary to his peace of
+mind that somebody should be flogged. The interesting affair with Toby,
+which had been so abruptly broken off,--left, like a novelette in the
+newspapers, to be continued,--must be concluded in some shape: it
+mattered little upon whose flesh the final chapters were struck off.
+
+In the mean time the recaptured negro was taken to the guard-house.
+There he found a sympathizing companion. It was Carl. To him he told his
+story, and showed his wounds, the sight of which filled the heart of the
+lad with rage, and pity, and grief.
+
+"Vot sort of Tutchmen vos they?" Toby described them. Carl's eyes
+kindled. "I shouldn't be wery much susprised," said he, "if they vos--no
+matter!"
+
+Lieutenant Ropes arrived, bringing into the guard-house a formidable
+cat-o'-nine-tails.
+
+"String that nigger up," said Silas.
+
+Ropes was not the man to await patiently the issue of the
+woman-whipping, while here was a chance for a little private sport. He
+remembered how Toby had got away from him once--that he too owed him a
+flogging. Debts of this kind, if no others, Silas delighted to pay; and
+accordingly the negro was strung up. It was well for the lieutenant that
+Carl had irons on his wrists.
+
+The sound of the poor old man's groans,--the sight of his gashed,
+oozing, and inflamed back, bared again to the whip,--was to Carl
+unendurable. But as it was not in his power to obey the impulse of his
+soul, to spring for a musket and slay that monster of cruelty, Ropes, on
+the spot,--he must try other means, perhaps equally unwise and
+desperate, to save Toby from torture.
+
+"Vait, sir, if you please, vun leetle moment," he called out to Silas.
+"I have a vord or two to shpeak."
+
+He had as yet, however, scarcely made up his mind what to propose. A
+moment's reflection convinced him that only one thing could purchase
+Toby's reprieve; and perhaps even that would fail. Regardless of
+consequences to himself, he resolved to try it.
+
+"I know petter as he does about the cave; I vos there," he cried out,
+boldly.
+
+"Hey? You offer yourself to be whipped in this old nigger's place?" said
+Ropes.
+
+"Not wery much," replied Carl. "I can go mit you or anypody you vill
+send, and show vair the cave is. I remember. But if you vill have me
+whipped, I shouldn't be wery much surprised if that vould make me to
+forget. Whippins," he added, significantly, "is wery pad for the
+memory."
+
+"You mean to say, if you are licked, then you won't tell?"
+
+"That ish the idea I vished to conwey."
+
+"We'll see about that." Silas laughed. "In the mean time we'll try what
+can be got out of this nigger."
+
+Toby, who had had a gleam of hope, now fell again into despair. Just
+then Captain Sprowl came in.
+
+"Hold! What are you doing with that nigger?"
+
+Silas explained, and Carl repeated his proposal. Lysander caught eagerly
+at it. He remembered Salina's warning, and was glad of any excuse to
+liberate the old negro.
+
+"You promise to take me to the cave?" Carl assented. "Why, then,
+lieutenant, that's all we want, and I order this boy to be set free."
+
+"This boy" was Toby, who was accordingly let off, to his own
+inexpressible joy and Ropes's infinite disgust.
+
+"If Carl he take de responsumbility to show de cave, dat ain't my fault.
+'Sides, dat boy am bright, he am; de secesh can't git much de start o'
+him!"
+
+Thus the old negro congratulated himself on his way home. At the same
+time Carl, still in irons, was saying to himself,--
+
+"So far so goot. If they had whipped Toby, two things vould be wery
+pad--the whipping, for one, and he would have told, for another. But I
+have made vun promise. It vas a pad promise, and a pad promise is petter
+proken as kept. But if I preak it, they vill preak my head. Vot shall I
+do? Now let me see!" said Carl.
+
+And he remained plunged in thought.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+_CAPTAIN LYSANDER'S JOKE._
+
+
+Since the time when she lost her best feather-bed and her boarder, the
+worthy widow Sprowl had suffered serious pecuniary embarrassment. She
+missed sadly the regular four dollars a week, and the irregular
+gratuities, she had received from Penn. So much secession had cost her,
+without yielding as yet any of its promised benefits. The Yankees had
+not stepped up with the alacrity expected of them, and thrust their
+servile necks into the yoke of their natural masters. The slave trade
+was not reopened. Niggers were not yet so cheap that every poor widow
+could, at a trifling expense, provide herself with several, and grow
+rich on their labor. In the pride of seeing her son made what she called
+a "capting," and in the hope of enjoying some of the golden fruits of
+his valor, she had given him her last penny, and received up to the
+present time not a penny from him in return. In short, Lysander was
+ungrateful, and the widow was a disappointed woman.
+
+So it happened that the sugar-bowl and tea-canister were often empty,
+and the poor widow had no legitimate means of replenishing them. In this
+extremity she resorted to borrowing. She borrowed of everybody, and
+never repaid. She borrowed even of the hated Unionists in the
+neighborhood, and confessed with bitterness to her son that she found
+them more ready to lend to her than the families of secessionists.
+
+Again, on the morning of the events related in the last chapter, she
+found herself in want of many things--tea, sugar, meal, beans, potatoes,
+snuff, and tobacco; for this excellent woman snuffed, "dipped," and
+smoked.
+
+"Where shall I go and borry to-day?" said she, counting her patrons, and
+the number of times she had been to borrow of each, on her fingers.
+"Thar's Mis' Stackridge. I hain't been to her but oncet. I'll go agin,
+and carry the big basket."
+
+With her basket on her arm, and an ancient brown bonnet (which had been
+black at the time of the demise of the late lamented Sprowl,) on her
+head, and a multitude of excuses on her tongue, she set out, and walked
+to the farmer's house. This had one of those great, shed-like openings
+through it, so common in Tennessee. A door on the left, as you entered
+this covered space, led to the kitchen and living-room of the family.
+Here the widow knocked.
+
+There was no response. She knocked again, with the same result. Then she
+pulled the latch-string--for the door even of this well-to-do farmer had
+a latch-string. She entered. The house was deserted.
+
+"Ain't to home, none of 'em, hey?" said the widow, peering about her
+with a disagreeable scowl. "House wan't locked, nuther. Wonder if Mis'
+Stackridge and the childern have gone to the mountains too? And whar's
+old Aunt Deb?"
+
+Her first feeling was that of resentment. What right had Mrs. Stackridge
+to be absent when she came to borrow? As she explored the pantry and
+closets, however, and became convinced that she was absolutely alone in
+a well-provisioned farm-house, her countenance lighted up with a smile.
+
+"I can borry what I want jest exac'ly as well as if Mis' Stackridge war
+to home," thought the widow.
+
+And she proceeded to fill her basket. She helped herself to a pan of
+meal, borrowing the pan with it. "I'll fetch home the pan," said she,
+"when I do the meal,"--exposing her craggy teeth with a grim smile. "If
+I don't before, I'm a feared Mis' Stackridge'll haf to wait for't a
+considerable spell! What's in this box? Coffee! May as well take box and
+all. Bring back the box when I do the coffee. Wish I could find some
+tobacky somewhars--wonder whar they keep their tobacky!"
+
+Now, the excellent creature did not indulge in these liberties without
+some apprehension that Mrs. Stackridge might return suddenly and
+interrupt them. Perhaps she had not followed Mr. Stackridge to the
+mountains. Perhaps she had only gone into the village to buy shoes for
+her children, or to call on a neighbor. "If she should come back and
+ketch me at it,--why, then, I'll tell her I'm only jest a borryin', and
+see what she'll do about it. The prop'ty of these yer durned
+Union-shriekers is all gwine to be confisticated, and I reckon I may as
+well take my sheer when I can git it. Thar's a paper o' black pepper,
+and I'll take it jest as 'tis. Thar's a jar o' lump butter,--wish I
+could tote jar and all!--have some of the lumps on a plate anyhow!"
+
+She had soon filled her basket, and was regretting she had not brought
+two, or a larger one, when a handsome, new tin pail, hanging in the
+pantry, caught her eye. "Been wantin' jest sich a pail as that, this
+long while!" And she proceeded to fill that also.
+
+Just as she was putting the cover on, she was very much startled by
+hearing footsteps at the door.
+
+"O, dear me! What shall I do? If it should be Mr. Stackridge! But it
+can't be him! If it's only Mis' Stackridge or one of the niggers, I'll
+face it out! They won't das' to make a fuss, for they're
+Union-shriekers, and my son's a capting in the confederate army!"
+
+Thump, thump, thump!--loud knocking at the door.
+
+"My, it's visitors! Who can it be?" She set down her pail and basket.
+"I'll act jest as if I had a right here, anyhow!"
+
+She was hesitating, when the string was pulled, and two strangers,
+stout, square built, with foreign looking faces, carrying muskets, and
+dressed in confederate uniform, entered.
+
+"Mrs. Stackridge?" said they, in a heavy Teutonic accent.
+
+"Ye--ye--yes--" stammered the widow, trying to hide the guilty basket
+and pail behind her skirts. "What do you want of Mis' Stackridge?"
+
+One of the strangers said to the other, in German, indicating the
+plunder,--
+
+"This is the woman. She is getting provisions ready to send to her
+husband in the mountains."
+
+"Let us see what there is good to eat," said the other.
+
+Mrs. Sprowl, although understanding no word that was spoken, perceived
+that the borrowed property formed the theme of their remarks.
+
+"Have some?" she hastened to say, with extreme politeness, as the
+Germans approached the provisions.
+
+"Tank ye," said they, finding some bread and cold meat. And they ate
+with appetite, exchanging glances, and grunting with satisfaction.
+
+"O, take all you want!" said the widow. "You're welcome to anything
+there is in the house, I'm shore!"--adding, within herself, "I am so
+glad these soldiers have come! Now, whatever is missing will be laid to
+them."
+
+"You de lady of de house?" said the foreigners, munching.
+
+"Yes, help yourselves!" smiled the hospitable widow.
+
+"You Mrs. Stackridge?" they inquired, more particularly.
+
+"Yes; take anything you like!" replied the widow.
+
+"Where your husband?"
+
+"My husband! my poor dear husband! he has been dead these----"
+
+She checked herself, remembering that the soldiers took her for Mrs.
+Stackridge. If she undeceived them, then they would know she had been
+stealing.
+
+"Dead?" The Germans shook their heads and smiled. "No! He was here last
+night. He was seen. You take dese tings to him up in de mountain."
+
+"Would you like some cheese?" said the embarrassed widow.
+
+"Tank ye. Dis is better as rations."
+
+Mrs. Sprowl returned to the pantry, in order to replace the provisions
+she had so generously given away, and prepared to depart with the basket
+and pail; inviting the guests repeatedly to make themselves quite at
+home, and to take whatever they could find.
+
+"Wait!" said they. Each had a knee on the floor, and one hand full of
+bread and cheese. They looked up at her with broad, complacent, unctuous
+faces, smiling, yet resolute. And one, with his unoccupied hand, laid
+hold of the handle of the basket, while the other detained the pail.
+"You will tell us where is your husband," said they.
+
+"O, dear me, I don't know! I'm a poor lone woman, and where my husband
+is I can't consaive, I'm shore!"
+
+"You will tell us where is your husband," repeated the men; and one of
+them, getting upon his feet, stood before her at the door.
+
+"He's on the mountain somewhars. I don't know whar, and I don't keer,"
+cried the widow, excited. There was something in the stolid, determined
+looks of the brothers she did not like. "He's a bad man, Mr. Stackridge
+is! I'm a secessionist myself. You are welcome to everything in the
+house--only let me go now."
+
+"You will not go," said the soldier at the door, "till you tell us. We
+come for dat."
+
+On entering, they had placed their muskets in the corner. The speaker
+took them, and handed one to his comrade. And now the widow observed
+that out of the muzzle of each protruded the butt-end of a small
+cowhide. Each soldier held his gun at his side, and laying hold of the
+said butt-end, drew out the long taper belly and dangling lash of the
+whip, like a black snake by the neck.
+
+The widow screamed.
+
+"It's all a mistake. Let me go! I ain't Mis' Stackridge"
+
+Nothing so natural as that the wife of the notorious Unionist should
+deny her identity at sight of the whips. The soldiers looked at each
+other, muttered something in German, smiled, and replaced their muskets
+in the corner.
+
+"You tell us where is your husband. Or else we whip you. Dat is our
+orders."
+
+This they said in low tones, with mild looks, and with a calmness which
+was frightful. The widow saw that she had to do with men who obeyed
+orders literally, and knew no mercy.
+
+"I hain't got no husband. I ain't Mis' Stackridge. I'm a poor lone
+widder, that jest come over here to borry a few things, and that's all."
+
+"Ve unterstan. You say shust now you are Mrs. Stackridge. Now you say
+not. Dat make no difruns. Ve know. You tell us where is your husband, or
+ve string you up."
+
+This speech was pronounced by both the foreigners, a sentence by each,
+alternately. At the conclusion one drew a strong cord from his pocket,
+while the other looked with satisfaction at certain hooks in the
+plastering overhead, designed originally for the support of a kitchen
+pole, but now destined for another use.
+
+"Don't you dast to tech me!" screamed the false Mrs. Stackridge. "I'm a
+secessionist myself, that hates the Union-shriekers wus'n you do, and
+I've got a son that's a capting, and a poor lone widder at that!"
+
+"Dat we don't know. What we know is, you tell what we say, or we whip
+you. Dat's Captain Shprowl's orders."
+
+"Capting Sprowl! That's my son! my own son! If he sent you, then it's
+all right!"
+
+"So we tink. All right." And the soldiers, seizing her, tied her thumbs
+as Lysander had taught them, passed the cords over the hook as they had
+passed the clothesline over the crossbeam the night before, and drew the
+shrieking woman's hands above her head, precisely as they had hauled up
+Toby's. They then turned her skirts up over her head, and fastened them.
+This also they had been instructed to do by Lysander. It was, you will
+say, shameful; for this woman was free and white. Had she been a slave,
+with a different complexion, although perhaps quite as white, would it
+have been any the less shameful? Answer, ye believers in the divine
+rights of slave-masters!
+
+"Now you vill tell?" said the phlegmatic Teutons, measuring out their
+whips.
+
+"Go for my son! My son is Capting Sprowl!" gasped the stifled and
+terror-stricken widow.
+
+"Dat trick won't do. You shpeak, or we shtrike."
+
+"It is true, it is true! I am Mrs. Sprowl, and my husband is dead, and
+my son is Capting Sprowl, and a poor lone widder, that if you strike her
+a single blow he'll have you took and hung!"
+
+"If he is your son, den by your own son's orders we whip you. He vill
+not hang us for dat. You vill not tell? Den we give you ten lash."
+
+Blow upon blow, shriek upon shriek, followed. The soldiers counted the
+strokes aloud, deliberately, conscientiously, as they gave them, "Vun,
+two, tree," &c, up to ten. There they stopped. But the screams did not
+stop. This punishment, which it was sport to inflict upon a faithful old
+negro, which it would have been such a good joke to have bestowed upon
+the wife of a stanch Unionist, was no sport, no joke, but altogether a
+tragic affair to thy mother, O Lysander!
+
+Then she, who had so often wished that she too owned slaves, that when
+she was angry she might have them strung up and flogged, knew by fearful
+experience what it was to be strung up and flogged. Then she, who
+sympathized with her son in his desire to see every man, woman, and
+child, that loved the old Union, served in this fashion, felt in her own
+writhing and bleeding flesh the stings of that inhuman vengeance.
+Terrible blunder, for which she had only herself to thank! Robbery of
+her neighbor's house--the dishonest "borrowing," not of these ill-gotten
+goods only, but also of her neighbor's name--had brought her, by what we
+call fatality, to this strait.
+
+Fatality is but another name for Providence.
+
+The soldiers waited for a lull in the shrieks, then put once more the
+question.
+
+"You tell now? Where is your husband? No? Den you git ten lash more.
+Always ten lash till you tell."
+
+A storm of incoherent denial, angry threats, sobs, and screams, was the
+response. One of the soldiers drew her skirts over her head again, and
+gave another pull at the cords that hauled up her thumbs, while the
+other stood off and measured out his whip.
+
+Just then the door opened, and Captain Sprowl looked in.
+
+"How are you getting on, boys?"
+
+The question was accompanied by an approving smile, which seemed to say,
+"I see you are getting on very well."
+
+"We whip her once. We give her ten lash. She not tell."
+
+"Very well. Give her ten more."
+
+The widow struggled and screamed. Had she recognized her son's voice?
+Muffled as she was, he did not recognize hers. Nor was it surprising
+that, in the unusual posture in which he found her, he did not know her
+from Mrs. Stackridge.
+
+He stood in the door and smiled while the soldier laid on.
+
+"Make it a dozen," he quietly remarked. "And smart ones, to wind up
+with!"
+
+So it happened that, thanks to her son's presence, the screeching victim
+got two "smart ones" additional.
+
+"Now uncover her face. Ease away on her thumbs a little. I'll question
+her mys--Good Lucifer!" exclaimed the captain, finding himself face to
+face with his own mother.
+
+Twenty-two lashes and the torture of the strung-up thumbs had proved too
+much even for the strong nerves of Widow Sprowl. She fell down in a
+swoon.
+
+Lysander, furious, whipped out his sword, and turned upon the soldiers.
+They quietly stepped back, and took their guns from the corner. He would
+certainly have killed one of them on the spot had he not seen by the
+glance of their eyes that the other would, at the same instant, as
+certainly have killed him.
+
+"You scoundrels! you have whipped my own mother!"
+
+"Captain," they calmly answered, "we opey orders."
+
+"Fools!"--and Lysander ground his teeth,--"you should have known!"
+
+"Captain," they replied, "if you not know, how should we know? We never
+see dis woman pefore. We come. We find her taking prowisions from de
+house. We say, 'She take dem to her husband in de mountains.' We say,
+'You Mrs. Stackridge?' She say yes to everyting. We not know she lie. We
+not know she steal. We not say, 'You somepody else.' We opey orders. We
+take and we whip her. You come in and say, 'Whip more.' We whip more.
+Now you say to us, 'Scoundrels!' You say, 'Fools!' We say, 'Captain, it
+was your orders; we opey.'"
+
+Having by a joint effort at sententious English pronounced this speech,
+the brothers stood stolidly awaiting the result; while the captain,
+still gnashing his teeth, bent over the prostrate form of his mother.
+
+"Bring some water and throw on her! you idiots!" he yelled at them.
+"Would you see her die?"
+
+They looked at each other. "Water?" Yes, that was what was wanted. They
+remembered their practice of the previous evening. One found a wooden
+pail. The other emptied upon the floor the contents of the tin pail the
+widow had "borrowed." They went to the well. They brought water. "To
+throw on her?" Yes, that was what he said. And together they dashed a
+sudden drenching flood over the poor woman, as if the swoon were another
+fire to be extinguished.
+
+These fellows obeyed orders literally--a merit which Lysander now failed
+to appreciate. He swore at them terribly. But he did not countermand his
+last order. Accordingly they proceeded stoically to bring more water.
+Lysander had got his mothers head on his knee, and she had just opened
+her eyes to look and her mouth to gasp, when there came another double
+ice-cold wave, blinding, stifling, drowning her. Too much of water hadst
+thou, poor lone widow!
+
+Lysander let fall the maternal head, and bounded to his feet, roaring
+with wrath. The brothers, imperturbable, with the empty pails at their
+sides, stared at him with mute wonder.
+
+"Captain, dat was your orders. You say, 'Pring vasser and trow on.' We
+pring vasser and trow on. Dat is all."
+
+"But I didn't tell you to fetch pailfuls!"
+
+This sentence rushed out of Lysander's soul like a rocket, culminated in
+a loud, explosive oath, and was followed by a shower of fiery curses
+falling harmless on the heads of the unmoved Teutons.
+
+They waited patiently until the pyrotechnic rain ceased, then answered,
+speaking alternately, each a sentence, as if with one mind, but with two
+organs.
+
+"Captain, you hear. Last night vas de house afire. You say, 'Pring
+vasser.' We pring a little. Den you say to us, 'Tarn you! why in hell
+you shtop?' And you say, 'Von I tell you pring vasser, pring till I say
+shtop.' Vun time more to-day you say, 'Pring vasser,' and you never say
+shtop. You say, 'Trow on.' We trow on. Vat you say we do. You not say
+vat you mean, dat is mishtake for you."
+
+It is not to be supposed that Lysander listened meekly to the end of
+this speech. He had caught the sound of voices without that interested
+him more; and, looking, he saw Mrs. Stackridge returning, with her
+children.
+
+The Pepperill young-one had faithfully done her errand; and the farmer's
+wife, believing something important was meant by it, had hastened to
+accept the singular and urgent invitation. But, arrived at the poor
+man's shanty, she was astonished to find Mrs. Pepperill astonished to
+see her. They talked the matter over, questioned the child, and finally
+concluded that Daniel had said something quite different, which the
+child had misunderstood.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Stackridge, after sitting a-while, "I reckon I may as
+well be going back, for I've left only old Aunt Deb to home, and she's
+scar't to death to be left alone these times; thinks the secesh
+soldiers'll kill her. But I tell her not to be afeared of 'em. I ain't!"
+
+So this woman, little knowing how much real cause she had to be afraid,
+returned home with her family. When near the house she met Gaff and
+Jake, negroes belonging to the farm, who had been in the field at work,
+running towards her, in great terror, declaring that they heard somebody
+killing Aunt Deb.
+
+"Nonsense!" said she; and in spite of their assurances and entreaties,
+she marched straight towards the door through which the captain saw her
+coming.
+
+"Clear out!" said Lysander to the soldiers. "Go to your quarters. I'll
+have your case attended to!" This was spoken very threateningly. Then,
+as soon as they were out of hearing, he said to Mrs. Stackridge, "I'm
+sorry to say a couple of my men have been plundering your house. Them
+Dutchmen you just saw go out. Worse, than that, my mother was going by,
+and she came in to save your stuff, and they, it seems, took her for
+you, and beat her. You see, they have beat her most to death," said
+Lysander.
+
+"Lordy massy!" said Mrs. Stackridge.
+
+"Do help me! do take off my clo'es! a poor lone widder!" faintly moaned
+Mrs. Sprowl.
+
+"When I got here," added the captain, "she had fainted, and they had
+used her basket to pack things in, as you see, and filled this pail,
+which they emptied afterwards, so as to bring water and fetch her to.
+Scoundrels! I'm glad they ain't native-born southerners!"
+
+"And where is Aunt Deb?" said Mrs. Stackridge, hastening to raise the
+widow up.
+
+"I dono'; I hain't seen her. O, dear, them villains!" groaned Mrs.
+Sprowl. "I was just comin' over to borry a few things, you know."
+
+"Going by; she wasn't coming here," said Lysander.
+
+"Going by," repeated the widow. "O, shall I ever git over it! O, dear
+me, I'm all cut to pieces! A poor forlorn widder, and my only son--O,
+dear!"
+
+"Her only son," cried Lysander in a loud voice, "couldn't get here in
+time to prevent the outrage. That's what she wants to say. I leave her
+in your care, Mrs. Stackridge. She was doing a neighborly thing for you
+when she came in to stop the pillaging, and I'm sure you'll do as much
+for her."
+
+And the captain retired, his appetite for woman-whipping cloyed for the
+present.
+
+"Where is Aunt Deb?" repeated Mrs. Stackridge. "Aunt Deb!" she called,
+"where are you? I want you this minute!"
+
+"Here I is!" answered a voice from heaven, or at least from that
+direction.
+
+It was the voice of the old negress, who had hid herself in the
+chambers, and now spoke through a stove-pipe hole from which she had
+observed all that was passing from the time when the widow entered with
+her empty basket.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+_THE MOONLIGHT EXPEDITION._
+
+
+Toby had been released. Mrs. Stackridge had been whipped by proxy, and
+had kept her husband's secret. Gad, the spy, was still unaccountably
+absent. These three sources of information were, therefore, for the
+time, considered closed; and it was determined to have recourse to the
+fourth, namely, Carl.
+
+Here it should, perhaps, be explained that the confederate government,
+informed of the position of armed resistance assumed by the little band
+of patriots, had immediately telegraphed orders to recapture the
+insurgents. Among the Union-loving mountaineers of East Tennessee the
+mutterings of a threatened rebellion against the new despotism had long
+been heard, and it was deemed expedient to suppress at once this
+outbreak.
+
+"Try the ringleaders by drum-head court-martial, and, if guilty, hang
+them on the spot," said a second despatch.
+
+These instructions were purposely made public, in order to strike terror
+among the Unionists. They were discussed by the soldiers, and reached
+the ears of Carl.
+
+"Hang them on the spot." That meant Stackridge and Penn, and he knew not
+how many more. "And I," said Carl, "have agreed to show the vay to the
+cave."
+
+He was sweating fearfully over the dilemma in which he had placed
+himself, when a sergeant and two men came to conduct him to
+head-quarters.
+
+"Now it begins," said Carl to himself, drawing a deep breath.
+
+The irons remained on his wrists. In this plight he was brought into the
+presence of the red-faced colonel.
+
+"I hate a damned Dutchman!" said Lysander, who happened to be at
+head-quarters.
+
+He had had experience, and his prejudice was natural.
+
+The colonel poised his cigar, and regarded Carl sternly. The boy's heart
+throbbed anxiously, and he was afraid that he looked pale. Nevertheless,
+he stood calmly erect on his sturdy young legs, and answered the
+officer's frown with an expression of placid and innocent wonder.
+
+"Your name is Carl," said the colonel.
+
+"I sushpect that is true," replied Carl, on his guard against making
+inadvertent admissions.
+
+"Carl what?"
+
+"Minnevich."
+
+"Minny-fish? That's a scaly name. And they say you are a scaly fellow.
+What have you got those bracelets on for?"
+
+"That is vat I should pe wery much glad to find out," said Carl,
+affectionately regarding his handcuffs.
+
+"You are the fellow that enlisted to save the schoolmaster's neck, ain't
+you?"
+
+"I suppose that is true too."
+
+"Suppose? Don't you know?"
+
+"I thought I knowed, for you told me so; but as they vas hunting for him
+aftervards to hang him, I vas conwinced I vas mishtaken."
+
+This quiet reply, delivered in the lad's quaint style, with perfect
+deliberation, and with a countenance shining with simplicity, was in
+effect a keen thrust at the perfidy of the confederate officers. The
+colonel's face became a shade redder, if possible, and he frowningly
+exclaimed,--
+
+"And so you deserted!"
+
+"That," said Carl, "ish not quite so true."
+
+"What! you deny the fact?"
+
+"I peg your pardon, it ish not a fact. I vas took prisoner."
+
+"And do you maintain that you did not go willingly?"
+
+"I don't know just vat you mean by villingly. Ven vun of them fellows
+puts his muzzle to my head and says, 'You come mit us, and make no noise
+or I plow out your prains,' I vas prewailed upon to go. I vas more
+villing to go as I vas to have my prains spilt. If that is vat you mean
+by villing, I vas villing."
+
+"Why did they take you prisoner?"
+
+"Pecause. I vill tell you. Gad vas shleeping like thunder: you know vat
+I mean--shnoring. Nothing could make him vake up; so they let him
+shnore. But I vake up, and they say, I suppose, they must kill me or
+take me off, for if I vas left pehind I vould raise the alarm too soon."
+
+"Well, where did they take you?"
+
+Carl was silent a moment, then looking Colonel Derring full in the face,
+he said earnestly,--
+
+"They make me shwear I vould not tell."
+
+"Minny-fish," said the colonel, "this won't do. The secret is out, and
+it is too late for you to try to keep it back. Toby betrayed it. Mrs.
+Stackridge has been arrested, and she has confessed that her husband and
+his friends are hid in a cave. We sent out a scout, who has come in and
+corroborated both their statements. Gad discovered the cave; but he has
+sprained his ankle. He describes the spot accurately, but he's too lame
+to climb the hills again. What we want is a guide to go in his place.
+Now, Minny-fish, here's a chance for you to earn a pardon, and prove
+your loyalty. You promised Captain Sprowl, did you not, that you would
+conduct him to the cave?"
+
+Carl, overwhelmed by the colonel's confident assertions, breathed a
+moment, then replied,--
+
+"I pelieve I vas making him some promise."
+
+"Notwithstanding your oath that you would not tell?" said Lysander,
+eager to cross and corner him.
+
+"To show the vay, that is not to tell," replied Carl. "I shwore I vould
+not tell, and I shall not tell. But if you vill go mit me to the cave, I
+vill go mit you and take you. Then I keep my promise to you and my oath
+to them. You see, I did not shwear not to take you," he added, with a
+smile.
+
+With a smile on his face, but with profound perturbations of the soul.
+For he saw himself sinking deeper and deeper into this miry difficulty,
+and how he was to extricate himself without dragging his friends down,
+was still a terrible enigma.
+
+"I believe the boy is honest," said Derring. "Sergeant, have those irons
+taken off. Captain Sprowl, you will manage the affair, and take this boy
+as your guide. I advise you to trust him. But until he has thoroughly
+proved his honesty, keep a careful eye on him, and if you become
+convinced that he is deceiving you, shoot him down on the spot. I say,
+shoot him on the spot," repeated the colonel, impressively. "You both
+understand that. Do you, Minny-fish?"
+
+"I vas never shot," said Carl, "but I sushpect I know vat shooting is."
+And he smiled again, with trouble in his heart, that would have quite
+disconcerted a youth of less nerve and phlegm.
+
+"Well," said Captain Sprowl, "if you don't, you will know, if you
+undertake to play any of your Dutch tricks with me!"
+
+"O, sir!" said Carl, humbly, "if I knowed any trick I vouldn't ever
+think of playing it on you, you are so wery shmart!"
+
+"How do you know I am?" said Lysander, who felt flattered, and thought
+it would be interesting to hear the lad's reasons; for neither he, nor
+any one present, had perceived the craft and sarcasm concealed under
+that simple, earnest manner.
+
+"How do I know you are shmart? Pecause," replied Carl, "you have such a
+pig head. And such a pig nose. And such a pig mouth. That shows you are
+a pig man."
+
+This was said with an air of intense seriousness, which never changed
+amid the peals of laughter that followed. Nobody suspected Carl of an
+intentional joke; and the round-eyed innocent surprise with which he
+regarded the merriment added hugely to the humor of it. Everybody
+laughed except Lysander, who only grimaced a little to disguise his
+chagrin. This upstart officer was greatly disliked for his conceited
+ways, and it was not long before the "Dutch boy's compliments" became
+the joke of the camp, and wherever Lysander appeared some whisper was
+sure to be heard concerning either the "pig mouth," or "pig nose," of
+that truly "pig man."
+
+As for Carl, he had something far more serious to do than to laugh. How
+to circumvent the designs of these men? That was the question.
+
+In the first place, it is necessary to state that his conscience
+acquitted him entirely of all obligations to them or their cause. He was
+no secessionist. He had enlisted to save his benefactor and friend. He
+had said, "I will give you my services if you will give that man his
+life." They had immediately afterwards broken the contract by seeking to
+kill his friend, and he felt that he no longer owed them anything. But
+they held _him_ by force, against which he had no weapon but his own
+good wit. This, therefore, he determined to use, if possible, to their
+discomfiture, and the salvation of those to whom he owed everything. But
+how?
+
+He had saved Toby from torture and confession by promising what he never
+intended literally to perform.
+
+Once more in the guard-house, retained a prisoner until wanted as a
+guide, he reasoned with himself thus:--
+
+"If I do not go, then they vill make Gad go, lame or no lame, and he
+vill not be half so lucky to show the wrong road as I can be;"--for Carl
+never suspected that what had been said with regard to Mrs. Stackridge's
+arrest and confession, and Gad's successful reconnoissance and return,
+was all a lie framed to induce him to undertake this very thing. "And if
+I did not make pelieve I vas villing to go, then they vould not give me
+my hands free, and some chances for myself. I think there vill be some
+chances. But Sprowl is to watch, and be ready to shoot me down?" He
+shook his head dubiously, and added, "That is vat I do not like quite so
+vell!"
+
+He remained in a deep study until dusk. Then Captain Sprowl appeared,
+and said to him,--
+
+"Come! you are to go with me."
+
+Carl's heart gave a great bound; but he answered with an air of
+indifference,--
+
+"To-night?"
+
+"Yes. At once. Stir!"
+
+"I have not quite finished my supper; but I can put some of it in my
+pockets, and be eating on the road." And he added to himself, "I am glad
+it is in the night, for that vill be a wery good excuse if I should be
+so misfortunate as not to find the cave!"
+
+"Here," said Lysander, imperiously, giving him a twist and push,--"march
+before me! And fast! Now, not a word unless you are spoken to; and don't
+you dodge unless you want a shot."
+
+Thus instructed, Carl led the way. He did not speak, and he did not
+dodge. One circumstance overjoyed him. He saw no signs of a military
+expedition on foot. Was Lysander going alone with him to the mountains?
+"I sushpect I can find some trick for him, shmart as he is!" thought
+Carl.
+
+They left the town behind them. They took to the fields; they entered
+the shadow of the mountains, the western sky above whose tops was yet
+silvery bright with the shining wake of the sunset. A few faint stars
+were visible, and just a glimmer of moonlight was becoming apparent in
+the still twilight gloom.
+
+"We are going to have a quiet little adwenture together!" chuckled Carl.
+One thing was singular, however. Lysander did not tamely follow his
+lead: on the contrary, he directed him where to go; and Carl saw, to his
+dismay, that they were proceeding in a very direct route towards the
+cave.
+
+"Never mind! Ven ve come to some conwenient place maybe something vill
+happen," he said consolingly to himself.
+
+Then suddenly consternation met him, as it were face to face. The enigma
+was solved. From the crest of a knoll over which Lysander drove him like
+a lamb, he saw, lying on the ground in a little glen before them, the
+dark forms of some forty men.
+
+One of these rose to his feet and advanced to meet Lysander. It was
+Silas Ropes.
+
+"All ready?" said Sprowl.
+
+"Ready and waiting," said Silas.
+
+"Well, push on," said the captain. "We'll go to the dead bodies in the
+ravine first. Where's Pepperill?"
+
+"Here," replied Ropes; and at a summons Dan appeared.
+
+Carl's heart sank within him. Toby in the guard-house had told him about
+the dead bodies, and he knew that they were not far from the cave. He
+was aware, too, that Pepperill knew far more than one of such shallow
+mental resources and feeble will, wearing that uniform, and now in the
+power of these men, ought to know.
+
+There in the little moonlit glen they met and exchanged glances--the
+sturdy, calm-faced boy, and the weak-kneed, trembling man. Pepperill had
+not recovered from the terror with which he had been inspired, when
+summoned to guide a reconnoitring party to the ravine. But he had not
+yet lisped a syllable of what he knew concerning the cave. Carl gave him
+a look, and turned his eyes away again indifferently. That look said,
+"Be wery careful, Dan, and leave a good deal to me." And Dan, man as he
+was, felt somehow encouraged and strengthened by the presence of this
+boy.
+
+"Now, Pepperill," said Sprowl, "can you move ahead and make no mistake?"
+
+"I kin try," answered Pepperill, dismally. "But it's a heap harder to
+find the way in the night so; durned if 'tain't!"
+
+"None o' that, now, Dan," said Ropes, "or you'll git sunthin' to put
+sperrit inter ye!"
+
+Dan made no reply, but shivered. The mountain air was chill, the
+prospect dreary. Close by, the woods, blackened by the recent fire, lay
+shadowy and spectral in the moon. Far above, the dim summits towards
+which their course lay whitened silently. There was no noise but the low
+murmur of these men, bent on bloody purposes. No wonder Dan's teeth
+chattered.
+
+As for Carl, he killed a mosquito on his cheek, and smiled triumphantly.
+
+"You got a shlap, you warmint!" he said, as if he had no other care on
+his mind than the insect's slaughter.
+
+"Who told you to speak?" said Lysander sharply.
+
+"Vas that shpeaking?" Carl scratched his cheek complacently. "I vas only
+making a little obserwation to the mosquito."
+
+"Well, keep your observations to yourself!"
+
+"That is vat I vill try to do."
+
+The order to march was given. Lysander proceeded a few paces in advance,
+accompanied by Ropes and the two guides. The troops followed in silence,
+with dull, irregular tramp, filing through obscure hollows, over barren
+ridges crowned by a few thistles and mulleins, and by the edges of
+thickets which the fires had not reached. At length they came to a tract
+of the burned woods. The word "halt!" was whispered. The sound of
+tramping feet was suddenly hushed, and the slender column of troops,
+winding like a dark serpent up the side of the mountain, became
+motionless.
+
+"All right so far, Pepperill?"
+
+"Wal, I hain't made nary mistake yet, cap'm."
+
+Pepperill recognized the woods in which, when flying to the cave with
+Virginia, Penn, and Cudjo, they had found themselves surrounded by
+fires.
+
+"How far is it now to your ravine?"
+
+"Nigh on to half a mile, I reckon."
+
+"Shall we go through these woods?"
+
+"It's the nighest to go through 'em. But I s'pose we can git around if
+we try."
+
+"The moon sets early. We'd better take the nearest way," said the
+captain. "Well, Dutchy,"--for the first time deigning to consult
+Carl,--"this route is taking us to the cave, too, ain't it?"
+
+"Wery certain," said Carl, "prowided you go far enough, and turn often
+enough, and never lose the vay."
+
+"That'll be your risk, Dutchy. Look out for the landmarks, so that when
+Pepperill stops you can keep on."
+
+"I vill look out, but if they have all been purnt up since I vas here,
+how wery wexing!"
+
+This wood had been but partially consumed when the flames were checked
+by the rain. Many trunks were still standing, naked, charred, stretching
+their black despairing arms to the moon. The shadows of these ghostly
+trees slanted along the silent field of desolation, or lay entangled
+with the dark logs and limbs of trees which had fallen, and from which,
+at short distances, they were scarcely distinguishable. Here and there
+smouldered a heap of rubbish, its pallid smoke rising noiselessly in the
+bluish light. There were heaps of ashes still hot; half-burned brands
+sparkled in the darkness; and now and then a stump or branch emitted a
+still bright flame.
+
+Through this scene of blackness and ruin, rendered gloomily picturesque
+by the moonlight, the men picked their way. Not a word was spoken; but
+occasionally a muttered curse told that some ill-protected foot had come
+in contact with live cinders, or that some unlucky leg had slumped down
+into one of those mines of fire, formed by roots of old dead stumps,
+eaten slowly away to ashes under ground.
+
+Carl had hoped that the woods would prove impassable, and that the party
+would be compelled to turn back. That would gain for him time and
+opportunity. But the men pushed on. "Vill nothing happen?" he said to
+himself, in despair at seeing how directly they were travelling towards
+the cave. The burned tract was not extensive, and he soon saw,
+glimmering through the blackened columns, the clear moonlight on the
+slopes above.
+
+Pepperill, not daring to assume the responsibility of misleading the
+party, knew no better than to go stumbling straight on.
+
+"I vish he would shtumple and preak his shtupid neck!" thought Carl.
+
+They emerged from the burned woods, and came out upon the ledges beyond;
+and now the lad saw plainly where they were. On the left, the deep and
+quiet gulf of shadow was the ravine. They had but to follow this up, he
+knew not just how far, to reach the cave. And still Pepperill advanced.
+Carl's heart contracted. He knew that the critical moment of the night,
+for him and for his fugitive friends, was now at hand.
+
+"Do you see any landmarks yet?" Sprowl whispered to him.
+
+"I can almost see some," answered Carl, peering earnestly over a moonlit
+bushy space. "Ve shall pe coming to them py and py."
+
+"Do you know this ravine?"
+
+"I remember some rawines. I shouldn't be wery much surprised if this vas
+vun of 'em."
+
+"Look here," said Lysander. Carl looked, and saw a pistol-barrel.
+"Understand?"--significantly.
+
+"Is it for me?"' And Carl extended his hand ingenuously.
+
+"For you?--yes." But instead of giving the weapon to the boy, he
+returned it to his pocket, with a smile the boy did not like.
+
+"Ah, yes! a goot joke!" And Carl smiled too, his good-humored face
+beaming in the moon.
+
+At the same time he said to himself, "He hates me pecause I am Hapgood's
+friend; and he vill be much pleased to have cause to shoot me."
+
+Just then Dan stopped. Lysander put up his hand as a signal. The troops
+halted.
+
+"It's somewhars down in hyar, cap'm," Pepperill whispered.
+
+"It's a horrid place!" muttered Sprowl.
+
+"It ar so, durned if 'tain't!" said Dan, discouragingly.
+
+Before them yawned the ravine, bristling with half-burned saplings, and
+but partially illumined by the moon. The babble of the brook flowing
+through its hidden depths was faintly audible.
+
+"See the bodies anywhere?" said Lysander.
+
+"Can't see ary thing by this light," replied Dan. "But we can go down
+and find 'em."
+
+Sprowl did not much fancy the idea of descending.
+
+"It will be a waste of time to stop here," he said to Silas. "The live
+traitors are of more consequence than the dead ones. Supposing we go to
+the cave first, and come back and find the bodies afterwards. Have you
+got your bearings yet, Carl?"
+
+"I am peginning," said Carl, staring about him, with his hands in his
+pockets. "I think I vill have 'em soon."
+
+Sprowl looked at him with suppressed rage. "How cussed provoking!" he
+muttered.
+
+"It is--wery prowoking!" said Carl, looking at the moon. "Aggrawating!"
+
+"Well, make up your mind quick! What will you do?"
+
+Then it seemed as if a bright idea occurred to Carl.
+
+"I vill tell you. You go down and find the podies, and I vill be
+looking. Ven you come up again, I shouldn't be surprised if I could see
+vair the cave is."
+
+"Ropes," said Sprowl, "take a couple of men, and go down in there with
+Pepperill. I think it's best to stay with this boy."
+
+This arrangement did not please Carl at all; but, as he could not
+reasonably complain of it, he said, stoically, "Yes, it vill be petter
+so."
+
+Ropes selected his two men, and left the rest concealed in the shadows
+of the thickets.
+
+"If I could go up on the rocks there, I suppose I could see something,"
+said Carl.
+
+"Well, I'll go with you. I mean to give you a fair chance." Carl felt a
+secret hope. Once more alone with this villain, would not some
+interesting thing occur? "Wait, though!" said Sprowl; and he called a
+corporal to his side. "Come with us. Keep close to this boy. At the
+first sign of his giving us the slip, put your bayonet through him."
+
+"I will," said the corporal.
+
+This was discouraging again. But Carl looked up at the captain and
+smiled--his good-humored, placid smile.
+
+"You do right. But you vill see I shall not give you the shlip. Now
+come, and be wery still."
+
+In the mean time, Pepperill, with the three rebels, descended into the
+ravine. The spot where the dead man and horse had been was soon found.
+But now no dead man was to be seen. The horse had been removed from the
+rocks between which his back was wedged, and rolled down lower into the
+ravine. A broad, shallow hole had been dug there, as if to bury him. But
+the work had been interrupted. There was a shovel lying on the heap of
+earth. Near by was another spot where the soil had been recently
+stirred--a little mound: it was shaped like a grave.
+
+"They've buried the poor cuss hyar," said Dan.
+
+"We'll see." Ropes took the shovel. "They can't have put him in very
+deep, fur they've struck the rock in this yer t'other hole."
+
+He threw up a little dirt, then gave the shovel to one of the soldiers.
+The moon shone full upon the place. The man dug a few minutes, and came
+to something which was neither rock nor soil. He pulled it up. It was a
+man's arm.
+
+"You didn't guess fur from right this time, Dan! Scrape off a little
+more dirt, and we'll haul up the carcass. Needn't be partic'lar 'bout
+scrapin' very keerful, nuther. He's a mean shoat, whoever he is; one o'
+them cussed Union-shriekers. Wish they was all planted like he is! Hope
+we shall find five or six more. Ketch holt, Dan!"
+
+Dan caught hold. The body was dragged from the lonely resting-place to
+which it had been consigned. Parts of it, which had not been protected
+by the superincumbent bulk of the horse, were hideously burned. Ropes
+rolled it over on the back, and kicked it, to knock off the dirt. He
+turned up the face in the moonlight--a frightful face! One side was
+roasted; and what was left of the hair and beard was full of sand.
+
+"Damn him!" said Ropes, giving it a wipe with the spade.
+
+The eyes were open, and they too were full of sand.
+
+But the features were still recognizable. The men started back with
+horror. They knew their comrade. It was the spy who had been sent out to
+watch the fugitives. It was "the sleeper," whom nought could waken more.
+It was Gad.
+
+"Wal, if I ain't beat!" said Silas, with a ghastly look. "Fool! how did
+he come hyar?"
+
+This question has never been satisfactorily answered. The fatal leap of
+the terrified horse with his rider is known; but how came Gad on the
+horse? Those who knew the character of the man account for it in this
+way: He had been something of a horse-thief in his day; and it is
+supposed that, finding Stackridge's horse on the mountain, he fell once
+more into temptation. He was probably a little drunk at the time; and he
+was a man who would never walk if he could ride, especially when he was
+tipsy. So he mounted. But he had no sooner commenced the descent of the
+mountain, than the fire, which had been previously concealed from the
+animal by the clump of trees behind which he was hampered, burst upon
+his sight, and filled him with uncontrollable frenzy.
+
+Dan, who had witnessed the flight and plunge, could have contributed an
+item towards the solution of the mystery. But he opened not his mouth.
+
+"Them cussed traitors shall pay fur this!" said Ropes. This was the only
+consolatory thought that occurred to him. Having uttered it, he looked
+remorsefully at the spade with which he had rudely wiped the face of his
+dead friend. "I thought 'twas one o' them rotten scoundrels, or I--But
+never mind! Kiver him up agin, boys! We can't take him with us, and
+we've no time to lose."
+
+So they laid the corpse once more in the grave, and heaped the sand upon
+it.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+_CARL FINDS A GEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN._
+
+
+In the mean time Carl ascended the moonlit slope, with Sprowl's pistol
+on one side of him, and the corporal's bayonet on the other. Between the
+two he felt that he had little chance. But he did not despair. He
+reasoned thus with himself:--
+
+"These two men vill not think to take the cave alone. They must go back
+for reenforcements. That shall make a diwersion in my favor. If I show
+them some dark place, and make them think it is there, they vill not go
+wery near to examine." And he arrived at this conclusion: "I suppose I
+shall inwent a cave."
+
+They were advancing cautiously towards the summit of a bushy ridge.
+Suddenly Carl stopped.
+
+"Anything?" said Sprowl. Carl nodded, with a pleased and confident
+smile. "What?"
+
+"You shall see wery soon. Shtoop low." He himself crouched close to the
+ground. The men followed his example. "Come a little more on. Now you
+see that rock?" Lysander saw it. "Vell, it is not there."
+
+They crept forward a little farther. Then Carl stopped again, and
+said,--
+
+"You see that tree?"
+
+"Which?"
+
+"All alone in the moonshine." Lysander perceived it.
+
+"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there."
+
+Again they advanced, and again he paused and pointed.
+
+"You see them little saplings?" Lysander distinguished them revealed
+against the sky.
+
+"Vell," said Carl, "it is not there neither."
+
+He was crawling on again, when Sprowl seized his collar.
+
+"What the devil do you mean?--if I see these things!"
+
+Carl turned on his side, smiled intelligently, and, beckoning the
+captain to bring his ear close, put his lips to it, covered them with
+his hand, with an air of secrecy, and whispered hoarsely,--
+
+"Landmarks!"
+
+"Ah! well!" said Lysander, suffering him to proceed.
+
+Carl crept slowly, raising his head at every moment to observe. The
+bayonet came behind; the captain continued at his side. "The further I
+take these willains from the others, the petter," thought he. At length
+he came in view of the high ledge upon which Penn had discovered Cudjo
+at his idolatrous devotions, on the night of the fire. The moon was
+getting behind the mountain, and there were dark shadows beneath this
+ledge. Though he should travel a mile, he might not find a more suitable
+spot to locate his fictitious cave. He hesitated; considered well; then
+gently tapped Lysander's arm.
+
+"You see vair the rock comes down? And some pushes just under it? Vell,
+the cave is pehind the pushes, ven you find it!" Which was indeed true.
+
+Lysander crept a few paces nearer, stealthily, flat on his belly, with
+his head slightly elevated, like a dark reptile gliding over the moonlit
+ground.
+
+"Now is my time!" thought Carl. His heart beat violently. He raised
+himself on his knees, preparing to spring. Lysander was at least ten
+feet in advance of him, and he thought he would risk the pistol. "I
+run--he fires--he vill miss me--I shall get avay." But the corporal?
+Just then he felt a piercing pressure in his side. It was the corporal,
+nudging him with the bayonet to make him lie down.
+
+"I vas shust going a little nearer."
+
+The corporal seemed satisfied with the explanation; but, as the boy
+advanced on his hands and knees, he advanced close behind him,--holding
+the bayoneted gun ready for a thrust.
+
+So Carl succeeded only in getting a little nearer Lysander, without
+increasing at all the distance between him and the corporal. It was a
+state of affairs that required serious consideration. He lay dawn again,
+and pretended to be anxiously looking for the mouth of the cave, whilst
+watching and reflecting.
+
+Just then occurred a circumstance which seemed almost providentially
+designed to favor the boy's strategy. Upon the ledge appeared two human
+figures, male and female, touched by the moonlight, and defined against
+the sky. They remained but a moment on the summit, then began to descend
+in the shadow of the ledge. Their movements were slow, uncertain,
+mysterious. Below the base of the rock they stood once more in the
+moonlight, and after appearing to consult together for a few seconds,
+disappeared behind the bushes where Carl had placed his imaginary cave.
+
+If Sprowl had any doubts on the subject before, he was now entirely
+satisfied. He believed the forms to be those of Virginia and the
+schoolmaster; they had been out to enjoy solitude and sentiment in the
+moonlight; and now they were returning reluctantly to the cave.
+
+"Wouldn't Gus be edified if he was in my place!" Lysander little thought
+that _he_ was the one to be edified,--as he would certainly have been,
+to an amazing degree, had he known the truth. "But we'll spoil their fun
+in a few minutes!" he said to himself, as he crept back towards his
+former position.
+
+As for Carl, it was he who had been most astonished by the phenomenon.
+No sooner had he invented a cave, than two phantoms made their
+appearance, and walked into it! The illusion was so perfect, that he
+himself was almost deceived by it. Only for an instant, however.
+Continuing to gaze, he had another glimpse of the apparitions, when,
+having merely passed behind the bushes, they came out beyond them, in
+the direction of the real cave, and were lost once more in shadow.
+Lysander, engaged in making his retrograde movement, did not notice this
+very important circumstance; and the corporal was too intently occupied
+in watching Carl to observe anything else.
+
+The captain got behind the shelter of a cluster of thistles, and
+beckoned for the two to approach.
+
+"Corporal," said he, "hurry back and tell Ropes to bring up his men.
+I'll wait here."
+
+The corporal crawled off.
+
+Carl heard the order, saw the movement, and felt thrilled to the heart's
+core with joy. He was now alone with the captain. And he was no longer
+unarmed. In creeping towards the thistles, he had laid his hand on a
+wonderful little stone. Somehow, his fingers had closed upon it. It was
+about the size of an apple, slightly flattened, rough, and heavy. "I
+thought," he said afterwards, "if anything vas to happen, that stone
+might be waluable." And so it proved. Lysander, considering that the
+cave was found, had become less suspicious. "These Dutch are stupid, and
+that's all," he thought.
+
+"You vas going to shoot me," said Carl, with an honest laugh at the
+ludicrousness of the idea.
+
+"And so I would," said Sprowl, with an oath, "if you hadn't brought us
+to the cave."
+
+"That means," thought Carl, "he vill kill me yet if he can, ven he finds
+out." He observed, also, that Sprowl, lying on his left side, had his
+right hand free, and near the pocket where his pistol was. It was not
+yet too late for him to be shot if he attempted an escape without first
+attempting something else. The violent beating of his heart recommenced.
+He felt a strange tremor of excitement thrilling through every nerve.
+His hand still held the pebble, covering and concealing it as he leaned
+forward on the ground. He crept a little nearer Lysander.
+
+"The vay they go into the cave," he said, "is wery queer."
+
+"How so?" asked the captain.
+
+They were facing each other. Carl drew still a little nearer, and raised
+himself slightly on the hand that grasped the geological specimen.
+
+"I promised to take you in. I vill take you in on vun condition."
+
+"Condition?" repeated Lysander.
+
+"That is vat I said. Vun leetle condition. Let me whishper."
+
+Carl put up his left hand as if to cover the communication he was about
+to breathe into Lysander's ear.
+
+"The condition--IS THIS!"
+
+As he uttered the last words, he seized Lysander's wrist with his left
+hand, and at the same instant, with a stroke rapid as lightning, smote
+him on the temple with the stone.
+
+All this, being interpreted, meant, "I take you to the cave on condition
+that you go as my prisoner." Thus Carl designed to keep his promise.
+
+As he struck he sprang up, to be ready for any emergency. He had
+expected a struggle, an outcry. He never dreamed that he could strike a
+man dead with a single blow!
+
+Without a shriek, without even a moan, Lysander merely sunk back upon
+the ground, gasped, shuddered, and lay still.
+
+Carl was stupefied. He looked at the prostrate man. Then he cast his eye
+all around him on the moonlit mountain slope. No one was in sight. Was
+this murder he had committed? He knelt down, bending over the horribly
+motionless form. He gazed on the ghastly-pale face, and saw issuing from
+the nostrils a dark stream. It was blood.
+
+Was it not all a dream? He still held the stone in his hand. He looked
+at it, and mechanically placed it in his pocket. Nothing now seemed left
+for him but to escape to the cave; and yet he remained fixed with horror
+to the spot, regarding what he had done.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+_CARL KEEPS HIS ENGAGEMENT._
+
+
+Of the two forms that had been seen on the ledge, the female was not
+Virginia, and the other was not Penn. A word of explanation is
+necessary.
+
+Filled with hatred for her husband,--filled with shame and disgust, too,
+on hearing how he had caused his own mother to be whipped (for the
+secret was out, thanks to Aunt Deb at the stove-pipe hole),--resolved in
+her soul never to forgive him, never even to see him again if she could
+help it, yet intolerably wretched in her loneliness,--Salina had that
+afternoon taken Toby into her counsel.
+
+"Toby, what are we to do?"
+
+"Dat's what I do'no' myself!" the sore old fellow confessed; even his
+superior wisdom, usually sufficient (in his own estimation) for the
+whole family, failing him now. "When it comes to lickin' white women and
+'spec'able servants, ain't nobody safe. I's glad ol' massa and Miss
+Jinny's safe up dar in de cave; and I on'y wish we war safe up dar too."
+
+"Toby," said Salina, "we will go there. Can you find the way?"
+
+"Reckon I kin," said Toby, delighted at the proposal.
+
+They set out early. They succeeded in reaching the woods without
+exciting suspicion. They kept well to the south, in order to approach
+the cave on the same side of the ravine from which Toby had discovered
+it, or rather Penn near the entrance of it, before. He thought he would
+be more sure to find it by that route. At the same time he avoided the
+burned woods, and, without knowing it, the soldiers.
+
+But, the best they could do, the daylight was gone when they came to the
+ravine; and Toby could not find the place where he had previously
+crossed. He passed beyond it. Then they crossed at random in the easiest
+place. Once on the side where the cave was, Toby decided that they were
+above it; and, owing to the steepness of the banks, it was necessary to
+go around over the rocks, at a short distance from the ravine, in order
+to reach the shelf behind the thickets. It was in making this movement
+that they had been seen to descend the ledge and pass behind the bushes
+at its base.
+
+"Now," said Toby, "you jes' wait while I makes a reckonoyster!"
+
+Salina, weary, sat down in the shadow of a juniper-tree.
+
+Toby made his reconnoissance, discovered nothing, and returned. She,
+sitting still there, had been more successful. She pointed.
+
+"What dar?" whispered Toby, frightened.
+
+"There is somebody. Don't you see? By those shrub-like things."
+
+"Dey ain't nobody dar!"--with a shiver.
+
+"Yes there is. I saw a man jump up. He is bending over something now,
+trying to lift it. It must be Penn, or some of his friends. Go softly,
+and see."
+
+Toby, imaginative, superstitious, did not like to move. But Salina urged
+him; and something must be done.
+
+"I--I's mos' afeard to! But dar's somebody, shore!"
+
+He advanced, with eyes strained wide and cold chills creeping over him.
+What was the man doing there? What was he trying to lift and drag along
+the ground? It was the body of another man.
+
+"Who dar?" said Toby.
+
+"Be quiet. Come here!" was the answer.
+
+"What! Carl! Carl! dat you? What you doin' dar? massy sakes!" said Toby.
+
+"I've got a prisoner," said Carl.
+
+"Dead! O de debil!" said Toby.
+
+"I've knocked him on the head a little, but he is not dead," said Carl.
+"Be still, for there's forty more vithin hearing!"
+
+Toby, with mouth agape, and hands on knees, crouching, looked in the
+face of the lifeless man. That jaunty mustache, with the blood from the
+nostrils trickling into it, was unmistakable.
+
+"Dat Sprowl!" ejaculated the old negro, with horrified recoil.
+
+"He won't hurt you! Take holt! I pelief Ropes is coming, mit his men,
+now!"
+
+"Le' 'm drap, den. Wha' ye totin' on him fur?"
+
+Carl had quite recovered from his stupefaction. His wits were clear
+again. Why did he not leave the body? His reasons against such a course
+were too many to be enumerated on the spot to Toby. In the first place,
+he had promised to take the captain to the cave; and he felt a stubborn
+pride in keeping his engagement. Secondly, the man might die if he
+abandoned him. Moreover, the troops arriving, and finding him, would
+know at once what had happened; while, on the contrary, if both Carl and
+the captain should be missing, it would be supposed that they had gone
+to make observations in another quarter; they would be waited for, and
+thus much time would be gained.
+
+Carl had all these arguments in his brain. But instead of stopping to
+explain anything, he once more, and alone, lifted the head and shoulders
+of the limp man, and recommenced bearing him along.
+
+"Toby, who is that?"
+
+"Dat am Miss Salina."
+
+Carl asked no explanations. "Vimmen scream sometimes. Tell her she is
+not to scream. You get her handkersheaf. And do not say it is Shprowl."
+
+"Who--what is it?" Salina inquired.
+
+"Our Carl! don't ye know?" said Toby. "He's got one ob dem secesh he's
+knocked on de head."
+
+"Has he killed him?"
+
+"Part killed him, and part took him prisoner,--about six o' one and half
+a dozen o' tudder. He say you's specfully 'quested not to scream; and he
+wants your hank'cher."
+
+"What does he want of it?"--giving it.
+
+"Dat he best know hisself; but if my 'pinion am axed, I should say, to
+wipe de fellah's nose wiv."
+
+Having delivered this profound judgment, Toby carried the handkerchief
+to Carl, who spread it over the wounded man's face.
+
+"That prewents her seeing him, and prewents his seeing the vay to the
+cave."
+
+"Who eber knowed you's sech a powerful smart chil'?" said old Toby,
+amazed.
+
+A new perception of Carl's character had burst suddenly, with a
+wonderful light, upon his dazzled understanding. In the terror of their
+first encounter, in this strange place, he had comprehended nothing of
+the situation. He had not even remembered that he last saw Carl in the
+guard-house, with irons on his wrists. It was like a fragment of some
+dream to find him here, holding the lifeless Lysander in his arms. But
+now he remembered; now he comprehended. Carl had saved him from torture
+by engaging to bring this man to the cave; whom by some miracle of
+courage and valor, he had overcome and captured, and brought thus far
+over the lonely rocks. All was yet vague to the old negro's mind; but it
+was nevertheless strange, great, prodigious. And this lad, this Carl,
+whom Penn had brought, a sort of vagabond, a little hungry beggar, to
+Mr. Villars's house--that is to say, Toby's; whom the vain, tender,
+pompous, affectionate old servant had had the immense satisfaction of
+adopting into the family, patronizing, scolding, tyrannizing over, and
+tenderly loving; who had always been to him "Dat chil'!" "dat
+good-for-nuffin'!" "dat mis'ble Carl!"--the same now loomed before his
+imagination a hero. The simple spreading of the handkerchief over the
+face appeared to him a master-stroke of cool sagacity. He himself, with
+all that stupendous wisdom of his, would not have thought of that! He
+actually found himself on the point of saying "Massa Carl!"
+
+Ah, this foolish old negro is not the only person who, in these times of
+national trouble, has been thus astonished! Carl is not the only hero
+who has suddenly emerged, to thrilled and wondering eyes, from the
+disguises of common life. How many a beloved "good-for-nothing" has gone
+from our streets and firesides, to reappear far off in a vision of
+glory! The school-fellows know not their comrade; the mother knows not
+her own son. The stripling, whose outgoing and incoming were so familiar
+to us,--impulsive, fun-loving, a little vain, a little selfish, apt to
+be cross when the supper was not ready, apt to come late and make you
+cross when the supper was ready and waiting,--who ever guessed what
+nobleness was in him! His country called, and he rose up a patriot. The
+fatigue of marches, the hardships of camp and bivouac, the hard fare,
+the injustice that must be submitted to, all the terrible trials of the
+body's strength and the soul's patient endurance,--these he bore with
+the superb buoyancy of spirit which denotes the hero. Who was it that
+caught up the colors, and rushed forward with them into the thick of the
+battle, after the fifth man who attempted it had been shot down? Not
+that village loafer, who used to go about the streets dressed so
+shabbily? Yes, the same. He fell, covered with wounds and glory. The
+rusty, and seemingly useless instrument we saw hang so long idle on the
+walls of society, none dreamed to be a trumpet of sonorous note until
+the Soul came and blew a blast. And what has become of that
+white-gloved, perfumed, handsome cousin of yours, devoted to his
+pleasures, weary even of those,--to whom life, with all its luxuries,
+had become a bore? He fell in the trenches at Wagner. He had
+distinguished himself by his daring, his hardihood, his fiery love of
+liberty. When the nation's alarum beat, his manhood stood erect; he
+shook himself; all his past frivolities were no more than dust to the
+mane of this young lion. The war has proved useful if only in this, that
+it has developed the latent heroism in our young men, and taught us what
+is in humanity, in our fellows, in ourselves. Because it has called into
+action all this generosity and courage, if for no other cause, let us
+forgive its cruelty, though the chair of the beloved one be vacant, the
+bed unslept in, and the hand cold that penned the letters in that sacred
+drawer, which cannot even now be opened without grief.
+
+As Toby had never been conscious what stuff there was in Carl, so he had
+never known how much he really loved, admired, and relied upon him. He
+stood staring at him there in the moonlight as if he then for the first
+time perceived what a little prodigy he was.
+
+"Take holt, why don't you?" said Carl.
+
+And this time Toby obeyed: he secretly acknowledged the authority of a
+master.
+
+"Sartin, sah!"
+
+He had checked himself when on the point of saying "Massa Carl;" but the
+respectful "sah" slipped from his tongue before he was aware of it.
+
+Among the bushes, and in the shadows of the rocks, they bore the body in
+swiftness and silence. Salina followed.
+
+In the cave the usual fire was burning; by the light of which only
+Virginia and her father were to be seen. The sisters fell into each
+other's arms. Salina was softened: here, after all her sufferings, was
+refuge at last: here, in the warmth of a father's and a sister's
+affection, was the only comfort she could hope for now, in the world she
+had found so bitter.
+
+"Who is with you?" said the old man. "Toby? and Carl? What is the
+matter?"
+
+"I vants Mr. Hapgood, or Pomp, or Cudjo!" said Carl, laying down his
+burden.
+
+"They have gone to bury the man in the rawine," said Virginia.
+
+Carl opened great eyes. "The man in the rawine? That's vair Ropes and
+the soldiers have gone."
+
+"What soldiers?--Who is this?"
+
+"This is their waliant captain! I am wery sorry, ladies, but I have
+given him a leetle nose-pleed. Some vater, Toby! Your handkersheaf,
+ma'am, and wery much obliged."
+
+Salina stooped to take the handkerchief. A flash of the fire shone upon
+the uncovered face. The eyes opened; they looked up, and met hers
+looking down.
+
+"Lysander!"
+
+"Sal, is it you? Where am I, anyhow?" And the husband tried to raise
+himself. "Carl, what's this?"
+
+"Don't be wiolent!" said Carl, gently laying him down again, "and I vill
+tell you. I vas your prisoner, and I vas showing you the cave. Veil,
+this is the cave; but things is a little inwerted. You are my prisoner."
+
+"Is that so?" said the astonished Lysander.
+
+"Wery much so," replied Carl.
+
+"Didn't somebody knock me on the head?"
+
+"I shouldn't be wastly surprised if somepody _did_ knock you on the
+head."
+
+"Was it you?"
+
+"I rather sushpect it vas me."
+
+Lysander rubbed his bruised temple feebly, looking amazed.
+
+"But how came _she_ here?"
+
+"It vas she and Toby we saw going into the cave."
+
+"What's that?"--to Toby, bringing a gourd.
+
+"It is vater; it vill improve your wysiognomy. You can trink a little.
+You feel pretty sound in your witals, don't you? I vas careful not to
+hurt your witals," said Carl, kindly, raising Sprowl's head and holding
+the water for him to drink.
+
+Lysander, ungrateful, instead of drinking, started up with sudden fury,
+struck the gourd from him with one hand, and thrust the other into the
+pocket where his pistol was, at last accounts.
+
+"Vat is vanting?" Carl inquired, complacently.
+
+Lysander, fumbling in vain for his weapon, muttered, "Vengeance!"
+
+"Wery good," said Carl. "Ve vill discuss the question of wengeance, if
+you like."' And drawing the pistol from _his_ pocket, he coolly
+presented it at Sprowl's head. "Vat for you dodge? You think, maybe, the
+discussion vould not be greatly to your adwantage?"
+
+Lysander felt for his sword, found that gone also, and muttered again,
+"Villain!"
+
+"Did somepody say somepody is a willain?" remarked Carl. "I should not
+be wery much surprised if that vas so. Willains nowdays is cheap. I have
+known a great wariety since secesh times pegan. But as for your
+particular case, sir, I peg to give some adwice. There is some ladies
+present, and you must keep quiet. Do you remember how I vas kept quiet
+ven I vas _your_ prisoner? I had pracelets on. And do you remember I vas
+putting some supper in my pocket ven you took me to show you the cave?
+Veil, I make von great mishtake; instead of supper, vat I vas putting in
+my pocket vas them wery pracelets!"
+
+And Carl produced the handcuffs. At that moment Penn and Cudjo arrived;
+and Lysander, observing them, submitted to his fate with beautiful
+resignation. The irons were put on, and Carl mounted guard over him with
+the pistol.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+_LOVE IN THE WILDERNESS._
+
+
+Cudjo was highly exasperated to find strangers in the cave. He became
+quickly reconciled to the presence of Virginia's sister, but not to that
+of Lysander. To pacify him, Carl made him a present of the sword which
+he had removed from the captain's noble person on arriving.
+
+Cudjo received the weapon with unbounded delight, and proceeded to
+adjust the belt to his own Ethiopian waist. It mattered little with him
+that he got the scabbard on the wrong side of his body: a sword was a
+sword; and he wore it in awkward and ridiculous fashion, strutting up
+and down in the fire-lighted cave, to the envy and disgust of old Toby,
+the rage of Lysander, and the amusement of the rest.
+
+Penn meanwhile related to his friends his evening's adventures. He had
+gone down to the ravine with the negroes to bury the horse and his dead
+rider. He was keeping watch while they worked; the man was interred, and
+they were digging a pit for the animal, when they discovered the
+approach of the soldiers, and retired to a hiding-place close by. There
+they lay concealed, whilst Ropes and his men descended to the spot,
+exhumed the corpse with Cudjo's shovel, made their comments upon it, and
+put it back into the ground. During this operation it had required all
+Pomp's authority, and the restraint of his strong hand, to keep Cudjo
+from pouncing upon his old enemy and former overseer, Silas Ropes.
+
+"There were three of us," said Penn, "and only three of them, besides
+Pepperill; and no doubt a struggle would have resulted in our favor. But
+we did not want to be troubled with prisoners; and Pomp and I could not
+see that anything was to be gained by killing them. Besides, we knew
+they had a strong reserve within call. So we waited patiently until they
+finished their work, and climbed up out of the ravine; then we climbed
+up after them. We thought their main object must be to find the cave,
+and Pomp strongly suspected Pepperill of treachery. We found a large
+number of soldiers lying under some bushes, and crept near enough to
+hear what they were saying. They were going to take the cave by
+surprise, and an order had just come for them to move farther up the
+mountain. They set off with scarcely any noise, reminding me of the
+'Forty Thieves,' as they filed away in the moonlight, and disappeared
+among the bushes and shadows. Pomp is on their trail now; he has his
+rifle with him, and it may be heard from if he sees them change their
+course and approach too near the cave."
+
+Penn had come in for his musket. It was the same that had fallen from
+the hands of the man Griffin at the moment when that unhappy rebel was
+in the act of charging bayonet at his breast. Assuring Virginia--who
+could not conceal her alarm at seeing him take it from its corner--that
+he was merely going out to reconnoitre, he left the cave.
+
+He was gone several hours. At length he and Pomp returned together. The
+moon had long since set, but it was beautiful starlight; and, themselves
+unseen, they had watched carefully the movements of the soldiers.
+
+"You would have laughed to have been in my place, Carl!" said Penn,
+laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of his beloved pupil.
+"They besieged the ledge where your imaginary cave is for full two hours
+after I went out, apparently without daring to go very near it."
+
+"I suppose," replied Carl, "they vas vaiting for me and the captain. It
+vas really too pad now for us to make them lose so much waluable time!
+But they vill excuse Mishter Shprowl; his absence is unawoidable." And
+lifting his brows with a commiserating expression, he gave a comical
+side-glance from under them at the languishing Lysander.
+
+All laughed at the lad's humor except the captain himself--and Salina.
+
+After besieging the imaginary cave as Penn had described, several of the
+confederates, he said, at last ventured with extreme caution to approach
+it.
+
+"And found," added Carl, "they had been made the wictims of von leetle
+stratagem!"
+
+"I suppose so," said Penn; "for immediately an unusual stir took place
+amongst them."
+
+"In searching for the entrance," laughed Pomp, leaning on his rifle,
+"they came close under a juniper-tree I had climbed into, and I could
+hear them cursing the little Dutchman----"
+
+"I suppose that vas me," smiled the good-natured Carl.
+
+"And the 'pig-headed captain' who had gone off with him."
+
+"The pig-headed captain is this indiwidual"--indicating Sprowl. "But it
+is wery unjust to be cursing him, for it vas not his fault. It vas my
+legs and Toby's that conweyed him; and he had a handkersheaf over his
+face for a wail."
+
+"I suspected how it was, even before I met Penn and learned what had
+happened. I am sorry to see this fellow in this place,"--Pomp turned a
+frowning look at the corner where Lysander lay,--"but now that he is
+here, he must stay."
+
+Carl, upon whom the only noticeable effect produced by his exciting
+adventure was a lively disposition to talk, quite unusual with him,
+entered upon a full explanation of the circumstances which had led to
+Lysander's capture. His narrative was altogether so simple, so honest,
+so droll, that even the bitter Salina had to smile at it, while all the
+rest, the old clergyman included, joined in a hearty laugh of admiring
+approval at its conclusion.
+
+"I don't see but that you did the best that could be done," said Pomp.
+"At all events, the villains seem to have been completely baffled. The
+last I saw of them they were retreating through the burned woods, as if
+afraid to have daylight find them on the mountain."
+
+The daylight had now come; and Penn, who went out to take an
+observation, could discover no trace of the vanished rebels. The eastern
+sky was like a sheet of diaphanous silver, faintly crimsoned above the
+edges of the hills with streaks of the brightening dawn. All the valley
+below was inundated by a lake of level mist, whose subtle wave made
+islands of the hills, and shining inlets of the intervales. Above this
+sea of white silence rose the mountain ranges, inexpressibly calm and
+beautiful, fresh from their bath of starlight and dew, and empurpled
+with softest tints of the early morning.
+
+Penn heard a footstep, and felt a touch on his arm. Was it the beauty of
+the earth and sky that made him shiver with so sudden and sweet a
+thrill? or was it the lovely presence at his side, in whom was
+incarnated, for him, all the beauty, all the light, all the joy of the
+universe?
+
+It was Virginia, who leaned so gently on his arm, that not the slight
+pressure of her weight, but rather the impalpable shock of bliss her
+very nearness brought, made him aware of her approach. Toby followed,
+supporting her along the shelf of rock--a dark cloud in the wake of that
+rosy and perfumed dawn.
+
+"O, how delicious it is out here!" said the voice, which, if we were to
+describe it from the lover's point of view, could be likened only to the
+songs of birds, the musical utterance of purest flutes, or the blowing
+of wild winds through those grand harp-strings, the mountain pines; for
+there was more of poetry and passion compressed in the heart of this
+quiet young Quaker than we shall venture to give breath to in these
+pages.
+
+"It is--delicious!" he quiveringly answered, in his happy confusion
+blending _her_ with his perception of the daybreak.
+
+She inhaled deep draughts of the mountain air.
+
+"How I love it! The breath of trees, and grass, and flowers is in
+it,--those dear friends of mine, that I pine for, shut up here in
+prison!"
+
+"Do you?" said Penn, vaguely, half wishing that he was a flower, a blade
+of grass, or a tree, so that she might pine for him.
+
+"The air of the cave," she said, "is cold; it is odorless. The cave
+seems to me like the great, chill hearts of some of your profound
+philosophers! Some of those tremendous books father makes me read to him
+came out of such hearts, I am sure; great hollow caverns, full of
+mystery and darkness, and so cold and dull they make me shudder to touch
+them;--but don't you, for the world, tell him I said so,--for, to please
+him, I let him think I am ever so much edified by everything that he
+likes."
+
+"What sort of books _do_ you like?"
+
+"O, I like books with daylight in them! I want them to be living,
+upper-air, joyous books. There must be sunshine, and birds, and
+brooks,--human nature, life, suffering, aspiration, and----"
+
+"And love?"
+
+"Of course, there should be a little love in books, since there is
+sometimes a little, I believe, in real life." But she touched this
+subject with such airy lightness,--just hovering over it for an instant,
+and then away, like a butterfly not to be caught,--that Penn felt a
+jealous trouble. "How long," she added immediately, "do you imagine we
+shall have to stay here?"
+
+"It is impossible to say," replied Penn, turning with reluctance to the
+more practical topic. "One would think that the government cannot leave
+us much longer subject to this atrocious tyranny. An army may be already
+marching to our relief. But it may be weeks, it may be months, and I am
+not sure," he added seriously, "but it may be years, before Tennessee is
+relieved."
+
+"Why, that is terrible! Toby says that poor old man, Mr. Ellerton, who
+assisted you to escape, was caught and hung by some of the soldiers
+yesterday."
+
+"I have no doubt but it is true. Although he had returned to his home,
+he was known to be a Unionist, and probably he was suspected of having
+aided us; in which case not even his white hairs could save him."
+
+"But it is horrible! They have commenced woman-whipping. And Toby says a
+negro was hung six times a couple of days ago, and afterwards cut to
+pieces, for saying to another negro he met, 'Good news; Lincoln's army
+is coming!' What is going to become of us, if relief doesn't arrive
+soon? O, to look at the beautiful world we are driven from by these
+wicked, wicked men!"
+
+"And are you so very weary of the cave?"
+
+Penn gave her a look full of electric tenderness, which seemed to say,
+"Have not I been with you? and am I nothing to you?"
+
+She smiled, and her voice was tremulous as she answered,--
+
+"I wish I could go out into the sunshine again! But I have not been
+unhappy. Indeed, I think I have been very happy."
+
+There was an indescribable pause; Virginia's eyes modestly veiled, her
+face suffused with a blissful light, as if her soul saw some soft and
+exquisite dream; while Penn's bosom swelled with the long undulations of
+hope and transport. Toby still lingered in the entrance of the cave.
+
+"Toby," said Penn, such a radiance flashing from his brow as the negro
+had never seen before, "my good Toby,"--and what ineffable human
+sympathy vibrated in his tones!--"I wish you would go in and tell our
+friends that the enemy has quite disappeared: will you?"
+
+"Yes, massa!" said Toby, a ray of that happiness penetrating even the
+old freedman's breast. For such is the beautiful law of our nature, that
+love cannot be concealed; it cannot be monopolized by one, nor yet by
+two; but when its divine glow is kindled in any soul, it beams forth
+from the eyes, it thrills in the tones of the voice, it breathes from
+all the invisible magnetic pores of being, and sheds sunshine and warmth
+on all.
+
+Toby went. Then an arm of manly strength, yet of all manly gentleness,
+stole about the waist of the girl, and drew her softly, close, closer;
+while something else, impalpable, ravishing, holy, drew her by a still
+more potent attraction; until, for the first time in her young and pure
+life, her mouth met another mouth with the soul's virgin kiss. Her lips
+had kissed many times before, but her soul never. How long it lasted,
+that sweet perturbation, that fervent experience of a touch, neither, I
+suppose, ever knew; for at such times a moment is an eternity. As a
+lightning flash in a dark night reveals, for a dazzling instant, a world
+concealed before, so the electric interchange of two hearts charged with
+love's lightning seems to open the very doors of infinity; and it is the
+glory of heaven that shines upon them.
+
+Not a word was spoken.
+
+Then Penn held Virginia before him, and looked deep into her eyes, and
+said, with a strange tremor of lip and voice,--using the gentle speech
+of the Friends, into which old familiar channel his thoughts flowed
+naturally in moments of strong feeling,--
+
+"Wherever this dear face smiles upon me, there is my sunshine. I must be
+very selfish; for notwithstanding all the dangers and discomforts by
+which I see thee and thy father surrounded, the hours we have passed
+together here have been the happiest of my life. Yea, and suffering and
+privation would be never anything to me, if I could always have thee
+with me, Virginia!"
+
+How different, meanwhile, was the scene within the cave! How chafed the
+fiery Lysander! How spitefully Salina bit her lips ever at sight of him!
+And these two had once been lovers, and had seen rainbows span their
+future also! Is it love that unites such, or is it only the yearning for
+love? For love, the reality, fuses all qualities, and brings into
+harmony all clashing chords.
+
+Toby entered, the gleam of others' happiness still in his countenance.
+
+"De enemy hab dis'peared; all gone down in de frog."
+
+"The frog, Toby?" said Mr. Villars.
+
+"Yes, sar; right smart frog down 'ar in de volley!"
+
+"He means, a fog in the walley," said Carl.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+_A COUNCIL OF WAR._
+
+
+Owing to the disturbances of the night the old clergyman had slept
+little. He now lay down on the couch, and soon sank into a profound
+slumber. When he awoke he heard the hum of voices. The cave was filled
+with armed men.
+
+"It is Mr. Stackridge and his friends," said Virginia. "They have come
+to hold a council of war; and they look upon you as their grand sachem."
+
+"I have brought them here," said Pomp, "at their request--all except
+Deslow."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Deslow, I believe, has deserted!" said Stackridge.
+
+"Ah! What makes you think so?"
+
+"Well, I've watched him right close, and I've seen a good deal of what's
+been working in his mind. He's one o' them fools that believe Slavery is
+God; and he can't get over it. Pomp, here, saved our lives in the fire
+the other night; and Deslow couldn't stand it. To owe his life to a
+runaway slave--that was too dreadful!" said Stackridge with savage
+sarcasm. "He's a man that would rather be roasted alive, and see his
+country ruined, I suppose, than do anything that might damage in the
+least degree his divine institution! There's the difference 'twixt him
+and me. Sence slavery has made war agin' the Union, and turned us out of
+our homes, I say, by the Lord! let it go down to hell, as it desarves!"
+
+"You use strong language, neighbor!"
+
+"I do; and it's time, I reckon, when strong language, and strong actions
+too, are called fur. You hate a man that you've befriended, and that's
+turned traitor agin' ye, worse'n you hate an open inemy, don't ye? Wal,
+I've befriended slavery, and it's turned traitor agin' me, and all I
+hold most sacred in this world, and I'm jest getting my eyes open to it;
+and so I say, let it go down! I've no patience with such men as Deslow,
+and I'm glad, on the whole, he's gone. He don't belong with us anyhow. I
+say, any man that loves any kind of property, or any party, or
+institution, better than he loves the old Union"--Stackridge said this
+with tears of passion in his eyes,--"such a man belongs with the rebels,
+and the sooner we sift 'em out of our ranks the better."
+
+"When did he go?"
+
+"Some of us were out foraging again last night; Withers and Deslow with
+the rest. Tell what he said to you, Withers."
+
+The group of fugitives had gathered about the bed on which the old
+clergyman sat. Withers was scraping his long horny nails with a huge
+jackknife.
+
+"He says to me, says he, 'Withers, we've got inter a bad scrape.' 'How
+so?' says I; for I thought we war gittin' out of a right bad scrape when
+we got out of that temp'rary jail. 'The wust hain't happened yet,' says
+he. 'That's bad,' says I, 'fur it's allus good fur a feller to know the
+wust has happened.' And so I told him a little story. Says I, 'When I
+was a little boy 'bout that high, I was helping my daddy one day secure
+some hay. Wal, it looked like rain, and we put in right smart till the
+fust sprinkles begun to fall,--great drops, big as ox-eyes,--and they
+skeert me, for I war awful 'fraid of gittin' wet. So what did I do but
+run and git under some boards. My daddy war so busy he didn't see me,
+till bime-by he come that way, rolling up the hay-cocks to kill, and
+looked, and thar I war under the pile o' boards, curled up like a
+hedgehog to keep dry. 'Josh,' says he, 'what ye doin' thar? Why ain't ye
+to work?' ''Fraid o' gittin' wet!' says I. 'Pon that he didn't say a
+word, but jest come and took me by the collar, and led me to a little
+run close by, and jest casoused me in the water, head over heels, and
+then jest pulled me out agin. 'Now,' says he, 'ye can go to work, and
+you won't be the leastest mite afeard o' gittin' wet. Wal, 'twas about
+so. I didn't mind the rain, arter that. 'Wal, Deslow,' says I, 'that
+larnt me a lesson; and ever sence I've always thought 'twas a good thing
+fur us, when trouble comes, to have the wust happen, and know it's the
+wust, fur then we'se prepared fur't, and ain't no longer to be skeert by
+a little shower.' That's what I said to Deslow." And Withers continued
+scraping his nails.
+
+"Very good philosophy, indeed!" said Mr. Villars. "And what did he
+reply?"
+
+"He said, when the wust happened to us, we'd find we had no home, no
+property, and no country left; and fur his part he had been thinking
+we'd better go and give ourselves up, make peace with the authorities,
+and take the oath of allegiance. 'Lincoln won't send no army to relieve
+us yet a-while,' says he, 'and even if he does, you know, victory for
+the Federals means the death of our institootions! So I see where the
+shoe pinched with him; and I said, 'If that continners to be your ways
+of thinkin', I hain't the least objections to partin' comp'ny with ye,
+as the house dog said to the skunk; only,' says I, 'don't ye go to
+betrayin' us, if you conclude to go.' Soon arter that we separated, and
+that's the last any on us have seen of him."
+
+"They've begun to whip women, too," said Stackridge. "But, by right good
+luck, when this scamp here--" glowering upon Lysander--"sent to have my
+wife whipped, he got his own mother whipped in her place! He's a
+connection o' your family, I know, Mr. Villars; but I never spile a
+story for relation's sake."
+
+"Nor need you, friend Stackridge. Sorry I am for that deluded young man;
+but he reaps what he has sown, and he has only himself to blame."
+
+"'Twas a regular secesh operation, that of having his own mother strung
+up," said Captain Grudd. "They are working against their own interests
+and families without knowing it. When they think they are destroying the
+Union, they are destroying their own honor and influence; for so it 'ill
+be sure to turn out."
+
+"It was Liberty they intended to have beaten," said Penn; "but they will
+find that it is the back of their own mother, Slavery, that receives the
+rods."
+
+"Just what I meant to say; but it took the professor to put it into the
+right shape. By the way, neighbors, we owe the professor an apology.
+Some of us found fault with his views of slavery and secession; but
+we've all come around to 'em pretty generally, I believe, by this time.
+Here's my hand, professor, and let me say I think you was right enough
+in all but one thing--your plaguy non-resistance."
+
+"He has thought better of that," said Mr. Villars, pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, zhentlemen," said Carl, anxious to exonerate his friend, "he has
+been conwerted."
+
+"We have found that out, to his credit," said Stackridge.
+
+And, one after another, all took Penn cordially by the hand.
+
+"We are all brothers in one cause, OUR COUNTRY," said Penn. Nor did he
+stop when the hand of the last patriot was shaken; he took the hand of
+Pomp also. "We are all men in the sight of God!" His heart was full;
+there was a thrill of fervent emotion in his voice. His calm young face,
+his firm and finely-cut features, always noticeable for a certain
+massiveness and strength, were singularly illumined. He went on, the
+light of the cave-fire throwing its ruddy flash on the group. "We are
+all His children. He has brought us together here for a purpose. The
+work to be done is for all men, for humanity: it is God's work. To that
+we should be willing to give everything--even our lives; even our
+selfish prejudices, dearer to some than their lives. I believe that upon
+the success of our cause depends, not the prosperity of any class of
+men, or of any race of men, only, but of all men, and all races. For
+America marches in the van of human progress, and if she falters, if she
+ignobly turns back, woe is to the world! Perhaps you do not see this
+yet; but never mind. One thing we all see--a path straight before us,
+our duty to our country. We must put every other consideration aside,
+forget all minor differences, and unite in this the defence of the
+nation's life."
+
+An involuntary burst of applause testified how ardently the hearts of
+the patriots responded to these words. Some wrung Penn's hand again.
+Pomp meanwhile, erect, and proud as a prince, with his arms folded upon
+his massive and swelling chest, smiled with deep and quiet satisfaction
+at the scene. There was another who smiled, too, her face suffused with
+love and pride ineffable, as her eyes watched the young Quaker, and her
+soul drank in his words.
+
+"That's the sentiment!" said Stackridge. "And now, what is to be done?
+We have been disappointed in one thing. Our friends don't join us. One
+reason is, no doubt, they hain't got arms. But the main reason is, they
+look upon our cause as desperate. Desperate or not, it can't be helped,
+as I see. With or without help, we must fight it through, or go back,
+like that putty-head Deslow, and take the oath of allegiance to the
+bogus government. Mr. Villars, you're wise, and we want your opinion."
+
+"That, I fear, will be worth little to you!" answered the old man,
+bowing his head with true humility. "It seems to me that you are not to
+rely upon any open assistance from your friends. And sorry I am to add,
+I think you should not rely, either, upon any immediate aid from the
+government. The government has its hands full. The time is coming when
+you who have eyes will see the old flag once more floating on the
+breezes of East Tennessee. But it may be long first. And in the mean
+time it is your duty to look out for yourselves."
+
+"That is it," said Stackridge. "But how?"
+
+"It seems to me that your retreat cannot remain long concealed.
+Therefore, this is what I advise. Make your preparations to disperse at
+any moment. You may be compelled to hide for months in the mountains and
+woods, hunted continually, and never permitted to sleep in safety twice
+in the same place. That will be the fate of hundreds. There is but one
+thing better for you to do. It is this. Force your way over the
+mountains into Kentucky, join the national army, and hasten its
+advance."
+
+"And you?" said Captain Grudd.
+
+The old man smiled with beautiful serenity.
+
+"Perhaps I shall have my choice, after all. You remember what that was?
+To remain in the hands of our enemies. I ought never to have attempted
+to escape. I cannot help myself; I am only a burden to you. My daughters
+cannot continue to be with me here in this cave; and, if I am to be
+separated from them, I may as well be in a confederate prison as
+elsewhere. If the traitors seek my life, they are welcome to it."
+
+"O, father! what do you say!" exclaimed Virginia, in terror at his
+words.
+
+"I advise what I feel to be best. I will give myself up to the military
+authorities. You, and Salina, if she chooses, will, I am certain, be
+permitted to go to your friends in Ohio. But before I take this step,
+let all here who have strong arms to lend their country be already on
+their way over the mountains. Penn and Carl must go with them. Nor do I
+forget Pomp and Cudjo. They shall go too, and you will protect them."
+
+Penn turned suddenly pale. It was the soundness of the good old man's
+counsel that terrified him. Separation from Virginia! She to be left at
+the mercy of the confederates! This was the one thing in the world he
+had personally to dread.
+
+"It may be good advice," he said. "It is certainly a noble
+self-sacrifice, Mr. Villars proposes. But I do not believe there is one
+here who will consent to it. I say, let us keep together. If necessary,
+we can die together. We cannot separate, if by so doing we must leave
+him behind."
+
+He spoke with intense feeling, yet his words were but feebly echoed by
+the patriots. The truth was, they were already convinced that they ought
+to be making their way out of the state, and had said so among
+themselves; but, being unwilling to abandon the old minister, and
+knowing well that he could never think of undertaking the terrible
+journey they saw before them, hither they had come to hear what he had
+to suggest.
+
+"What do you think, Pomp?" Penn asked, in despair.
+
+"I think that what Mr. Villars advises these men to do is the best
+thing."
+
+Penn was stupefied. He saw that he stood alone, opposed to the general
+opinion. And something within himself said that he was selfish, that he
+was wrong. He did not venture to glance at Virginia, but bent his eyes
+downward with a stunned expression at the floor of the cave.
+
+"But as for himself, and us, I am not so sure. There are recesses in
+this cave that cannot easily be discovered. He shall remain, and we will
+stay and take care of him, if he will."
+
+These calm words of the negro sounded like a reprieve to Penn's soul. He
+caught eagerly at the suggestion.
+
+"Yes, if there must be a separation, Pomp is right. If many go, it will
+be believed that all are gone, and the rest can remain in safety."
+
+"You are all too generous towards me," said the old minister. "But I
+have nothing more to say. I am very patient. I am willing to accept
+whatever God sends, and to wait his own blessed time for it. When you,
+Penn, were sick in my house, and the ruffians were coming to kill you,
+and I could not determine what to do, the question was decided for me:
+Providence decided it by taking you, by what seemed a miracle, beyond
+the reach of all of us. So I believe this question, which troubles us
+now, will be decided for us soon. Something is to happen that will show
+us plainly what must be done."
+
+So it was: something was indeed to happen, sooner even than he supposed.
+
+
+
+
+XL.
+
+_THE WONDERS OF THE CAVE._
+
+
+The other inmates of the cave had breakfasted whilst the old clergyman
+was asleep. Toby was now occupied in preparing his dish of coffee, and
+Mr. Villars invited the patriots to remain and take a cup with him.
+
+Penn noticed Cudjo's discontent at seeing Toby usurp his function. He
+remembered also a rare pleasure he had been promising himself whenever
+he should find Cudjo at leisure and circumstances favorable for his
+purpose.
+
+"Now is our time," he whispered Virginia. "Will Salina come too?"
+
+"What to do?" Salina asked.
+
+"To explore the cave," said Penn, courteously, yet trembling lest the
+invitation should be accepted.
+
+She excused herself: she was feeling extremely fatigued; much to Penn's
+relief--that is to say, regret, as he hypocritically gave her to
+understand.
+
+She smiled: though she had declined, Virginia was going, and she thought
+he looked consoled.
+
+"What does anybody care for me?" she said bitterly to herself.
+
+It was to save her the pain of a slight that Penn, always too honest to
+resort to dissimulation from selfish motives, had assumed towards her a
+regard he did not feel. But the little artifice failed. She saw she was
+not wanted, and was jealous--angry with him, with Virginia, with
+herself. For thus it is with the discontented and envious. They cannot
+endure to see others happy without them. They gladly make the most of a
+slight, pressing it like a thistle to the breast, and embracing it all
+the more fiercely as it pierces and wounds. But he who has humility and
+love in his heart says consolingly at such times, "If they can be happy
+without me, why, Heaven be thanked! If I am neglected, then I must draw
+upon the infinite resources within myself. And if I am unloved, whose
+fault is it but my own? I will cultivate that sweetness of soul, the
+grace, and goodness, and affection, which shall compel love!"
+
+Something like this Carl found occasion to say to himself; for if you
+think he saw the master he loved, and her who was dear to him as ever
+sister was to younger brother, depart with Cudjo and the torches,
+without longing to go with them and share their pleasure, you know not
+the heart of the boy. He was almost choking with tears as he saw the
+torches go out of sight. But just as he had arrived at this
+philosophical conclusion, O joy! what did he see? Penn returning! Yes,
+and hastening straight to him! "Carl, why don't you come too?"
+
+There was no mistaking the sincerity of Penn's frank, animated face.
+Again the tears came into Carl's eyes; but this time they were tears of
+gratitude.
+
+"Vould you really be pleased to have me?"
+
+"Certainly, Carl! Virginia and I both spoke of it, and wondered why we
+had not thought to ask you before."
+
+"Then I vill get my wery goot friend the captain to excuse me. I
+sushpect he vill be wexed to part from me; but I shall take care that
+the ties that bind us shall not be proken."
+
+In pursuance of this friendly design, Carl produced a good strong cord
+which he had found in the cave. This he attached to the handcuffs by a
+knot in the middle; then, carrying the two ends in opposite directions
+around one of the giant's stools, he fastened them securely on the side
+farthest from the prisoner. This done, he gave the pistol to Toby, and
+invested him with the important and highly gratifying office of guarding
+"dat Shprowl."
+
+"If you see him too much unhappy for my absence, and trying for some
+diwersion by making himself free," said Carl, instructing him in the use
+of the weapon, "you shall shust cock it _so_,--present it at his head or
+stomach, vichever is conwenient--_so_,--then pull the trigger as you
+please, till he is vunce more quiet. That is all. Now I shall say goot
+pie to him till I come pack."
+
+"Why don't you kill and eat him?" asked Withers, watching the boy's
+operations with humorous enjoyment.
+
+"Him?" said Carl, dryly. "Thank ye, sir; I am not fond of weal."
+
+As Pomp and the patriots remained in the cave, it was not anticipated
+that Lysander would give any trouble.
+
+With Carl at his side, Penn bore the torch above his head, and plunged
+into the darkness, which seemed to retreat before them only to reappear
+behind, surrounding and pursuing their little circle of light as it
+advanced.
+
+A gallery, tortuous, lofty, sculptured by the gnomes into grotesque and
+astonishing forms, led from the inhabited vestibule to the wonders
+beyond. They had gone but a few rods when they saw a faint glimmer
+before them, which increased to a mild yellowish radiance flickering on
+the walls. It was the light of Cudjo's torch.
+
+They found Cudjo and Virginia waiting for them at the entrance of a long
+and spacious hall, whose floor was heaped with fragments of rock, some
+of huge size, which had evidently fallen from the roof.
+
+"De cave whar us lives, des' like dis yer when me find um in de fust
+place," the negro was saying to Virginia. "Right smart stuns dar."
+
+"What did you do with them?"
+
+"Tuk all me could tote to make your little dressum-room wiv. Lef' de big
+'uns fur cheers when me hab comp'ny, hiah yah! When Pomp come, him help
+me place 'em around scrumptious like. Pomp bery strong--lif' like you
+neber see!"
+
+Climbing over the stones, they reached, at the farther end of the hall,
+an abrupt termination of the floor. A black abyss yawned beyond. In its
+invisible depths the moan of waters could be heard. Virginia, who had
+been thrilled with wonder and fear, standing in the hall of the stones,
+and thinking of those crushing masses showered from the roof, now found
+it impossible not to yield to the terrors of her excited imagination.
+
+"I cannot go any farther!" she said, recoiling from the gulf, and
+drawing Penn back from it.
+
+"Come right 'long!" cried Cudjo; "no trouble, missis!"
+
+"See, he has piled stones in here and made some very good and safe
+stairs. Take my torch, Carl, and follow; Cudjo will go before with his.
+Now, one step at a time. I will not let thee fall."
+
+Thus assured, she ventured to make the descent. A strong arm was about
+her waist; a strong and supporting spirit was at her side; and from that
+moment she felt no fear.
+
+The limestone, out of which the cave was formed, lay in nearly
+horizontal strata; and, at the bottom of Cudjo's stairs, they came upon
+another level floor. It was smooth and free from rubbish. A gray vault
+glimmered above their heads in the torchlight. The walls showed strange
+and grotesque forms in bas-relief, similar to those of the first
+gallery: here a couchant lion, so distinctly outlined that it seemed as
+if it must have been chiselled by human art; an Indian sitting in a
+posture of woe, with his face buried in his hands; an Arctic hunter
+wrestling with a polar bear; the head of a turbaned Turk; and, most
+wonderful of all, the semblance of a vine (Penn named it "Jonah's
+gourd"), which spread its massive branches on the wall, and, climbing
+under the arched roof, hung its heavy fruit above their heads.
+
+Close by "Jonah's gourd" a little stream gushed from the side of the
+rock, and fell into a fathomless well. The torches were held over it,
+and the visitors looked down. Solid darkness was below. Carl took from
+his pocket a stone.
+
+"It is the same," he said, "that Mishter Sprowl pumped his head against.
+I thought I should find some use for it; and now let's see."
+
+He dropped it into the well. It sunk without a sound, the noise of its
+distant fall being lost in the solemn and profound murmur of the
+descending water.
+
+"What make de cave, anyhow?" asked Cudjo.
+
+"The wery question I vas going to ask," said Carl.
+
+"It will take but a few words to tell you all I know about it," said
+Penn. "Water containing carbonic acid gas has the quality of dissolving
+such rock as this part of the mountain is made of. It is limestone; and
+the water, working its way through it, dissolves it as it would sugar,
+only very slowly. Do you understand?"
+
+"O, yes, massa! de carbunkum asses tote it away!"
+
+Penn smiled, and continued his explanation, addressing himself to Carl.
+
+"So, little by little, the interior of the rock is worn, until these
+great cavities are formed."
+
+"But what comes o' de rock?" cried Cudjo; "dat's de question!"
+
+"What becomes of the sugar that dissolves in your coffee?"
+
+"Soaks up, I reckon; so ye can't see it widout it settles."
+
+"Just so with the limestone, Cudjo. It _soaks up_, as you say. And
+see!--I will show you where a little of it has settled. Notice this long
+white spear hanging from the roof."
+
+"Dat? Dat ar a stun icicle. Me broke de pint off oncet, but 'pears like
+it growed agin. Times de water draps from it right smart."
+
+"A good idea--a stone icicle! It grew as an icicle grows downward from
+the eaves. It was formed by the particles of lime in the water, which
+have collected there and hardened into what is called _stalactite_.
+These curious smooth white folds of stone under it, which look so much
+like a cushion, were formed by the water as it dropped. This is called
+_stalagmite_."
+
+"Heap o' dem 'ar sticktights furder 'long hyar," observed Cudjo, anxious
+to be showing the wonders.
+
+They came into a vast chamber, from the floor of which rose against the
+darkness columns resembling a grove of petrified forest trees. The
+flaming torches, raised aloft in the midst of them, revealed, supported
+by them, a wonderful gothic roof, with cornice, and frieze, and groined
+arches, like the interior of a cathedral. A very distinct fresco could
+also be seen, formed by mineral incrustations, on the ceiling and walls.
+On a cloudy background could be traced forms of men and beasts, of
+forests and flowers, armies, castles, and ships, not sculptured like the
+figures before described, but designed by the subtile pencil of some
+sprite, who, Virginia suggested, must have been the subterranean brother
+of the Frost.
+
+"How wonderful!" she said. "And is it not strange how Nature copies
+herself, reproducing silently here in the dark the very same forms we
+find in the world above! Here is a rose, perfect!"
+
+"With petals of pure white gypsum," said Penn.
+
+Whilst they were talking, Cudjo passed on. They followed a little
+distance, then halted. The light of his torch had gone out in the
+blackness, and the sound of his footsteps had died away. Carl remained
+with the other torch; and there they stood together, without speaking,
+in the midst of immense darkness ingulfing their little isle of light,
+and silence the most intense.
+
+Suddenly they heard a voice far off, singing; then two, then three
+voices; then a chorus filling the heart of the mountain with a strange
+spiritual melody. Virginia was enraptured, and Carl amazed.
+
+Penn, who had known what was coming, looked upon them with pride and
+delight. At length the music, growing faint and fainter, melted and was
+lost in the mysterious vaults through which it had seemed to wander and
+soar away.
+
+It was a minute after all was still before either spoke.
+
+"Certainly," Virginia exclaimed, "if I had not heard of a similar effect
+produced in the Mammoth Cave, I should never have believed that
+marvellous chorus was sung by a single voice!"
+
+"A single woice!" repeated Carl, incredulous. "There vas more as a dozen
+woices!"
+
+"Right, Carl!" laughed Penn. "The first was Cudjo's; and all the rest
+were those, of the nymph Echo and her companions."
+
+They continued their course through the halls of the echoes, and soon
+came to an arched passage, at the entrance of which Penn paused and
+placed the torch in a niche. A projection of the rock prevented the
+light from shining before them, yet their way was softly illumined from
+beyond, as by a dim phosphorescence. They advanced, and in a moment
+their eyes, grown accustomed to the obscurity, came upon a scene of
+surprising and magical beauty.
+
+"The Grotto of Undine," said Penn.
+
+It was, to all appearances, a nearly spherical concavity, some thirty
+yards in length, and perhaps twenty in perpendicular diameter. Carl's
+torch was concealed in the niche, and Cudjo's was nowhere visible; yet
+the whole interior was luminous with a dim and silvery halo. A narrow
+corridor ran round the sides, and resembled a dark ring swimming in
+nebulous light, midway between the upper and nether hemispheres of the
+wondrous hollow globe. Within this horizontal rim, floor there was none;
+and they stood upon its brink; and, looking up, they saw the marvellous
+vault all sparkling with stars and beaming with pale, pendent, taper,
+crystalline flames, noiseless and still; and, looking down, beheld
+beneath their feet, and shining with a yet more soft and dreamy lustre,
+the perfect counterpart of the vault above.
+
+Penn held Virginia upon the verge. A bewildering ecstasy captivated her
+reason as she gazed. They seemed to be really in the grotto of some
+nymph who had fled the instant she saw her privacy invaded, or veiled
+the immortal mystery and loveliness of her charms in some mesh of the
+glimmering nimbus that baffled and entangled the sight. Save one or two
+stifled cries of rapture from Virginia and Carl, not a syllable was
+uttered: perfect stillness prevailed, until Penn said, in a whisper,--
+
+"Wouldst thou like to see the face of Undine? Bend forward. Do not fear:
+I hold thee!"
+
+By gentle compulsion he induced her to comply. She bent over the brink,
+and looked down, when, lo! out of the hazy effulgence beneath, emerged a
+face looking up at her--a face dimly seen, yet full of vague wonder and
+surprise--a face of unrivalled sweetness and beauty, Penn thought. What
+did Virginia think?--for it was the reflection of her own.
+
+"O, Penn! how it startled me!"
+
+"But isn't she a Grace? Isn't she loveliness itself?"
+
+"I hope you think so!" she whispered, with arch frankness, a sweet
+coquettish confidence ravishing to his soul.
+
+"I do!" And in the privacy of telling her so, his lips just brushed her
+ear. Did you ever, in whispering some secret trifle, some all-important,
+heavenly nothing, just brush the dearest little ear in the world with
+your lips? or, in listening to the syllables of divine nonsense, feel
+the warm breath and light touch of the magnetic thrilling mouth? Then
+you know something of what Penn and Virginia experienced for a brief
+moment in the Grotto of Undine.
+
+Just then a duplicate glow, like a double sunrise, one part above and
+the other below the horizon, appeared at the farther end of the grotto.
+It increased, until they saw come forth from behind an upright rock an
+upright torch; and at the same time, from behind a suspended rock
+beneath, an inverted torch. Immediately after two Cudjoes came in sight;
+one standing erect on the rock above, and the other standing upside down
+on--or rather under--the rock below.
+
+"Take your torch, Carl," said Penn, "and go around and meet him."
+
+The boy returned to the niche; and presently two Carls, with two
+torches, were seen moving around the rim of the corridor, one upright
+above, the other walking miraculously, head downwards, below.
+
+The two Carls had not reached the rock, when the two Cudjoes stooped,
+and took up each a stone and threw them. One fell _upward_ (so to
+speak), as the other fell downward: they met in the centre: there was a
+strange clash, which echoed through the hollow halls; and in a moment
+the entire nether hemisphere of the enchanted grotto was shattered into
+numberless flashing and undulating fragments.
+
+Virginia had already perceived that the appearance of a concave sphere
+was an illusion produced by the ceiling lighted by Cudjo's hidden torch,
+and mirrored in a floor of glassy water. Yet she was entirely unprepared
+for this astonishing result; and at sight of the Cudjo beneath
+instantaneously annihilated by the plashing of a stone, she started back
+with a scream. Fortunately, Penn still held her close, no doubt in a fit
+of abstraction, forgetting that his arms were no longer necessary to
+prevent her falling, as when she leaned to look at the shadowy Undine.
+
+"All those stalactites," said he, as the two torches were held towards
+the roof, "are of the most beautiful crystalline structure; and the
+spaces between are all studded with brilliant spars. The first time I
+was here, it was April; the mountain springs were full, and every one of
+these _stone icicles_ was dripping with water that percolated through
+the strata above. The effect was almost as surprising as what we saw
+before Cudjo cast the stone. The surface of the pool seemed all leaping
+and alive with perpetual showers of dancing pearls. But now the springs
+are low, or the water has found another channel. Yet this basin is
+always full."
+
+"Why, so it is! I had no idea the water was so near!" And Virginia,
+stooping, dipped her hand.
+
+The mirrored crystals were still coruscating and waving in the ripples,
+as they passed around the rim of rock, and followed Cudjo into a
+scarcely less beautiful chamber beyond.
+
+Here was no water; but in its place was a floor of alabaster, from which
+arose a great variety of pure white stalagmites, to meet each its twin
+stalactite pendent from above. In some cases they did actually meet and
+grow together in perfect pillars, reaching from floor to roof.
+
+"The stalagmites are very beautiful," said Virginia; "but the
+stalactites are still more beautiful."
+
+"I think," said Penn, "there is a moral truth symbolized by them. As the
+rock above gives forth its streaming life, it benefits and beautifies
+the rock below, while at the same time it adorns still more richly its
+own beautiful breast. So it always is with Charity: it blesses him that
+receives, but it blesses far more richly him that gives."
+
+"O, must we pass on?" said Virginia, casting longing eyes towards all
+those lovely forms.
+
+"We are to return the same way," replied Penn. "But now Cudjo seems to
+be in a hurry."
+
+"Dat's de last ob de sticktights," cried the black, standing at the end
+of the colonnade, and waving his torch above his head. "Now we's comin'
+to de run."
+
+"Come," said Penn, "and I will show thee what Hood must have meant by
+the 'dark arch of the black flowing river.'"
+
+A stupendous cavern of seemingly endless extent opened before them.
+Cudjo ran on ahead, shouting wildly under the hollow, reverberating
+dome, and waving his torch, which soon appeared far off, like a flaming
+star amid a night of darkness. Then there were two stars, which
+separated, and, standing one above the other, remained stationary.
+
+"Listen!" said Penn. And they heard the liquid murmur of flowing water.
+
+He took the torch from Carl, and advancing towards the right wall of the
+cavern, showed, flowing out of it, through a black, arched opening, a
+river of inky blackness. It rolled, with scarce a ripple, slow, and
+solemn, and still, out of that impenetrable mystery, and swept along
+between the wall on one side and a rocky bank on the other. By this bank
+they followed it, until they came to a natural bridge, formed by a
+limestone cliff, through which it had worn its channel, and under which
+it disappeared. On this bridge they found Cudjo perched above the water
+with his torch.
+
+They passed the bridge without crossing,--for the farther end abutted
+high upon the cavern wall,--and found the river again flowing out on the
+lower side. Few words were spoken. The vastness of the cave, the
+darkness, the mystery, the inky and solemn stream pursuing its noiseless
+course, impressed them all. Suddenly Virginia exclaimed,--
+
+"Light ahead!" though Carl was with her, and Cudjo now walked behind.
+
+It was a gray glimmer, which rapidly grew to daylight as they advanced.
+
+"It is the chasm, or sink, where the roof of the cave has fallen in,"
+said Penn.
+
+While he spoke, a muffled rustling of wings was heard above their heads.
+They looked up, and saw numbers of large black bats, startled by the
+torches, darting hither and thither under the dismal vault. Birds, too,
+flew out from their hiding-places as they advanced, and flapped and
+screamed in the awful gloom.
+
+To save the torches for their return, Cudjo now extinguished them. They
+walked in the brightening twilight along the bank of the stream, and
+found, to the surprise and delight of Virginia, some delicate ferns and
+pale green shrubs growing in the crevices of the rock. Vegetation
+increased as they proceeded, until they arrived at the sink, and saw
+before them steep banks covered with vines, thickets, and forest trees.
+
+The river, whose former course had evidently been stopped by the falling
+in of the forest, here made a curve to the right around the banks, and
+half disappeared in a channel it had hollowed for itself under the
+cliff. Here they left it, and climbed to the open day.
+
+"How strangely yellow the sunshine looks!" said Virginia. "It seems as
+though I had colored glasses on. And how sultry the air!"
+
+She looked up at the towering rocks that walled the chasm, and at the
+trees upon whose roots she stood, and whose tops waved in the summer
+breeze and sunshine, at the level of the mountain slope so far above.
+She could also see, on the summit of the cliffs, the charred skeletons
+of trees the late fire had destroyed.
+
+"It was here," said Penn, "that Stackridge and his friends escaped. This
+leaning tree with its low branches forms a sort of ladder to the limbs
+of that larger one; and by these it is easy to climb----"
+
+As he was speaking, all eyes were turned upwards; when suddenly Cudjo
+uttered a warning whistle, and dropped flat upon the ground.
+
+"A man!" said Carl, crouching at the foot of the tree.
+
+Penn did not fall or crouch, nor did Virginia scream, although, looking
+up through the scant leafage, they saw, standing on the cliff, and
+looking down straight at them, at the same time waving his hand
+exultantly, one whom they well knew--their enemy, Silas Ropes.
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+_PROMETHEUS BOUND._
+
+
+At the wave of the lieutenant's hand, a squad of soldiers rushed to the
+spot. In a minute their muskets were pointed downwards, and aimed.
+"Fly!" said Penn, thrusting Virginia from him. "Carl, take her away!"
+
+The boy drew her back down the rocks, following Cudjo, who was
+descending on all fours, like an ape. She turned her face in terror to
+look after Penn. There he stood, where she had left him, intrepid, his
+fine head uncovered, looking steadfastly up at the men on the cliff, and
+waving his hat, defiantly. At once she recognized his noble
+self-sacrifice. It was his object to attract their fire, and so shield
+her from the bullets as she fled.
+
+She struggled from Carl's grasp. "O, Penn," she cried, extending her
+hands beseechingly, and starting to return to him.
+
+"Fire!" shouted Silas Ropes.
+
+Crack! went a gun, immediately succeeded by an irregular volley, like a
+string of exploding fire-crackers. Penn, expecting death, saw first the
+rapid flashes, then the soldiers half concealed by the smoke of their
+own guns. The smoke cleared, and there he still stood, smiling--for
+Virginia was unhurt.
+
+"Your practice is very poor!" he shouted up at the soldiers; and,
+putting on his hat, he walked calmly away.
+
+The bullets had struck the trees and flattened on the stones all around
+him; but he was untouched. And before the rebels could reload their
+pieces, he was safe with his companions in the cavern.
+
+He found Cudjo hastily relighting his torch. Virginia was sitting on a
+stone where Carl had placed her; powerless with the reaction of fear;
+her countenance, white as that of a snow-image in the gloom, turned upon
+Penn as if she knew not whether it was really he, or his apparition. She
+did not rise to meet him. She could not speak. Her eyes were as the eyes
+of one that beholds a miracle of God's mercy.
+
+"Is no guns here?" cried Carl.
+
+"De men hab all urn's guns,"' said Cudjo, over his kindlings. "Me gwine
+fotch 'em!" And, his torch lighted, he darted away. In a minute he was
+out of sight and hearing; only the flame he bore could be seen dancing
+like an ignis fatuus in the darkness of the cavern.
+
+"O, if I had only that pistol, Carl!" said Penn. "I could manage to
+defend the chasm with it until they come. But wishes won't help us.
+Virginia, Deslow has turned traitor! He must have known his friends were
+going this morning to visit thy father, or else he could not so well
+have chosen his time for betraying them." He lighted his torch, and
+lifted Virginia to her feet. "Have no fear. Even if the rebels get
+possession here, the subterranean passages can be held by a dozen men
+against a hundred."
+
+"I am not afraid now; I am quite strong."
+
+"That is well. Carl, take the light and go with her."
+
+"And vat shall you do?"
+
+"I will stay and watch the movements of the soldiers."
+
+"Wery goot. But I have vun little obshection."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"You know the vay petter, and you vill take her safer as I can. But my
+eyes is wery wigorous, and I vill engage to vatch the cusses myself."
+
+"Thou art right, my Carl!" said Penn, who indeed felt that it was for
+him, and for no other, to convey Virginia back to her father and safety.
+
+He crept upon the rocks, and took a last observation of the cliffs. Not
+a soldier was in sight. But that fact did not delight him much.
+
+"They fear a possible shot or two. No doubt they are making
+preparations, and when all is ready they will descend. I only hope they
+will delay long enough! Farewell, Carl!"
+
+"Goot pie, Penn! Goot pie, Wirginie!" cried Carl, with stout heart and
+cheery voice. And as he saw them depart,--Penn's arm supporting
+her,--listened for the last murmur of their voices, and watched for the
+last glimmer of the torch as it was swallowed by the darkness, and he
+was left alone, he continued to smile grimly; but his eyes were dim.
+
+"They are wery happy together! And I susphect the time vill come ven he
+vill marry her; and then they vill neither of 'em care much for me.
+Veil, I shall love 'em, and wish 'em happy all the same!"
+
+With which thought he smiled still more resolutely than before, and
+squeezed the tears from his eyes very tenderly, in order, probably, to
+keep those useful organs as "wigorous" as possible for the work before
+him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Handcuffed and securely bound to the rock, that modern Prometheus,
+Captain Lysander Sprowl, like his mythical prototype, felt the vulture's
+beak in his vitals. Chagrin devoured his liver. An overflow of southern
+bile was the result, and he turned yellow to the whites of his eyes.
+
+Old Toby noticed the phenomenon. Poor old Toby, with that foolish head
+and large tropical heart of his, knew no better than to feel a movement
+of compassion.
+
+"Kin uh do any ting fur ye, sar?"
+
+The unfeigned sympathy of the question gave the wily Prometheus his cue.
+He uttered a feeble moan, and studied to look as much sicker than he was
+as possible.
+
+Pity at the sight made the old negro forget much which a white man would
+have been apt to remember--the disgrace this wretch had brought upon
+"the family;" and the recent cruel whipping, from which his own back was
+still sore.
+
+"Ye pooty sick, sar?"
+
+"Water!" gasped Lysander.
+
+The patriots had finished their coffee and taken their guns. Toby ran to
+them.
+
+"Some on ye be so good as keep an eye skinned on de prisoner, while I's
+gittin' him a drink!"
+
+He hastened with the gourd to a dark interior niche where a little
+trickling spring dripped, drop by drop, into a basin hollowed in the
+rocky floor. As he bore it, cool and brimming, to his captive-patient,
+Withers said,--
+
+"I don't keer! it's a sight to make most white folks ashamed of their
+Christianity, to see that old nigger waiting on that rascal, 'fore his
+own back has done smarting!"
+
+"If, as I believe," said Mr. Villars, "men stand approved before God,
+not for their pride of intellect or of birth, but for the love that is
+in their hearts, who can doubt but there will be higher seats in heaven
+for many a poor black man than for their haughty masters?"
+
+"According to that," replied Withers, "maybe some besides the haughty
+masters will be a little astonished if they ever git into
+heaven--nigger-haters that won't set in a car, or a meeting-house, or to
+see a theatre-play, if there's a nigger allowed the same privilege! Now
+I never was any thing of an emancipationist; but by George! if there's
+anything I detest, it's this etarnal and unreasonable prejudice agin'
+niggers! How do you account for it, Mr. Villars?"
+
+"Prejudice," said the old man, "is always a mark of narrowness and
+ignorance. You might almost, I think, decide the question of a man's
+Christianity by his answer to this: 'What is your feeling towards the
+negro?' The larger his heart and mind, the more compassionate and
+generous will be his views. But where you find most bigotry and
+ignorance, there you will find the negro hated most violently. I think
+there are men in the free states whose sins of prejudice and blind
+passion against the unhappy race are greater than those of the
+slaveholders themselves."
+
+"Our interest is in our property--that's nat'ral; but what possesses
+them to want to see the nigger's face held tight to the grindstone, and
+never let up?" said Withers. "Their howl now is, 'Put down the
+rebellion! but don't tech slavery, and don't bring in the nigger!' As
+if, arter dogs had been killing my sheep, you should preach to me, 'Save
+your sheep, neighbor, but don't agitate the dog question! You mustn't
+tech the dogs!' I say, if the dogs begin the trouble, they must take the
+consequences, even if my dog's one."
+
+"They maintain," said Grudd, "that, no matter what slavery may have
+done, there is no power in the constitution to destroy it."
+
+"I am reminded of a story my daughter Virginia was reading to me not
+long ago,--how the great polar bear is sometimes killed. The hunter has
+a spear, near the pointed end of which is securely fastened a strong
+cross-piece. The bear, you know, is aggressive; he advances, meets the
+levelled shaft, seizes the cross-piece with his powerful arms, and with
+a growl of rage hugs the spear-head into his heart. Now, slavery is just
+such another great, stupid, ferocious monster. The constitution is the
+spear of Liberty. The cross-piece, if you like, is the republican policy
+which has been nailed to it, and which has given the bear a hold upon
+it. He is hugging it into his heart. He is destroying himself."
+
+The story was scarcely ended when Cudjo leaped into the circle,
+crying,--
+
+"De sogers! de sogers!"
+
+"Where?" said Pomp, instinctively springing to his rifle.
+
+"In de sink! Dey fire onto we and de young lady!"
+
+"Any one hurt?"
+
+"No. Massa Hapgood cotch de bullets in him's hat!" for this was the
+impression the negro had brought away with him. "Hull passel sogers!
+Sile Ropes,--seed him fust ob all!"
+
+It was some moments before the patriots fully comprehended this alarming
+intelligence. But Pomp understood it instantly.
+
+"Gentlemen, will you fight? Your side of the house is attacked!"
+
+There was a moment's confusion. Then those who had not already taken
+their guns, sprang to them. They had brought lanterns, which were now
+burning. They plunged into the gallery, following Pomp. Cudjo ran for
+his sword, drew it from the scabbard, and ran yelling after them.
+
+The sudden tumult died in the depths of the cavern; and all was still
+again before those left behind had recovered from their astonishment.
+
+There was one whose astonishment was largely mixed with joy. A moment
+since he was lying like a man near the last gasp; but now he started up,
+singularly forgetful of his dying condition, until reminded of it by
+feeling the restraint of the rope and seeing Toby. Lysander sank back
+with a groan.
+
+"'Pears like you's a little more chirk," said Toby.
+
+"My head! my head!" said Lysander. "My skull is fractured. Can't you
+loose the rope a little? The strain on my wrists is--" ending the
+sentence with a faint moan.
+
+Had Toby forgotten the strain on _his_ wrists, and the anguish of the
+thumbs, when this same cruel Lysander had him strung up?
+
+"Bery sorry, 'deed, sar! But I can't unloosen de rope fur ye."
+
+And, full of pity as he was, the old negro resolutely remained faithful
+to his charge. Sprowl tried complaints, coaxing, promises, but in vain.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "I have only one request to make. Let me see my
+wife, and ask her forgiveness before I die."
+
+"Dat am bery reason'ble; I'll speak to her, sar." And, without losing
+sight of his prisoner, Toby went to Cudjo's pantry, now Virginia's
+dressing-room, into which Salina had retreated, and notified her of the
+dying request.
+
+Salina was in one of her most discontented moods. What had she fled to
+the mountain for? she angrily asked herself. After the first gush of
+grateful emotion on meeting her father and sister, she had begun quickly
+to see that she was not wanted there. Then she looked around
+despairingly on the dismal accommodations of the cave. She had not that
+sustaining affection, that nobleness of purpose, which enabled her
+father and sister to endure so cheerfully all the hardships of their
+present situation. The rude, coarse life up there, the inconveniences,
+the miseries, which provoked only smiles of patience from them, filled
+her with disgust and spleen.
+
+But there was one sorer sight to those irritated eyes than all else they
+saw--her captive husband. She could not forget that he _was_ her
+husband; and, whether she loved or hated him, she could not bear to
+witness his degradation. Yet she could not keep her eyes off of him; and
+so she had shut herself up.
+
+"He wishes to speak with me? To ask my forgiveness? Well! he shall have
+a chance!"
+
+She went and stood over the prisoner, looking down upon him coldly, but
+with compressed lips.
+
+"Well, what do you want of me?"
+
+Sprowl made a motion for Toby to retire. Humbly the old negro obeyed,
+feeling that he ought not to intrude upon the interview; yet keeping his
+eye still on the prisoner, and his hand on the pistol.
+
+"Sal,"--in a low voice, looking up at her, and showing his manacled
+hands,--"are you pleased to see me in this condition?"
+
+"I'd rather see you dead! If I were you, I'd kill myself!"
+
+"There's a knife on the table behind you. Give it to me, free my hands,
+and you won't have to repeat your advice."
+
+She merely glanced over her shoulder at the knife, then bent her
+scowling looks once more on him.
+
+"A captain in the confederate army! outwitted and taken prisoner by a
+boy! kept a prisoner by an old negro! This, then, is the military glory
+you bragged of in advance! And I was going to be so proud of being your
+wife! Well, I am proud!"
+
+There was gall in her words. They made Lysander writhe.
+
+"Bad luck will happen, you know. Once out of this scrape, you'll see
+what I'll do! Come, Sal, now be good to me."
+
+"Good to you! I've tried that, and what did I get for it?"
+
+"I own I've given you good cause to hate me. I'm sorry for it. The truth
+is, we never understood each other, Sal. You was always quick and sharp
+yourself; you'll confess that. You know how easy it is to irritate me;
+and I'm a devil when in a passion. But all that's past. Hate me, if you
+will--I deserve it. But you don't want to see me eternally disgraced, I
+know."
+
+She laughed disdainfully. "If you will disgrace yourself, how can I help
+it?"
+
+"The other end of the cave is attacked, and it is sure to be carried. I
+shall soon be in the hands of my own men. If I don't succeed in doing
+something for myself first, it'll be impossible for me to regain the
+position I've lost."
+
+"Well, do something for yourself! What hinders you?"
+
+"This cursed rope! I wouldn't mind the handcuffs if the rope was away.
+Just a touch with that knife--that's all, Sal."
+
+"Yes! and then what would you do?"
+
+"Run."
+
+"And lose no time in sending your men to attack this end of the cave,
+too! O, I know you!"
+
+"I swear to you, Sal! I never will take advantage of it in that way, if
+you will do me just this little favor. It will be worth my life to me;
+and it shall cost you nothing, nor your friends."
+
+"Hush! I know too well what your promises amount to. How can I depend
+even upon your oath? There's no truth or honor in you!"
+
+"Well?" said Lysander, despairingly.
+
+"Well, I am going to help you, for all that. Only it must not appear as
+if I did it. And you shall keep your oath,--or one of us shall die for
+it! Now be still!"
+
+She walked back past the block that served as a table, and, when between
+it and Toby, quietly took the knife from it, concealing it in her
+sleeve.
+
+"Don't come for me to hear any more dying requests," she said to the old
+negro, with a sneer. "Your prisoner will survive. Only give him a little
+coffee, if there is any. Here is some: I will wait upon him."
+
+And, carrying the coffee, she dropped the knife at Lysander's side.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+_PROMETHEUS UNBOUND._
+
+
+Five minutes later Penn and Virginia arrived. Penn ran eagerly for his
+musket. At the same time, looking about the cave, he was surprised to
+see only the old clergyman sitting by the fire, and Prometheus reclining
+by his rock.
+
+"Where is Salina? Where is Toby?"
+
+"Toby has just left his charge to see what discovery Salina has made
+outside. She went out previously and thought she saw soldiers."
+
+At that moment Toby came running in.
+
+"Dar's some men way down by the ravine! O, sar! I's bery glad you's
+come, sar!"
+
+Having announced the discovery, and greeted Penn and Virginia, he went
+to look at his prisoner. He had been absent from him but a minute: he
+found him lying as he had left him, and did not reflect, simple old
+soul, how much may be secretly accomplished by a desperate villain in
+that brief space of time.
+
+Penn took Pomp's glass, climbed along the rocky shelf, peered over the
+thickets, and saw on the bank of the ravine, where Salina pointed them
+out to him, several men. They were some distance below Gad's Leap (as he
+named the place where the spy met his death), and seemed to be occupied
+in extinguishing a fire. He levelled the glass. The recent burning of
+the trees and undergrowth had cleared the field for its operation. His
+eye sparkled as he lowered it.
+
+"I recognize one of our friends in a new uniform!"--handing the glass to
+Salina.
+
+Returning to the cave, he added, in Virginia's ear,--
+
+"Augustus Bythewood!"
+
+The bright young brow contracted: "Not coming here?"
+
+"I trust not. Yet his proximity means mischief. Pomp will be
+interested!"
+
+He took his torch and gun. There was no time for adieus. In a moment he
+was gone. There was one who had been waiting with anxious eyes and
+handcuffed hands to see him go.
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Villars had called Toby to him, and said, in a low
+voice,--
+
+"Is all right with your prisoner?"
+
+"O, yes; he am bery quiet, 'pears like."
+
+"You must look out for him. He is crafty. I feel that all is not right.
+When you were out, I thought I heard something like the sawing or
+tearing of a cord. Look to him, Toby."
+
+"O, yes, sar, I shall!" And the confident old negro approached the rock.
+
+There lay the rope about the base of it, still firmly tied on the side
+opposite the prisoner. And there crouched he, in the same posture of
+durance as before, except that now he had his legs well under him. His
+handcuffed hands lay on the rope.
+
+"Right glad ter see ye convanescent, sar!"
+
+Toby was bending over, examining his captive with a grin of
+satisfaction; when the latter, in a weak voice, made a humble request.
+
+"I wish you would put on my cap."
+
+"Wiv all de pleasure in de wuld, sar."
+
+The cap had been thrown off purposely. Unsuspecting old Toby! The pistol
+was in his pocket. He stooped to pick up the cap and place it on
+Sprowl's head; when, like a jumping devil in a box when the cover is
+touched, up leaped Lysander on his legs, knocking him down with the
+handcuffs, and springing over him.
+
+Before the old man was fully aware of what had happened, and long before
+he had regained his feet, Lysander was in the thickets. In his hurry he
+thrust his wife remorselessly from the ledge before him, and flung her
+rudely down upon the sharp boughs and stones, as he sped by her. There
+Toby found her, when he came too late with his pistol. Her hands were
+cut; but she did not care for her hands. Ingratitude wounds more cruelly
+than sharp-edged rocks.
+
+Penn had judged correctly in two particulars. Deslow had turned traitor.
+And the personage in the new uniform down by the ravine was
+Lieutenant-Colonel Bythewood.
+
+Deslow had gone straight to head-quarters after quitting Withers the
+previous night, given himself up, taken the oath of allegiance to the
+confederacy, and engaged to join the army or provide a substitute. As if
+this were not enough, he had also been required to expose the secret
+retreat of his late companions. To this, we know not whether
+reluctantly, he had consented; and it was this act of treachery that had
+brought Silas Ropes to the sink, and Bythewood to the ravine.
+
+Advantage had been taken of the fog in the morning to march back again,
+up the mountain, the men who had marched down, baffled and inglorious,
+after the wild-goose chase Carl led them the night before. Bythewood
+commanded the expedition at his own request, being particularly
+interested in two persons it was designed to capture--Virginia and Pomp.
+It is supposed that he took a sinister interest in Penn also.
+
+But Bythewood was not anxious to deprive Ropes of his laurels; and
+perhaps he felt himself to be too fine a gentleman to mix in a vulgar
+fight. He accordingly sent Ropes forward to surprise the patriots at the
+sink, while he moved with a small force cautiously up towards Gad's
+Leap, with two objects in view. One was, to make some discovery, if
+possible, with regard to the missing Lysander; the other, to intercept
+the retreat of the fugitives, should they be driven from the cave
+through the opening unknown to Deslow, but which he believed to be in
+this direction.
+
+The firing on the right apprised Augustus that the attack had commenced.
+This was the signal for him to advance boldly up from the ravine, and
+establish himself on an elevation commanding a view of the slopes. Here
+he had been discovered very opportunely by Salina, who was seeking some
+pretext for calling Toby from his prisoner. In the shade of some bushes
+that had escaped the fire, he sat comfortably smoking his cigar on one
+end of a log, which was smoking on its own account at the other end.
+
+"Put out that fire, some of you," said Augustus.
+
+This was scarcely done, when suddenly a man came leaping down the slope,
+holding his hands together in a very singular manner. Bythewood started
+to his feet.
+
+"Deuce take me!" said he, "if it ain't Lysander! But what's the matter
+with his hands, sergeant?"
+
+"Looks to me as though he had bracelets on," replied the experienced
+sergeant.
+
+Some men were despatched to meet and bring the captain in. The sergeant
+found a key in his pocket to unlock the handcuffs. Then Lysander told
+the story of his capture, which, though modified to suit himself,
+excited Bythewood's derision. This stung the proud captain, who, to wash
+the stain from his honor, proposed to take a squad of men and surprise
+the cave.
+
+Fired by the prospect of seeing Virginia in his power, Augustus had but
+one important order to give: "Bring your prisoners to me here!"
+
+Instead of proceeding directly to the cave, Lysander used strategy. He
+knew that if his movements were observed, and their object suspected,
+Virginia would have ample time to escape with her father and old Toby
+into the interior caverns, where it might be extremely difficult to
+discover them. He accordingly started in the direction of the sink, as
+if with intent to reenforce the soldiers fighting there; then, dropping
+suddenly into a hollow, he made a short turn to the left, and advanced
+swiftly, under cover of rocks and bushes, towards the ledge that
+concealed the cave.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"How _could_ you let him go, Toby!" cried Virginia, filled with
+consternation at the prisoner's escape. For she saw all the mischievous
+consequences that were likely to follow in the track of that fatal
+error: Cudjo's secret, so long faithfully kept, now in evil hour
+betrayed; the cave attacked and captured, and the brave men fighting at
+the sink, believing their retreat secure, taken suddenly in the rear;
+and so disaster, if not death, resulting to her father, to Penn, to all.
+
+The anguish of her tones pierced the poor old negro's soul.
+
+"Dunno', missis, no more'n you do! 'Pears like he done gnawed off de
+rope wiv his teef!" For Lysander, having used the knife, had hidden it
+under the skins on which he sat.
+
+Then Salina spoke, and denounced herself. After all the pains she had
+taken to conceal her agency in Sprowl's escape,--inconsistent,
+impetuous, filled with rage against herself and him,--she exclaimed,--
+
+"I did it! Here is the knife I gave him!"
+
+Virginia stood white and dumb, looking at her sister. Toby could only
+tear his old white wool and groan.
+
+"Salina," said her father, solemnly, "you have done a very treacherous
+and wicked thing! I pity you!"
+
+Severest reproaches could not have stung her as these words, and the
+terrified look of her sister, stung the proud and sensitive Salina.
+
+"I have done a damnable thing! I know it. Do you ask what made me? The
+devil made me. I knew it was the devil at the time; but I did it."
+
+"O, what shall we do, father?" said Virginia.
+
+"There is nothing you can do, my daughter, unless you can reach our
+friends and warn them."
+
+"O," she said, in despair, "there is not a lamp or a torch! All have
+been taken!"
+
+"And it is well! It would take you at least an hour to go and return;
+and that man--" Mr. Villars would never, if he could help it, speak
+Lysander's name--"will be here again before that time, if he is coming."
+
+"He is not coming," said Salina. "He swore to me that he would not take
+advantage of his escape to betray or injure any of you. He will keep his
+oath. If he does not----"
+
+She paused. There was a long, painful silence; the old man musing,
+Virginia wringing her hands, Toby keeping watch outside.
+
+"Listen!" said Salina. "I am a woman. But I will defend this place. I
+will stand there, and not a man shall enter till I am dead. As for you,
+Jinny, take _him_, and go. You can hide somewhere in the caves. Leave me
+and Toby. I will not ask you to forgive me; but perhaps some time you
+will think differently of me from what you do now."
+
+"Sister!" said Virginia, with emotion, "I do forgive you! God will
+forgive you too; for he knows better than we do how unhappy you have
+been, and that you could not, perhaps, have done differently from what
+you have done."
+
+Salina was touched. She threw her arms about Virginia's neck.
+
+"O, I have been a bad, selfish girl! I have made both you and father
+very unhappy; and you have been only too kind to me always! Now leave me
+alone--go! I hope I shall not trouble you much longer."
+
+She brushed back her hair from her large white forehead, and smiled a
+strange and vacant smile. Virginia saw that her wish was to die.
+
+"Sister," she said gently, "we will all stay together, if you stay. We
+must not give up this place! Our friends are lost--we are lost--if we
+give it up! Perhaps we can do something. Indeed, I think we can! If we
+only had arms! Women have used arms before now!"
+
+Toby entered. "Dey ain't comin' dis yer way, nohow! Dey's gwine off to
+de norf, hull passel on 'em."
+
+"Give me that pistol, Toby," said Salina. "You can use Cudjo's axe, if
+we are attacked. Place it where you can reach it, and then return to
+your lookout. Don't be deceived; but warn us at once if there is
+danger."
+
+"My children," said the old man, "come near to me! I would I could look
+upon you once; for I feel that a separation is near. Dear
+daughters!"--he took a hand of each,--"if I am to leave you, grieve not
+for me; but love one another. Love one another. To you, Salina, more
+especially, I say this; for though I know that deep down in your heart
+there is a fountain of affection, you are apt to repress your best
+feelings, and to cherish uncharitable thoughts. For your own good, O, do
+not do so any more! Believe in God. Be a child of God. Then no
+misfortune can happen to you. My children, there is no great misfortune,
+other than this--to lose our faith in God, and our love for one another.
+I do not fear bodily harm, for that is comparatively nothing. For many
+years I have been blind; yet have I been blest with sight; for night and
+day I have seen God. And as there is a more precious sight than that of
+the eyes, so there is a more precious life than this of the body. The
+life of the spirit is love and faith. Let me know that you have this,
+and I shall no longer fear for you. You will be happy, wherever you are.
+Why is it I feel such trust that Virginia will be provided for? Salina,
+let your heart be like hers, and I shall no longer fear for you!"
+
+"I wish it was! I wish it was!" said Salina, pouring out the anguish of
+her heart in those words. "But I cannot make it so. I cannot be good! I
+am--Salina! Is there fatality in a name?"
+
+"I know the infirmity of your natural disposition, my child. I know,
+too, what circumstances have done to embitter it. Our heavenly Father
+will take all that into account. Yet there is no one who has not within
+himself faults and temptations to contend with. Many have far greater
+than yours to combat, and yet they conquer gloriously. I cannot say
+more. My children, the hour has come which is to decide much for us all.
+Remember my legacy to you,--Have Faith and Love."
+
+They knelt before him. He laid his hands upon their heads, and in a
+brief and fervent prayer blessed them. Both were sobbing. Tears ran down
+his cheeks also; but his countenance was bright in its uplifted
+serenity, wearing a strange expression of grandeur and of joy.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+_THE COMBAT._
+
+
+Pomp, rifle in hand, bearing a torch, led the patriots on their rapid
+return through the caverns.
+
+"Lights down!" he said, as they approached the vicinity of the sink. "We
+shall see them; but they must not see us."
+
+They halted at the natural bridge; the torch was extinguished, and the
+patriots placed their lanterns under a rock. They then advanced as
+swiftly as possible in the obscurity, along the bank of the stream. In
+the hall of the bats they met Carl, who had seen their lights and come
+towards them.
+
+"Hurry! hurry!" he said. "They are coming down the trees like the
+devil's monkeys! a whole carawan proke loose!"
+
+Captain Grudd commanded the patriots; but Pomp commanded Captain Grudd.
+
+"Quick, and make no noise! We have every advantage; the darkness is on
+our side--those loose rocks will shelter us."
+
+They advanced until within a hundred yards of where the shaft of
+daylight came down. There they could distinguish, in the shining cleft
+under the brow of the cavern, and above the rocky embankment, the forms
+of their assailants. Some had already gained a footing. Others were
+descending the tree-trunks in a dark chain, each link the body of a
+rebel.
+
+"We must stop that!" said Pomp.
+
+The men were deployed forward rapidly, and a halt ordered, each choosing
+his position.
+
+"Ready! Aim!"
+
+At that moment, half a dozen men of the attacking party advanced,
+feeling their way over the rocks down which Penn and his companions had
+been seen to escape. The leader, shielding his eyes with his hand,
+peered into the gloom of the cavern. Coming from the light, he could see
+nothing distinctly. Suddenly he paused: had he heard the words of
+command whispered? or was he impressed by the awful mystery and silence?
+
+"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.
+
+Instantly a jagged line of flashes leaped across the breast of the
+darkness, accompanied by a detonation truly terrible. Each gun with its
+echoes, in those cavernous solitudes, thundered like a whole park of
+artillery: what, then, was the effect of the volley? The patriots were
+themselves appalled by it. The mountain trembled, and a gusty roar swept
+through its shuddering chambers, throbbing and pulsing long after the
+smoke of the discharge had cleared away.
+
+Pomp laughed quietly, while Withers exclaimed, "By the Etarnal! if I
+didn't fancy the hull ruf of the mountain had caved in!"
+
+"Load!" said Captain Grudd, sternly.
+
+The rebels advancing over the rocks had suddenly disappeared, having
+either fallen in the crevices or scrambled back up the bank while hidden
+from view by the smoke. The chain descending the tree had broken; those
+near the ground leaped down or slid, while those above seemed seized by
+a wild impulse to climb back with all haste to the summit of the wall. A
+few threw away their guns, which fell upon the heads of those below. At
+the same time those below might have been seen scampering to places of
+shelter behind rocks and trees.
+
+If ever panic were excusable, this surely was. Since the patriots were
+terrified by their own firing, we need not wonder at the alarm of the
+rebels. Some had seen the flashes sever the darkness, and their comrades
+fall; while all had felt the earthquake and the thundering. To those at
+the entrance it had seemed that these were the jaws and throat of a
+monster mountain-huge, which at their approach spat flame and bellowed.
+
+"Now is our time! Clear them out!" said Grudd.
+
+"Rush in and finish them with the bayonet!" said Stackridge. Six of the
+guns had bayonets, and his was one of them.
+
+"Not yet!" said Pomp. "They will fire on you from above. We must first
+attend to that. Shall I show you? Then do as I do!"
+
+Instinctively they accepted his lead. Loading his piece, he ran forward
+until, himself concealed under the brow of the cavern, he could see the
+rebels in the tree and on the cliff.
+
+"Once more! All together!" he said, taking aim. "Give the word,
+captain!"
+
+The men knelt among the loosely tumbled rocks, which served at once as a
+breastwork and as rests for their guns. The projecting roof of the cave
+was over them; through the obscure opening they pointed their pieces.
+Above them, in the full light, were the frightened confederates, some on
+the tree, some on the cliff, some leaping from the tree to the cliff;
+while their comrades in the sink lurked on the side opposite that where
+the patriots were.
+
+"Take the cusses on the top of the rocks!" said Stackridge. "The rest
+are harmless."
+
+"It's all them in the tree can do to take keer of themselves," added
+Withers. "Reg'lar secesh! All they ax is to be let alone."
+
+Grudd gave the word. Flame from a dozen muzzles shot upwards from the
+edge of the pit. When the smoke rolled away, the cliff was cleared. Not
+a rebel was to be seen, except those in the tree franticly scrambling to
+get out, and two others. One of these had fallen on the cliff: his head
+and one arm hung horribly over the brink. The other, in his too eager
+haste to escape from the tree, had slipped from the limb, and been saved
+from dashing to pieces on the rocks below only by a projection of the
+wall, to which he had caught, and where he now clung, a dozen feet from
+the top, and far above the river that rolled black and slow in its
+channel beneath the cliff.
+
+"Now with your bayonets!" said Pomp. "This way!"
+
+There were six bayonets before; now there were eight.
+
+"That Carl is worth his weight in gold!" said the enthusiastic
+Stackridge.
+
+While the patriots, preparing for their second volley, were getting
+positions among the rocks on the left, Carl had crept up the embankment
+in front, and brought away two muskets from two dead rebels. These were
+they who had fallen at the first fire. Both guns had bayonets. Pomp took
+one; Carl kept the other. Cudjo with his sword accompanied the charging
+party; Grudd and the rest remaining at their post, ready to pick off any
+rebel that should appear on the cliff.
+
+Swift and stealthy as a panther, Pomp crept around still farther to the
+left, under the projecting wall, raising his head cautiously now and
+then to look for the fugitives.
+
+"As I expected! They are over there, afraid to follow the stream into
+the cave, and hesitating whether to make a rush for the tree. All
+ready?"
+
+He looked around on his little force and smiled. Instead of eight
+bayonets, there were now nine. Penn had arrived.
+
+"All ready!" answered Stackridge.
+
+Pomp bounded upon the rocks and over them, with a yell which the rest
+took up as they followed, charging headlong after him. Cudjo,
+brandishing his sword, leaped and yelled with the foremost--a figure
+fantastically terrible. Penn, with the fiery Stackridge on one side, and
+his beloved Carl on the other, forgot that he had ever been a Quaker,
+hating strife. Not that he loved it now; but, remembering that these
+were the deadly foes of his country, and of those he loved, and feeling
+it a righteous duty to exterminate them, he went to the work, not like
+an apprentice, but a master,--without fear, self-possessed, impetuous,
+kindled with fierce excitement.
+
+The rebels in the sink, fifteen in number, had had time to rally from
+their panic; and they now seemed inclined to make resistance. They were
+behind a natural breastwork, similar to that which had sheltered the
+patriots on the other side. They levelled their guns hastily and fired.
+One of the patriots fell: it was Withers.
+
+"Give it to them!" shouted Pomp.
+
+"Every cussed scoundrel of 'em!" Stackridge cried.
+
+"Kill! kill! kill!" shrieked Cudjo.
+
+"Surrender! surrender!" thundered Penn.
+
+With such cries they charged over the rocks, straight at the faces and
+breasts of the confederates. Some turned to fly; but beyond them was the
+unknown darkness into which the river flowed: they recoiled aghast from
+that. A few stood their ground. The bayonet, which Penn had first made
+acquaintance with when it was thrust at his own breast, he shoved
+through the shoulder of a rebel whose clubbed musket was descending on
+Carl's head. Three inches of the blade come out of his back; and,
+bearing him downwards in his irresistible onset, Penn literally pinned
+him to the ground. Cudjo slashed another hideously across the face with
+the sword. Pomp took the first prisoner: it was Dan Pepperill. The rest
+soon followed Dan's example, cried quarter, and threw down their arms.
+
+"Quarter!" gasped the wretch Penn had pinned.
+
+"You spoke too late--I am sorry!" said Penn, with austere pity, as,
+placing his foot across the man's armpit to hold him while he pulled, he
+put forth his strength, and drew out the steel. A gush of blood
+followed, and, with a groan, the soldier swooned.
+
+"It is one of them wagabonds that gave you the tar and fedders!" said
+Carl.
+
+"And assisted at my hanging afterwards!" added Penn, remembering the
+ghastly face.
+
+Thus retribution followed these men. Gad and Griffin he had seen dead.
+Was it any satisfaction for him to feel that he was thus avenged? I
+think, not much. The devil of revenge had no place in his soul; and
+never for any personal wrong he had received would he have wished to see
+bloody violence done.
+
+The prisoners were disarmed, and ordered to remain where they were.
+
+"Bring the wounded to me," said Pomp, hastening back to the spot where
+Withers had fallen.
+
+Stackridge and another were lifting the fallen patriot and bearing him
+to the shelter of the cave. Pomp assisted, skilfully and tenderly. Then
+followed those who bore away the wounded prisoners and the guns that had
+been captured. Pepperill had been ordered to help. He and Carl carried
+the man whose face Cudjo had slashed. This was the only rebel who had
+fought obstinately: he had not given up until an arm was broken, and he
+was blinded by his own blood. Penn and Devitt brought up the rear with
+the swooning soldier. When half way over they were fired upon by the
+rebels rallying to the edge of the cliff. Grudd and his men responded
+sharply, covering their retreat. Penn felt a bullet graze his shoulder.
+It made but a slight flesh wound there; but, passing down, it entered
+the heart of the wounded man, whose swoon became the swoon of death.
+This was the only serious result of the confederate fire.
+
+"I am glad I did not kill him!" said Penn, as they laid the corpse
+beside the stream.
+
+Then out of the mask of blood which covered the face of the stout fellow
+who had fought so well, there issued a voice that spoke, in a strange
+tongue, these words:--
+
+"_Was hat man mir gethan? Wo bin ich, mutter?_"
+
+But the words were not strange to Carl; neither was the voice strange.
+
+"Fritz! Fritz!" he answered, in the same language, "is it you?"
+
+"I am Fritz Minnevich; that is true. And you, I think, are my cousin
+Carl."
+
+They laid the wounded man near the stream, where Pomp was examining
+Withers's hurt.
+
+"O, Fritz!" said Carl, "how came you here?"
+
+"They said the Yankees were coming to take our farm. So Hans and I
+enlisted to fight. I got in here because I was ordered. We do as we are
+ordered. It was we who whipped the woman. We whipped her well. I hope my
+good looks will not be spoiled; for that would grieve our mother."
+
+Thus the soldier talked in his native tongue, while Carl, in sorrow and
+silence, washed the blood from his face. He remembered he was his
+father's brother's son; a good fellow, in his way; dull, but faithful;
+and he had not always treated him cruelly. Indeed, Carl thought not of
+his cruelty now at all, but only of the good times they had had
+together, in days when they were friends, and Frau Minnevich had not
+taught her boys to be as ill-natured as herself.
+
+"What for do you do this, Carl?" said Fritz. "There is no cause that you
+should be kind to me. I did you some ill turns. You did right to run
+away. But our father swears you shall have your share of the property if
+you ever come back for it, and the Yankees do not take it."
+
+"It is all lies they tell you about the Yankees!" said Carl. "O Pomp!
+this is my cousin--see what you can do for him."
+
+Pomp had been reluctantly convinced that he could do nothing for
+Withers: his wound was mortal. And Withers had said to him, in cheerful,
+feeble tones, "I feel I'm about to the eend of my tether. So don't waste
+yer time on me."
+
+So Pomp turned his attention to the Minnevich. But Penn and Stackridge
+remained with the dying patriot.
+
+"Wish ye had a Union flag to wrap me in when I'm dead, boys! That's what
+I've fit fur; that's what I meant to die fur, if 'twas so ordered. It's
+all right, boys! Jest look arter my family a little, won't ye? And don't
+give up old Tennessee!"
+
+These were his last words.
+
+Penn and Stackridge rejoined their comrades in the fight.
+
+"Shoot him! shoot him! shoot him!" cried Cudjo, in a frenzy of
+excitement, pointing at the rebel who had fallen from the tree upon the
+projection of the chasm wall. "Him dar! Dat Sile Ropes!"
+
+"Ropes?" said Penn, looking up through the opening. "That he!"--raising
+his gun. "But he can do no harm there; and he can't get out."
+
+"Don' ye see? Dey's got a rope to help him wif! Gib him a shot fust! O,
+gib him a shot!"
+
+The projection to which the lieutenant clung was a broken shelf less
+than half a yard in breadth. There he cowered in abject terror betwixt
+two dangers, that of falling if he attempted to move, and that of being
+picked off if he remained stationary and in sight. To avoid both, he got
+upon his hands and knees, and hid his face in the angle of the ledge,
+leaving the posterior part of his person prominent, no doubt thinking,
+like an ostrich, that if his head was in a hole, he was safe. The very
+ludicrousness of his situation saved him. The patriots reserved him to
+laugh at, and fired over him at the rebels on the cliff. At each shot,
+Silas could be seen to root his nose still more industriously into the
+rock. At length, however, as Cudjo had declared, a rope was brought and
+let down to him.
+
+"Take hold there!" shouted the rebels on the cliff. Ropes could feel the
+cord dangling on his back. "Tie it around your waist!"
+
+Silas, without daring to look up, put out his hand, which groped
+awkwardly and blindly for the rope as it swung to and fro all around it.
+Finally, he seized it, but ran imminent risk of falling as he drew it
+under his body. At length he seemed to have it secured; but in his hurry
+and trepidation he had fastened it considerably nearer his hips than his
+arms. The result, when the rebels above began to haul, can be imagined.
+Hips and heels were hoisted, while arms and head hung down, causing him
+to resemble very strikingly a frog hooked on for bait at the end of a
+fish-line. The affrighted face drawn out of its hole, looked down
+ridiculously hideous into the rocky and bristling gulf over which he
+swung.
+
+"Fire!" said Captain Grudd.
+
+The volley was aimed, not at Silas, but at those who were hauling him
+up. Cudjo shrieked with frantic joy, expecting to see his old enemy
+plunge head foremost among the stones on the bank of the stream. Such,
+no doubt, would have been the result, but for one sturdy and brave
+fellow at the rope. The rest, struck either with bullets or terror, fell
+back, loosing their hold. But this man clung fast, imperturbable. Alone,
+slowly, hand over hand, he hauled and hauled; grim, unterrified,
+faithful. But it was a tedious and laborious task for one, even the
+stoutest. The man had but a precarious foothold, and the rope rubbed
+hard on the edge of the cliff. Cudjo shrieked again, this time with
+despair at seeing his former overseer about to escape.
+
+"That's a plucky fellow!" said Stackridge, with stern admiration of the
+soldier's courage. "I like his grit; but he must stop that!"
+
+He reached for a loaded gun. He took Carl's. The boy turned pale, but
+said never a word, setting his lips firmly as he looked up at the cliff.
+Silas was swinging. The soldier was pulling in the rope, hitch by hitch,
+over the ledge. Stackridge took deliberate aim, and fired.
+
+For a moment no very surprising effect was perceptible, only the man
+stopped hauling. Then he went down on one knee, paying out several
+inches of the rope, and letting the suspended Silas dip accordingly. It
+became evident that he was hit; he still grasped the rope, but it began
+to glide through his hands. Silas set up a howl.
+
+"Hold me! hold me!"--at the same time extending all his fingers to grasp
+the rocks.
+
+The brave fellow made one last effort, and took a turn of the rope about
+his wrist. It did not slip through his hands any more. But soon _he_
+began to slip--forward--forward--on both knees now--his head reeling
+like that of a drunken man, and at last pitching heavily over the cliff.
+
+Some of the cowards who had deserted their post sprang to save him; but
+too late: the man was gone.
+
+It was fortunate for Silas that he had been let down several feet thus
+gradually. He was near the ledge from which he had been lifted, and had
+just time to grasp it again and crawl upon it, when the man fell,
+turning a complete somerset over him, fearful to witness! revolving
+slowly in his swift descent through the air; still holding with
+tenacious grip the rope; plunging through the boughs like a mere log
+tumbled from the cliff, and striking the rocks below--dead.
+
+He had taken the rope with him; and Silas had been preserved from
+sharing his fate only by a lucky accident. The knot at his hips loosened
+itself as he clutched the ledge, and let the coil fly off as the man
+shot down.
+
+Not a gun was fired: rebels and patriots seemed struck dumb with horror
+at the brave fellow's fate. Then Carl whispered,--
+
+"That vas my other cousin! That vas Hans!"
+
+"Cudjo! Cudjo! what are you about?" cried Penn.
+
+The black did not answer. Beside himself with excitement, he ran to the
+leaning tree and climbed it like an ape. The naked sword gleamed among
+the twigs. Reaching the trunk of the tall tree he ascended that as
+nimbly, never stopping until he had reached the upper limbs. There was
+one that branched towards the ledge where Silas clung. At a glance
+choosing that, Cudjo ran out upon it, until it bent beneath his weight.
+There he tried in vain to reach his ancient enemy with the sword; the
+distance was too great, even for his long arms.
+
+"Sile Ropes! ye ol' oberseer! g'e know Cudjo? Me Cudjo!" he yelled,
+slashing the end of the branch as if it had been his victim's flesh.
+"'Member de lickins? 'Member my gal ye got away? Now ye git yer pay!"
+
+While he was raving thus, one of the soldiers above, sheltering himself
+from the fire of the patriots by lying almost flat on the ground,
+levelled his gun at the half-crazed negro's breast, and pulled the
+trigger.
+
+A flash--a report--the sword fell, and went clattering down upon the
+rocks. Cudjo turned one wild look upward, clapping his hand to his
+breast. Then, with a terrible grimace, he cast his eyes down again at
+Ropes,--crept still farther out on the branch,--and leaped.
+
+Silas had his nose in the angle of the ledge again, and scarcely knew
+what had happened until he felt the negro alight on his back and fling
+his arms about him.
+
+"Cudjo shot! Cudjo die! But you go too, Sile Ropes!"
+
+As he gibbered forth these words, his long hands found the lieutenant's
+throat, and tightened upon it. A fearfully quiet moment ensued; then
+living and dying rolled together from the ledge, and dropped into the
+chasm. They struck the body of the dead Hans; that broke the fall; and
+Cudjo was beneath his victim. Ropes, stunned only, struggled to rise;
+but, held in that deadly embrace, he only succeeded in rolling himself
+down the embankment, Cudjo accompanying. The stream flowed beneath,
+black, with scarce a murmur. Silas neither saw nor heard it; but,
+continuing to struggle, and so continuing to roll, he reached the verge
+of the rocks, and fell with a splash into the current.
+
+Penn ran to the spot just in time to see the two bodies disappear
+together; the dying Cudjo and the drowning Silas sinking as one, and
+drifting away into the cavernous darkness of the subterranean river.
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+_HOW AUGUSTUS FINALLY PROPOSED._
+
+
+After this there was a lull; and Penn, who had forgotten every thing
+else whilst the conflict was raging, remembered that he had seen
+Bythewood at the ravine, and hastened to inform Pomp of the
+circumstance.
+
+The death of Cudjo had plunged Pomp into a fit of stern, sad reverie.
+His surgical task performed, he stood leaning on his rifle, gazing
+abstractedly at the darkly gliding waves, when Penn's communication
+roused him.
+
+"Ha!" said he, with a slight start. "We must look to that! The danger
+here is over for the present, and two or three of us can be spared."
+
+"Shall I go, too?" said Carl. "It is time I vas seeing to my prisoner."
+
+"Come," said Pomp. And the three set out to return.
+
+Having but slight anticipations of trouble from the side of the ravine,
+they came suddenly, wholly unprepared, upon a scene which filled them
+with horror and amazement.
+
+The prisoner, as we know, had fled. We left him on his way back to the
+cave with a squad of men. Since which time, this is what had occurred.
+
+The assailants had approached so stealthily over the ledges, below which
+Toby was stationed, looking intently for them in another direction, that
+he had no suspicions of their coming until they suddenly dropped upon
+him as from the clouds. He had no time to run for his axe; and he had
+scarcely given the alarm when he was overpowered, knocked down, and
+rolled out of the way off the rocks.
+
+The assailants then, with Lysander at their head, rushed to the entrance
+of the cave. But there they encountered unexpected resistance: the two
+sisters--Salina with the pistol, Virginia with the axe.
+
+"Hello! Sal!" cried Lysander, recoiling into the arms of his men; "what
+the devil do you mean?"
+
+"I mean to kill you, or any man that sets foot in this place! That is
+what I mean!"
+
+There could be no doubt about it: her eyes, her attitude, her whole
+form, from head to foot, looked what she said. She was flushed; a smile
+of wild and reckless scorn curved her mouth, and her countenance gleamed
+with a wicked light.
+
+By her side was Virginia, with the uplifted axe, expressing no less
+determination by her posture and looks, though she did not speak, though
+there was no smile on her pale lips, and though her features were as
+white as death.
+
+"It's no use, gals!" said Sprowl. "Don't make fools of yourselves! You
+won't be hurt; but I'm bound to come in!"'
+
+"Do not attempt it! You have broken your oath to me. But I have made an
+oath I shall not break!"
+
+What that oath was Salina did not say; but Lysander's changing color
+betrayed that he guessed it pretty well.
+
+"I don't care a d--n for you! Virginia, drop that axe, and come out here
+with your father, and I pledge my sacred honor that neither of you shall
+receive the least harm."
+
+"Your sacred honor!" sneered Salina.
+
+But Virginia said nothing. She stood like a clothed statue; only the
+eyes through which the fire of the excited spirit shone were not those
+of a statue; and the advanced white arm, beautiful and bare, from which
+the loose sleeve fell as it reared the axe, was of God's sculpture, not
+man's.
+
+She seemed not to hear Lysander; for the promise of safety for herself
+was as nothing to her: she felt that she was there to defend, with her
+life, if needs were, the friends whom he had betrayed. Only a holy and
+great purpose like this could have nerved that gentle nature for such
+work, and made those tender sinews firm as steel.
+
+There was something slightly devilish in the aspect of Salina; but
+Virginia was all the angel; yet it was the angel roused to strife.
+
+"Call off your gals, Mr. Villars!" said Sprowl.
+
+"Lysander!" said the solemn voice of the old minister from within, "hear
+me! We are but three here, as you see: a blind and helpless old man and
+two girls. Why do you follow to persecute us? Go your way, and learn to
+be a man. The business you are engaged in is unworthy of a man. My
+daughters do right to defend this place, which you, false and
+ungrateful, have betrayed. Attempt nothing farther; for we are not
+afraid to die!"
+
+"Go in, boys!" shouted Lysander, himself shrinking aside to let the
+soldiers pass.
+
+Salina fired the pistol--not at the soldiers.
+
+"She has shot me!" said Lysander, staggering back. "Kill the fiend! kill
+her!"
+
+Instantly two bayonets darted at her breast. One of them was struck down
+by Virginia's axe, which half severed the soldier's wrist. But before
+the axe could rise and descend again, the other bayonet had done its
+work; and the soldiers rushed in.
+
+It was all over in a minute. The axe was seized and wrenched violently
+away. Toby lay senseless on the rocks without. Lysander was leaning
+dizzily, clutching at the ledge, a ghastly whiteness settling about the
+gay mustache, and a strange glassiness dimming his eyes. The soldiers
+had possession. Virginia was a prisoner, and her father; but not Salina.
+There was the body which had been hers, transfixed by the bayonet, and
+fallen upon the ground: that was palpable: but who shall capture the
+escaping soul?
+
+When Penn and his companions arrived, not a living person was there; but
+alone, stretched upon the cold stone floor, where the gray light from
+the entrance fell,--pulseless, pallid, with pale hands crossed
+peacefully on her breast, hiding the wound, and features faintly smiling
+in their stony calm,--lay the corpse of her that was Salina. The fair
+cup that had brimmed with the bitterness of life was shattered. The soul
+that drank thereat had fled away in haughtiness and scorn.
+
+Toby, groaning on the stones outside, felt somebody shaking him, and
+heard the voice of Carl asking how he was.
+
+"Dunno'; sort o' common," said the old negro, trying to rise.
+
+He knew nothing of what had happened, except that he had been fallen
+upon and beaten down: for the rest, it was useless to question him: not
+even Penn's agonies of doubt and fear could rouse his recollection.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lieutenant-colonel Bythewood had committed the error of an officer green
+in his profession. The cave surprised, and the prisoners taken, the men
+retired in all haste, simply because they had received no orders to the
+contrary. Thus no advantage whatever was taken of the very important
+position which had been gained.
+
+Leaving the dead behind, and carrying off the wounded and the prisoners,
+the sergeant, upon whom the command devolved after his captain was
+disabled, lost no time in reporting to the lieutenant-colonel.
+
+Augustus stood up to receive the report and the prisoners,--extremely
+pale, but appearing preternaturally courteous and composed. He bowed
+very low to the old clergyman (who, he forgot, could not witness and
+appreciate that graceful act of homage), and expressed infinite regret
+that "his duty had rendered it necessary," and so forth. Then turning to
+Virginia, whose look was scarcely less stony than that of her dead
+sister in the cave, he bowed low to her also, but without speaking, and
+without raising his eyes to her face.
+
+"Have this old gentleman carried to his own house, and see that every
+attention is paid to him."
+
+"And my daughter?" said the blind old man, meekly.
+
+"She shall follow you. I will myself accompany her."
+
+"And my dead child up yonder?"
+
+"She shall be brought to you at the earliest possible moment."
+
+"And my faithful servant?"
+
+"He shall be cared for."
+
+"Thank you." And Mr. Villars bowed his white head upon his breast.
+
+"Take the captain immediately to the hospital! And you fellow with the
+hacked wrist, go with him."
+
+The number of men required to execute these orders (since both the old
+clergyman and the wounded captain had to be carried) left Augustus
+almost alone with Virginia. Having previously sent off all his available
+force to Ropes at the sink, in answer to a pressing call for
+reenforcements, he had now only the sergeant and two men at his beck.
+But perhaps this was as he wished it to be. He approached Virginia, and,
+bowing formally, still without speaking, offered her his arm.
+
+"Thank you. I can walk without assistance." Like marble still, but with
+the same wild fire in her eyes. "The only favor I ask of you is to be
+permitted to leave you."
+
+Bythewood made a motion to the sergeant, who removed his men farther
+off.
+
+"I wish to have a few words of conversation with you, Miss Villars. I
+beg you to be seated here in the shade."
+
+Virginia remained standing, regarding him with features pale and firm as
+when she held the axe. It was evident to her that here was another
+struggle before her, scarcely less to be dreaded than the first.
+Augustus looked at her, and smiled pallidly.
+
+"If eyes could kill, Miss Villars, I think yours would kill me!"
+
+"If polite cruelty can kill, YOU HAVE killed my sister!"
+
+"O, I beg your pardon, dear Miss Villars, but it was not I!"
+
+"I beg no pardon, but I say it WAS you! And now you will murder my
+father--perhaps me."
+
+"O, my excellent young lady, how you have misunderstood me! By Heaven, I
+swear!"--his voice shook with sincere emotion,--"if I have committed a
+fault, it has been for the love of you! Such faults surely may be
+pardoned. Virginia! will you accept my life as an atonement for all I
+have done amiss? You shall bear my name, possess my wealth, and, if you
+do not like the cause I am engaged in, I will throw up my commission
+to-morrow. I will take you to France--Italy--Switzerland--wherever you
+wish to go. Nor do I forget your father. Whatever you ask for him shall
+be granted. I have money--influence--position--every thing that can make
+you happy."
+
+There was a minute's pause, the intense glances of the girl piercing
+through and through that pale, polite mask to his soul. A selfish,
+chivalrous man; not a great villain, by any means; moved by a genuine,
+eager, unscrupulous passion for her--sincere at least in that; one who
+might be influenced to good, and made a most convenient and devoted
+husband: this she saw.
+
+"Well, what more?"
+
+"What more? Ah, you are thinking of your friends--I should say, of your
+friend! It is natural. I have no ill will against him. Whatever you ask
+for him shall be granted. At a word from me, the fighting up there
+ceases; and he and the rest shall be permitted to go wherever they
+choose, unharmed."
+
+"Well, and if I reject your generous offer?"
+
+Augustus smiled as he answered, with a hard, inexorable purpose in his
+tones,--
+
+"Then, much as I love you, I can do nothing!"
+
+"Nothing for my father?"
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"Nor for me?"
+
+"Not even for you!"
+
+"Why, then, God pity us all!" said Virginia, calmly.
+
+"Truly you may say, God pity you! For do you know what will happen? Your
+father will die in prison: you will never see him again. Your friends
+will be massacred to a man. I will be frank with you: to a man they will
+be given to the sword. They are but a dozen; we are fifty--a hundred--a
+thousand, if necessary. The sink has already been taken, and a force is
+on its way to occupy this end of the cave. If your friends hold out,
+they will be starved. If they fight, they will be bayoneted and shot. If
+they surrender, every living man of them shall be hung. There is no help
+for them. Lincoln's army, that has been coming so long, is a chimera; it
+will never come. The power is all in our hands; and not even God can
+help them. That sounds blasphemous, I know; but it is true. They are
+doomed. But I can save them--and you can save them."
+
+"And what is to become of me?" asked Virginia, calmly as before.
+
+"Your future is entirely in your own hands. On the one side, what I have
+promised. On the other----" Augustus thought he heard a crackling of
+sticks, and looked around.
+
+"On the other,"--Virginia took up the unfinished speech,--"the fate of a
+friendless, fatherless, Union-loving woman in this chivalrous south! I
+know how you treat such women. I know what awaits me on that side. And I
+accept it. My friends can die. My father can die; and I can. All this I
+accept; all the rest, you and your offers, I reject. I would not be your
+wife to save the world. Because I not only do not love you, but because
+I detest you. You have my answer."
+
+With swelling breast and set teeth Augustus kept his eyes upon her for
+full a minute, then replied, in a low voice shaken by passion,--
+
+"I hoped your decision would be different. But it is spoken. I cannot
+hope to change it?"
+
+"Can you change these rocks under our feet with empty words?" she said,
+with a white smile.
+
+"All is over, then! Without cause you hate me, Miss Villars. Hitherto,
+in all that has happened to you and your friends, I have been blameless.
+If in the future I am not so, remember it is your own fault."
+
+Then the fire flashed into Virginia's cheeks, and indignation rang in
+her tones as she denounced the falsehood.
+
+"Hitherto, in the wrong that has happened to me and my friends, you have
+NOT been blameless! In the future you cannot do more to injure us than
+you have already done, or meant to do. Look at me, and listen while I
+prove what I say."
+
+Again there was a slight noise in the thicket behind them, and he would
+have been glad to make that an excuse for leaving her a moment; but her
+spirit held him.
+
+"I listen," he said, inwardly quaking at he knew not what.
+
+"Do you remember the night my father was arrested?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And how you that day took a journey to be away from us in our trouble?"
+
+"I certainly took a short journey that day, but--" his eyes flickering
+with the uneasiness of guilt.
+
+"And do you remember a conversation you had with Lysander under a
+bridge?"
+
+His face suddenly flushed purple. "The villain has betrayed me!" he
+thought. Then he stammered, "I hope you have not been listening to any
+of that fellow's slanders!"
+
+"You talked with Lysander under the bridge. Your conversation was heard,
+every word of it, by a third person, who lay concealed under the planks,
+behind you."
+
+"A villanous spy!" articulated Augustus.
+
+"No spy--but the man you two were at that moment seeking to kill: Penn
+Hapgood, the Schoolmaster."
+
+It was a blow. Poor Bythewood, too luxurious and inert to be a great
+villain, was only a weak one; and, wounded in his most sensitive point,
+his pride, he writhed for a space with unutterable chagrin and rage.
+Then he recovered himself. He had heard the worst; and now there was
+nothing left for him but to cast down and trample with his feet (so to
+speak) the mask that had been torn from his face.
+
+"Very well! You think you know me, then!"--He seized her wrists.--"Now
+hear me! I am not to be spurned like a dog, even by the foot of the
+woman I love. You reject, despise, insult me. As for me, I say this: all
+shall be as I have pronounced. Your father, your lover,--not Fate itself
+shall intervene to save them! And as for you----"
+
+Again he heard a rustling by the ravine; this time so near that it
+startled him. He looked quickly around, and saw, slowly peering through
+the bushes, a dark human face. Had it been the terrible front of the
+Fate he had just defied, the soul of Augustus Bythewood could not have
+shrunk with a more sudden and appalling fear. It was the face of Pomp.
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+_MASTER AND SLAVE CHANGE PLACES._
+
+
+The sergeant and his men were several rods distant: the bush through
+which that menacing visage peered was within as many feet. Augustus
+reached for his revolver.
+
+"Make a single move--speak a single word--and you are food for the
+buzzards!" came a whisper from the bush that well might chill his blood.
+"You know this rifle--and you know me!" And in the negro's face shone a
+persuasive glitter of the old, untamable, torrid ferocity of his
+tribe--not pleasing to Augustus.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"Give your revolver to that girl--instantly!"
+
+"I have men within call!"
+
+"So have I."
+
+Through the bush, advancing noiselessly, came the straight steel barrel
+of a rifle that had never missed fire but once: that was when it had
+been aimed by Augustus at the head of Pomp. Now it was aimed by Pomp at
+the head of Augustus; and it was hardly to be expected that it would be
+so obliging as to remember that one fault, and, for the sake of
+fairness, repeat it, now that positions were reversed. Bythewood
+hesitated, in mortal fear.
+
+"Obey me! I shall not speak again!"
+
+And there was heard in the bush another slight noise, too short, quick,
+and clicking, to be the crackle of a twig. Neither was that pleasing to
+the mind of Augustus. He turned, and with trembling hand made Virginia a
+present of the revolver.
+
+"Do you know how to use it?" Pomp asked. She nodded, breathless. "And
+you will use it if necessary?" She nodded again, and held the weapon
+prepared. "Now,"--to Bythewood,--"send those men away."
+
+"What do you mean to do?"
+
+"I mean to spare their lives and yours, if you obey me. To kill you
+without much delay if you do not."
+
+"If you shoot,"--Bythewood was beginning to regain his dignity,--"they
+will rush to the spot before you can escape, and avenge me well!"
+
+A superb, masterful smile mounted to the ebon visage, and the answer
+came from the bush,--
+
+"Look where the bowlder lies, up there by the ravine. You will see a
+twinkle of steel among the leaves. There are guns aimed at your men. You
+understand."
+
+Perhaps Augustus did not distinguish the guns; but he understood. At a
+signal, his men would be shot down.
+
+"I would prefer not to shed blood. So decide and that quickly!" said
+Pomp.
+
+"And if I comply?"
+
+"Comply readily with all I shall demand of you, and not a hair of
+your head shall be harmed. Now I count ten. At the word ten, I send
+a bullet through your heart if those men are still there." He
+commenced, like one telling the strokes of a tolling bell:
+"One----two----three----four----five----"
+
+"Sergeant," called Augustus, "take your men and report to Lieutenant
+Ropes at the sink."
+
+"A fine time to be taken up with a love affair!" growled the sergeant,
+as he obeyed.
+
+"Now what?" said Bythewood, under an air of bravado concealing the
+despair of his heart.
+
+"Come!" said Pomp, with savage impatience,--for he knew well that, if
+Bythewood had not yet learned of Ropes's death, messengers must be on
+the way to him, and therefore not a moment was to be lost. He opened the
+bushes. Augustus crept into them: Virginia followed. But then suddenly
+the negro seemed to change his plans, the spirit and firmness of the
+girl inspiring him with a fresh idea.
+
+"Miss Villars, we are going to the cave. Look down the ravine
+there;--you see this path is rough."
+
+"O, I can go anywhere, you know!"
+
+"But haste is necessary. You shall return the way you came. Take this
+man with you. If you are seen by his soldiers, they will think all is
+well. Make him go before. Shoot him if he turns his head. Dare you?"
+
+"I will!" said Virginia.
+
+"Keep near the ravine. My rifle will be there. If you have any
+difficulty, I will end it. Now march!"--thrusting Bythewood out of the
+thicket.--"Straight on!--Carry your pistol cocked, young lady!"
+
+Bitterly then did the noble Augustus repent him of having sent his guard
+away: "I ought to have died first!" But it was too late to recall them;
+and there was no way left him but to yield--or appear to yield--implicit
+obedience.
+
+What a situation for a son of the chivalrous south! He had reviled
+Lysander for having been made prisoner by a boy; and here was he, the
+haughty, the proud, the ambitious, overawed by a negro's threats, and
+carried away captive by a girl! However, he had a hope--a desperate one,
+indeed. He would watch for an opportunity, wheel suddenly upon Virginia,
+seize the pistol, and escape,--risking a shot from it, which he knew she
+was firmly determined to deliver in case of need (for had he not seen
+the soldier's gashed wrist?)--and risking also (what was more serious
+still) a shot from the rifle in the ravine.
+
+But when they came to the bowlder, there the resolution he had taken
+fell back leaden and dead upon his heart. He had, on reflection,
+concluded that the twinkle of guns in the leaves there was but a fiction
+of the wily African brain. As he passed, however, he perceived two guns
+peeping through. He knew not what exultant hearts were behind
+them,--what eager eyes beneath the boughs were watching him, led thus
+tamely into captivity; but he was impressed with a wholesome respect for
+them, and from that moment thought no more of escape.
+
+As Virginia approached the cave with her prisoner, the two guns, having
+followed them closely all the way, came up out of the ravine. They were
+accompanied by Penn and Carl. In the gladness of that sight Virginia
+almost forgot her dead sister and her captive father. Those two dear
+familiar faces beamed upon her with joy and triumph. But there was one
+who was not so glad. This Quaker schoolmaster, turned fighting man, was
+the last person Augustus (who was unpleasantly reminded of the
+conversation under the bridge) would have wished to see under such
+embarrassing circumstances.
+
+In the cave was Toby, wailing over the dead body of Salina. But at sight
+of the living sister he rose up and was comforted.
+
+Pomp had remained to cover the retreat. When all were safely arrived, he
+came bounding into the cave, jubilant. His bold and sagacious plans were
+thus far successful; and it only remained to carry them out with the
+same inexorable energy.
+
+"Sit here." Augustus took one of the giant's stools. "I have a few words
+to say to this man: in the mean while, one of you"--turning to Penn and
+Carl--"hasten to the sink, and ask Stackridge to send me as many men as
+he can spare. Bring a couple of the prisoners--we shall need them."
+
+"I'll go!" Carl cried with alacrity.
+
+"And," added Pomp, "if there are any wounded needing my assistance, have
+them brought here. I shall not, probably, be able to go to them."
+
+While he was giving these directions, with the air of one who felt that
+he had a momentous task before him, Bythewood sat on the rock, his head
+heavy and hot, his feet like clods of ice, and his heart collapsing with
+intolerable suspense. The gloom of the cave, and the strangeness of all
+things in it; the sight of the corpse near the entrance,--of Toby, at
+Virginia's suggestion, wiping up the pools of blood,--Virginia herself
+perfectly calm; Penn carefully untying and straightening the pieces of
+rope that had served to bind Lysander,--all this impressed him
+powerfully.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "I am to be treated as a prisoner of war."
+
+Pomp smiled. "Answer me a question. If you had caught me, would you have
+treated me as a prisoner of war?--Yes or no; we have no time for
+parley."
+
+"No," said Augustus, frankly.
+
+"Very well! I have caught you!"
+
+Fearfully significant words to the prisoner, who remembered all his
+injustice to this man, and the tortures he had prepared for him when he
+should be taken! But he had not been taken. On the contrary, he, the
+slave, could stand there, calm and smiling, before him, the master, and
+say, with peculiar and compressed emphasis, "_Very well! I have caught
+you!_"
+
+"You promised that not a hair of my head should be injured."
+
+"The hair of your head is not the flesh of your body. No, I will not
+injure _the hair_!"--Pomp waited for his prisoner to take in all the
+horrible suggestiveness of this equivocation; then resumed. "Is not that
+what you would have said to me if you had found me in your power after
+making me such a promise? The black man has no rights which the white
+man is bound to respect! The most solemn pledges made by one of your
+race to one of mine are to be heeded only so long as suits your
+convenience. Did you not promise your dying brother in your presence to
+give me my freedom? Answer,--yes or no."
+
+"Yes," faltered Augustus.
+
+"And did you give it me?"
+
+"No." And Augustus felt that out of his own mouth he was condemned.
+
+"Well, I shall keep my promise better than you kept yours. Comply with
+all I demand of you (this is what I said), and no part of you, neither
+flesh nor hair, shall be harmed."
+
+"What do you demand of me?"
+
+"This. Here are pen and ink. Write as I dictate."
+
+"What?"
+
+"An order to have the fighting on your side discontinued, and your
+forces withdrawn."
+
+Augustus hesitated to take the pen.
+
+"I have no words to waste. If you do not comply readily with what I
+require, it is no object for me that you should comply at all."
+
+Penn came and stood by Pomp, looking calm and determined as he. Virginia
+came also, and looked upon the prisoner, without a smile, without a
+frown, but strangely serious and still. These were the three against
+whom he had sinned in the days of his power and pride; and now his shame
+was bare before them. He took the quill, bit the feather-end of it in
+supreme perplexity of soul, then wrote.
+
+"Very well," said Pomp, reading the order. "But you have forgotten to
+sign it." Augustus signed. "Now write again. A letter to your colonel.
+Mr. Hapgood, please dictate the terms."
+
+Penn understood the whole scheme; he had consulted with Virginia, and he
+was prepared.
+
+"A safe conduct for Mr. Villars, his daughter and servants, beyond the
+confederate lines. This is all I have to insist upon."
+
+"I," said Pomp, "ask more. The man who betrayed us must be sent here."
+
+"If you mean Sprowl," said Bythewood, "his wife has no doubt saved the
+trouble."
+
+"Not Sprowl, but Deslow."
+
+Bythewood was terrified. Pomp had spoken with the positiveness of clear
+knowledge and unalterable determination. But how was it possible to
+comply with his demand? Deslow had been promised not only pardon, but
+protection from the very men he betrayed! Therefore he could not be
+given up to them without the most cowardly and shameful perfidy.
+
+"I have no influence whatever with the military authorities," the
+prisoner said, after taking ample time for consideration.
+
+"You forget what you boasted to Sprowl, under the bridge," said Penn.
+
+"You forget what you just now boasted to me," said Virginia.
+
+"Call it boasting," said Bythewood, doggedly. "Absolutely, I have not
+the power to effect what you require."
+
+"It is your misfortune, then," said Pomp. "To have boasted so, and now
+to fail to perform, will simply cost you your life. Will you write? or
+not?"
+
+The prisoner remained sullen, abject, silent, for some seconds. Then,
+with a deep breath which shook all his frame, and an expression of the
+most agonizing despair on his face, he took the pen.
+
+"I will write; but I assure you it will do no good."
+
+"So much the worse for you," was the grim response.
+
+Mechanically and briefly Bythewood drew up a paper, signed his name, and
+shoved it across the table.
+
+"Does that suit you?"
+
+Pomp did not offer to take it.
+
+"If it suits you, well. I shall not read it. It is not the letter that
+interests us; it is the result."
+
+Bythewood suddenly drew back the paper, pondered its contents a moment,
+and cast it into the fire.
+
+"I think I had better write another."
+
+"I think so too. I fear you have not done what you might to impress upon
+the colonel's mind the importance of these simple terms--a safe conduct
+for Mr. Villars and family, the troops withdrawn entirely from the
+mountains, and Deslow delivered here to-night. This is plain enough; and
+you see the rest of us ask nothing for ourselves. I advise you to write
+freely. Open your mind to your friend. And beware,"--Pomp perceived by a
+strange expression which had come into the prisoner's face that this
+counsel was necessary,--"beware that he does not misunderstand you, and
+send a force to rescue you from our hands. If such a thing is attempted,
+this cave will be found barricaded. With what, you wonder? With those
+stones? With your dead body, my friend!"
+
+After that hint, it was evident Augustus did not choose to write what
+had first entered his mind on learning that his address to the colonel
+was not to be examined. Penn handed him a fresh sheet, and he filled
+it--a long and confidential letter, of which we regret that no copy now
+exists.
+
+Before it was finished, Carl returned, accompanied by four of the
+patriots and two of the prisoners. One of these last was Pepperill. He
+was immediately paroled, and sent off to the sink with the order that
+had been previously written. The letter completed, it was folded,
+sealed, and despatched by the other prisoner to Colonel Derring's
+head-quarters.
+
+"Do you believe Deslow will be delivered up?" said Stackridge, in
+consultation with Penn in a corner of the cave; the farmer's gray eye
+gleaming with anticipated vengeance.
+
+"I believe the confederate authorities, as a general thing, are capable
+of any meanness. Their policy is fraud, their whole system is one of
+injustice and selfishness. If Derring, who is Bythewood's devoted
+friend, can find means to give up the traitor without too gross an
+exposure of his perfidy, he will do it. But I regret that Pomp insisted
+on that hard condition. He was determined, and it was useless to reason
+with him."
+
+"And he is right!" said Stackridge. "Deslow, if guilty, must pay for
+this day's work!"
+
+"There is no doubt of his guilt. Pepperill knew of it--he whispered it
+to Pomp at the sink."
+
+"Then Deslow dies the death! He was sworn to us! He was sworn to
+Pomp; and Pomp had saved his life! The blood of Withers, my best
+friend----" The farmer's voice was lost in a throe of rage and grief.
+
+"And the blood of Cudjo, whom Pomp loved!" said Penn. "I feel all you
+feel--all Pomp feels. But for me, I would leave vengeance with the
+Lord."
+
+"So would I," said Pomp, standing behind him, composed and grand. "And I
+would be the Lord's instrument, when called. I am called. Deslow comes
+to me, or I go to him."
+
+"Then the Lord have mercy on his soul!"
+
+
+
+
+XLVI.
+
+_THE TRAITOR._
+
+
+The news of the disaster at the sink, and of the loss of prisoners, had
+reached Colonel Derring, and he was preparing to forward reenforcements,
+when Bythewood's letter arrived.
+
+Of the colonel's reflections on the receipt of that singular missive
+little is known. He was unwontedly cross and abstracted for an hour. At
+the end of that time he asked for the renegade Deslow.
+
+At the end of another hour Deslow had been found and brought to
+head-quarters. The colonel, having now quite recovered his equanimity of
+temper, received him with the most flattering attentions.
+
+"You have done an honorable and patriotic work, Mr. Deslow. Your friends
+are coming to terms. Bythewood is at this moment engaged in an amicable
+conference with them. Your example has had a most salutary effect. They
+all desire to give themselves up on similar terms. But they will not
+believe as yet that you have been pardoned and received into favor."
+
+The dark brow of the traitor brightened.
+
+"And they have no suspicions?"
+
+"None whatever. They do not imagine you had anything to do with the
+discovery of their retreat. Now, I've been thinking you might help along
+matters immensely, if you would go up and join Bythewood, and represent
+to your friends the folly of holding out any longer, and show them the
+advantage of following your example."
+
+Deslow felt strong misgivings about undertaking this delicate business.
+But persuasions, flatteries, and promises prevailed upon him at last.
+And at sundown he set out, accompanied by the man who had brought
+Bythewood's letter.
+
+In consequence of the messenger's long absence, it was beginning to be
+feared, by those who had sent him, that he had gone on a fruitless
+errand. Evening came. There was sadness on the faces of Penn and
+Virginia, as they sat by the corpse of Salina. Pomp was gloomy and
+silent. Bythewood, bound to Lysander's rock, sat waiting, with feelings
+we will not seek to penetrate, for the answer to his letter. In that
+letter he had mentioned, among other things, a certain pair of horses
+that were in his stable. Had he known that the colonel, during his hour
+of moroseness, had gone over to look at these horses, and that he was
+now driving them about the village, well satisfied with the munificent
+bribe, he would, no doubt, have felt easier in his mind.
+
+"You will not go to your father to-night," said Penn, having looked out
+into the gathering darkness, and returned to Virginia's side. "We have
+one night more together. May be it is the last."
+
+Carl was comforting his wounded cousin, who had been brought and placed
+on some skins on the floor. The patriots were holding a consultation.
+Suddenly the sentinel at the door announced an arrival; and to the
+amazement of all, the messenger entered, followed by Deslow.
+
+The traitor came in, smiling in most friendly fashion upon his late
+companions, even offering his hand to Pomp, who did not accept it. Then
+he saw in the faces that looked upon him a stern and terrible triumph.
+By the rock he beheld Bythewood bound. And his heart sank.
+
+The messenger brought a letter for Augustus. Pomp took it.
+
+"This interests us!" he said, breaking the seal. "Excuse me, sir!"--to
+Bythewood.--"I was once your servant; and I had forgotten that
+circumstances have slightly changed! As your hands are confined, I will
+read it for you."
+
+He read aloud.
+
+     "Dear Gus: This is an awful bad scrape you have got into; but I
+     suppose I must get you out of it. Villars shall have passports, and
+     an escort, if he likes. I'll keep the soldiers from the mountains.
+     The hardest thing to arrange is the Deslow affair. I don't care a
+     curse for the fellow but I don't want the name of giving him up.
+     So, if I succeed in sending him, keep mum. Probably _he_ never will
+     come away to tell a tale."
+
+     "Yours, etc., Derring."
+
+     "P. S. Thank you for the horses."
+
+Then Pomp turned and looked upon the traitor, who had been himself
+betrayed. His ghastly face was of the color of grayish yellow parchment.
+His hat was in his hand, and his short, stiff hair stood erect with
+terror. If up to this moment there had been any doubt of his guilt in
+Pomp's mind, it vanished. The wretch had not the power to proclaim his
+innocence, or to plead for mercy. No explanations were needed: he
+understood all: with that vivid perception of truth which often comes
+with the approach of death, he knew that he was there to die.
+
+"Have you anything to confess?" Pomp said to him, with the solemnity of
+a priest preparing a sacrifice. "If so, speak, for your time is short."
+
+Deslow said nothing: indeed, his organs of speech were paralyzed.
+
+"Very well: then I will tell you, we know all. We trusted you. You have
+betrayed us. Withers is dead: you killed him. Cudjo is dead: his blood
+is upon your soul. For this you are now to die."
+
+There was another besides Deslow whom these calm and terrible words
+appalled. It was Bythewood, who feared lest, after all he had
+accomplished, his turn might come next.
+
+It was some time before the fear-stricken culprit could recover the
+power of speech. Then, in a sudden, hoarse, and scarcely articulate
+shriek, his voice burst forth:--
+
+"Save me! save me!"
+
+He rushed to where the patriots stood. But they thrust him back sternly.
+
+"This is Pomp's business. Deal with him!"
+
+"Will no one save me? Will no one speak for my life?" These words were
+ejaculated with the ghastly accent and volubility of terror.
+
+"Your life is forfeited. Pomp saved it once; now he takes it. It is
+just," said Stackridge.
+
+"My God! my God! my God!" Thrice the doomed man uttered that sacred name
+with wild despair, and with intervals of strange and silent horror
+between. "Then I must die!"
+
+"_I_ will speak for you," said a voice of solemn compassion. And Penn
+stepped forward.
+
+"You? you? you will?"
+
+"Do not hope too much. Pomp is inexorable as he is just. But I will
+plead for you."
+
+"O, do! do! There is something in his face--I cannot bear it--but you
+can move him!"
+
+Pomp was leaning thoughtfully by one of the giant's stools. Penn drew
+near to him. Deslow crouched behind, his whole frame shaking visibly.
+
+"Pomp, if you love me, grant me this one favor. Leave this wretch to his
+God. What satisfaction can there be in taking the life of so degraded
+and abject a creature?"
+
+"There is satisfaction in justice," replied Pomp, quietly smiling.
+
+"O, but the satisfaction there is in mercy is infinitely sweeter!
+Forgiveness is a holy thing, Pomp! It brings the blessing of Heaven with
+it, and it is more effective than vengeance. This man has a wife; he has
+children; think of them!"
+
+These words, and many more to the same purpose, Penn poured forth with
+all the earnestness of his soul. He pleaded; he argued; he left no means
+untried to melt that adamantine will. In vain all. When he finished,
+Pomp took his hand in one of his, and laying the other kindly on his
+shoulder, said in his deepest, tenderest tones,--
+
+"I have heard you because I love you. What you say is just. But another
+thing is just--that this man should die. Ask anything but this of me,
+and you will see how gladly I will grant all you desire."
+
+"I have done."--Penn turned sadly away.--"It is as I feared. Deslow, I
+will not flatter you. There is no hope."
+
+Then Deslow, regaining somewhat of his manhood, drew himself up, and
+prepared to meet his fate.
+
+"Soon?" he asked, more firmly than he had yet spoken.
+
+"Now," said Pomp. He lighted a lantern. "You must go with me. There are
+eyes here that would not look upon your death." He took his rifle. "Go
+before." And he conducted his victim into the recesses in the cave.
+
+They came to the well, into the unfathomable mystery of which Carl had
+dropped the stone. There Pomp stopped.
+
+"This is your grave. Would you take a look at it?" He held the lantern
+over the fearful place. The falling waters made in those unimaginable
+depths the noise of far-off thunders. Half dead with fear already, the
+wretch looked down into the hideous pit.
+
+"Must I die?" he uttered in a ghastly whisper.
+
+"You must! I will shoot you first in mercy to you; for I am not cruel.
+Have you prayers to make? I will wait."
+
+Deslow sank upon his knees. He tried to confess himself to God, to
+commit his soul with decency into His hands. But the words of his
+petition stuck in his throat: the dread of immediate death absorbed all
+feeling else.
+
+Pomp, who had retired a short distance, supposed he had made an end.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked, placing his lantern on the rock, and poising
+his rifle.
+
+"I cannot pray!" said Deslow. "Send for a minister--for Mr. Villars!--I
+cannot die so."
+
+"It is too late," answered Pomp, sorrowful, yet stern. "Mr. Villars has
+been carried away by the soldiers you sent. If you cannot pray for
+yourself, then there is none to pray for you."
+
+Scarce had he spoken, when out of the darkness behind him came a voice,
+saying with solemn sweetness, as if an angel responded from the
+invisible profound,--
+
+"I will pray for him!"
+
+He turned, and saw in the lantern's misty glimmer a spectral form
+advancing. It drew near. It was a female figure, shadowy, noiseless; the
+right hand raised with piteous entreaty; the countenance pale to
+whiteness,--its fresh and youthful beauty clothed with sadness and
+compassion as with a veil.
+
+It was Virginia. All the way through the dismal galleries of the cave,
+and down Cudjo's stairs, she had followed the executioner and his
+victim, in order to plead at the last moment for that mercy for which
+Penn had pleaded in vain.
+
+Struck with amazement, Pomp gazed at her for a moment as if she had been
+really a spirit.
+
+"How came you here?"
+
+She laid one hand upon his arm; with the other she pointed upwards; her
+eyes all the while shining upon him with a wondrous brilliancy, which
+was of the spirit indeed, and not of the flesh.
+
+"Heaven sent me to pray for him--and for you."
+
+"For me, Miss Villars?"
+
+"For you, Pomp!"--Her voice also had that strange melting quality which
+comes only from the soul. It was low, and full of love and sorrow. "For
+if you slay this man, then you will have more need of prayers than he."
+
+Pomp was shaken. The touch on his arm, the tones of that voice, the
+electric light of those inspired eyes, moved him with a power that
+penetrated to his inmost soul. Yet he retained his haughty firmness, and
+said coldly,--
+
+"If there had been mercy for this man, Penn would have obtained it. The
+hardest thing I ever did was to deny him. What is there to be said which
+he did not say?"
+
+"O, he spoke earnestly and well!" replied Virginia. "I wondered how you
+could listen to him and not yield. But he is a man; and as a man he gave
+up all hope when reason failed, and he saw you so implacable. But I
+would never have given up. I would have clung to your knees, and
+pleaded with you so long as there was breath in me to ask or heart
+to feel. I would not have let you go till you had shown mercy to
+this poor man!"--(Deslow had crawled to her feet: there he knelt
+grovelling),--"and to yourself, Pomp! If he dies repenting, and you kill
+him unrelenting, I would rather be he than you. When we shut the gate of
+mercy on others we shut it on ourselves. For all that you have done for
+my father and friends, and for me, I am filled with gratitude and
+friendship. Your manly traits have inspired me with an admiration that
+was almost hero-worship. For this reason I would save you from a great
+crime. O, Pomp, if only for my sake, do not annihilate the noble and
+grand image of you which has built itself up in my heart, and leave only
+the memory of a strange horror and dread in its place!"
+
+Pomp had turned his eyes away from hers, knowing that if he continued to
+be fascinated by them, he must end by yielding. He drooped his head,
+leaning on his rifle, and looking down upon the wretch at their feet. A
+strong convulsion shook his whole frame, as she ceased speaking. There
+was silence for some seconds. Then he spoke, still without raising his
+eyes, in a deep, subdued voice.
+
+"This man is the hater of my race. He is of those who rob us of our
+labor, our lives, our wives, and children, and happiness. They enslave
+both body and soul. They damn us with ignorance and vice. To take from
+us the profits of our toil is little; but they take from us our manhood
+also. Yet here he came, and accepted life and safety at my hands. He
+made an oath, and I made an oath. His oath was never to betray my poor
+Cudjo's secret. The oath I made was to kill him as I would a dog if his
+should be broken. It has been broken. My poor Cudjo is dead. Withers is
+dead. Your sister is dead. I see it to be just that this traitor too
+should now die!"
+
+Again he poised his rifle. But Virginia threw herself upon the victim,
+covering with her own pure bosom his miserable, guilty breast.
+
+Pomp smiled. "Do not fear. For your sake I have pardoned him."
+
+"O, this is the noblest act of your life, Pomp!" she exclaimed, clasping
+his hand with joy and gratitude.
+
+He looked in her face. A great weight was taken from his soul. His
+countenance was bright and glad.
+
+"Do you think it was not a bitter cup for me? You have taken it from me,
+and I thank you. But Bythewood must not know I have relented. We have
+yet a work to do with him."
+
+Then those who had been left behind in the cave, listening for the
+death-signal, heard the report of a rifle ringing through the chambers
+of rock. Not long after Pomp and Virginia returned; and Deslow was not
+with them. Augustus heard--Augustus saw--nor knew he any reason why the
+fate of Deslow should not presently be his own.
+
+"Is justice done?" said Stackridge, with stern eyes fixed on Pomp.
+
+"Is justice done?" said Pomp, turning to Virginia.
+
+"Justice is done!" she answered, in a serious, firm voice.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII.
+
+_BREAD ON THE WATERS._
+
+
+The next morning a singular procession set out from the cave. Stretchers
+had been framed of the trunks and boughs of saplings, and upon these the
+dead and wounded of yesterday were placed. They were borne by the
+prisoners of yesterday, who had been paroled for the purpose. Carl
+walked by the side of the litter that conveyed his cousin Fritz, talking
+cheerfully to him in their native tongue. Behind them was carried the
+dead body of Salina, followed by old Toby with uncovered head. With him
+went Pepperill, charged with the important business of seeing that all
+was done for the Villars family which had been stipulated, and of
+reporting to Pomp at the cave afterwards.
+
+Last of all came Virginia, leaning on Penn's arm. He was speaking to her
+earnestly, in low, quivering tones: she listened with downcast
+countenance, full of all tender and sad emotions; for they were about to
+part.
+
+Pepperill was intrusted with a second letter from Bythewood to the
+colonel, couched in these terms:--
+
+"_Deslow was taken last night, and slaughtered in cold blood. The same
+will happen to me if all is not done as agreed. I am to be retained as a
+hostage until Pepperill's return. For Heaven's sake, help Mr. Villars
+and his family off with all convenient despatch, and oblige,_" &c.
+
+Virginia was going to try her fortune with her father; but Penn's lot
+was cast with his friends who remained at the cave. From these he could
+not honorably separate himself until all danger was over; and, much as
+he longed to accompany her, he knew well that, even if he should be
+permitted to do so, his presence would be productive of little good to
+either her or her father. Moreover, it had been wisely resolved not to
+demand too much of the military authorities. A safe conduct could be
+granted with good grace to a blind old minister and his daughter, but
+not to men who had been in arms against the confederate government. Nor
+was it thought best to trust or tempt too far these minions of the new
+slave despotism, whose recklessness of obligations which interest or
+revenge prompted them to evade, was so notorious.
+
+Penn would have attended Virginia to the base of the mountain, risking
+all things for the melancholy pleasure of prolonging these last moments.
+But this she would not permit. Hard as it was to utter the word of
+separation,--to see him return to those solitary and dangerous rocks,
+not knowing that he would ever be able to leave them, or that she would
+ever see him again in this world;--still, her love was greater than her
+selfishness, and she had strength even for that.
+
+"No farther now! O, you must go no farther!" And, resolutely pausing,
+she called to Carl,--for Carl's lot too lay with his. Toby and Pepperill
+also stopped.
+
+"Daniel," said Penn, with impressive solemnity, "into thy hands I commit
+this precious charge. Be faithful. Good Toby, I trust we shall meet
+again in God's good time. Farewell! farewell!"
+
+And the procession went its way; only Penn and Carl remained gazing
+after it long, with hearts too full for words.
+
+When it was out of sight, and they were turning silently to retrace
+their steps, they saw a man come out of the woods, and beckon to them.
+It was a negro--it was Barber Jim.
+
+Permitted to approach, he told his story. Since the escape of the
+arrested Unionists through his cellar, he had been an object of
+suspicion; and last night his house had been attacked by a mob. He had
+managed to escape, and was now hiding in the woods to save his life.
+
+"Deslow betrayed you with the rest," said Penn; "that explains it."
+
+"My wife--my two daughters: what will become of them?" said the wretched
+man. "And my property, that I have been all this while laying up for
+them!"
+
+"Do not despair, my friend. Your property is mostly real estate, and
+cannot be so easily appropriated to rebel uses, as the money deposited
+for me in the bank, from which I was never allowed to draw it! It will
+wait for you. A kind Providence will care for your family, I am sure. As
+for you, I do not see what else you can do but share our fortunes. There
+is one comfort for you,--we are all about as badly off as yourself."
+
+"You shall have your pick of some muskets," said Carl, gayly; "and you
+vill find us as jolly a set of wagabonds as ever you saw!"
+
+"Have you plenty of arms?"
+
+"Arms is more plenty as prowisions. Vat is vanted is wittles. Vat is
+vanted most is wegetables. Bears and vild turkeys inwite themselves to
+be shot, but potatoes keep wery shy, and ve suffers for sour krout."
+
+Barber Jim mused. "I will go with you. I am glad," he added, as if to
+himself, "that I paid Toby off as I did."
+
+What he meant by this last remark will be seen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Villars had taken the precaution to invest his available funds in
+Ohio Railroad stock some time before. Arrived in Cincinnati, he would be
+able to reap the advantages of this timely forethought. But in the mean
+time the expenses of a long journey must be defrayed; and he found it
+impossible now to raise money on his house or household goods. All the
+ready cash he could command was barely sufficient to afford a decent
+burial to his daughter. He was discussing this serious difficulty with
+Virginia, whilst preparations for Salina's funeral and their own
+departure were going forward simultaneously, when Toby came trotting in,
+jubilant and breathless, and laid a little dirty bag in his lap.
+
+"I's fotched 'em! dar ye got 'em, massa!" And the old negro wiped the
+sweat from his shining face.
+
+"What, Toby! Money!" (for the little bag was heavy). "Where did you get
+it?"
+
+"Gold, sar! Gold, Miss Jinny! Needn't look 'spicious! I neber got 'em by
+no underground means!" (He meant to say _underhand_.) "I'll jes' 'splain
+'bout dat. Ye see, Massa Villars, eber sence ye gib me my freedom, ye
+been payin' me right smart wages,--seben dollah a monf! Dunno' how much
+dat ar fur a year, but I reckon it ar a heap! An' you rec'lec' you says
+to me, you says, 'Hire it out to some honest man, Toby, and ye kin draw
+inference on it,' you says. So what does I do but go and pay it all to
+Barber Jim fast as eber you pays me. 'Pears like I neber knowed how much
+I was wuf, till tudder day he says to me, 'Toby,' he says, 'times is so
+mighty skeery I's afeard to keep yer money for ye any longer; hyar 'tis
+fur ye, all in gold.' So he gibs it to me in dis yer little bag, an' I
+takes it, an' goes an' buries it 'hind de cow shed, whar 'twould keep
+sweet, ye know, fur de family. An' hyar it ar, shore enough, massa, jes'
+de ting fur dis yer 'casion!"
+
+"So you got it by _underground means_, after all!" said Virginia, with
+mingled laughter and tears, opening the bag and pouring out the bright
+eagles.
+
+The old clergyman was silent for a space, overcome with emotion.
+
+"God bless you for a faithful servant, Toby! and Barber Jim for an
+honest man."
+
+"Dat's nuffin!" said Toby, snuffing and winking ludicrously. "Why
+shouldn't a cullud pusson hab de right to be honest, well as white
+folks? If you's gwine to tank anybody, ye better jes' tink and tank
+yersef! Who gib ol' Toby his freedom, an' den 'pose to pay him wages?
+Reckon if 't hadn't been fur dat, massa, I neber should hab de bressed
+chance to do dis yer little ting fur de family!"
+
+"We will thank only our heavenly Father, whose tender care we will never
+doubt, after this!" said the old minister, with deep and solemn joy.
+
+"Wust on't is, Jim hissef's got inter trouble now," said Toby. "He hab
+to put fur de woods; an' his family wants to git to de norf, whar dey
+tinks he'll mabby be gwine to meet 'em; but dey can't seem to manage
+it."
+
+"O, father, I have an idea! You will have a right to take your
+_servants_ with you; and Jim's wife and daughters might pass as
+servants."
+
+"I shall be rejoiced to help them in any way. Go and find them, Toby.
+Thus the bread we cast on the water sometimes returns to us _before_
+many days!"
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII.
+
+_EMANCIPATION OF THE BONDMEN.--CONCLUSION._
+
+
+A week had elapsed since Augustus became a captive; when, one cloudy
+afternoon, Dan Pepperill returned alone to the mountain cave. Pomp met
+him at the entrance.
+
+"All safe?"
+
+"I be durned if they ain't!" said Dan, exultant. "The ol' man, and the
+nigger, and the gal, and Jim's wife and darters inter the bargain! Went
+with 'em myself all the way, by stage and rail, till I seen 'em over the
+line inter ol' Kentuck'. Durned if I didn't wish I war gwine for good
+myself."
+
+"You shall go now if you will. I have been waiting only for you. Cudjo
+is dead. All the rest are gone. There is nothing to keep me here. Will
+you go back to the rebels, or make a push with us for the free states?
+Speak quick!"
+
+Pepperill only groaned.
+
+"Nine more have joined since Jim came. They make a strong party, all
+armed, and determined to fight their way through. They are already
+twenty miles away; but we will overtake them to-morrow. I am to guide
+them. I know every cave and defile. Will you come?"
+
+"Pomp, ye know I'd be plaguy glad ter; but 'tain't so ter be! I hain't
+no gre't fancy fur this secesh business, that ar' a fact. But I'm in
+fur't, and I reckon I sh'll haf' ter put it through;" and Dan heaved a
+deep sigh of regret. Without knowing it, he was a fatalist. Being too
+weak or inert to resist the hand of despotism laid upon him, he yielded
+to its weight and accepted it as destiny. The rebel ranks have been
+filled with such.
+
+Pomp smiled with mingled pity and derision. "Good by, then! I hope this
+war will do something for your class as well as for mine--you need it as
+much! Wait here, and you shall have company."
+
+He took a lantern, and entered the interior chamber of the cave. After
+the lapse of many minutes he returned, dragging, as from a dungeon, into
+the light of day, a wretch who could scarcely have expected ever to
+behold that blessed boon again,--he was so abject, so filled with joy
+and trembling. It was Deslow. Then turning to the corner where Augustus
+sat confined, the negro cut his bonds and lifted him to his feet. Poor
+Bythewood, rheumatic, stiff in the joints, and terribly wasted by
+anxiety and chagrin, presented a scarcely less piteous spectacle than
+Deslow; nor were his fallen spirits revived by the sight of this craven,
+whom he had supposed to be long since past the memory of the wrong he
+had done him, and the earthly passion for revenge.
+
+"My friends," said Pomp, leading them to the entrance, and showing them
+to each other in the gray glimmer of that cloudy afternoon, "our little
+accounts are now closed for the present, and my business with you ends.
+You are at liberty to depart. Deslow, do not hate too bitterly this man
+for betraying you into my hands. Remember that you set the example of
+treachery, and that the cause to which you are both sworn is itself
+founded on treachery. As for you, Mr. Bythewood, I trust that you will
+pardon the inconvenience I have found it necessary to subject you to. I
+have restrained you of your liberty for some days. You restrained me of
+mine for nearly as many years. I have no longer any ill will towards
+either of you. Go in peace. I emancipate you. I shall not hunt you with
+hounds, because I have been your master for a little while. I shall not
+put iron collars on your necks. I shall neither brand nor beat you. You
+are free! Does the word sound pleasant to your ears? Think then of those
+to whom it would sound just as sweet. Has the rule of a hard master
+seemed grievous to you? Remember those to whom it is no less grievous.
+If might makes right, then you have been as much my property as ever
+black man was yours. Is there no law, no justice, but the power of the
+strongest? You have had a few days' experience of that power, and can
+judge what a life's experience of it might be. Reflect upon it, my
+friends."
+
+He led them to the opening of the cave. Then he pointed to the clouds.
+"You cannot see the sun; but the sun is there. You do not see God,
+through the troubled affairs of this world; but God is over all. He
+governs, although you have left him quite out of your plans. Your plans
+are, no doubt, very great and mighty,--but see!"--passing over his knee
+the cord with which Bythewood had been bound. "This is the chain with
+which you bind my brothers and sisters. It is strong. You have drawn it
+very tight about them. But you thought to draw it tighter still, to hold
+them fast forever; and look, you have broken it!"
+
+So saying, he displayed with a smile the two fragments of the rope that
+had snapped like a mere string in his hands.
+
+"So tyranny is made to defeat itself!"--trampling the ends under his
+feet. "I have said it. Remember!"
+
+Uttering these last words, he walked backwards slowly, resumed his rifle
+and lantern, and disappeared in the dark recesses of the cave. The freed
+prisoners then, joining Pepperill, took their way slowly down the
+mountain, sadder if not wiser men.
+
+The reappearance of Bythewood was a signal for sending immediately two
+full companies to capture the cave. They succeeded; but they captured
+nothing else. Pomp, escaping through the sink, was already miles away on
+the trail of the refugees.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus ends the story of Cudjo's Cave. Other conclusion, to give it
+dramatic completeness, it ought, perhaps, to have; but the struggles, of
+which we have here witnessed the beginning, have not yet ended [Nov.,
+1863]; and one can scarcely be expected to describe events before they
+transpire.
+
+We may add, however, that Mr. Villars, Virginia, and Toby, arrived
+safely at their destination,--a small town on the borders of
+Ohio,--where they were cordially welcomed by relatives of the family.
+There, three weeks later, they were visited by two very suspicious
+looking characters,--one a bronzed and bearded young man, robust, rough,
+with an eye like an eagle's gleaming from under his old slouched hat,
+whom nobody, I am sure, would ever have taken for a Quaker schoolmaster;
+the other a stout, ruddy, blue-eyed, laughing, ragged lad of sixteen,
+who certainly did not pass for a rebel deserter. Strange to say, these
+pilgrims of the dusty roads and rocky wildernesses were welcomed (not to
+speak it profanely) like angels from heaven by the old man, his
+daughter, and Toby,--their brown hands shaken, their coarse, torn
+clothes embraced, and their sunburnt faces kissed, with a rapture
+amazing to strangers of the household. They were travelling (as the
+younger remarked in an accent which betrayed his Teutonic origin) to
+"Pennsylwany," the home of the elder; and they had come thus far out of
+their way to make this angels' visit.
+
+With these two Barber Jim had journeyed as far as Cincinnati, where he
+found his family comfortably provided for by persons to whose
+benevolence Mr. Villars had recommended them. The other refugees had
+also got safely over the mountains, after a march full of toils and
+dangers; and nearly all were now in the federal camps. A long history,
+full of deep and painful interest, might be written concerning the
+subsequent fortunes of these men, and of their families and neighbors
+left behind,--a history of hardships, of forced separations and ruined
+homes,--of starvation in woods and caves to which loyal citizens were
+driven by the rage of persecution,--and of terrible retribution.
+Stackridge, Grudd, and many of their brother refugees, had the joy of
+participating in those military movements of last summer, by which East
+Tennessee was relieved; of beholding the tremendous ruin which the blind
+pride of their foes had pulled down upon itself; and of witnessing the
+jubilee of a patriotic people released from a remorseless and unsparing
+tyranny.
+
+A word of Pomp. Have you read the newspaper stories of a certain negro
+scout, who, by his intrepidity, intelligence, and wonderful celerity of
+movement, has rendered such important services to the Army of the
+Cumberland? He is the man.
+
+Dan Pepperill fell in the battle of Stone River, fighting in a cause he
+never loved--the type of many such. Bythewood, after losing his
+influence at home, and trying various fortunes, became attached to the
+staff of the notorious Roger A. Pryor, in whose disgrace he shared, when
+that long-haired rebel chief was reduced to the ranks for cowardice.
+
+As for Carl, he is now a stalwart corporal in the --th Pennsylvania
+regiment. He serves under a dear friend of his, known as the "Fighting
+Quaker," and distinguished for that rare combination of military and
+moral qualities which constitutes the true hero.
+
+I regret that I cannot brighten these prosaic last pages with the halo
+of a wedding. But Penn had said, "Our country first!" and Virginia,
+heroic as he, had answered bravely, "Go!" Whether they will ever be
+happily united on earth, who can say? But this we know: the golden halo
+of the love that maketh one has crowned their united souls, and, with
+perfect patience and perfect trust, they wait.
+
+
+
+
+_L'ENVOY._
+
+
+The foregoing pages are, as the writer sincerely believes, true to
+history and life in all important particulars. In order to give form and
+unity to the narrative, characters and incidents have been brought
+together within a much narrower compass, both of time and space, than
+they actually occupied: events have been described as occurring in the
+summer of 1861, many of which did not take place till some months later;
+and certain other liberties have been taken with facts. Two separate and
+distinct caves have been connected, in the story, by expanding both into
+one, which is for the most part imaginary, but which, I trust, will not
+be considered as a too improbable fiction in a region where caves and
+"sinks" abound.
+
+Lastly, is an apology needed for the scenes of violence here
+depicted?--Neither do I, O gentle reader, delight in them. But the book
+that would be a mirror of evil times, must show some repulsive features.
+And this book was written, not to please merely, but for a sterner
+purpose.
+
+For peaceful days, a peaceful and sunny literature: and may Heaven
+hasten the time when there shall be no more strife, and no more human
+bondage; when under the folds of the starry flag, from the lake chain to
+the gulf, and from sea to sea, freedom, and peace, and righteousness
+shall reign; when all men shall love each other, and the nations shall
+know God!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cudjo's Cave, by J. T. Trowbridge
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:55:44 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:55:44 -0700
commit	73443186bef395841d19a188dec30bd1e20b28d7 (patch)
tree	782c1b022a9d0e6bb63b9673e10e3903fbba7963