The neighbors continued to speculate and to ply Mrs. Stuvic with questions concerning Milford. Men who had spent many a rainy day in the hay-mow, gambling, knew that he had played poker. An old man, with a Rousseau love for botanizing, had been found dead in the woods, with five red leaves in his hand. And Milford had said: "The poor old fellow made his flush and died." They knew that he was brave, for, with a stick of brushwood, he had attacked a dog reported to be mad. But they believed, also, that he had something heavy on his mind, for they had seen him walking about in the woods at night, once when a hard rain was beating him. Steve Hardy, the man who had hauled the stranger from the station, was caught in a storm one night, and a flash of lightning revealed Milford standing gaunt in the middle of a marsh. But he had never attempted to borrow money in the neighborhood, and of all the virtues held dear by the rural Yankee, restraint in the matter of borrowing is the brightest. "Yes, sir, old Brady was as mean a man as ever lived among us, but, sir, he died out of debt." Old Brady could have illumined his death-bed with no brighter light.
One evening, while Milford and Mitch.e.l.l were at supper, the hired man said: "They keep on askin" me all sorts of questions about you. I never saw folks so keen. They are like spring sheep after salt. I"ve got so I throw up my hands whenever I meet any of "em in the road."
Milford reached over and turned down the ragged blaze of the smoking lamp. "Am I the first stranger that ever happened along here?"
"It would look that way. But there is a sort of a somethin" about you, Bill. I heard Henwood"s daughter say you was mighty good-lookin", but she hasn"t got much sense." Milford looked up with a smile. "No, she ain"t," Mitch.e.l.l went on. "And if her daddy was to die she"d have to have a gardeen appointed. But to-day, while I was gettin" a drink at the windmill, I heard two or three of Mrs. Stuvic"s women standin" over in the road talkin". One of "em said that she had a cousin that"s a detective in Chicago, and she was goin" to bring him out here and let him investigate you just for fun."
Milford turned down the light. "I"ll throw this thing into the road the first thing you know. Bring a detective, eh? All right, let her bring him."
"What will you do, Bill?"
"Knock him down if he gets in my road."
"I guess that"s the way to look at it. But have you got any cause to be afraid of a detective, Bill?"
"If I had, do you suppose I"d tell you?"
"Well, I don"t know why. We"re workin" here together, and I wouldn"t say anythin" about it. What did you do, Bill?"
"Stole a saw-mill."
"You don"t say so! What did you want with a saw-mill?"
"To rip out new territory--I wanted to make a state."
"That"s all right. You"re guyin" me. But say, where did you get your education?"
"I stole that, too. Did you ever hear of a French marquise that ran stage lines and shot fellows out West? Well, I robbed his ranch, and carried off a cook-book. That"s how I learned to boil salt pork."
"That"s where you learned how to feed a fellow on guff. I"m givin" it to you straight. I want to know, for they say that a fellow never gets too old to learn, and I"d like to have education enough to get out of hard work."
"You don"t see me out of it, do you?"
"No, but I guess you could do somethin" else if you wanted to. Did you go to school much when you was a boy?"
"I saw the worn doorsteps in the old part of Yale, for two days, and then I turned away and went West. My father died, and I didn"t want to be a tax on mother, so I decided to shift for myself."
"Was it a good shift?"
"I can"t say it was. Are you going to bed?" Milford asked, as Mitch.e.l.l got up from the table.
"No, not now. I"ve got an engagement to take the Dutch girl out in a boat."
"She"ll upset your craft and drown you."
"I"m goin" to take the scow."
He went out whistling a light tune, but dragging his feet heavily, for he had worked hard all day, keeping pace with Milford"s bounding energy. Milford sat musing, and his brow was not clear. From behind the clock on the mantel-piece, he took a newspaper, and strove to read it by the smoky light, but his mind wandered off. He went out and sat on the gra.s.s beneath the walnut tree. The night was hot. The slow air fumbled among the leaves. Far in the sultry west was an occasional play of lightning, the hot eye of day peeping back into the sweltering night. He heard some one coming up the hill, talking. It was Mrs. Stuvic"s voice.
She arose into the dim light, and he saw that she was alone. He called to her, and she came forward at a faster gait, still talking. "Wouldn"t believe me--couldn"t get him to believe me, but he does now--yes, you bet!"
"What"s the matter, ma"am?"
"Old Lewson--told him he was dyin"--wouldn"t believe me. He"s dead.
Conscience alive! and they were thumpin" on the piana all the time. The hired man can"t be found since I gave him the larrupin". I hope he"s drowned himself. He"s no account on the face of the earth, and I wish now I"d kept Mitch.e.l.l when I had him. He seems to work well enough for you. But what I want you to do is to go to the old man"s daughter and tell her. She lives about two miles down the road, just beyant the second corners--white house to the right. Come on with me. The buggy"ll be hitched up by the time we get to the house. Yes, set right there, lookin" right at me, with his chin droppin" down. I says, "Lewson, you are dyin"." And he mumbled that he wan"t. But I reckon he knows now whether he was or not."
She talked nearly all the way over, sobbing at times, and then hardening herself with scolding. The buggy was ready in the road. Low tones came from the veranda. Through the shrubbery along the fence could be seen the ghost-like outlines of women dressed in white. A dog howled under the old apple tree.
"Wait," said the old woman, as Milford gathered up the lines. "I want you to kill that infernal dog before you go. Never set down under that tree before in his life, and now that the poor old man"s dead he goes there to howl, as if everythin" wan"t dismal enough anyway. Get out and I"ll fetch the gun."
"Oh, no. Don"t kill him. He doesn"t know any better. By the way, what"s the name of the woman I am going to see?"
"Now, just look at that! If I haven"t forgot her name I"m the biggest fool on earth. Did you ever see anythin" like that? If that confounded John, the hired man, was here, he"d know. I"m almost sorry now that I licked him. But if I ever ketch him again I"ll give it to him for treatin" me this way when I need him. Well, go on, and stop at the house I told you. And if that horse don"t want to go, lick the life out of him."
Milford drove off, and the dog jumped over the fence and came trotting along behind the buggy. It did not take long to reach the place. A man came to the door in answer to Milford"s knock. There was no attempt to soften the news. "I came to tell you that old Mr. Lewson is dead," said Milford. And there was no effort on the man"s part to show surprise.
"Well, I"m not an undertaker," he replied.
"But you married his daughter."
"But not with his consent or good-will. He was nothing to us. Well," he added, as Milford continued to stand there, "anything else?"
"Yes, just a word or two more. I want to tell you that you are a brute and a coward; and if you"ll just step out here I"ll mop up the ground with you."
The man stepped back and shut the door. Milford came away, the muscles in his arms hard with a desire to fight. He thought of the tenderness of a mining camp, of the cowboy"s manly tear, of hard men who were soft toward a dead stranger. "Hearts full of cold ashes," he mused, bitterly.
"And how can it be in a place so beautiful? An infidel from the sand-hills would here cry out that there is a G.o.d, an artist G.o.d. And some of these wretches would teach him that there is a h.e.l.l. Well, I"m going to fight it out. I don"t see any other way. I guess I"m a fool, but I"ve got that thing to do."
Mrs. Stuvic tiptoed in her rage. "Horton," she said, almost dancing in the road. "That"s the scoundrel"s name. And don"t you dare to judge us by him. He"s a stranger here, too. I hope the hogs will root him up and crack his bones. Well, go on to bed, Bill. I guess the old man can take care of himself till mornin"."
Early the next day, the old man"s daughter came, stricken with grief and remorse. She said that her husband had forced her to treat her father cruelly. She knelt beside the poor old relic of weary bones, and prayed that the Lord might forgive her. Mrs. Stuvic relented. "Come," she said, leading the daughter away. "We believe you, and won"t hold it against you, but I"ll never love you till you poison that man of yours. There, now, don"t whimper. Everythin"s all right."
The sympathy of the community was aroused, and it was a genuine sympathy. Milford found that this neighborhood was very much like the rest of the world, lacking heart only in places. He stood at the grave, listening to the faltering tones of an aged man, and he muttered to himself, "I"ve got to do that one thing."
Old Lewson had convinced Mrs. Stuvic of the truth of spiritualism. She was attracted by a faith that entailed no prayers and no church-going.
It left her free, not to lie down in the green pastures of the poetic psalmist, but to tramp rough-shod among the nettles of profanity. The church advised that no eye should be turned upon wine, rich in deceitful color, and the old woman was not always sober. Therefore, she took up old Lewson"s faith, first because it was easy, and afterward because it seemed natural that she should come back and haunt her enemies. More than once she had been heard to say, gazing after some one driving along the road, "Oh, but I"ll make it lively for him when I come back! He shan"t sleep a wink!" But to the old man she did not make a complete confession of her conversion to his faith till she saw death staring out of his eyes, and then she reminded him of his promise to return on the third night, and make himself known to her. Had there remained in her heart any f.a.g-end of rebellion gainst the pliable tenets of his credulous doctrine, the last look that he gave her would have driven it out. "I believe you, Lewson," she gasped, when his wrinkled chin sank upon his withered breast.
The third night came. She did not give her secret to the boarders; she was not afraid of the heat of an argument or the scorch of a fight, but the thought of ridicule"s cold smile made her shudder. She hated education, and was afraid of its nimble trickery. There was more of insult in a word which she did not understand than in a term familiarly abusive. But she told Milford. He was under obligations, and dared not scoff. She requested him to sit upon the veranda, to wait for her coming from the spirit"s presence chamber. She drove the Dutch girl to bed, not in the house, but in an outlying cottage. In the dining-room she whispered to Milford, ready to turn him out upon the veranda. The clock"s internals growled the five-minute verge of twelve. She turned Milford out, and hastened into Lewson"s room. She sat down in a rocking chair, her nervous hands fidgeting in her lap. Spirits keep their promises best in the dark, and she had not lighted a lamp. Moonbeams fell through the window, a ladder of light, upon which a spirit might well descend to earth. The clock in the dining-room struck twelve. The dog howled under the apple tree.
"Lewson, are you here?"
Two eggs on a shelf caught the light of the moon. She started. Surely, they were not there a moment ago. Was the old man robbing hens" nests in the spiritual world? A breeze stirred, and there was a whisper of drapery at the window.
"Lewson, is that you?"
She glanced again at the eggs. Hadn"t they moved? A midnight c.o.c.k crew, and she started. Why should he crow just as she glanced at the eggs? She waited.
"Lewson, oh, Lewson! Do you hear me? Don"t you remember your promise?
Come, now, don"t treat me this way. You know how hard it was for me to believe in your doctrine. You know how I"ve tried to have some sort of religion. And now, please don"t knock down all the props. Haven"t I been kind to you? Didn"t I take you when n.o.body else would? Then help me, Lewson. Give me something to cling to. Just say one word--just one--somethin" to let me know you have told the truth. I want the truth, that"s all I want, Lewson. You haven"t come. No, you haven"t, and you needn"t say you have. You can"t come, and you know it. Well, I"m goin"
now. Are you comin"? No, you ain"t. You are an old fraud, that"s what you are." She flounced out upon the veranda, and said to Milford: "Go to bed. There never was a bigger liar than that old fool."