"Hush, for G.o.d"s sake, Warham! you make my blood run cold with your hideous notions!"
"That fellow offered to frizzle your whiskers. These would anoint them with tar, in which your bear"s oil would be of little use."
"Ha! don"t you hear a noise?" demanded the whiskered companion, looking behind him.
"I think I do," replied the other musingly.
"A great noise!" continued Don Whiskerandos.
"Yes, it seems to me that it is a great noise."
"Like people shouting?"
"Somewhat--yes, by my soul, that DOES sound something like a shout!"
"And there! Don"t stop to look and listen, Warham," cried his companion; "it"s no time for meditation. They"re coming! hark!--" and with a single glance behind him--with eyes dilating with the novel apprehensions of receiving a garment, unsolicited, bestowed by the bounty of the county--he drove his spurs into the flanks of his mare, and went ahead like an arrow. Stevens smiled in spite of his vexation.
"D--n him!" he muttered as he rode forward, "it"s some satisfaction, at least, to scare the soul out of him!"
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
THE REVELATION.
Having seen his enemy fairly mounted, and under way, as he thought, for Charlemont, Ned Hinkley returned to Ellisland for his own horse. Here he did not suffer himself to linger, though, before he could succeed in taking his departure, he was subjected to a very keen and searching examination by the village publican and politician. Having undergone this scrutiny with tolerable patience, if not to the entire satisfaction of the examiner, he set forward at a free canter, determined that his adversary should not be compelled to wait.
It was only while he rode that he began to fancy the possibility of the other having taken a different course; but as, upon reflection, he saw no other plan which he might have adopted--for lynching for suspected offences was not yet a popular practice in and about Charlemont--he contented himself with the reflection that he had done all that could have been done; and if Alfred Stevens failed to keep his appointment, he, at least, was one of the losers. He would necessarily lose the chance of revenging an indignity, not to speak of the equally serious loss of that enjoyment which a manly fight usually gave to Ned Hinkley himself, and which, he accordingly a.s.sumed, must be an equal gratification to all other persons. When he arrived at Charlemont, he did not make his arrival known, but, repairing directly to the lake among the hills, he hitched his horse, and prepared, with what patience he could command, to await the coming of the enemy.
The reader is already prepared to believe that the worthy rustic waited in vain. It was only with the coming on of night that he began to consider himself outwitted. He scratched his head impatiently, not without bringing away some shreds of the hair, jumped on his horse, and, without making many allowances for the rough and hilly character of the road, went off at a driving pace for the house of Uncle Hinkley. Here he drew up only to ask if Brother Stevens had returned.
"No!"
"Then, dang it! he never will return. He"s a skunk, uncle--as great a skunk as ever was in all Kentucky!"
"How! what!--what of Brother Stevens?" demanded the uncle, seconded by John Cross, who had only some two hours arrived at the village, and now appeared at the door. But Ned Hinkley was already off.
"He"s a skunk!--that"s all!"
His last words threw very little light over the mystery, and certainly gave very little satisfaction to his hearers. The absence of Alfred Stevens, at a time when John Cross was expected, had necessarily occasioned some surprise; but, of course, no apprehensions were entertained by either the worthy parson or the bigoted host that he could be detained by any cause whatsoever which he could not fully justify.
The next course of Ned Hinkley was for the cottage of Mr. Calvert. To the old man he gave a copious detail of all his discoveries--not only the heads of what he heard from the conspirators in the wood, but something of the terms of the dialogue. The gravity of Calvert increased as the other proceeded. He saw more deeply into the signification of certain portions of this dialogue than did the narrator; and when the latter, after having expressed his disappointment at the non-appearance of Stevens on the field of combat, at least congratulated himself at having driven him fairly from the ground, the other shook his head mournfully.
"I am afraid it"s too late, my son."
"Too late, gran"pa! How? Is it ever too late to send such a rascal a-packing?"
"It may be for the safety of some, my son."
"What! Margaret you mean? You think the poor fool of a girl"s too far gone in love of him, do you?"
"If that were all, Ned--"
"Why, what more, eh? You don"t mean!--"
The apprehensions of the simple, unsuspecting fellow, for the first time began to be awakened to the truth.
"I am afraid, my son, that this wretch has been in Charlemont too long.
From certain words that you have dropped, as coming from Stevens, in speaking to his comrade, I should regard him as speaking the language of triumph for successes already gained."
"Oh, hardly! I didn"t think so. If I had only guessed that he meant such a thing--though I can"t believe it--I"d ha" dropped him without a word.
I"d have given him the pacificator as well as the peace-breaker. Oh, no!
I can"t think it--I can"t--I won"t! Margaret Cooper is not a girl to my liking, but, Lord help us! she"s too beautiful and too smart to suffer such a skunk, in so short a time, to get the whip-hand of her. No, gran"pa, I can"t and won"t believe it!"
"Yet, Ned, these words which you have repeated convey some such fear to my mind. It may be that the villain was only boasting to his companion.
There are scoundrels in this world who conceive of no higher subject of boast than the successful deception and ruin of the artless and confiding. I sincerely hope that this may be the case now--that it was the mere brag of a profligate, to excite the admiration of his comrade.
But when you speak of the beauty and the smartness of this poor girl, as of securities for virtue, you make a great mistake. Beauty is more apt to be a betrayer than a protector; and as for her talent, that is seldom a protection unless it be a.s.sociated with humility. Hers was not. She was most ignorant where she was most a.s.sured. She knew just enough to congratulate herself that she was unlike her neighbors, and this is the very temper of mind which is likely to cast down its possessor in shame.
I trust that she had a better guardian angel than either her beauty or her talents. I sincerely hope that she is safe. At all events, let me caution you not to hint the possibility of its being otherwise. We will take for granted that Stevens is a baffled villain."
"I only wish I had dropped him!"
"Better as it is."
"What! even if the poor girl is--"
"Ay, even then!"
"Why, gran"pa, can it be possible YOU say so?"
"Yes, my son; I say so here, in moments of comparative calmness, and in the absence of the villain. Perhaps, were he present, I should say otherwise."
"And DO otherwise! You"d shoot him, gran"pa, as soon as I."
"Perhaps! I think it likely. But, put up your pistols, Ned. You have n.o.body now to shoot. Put them up, and let us walk over to your uncle"s at once. It is proper that he and John Cross should know these particulars."
Ned agreed to go, but not to put up his pistols.
"For, you see, gran"pa, this rascal may return. His friend may have kept him in long talk. We may meet him coming into the village."
"It is not likely; but come along. Give me that staff, my son, and your arm on the other side. I feel that my eyes are no longer young."
"You could shoot still, gran"pa?"