She broke off suddenly, her mouth open, and stood staring with fear-dilated eyes at Creed.
"h.e.l.lo!" came the hail from outside.
Nancy let the baby slip from her arms to the floor, and the little thing stood whimpering and rubbing her eyes, clinging to her grandmother"s skirts.
"Hush--hush!" cautioned the old woman, barely above her breath.
"h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo in thar! You better answer--we see yo" light. h.e.l.lo in thar!"
"Whose--voice--is that?" breathed old Nancy.
"It sounded like Blatch Turrentine"s," Creed whispered back as softly.
"Hit do," she agreed with conviction.
Suddenly a shot rang out, and Doss Provine sat up on the edge of the bed with a gurgle of terror. Little Buck wakened at the same instant, and ran to his grandmother.
"I ain"t scared, Granny," he a.s.severated, "I kin fight fer ye."
"Hush--hush!" cautioned Nancy, bending to gather in the sun-burned tow head at her knee.
Another shot followed, and after it a voice crying,
"You"ve got Creed Bonbright in thar. You let him come out and talk to us, or we"ll batter yo" do" in."
"You Andy--you Jeff!" shouted the old woman in sudden rage. "Ef you want Creed Bonbright you know whar to find him. You go away and let my do"
alone."
"You quit callin" out names, Nancy Cyard," responded the first, menacing voice out of the darkness. "We know Bonbright"s in thar, and we aim to have him out--or burn yo" house--accordin" to yo" ruthers."
Creed had parted his lips to answer them, when old Nancy sprang at him and set her hand over his open mouth.
"You hush--and keep hushed!" she whispered urgently.
"I just wanted to call to the boys and tell them I"m here," Creed whispered to her. "Aunt Nancy, I"m bound to go out there and talk to them fellows. I cain"t stay in here and let you and the children suffer for it."
"Aw, big-mouthed, big-talkin" brood--what do I keer for them?" demanded Nancy, tossing her head with a characteristic motion to get the grey curls away from her fearless blue eyes; whereupon the tucking comb slipped down and had to be replaced, "You ain"t a-goin" out thar," she whispered vehemently from under her raised arm, as she redded back the straying locks with it. Nancy had the reckless, dare-devil courage those blue eyes bespoke. Presuming a bit, perhaps, on her age and s.e.x, she yet ran risks that many men would have shunned without deeming themselves cowards. "You ain"t a-goin" out thar, I tell ye," she reiterated. "I wouldn"t let ye ef they burnt the house down over our heads. Pony"ll be along pretty shortly from Hepzibah, and when he sees "em I reckon he"s got sense enough to git behind a bush and fire at "em--that"ll scatter "em."
As if inspired to destroy this one slender hope, the voice outside spoke again, tauntingly.
"Nancy Cyard, we"ve got yo" son Pony here--picked him up on the road--an"
ef yo"r a mind to trade Creed Bonbright for him, we"ll trade even. Better d.i.c.ker with us. Somepin" bad might happen this young "un."
At the words, Creed wheeled and made for the door, Nancy gripping him frantically but mutely.
"Creed--boy--honey!"--she breathed at last, "they"s mo" than one kind o"
courage. This is jest fool courage--to go an" git yo"se"f killed up. Them Turrentines won"t hurt Pone. But you--oh, my Lord!"
"I reckon ye better let him go, maw," Doss Provine chattered from the bed"s edge where he still crouched. "Hit"s best that it should be one, ruther than all of us."
Old Nancy flung him a glance of wordless contempt. Beezy ran and tangled herself in the tall young fellow"s legs, halting him.
"Creed," the old woman urged, still below her breath, holding to his arm.
"Creed, honey, as soon as you open that do" and stand in the light, yo"r no better than a dead man. Listen!"
All caution had been thrown aside by the besiegers. Hoa.r.s.e voices questioned and answered outside, sounds of stumbling footsteps surrounded the house.
"Boys," called Creed in that clear, ringing voice of his that held neither fear nor great excitement, "I"m coming out to talk to you. Aunt Nancy, take the children away. You"ve got it to do."
"Well, come on," replied the voice without. "Talk--that"s all we want.
You"ll be as safe outside as in--and a d.a.m.n" sight safer."
Nancy gathered up her youngsters, flung them in a heap into their father"s lap, and, overturning and putting out the candle as she went, sprang to the hearth to quench a small flame which had risen among the embers there.
"Ye might have some sense!" she panted angrily. "The idea of walkin"
yo"se"f into a lighted doorway for them fellers to shoot at! For G.o.d"s sake don"t open that do" till I get the lights out!"
But Creed was not listening. He had pulled the big pine bar that held the battened door in place, and now flung it wide, stepping to the threshold and beginning again,
"Boys----"
He uttered no further word. A rifle spoke, a bullet sang, pa.s.sed through the cabin and buried itself in the old-fashioned chimneypiece. Creed fell where he stood. As he went down across the threshold, Nancy whirling around to the door, bent over his prostrate form.
Outside, the ruddy, shaken shine from a couple of lightwood torches which stood alone, where they had been thrust deep into the garden mould made strange gouts and blotches of colour on Nancy"s flower beds. A group of men halted, drawn together, muttering, just beyond the palings. Each had a handkerchief tied across the lower part of his face, a simple but effectual disguise.
Her groping hand came away from the prostrate man, red with blood; she dashed it across her brow to clear her eyes of blowing hair. At the moment a figure burst through the grove of saplings by the roadside, a tall old man whose long black beard blew across his mighty chest that laboured as he ran. His hat was off in his hand, his face raised; he had no weapon. With a gasp of relief Nancy recognised him, yet rage mounted in her, too.
"Yes--come a-runnin"," she muttered fiercely. "Come look at what you and yo"rn have done!"
As he leaped into the clearing the old man"s great black eyes, full of sombre fire, swept the scene. They took in the p.r.o.ne figure across the threshold, the blood upon the doorstone, and on Nancy"s brow and hair.
"Air ye hurt? Nancy, air ye hurt?" he cried, in such a tone as none there had ever heard from him.
"Am I hurt?--No!" choked the old woman, trying to get a hold on Creed"s broad shoulders and drag him back into the room. "I ain"t hurt, but it"s no credit to them wolves that you call sons of yo"rn. They"ve got Pone out thar, ef they hain"t shot him yit. And they"ve killed the best man that ever come on this here mountain. Oh, Creed--my pore boy! You Doss Provine! Come here an" he"p me lift him." She reared herself on her knees and glared at the group by the gate. "He had no better sense than to take ye for men--to trust the word ye give, that he was safe when he opened the do". Don"t you come a step nearer, Jep Turrentine," she railed out at him suddenly, as the old man drew toward the gate. "I"ve had a plenty o"
you an" yo" sons this night. They"re jest about good enough to shoot me while I"m a-tryin" to git this po" dead boy drug in the house, an" then burn the roof down over me an" my baby chil"en. You Doss Provine, walk yo"se"f here an" he"p me."
Doss, who found the presence of Jephthah Turrentine rea.s.suring, whatever his mother-in-law might say, slouched forward, and between them they lifted the limp figure.
"G.o.d knows I don"t blame ye, Nancy," muttered the old man in his beard, as the heavy door was dragged shut, and the bar dropped into place. Then he advanced upon the men at the palings.
At Jephthah"s first appearance the tallest of these had dropped swiftly back into the shadows on the other side of the road and was gone.
Unsupported, the four or five who were left shuffled uneasily, beneath the old man"s fierce eye.
"Where"s Pone Cyard?" he demanded.
"We hain"t tetched him, pap. We never seed him. We said that to draw "em."
"Huh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jephthah, as though further comment were beyond him.