"Of course I am glad that you will not be obliged to go to sea any more," said Mrs. Gray. "But I don"t want those Union men to destroy Captain Beardsley"s property. When you see this man Webster I hope you will say as much to him."
"If it"s all the same to you, mother, I"ll wait and see how Beardsley conducts himself," answered Marcy, who did not like the idea of trying to protect a man who had done all he could to annoy his mother. "If he lets us alone, we"ll let him alone; but if he bothers us, he had better look out. When he finds out what those Union men did to Hanson, I think he will haul in his horns. I wonder if Shelby and Dillon know it?"
"That"s another strange thing that happened while you were absent, and I did not know what to make of it," replied Mrs. Gray. "Of course the story of the overseer"s abduction spread like wild-fire, and I know it must have reached the village, for the very next afternoon Mr. and Mrs.
Shelby rode out to visit me; and that is something they have not done before since these troubles began."
"Aha!" said Marcy, in a significant tone. "They began to see that you were not so helpless as they thought you were, and that it might be to their interest to make friends with you."
"That is what I think now that I have heard your story," replied his mother, "but I did not know what to think at the time they made their visit. I am sorry that I was not more courteous to them, but they were so _very_ cordial and friendly themselves that it made me suspicious of them."
"That was perfectly right," said Marcy approvingly. "You did well to stand on the defensive. Don"t let them fool you with any of their specious talk. They"re treacherous as Indians, and would burn your house over your head to-morrow, if they were not afraid."
"Oh, I hope they are not as bad as that. What do you think these Union men did with the overseer? They didn"t--didn"t----"
"Kill him as they ought to have done?" exclaimed Marcy, when his mother hesitated. "No, I don"t think they did; and neither can I guess what they did with him. But Jack said, in effect, that after he was taken away he would not bother us again for a long while. Did Shelby ask after Jack and me?"
"He did; and I told him that you had gone off in the _Fairy Belle._ Mrs.
Shelby hinted that Jack might be on his way to Newbern to join the navy, and I did not think it worth while to deny it. It seems Jack told young Allison that if you rode into Nashville alone some fine morning, Allison might know that Jack was aboard a gunboat. Of course Mrs. Shelby thought he meant a rebel gunboat."
"Don"t you believe it," said Marcy earnestly. "She knew better than that and so did Allison. Did the hands seem to be very badly frightened over Hanson"s disappearance?"
"There never was such a commotion on this plantation before," answered Mrs. Gray. "According to the coachman"s story, Jack predicted that "white things" would some night appear in the quarter and carry Hanson away with them; and although the abductors were not dressed in white, the fact that they came and did just what Jack said they would do was terrifying to the minds of the superst.i.tious blacks. I wish Jack would not tell them such ridiculous tales."
"He"ll not be likely to tell them any more for some days to come,"
replied Marcy. "But there was nothing ridiculous about his last story.
It was business, and I think that villain Hanson found it so. Now, if you will come up to my room and st.i.tch my Union flag into the quilt where it belongs, I will hand over your breastpin."
When this had been done, Marcy strolled out to the barn to tell Morris to saddle his horse, and to see what the old fellow thought of the situation. Just as he stepped off the gallery he heard a piercing shriek, and hastened around the corner of the house to find the boy Julius struggling in the grasp of the coachman, who flourished the carriage whip over his head.
"What are you about, there?" demanded Marcy.
"He going whop me kase I say Ma.r.s.e Jack in de navy," yelled Julius.
"Turn me loose, you fool n.i.g.g.ah."
"No, I ain"t going whop him for dat, but for lying," said Morris, releasing his captive with the greatest reluctance, and with difficulty restraining his desire to give him a cut around the legs as he ran away.
"He say Ma.r.s.e Jack gone on a _rebel_ boat, an" I know in reason dat ain"t so."
"You won"t get nuffin mo" outen Julius if you whop him till he plum dead," shouted the black boy, who had taken refuge behind Marcy and was holding fast to him with both hands. "I reckon I know whar Ma.r.s.e Jack gone, kase I was dar."
"Go into the house, Julius. You will be safe there; and, besides, your mistress wants to see you. Put the saddle on f.a.n.n.y, Morris, and I will ride to Nashville. Where"s the overseer?"
"Oh, Ma.r.s.e Marcy, we black ones so glad you done come back," exclaimed the coachman, throwing his whip and hat on the ground, and shaking the boy"s hand with both his Own. "We safe now. n.o.body won"t come to de quarter and tote folks away to de swamp when you around."
"Who did it?" asked Marcy.
Morris laughed as he had not laughed before since Marcy went away. "Now listen at you," said he. "How you reckon a pore n.i.g.g.ah know who done it?
Everybody afraid of de n.i.g.g.ahs now-days; everybody "cepting de Union folks. Going get "nother oberseer, Ma.r.s.e Marcy?"
"Yes. I think I shall take the place myself."
"Dar now," said Morris, with a delighted grin. "Dem n.i.g.g.ahs wuk demselves to death for you. Now you go in de house an" tell your maw whar you going, an" I bring de hoss an" holp you in de saddle."
Marcy good-naturedly complied, and hearing voices coming from the dining-room he went in there, and found Julius listening to a lecture from Mrs. Gray on the sinfulness of stealing. But Julius defended himself with spirit, and declared that for once his habit of picking up any little articles he found lying around loose had been productive of good to every member of the family.
"When I put dat pin in my pocket, missus, I know I ain"t goin" to steal it," he protested, with so much earnestness and with such an appearance of sincerity that almost anybody except Mrs. Gray would have believed him. "I don"t do no stealin". I jes" want to look at de pin, an" I goin"
put it back when I get done lookin" at it. But de oberseer he done took it away from me, an" dat"s de way you find out what sort of a man he is.
No, missus; I don"t steal. I always tell de troof."
Marcy Gray did not ride to Nashville with any hope of meeting Aleck Webster that day, and consequently he was most agreeably surprised when he saw him standing on the steps of the post-office. He did not look or act like a man who had been engaged in any underhand business, and neither did Colonel Shelby, who hastened down the steps and came across the road to the hitching-rack to help Marcy off his horse.
"So glad to see you safe back," was the way in which he greeted the boy.
"Your brother said that if you came down here without him some day we might know he was in the navy; so I suppose that is where he is. He didn"t waste much time in going, did he? What"s the news from Newbern?"
Marcy cut his replies as short as he could without being rude, and went into the office to look at his mother"s box, which had been emptied by the coachman half a dozen hours before. He exchanged a very slight nod and a wink with Aleck Webster as he pa.s.sed him, and the latter, who seemed to know just what he meant by the pantomime, mounted his horse when no one but Marcy was watching him and went down the road toward Mrs. Gray"s plantation. There were plenty of loungers in the office, young Allison, of course, being one of the most talkative ones among them, and although they seemed to know where Jack was, they could not imagine what had become of Hanson.
"I tell you honestly, Marcy, that if it hadn"t been for that Confederate flag in your mother"s dining-room, we should have laid his abduction at your door," said Allison. "But the flag proves that you are all right; and, besides, you couldn"t have had a hand in it, for you were on your way to Newbern when it happened. It opened our eyes to the fact that there are traitors among us, and that we must be careful who we talk to."
"Traitors," repeated Marcy. "I don"t know what you are trying to get at.
Hanson told me with his own lips that he was a Union man. Kelsey told me the same, and brought word to the house that Colonel Shelby and Mr.
Dillon wanted Hanson discharged; but I sent back word that if they wanted the overseer run o& the place they could come up and do the work themselves, for I would have no hand in it. I don"t want to get my neighbors down on me if I can help it. If Hanson was a Union man, as he professed to be (and I don"t know whether he was or not, for I would not talk politics with him), it was Confederates living right around here who came to the quarter and took him away."
Marcy saw by the astonished look that came to Allison"s face that all this was news to him, and this made it plain that he was not in Colonel Shelby"s "ring." He backed up against one of the counters and glanced around at his companions, but had not another word to say. The time came when he was admitted into the "ring," and showed himself to be one of the most active and aggressive ones in it. To keep up appearances Marcy bought a paper, took another look at his mother"s box and left the office; and as no one went with him to help him on his horse, he led her alongside the fence and mounted without a.s.sistance. A mile and a half from Nashville the road followed the windings of a little creek whose banks were thickly wooded. As he drew near this point he dropped the reins upon his horse"s neck and pulled his paper from his pocket--not with any intention of reading it, but to be in readiness to answer Aleck Webster"s hail when he heard it. It came before he had ridden twenty yards farther. The man had hidden his horse in the bushes, and now stood in the edge of them within easy speaking distance, but out of sight of any one who might be watching Marcy Gray.
"You are Mr. Jack"s brother, ain"t you?" said he, as Marcy stopped his horse and fastened his eyes upon the paper he held in his hand. "I thought so; and I want to know if you are satisfied, by what we did while you were gone, that we will do to trust."
"We are more than satisfied," replied Marcy. "We"ll never forget you for it. What did you do with him?"
"Turned him loose with orders never to show his face in the settlement again. We wanted to take him off to the fleet; but of course we couldn"t, for he wasn"t in the rebel service. Shelby was sort of civil to you, wasn"t he? Well, he got a letter, same as Beardsley did, or will when he gets to Newbern----"
"He"s in Newbern now," interrupted Marcy, still keeping his gaze fastened upon the paper. "We pa.s.sed him at Crooked Inlet just as we were going out. That frightened Jack, and he told me to lose no time in telling you of it."
"That"s all right; but Beardsley will not trouble you. We"ve written letters to him and Shelby and all the rest telling them that if they don"t stop persecuting Union folks we"ll burn everything they"ve got; and if that don"t quieten them, we"ll hang the last one of them to the plates of their own galleries. Go home and sleep soundly. We"ll take care of you. Where did you leave Mr. Jack?"
Marcy gave a brief history of his run to the blockading fleet and back, told how very badly frightened his mother"s servants were when they saw the overseer carried away by armed men, and how the circ.u.mstance had affected some of the "secret enemies" of whom they stood so much in fear; hinted very plainly that if at any time Aleck or any of his friends found themselves in need of bacon, meal, or money, they could have their wants supplied at his mother"s house, and wound up by urging him to keep a sharp eye on Captain Beardsley.
"I don"t think he will ever trouble you," was Aleck"s reply. "At any rate, he will never make you go to sea again against your will. But if anything does happen to you after the warning we have given him, we"ll blame him for it, whether he is guilty or not, and some night you will see his buildings going up in smoke. Is there any one on the road who will be likely to see me if I come out? Well, then, good-bye."
Marcy put his paper into his pocket and rode away with a light heart, little dreaming how soon the time would come when another of sailor Jack"s predictions would be partly fulfilled, and he, the well-fed Marcy Gray, standing sorely in need of some of the bacon and meal he had promised Aleck and his friends, would steal up to his mother"s house like a thief in the night to get them, starting at every sound, and keeping clear of every shadow he saw in his path for fear that it might be an armed man lying in wait to capture him. But that time came. It is true that Captain Beardsley and his friends did not do anything against him openly (they were afraid to do that), but they worked against him in secret and to such purpose that Marcy Gray, forced to become a fugitive from his home, was glad to take up his abode for a while with the Union men who lived in the swamp. How this unfortunate state of affairs was brought about, what young Allison did after he became a member of the "ring," and how Captain Beardsley, Colonel Shelby, and the rest paid the penalty of their double dealing, shall be told in the next volume of this series of books, which will be ent.i.tled, "MARCY, THE REFUGEE."
THE END.