He silently made room for me, and bending down so as to bring my eye upon a level with his, I managed to gain some slight glimpse of the scene within the cabin.
Mrs. Bungay stood with her back to the fireplace, an iron skillet firmly gripped in one hand. Her face was red with indignation, and there was a look in her eyes, together with a defiant set to her chin, which promised trouble. In front of her, carelessly resting on the table, his feet dangling in the air, was a st.u.r.dy-looking fellow of forty or so, with red, straggling beard covering all the lower half of his face, and a weather-worn black hat pulled so low as almost to conceal his eyes. His attire was nondescript, as though he had patronized the junk-shop of both armies. In his belt were thrust a revolver and a knife, while within easy reach of his hand a musket leaned against a chair. Two others of the party, younger men, but even more roughly dressed than their leader, were lounging between him and the door.
Bungay chuckled expectantly.
"O Lord! if they only git the ol" gal just a little more riled," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely, jumping up and down on one foot in his excitement, "they"ll hev ther fight of their life."
"Do you know the fellows?" I asked. "Is that Red Lowrie?"
He shook his head.
"Never laid eyes on any of "em afore, but ye bet they"re no good.
Reckon they"re a part o" his crowd."
The man who posed as the leader of the party picked up the empty coffee-pot beside him and shook it.
"Come, now, Mrs. Bungay," he commanded, "I tell you we "re hungry, so trot out some hoecake and fill up this pot, unless you want to reckon with Red Lowrie."
The woman stood facing him, yet never moved. I could see a red spot begin to glow in either cheek. If I had ever doubted it, I knew now that Maria possessed a temper of her own.
"You ain"t no Red Lowrie," she retorted.
The fellow laughed easily.
"No more I ain"t, old woman, but I reckon we ain"t so durn far apart when it comes to getting what we go after. Come, honest now, where is the little white-livered cur that runs this shebang?"
Whatever Maria might venture to call her lord and master in the privacy of home, it evidently did not soothe her spirit to hear him thus spoken of by another.
"If Jed Bungay wus hum," she answered fiercely, her eyes fairly blazing, "I reckon you wouldn"t be sprawlin" on thet thar table fer long."
"Wouldn"t I, now? Well, old hen, we"ve fooled here with you about as long as I care to. Bill, go over there and put some of that bacon on to fry. If she doesn"t get out of the way I"ll give her something to jump for." And he patted the stock of his gun.
Instinctively I drew my revolver, and pushed its black muzzle into the light under Jed"s nose.
"Shall I give him a dose?" I asked eagerly.
"Not yit; O Lord, not yit!" he exclaimed, dancing from one foot to the other in excitement. "Let ther ol" gal hev a show. I reckon she"s good fer ther whole three of "em, "less they shoot."
Bill came up grinning. He evidently antic.i.p.ated some fun, and as he reached out a grimy hand for the slab of bacon, took occasion to make some remark. What it was I could not hear, but I noted the quick responsive flash in the woman"s eyes, and the next instant with a crash she brought the iron skillet down with all her strength on top of the fellow"s head. Without even a groan he went plunging down, face foremost, in front of the fire. In another moment she was battling like a wild fury with the other two.
It was a quick, intense struggle. The man near the door chanced to be the first in, and he received a blow from the skillet that most a.s.suredly would have crushed his skull had he not dodged; as it was it landed upon his shoulder and he reeled back sick and helpless. By this time the fellow with the red beard had closed upon her, and wrested the skillet from her hand. Struggling fiercely back and forth across the floor, Maria tripped over the body of the dead dog and fell, but as she did so her fingers grasped the red beard of her antagonist. It yielded to her hand, and bare of face, save for a dark moustache, the man stood there, panting for breath, above her. Then suddenly, almost at my very ear, a voice cried, "Frank! Frank! I am here!"
CHAPTER IX
IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY
In the first surprise of that unexpected joyful cry ringing at my very ears all my senses seemed confused, and I stood motionless. Then I heard Bungay utter a smothered oath, and knew he had wheeled about in the darkness. Unable to distinguish the slightest outline of his figure, I was yet impressed with the thought that he was endeavoring to m.u.f.fle the girl, to prevent her uttering a second cry. Impelled by this intuition I flung out my arm hastily, and by rare good luck it came in contact with his hand.
"None of that, you little cur!" I muttered sternly, unmindful of his efforts to break away. "No hand on her, mind you! Mrs. Brennan, what does this mean?"
She made no attempt to answer, but I could hear her now groping her way through the darkness toward the place of our entrance. Bungay detected the movement also, and made a violent effort to break loose from my grip, that he might hurry after her.
"You lit go o" me," he cried excitedly, "er, by goir, I"ll use a knife.
She"ll give this whole thing away if she ever gits out."
For answer I hurled him backward with all my strength and sprang after the fleeing woman. But I was already too late to stop her, even had that been my intention. With strength yielded her by desperation, she thrust aside the heavy cupboard, and as the light swept in, sprang forward into the rude shed. With another bound, gathering her skirts as she ran, she was up the steps and had burst into the outer room. A moment later I also stood in the doorway, gazing upon a scene that made my blood like fire.
The fighting had evidently ceased suddenly with her first cry. Maria stood panting in one corner, the deadly skillet again in her hand, her hair hanging in wisps down her back. Still unconscious from the blow he had received, one fellow lay outstretched on the floor, his head barely missing the hot ashes of the fireplace; while his companion nursed his bruises and scowled from a safe refuge behind the table. The unshaven faces of several others of the gang were peering curiously in through the open door. I know now I saw all this, for the picture of it is upon the retina of memory, but at the moment everything I appeared to perceive or hear occurred in the centre of the room.
The man who had posed as the leader stood there alone facing us, his expression a strange mixture of amazement and delight. He was a powerfully built man, with keen gray eyes deeply set in their sockets.
His right hand rested heavily upon the hilt of a cavalry sabre, the scabbard of which was concealed beneath the folds of the long brown coat he wore. As Mrs. Brennan burst through the doorway he stepped eagerly forward, his eyes brightening, and they met with clasped hands.
"Is it possible--Edith?" he cried, as if the recognition could scarcely be credited.
"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, eagerly, "it seems all too good to be true.
How came you here?"
"Hunting after you, my fair lady. Did you suppose you could disappear as mysteriously as you did last night without my being early on the trail? Have these people injured you in any way?" And he glanced about him with a threat in his gesture.
"Oh, no, Frank," hastily; "every one has been most kind. It was a mere mistake. But how strangely you are dressed! how very rough you look!"
He laughed, but still retained his warm clasp of her hands.
"Not the pomp and circ.u.mstance of glorious war which you expected, girl?" he asked lightly. "But we have all sorts of conditions to meet down here, and soon learn in Rome to do as the Romans do."
As he finished speaking he perceived me for the first time, and his face changed instantly into cold sternness. I saw him sweep one hasty glance around, as though he suspected that I might not be alone, and his hand fell once more upon his sword hilt, in posture suggestive of readiness for action.
"Who have we here?" he asked, staring at me in amazement. "A Johnny Reb?"
"Whatever I am," I retorted, my gorge rising suddenly at his contemptuous term, and stepping out into the room before him, "I at least wear the uniform of my service and rank, and not the nondescript garments of a guerilla."
The scornful words stung him; I noticed the quick flush of anger in his eyes, and was not sorry.
"You are insolent, sir. Moreover, you go too far, for as it chances you are well within our lines, and we will see to what extent honor is consistent with the work of a spy. The uniform of your service, indeed!" he echoed hotly, pointing as he spoke across the room; "that cavalry cloak over yonder tells its own story. Peters, Steele, arrest this fellow."
"Frank, don"t do that," she urged earnestly. "You mistake; that was the cloak I wore."
If he heard her he gave no sign.
"Bind him," was the stern order, as the two men advanced. "Use your belts if you have nothing else handy."
Angry as I most a.s.suredly was, swept also by a new emotion which I did not in the least comprehend, I yet fully realized the utter helplessness of my position in point of resistance. They were twenty to one. However much I longed to grapple with him who mocked me, the very thought was insanity; my only possible chance of escape lay in flight.
To realize this was to act. I leaped backward, trusting for a clear field in my rear, and an opportunity to run for it, but the door by which I had just entered was now closed and barred--Bungay had made sure his retreat. The man, watching my every movement, with sword half drawn in his hand, saw instantly that I was securely trapped, and laughed in scorn.