People are pa.s.sing, some in leisurely promenade, others in hurried step, telling of early habits and a desire to get home.
One catching her eye, causes her to tremble; one for whom she has a feeling of fear, or rather repulsion. A man of large stature is seen loitering under the shadow of a tree, and looking at her as though he would devour her. Even in his figure there is an expression of sinister and slouching brutality. Still more on his face, visible by the light of a lamp which beams over the entrance door of the hotel. The young girl does not stay to scrutinise it; but shrinking back, cowers by the side of her sister.
"What"s the matter, Jess?" asks Helen, observing her frayed aspect, and in turn becoming the supporter. "You"ve seen something to vex you?
something of--Luis?"
"No--no, Helen. Not him."
"Who then?"
"Oh, sister! A man fearful to look at. A great rough fellow, ugly enough to frighten any one. I"ve met him several times when out walking, and every time it"s made me shudder."
"Has he been rude to you?"
"Not exactly rude, though something like it. He stares at me in a strange way. And such horrid eyes! They"re hollow, gowlish like an alligator"s. I"d half a mind to tell father, or Luis, about it; but I know Luis would go wild, and want to kill the big brute. I saw him just now, standing on the side-walk close by. No doubt he"s there still."
"Let me have a look at those alligator eyes."
The fearless elder sister, defiant from very despair, steps out to the rail, and leaning over, looks along the street.
She sees men pa.s.sing; but no one who answers to the description given.
There is one standing under a tree, but not in the place of which Jessie has spoken; he is on the opposite side of the street. Neither is he a man of large size, but rather short and slight. He is in shadow, however, and she cannot be sure of this.
At the moment he moves off, and his gait attracts her attention; then his figure, and, finally, his face, as the last comes under the lamp-light. They attract and fix it, sending a cold shiver through her frame.
It was a fancy her thinking she saw Charles Clancy among the tree-tops.
Is it a like delusion, that now shows her his a.s.sa.s.sin in the streets of Natchitoches? No; it cannot be! It is a reality; a.s.suredly the man moving off is _Richard Darke_!
She has it on her tongue to cry "murderer!" and raise a "hue and cry;"
but cannot. She feels paralysed, fascinated; and stands speechless, not stirring, scarce breathing.
Thus, till the a.s.sa.s.sin is out of sight.
Then she totters back to the side of her sister, to tell in trembling accents, how she, too, had been frayed by a _spectre in the street_!
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
THE "CHOCTAW CHIEF."
"You"ll excuse me, stranger, for interruptin" you in the readin" o" your newspaper. I like to see men in the way o" acquirin" knowledge. But we"re all of us here goin" to licker up. Won"t you join?"
The invitation, brusquely, if not uncourteously, extended, comes from a man of middle age, in height at least six feet three, without reckoning the thick soles of his bull-skin boots--the tops of which rise several inches above the knee. A personage, rawboned, and of rough exterior, wearing a red blanket-coat; his trousers tucked into the aforesaid boots; with a leather belt buckled around his waist, under the coat, but over the haft of a bowie-knife, alongside which peeps out the b.u.t.t of a Colt"s revolving pistol. In correspondence with his clothing and equipment, he shows a cut-throat countenance, typical of the State Penitentiary; cheeks bloated as from excessive indulgence in drink; eyes watery and somewhat bloodshot; lips thick and sensual; with a nose set obliquely, looking as if it had received hard treatment in some pugilistic encounter. His hair is of a yellowish clay colour, lighter in tint upon the eyebrows. There is none either on his lips or jaws, nor yet upon his thick hog-like throat; which looks as if some day it may need something stiffer than a beard to protect it from the hemp of the hangman.
He, to whom the invitation has been extended, is of quite a different appearance. In age a little over half that of the individual who has addressed him; complexion dark and cadaverous; the cheeks hollow and haggard, as from sleepless anxiety; the upper lip showing two elongated bluish blotches--the stub of moustaches recently removed; the eyes coal black, with sinister glances sent in suspicious furtiveness from under a broad hat-brim pulled low down over the brow; the figure fairly shaped, but with garments coa.r.s.e and clumsily fitting, too ample both for body and limbs, as if intended to conceal rather than show them to advantage.
A practised detective, after scanning this individual, taking note of his habiliments, with the hat and his manner of wearing it, would p.r.o.nounce him a person dressed in disguise--this, for some good reason, adopted. A suspicion of the kind appears to be in the mind of the rough Hercules, who has invited him to "licker up;" though _he_ is no detective.
"Thank you," rejoins the young fellow, lowering the newspaper to his knee, and raising the rim of his hat, as little as possible; "I"ve just had a drain. I hope you"ll excuse me."
"d.a.m.ned if we do! Not this time, stranger. The rule o" this tavern is, that all in its bar takes a smile thegither--leastwise on first meeting.
So, say what"s the name o" yer tipple."
"Oh! in that case I"m agreeable," a.s.sents the newspaper reader, laying aside his reluctance, and along with it the paper--at the same time rising to his feet. Then, stepping up to the bar, he adds, in a tone of apparent frankness: "Phil Quantrell ain"t the man to back out where there"s gla.s.ses going. But, gentlemen, as I"m the stranger in this crowd, I hope you"ll let me pay for the drinks."
The men thus addressed as "gentlemen" are seven or eight in number; not one of whom, from outward seeming, could lay claim to the epithet. So far as this goes, they are all of a sort with the brutal-looking bully in the blanket-coat who commenced the conversation. Did Phil Quantrell address them as "blackguards," he would be much nearer the mark.
Villainous scoundrels they appear, every one of them, though of different degrees, judging by their countenances, and with like variety in their costumes.
"No--no!" respond several, determined to show themselves gentlemen in generosity. "No stranger can stand treat here. You must drink with us, Mr Quantrell."
"This score"s mine!" proclaims the first spokesman, in an authoritative voice. "After that anybody as likes may stand treat. Come, Johnny!
trot out the stuff. Brandy smash for me."
The bar-keeper thus appealed to--as repulsive-looking as any of the party upon whom he is called to wait--with that dexterity peculiar to his craft, soon furnishes the counter with bottles and decanters containing several sorts of liquors. After which he arranges a row of tumblers alongside, corresponding to the number of those designing to drink.
And soon they are all drinking; each the mixture most agreeable to his palate.
It is a scene of every-day occurrence, every hour, almost every minute, in a hotel bar-room of the Southern United States; the only peculiarity in this case being, that the Natchitoches tavern in which it takes place is very different from the ordinary village inn, or roadside hotel. It stands upon the outskirts of the town, in a suburb known as the "Indian quarter;" sometimes also called "Spanish town"--both name having reference to the fact, that some queer little shanties around are inhabited by pure-blooded Indians and half-breeds, with poor whites of Spanish extraction--these last the degenerate descendants of heroic soldiers who originally established the settlement.
The tavern itself, bearing an old weather-washed swing-sign, on which is depicted an Indian in full war-paint, is known as the "Choctaw Chief,"
and is kept by a man supposed to be a Mexican, but who may be anything else; having for his bar-keeper the afore-mentioned "Johnny," a personage supposed to be an Irishman, though of like dubious nationality as his employer.
The Choctaw Chief takes in travellers; giving them bed, board, and lodging, without asking them any questions, beyond a demand of payment before they have either eaten or slept under its roof. It usually has a goodly number, and of a peculiar kind--strange both in aspect and manners--no one knowing whence they come, or whither bent when taking their departure.
As the house stands out of the ordinary path of town promenaders, in an outskirt scarce ever visited by respectable people, no one cares to inquire into the character of its guests, or aught else relating to it.
To those who chance to stray in its direction, it is known as a sort of cheap hostelry, that gives shelter to all sorts of odd customers-- hunters, trappers, small Indian traders, returned from an expedition on the prairies; along with these, such travellers as are without the means to stop at the more pretentious inns of the village; or, having the means, prefer, for reasons of their own, to put up at the Choctaw Chief.
Such is the reputation of the hostelry, before whose drinking bar stands Phil Quantrell--so calling himself--with the men to whose boon companionship he has been so unceremoniously introduced; as declared by his introducer, according to the custom of the establishment.
The first drinks swallowed, Quantrell calls for another round; and then a third is ordered, by some one else, who pays, or promises to pay for it.
A fourth "smile" is insisted upon by another some one who announces himself ready to stand treat; all the liquor, up to this time consumed, being either cheap brandy or "rot-gut" whisky.
Quantrell, now pleasantly convivial, and acting under the generous impulse the drink has produced, sings out "Champagne!" a wine which the poorest tavern in the Southern States, even the Choctaw Chief, can plentifully supply.
After this the choice vintage of France, or its gooseberry counterfeit, flows feebly; Johnny with gleeful alacrity stripping off the leaden capsules, twisting the wires, and letting pop the corks. For the stranger guest has taken a wallet from his pocket, which all can perceive to be "chock full" of gold "eagles," some reflecting upon, but saying nothing about, the singular contrast between this plethoric purse, and the coa.r.s.e coat out of whose pocket it is pulled.
After all, not much in this. Within the wooden walls of the Choctaw Chief there have been seen many contrasts quite as curious. Neither its hybrid landlord, nor his bar-keeper, nor its guests are addicted to take note--or, at all events make remarks upon--circ.u.mstances which elsewhere would seem singular.
Still, is there one among the roystering crowd who does note this; as also other acts done, and sayings spoken, by Phil Quantrell in his cups.
It is the Colossus who has introduced him to the jovial company, and who still sticks to him as chaperon.
Some of this man"s a.s.sociates, who appear on familiar footing, called him "Jim Borla.s.se;" others, less free, address him as "Mister Borla.s.se;"
while still others, at intervals, and as if by a slip of the tongue, give him the t.i.tle "Captain." Jim, Mister, or Captain Borla.s.se-- whichever designation he deserve--throughout the whole debauch, keeps his bloodshot eyes bent upon their new acquaintance, noting his every movement. His ears, too, are strained to catch every word Quantrell utters, weighing its import.
For all he neither says nor does aught to tell of his being thus attentive to the stranger--at first his guest, but now a spendthrift host to himself and his party.