"They must have said much to deceive you," and I bent forward to touch her hand. "See, I am very much alive. Let me tell you--that will be the quickest way to understand. In the first place I did not drown when the boat was smashed, but was rendered helpless and borne away on the water.
I drifted through the darkness out into the Mississippi, and later became caught on a snag in the middle of that stream. The _Adventurer_ rescued me about daylight the next morning, and I was no sooner on board than I was told how the keel-boat had been run down below on the river during the night and that your party had all been saved--two white men and two negress slaves. Of course, I knew you must be one of them."
"Then--then we were actually together, on the same boat, all the way up here?"
"Yes; I tried hard to find where you were concealed on board, but failed.
I might not have helped you, but I thought you would be glad to know I was alive. Kirby guarded you with great care from all observation. Do you know why?"
Her wide-opened eyes gazed into mine frankly, but her lips trembled.
"Yes," she answered, as though forcing herself to speak. "I do know now.
I thought I knew then, but was mistaken. I supposed it might be because I looked so little like a negress, but now I realize it was his own conscience. He knew I was a white woman; he had become convinced that I was Eloise Beaucaire. Did you know that, also?"
"I learned the truth on the boat, from the same source where Kirby obtained his information. Elsie Clark told me."
"Elsie Clark! Who is she? How did she know?"
"A free negress, who had been employed by Amos Shrunk. She was the other prisoner on the keel-boat when you were captured, kept locked below in the cabin. Surely you knew there was another woman taken aboard the _Adventurer_?"
"Yes, but we never spoke; she was below, and they kept me on deck. How could she know who I was?"
"She did not. Only she was positive that you could not be Rene Beaucaire, because she knew that Rene, in company with her mother, had departed from Shrunk"s cabin before those raiders came. The two had already started for Beardstown."
She sat upright, all la.s.situde gone from her body, leaning eagerly toward me, her eyes alight with interest.
"Gone! Rene escaped them!" she exclaimed, her voice choking, "Oh, tell me that again. Was the girl sure?"
"Quite sure; she had cooked them breakfast and talked with Rene afterwards. She saw and spoke with both the women before they left in a wagon. They were on the Underground, bound for Canada, and safety."
"Thank G.o.d! Oh, I thank G.o.d!" Her face sank until it was concealed within her hands. When it lifted again the eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears.
"I am so glad--so glad," she said simply. "Now I am strong enough to hear the rest, Lieutenant Knox. You must tell me."
"There is not so much to tell, that I am c.o.c.k-sure about." I began slowly. "Kirby had you securely hidden away somewhere on the second deck, while this Clark girl had been locked into a stateroom above. I possessed such a growth of beard and was altogether so disreputable looking as to be mistaken for a roustabout by the boat"s officers, who set me at work to earn my pa.s.sage. In this way I managed to talk with Elsie, but failed to locate your quarters. The only glimpse I gained of you was when you were being taken ash.o.r.e. Then I followed, and a little later succeeded in getting you out of Kirby"s hands. That is about all."
"Oh, no, it is not--you--you came too late."
"Too late! Perhaps I may know what you mean."
"Do you? Surely not to blame me! I--I wish to tell you, Lieutenant Knox, but--but I scarcely know how. It is all so dim, indistinct in my own mind--and yet I remember. I am trying so hard to recall how it all happened, but nothing remains clear in my mind. Have I been drugged?"
"Without question. We have been riding all night and you were strapped to your horse. Probably you have no recollection of this?"
She shook her head in bewilderment, gazing about as though noting the strange surroundings for the first time.
"No; the last I remember I was with Kirby and another man. He--he was dressed like a minister, but--but he was half drunk, and once he swore at me. The place where we were was a little shack in the side of a hill, with stone walls. Kirby took me there from the steamer, together with a man he called Rale--Jack Rale. They locked me in and left me alone until after dark. Then this other man, who dressed like a minister, came back with Kirby. They had food and something to drink with them, and lit a lamp, so that we could see. It was awfully dismal and dark in there."
She pressed her hands to her head despairingly. "I can remember all this, but later it is not so clear; it fades out, like a dream."
"Try to tell me all you can," I urged. "They fed you?"
"Yes, I managed to eat a little, but I would not drink. They both became angry then and frightened me, but they did compel me to swallow some of the stuff. Then I became dazed and partially helpless. Oh, I cannot tell you; I do not really know myself--it seemed as though I had to do just what they told me; I had no will of my own, no power of resistance."
"You were married to Kirby."
"Oh, G.o.d!--was I? I wondered; I did not really know; truly I did not know. I seem to remember that I stood up, and then signed some paper, but nothing had any meaning to me. Is that true? Do you know that it is true?"
I grasped her hand and held it closely within my own.
"I am afraid it is true," I answered. "I know very little law, and it may be that such a ceremony is not legal. Yet I imagine those men were certain as to what they could do. Kirby had planned to marry you from the very first, as I explained to you before. He told me that on the _Warrior_ the night your father died."
"Yes, you said so; but I did not quite understand--he planned then--why?"
"Because he had heard of your beauty and that you were rich. Were these not reasons enough? But, after he had mistaken you for Rene, the only possible way in which he could hope to gain you was by force. Jack Rale suggested that to him and how it could be done. The other man was a friend of Rale"s, a renegade preacher named Gaskins; he is dead."
"Dead! Killed?"
"Yes; we brought you away after a fight with those fellows. We left Rale bound and Kirby unconscious."
"Unconscious, hurt--but not dead?"
"He had a bad gash in his skull, but was alive."
Kennedy, puffing happily upon a pipe, came loitering about the corner of the hut and approached us. Eloise staggered to her feet, shrinking back against the wall of the shack, her eyes on his face.
"That man here!" she cried in terror. "That man? Why, he was at Beaucaire! He is the one to whom I claimed to be Rene."
CHAPTER XXVII
WE CHOOSE OUR COURSE
Tim grinned at me, but did not appear particularly flattered at his reception.
"Not quite so fast, yung lady," he said, stuttering a bit and holding the pipe in his hand. "I reckon I wus thar all right, just as ye say, an" thet I did yer a mighty mean turn, but I ain"t such a dern ornary cuss as ye think--am I, Cap?"
"No, you are not," I hastened to explain. "Miss Beaucaire does not understand, that is all. We have been talking together for some time, but I had forgotten to tell her that you were one of her rescuers.
Kennedy here, merely supposed he was doing his duty, until he learned what Kirby contemplated. Then he refused to have any hand in it and the two quarreled. Shall I relate that part of the story?"
Her eyes softened, her lips almost smiling.
"Yes," she said. "I am glad to know; tell me all."
I described Tim"s part in the whole tragedy swiftly, while he shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other and occasionally interjected some comment or correction. He was not wholly at ease in the role of hero, nor under the steadfast gaze of her eyes. As I stopped speaking she held out her hand frankly.
"Then I shall count you my friend now," she said simply. "And I am so delighted to understand everything. There are four of us here, counting the mulatto girl, and we are in hiding not far from Yellow Banks. You both think that Kirby and Rale must be hunting us already?"
"Probably; they are very certain not to be very far away. I was planning our course when I glanced up and caught your eyes watching me--"