CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CUSTER"S IDOL FALLS
Early that same night Mr. Shrimplin, taking Custer with him, had driven out into the country. Their destination was a spot far down the river where catfish were supposed to abound, for Izaak Walton"s gentle art was the little lamplighter"s favorite recreation. After leaving Mount Hope they jogged along the dusty country road for some two miles, then turning from it into a little-traveled lane they soon came out upon a great sweeping bend of the stream.
"I don"t know about this, Custer," said Mr. Shrimplin, with a doubtful shake of the head, as he drew rein. "She"s way up. I had no idea she was way up like this; I guess though we can"t do no better than to chance it, catfish is a muddy-water fish, anyhow."
He tied wild Bill to a blasted sycamore, and then, while he cut poles from the willow bushes that grew along the bank, Custer built a huge bonfire, by the light of which they presently angled with varying fortunes.
"I reckon not many people but me knows about this fishing-hole!" said Shrimplin, as he cast his baited hook into the water.
"Where did you learn to fish?" asked Custer, thirsting for that wisdom his father was so ready to impart.
"I guess you"d call it a natural gift in my case, son," said the little lamplighter modestly. "I don"t know as I deserve no credit; it"s like playing the organ or walking on a tight rope, the instinct"s got to be there or you"ll only lay yourself open to ridicule."
But truth to tell, fishing was no very subtle art as practised by Mr.
Shrimplin, he merely spat on his bait before he dropped it into the water. Even Custer knew that every intelligent fisherman did this, you couldn"t reasonably hope to catch anything unless you did; yet there seemed to him, when he now thought of it, such a gap between cause and effect that he asked as he warily watched his cork:
"What good does it do to spit on your hook?"
"I"ve forgot the science of it, Custer," admitted his father after a moment"s thought. "But I"ve always heard old fishermen say you couldn"t catch nothing unless you did."
"Did you ever try to?"
"I can"t say as I ever did. What would be the use when you know better?"
said Mr. Shrimplin, who was strictly orthodox. His cork went under and he landed a flopping shiner on the bank; this he took from his hook and tossed back into the water. "It"s a funny thing about shiners!" he said.
"What is?" inquired Custer.
"Why, you always catch "em when you ain"t fishing for "em. You fish for catfish or sun-dabs, or ba.s.s even, if you"re using worms, and you catch shiners; mainly, I suppose, because they are no manner of use to you. I reckon if you fished for shiners you wouldn"t catch anything,--you couldn"t--because there is no more worthless fish that swims! That"s why fishing is like life; in fact, you can"t do nothing that ain"t like life; but I don"t know but what catching shiners ain"t just a little bit more like life than anything else! You think you"re going to make a lot of money out of some job you"ve got, but it shaves itself down to half by the time it reaches you; or you"ve got to cough up double what you counted on when it"s the other way about; so it works out the same always; you get soaked whether you buy or sell, from the cradle to the grave you"re always catching shiners!" While Mr. Shrimplin was still philosophizing big drops of warm spring rain began to splash and patter on the long reach of still water before them. He scrambled to his feet.
"We are going to have some weather, Custer!" he said, and they had scarcely time in which to drive Bill under the shelter of a disused hay barracks in an adjacent field, when the storm broke with all its fury.
Here they spent the better part of an hour, and when at last the rain ceased they climbed into the cart and turned Bill"s head in the direction of home.
"I hope, Custer, that your ma won"t be scared; it"s getting mighty late," said the senior Shrimplin, and he shook his head as if in pity of a human weakness which his mind grasped, though he could not share in it. "Seems to be that people give way more and more to their fear than they used to; or maybe it is that I ask too much, being naturally nervy myself and not having no nerves, as I may say."
Half an hour later, off in the distance, the lights of Mount Hope became visible to Custer and his father.
"I"d give a good deal for a gla.s.s of suds and a cracker right now!" said Mr. Shrimplin, speaking after a long silence. He tilted his head and took a comprehensive survey of the heavens. "Well, we"re going to have a fine day for the hanging," he observed, with the manner of a connoisseur.
"Why won"t they let no one see it?" demanded Custer.
"It"s to be strictly private. I don"t know but what that"s best; it"s some different though from the hangings I"m used to." And Mr. Shrimplin shook his head dubiously as if he wished Custer to understand that after all perhaps he was not so sure it was for the best.
"How were they different?" inquired Custer, sensible that his parent was falling into a reminiscent mood.
"Well, they were more gay for one thing; folks drove in from miles about and brought their lunches and et fried chicken. Sometimes there was hoss racing in the morning, and maybe a shooting sc.r.a.pe or two; fact is, we usually knowed who was to be the next to stretch hemp before the day was over,--it gave you something to look forward to! But pshaw! What can you expect here? Mount Hope ain"t educated up to the sort of thing I"m used to! A feller gets his face punched down at Mike Lonigan"s or out at the Dutchman"s by the tracks, and the whole town talks of it, but no one ever draws a gun; the feller that gets his face punched spits out his teeth and goes on about his business, and that"s the end of it except for the talk; but where I"ve been there"d be murder in about the time it takes to shift a quid!"
And Mr. Shrimplin shifted his own quid to ill.u.s.trate the uncertainty of human life in those highly favored regions.
"Don"t you suppose they"d let you into the jail yard to-morrow if you asked?" said Custer, to whom the hanging on the morrow was a matter of vital and very present interest.
"Well, son, I ain"t _asked!_" rejoined the little lamplighter in a rather startled tone.
"Well, don"t you think they"d ought to, seeing that you was one of the witnesses, and found old Mr. McBride before anybody else did?" persisted the boy.
"I won"t say but what you might think they"d want me present; but Conklin ain"t even suggested it, and if he don"t think of it I can"t say as I"ll have any hard feelings," concluded Mr. Shrimplin magnanimously.
They were about to enter Mount Hope now; to their right they could distinguish the brick slaughter-house which stood on the river bank, and which served conveniently to mark the town"s corporate limits on the east. The little lamplighter spoke persuasively to Bill, and the lateness of the hour together with the nearness to his own stable, conspired to make that sagacious beast shuffle forward over the stony road at a very respectable rate of speed. They were fairly abreast of the slaughter-house when Custer suddenly placed his hand on his father"s arm.
"Hark!" said the boy.
Mr. Shrimplin drew rein.
"Well, what is it, Custer?" he asked, with all that bland indulgence of manner which was habitual to him in his intercourse with his son.
"Didn"t you hear, it sounded like a cry!" said Custer, in an excited whisper.
And instantly a shiver traversed the region of Mr. Shrimplin"s spine.
"I guess you was mistaken, son!" he answered rather nervously.
"No, don"t you hear it--from down by the crick bank?" cried the boy in the same excited whisper. His father was conscious of the wish that he would select a more normal tone.
"There!" cried Custer.
As he spoke, a cry, faint and wavering, reached Mr. Shrimplin"s ears.
"I do seem to hear something--" he admitted.
"What do you suppose it is?" asked the boy, peering off into the gloom.
"I don"t know, Custer, and not wishing to be short with you, I don"t care a d.a.m.n!" rejoined Mr. Shrimplin, endeavoring to meet the situation with an air of pleasant raillery.
He gathered up his lines as he spoke.
"Why, what are you thinking of?" demanded Custer.
"I was thinking of your ma, Custer!" faltered Mr. Shrimplin weakly. "We been gone longer than we said, it must be after eleven o"clock."
"There!" cried Custer again, as a feeble call for help floated up to them. "It"s from down on the crick bank back of the slaughter-house!"
Mr. Shrimplin was knowing a terrible moment of doubt, especially terrible because the doubt was of himself. He was aware that Custer would expect much of him in the present crisis, and he was equally certain that he would not rise to the occasion. If somebody would only come that way! And he listened desperately for the sound of wheels on the road, but all he heard was that oft-repeated call for help that came wailing from the black shadows beyond the slaughter-house. Suddenly Custer answered the call with a rea.s.suring cry.
"Perhaps it"s another murder!" he said.
"Oh, my G.o.d!" gasped Shrimplin, and there flashed through his mind the horror of that other night.