The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept, each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting monument. To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and the mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth. The interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the possibility was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug in antic.i.p.ation of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether unprepared for the event when they came slouching forth to the wagon, and the stalwart and red-faced driver, with no manifestation of surprise, hailed him as he still crouched in his lurking-place. "h.e.l.lo, stranger! Warn"t that you-uns runnin" arter the wagon a piece back yonder jes a while ago?"
The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and embarra.s.sed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
"Ye want a lift, I reckon."
The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb, common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he was now constrained to "face the music."
"I didn"t want to interrupt you," he said, seeking such excuse as due consideration for the circ.u.mstances might afford; "but I"d like to ask where I could get lodging for the night."
"What"s yer name?" demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
"Francis Ronan," the raider replied, with more a.s.surance. Then he added, by way of explaining his necessity, "I"m a stranger hereabouts."
"Ye air so," a.s.sented the sarcastic "Gene. "Ye ain"t even acquainted with yer own clothes. Ye be a town man."
"Well, I"m not the first man who has had to hide out," Ronan parried, seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
"Shot somebody?" asked "Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
"It"s best for me not to tell."
"So be." "Gene acquiesced easily. "Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech accommodations ez our"n, I"ll take ye home with me."
Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners, keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had surely no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or to menace their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too recklessly; perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his comrades, perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and intention.
Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven, the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger a wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The man"s face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and the anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt"s peculiar and subtle temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did not accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt that the captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared the gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and that even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of emotional woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated the trophy of his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly fleeing creature, "Bye-bye, Buddy!" with peals of his whimsical, joyous laughter.
He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of his entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been easily maintained by one not so desirous of rea.s.surance when, in the darkest hour before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered in dense woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical mountain household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather, wielding his infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty, hospitable, subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check a family of sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of grandchildren, who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manuver of dashing out at one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain had set in shortly after dawn, with lightning and wind,-"the tail of a harricane," as the host called it,-and a terrible bird the actual storm must have been to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting forth, no living creature of free will "took water" in this elemental crisis. The numerous dogs crowded the children away from the hearth, and the hens strolled about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying broods. Even one of the horses tramped up on the porch and looked in ever and anon, solicitous of human company.
"I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby," the hostess apologized, "an" he ain"t never f"und out fur sure that he ain"t folks."
There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers" den in the range to the cross-roads" store, might well have been accounted only the vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems of the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally overcome with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils, and observing this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under the low slant of the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who had been out all night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In fact, it was dark when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid with slumber and fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders of the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or secrecy-the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words. When a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean air that pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous odors, and gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most un.o.bservant inmate, that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly immune to suspicion, for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary mountain cabin. Thus the infraction of the revenue law went on securely and continuously beneath the placid, simple, domestic life, with its reverent care for the very aged and its tender nurture of the very young.
It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be pretermitted, however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason to Wyatt, familiar with the moonshiners" methods and habits of thought, was only too plain. They intended that the "revenuer" should never go forth to tell the tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow his trail, either losing it in the wilderness or from ignorance of his intention. He had put himself hopelessly into the power of these desperate men, whom his escape or liberation would menace with incarceration for a long term as Federal prisoners in distant penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already answerable to the law for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His murder would be the extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an accident, against the possibility of future investigation.
The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved the plea of a wild thing"s eye. He st.u.r.dily sought to pull himself together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued. The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise, would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of it, as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all strange of aspect now, metamorphosed,-various disorderly details of the prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room below,-when a hoa.r.s.e voice took cognizance of his intention with a remonstrance.
"Why, Watt Wyatt, ye can"t go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will let that t"other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o" the bresh whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst "Gene hev spread the report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the kentry."
The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled impetus to Wyatt"s desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent necessity. "I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain"t much loss, but dad would feel it."
"Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill ter-day ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad onderstand "bout yer sudden demise."
"Oh, yeh," interposed the glib Jack; "an" he said ez he couldn"t abide sech jokes."
"Shucks!" cried the filial Wyatt. "Dad war full fresky himself in his young days; I hev hearn his old frien"s say so."
"I tried ter slick things over," said the diplomatic Jack. "I "lowed young folks war giddy by nature. I "lowed "t war jes a flash o" fun. An" he say: "Flash o" fun be consarned! My son is more like a flash o" lightning; ez suddint an" mischeevious an" totally ondesirable.""
The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
"n.o.body ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter be a harnt. "Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate me fer the dear departed, nohow."
One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, ""Gene war wishin" it war true, that"s why."
""Count o" Minta Elladine Riggs," gaily chimed in another.
"But "Gene needn"t gredge Watt foot-hold on this yearth fer sech; she ain"t keerin" whether Watt lives or dies," another contributed to the rough, rallying fun.
But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized on the alternative.
"Could you-uns sure be back hyar by day-break, Watt?" he asked, fixing the young fellow with a stern eye.
"No "spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up," cried Wyatt, fairly jovial at the prospect of liberation.
"Ye mus" be heedful not ter be viewed," the senior admonished him.
"I be goin" ter slip about keerful like a reg"lar, stiddy-goin" harnt, an" eavesdrop a bit. It"s worth livin" a hard life ter view how a feller"s friends will take his demise."
"I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin" back from the cross-roads" store. It went out this evenin" with that coffin full of jugs that ye lef" las" night under the church-house, whenst "Gene seen you-uns war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads with the whisky on" back little arter midnight, special" ez we-uns hev got the raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg."
The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager to be gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in the disaster, he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the catastrophe was the logical result of the foolhardiness of the officer in following these desperate men with no backing, with no power to apprehend or hold, relying on his flimsy disguise, and risking delivering himself into their hands, fettered as he was with the knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
"It"s nothin" ter me, nohow," Wyatt was continually repeating to himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw his breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however, an accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had something of that uncla.s.sified muscular instinct, apart from reason, which guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no uncertainty of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank, white mists over a shuddering shoulder. "I wonder ef thar be any other harnts aloose ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an" the moon," he speculated. Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. "I ain"t wantin" ter collogue with sech," he averred cautiously.
Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama of promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming deeps, was presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica of the past, the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long since ebbed away and vanished. The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in its surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western sh.o.r.es.
In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught the eye of the wandering spectre-a light, red, mundane, of prosaic suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. "Who sits so late at the forge?" he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and he recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As he neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a deep, gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words made the matter plain.
"High, Low, Jack, and game! Fork! Fork!" Once more there arose a high falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter. He had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades wont to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards, despite the adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the constable of the district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting gaming. As Wyatt stood at the crevice of the shutter the whole interior was distinct before him-the disabled wagon-wheels against the walls, the horse-shoes on a rod across the window, the great hood of the forge, the silent bellows, with its long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp, perched on the elevated hearth of the forge, illumined the group of wild young mountaineers cl.u.s.tered about a barrel on the head of which the cards were dealt. There were no chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a keg of nails; another on an inverted splint basket; two on a rude bench that was wont to be placed outside the door for the accommodation of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or a plow to be laid. An onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his ambition of admission to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this coign of vantage beheld all the outspread landscape of the "hands." More than once his indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his survey of the cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the interests of the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool, which barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was densely ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly posture. His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom, Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith"s red setter. He grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as a pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own name.
"Waal, sir," said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, "I s"pose ye hev all hearn "bout Walter Wyatt"s takin" off."
"An" none too soon, sartain." A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the wide brim of the speaker"s hat.
"Waal," drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the clare-obscure, "Watt war jes a fool from lack o" sense."
"That kind o" fool can"t be cured," said another of the players. Then he sharply adjured the dealer. "Look out what ye be doin"! Ye hev gimme two kyerds."
""Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Riggs now, I reckon," suggested the man on the anvil.