"I am sure they have broken something."
"It sounded as though it was down cellar," added Susan, the daughter.
"What was it?" asked the father.
"I don"t know. It sounded like breaking boards. Do go down cellar, and find out what it was."
"The scoundrels!" roared the squire, as he rushed up and down the room again with the fury of a madman. "I"ll teach them to break into my house!"
"Be calm, father," interposed Mrs. Pemberton, who, like most New England mothers, called her husband by the t.i.tle which belonged exclusively to the children.
"Calm? How can I be calm? Don"t you hear the ruffians shout and yell?"
"They are only cheering the flag."
The squire muttered a malediction upon the flag, which would probably have procured for him a coat of tar and feathers, if the mob had heard it. Mrs.
Pemberton was silent, for she had never seen her husband so moved before.
She permitted him to pace the room in his frenzy till his anger had, in some measure, subsided.
"I wish you would go down cellar and find out what that noise was," said Mrs. Pemberton, as soon as she dared to speak again. "Perhaps some of them are down there now. Who knows but they will set the house afire."
Squire Pemberton was startled by this suggestion, and, seizing the lamp, he rushed down cellar to prevent so dire a calamity.
CHAPTER V.
THE ATTIC CHAMBER.
Squire Pemberton rushed down cellar. He was very much excited, and forgot that he had been troubled with the rheumatism during the preceding winter.
When he opened the cellar door, he was considerably relieved to find that no brilliant light saluted his expectant gaze. It was as cold and dark in the cellar as it had been when he sorted over the last of his Warren Russets, a few days before.
It was certain, therefore, that the house was not on fire; and, invigorated by this thought, he descended the stairs. A strong current of fresh, cold air extinguished the light he carried. As this was contrary to his usual experience when he went down cellar in the evening after an apple or a mug of cider, it a.s.sured him that there was a screw loose somewhere. Returning to the room above, he procured a lantern, and proceeded to the cellar again to renew his investigations.
The squire felt the cold blast of the April air, and immediately made his way to the cellar door, holding the lantern up as high as his head, to ascertain the nature of the mischief which the fanatical abolitionists had perpetrated. He saw that the cellar door was broken through. The rotten boards lay upon the steps, and with another malediction upon the mob, he placed the lantern upon a barrel, and proceeded to repair the damage. As he stepped forward, he stumbled against the body of the enterprising hero of this volume, who lay as calm and still as a sleeping child.
The squire started back, not a little alarmed at the sight of the motionless body. He felt as though a terrible retribution had fallen upon somebody, who had been killed in the act of attempting to destroy his property. Seizing his lantern, he retreated to the cellar stairs by which he had descended, and stood there for a moment, his tongue paralyzed, and his knees smiting each other, in the agony of terror.
We do not know what he was afraid of, but we suppose that instinctive dread which some people manifest in the presence of death, had completely overcome him. Certainly there was nothing to be afraid of, for a dead man is not half so likely to do a person an injury as a living one. But in a few minutes Squire Pemberton in some measure recovered his self-possession.
"There is a dead man down here!" he called up the staircase, in quaking tones.
"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Mrs. Pemberton. "Who is he?"
"I don"t know," replied the squire.
"Look and see who it is, father," added Mrs. Pemberton. "Perhaps he isn"t dead."
"Stone dead," persisted the squire. "He fell into the cellar and broke his neck."
"Go and see who it is--will you?"
"Well, you come down and hold the light," said the squire, who was not quite willing to say that he was scared out of his wits.
Mrs. Pemberton descended the stairs, followed by Susan and Fred, who had just returned from the front window, where he had exhibited the flag, which the crowd outside were still cheering.
"Who can it be?" continued the old lady, as she slowly and cautiously walked forward to the scene of the catastrophe.
"I don"t know," replied the squire, in whom the presence of his family had spurred up a semblance of courage; for if a man ever is brave, it is in the presence of his wife and children. "If it is one of the ruffians who came here to destroy my house, I am glad he has lost his life in the attempt. It is a righteous retribution upon him for his wickedness."
Mrs. Pemberton took the lantern, and the squire, still excited and terrified, bent over the prostrate form of the young marauder. The victim lay upon his face, and the squire had to turn him over to obtain a view of his countenance.
"I declare it is one of the Somers boys!" exclaimed Mrs. Pemberton, as her husband brought the face of Thomas to her view.
"The young villain!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the squire. "It is lucky he was killed, or the house would have been in flames before this time. He is a desperate young scoundrel."
"But he isn"t dead, father!" said Mrs. Pemberton, as she knelt upon the cold ground, and felt the pulse of the insensible boy. "He is only stunned."
"I am sorry for it. If it had killed him, it would have served him right,"
added the squire, who had suddenly become as bold as a lion--as bold as two lions.
"Come, father, let"s carry him up stairs, and put him to bed."
"Do you think I am going to do anything for this young scoundrel!"
exclaimed the squire, indignantly. "Why, he stoned Fred and me to-day, and stoned the horse, and made him run away and break the chaise all to pieces."
"But we mustn"t leave him here in this situation. He may die."
"Let him die."
"But what will folks say?"
The more humane wife evidently understood the weak point of the squire, for nothing but slavery and the Southern Confederacy could have induced him to set at defiance the public sentiment of Pinchbrook.
"Well, carry him up stairs then; but he never will get out of my house till he has been severely punished for his crimes."
The squire and Fred took hold of the senseless form of poor Tom, and carried it up stairs, where it was placed upon the sofa in the sitting room. Mrs. Pemberton had the reputation of being "an excellent hand in sickness," and she immediately applied herself to the duty of restoring the sufferer to consciousness.
"Don"t you think you had better go after the doctor, father?" asked the good woman. "Some of his bones may be broken, or he may be injured inwardly."
"I shall not go for any doctor," snarled the squire. "Do you think I will trust myself out doors while that howling mob is hanging round the house?"
"Fred can go," suggested Susan.
"He can, but he shall not," growled the squire, throwing himself into his arm chair in the corner, with an appearance of indifference and unconcern, which were far from representing the actual state of his mind.
Mrs. Pemberton said no more, but she and Susan went to work upon the sufferer with camphor and hartshorn in good earnest, and in a short time they had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes. They continued the treatment for some time longer, with the most satisfactory result, till Tom astonished them by jumping off the sofa, and standing up in the middle of the room. He rubbed his forehead, hunched up his left shoulder, and felt of his shins.