CHAPTER XV
HUGON SPEAKS HIS MIND
MacLean sprang up from the log, and, joining her, saw indeed two horsemengalloping toward them, their heads bent and riding cloaks raised to shieldthem from the whirlwind of dust, dead leaves, and broken twigs. He knewHaward's powerful steed Mirza, but the other horse was strange.
The two rode fast. A moment, and they were splashing through the stream;another, and the horses, startled by Audrey's cry and waving arms and bythe sudden and violent check on the part of their riders, were rearing andcurveting across the road. "What the devil!" cried one of the horsemen."Imp or sprite, or whatever you are, look out! Haward, your horse willtrample her!"
But Audrey, with her hand on Mirza's bridle, had no fears. Haward staredat her in amazement. "Child, what are you doing here? Angus, you too!" asthe storekeeper advanced. "What rendezvous is this? Mirza, be quiet!"
Audrey left her warning to be spoken by MacLean. She was at peace, herhead against Mirza's neck, her eyes upon Haward's face, clear in theflashing lightning. That gentleman heard the story with his usualcalmness; his companion first swore, and then laughed.
AUDREY LEFT HER WARNING TO BE SPOKEN BY MACLEAN]
"Here's a Canterbury tale!" he cried. "Egad, Haward, are we to take thisskipping rope, vault it as though we were courtiers of Lilliput? Neitherof us is armed. I conceive that the longest way around will prove ourshortest way home."
"My dear Colonel, I want to speak with these two gentlemen."
"But at your leisure, my friend, at your leisure, and not in dying tones!I like not what I hear of Monsieur Jean Hugon's pistols. Flank an ambush;don't ride into it open-eyed."
"Colonel Byrd is right," said the storekeeper earnestly. "Ride back, thetwo of you, and take the bridle path that will carry you to Fair View byway of the upper bridge. In the mean time, I will run through the woods toMr. Taberer's house, cross there, hurry to the quarters, rouse theoverseer, and with a man or two we will recross the creek by the lowerbridge, and coming upon these rogues unawares, give them a taste of theirown medicine! We'll hale them to the great house; you shall have speech ofthem in your own hall."
Neither of the riders being able to suggest a better plan, thestorekeeper, with a wave of his hand, plunged into the forest, and wassoon lost to view amidst its serried trunks and waving branches. Hawardstooped from his saddle; Audrey set her bare foot upon his booted one, andhe swung her up behind him. "Put thine arm around me, child," he told her."We will ride swiftly through the storm. Now, Colonel, to turn our backsupon the enemy!"
The lightning was about them, and they raced to the booming of thethunder. Heavy raindrops began to fall, and the wind was a power to drivethe riders on. Its voice shrilled above the diapason of the thunder; theforest swung to its long cry. When the horses turned from the wide intothe narrow road, they could no longer go abreast. Mirza took the lead, andthe bay fell a length behind. The branches now hid the sky; between theflashes there was Stygian gloom, but when the lightning came it showed faraisles of the forest. There was the smell of rain upon dusty earth, therewas the wine of coolness after heat, there was the sense of being borneupon the wind, there was the leaping of life within the veins to meet theawakened life without. Audrey closed her eyes, and wished to ride thusforever. Haward, too, traveling fast through mist and rain a road whoseend was hidden, facing the wet wind, hearing the voices of earth and sky,felt his spirit mount with the mounting voices. So to ride with Love todoom! On, and on, and on! Left behind the sophist, the apologist, thelover of the world with his tinsel that was not gold, his pebbles thatwere not gems! Only the man thundering on,--the man and his mate that wasmeant for him since time began! He raised his face to the strife above, hedrew his breath, his hand closed over the hand of the woman riding withhim. At the touch a thrill ran through them both; had the lightning with asword of flame cut the world from beneath their feet, they had passed on,immortal in their happiness. But the bolts struck aimlessly, and themoment fled. Haward was Haward again; he recognized his old acquaintancewith a half-humorous, half-disdainful smile. The road was no longer a roadthat gleamed athwart all time and space; the wind had lost its trumpettone; Love spoke not in the thunder, nor seemed so high a thing as the litheaven. Audrey's hand was yet within his clasp; but it was flesh andblood that he touched, not spirit, and he was glad that it was so. Forher, her cheek burned, and she hid her eyes. She had looked unawares, asby the lightning glare, into a world of which she had not dreamed. Itsportals had shut; she rode on in the twilight again, and she could notclearly remember what she had seen. But she was sure that the air of thatcountry was sweet, she was faint with its beauty, her heart beat withviolence to its far echoes. Moreover, she was dimly aware that in themoment when she had looked there had been a baptism. She had thought ofherself as a child, as a girl; now and for evermore she was a woman.
They left the forest behind, and came to open fields where the tobacco hadbeen beaten to earth. The trees now stood singly or in shivering copses.Above, the heavens were bare to their gaze, and the lightning gaveglimpses of pale castles overhanging steel-gray, fathomless abysses. Theroad widened, and the bay was pushed by its rider to Mirza's side. Fieldsof corn where the long blades wildly clashed, a wood of dripping cedars, apatch of Oronoko, tobacco house in midst, rising ground and a vision ofthe river, then a swift descent to the lower creek, and the bridge acrosswhich lay the road that ran to the minister's house. Audrey spokeearnestly to the master of Fair View, and after a moment's hesitation hedrew rein. "We will not cross, Colonel," he declared. "My preserver willhave it that she has troubled us long enough; and indeed it is no greatdistance to the glebe house, and the rain has stopped. Have down withthee, then, obstinate one!"
Audrey slipped to the earth, and pushed back her hair from her eyes.Colonel Byrd observed her curiously. "Faith," he exclaimed, "'tis theAtalanta of last May Day! Well, child, I believe thou hast saved ourlives. Come, here are three gold baubles that may pass for Hippomenes'apples!"
Audrey put her hands behind her. "I want no money, sir. What I did was agift; it has no price." She was only Darden's Audrey, but she spoke asproudly as a princess might have spoken. Haward smiled to hear her; andseeing the smile, she was comforted. "For he understands," she said toherself. "He would never hurt me so." It did not wound her that he said noword, but only lifted his hat, when she curtsied to them both. There wasto-morrow, and he would praise her then for her quickness of wit and hercourage in following Hugon, whom she feared so much.
The riders watched her cross the bridge and turn into the road that led tothe glebe house, then kept their own road in silence until it brought themto the doors of Fair View.
It was an hour later, and drawing toward dusk, when the Colonel, havingchanged his wet riding clothes for a suit of his friend's, came down thestairs and entered the Fair View drawing-room. Haward, in green, with richlace at throat and wrist, was there before him, walking up and down in thecheerful light of a fire kindled against the dampness. "No sign of ourmen," he said, as the other entered. "Come to the fire. Faith, Colonel, myrusset and gold becomes you mightily! Juba took you the aqua vitae?"
"Ay, in one of your great silver goblets, with a forest of mint atop. Ha,this is comfort!" He sank into an armchair, stretched his legs before theblaze, and began to look about him. "I have ever said, Haward, that ofall the gentlemen of my acquaintance you have the most exact taste. I toldBubb Dodington as much, last year, at Eastbury. Damask, mirrors,paintings, china, cabinets,--all chaste and quiet, extremely elegant, butwithout ostentation! It hath an air, too. I would swear a woman had theplacing of yonder painted jars!"
"You are right," said Haward, smiling. "The wife of the minister of thisparish was good enough to come to my assistance."
"Ah!" said the Colonel dryly. "Did Atalanta come as well? She is hisreverence's servant, is she not?"
"No," answered Haward shortly to the last question, and, leaning across,stirred the fire.
The light caused to sparkle a jewel
ed pin worn in the lace of his ruffles,and the toy caught the Colonel's eye. "One of Spotswood's goldenhorseshoes!" he exclaimed. "I had them wrought for him in London. Had theybeen so many stars and garters, he could have made no greater pother! 'Tisten years since I saw one."
Haward detached the horseshoe-shaped bauble from the lace, and laid it onthe other's palm. The master of Westover regarded it curiously, and readaloud the motto engraved upon its back: "'Sic Juvat Transcendere Montes.'A barren exploit! But some day I too shall please myself and cross thesesun-kissing hills. And so the maid with the eyes is not his reverence'sservant? What is she?"
Haward took the golden horseshoe in his own hand, and fell to studying itin the firelight. "I wore this to-night," he said at length, withdeliberation, "in order that it might bring to your mind that sprightlyultramontane expedition in which, my dear Colonel, had you not been inEngland, you had undoubtedly borne a part. You have asked me a question; Iwill answer it with a story, and so the time may pass more rapidly untilthe arrival of Mr. MacLean with our friends who set traps." He turned themimic horseshoe this way and that, watching the small gems, that simulatednails, flash in the red light. "Some days to the west of Germanna," hesaid, "when about us were the lesser mountains, and before us those thatpropped the sky, we came one sunny noon upon a valley, a little valley,very peaceful below the heights. A stream shone through it, and there werenoble trees, and beside the stream the cabin of a frontiersman."
On went the story. The fire crackled, reflecting itself in mirrors andpolished wood and many small window panes. Outside, the rain had ceased,but the wind and the river murmured loudly, and the shadows of the nightwere gathering. When the narrative was ended, he who had spoken and he whohad listened sat staring at the fire. "A pretty story!" said the Colonelat last. "Dick Steele should have had it; 'twould have looked vastly wellover against his Inkle and Yarico. There the maid the savior, here theman; there perfidy, here plain honesty; there for the woman a fate mosttragical, here"--
"Here?" said Haward, as the other paused.
The master of Westover took out his snuffbox. "And here the continuedkindness of a young and handsome preserver," he said suavely, and extendedthe box to his host.
"You are mistaken," said Haward. He rose, and stood leaning against themantel, his eyes upon the older man's somewhat coldly smilingcountenance. "She is as innocent, as high of soul, and as pure of heartas--as Evelyn."
The Colonel clicked to the lid of his box. "You will be so good as toleave my daughter's name out of the conversation."
"As you please," Haward answered, with hauteur.
Another silence, broken by the guest. "Why did you hang that kit-kat ofyourself behind the door, Haward?" he asked amiably. "'Tis too fine apiece to be lost in shadow. I would advise a change with yondershepherdess."
"I do not know why," said Haward restlessly. "A whim. Perhaps by nature Icourt shadows and dark corners."
"That is not so," Byrd replied quietly. He had turned in his chair, thebetter to observe the distant portrait that was now lightened, nowdarkened, as the flames rose and fell. "A speaking likeness," he went on,glancing from it to the original and back again. "I ever thought it one ofKneller's best. The portrait of a gentleman. Only--you have noticed, Idare say, how in the firelight familiar objects change aspect manytimes?--only just now it seemed to me that it lost that distinction"--
"Well?" said Haward, as he paused.
The Colonel went on slowly: "Lost that distinction, and became theportrait of"--
"Well? Of whom?" asked Haward, and, with his eyes shaded by his hand,gazed not at the portrait, but at the connoisseur in gold and russet.
"Of a dirty tradesman," said the master of Westover lightly. "In a word,of an own brother to Mr. Thomas Inkle."
A dead silence; then Haward spoke calmly: "I will not take offense,Colonel Byrd. Perhaps I should not take it even were it not as my guestand in my drawing-room that you have so spoken. We will, if you please,consign my portrait to the obscurity from which it has been dragged. Ingood time here comes Juba to light the candles and set the shadowsfleeing."
Leaving the fire he moved to a window, and stood looking out upon thewindy twilight. From the back of the house came a sound of voices and offootsteps. The Colonel put up his snuffbox and brushed a grain from hisruffles. "Enter two murderers!" he said briskly. "Will you have them here,Haward, or shall we go into the hall?"
"Light all the candles, Juba," ordered the master. "Here, I think,Colonel, where the stage will set them off. Juba, go ask Mr. MacLean andSaunderson to bring their prisoners here."
As he spoke, he turned from the contemplation of the night without to thebrightly lit room. "This is a murderous fellow, this Hugon," he said, ashe took his seat in a great chair drawn before a table. "I have heardColonel Byrd argue in favor of imitating John Rolfe's early experiment,and marrying the white man to the heathen. We are about to behold theresult of such an union."
"I would not have the practice universal," said the Colonel coolly, "but'twould go far toward remedying loss of scalps in this world, and ofinfidel souls hereafter. Your sprightly lover is a most prevailingmissionary. But here is our Huguenot-Monacan."
MacLean, very wet and muddy, with one hand wrapped in a blood-stained rag,came in first. "We found them hidden in the bushes at the turn of theroad," he said hastily. "The schoolmaster was more peaceably inclined thanany Quaker, but Hugon fought like the wolf that he is. Can't you hang himout of hand, Haward? Give me a land where the chief does justice while theking looks the other way!" He turned and beckoned. "Bring them in,Saunderson."
There was no discomposure in the schoolmaster's dress, and as little inhis face or manner. He bowed to the two gentlemen, then shambled across tothe fire, and as best he could held out his bound hands to the gratefulblaze. "May I ask, sir," he said, in his lifeless voice, "why it is thatthis youth and I, resting in all peace and quietness beside a public road,should be set upon by your servants, overpowered, bound, and haled to yourhouse as to a judgment bar?"
Haward, to whom this speech was addressed, gave it no attention. His gazewas upon Hugon, who in his turn glared at him alone. Haward had a subtlepower of forcing and fixing the attention of a company; in crowded rooms,without undue utterance or moving from his place, he was apt to achievethe centre of the stage, the head of the table. Now, the half-breed, byvery virtue of the passion which, false to his Indian blood, shook himlike a leaf, of a rage which overmastered and transformed, reached at abound the Englishman's plane of distinction. His great wig, of a fashionyears gone by, was pulled grotesquely aside, showing the high forehead andshaven crown beneath; his laced coat and tawdry waistcoat and ruffledshirt were torn and foul with mud and mould, but the man himself made tobe forgotten the absurdity of his trappings. Gone, for him, were hiscaptors, his accomplice, the spectator in gold and russet; to Haward,also, sitting very cold, very quiet, with narrowed eyes, they were gone.He was angered, and in the mood to give rein after his own fashion to thatanger. MacLean and the master of Westover, the overseer and theschoolmaster, were forgotten, and he and Hugon met alone as they mighthave met in the forest. Between them, and without a spoken word, the twomade this fact to be recognized by the other occupants of thedrawing-room. Colonel Byrd, who had been standing with his hand upon thetable, moved backward until he joined MacLean beside the closed door:Saunderson drew near to the schoolmaster: and the centre of the room wasleft to the would-be murderer and the victim that had escaped him.
"Monsieur le Monacan," said Haward.
Hugon snarled like an angry wolf, and strained at the rope which bound hisarms.
Haward went on evenly: "Your tribe has smoked the peace pipe with thewhite man. I was not told it by singing birds, but by the great whitefather at Williamsburgh. They buried the hatchet very deep; the deadleaves of many moons of Cohonks lie thick upon the place where they buriedit. Why have you made a warpath, treading it alone of your color?"
"Diable!" cried Hugon. "Pig of an Englishman! I wil
l kill you for"--
"For an handful of blue beads," said Haward, with a cold smile. "And I,dog of an Indian! I will send a Nottoway to teach the Monacans how to laya snare and hide a trail."
The trader, gasping with passion, leaned across the table until his eyeswere within a foot of Haward's unmoved face. "Who showed you the trail andtold you of the snare?" he whispered. "Tell me that, youEnglishman,--tell me that!"
"A storm bird," said Haward calmly. "Okee is perhaps angry with hisMonacans, and sent it."
"Was it Audrey?"
Haward laughed. "No, it was not Audrey. And so, Monacan, you have yourselffallen into the pit which you digged."
From the fireplace came the schoolmaster's slow voice: "Dear sir, can youshow the pit? Why should this youth desire to harm you? Where is the stormbird? Can you whistle it before a justice of the peace or into a courtroom?"
If Haward heard, it did not appear. He was leaning back in his chair, hiseyes fixed upon the trader's twitching face in a cold and smiling regard."Well, Monacan?" he demanded.
The half-breed straightened himself, and with a mighty effort strove invain for a composure that should match the other's cold self-command,--acommand which taunted and stung now at this point, now at that. "I am aFrenchman!" he cried, in a voice that broke with passion. "I am of thenoblesse of the land of France, which is a country that is much granderthan Virginia! Old Pierre at Monacan-Town told me these things. My fatherchanged his name when he came across the sea, so I bear not the _de_ whichis a sign of a great man. Listen, you Englishman! I trade, I prosper, Ibuy me land, I begin to build me a house. There is a girl that I see everyhour, every minute, while I am building it. She says she loves me not, butnevertheless I shall wed her. Now I see her in this room, now in that; shecomes down the stair, she smiles at the window, she stands on thedoorstep to welcome me when I come home from my hunting and trading inthe woods so far away. I bring her fine skins of the otter, the beaver,and the fawn; beadwork also from the villages and bracelets of copper andpearl. The flowers bloom around her, and my heart sings to see her upon mydoorstep.... The flowers are dead, and you have stolen the girl away....There was a stream, and the sun shone upon it, and you and she were in aboat. I walked alone upon the bank, and in my heart I left building myhouse and fell to other work. You laughed; one day you will laugh no more.That was many suns ago. I have watched"--
Foam was upon his lips, and he strained without ceasing at his bonds.Already pulled far awry, his great peruke, a cataract of hair streamingover his shoulders, shading and softening the swarthy features between itscurled waves, now slipped from his head and fell to the floor. The changewhich its absence wrought was startling. Of the man the moiety that waswhite disappeared. The shaven head, its poise, its features, were Indian;the soul was Indian, and looked from Indian eyes. Suddenly, for the lasttransforming touch, came a torrent of words in a strange tongue, thetongue of his mother. Of what he was speaking, what he was threatening, noone of them could tell; he was a savage giving voice to madness and hate.
Haward pushed back his chair from the table, and, rising, walked acrossthe room to the window. Hugon followed him, straining at the rope abouthis arms and speaking thickly. His eyes were glaring, his teeth bared.When he was so close that the Virginian could feel his hot breath, thelatter turned, and uttering an oath of disgust struck the back of hishand across his lips. With the cry of an animal, Hugon, bound as he was,threw himself bodily upon his foe, who in his turn flung the trader fromhim with a violence that sent him reeling against the wall. HereSaunderson, a man of powerful build, seized him by the shoulders, holdinghim fast; MacLean, too, hurriedly crossed from the door. There was noneed, for the half-breed's frenzy was spent. He stood with glittering eyesfollowing Haward's every motion, but quite silent, his frame rigid in theoverseer's grasp.
Colonel Byrd went up to Haward and spoke in a low voice: "Best send themat once to Williamsburgh."
Haward shook his head. "I cannot," he said, with a gesture of impatience."There is no proof."
"No proof!" exclaimed his guest sharply. "You mean"--
The other met his stare of surprise with an imperturbable countenance."What I say," he answered quietly. "My servants find two men lurkingbeside a road that I am traveling. Being somewhat over-zealous, they takethem up upon suspicion of meaning mischief and bring them before me. It isall guesswork why they were at the turn of the road, and what they wantedthere. There is no proof, no witness"--
"I see that there is no witness that you care to call," said the Colonelcoldly.
Haward waved his hand. "There is no witness," he said, without change oftone. "And therefore, Colonel, I am about to dismiss the case."
With a slight bow to his guest he left the window, and advanced to thegroup in the centre of the room. "Saunderson," he said abruptly, "takethese two men to the quarter and cut their bonds. Give them a start offifty yards, then loose the dogs and hunt them from the plantation. Youhave men outside to help you? Very well; go! Mr. MacLean, will you seethis chase fairly started?"
The Highlander, who had become very thoughtful of aspect since enteringthe room, and who had not shared Saunderson's start of surprise at themaster's latest orders, nodded assent. Haward stood for a moment gazingsteadily at Hugon, but with no notice to bestow upon the bowingschoolmaster; then walked over to the harpsichord, and, sitting down,began to play an old tune, soft and slow, with pauses between the notes.When he came to the final chord he looked over his shoulder at theColonel, standing before the mantel, with his eyes upon the fire. "So theyhave gone," he said. "Good riddance! A pretty brace of villains!"
"I should be loath to have Monsieur Jean Hugon for my enemy," said theColonel gravely.
Haward laughed. "I was told at Williamsburgh that a party of traders go tothe Southern Indians to-morrow, and he with them. Perhaps a month or twoof the woods will work a cure."
He fell to playing again, a quiet, plaintive air. When it was ended, herose and went over to the fire to keep his guest company; but finding himin a mood for silence, presently fell silent himself, and took to viewingstructures of his own building in the red hollows between the logs. Thismutual taciturnity lasted until the announcement of supper, and wasrelapsed into at intervals during the meal; but when they had returned tothe drawing-room the two talked until it was late, and the fire had sunkento ash and embers. Before they parted for the night it was agreed thatthe master of Westover should remain with the master of Fair View for aday or so, at the end of which time the latter gentleman would accompanythe former to Westover for a visit of indefinite length.
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