XXXII
IN WHICH I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET
"Tis a very pretty hazard, Captain Ireton. But can it be brought offsuccessfully, think you?"
"As I have said, it hangs somewhat upon the safety of my portmanteau. Ifthat has come through unseized to Mr. Pettigrew at Charlotte, and I canlay hands on it, 'twill be half the battle."
"You say you left it behind you at New Berne?"
"Yes; Mr. Carey was to forward it as he could."
Colonel Davie had given me bite and sup, and I was ready to take theroad. My plan, such as it was, had been determined upon, and to thefurthering of it, the colonel had written me a letter to a friend in thetown who might shelter me for a night and make the needed inquiry for mybelongings. Also, he had given me another letter, of which more anon,and had pressed upon me a small purse of gold pieces--a treasure rareenough in patriot hands in that impoverished time.
When all was done, two of my late captors were ordered to set mestraight in the road; and some half-hour past noon I had shaken handswith the big fellow in homespun who had been so bent upon hanging mewithout benefit of clergy, had crossed the river, and was making thefirst looping in a detour which should bring me into Charlotte from thewestward.
'Twas drawing on toward evening, and I had recrossed the river a mile ormore below Appleby Hundred, when I began to meet the outposts of theBritish army. I was promptly halted by the first of these; but myborrowed uniform and a ready word or two passed me within the lines as acourier riding post to headquarters from Major Ferguson in the west.
The lieutenant in command of the first vedette line was notover-curious. He asked me a few questions about the major's plans anddispositions,--questions which, thanks to Colonel Davie's information, Iwas able to answer glibly enough, swallowed my tale whole, and was soobliging as to give me the password for the night to help me through theinner sentry lines.
Thus fortified, I rode on boldly, and having the countersign thedifficulties vanished. When I was come to town it was well pastcandle-lighting; and the patrol was out in force. But by dint of usingthe password freely I made my way unhindered to the house of thegentleman to whom Colonel Davie's letter accredited me.
Here, however, the difficulties began. Though the camp of the army layjust without the town to the southward, the officers were quartered inevery house, and that of Colonel Davie's friend was full tooverflowing. What was to be done we knew not, but at the last moment myfriend's friend thought of an expedient and wrote a note for me whilst Iwaited, half in hiding, in the outer hall.
"'Tis a desperate chance, but these are desperate times," said mywould-be helper. "I am sending you to the town house of one of ourplantation seigneurs--a man who is fish, flesh or fowl, as his interestdemands. I hear he came in to-day to take protection, and there is achance that he will shelter you for the sake of your red coat and a goldpiece or two. But I warn you, you must be what you appear to be--asoldier of the king--and not what this note of Colonel Davie's says youare."
Seeing a wide field of danger-chances in this haphazarding, I would haveasked more about this trimming gentleman to whom I was to be handed on;but at that moment there came a thundering at the door, and my anxioushost was fain to hustle me out through the kitchen as he could, catchingup a black boy on the way to be my guide.
"God speed you," he said at parting. "Make your footing good for thenight, if you can, and we'll see what can be done to-morrow. I'll sendyour portmanteau around in the morning, if so be Mr. Pettigrew has it."
With that I was out in the night again, turning and doubling after myguide, who seemed to be greatly afeard lest I should come nigh enough tocast an evil eye upon him.
'Twas but a little distance we had to go, and I had no word out of myblack rascal till we reached the door-stone of a familiar mansion butone remove from the corner of the court house green. Here, with astuttering "D-d-dis de house, Massa," he fled and left me to enter as Icould.
Since the street was busily astir with redcoat officers and men comingand going, and any squad of these might be the questioners to doubt mythreadbare courier tale, I lost no time in running up the steps andhammering a peal with the heavy knocker. Through the side-lights I couldsee that the wide entrance hall was for the moment unoccupied; but atthe knocker-lifting I had a flitting glimpse of some one--a little manall in sober black--coming down the stair. There was no immediate answerto my peal, but when I would have knocked again the door was swung backand I stepped quickly within to find myself face to face with--Margery.
I know not which of the two of us was the more dumbfounded; but this Ido know; that I was still speechless and fair witless when she swept mea low-dipped curtsy and gave me my greeting.
"I bid you good evening, Captain Ireton," she said, coldly; and thenwith still more of the frost of unwelcome in her voice: "To what may webe indebted for this honor?"
Now, chilling as these words were, they thrilled me to my finger-tips,for they were the first she had spoken to me since the night of myoffending in the black gorge of the far-off western mountains. None theless, they were blankly unanswerable, and had the door been open Ishould doubtless have vanished as I had come. Of all the houses in thetown this was surely the last I should have run to for refuge had Iknown the name of its master; and it was some upflashing of this thoughtthat helped me find my tongue.
"I never guessed this was your father's house," I stammered, bowing lowto match her curtsy. "I beg you will pardon me, and let me go as Icame."
She laid a hand on the door-knob. "Is--is there any one here whom youwould see?" she asked; and now her eyes did not meet mine, and I wouldthink the chill had melted a little.
"No. I was begging a night's lodging of a friend whose house is full. Hesent me here with a note to--ah--to your father, as I suppose, though inhis haste he did not mention the name."
She held out her hand. "Give me the letter."
"Nay," said I; "that would be but thankless work. Knowing me, yourfather must needs conceive it his duty to denounce me."
"Give it me!" she insisted; this with an impatient little stamp of thefoot and an upglance of the compelling eyes that would have constrainedme to do a far foolisher thing, had she asked it.
So I gave her the letter and stood aside, hat in hand, while she readit. There were candles in their sconces over the mantel and she movednearer to have the better light. The soft glow of the candles fell uponher shining hair, and upon cheek and brow; and I could see her bosomrise and fall with the quick-coming breath, and the pulse throbbing inher fair white neck. And with the seeing I became a fool of love againin very earnest, and was within a hair's breadth of sinking honor andall else in an outpouring of such words as a man may say once to onewoman in all the world--and having said them may never unsay them.
'Twas a most practical little thing she did that saved me from fallingheadlong into this last ditch of dishonor. Twisting the letter into aspill she stood on tiptoe to light it at one of the candles, saying:"'Twas a foolish thing to put on paper, and might well hang the writerin such times as these. He says you are a king's man and well known tohim, and you are neither." But when the letter was a crisp of blackenedpaper-ash she turned upon me, and once again the changeful eyes werecold and her words were stranger-formal.
"What is it you would have me do, Captain Ireton?"
"Nothing," I made haste to say; "nothing save to believe that I camehere unwittingly--and to let me go."
"Where will you go? The town is alive with those who would--who would--"
"Who would show me scant mercy, you would say. True; and yet I camehither--to the town, I mean--of my own free will."
Her mood changed in the pivoting fraction of an instant, and now thebeautiful eyes were alight and warm and pleadingly eloquent.
"Oh, why did you come? Are you--are you what they said you were?"
"A spy? If I am, you would scarce expect me to confess it, even to you."
"'Tis dishonorable--most dishonorable!" she cried. "I cou
ld respect abrave soldier enemy; but a spy--"
There was a clattering of hoofs in the street and a jingle ofsword-scabbards on the door-stone. I wheeled to face the newcomers,determined now to front it boldly as a desperate man at bay. But beforethe fumbling hands without could find the door-knob Margery was besideme, all a-flutter in a trembling-fit of excitement.
"Up the stair, quickly, _pour l'amour de Dieu!_" she whispered; and wewere at the clock landing when the great door opened and some half-dozenking's officers came in. We crouched together behind the balustrade tillthey should pass beyond the sight of us, and in the group I marked a manstout and heavy built, walking full solidly for his two-and-forty years.He wore his own hair dressed high in front in the fashion first set forthe women by the Grand Monarque's loose-wife; and as he passed under thecandles I saw that it was graying slightly. His face, high-browed,long-nosed, double-chinned, with the eyes womanish for bigness andmarked with brows that might have been penciled by the hair-dresser, Ihad seen before; but lacking this present sight of it, the orders onhis breast would have named him the ranking general of the army in thefield--Lord Charles Cornwallis. With all the houses in the town tochoose among, I had blundered into this--my Lord's own headquarters.
I had but a passing glimpse of the incoming group, for when it was wellbeneath the turn of the stair, my lady had me up and running again,driving me on before her to the chamber floor above, along a dimlylighted corridor with many turnings, and so to a _cul-de-sac_ in thesame--a doorless passage with a high dormer window in the end and noother apparent means of egress.
Margery had snatched a candle from one of the corridor holders in theflight, and now she bade me sit on the floor and draw my boots. I didit, shamefacedly enough, being but a foul and ragged vagabond unfit tohave her come anigh me. But I might have spared my blushings for she hadturned her back and was opening a secret door in the high wainscot.
Beyond the door lay a raftered garret half filled with cast-off houselumber and lighted and aired by two high roof windows. Into this she ledme, with a finger on her lip for silence. A hum of voices, the clinkingof glass, and now and again a hearty soldier laugh told me that mygarret was above some living-room of the house.
While I stood, boots in hand, she found a makeshift candlestick and ina trice had spread me a pallet on an ancient oaken settle big enough toserve for a choir stall in a cathedral.
"You'll be safe here for the night, if so be you will make no more noisethan a rat might make," she whispered. "_Mais, mon Dieu!_ 'tis aterrible risk. How you will get off in the morning I do not know."
"Leave that to me," I rejoined. Then I remembered the portmanteau andthe promise that it should be sent hither. Here was a furthercomplication, and I must needs beg a boon of her. "A black boy willbring my portmanteau in the morning. I have a decent desire to be hangedin clean clothing; may I beg you to--"
She made a quick little gesture of impatience; at the furthercomplication, or at my boldness in asking, I knew not which. But herwhispered reply was of assent, and then she turned to leave me.
At that a sudden fierce desire to know why she had thus befriended mecame to throttle prudence.
"One more word before you go, Mistress Margery. Will you tell me why youhave done this for the man who can serve you only by thrusting his neckinto the hangman's noose?"
She was silent for a little space, and I knew not what emotion it wasthat moved her to turn away and cover her face with her hands. But whenshe spoke her voice was low and tremulous with pent-up anger, as Ithought.
"Truly, Captain Ireton, you have done a thing to make me hate you--andmyself, as well. But I may not forget my duty, sir."
And with this cruel word she was gone.
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