[Illustration: 9175]
HILE these things were being enacted, Sanders, who had taken supper at
Warren's, and Helen sat on the front veranda in the moonlight. Scarcely
any other topic than Mam' Linda's trouble had been broached between
them, though the ardent visitor had made many futile efforts to draw
the girl's thought into more cheerful channels. It was shortly after ten
o'clock, and Sanders was about to take his leave, when old Lewis emerged
from the shadows of the house and was shambling along the walk towards
the gate leading into the Dwight grounds, when Helen called out to him:
“Where are you going, Uncle Lewis?”
He doffed his old slouch hat and stood bare and, bald, his smooth pate
gleaming in the moonlight.
“I started over ter see Marse Carson, missy,” he said, in a low, husky
voice. “I knows good en well dat he can't do a thing, but Linda's been
beggin' me ever since she seed him en Mr. Garner drive up at de back
gate. She thinks maybe dey l'arnt suppin 'bout Pete. I knows dey hain't,
honey, 'ca'se dey ud 'a' been over 'fo' dis. Dar he is on de veranda
now--oh, Marse Carson! Kin I see you er minute, suh?”
“Yes, I'll be right down, Lewis,” Carson answered, leaning over the
railing.
As he came out of the house and approached across the grass, Sanders and
Helen went to meet him. He bowed to Helen and nodded coldly to Sanders,
to whom he had barely been introduced, and then with a furrowed brow he
stood and listened as the old man humbly made his wants known.
“I'm sorry to say I haven't heard a thing, Uncle Lewis,” he said. “I'd
have been right over to see Mam' Linda if I had. So far as I can see,
everything is just the same.”
“Oh, young marster, I don't know what I'm ergoin' ter do,” the old negro
groaned. “I don't see how Linda's gwine ter pass thoo another night.
She's burnin' at de stake, Marse Carson, but thoo it all she blesses
you, suh, fer tryin' so hard. My Gawd, dar she come now; she couldn't
wait.”
He hastened across the grass to where the old woman stood, and caught
hold of her arm.
“Whar Marse Carson? Whar young marster?” Linda cried, and then, catching
sight of the trio, she tottered unaided towards them.
“Oh, young marster, I can't stan' it; I des _can't!_” she groaned,
as she caught Dwight's hand and clung to it. “I am a mother ef I _am_
black, an' dat my onliest child. My onliest child, young marster, en de
po' boy is 'way over in dem mountains starvin' ter death wid dem men
en dogs on his track. Oh, young marster, ol' Mammy Lindy is cert'nly
crushed. Ef I could see Pete in his coffin I could put up wid it, but
dis here--dis here”--she struck her great breast with her hand--“dis
awful pain! I can't stan' it--I des can't!”
Carson lowered his head. There was a look of profound and tortured
sympathy on his strong face. Garner came out of the house smoking a
cigar and strolled across the grass towards them, but observing the
situation he paused at a flowering rose-bush and stood looking down the
moonlit street towards the court-house and grounds dimly outlined in the
distance. Garner had never been considered very emotional; no one had
ever detected any indications of surprise or sorrow in his face. He
simply stood there to-night avoiding contact with the inevitable. As a
criminal lawyer he had been obliged to inure himself to exhibitions
of mental suffering as a physician inures himself to the presence of
physical pain, and yet had Garner been questioned on the matter, he
would have admitted that he admired Carson Dwight for the abundant
possession of the very qualities he lacked. He positively envied his
friend to-night. There was something almost transcendental in the
heart-wrung homage the old woman was paying Carson. There was something
else in the fact that the wonderful tribute to courage and manliness
was being paid there without reservation or stint before the (and Garner
chuckled) very eyes of the woman who had rejected Carson's love, and in
the very presence of the masculine incongruity (as Garner viewed him)
by her side. All the display of emotion, _per se_, had no claims on
Garner's interest, but the sheer, magnificent play of it, and its
palpable clutch on things of the past and possible events of the future,
held him as would the unfolding evidence in an important law case.
“But oh, young marster,” old Linda was saying; “thoo it all you been
my stay en comfort; not even God's been as good ter me as you have; you
tried ter he'p po' ol' Lindy, but de Lawd on high done deserted her. Dar
ain't no just, reasonable God dat will treat er po' old black 'oman es
I'm treated, honey. In slavery en out I've done de best--de very best
I could fer white en black, en now as I stan' here, after er long life,
wid my feet in de grave, I don't deserve ter be punished wid dis slow
fire. Go ter de white 'omen er dis here big Newnited States en ax' 'em
how dey would feel in my fix. Ef de mothers in dis worl' could see me
ter-night en read down in my heart, er river of tears would flow fer me.
Dat so, en' yet de God I've prayed ter-night en mornin', in slavery
en out, has turned His back on me. I've prayed, young marster, till my
throat is sore, till now I hain't got no strength nor faith lef' in me,
en--well, here I stand. You all see me.” Without a word, his face
wrung with pain, Carson clasped her hand, and bowing to Helen and her
companion he moved away and joined Garner.
“It was high time you were getting out of that,” Garner said, as he
pulled at his cigar and drew his friend back towards the house. “You
can do nothing, and letting Linda run on that way only works her up to
greater excitement. But say, old man, what's the matter with you?”
Carson was white, and the arm Garner had taken was trembling.
“I don't know, Garner, but I simply can't stand anything like that,”
Dwight said, his eyes on the group they had left. “It actually makes me
sick. I--I can't stand it. Good-night, Garner; if you won't sleep here
with me, I'll turn in. I--I--”
“Hush! what's that?” Garner interrupted, his ear bent towards the centre
of the town.
It was a loud and increasing outcry from the direction of Neb Wynn's
house. Several reports of revolvers were heard, and screams and shouts:
“Head 'im off! Shoot 'im! There he goes!”
“Great God!” Garner cried, excitedly; “do you suppose it is--”
He did not finish, for Carson had raised his hand to check him and stood
staring through the moonlight in the direction from which the sounds
were coming. There were now audible the rapid and heavy foot-falls of
many runners. On they came, the sound increasing as they drew nearer.
They were only a few blocks distant now. Carson cast a hurried glance
towards the Warren house. There, leaning on the fence, supported by
Helen and Lewis, stood Linda, silent, motionless, open-mouthed. Sanders
stood alone, not far away. On came the rushing throng. They were turning
the nearest corner. Somebody, or something, was in the lead. Was it a
man, an animal, a mad dog, a----
On it came forming the point of a human triangle. It was a man, but a
man doubled to the earth by. fatigue and weakness, a man who ran as
if on the point of sprawling at every desperate leap forward. His hard
breathing now fell on Carson's ears.
“It's Pete!” he said, simply.
Garner laid a firm hand on his friend's arm.
“Now's the time for you to have common-sense,” he said. “Remember, you
have lost all you care for by this thing--don't throw your very life
into the damned mess. By God, you _sha'n't!_ I'll--”
“Oh, Marse Carson, it's Pete!” It was Linda's voice, and it rang out
high, shrill, and pleading above the roar and din. “Save 'im! Save 'im!”
Dwight wrenched his arm from the tense clutch of Garner and dashed
through the gate, and was out in the street just as the negro reached
him and stretched out his arms in breathless appeal and fell sprawling
at his feet. The fugitive remained there on his knees, his hands
clutching the young man's legs, while the mob gathered round.
“He's the one!” a hoarse voice exclaimed. “Kill 'im! Burn the black
fiend!”
Standing pinioned to the ground by Pete's terrified clutch, Carson
raised his hands above his head. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” he kept crying, as
the crowd swayed him back and forth in their effort to lay hold of the
fugitive who was clinging to his master with the desperate clutch of a
drowning man.
“Stop! Listen!” Carson kept shouting, till those nearest him became
calmer, and forming a determined ring, pressed the outer ones back.
“Well, listen!” these nearest cried. “See what he's got to say. It's
Carson Dwight. Listen! He won't take up for him; he's a white man. He
won't defend a black devil that--”
“I believe this boy is innocent!” Carson's voice rang out, “and I plead
with you as men and fellow-citizens to give me a chance to prove it to
your fullest satisfaction. I'll stake my life on what I say. Some of you
know me, and will believe me when I say I'll put up every cent I have,
everything I hold dear on earth, if you will only give me the chance.”
A fierce cry of opposition rose in the outskirts of the throng, and
it passed from lip to lip till the storm was at its height again. Then
Garner did what surprised Carson as much as anything he had ever seen
from that man of mystery.
“Stop! Listen!” Garner thundered, in tones of such command that they
seemed to sweep all other sounds out of the tumult. “Let's hear what
he's got to say. It can do no harm! Listen, boys!”
The trick worked. Not three men in the excited mob associated the voice
or personality with the friend and partner of the man demanding
their attention. The tumult subsided; it fell away till only the low,
whimpering groans of the frightened fugitive were heard. There was
a granite mounting-block on the edge of the sidewalk, and feeling it
behind him: Carson stood upon it, his hands on the woolly pate of the
negro still crouching at his feet. As he did so, his swift glance took
in many things about him: he saw Linda at the fence, her head bowed
upon her arms as if to shut out from her sight the awful scene; near her
stood Lewis, Helen, and Sanders, their expectant gaze upon him; at the
window of his mother's room he saw the invalid clearly outlined against
the lamplight behind her. Never had Carson Dwight put so much of his
young, sympathetic soul into words. His eloquence streamed from him like
a swollen torrent of logic. On the still night air his voice rose clear,
firm, confident. It was no call to them to be merciful to the boy's
mother bowed there like a thing cut from stone, for passion like theirs
would have been inflamed by such advice, considering that the fugitive
was charged with having slain a woman. But it was a calm call to
patriotism. Carson Dwight plead with them to let their temperate action
that night say to all the world that the day of unbridled lawlessness
in the fair Southland was at an end. Law and order on the part of itself
was the South's only solution of the problem laid like another unjust
burden on a sorely tried and suffering people.
“Good, good! That's the stuff!” It was the raised voice of the adroit
Garner, under his broad-brimmed hat in the edge of the crowd. “Listen,
neighbors; let him go on!”
There was a fluttering suggestion of acquiescence in the stillness that
followed Garner's words. But other obstacles were to arise. A clatter of
galloping horses was heard round the corner on the nearest side street,
and three men, evidently mountaineers, rode madly up. They reined in
their panting, snorting mounts.
“What's the matter?” one of them asked, with an oath. “What are you
waiting for? That's the damned black devil.”
“They are waiting, like reasonable human beings, to give this man a
chance to establish his innocence,” Carson cried, firmly.
“They are, damn you, are they?” the same voice retorted. There was a
pause; the horseman raised his arm; a revolver gleamed in the moonlight;
there was a flash and a report. The crowd saw Carson Dwight suddenly
lean to one side and raise his hands to the side of his head.
[Illustration: 0183]
“My God, he's shot!” Garner called out. “Who fired that gun?”
For an instant horrified silence reigned; Carson still stood pressing
his hands to his temple.
No one spoke; the three restive horses were rearing and prancing about
in excitement. Garner made his way through the crowd, elbowing them
right and left, till he stood near the fugitive and his defender.
“A good white man has been shot,” he cried out--“shot by a man on one of
those horses. Be calm. This is a serious business.”
But Carson, with his left hand pressed to his temple, now stood erect.
“Yes, some coward back there shot me,” he said, boldly, “but I don't
think I am seriously wounded. He may fire on me again, as a dirty coward
will do on a defenceless man, but as I stand here daring him to try it
again I plead with you, my friends, to let me put this boy into jail.
Many of you know me, and know I'll keep my word when I promise to move
heaven and earth to give him a fair and just trial for the crime of
which he is accused.”
“Bully for you, Dwight! My God, he's got grit!” a voice cried. “Let him
have his way, boys. The sheriff is back there. Heigh, Jeff Braider, come
to the front! You are wanted!”
“Is the sheriff back there?” Carson asked, calmly, in the strange
silence that had suddenly fallen.
“Yes, here I am.” Braider was threading his way towards him through
the crowd. “I was trying to spot the man that fired that shot, but he's
gone.”
“You bet he's gone!” cried one of the two remaining horsemen, and,
accompanied by the other, he turned and, they galloped away. This seemed
a final signal to the crowd to acquiesce in the plan proposed, and they
stood voiceless and still, their rage strangely spent, while Braider
took the limp and cowering prisoner by the arm and drew him down from
the block. Pete, only half comprehending, was whimpering piteously and
clinging to Dwight.
“It's all right, Pete,” Carson said. “Come on, we'll lock you up in the
jail where you'll be safe.” Between Carson and the sheriff, followed
by Garner, Pete was the centre of the jostling throng as they moved off
towards the jail.
“What dey gwine ter do, honey?” old Linda asked, finding her voice for
the first time, as she leaned towards her young mistress.
“Put him in jail where he'll be safe,” Helen said. “It's all over now,
mammy.”
“Thank God, thank God!” Linda cried, fervently. “I knowed Marse Carson
wouldn't let 'em kill my boy--I knowed it--I knowed it!”
“But didn't somebody say Marse Carson was shot, honey?” old Lewis asked.
“Seem ter me like I done heard--”
Pale and motionless, Helen stood staring after the departing crowd, now
almost out of view. Carson Dwight's thrilling words still rang in her
ears. He had torn her very heart from her breast and held it in his
hands while speaking. He had stood there like a God among mere men,
pleading as she would have pleaded for that simple human life, and they
had listened; they had been swept from their mad purpose by the fearless
sincerity and conviction of his young soul. They had shot at him while
he stood a target for their uncurbed passion, and even then he had dared
to taunt them with cowardice as he continued his appeal.
“Daughter, daughter!” her father on the upper floor of the veranda was
calling down to her.
“What is it, father?” she asked.
“Do you know if Carson was hurt?” the Major asked, anxiously. “You know
he said he wasn't, but it would be like him to pretend so, even if he
were wounded. It may be only the excitement that is keeping him up, and
the poor boy may be seriously injured.”
“Oh, father, do you think--?” Helen's heart sank; a sensation like
nausea came over her, and she reeled and almost fell. Sanders, a queer,
white look on his face, caught hold of her arm and supported her to a
seat on the veranda. She raised her eyes to the face of her escort as
she sank into a chair. “Do you think--did he look like he was wounded?”
“I could not make out,” Sanders answered, solicitously, and yet his lip
was drawn tight and he stood quite erect. “I--I thought he was at first,
but later when he continued to speak I fancied I was mistaken.”
“He put his hands to his temple,” Helen said, “and almost fell. I saw
him steady himself, and then he really seemed stunned for a moment.”
Sanders was silent. “I remember her aunt said,” he reflected, in grim
misery, his brows drawn together, “that she once had a sweetheart up
here. _Is this the man?_”