THE LAST OF SANDY FLASH.
The winter crept on, February was drawing to a close, and still Gilbert
Potter had not ascertained whence the money was to be drawn which would
relieve him from embarrassment. The few applications he had made were
failures; some of the persons really had no money to invest, and others
were too cautious to trust a man who, as everybody knew, had been
unfortunate. In five weeks more the sum must be made up, or the mortgage
would be foreclosed.
Both Mary Potter and her son, in this emergency, seemed to have adopted,
by accident or sympathy, the same policy towards each other,--to cheer
and encourage, in every possible way. Gilbert carefully concealed his
humiliation, on returning home from an unsuccessful appeal for a loan,
and his mother veiled her renewed sinking of the heart, as she heard of
his failure, under a cheerful hope of final success, which she did not
feel. Both had, in fact, one great consolation to fall back upon,--she
that he had been mercifully saved to her, he that he was beloved by a
noble woman.
All the grain that could be spared and sold placed but little more than
a hundred dollars in Gilbert's hands, and he began seriously to consider
whether he should not be obliged to sell his wagon and team. He had been
offered a hundred and fifty dollars, (a very large sum, in those days,)
for Roger, but he would as soon have sold his own right arm. Not even to
save the farm would he have parted with the faithful animal. Mark Deane
persisted in increasing his seventy-five dollars to a hundred, and
forcing the loan upon his friend; so one third of the amount was secure,
and there was still hope for the rest.
It is not precisely true that there had been no offer of assistance.
There was _one_, which Gilbert half-suspected had been instigated by
Betsy Lavender. On a Saturday afternoon, as he visited Kennett Square
to have Roger's fore-feet shod, he encountered Alfred Barton at the
blacksmith's shop, on the same errand.
“The man I wanted to see!” cried the latter, as Gilbert dismounted.
“Ferris was in Chester last week, and he saw Chaffey, the constable, you
know, that helped catch Sandy; and Chaffey told him he was sure, from
something Sandy let fall, that Deb. Smith had betrayed him out of
revenge, because he robbed you. I want to know how it all hangs
together.”
Gilbert suddenly recalled Deb. Smith's words, on the day after his
escape from the inundation, and a suspicion of the truth entered his
mind for the first time.
“It must have been so!” he exclaimed. “She has been a better friend to
me than many people of better name.”
Barton noticed the bitterness of the remark, and possibly drew his
own inference from it. He looked annoyed for a moment, but presently
beckoned Gilbert to one side, and said,--
“I don't know whether you've given up your foolish suspicions about
me and Sandy; but the trial comes off next week, and you'll have to be
there as a witness, of course, and can satisfy yourself, if you please,
that my explanation was nothing but the truth. I've not felt so jolly in
twenty years, as when I heard that the fellow was really in the jug!”
“I told you I believed your words,” Gilbert answered, “and that settles
the matter. Perhaps I shall find out how Sandy learned what you said to
me that evening, on the back-porch of the Unicorn, and if so, I am bound
to let you know it.”
“See here, Gilbert!” Barton resumed. “Folks say you must borrow the
money you lost, or the mortgage on your farm will be foreclosed. Is
that so? and how much money might it be, altogether, if you don't mind
telling?”
“Not so much, if those who have it to lend, had a little faith in
me,--some four or five hundred dollars.”
“That ought to be got, without trouble,” said Barton. “If I had it by
me, I'd lend it to you in a minute; but you know I borrowed from Ferris
myself, and all o' my own is so tied up that I couldn't move it without
the old man getting on my track. I'll tell you what I'll do, though;
I'll indorse your note for a year, if it can be kept a matter between
ourselves and the lender. On account of the old man, you understand.”
The offer was evidently made in good faith, and Gilbert hesitated,
reluctant to accept it, and yet unwilling to reject it in a manner that
might seem unfriendly.
“Barton,” he said at last, “I've never yet failed to meet a money
obligation. All my debts, except this last, have been paid on the day I
promised, and it seems a little hard that my own name, alone, shouldn't
be good for as much as I need. Old Fairthorn would give me his
indorsement, but I won't ask for it; and I mean no offence when I say
that I'd rather get along without yours, if I can. It's kind in you to
make the offer, and to show that I'm not ungrateful, I'll beg you to
look round among your rich friends and help me to find the loan.”
“You're a mighty independent, fellow, Gilbert, but I can't say as I
blame you for it. Yes, I'll look round in a few days, and maybe I'll
stumble on the right man by the time I see you again.”
When Gilbert returned home, he communicated this slight prospect of
relief to his mother. “Perhaps I am a little too proud,” he said; “but
you've always taught me, mother, to be beholden to no man, if I could
help it; and I should feel more uneasy under an obligation to Barton
than to most other men. You know I must go to Chester in a few days, and
must wait till I'm called to testify. There will then be time to look
around, and perhaps Mr. Trainer may help me yet.”
“You're right, boy!” Mary Potter cried, with flashing eyes. “Keep
your pride; it's not of the mean kind! Don't ask for or take any man's
indorsement!”
Two days before the time when Gilbert was summoned to Chester, Deb.
Smith made her appearance at the farm. She entered the barn early one
morning, with a bundle in her hand, and dispatched Sam, whom she found
in the stables, to summon his master. She looked old, weather-beaten,
and haggard, and her defiant show of strength was gone.
In betraying Sandy Flash into the hands of justice, she had acted from
a fierce impulse, without reflecting upon the inevitable consequences
of the step. Perhaps she did not suspect that she was also betraying
herself, and more than confirming all the worst rumors in regard to her
character. In the universal execration which followed the knowledge of
her lawless connection with Sandy Flash, and her presumed complicity in
his crimes, the merit of her service to the county was lost. The popular
mind, knowing nothing of her temptations, struggles, and sufferings, was
harsh, cold, and cruel, and she felt the weight of its verdict as
never before. A few persons of her own ignorant class, who admired her
strength and courage in their coarse way, advised her to hide until the
first fury of the storm should be blown over. Thus she exaggerated the
danger, and even felt uncertain of her reception by the very man for
whose sake she had done the deed and accepted the curse.
Gilbert, however, when he saw her worn, anxious face, the eyes, like
those of a dumb animal, lifted to his with an appeal which she knew not
how to speak, felt a pang of compassionate sympathy.
“Deborah!” he said, “you don't look well; come into the house and warm
yourself!”
“No!” she cried, “I won't darken your door till you've heerd what I've
got to say. Go 'way, Sam; I want to speak to Mr. Gilbert, alone.”
Gilbert made a sign, and Sam sprang down the ladder, to the stables
under the threshing-floor.
“Mayhap you've heerd already,” she said. “A blotch on a body's name
spreads fast and far. Mine was black enough before, God knows, but
they've blackened it more.”
“If all I hear is true,” Gilbert exclaimed, “you've blackened it for my
sake, Deborah. I'm afraid you thought I blamed you, in some way, for not
preventing my loss; but I'm sure you did what you could to save me from
it!”
“Ay, lad, that I did! But the devil seemed to ha' got into him. Awful
words passed between us, and then--the devil got into _me_, and--you
know what follered. He wouldn't believe the money was your'n, or I don't
think he'd ha' took it; he wasn't a bad man at heart, Sandy wasn't, only
stubborn at the wrong times, and brung it onto himself by that. But you
know what folks says about me?”
“I don't care what they say, Deborah!” Gilbert cried. “I know that you
are a true and faithful friend to me, and I've not had so many such in
my life that I'm likely to forget what you've tried to do!”
Her hard, melancholy face became at once eager and tender. She stepped
forward, put her hand on Gilbert's arm, and said, in a hoarse, earnest,
excited whisper,--
“Then maybe you'll take it? I was almost afeard to ax you,--I thought
you might push me away, like the rest of 'em; but you'll take it, and
that'll seem like a liftin' of the curse! You won't mind how it was got,
will you? I had to git it in that way, because no other was left to me!”
“What do you mean, Deborah?”
“The money, Mr. Gilbert! They allowed me half, though the constables was
for thirds, but the Judge said I'd arned the full half,--God knows, ten
thousand times wouldn't pay me!--and I've got it here, tied up safe.
It's your'n, you know, and maybe there a'n't quite enough, but as fur as
it goes; and I'll work out the amount o' the rest, from time to time, if
you'll let me come onto your place!”
Gilbert was powerfully and yet painfully moved. He forgot his
detestation of the relation in which Deb. Smith had stood to the
highwayman, in his gratitude for her devotion to himself. He felt an
invincible repugnance towards accepting her share of the reward, even
as a loan; it was “blood-money,” and to touch it in any way was to be
stained with its color; yet how should he put aside her kindness without
inflicting pain upon her rude nature, made sensitive at last by abuse,
persecution, and remorse?
His face spoke in advance of his lips, and she read its language with
wonderful quickness.
“Ah!” she cried, “I mistrusted how it'd be; you don't want to say it
right out, but I'll say it for you! You think the money'd bring you no
luck,--maybe a downright curse,--and how can I say it won't? Ha'n't it
cursed me? Sandy said it would, even as your'n follered him. What's it
good for, then? It burns my hands, and them that's clean, won't touch
it. There, you damned devil's-bait,--my arm's sore, and my heart's sore,
wi' the weight o' you!”
With these words she flung the cloth, with its bunch of hard silver
coins, upon the threshing-floor. It clashed like the sound of chains.
Gilbert saw that she was sorely hurt. Tears of disappointment, which she
vainly strove to hold back, rose to her eyes, as she grimly folded her
arms, and facing him, said,--
“Now, what am I to do?”
“Stay here for the present, Deborah,” he answered.
“Eh? A'n't I summonsed? The job I undertook isn't done yet; the wust
part's to come! Maybe they'll let me off from puttin' the rope round his
neck, but I a'n't sure o' that!”
“Then come to me afterwards,” he said, gently, striving to allay her
fierce, self-accusing mood. “Remember that you always have a home and a
shelter with me, whenever you need them. And I'll take your money,” he
added, picking it up from the floor,--“take it in trust for you, until
the time shall come when you will be willing to use it. Now go in to my
mother.”
The woman was softened and consoled by his words. But she still
hesitated.
“Maybe she won't--she won't”--
“She will!” Gilbert exclaimed. “But if you doubt, wait here until I come
back.”
Mary Potter earnestly approved of his decision, to take charge of the
money, without making use of it. A strong, semi-superstitious influence
had so entwined itself with her fate, that she even shrank from help,
unless it came in an obviously pure and honorable form. She measured the
fulness of her coming justification by the strict integrity of the means
whereby she sought to deserve it. Deb. Smith, in her new light, was
no welcome guest, and with all her coarse male strength, she was still
woman enough to guess the fact; but Mary Potter resolved to think
only that her son had been served and befriended. Keeping that service
steadily before her eyes, she was able to take the outcast's hand, to
give her shelter and food, and, better still, to soothe her with that
sweet, unobtrusive consolation which only a woman can bestow,--which
steals by avenues of benevolent cunning into a nature that would repel a
direct expression of sympathy.
The next morning, however, Deb. Smith left the house, saying to
Gilbert,--“You won't see me ag'in, without it may be in Court, till
after all's over; and then I may have to ask you to hide me for awhile.
Don't mind what I've said; I've no larnin', and can't always make out
the rights o' things,--and sometimes it seems there's two Sandys, a good
'un and a bad 'un, and meanin' to punish one, I've ruined 'em both!”
When Gilbert reached Chester, the trial was just about to commence. The
little old town on the Delaware was crowded with curious strangers, not
only from all parts of the county, but even from Philadelphia and the
opposite New-Jersey shore. Every one who had been summoned to testify
was beset by an inquisitive circle, and none more so than himself. The
Court-house was packed to suffocation; and the Sheriff, heavily armed,
could with difficulty force a way through the mass. When the clanking of
the prisoner's irons was heard, all the pushing, struggling, murmuring
sounds ceased until the redoubtable highwayman stood in the dock.
He looked around the Court-room with his usual defiant air, and no one
observed any change of expression, as his eyes passed rapidly over Deb.
Smith's face, or Gilbert Potter's. His hard red complexion was
already beginning to fade in confinement, and his thick hair, formerly
close-cropped for the convenience of disguises, had grown out in not
ungraceful locks. He was decidedly a handsome man, and his bearing
seemed to show that he was conscious of the fact.
The trial commenced. To the astonishment of all, and, as it was
afterwards reported, against the advice of his counsel, the prisoner
plead guilty to some of the specifications of the indictment, while he
denied others. The Collectors whom he had plundered were then called to
the witness-stand, but the public seemed to manifest less interest
in the loss of its own money, than in the few cases where private
individuals had suffered, and waited impatiently for the latter.
Deb. Smith had so long borne the curious gaze of hundreds of eyes,
whenever she lifted her head, that when her turn came, she was able to
rise and walk forward without betraying any emotion. Only when she was
confronted with Sandy Flash, and he met her with a wonderfully strange,
serious smile, did she shudder for a moment and hastily turn away. She
gave her testimony in a hard, firm voice, making her statements as brief
as possible, and volunteering nothing beyond what was demanded.
On being dismissed from the stand, she appeared to hesitate. Her eyes
wandered over the faces of the lawyers, the judges, and the jurymen, as
if with a dumb appeal, but she did not speak. Then she turned towards
the prisoner, and some words passed between them, which, in the general
movement of curiosity, were only heard by the two or three persons who
stood nearest.
“Sandy!” she was reported to have said, “I couldn't help myself; take
the curse off o' me!”
“Deb., it's too late,” he answered. “It's begun to work, and it'll work
itself out!”
Gilbert noticed the feeling of hostility with which Deb. Smith was
regarded by the spectators,--a feeling that threatened to manifest
itself in some violent way, when the restraints of the place should be
removed. He therefore took advantage of the great interest with which
his own testimony was heard, to present her character in the light which
her services to him shed upon it. This was a new phase of the story, and
produced a general movement of surprise. Sandy Flash, it was noticed,
sitting with his fettered hands upon the rail before him, leaned forward
and listened intently, while an unusual flush deepened upon his cheeks.
The statements, though not strictly in evidence, were permitted by
the Court, and they produced the effect which Gilbert intended. The
excitement reached its height when Deb. Smith, ignorant of rule,
suddenly rose and cried out,--
“It's true as Gospel, every word of it! Sandy, do you hear?”
She was removed by the constable, but the people, as they made way,
uttered no word of threat or insult. On the contrary, many eyes rested
on her hard, violent, wretched face with an expression of very genuine
compassion.
The trial took its course, and terminated with the result which
everybody--even the prisoner himself--knew to be inevitable. He was
pronounced guilty, and duly sentenced to be hanged by the neck until he
was dead.
Gilbert employed the time which he could spare from his attendance
at the Court, in endeavoring to make a new loan, but with no positive
success. The most he accomplished was an agreement, on the part of his
creditor, that the foreclosure might be delayed two or three weeks,
provided there was a good prospect of the money being obtained. In
ordinary times he would have had no difficulty; but, as Mr. Trainer had
written, the speculation in western lands had seized upon capitalists,
and the amount of money for permanent investment was already greatly
diminished.
He was preparing to return home, when Chaffey, the constable, came to
him with a message from Sandy Flash. The latter begged for an interview,
and both Judge and Sheriff were anxious that Gilbert should comply with
his wishes, in the hope that a full and complete confession might be
obtained. It was evident that the highwayman had accomplices, but he
steadfastly refused to name them, even with the prospect of having his
sentence commuted to imprisonment for life.
Gilbert did not hesitate a moment. There were doubts of his own to be
solved,--questions to be asked, which Sandy Flash could alone answer. He
followed the constable to the gloomy, high-walled jail-building, and
was promptly admitted by the Sheriff into the low, dark, heavily barred
cell, wherein the prisoner sat upon a wooden stool, the links of his
leg-fetters passed through a ring in the floor.
Sandy Flash lifted his face to the light, and grinned, but not with
his old, mocking expression. He stretched out his hand which Gilbert
took,--hard and cold as the rattling chain at his wrist. Then, seating
himself with a clash upon the floor, he pushed the stool towards his
visitor, and said,--
“Set down, Potter. Limited accommodations, you see. Sheriff, you needn't
wait; it's private business.”
The Sheriff locked the iron door behind him, and they were alone.
“Potter,” the highwayman began, “you see I'm trapped and done for, and
all, it seems, on account o' that little affair o' your'n. You won't
think it means much, now, when I say I was in the wrong there; but I
swear I was! I had no particular spite ag'in Barton, but he's a swell,
and I like to take such fellows down; and I was dead sure you were
carryin' his money, as you promised to.”
“Tell me one thing,” Gilbert interrupted; “how did you know I promised
to take money for him?”
“I knowed it, that's enough; I can give you, word for word, what both o'
you said, if you doubt me.”
“Then, as I thought, it was Barton himself!” Gilbert cried.
Sandy Flash burst into a roaring laugh. “_Him!_ Ah-ha! you think we go
snacks, eh? Do I look like a fool? Barton'd give his eye-teeth to put
the halter round my neck with his own hands! No, no, young man; I have
ways and ways o' learnin' things that you nor him'll never guess.”
His manner, even more than his words, convinced Gilbert Barton was
absolved, but the mystery remained. “You won't deny that you have
friends?” he said.
“Maybe,” Sandy replied, in a short, rough tone. “That's nothin' to
you,” he continued; “but what I've got to say is, whether or no you're
a friend to Deb., she thinks you are. Do you mean to look after her,
once't in a while, or are you one o' them that forgits a good turn?”
“I have told her,” said Gilbert, “that she shall always have a home and
a shelter in my house. If it's any satisfaction to you, here's my hand
on it!”
“I believe you, Potter. Deb.'s done ill by me; she shouldn't ha' bullied
me when I was sore and tetchy, and fagged out with _your_ curst huntin'
of me up and down! But I'll do that much for her and for you. Here; bend
your head down; I've got to whisper.”
Gilbert leaned his ear to the highwayman's mouth.
“You'll only tell _her,_ you understand?”
Gilbert assented.
“Say to her these words,--don't forgit a single one of 'em!--Thirty
steps from the place she knowed about, behind the two big
chestnut-trees, goin' towards the first cedar, and a forked sassyfrack
growin' right over it. What she finds, is your'n.”
“Sandy!” Gilbert exclaimed, starting from his listening posture.
“Hush, I say! You know what I mean her to do,--give you your money back.
I took a curse with it, as you said. Maybe that's off o' me, now!”
“It is!” said Gilbert, in a low tone, “and forgiveness--mine and my
mother's--in the place of it. Have you any”--he hesitated to say the
words--“any last messages, to her or anybody else, or anything you would
like to have done?”
“Thank ye, no!--unless Deb. can find my black hair and whiskers. Then
you may give 'em to Barton, with my dutiful service.”
He laughed at the idea, until his chains rattled.
Gilbert's mind was haunted with the other and darker doubt, and
he resolved, in this last interview, to secure himself against its
recurrence. In such an hour he could trust the prisoner's words.
“Sandy,” he asked, “have you any children?”
“Not to my knowledge; and I'm glad of it.”
“You must know,” Gilbert continued, “what the people say about my birth.
My mother is bound from telling me who my father was, and I dare not
ask her any questions. Did you ever happen to know her, in your younger
days, or can you remember anything that will help me to discover his
name?”
The highwayman sat silent, meditating, and Gilbert felt that his heart
was beginning to beat painfully fast, as he waited for the answer.
“Yes,” said Sandy, at last, “I did know Mary Potter when I was a boy,
and she knowed me, under another name. I may say I liked her, too, in a
boy's way, but she was older by three or four years, and never thought
o' lookin' at me. But I can't remember anything more; if I was out o'
this, I'd soon find out for you!”
He looked up with an eager, questioning glance, which Gilbert totally
misunderstood.
“What was your other name?” he asked, in a barely audible voice.
“I dunno as I need tell it,” Sandy answered; “what'd be the good?
There's some yet livin', o' the same name, and they wouldn't thank me.”
“Sandy!” Gilbert cried desperately, “answer this one question,--don't
go out of the world with a false word in your mouth!--You are not my
father?”
The highwayman looked at him a moment, in blank amazement. “No, so help
me God!” he then said.
Gilbert's face brightened so suddenly and vividly that Sandy muttered to
himself,--“I never thought I was that bad.”
“I hear the Sheriff at the outside gate,” he whispered again. “Don't
forgit--thirty steps from the place she knowed about--behind the two big
chestnut-trees, goin' towards the first cedar--and a forked sassyfrack
growin' right over it! Good-bye, and good-luck to the whole o' your
life!”
The two clasped hands with a warmth and earnestness which surprised the
Sheriff. Then Gilbert went out from his old antagonist.
That night Sandy Flash made an attempt to escape from the jail, and
very nearly succeeded. It appeared, from some mysterious words which he
afterwards let fall, and which Gilbert alone could have understood, that
he had a superstitious belief that something he had done would bring him
a new turn of fortune. The only result of the attempt was to hasten
his execution. Within ten days from that time he was transformed from a
living terror into a romantic name.