"BEHOLD, I AM A SPY!"
As I sat and held in my hand those papers in which were two long
messages, the one written in a very poor English and the other in a
very elegant French, the woman Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye,
trembled with fear of a discovery of her woman's estate while that
daredevil Robert Carruthers raged within and also turned with a deadly
hatred and distrust of the greatest gentleman that _le bon Dieu_
had ever given to him to know. It was as I say, and for this reason:
In the letters were announcements of the arrival of the Lieutenant,
Count Edouard de Bourdon, on that Tuesday which the Madam Whitworth
had mentioned. They were written with great ceremony to my Uncle, the
General Robert Carruthers, as Secretary of the State of Harpeth, to
give to him that information to be conveyed to His Excellency, the
Gouverneur Faulkner, in due form though he already had that
information.
"They make into a fool my revered Uncle, the General Robert
Carruthers, who would keep his State and the Gouverneur of that State
from dishonor!" I exclaimed to myself in my rage. "And this woman
thinks to play with the life of French soldiers as she has with that
same Gouverneur Faulkner, does she? No, there is Roberta, Marquise of
Grez and Bye, who is a soldier of her Republique by appointment from
the great Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, to both watch and further
the interests of France, whom she must meet in combat first!"
And as I said these words to myself I made a rapid writing of both
papers and with them asked admittance to the room of that false
Gouverneur Faulkner, who had just dismissed the good men who had come
to thank him for his mercy shown to that poor creature Timms.
"Walk right in, sir," said old Cato to me as he gave a low bow of very
great courtesy. Then he looked with eyes of great keenness into my
stormy face. "Make a cross on the floor with that hoodoo in your shoe,
little mas', ef you git in danger or need of luck," he whispered to
me, coming very close. And as he directed I so performed at the very
entrance of the audience chamber of the great Gouverneur of the State
of Harpeth. Then, with a fine relief on his face, good Cato flung open
the door and announced me with great ceremony.
In that room I found my Uncle, the General Robert, and the Gouverneur
Faulkner in deep consultation and they both turned towards me with
anxiety in their faces.
"What did you make of the letters, boy?" asked my Uncle, the General
Robert, with keen anxiety. The great Gouverneur was silent and for the
first time since I had looked into his face my eyes did not glance in
his direction.
"They both announce the arrival on Tuesday of the Lieutenant, the
Count de Bourdon, to sign the contracts concerning the mules to be
sold by the State of Harpeth to the Republique of France, sir," I
answered in a cold and formal voice and then stood at an attention for
any more questions.
"The devil they do!" exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert, while
still the Gouverneur Faulkner was silent. "Do they give no excuse for
being nearly ten days ahead of time, sir?"
"No, honored Uncle," I answered. "Madam Whitworth said to me that the
Gouverneur Faulkner had set that date for the arrival of the
Commission, and had so informed her; and I think that to be the reason
for absence of such excuses." And as I made that answer, which was one
of great impertinence from a secretary to a chief who was a great
gouverneur, I looked with cold calmness into the dark star eyes under
their black lashes, which were darting lightnings of anger at my
words.
"God!" exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert Carruthers, and he
turned white with a trembling as he faced the lightning in those eyes
of the stars. But it was not to his Secretary of State that the great
Gouverneur Faulkner made his denial but to his humble secretary,
Robert Carruthers, who looked without fear into the very depths of
those lightnings.
"This is the first time I have heard of a change of date for the
arrival of the commission, Robert," he said in a calm voice as for a
second his eyes held mine, a second which was sufficient for a truth
to pass from his heart and still the storm in mine. I did not
understand all that his eyes said of a great hurt but I knew that what
he spoke was true and would always be.
"And what were you doing gossiping with that lying hussy, sir?"
demanded my Uncle, the General Robert, with instant belief in the word
of that Gouverneur Faulkner, turning his anger upon me, who stood and
took it with such a joy in my heart from the truth that had come into
it from those eyes of the night stars, that I did not even feel its
violence.
"_Vive la France_ and the State of Harpeth! Behold, I am a spy!"
I answered him as I drew myself to my greatest height and gave the
salute which his old soldiers give to him at that raising of the
banner of the Cause that he had lost in his youth.
"You young daredevil, you, I'm a great mind to break every bone in
your body, as I have said before," he said to me, but I could see a
smile of pride making a lightning of the gloom in his countenance over
the trouble of his affairs of state. "You keep away from--"
"Robert," was the interruption made by my great beloved Gouverneur
Faulkner, "upon you will fall the task of making the plans for the
entertainment of this countryman of yours. The General and I will be
too busy getting-ready-to-meet-them-on-their-own-grounds to give any
time to that. Remember, they will have to be shown the best grazing
land in the valley, in motor cars. When they are done sizing us up,
we'll be ready for them. The Count and his secretaries will, of
course, be entertained at the Mansion and you can make arrangements at
the hotel for the rest of the suite. Also will you please instruct my
servants, from Cato down, how to make them comfortable and, Robert,
will you confer with Mrs. Whitworth, who, as the wife of the Treasurer
of the State of Harpeth while neither the General nor I have wives,
must be considered as the official social representative of the State,
as to what form the official entertainments must take?" And as he
asked that question of me my Gouverneur Faulkner did not so much as
glance at my Uncle, the General Robert, who gave an exclamation of
contempt in his throat as he began a reading of the two papers which I
had handed to him.
"Also I suppose this means I must give up all hope of services from
that fly-up-the-creek, Clendenning," he grumbled as he read.
"I will do as you bid me, my Gouverneur Faulkner, in all things, and I
will be much helped by both my excellent Buzz and the beautiful Madam
Whitworth," I made answer to the question and command given to me by
the Gouverneur Faulkner, and as I mentioned the name of that lady I
lowered my eyes to the floor and waited for my dismissal. I did not
want to look into his eyes, for I did not know even then if I might
not find that Madam Whitworth there. I only knew that whatever she did
or was to him, his honor was inviolable.
"Well, get to it all," commanded my Uncle, the General Robert. "Get
vouchers for what you spend and pay with State Department checks.
Don't blow in a fortune, you young spendthrift, you, but also remember
that the State of Harpeth is one of the richest in America and knows
how to show France real hospitality."
"That State of Harpeth has shown that hospitality to one humble youth
of France, my Uncle Robert, who has a great gratitude," I made answer
to him as I laid my cheek upon the sleeve of his coat, which was of a
cut in the best style for gentlemen of his age but always of that
Confederate gray, likewise affected by good Cato. Try as hard as
Robert Carruthers will, he cannot force that Roberta, Marquise of Grez
and Bye, at all times to refrain from a caress to the Uncle whom she
so greatly loves.
"Clear out, sir! Depart!" was the response I got to that caress; but
always that wicked Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, finds in the
face of her relative something that assures her that she can so
venture at a later time.
And as I turned away from that coldness on the part of my august
relative I found a glow of warmth for my reviving in the eyes of my
beautiful Gouverneur Faulkner, who held out his hand to me as I
started to the door for that departure commanded me.
"Blood brothers never doubt each other, Robert," he said to me as with
one hand he grasped my right hand and laid the other on my above my
bandage, over the wound Timms had given to me, which was now almost
entirely healed.
With the quickness of lightning I laid my cheek against the sleeve of
his coat, in exactly the caress I had given to my Uncle, the General
Robert, and then did depart with an equal rapidity.
"Can you beat him, Bill?" I heard my Uncle, the General Robert, demand
as I closed the door.
"Impossible," was the answer I thought was returned.
And from that audience chamber I went quickly and alone in my good
Cherry to Twin Oaks, was admitted by Bonbon, whom I instructed not in
any way to allow that I be interrupted, ascended to my own apartment
and seated myself in a large chair before the glowing ashes of a small
fire of fragrant chip twigs, which kind Madam Kizzie had had lighted,
against what she called a "May chill," during my toilet of the
morning. Above me from the mantelshelf, that Grandmamma Carruthers
looked down with her great and noble smile, while the flame in her
eyes seemed to answer that in my soul as I communed with myself.
"What is it that you will now do, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?"
I asked of myself with a slight shaking of my knees in their cheviot
trousers. "It is hardly possible that you will escape from revealing
your woman's estate to this Frenchman of your own class. Here all
mistakes of a man's estate are forgiven you and laid to the fact of
your being an alien, but that Lieutenant, Count de Bourdon, will ask
questions of you and perhaps has a knowledge of your relatives and
friends--indeed, must have. Also, already that wicked Madam Whitworth
entertains suspicions of you. What is it that you will do?"
And after I had asked myself for a second time that question I sat and
looked into the eyes of that Grandmamma Carruthers for many long
moments and had an argument with myself; then I answered to her as I
rose to my feet so that my eyes came more nearly on a level with hers:
"No, Madam Ancestress, born of her whom not an Indian or a fierce bear
could frighten away from her duty of protection to those of her
affections, I will not flee. I will stay here by the side of my Uncle,
the General Robert, and my great chief, that Gouverneur Faulkner, to
fight for their honor and to protect France from robbery. Then, if I
be discovered and can do no more for them, I will go from their
presence quickly in the night and be lost in the trenches of France
before I am detained. And if it be that I am not discovered before all
is made well concerning those mules for transportation of food to the
soldiers of France, then I will still go away to the battlefields of
France before it is discovered by all who have given affection to
Robert Carruthers, that he is a--lie. I will leave love for me and for
France in all of these kind hearts, which will comfort me when I fight
for the Republique, or live for her during long years. I grieve
exceedingly; but I go!"
And after that long conference with myself I called upon the telephone
my Buzz and asked of him that he meet me at the Club of Old Hickory,
of which, after the required time of waiting, I was soon to be an
enrolled member.
And when I told to my Mr. Bumble Bee the fact that in the space of
barely three days the great gentleman of France would be in Hayesville
for the purpose of a visit and the signing of the contracts concerning
our much discussed friend, the mule, he gave a very long and loud
whistle and placed his elbows upon the smoking table between us.
"Well, this does call for hustle," he said as he knocked from his
cigarette the ashes. "What are your plans, L'Aiglon?"
"I do not know what it is best to plan, my Buzz," I answered in
perplexity. "Of course, there must be the official reception by His
Excellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner, upon the evening of their
arrival, but more I cannot think. Also, I am commanded by His
Excellency to consult the beautiful Madam Whitworth as the only
official wife of the State, on account of the title of Treasurer of
her husband."
"Oh, Mrs. Pat will be satisfied to shine at the elbow of Governor Bill
at the reception and we can trust her to arrange little odd cosy hours
for herself and any of the bunch who pleases her. It's the man end of
it we want to handle."
"Yes, it is that man end you speak of I wish you to perform for me, my
Buzz," I assented eagerly.
"I'll tell you what let's do," exclaimed that Buzz with a very great
light of enthusiasm coming into his countenance. "Let's don't try to
imitate London, Paris or New York in blowing 'em off; let's give them
a taste of the genuine rural thing. Let's take the bunch down to the
Brice stock farm, Glencove, give 'em a barbecue done by old Cato and
let 'em see the horses run. Gee, they have got a string of youngsters
there! It will take two and a half days, for it's fifty miles down
over a mighty poor road, but it's worth it when you get there. The
Brice farm is the heart of the Harpeth Valley. We took that English
Lordkin, who came to visit Governor Bill last year, down to see old
Brice, and it took us ten days to get him to break away."
"That we will do, my fine Mr. Bumble Bee," I answered with gratitude.
"Sure, it's the thing," said my Buzz with conviction. "We pass right
through the grazing land of the State and we can show them the mule in
the making--the right kind of mule. We'd have to do that anyway, for
that is what they are here for."
I feel a certainty that if I should continue to be an American man for
all of the days I may live, to that three score and ten age, I would
never be able to gain in any way even a small portion of what my fine
Mr. Buzz Clendenning calls "hustle." I went at his side for the three
days which intervened between the news of the arrival of that
Lieutenant, Count de Bourdon, and that actual arrival, in what seemed
to me to be the pace of a very fleet horse or even as the flight of a
bird. And as fast as we went from the arrangement of one detail of
entertainment to another, the beautiful Madam Whitworth went with us,
with her eyes of the flower blue very bright with a great excitement.
I was glad that in all matters it was necessary that my fine Buzz also
consult with her and thus I was not exposed to any of her wickedness
alone.
And in my own heart was also a great excitement, for it seemed to me
that I was fighting a great battle for France all alone. All day I
could see that that Mr. Jefferson Whitworth and the other men of
wealth who with him were seeking to be robbers to my Country, were
first in consultation with themselves and then with my Uncle, the
General Robert, and also the Gouverneur Faulkner. Would their powerful
wickedness prevail and be able to force a signing of that paper on the
Gouverneur? Was that in their power, I asked of myself, and in my
ignorance I did not know an answer and had no person to demand one
from. There was no ease of heart to me, when the days went by and I
was so at work with my Buzz that I had no time for words from my
Gouverneur Faulkner or glance from those eyes of the dawn star. I
could only murmur to myself:
"_Vive la France_ and Harpeth America!"