THE TALL TIMBERS OF OLD HARPETH
Is it that there comes to the world an hour in the twenty and four in
which it lays aside the mortality of the earth and clothes itself in
an immortality of a very great awe? I think that it is so; and it was
out into the whiteness of that hour that I stepped when I had
successfully passed from my room to the garden of the home of my
Uncle, the General Robert, which is also the home of my American
ancestors. A command for my presence had come to me from the loved
Gouverneur Faulkner and it was needful that I make all possible haste;
but it seemed to me that all of the beautiful faded flowers of my dead
grandmammas in that garden rose up around me for beguilement and gave
to me a perfume that they had kept in saving for the Roberta, some day
to come across the waters to them. And all of their little
descendants, the opening blossoms of spring, also gave perfume to me
in a mist in the white moonlight, while a few fragrant rose vines bent
to detain me as I left that home of my grandmothers to go out into
that sleeping city, alone. I had a great fear, but yet a great
devotion drew me and in a very few minutes I had driven my Cherry from
the garage and was on my way through the silent streets to--I did not
know what.
At the door of the Mansion I was admitted by my good Cato, who was
attired in a very long red flannel sleeping garment, with a red cap
also of the flannel tied down upon the white wool of his head.
"Has you got dat hoodoo, little Mas'?" he demanded of me as I passed
into the hall beneath the candle in a tall stand of silver which he
held high over my head.
"Yes, good Cato," I made answer to him and I was indeed glad that I
had now of a habit put his gift under the heel of my left foot. It
gave me great courage.
"De Governor is up in his room and you kin go right up. I never heard
of no such doings as is going on in dis house dis night with that
there wild man with a gun five feet long, coming and going like de
wind. Go on up, honey, and see what you kin do to dem with dat
hoodoo." With which information good Cato started me up the stairs.
"First door to the right, front, and don't knock," he called in a
whisper that might have come from his tomb in death as he slowly
retired into the darkness below with his candle.
For a very long minute I stood before that door in the dim light that
came through one of the wide windows from the moon without.
"What is this madness that you perform, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and
Bye?" I made demand of myself while my knees trembled in the trousers
of heavy gray worsted.
"Robert Carruthers goes to his chief in an hour of need and he is
descended of that Madam Donaldson who had no fear of the Indian or the
bear when there was danger to her beloved," I made answer to myself
and softly I turned the handle of that door and entered the room of
the Gouverneur Faulkner.
"Is that you, Robert?" came a question in his voice from a large table
over by the window. The room was entirely in shadow, except for the
shaded light upon the table, under whose rays I remarked the head and
shoulders of that Gouverneur Faulkner, at whose bidding I had come out
into the dead of the night. "Come over here and walk softly, so as not
to stir up Jenkins," he commanded me and I went immediately to his
side, even if I did experience a difficulty in the breath of Roberta,
Marquise of Grez and Bye.
"What is it that you wish, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" I asked as I
looked down upon him as he sat with a paper in his hand regarding it
intently. And as I looked I observed that he, as well as I, had not
entirely disrobed after that very brilliant reception. He had
discarded his coat of the raven and also what is called a vest in
America, and he was very beautiful to me in the whiteness of his very
fine linen above which his dark bronze hair with its silver crests,
that I had always observed to be in a very sleek order, was tossed
into a mop that resembled the usual appearance of my own. His eyes
were very deep under their heavy lashes but of the brilliancy of the
stars in the blackness of a dark night.
"Sit down here under the light beside me," was his next command to me,
and he reached out one of his slender and powerful hands and drew me
down into a chair very close beside him.
"What is it?" I asked as my head came so close to his that I felt the
warmth of his breath on my cold cheek.
"Hold these two fragments of paper together and translate the French
written upon them literally," he said to me as he handed me two small
pieces of paper upon which there was writing.
And this is what I discovered to be written:
"Honored Madam:
"The one at the head of all has sent me to this place to
inspect grazing lands and make report. I send in a report of
what is not here and the signing of the papers by your
Gouverneur Faulkner must be done quickly in blindness before a
discovery of what is not--"
"It is written to a woman," I said very quietly as I made a finish of
reading.
"Yes, boy, to a woman. I have made my last fight to--to hold an old
belief, which in some way seemed to be--be one of my foundation
stones. The General is right: they are all alike, the soft, beautiful,
lying things. The truth is not in them, and their own or a man's honor
is a plaything. That piece of paper was sent me by a man up in the
mountains of Old Harpeth, who loves me with the same blood bond that I
love you, boy, all on account of a gun struck up in the hands of his
enemy. Here's the note he sent with it.
"Bill, we cotched a furren man fer a revenue up by the still
at Turkey Gulch and this was in his pocket. I made out to read
yo name. I send it. The man is kept tied. What is mules worth?
Send price and what to do with this man critter by son Jim.
Hell, Bill, they ain't no grazing fer five thousand mules on
Paradise Ridge, but I know a place.
Jim Todd."
"What is the significance of this paper, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" I
asked after I had made the attempt to translate to myself the very
peculiar writing he had given to me.
"I do not know just exactly myself, Robert," answered my Gouverneur
Faulkner as he dropped his head upon his hands while he rested his
elbows on the polished table among its scattered papers. "I am
convinced now that this mule contract business is the plot against my
honor that the General believes it to be and has been trying to get to
a legal surface. In some way Jim Todd has got hold of one end of the
conspiracy. It has been hard for me to believe that a woman would sell
me out. If I take it to her in the morning I'll perhaps get an
explanation that will satisfy me. The men who are in with Jeff
Whitworth are the best financiers in the State and it is impossible to
believe that--"
Very suddenly it happened in my heart to know what to compel that very
large man beside me to do for the rescue of his honor. He must see the
matter, not through the lies of that beautiful Madam Whitworth, the
instrument of that very ugly husband, but he must look into the matter
with his blood friend, that Mr. Jim Todd.
"You must go immediately to that Mr. Jim Todd and his prisoner to
discover truth, Your Excellency," I said with a very firm
determination as I looked straight into his sad eyes that had in them
almost the look of shame for dishonor.
"It's twenty-four hours on horseback across Old Harpeth from
Springtown, boy. The trip would take three days. I can't do it with
these guests here, even if they are robbers. I'll have to stay and dig
down to the root of the matter here. I may find it in the hearts of my
friends," he answered me with a look of great despair.
"The root of the matter is that man who is a prisoner, my Gouverneur
Faulkner. I say that you go; that you start while yet it is night and
while no man can advise you not to take that journey. It can be done
while this entertainment to the farm of the Brices is made for the
inspection of mules and also the running of horses. It is necessary!"
As I spoke to him in that manner a great force rose in me that I
poured out to him through my eyes.
"Great Heavens, boy, I believe I'll do it. I could never get anything
if I went when they knew I was going, but I might find out the whole
thing if I went to it in secret. If I go now they'll not have time to
get their breath before I am back. I'll be able to think out there is
those hills and I'm--a--man who needs to think--with a vision
unobscured." For a long minute my Gouverneur Faulkner sat with his
head bowed in his hands as he rested his elbows on that table, then he
rose to his feet. "Let's get away while it is still the dead of night,
Robert. I'll leave a note with Cato to tell the General that I've
taken you, and nobody except himself must know where I have gone or
why. He'll put up the right bluff and we'll be back before they get
anything out of him. It's three o'clock and we must be far out on the
road by daybreak. We'll take your car and leave it in hiding at
Springtown, where by sunup we'll get horses to cross the mountains."
"Is it that I must go for three days out into those mountains with
you, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" faltered that ridiculous and troublesome
Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye.
"Why, no, Robert, unless--unless--Oh, well, I suppose this prisoner of
Jim's can speak English as they all can. I rather wanted you--but
perhaps it is best for me to fight it out alone. Will you help me pack
a bag? Get the one from my dressing room while I take a plunge."
"Quick, Robert Carruthers, make an excuse to that Roberta, Marquise of
Grez and Bye, who is of such a foolishness, that you must go with your
beloved Gouverneur Faulkner for his aid," I said to myself.
"It is necessary that your foreign secretary accompany you to deal
with that gentleman of France who is in prison, my Gouverneur
Faulkner," I said with decision as I rose from the side of the table
with a great quickness. "I must return home for a few necessities of
my toilet for those three days, but I will be back in what that good
Kizzie says to be a jiffy, when speaking of cooking that is delayed."
"Good," answered me my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner. Then he laid his
hand upon my shoulder as we stood together in the dimness out from the
rays of the light. "There is something in your eyes, Robert, that
renews my faith in the truths of--of life. I'm going out into the
wilderness on a grave mission whose result may shake down some houses
of--of cards, but because of your being with me I feel as if I were
starting off on a picnic or a day's fishing at the age of ten. Now,
I'll hurry." And as he spoke my Gouverneur Faulkner made a start in
the direction of his room for the bath.
"Is it that I may begin the packing of your bag for you, Your
Excellency, before I go for those necessities of my own?" I asked of
him.
"Won't be time for you to go home, boy," he answered me, looking at a
clock upon the mantel over his large fireplace. "You are still in your
evening clothes, I see. But that's easy: you climb into that pink coat
and a pair of those corduroy trousers of mine you see hanging in my
dressing room. I haven't hunted for two years but they are still
there. Put linen in that saddlebag on the shelf for us both out of the
drawers in the old chest over there. Take heavy socks to go under the
leggings. You'd better put on a flannel shirt, too, and take an extra
one for both of us. We'll travel light. I'll only be in the bath a
couple of minutes." With which assurance he entered the room of the
bath and closed the door upon me.
"_Mon Dieu_, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye!" was all that I
allowed myself to exclaim as I made a very quick rush for that
dressing room, switched on the light, flung off my coat, seized a pair
of corduroy riding breeches that hung in a corner beside another pair,
discarded my own of broadcloth and struggled with both of my legs the
same moment into them. Then in a hurry as great as I shall ever know I
discovered a gray flannel shirt in a drawer of the very tall old
mahogany chest and inserted myself into that with an equal rapidity. A
wide leather belt made the two very large garments secure around my
waist and I again allowed breath to come into my lungs. I then opened
a very queer bag which I knew to be for a saddle, that was upon a
shelf in the dressing room, and began to put things into it according
to directions of the Gouverneur Faulkner. The other pair of those
riding breeches I laid with another of the flannel shirts in a great
conspicuousness upon a chair in the bedroom directly in front of the
door from the dressing room.
"We're going to make a record get-away, boy," said that Gouverneur
Faulkner to me as in a few minutes he came, clothed in those riding
trousers and that flannel shirt, to the door of his dressing room,
where I was just making a finish of putting needful clothing into his
bag. "You'll find the other things we need in the bathroom. Put it all
in while I get together a few papers I want. We can start now in two
minutes."
"All is ready now, my Gouverneur Faulkner," I made the announcement
after a wading into that very wet room of the bath and a return.
"Here, give me the bag, and you go ahead with this electric torch.
Quiet now," admonished that Gouverneur Faulkner to me as we took our
departure through the dark hall.
"This is the maddest escapade that a Governor of this ancient State
has ever undertaken, and the weight of years has slid from me, boy,"
said that Gouverneur Faulkner to me as the Cherry made a long glide
from the city out into the open road.
The day was just beginning to come with its light from behind the very
large and crooked old mountain that is called Old Harpeth, when my
Gouverneur Faulkner made me to turn my good Cherry from off the main
road into a little road, of much narrowness and of beautiful brown
dirt the color of the riding trousers that I wore, and stop beside a
very humble, small house, which was covered with a vine in beautiful
bud, and around which many chickens hovered in waiting for a morning
breakfast. Behind the small house was a large barn and as I made a
nice turn and stop beside the white gate a man in a blue garment that
I now know is called overalls, came to the door of the barn.
"Hello, Bud. Are Lightfoot and Steady in good condition for a trip
across to Turkey-Gulch?" called my Gouverneur Faulkner as he alighted
from the car.
"Fit as fiddles, Governor Bill," answered the man as he came to the
gate to shake hands with the Gouverneur Faulkner. "'Light and come in
to breakfast. Granny has got a couple of chickens already in the
skillet. And say, I want you to see what Mandy have got in the bed
with her. Ten pounds, Gov."
"Congratulations, Bud; that is some--boy?" said my Gouverneur Faulkner
with a question as he again grasped the hand of the large man.
"Naw, Gov; we didn't have no luck this first shot but I tells Mandy
that we've got about a dozen more chanstes if she does as well by me
as she oughter. Anyway what's the matter with a gal child?" And the
nice young father of the poor little female made a bristle of his
disposition in defense of his daughter.
"Not a thing on earth, Bud; except that the whole sex are the unknown
quantity. This is my secretary, Robert Carruthers, the General's
nephew. Come in, Robert, and you'll have one square meal in your life
if you never get another. Get me the usual food wallet together, Bud,
please, and let me have it and the horses the very moment I've
swallowed the last bite of my drum bone, will you? We've got to ride
fast and far to-day and I want nobody on my trail. Understand?"
"Yep, Gov," was the answer that good Bud man made as my Gouverneur
Faulkner and I took our way through many chickens into the low little
house.
"God bless my soul, if here ain't the Governor come for a bite with
Granny Bell this fine morning!" exclaimed a very nice old lady from
above a stove, which was steaming with food of such an odor as to
create a madness in my very empty stomach.
"More than any bite, Granny," answered my Gouverneur Faulkner as he
came beside the stove to shake hands with the nice hostess.
"I'd like to feed you some gold, fried in silk. Governor Bill, fer
that mercy to my nephew Timms. I can't say what I feels and finish
this cream gravy the right color for you," and as she spoke the fine
old friend of my Gouverneur Faulkner wept as she shook a steaming
sauce in a black pan and turned with the left hand a golden piece of
bread upon another part of the stove.
"I don't need anything more than your 'well done,' Granny," answered
my Gouverneur Faulkner as he laid a gentle hand on the trembling
shoulder of the nice old lady. "This youngster here got the word from
Mary and you can give him both of the liver wings if you want to show
your gratitude to him."
"God bless you, young gentleman, and you shall have anything that
Granny Bell has to give you in gratitude. Now draw up two chairs and
fall to, boys," and as she spoke she set the dishes of a beautiful
odor upon a very clean table beside the stove.
"Is it that I may wash the grease stains of the car from my hands
before eating, dear Madam?" I asked of her.
"Back porch, you'll find the bucket and pan and towel, youngster. I
can't wait for you," made answer my Gouverneur Faulkner as he laughed
and began upon the repast that must of necessity be a hurried one.