Over the fields of Ephraim Darke's plantation a lingering ray of
daylight still flickers, as Blue Bill, returning from his abandoned
coon-hunt, gets back to the negro quarter. He enters it, with stealthy
tread, and looking cautiously around.
For he knows that some of his fellow-slaves are aware of his having gone
out "a-cooning," and will wonder at his soon return--too soon to pass
without observation. If seen by them he may be asked for an
explanation, which he is not prepared to give.
To avoid being called upon for it, he skulks in among the cabins; still
carrying the dog under his arm, lest the latter may take a fancy to go
smelling among the utensils of some other darkey's kitchen, and betray
his presence in the "quarter."
Fortunately for the coon-hunter, the little "shanty" that claims him as
its tenant stands at the outward extremity of the row of cabins--nearest
the path leading to the plantation woodland. He is therefore enabled to
reach, and re-enter it, without any great danger of attracting
observation.
And as it chances, he is not observed; but gets back into the bosom of
his family, no one being a bit the wiser.
Blue Bill's domestic circle consists of his wife, Phoebe, and several
half-naked little "niggers," who, at his return, tackle on to his legs,
and, soon as he sits down, clamber confusedly over his knees. So
circumstanced, one would think he should now feel safe, and relieved
from further anxiety. Far from it: he has yet a gauntlet to run.
His re-appearance so early, unexpected; his empty gamebag; the coon-dog
carried under his arm; all have their effect upon Phoebe. She cannot
help feeling surprise, accompanied by a keen curiosity.
She is not the woman to submit to it in silence.
Confronting her dark-skinned lord and master, with arms set akimbo, she
says,--
"Bress de Lor', Bill! Wha' for you so soon home? Neider coon nor
possum! An' de dog toated arter dat trange fashun! You ain't been gone
more'n a hour! Who'd speck see you come back dat a way, empty-handed;
nuffin, 'cep your own ole dog! 'Splain it, sah?"
Thus confronted, the coon-hunter lets fall his canine companion; which
drops with a dump upon the floor. Then seats himself on a stool, but
without entering upon the demanded explanation. He only says:--
"Nebba mind, Phoebe, gal; nebba you mind why I'se got home so soon.
Dat's nuffin 'trange. I seed de night warn't a gwine to be fav'ble fo'
trackin' de coon; so dis nigga konklood he'd leab ole cooney 'lone."
"Lookee hya, Bill!" rejoins the sable spouse, laying her hand upon his
shoulder, and gazing earnestly into his eyes. "Dat ere ain't de correck
explicashun. You's not tellin' me de troof!"
The coon-hunter quails under the searching glance, as if in reality a
criminal; but still holds back the demanded explanation. He is at a
loss what to say.
"Da's somethin' mysteerus 'bout dis," continues his better half.
"You'se got a seecrit, nigga; I kin tell it by de glint ob yer eye. I
nebba see dat look on ye, but I know you ain't yaseff; jess as ye use
deseeve me, when you war in sich a way 'bout brown Bet."
"Wha you talkin 'bout, Phoebe? Dar's no brown Bet in de case. I swar
dar ain't."
"Who sayed dar war? No, Bill, dat's all pass. I only spoked ob her
'kase ya look jess now like ye did when Bet used bamboozle ye. What I
say now am dat you ain't yaseff. Dar's a cat in de bag, somewha; you
better let her out, and confess de whole troof."
As Phoebe makes this appeal, her glance rests inquiringly on her
husband's countenance, and keenly scrutinises the play of his features.
There is not much play to be observed. The coon-hunter is a
pure-blooded African, with features immobile as those of the Sphinx.
And from his colour nought can be deduced. As already said, it is the
depth of its ebon blackness, producing a purplish iridescence over the
epidermis, that has gained for him the sobriquet "Blue Bill."
Unflinchingly he stands the inquisitorial glance, and for the time
Phoebe is foiled.
Only until after supper, when the frugality of the meal--made so by the
barren chase--has perhaps something to do in melting his heart, and
relaxing his tongue. Whether this, or whatever the cause, certain it
is, that before going to bed, he unburdens himself to the partner of his
joys, by making full confession of what he has heard and seen by the
side of the cypress swamp.
He tells her, also, of the letter picked up; which, cautiously pulling
out of his pocket, he submits to her inspection.
Phoebe has once been a family servant--an indoor domestic, and
handmaiden to a white mistress. This in the days of youth--the halcyon
days of her girlhood, in "Ole Varginny"--before she was transported
west, sold to Ephraim Darke, and by him degraded to the lot of an
ordinary outdoor slave. But her original owner taught her to read, and
her memory still retains a trace of this early education--sufficient for
her to decipher the script put into her hands.
She first looks at the photograph; as it is the first to come out of the
envelope. There can be no mistaking whose likeness it is. A lady too
conspicuously beautiful to have escaped notice from the humblest slave
in the settlement.
The negress spends some seconds gazing upon the portrait, as she does so
remarking,--
"How bewful dat young lady!"
"You am right 'bout dat, Phoebe. She bewful as any white gal dis nigga
ebber sot eyes on. And she good as bewful. I'se sorry she gwine leab
dis hya place. Dar's many a darkie 'll miss de dear young lady. An'
won't Mass Charl Clancy miss her too! Lor! I most forgot; maybe he no
trouble 'bout her now; maybe he's gone dead! Ef dat so, she miss _him_,
a no mistake. She cry her eyes out."
"You tink dar war something 'tween dem two?"
"Tink! I'se shoo ob it, Phoebe. Didn't I see dem boaf down dar in de
woodland, when I war out a-coonin. More'n once I seed em togedder. A
young white lady an' genl'm don't meet dat way unless dar's a feelin'
atween em, any more dan we brack folks. Besides, dis nigga know dey lub
one noder--he know fo sartin. Jule, she tell Jupe; and Jupe hab trussed
dat same seecret to me. Dey been in lub long time; afore Mass Charl
went 'way to Texas. But de great Kurnel Armstrong, he don't know
nuffin' 'bout it. Golly! ef he did, he shoo kill Charl Clancy; dat is,
if de poor young man ain't dead arready. Le's hope 'tain't so. But,
Phoebe, gal, open dat letter, an' see what de lady say. Satin it's been
wrote by her. Maybe it trow some light on dis dark subjeck."
Phoebe, thus solicited, takes the letter from the envelope. Then
spreading it out, and holding it close to the flare of the tallow dip,
reads it from beginning to end.
It is a task that occupies her some considerable time; for her
scholastic acquirements, not very bright at the best, have become dimmed
by long disuse. For all, she succeeds in deciphering its contents and
interpreting them to Bill; who listens with ears wide open and eyes in
staring wonderment.
When the reading is at length finished, the two remain for some time
silent,--pondering upon the strange circumstances thus revealed to them.