_Chad in Search of a Coal-Field_
The colonel was the first man downstairs. When he entered I saw at a
glance that it was one of his gala nights, for he wore the ceremonial
white waistcoat and cravat, and had thrown the accommodating coat wide
open. His hair, too, was brushed back from his broad forehead with
more than usual care, each silver thread keeping its proper place in
the general scheme of iron-gray; while his goatee was twisted to so
fine a point that it curled upward like a fishhook. He had also changed
his shoes, his white stockings now being incased in low prunellas tied
with a fresh ribbon, which hung over the toes like the drooping ears
of a lapdog.
The attention which the colonel paid to these particular details was
due, as he frequently said, to his belief that a man would always be
well dressed who looked after his extremities.
"I can inva'iably, suh, detect the gentleman under the shabbiest suit
of clothes, if his collar and stockings are clean. When, besides this,
he brushes his hat and blacks his shoes, you may safely invite him to
dinner."
Something like this was evidently passing in his mind as he stood
waiting for his guests, his back to the empty grate; for he examined
his hands critically, glanced at his shoes, and then excusing himself,
turned his face, and taking a pair of scissors from his pocket proceeded
leisurely to trim his cuffs.
"These duties of the dressin'-room, my dear Major, should have been
attended to in their proper place; but the fact is the jedge is makin'
rather an elaborate toilet in honor of our guest, and as Yancey occupies
my bedroom, and the jedge is also dressin' there, my own accommodations
are limited. I feel sure you will excuse me."
While he spoke the door opened, and his Honor entered in a William
Penn style of make-up, ruffled shirt and all. He really was not unlike
that distinguished peacemaker, especially when he carried one of the
colonel's long pipes in his mouth. He had, I am happy to say, since
leaving the front steps, accumulated an increased amount of clothing.
The upper half of the familiar butternut suit--the coat--still clung
to him, but the middle and lower half had been supplanted by another
waistcoat and trousers of faded nankeen, the first corrugated into
wrinkles and the second flapping about his ankles.
The colonel absorbed him at a glance, and with a satisfied air placed
a chair for him near the window and handed him a palm-leaf fan.
Last of all came Yancey in a flaming red necktie, the only new addition
to his costume--a part, no doubt, of the "chicken fixin's" found by
Chad in the carpet bag.
The breezy ex-major, as he entered, seized my hand with the warmth of
a lifelong friend; then moving over and encircling with his arm the
colonel's coat collar, he lowered his voice to a confidential whisper
and inquired about the market of the day with as much solicitude as
though his last million had been filched from him on insufficient
security.
When, a few minutes later, the round-faced man, the agent of the great
English syndicate, walked in, preceded by Fitz, nothing could have
been more courtly than the way the colonel presented him to his
guests--pausing at every name to recount some slight biographical
detail complimentary to each, and ending by announcing with great
dignity that his honored guest was none other than the very confidential
agent and adviser of a group of moneyed magnates whose influence
extended to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The agent, like many other sensible Englishmen, was a bluff, hearty
sort of man, with a keen eye for the practical side of life and an
equally keen enjoyment of every other, and it was not five minutes
before he had located in his round head the precise standing and
qualifications of every man in the room.
While Yancey amused him greatly as a type quite new to him, the colonel
filled him with delight. "So frank, so courteous, so hospitable; quite
the air of a country squire of the old school," he told Fitz afterward.
As a host that night, the colonel was in his happiest vein, and by the
time the coffee was served, had succeeded not only in entertaining the
table in his own inimitable way, but he had drawn out from each one
of his guests, not excepting the reticent Fitz, some anecdote or
incident of his life, bringing into stronger relief the finer qualities
of him who told it.
Kerfoot in a ponderous way gave the details of a murder case, tried
before him many years ago, in which the judge's charge so influenced
the jury that the man was acquitted, and justly so, as was afterward
proved. Yancey related an incident of the war, where he, only a drummer
boy at the time, assisted, at great risk, in carrying a wounded comrade
from the field. And Fitz was forced to admit that one of the largest
financial operations of the day would have been a failure had he not
stepped in at the critical moment and saved it.
Up to this point in the dinner not the slightest reference had been
made to the railroad or its interests except by the impetuous Yancey,
who asked Fitz what the bonds would probably be worth, and who was
promptly silenced by the colonel with the suggestive remark that none
were for sale, especially at this time.
When, however, by the direction of the colonel, the cloth was removed
and the old mahogany table that Chad rubbed down every morning with
a cork was left with only the glasses, a pair of coasters and their
decanters,--the Madeira within reach of the judge's hand,--the colonel
rose from his chair and spread out on the polished surface a stained
and ragged map, labeled in one corner in quaint letters, "Lands of
John Carter, Esquire, of Carter Hall." Only then was the colonel ready
for business.
"This is the correct survey, I believe, Jedge," said the colonel.
The judge emptied his glass, felt all over his person for his
spectacles, found them in the inside pocket of his nankeen waistcoat,
and, perching them on the extreme end of his nose, looked over their
rims and remarked that the original deeds of the colonel's estate had
been based upon this map, and that, so far as he knew, it was correct.
Then he added:--
"The partition line that was made immejitly aafter the war, dividin'
the estate between Miss Ann Caarter and yo'self, Colonel, was also tuk
from this survey."
Fitz conferred with the agent for a moment and then asked the colonel
where lay the deposit of coal of which he had spoken.
"In a moment, my dear Fitz," said the colonel, deprecatingly, and
turning to the agent:--
"The city of Fairfax, suh, that we discussed this mornin', will be
located to the right of this section; the Tench runs here; the iron
bridge, suh, should cross at this point," marking it with his thumb
nail. "Or perhaps you gentlemen will decide to have it nearer the Hall.
It is immaterial to me."
Then looking at Fitz: "I can't locate the coal, my dear Fitz; but I
think it is up here on the hill at the foot of the range."
The agent lost interest immediately in the iron bridge over the Tench,
and asked a variety of questions about the deposit, all of which the
colonel answered courteously and patiently, but evidently with a desire
to change the subject as soon as possible.
The Englishman, however, was persistent, while the judge's last
sententious remark regarding the recent subdivision of the estate
awakened a new interest in Fitz.
What if this coal should not be on the colonel's land at all! He caught
his breath at the thought.
It was Fitz's only chance to restore the colonel's fortunes; and
although for obvious reasons he dared not tell him so, it was really
the only interest the Englishman had in the scheme at all.
Indeed, the agent had frankly said so to Fitz, adding that he was
anxious to locate a deposit of coal somewhere in the vicinity of the
line of the colonel's proposed road; because the extension of certain
railroads in which the syndicate was interested--not the C. & W. A.
L. R. R., however--depended almost entirely upon the purchase of this
vital commodity.
Full of these instructions the agent, after listening to a panegyric
upon the resources of Fairfax County, interrupted rather curtly a
glowing statement of the colonel's concerning the enormous value of
the Garden Spot securities by asking this question:--
"Are the coal lands for sale?"
Fitz shivered at its directness, fearing that the colonel would catch
the drift affairs were taking and become alarmed. His fears were
groundless; the shot had gone over his head.
"No, suh! My purpose is to use it to supply our shops and motive power."
"If you should decide to sell the lands I would make an investigation
at once," replied the agent, quietly, but with meaning in his voice.
The colonel looked at him eagerly.
"Would you at the same time consider the purchase of our securities?"
"I might."
"When would you go?"
"To-morrow night, or not at all. I return to England in a week."
Yancey and the judge looked at each other inquiringly with a certain
anxious expression suggestive of some impending trouble. The judge
recovered himself first, and quickly filled his glass, leaving but one
more measure in the decanter. This measure Yancey immediately emptied
into his own person, as perhaps the only place where it would be
entirely safe from the treacherous thirst of the judge.
Fitz read in their faces these mental processes, and was more determined
than ever to break up at once what he called "the settlement."
"Are you sho', Colonel," inquired Ker-foot, catching at straws, "that
the coal lands lie entirely on yo' father's property? Does not the
Barbour lan' jine yo's on the hill?"
"I am not positively sho', suh, but I have always understood that what
we call the coal hills belonged to my father. You see," said the
colonel, turning to the agent, "this grade of wild lan' is never
considered of much value with us, and a few hundred acres mo' or less
is never insisted on among old families of our standin' whose estates
jine."
Yancey expanded his vest, and said authoritatively that he was quite
sure the coal hills were on the Barbour property. He had shot partridges
over that land many a time.
The agent, who had listened calmly to the discussion, remarked dryly
that until the colonel definitely ascertained whether he had any lands
to sell it would be a useless waste of time to make the trip.
"Quite so," said Kerfoot, raising the emptied decanter to his eye, and
replacing it again with a look at Yancey expressive of the contempt
in which he held a man who could commit so mean an act.
"But, Colonel," said Fitz, "can't you telegraph to-morrow and find
out?"
"To whom, my clear Fitz? It would take a week to get the clerk of the
co'te to look through the records. Nobody at Bar-hour's knows."
"Does Miss Nancy know?"
The colonel shook his head dubiously.
Fitz's face suddenly lighted up as he started from his seat, and caught
the colonel by the arm.
"Does Chad?"
"Chad! Yes, Chad might."
Fitz nearly overturned his chair in his eagerness to reach the top ofthe
kitchen stairs.
"Come up here, Chad, quick as your legs can carry you--two steps at
a time!"
Chad hurried into the room with the face of a man sent for to put out
a fire.
"Chad," said the colonel, "you know the big hill as you go up from the
marsh at home?"
"Yes, sah."
"Whose lan' is the coal on, mine or Jedge Barbour's?"
The old darky's face changed from an expression of the deepest anxiety
to an effort at the deepest thought. The change was so sudden that the
wrinkles got tangled up in the attempt, resulting in an expression of
vague uncertainty.
"You mean, Colonel, de hill whar we cotch de big coon?"
"Yes," said the colonel encouragingly, ignorant of the coon, but knowing
that there was only one hill.
"Well, Jedge Barbour's niggers always said dat de coon was dere coon,
'ca'se he was treed on dere lan', and we 'sputed dat it was our coon,
'ca'se it was on our lan'."
"Who got de coon?" asked Fitz.
"Oh, _we_ got the coon!" And Chad's eyes twinkled.
"That settles it. It's your land, Colonel," said Fitz, with one of his
sudden roars, in which everybody joined but Chad and the judge.
"But den, gemmen,"--Chad was a little uncomfortable at the
merriment,--"it was our coon for sho. I knowed whar de line went,
'ca'se I he'p Marsa John caarry de spy-glass when he sold de woodlan's
to Jedge Barbour, an' de coon was on our side ob dat line."
If Chad's first statement caused nothing but laughter, the second
produced nothing but the profoundest interest.
Here was the surveyor himself!
The colonel turned the map to Chad's side of the table. Every man in
the room stood up and craned his head forward.
"Now, Chad," said the colonel, "this map is a plan of our lan'--same
as if you were lookin' down on it. Here is the road to Caartersville.
See that square, black mark? That's Caarter Hall. This is the marsh,
and that is the coal hill. Now, standin' here in the marsh,--this is
where our line begins, Fitz,--standin' here, Chad, in the marsh, which
side of the line is that hill on? Mine or Jedge Barbour's?"
The old man bent over the table, and scanned the plan closely.
"Wat's dis blue wiggle lookin' like a big fish-wum?"
"That's the Tench River."
Chad continued his search, his wrinkled brown hand, with its extended
forefinger capped by its stumpy nail, looking for all the world like
a mud turtle with head out crawling over the crumpled surface of the
map.
"Scuse me till I run down to de kitchen an' git my spec's. I can't see
like"--
"Here, take mine!" said Fitz, handing him his gold ones. He would have
lent him his eyes if he could have found that coal-field the sooner.
The turtle crawled slowly up, its head thrust out inquiringly, inched
along the margin of the map, and backed carefully down again, pausing
for such running commentaries as "Dis yer's de ribber;" "Dat's de
road;" "Dis de ma'sh."
The group was now a compact mass, every eye watching Chad's finger as
though it were a divining rod--Fitz full of smothered fears lest after
all the prize should slip from his grasp; the agent anxious but
reserved; Yancey and the judge hovering between hope and despair, with
eyes on the empty decanter; and last of all the colonel, on the outside,
holding a candle himself, so that his guests might see the better--the
least interested man in the room.
Presently the finger stopped, and Chad looked up into his master's
face.
"If I was down dar, Marsa George, jes a minute, I could tole ye, 'ca'se
I reckelmember de berry tree whar Marsa John had de spyglass sot on
its legs. I held de pole on de rock way up yander on de hill, an' in
dat berry rock Marsa John done cut a crotch."
"And which way is the crotch in the rock from the marsh here?" asked
Fitz eagerly.
Chad stood up, looked at the plan glistening under the candlelight,
paused an instant, then took off the gold-rimmed glasses, and handed
them with great deference to Fitz.
"'T ain't no use, Marsa George. I kin go frough dat ma'sh blindfolded
in de night an' cotch a possum airy time along airy one ob dem
fences; but dis yer foolin' wid lan's on paper is too much for Chad. 'Fo'
Gawd, I doan' know!"