THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE HILL.
Mabel left her boat and followed the path till she reached a natural
terrace in the hills, narrow and green, upon which a small, one-story
house was snugly bestowed. The terrace was uncultivated, save a small
garden patch close to the house, where the soil was torn and uneven from
the uprooting of vegetables from the rudely-shaped beds. Sweetbrier and
wild honey-suckles gave a picturesque grace to the building, at variance
with the untidy state of the grounds, and there was something in the
whole place more suggestive of refinement than is usual to dwellings
where the inmates work hard for their daily bread.
Mabel Harrington had never been in this place before. As she approached
it, the cry of a whippowil came up from the hollow, as if warning her
away. Everything was still within the house. There was no light; the
rustle of leaves with the flow of waters from the ravine, joined their
mournful whispers with the wail of the night bird.
Mabel was imaginative as a girl, and this solitude depressed her; still
she moved steadily towards the house, and knocked at the door.
A woman opened it, whose person was seen but indistinctly, as she stood
within the small entry, holding the door with one hand; but Mabel saw
that she was dark and dressed as she had seen that class of persons in
the south.
"I wish to see Miss Agnes Barker for a moment: is she in?" said Mrs.
Harrington with her usual dignified repose of manner, for however much
interested, Mabel was not one to invite curiosity by any display of
excitement, and it must have been a close observer who could have
detected the faint quiver of her voice as she expressed this
common-place wish.
"She don't liv hear in dis shantee."
"I know. She lives at General Harrington's, up the river," replied
Mabel, "but it is some weeks since she has been there, and I expected to
find her with you."
"Missus, pears like you don't know as Miss Agnes is young lady, from top
to toe, ebery inch ob her. Is you the Missus?"
"I am Mrs. Harrington," said Mabel, quietly.
"Oh!" exclaimed the woman, prolonging the monosyllable almost into a
sneer, "jes come in. I'se mighty sorry de candle all burnt out an done
gone."
Mabel entered the house, and sat down in the dim light.
"Is Missus 'lone mong dese hills?" said the woman, retreating to the
darkest corner of the room.
"Yes, I am alone!" answered Mabel.
"All 'lone in de dark wid nothin but that whippoorwill to keep company;
skeery, ain't it, Missus?"
If the woman had hoped to terrify Mabel Harrington by these words, she
was mistaken. A vague feeling of loneliness was upon her, but she had no
cowardly timidity to contend with.
"Don't pear skeery no how," said the woman.
"I am seldom afraid of anything," answered Mabel with a wan smile. "I
came to inquire for Miss Barker, if she is not here, tell me where she
can be found?"
"Done gone out to de hills, pears like she could not stay away from em."
"Was she your mistress in the south?" inquired Mabel, troubled by the
woman's voice.
"Pears so, Missus."
"Some one has managed to give her a fine education--I have seldom known
a young person so thoroughly accomplished," continued Mabel with
apparent calm, but keenly attentive to every word that fell from the
woman's lips. "General Harrington informed me that she came highly
recommended, but her attainments surprised us all."
"Oh yes, young missus knows heap 'bout dem books an pianers. Done born
lady, no poor white trash, gorry mighty knows dat."
"Her duties are more particularly with Miss Lina, Gen. Harrington's
adopted daughter, who makes no complaint against her--for myself, our
intercourse is very limited, but she pleases the General. We have
expected her at the house for several days, and thought it strange that
she did not return."
"Ben gone ebery day dis week, sartin sure, long walk, but her's ready
for it. Nebber gets home fore dark--walk, walk, walk, in de woods wid
Marsa James."
Mabel arose. A sickening sensation crept over her, and she went to the
open door for air.
It was true then--that suspicion was all true! Agnes Barker had been in
the neighborhood of her old home for a week, without the knowledge of
its mistress. That very day the girl had met James Harrington in the
hills. Her own eyes had seen them standing side by side in the sunset.
"'Pears like de Missus am sick," said the woman, coming toward her as
she stood cold and shuddering under this conviction.
"No," answered Mabel, gathering up her strength, but pressing both hands
upon her heart beneath the crimson folds of her shawl. "If Miss Barker
comes to the house again she will have the goodness to see that I am
informed. Miss Lina is anxious to renew her studies."
"Yes Missus."
"Give my message faithfully," answered Mabel. "I must speak with her
before the duties of her situation are resumed. Good night."
"Good night to you," muttered the woman, as Mabel walked away. "I
understand you, never doubt that. Agnes is beautiful, and keen enough
for a dozen such as you. I thought it would work!"
Mrs. Harrington made the best of her way down the footpath which she had
threaded, though the hollow was filled with gloom, and the whippowil
called mournfully after her as she went.
Her boat lay where she had left it in the mouth of the creek. As she
stepped into it a cry broke from her lips, and turning, she looked
wildly up the hollow. A woman sprang over the boat as she stooped for
the oars, and with a single leap cleared the bank, landing with a bound
in the footpath above her.
One sharp glance she cast behind, then darted away as if eager to bury
herself in the hemlock gloom.
The leap had been so sudden and the whole progress so rapid, that Mabel
scarcely saw the woman, but she remembered after, that her dress was
dusky red, and that a velvet cloak swept from her shoulders downward to
the ground, half torn from her person in its abrupt movements. As she
stood lost in amazement at this singular apparition, Mabel fancied that
she heard the dip of oars, and could detect the dim outline of a boat
making up the river.
She sat down mute, and troubled, looking after what seemed at best a
floating shadow; the night had darkened rapidly, and instead of the new
moon which should have silvered the sky, came billows of black, angry
clouds, in which the thunder began to roll and mutter hoarse threats of
a storm. Frightened by the brooding tempest, Mabel pushed her boat out
from the shore, and began to row vigorously homeward; but she had
scarcely got into deep water when the clouds became black as midnight;
the winds rose furiously, lashing the waters and raging fiercely through
the tree tops, while burst after burst of thunder broke over the hills.
She could only see her course clearly when flashes of lightning shot at
intervals through the trees, and broke in gleams of scattered fire among
the waves, now dashing and leaping angrily around her.
Mabel was excited out of her anxieties by this turmoil. There was
something in the force and suddenness of the storm that aroused all her
courage. The vexed trees were bent and torn by the winds. The river was
lashed into a sea of foam, over which her frail boat leaped and
quivered like a living thing; but she sat steady in the midst, pale and
firm, taking advantage of each gleam of lightning to fix her course, and
facing the storm with a steady bravery which had no fear of death.
Still the tempest rose and lashed itself into fury from the rocky coast
to the depths of the stream, and the little boat went plunging through
it, keeping the brave woman safe. The oars were useless as rushes in her
hands. The waves leaped upward as the wind lashed them, and at times
rushed entirely over her. It was a fearful sight, that noble woman, all
alone with the storm! so close to death and yet so resolute! Blacker and
nearer grew the clouds torn by whirlwinds, and shooting out lurid gleams
of lightning, that flashed and curled along the water like fiery
serpents chasing each other into their boiling depths. So great was the
tumult that another sound, which came like a smothered howl through the
storm, seemed but a part of it. Thus Mabel was unconscious of this new
danger, till a glare of lightning swept everything else aside, and
bearing directly toward her, she saw a huge steamer ploughing through
the tempest, on her downward course.
Scarce had she time to recoil with horror from the danger, when it was
wrapped in darkness again, and she could only guess of its approach by
the cabin windows that glared upon her nearer and nearer, like great
fiery eyes half blinded by the storm. Mabel nerved herself, and with a
desperate effort bent her strength upon the oars. But the heave of the
waters tore one from her grasp, and the other remained useless. Human
strength was of no avail now. She was given up to the tempest, and could
only cling to the reeling boat mute with horror, still with a thought of
those she loved vital at her heart. Another sheet of lightning, blue and
livid, rolled down the hills, and in it, standing upon a spur of rocks,
she saw James Harrington, either in life or in spirit, looking forth
upon the river. His figure took the deadly hue of the light. His
garments shook to the storm. The pale flame quivered around him a
moment, and he was engulphed in darkness again.
Mabel flung up her hands with a cry that cut through the storm like an
arrow.
"Save me! save me! oh, my God! my God!"
Her pale hands quivered in the lightning. The shrieks that rang from her
white lips were smothered in the fierce wind. The tortured boat seemed
flinging her out to utter despair.
A roar that was not of the elements, now broke through all the tumult.
There came a rush--an upheaving of the waters, which flung her high into
the darkness--a blow that made her little bark quake in all its
timbers--a plunge--a black rush of waters. She was hurled beneath the
wheels of the steamer--engulphed in utter darkness. It was her last
struggle with the storm.