On the Squire's return to town, zealously urged by his mission to warn
the officers of the law of the intended attack on the New Pike gate, he
felt that supreme elation of spirits belonging to a man who already
scents splendid victory in the near future.
Indeed, it promised to be a double one, for not only would he be enabled
to strike an effective blow at the raiders, whose warfare on the
toll-gates threatened him with a considerable financial loss, but he
would also have it in his power to crush one whose ever-unwelcome
presence in the neighborhood seemed likely to deprive the Squire of
winning a wife.
The wily old man reasoned with himself that he would much prefer to have
his nephew alive and in the penitentiary than simply dead. Incarceration
would prove a far more lasting and complete revenge than death. In death
there would only come a quick oblivion to the Squire's victory, on the
nephew's part, while in a long imprisonment, which to the victim would
be a living death, there would yet remain a daily and hourly
comprehension of unhappy facts, besetting the helpless prisoner like a
pack of hungry wolves attacking their prey--an ever-present hideous
knowledge of his own powerless condition, and his uncle's complete
mastery of the situation.
It was this wish, this growing hope to place his nephew in just such a
living tomb, that fanned the hatred of the Squire into a glowing heat,
and made him all the more determined that Milt should soon feel the
blighting power of his wrath, even through walls of massive stone, and
behind barred doors.
All the way to town the old man fed his sluggish imagination by
picturing his kinsman and rival thus imprisoned, slowly eating away his
heart in rage and solitude, understanding full well that his sweetheart
had become the wife of the man he most hated in all the world. Ah! what
could be a greater punishment than this? Death would prove sweet
compared to it.
The Squire chuckled to himself in a sort of fiendish delight at the
mental picture of anguish he had conjured up.
In their last bitter quarrel, when the young man had been driven from
the Squire's home, the nephew had boldly laughed in his uncle's face,
taunting him with his age and decrepitude, and declaring that he would
yet win the girl in spite of all that the old man might do.
Youth and manly beauty are a powerful offset to wealth and age in the
eyes of a young woman. The Squire understood this fully, and chafed
under the knowledge, but he resolutely determined to see what craft and
cunning could accomplish in the unequal struggle. He made up his mind to
marry the pretty toll-taker, though there were a dozen importunate
suitors in the way. He would ruthlessly trample them all underfoot, or
sweep them aside, as he meant to do his nephew, showing neither pity nor
mercy.
Ofttimes perseverance is even more effective than love, and the Squire
was not of the kind to be easily thwarted when he had once made up his
mind to attain a desired result. Stubbornness and determination were his
strongest characteristics. These two traits, cleverly united, have
carried many a man to success.
Deep down in his wicked old heart he had carefully considered the plan
of having his nephew put quietly out of the way--the Squire knew a man
that money could easily buy for this purpose--but the Squire disliked to
part with money, and besides he did not care to place himself in a
position to be bled by a hireling.
For obvious reasons, therefore, it would serve his purpose much better
if Milt got himself hopelessly entangled in the meshes of the law by his
own acts, rather than the Squire should be accused of helping to bring
about his nephew's ruin. There would be much less difficulty in winning
the girl, the old man thought, ignorant of what she already knew.
As matters now stood, everything was working beautifully to his
interest, and with the exercise of a little diplomacy, such as he well
knew how to employ when occasion demanded, his plans would soon be
happily accomplished, and his nephew's downfall speedily brought about.
When Squire Bixler got home again, after an interview with the sheriff,
he replenished the fire, closed the shutters, and discarding his heavy
boots for his carpet slippers, he gathered the papers about him, and sat
down to read. Although his usual bedtime had passed, he only yawned
occasionally, and consulted his heavy time-piece, or glanced at the tall
clock in the corner.
Along toward the midhour of the night he suddenly aroused himself from
the stupor of sleep that was beginning to lay hold of him, and,
straightening himself in his arm-chair, listened attentively.
A sound which seemed at first elusive grew clearer to his alert ear,
arousing his drowsy faculties to fuller consciousness. It was an easy
matter to interpret that sound aright--indeed, his ear had done so
quickly. It was a welcome sound for which he had been impatiently
listening all these long, weary hours, and it signified the raiders were
abroad.
The old man sat motionless, listening intently. Clear and distinct, in
measures musical as steel hammers on an anvil, came the rapid hoofbeat
of horses along the pike, now louder where the open fields spread out
on either side of the road, now dull and muffled when a hillock
intervened.
As the sound grew nearer the Squire hastily arose, and blowing out his
candle went to the window and opened it. The body of horsemen were even
then passing his avenue gate.
Now the raiders were climbing the little hill that arose between his
place and the toll-house, each fall of the iron shoes seemed a sharp,
clear note, played in staccato time, on the hard, white surface of the
pike, then the notes grew less distinct, softened and shaded as by a
soft pedal, when the raiders descended the farther side of the hill.
They must soon be at the very gate.
The Squire listened. There came a pause in the hoof music, then a
solitary horseman took up the refrain. The listener recalled to mind the
request that his recent nocturnal visitor had made concerning this
advance guard--that harm should not come to him--and a grim smile played
over the old man's face as he silently hoped that this one, too, might
fall. The Squire had urged upon the sheriff that no man should
escape--not one.
Suddenly a shot rang out--then another--two, three--a half-dozen.
Quickly a volley poured forth, startling the night with clamorous
echoes.
The fight was on in fierce earnestness between the raiders and defenders
of the gate.
[Illustration: A rider.]