Roque and the doctors loosened their hold of William Penrose when they
heard the new voice. Then Roque in a supercilious tone said, “You had
better attend to your business if you have any.”
He clutched his cousin once more.
“Let us lose no time,” he whispered to the doctors.
“Look here!” said the miner, striding to the group, “you’re trying to
kidnap an inoffensive man, and are going clear against the law. This is
a free country, and it can’t be done.”
“Sir,” said Roque, “this is an escaped lunatic, and I propose to carry
him back to the asylum. I don’t owe you any explanation, but I don’t
mind telling you that. Now, get out of the way!”
“He’s no more a lunatic that I am.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Penrose, with reviving hope. “It is a cruel
attempt at abduction. Save me from a fate worse than death.”
“I will!” responded the Yankee miner resolutely.
“No man is going to be abducted when Josh Stackpole is around.”
“Clear out!” said James Roque, incensed.
“Clear out, or——”
“Or what?”
“I’ll have you arrested.”
“And I’d have you lynched if you were out in Colorado.”
“You are officious and impertinent.”
“Call me all the hard names you like, squire. It won’t do me any harm.”
“I will do you harm. Landlord, are you going to permit this impertinent
person to interfere with me?”
“Really, gentlemen, I don’t know what to say,” answered the landlord,
who was a weak and vacillating man. “If I knew the law——”
“I’ll tell you what the law is,” said the miner. “Before I went out West
I spent a year in a law office at Burlington, Vermont. These men haven’t
shown any papers—they haven’t proved this gentleman to be out of his
mind. It’s just a high-handed violation of the law they are trying.”
“In that case, I guess you’d better stop,” said the landlord. “This
gentleman is probably right, and——”
“He’s a fool!” interposed Roque angrily.
“Haven’t these eminent physicians declared my cousin to be a lunatic?”
“They look more like tramps than eminent physicians,” remarked Joshua
Stackpole.
“We have wasted time enough with this fool,” said Roque. “Dr. Brown,
take one arm, and you, Dr. Jones, take the other, and we will soon put
an end to this foolery.”
“Do it at your peril!” exclaimed Joshua Stackpole sternly.
The doctors looked somewhat apprehensive, but at a nod from James Roque,
and confident in the realization that they were three to one, they
proceeded to obey orders. Then something unexpected happened.
Joshua Stackpole sprang upon James Roque and pitched him headlong from
the piazza. Then he started for Dr. Brown, and that luckless physician
followed his principal.
The miner was about to turn his attention to Dr. Jones when the latter
threw up his hands and begged for mercy.
“This is an outrage!” exclaimed Mr. Snowdon, much disconcerted. “Isn’t
there a constable at hand, landlord, to arrest this bold ruffian?
Bernard Brooks, I want you.”
“Aha!” said Stackpole, “what do you want him for? Is he another
lunatic?”
“No; but he is my pupil, who has rebelled against my lawful authority,
and run away from his happy home at Snowdon Institute.”
“How is that, sonny?” asked Joshua Stackpole.
“He tried to horsewhip me,” said Bernard.
“And I will do it yet,” cried Mr. Snowdon, with more anger than
prudence.
“Ha! It seems there is more work for me to do. You are an old man, and I
don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t get into your wagon and hurry
home, I’ll——”
Joshua Stackpole looked so determined that Mr. Snowdon was alarmed.
“Come, Septimus,” he said; “we’d better be going. I’ll go to a
magistrate and get a warrant for this man’s arrest.”
By this time James Roque had risen from his recumbent position.
“Dr. Brown and Dr. Jones,” he exclaimed in a passion, “are we to be
worsted by a single man? Seize William Penrose.”
“Excuse me!” said Dr. Brown, rubbing his shins.
“And me, too!” added Dr. Jones, with an apprehensive look at Joshua
Stackpole.
“Sir,” said James Roque, addressing Mr. Snowdon, “as I can get no help
from these cowards, will you lend me your co-operation?”
“I wish you success, sir,” replied Snowdon hurriedly, “but I ought to
return to Snowdon Institute, where my presence is imperatively
required.”
“I think, squire, you’d better give it up for a bad job,” said
Stackpole. “If you make another attempt to abduct this man I’ll treat
you worse than before.”
With a look of baffled rage James Roque entered his carriage, followed
by the two doctors.
“You have escaped this time,” he said to William Penrose, “but I will
have you yet.”
Penrose shuddered as he saw the evil look on his cousin’s face.
“I’ve got something to say to that, squire,” remarked Joshua Stackpole
coolly. “Do you see that?” and he displayed a revolver.
“Don’t shoot!” exclaimed James Roque, falling back, his face assuming a
sickly pallor.
“I don’t intend to—now,” said Stackpole composedly, “but I can’t answer
for what I would do if I heard of your trying to abduct your cousin.”
“I should like to lock you up in an insane asylum,” said Roque, with an
ugly look.
“So you think me insane, do you?”
“You are stark, staring mad!”
“Thank you, squire. If I should happen to shoot you accidentally,
that’ll let me off.”
James Roque did not think it wise to reply, but drove off hurriedly.
“My friend,” said Penrose, offering his hand, “you have done me a great
favor. But for you that man would have carried me to an asylum.”
“What is his object?”
“Unfortunately I am rich and he is poor. As a near relative, he wants to
get control of my property. Your brave interference has saved me.”
“Don’t mention it! There wasn’t anything brave about it. The whole pack
of them are cowards. Have those doctors ever seen you before?”
“Never.”
“Yet after a mere glance they are ready to pronounce you insane. I don’t
believe they are doctors at all.”
“Nor I. They are tools of my cousin. But nothing is easier than to throw
a sane man into an asylum on the evidence of such creatures.”
“They’d have a lively time making out me to be insane.”
“James Roque says you are stark, staring mad,” said Penrose, with a
smile.
“He’d have reason to think so if I got hold of him,” returned Stackpole
grimly. “And now, my friend. I am going to give you a piece of advice.”
“What is it?”
“Get out of this as soon as you can. There’s an ugly look about your
cousin’s face, and he may make you trouble yet. Of course, he has no
legal right to interfere with you, but that won’t stop a man like him.
He hasn’t got hold of your property yet?”
“No.”
“Then if you have money at command, go off where he will not be able to
track you. Why not go to Europe, or to Colorado, my State? If he tried
any of his tricks there, we’d soon stop him with a rope.”
“Your advice is good and I will follow it. But I don’t like to leave my
young friend here. He, too, is in a tight place.”
“Don’t trouble about him. I’ll look after him for a time. It will be
better for you to part, as your cousin will probably describe you as
traveling in his company.”
“All right! I will make my way at once to New York and take passage for
Europe. I have long intended to go there, and this is a favorable
opportunity. But I must first show my good will to Bernard by offering
him this.”
He drew a ten-dollar bill from his pocketbook and handed it to Bernard.
“Ought I to take so much, Mr. Penrose?” asked Bernard, in a tone of
hesitation.
“I am rich. I can spare it,” said William Penrose. “You need not
hesitate.”
“Then, I will take it with thanks, for I have got to make my own way,
and I have no one to depend upon. My guardian will be angry when he
learns that I have run away from Mr. Snowdon.”
“You can adopt me for your guardian for a short time,” said Mr.
Stackpole. “And now I move that we get away from Poplar Plains as soon
as possible.” A carriage was secured, and within fifteen minutes the
three were on their way to the nearest railroad station.