IN WHICH ERNEST STRIKES A HEAVY BLOW, AND TOM THORNTON HAS A BAD FALL.
THE chances for making a demonstration were not favorable; but the more
desperate the circumstances, the greater was the need of doing something
before we were committed to any place more secure than a carriage. If I
had been alone I should have opened the door and jumped out; but Kate
could not do this. While I was considering what I could do, I heard the
driver speak. I raised myself up to the window, and listened for the
reply of the other man.
Though I could not tell what was said, I recognized the voice of Tom
Thornton. I had come to the conclusion, as soon as my suspicions were
aroused, that it was he; for it was not likely that he would trust the
execution of his scheme wholly to others. I confess that the sense of
being injured was not the only emotion that disturbed me. I was filled
with anger and indignation at the trick which had been put upon me. I
wanted a weapon like my trusty base-ball bat, and I felt that, if I had
it, I should do good service with it.
The thought of the bat suggested an idea. In going up to Chambers Street
in the forenoon, I had seen a hackman oiling his wheels at the stand by
the Park. When he finished, he put the iron wrench he had used under one
of the seats in the carriage. I felt for one in this vehicle, and
realized a savage gratification when I placed my hand upon the article.
The implement was about a foot and a half in length, but not very heavy.
Having decided upon the plan of the intended assault, I buttoned my sack
coat, and thrust the wrench into the open space between two of the
buttons.
Half paralyzed with terror, Kate asked me what I was going to do. I told
her in a whisper to keep still. In a fair, stand-up fight with two men,
I should be instantly vanquished, and it was necessary for me to obtain
the advantage of a surprise, if possible. The rear window of the
carriage was open. Though the aperture was small, it was large enough
for me to crawl through, and I worked myself out upon the baggage-rack.
The jar which I communicated to the vehicle by this movement attracted
the attention of the men on the box.
"Be aisy for a minute more, and you'll be at Madison Place," said the
driver.
"How much farther is it?" I asked, thrusting my head into the window, so
that he would not suspect that I had got out of the carriage.
"Only a short piece farther," he added.
Placing one foot on a ledge at the side of the hack, and the other on
the bottom of the back window, I scrambled to the top of the carriage,
where I was obliged to spread out like a frog, and was in imminent
danger of sliding off. Of course this feat of gymnastics could not be
effected without considerable noise. It was evident to the driver that
something decided had taken place, or was about to take place, and he
began to rein in his horses.
Just as I reached my perch on the top of the hack, all sprawling, the
vehicle was approaching one of those small public houses at the corner
of a cross street, which abound in the upper part of New York and
Harlem. In front of it burned a street lamp. Tom Thornton--and I could
distinctly make him out now, though I did not see his face--had bent his
head down to look in at the front window. He doubtless expected to find
the cause of the noise and the jar within the hack; at least, thinking I
was there, it was natural for him to look inside for it. I suppose he
thought I was breaking out through the top of the vehicle.
With the wrench in my hand, I sprang forward; but my blood was almost
frozen at the necessity of striking him a blow on the head which might
kill him, and the thought that I might take his life partially paralyzed
my arm. I struck, but it was a feeble stroke compared with what it
should have been to effect my purpose. His hat appeared to break the
force of the blow, and he sprang to his feet. Then I saw that he had a
heavy cane in his hand, and I was sorry I had not struck harder.
"Drive on! Don't stop here!" said he to the driver, fearful, perhaps,
that I might obtain assistance from the hotel.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO MADISON PLACE.--Page 224.]
With his cane in one hand, he reached forward with the other to grasp me
by the collar; or this was what I supposed he intended to do. He did not
see that I had a weapon, and getting up on my knees, I hit him again,
this time with better effect, for he fell over backward upon the horses.
The driver hauled in his team again, and seemed to be appalled at the
fate of his companion.
The instant he stopped I slid off the top of the hack to one of the hind
wheels, and thence to the ground. I opened the door of the carriage, and
told Kate to get out with all possible haste. I assisted her to the
ground, and taking her by the hand, actually dragged her after me. The
gloom of the night covered us, and we fled as fast as my companion's
trembling limbs would permit. I turned into a cross street, on which
there were no buildings, and followed it till we came to another avenue.
I expected to be pursued; whether we were or not, I do not know, for we
were not molested, and I neither saw nor heard anything which indicated
a search. Whether the hackman, knowing that he was engaged in doubtful
business, did not call for assistance, or whether the pursuit was
delayed till it was too late to catch us, I have no information. We
walked down the avenue as rapidly as possible, till I was satisfied we
should not be overtaken.
"O, Ernest Thornton," gasped Kate, out of breath with fatigue and
terror, after we had walked a couple of miles, "I shall sink to the
ground soon!"
"I am sorry for you, Kate; but what can I do?" I replied.
"I am tired out; and I am so frightened, I can hardly walk."
"Don't be alarmed; we are safe now," I added, drawing her arm through
mine. "Now lean on me."
"But you must be tired, Ernest Thornton."
"No, not a particle; let me help you as much as I can."
"This is much easier than it was before," said she; and she clung to me
like a frightened child--as indeed she was.
"Don't be afraid to lean your whole weight upon me," I added. "I would
carry you if I could."
I think it was her fears more than her exertions that exhausted her;
and, by the time we had walked another mile, as I estimated the
distance, she declared that she felt better, and more able to walk than
at first. As we continued on our way, I saw a horse car on another
avenue,--street railroads at that time were not so abundant as now,--and
we followed a cross street till we came to the track.
"I feel ever so much better now!" exclaimed Kate, as the circumstances
became more hopeful.
"There is nothing more to fear," I replied. "I wish I knew how Tom
Thornton was."
"Why, what is the matter with him?" asked Kate, with astonishment; and I
perceived that she had no definite idea of what had happened before the
public house. The poor girl was so terrified that she had hardly known
anything from the time our suspicions were first excited till we had
walked two or three miles from the scene of the affray.
"Did you think, Kate, that he permitted us to leave the carriage?" I
asked.
"I didn't think anything about it; I was so frightened I couldn't
think."
"I hope he is not badly hurt," I added, musing.
"Badly hurt! Why, what do you mean, Ernest Thornton?" she asked, her
terror renewed by my words.
"Don't be alarmed, Kate; he deserved all he got, and more too, if the
blow didn't kill him."
"Why, Ernest Thornton!"
"Do you see this?" I added, holding up the wrench, which, from an
instinct of self-preservation, I had kept in my hand.
"What is it?"
"An iron wrench. I struck Tom Thornton over the head with it, and he
fell from the drivers box on the backs of the horses."
"O!" groaned she.
"It could not be helped, Kate."
"I hope he is not much hurt."
"I hope not; but I can't help it if he is," I replied, desperately, for
I had many fears in regard to the result, and was not half so confident
of the future as I tried to appear. "There is a car, Kate," I added,
throwing the wrench away. "Now be calm, and try to look as though
nothing had happened."
She covered her face with a thick veil, and we entered the horse car.
Riding in silence for a long hour, we reached the Park, where, taking a
stage, we proceeded to the hotel. It was nearly eleven o'clock when we
went into the parlor, where Kate sank exhausted upon a sofa. I found
that Mrs. Macombe had retired, but I called her up. The poor girl's
nerves were fearfully unstrung, but the good woman ministered to her
like an angel. She slept with her, and was all that a loving mother
could be to her.
For my own part, I ate a hearty supper, and went to bed. It was not
without the fear that the police would visit me before morning, that I
lay on my couch thinking of the startling events of the evening. Yet, as
I repeated my prayer that night, I felt that I had done no more than my
duty--my duty to Kate, my mother, and myself. I would have given half
the money in my belt to know whether Tom Thornton was dead or alive. I
had not injured him from malice or for revenge, only in self-defence;
and I felt that a just God would burden him, rather than me, with the
consequences of the blow I had struck. I went to sleep at last, with
the prayer in my heart, that Tom Thornton would recover from the injury
he had received.
Kate was quite ill in the morning; but Mrs. Macombe cared for her
tenderly, and assured me nothing serious would result from the terror
and excitement to which she had been subjected. After breakfast I
hastened to the store of McKim & Loraine. Kate's uncle had returned the
preceding evening, and I waited till he came down town. In as few words
as possible, I told him what Kate's situation had been at the house of
her step-mother, what abuse she had suffered, and in what manner she had
escaped. He was indignant, and insisted that she should immediately make
his house her home.
Then I showed him the note signed with his name, which the hackman had
brought for Kate. It was a forgery, and Mr. Loraine could hardly control
his anger. I related to him our adventure at Harlem, and described the
scene on the top of the hack.
"Served him right!" exclaimed he.
"I may have killed him," I added.
"I hope you did," replied he, bluntly. "I will go and see Kate at once."
On our arrival at the hotel, we found the hackman there who had driven
us out to Harlem.