ALLISON IS SURPRISED.
"Oh, I mean it," said Tom, and one would have thought by the way he
shook his head and frowned and made his riding-whip whistle through the
air, that it would be useless for anybody to try to order him around.
"Just try me and see; that's all."
"And if you had been in my place you wouldn't have come home till you
got good and ready?" said Beardsley.
"You bet I wouldn't. I wouldn't be guilty of setting such an example to
the timid ones at home. This is the time when every man----"
"How many buildings have you got in this part of the country?" inquired
the captain, shutting his right eye and laying his finger by the side of
his nose. "Have you forgot the men who took Hanson away in the night,
and piled up those weeds and stuff up agin my house?"
"Well, that's so; but still I don't think they would have been bold
enough to do anything to you. You are a wealthy planter, while Hanson
was nothing but a common overseer, without a friend or relative in the
world so far as any one knows. Did you receive the proofs this letter
speaks of?"
"You bet I did," answered Beardsley, shaking his whip in the air. "My
daughter got old Miss Brown to write to me just as them Pertectors of
the Helpless--dog-gone the last one of 'em--said she would, and sure as
you live she found another letter on the gallery, and a whole passel of
stuff piled up agin the house, ready to be touched off with a match; and
the very same night Mrs. Gray's overseer was carried away. When she told
me all them things and begged me to come home I thought I had best come.
But I don't mean to let the matter drop here, tell your folks. The
fellers who wrote that letter must be hunted down and whopped like they
was niggers. Did Marcy Gray do it?"
"I can't swear that he didn't," replied Tom guardedly. "But if he did,
he disguised his hand so that I do not recognize it. I can't find the
first letter in it that looks like Marcy's work."
Beardsley seemed disappointed as he returned the letter to his pocket
and buttoned his coat, and Tom Allison certainly was. Two or three times
it was on the end of his tongue to declare that Marcy was the guilty
one, but he lacked the courage. He was afraid of the mysterious men who
had begun to carry things with so high a hand in the settlement, for he
did not know how soon they might turn their attention to him or to his
father's property.
"Marcy is quite mean enough to do a thing of that kind, hoping to bring
you home so that you would not take him to sea any more," said Tom, who
could not resist the longing he had to say something that would lead
Beardsley to declare war upon the boy who had served as his pilot. "He
may have written the letter, but he could not have piled that light
stuff against your house, for he was not at home when the thing
happened. Has it struck you that the work must have been done by some
one who belongs on your plantation? Your dogs would have raised a
terrible racket if a stranger----"
"No, it wasn't," said Beardsley earnestly. "The dogs made furse enough
that night to wake up everybody in Nashville; but they didn't none of
'em do nothing, and that shows that they were afraid of the crowd that
was there. My folks was that scared that they dassent none of 'em look
out of the winder; but the next morning the letter that was put on the
gallery and the stuff to burn the house was both there."
"It's very strange that I never heard of it before," said Tom, who could
not help telling himself that the recital made him feel very
uncomfortable. "It's just awful that things like these can go on in the
settlement and nobody be punished for them."
"Well, it ain't so strange that you didn't hear of it, when you bear in
mind that my folks didn't say much about it for fear that they might
speak to the wrong person," said Beardsley. "I reckon it was done by the
same fellers who took Hanson away to the swamp. Ain't nary idee who they
were, have you?"
"Nary an idea. I wish I had, so that I could expose them. Why, just
think of it, captain! If things like these are allowed to go on, who is
safe? How do we know but you or I may be marched off in the same way
some dark night?"
"I don't know it, and that's just what's a-troubling of me," said
Beardsley, groaning again and rubbing his gloved hands nervously
together. "Such doings is too shameful to be bore any longer. There's a
heap of traitors right here amongst us, and I don't see how we are going
to get shet of 'em."
"That's the thought that was running in my mind when I met you," said
Tom savagely. "I know who some of the traitors are, but the truth is,
they are so cunning you can't prove the first thing against them.
There's that Marcy Gray for one."
"Say!" whispered Beardsley, reining his horse a little closer to Tom's
and tapping the boy's shoulder with his riding-whip, "you have hit the
very identical idee I have had in my mind for a long time. If Marcy
ain't a traitor, what's him and his mother keeping that money of theirn
stowed away so quiet for?"
"Say!" whispered Allison in his turn, at the same time laying the handle
of his own whip lightly upon the captain's knee, "that is something I
have thought about more times than I can remember. If they haven't got
money, and plenty of it, hidden somewhere, I am mistaken. You know that
before Marcy came home from school his mother made a good many trips to
Richmond, Newbern, and Wilmington; and everybody says those trips were
not made solely for the purpose of buying supplies for the plantation."
"I know it," assented Beardsley.
"When Mrs. Gray came home she made a big show of parading all her
niggers in bran' new suits of clothes," continued Allison. "But she did
not have to go to three cities to buy the cloth those clothes were made
of, did she? She's got money, and I am sure of it."
"I know it," said Beardsley again. "I tried my best to make Marcy say
so, but he was too sharp for me. You see his share of the prize-money
the _Hollins_ sold for amounted to seventeen hunderd dollars."
"Great Moses!" ejaculated Tom. "What a plum for that traitor to put into
his pocket! I wish I had it. But he told me he was to get eight hundred
and fifty dollars."
"P'raps he did, for that was what the foremast hands got; but I promised
to give Marcy more for acting as pilot and I done it, consarn my fule
pictur'! I wanted to get on the blind side of him, so't he would sorter
confide in me for a friend, don't you see? But I didn't make it. That
boy might have cleared five thousand dollars if he had took out a
venture the first time we run the blockade, but he wouldn't do it for
fear he might lose the money. He said he might want to use them
seventeen hunderd before the war was over."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom.
"That's what I thought," replied Beardsley.
"Seventeen hundred dollars are not a drop in the bucket to the sum he
and his mother have on hand at this moment, and I'll bet on it," added
Tom. "They've got thousands, and I wish I could have the handling of
some of it."
That was what Captain Beardsley wished; but the trouble was he did not
know where the money was concealed, or just how to go to work to get
hold of it. He had a partly formed plan in his head, but he did not
think that it would be quite safe to let Tom into the secret of it. At
any rate, he would tell all his news first, and think about that
afterward.
"That boy Marcy is a plum dunce to act the way he is doing now," said
the captain, after a little pause. "If he would go into our navy, and
this war should happen to last a year or so longer, he would make a big
officer of himself."
"It won't last six months longer," said Allison confidently. "The
Yankees can't stand more than one Bull Run drubbing. But tell me
honestly, captain: Did Gray really show pluck on the night he got that
broken arm?"
"He did for a fact," replied Beardsley. "He stood up to the rack like a
man, and took the schooner through the inlet with that arm hanging by
his side as limp as a dish-rag. I'm free to say it, though I ain't no
friend of his'n."
"I am sorry you said it in the letters you wrote home to Shelby and
Dillon. I wish that splinter, or whatever it was, had hit his head
instead of his arm, for he carries himself altogether too stiff-legged
on the strength of it. If he had whipped the whole Yankee fleet he could
not throw on more airs. But why do you say he could win promotion by
enlisting in our navy? Do you think he would go among the Federals if he
wasn't afraid?"
"That's where he would go if it wasn't for his mother. It's where his
brother Jack is at this minute."
"Captain," said Tom impressively, "you and I ought to be the very best
of friends, for we think alike on a good many points. Somebody, I don't
know who it was, gave it out through the settlement that Jack Gray went
to Newbern to ship on a Confederate iron-clad; but I didn't believe it,
and I don't think so now. If he and Marcy wanted to go to Newbern they
would have gone by rail, wouldn't they? Instead of that they went in
Marcy's schooner."
"I don't care what anybody has give out or what anybody thinks," said
Beardsley doggedly. "I know what I know, and believe what I have seen
with my own two eyes, don't I? While I was standing into Crooked Inlet
on my way--say! I don't know as I had best tell you what I seen with my
own two eyes."
"Why not?" demanded Allison, who was sure he was about to hear some
exciting news. "You have already told me more than you had any business
to tell, if you don't think I can keep a secret."
"Well, that there is a fact. Look a-here. I aint said a word to nobody
about this, and you mustn't let on that I told you; but while I was
running into Crooked Inlet on my way home from the last trip I made to
Nassau, I didn't see the steam launch that I was afraid might be waiting
there for me, but I did see Marcy Gray's schooner."
"Isn't that what I said?" exclaimed Tom gleefully. "What was Marcy
Gray's schooner doing outside, and in the night-time, too?"
"Hold on till I tell you how it was," replied the captain. "The first
thing I see was that the schooner had been disguised, but that didn't by
no means fool your uncle Lon. Them two boys, Marcy and Jack, had towed
her through the inlet with their skiff and were just about to get aboard
again and make sail, when I run on to 'em in the dark. I was that scared
to see 'em that I couldn't move from my tracks, for a minute or two. I
thought the Yankees had me sure."
"It almost takes my breath to have my suspicions confirmed in this way,"
said Tom. "Did you watch them to see where they went?"
"Listen at the fule!" exclaimed the captain, in a tone of disgust. "Not
much, I didn't watch them boys. I had enough to do to mind my own
business; and knowing what brung them outside at that time of night,
didn't I know where they had started for without watching 'em? They
didn't go nigh Newbern. They went straight out to the Yankee fleet, and
there's where Jack Gray is, while me and you are riding along this
road."
"Captain, I wouldn't have missed seeing you this morning for a bushel of
money," declared Tom, whose first impulse was to whip up his horse and
carry the joyful news to Nashville. "I've got a hold on Marcy Gray now
that I shan't be slow to use."
"What are you going to do?" asked Beardsley anxiously.
"I'll let him know who he called a coward before a whole post-office
full of people," said Allison savagely. "He will take that word back on
his knees and do his best to make a friend of me, or I'll----"
"There, now!" cried Beardsley; and the tone in which he uttered the
words was quite as savage as Tom's. "I knew well enough that I had no
call to tell you all them things without first speaking to Shelby and
Dillon about them."
"Of course I shall consult you, before doing or saying anything to
Marcy," replied Tom, wishing he had net been so quick to speak the
thoughts that were in his mind. "I don't want you to think that I am
going to take these matters out of your hands, for I don't mean to do
anything of the sort."
"You had better not. You are nothing but a boy, and you would be sure to
make a mess of the whole thing if you tried it. Me and Shelby will deal
with Marcy and his mother."
"I shall be satisfied, so long as you do something to him that he can
feel. All I ask is to be around when it is done, so that I can see it.
But you will have to be careful, captain. There are some about here who
believe that the Grays are the best kind of Confederates."
"What makes them believe that when me and you know it aint so?"
"It's the way they worked things; and it was about the slickest scheme I
ever heard of," replied Allison. "Why, captain, they ran down the river
past Plymouth and Roanoke, with our flag flying from the _Fairy Belle's_
masthead."
"Of all the imperdence! Where did they get a flag of our'n?"
"No one knows, unless Jack got it off the smuggler _West Wind_, that he
piloted into Newbern. Anyhow he got it, and kept it hung upon the wall
of his mother's house in plain sight of all who went there."
"It was nothing but a cheat and a swindle, I tell you," shouted the
captain. "Both them boys is Union, and their mother is too. I'll fix
'em!"
"I say again that you had better be careful," cautioned Tom. "If it
turns out that they are in favor of the South, you will burn your
fingers if you touch them; and if they are Union, they have friends to
watch over and see that no harm comes to them. Have you forgotten the
men who carried Hanson away in the night?"
"No, I ain't; and that's what makes me so mad. We-uns about here can't
do nothing with that money---- Say! mebbe I could tell you something
else if you'll promise never to let on about it."
"All right. I never will," answered Allison, who was becoming impatient
to hear all the man had on his mind. Nashville was in plain sight now,
and of course there could be no more talking of this sort done after
they got there. "Hold up a bit. Don't let your horse walk so fast."
"What I thought of saying to you is this," said Beardsley, once more
sinking his voice to a whisper. "We-uns who live about here can't do
nothing by ourselves, but we can hint--just hint, I say--to some
outsiders that there's a pile of money in that there house of Mrs.
Gray's that's to be had for the taking."
"Go on," said Tom, when Beardsley stopped and looked at him. "I am
listening, but I don't catch your meaning."
"I could easy find half a dozen fellers right around here who would be
up and doing mighty sudden if I should say that much in their private
ears," continued the captain. "But mebbe that plan wouldn't work. I
can't tell till I hear what Shelby thinks about it. But if it don't
work, we might put the Richmond officers onto them."
"What good would that do? If there is money in Mrs. Gray's house the
Richmond authorities have no right to touch it."
"Aint they, now!" chuckled Beardsley. "Don't the law say that we-uns
mustn't pay no debts to the Yankees, but must turn the money over to the
fellers at Richmond?"
"But I am afraid Mrs. Gray doesn't owe any money to the Yankees."
"What's the odds whether you think so or not?" said the captain
earnestly. "We can hint that she does, can't we? And can't we hint
furder, that instead of turning that money over, like the law says she
must do, she is keeping it hid for her own use!"
"Then why not make a sure thing of it by putting the government officers
on the scent the first thing?"
"Because they won't divide, the officers won't. Don't you see? The other
fellers will."
Tom Allison was astonished now, and no mistake. For a minute or two he
looked hard at Beardsley, but he couldn't speak.
"What do you stare at me that-a-way for?" demanded the captain. "I don't
see nothing so very amazing in what I said. Didn't you tell me a minute
ago that you would like mighty well to have the handling of some of that
there money?"
"Of course I did, and I say so yet; but I wouldn't dare touch it if it
was got in that way. Don't misunderstand me now," said Allison, when he
saw Beardsley gather up his reins and change his riding-whip to his
right hand as if he were about to go on and leave Tom behind. "If you
think it would be quite safe----"
"What other way is there to get it?" snarled Beardsley. "I wasn't
joking. These here aint no times for joking, and I meant every word I
said. Why aint it safe? The folks in the settlement are mostly our
friends, and even if they knew that some of the money went into our
pockets, they wouldn't say nothing about it."
"They would know it, and my father would say something to me, I bet you.
But mind you," said Tom, as the two turned their horses toward the
hitching-rack that stood across the street from the post-office, "if you
and your friends think it can be done, I say go ahead and good luck to
you. And if you make a success of it, as I hope you will, no one will
hear from me that I knew a thing about it."
"And you won't let on about the other things I have told you?" said the
captain, as he dismounted and spread a blanket over his horse. "I don't
reckon I had oughter said so much. Mebbe Shelby won't like it."
"Will you tell me what he says after you have had a talk with him? Then
you may depend upon me to keep a still tongue in my head. As for Shelby,
I don't care whether he likes it or not. It is none of his business. I
know, and have known for a long time, that he and his ring have some
things in hand that they won't let me hear of, and I am as warm a friend
to the South as they dare be, and just as ready to help her."
"But you see you're a boy; and some men don't like to take boys into
their secrets," replied Beardsley.
"I know I am a boy, but all the same I am a wild horse in the cane and
hard to curry. If Shelby and his gang don't pay a little more attention
to me I will make them wish they had; and if Beardsley don't keep me
posted in his plans, I'll knock them into the middle of next week. I'll
find means to get Hanson's abductors after him. By George! That's an
idea, and I'll think it over as I ride home."
So saying Tom Allison hitched his horse to one of the pins in the rack
and followed Beardsley across the street toward the post-office.