VISITORS IN PLENTY.
Although we have said that Marcy Gray appeared to be as calm as a
summer's morning, he was not so in reality. He had the most disquieting
reflections for company during every one of his waking hours, and they
troubled him so that he found it next to impossible to concentrate his
mind on anything. On this particular morning he felt so very gloomy that
he did not ride his filly to town, as was his usual custom, but sent old
Morris and a mule instead. What was the use of going to the post-office
through all that rain just to listen to the idle boasts of a few
stay-at-home rebels who could not or would not tell him a single
reliable item of news? He and his mother had been talking over the
situation--it was what they always talked about when they were
alone--and the conclusion to which they came was, that their affairs
could not go on in this way much longer, and that a change for better or
worse was sure to come before many days more had passed away.
"I suppose our situation might be worse, but I can't see how," said
Marcy, rising from his seat on the sofa and looking out at one of the
streaming windows.
"Would it not be worse if we had no roof to shelter us in weather like
this?" inquired Mrs. Gray.
"It would be bad for us if our house was burned, of course," answered
Marcy. "But as for a roof, we shall always have that. If they turn us
out of here we'll go to the quarters; and if they burn us out of there,
we'll go into the woods and throw up a shanty. As long as they leave me
or a single darky on the place the weather will never trouble you,
mother."
"But I am afraid they will not leave you with me," replied Mrs. Gray.
"You know that General Wise has asked the Richmond authorities to
re-enforce him at Roanoke Island, and they have told him to re-enforce
himself. You know what that means?"
"Yes; it means a general drumming up of recruits among the lukewarm
rebels hereabouts. But it doesn't scare me. When I see such fellows as
Allison, Goodwin, Shelby, and Dillon, and a dozen others I could
mention, shoulder a musket and go to the defence of the Island, then I
shall begin to worry about myself, and not before. Mother, Captain
Beardsley and his friends will not permit me to be forced into the army,
and neither will they let harm come to you, if they have influence
enough to prevent it."
"Marcy, I am afraid you are placing too much reliance upon Aleck Webster
and his friends," said his mother. "They have not brought Beardsley home
yet. Suppose he has the courage to defy them?"
"But he hasn't," said the boy earnestly. "He hasn't had time to answer
that letter yet, but he will do it, and he will answer it in person. I
know he would have the courage to brave an open enemy, especially if he
was driven into a corner and couldn't run, but it worries him, as it
does everyone else, to have people work against him in secret. He will
come home before he will allow his property to be destroyed, and Aleck
assured me that if anything happens to us, Beardsley will have to stand
punishment for it. But I do wish he had not caught Jack and me at
Crooked Inlet. He will tell all about it the minute he gets home--he
would die if he had to keep it to himself--and I am afraid the folks
about here will do something to us in spite of all Beardsley and his
friends can do to prevent it. I wonder where those two horsemen are
going in such haste. Why, mother, they are rebel officers, and they are
turning toward the gate. Yes, sir; they are coming in. Now what do you
suppose they want here?"
This was a startling piece of news, and a question that Mrs. Gray could
not answer. Although there were two garrisons within a few miles of the
plantation, one being located at Plymouth and the other at Roanoke
Island, Marcy and his mother seldom saw any soldiers, unless they
happened to be neighbors who had enlisted, and come home on a few days'
furlough. These furloughed men never came near the house, but rode by
without looking at it; while the two men who were now approaching were
headed straight for it, and their actions seemed to indicate that they
had business with some member of the family. Marcy glanced at his
mother's pale but resolute face, and then he looked up at the
Confederate banner--the one Captain Semmes hoisted at the _Sabine's_
peak when he put his prize crew aboard of her, and which Sailor Jack had
captured and brought home with him. That flag had twice taken the little
_Fairy Belle_ in safety past the rebel fortifications down the river,
and Marcy had great hopes of it now.
"It may not serve you this time as well as it did before," said his
mother, who seemed to read the thoughts that were passing in his mind.
"I was afraid you would miss it by passing those batteries in broad
daylight, but I do not understand these things, and did not think it
best to raise any objections to Jack's plans."
"Why, mother, we never could have run those works in the dark without
being seen and fired at and perhaps sunk," replied Marcy. "The very
impudence of the thing was what disarmed suspicion and saved us from
being searched. We'll soon know the worst now, for here they are at the
bottom of the steps. I shall ask them right in here."
So saying Marcy opened the door that gave entrance into the hall, and
called for Julius to run around to the front door and take charge of a
couple of horses he would find there, after which he stepped out upon
the gallery just as the Confederates were getting ready to hail the
house.
"Good-morning, gentlemen," said he. "Alight, and give your nags over to
this boy."
The officers replied in courteous tones, and when they had ascended the
steps to the gallery and turned down the wide collars of their gray
overcoats, Marcy was somewhat relieved to find that they were both
strangers, and that they did not look at him as though they had anything
unpleasant to say to him.
"I am Captain Porter, at your service, and my friend here is Lieutenant
Anderson; no relation, however, to the Yankee hero of Fort Sumter, who,
so I am told, is about to be canonized by the Northern people," said the
elder of the two; and then he waited a moment for his subordinate to
laugh at his wit. "If you are Marcy Gray and the head man of the
plantation, you are the man we are looking for. Who wouldn't be a
soldier this fine weather? How is your arm coming on by this time?"
Marcy was beginning to feel a little at his ease in the presence of his
unwelcome visitors, but this abrupt question aroused his fears on the
instant. Did the captain know what was the matter with his arm? and if
he did, which one of their gossiping neighbors told him about it? He was
anxious to know, but afraid to ask.
"It is getting better every day, thank you," was his reply. "Will you
not come and speak to my mother? Julius will put your horses under
shelter."
"We are 'most too muddy to go into the presence of a lady," said the
captain, looking down at his boots, "but as I don't want to blot my
notebook by taking it out in the rain, I think we'll have to go in. We
had a short but interesting chat with your captain a while ago."
"Beardsley?" Marcy almost gasped. "Has he got home?"
"Of course he has. You didn't think the Yankees had captured him, I
hope. He gave us a good account of you, and since you can't run the
blockade any more, I wish you would hurry up and get well so that you
can join----"
Right here the captain stopped long enough to permit Marcy to introduce
him and his lieutenant to Mrs. Gray. They sat down in the easy-chairs
that were brought for them, made a few remarks about the weather, and
then the captain resumed.
"Yes; we saw Beardsley this morning, and would have been glad to spend a
longer time with him, but business prevented. He says you are a brave
and skilful pilot, and I happen to know that they are the sort of men
who are needed on our gunboats; but, of course, you can't go just now.
Hallo!" exclaimed the captain, whose gaze had wandered to the rebel flag
that hung upon the wall. "Where did you get that, if it is a fair
question?"
"It is one my brother brought home with him," answered Marcy, speaking
with a calmness that surprised himself. "He was second mate and pilot of
the blockade runner _West Wind_ that was fitted out and loaded in the
port of Boston."
"Oh, yes; we heard all about him too," said the captain, and Marcy
afterward confessed that the words frightened him out of a year's
growth. "He went down to Newbern to ship on an ironclad he didn't find;
so I suppose he went into the army, did he not?"
"Not that I know of," answered Marcy, looking first one officer and then
the other squarely in the eye. "Almost the last thing I heard him say
was, that he was going to ship on a war vessel."
"Then he will have to come back here to do it, for there is no ironclad
building at Newbern, and I don't see why he did not ship with Commodore
Lynch in the first place," said Captain Porter. "But doubtless he wanted
to serve on deep water. Now to business. We want negroes to work on the
fortifications on and about the Island, and Captain Beardsley sent us
here to get some. He said he thought you might spare, say fifty or
more."
Marcy was suspicious of everything Beardsley said and did, and wondered
if this was a new move on the man's part to bring him and his mother
into trouble with the Confederate authorities. If it was a trap Marcy
did not fall into it.
"You can call on my mother for double that number," said he without an
instant's hesitation. "We can't spare them, of course, for there's work
enough to be done on the place; but all the same you will have to get
them."
"All right," answered the captain, pulling out his notebook. "Send them
down to Plymouth as soon as you can and in any way you please, and we
will furnish them with transportation and take care of them after that.
By the way, it's rather queer about that overseer of yours. Where do you
imagine he is now?"
If Marcy had not been fully on the alert this question would have struck
him dumb; but the captain, whose suspicions had not been in the least
aroused, and who believed Marcy and his mother to be as good
Confederates as he was himself, had unwittingly paved the way for it by
talking so freely about Captain Beardsley.
"It was a very strange as well as a most alarming proceeding," admitted
Mrs. Gray, who thought it time for her to take part in the conversation.
"I have not yet fully recovered from the fright it gave me," she added,
with a smile, "and we have not the faintest idea where Hanson is now."
"What was Hanson anyhow? Which side was he on?"
"I don't know," replied Marcy. "Sometimes he claimed to be one thing,
and then he claimed to be another."
"Captain Beardsley thinks he was in favor of the South."
"That proves my words, for he assured me that he was a Union man, and
wanted to know if I was going to discharge him on account of his
principles. I told him I was not, and added that if Shelby and Dillon
and their friends wanted him driven from the place they could come up
and do the work themselves, for I would have no hand in it. I desire to
live in peace with all my neighbors."
"Oh, you can't do that, and it's no use to try," exclaimed the captain,
getting upon his feet and buttoning his heavy coat. "Beyond a doubt your
overseer was a Confederate in principle; and if that is so, his
abductors must have been Union men. If Confederates had carried him away
they would not hesitate to say so. Those Unionists must be your near
neighbors, and if I were in your place, I should not show my colors
quite so plainly," added the captain, pointing to the banner on the
wall. "I am surprised to learn that there are so many traitors in my
State, and we shall turn our attention to them as soon as we have beaten
back the Yankee invaders of our soil."
"Do you think there will be any more fighting, captain?" asked Mrs. Gray
anxiously.
"Yes, madam, I do. I am not one of those who believe that the North is
going to be easily whipped. They do not belong to our race, I am glad to
say, but they are a hardy, enduring people, and although they don't know
how to fight they think they do, and they are going to give us a
struggle. We must hold fast to Roanoke Island, for the possession of
that important point would give the enemy a chance to operate in the
rear of Norfolk. We expect to have a brush with them soon, and when it
comes, we intend to make another Bull Run affair of it. I wish we could
remain longer, but our duties call us away. I trust you will have those
negroes down to us to-morrow."
Mrs. Gray replied that they should be sent without loss of time, and
Marcy went out to tell Julius to bring up the horses. When he came back
and followed the officers to the front door, he inquired if they had
heard what Beardsley's reason was for quitting a profitable business and
coming home so unexpectedly.
"Oh, yes; Beardsley told us all about it. He said he was afraid of the
Yankees, and he didn't act as though he was ashamed to confess it. Their
cruisers are getting so thick along the coast that a sailing vessel
stands no chance. I asked him if he was going to enlist and he thought
not. He wants to do his fighting on the water."
"He wants to do his fighting with his mouth," was what Marcy said to
himself. "He will neither enlist nor ship; but he will stay at home and
try by all the mean arts that he is master of to keep mother and me in
trouble." Then aloud he said: "I am glad he came home, for it lets me
out of the service. I have no desire to face any more steam launches
that carry howitzers."
"I suppose not," said the captain, giving Marcy's hand a hearty farewell
shake. "The more I see of those people the less I like to face them in
battle. I hope you will soon have the use of your arm again, and that I
shall see you by my side fighting for the glorious cause of Southern
independence. Good-by."
The two officers mounted and rode away, Marcy remained upon the gallery
long enough to wave his hand to them as they passed through the gate,
and then he went into the house and to the room in which he had left his
mother.
"What did I tell you?" were the first words he uttered. "Didn't I say
that Beardsley would not let harm come to us if he could help it? I tell
you, mother, he is afraid of the men who carried Hanson away and ordered
him to come home."
"Well, then, is he not aware that we are looking to those same men for
protection?" inquired Mrs. Gray.
"If he doesn't know it he suspects it pretty strongly. Aleck Webster
told me that Beardsley had been warned to cease persecuting Union people
in this settlement. That includes you and me, for the minute Beardsley
saw and recognized my schooner in Crooked Inlet, that very minute he
knew where to place us. He knows where Jack is now as well as we know it
ourselves."
"And will he not tell of it?"
"Of course, for it is to his interest to do so. If he has been home long
enough to ride into Nashville, he has told Shelby and Dillon of it
before this time. I wish I could see a copy of the letter that was sent
to him by Aleck and his friends. I am sorry to lose all our best hands
at the very time we need them most, but all the same I am glad those
officers came here. They didn't say _money_ once, and that proves that
Beardsley could not have spoken of it in their hearing."
"O Marcy," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, rising from her chair and nervously
pacing the room. "I little dreamed that that money would be the occasion
of so much anxiety to all of us. I almost wish I had never seen it. I
can't sleep of nights for thinking of it, and sometimes I imagine I hear
someone moving about the cellar."
"I don't wish you had never heard of it," replied Marcy. "We can't tell
how long it will be before a dollar or two of it may come handy to us.
Say, mother," he added, stepping to her side and placing his arm about
her waist, "do you think you would be any easier in your mind if you did
not know just where that money was, so long as you knew it was safe?"
"I know I should," was the reply, given in cautious tones. "But, my son,
you must not attempt to remove it to another hiding-place. There seem to
be so many who are on the watch, that I am sure you would be detected at
it. That would mean ruin for you and arrest and imprisonment for me."
Marcy Gray was surprised, frightened, and angered by the
words--surprised to learn that his mother was tormented by the very fear
that had been uppermost in the mind of the absent Jack; frightened when
he reflected how very easy it would be for some of their secret enemies
to bring evidence to prove that every dollar of the money that was
concealed in the cellar-wall rightfully belonged to Northern men, and
that Mrs. Gray was hoarding it for her own use in violation of the law
in such cases made and provided; and angered when he thought of the many
indignities that would be put upon his mother by the Confederate
authorities, who had showed themselves to be brutally vindictive and
merciless in dealing with those whose opinions differed from their own.
He drew a long breath which was very like a sob, and led his mother back
to her seat on the sofa.
"All right," said he, with an appearance of cheerfulness that he was far
from feeling. "I thought it would be a load off your mind if you could
say that there is no money about the house except the little you carry
in your pocket."
Mrs. Gray noticed that the boy did not promise to let the money alone,
but before she could call his attention to the fact Marcy faced about
and went into the hall after his coat and cap.
"It is almost time for the hands to have their dinner," said he, "and
when I get them together I will tell them the news. Of course they will
be delighted with it."
"I am afraid they will put them under some old overseer who will abuse
and drive them beyond their strength," observed Mrs. Gray.
"I think it likely that they will see the difference between working for
you and working for somebody else," admitted Marcy. "But these are war
times, and when we can't help ourselves we must do as we are told. Our
darkies ought to be glad of an opportunity to labor for the government
that is fighting to keep them slaves. I wonder how many Captain
Beardsley will send!"
"You said a while ago that it would be to the captain's interest to tell
of his meeting with you and Jack at Crooked Inlet," observed Mrs. Gray.
"I didn't quite understand that."
"Well, you see Beardsley needs help to carry out his plans, and his game
now is to do nothing that will cause Hanson's abductors to turn their
attention to him and his buildings. He believes, and he has good reason
to believe, that certain men around here have it in their power to
damage him greatly; and if he can bring Shelby and Dillon and the rest
of the gang to his way of thinking, they will be apt to let us alone.
Now I will go out and make a detail of the men we need about the place,
and tell the others that they must be ready to march at daylight in the
morning. I am not going to send them off in this rain."
"The captain said nothing about picks and shovels," suggested Mrs. Gray.
"Perhaps it would be well----"
"Picks and shovels cost money," interrupted Marcy, "and we are not going
to send any down there to be stolen. Let the Confederate government
furnish its own tools. Now I am beaten again! Here are two more
visitors, and this time they are Captain Beardsley and Colonel Shelby."
This very unwelcome announcement brought Mrs. Gray to her feet in a
twinkling. "What do you think they can want here?" she almost gasped,
with a good deal of emphasis on the pronoun.
"They are coming to make friends with you, so that you will not tell the
Union men to destroy their property," replied Marcy.
"But, my son, I never would do anything of the kind. And besides, I do
not know the Union men, or where to find them."
"No difference so long as they think you do. Now sit down and be as
independent as you please, and I will let them in. Julius, stand by the
front door to take those horses."
These men were admitted as the others were, but with very different
feelings on the part of those they came to visit. Captain Porter and his
lieutenant had donned uniforms and were ready to risk their lives for
the cause in which they honestly believed, but these two lacked the
courage to do that. Beardsley was ready to do anything that would bring
him a dollar, provided there was no danger in it, while Shelby would not
have enlisted if he knew that he could thereby earn a right to the title
that was now given him out of respect to his wealth. They were ready to
urge or drive others into the army, but it hurt them to be obliged to
send their negroes to work on the fortifications. Colonel Shelby entered
the room and seated himself with an air of a gentleman, while Beardsley
acted the boor, as he always did. He gave Marcy's well hand a tremendous
grip and shake, and said, in the same voice he would have used if he had
been hailing the masthead:
"Well, how do you find yourself by this time? Ain't you sorry now that
you didn't take out a venture when I wanted you to, so that you might be
shaking thousands in your pocket at this minute, when you've only got
hunderds? My respects to you, Mrs. Gray; but when me and this boy of
yourn get to talking we don't know when to stop. Hope you have been well
since I saw you last, and that the carrying away of your overseer didn't
scare you none."
Marcy was well enough acquainted with Captain Beardsley to know that he
did not rattle on in this style for nothing. The man was excited and
nervous, and tried to conceal his feelings under a cloak of hearty good
nature and jollity that ill became him. Marcy sat down and looked at him
in a way that made Captain Beardsley mutter to himself:
"I'd like the best in the world to wring that there brat's neck. He's
got the upper hand of me and Shelby and all of us, and dog-gone the
luck, he knows it. I'd give a dollar to know what he's got on his mind
this very minute."
After a little talk on various subjects that were of no particular
interest to anybody, Captain Beardsley introduced the subject of
blockade running, and gave a glowing description of the manner in which
he had hoodwinked the Yankee cruisers by dodging out of Ocracoke Inlet
while they were busy fighting the forts at Hatteras. He seemed to look
upon it as a very daring and skillful exploit, and yet it was nothing
more than any alert shipmaster would have done under the same
circumstances.
"After that we had fun alive," added the captain; and Marcy was
surprised to see him put his hand into the pocket of his overcoat and
bring out a good-sized canvas bag which was filled so full of something
heavy that it would not hold any more. "All we had to do was to run down
to Nassau, discharge our cargo, and load up and come back again; and all
the while we was making money till I couldn't eat nor sleep on account
of it, and the Yankees never showed up to bother us."
"You were fortunate," said Marcy, when Beardsley stopped and looked at
him.
"That ain't no name for it. We had the best kind of luck. I kept a
bright watch for that steam launch when we passed through Crooked Inlet,
but she had got tired of waiting and went off somewheres. We seen one or
two little blockade runners like ourselves, but no Yankees. Now there's
your share of the profits, Marcy," said the captain, and he got up and
placed the canvas bag upon the table. "We made two runs, and I promised
you I would give you five hunderd dollars----"
"But, Captain," exclaimed Marcy, while Mrs. Gray looked troubled, "I
have no right to take that money. I wasn't aboard the _Hattie_ when she
made those two runs."
"That's the gospel truth; but didn't I say I would keep your place open
for you while you was laid up in ordinary with your broken arm? I did
for a fact, and I always stand to what I say."
"But I haven't done the first thing to earn that thousand dollars, and I
hope you will believe that I am in dead earnest when I assure you that
I'll not touch it," replied Marcy.
There was no doubt about his earnestness, and the captain looked
disappointed. He settled back in his chair and nodded at Shelby, and
that was a bad thing for him to do. It told Marcy as plainly as words
what their object was in coming there to call upon him and his mother.
"Even if you were not on board the _Hattie_ when she made those
successful trips, you belonged to her, and have a right to demand pay
according to contract," said the colonel.
"And while I belonged to her I took pay according to contract," said
Marcy quickly. "I was paid by the run and not by the month."
"I have never heard that the pay of an enlisted man ceases the moment he
is injured," added the colonel.
"Nor I either; but I am not an enlisted man, and what's more, I do not
intend to be."
"Well, if you won't take the money, you will acknowledge that I tried to
do the fair thing by you? 'said Beardsley.
"I am willing to say that you offered me some money and that I declined
to take it," answered the boy, who knew very well that Beardsley was not
trying to do the fair thing by him. "As it is nobody's business, I never
expect to be questioned about it."
The captain took little share in the conversation that followed. He put
the canvas bag into his pocket, folded his arms and went into the dumps,
where he remained until the name of the missing overseer was mentioned,
and then he brightened up to say:
"That there was a little the strangest thing I ever heard tell of.
What's went with Hanson, do you reckon?"
"I haven't the least idea where he is," was Marcy's answer.
"I know you wasn't to home when he was took off--leastwise I have been
told so," said Beardsley, "but I didn't know but mebbe you and your maw
might suspicion somebody. Now what you going to do for an overseer?
There's that renter of mine, Kelsey his name is. I know you don't
collogue with no such, but mebbe you know who he is."
Marcy started, and looked first at his mother and then at Captain
Beardsley. The latter sat with his bearded chin on his breast, regarding
Marcy through his half-closed eyelids, and there was an expression on
his face that had a volume of meaning in it. Taken by surprise at last,
the usually sharp-witted boy had betrayed the secret he was most anxious
to keep from the knowledge of everybody.