GONE.
At precisely eight o'clock in the evening of this identical Monday,
July 17th, 1854, old Jonathan Perry sat tranquilly smoking his pipe at
the door of the toll-gate two miles north of Millbrook.
The atmosphere was too warm to admit of the wearing of any great
display of apparel, and the old man sat hatless and coatless on a sort
of settle at the threshold. He was an inveterate old gossip, and was
acquainted with the business of everybody in the neighborhood. He knew
all about the bargain entered into between Savareen and Squire
Harrington, and how it was to be consummated on the following day.
Savareen, when riding townwards that morning, had informed him of the
ostensible purpose of his journey, and it now suddenly occurred to the
old man to wonder why the young farmer had not returned home.
While he sat there pondering, the first stroke of the town bell
proclaiming the hour was borne upon his ear. Before the ringing had
ceased, he caught the additional sound of a horse's hoofs rapidly
advancing up the road.
"Ah," said he to himself, "here he comes. I reckon his wife'll be apt
to give him fits for being so late."
In another moment the horseman drew up before him, but only to exchange
a word of greeting, as the gate was thrown wide open, and there was
nothing to bar his progress. The venerable gate-keeper had conjectured
right. It was Savareen on his black mare.
"Well, Jonathan, a nice evening," remarked the young farmer.
"Yes, Mr. Savareen--a lovely night. You've had a long day of it in
town. They'll be anxious about you at home. Did you find the money all
right, as you expected?"
"O, the money was there, right enough, and I've got it in my pocket. I
had some words with that conceited puppy, Shuttleworth, at the bank.
He's altogether too big for his place, and I can tell you he'll have
the handling of no more money of mine." And then, for about the
twentieth time within the last few hours, he recounted the particulars
of his interview with the bank clerk.
The old man expressed his entire concurrence in Savareen's estimate of
Shuttleworth's conduct. "I have to pay the gate-money into the bank on
the first of every month," he remarked, "and that young feller always
acts as if he felt too uppish to touch it. I wonder you didn't drop
into 'un."
"O, I wasn't likely to do that," was the reply--"but I gave him a bit
of my mind, and I told him it 'ud be a long time afore I darkened the
doors of his shop again. And so it will. I'd sooner keep my bit o'
money, when I have any, in the clock-case at home. There's never any
housebreaking hereabouts."
Jonathan responded by saying that, in so far as he knew, there hadn't
been a burglary for many a year.
"But all the same," he continued, "I shouldn't like to keep such a sum
as four hundred pound about me, even for a single night. No more I
shouldn't like to carry such a pot o' money home in the night time,
even if nobody knew as I had it on me. Ride you home, Mr. Savareen, and
hide it away in some safe place till to-morrow morning--that's
_my_ advice."
"And very good advice it is, Jonathan," was the response. "I'll act
upon it without more words. Good night!" And so saying, Savareen
continued his course homeward at a brisk trot.
The old man watched him as he sped away up the road, but could not keep
him in view more than half a minute or so, as by this time the light of
day had wholly departed. He lighted his pipe, which had gone out during
the conversation, and resumed his seat on the settle. Scarcely had he
done so ere he heard the clatter of horse's hoofs moving rapidly
towards the gate from the northward. "Why," said he to himself, "this
must be Savareen coming back again. What's the matter now, I wonder?"
But this time he was out in his conjecture. When the horseman reached
the gate, he proved to be not Savareen, but mine host Lapierre, mounted
on his fast-trotting nag, Count Frontenac--a name irreverently
abbreviated by the sportsmen of the district into "Fronty." The rider
drew up with a boisterous "Woa!" and reached out towards the gate-keeper
a five-cent piece by way of toll, saying as he did so:
"Vell, Mister Perry, how coes everytings wiss you?"
"O, good evening, Mr. Lapierre; I didn't know you till you spoke. My
eyesight's getting dimmer every day, I think. Bound for town?"
"Yes, I want to see what has cot Mr. Safareen. He went to town early
this morning to see about some money matters, and promised to pe pack
in a couple of hours, put he ain't pack yet. Mrs. Safareen cot so
uneasy apout him to-night, that she came up to my place and pegged me
to ride down and hunt him up. I suppose you saw him on his way down?"
"Saw him! On his way down! What are you talking about? Didn't you meet
him just now?"
"Meet who?"
"Savareen."
"Where? When?"
"Why, not two minutes ago. He passed through here on his way home just
before you came up."
"How long pefore?"
"How long! Why, don't I tell you, not two minutes. He hadn't hardly got
out o' sight when I heerd your horse's feet on the stones, and thought
it was him a-coming back again. You must a met him this side o'
Stolliver's."
Then followed further explanations on the part of old Jonathan, who
recounted the conversation he had just had with Savareen.
Well, of course, the key to the situation was not hard to find.
Savareen had left the toll-gate and proceeded northward not more than
two or three minutes before Lapierre, riding southward along the same
road, had reached the same point. The two had not encountered each
other. Therefore, one of them had deviated from the road. There had
been no deviation on the part of Lapierre, so the deviator must
necessarily have been Savareen. But the space of time which had elapsed
was too brief to admit of the latter's having ridden more than a
hundred yards or thereabouts. The only outlet from the road within four
times that distance was the gateway leading into Stolliver's house. The
explanation, consequently, was simple enough. Savareen had called in at
Stollivers. Q. E. D.
Strange, though, that he had said nothing to old Jonathan about his
intention to call there. He had ridden off as though intent upon
getting home without delay, and hiding his money away in a safe place
for the night. And, come to think of it, it was hard to understand what
possible reason he could have for calling at Stolliver's. He had never
had any business or social relations of any kind with Stolliver, and in
fact the two had merely a nodding acquaintance. Still another strange
thing was that Savareen should have taken his horse inside the gate, as
there was a tying-post outside, and he could not have intended to make
any prolonged stay. However, there was no use raising difficult
problems, which could doubt less be solved by a moment's explanation.
It was absolutely certain that Savareen was at Stolliver's because he
could not possibly have avoided meeting Lapierre if he had not called
there. It was Lapierre's business to find him and take him home.
Accordingly the landlord of the Royal Oak turned his horse's head and
cantered back up the road till he reached the front of Stolliver's
place.
Stolliver and his two boys were sitting out on the front fence, having
emerged from the house only a moment before. They had been working in
the fields until past sundown, and had just risen from a late supper.
Old Stolliver was in the habit of smoking a pipe every night after his
evening meal, and in pleasant weather he generally chose to smoke it
out of doors, as he was doing this evening, although the darkness had
fallen. Lapierre, as he drew rein, saw the three figures on the fence,
but could not in the darkness, distinguish one from, another.
"Is that Mister Stollifer?" he asked.
"Yes; who be _you_?" was the ungracious response, delivered in a gruff
tone of voice. Old Stolliver was a boorish, cross-grained customer, who
paid slight regard to the amenities, and did not show to advantage in
conversation.
"Don't you know me? I am Mister Lapierre."
"O, Mr. Lapierre, eh? Been a warm day."
"Yes. Hass Mister Safareen gone?"
"Mister who?"
"Mister Safareen. Wass he not here shoost now?"
"Here? What fur?"
The landlord was by this time beginning to feel a little disgusted at
the man's boorish incivility. "Will you pe so coot as to tell me," he
asked, "if Mister Safareen hass peen here?"
"Not as I know of. Hain't seen him."
Lapierre was astounded. He explained the state of affairs to his
interlocuter, who received the communication with his wonted stolidity,
and proceeded to light his pipe, as much as to say that the affair was
none of his funeral.
"Well," he remarked, with exasperating coolness, "I guess you must 'a'
passed him on the road. We hain't been out here more'n a minute or two.
Nobody hain't passed since then."
This seemed incredible. Where, then, was Savareen? Had he sunk into the
bowels of the earth, or gone up, black mare and all, in a balloon? Of
course it was all nonsense about the landlord having passed him on the
road without seeing or hearing anything of him. But what other
explanation did the circumstances admit of? At any rate, there was
nothing for Lapierre to do but ride back to Savareen's house and see if
he had arrived there. Yes, one other thing might be done. He might
return to the toll gate and ascertain whether Jonathan Perry was
certain as to the identity of the man from whom he had parted a few
minutes before. So Count Frontenac's head was once more turned
southward. A short trot brought him again to the toll-house. The
gatekeeper was still sitting smoking at the door. A moment's conference
with him was sufficient to convince Lapierre that there could be no
question of mistaken identity. "Why," said Jonathan, "I know Mr.
Savareen as well as I know my right hand. And then, didn't he tell me
about his row with Shuttleworth, and that he had the four hundred
pounds in his pocket. Why, dark as it was, I noticed the scar on his
cheek when he was talking about it.--I say, Missus, look here," he
called in a louder tone, whereupon his wife presented herself at the
threshold. "Now," resumed the old man, "just tell Mr. Lapierre whether
you saw Mr. Savareen talking to me a few minutes since, and whether you
saw him ride off up the road just before Mr. Lapierre came down. Did
you, or did you not?"
Mrs. Perry's answer was decisive, and at the same time conclusive as to
the facts. She had not only seen Savareen sitting on his black mare at
the door, immediately after the town bell ceased ringing for eight
o'clock; but she had listened to the conversation between him and her
husband, and had heard pretty nearly every word. Lapierre cross
examined her, and found that her report of the interview exactly
corresponded with what he had already heard from old Jonathan. "Why,"
said she, "there is no more doubt of its being Mr. Savareen than there
is of that gate-post being there on the road-side. 'Very good advice it
is,' says he, 'and I'll act upon it without more words.' Then he said
'good night,' and off he went up the road. Depend upon it, Mr.
Lapierre, you've missed him somehow in the darkness, and he's safe and
sound at home by this time."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Lapierre, not a doubt on it," resumed old Jonathan,
"you've a passed him on the road athout seein' 'im. It was dark, and
you were both in a hurry. I've heerd o' lots o' stranger things nor
that."
Lapierre couldn't see it. He knew well enough that it was no more
possible for him to pass a man on horseback on that narrow highway, on
a clear night, without seeing him--more especially when he was out for
the express purpose of finding that very man--than it was possible for
him to serve out _un petit verre_ of French brandy in mistake for
a gill of Hollands. The facts, however, seemed to be wholly against
him, as he bade the old couple a despondent good-night and put Count
Frontenac to his mettle. He stayed not for brook--there _was_ a
brook a short distance up the road--and he stopped not for stone, but
tore along at a break-neck pace as though he was riding for a wager. In
five minutes he reached Savareen's front gate.
Mrs. Savareen was waiting there, on the look-out for her husband. No,
of course he had not got home. She had neither seen nor heard anything
of him, and was by this time very uneasy. You may be sure that her
anxiety was not lessened when she heard the strange tale which Lapierre
had to tell her.
Even then, however, she did not give up the hope of her husband's
arrival sometime during the night. Lapierre promised to look in again
in an hour or two, and passed on to his own place, where he regaled the
little company he found there with the narrative of his evening's
exploits. Before bedtime the story was known all over the neighborhood.