THE GUEST CREATES A SENSATION AT THE ROYAL OAK.
"Well," said Haskins, "I didn't hear of you quite so far off as
Nashville. It was when I was travelling in Kentucky buying horses, last
year. At Lexington I fell in with an English chap named Randall, who
used to live in this neighborhood. I hired him to buy horses for me. He
was with me about three months, an' if I could only 'a' kept him sober
he'd been with me yet, for he was about as keen a judge of a horse as
ever I came across in my born days, and knew mighty well how to make a
bargain. Well, we hadn't been together a week afore he begun to tell me
about a place where he used to live in Canada West, where he said a
little money went a long way, and where good horses could be bought
cheap. He wanted me to send him up here to buy for me, and I don't know
but I should 'a' done it if I'd found he was to be trusted. But he
would drink like all creation when he had money. Old Bourbon was a
thing he couldn't resist. He had an awful poor opinion of all the rest
of our American institootions, and used to say they wa'n't o' no
account as compared to what he used to have to home in England; but
when it come to Bourbon whisky, he was as full-mouthed as Uncle Henry
Clay himself. He 'lowed there wa'n't anything either in England or in
Canada to touch it. An' when he got four or five inches of it inside
him, there was no gittin' along with him nohow. There wa'n't anything
on airth he wouldn't do to git a couple of inches more, and when he got
them he was the catawamptiousest critter I ever did see. You couldn't
place any more dependence on him than on a free nigger. Besides, he
used to neglect his wife, and a man who neglects his wife ain't a man
to trust with a couple o' thousand dollars at a time. No sir-ree! Not
much, he ain't. But, as I was sayin', the way he used to harp on this
place o' Lapierre's was a caution. Whenever we used to git planted down
in one of our cross-road taverns, he'd turn up his nose till you could
see clean down his throat into his stommick. The fact is, our country
taverns ain't up to much, an' sometimes I could hardly stand 'em
myself. When we'd come in after a hard day's ridin', and git sot down
to a feed of heavy short-cake and fat pork, then Randall 'ud begin to
blow about the grub up here at Lapierre's. He used to tell about the
hot suppers served up here to a passel o' farmers on Saturday nights
till I most got sick o' hearing him. But I see your mugs air empty
again, gentlemen. Landlord, please to do your dooty, and score it up to
yours truly."
During this long harangue the assembled guests alternately scanned the
speaker and each other with inquiring but vacant countenances. They
were puzzling themselves to think who this Randall could be, as no man
of that name had ever been known in that community. When Mr. Haskins
paused in his discourse, and gave his order for replenishment, Farmer
Donaldson was about to remonstrate against this second treat at the
expense of a stranger, and to propose that he himself should stand
sponsor for the incoming refreshments. But before he could get out a
word, the landlord suddenly sprang from his seat with a white, agitated
face.
"Tell me," he said, addressing the stranger--"What like is this
Rantall? Please to tescripe his features."
"Well," drawled the person addressed, after a short pause--"there
ain't much to describe about him. He's a tallish feller--fully four
inches taller'n I be. He's broad and stout--a big man ginerally.
Weighs, I should say, not much under a hundred and ninety. Ruther light
complected, and has a long cut in his face that shows awful white when
he gits his back up. Thunder! he pretty nearly scared me with that
gash one night when he was drunk. It seemed to open and shut like a
clam-shell, and made him look like a Voodoo priest! You'd think the
blood was goan to spurt out by the yard."
By this time every pair of eyes in the room was staring into the
speaker's face with an expression of bewildered astonishment. Not a man
there but recognized the description as a vivid, if somewhat
exaggerated portraiture of the long-lost Reginald Bourchier Savareen.
The stranger from Tennessee readily perceived that he had produced a
genuine sensation. He gazed from one to another for a full minute
without speaking. Then he gave vent to his surcharged feelings by the
exclamation: "For the land's sake!"
An air of speechless bewilderment still pervaded the entire group. They
sat silent as statues, without motion, and almost without breath.
Lapierre was the first to recover himself. By a significant gesture he
imposed continued silence upon the company, and began to ask questions.
He succeeded in eliciting some further pertinent information.
Haskins was unable to say when Randall had acquired a familiarity with
the ways and doings of the people residing in the vicinity of the Royal
Oak, but it must have been some time ago, as he had lived in the States
long enough to have become acquainted with various localities there. As
to when and why he had left Canada the stranger was also totally
ignorant. He knew, however, that Randall was living in the city of New
York about three months ago, as he had seen him there, and had visited
him at his lodgings on Amity street in May, when he (Haskins) had
attended as a delegate to a sporting convention. At that time Randall
had been employed in some capacity in Hitchcock's sale stable, and
made a few dollars now and again by breeding dogs. He lived a needy
hand-to-mouth existence, and his poor wife had a hard time of it. His
drinking habits prevented him from getting ahead in the world, and he
never staid long in one place, but the speaker had no doubt that he
might still be heard of at Hitchcock's by anybody who wanted to hunt him
up. "But," added Mr. Haskins, "I hope I haven't got him into trouble by
coming here to-night. Has he done anything? Anything criminal, I mean?"
After a moment's deliberation, Lapierre told the whole story. There was
no doubt in the mind of any member of the company that Randall and
Savareen were "parts of one stupendous whole." The one important
question for consideration was: What use ought to be made of the facts
thus strangely brought to light?
By this time supper was announced, and the stranger's news, exciting as
it was, did not prevent the guests from doing ample justice to it.
Haskins was loud in his praises of the "spread," as he termed it. "Jack
Randall," he remarked, "could lie when he had a mind to, but he told
the holy truth when he bragged you up as far ahead of the Kentucky
cooks. Yes, I don't mind if I do take another mossel of that
frickersee. Dog me if it don't beat canvas-backs."
Before the meeting broke up it was agreed on all hands that for the
present it would be advisable for the guests to allow the morrow to
pass before saying anything to their wives or anyone else about Mr.
Haskins' disclosures. It was further resolved that that gentleman
should accompany Lapierre to Millbrook after breakfast in the morning,
and that Mrs. Savareen's father should be made acquainted with the
known facts. It was just possible, after all, that Jack Randall might
be Jack Randall, and not Savareen, in which case it was desirable to
save the lost man's wife from cruel agitation to no purpose. It would
be for her father, after learning all that they knew, to communicate
the facts to her or to withhold them, as might seem best to him. On
this understanding the company broke up on the stroke of midnight. I am
by no means prepared to maintain that their pledges were in all cases
kept, and that they each and every one went to sleep without taking
their wives into confidence respecting the strange disclosures of the
night.