HOW HUGH PAID HIS DEBTS
The perspiration was standing in great drops about Hugh's quivering
lips, and his face was white as ashes, as, near the close of that
interview, he hoarsely asked:
"Do I understand you, sir, that Rocket will cancel this debt and leave
you my debtor for one hundred dollars?"
"Yes, that was my offer, and a most generous one, too, considering how
little horses are bringing," and Harney smiled villainously as he
thought within himself: "Easier to manage than I supposed. I believe my
soul I offered too much. I should have made it an even thing."
Hugh knew how long this plan had been premeditated, and his blood boiled
madly when he heard it suggested, as if that moment had given it birth.
Still he restrained himself, and asked the question we have recorded,
adding, after Harney's reply:
"And suppose I do not care to part with Rocket?"
Harney winced a little, but answered carelessly:
"Money, of course, is just as good. You know how long I've waited. Few
would have done as well."
Yes, Hugh knew that, but Rocket was as dear to him as his right eye, and
he would almost as soon have plucked out the one as sold the other.
"I have not the money," he said, frankly, "and I cannot part with
Rocket. Is there nothing else? I'll give a mortgage on Spring Bank."
Harney did not care for a mortgage, but there was something else, and
the rascally face brightened, as, stepping back, while he made the
proposition, he faintly suggested "Lulu." He would give a thousand
dollars for her, and Hugh could keep his horse. For a moment the two
young men regarded each other intently, Hugh's eyes flashing gleams of
fire, and his whole face expressive of the contempt he felt for the
wretch who cowed at last beneath the look, and turned away muttering
that "he saw nothing so very heinous in wishing to purchase a nigger
wench."
Then, changing his tone to one of defiance, he added:
"Since you are not inclined to part with either of your pets, you'll
oblige me with the money, and before to-morrow night. You understand me,
I presume?"
"I do," and bowing haughtily, Hugh passed through the open door.
In a kind of desperation he mounted Rocket, and dashed out of town at a
speed which made more than one look after him, wondering what cause
there was for his headlong haste. A few miles from the city he slacked
his speed, and dismounting by a running brook, sat down to think. The
price offered for Lulu would set him free from every pressing debt, and
leave a large surplus, but not for a moment did he hesitate.
"I'd lead her out and shoot her through the heart, before I'd do that
thing," he said.
Then turning to the noble animal cropping the grass beside him, he wound
his arms around his neck, and tried to imagine how it would seem to know
the stall at home was empty, and his beautiful Rocket gone.
"If I could pawn him," he thought, just as the sound of wheels was
heard, and he saw old Colonel Tiffton driving down the turnpike.
Between the colonel and his daughter Ellen there had been a conversation
that very day touching the young man Hugh, in whom Ellen now felt a
growing interest. Seated in their handsome parlor, with her little hands
folded listlessly one above the other, Ellen was listening, while her
father told her mother.
"He didn't see how that chap was ever to pay his debts. One doctor twice
a day for three months was enough to ruin anybody, let alone having
two," and the sometimes far-seeing old colonel shook his head
doubtfully.
"Father," and Ellen stole softly to his side, "if Mr. Worthington wants
money so badly, you'll lend it to him, won't you?"
Again a doubtful shake as the prudent colonel replied: "And lose every
red I lend, hey? That's the way a woman would do, I s'pose, but I am too
old for that. Now, if he could give good security, I wouldn't mind, but
what's he got, pray, that we want?"
Ellen's gray eyes scanned his face curiously a moment, and then Ellen's
rather pretty lips whispered in his ear: "He's got Rocket, pa."
"Yes, yes, so he has; but no power on earth could make him part with
that nag. I've always liked that boy, always liked old John, but the
plague knows what he did with his money."
"You'll help Hugh?" and Ellen returned to the attack.
"Well," said the old man, "we'll see about this Hugh matter," and the
colonel left the house, and entered the buggy which had been waiting to
take him to Frankfort.
"That's funny that I should run a-foul of him," he thought, stopping
suddenly as he caught sight of Hugh, and calling out cheerily: "How
d'ye, young man? That's a fine nag of yours. My Nell is nigh about crazy
for me to buy him. What'll you take?"
"What'll you give?" was Hugh's Yankee-like response, while the colonel,
struck by Hugh's peculiar manner, settled himself back in his buggy and
announced himself ready to trade.
Hugh knew he could trust the colonel, and after a moment's hesitation
told of his embarrassments, and asked the loan of five hundred dollars,
offering Rocket as security, with the privilege of redeeming him in a
year.
"You ask a steep sum," he said, "but I take it you are in a tight spot
and don't know what else to do. That girl in the snow bank--I'll be
hanged if that was ever made quite clear to me."
"It is to me, and that is sufficient," Hugh answered, while the old
colonel replied:
"Good grit, Hugh. I like you for that. In short, I like you for
everything, and that's why I was sorry about that New York lady. You
see, it may stand in the way of your getting a wife by and by, that's
all."
"I shall never marry," Hugh answered, thinking of the Golden Haired.
"No?" the colonel replied. "Well, there ain't many good enough for you,
that's a fact, and so I tell 'em when they get to--get to--"
Hugh looked up inquiringly, his face flashing as he guessed at what they
got.
"Bless me, there's ain't many girls good for anybody. I never saw but
one, except my Nell, that was worth a picayune, and that was Alice
Johnson."
"Who? Who did you say?" And Hugh grew white as marble.
The colonel replied: "I said Alice Johnson, twentieth cousin of
mine--blast that fly!--lives in Massachusetts; splendid girl--hang it
all can't I hit him?--there, I've killed him." And the colonel put up
his whip, never dreaming of the effect that name had produced on Hugh,
whose heart gave one great throb of hope, and then grew heavy and sad as
he thought how impossible it was that the Alice Johnson the colonel
knew could be the Golden Haired.
"There are fifty by that name, no doubt," he said, "and if there were
not, she is dead."
Hugh dared not question the colonel further, and was only too glad when
the latter said: "If I understand you, I can have Rocket for five
hundred dollars, provided I let you redeem him within a year. Now that's
equivalent to my lending you five hundred dollars out and out. I see,
but seeing it's you, I reckon I'll have to do it. As luck will have it,
I was going down to Frankfort this very day to put some money in the
bank, and if you say so, we'll clinch the bargain at once," and the
colonel began to count the amount.
Alice Johnson was forgotten in that moment when Hugh felt as if his very
life was dying out. Then chiding himself as weak, he lifted up his head
and said: "Rocket is yours."
The words were like a sob; and the generous old man hesitated. But Hugh
was in earnest. His debts must be paid, and that five hundred dollars
would do it.
"I'll bring him around to-morrow. Will that be time enough?" he asked,
as he rolled up the bills.
"Yes, oh, yes," the colonel replied, while Hugh continued: "And,
colonel, you'll--you'll be kind to Rocket. He's never been struck a blow
since he was broken to the saddle. He wouldn't know what it meant."
"Oh, yes, I see--Rarey's method. Now I never could make that work. Have
to lick 'em sometimes, but I'll remember Rocket. Good-day," and
gathering up his reins Colonel Tiffton rode slowly away.
Hugh rode back to Frankfort and dismounted at Harney's door.
In silence Harney received the money, gave his receipt, and then watched
Hugh as he rode again from town, muttering: "I shall remember that he
knocked me down, and some time I'll repay it."
It was dark when Hugh reached home, his flashing eyes indicating the
storm which burst forth the moment he entered the room where 'Lina was
sitting. In tones which made even her tremble he accused her of her
treachery, pouring forth such a torrent of wrath that his mother urged
him to stop, for her sake if no other. She could always quiet Hugh, and
he calmed down at once, hurling but one more missile at his sister, and
that in the shape of Rocket, who, he said, was sold for her
extravagance.
'Lina was proud of Rocket, and the knowledge that he was sold touched
her far more than all Hugh's angry words. But her tear a were of no
avail; the deed was done, and on the morrow Hugh, with an unflinching
hand, led his idol from the stable and rode rapidly across the fields,
leading another horse which was to bring him home.
The next morning Lulu came running up the stairs, exclaiming:
"He's done come home, Rocket has. He's at the kitchen door."
It was even as Lulu, said, for the homesick brute, suspecting something
wrong, had broken from his fastenings, and bursting the stable door had
come back to Spring Bank, his halter dangling about his neck, and
himself looking very defiant, as if he were not again to be coaxed away.
At sight of Hugh he uttered a sound of joy, and bounding forward planted
both feet within the door ere Hugh had time to reach it.
"Thar's the old colonel now," whispered Claib, just as the colonel
himself appeared to claim his runaway.
"I'll take him home myself," he said to the old colonel, emerging from
his hiding place behind the leach, and bidding Claib follow with another
horse Hugh went a second time to Colonel Tiffton's farm.