The backwoodsman preserved a wary look, as if suspicious of an attempt
to corrupt him.
He was not alarmed. Cris Carrol knew himself to be incorruptible.
"Well, Mr Carrol," proceeded the governor, after a pause; "you know
that my settlement has prospered, and, as you may imagine, I have made
money along with the rest?"
"Yes, I know that," was the curt answer.
"And, having now got a little ahead of the world, I feel that I have a
right to indulge some of my fancies. I want a better house, for
instance."
"Do you, now?" said Cris.
"And so I've made up my mind to build; and I want a good site. Now you
see what I am driving at."
"Well, no; I can't say that I do exactly."
"Why, Cris, you are dull to-day. I say I want a good site for my new
house."
"Well, ain't you got hundreds of acres--enough and to spare for the most
tremenjous big house as was ever built?"
"That's true; but on all my land there's not a spot I really like. Does
that seem strange to you?"
"Mighty strange to me, but, perhaps, not so strange to you, governor."
"But there _is_ a bit of ground, Cris," continued Elias, "that I do like
exceedingly. The worst of it is it's not mine."
"Why don't you buy it?"
"Just what I wish to do; but the owner won't sell."
"Perhaps you don't offer enough."
"No; that's not the reason."
"What is it, then?"
"Do you know the top of the hill?" abruptly asked Rody.
"What, where the Injuns make their camp?"
"Yes; that's the place where I want to build. Oluski won't sell that
piece of property to me. Why, I don't know."
The governor did not stick very closely to the truth while talking on
matters of business.
"Wal, what I have I to do with that?" asked the backwoodsman.
"Why, I thought if you were to see Oluski, perhaps you might talk him
into letting me have the ground. I've set my mind on it; and I wouldn't
care if it cost me a good round sum. I'll pay you well for any trouble
you may take in helping me."
Elias Rody had but one estimation of his fellow man, and that was, that
every one has his price.
In the present instance he was mistaken.
"It won't do, governor; it won't do," said Carrol, shaking his head. "I
see now, plain as can be, what you're after; but I won't help you in it.
If you wants the property, and Oluski won't let you have it, then the
Injun's got his own reasons, and it ain't for me to try and change 'em.
Besides," added he, "I don't like the job; so no offence meant, but I
must say now--and I says it once and for all. Is that all you've got to
say to me?"
The governor bit his lips with vexation; but, possessing a wonderful
command over his temper, he merely inquired what his son had said about
Nelatu.
"Well, sir, he didn't say much about anything special, except to ask me
to look after the Injun lad, and see to his wounds. I did that in
first-class style, and, as I told you before, _he's_ all right. Your
son has been down every day to see my patient, as the doctor chaps calls
them they physics. He 'peared mighty anxious to know how it was that he
had come over to this part of the country alone, and where was the young
girl, his sister."
"Ah! so he was inquiring about her, was he?" exclaimed Rody, rising, and
pacing the hut with restless steps. He was glad of a pretext for his
rage.
The backwoodsman uttered a prolonged whistle.
Suddenly pausing in his impatient strides, the governor faced towards
him.
"So he was anxious about her, was he?"
Elias Rody was evidently out of temper, and not now afraid to show it.
But Carrol was not exactly the person to care much about this.
"He was," was his cool answer; "but I don't know how I've got anything
to do with it, except to tell him, and you, too, for the matter of that,
that the red man has his rights and feelings. Yes, and they're both
worth considerin' as much as if they war pale-faces like ourselves."
"And why to me, sir?" asked the governor.
"Well, just because I ain't afraid to say to your face what I'd say
behind your back, and that is, that your son had better stop thinking
about that gurl, Sansuta, as soon as may be, and that you'd best see to
it afore worse happens."
A very outspoken man was the backwoodsman, and Elias Rody was sorry now
for having visited him.
Before he could recover from his surprise, Carrol returned speech.
"There ain't no good, governor, in mincing matters. Last year, when
Oluski war here, your son war always prowlin' 'bout the Injun
encampment, and down in the grove war thar gurl used to be. He war
always a talkin' to the chief's darter, and making presents to her. I
know what I seed, and it warn't jest the thing."
"Perfectly natural, man," said the governor, mastering his chagrin, and
speaking calmly; "perfectly natural, all that, seeing that Nelatu,
Sansuta, and my son grew up as children together."
"All that may be; but it ain't no use applyin' it now that they're most
growed up to be man and woman, and you knows it, governor, as well as I
do. As for Nelatu, he don't amount to shucks; and I sometimes wonder
whether he is Oluski's son after all."
The home truth in the first part of Carrol's speech pleased the
"governor" as little as any of his previous remarks; and, surprised at
the freedom of the backwoodsman's language, he was silent.
Not so Cris, who had evidently determined to say more. His garrulity
was unusual; and, once started, he was too honest to hold his peace.
"Governor, there's many things I've had in me to say to you at a
convenient time. That time's come, I reckon, and I may as well clur it
off my mind. I don't belong to yur colony. I'm only a 'casional
visitor, but I sees and hears things as others don't seem to dare to
tell you o', though why I can't fancy; for you're only a man arter all,
although you air the head man o' the settlement. As near as I can fix
it in my mind, all yur people hev settled hyar on land that once
belonged to the Injun. This bein' the case, it seems to me that the
same laws as is made for the white man is made for the red-skins too.
Now, governor, it ain't so; or, if they are made, they ain't carried
out; and, when there's an advantage to be got for the white man at the
expense of the Injun, why, you see, the law's strained just a leetle to
give it. It's only a leetle now, but by and bye it'll be a good deal.
I know you'll say that's only natural, too, because that's the way you
think; but I tell you, Mr Rody," here Carrol became excited, "that it
_ain't_ natural no how; and it ain't right; and, therefore, mischief's
sure to come o' it. Now, I tell _you_, because you've more brains and
more money than any o' the rest, of course you've got more to answer
for. So them's my sentiments, and you're welcome to them whether you
like 'em or no."
"Well, Mr Carrol," replied Rody, with a withering emphasis on the
"Mister," "I'm glad you've given me your opinion--it's a valuable one,
no doubt."
"I don't know whether it's a valyable one, but I know it's a honest
one," answered Cris, with a quiet dignity, that, despite his rough
dress, bespoke him a gentleman. "I have no object in giving advice to
you, governor. I only feel it a duty, and I like to discharge my
duties. The same way I thinks about your son Warren running after this
Injun girl. No good'll come o' that neyther."
Whatever reply the "governor" would have made to this last observation
was cut short by the entrance of Warren Rody himself.
Seen now in the light of open day, the young man presented a strange
contrast to his father. Of small stature, effeminate countenance,
restless, shifting eyes, and a vacillating expression of mouth, he did
not look like the son of the hard, rugged man who stood beside him.
He was neatly, almost foppishly dressed, and had a self-sufficient air
not altogether pleasant. He seemed like one who would rather pass
through the world with oily smoothness than assert himself with
confidence of power and honesty of purpose.
By one of those strange mental impressions impossible to account for,
both Cris and the "governor" felt that Warren had been a listener.
If so, he did not betray any sign of annoyance at what he had heard, but
stood smilingly tapping his boot with a handsome riding-whip.
"Ah, father, you here? Have you come to see the invalid, or to say
`good bye' to the hunter, who tells me he is off to the wilderness
to-morrow?"