It was the first hot evening of summer. Families were sitting on
door-steps and verandas breathing in the night air as it came up from
the city's baking streets, hoping for a refreshing ocean breeze. But no
breeze came, the leaves on the trees hung motionless, and the smoke from
the chimneys moved in a straight line upward. Dick found Hertha alone on
the stoop with Bob, and man and boy exchanged pleasantries, the latter
exhibiting much pride at his ability to make jokes. To Dick's surprise
Hertha was the first to make a movement to go. Kissing the child
good-night, and laying her hand for a second on Dick's arm, she walked
with him along the street. Bob, though disconsolate, made no attempt to
follow them, knowing that with growing darkness it was wisest for him to
be inconspicuous, a small figure in the shadow whom parents might forget
and fail to send early to bed.
The two figures whom his eyes followed did not go back toward their home
but crossed the avenue at the entrance to the park. They walked very
slowly, stopping as they reached the first group of trees. He wondered
what they were saying. Perhaps Miss Ogilvie was telling Dick one of her
stories.
What she was saying was this: "I've something to tell you about myself
but I don't know how to begin."
Dick's heart leaped at this sign of confidence. "Begin anywhere it's
easiest," he said, "and don't begin at all unless you want to."
"I do want to. At least I think you ought to know. It isn't fair to you
not to tell."
"Fire away then," Dick cried cheerfully. "I hope it means that there's
something for me to do. Isn't there a cruel father who needs to be
hunted in his lair, or an unforgiving sister who is as ugly as you are
beautiful whom I can melt with my pleadings? Don't have a fortune
anywhere for I want to do everything for you myself."
"No," Hertha said, making a vain attempt to laugh, "there isn't anything
like that."
"Whatever there is," Dick's voice trembled in his earnestness, "it can't
make any difference to me. I couldn't love you any more, and there isn't
any possible thing that could make me love you less."
His shaking voice and the intensity of his speech made Hertha
unconsciously draw away. Always hurt by his passion, she stopped for a
moment wondering if she were not making a mistake, if she should not
leave before it was too late with everything unsaid. But as she looked
down the long street the loneliness of a life by herself made her keep
her resolve. Holding herself tense she walked quietly by the man's side.
They were under the arc-light that flooded the entrance to the park.
Large trees rose about them, their branches meeting overhead. To the
right and left small paths wound among the shrubbery to disappear in the
darkness. The air was sweet with the fragrance of syringa and
honeysuckle and of the fresh, warm earth.
"Shall we walk a little way?" Dick said. "It's jolly hot, isn't it?"
fumbling at his stiff collar. "Girls have the bulge on a man this
weather when it comes to clothes."
Hertha had intended going to the lake, but the way looked so lonely, so
apart from the city lights and sounds, that she shrank from taking one
of the paths. "Don't you want to smoke?" she asked. "I'd like to talk
with you when you're enjoying your cigar."
The young man laughed and started to comply with her request, but for
the first time that evening a breeze sprang up and extinguished his
match. With an exclamation of annoyance he moved out of the light into
the shrubbery searching in his pocket for a second match. Hertha still
stood in the broad light of the road.
Meanwhile, from his vantage ground at home, trying to guess at their
possible talk, Bob kept watch, deciding in his mind that what they said
was probably not worth much as Miss Ogilvie kept her best stories for
him. He had learned from Dick that she had never once told that young
man of Tom-of-the-Woods. As he sat meditating he noticed a boy hurry up
the street from the car-line below, who, as he came under the near
light, proved to be none other than Tom-of-the-Woods himself. With a
jump of pleasure, forgetting that he was in hiding, Bob left his perch
and ran out with a greeting.
"Hello, Tom!" he called.
Tom looked at the little boy for a moment in perplexity, and then
without answering started to walk past.
"Want to see her?" Bob asked cheerfully.
Tom stopped. "Yes," he answered.
"I can tell you where she is," Bob went on cautiously. "What'll you give
me if I let you know?"
"I'm in a hurry," Tom said. "Don't fool."
"Gimme your top?"
Tom thrust his hand in his pocket and brought the top out. Grabbing it
with one hand, Bob pointed with the other. "See her over there?" He
indicated the white figure across the street. "That's her. Say," he
called after Tom as he dashed away, "will it vanish for me?"
"Bob, come to bed," came a man's voice from within the house, and,
accepting the inevitable, Bob went within.
Tom had hurried across the street. He was the bearer of bad news and had
no thought for anything but the white figure ahead to whom he must bring
sorrow. Running to where Hertha stood in the bright light he touched her
on the arm saying gently, "Sister!"
The girl started back with a cry. The sight of her brother, here in the
night, unnerved her. Was he God's messenger, come out of the shadow of
the past, to stop her in the path she was about to take? The thought
rushed through her mind as she gave her startled cry.
Then behind her came a sound like the bellowing of some wild creature,
and Dick flung himself upon the Negro. With a blow he struck the lad to
the earth, and holding him fast beat him fiercely.
"Let him alone," Hertha cried, pulling with all her might at Dick's arm.
"He did me no harm!"
The man never heard her. His eyes bulging, his breath coming quick, he
pounded the prostrate boy with a fury that made Hertha cry out in
horror.
"What's up?" A group of men came running in from the street. "What you
got?" one demanded. "A nigger? Gimme a turn at him."
Moving a moment from where he bent over Tom to turn to his questioners,
Dick gave the lad a chance to wriggle from his grasp. In an instant the
black boy was on his feet and running from his enemy into the darkness
of the park.
"Catch him," Dick cried, leaping up and calling on the others. "Lynch
the nigger!"
The men, there were a dozen by this time, scattered among the trees,
Dick leading in the pursuit. Some ran from curiosity, interested to
learn the turn events would take; others were bent on executing
vengeance. None of them listened to Hertha who in her sweet, light voice
was reiterating that the boy had done her no harm.
It was very dark away from the lamp and Tom, who had dashed down one of
the paths, turned among the trees and slipped along close to the bushes.
He knew nothing of his way but he hoped in the obscurity to elude his
pursuers until, weary with their search, they should turn back. He
cursed himself for having brought trouble upon Hertha. "If I can jest
hide for a space," he thought, "I reckon they'll all go away, and she
won't be bothered no more." And crouching under a great bush filled with
snow-white blossoms he waited for the men to pass.
It would have turned out as he desired had not his first pursuer been a
man from Georgia to whom a hunt for a Negro's skin was as justifiable as
a hunt for the skin of a rabbit. And Dick's fury was at its height, for
he had seen Tom touch Hertha's arm. He bent to the ground, deaf to
everything but his work, and slipped among the bushes until he found Tom
crouching close. Then with a great cry he sprang on the boy again.
His grasp slipped and Tom was up and on once more, but this time men
closed in about him to the right and left while Dick bellowed behind.
Running on ahead as fast as his strength would carry him his foot
slipped, and he fell headlong on the path close to the lake. Before he
could rise Dick was striking him cruelly in the face.
"Come on, boys," he cried, "somebody get a rope. We'll string this
damned buck on the nearest tree!"
"Let him alone," came Hertha's voice as she ran toward them through the
trees. "Let him alone."
Her call only infuriated her lover. Turning upon the black boy he kicked
him with his boot; and as though he could not wait for the rope for
which he had called, encircled his neck with his hands as though to
strangle him.
Then Tom uttered a cry. It was the first sound he had made, a broken
sob, uttered unconsciously as the hands closed about his throat.
To Hertha it was the cry of the baby who had been hers to tend and keep.
She saw him running to her along the alley in their old home, his lip
bleeding where a white boy had thrown a stone. She held her arms out to
succor him, and, a child herself, caught him to her heart and wiped away
his tears. Stretching her arms out again she prayed that she might help
him now. And suddenly, like a bolt from heaven, the word came to her
that should bring his release. She cried it at once, loudly, shrilly.
"He's my brother," she called. "He's my brother, he's a right to speak
to me!" And then, on the still hot air, "I'm colored, I'm colored!"
Dick's hands relaxed and fell to his sides. The men moved away, one of
them saying with a laugh, "Beg pardon, lady, the joke's on us." Tom,
unconscious, lay close to the lake on the pathway.
Out from among the trees, like a spirit in her white dress, Hertha moved
straight to Tom. Sitting beside his inert body she lifted his head upon
her lap. There was no light near, and she peered anxiously into his dark
face. Her hand, moving over his forehead, found a gash, and with her
handkerchief she wiped away the blood. He was so very still, his head
hung so lifelessly, that in fear she sought his temple and to her
infinite relief found the pulse throbbing. Caressingly she smoothed his
soft, velvet cheek.
"Want this?"
It was one of the men who brought her water from the lake in a paper
cup. She thanked him and wetting her handkerchief continued to wipe the
ugly wound. The man turned and went on his way.
Across the path, a long, thin, shadow-like figure, stood Dick. He had
not spoken or moved since Hertha had lifted the black boy's head upon
her white dress. He was so still she might have heard his breathing had
her thoughts been anywhere but with her charge. Now, when they were left
alone, he spoke.
"So that was your secret, my fine lady!" His bitter sneer hissed itself
into the night. "You're a grand lady, you are, and I'm only a Georgia
cracker!"
Stepping forward he bent down and tried to peer into her face. It was so
dark he could see little, only that she was watching for a movement of
life from the form whose head lay on her lap.
"Damn you," he cried furiously, his passion triumphing over his sneer.
"You damned white-faced nigger, I'll teach you to lie to a white man.
You hear me? You've had your play with me, and by Christ, I'll have mine
now."
She was as silent, as motionless as the senseless figure of the boy whom
he had felled. The very stillness startled him and fumblingly he struck
a match.
A circle of light surrounded her and he saw that they were close to the
lake where she so often walked with Bob. The light glowed on the clear,
white bark of the birch tree. It fell, too, on her face. Her head was
raised now and she looked at him, her eyes and mouth infinitely sad.
With a little gesture of her hand in dismissal, she said softly, "Go
away, please." And then forgetting him in her anxiety, she dropped her
eyes upon the wounded boy.
The match went out. All Dick could see was the bowed figure, the head
bent low as a mother bends to look at her infant. He strained his
burning eyes, striving in the darkness again to see the white face, the
curling hair. Then with a cry of pain as pitiful as that Tom had uttered
he turned and ran, stumbling on the roots hid in the grass, tearing his
clothes upon the bushes, ran blindly amid the dark, overhanging trees
until he found himself in the light of the city streets.