THE TIE BREAKS.
Clayton remained at Canema several days after the funeral. He had been
much affected by the last charge given him by Nina, that he should care
for her people; and the scene of distress which he witnessed among them,
at her death, added to the strength of his desire to be of service to
them.
He spent some time in looking over and arranging Nina's papers. He
sealed up the letters of her different friends, and directed them in
order to be returned to the writers, causing Harry to add to each a
memorandum of the time of her death. His heart sunk heavily when he
reflected how little it was possible for any one to do for servants left
in the uncontrolled power of a man like Tom Gordon. The awful words of
his father's decision, with regard to the power of the master, never
seemed so dreadful as now, when he was to see this unlimited authority
passed into the hands of one whose passions were his only law. He
recalled, too, what Nina had said of the special bitterness existing
between Tom and Harry; and his heart almost failed him when he
recollected that the very step which Nina, in her generosity, had taken
to save Lisette from his lawlessness, had been the means of placing her,
without remedy, under his power. Under the circumstances, he could not
but admire the calmness and firmness with which Harry still continued to
discharge his duties to the estate; visiting those who were still
ailing, and doing his best to prevent their sinking into a panic which
might predispose to another attack of disease. Recollecting that Nina
had said something of some kind of a contract, by which Harry's freedom
was to be secured in case of her death, he resolved to speak with him on
the subject. As they were together in the library, looking over the
papers, Clayton said to him:--
"Harry, is there not some kind of contract, or understanding, with the
guardians of the estate, by which your liberty was secured in case of
the death of your mistress?"
"Yes," said Harry, "there is such a paper. I was to have my freedom on
paying a certain sum which is all paid in to five hundred dollars."
"I will advance you that money," said Clayton, unhesitatingly, "if that
is all that is necessary. Let me see the paper."
Harry produced it, and Clayton looked it over. It was a regular
contract, drawn in proper form, and with no circumstance wanting to give
it validity. Clayton, however, knew enough of the law which regulates
the condition in which Harry stood, to know that it was of no more avail
in his case than so much blank paper. He did not like to speak of it,
but sat reading it over, weighing every word, and dreading the moment
when he should be called upon to make some remark concerning it;
knowing, as he did, that what he had to say must dash all Harry's
hopes,--the hopes of his whole life. While he was hesitating a servant
entered and announced Mr. Jekyl; and that gentleman, with a
business-like directness which usually characterized his movements,
entered the library immediately after.
"Good-morning, Mr. Clayton," he said, and then, nodding patronizingly to
Harry, he helped himself to a chair and stated his business, without
further preamble.
"I have received orders from Mr. Gordon to come and take possession of
the estate and chattels of his deceased sister without delay."
As Clayton sat perfectly silent, it seemed to occur to Mr. Jekyl that a
few moral reflections of a general nature would be in etiquette on the
present occasion. He therefore added, in the tone of voice which he
reserved particularly for that style of remark:--
"We have been called upon to pass through most solemn and afflicting
dispensations of Divine Providence, lately. Mr. Clayton these things
remind us of the shortness of life, and of the necessity of preparation
for death!"
Mr. Jekyl paused, and, as Clayton still sat silent, he went on:
"There was no will, I presume?"
"No," said Clayton, "there was not."
"Ah, so I supposed," said Mr. Jekyl, who had now recovered his worldly
tone. "In that case, of course the whole property reverts to the
heir-at-law, just as I had imagined."
"Perhaps Mr. Jekyl would look at this paper," said Harry, taking his
contract from the hand of Mr. Clayton, and passing it to Mr. Jekyl; who
took out his spectacles, placed them deliberately on his sharp nose, and
read the paper through.
"Were you under the impression," said he to Harry, "that this is a legal
document?"
"Certainly," said Harry. "I can bring witnesses to prove Mr. John
Gordon's signature, and Miss Nina's also."
"Oh, that's all evident enough," said Mr. Jekyl. "I know Mr. John
Gordon's signature. But all the signatures in the world couldn't make it
a valid contract. You see, my boy," he said, turning to Harry, "a slave,
not being a person in the eye of the law, cannot have a contract made
with him. The law, which is based on the old Roman code, holds him, _pro
nullis, pro mortuis_; which means, Harry, that he's held as nothing--as
dead, inert substance. That's his position in law."
"I believe," said Harry in a strong and bitter tone, "that is what
religious people call a Christian institution!"
"Hey?" said Mr. Jekyl, elevating his eyebrows, "what's that?"
Harry repeated his remark, and Mr. Jekyl replied in the most literal
manner:--
"Of course it is. It is a divine ordering, and ought to be met in a
proper spirit. There's no use, my boy, in rebellion. Hath not the potter
power over the clay, to make one lump to honor, and the other to
dishonor?"
"Mr. Jekyl, I think it would be expedient to confine the conversation
simply to legal matters," said Clayton.
"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Jekyl. "And this brings me to say that I have
orders from Mr. Gordon to stay till he comes, and keep order on the
place. Also that none of the hands shall, at any time, leave the
plantation until he arrives. I brought two or three officers with me, in
case there should be any necessity for enforcing order."
"When will Mr. Gordon be here?" said Clayton.
"To-morrow, I believe," said Mr. Jekyl. "Young man," he added, turning
to Harry, "you can produce the papers and books, and I can be attending
to the accounts."
Clayton rose and left the room, leaving Harry with the imperturbable
Mr. Jekyl, who plunged briskly into the business of the accounts,
talking to Harry with as much freedom and composure as if he had not
just been destroying the hopes of his whole lifetime.
If, by any kind of inward clairvoyance, or sudden clearing of his mental
vision, Mr. Jekyl could have been made to appreciate the anguish which
at that moment overwhelmed the soul of the man with whom he was dealing,
we deem it quite possible that he might have been moved to a transient
emotion of pity. Even a thorough-paced political economist may sometimes
be surprised in this way, by the near view of a case of actual
irremediable distress; but he would soon have consoled himself by a
species of mental algebra, that the greatest good of the greatest number
was nevertheless secure; therefore there was no occasion to be troubled
about infinitesimal amounts of suffering. In this way people can reason
away every kind of distress but their own; for it is very remarkable
that even so slight an ailment as a moderate toothache will put this
kind of philosophy entirely to rout.
"It appears to me," said Mr. Jekyl, looking at Harry, after a while,
with more attention than he had yet given him, "that something is the
matter with you, this morning. Aren't you well?"
"In body," said Harry, "I am well."
"Well, what is the matter, then?" said Mr. Jekyl.
"The matter is," said Harry, "that I have all my life been toiling for
my liberty, and thought I was coming nearer to it every year; and now,
at thirty-five years of age, I find myself still a slave, with no hope
of getting free!"
Mr. Jekyl perceived from the outside that there was something the matter
inside of his human brother; some unknown quantity in the way of
suffering, such as his algebra gave no rule for ascertaining. He had a
confused notion that this was an affliction, and that when people were
in affliction they must be talked to; and he proceeded accordingly to
talk.
"My boy, this is a dispensation of Divine Providence!"
"I call it a dispensation of human tyranny!" said Harry.
"It pleased the Lord," continued Mr. Jekyl, "to foredoom the race of
Ham"--
"Mr. Jekyl, that humbug don't go down with me! I'm no more of the race
of Ham than you are! I'm Colonel Gordon's oldest son--as white as my
brother, who you say owns me! Look at my eyes, and my hair, and say if
any of the rules about Ham pertain to me!"
"Well," said Mr. Jekyl, "my boy, you mustn't get excited. Everything
must go, you know, by general rules. We must take that course which
secures the greatest general amount of good on the whole; and all such
rules will work hard in particular cases. Slavery is a great missionary
enterprise for civilizing and christianizing the degraded African."
"Wait till you see Tom Gordon's management on this plantation," said
Harry, "and you'll see what sort of a christianizing institution it is!
Mr. Jekyl, you _know_ better! You throw such talk as that in the face of
your northern visitors, and you know all the while that Sodom and
Gomorrah don't equal some of these plantations, where nobody isn't
anybody's husband or wife in particular! You know all these things, and
you dare talk to me about a missionary institution! What sort of
missionary institutions are the great trading-marts, where they sell men
and women? What are the means of grace they use there? And the dogs and
the negro-hunters!--those are for the greatest good, too! If your soul
were in our souls' stead, you'd see things differently."
Mr. Jekyl was astonished, and said so. But he found a difficulty in
presenting his favorite view of the case, under the circumstances; and
we believe those ministers of the Gospel, and elders, who entertain
similar doctrines, would gain some new views by the effort to present
them to a live man in Harry's circumstances. Mr. Jekyl never had a more
realizing sense of the difference between the abstract and concrete.
Harry was now thoroughly roused. He had inherited the violent and fiery
passions of his father. His usual appearance of studied calmness, and
his habits of deferential address, were superinduced; they resembled the
thin crust which coats over a flood of boiling lava, and which a burst
of the seething mass beneath can shiver in a moment. He was now wholly
desperate and reckless. He saw himself already delivered, bound hand and
foot, into the hands of a master from whom he could expect neither
mercy nor justice. He was like one who had hung suspended over an abyss,
by grasping a wild rose; the frail and beautiful thing was broken, and
he felt himself _going_, with only despair beneath him. He rose and
stood the other side of the table, his hands trembling with excitement.
"Mr. Jekyl," he said, "it is all over with me! Twenty years of faithful
service have gone for nothing. Myself and wife, and unborn child, are
the slaves of a vile wretch! Hush, now! I will have my say for once!
I've borne, and borne, and borne, and it shall come out! You men who
call yourselves religious, and stand up for such tyranny,--you serpents,
you generation of vipers,--how can you escape the damnation of hell? You
keep the clothes of them who stone Stephen! You encourage theft, and
robbery, and adultery, and you know it! You are worse than the villains
themselves, who don't pretend to justify what they do. Now, go, tell Tom
Gordon--go! I shall fight it out to the last! I've nothing to hope, and
nothing to lose. Let him look out! They made sport of Samson,--they put
out his eyes,--but he pulled down the temple over their heads, after
all. Look out!"
There is something awful in an outburst of violent passion. The veins in
Harry's forehead were swollen, his lips were livid, his eyes glittered
like lightning; and Mr. Jekyl cowered before him.
"There will come a day," said Harry, "when all this shall be visited
upon you! The measure you have filled to us shall be filled to you
_double_--mark my words!"
Harry spoke so loudly, in his vehemence, that Clayton overheard him, and
came behind him silently into the room. He was pained, shocked, and
astonished; and, obeying the first instinct, he came forward and laid
his hand entreatingly on Harry's shoulder.
"My good fellow, you don't know what you are saying," he said.
"Yes, I do," said Harry, "and my words will be true!"
Another witness had come behind Clayton--Tom Gordon, in his
travelling-dress, with pistols at his belt. He had ridden over after
Jekyl, and had arrived in time to hear part of Harry's frantic ravings.
"Stop!" he said, stepping into the middle of the room; "leave that
fellow to me! Now, boy," he said, fixing his dark and evil eye upon
Harry, "you didn't know that your master was hearing you, did you? The
last time we met, you told me I wasn't your master! _Now_, we'll see if
you'll say that again! You went whimpering to your mistress, and got her
to buy Lisette, so as to keep her out of _my_ way! Now who owns
her?--say! Do you see this?" he said, holding up a long, lithe
gutta-percha cane. "This is what I whip dogs with, when they don't know
their place! Now, sir, down on your knees, and ask pardon for your
impudence, or I'll thrash you within an inch of your life!"
"I won't kneel to my younger brother!" said Harry.
With a tremendous oath, Tom struck him; and, as if a rebound from the
stroke, Harry struck back a blow so violent as to send him stumbling
across the room, against the opposite wall; then turned, quick as
thought, sprang through the open window, climbed down the veranda,
vaulted on to Tom's horse, which stood tied at the post, and fled as
rapidly as lightning to his cottage door, where Lisette stood at the
ironing-table. He reached out his hand, and said, "Up, quick, Lisette!
Tom Gordon's here!" And before Tom Gordon had fairly recovered from the
dizziness into which the blow had thrown him, the fleet blood-horse was
whirling Harry and Lisette past bush and tree, till they arrived at the
place where he had twice before met Dred.
Dred was standing there. "Even so," he said, as the horse stopped, and
Harry and Lisette descended; "the vision is fulfilled! Behold, the Lord
shall make thee a witness and commander to the people!"
"There's no time to be lost," said Harry.
"Well I know that," said Dred. "Come, follow me!"
And before sunset of that evening Harry and Lisette were tenants of the
wild fastness in the centre of the swamp.