"Well, boys, I've sent for you to meet me here, and here we are, guests;
you know why?"
"I guess we don't," bluntly responded Buck.
"Choc?" suggested Slaughter.
"Well, we know it's about Choc," assented the son of the horse dealer;
"any fool might guess that. But what about him? Let's hear what you've
got to say, Alf."
"Well, not much, after all. Only that I think it's high time we took
some steps to get rid of this infernal tax we've been paying."
"Oh! you're come to that, are you? I thought you would, sometime. But
for you, Alf Brandon, we might have done somethin' long ago. I'm out o'
pocket clear five hundred dols, and damn me if I intend to pay another
cent, come what will or may."
"Ditto with you, Bill Buck," endorsed Slaughter.
Grubbs, Randall, and Spence were silent, though evidently inclined to
the same way of thinking.
"I've sworn every year I'd stop it," continued Buck, "an' I'd have done
so but for Alf there. It's all very well for him. He's rich, and can
stand it. With some of the rest of us it's dog-gone different."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brandon. "My being rich had nothing to do with
it. I was as anxious as any of you to get the load off my shoulders,
only I could never see how it was to be done."
"Do you see now?" asked Spence.
"Not very clearly, I confess."
"It's clear as mud to me--one way is--" said Slaughter.
"And to me," chimed in Buck. "What way? Tell us?" demanded the
store-keeper. "I'm ready for most anything that'll clear us of that
tax."
"You can get clear, then, by making a _clear_ of the collector."
The suggestion was Slaughter's, the last part of it made in a
significant whisper.
"Them's just my sentiments," said Buck, speaking louder and with more
determination. "I'd have put 'em in practice before this, if Alf
Brandon had showed the pluck to agree to it. Durned if I wouldn't!"
"What!" said the young planter, affecting ignorance of the suggested
scheme, "carry the collector off? Is that what you mean?"
"Oh! you're very innocent, Alf Brandon, you are, my sucking dove!"
It was Slaughter who spoke.
"Yes," said Buck, who answered to the interrogatory, "carry him off, and
so far that there'll be no danger o' his coming back again. That's what
we mean. Have you got anything better to propose? If you have, let's
hear it. If not, what's the use of all this palaverin'?"
"Well," said Brandon, "I've been thinking we might carry something else
off that might answer our purpose as well, and without getting us into
any _scrape_ worth talking about."
"Carry what off? The girl--Rook's daughter?"
"No, no; Brandon don't mean that, and don't need it. He is going to
take her to church, and there's no danger about his getting consent."
It was Buck who made the remark, and with some bitterness, being himself
one of Lena Rook's unsuccessful admirers.
Brandon felt the sting all the more keenly from what had that day
occurred. Moreover, he knew that Buck was upon the list of his rivals,
and saw that the speech was meant for a slur.
The lurid light in his eye, and the pallor suddenly overspreading his
lips, showed the depth of his chagrin. But he said nothing, fearful of
defeating the scheme he had traced out for himself in relation to Lena
Rook.
"Come, gentlemen," said Randall, for the first time entering into the
conversation, "this talk only wastes time, and the subject is too
serious for that. Let us hear Brandon out. I'm as anxious as any of
you to settle this unpleasant matter, and if there be any safe plan we
can all agree about, the sooner it's carried out the better. I needn't
remind you the time's close at hand when the old Shylock will call for
another pound of flesh. If any one can suggest a way to escape paying
it, I think the most of us would be but too willing to stand the best
champagne supper Jim Slaughter can get up for us, and a `jury' into the
bargain."
"Certain we'll all go snacks for that."
"Speak out, Brandon!"
"The fact is," said Brandon, thus appealed to, "we've been all a lot of
fools to stand this thing so long. Supposing we have the old scoundrel,
and dare him to do his worst, what evidence has he got against us only
his own oath?"
"An' the girl's."
"No; the girl saw nothing, at least, only what was circumstantial. She
couldn't swear to the deed; nor he neither, as far as that goes, though
he makes pretence that he can. Suppose he does swear, what then? There
are six of us--six oaths to one. I needn't ask whether you are all
willing?"
"No, you needn't," was the unanimous rejoinder.
"Good, so far. I think you all know that Jerry Rook's oath wouldn't go
far about these parts, and if we stick together and deny the thing _in
toto_, I'd like to know how a jury could give against us. We've been
fools not to try it. I'd have proposed it long ago, only that, like
some of the rest, I've been thin-skinned about it, and didn't like to
stir up stinking waters."
"Yes," cried Buck; "you've been thin-skinned 'bout it--no mistake o'
that. Your damned thin-skinnedness, as you call it, has cost me five
hundred silver dollars."
"Me the same," said Slaughter.
"Well, for that matter, we all had to pay alike; and now let us all
agree to share alike in any law expenses, in case it should come to
that; for my part, I don't think it will."
"And why won't it?" asked Randall, whose law experience, himself being a
practitioner, guided him to a different conclusion. "You don't suppose
that the old Shylock will yield without a trial? Trust me, fellows,
he'll fight hard to stick to that six hundred dollars _per annum_ he's
been so long pulling out of us."
"Damn him! let him fight! What can he do? Let him tell his story, and
what evidence can he bring to support it? As I've said, his oath won't
count for anything against all six of ours."
"But, Alf; you forget the _body_?"
This reminiscence called up by Randall, caused all the others to start;
for all had forgotten it--Brandon alone excepted.
"No, I don't," replied the latter, with an air of triumph at his own
astuteness.
"Well, he'd bring that up, wouldn't he?"
"No doubt he would, if we're fools enough to let him."
"Ah! I see what you're driving at."
"So do we all."
"We know where _it_ lies; we've had good reason to. We've been soft to
let it lie there so long, and we'd be softer still to let it lie there
any longer."
"Darn it, there's something in what he says."
"What do you propose, Alf?"
"That we go in for a good bit of quiet exhumation, and transfer that
body, or bones, or whatever relics be left of it, to a safer place.
After that's done let Jerry Rook do his worst."
"A good idea!"
"Jest the thing, by God!"
"Let's carry it out, then!"
"When?"
"To-morrow night; we're not prepared now, or it might be to-night. Let
us provide the tools for to-morrow night, and meet about midnight. We
can come together in the glade, and go from there. You must all of you
come, and all have a hand in it."
"Agreed! We'll do the grave-digging!"
"Enough, boys! Let's fill up and drink to our success!"
Amidst the clinking of glasses was sealed the singular compact; and the
body-stealers, that were to be, soon after separated, to come together
again upon the morrow.