As might be presumed, from what we have already said regarding Kate
McCarthy, from the moment she took up her abode with her relatives at
Buffalo, she resumed her industrious habits, and set to work, in real
earnest, to add something to whatever young Barry had realized from his
own abilities and steady conduct on both sides of the Atlantic; for,
since his arrival in Canada, he had plied his pen amongst his comrades,
and in other quarters, copying papers and instructing the children of
the soldiers where he was stationed. She consequently soon found her
little store increased, and her time fully occupied. In music and the
earlier branches of English, she had several young pupils; while
for some of the fancy millinery stores of the city, she occasionally
employed her needle on some of those delicate and exquisite ornaments of
female dress which are at once so expensive and attractive. Her labors
were, of course, cheered through constant intercourse by letter with
Barry; and so the time rolled on up to the very point when Nicholas
first applied for his discharge. It may be considered strange, that
Barry had not left the service on his first arrival in Canada; but,
then, let it be understood, that neither he nor Kate had yet acquired
sufficient means with which to begin the world; while both were steadily
accumulating a little, slowly but safely; and when, besides, he felt
assured, that having the means at his command, he could, at any moment,
procure his discharge. We have already said, that owing to his proud
and unyielding nature, he was not a favorite with his officers, and that
such being the case, he never ‘rose above the ranks; but, then, after
all, the most of his superiors had, at times, recourse to his pen and
excellent education in various matters connected with the regiment,
requiting him for his services handsomely enough; but still at enmity
with his Irish blood, and what they feared was, his anti-British
tendencies. Such inducements as these, although accompanied with
drawbacks, moved him to remain in the service for a longer period than
he should have done under other circumstances, and reconciled his lover
to an absence which she believed could be terminated at any moment. And
so time sped with her, until the eve of the very day, on the night of
which Barry and his comrades were to leave the Fort, when returning
towards her home in the direction of Black Bock, from the city, just
as it began to get dusk, she was met by an over-dressed stranger, who
accosting her in a most respectful manner, begged to know if she could
direct him to the residence of Miss Kate McCarthy.
After recovering her surprise, and casting a searching glance at her
interrogator, she replied, that she was, herself, Miss McCarthy, and
begged to know what was his business with her. The man appeared to
hesitate, as if not crediting her assertion, and proceeded to say, that
he had a message for Miss McCarthy, but that he was led to believe that
that lady was a much older person than the one whom he now addressed.
“Possibly,” returned Kate, “there is some other lady of my name here;
but if such be the case, I am totally unaware of it. However,” she
continued, “as I expect no message from any person of my acquaintance,
doubtless I am not the person you seek,” and bowing slightly to the
stranger, she turned to pursue her way in the direction of her home.
“I beg your pardon for attempting to delay you,” rejoined the stranger,
“but after all, you may be the lady I seek. If you are,” he went on to
say, “you will be apt to recognize this token;” holding something in his
hand, which he now thrust out towards her.
In an instant, her whole manner altered, her cheeks flushed, and a
strange light burned in her eyes, as she exclaimed hurriedly, and while
greatly agitated:
“Yes, I am the person; let us walk towards the house. It is but a short
distance from where we stand.”
In a few moments, they were both engaged in the most earnest
conversation, and evidently entering into some stipulation that was to
be carried out without delay. On nearing her residence, however, the
stranger expressed his opinion, that it were better that he should
return to the city at once, and make some arrangements in connection
with the subject of their conversation, whatever that was; enforcing
upon her, in the meantime, the most profound secrecy, and the strange
necessity, above all things, of not informing any of her friends or
relations of the project upon which they had decided.
“Twelve o’clock, at the Lower Ferry, then!” observed the stranger, as he
turned his face towards the city.
“Twelve o’clock!” she returned. “No fear! I shall be awaiting you!”
When she entered the house, with a view to concealing her emotions and
making some secret preparations for the accomplishment of the sudden
project foreshadowed by the words of the stranger, she hastily gained
her chamber. When alone, she gazed confused yet enraptured on the
unexpected talisman that had been given her, and which she still held
firmly in her grasp. Soon, however, becoming more calm, she set about
making such arrangements for her midnight tryst as she conceived
necessary; upon the completion of which, she penned a few lines to her
kind relatives, begging them to make no inquiries after her, as she was
safe; although, for reasons afterwards to be explained, she was obliged
to leave their roof by stealth, and for the moment in utter darkness as
to her destination. She assured them, nevertheless, that although her
conduct was for the present suspicious and inexplicable, she was free
from any taint of wrong, and was only obeying a voice that would soon
justify to the fullest, and before them personally, the step she was
now about to take. This note was left upon her bed-room table, where she
knew it would be discovered; so, after declining to join the family at
tea, on the plea of slight indisposition, she filled a traveling satchel
with what necessaries she thought she might require for the few days she
presumed she should be absent, and extinguishing her lamp at the hour
she usually retired to rest, awaited, alone and in silence, for the
clock to strike eleven; at which time she knew the family would have all
sought their couch and be sunk in slumber.
From her chamber window she perceived that the lights soon began to
disappear from the casements of the few dwellings that were in the
immediate vicinity of her habitation, and that the quiet of repose
was stealing over the neighborhood. Busied with her own thoughts,
and anxious for the future, the time for her departure drew nigh more
rapidly than she had anticipated; so, when the last stroke of eleven had
died away through the house, she, having previously attired herself
for her journey, and secured, about her person, whatever money she
possessed, took up her satchel, and cautiously descending the stairs,
soon emerged out into the gloomy night, hastily bending her footsteps
towards the place of rendezvouz.
Here, besides encountering the individual already introduced to the
reader, who was waiting for her, she having had to travel a considerable
distance, and it being now close on midnight, she found a second party
stationed by the side of a good sized boat, into which all three stepped
upon her arrival; the two strangers seizing the oars and striking boldly
out for the Canadian side of the river. Although rapid the current at
the point of their crossing, so admirably did they manage their craft
and lustily did they pull, they did not deviate much from the light on
the opposite shore, which seemed to gleam from some cottage window, and
which they took as a beacon and guide to their course. In the space
of about half an hour, they landed at the point they expected to make,
where they found a team waiting, with a lantern so ingeniously fixed in
the wagon as to be discernible from the American side of the river only;
this being the light by which the two boatmen had steered.
As they all stepped ashore, Kate had a full opportunity of scrutinizing
the appearance of the second stranger, who aided her in crossing the
river. He was a short, thick-set, heavy man, of a most forbidding
aspect, with a huge mouth and a broad, flat nose, without a bridge. He
wore a blue flannel shirt and a heavy, short over-coat and slouched hat,
and was, taking him all and all, about as villainous a looking specimen
of humanity as one could well meet in a day’s walk. Nor was the driver
of the wagon into which she now was lifted, a very decided improvement
in this relation. He, also, was a most suspicions looking fellow,
although civil enough in his way. Kate felt relieved, however, when her
earliest acquaintance of the evening took his seat beside her, and
when she perceived the man with the blue shirt re-entering the boat and
pushing off for the American shore once again.
The driver now having adjusted himself in his place in front of Kate
and her polite companion, the whip was laid to the horses, and the party
moved briskly along the bank of the river, until they struck into a road
which evidently led into the interior of the country. This road they
pursued at a slow pace until the first gray streaks of dawn were visible
in the eastern horizon; Kate’s companion, from time to time, making
such commonplace observations as the necessity of the case required; she
supposing that the presence of the driver prevented him from offering
her any farther explanation on the subject of her singular adventure.
Just as surrounding objects were becoming more distinct, they pulled up
before an isolated building, in what appeared to be a country place, and
in which, early as it was, there was some person already astir, as was
evident from the light which shone from one of the windows.
Here they all alighted and were received at the door of the dwelling by
a middle aged woman, with a strip of red silk bound round her head and
drawn down over one of her eyes. She was dressed in a plain but neat
manner, and exhibited sufficient traits of feminine beauty to recommend
her to either sex. The driver was evidently her husband, and no very
affectionate one either, if the coarse, cold manner in which he received
her welcome could be taken as any indication on this head. However, as
Kate was cold and weary, she gladly accepted an invitation to alight and
enter the building, where she found a large fire blazing and crackling
upon the hearth, in an apartment that was used as a dining-room and
kitchen; although the house was a large one and clearly contained many
apartments. When seated by the fire, and while the driver was seeing to
his horses, her companion, who also seated himself by the warm
blaze, informed her that, for the present, she was at the end of her
journey--that the driver, his wife and a grown up niece or daughter,
were the only inhabitants of the house, and that the place was selected
as her retreat for the time being, for reasons that would doubtless be
explained to her in due time. Although surprised and mystified at all
she had already experienced, she, of course, had not one word to say in
opposition to the disposition that had been made of her; for had she
not in her bosom the guarantee that all was right; so, professing her
willingness to remain in her temporary abode until the period for her
release arrived, and promising to be as patient as possible, under the
circumstances, she begged the woman of the house to show her to her
room, as she needed a few hours rest, to which request her hostess
readily acceded, having first, though in vain, endeavored to prevail
upon her to take some refreshments after her journey.
The room to which Kate was shown was far from a despicable one, and
possessed many articles of furniture infinitely superior to those in the
department she had first entered. The floor was carpeted, and the chairs
and tables of quite a superior quality; the bed, also, seemed invitingly
clean and comfortable, while some excellent books were to be found in a
small, neat case, standing in one corner of the apartment. On the table
there burned a handsome lamp, and a fire blazed cheerfully in a small,
open stove, as though her arrival had been expected and well cared for.
When her hostess left her, she examined her chamber door and windows,
and found the latter quite secure, while in the lock of the former was
a key, one turn of which would cut her off completely from any intrusion
whatever. Seating herself beside her lamp, she reviewed rapidly the
events of the night, and finding no solution for them, she slowly
undressed, and consigning herself to the care of heaven, was soon lost
in a calm and refreshing slumber, from which she did not awake until the
sun had nearly attained his meridian glory.
When she opened her eyes and collected her scattered senses, she hastily
arose, and dressing herself, rang a small bell that lay on her table,
and which her hostess desired she should use when she required any
attendance. Immediately a gentle tap was heard at her chamber door,
upon opening which, a young girl, about sixteen years of age, presented
herself with a pitcher of fresh water, begging to know, as she placed it
on the wash-stand, at what period she should bring up breakfast; setting
about opening the windows as she spoke, and otherwise busying herself in
arranging the room. There was something in the appearance of this young
creature, that at once enlisted the sympathy and kindly feelings of
Kate. Her features were strangely handsome and prepossessing, and her
form of the very finest proportions. Her hands, although rough with hard
work, were, nevertheless, small and delicately shaped, while her feet,
notwithstanding that they were encased in a pair of over-large slippers,
were obviously very beautiful. She was tall for her age, and apparently
better educated than her seeming condition in life might warrant. But
what was most peculiar about her, was an air of sadness, that seemed
native to her expressive countenance, and which pervaded her smiles
even, with a strange, subduing power, that nearly allied them to gentle
tears. Her voice, too, was singularly sweet, low and melodious; while
her whole demeanor was so tinged with what might be termed some lone,
hidden sorrow, that Kate felt drawn towards her in a manner the most
unaccountable. In answer to a query put to her, she said she was not, as
was generally supposed, the daughter of the owners of the establishment,
but their niece, as she believed; and that she had now been residing
in the locality for over five years. That her uncle did a great deal of
teaming, and was often from home; and that, in his absence, she and her
aunt took care of a small patch of ground that lay at the back of the
house. She was almost glad, she said, that the lady had come to stay
sometime with them, and hoped that she would allow her to often sit by
her and read during the times her uncle would be away; as it might tend
to beguile many a weary hour; that is, provided the lady would have to
remain any length of time with them.
There was something in all this which seemed to move Kate strangely. The
expression “almost glad” sounded curiously in her ears, and awakened
in her feelings of a no very pleasurable character. However, she
determined, upon so slight an acquaintance, not to push her inquiries
further just then; and by way of forming a friendly compact with her
attendant, assured her, that so long as she remained in the house, she
should always be happy to have her as a companion whenever she could be
spared from her domestic duties; and further, that it would afford her
the greatest possible pleasure to sit and listen to her, whenever she
could find a moment’s time to either read for her or while away a few
minutes in friendly conversation. This condescension seemed to light up
the face of the interesting young creature with a flush of gratitude
the most ardent; and with a lighter step than that with which she had
entered the chamber, she tripped away, for the purpose of bringing up
the breakfast to which she had already referred.
When Martha, as Kate’s new acquaintance was called, again entered the
apartment, she was accompanied by her aunt, who was dressed just as she
had been the night before, with the exception that the strip of red
silk had been replaced by a purple band of the same material. As the
breakfast, which was excellent for a country place, was being placed
upon the table, Kate perceived that one side of the woman’s face was
discolored, and being moved to make some inquiries regarding the cause,
was informed, that while breaking up some kindling wood, a splinter
had accidentally struck her face. This went to satisfy her, of course,
although she thought the large, black patch which fell down along the
cheek was singularly dark and wide to be traceable to the small splinter
that the woman asserted to be the cause of it. A strange look from
Martha, too, aroused a suspicion that the origin of the disfigurement
was not that named; so here the matter rested for the present.
During her repast, she learned from Martha, who remained with her, that
the name of the people of the house was Wilson; that they were English,
and that the person who had arrived in company with her uncle, who was
also English, was called Stephen Smith; but where he resided she was
unable to say. This she knew, however, that he made occasional visits to
the family, and was sometimes accompanied by a very ill-looking man, who
remained a day or two, after having left some boxes or cases in charge
of her uncle, who subsequently disposed of them in some manner unknown
to her.
“But,” she continued, “I don’t like these men. They always come in the
night, and go away in the night, and are ever whispering; you must not,
however,” she went on to say, “mention this to either my aunt or my
uncle; for, if they should know I had said so much, they would doubtless
be very angry with me.”
“Oh!” returned Kate, “you may rely upon it, that whatever you may choose
to say in relation to the men in question, or anything else, shall
remain in my bosom; for to betray any confidence of the kind, would, in
my eyes, be criminal in the last degree.”
“What brought you here, then!--what brought you here!” ejaculated
Martha, in an anxious, nervous tone. “There must be something
wrong!--some treachery, or I am sure a lady so good and pure as you seem
to be, would never cross this threshold.”
Kate, becoming instantly alarmed, broke off suddenly in her repast, and
begged the young girl, for Heaven’s sake, to be more explicit.
“I really don’t know what more to say than I have already said,” replied
the girl; “but, as I feel drawn towards you by some invisible power,
short as our acquaintance has been, I will say, that I fear my uncle’s
associates are lawless men, and believe that my aunt knows it, and
regrets it, too. But a few nights ago, when Smith came here to make
arrangements about your arrival, as I suppose, I heard high words
between my relatives after his departure, and, the next morning, found
my aunt’s face just as you have seen it. But we dare not say much in
opposition to any proposition that my uncle might choose to make in any
connection, so violent and brutal is his temper at times. For my own
part, however,” she proceeded, “so soon as I can escape from such
thraldom and associations, I shall try and make my own way in the world;
for my impression is, my uncle has some idea of a union between me and
the detestable creature, Smith, who accompanied you here last night, and
who, after an hour’s rest, was again driven off by my uncle, doubtless
to whatever point he came from.”
This intelligence, as may be supposed, caused poor Kate the greatest
possible anxiety; but what had she to fear so long as she took the
talisman for her guide? Here there could be no mistake, anyway; for had
she not it in her bosom, and was it not from _him_? Still, that there
was something perfectly mysterious about the whole affair, she was quite
ready to admit; but as she had received the strictest injunctions from
Smith not to permit herself to be seen for the present in the vicinity
of the place, or outside the dwelling, she determined to obey one to
whom no small power in her case had unquestionably been delegated by her
lover.
During the day Martha and Kate were frequently together--the poor young
girl disclosing her history scrap by scrap, until at last Kate learned
that she was in reality an orphan; that both her parents died when she
was yet quite young; that her aunt, who was possessed of an excellent
education, had been twice married--once to her own mother’s brother, and
subsequently to the man whom she now called uncle; that her own parents
had been Irish, and that on their death, her real uncle became her
guardian and true friend until his death; when, on this second,
unfortunate marriage, the affairs of the family becoming hopelessly
embarrassed, she and her relatives embarked for America, taking up their
abode first in Toronto, and subsequently in the place where they now
resided. In addition, she stated that her opportunities of education
had been good, and that, somehow or other, since she had crossed the
Atlantic, she managed to keep a few choice books about her, and avail
herself of the assistance of her aunt, whenever they could, in the
absence of her uncle, devote an hour to study or the perusal of some new
work.
The small clearing, on the verge of which the house occupied by the
Wilsons stood, was surrounded with woods, and no other habitation was
to be found in its immediate vicinity. From the morose disposition and
suspicious character of the proprietor himself, but few of the neighbors
were on visiting terms with the family; so that they might be said
to lead a completely sequestered life. From time to time only, an
occasional visit was paid him by some one who stood in need of the
services of his team; and thus his standing in the neighborhood was that
of a suspected or banned man--the general impression being, that he
was neither more nor less than a dangerous and daring smuggler, who was
constantly engaged in the interests of unprincipled merchants on both
sides of the lines. This idea obtained footing from the circumstance
that he had been observed returning late one night from the frontier
with his wagon laden down with suspicious looking boxes and bales;
and from the further fact, that his absences from home were frequently
lengthy and mysterious--no one knowing the precise nature of his
business, or the points to which his journeys were made so often.
The clearing, itself, was under good cultivation, the spring crops
giving fine promise of an abundant harvest. A short distance from the
house flowed a beautiful brook, whose murmurs occasionally reached the
ears of the inmates; while the thickening foliage of the surrounding
groves, as they might be termed, gave shelter to various birds, amongst
which might now be heard, at early morn and throughout the day, the
clear, round notes of the robin.
“The robin!”--what on earth has, we should like to know, bewitched
ornithologists to designate the great, coarse, tuneless bird, that
visits us in the earliest dawn of spring, in this far off America, “the
robin?” Neither in throat nor plumage is it even a thirty-first cousin
of the sweet, timid, little, brown bunch of melody that haunts the
hawthorn hedges of Ireland and the sister island, when they are in
bloom, or seeks a crumb at the open casement, when winter ruffles all
its russet plumes, and sets his chill, white seal on all its stores; We
have been often struck with the great dissimilarity between these two
namesakes of the feathered kingdom; for never on these transatlantic
shores have we heard what might be termed a domestic bird sing a song
so sweet as that poured beneath our window in the soft blue haze of an
Irish summer evening, by the genuine robin-red-breast, as he sang the
daylight down the west, through a sky flushed and flecked with azure,
crimson and gold, to such extreme intensity, that the poet or painter
might, at the moment, half indulge in the idea, that the sun had fallen
into curious ruins upon the verge of the horizon. Oh! the silver thread
of such a song, as it flashed and scintillated from that trembling
throat! Never shall we forget it, or the land in which it first wound
itself around our heart.
But this, we know, is inclined to be sentimental; and as we now have
to do with stern realities, we shall resume the chain of our story
by saying, that after her first day’s residence with the Wilsons, and
finding that the uncle of Martha had no intelligence for her on his
return home on the evening or night succeeding the one of her arrival,
she expressed her great anxiety to Martha, who now devoted every moment
she could spare from her other duties, to the pleasing task of rendering
her solitude as agreeable as possible.
On the morning of the second day after her arrival she ventured to
ask Wilson if he had any idea of when she was to be relieved from her
embarrassing position. In reply to her interrogatory he assured her,
that he was quite unable to give her any information on the subject, but
was led to believe that she should not be long a prisoner, as he termed
it. All he could say in relation to the matter was, that some person,
with whose name even he was unacquainted, had secured, through a third
party, his services as her host, and engaged the apartment she occupied,
and attendance, etc. In addition to this, he observed, carelessly, that
he was responsible for her safety until the arrival of those who
had delegated to him the right to watch over her and shield her from
observation until the proper moment arrived.
To all this Kate made no reply; the thought having just struck her, that
Nicholas had perhaps learned of some intended design upon her by Lauder,
and that he took this method of transporting her to some point
unknown to that person, until he himself could offer her his full and
unembarrassed protection. Yet she wondered why it was that he had left
her in such dreadful uncertainty, and did not write her explicitly
upon the subject Again, she was perplexed at the idea that he was in no
position to learn anything of the plots or plans of her rejected suitor,
if he entertained any; so that, upon the whole, she was in no very
comfortable state of mind when she rejoined Martha whom she had left in
her chamber, and whom she now induced to make up a bed upon a sofa and
consent to sleep in her apartment during her stay.
Martha, on her part, moved by this token of friendship, and while
sitting up late on the very night of the conversation with Wilson,
became mysteriously nervous and, through various vague hints and
insinuations, so far alarmed Kate at last, that the poor girl implored
her new acquaintance to tell her frankly if she knew anything that bore
upon her ease, or the reasons for her being so singularly circumstanced.
To this solicitation Martha made no direct reply; but rising cautiously,
she stepped lightly towards the chamber door, and opening it softly
put out her head into the passage and listened for a few moments. Then
gently closing the door, she again noiselessly retraced her steps,
and drawing her seat close beside that of Kate, began thus, in a low,
trembling voice, in which fear and agitation were distinctly traceable:
“Oh! Miss McCarthy, horrible as the disclosure is, I believe that,
instead of a smuggler, which my aunt and I long supposed him to be, my
uncle is a robber, or leagued with robbers! This, for the first-time,
came to our knowledge last night, after his return from wherever he had
been. We had been always accustomed to his bringing here, during the
night, mysterious packages; but as he informed us that they were goods
for merchants who, as he asserted, resided at some distance, we took him
at his word, and when he removed the goods again were, of course, under
the firm impression that he carried them to their owners. However, as
I have observed, on returning last night, when my aunt and I were
assisting him to remove a heavy case from his wagon, while carrying it
into the stable to place it under the hay beneath which he invariably
concealed such things, my aunt and I perceived that, this time, it was
a large trunk that he had brought, and that the lock had given way,
disclosing gleams within it, as though it contained some bright objects.
He did not notice the circumstance of the fastening having failed, and
we did not call his attention to the fact; but permitted him to shake
the hay over it as usual. Subsequently, however, my aunt and I referred
to the matter, when she, taking advantage of my uncle’s sound slumbers,
he having retired to rest before her, went out again and, re-lighting
the stable lantern, removed the covering from the lid of the great
trunk, and raising it, perceived that it contained many valuable
articles of silver and dress; but all evidently old, and huddled
together in a manner the most confused. This almost paralysed the poor
woman, and as I subsequently inspected the package, on her retiring for
the night, I arrived at the conclusion which she had, as she informed
me, herself previously adopted; namely, that the goods were stolen, and
that Smith was in some way mixed up with the robbery.”
Now, indeed, Kate felt her situation alarming in the truest sense of
the term, and sat looking at her companion in speechless horror and
amazement. Mystery upon mystery it was; but as the dangers that appeared
to surround her, though gloomy, were indistinct, she once more had
recourse to her panacea of the token, and seeking her couch with a
fervent prayer on her lip, was soon, like her young friend on the sofa,
lost in uneasy slumbers.