CLOSE QUARTERS.
Colleton was by no means slow in the recognition of the ruffian, and
only wondered at his own dullness of vision in not having made the
discovery before. Nor did Rivers, with all his habitual villany, seem so
well satisfied with his detection. Perceiving himself fully known, a
momentary feeling of inquietude came over him; and though he did not
fear, he began to entertain in his mind that kind of agitation and doubt
which made him, for the first time, apprehensive of the consequences. He
was not the cool villain like Munro--never to be taken by surprise, or
at disadvantage; and his eye was now withdrawn, though but for a moment,
beneath the stern and searching glance which read him through.
That tacit animal confession and acknowledgment were alone sufficient to
madden a temper such as that of Rivers. Easily aroused, his ferocity was
fearless and atrocious, but not measured or methodical. His mind was not
marked--we had almost said tempered--by that wholesome indifference of
mood which, in all matters of prime villany, is probably the most
desirable constituent. He was, as we have seen, a creature of strong
passions, morbid ambition, quick and even habitual excitement; though,
at times, endeavoring to put on that air of sarcastic superiority to all
emotion which marked the character of the ascetic philosopher--a
character to which he had not the slightest claim of resemblance, and
the very affectation of which, whenever he became aroused or irritated,
was completely forgotten. Without referring--as Munro would have done,
and, indeed, as he subsequently did--to the precise events which had
already just taken place and were still in progress about him, and which
made all parties equally obnoxious with himself to human punishment, and
for an offence far more criminal in its dye than that which the youth
laid to his charge--he could not avoid the momentary apprehension,
which--succeeding with the quickness of thought the intelligent and
conscious glance of Colleton--immediately came over him. His eye, seldom
distinguished by such a habit, quailed before it; and the deep malignity
and festering hatred of his soul toward the youth, which it so
unaccountably entertained before, underwent, by this mortification of
his pride, a due degree of exaggeration.
Ralph, though wise beyond his years, and one who, in a thought borrowed
in part from Ovid, we may say, could rather compute them by events than
ordinary time, wanted yet considerably in that wholesome, though rather
dowdyish virtue, which men call prudence. He acted on the present
occasion precisely as he might have done in the college campus, with all
the benefits of a fair field and a plentiful crowd of backers. Without
duly reflecting whether an accusation of the kind he preferred, at such
a time, to such men, and against one of their own accomplices, would
avail much, if anything, toward the punishment of the criminal--not to
speak of his own risk, necessarily an almost certain consequence from
such an implied determination not to be _particeps criminis_ with any of
them, he approached, and boldly denounced Rivers as a murderous villain;
and urgently called upon those around him to aid in his arrest.
But he was unheard--he had no auditors; nor did this fact result from
any unwillingness on their part to hear and listen to the charge against
one so detested as the accused. They could see and hear but of one
subject--they could comprehend no other. The events of such fresh and
recent occurrence were in all minds and before all eyes; and few,
besides Forrester, either heard to understand, or listened for a moment
to the recital.
Nor did the latter and now unhappy personage appear to give it much more
consideration than the rest. Hurried on by the force of associating
circumstances, and by promptings not of himself or his, he had been an
active performer in the terrible drama we have already witnessed, and
the catastrophe of which he could now only, and in vain, deplore.
Leaning with vacant stare and lacklustre vision against the neighboring
rock, he seemed indifferent to, and perhaps ignorant of, the occurrences
taking place around him. He had interfered when the youth and Rivers
were in contact, but so soon after the event narrated, that time for
reflection had not then been allowed. The dreadful process of thinking
himself into an examination of his own deeds was going on; and remorse,
with its severe but salutary stings, was doing, without restraint, her
rigorous duties.
Though either actually congregated or congregating around him, and
within free and easy hearing of his voice, now stretched to its utmost,
the party were quite too busily employed in the discussion of the
events--too much immersed in the sudden stupor which followed, in nearly
all minds, their termination--to know or care much what were the hard
words which our young traveller bestowed upon the detected outlaw. They
had all of them (their immediate leaders excepted) been hurried on, as
is perfectly natural and not unfrequently the case, by the rapid
succession of incidents (which in their progress of excitement gave them
no time for reflection), from one act to another; without perceiving, in
a single pause, the several gradations by which they insensibly passed
on from crime to crime;--and it was only now, and in a survey of the
several foot-prints in their progress, that they were enabled to
perceive the vast and perilous leaps which they had taken. As in the
ascent of the elevation, step by step, we can judge imperfectly of its
height, until from the very summit we look down upon our place of
starting, so with the wretched outcasts of society of whom we speak.
Flushed with varying excitements, they had deputed the task of
reflection to another and a calmer time; and with the reins of sober
reason relaxed, whirled on by their passions, they lost all control over
their own impetuous progress, until brought up and checked, as we have
seen, by a catastrophe the most ruinous--the return of reason being the
signal for the rousing up of those lurking furies--terror, remorse, and
many and maddening regrets. From little to large events, we experience
or behold this every day. It is a history and all read it. It belongs to
human nature and to society: and until some process shall be discovered
by which men shall be compelled to think by rule and under regulation,
as in a penitentiary their bodies are required to work, we despair of
having much improvement in the general condition of human affairs. The
ignorant and uneducated man is quite too willing to depute to others
the task of thinking for him and furnishing his opinions. The great
mass are gregarious, and whether a lion or a log is chosen for their
guidance, it is still the same--they will follow the leader, if
regularly recognised as such, even though he be an ass. As if conscious
of their own incapacities, whether these arise from deficiencies of
education or denials of birth, they forego the only habit--that of
self-examination--which alone can supply the deficiency; and with a
blind determination, are willing, on any terms, to divest themselves of
the difficulties and responsibilities of their own government. They
crown others with all command, and binding their hands with cords, place
themselves at the disposal of those, who, in many cases, not satisfied
with thus much, must have them hookwinked also. To this they also
consent, taking care, in their great desire to be slaves, to be foremost
themselves in tying on the bandage which keeps them in darkness and in
chains for ever. Thus will they be content to live, however wronged, if
not absolutely bruised and beaten; happy to escape from the cares of an
independent mastery of their own conduct, if, in this way, they can also
escape from the noble responsibilities of independence.
The unhappy men, thus led on, as we have seen, from the commission of
misdemeanor to that of crime, in reality, never for a moment thought
upon the matter. The landlord, Dexter, and Rivers, had, time out of
mind, been their oracles; and, without referring to the distinct
condition of those persons, they reasoned in a manner not uncommon with
the ignorant. Like children at play, they did not perceive the narrow
boundaries which separate indulgence from licentiousness; and in the
hurried excitement of the mood, inspired by the one habit, they had
passed at once, unthinkingly and unconsciously, into the excesses of the
other. They now beheld the event in its true colors, and there were but
few among the squatters not sadly doubtful upon the course taken, and
suffering corresponding dismay from its probable consequences. To a few,
such as Munro and Rivers, the aspect of the thing was unchanged--they
had beheld its true features from the outset, and knew the course, and
defied the consequences. They had already made up their minds upon
it--had regarded the matter in all its phases, and suffered no surprise
accordingly. Not so with the rest--with Forrester in particular, whose
mental distress, though borne with manliness, was yet most distressing.
He stood apart, saying nothing, yet lamenting inwardly, with the
self-upbraidings of an agonized spirit, the easy facility with which he
had been won, by the cunning of others, into the perpetration of a crime
so foul. He either for a time heard not or understood not the charges
made by Ralph against his late coadjutor, until brought to his
consciousness by the increased stir among the confederates, who now
rapidly crowded about the spot, in time to hear the denial of the latter
to the accusation, in language and a manner alike fierce and
unqualified.
"Hear me!" was the exclamation of the youth--his voice rising in due
effect, and illustrating well the words he uttered, and the purpose of
his speech:--"I charge this born and branded villain with an attempt
upon my life. He sought to rob and murder me at the Catcheta pass but a
few days ago. Thrown between my horse's feet in the struggle, he
received the brand of his hoof, which he now wears upon his cheek. There
he stands, with the well-deserved mark upon him, and which, but for the
appearance of his accomplices, I should have made of a yet deeper
character. Let him deny it if he can or dare."
The face of Rivers grew alternately pale and purple with passion, and he
struggled in vain, for several minutes, to speak. The words came from
him hoarsely and gratingly. Fortunately for him, Munro, whose cool
villany nothing might well discompose, perceiving the necessity of
speech for him who had none, interfered with the following inquiry,
uttered in something like a tone of surprise.
"And what say you to this accusation, Guy Rivers? Can you not find an
answer?"
"It is false--false as hell! and you know it, Munro, as well as myself.
I never saw the boy until at your house."
"That I know, and why you should take so long to say it I can't
understand. It appears to me, young gentleman," said Munro, with most
cool and delightful effrontery, "that I can set all these matters right.
I can show you to be under a mistake; for I happen to know that, at the
very time of which you speak, we were both of us up in the Chestatee
fork, looking for a runaway slave--you know the fellow, boys--Black
Tom--who has been _out_ for six months and more, and of whom I got
information a few weeks ago. Well, as everybody knows, the Chestatee
fork is at least twenty miles from the Catcheta pass; and if we were in
one place, we could not, I am disposed to think, very well be in
another."
"An _alibi_, clearly established," was the remark of Counsellor Pippin,
who now, peering over the shoulders of the youth, exhibited his face for
the first time during the controversies of the day. Pippin was
universally known to be possessed of an admirable scent for finding out
a danger when it is well over, and when the spoils, and not the toils,
of the field are to be reaped. His appearance at this moment had the
effect of arousing, in some sort, the depressed spirits of those around
him, by recalling to memory and into exercise the jests upon his
infirmities, which long use had made legitimate and habitual.
Calculating the probable effect of such a joke, Munro, without seeming
to observe the interruption, looking significantly round among the
assembly, went on to say--
"If you have been thus assaulted, young man, and I am not disposed to
say it is not as you assert, it can not have been by any of our village,
unless it be that Counsellor Pippin and his fellow Hob were the persons:
they were down, now I recollect, at the Catcheta pass, somewhere about
the time; and I've long suspected Pippin to be more dangerous than
people think him."
"I deny it all--I deny it. It's not true, young man. It's not true, my
friends; don't believe a word of it. Now, Munro, how can you speak so?
Hob--Hob--Hob--I say--where the devil are you? Hob--say, you rascal, was
I within five miles of the Catcheta pass to-day?" The negro, a black of
the sootiest complexion, now advanced:--
"No, maussa."
"Was I yesterday?"
The negro put his finger to his forehead, and the lawyer began to fret
at this indication of thought, and, as it promised to continue,
exclaimed--
"Speak, you rascal, speak out; you know well enough without reflecting."
The slave cautiously responded--
"If maussa want to be dere, maussa dere--no 'casion for ax Hob."
"You black rascal, you know well enough I was not there--that I was not
within five miles of the spot, either to-day, yesterday, or for ten days
back!"
"Berry true, maussa; if you no dere, you no dere. Hob nebber say one
ting when maussa say 'noder."
The unfortunate counsellor, desperate with the deference of his
body-servant, now absolutely perspired with rage; while, to the infinite
amusement of all, in an endeavor to strike the pliable witness, who
adroitly dodged the blow, the lawyer, not over-active of frame, plunged
incontinently forward, and paused not in his headlong determination
until he measured himself at length upon the ground. The laugh which
succeeded was one of effectual discomfiture, and the helpless barrister
made good his retreat from a field so unpromising by a pursuit of the
swift-footed negro, taking care not to return from the chase.
Colleton, who had regarded this interlude with stern brow and wrathful
spirit, now spoke, addressing Munro:--
"You affirm most strongly for this villain, but your speech is vain if
its object be to satisfy my doubts. What effect it may have upon our
hearers is quite another matter. You can not swear me out of my
conviction and the integrity of my senses. I am resolute in the one
belief, and do not hesitate here, and in the presence of himself and all
of you, to pronounce him again all the scoundrel I declared him to be at
first--in the teeth of all your denials not less than of his! But,
perhaps--as you answer for him so readily and so well--let us know, for
doubtless you can, by what chance he came by that brand, that fine
impress which he wears so happily upon his cheek. Can you not inform him
where he got it--on what road he met with it, and whether the devil's or
my horse's heel gave it him!"
"If your object be merely to insult me, young man, I forgive it. You are
quite too young for me to punish, and I have only pity for the
indiscretion that moves you to unprofitable violence at this time and in
this place, where you see but little respect is shown to those who
invade us with harsh words or actions. As for your charge against
Rivers, I happen to know that it is unfounded, and my evidence alone
would be sufficient for the purpose of his defence. If, however, he were
guilty of the attempt, as you allege, of what avail is it for you to
make it? Look around you, young man!"--taking the youth aside as he
spoke in moderated terms--"you have eyes and understanding, and can
answer the question for yourself. Who is here to arrest him? Who would
desire, who would dare to make the endeavor? We are all here equally
interested in his escape, were he a criminal in this respect, because we
are all here"--and his voice fell in such a manner as to be accommodated
to the senses of the youth alone--"equally guilty of violating the same
laws, and by an offence in comparison with which that against you would
be entirely lost sight of. There is the courthouse, it is true--and
there the jail; but we seldom see sheriff, judge, or jailer. When they
do make their appearance, which is not often, they are glad enough to
get away again. If we here suffer injury from one another, we take
justice into our own hands--as you allege yourself partly to have done
in this case--and there the matter generally ends. Rivers, you think,
assaulted you, and had the worst of it. You got off with but little harm
yourself, and a reasonable man ought to be satisfied. Nothing more need
be said of it. This is the wisest course, let me advise you. Be quiet
about the matter, go on your way, and leave us to ourselves. Better
suffer a little wrong, and seem to know nothing of it, than risk a
quarrel with those who, having once put themselves out of the shelter of
the laws, take every opportunity of putting them at defiance. And what
if you were to push the matter, where will the sheriff or the military
find us? In a week and the judge will arrive, and the court will be in
session. For that week we shall be out of the way. Nobody shall
know--nobody can find us. This day's work will most probably give us all
a great itch for travel."
Munro had, in truth, made out a very plain case; and his
representations, in the main, were all correct. The youth felt their
force, and his reason readily assented to the plain-sense course which
they pointed out. Contenting himself, therefore, with reiterating the
charge, he concluded with saying that, for the present, he would let the
affair rest. "Until the ruffian"--thus he phrased it--"had answered the
penalties of the laws for his subsequent and more heinous offence
against them, he should be silent."
"But I have not done with _you_, young sir," was the immediate speech of
Rivers--his self-confidence and much of his composure returned, as, with
a fierce and malignant look, and a quick stride, he approached the
youth. "You have thought proper to make a foul charge against me, which
I have denied. It has been shown that your assertion is unfounded, yet
you persist in it, and offer no atonement. I now demand redress--the
redress of a gentleman. You know the custom of the country, and regard
your own character, I should think, too highly to refuse me
satisfaction. You have pistols, and here are rifles and dirks. Take your
choice."
The youth looked upon him with ineffable scorn as he replied--
"You mistake me, sirrah, if you think I can notice your call with
anything but contempt."
"What! will you not fight--not fight? not back your words?"
"Not with you!" was the calm reply.
"You refuse me satisfaction, after insulting me!"
"I always took him for a poor chicken, from the first time I set eyes on
him," said one of the spectators.
"Yes, I didn't think much of him, when he refused to join us," was the
remark of another.
"This comes of so much crowing; Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is
better," went on a third, and each man had his remark upon Colleton's
seeming timidity. Scorn and indignation were in all faces around him;
and Forrester, at length awakened from his stupor by the tide of fierce
comment setting in upon his friend from all quarters, now thought it
time to interfere.
"Come, 'squire, how's this? Don't give way--give him satisfaction, as he
calls it, and send the lead into his gizzard. It will be no harm done,
in putting it to such a creature as that. Don't let him crow over old
Carolina--don't, now, squire! You can hit him as easy as a barndoor, for
I saw your shot to-day; don't be afraid, now--stand up, and I'll back
you against the whole of them."
"Ay, bring him forward, Forrester. Let him be a man, if he can," was the
speech of one of the party.
"Come,'squire, let me say that you are ready. I'll mark off the ground,
and you shall have fair play," was the earnest speech of the woodman in
terms of entreaty.
"You mistake me greatly, Forrester, if you suppose for a moment that I
will contend on equal terms with such a wretch. He is a common robber
and an outlaw, whom I have denounced as such, and whom I can not
therefore fight with. Were he a gentleman, or had he any pretensions to
the character, you should have no need to urge me on, I assure you."
"I know that, 'squire, and therefore it provokes me to think that the
skunk should get off. Can't you, now, lay aside the gentleman just long
enough to wing him? Now, do try!"
The youth smiled as he shook his head negatively. Forrester, with great
anxiety, proceeded:--
"But, 'squire, they won't know your reason for refusing, and they will
set you down as afear'd. They will call you a coward!"
"And what if they do, Forrester? They are not exactly the people about
whose opinions I give myself any concern. I am not solicitous to gain
credit for courage among them. If any of them doubt it, let him try me.
Let one of them raise a hand or lift a finger upon me, and make the
experiment. They will then find me ready and willing enough to defend
myself from any outrage, come from what quarter it may."
"I'm afraid, 'squire, they can't be made to understand the difference
between a gentleman and a squatter. Indeed, it isn't reasonable that
they should, seeing that such a difference puts them out of any chance
of dressing a proud fellow who carries his head too high. If you don't
fight, 'squire, I must, if it's only for the honor of old Carolina. So
here goes."
The woodman threw off his coat, and taking up his rifle, substituted a
new for the old flint, and furnishing the pan with fresh priming, before
our hero could well understand the proposed and novel arrangement so as
to interpose in its arrest, he advanced to the spot where Rivers stood,
apparently awaiting the youth's decision, and, slapping him upon the
shoulder, thus addressed him:--
"I say, Guy Rivers, the 'squire thinks you too great a black guard for
him to handle, and leaves all the matter to me. Now, you see, as I've
done _that_ to-day which makes me just as great a blackguard as
yourself, I stand up in his place. So here's for you. You needn't make
any excuse, and say you have no quarrel with me, for, as I am to handle
you in his place, you will consider me to say everything that he has
said--every word of it; and, in addition to that, if more be necessary,
you must know I think you a mere skunk, and I've been wanting to have a
fair lick at you for a monstrous long season."
"You shall not interfere, Forrester, and in this manner, on any
pretence, for the shelter of the coward, who, having insulted me, now
refuses to give me satisfaction. If you have anything to ask at my
hands, when I have done with him, I shall be ready for you," was the
reply of Rivers.
"You hear that 'squire? I told you so. He has called you a coward, and
you will have to fight him at last."
"I do not see the necessity for that, Forrester, and beg that you will
undertake no fighting on my account. When my honor is in danger, I am
man enough to take care of it myself; and, when I am not, my friend can
do me no service by taking my place. As for this felon, the hangman for
him--nobody else."
Maddened, not less by the cool determination of Colleton than by the
contemptuous conclusion of his speech, Rivers, without a word, sprang
fiercely upon him with a dirk, drawn from his bosom with concerted
motion as he made the leap--striking, as he approached, a blow at the
unguarded breast of the youth, which, from the fell and fiendish aim and
effort, must have resulted fatally had he not been properly prepared for
some such attempt. Ralph was in his prime, however, of vigorous make and
muscle, and well practised in the agile sports and athletic exercises of
woodland life. He saw the intent in the mischievous glance of his
enemy's eye, in time to guard himself against it; and, suddenly changing
his position, as the body of his antagonist was nearly upon him, he
eluded the blow, and the force and impetus employed in the effort bore
the assassin forward. Before he could arrest his own progress, the youth
had closed in upon him, and by a dexterous use of his foot, in a manner
well known to the American woodman, Rivers, without being able to
interpose the slightest obstacle to the new direction thus given him,
was forcibly hurled to the ground.
Before he could recover, the youth was upon him. His blood was now at
fever-heat, for he had not heard the taunts upon his courage, from all
around him, with indifference, though he had borne them with a laudable
show of patience throughout. His eye shot forth fires almost as
malignant as those of his opponent. One of his hands was wreathed in the
neckcloth of his prostrate foe, while the other was employed in freeing
his own dirk from the encumbrances of his vest. This took little time,
and he would not have hesitated in the blow, when the interposition of
those present bore him off, and permitted the fallen and stunned man to
recover his feet. It was at this moment that the honest friendship of
Forrester was to be tried and tested. The sympathies of those around
were most generally with the ruffian; and the aspect of affairs was
something unlucky, when the latter was not only permitted to recommence
the attack, but when the youth was pinioned to the ground by others of
the gang, and disarmed of all defence. The moment was perilous; and,
whooping like a savage, Forrester leaped in between, dealing at the same
time his powerful blows from one to the other, right and left, and
making a clear field around the youth.
"Fair play is all I ask, boys--fair play, and we can lick the whole of
you. Hurra for old Carolina. Who's he says a word against her? Let him
stand up, and be knocked down. How's it, 'squire--you an't hurt, I
reckon? I hope not; if you are, I'll have a shot with Rivers myself on
the spot."
But Munro interposed: "We have had enough outcry, Forrester. Let us have
no more. Take this young man along with you, or it will be worse for
him."
"Well, Wat Munro, all the 'squire wants is fair play--fair play for both
of us, and we'll take the field, man after man. I tell you what, Munro,
in our parts the chickens are always hatched with spurs, and the
children born with their eye-teeth. We know something, too, about
whipping our weight in wild-cats; and until the last governor of our
state had all the bears killed, because they were getting civilized, we
could wrestle with 'em man for man, and throw seven out of ten."