WHAT FOLLOWED THE MURDER.
There was a dreadful pause, after the commission of the deed, in which
no word was spoken by either of the parties. The murderer, meanwhile,
with the utmost composure wiped his bloody knife in the coat of the man
whom he had slain. Boldly and coolly then, he broke the silence which
was certainly a painful one to Munro if not to himself.
"We shall hear no more of his insolence. I owed him a debt. It is paid.
If fools will be in the way of danger, they must take the consequences."
The landlord only groaned.
The murderer laughed.
"It is your luck," he said, "always to groan with devout feeling, when
you have _done_ the work of the devil! You may spare your groans, if
they are designed for repentance. They are always too late!"
"It is a sad truth, though the devil said it."
"Well, rouse up, and let's be moving. So far, our ride has been for
nothing. We must leave this carrion to the vultures. What next? Will it
be of any use to pursue this boy again to-night? What say you? We must
pursue and silence him of course; but we have pushed the brutes already
sufficiently to-night. They would be of little service to-night, in a
longer chase."
The person addressed did not immediately reply, and when he spoke, did
not answer to the speech of his companion. His reply, at length, was
framed in obedience to the gloomy and remorseful course of his thought.
"It will be no wonder, Guy, if the whole country turn out upon us. You
are too wanton in your doings. Wherefore when I told you of your error,
did you strike the poor wretch again."
The landlord, it will be seen, spoke simply with reference to policy and
expediency, and deserved as little credit for humanity as the individual
he rebuked. In this particular lay the difference between them. Both
were equally ruffianly, but the one had less of passion, less of
feeling, and more of profession in the matter. With the other, the trade
of crime was adopted strictly in subservience to the dictates of
ill-regulated desires and emotions, suffering defeat in their hope of
indulgence, and stimulating to a morbid action which became a disease.
The references of Munro were always addressed to the petty gains; and
the miserly nature, thus perpetually exhibiting itself, at the expense
of all other emotions, was, in fact, the true influence which subjected
him almost to the sole dictation of his accomplice, in whom a somewhat
lofty distaste for such a peculiarity had occasioned a manner and habit
of mind, the superiority of which was readily felt by the other. Still,
we must do the landlord the justice to say that he had no such passion
for bloodshed as characterized his companion.
"Why strike again!" was the response of Rivers. "You talk like a child.
Would you have had him live to blab? Saw you not that he knew us both?
Are you so green as to think, if suffered to escape, his tongue or hands
would have been idle? You should know better. But the fact is, he could
not have lived. The first blow was fatal; and, if I had deliberated for
an instant, I should have followed the suggestions of your humanity--I
should have withheld the second, which merely terminated his agony."
"It was a rash and bloody deed, and I would we had made sure of your man
before blindly rushing into these unnecessary risks. It is owing to your
insane love of blood, that you so frequently blunder in your object"
"Your scruples and complainings, Wat, remind me of that farmyard
philosopher, who always locked the door of his stable after the steed
had been stolen. You have your sermon ready in time for the funeral, but
not during the life for whose benefit you make it. But whose fault was
it that we followed the wrong game? Did you not make certain of the
fresh track at the fork, so that there was no doubting you?"
"I did--there was a fresh track, and our coming upon Forrester proves
it. There may have been another on the other prong of the fork, and
doubtless the youth we pursue has taken that; but you were in such an
infernal hurry that I had scarce time to find out what I did."
"Well, you will preach no more on the subject. We have failed, and
accounting for won't mend the failure. As for this bull-headed fellow,
he deserves his fate for his old insolence. He was for ever putting
himself in my way, and may not complain that I have at last put him out
of it. But come, we have no further need to remain here, though just as
little to pursue further in the present condition of our horses."
"What shall we do with the body? we can not leave it here."
"Why not?--What should we do with it, I pray? The wolves may want a
dinner to-morrow, and I would be charitable. Yet stay--where is the dirk
which you found at the stable? Give it me."
"What would you do?"
"You shall see. Forrester's horse is off--fairly frightened, and will
take the route back to the old range. He will doubtless go to old
Allen's clearing, and carry the first news. There will be a search, and
when they find the body, they will not overlook the weapon, which I
shall place beside it. There will then be other pursuers than me; and if
it bring the boy to the gallows, I shall not regret our mistake to
night."
As he spoke, he took the dagger, the sheath of which he threw at some
distance in advance upon the road, then smeared the blade with the blood
of the murdered man, and thrust the weapon into his garments, near the
wound.
"You are well taught in the profession, Guy, and, if you would let me, I
would leave it off, if for no other reason than the very shame of being
so much outdone in it. But we may as well strip him. If his gold is in
his pouch, it will be a spoil worth the taking, for he has been melting
and running for several days past at Murkey's furnace."
Rivers turned away, and the feeling which his countenance exhibited
might have been that of disdainful contempt as he replied,
"Take it, if you please--I am in no want of his money. _My_ object was
not his robbery."
The scorn was seemingly understood; for, without proceeding to do as he
proposed, Munro retained his position for a few moments, appearing to
busy himself with the bridle of his horse, having adjusted which he
returned to his companion.
"Well, are you ready for a start? We have a good piece to ride, and
should be in motion. We have both of us much to do in the next three
days, or rather nights; and need not hesitate what to take hold of
first. The court will sit on Monday, and if you are determined to stand
and see it out--a plan which I don't altogether like--why, we must
prepare to get rid of such witnesses as we may think likely to become
troublesome."
"That matter will be seen to. I have ordered Dillon to have ten men in
readiness, if need be for so many, to carry off Pippin, and a few
others, till the adjournment. It will be a dear jest to the lawyer, and
one not less novel than terrifying to him, to miss a court under such
circumstances. I take it, he has never been absent from a session for
twenty years; for, if sick before, he is certain to get well in time for
business, spite of his physician."
The grim smile which disfigured still more the visage of Rivers at the
ludicrous association which the proposed abduction of the lawyer
awakened in his mind, was reflected fully back from that of his
companion, whose habit of face, however, in this respect, was more
notorious for gravity than any other less stable expression. He carried
out, in words, the fancied occurrence; described the lawyer as raving
over his undocketed and unargued cases, and the numberless embryos lying
composedly in his pigeonholes, awaiting, with praiseworthy patience, the
moment when they should take upon them a local habitation and a name;
while he, upon whom they so much depended, was fretting with unassuaged
fury in the constraints of his prison, and the absence from that scene
of his repeated triumphs which before had never been at a loss for his
presence.
"But come--let us mount," said the landlord, who did not feel disposed
to lose much time for a jest. "There is more than this to be done yet in
the village; and, I take it, you feel in no disposition to waste more
time to-night. Let us be off"
"So say I, but I go not back with you, Wat. I strike across the woods
into the other road, where I have much to see to; besides going down the
branch to Dixon's Ford, and Wolf's Neck, where I must look up our men
and have them ready. I shall not be in the village, therefore, until
late to-morrow night--if then."
"What--you are for the crossroads, again," said Munro. "I tell you what,
Guy, you must have done with that girl before Lucy shall be yours. It's
bad enough--bad enough that she should be compelled to look to you for
love. It were a sad thing if the little she might expect to find were to
be divided between two or more."
"Pshaw--you are growing Puritan because of the dark. I tell you I have
done with _her_. I can not altogether forget what she was, nor what I
have made her; and just at this time she is in need of my assistance.
Good-night! I shall see Dillon and the rest of them by morning, and
prepare for the difficulty. My disguise shall be complete, and if you
are wise you will see to your own. I would not think of flight, for much
may be made out of the country, and I know of none better for our
purposes. Good-night!"
Thus saying, the outlaw struck into the forest, and Munro, lingering
until he was fairly out of sight, proceeded to rifle the person of
Forrester--an act which the disdainful manner and language of his
companion had made him hitherto forbear. The speech of Rivers on this
subject had been felt; and, taken in connection with the air of
authority which the mental superiority of the latter had necessarily
imparted to his address, there was much in it highly offensive to the
less adventurous ruffian. A few moments sufficed to effect the
lightening of the woodman's purse of the earnings which had been so
essential a feature in his dreams of cottage happiness; and while
engaged in this transfer, the discontent of the landlord with his
colleague in crime, occasionally broke out into words--
"He carries himself highly, indeed; and I must stand reproved whenever
it pleases his humor. Well, I am in for it now, and there is no chance
of my getting safely out of the scrape just at this moment; but the day
will come, and, by G-d! I will have a settlement that'll go near
draining his heart of all the blood in it."
As he spoke in bitterness he approached his horse, and flinging the
bridle over his neck, was in a little while a good distance on his way
from the scene of blood; over which Silence now folded her wings,
brooding undisturbed, as if nothing had taken place below; so little is
the sympathy which the transient and inanimate nature appears, at any
time, to exhibit, with that to the enjoyment of which it yields the
bloom and odor of leaf and flower, soft zephyrs and refreshing waters.