THE OUTLAWS.
It was in the wildest and least-trodden recesses of the rock and forest,
that the band of outlaws, of which Rivers was the great head and leader,
had fixed their place of abode and assemblage. A natural cavity, formed
by the juxtaposition of two huge rocks, overhung by a third, with some
few artificial additions, formed for them a cavern, in which--so
admirably was it overgrown by the surrounding forest, and so finely
situated among hills and abrupt ridges yielding few inducements for
travel--they found the most perfect security.
It is true such a shelter could not long have availed them as such, were
the adjacent country in the possession of a civilized people; but the
near neighborhood of the Cherokees, by keeping back civilization, was,
perhaps, quite as much as the position they had chosen, its protection
from the scrutiny of many, who had already, prompted by their excesses,
endeavored, on more than one occasion, to find them out. The place was
distant from the village of Chestatee about ten miles, or perhaps more.
No highway--no thoroughfare or public road passed in its neighborhood,
and it had been the policy of the outlaws to avoid the use of any
vehicle, the traces of which might be followed. There was, besides, but
little necessity for its employment. The place of counsel and assemblage
was not necessarily their place of abode, and the several members of the
band found it more profitable to reside, or keep stations, in the
adjacent hamlets and _stands_ (for by this latter name in those regions,
the nightly stopping-places of wayfarers are commonly designated) where,
in most cases, they put on the appearance, and in many respects bore the
reputation, of staid and sober working men.
This arrangement was perhaps the very best for the predatory life they
led, as it afforded opportunities for information which otherwise must
have been lost to them. In this way they heard of this or that
traveler--his destination--the objects he had in view, and the wealth he
carried about with him. In one of these situations the knowledge of old
Snell's journey, and the amount of wealth in his possession, had been
acquired; and in the person of the worthy stable-boy who brought corn to
the old fellow's horses the night before, and whom he rewarded with a
_thrip_ (the smallest silver coin known in the southern currency, the
five-cent issue excepted) we might, without spectacles, recognise the
active fugleman of the outlaws, who sawed half through his axle, cleaned
his wheels of all their grease, and then attempted to rob him the very
night after.
Though thus scattered about, it was not a matter of difficulty to call
the outlaws together upon an emergency. One or more of the most
trustworthy among them had only to make a tour over the road, and
through the hamlets in which they were harbored within the circuit of
ten or twenty miles, and as they kept usually with rigid punctuality to
their several stations, they were soon apprized, and off at the first
signal. A whisper in the ear of the hostler who brought out your horse,
or the drover who put up the cattle, was enough; and the absence of a
colt from pasture, or the missing of a stray young heifer from the
flock, furnished a sufficient reason to the proprietor for the
occasional absence of Tom, Dick, or Harry: who, in the meanwhile, was,
most probably, crying "stand" to a true man, or cutting a trunk from a
sulkey, or, in mere wantonness, shooting down the traveller who had
perhaps given him a long chase, yet yielded nothing by way of
compensation for the labor.
Dillon, or, to speak more to the card, Lieutenant Dillon, arrived at the
place of assemblage just as the day was breaking. He was a leader of
considerable influence among the outlaws, and, next to Rivers, was most
popular. Indeed, in certain respects, he was far more popular; for,
though perhaps not so adroit in his profession, nor so well fitted for
its command, he was possessed of many of those qualities which are apt
to be taking with "the fierce democratic!" He was a prince of hail
fellows--was thoroughly versed in low jest and scurvy anecdote--could
play at pushpins, and drink at every point in the game; and, strange to
say, though always drinking, was never drunk. Nor, though thus
accomplished, and thus prone to these accomplishments, did he ever
neglect those duties which he assumed to perform. No indulgence led him
away from his post, and, on the other hand, no post compelled or
constrained him into gravity. He was a careless, reckless blade,
indifferent alike, it would seem, to sun and storm--and making of life a
circle, that would not inaptly have illustrated the favorite text of
Sardanapalus.
He arrived at the cave, as we have said just as the day was breaking. A
shrill whistle along the ridges of wood and rock as he passed them,
denoted the various stations of the sentinels, as studiously strewed
along the paths by which their place of refuge might be assailed, as if
they were already beleaguered by an assailing army. Without pausing to
listen to the various speeches and inquiries which assailed his ears
upon his arrival he advanced to the cavern, and was told that the
captain had been for some time anxiously awaiting his arrival--that he
had morosely kept the inner recess of the cave, and since his return,
which had not been until late in the night, had been seen but two or
three times, and then but for a moment, when he had come forth to make
inquiries for himself.
Leaving his men differently disposed, Dillon at once penetrated into the
small apartment in which his leader was lodged, assured of the propriety
of the intrusion, from what had just been told him.
The recess, which was separated from the outer hall by a curtain of
thick coarse stuff, falling to the floor from a beam, the apertures for
the reception of which had been chiselled in the rock, was dimly
illuminated by a single lamp, hanging from a chain, which was in turn
fastened to a pole that stretched directly across the apartment. A small
table in the centre of the room, covered with a piece of cotton cloth, a
few chairs, a broken mirror, and on a shelf that stood trimly in the
corner, a few glasses and decanters, completed the furniture of the
apartment.
On the table at which the outlaw sat, lay his pistols--a huge and
unwieldy, but well-made pair. A short sword, a dirk and one or two other
weapons of similar description, contemplated only for hand-to-hand
purposes, lay along with them; and the better to complete the picture,
now already something _outre_, a decanter of brandy and tumblers were
contiguous.
Rivers did not observe the slide of the curtain to the apartment, nor
the entrance of Dillon. He was deeply absorbed in contemplation; his
head rested heavily upon his two palms, while his eyes were deeply fixed
upon the now opened miniature which he had torn from the neck of Lucy
Munro, and which rested before him. He sighed not--he spoke not, but
ever and anon, as if perfectly unconscious all the while of what he did,
he drank from the tumbler of the compounded draught that stood before
him, hurriedly and desperately, as if to keep the strong emotion from
choking him. There was in his look a bitter agony of expression,
indicating a vexed spirit, now more strongly than ever at work in a way
which had, indeed, been one of the primest sources of his miserable
life. It was a spirit ill at rest with itself--vexed at its own
feebleness of execution--its incapacity to attain and acquire the
realization of its own wild and vague conceptions. His was the ambition
of one who discovers at every step that nothing can be known, yet will
not give up the unprofitable pursuit, because, even while making the
discovery, he still hopes vainly that he may yet, in his own person,
give the maxim the lie. For ever soaring to the sun, he was for ever
realizing the fine Grecian fable of Icarus; and the sea of
disappointment into which he perpetually fell, with its tumultuous tides
and ever-chafing billows, bearing him on from whirlpool to whirlpool,
for ever battling and for ever lost. He was unconscious, as we have
said, of the entrance and approach of his lieutenant, and words of
bitterness, in soliloquy, fell at brief periods from his lips.--
"It is after all the best--" he mused. "Despair is the true philosophy,
since it begets indifference. Why should I hope? What prospect is there
now, that these eyes, that lip, these many graces, and the imperial
pride of that expression, which looks out like a high soul from the
heaven that men talk and dream of--what delusion is there now to bid me
hope they ever can be more to me than they are now? I care not for the
world's ways--nor feel I now the pang of its scorn and its outlawry; yet
I would it were not so, that I might, upon a field as fair as that of
the most successful, assert my claim, and woo and win her--not with
those childish notes of commonplace--that sickly cant of sentimental
stuff which I despise, and which I know she despises no less than I.
"Yet, when this field was mine, as I now desire it, what more did it
avail me? Where was the strong sense--the lofty reason that should then
have conquered with an unobstructed force, sweeping all before it, as
the flame that rushes through the long grass of the prairies?
Gone--prostrate--dumb. The fierce passion was upward, and my heart was
then more an outlaw than I myself am now.
"Yet there is one hope--one chance--one path, if not to her affections,
at least to her. It shall be done, and then, most beautiful witch, cold,
stern, and to me heartless, as thou hast ever been--thou shalt not
always triumph. I would that I could sleep on this--I would that I could
sleep. There is but one time of happiness--but one time when the thorn
has no sting--when the scorn bites not--when the sneer chafes not--when
the pride and the spirit shrink not--when there is no wild passion to
make everything a storm and a conflagration among the senses--and that
is--when one forgets!--I would that I could sleep!"
As he spoke, his head sunk upon the table with a heavy sound, as if
unconsciousness had really come with the articulated wish. He started
quickly, however, as now, for the first time, the presence of Dillon
became obvious, and hurriedly thrusting the portrait into his vest, he
turned quickly to the intruder, and sternly demanded the occasion of his
interruption. The lieutenant was prepared, and at once replied to the
interrogatory with the easy, blunt air of one who not only felt that he
might be confided in, but who was then in the strict performance of his
duties.
"I came at your own call, captain. I have just returned from the river,
and skirting down in that quarter, and was kept something later than I
looked for; hearing, on my arrival, that you had been inquiring for me,
I did not hesitate to present myself at once, not knowing but the
business might be pressing."
"It is pressing," responded the outlaw, seemingly well satisfied with
the tacit apology. "It is pressing, Dillon, and you will have little
time for rest before starting again. I myself have been riding all
night, and shall be off in another hour. But what have you to report?
What's in the wind now?"
"I hear but little, sir. There is some talk about a detachment of the
Georgia guard, something like a hundred men, to be sent out expressly
for our benefit; but I look upon this as a mistake. Their eye is rather
upon the miners, and the Indian gold lands and those who dig it, and not
upon those who merely take it after it is gathered. I have heard, too,
of something like a brush betwixt Fullam's troop and the miners at
Tracy's diggings, but no particulars, except that the guard got the
worst of it."
"On that point I am already advised. That is well for us, since it will
turn the eye of the authorities in a quarter in which we have little to
do. I had some hand in that scrape myself, and set the dogs on with this
object; and it is partly on this matter that I would confer with you,
since there are some few of our men in the village who had large part in
it, who must not be hazarded, and must yet stay there."
"If the brush was serious, captain, that will be a matter of some
difficulty; for of late, there has been so much of our business done,
that government, I believe, has some thought of taking it up, and in
order to do so without competition, will think of putting us down. Uncle
Sam and the states, too, are quarrelling in the business, and, as I
hear, there is like to be warm work between them. The Georgians are
quite hot on the subject, and go where I will, they talk of nothing else
than hanging the president, the Indians, and all the judges. They are
brushing up their rifles, and they speak out plain."
"The more sport for us--but this is all idle. It will all end in talk,
and whether it do or not, we, at least, have nothing to do with it. But,
there is drink--fill--and let us look to business before either of us
sleep."
The lieutenant did as suggested by Rivers, who, rising from his seat,
continued for some time to pace the apartment, evidently in deep
meditation. He suddenly paused, at length, and resuming his seat,
inquired of Dillon as to the manner in which he had been employed
through the last few days.
A narration, not necessary to repeat, followed from the officer in which
the numerous petty details of frontier irregularity made up the chief
material. Plots and counterplots were rife in his story, and more than
once the outlaw interrupted his officer in the hope of abridging the
petty particulars of some of their attenuated proportions--an aim not
always successful, since, among the numerous virtues of Lieutenant
Dillon, that of precision and niceness in his statements must not be
omitted. To this narration, however, though called for by himself, the
superior yielded but little attention, until he proceed to describe the
adventure of the night, resulting so unsuccessfully, with the emigrating
farmer. When he described the persons of the two strangers, so
unexpectedly lending their aid in defence of the traveller, a new
interest was awakened in the features and mariner of his auditor, who
here suddenly and with energy interrupted him, to make inquiries with
regard to their dress and appearance, which not a little surprised
Dillon, who had frequently experienced the aversion of his superior to
all seemingly unnecessary minutiae. Having been satisfied on these
points, the outlaw rose, and pacing the apartment with slow steps,
seemed to meditate some design which the narrative had suggested.
Suddenly pausing, at length, as if all the necessary lights had shone in
upon his deliberations at once, he turned to Dillon, who stood in silent
waiting, and thus proceeded:--
"I have it," said he, half-musingly, "I have it, Dillon--it must be so.
How far, say you, is it from the place where the man--what's his
name--encamped last night?"
"Nine or ten miles, perhaps, or more."
"And you know his route for to-day?"
"There is now but one which he can take, pursuing the route which he
does."
"And upon that he will not go more than fifteen or twenty miles in the
day. But not so with _him_--not so with _him_. He will scarcely be
content to move at that pace, and there will be no hope in that way to
overtake him."
Rivers spoke in soliloquy, and Dillon, though accustomed to many of the
mental irregularities of his superior, exhibited something like surprise
as he looked upon the lowering brows and unwonted indecision of the
outlaw.
"Of whom does the captain speak?" was his inquiry.
"Of _whom?_--of _him_--of _him_!" was the rather abrupt response of the
superior, who seemed to regard the ignorance of his lieutenant as to the
object in view, with almost as much wonder as that worthy entertained at
the moment for the hallucinations of his captain.
"Of whom should I speak--of whom should I think but the one--accursed,
fatal and singular, who--" and he stopped short, while his mind, now
comprehending the true relationship between himself and the person
beside him, which, in his moody self-examination, he had momentarily
forgotten, proceeded to his designs with all his wonted coherence.
"I wander, Dillon, and am half-asleep. The fact is, I am almost worn out
with this unslumbering motion. I have not been five hours out of the
saddle in the last twenty-four, and it requires something more of rest,
if I desire to do well what I have on hand--what, indeed, we both have
on hand."
There was something apologetic in the manner, if not in the language, of
the speaker; and his words seemed to indicate, if possible, an excuse
for the incoherence of his address, in the physical fatigue which he had
undergone--in this way to divert suspicion from those mental causes of
excitement, of which, in the present situation, he felt somewhat
ashamed. Pouring out a glass of liquor, and quaffing it without pause,
he motioned to the lieutenant to do the same--a suggestion not possible
for that person to misunderstand--and then proceeded to narrate such
portions of the late occurrences in and about the village as it was
necessary he should know. He carefully suppressed his own agency in any
of these events, for, with the policy of the ancient, he had learned, at
an early period in his life, to treat his friend as if he might one day
become his enemy; and, so far as such a resolution might consistently be
maintained, while engaged in such an occupation as his, he rigidly
observed it.
"The business, Dillon, which I want you to execute, and to which you
will give all your attention, is difficult and troublesome, and requires
ingenuity. Mark Forrester was killed last night, as is supposed, in a
fray with a youth named Colleton, like himself a Carolinian. If such is
not the opinion yet, I am determined such shall be the opinion; and have
made arrangements by which the object will be attained. Of course the
murderer should be taken, and I have reasons to desire that this object
too should be attained. It is on this business, then, that you are to
go. You must be the officer to take him."
"But where is he? if within reach, you know there is no difficulty."
"Hear me; there is difficulty though he is within reach. He is one of
the men whom you found with the old farmer you would otherwise have
attacked last night. There is difficulty, for he will fight like a wild
beast, and stick to his ground like a rattlesnake; and, supported by the
old fellow whom you found him with, he will be able to resist almost any
force which you could muster on the emergency. The only fear I have is,
that being well-mounted, he will not keep with the company, but as they
must needs travel slowly, he will go on and leave them."
"Should it not rather be a source of satisfaction than otherwise--will
it not put him more completely at our disposal?"
"No; for having so much the start of you, and a good animal, he will
soon leave all pursuit behind him. There is a plan which I have been
thinking of, and which will be the very thing, if at once acted upon.
You know the sheriff, Maxson, lives on the same road; you must take two
of the men with you, pick fresh and good horses, set off to Maxson's at
once with a letter which I shall give you, and he will make you special
deputies for the occasion of this young man's arrest. I have arranged it
so that the suspicion shall take the shape of a legal warrant,
sufficient to authorize his arrest and detention. The proof of his
offence will be matter of after consideration."
"But will Maxson do this--may he not refuse? You know he has been once
before threatened with being brought up for his leaning toward us, in
that affair of the Indian chief, Enakamon."
"He can not--he dare not refuse!" said the outlaw, rising impatiently.
"He holds his place and his life at my disposal, and he knows it. He
will not venture to refuse me!"
"He has been very scrupulous of late in all his dealings with us, you
know, and has rather kept out of our way. Besides that, he has been
thorough-going at several camp-meetings lately, and, when a man begins
to appear over-honest, I think it high time he should be looked after by
all parties."
"You are right, Dillon, you are right. I should not trust it to paper
either. I will go myself. But you shall along with me, and on the way I
will put you in a train for bringing out certain prisoners whom it is
necessary that we should secure before the sitting of the court, and
until it is over. They might be foolish enough to convict themselves of
being more honest than their neighbors, and it is but humane to keep
them from the commission of an impropriety. Give orders for the best two
of your troop, and have horses saddled for all four of us. We must be on
the road."
Dillon did as directed, and returned to the conference, which was
conducted, on the part of his superior, with a degree of excitation,
mingled with a sharp asperity of manner, something unwonted for him in
the arranging of any mere matter of business.
"Maxson will not refuse us; if he do, I will hang him by my
saddle-straps. The scoundrel owes his election to our votes, and shall
he refuse us what we ask? He knows his fate too well to hesitate. And
then, Dillon, when you have his commission for the arrest of this boy,
spare not the spur: secure him at all hazards of horseflesh or personal
inconvenience. He will not resist the laws, or anything having their
semblance; nor, indeed, has he any reason--"
"No reason, sir! why, did you not say he had killed Forrester?" inquired
his companion.
"Your memory is sharp, master lieutenant; I did say, and I say so still.
But he affects to think not, and I should not be at all surprised if he
not only deny it to you, but in reality disbelieve it himself. Have you
not heard of men who have learned in time to believe the lies of their
own invention? Why not men doubt the truth of their own doings? There
are such men, and he may he one of them. He may deny stoutly and
solemnly the charge, but let him not deceive you or baffle your pursuit.
We shall prove it upon him, and he shall hang, Dillon--ay, hang, hang,
hang--though it be under her very eyes!"
It was in this way that, in the progress of the dialogue which took
place between the chief and his subordinate, the rambling malignity
would break through the cooler counsels of the villain, and dark
glimpses of the mystery of the transaction would burst upon the senses
of the latter. Rivers had the faculty, however, of never exhibiting too
much of himself; and when hurried on by a passion seemingly too fierce
and furious for restraint, he would suddenly curb himself in, while a
sharp and scornful smile would curl his lips, as if he felt a
consciousness, not only of his own powers of command, but of his
impenetrability to all analysis.
The horses being now ready, the outlaw, buckling on his pistols, and
hiding his dirk in his bosom, threw a huge cloak over his shoulders,
which fully concealed his person; and, in company with his lieutenant,
and two stout men of his band, all admirably and freshly mounted, they
proceeded to the abode of the sheriff.
This man, connected, though secretly, with Rivers and Munro, was
indebted to them and the votes which in that region they could throw
into the boxes, for his elevation to the office which he held, and was,
as might reasonably have been expected, a mere creature under their
management. Maxson, of late days, however, whether from a reasonable
apprehension, increasing duly with increasing years, that he might
become at last so involved in the meshes of those crimes of his
colleagues, from which, while he was compelled to share the risk, he was
denied in great part the profit, had grown scrupulous--had avoided as
much as possible their connexion; and, the better to strengthen himself
in the increasing favor of public opinion, had taken advantage of all
those externals of morality and virtue which, unhappily, too frequently
conceal qualities at deadly hostility with them. He had, in the popular
phrase of the country, "got religion;" and, like the worthy reformers of
the Cromwell era, everything which he did, and everything which he said,
had Scripture for its authority. Psalm-singing commenced and ended the
day in his house, and graces before meat and graces before sleep,
prayers and ablutions, thanksgivings and fastings, had so much thinned
the animal necessities of his household, that a domestic war was the
consequence, and the sheriff and the sheriff's lady held separate sway,
having equally divided the dwelling between them, and ruling each their
respective sovereignties with a most jealous watchfulness. All rights,
not expressly delegated in the distribution of powers originally, were
insisted on even to blood; and the arbitration of the sword, or rather
the poker, once appealed to, most emphatically, by the sovereign of the
gentler sex, had cut off the euphonious utterance of one of the choicest
paraphrases of Sternhold and Hopkins in the middle; and by bruising the
scull of the reformed and reforming sheriff, had nearly rendered a new
election necessary to the repose and well-being of the county in which
they lived.
But the worthy convert recovered, to the sore discomfiture of his
spouse, and to the comfort and rejoicing of all true believers. The
breach in his head was healed, but that which separated his family
remained the same--
"As rocks that had been rent asunder."
They knew the fellowship of man and wife only in so much as was
absolutely essential to the keeping up of appearances to the public
eye--a matter necessary to maintaining her lord in the possession of his
dignity; which, as it conferred honor and profit, through him, upon her
also, it was of necessity a part of her policy to continue.
There had been a brush--a small gust had passed over that fair region of
domestic harmony--on the very morning upon which the outlaw and his
party rode up the untrimmed and half-overgrown avenue, which led to the
house of the writ-server. There had been an amiable discussion between
the two, as to which of them, with propriety, belonged the duty of
putting on the breeches of their son Tommy, preparatory to his making
his appearance at the breakfast-table. Some extraneous influence had
that morning prompted the sheriff to resist the performance of a task
which had now for some time been imposed upon him, and for which,
therefore, there was the sanction of prescription and usage. It was an
unlucky moment for the assertion of his manhood: for, a series of
circumstances operating just about that time unfavorably upon the mind
of his wife, she was in the worst possible humor upon which to try
experiments.
She heard the refusal of her liege to do the required duty, therefore,
with an astonishment, not unmingled with a degree of pleasure, as it
gave a full excuse for the venting forth upon him of those splenetic
humors, which, for some time, had been growing and gathering in her
system. The little sheriff, from long attendance on _courts_ and
_camps_, had acquired something more, perhaps, of the desire and
disposition, than the capacity, to make long speeches and longer
sermons, in the performance of both of which labors, however, he was
admirably fortified by the technicals of the law, and the Bible
phraseology. The quarrel had been waged for some time, and poor Tommy,
the bone of contention, sitting all the while between the contending
parties in a state of utter nudity, kept up a fine running accompaniment
to the full tones of the wranglers, by crying bitterly for his breeches.
For the first time for a long period of years, the lady found her powers
of tongue fail in the proposed effect upon the understanding of her
loving and legal lord; and knowing but of one other way to assail it,
her hand at length grappling with the stool, from which she tumbled the
breechless babe without scruple, seized upon an argument to which her
adversary could oppose neither text nor technical; when, fortunately for
him, the loud rapping of their early visiters at the outer door of the
dwelling interposed between her wrath and its object, and spared the
life of the devout sheriff for other occurrences. Bundling the naked
child out of sight, the mother rushed into an inner apartment, shaking
the stool in the pale countenance of her lord as she retreated, in a
manner and with a look which said, as plainly as words could say, that
this temporary delay would only sharpen her appetite for vengeance, and
exaggerate its terrors when the hour did arrive. It was with a
hesitating step and wobegone countenance, therefore, that the officer
proceeded to his parlor, where a no less troublesome, but less awkward
trial awaited him.
[Transcriber's note: A chapter number was skipped in the original book.]