A Woman at Bay; Or, A Fiend in Skirts
"If, some day, I should decide to send you into the village to do some
errands for me, do you suppose you could make some inquiries about Nick
Carter for me, and at the same time forget all that you know about us,
who are here?"
"I reckon I could, ma'am."
"I'll think about it. I may want to use you," she said; and turned away.
But she stopped and turned toward them again, calling to Handsome, who
went to her side; but Nick could hear the conversation that passed
between them.
"What about that fellow Pat?" she heard Madge inquire; and he could
barely refrain from giving a start that might have betrayed him, for
that question told him plainly that Patsy had already managed to arrive
among the hoboes, and--that his fate still hung in the balance. He
listened eagerly for Handsome's reply.
"I haven't had a chance to examine him yet," he said. "You wished me to
talk with him before I brought him to you."
"Go and bring him here now. Leave Turner here with me until you return."
"Get up there on the porch and sit down, Turner," he said. "Smoke your
pipe if you wish to. The queen won't object. I'll be back in a moment."
But when Handsome had hurried away to bring Patsy, and Nick had seated
himself upon a rustic chair, Madge came and stood in front of him.
"Turner," she said severely. "Tell me the truth now. What brought you
into this neighborhood?"
"The season of the year brought me," Nick replied to her as he had done
to Handsome.
"Who sent you?"
"Nobody sent me, ma'am."
"Swear to that."
"'Tain't necessary. I have said it."
"Do you know what would happen to you if I should find that you were
acting as a spy?"
"I suppose I could guess."
"I'd have you burned at the stake, just as Indians used to burn their
captives."
"Well, ma'am, I reckon I've lived too long a time now to be much afraid
of death. When a man has passed eighty, he ain't much afraid of things."
"Are you as old as that?"
"Old Bill Turner is eighty-four, ma'am; but he don't look it, does he?"
"No. I wish I could feel sure of you. I wish I could feel sure that you
are not a spy."
"Well, ma'am, it's my experience that we can't somehow help our feelings
much. If you are in doubt about it, treat it as you would an
earache--with silent contempt. Doubts, ma'am, are suthin' like boils;
they're the devil and all while you've got 'em; but they do get well
arter a while. You ain't got no call to doubt old Bill Turner, as I
knows on."
"I'll talk with you again, Turner. In the meantime, see that you walk in
a straight line."
"I can't do that no more. My old feet ain't so steady as they used to
be. But I'll do the best I can."
"We can't ask anybody to do more than that. Now keep silent. Here comes
Handsome with another man who I fear may be a spy."
Patsy, with his hair a brick-red, and with spots and freckles on his
face that were a sight to see, came forward at that moment, led by
Handsome.
His hands were tied together behind his back, and he looked as if he had
been treated rather badly. However, there was a grin upon his face as he
approached, and ducked his head in what was intended to be a polite bow
to the queen of the outlaws.
"So you have come back again?" she demanded of him abruptly.
"Yes, I'm back, your honor--I mean, ma'am," he replied, grinning the
more.
"Where have you been while you were away, then? Tell me that?"
"Well, sure, your majesty, I was a-runnin' most of the time. When the
fire broke out down there, and the divil to pay generally, they all
thinkin' as how it was y'rsilf that was bein' burrnt to death inside the
cottage, I helped all I could until it was found out that it wasn't you,
at all, at all, but a dummy that had been fixed up to look like you. And
then when the hull bunch of the spalpeens went crazy and tried to find
out what had become of you, it wasn't long until I found out that I was
all alone in that place, the rest having gone in search of you. And
after that I thought it wasn't healthy for me around there."
"I think you're a spy, Pat," she said coldly.
"Divil a bit of it. Who says so? Don't you belave it!"
"Why did you not stay with the rest of the men, then?"
"Divil a wan of me can tell that same, now. I clean forget. I think I
was scared out of me two wits. If I had been a long time wid yez, instid
of bein' there only wan day, sure I'd have remained, so I would. But I'd
been there so little that I thought it wasn't healthy for me. That's
all."
"What made you come back now?"
"Sure I heard that ye'd escaped from your jailers, and I knowed that
you'd be after protecting me. Didn't you tell me that I was all right?
And, thinks I, if I can find 'em now, sure the quane will be after
takin' care of me; and here I am."
"When I heard that you had returned, I made up my mind to have you
shot!"
"Oh, glory be to gracious! Don't be after doin' that same, your honor!
Faith, why should ye be after shootin' the likes of me? I ain't done
nothin' at all."
Patsy, with a perfect assumption of fright, fell upon his knees before
the woman and raised his hands beseechingly to her.
And for a moment she looked down upon him with cold contempt in her
eyes. It was evident to Nick, who was watching the scene narrowly, that
she was coldly calculating the chances of letting him live, and that a
breath upon the scales either way would decide her.
For a long time she remained in the same attitude, and then she raised
her head and spoke to Handsome.
"When one in my position is in any doubt," she said coldly, "there is
only one thing to do, and that is to give myself, not the other person,
the benefit of the doubt. That is what I have decided to do, Handsome.
Take him away."
"What shall I do with him?"
"Take him back to the cabin where he was tied up, and tie him up again.
To-night, when the fires are lit, we will convene a court and try him. I
will be the judge at that trial, and after it is over we will probably
hang him. I see no other way. Take him away. Go."
CHAPTER XIV.
BLACK MADGE GIVES JUDGMENT.
It was a strange scene upon which the light of a huge camp fire shone
that night, in the mountain retreat of the outlaws.
A stake had been set in the ground, and to this Patsy was tied, so that
all could see him plainly. Somewhat to one side, on a huge rustic chair,
made by one of the men, the queen was seated in state, ready to act as
judge at the trial that was to begin, and Cremation Mike was selected as
prosecuting attorney.
A jury of twelve of the men had been drawn, only it was a foregone
conclusion that they would bring in their verdict according as the queen
should direct.
Handsome acted as master of ceremonies, and around them was gathered the
entire membership of Black Madge's hobo gang--as villainous a looking
crew as might be imagined.
As yet, no one had been appointed to defend Pat, and now Madge raised
one hand, when she was ready to begin the trial, and she announced:
"There is no one who has offered to act as attorney for the prisoner.
This trial will afford you some amusement, my men. We will have a good
time out of it, anyhow, before we hang him. I will appoint counsel for
him."
They were all silent, waiting, and presently she spoke again.
"I will name the old man there, Bill Turner, as counsel for the defense.
Will you defend the man, Turner?"
"I'll try to, madam, though I don't know anything about the case. He may
be guilty for all I know. What is he charged with?"
"With being a spy."
"If you want me to defend him, I'll do my best."
"Go ahead, then. Let the trial begin," she ordered.
The prosecution took up the case; that is, Cremation Mike got upon his
feet and began to make a speech to the jury. He said:
"We've got proof enough that the man is a spy, ain't we, mates? We all
know what happened down there in the swamp, the time that Nick Carter
got among us, and carried away Black Madge almost before our eyes, and
we none the wiser for it. We know how Nick Carter set the cottage afire
after drugging Madge, and how then he fixed up a dummy in one of the
windows, so that we would think that she was burning up. We know that,
don't we, mates?
"And don't we know that there were four men who came to our camp in the
swamp at the same time, and who came together? Wasn't one of that four
Nick Carter himself? And were not two others of that same four Nick
Carter's assistants? And who was the fourth one of that four? Why, it
was that cove there, tied to the stake, and waiting for you to hang him.
"Would he have been in that sort of company if he hadn't been made out
of the same kind of cloth? Didn't he come there with that other outfit?
Didn't we prove--that is, didn't Madge prove that one of the four was
Nick Carter; that another of the four was his assistant, who is called
Chick? And that still another of the four was another assistant, who is
called Ten-Ichi?
"And don't you know that Nick Carter has got still another assistant,
and that his other assistant is named Patsy? Haven't you heard of that?
It is true. And so is this fellow's name Pat--or Patsy. It is all the
same.
"Now, again, didn't they come here together? Didn't Handsome find them
camping in the woods, waiting for a chance to get to our camp, and
didn't this fellow tell him the first one of the bunch that he was
looking for Hobo Harry, the Beggar King--and ain't Hobo Harry and Black
Madge one and the same? I tell you, there ain't any doubt that the man
is a spy, and that he ought to be hanged.
"Now, do you guns remember what happened the night of the fire, the time
when Nick Carter got away with Madge, and took her to jail? I'll remind
you of it. Don't you remember that when we found the other two out, they
were sent to the quicksand pit? I was one of those who helped to throw
them into the quicksand pit. Did you ever hear of anybody's getting out
of that pit alive? I never did until that incident; but I have found out
since that both those assistants, Chick and Ten-Ichi, are alive and
kicking, down in New York, this very day.
"Well, who got 'em out of that quicksand pit, then? Why, this fellow!
That is where he was, and what he was doing while we were fighting the
fire, and don't you forget it! We was all too busy to remember about the
men we had chucked into the sand; but he didn't forget. For why? Because
he was one of them himself, and because he had determined all along to
go to that pit as soon as ever he could, and get them out of it.
"How'd he get 'em out, you ask? I don't know. I only know that he did
get 'em out somehow, for they are out. I know that for certain."
Nick, in the character of Turner, leaped to his feet.
"I object!" he cried out. "This man ain't tryin' this case fair. I don't
know who he is, and I don't keer a cuss; I only know that you app'inted
me to defend him, and I'm a-goin' to do it till you tell me to stop. I
object, ma'am, to the course he is adoptin'. It ain't fair. He's making
a lot of statements the which he ain't got a shadow of proof about. I
don't know anything about that air fire he speaks about, 'ceptin' what
I've heerd down at Calamont. But we ain't got the fire here as a
witness; and we ain't got the quicksand here as a witness; and we ain't
got the two men as he says was saved from it here as witnesses. And
unless he can produce witnesses to testify to what he says about them
air escapes, I move that the hull speech he made be strucken out, your
honor. Let him call his witnesses to the stand, and swear 'em, or swear
at 'em. Let him do suthin, 'cept standing up there and shootin' off his
mouth."
Madge smiled grimly. She was getting more enjoyment out of this affair
than she had anticipated.
"Call your witnesses, Mike," she said.