Cruel as the grave
and laid down again, as if to express his willingness that any inmate
might leave the house who wished to do so, though no stranger should
enter it except over his dead body.
"Sensible dog!" said Munson, as with more precaution he closed and
locked the outer door, and took that key also with him.
"You must not attempt to escape with your wagon; but must ride your
horses, which will be much more efficacious both for swiftness and for
their ability to go through places where you could not take a wagon,"
said Munson, as they walked across the farm-yard.
But when they drew near the stable, they were set upon by a couple of
watch-dogs, who, barking furiously, barred their farther progress.
"There is no other way!" exclaimed Munson, and drawing a double
barrelled pistol from his pocket, he shot one dog dead, while the other
ran howling away.
Then with some difficulty they forced the door, and while Lyon remained
on the outside with Sybil, young Munson entered the stable and led out
their two horses.
"Here are several bridles, and here is one side-saddle, which will suit
Mrs. Berners, if you have no scruple about borrowing them," suggested
Munson.
"I should have no scruple about borrowing anything from anybody to aid
my wife's escape. Besides, there is my wagon more than double the value
of the things that we require; I will leave that in pledge," said Mr.
Berners.
"Just so," assented Munson.
And all this time he had been arranging the side-saddle and bridle upon
Sybil's horse. As soon as it was ready Mr. Berners came around to lift
his wife into her seat.
"One moment, dear Lyon," said Sybil, pausing to adjust her dress.
While she did so, Munson again spoke to Mr. Berners.
"You have your pocket compass?"
"Yes."
"Then I advise you to use it as soon as it is light, to direct your
course. And do not go toward the east, for old Purley will pursue you in
that direction, under the impression that you will try to reach another
seaport town, and get off in a ship. But make for the interior, for the
West, and get away as fast and as far as you can. Be careful to keep as
much as possible in the woods, even though your progress should be
slower through them than it would be in the open country. And now excuse
my presuming to give you so much counsel; but you know I have been upon
the war path, out among the red-skins, and am up to hunting and
flying."
"I thank you--we both thank you from the depths of our souls. And we
pray that the day may come when we shall be able to prove our
gratitude," said Lyon, earnestly.
"Never mind that! But put madam into her seat. She is ready now; and,
indeed, the sooner you are off the better," answered Munson.
Mr. Berners advanced towards Sybil, when the whole party was stopped by
a terrible event.
"No you don't, you infernal villain! I have caught you, have I? Stand!"
exclaimed a voice of thunder, and the stout farmer stood before them, at
the head of all his negroes, and with a loaded musket in his hand!
Like lightning young Munson threw himself before Sybil, drew a pistol
from his breast, and levelled it straight at the heart of their
opponent, exclaiming:
"Out of the way, you devil! and let her pass. Out of the way this
instant, or, by my life, I will kill you! I will! I will kill you, and
hang for her sake!"
The man raised his musket, and aimed it at the head of him whose hand
pointed the pistol to his own heart. And thus, like two duellists, they
stood fatally eyeing each other!
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A FATAL CRISIS.
Each at the life
Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands
No second stroke intended.--MILTON.
"Hold! on your lives!" exclaimed Lyon Berners, rushing between the
opponents, and with swift hands striking up the pistol of Robert Munson,
and turning aside the musket of Farmer Nye. "Would you shed each
other's blood so recklessly? Here is some mistake. Farmer, whom did you
take us for?"
"Who did I take you for, is it? For that cornsarned band of robbers as
have been mislesting the country for miles round this month past."
"Robbers?"
"Yes, robbers! as has been tarryfying the whole country side ever since
Hollow Eve!"
"I never heard of them."
"May be you didn't, but I took you for them all the same."
"And aimed your musket at that lady! And might have shot her dead, had
not this brave man thrown himself before her, with a loaded pistol in
his hand, levelled at your heart."
"How did I know it was a lady? How could I see in this dim light? I took
her for one of you, and I took you all for robbers," said the farmer,
sulkily.
"Well, you see who we are now?"
"Yes; I see as you are my new lodgers. Though why you should be out here
at the stables after your beasts at this hour of the night, and wake me
up with a row; or should take my darter's side-saddle, and kill my
watch-dog, blame you, I _don't_ see!" growled the farmer.
"Come, walk aside with me for a few minutes, and I will show you why,"
said Mr. Berners, soothingly laying his hand on the farmer's shoulder.
"Hands off, if you please! No! I don't think as I _will_ walk aside with
you. You might do me a mischief."
"Bosh! you are armed, and I am unarmed. How can I harm you? Come, and I
will tell you something to your advantage," coaxed Mr. Berners.
Partly urged by curiosity and partly by interest, Farmer Nye reluctantly
consented to follow where Mr. Berners led him. When they had passed out
of hearing of the negroes Mr. Berners stopped, and turned to his host,
and said:
"You know who we are?"
"I know you are my new lodgers--that's all I know about you."
"Yet you must have observed something out of the common about our
party?"
"Yes; I took notice as you and your wife must have been dreadful 'fraid
of being robbed and murdered on your journey, when you kept two men to
travel with you, and guard you all day long, and sleep outside of your
doors like watch-dogs all night long. Which me and my darter made it out
between us as you must have lots of money with you to make you so
cautious. And which, if we had known you was going to be so mistrustful
of _us_, we'd have seen you farther before we'd have took you in."
"And so that is the way in which _you_ accounted for matters and things
that you couldn't understand?"
"To be sure it was; and very natural too."
"Shall I tell him the whole truth?" inquired Lyon Berners of himself. "I
will sound him first," he concluded. Then speaking up, he said:
"Well, you cannot blame people for being cautious, after that horrible
murder at Black Hall."
"That's so too," admitted the farmer.
"And yet," added Mr. Berners, "they _do_ say that it was no robber that
did that murder, but the lady of the house who did it."
"The lady of the house!" indignantly echoed the farmer, to Lyon's great
astonishment. "Don't you go to say that; for if you do, devil burn me if
I don't knock you down with the butt end of my gun!"
"I do not say it. I only tell you what other people say."
"They lie! the hounds! And I wish I could meet any of them venomous
backbiters face to face. Satan fly away with me if I wouldn't tear
their false tongues out of their throats, and throw them to the dogs!
_You_ don't mean to say you believe she did it?" fiercely demanded
Sybil's rough champion.
"No; Heaven knows I do not! I believe her to be as guiltless as an
angel."
"I'm glad to hear you say that! I don't want to pitch into an unarmed
man, but I should a' been strongly tempted to 'a done it if you'd said
anything else."
"You know this injured lady, then?"
"Yes; I have knowed her ever since she was a little gal. Not as ever I
met her face to face in my life, but I know her as every poor man and
poor child and poor brute in the whole country knows her: as the
kindest, gentlest, tenderest-hearted lady in the whole world--she who
has been known to take the fur cloak off her own back, and lay it over
the form of a sick beggar, while she went home in the cold to send her
warm blankets. Yes, and known to have done scores of deeds as good and
self-sacrificing as that. _She_ do the thing they accuse her of! Why,
sir, she no more did it than I, or you, or your own sweet wife did it!
And Satan burn _me_! when I hear of any man accusing her of it, if I
don't feel just like knocking his dull brains out, and taking the
consequences--that I do!" swore the farmer.
"I will trust him," said Lyon Berners to himself.
--"And to think that men who call themselves law officers, not to say
Christians, should hunt that lovely lady through the country as if she
was some wild beast or highway robber! I wish one of them hunters was to
come my way. I'm blowed to flinders if I wouldn't set my whole pack of
dogs on 'em till they would be torn to pieces. I'd give 'em hunting! But
excuse _me_, Mr.--Mr.--What's-your-name; I've gone away from the pint,
which I always do fly off at a tangent and lose my bearings whenever I
hear that lady accused. Now, sir, what had you to tell me to my
advantage?" inquired the farmer, drawing a handkerchief from his pocket
and wiping his heated face.
"I will tell him all," said Lyon Berners to himself; and then he spoke
up:
"First, good friend, let me assure you that you have not wandered a
hair's breadth from the point at issue between us."
"Oh yes, I have; for I have been raving about Mrs. Berners; but I
couldn't help it."
"Mrs. Berners is the lady who is with me," said Mr. Berners.
Farmer Nye jumped three feet from the ground and came down again like a
man that was shot, and then stood with open mouth and eyes staring at
the speaker.
"I am her husband, and the men who are guarding us are the officers who
have her in custody."
"WHAT? Say that again!" uttered the farmer, panting for breath.
Mr. Berners repeated all that he had said, adding:
"I had got her away from this neighborhood, and on shipboard. And she
was rejoicing in her supposed safety and freedom, for the ship was
within a half hour of sailing, when these officers came on board with a
warrant and arrested her."
"THEY DID! Wait till I get my niggers together. The boys will want no
better fun than to tar and feather them devils, and set them afire and
turn 'em loose. And blame me if I don't give the best feather-bed in my
house to the service. Come along," exclaimed the farmer, starting off to
commence the work.
"Stop!" said Lyon Berners, laying his hand soothingly upon the shoulder
of the excited man. "Above all, you wish to serve my unhappy wife, do you
not!"
"Yes! with my 'life, and fortune, and sacred honor' as the Declaration
of Independence says."
"Then you can not serve her by any violence done to the officers, who
are only doing their duty."
"Doing their duty! Duty! That's a matter of opinion! I consider I should
be doing of _my_ duty if I was to order my niggers to take 'em out and
tar and feather 'em. Yes, and set 'em afire afterwards--burn 'em!"
"Yes; but that would be doing a great injustice to them, and also a
great injury to Mrs. Berners. If you really wish to serve my dear wife,
you can do so by helping her to escape."
"I'll help her to escape, with all my heart and soul! And with all my
heart and soul I'll shoot down anybody that dares to start from here in
pursuit of her!" emphatically declared the farmer.
"That is not necessary. You can cover our retreat by more peaceable
means. And now I must advise you that both these officers have used us
with the greatest kindness and consideration, concealing our identity
and shielding us from the curiosity and intrusion of strangers, whenever
they could do so, as is proved by your own experience, for you had no
suspicion as to who we might be."