Cruel as the grave
lost his balance, and fell heavily, nearly crushing and quite waking
Munson, who, in struggling to throw off the burden, recognized old
Purley, but pretending to mistake him for Mr. Berners, grappled him by
the throat, exclaiming:
"No you don't you villain! You don't get her out of this room except
over my dead body!" And he shook him furiously.
"It's me--me--me, Bob! Do-do-don't choke me to death!" gasped old
Purley, as he struggled and freed his throat for an instant from the
grasp of Robert's hands.
But Munson throttled and shook him more furiously than before, singing
out:
"Help! murder! arson! Here's this man reskying of my prisoner!" And he
shook him until his teeth rattled in his head.
"Oh, my good lord! I shall be strangled with the best of intention,"
sputtered the terrified and half-suffocated victim, as for an another
instant he freed his throat from his assailant's clasp, and breathed
again.
"Help! murder! fire!" yelled Munson, renewing the attack.
"Bob! Bob! It's me, I tell you!--Purley! Wake up and look at me! You're
asleep yet! And oh, my lord! the man will murder me by mistake before I
can make him know," panted the poor wretch, desperately striving to keep
off the strangling hands of his assailant, and growing weak in the
struggle.
And meanwhile the household, aroused by the outcry, had hurried on their
clothes, and now came pouring into the passage--the women down the
garret stairs, and the men up the lower back stairs.
"Now I've got you!" exclaimed Munson, triumphantly, as he knocked the
feet from under Purley, and threw him down upon the floor. Then stooping
to gaze at the fallen foe, he condescended at length to recognize him.
"Oh! is it you, Mr. Purley? I really thought it was Mr. Berner, reskying
of his wife!" said Munson, with provoking coolness.
"Then I wish you would make surer another time, you stupid donkey!
You've all but killed me!" panted the victim, wiping the perspiration
from his face.
"What is the matter?"
"What's all this?"
"Is anybody hurt?"
Such were the hasty questions put by old Farmer Nye and his family, as
they gathered around the scene of action.
"Yes! I'm choked and shaken nearly to death!" gasped old Purley, in a
fury.
"It was done for the best," said Munson, soothingly.
"Oh, for the best, indeed! Set fire to you, would you murder an innocent
man out of kindness?" fiercely demanded Parley.
"You see, he fell upon me, and woke me up. It was so dark here, with
the window shutters closed, that I could not see well, so I mistook him
for Mr. Berners broke loose and trying to carry off his wife," explained
Robert Munson.
"Oh! well, I reckon you're not hurt much; only startled and shaken a
bit! Come and take a glass of morning bitters. That will set you up
again, and give you an appetite for your breakfast besides," said the
farmer, kindly.
"Thank you. I'll take the bitters, if you will send them up here! I
mustn't leave this floor until I see my charge out. And it's time for
them to get up too!" replied Purley, rising and knocking loudly at the
chamber door.
Of course there was no response.
He knocked again and again, more loudly than before, and he called to
them in a high tone.
But still there was no answer.
"Good Lord, how sound they sleep! I will go around to the other door and
rap there. It is near the head of their bed, and they will be sure to
hear me."
And so saying, old Purley went to the adjoining chamber, where he had
slept, dragged his mattress away from the door, and drew the key from
his pocket, when, to his astonishment and terror, he found the door
unlocked!
Without waiting an instant, from any scruples of politeness, he rushed
into the room.
To his horror and amazement, he found it empty!
"They've gone! they've fled!" frantically exclaimed Purley, rushing back
into the passage, where he found the other bailiff still on guard before
the fast door, and the farmer waiting with the glass of bitters in his
hand.
"Fled!" echoed Munson. "How can that be? This door as fast as it is?"
"Blast 'em! they've had the impudence to escape right through my door!
and right over my body!" panted Purley.
"Then you can't blame _me_!" naively put in Munson.
"Who says I can?" angrily demanded Purley. "I can't blame anybody! And
how the demon they managed to pick the lock and open the door, and climb
over me, _I_ don't know! Nor have we time to inquire!"
"Take your bitters, Mr. Purley," said the host, offering the glass.
The bailiff quaffed the offered restorative at a draught, and then said:
"Farmer, saddle a couple of horses for us, directly! We must pursue them
without loss of time! They can not have got very far ahead of us in
these few hours!" he added, being totally unconscious of the length of
time he had slept, and the whole day he had lost.
"My--my horses will be busy all day hauling wood," replied the farmer.
"Don't care! I order you in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to
saddle those horses, and place them at our disposal to pursue our
prisoner," said Purley, in a peremptory tone.
The farmer was quite uncertain whether or not that was an order he was
bound to obey; and besides, he was very unwilling that his horses should
be taken off their work at all, and especially for the purpose of
pursuing Sybil Berners. But still he felt that it would be safer for
her, if not for himself, if he should yield to the demand of the
sheriff's officer; he could put him on the wrong track, by counselling
him to ride towards the east, while he knew that Sybil was far on her
route to the west.
So without further demur, he went out to execute the order.
"And, farmer, when you have seen to that matter, I want you to gather
all your men and maids into the breakfast room, that I may question them
while I eat my breakfast, so as not now to lose a moment," he called
after his retreating host.
All this was done as he directed. And when the family and the house
servants were assembled in the breakfast room, and Purley examined and
cross-examined them as to whether they had seen or heard anything of the
prisoner or her husband during the night, they could all answer with
perfect truth, that they had not. So old Purley got no satisfaction from
them.
The bailiff hastily dispatched his breakfast, and the horses being
ready, he called to his young assistant to follow him, and he went out
and got into his saddle.
"Where the deuce am I to go after them, when there are so many roads to
choose from?" groaned old Purley, in sore perplexity of spirit.
"Would they not be likely to make straight for the east and a seaport?"
inquired farmer Nye suggestively.
"To be sure they would," exclaimed Mr. Purley. "So now, Munson, we will
go right back upon the road we came last night," he added, being still
in ignorance as to the lost day.
"And as the stable boy told me, they had taken the wagon horses to ride,
and those horses were then fairly knocked up with fatigue, while ours
are now quite fresh, we may very soon overtake them," put in Munson,
artfully.
And waving their hats in adieux to the farmer and his family, they rode
off at full speed in pursuit of the fugitives. But they had not ridden
more than a hundred yards, and had but just reached the four
cross-roads, when they were both startled by a shrill--
"Whist!"
They drew their reins, and looked around just as the head of a negro boy
emerged from the bushes, exclaiming
"Hallo, Marster!"
"Who are you? What do you want?" demanded Purley.
"I'm Bill, and I don't want nothing. But I know what _you_ want!"
"What do I want?"
"To know which way the run-a-way lady and gemplan went."
"I do know, they went this way," said Purley, pointing straight before
him.
"No, they didn't neyther! they was too sharp for that, they said how you
would be sure to search for 'em on that road, just as you are a doing of
now; so they would take another road."
"That was likely too! Boy, do you know which road they took?"
"Yes, sir_ree_."
"Then tell me."
"I will if you'll give me a quarter," was the moderate conditions of
this treaty.
"Here, take it!" exclaimed Mr. Parley, pitching the boy the silver coin
in question.
"Thanky, Marster," grinned the lad, picking up the treasure.
"Now tell me."
"Well, Marster, they went along that left han' road till they got to the
next turning, and then they turned to the left ag'in and kept on that
tact towards that gap in the mountain where you see the sun set in the
arternoon."
"How did you know all this, boy?"
"I was out coon-hunting when I heerd them talking, and I listened and
heerd all about it. And as I couldn't find any coons, I follyed arter
them; and their horses was _tired_, as they kept on complainin' to each
other. And so they went slow and I could keep up long of 'em."
"How far did you follow them?"
"Well, Marster! I couldn't help it! I follyed of 'em all night."
"And they never discovered you?"
"No, sar, they never did. I was barefooted and didn't make no noise,
and keeped nigh the bushes on the roadside, and so they never found me
out."
"And where did you part from them?"
"Well, Marster, I didn't part from 'em till I seed whar they stopped.
And if you'll take me up behind you, I'll show you the way to the place
where they are hiding. It an't fur from here, not so very fur, I mean."
"Oh! ho! that is good! So, so, my run-a-ways! I shall nab you, shall I?"
exclaimed Purley in triumph, as he beckoned the negro imp to jump up
behind him.
"But stop!" said Robert Munson, in an agony of terror for the safety of
Sybil Berners. "Stop! What are you about to do? You are about to abduct
Farmer Nye's slave!"
"Do you belong to Farmer Nye, boy? Though it don't matter a bit who you
belong to. I'll take anybody I can lay hold of to guide me to the
hiding-place of my prisoner--in the name of the Commonwealth of
Virginia," said this new bailiff, who seemed to think that formula of
words, like an absolute monarch's signet ring, was warranty for every
sort of proceeding.
"But I don't belong to nobody. I's fee, and so's mammy. We an't got no
master, and I an't got no daddy to lord it over me!" put in the boy.
"That's right, jump up behind," said the elder bailiff. And as soon as
little Bill was safely perched up in the rear of his patron, the latter
put spurs to his horse and gallopped off at full speed.
They went down the left hand, or south fork of the cross-roads, and
gallopped on until they reached the branch road leading west. They
turned into that road and pursued it mile after mile, through field and
forest, mountain pass and valley plain, until, late in the afternoon,
they reached another mountain range, and heard the roaring of a great
torrent. They entered the black gap, and slowly and cautiously made
their way through it. By the time they had emerged from the pass, the
night was pitch dark.
"How shall we ever find our way?" inquired Purley who, fatigued and half
famished, was ready to sink with exhaustion.
"Do you see that then gabble ind stickin' up through the trees?"
inquired the boy.
"Yes, I see it!"
"Well, him and her is in there?"
"Are you sure?" inquired Purley, anxiously.
"Here I is, Marster! If him and her ar'n't in there, here I is in your
power, and you may skin me alive!"
"All right!" exclaimed Purley, and dismounting from his horse, he
advanced towards the thicket, followed by Munson and the negro boy.
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE FUGITIVES.
They may not set a foot within their fields,
They may not pull a sapling from their hills,
They may not enter their fair mansion house.--HOWITT.