The Flower of the Chapdelaines Read online

  At the same time her yoke-mate's deep bay pealed like a trumpet, from afew yards up the roadway. He had struck the broad, frank trail of theother three negroes. The "puppy," still in leash, replied in a notehardly less deep and mellow, but the whip of cool discipline cut himoff. From an ox-horn the master blew a short, sharp recall and at onceDandy returned and began his work over, knowing now which runaway tosingle out.

  Hardy remained on the fence, watching his favorite, over in the brush.By a stir of the bushes, now here, now there, we could see how busy shewas, and every now and then she sent us, as if begging our patience,her eager promissory yelp.

  Suddenly her master had a new thought. He stepped onward to the nextlock of the fence, scrutinized its top rail, moved to, the next lock,examining the top rail there, then to the next, the next, the next, andat the seventh or eighth beckoned us.

  "See, here?" he asked. "Think that ain't a runaway nigger? Look." Asplinter had been newly rubbed off the rail. "What you reckon donethat, sir; a bird or a fish? That's where he jumped. Look yonder,where he landed and lit out."

  The merest fraction of a note from the horn brought the two free dogsto their master, and before he could lift Dandy over the fence Charmerwas on the trail. She threw her head high and for the first timefilled the resounding timber with the music of her bay.

  ["Mr. Chester," murmured Mlle. Chapdelaine, and once more he ceased toread. Mme. Castanado had laid her hands tightly to her face. Yet nowshe smilingly dropped them, saying: "Seraphine--Marcel--please to pazzaround that cake an' wine. Well, I su'pose there are yet in theworl'--in Afrique--Asia--even Europe--several kin' of cuztom mo' wickedthan that. And still I'm sorry that ever tranzpire. But, Mr. Chezter,if you'll resume?"

  Chester once more resumed.]

  XV

  Hardy's incitements were no longer whispers.

  "Dandy! Dandy!" he cried, with wild elation of voice and still noemotion in his face. "Niggeh-fellah thah. Dandy! Ah, Dandy! look himout!"

  The music swelled from Dandy's throat. Away went the pair. Theyounger couple, in yoke, trembled and moaned to be after them. The twoclerks had swung down three or four rails from the fence, and withHardy were hurrying their horses through, when the youngest dog, noseto the ground and tugging his yokemate along, let go a cry of discoveryand began to dig furiously under a bottom rail. His master threw himoff and drew from under it "Mrs. Southmayd's" tiny beflowered bonnet.

  "Good God!" exclaimed one of the boys as he held it up, "they've madeway with her!"

  "Now, none of _that_ nonsense!" I cried; "she's given it to one of themand they've feared 'twould get them into trouble!" But the three hadspurred off and I could only toss it away and follow.

  The baying had ceased and an occasional half-smothered yap told thatthe scent was broken. A huge grape-vine end, hanging from a loftybough, had enabled the run-away to take a long sidewise swing clear ofthe ground; but as I came up the brutes had recovered the trail andsped on, once more breaking the still air, far and wide, into deepwaves of splendid sound. Close after them, as best they might in yoke,scuttled the younger pair, dragging each other this way and that, theirbroad ears trailing to their feet, and Hardy riding close behind them,reciting their pedigrees and their distinguishing whims.

  Presently we issued from the woods, at the edge of wide fieldssurrounding a plantation-house and slave-quarters, and I hoped to findthe trail broken again; but without a pause the chase turned along aline of fence as if to half encircle the plantation. The master of thehounds, in nervy yet placid words, explained that a runaway knew betterthan to cross open ground by night and set the house-dogs a-barking.It was only on seeing no workers in the fields that I remembered it wasSunday, and feared intensely that the pious fugitives might haveshortened their flight.

  From the plantation's farther bound we ran down a long, gentle slope ofbeautiful open woods. At the bottom of it a clear stream rippledbetween steep banks shrouded with strong vines. Here the scent hadfailed and it was wonderful to see the docile faith and intelligencewith which the dogs resigned the whole work to their master, andfollowed beside him while he sought a crossing-place for his horse.This took many minutes, but by and by they scrambled over, he biddingus wait where we were until the dogs should open again; and as hestarted down-stream along the farther bank the older hounds, at asingle word, ran circling out before him in the tangle, electrified bythe steel-cold eagerness of his implorings.

  But now, to my joy, he found their hungry snufflings as futile as hisown scrutinizings and divinations, and after following the stream untilmy companions fretted openly at the delay, he dropped a note from hishorn, rode back with the four dogs, recrossed, and passed down on ourside with them at his heels, frowning at last and scanning the tangledgrowth of the opposite bank.

  And now again he came back: "You see, this stream runs so nigh the waythey wanted to go that there's no tellin' how fur they waded down it orwhether they was two, three, or four of 'em rej'ined together. They'reshore to 'a' been all together when they left it, but where that washell only knows. Come on."

  We plunged across after him and followed down the farther bank, and atthe point where he had turned back he put the hounds on again. "How doyou know there were more than one here?" I asked.

  "Because, if noth'n' else, this trail at first was a fool's trail andnow it's as smart as cats a-fight'n'--_look 'em out, Dandy_! Everytime the rascals struck a swimmin'-hole they swum it, the men sort o'tote'n' the women, I reckon--_ah, my Charmer! Yes, my sweet lady! take'em! take 'em_!"

  As the stream emerged into an old field--"Sun's pow'ful hot foryou-all!" Hardy added. "Ain't see' such a day this time o' year fo' acoon's age. Hosses feel'n' it. Hard to say which is hottest, sun orbrush."

  We had skirted the branch a full mile, beating its margin thoroughly,and were in deep woods again, when all at once Charmer let out a gladpeal. Her mate echoed it and with the stream at their back they wereoff and away in full cry. The trail was broad and strong and with rarebreaks continued so for an hour. Often the dogs made us trot; in opengrounds we galloped. Once, in a thickety wet tract where the still airwas suffocating and a sluggish runlet meandered widely, Hardy wasforced, after long hinderance, to drop the trail and recover it on arising ground beyond.

  There once more we were making good speed when we burst into an opengrove where about a small, unpainted frame church a saddle-horse wastied under every swinging limb. Before the church a gang of boys hadsprung up from their whittling to be our gleeful spectators. Hardywaved them off with the assurance that we wanted neither their help norcompany, and though the trail took us at slackened speed around twosides of the building we passed and were gone while the worshipperswere in the first stanza of a hymn started to keep them on theirbenches.

  Noon, afternoon; we made no pause. "It's ketch 'em before night," saidHardy as we bent low under beech boughs, "or not till noon to-morrow."

  About mid-afternoon one of the court-house boys, who had been talkingsoftly with the other, turned back with a bare good-by. His friendexplained:

  "Got to be at his desk early in the morning. But I'm with you till yourun 'em down."

  Happy for me that he was mistaken. Two hours more were hardly gonewhen, "My Prince is sick!" he cried, drew in, and under a smoke of hisown curses began wildly to unsaddle. Hardy rode on.

  "You'll have to get another mount," I said.

  "Another hell! I wouldn't leave this horse sick in strange hands for athousand dollars!" Suddenly he struck an imploring key: "Look here!I'll give you fifty dollars cash to stay with me till I get him out o'this!"

  "Five hundred," I called, trotting after Hardy, "wouldn't hire me."

  Till I was out of earshot I could hear him damning and cursing me insnorts and shouts as a sneak who would wear my coat of tar and feathersyet, and I was still wondering whether I ought to or not, when Ioverhauled the nigger-chaser cheering on his dogs. Their prey hadagain tricked them, and again the cry
was, "Take him, Dandy!" and "Hi,Charmer, hi!"

  Between shouts: "Is yo' nag gwine to hold out?"

  "He's got to or perish," I laughed.

  In time we found ourselves under a vast roof of towering pines. Thehigh green grass beneath them had been burned over within a year. Thedeclining sun gilded both the grass and the lower sides of the soaringboughs. Even Hardy glanced back exaltedly to bid me mark the beauty ofthe scene. But I dared not. The dogs were going more swiftly thanever, and there was a ticklish chance of one's horse breaking a leg inone of the many holes left by burnt-out pine roots. The main risk,moreover, was not to Hardy's trained hunter but to my worn-out livery"nag."

  "We've started 'em, all four, on the run," he called, "but if we don'ttree 'em befo' they make the river we'll lose 'em after all."

  The land began a steady descent. Soon once more we were in underbrushand presently came square against a staked-and-ridered worm fencearound a "deadening" dense with tall corn. Charmer and Dandy hadclimbed directly over it, scampered through the corn, and were wakingevery echo in a swamp beyond. The younger pair, still yoked, stoodunder the fence, yelping for Hardy's aid. He sprang down and unyokedthem and over they scrambled and were gone, ringing like fire-bells.Outside the fence, both right and left, the ground was miry, yet for usit was best to struggle round through the bushy slough; which we hadbarely done when with sudden curses Hardy spurred forward. The youngerdogs were off on a separate chase of their own. For at the river-bankthe four negroes had divided by couples and gone opposite ways.

  "Call them back!" I urged. "Blow your horn!" But I was ignored.

  XVI

  [Chester sat looking at a newly turned page as though it were illegible.

  "I'm wondering," he lightly said, "what public enormity of to-day thenext generation will be as amazed at as we are at this."

  "Ah," Mme. Castanado responded, "never mine! Tha'z but the moral!Aline and me we are insane for the story to finizh!" And the story wasresumed, to suffer no further interruption.]

  At the river we burst out upon a broad, gentle bend up and down whichwe could see both heavily wooded banks for a good furlong either way.

  The sun's last beams shone straight up the lower arm of the bend. Onthe upper bayed Charmer and Dandy, unseen. On the lower we heard theyounger pair. On the upper we saw only the clear waters crinkling in awide shallow over a gravel-bar, but down-stream we instantly discoveredLuke and his wife. Silhouetted against the level sunlight, heavingforward with arms upthrown, waist deep in the main current, they weremore than half-way across. At that moment two small dark objects, thetwo dogs, moved out from the shore, after them, each with its wake oftwo long silvery ripples. The "puppy" was leading.

  With a curse their master threw the horn to his lips and blew animperious note. The rear dog turned his head and would have reversedhis course, but seeing his leader keep on he kept on with him. Againthe angry horn re-echoed, and the rear dog promptly turned back thoughthe other swam on.

  Rebecca threw a look behind and it was pitiful to hear her outcry ofdespair and terror. But Luke faced about and, backing after herthrough the flood, prepared to meet the hound naked-handed. Hardysprang to his tiptoes in the stirrups, his curses pealing across thewater. "If you hurt that dog," he yelled, "I'll shoot you dead!"

  Up-stream the other two runaways were out on the gravel-bar, Euonymusbehind Robelia and Robelia splashing ludicrously across the shoal,tearing off and kicking off--in preparation for deep water--sunbonnet,skirt, waist, petticoat, and howling in the self-concern of abjectcowardice.

  "Thank heaven, she's a swimmer," thought I, "and won't drown herbrother!" For only a swimmer ever cast off garments that way.

  The flight of Euonymus, too, was bare-headed and swift, but it wasunfrenzied and silent. Neither of them saw Luke or Rebecca; the sunwas in their eyes and at that instant Charmer and Dandy, having metsome momentary delay, once more bayed joyously and sprang into view.Like Luke, Euonymus faced the brutes. With another fierce outcry Hardyblew his recall of all the four dogs.

  Three turned at once but the youngster launched himself at Luke'sthroat where he stood breast-high in the glassing current. The slavecaught the dog's whole windpipe in both hands and went with him underthe flood. Hardy's supreme care for Charmer had lost him the strategicmoment, but he fired straight at Rebecca.

  She did not fall and his weapon flew up for a second shot! but by somesheer luck I knocked the pistol spinning yards away into the river.While it spun I saw other things: Rebecca clasping a wounded arm; Lukeand the dog reappearing apart, the dog about to repeat his onset; andHardy dumb with rage.

  "Call the puppy!" I cried, "you'll save him yet."

  The master winded his horn, and the dog swam our way. At the same timehis fellows came about us, while on the farther bank Luke helped hiswife writhe up through the waterside vines, and with her disappeared.Only Euonymus remained in the water, at the far edge of the gravel-bar.

  I was so happy that I laughed. "All right," I cried, "I'll pay for therevolver."

  Foul epithets were Hardy's reply while he spurred madly to and fro insearch of an opening in the vines to let his horse down into thestream. I rode with him, knee to knee. "You'll pay for this with yourlife !" he yelled down my throat. "I'll kill you, so help me God!_Charmer! Dandy! go, take the nigger!_"

  The whole baying pack darted off for Euonymus's crossing. "_Take thenigger, Charmer! Ah! take him, my lady!_" We saw that Euonymus couldnot swim. Still knee to knee with Hardy, I drew and fired. "Puppy's"mate yelped and rolled over, dead.

  "Call them back," I said, holding my weapon high; but Hardy onlyshrieked curses and cried:

  "_Take the nigger, Charmer, take him!_"

  I fired again. Poor Dandy! He sprang aside howling piteously, withmelting eyes on his master.

  "Oh, God!" cried Hardy, leaping down beside the wailing dog, thatpushed its head into his bosom like a sick child. "Oh, God, but youshall die for this!"

  He was half right but so was I and I checked up barely enough to cryback: "Call 'em off! Call 'em off or I'll shoot Charmer!"

  With Dandy clasped close and with eyes streaming he blew the recall.Looking for its effect, I saw Euonymus trying to swim and Charmerquitting the chase. But the young dog kept on. The current wascarrying Euonymus away. Twice through vines and brush, while I cried:"Catch the fallen tree below you! Catch the tree!" I tried to spur myhorse down into the stream, and on the third trial I succeeded.

  The flood had cut the bank from under a great buttonwood. It hungprone over the water, and one dipping fork seized and held the faintingswimmer. The dog was close, but had entered the current too far downand was breasting it while he bayed in protest to his master's horn.Now, as Euonymus struggled along the tree the brute struck for thebank, and the two gained it together. Euonymus ran, but on a bit ofopen grass dropped to one knee, at bay. The dog sprang. In the negrofashion the runaway's head ducked forward to receive the onset, whileboth hands clutched the brute's throat. Not dreaming that they wouldkeep their hold till I could get there, I leaped down in the shoal tofire; but the grip held, though the dog's teeth sank into legs andarms, and all at once Euonymus straightened to full stature, liftingthe dog till his hind legs could but just tiptoe the ground.

  "Right!" I cried; "bully, my boy! Lift him one inch higher and he'swhipped!"

  But Euonymus could barely hold him off from face and throat.

  "Turn him broadside to me!" I shouted, having come into waterbreast-deep. "Let me put a hole through him!"

  But the fugitive's only response was: "Run, Robelia! 'Ever mind me!Run! Run!"

  And here came Hardy across the gravel-bar, in the saddle. I aimed athim: "Stand, sir! Stand!"

  He hauled in and lifted the horn. Euonymus had heaved the dog from hisfeet. The horn rang, and with a howl of terror the brute writhed free,leaped into the river and swam toward his master. I sprang on my horseand took the deep water: "Wait, boy! Wait!"<
br />
  It was hard getting ashore. When I reached the spot of grass I foundonly the front half of the runaway's hickory shirt, in bloody rags. Ispurred to a gap in the bushes, and there, face down, lay Euonymus,insensible. I knelt and turned the slender form; and then I whippedoff my coat and laid it over the still, black bosom. For Euonymus wasa girl.

  XVII

  Her eyelids quivered, opened. For a moment the orbs were vacant, butas she drew a deep breath she saw me. Her shapely hand sought herthroat-button, and finding my coat instead she turned once more to thesod, moaning, "Brother! Mingo!"

  "Is he Robelia?" I asked. "Come, we'll find him."

  Clutching my coat to her breast, she staggered up. I helped her putthe coat on and sprang into the saddle. "Now mount behind me," I said,reaching for her hand; but with an anguished look:

  "Whah Mingo?" she asked. "Is dey kotch Mingo?"

  "No, not yet. Your hand--now spring!"

  She landed firmly and we sped into the woods.

  My merely wounding Dandy was fortunate. It kept Hardy from followingme hotfooted or rousing the neighborhood. I dare say he wanted no onebut himself to have the joy of killing me.

  At a "store" and telegraph-station I let my charge down into a wildplum-patch, bought a hickory shirt, left my half-dead beast,telegraphed my livery-stable client where to find him, and so avoidedthe complication of being a horse-thief. Then I recovered Euonymus andabout ten that night the five of us met on the bank of a creek. Nearits farther shore, on a lonely railroad siding, we found a waitingfreight-train and stole into one of its empty cars; and when at closeof the next day hunger drove us out our pursuers were beating the busha hundred miles behind.