Cruel As The Grave Part 65

"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 b.u.t.t 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 a.s.sure 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 n.i.g.g.e.rs 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 n.i.g.g.e.rs 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 ident.i.ty 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."

"No, that I hadn't! And a good thing I hadn't too! for if I'd a known that lady had a been kept a prisoner here in my house, I'd a pitched her jailers neck and heels out o' the windows, and then set the dogs on 'em!"

"But that would have been very unjust to them, and injurious to the lady you wish to befriend. And especially it would have been the very greatest injustice to the younger officer, who has been our partisan from the first."

"Eh! what? One of them jailers your partisan?"

"Yes; let me explain," said Mr. Berners. And he commenced and detailed all the circ.u.mstances of their acquaintance and relations with Robert Munson.

"And so, out of grat.i.tude for the kindness this lady showed him in his childhood, he got himself put on this service o' purpose to watch his opportunity of reskying her."

"Just so."

"Well, he's an honest fellow, that he is!" said the farmer, approvingly.

"Now, Mr. Nye, all you have to do, if you wish to help us, is just to let us go free. When we are gone, keep the house quiet, and let the elder officer sleep as long as possible, for the longer he sleeps the farther we shall get away from pursuit."

"I'll lock him up and keep him prisoner for a month, if necessary."

"But it is not necessary. A day's start is all that we shall need, and that, I think, you can secure to us, by simply letting the man sleep as long as he will. And furthermore, I may ask you to be cautious and not to betray our friend Robert Munson's agency in our escape."

"I'll protect Robert Munson with my life."

"A thousand thanks! And now, as we understand each other, let us go on to my wife, who is anxiously waiting the issue of this interview," said Lyon Berners, turning and leading the way towards the stables.

"Now, squire, you may rely upon me, and rest easy in your mind. You sha'n't be followed in less than twenty-four hours," said the farmer, as they went along.

"Again I thank you from my heart. And now I have something else to say to you," began Lyon Berners

Then he paused, as finding a real difficulty in saying what he wished; for the truth is, that when Mr. Berners had called Mr. Nye aside for a private interview, he had intended to offer him a heavy bribe to connive at the escape of Sybil.

Now, however, he found the farmer not exactly the sort of man to affront with the proffer of a bribe, or even scarcely of a reward; and yet he was a poor man who evidently needed money, and would probably always need it; for Farmer Nye, as has been shown in his championship of Sybil, was a man of impetuous emotions, hasty judgments, and reckless actions, and was always sure to be in troubles, social, domestic, and pecuniary.

So Mr. Berners, while wishing to reward his services, felt a difficulty as to the manner of doing so.

At length, however, he continued:

"Mr. Nye, I said at the beginning of our talk, that I could tell you something to your advantage."

"Well, and, bless my soul alive, haven't you done it? I wonder if I could hear of anything more to my advantage than the chance of helping to resky that lady as I have felt for so much?" warmly inquired the farmer.