Cruel As The Grave Part 67

The first persons up in the house were the farmer's daughter Kitty, and her old maiden aunt Molly.

They came down from their attic chambers and walked on tiptoes past the sleeping Munson, so as not to wake him. They went down stairs and had breakfast got ready, but had to wait very long before either the farmer or the young man appeared. When they did come down, however, and apologized for their tardiness, the women inquired for the other guests, and were told that they must not be disturbed.

The day pa.s.sed slowly.

It was late in the afternoon before old Purley awoke and finding the room quite dark, and feeling himself still very drowsy, he merely turned over and went to sleep again. And still overpowered by the combined action of the laudanum and the beer-opium and hops, he slept on until a very late hour of the night, when at length he awoke; but perceiving that all was quite dark and still, he lay quietly in bed, thinking this was about the longest night he had ever spent in his life. At last he got up, and opened the blinds to see if it was near day. And perceiving by a faint light streak along the horizon that the morning was at hand, he opened the other blinds, and began to dress himself as well as he could in the semi-darkness.

By the time he had got on all his clothes, the day was a little lighter, and he went into the pa.s.sage to see after the safety of his prisoner.

He found young Munson stretched upon the mattress immediately before the door.

"Quite correct," he thought; but he resolved to go up to the door to make a closer examination. First he saw that the key had been taken out of the lock.

"All right," he said to himself. "Munson has obeyed orders, and put the key in his pocket."

And then still farther to a.s.sure himself of the safety of his charge, he bent over the sleeping form of Munson and tried the lock, and found it fast.

"Quite correct! Nothing has been neglected. He is a careful officer, and shall be well reported at head-quarters," he muttered, with much satisfaction.

But to reach the lock at all, he had been obliged to bend so far over the sleeping body, that now, in trying to recover his perpendicular, he 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 a.s.sailant'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 a.s.sailant, 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 pa.s.sage--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 gla.s.s of morning bitters. That will set you up again, and give you an appet.i.te 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 pa.s.sage, where he found the other bailiff still on guard before the fast door, and the farmer waiting with the gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s.

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.