The Southerner: A Romance of the Real Lincoln Part 92

"With the tenderness and love of a father, yes."

"And yet I've wondered," he went on in a curious cold tone, "why he hasn't been killed--when the death of one man would end this carnival of murder----"

"John, how can you say such things?" Betty gasped.

"It's true, dear," he answered calmly. "This man's will alone has prevented peace and prevents it now. The soldiers on both sides joke with one another across the picket lines. They get together and play cards at night. Before the battle begins, our boys call out:

"'Get into your holes, now, Johnnie, we've got to shoot.'

"Left to themselves, the soldiers would end this war in thirty minutes.

It's the one man at the top who won't let them. It's h.e.l.lish--it's h.e.l.lish----"

"And you would justify an a.s.sa.s.sin?" Betty asked breathlessly.

"Who is an a.s.sa.s.sin, dear?" he demanded tensely. "The man who wields a knife or the tyrant who calls the fanatic into being? Brutus or Caesar, William Tell or Gessler? Resistance to tyrants is obedience to G.o.d----"

"John, John--how can you say such things--you don't believe in murder----"

"No!" he breathed fiercely. "I don't now. I used to until I had a revelation----"

He stopped short as if strangled.

"Revelation--what do you mean?" Betty whispered, watching his every movement, with growing terror.

He looked at her with eyes glittering.

"I didn't want to tell you this," he began slowly. "I meant to keep the black thing hidden in my own soul. But you'll understand better if I speak. I killed Ned Vaughan with my own hands----"

"You're mad----" Betty shivered.

"I wish I were--no--I was never sane before that flash of red from h.e.l.l showed me the truth--showed me what I was doing. We fought in the darkness of a night attack, hand to hand, like two maddened beasts. He ran me through with his sword and I sent the last ball left in my revolver crashing through his breast. In the glare of that shot I saw his face--the face of my brother! I caught him in my arms as he fell and held him while the life blood ebbed away through the hole I had torn near his heart. And then I saw what I'd been doing, saw it all as it is--war--brother murdering his brother--the shout and the tumult, the drums and bugles, the daring and heroism of it all, just that and nothing more--brother cutting his brother's throat----"

His head sank into his hands in a sob that strangled speech.

Betty slipped her arm tenderly around his shoulder and stroked the heavy black hair.

"But you didn't know, dear--you wouldn't have fired that shot if you had----"

He lifted himself suddenly and recovered his self-control.

"No. That's just it," he answered bitterly. "I wouldn't have done it had I known--nor would he, had he known. But I should have seen before that every torn and mangled body I had counted in the reckoning of the glory of battle was some other man's brother, some other mother's boy----"

He paused and drew himself suddenly erect:

"Well I'm awake now--I know and see things as they are!"

His hand unconsciously felt for his revolver, and Betty threw her arms around his neck with a smothered cry of horror:

"Merciful G.o.d--John--my darling--you are mad--what are you going to do?"

"Why nothing, dear," he protested, "nothing! I'm simply going to ask the President whose power is supreme to give my father a fair trial or release him--that's all--you needn't stay longer--the carriage is waiting. I can introduce myself and plead my own cause. If he's the fair, great-hearted man you believe, he'll see that justice is done----"

"You are going to kill the President!" Betty gasped.

"Nonsense--but if I were--what is the death of one man if thousands live? I saw sixty thousand men in blue fall in thirty days--two thousand a day--besides those who wore the grey. At Cold Harbor I saw ten thousand of my brethren fall in twenty minutes. Why should you gasp over the idea that one man may die whose death would stop this slaughter?"

"John, you're mad!" she cried, clinging to him desperately. "You're mad, I tell you. You've lost your reason. Come with me, dear--come at once----"

"No. I was never more sane than now," he answered firmly.

"Then I'll warn the President----"

He held her with cruel force:

"You understand that if it's true, my arrest, court-martial and death follow?"

"No. I'll warn him not to come. I alone know----"

She broke his grip on her arm and started toward the door. He lifted his hand in quick commanding gesture:

"Wait! my men are in that hall--it's his life or mine now. You can take your choice----"

The girl's figure suddenly straightened:

"Take your men out and go with them at once!"

"No. If he does justice, I may spare his life. If he does not----"

"You shall not see him----"

"It's my life or his--I warn you----"

"Then it's yours--I choose my country!"

She walked with quick, firm step to the door leading into the family apartments of the President. On the threshold her feet faltered. She grasped the door facing, turned, and saw him standing with folded arms watching her--with the eyes of a madman. Her face went white. She lifted her hand to her heart and slowly stumbled back into his arms.

"G.o.d have mercy!" she sobbed. "I'm just a woman--my love--my darling--I--I--can't--kill you----"

Her arms relaxed and she would have fallen to the floor had he not caught the fainting form and carried her into the hall.

Two men were at his side instantly.

"Take Miss Winter downstairs," he whispered. "There's a carriage at the gate. Bring it quietly to the door--one of you take her to the Senator's home. The other must return here immediately and wait my orders. There's no guard in this outer hall at night. The one inside is with the boy.

Keep out of sight if any one pa.s.ses."

The men obeyed without a word and John Vaughan stepped quickly back into the Executive office, drew the short curtains across the window, turned the lights on full, examined his revolver, and sat down in careless att.i.tude beside the President's desk. He could hear his heavy step already approaching the door.