CHAPTER XXX.
A TERRIBLE DEED.
John Franklin's manly blood had boiled with resentment at seeing poorDainty driven away in disgrace from the home of which she was virtuallythe mistress, for he believed every word of the story she had told Mrs.Ellsworth.
It made his kind heart ache to realize so fully the sad mental plight ofhis young master, who could sit by in apathy, and suffer such a cruelwrong to be done to his unfortunate young wife.
He gloried in the pride that had made her fling back in the woman's facethe offered pittance from her cruel persecutor.
"Yet, poor soul, she looked shabby and penniless. Perhaps she had notthe money to pay her fare to Richmond. I wonder if the unfortunate younglady would accept a loan from her husband's servant?" he thought,anxiously.
It pained him to think of her going out into the darkness of the night,friendless and shelterless, knowing how well his master had loved her,and how worthy she was of that love.
He decided that it was his duty to follow her and proffer his servicesif she needed them, though in so clandestine a manner that wicked Mrs.Ellsworth need not find it out and revenge herself by cruelty to hismaster.
Leaving Love presently to the care of another attendant, he slipped awaythrough the grounds to the road, wondering which way the unhappywanderer had gone.
A little incident ended his perplexity.
While pausing under the shade of a tree, gazing anxiously up and downthe road, he suddenly saw the cousins Olive and Ela, skulking likecriminals out in the dusky woodland path that led to old mammy's cabin;and the light of the rising moon on their faces showed them pallid andscared-looking, as if pursued by threatening fiends. Clasping eachother's hands, and panting with excitement, they fled across the road tothe gates of Ellsworth, without perceiving that they were detected insomething underhand by the lynx eyes of a suspicious watcher.
"They have been up to some mischief, and I will find it out if I can,"he thought, darting into the woodland path, and following it with alerteyes until suddenly the darkness was illuminated by the glare of fire,and rushing forward, he discovered old mammy's cabin wrapped in flames.
A startled cry burst from the man's lips as a terrible suspicion drovethe bounding blood coldly back upon his heart.
Had the deserted cabin been fired by Olive and Ela?
If so, what had been their motive? Something very important surely, forconscious guilt had looked from their pale faces, had marked theirskulking flight from the scene.
If Dainty Chase had gone to the cabin to seek refuge with the old blackwoman, their motive was not hard to fathom, and as Franklin boundedtoward the scene of the fire, it all flashed over his mind likelightning.
The life of Dainty was a menace to Mrs. Ellsworth and her nieces, for ifshe could prove her marriage to Lovelace Ellsworth on the middle ofJuly, she would wrest from his step-mother the wealth she claimed byreason of his failure to marry before his birthday, and in which she wasmaking her nieces joint sharers.
Yes, all three of them had a terrible interest in the girl's death; theman realized it fully.
And Mrs. Ellsworth but a little while ago had given him a deep insightinto her evil nature.
Perhaps she had sent her nieces--as wicked as herself--to follow poorDainty and devise means for getting her out of the way.
It was horrible to think of such a crime, but he made haste to verifyhis suspicions by darting around to an end window not yet wreathed inthe leaping flames and peering into the house, though the heat scorchedhim and the smoke was stifling.
He drew back with a cry of horror and indignation.
Yes, Dainty was there!
On gaining the shelter of the cabin, seeking the protection of the oldmammy, whom she counted as her only friend, the girl, in her grief andsorrow and cruel disappointment at finding the place untenanted, hadsunk into a heavy swoon on the hard floor.
Doubtless her cruel rivals, following and beholding her piteous plight,had seen their opportunity and taken instant advantage of it.
Roused from her unconsciousness by the crackling flames and stiflingsmoke, the girl was just rising from the floor, and the despair on herface as she comprehended her terrible environment would haunt JohnFranklin to his dying day.
The great, sublime pity that rose to flood-tide in the man's tenderheart submerged every thought of self in an instant.
No escape seemed possible for Dainty. The inflammable log cabin wassurrounded by fire, and she stood in the center of the awful glare likesome pale, beautiful martyr at the stake.
Franklin caught up a great bowlder from the ground and dashed it againand again against the sash till it was broken in, then, stripping offhis coat, muffled his head in it, and sprang like a hero through smokeand flame to the rescue of his master's bride, catching her up in hisstrong arms, and bearing her, after a fierce conflict with the fire,back through the broken sash to life and safety.
And not a moment too soon, for the roof of the cabin crashed in on theburning walls ere he had staggered three yards from the scene of hisheroic deed, and the fierce flames, leaping higher, conveyed to twoanxious watchers at Ellsworth the news that they had succeeded in theirdamnable crime.
Franklin realized that it was best to let them hug that belief to theirhearts, so all that he did afterward that night was under the veil ofsecrecy.
He succeeded in getting an old buggy and conveying Dainty to thestation, where he placed her on the midnight train and bought her aticket for Richmond.
No one but black mammy was let into the secret, and unseen by any one inthe gloom of the midnight hour and in the scarcity of travel that night,she was sent on her way to her mother, Franklin saying to her earnestly:
"Let me advise you, Mrs. Ellsworth, to keep close to your mother, andaway from the fiendish enemies who are seeking to compass your death. Iwill take the best care of your husband, and may God send him recoveryfrom his hurt, that he may restore you to your rightful position, andpunish the wretches who have wronged you both!"
Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday Page 30