CHAPTER XLVII
SOME OF THE THREADS ARE TIED
In the old stories, the climax used to be considered attained when theyoung couple became engaged. Like the hero and heroine of the fairytales of our youth, in that golden land of “Once-upon-a-time,” allthat was to be told after they became engaged was that “they marriedand lived happily ever after.” In the modern stories, however, thisseems to be but the beginning of new adventures. Marriage, which usedto be the entrance to bliss unending, appears to be now but the “gateof the hundred sorrows;” and the hero and heroine wed only to findthat they loved someone else better, and pine to be disunited. Theyspend the rest of their lives trying to get unmarried. Nothing is sounconventional as to love one’s own husband or wife, and nothing sotame as to live pure and true to one’s vows in spirit as well as infact.
It must be said, at once, that this is not a story of that kind. Thepeople described in it knew nothing of that sort of existence. Anyreader who chooses to go farther in this history must do so with thefull knowledge that such is the case, and that the married life of theyoung couples will be found as archaic and pure as that of our firstparents, before modern wisdom discovered that the serpent was more thanthe devil, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil more than a treeof knowledge. Still, when we have come so far together, it is necessaryto go a little farther.
Thus, it must be briefly explained, for the benefit of those who may beinterested to know, what became of those whose story they have beenfollowing; and such as do not care to read farther, may leave off hereand content themselves with knowing that they met, if not the fatesthey deserved, at least, the fates which life brought, and met themwith undaunted hearts.
The temporary adjournment of the prosecution against Captain Allen wasbut preliminary to a continuance, and, finally, the case was altogetherdismissed. The prosecution of Major Welch’s son-in-law was a verydifferent thing from that of a mere citizen of that unhappy section.But the investigation that followed proved triumphantly that CaptainAllen’s part in the movements that had taken place had been preciselywhat he asserted they were, and that he had done much to break up laterthe organization of night-riders.
Not that this was the end of the troubles in the Red Rock country, andin the section of which it formed a part, or of the struggle that wenton between the people of that section and Leech and the other vultureswho were preying on them. The talons of those vultures were too firmlyimbedded to be easily dislodged. But in time, the last of the harpieswas put to flight.
As for Leech, there is record of one of the name who, after holding theleadership of one party in his State, on the overthrow of that partyby the outraged white people of the State, soon became a partisan onthe victorious side. There is also record of a Leech who, having beenduring the “carpet-bagger” régime a man of large means and politicalprominence, was known at last mainly on account of an unsavory storyof the manner in which he had tried to get rid of his wife, and marryanother woman. Having been frustrated in that design through theefforts of a former political associate, a certain Colonel McRaffle,who attained a temporary celebrity on account of his disclosures beforethe Commission that investigated the frauds in the State, this Leech,it appears, fell into great want, and was nursed through his lastillness by the faithful wife whom he had so ill-treated. Readers maydecide for themselves whether either of these was the once supreme“carpet-bagger” dictator of Red Rock—if, indeed, they both were notthe same person.
But to narrate all this would lead this history into wholly other lines.
The day after her marriage, Ruth received a deed which had just beenrecorded, conveying to her the part of Red Rock which Major Welch hadbought of Still and restored to Jacquelin, and with the deed a letterfrom Jacquelin, asking her, as Steve’s wife, to accept it from him andRupert as a wedding present. The letter said things about Steve overwhich Ruth shed tears, though her radiant face showed how happy she was.
“Dr. Moses” had a somewhat curious career. Jacquelin’s statement ofwhat he saw the night of the attempted assassination of Middleton castsuspicion on Moses; and he was arrested, and arraigned before a negromagistrate. It was shown that he had made prophecies or threats againstMiddleton. But Leech appeared as his counsel, and at least twentywitnesses testified to the man’s having been at the Bend all night. Sohe was at once discharged; and the shooting of Middleton was, in thepublic press, generally charged to the bands of midnight assassins,to whom it was the custom at that time to attribute all outrages thatwere committed—at least, where the objects were Northern men. Onejournal, indeed, alleged that Jacquelin himself was concerned in it,and charged that his crowning infamy was the attempt to place theshooting on “a reputable colored physician in the County—one of thefew men whose education had enabled them to enter one of the learnedprofessions.” The prophecies of Moses, however, greatly increased hisreputation; his prestige and power became tremendous, and he was,perhaps, the person most feared in the whole County by his own race.Finally, indeed, he became such a dread to them that they rose, and hewas run away from the Bend by his own people. Nothing more was heardof him in the County. But some years later, in one of the adjoiningStates, a negro was hanged by a mob, and an account of it was publishedin the papers. The press of one side stated that he confessed not onlythe terrible crime for which he was hanged, but, in addition, severalothers sufficiently heinous to entitle him to be classed as one of thegreatest scoundrels in the world. The other side asserted that he wasa physician of standing, who had at one time enjoyed a large practicein another State, from which he had been run out by the bands of maskeddesperadoes who had terrorized that section. In proof, it declared that“he died calling on all present to meet him in heaven.” As both sides,however, concurred in giving his name as Moses ——, and his formerdomicile as Red Rock, we have some ground for supposing that “Dr.Moses,” as Andy Stamper said, at last came to the end of his rope.
Did our limits permit, the marriage of several other couples besidesSteve and Ruth might be chronicled. But the novelist cannot tell at onetime all he knows. Be this known, however, that as some citadels arecaptured by assault, so others capitulate only after long siege; andthis both Jacquelin and Captain Thurston discovered.
When the engagement of Captain Thurston and Miss Elizabeth Dockettwas announced to Mrs. Dockett, it was by Miss Dockett herself. Itmust be left to the members of Mrs. Dockett’s own sex to say whetherMrs. Dockett was surprised or not. But if Miss Elizabeth had struckher flag, Mrs. Dockett had not by any means struck hers. Her firstpronunciamento was that she had not a word to say against CaptainThurston, who was, she admitted, a perfect gentleman; but that shewanted him to understand that everyone who came into that house had todance to the tune of Dixie. This the Captain professed he was preparedto do, and would only ask that he might sometimes be allowed to warblein his own room the Star-Spangled Banner.
Not long after this, the Red Rock case was to come up again. But alittle time before the term of court at which it was to be tried, anoffer of compromise was made to Jacquelin. It was said that HiramStill had one night seen the “Indian Killer” standing by the red-rock,and that this influenced him to make his proposition. Later on, somesaid the apparition was Rupert, who had just come back from the West astalwart youngster as tall as Jacquelin.
Under the terms of Still’s offer the mansion and a part of theplantation were to become Jacquelin’s and Rupert’s, while theoverseer’s house, with something like half the estate, was to remainMr. Still’s.
Jacquelin was, at first, unwilling to make any terms with Still. Hewas satisfied that, with the evidence he now had, he should win hiscase, and that Still could be sent to the penitentiary. But Bail wasto sit in the case again, and the upper court was composed of Leech’screatures; so that no one could be sure of winning his cause, whateverits merits; while Still himself was reported to be so feeble that hisdeath was expected at any time.
There were, perhaps, other reasons that moved Jacquelin. Miss Thom
asia,when she heard of Still’s offer, promptly urged its rejection. Shewould never allow him to be lawful owner of an acre of their old place,though, she added, with a sigh, she herself would, perhaps, not live toset foot there again.
“Yes, you shall,” said Jacquelin; and he wrote that night and acceptedthe terms proposed. His first act was the fulfilment of his pledge tohis mother on her death-bed; and she was laid beside her husband in theRed Rock burying-ground, in sight of the old garden in which she hadwalked as a bride.
When Miss Thomasia entered the Red Rock door on the day of her return,she stopped and clasped her hands tightly. The eyes bent on her, fromthe walls seemed to beam on her a welcome.
“Well, thank God for all His mercies!” she said, fervently; and, takingher seat in an arm-chair, she spent most of the afternoon knittingsilently and looking round her with softened eyes and lips that movedconstantly, though they uttered no sound. Later she went out into thegarden, and looked at the remnants of the flowers that were left; andthere Steve and his wife found her when they came to take tea with herthat first evening, and there, still later, Jacquelin brought Blair totell of his new happiness.
THE END.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
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