Manly Wade Wellman - John the Balladeer 02

by After Dark (v1. 1)

  Warren went to a chink in the logs and put his eye to it.

  "A spell brought that on,” he said.

  "Spell?” Hazel Techeray echoed him. "But—but—”

  "The protective spell John said may not work against everything,” he said. "Storms can be raised. Guazzo tells us about them in his Demonalotry book.”

  "Shoo,” I said. "One time way out west, I saw me some Indians dance and sing and pray to bring rain down when they were a-hurting for it. And it looked to be a natural thing to me.”

  Outside, a drawling, teasing voice: "Hello, the house again!”

  It made me mad. I drifted to a log space. "Hello yourself, Brooke Altic,” I called into the night.

  "Is that you, John? How did you like our little operatic performance?”

  "For the beginning of the overture, it was right amusing,” I said. "You know, Mr. Altic, you just fixed yourselves so there's no point in using fire arrows anymore. The logs and the roof must be soaked as wet as sop.”

  “By the ones I worship, you may be right,” came his drawl. “We live and learn, don't we, John? But I don't want to talk to you. Let me address myself to lovely little Callie Gray.”

  “I won't say one word to him,” she whispered.

  “Don't,” said Warren, from where he kept his lookout, gun in hand.

  We waited and said naught.

  “Miss Callie Gray,” said Aide's slow voice, “I'm driven to wonder if you may not be the only rational person in that beleaguered house. I'd like to say to you, this whole little incident might turn out to your advantage.”

  She didn't speak. Not one of us spoke.

  “Callie Gray, you could make yourself happy among us,” said Aide's voice. “You could be prosperous among us, you could be fruitful among us—”

  “That will do out there,” yelled Warren at him, mad enough to sting like a hornet.

  “Do I hear the voice of Jackson Warren?”

  “You don't hear the voice of Callie Gray,” came back Warren. “She knows all about those plans you want to make for her.”

  “All about them?” Altic mocked him.

  “Yes, she does, and she's not having any.”

  A laugh out there. “I suppose you have the right to speak for her.”

  “I'm doing it.”

  Callie had moved up behind Warren, and she put her hand on his arm. It was pretty to see her do that thing, in the dim light.

  “Now, then,” came Aide's mockery-sounding voice, "you think you've said enough, do you? You think we'll just quit and go away? Leave you alone?"

  "We don't think nair such thing," Mr. Ben told him from where he stood to look out another place. "We think you'll use round out there till one of you gets out in the open and we can take a fair shot at him."

  Brooke Altic laughed his laugh. "You ask too much from us, Mr. Gray, a whole lot too much. Various things will happen without that happening. We've just begun to open our bag of tricks." He paused. "Of course, you can get rid of us by throwing that alexandrite out to us."

  "Don't hold your breath a-waiting that long," Mr. Ben spit out.

  Thunder rolled fit to bust your ears just then, and a bright flash of lightning flung a moment of white fire in at all the log spaces.

  "That near about hit the place," gulped Hazel Techeray, scared.

  Another thunder roll, another white fiery flash that came in and lighted up the whole room for a second.

  "They'll blast this house down.” Hazel Techeray was near about a-sobbing.

  "Not them," I said to calm her down. "They want us alive or, at least, some of us."

  No more thunder after that. The silence came a-creeping back in round us. Finally Aide's voice from outside broke that silence.

  "You people simply won't listen to reason," he said, like as if he mourned at it, from somewhere close to the side of the cabin.

  I pushed over close to the wall at that point and looked out. The moon showed itself again, and maybe two-three stars, and I saw just a big pine tree. Likely he was behind that, within feet of where I stood. I poked my rifle through the logs.

  “We'll always listen to reason,” I said. “That's how come there's no point to listen to you.”

  “John,” he mocked. “Oh, John, John. You're a thorn in the flesh of progress, John. The United States Government would never like what I could say about you.”

  “Get the government in here to hark at both sides of the story,” I said.

  “John,” he said my name again, “you have a lost cause. As lost as the cause of the old Confederacy. By now, we've brought our line of power to this point. We can do whatever we want to with you.”

  I decided not to swap words with him on that. He sounded another sight readier of tongue than what I was. I looked out there at his tree. The rifle Mr. Ben had given me would have slapped a bullet all the way through it, but just to wound Altic wouldn't finish him. We had to have a Shonokin dead.

  I heard a creaky, grinding sound, and the house shifted on its foundation rocks. It was like something with water a-pushing it in a flood. Hazel Techeray made one of her whimpers again. Callie said, “What in the name of gracious?” And Mr. Ben said something I'd bet he wouldn't want written down as his last words in this life.

  I peeked out again. The trees in the yard waved their branches like arms and I heard the whipping rustle of their leaves. The house creaked. Gentlemen, it was a mean night on us there.

  For, as I reckoned, the Shonokins had somehow or other put their line of power along the ground to us like a gun aimed to a target. They wanted to scare us right out into the open. If that happened, what would come next?

  I couldn't reply myself on that, so I didn't try.

  Yet again I took a squint. Out yonder, something sort of scuttered amongst some bushes. I aimed the best I could and touched my trigger. The rifle banged.

  “Yowl” came a howl to answer it. Mr. Ben edged along toward me.

  “I got him, I think,” I whispered. "I hope.”

  There was a low muttering sound here and there, like voices. I heard a rattle of leaves, where maybe something was a-being dragged. I had a hope for what it was.

  But then, A1tic's voice came again, his drawly, mocking voice again.

  “That was only a slight flesh wound on a friend of mine. Let me make a last offer before we throw that place down on top of you fools. All of you can come out and be safe, except John.”

  “They want to kill you, John,” Hazel Techeray whispered me.

  “All except John,” said Altic again. “Come out without weapons, and you can leave along the road. Leave safely, leave alive. Just give us that alexandrite. That's a promise on the spirit we Shonokins worship. When I say that, you know I mean what I say.”

  “Miss Hazel's right,” said Mr. Ben. “They're a-fixing to kill you, John.”

  “Kill John, and nobody else,” Warren added on. “They want to save the rest of us for purposes of their own. If we stay in here, they won't try to smash us with the house.”

  “Well, don't say aught back to them,” said Mr. Ben.

  The house gave itself a grind again. We felt a shove all round us, like as if the air had gone as heavy as water. The stout old rafters above our heads creaked in their fastenings.

  “Do you understand that we mean exactly what we say?” called Brooke Altic to us.

  I held up my hands for all to be quiet, say naught. Well I knew that if we didn’t reply him, Brooke Altic would have something else to say. That would slow up what he was a-trying to trick on us. It might even tip his hand. We waited and, sure enough, there came his voice again.

  “I’ve asked several times for that jewel, that alexandrite. Let me say, I’ll make a fair exchange for it—more than a fair exchange, a liberal one. I have here a ring set with a ten-carat diamond, and all around the diamond are arranged ten fine rubies. It’s worth a fortune.” His voice rose up. “What do you say to that offer, Mr. Ben Gray?” “Don’t talk no offer to me,” said Mr.
Ben, before I could hush him. “I ain’t got it no more, nohow.”

  “Who does have it, then?” Altic inquired him from the dark yard.

  “That there comes under the head of it’s you to find out.”

  “Very well. My offer stands, though; this valuable ring for that semiprecious stone. Do I hear a reply?”

  Again I had my hand up to keep them all quiet.

  “I see. I suppose that silence means bleak refusal. Then you have only yourselves to thank for what will happen now. My profound regrets.”

  He went quiet, and we felt what we’d felt before, that grinding press of power all over the house. Our lamp tottered where we’d set it, might could have tipped over if Hazel Techeray hadn’t caught it up with both hands. The rafters creaked and popped so loud, I wondered if they weren’t just before a-coming down. And I felt a feeling I’d known before: a hum in my blood with a sing in my ears, the same way as I’d felt them out on that straight-drawn trail to the Shonokin settlement.

  There was a burny feeling on my right leg, on the outside of it just below the hip. I thought a spark must have come there to me from somewhere, and I slapped at it

  "What is it, John?” said Callie to me. "Did something hit you?”

  "I don't rightly know,” I said with my hand to the place. It felt warm there, but no sure-enough fire to it. "I can't say for certain what it is.”

  The cabin settled out of its wigglings. The tingle left out of me. I dived my hand into my pants pocket and fetched out the alexandrite in its little twist of paper and unwrapped it a trifle bit. It showed pale in our dim light. And it felt warm.

  I walked over close to where Hazel Techeray still held our lamp. Jackson Warren came across to my side. He poked at the wadded paper.

  "It feels almost hot enough to catch fire,” he said. "That'# the alexandrite, isn't it, John?”

  "Right, and they're getting their power line to it somehow.”

  "I can see one of them a-scrambling round out yonder,” said Mr. Ben from where he was on watch.

  I set the thing down on the edge of the table and near about ran to the place. I looked out betwixt the logs.

  And sure enough, there was movement in a shadowy place in the yard near the path, where some bushes grew. A dark patch the size of a man, or maybe a little bear. It hung low. It twitched itself thisaway and that.

  "Just let me, by God, get him in my sights,” rumbled Mr. Ben, and he ran his gun barrel through the space to take aim.

  "Hold your fire, Ben Gray I” sort of wailed somebody out in the dark yard.

  "Sim Drogus, as I live and draw breath,” said Mr. Ben.

  I saw the dark shape rise up and stretch its hands above its head.

  "Hold your fire,” said Sim Drogus again. “I’ve come here to do you some good, Mr. Ben.”

  “If you come here to do me good, it’s the first damn time,” Mr. Ben gritted back at him. “What you got to say to me? Speak it out, and make it short.”

  “Come out at the door,” Sim Drogus asked him. “Come out and be a target for your Shonokin friends? My mother nair raised me to be air such a fool. I’ll come to the door and talk to you through it, and you come along to where I can see you plain.”

  All us others in the house started to crowd round. I waved for them to get back and stay on watch. Mr. Ben stamped hard to the door and pulled it a couple inches open with the muzzle of his rifle. I was close enough to see out at a chink to the front.

  It was sure enough Sim Drogus who came along the path toward the steps. I knew him by his slumpy shoulders, his long skinny neck. He stood almost at the foot of the steps.

  “Mr. Ben,” he said, “I done come here with a friendly message for you, from Mr. Brooke Altic.”

  “Hagh!” snorted Mr. Ben, like a mean horse. “Me and him is through with aught you could call friendly. And you, how come you not to be a-running to the law with word of shooting here? You’re right good at that.”

  I saw Sim Drogus sort of twitch and sway himself, like as if he felt embarrassed.

  “Mr. Ben,” he tried again, “you well know I nair carried no tale on you to them deputies. It was Hazel Techeray. You got her in there right this minute, and if she’s honest she’ll tell you the same. Anyhow, ain’t no other neighbor round these parts is close enough to hark at this fuss you’re a-raising up.”

  "Hagh!” Mr. Ben snorted at him again. "Them tore- down Shonokins you got is a-raising the fuss, and none of them dare step forward to me, so they send you. You’re their little fetch-and-carry dog, ain’t you, now?”

  "Go on, cuss me out if that pleasures you,” said Sim Drogus. He had his hands up. "I won’t hold that hard against you, if you cuss me out. But I’m come to be a peacemaker betwixt you and Mr. Altic. My message is, he only wants to make you rich, make you happy. He wants just one little teeny thing from you.”

  "You come on up here and step inside my door, Sim Drogus,” invited Mr. Ben, with meanness in air word, "and I’ll write out an answer to that there message. Right on your weasel face, one that Brooke Altic could read by the moonlight. If your Shonokin friends wasn’t there to help you, I’d come outside and run you right up the tallest tree there is in miles.”

  "You won’t listen to reason?” asked Sim Drogus, the same way Brooke Altic had asked.

  "I won’t listen to you and that’s the naked truth. Now then, I’m a-going to count three for you to get out of my sight.”

  "I’m sorry for you, Ben Gray,” squeaked Sim Drogus, and he turned round and made off quick.

  Mr. Ben shoved his gun out at the door and fired over him. Sim Drogus dived into shadows like a frog into a pond.

  "What poor shooting, Mr. Gray,” mocked Brooke Al- tic’s voice from somewhere behind his tree. "Or possibly you only meant to scare him. If so, you did that. But keep on shooting, please. When your ammunition is all gone—”

  "It ain’t all gone yet, God damn your time,” Mr. Ben busted in at the top of his voice. "We got plenty more bullets here, and one of 'em's got your name wrote out on it, loud and clear. Just you step into view, just step.”

  "A highly intriguing offer, but I must decline with thanks,” Altic drawled to us. "However, if you're going to be so inhospitable to Mr. Drogus, here present are some other neighbors who would like to talk to you.”

  We waited. At last: "Mr. Ben?” questioned a man's voice. "Mr. Ben Gray?”

  "Sure as I'm born, that there bank-jumping, side-changing Lew Replogle,” grated Mr. Ben, as hoarse as a rasp on rusty iron. "I'll tell him a thing or two he should ought to know about himself.”

  "No, let me do the talking,” I said, and waved at him to hold his words. I put up my own voice. "Mr. Replogle, what is it you want?”

  "Is that John I hear a-talking?” said Replogle, and now I could make him out and two others, a-standing together in the road just before the head of the path. "We want to tell Mr. Ben something.”

  "You can tell it to me, if there's aught to be told,” I said. "What do you want?”

  "Just only a peaceable message to give,” said Replogle. "John, me and you met this day and shook hands to be friends. Here with me I've got Matty Groves and U. G. Bannion, who did likewise. Now, we want to do this thing right, do it peaceable.”

  "Do it peaceable, you say?” I asked him out yonder. "And if you can't do it peaceable, you reckon to do it the other way?”

  "Well—”

  He didn't go on, but, a-straining my eyes, I saw that those three men had guns out there to lean on.

  "You reckon you'll make a fight here, rush this cabin?” I said. "Mr. Replogle, you don't seem to be gifted enough to see how the Shonokins are a-fixing to use you. They themselves can’t stand gunfire. They’re afraid one of them will get himself killed and the rest will have to run off and quit.”

  "And that’s right enough the lowdown Shonokin way,” husked Mr. Ben beside me.

  "I count three of you there, in the pay of Brooke Altic,” I went on, "and if Sim Drogus is still rou
nd there with you, that makes four human men who might could face up to some shooting. All right, but there’s five of us in here, and we have guns and we can use them right well. Did you air hear tell that tale of how the monkey got the cat to drag the hot chestnuts out of the fire? You can get more than your paw burnt here.”

  "John, I ain’t none used to be talked to thataway,” said Replogle, "and I don’t like it.”

  "Nor I don’t like to talk along such lines myself,” I told him. "But we mean business in here, whatair kind of business comes up. And if I was you, or Mr. Groves, or Mr. Bannion, I’d pull up and leave out of here and hope I had a whole skin.”

  "Well—” he said again.

  I watched them fade away out of sight amongst trees somewhere.

  "This is all part of desperation tactics on the part of the Shonokins,” said Warren, who still stayed at the table. "Remember, they consider themselves an endangered species, and just now they’re acting accordingly.”

  "I’ll endanger their old tore-down species,” vowed Mr. Ben. "Give me just air kind of a good chance, and I’ll make them so scarce and hard to find, folks will pay good money to look at them in a circus.”

  Hazel Techeray actually laughed. I near about did myself.

  At the table, Warren had twitched open that paper wad, and he was a-studying the alexandrite. A ray of light came from the lamp Hazel Techeray had set down again, and struck to the table. I saw the alexandrite shine red and fiery in it. That thing looked as hot as a coal on the hearth. I wondered if it would blaze up at us.

  "They want it,” said Warren softly. "They're trying to involve it in something.”

  The cabin creaked, but not so heavy and tingly now.

  "Give it up,” the voice of Brooke Altic rang to us. "Give it up. It's no good to Ben Gray except as a souvenir. In our hands, it can benefit the world.”

  "Benefit men and women?” I called a challenge to him. "Or just only Shonokins?”

  "Benefit men and women who help us,” said Brooke Altic. "Even you, John.”

  "You counted me out of it once,” I reminded him through a space in the logs.