Complete Works of Howard Pyle

by Howard Pyle

  At last he closed the books with a snap and, smoothing down his hair, arose, took up the candle, and passed out of the room into the kitchen beyond.

  A man was sitting in front of the corncob fire that flamed and blazed in the great, gaping, sooty fireplace. A rough overcoat was flung over the chair behind him and his hands were spread out to the roaring warmth. At the sound of the lifted latch and of Hiram’s entrance he turned his head, and when Hiram saw his face he stood suddenly still as though turned to stone. The face, marvelously altered and changed as it was, was the face of his stepbrother, Levi West. He was not dead; he had come home again. For a time not a sound broke the dead, unbroken silence excepting the crackling of the blaze in the fireplace and the sharp ticking of the tall clock in the corner. The one face, dull and stolid, with the light of the candle shining upward over its lumpy features, looked fixedly, immovably, stonily at the other, sharp, shrewd, cunning — the red wavering light of the blaze shining upon the high cheek bones, cutting sharp on the nose and twinkling in the glassy turn of the black, ratlike eyes. Then suddenly that face cracked, broadened, spread to a grin. “I have come back again, Hi,” said Levi, and at the sound of the words the speechless spell was broken.

  Hiram answered never a word, but he walked to the fireplace, set the candle down upon the dusty mantelshelf among the boxes and bottles, and, drawing forward a chair upon the other side of the hearth, sat down.

  His dull little eyes never moved from his stepbrother’s face. There was no curiosity in his expression, no surprise, no wonder. The heavy under lip dropped a little farther open and there was more than usual of dull, expressionless stupidity upon the lumpish face; but that was all.

  As was said, the face upon which he looked was strangely, marvelously changed from what it had been when he had last seen it nine years before, and, though it was still the face of Levi West, it was a very different Levi West than the shiftless ne’er-do-well who had run away to sea in the Brazilian brig that long time ago. That Levi West had been a rough, careless, happy-go-lucky fellow; thoughtless and selfish, but with nothing essentially evil or sinister in his nature. The Levi West that now sat in a rush-bottom chair at the other side of the fireplace had that stamped upon his front that might be both evil and sinister. His swart complexion was tanned to an Indian copper. On one side of his face was a curious discoloration in the skin and a long, crooked, cruel scar that ran diagonally across forehead and temple and cheek in a white, jagged seam. This discoloration was of a livid blue, about the tint of a tattoo mark. It made a patch the size of a man’s hand, lying across the cheek and the side of the neck. Hiram could not keep his eyes from this mark and the white scar cutting across it.

  There was an odd sort of incongruity in Levi’s dress; a pair of heavy gold earrings and a dirty red handkerchief knotted loosely around his neck, beneath an open collar, displaying to its full length the lean, sinewy throat with its bony “Adam’s apple,” gave to his costume somewhat the smack of a sailor. He wore a coat that had once been of fine plum color — now stained and faded — too small for his lean length, and furbished with tarnished lace. Dirty cambric cuffs hung at his wrists and on his fingers were half a dozen and more rings, set with stones that shone, and glistened, and twinkled in the light of the fire. The hair at either temple was twisted into a Spanish curl, plastered flat to the cheek, and a plaited queue hung halfway down his back.

  Hiram, speaking never a word, sat motionless, his dull little eyes traveling slowly up and down and around and around his stepbrother’s person.

  Levi did not seem to notice his scrutiny, leaning forward, now with his palms spread out to the grateful warmth, now rubbing them slowly together. But at last he suddenly whirled his chair around, rasping on the floor, and faced his stepbrother. He thrust his hand into his capacious coat pocket and brought out a pipe which he proceeded to fill from a skin of tobacco. “Well, Hi,” said he, “d’ye see I’ve come back home again?”

  “Thought you was dead,” said Hiram, dully.

  Levi laughed, then he drew a red-hot coal out of the fire, put it upon the bowl of the pipe and began puffing out clouds of pungent smoke. “Nay, nay,” said he; “not dead — not dead by odds. But [puff] by the Eternal Holy, Hi, I played many a close game [puff] with old Davy Jones, for all that.”

  Hiram’s look turned inquiringly toward the jagged scar and Levi caught the slow glance. “You’re lookin’ at this,” said he, running his finger down the crooked seam. “That looks bad, but it wasn’t so close as this” — laying his hand for a moment upon the livid stain. “A cooly devil off Singapore gave me that cut when we fell foul of an opium junk in the China Sea four years ago last September. This,” touching the disfiguring blue patch again, “was a closer miss, Hi. A Spanish captain fired a pistol at me down off Santa Catharina. He was so nigh that the powder went under the skin and it’ll never come out again. —— his eyes — he had better have fired the pistol into his own head that morning. But never mind that. I reckon I’m changed, ain’t I, Hi?”

  He took his pipe out of his mouth and looked inquiringly at Hiram, who nodded.

  Levi laughed. “Devil doubt it,” said he, “but whether I’m changed or no, I’ll take my affidavy that you are the same old half-witted Hi that you used to be. I remember dad used to say that you hadn’t no more than enough wits to keep you out of the rain. And, talking of dad, Hi, I hearn tell he’s been dead now these nine years gone. D’ye know what I’ve come home for?”

  Hiram shook his head.

  “I’ve come for that five hundred pounds that dad left me when he died, for I hearn tell of that, too.”

  Hiram sat quite still for a second or two and then he said, “I put that money out to venture and lost it all.”

  Levi’s face fell and he took his pipe out of his mouth, regarding Hiram sharply and keenly. “What d’ye mean?” said he presently.

  “I thought you was dead — and I put — seven hundred pounds — into Nancy Lee — and Blueskin burned her — off Currituck.”

  “Burned her off Currituck!” repeated Levi. Then suddenly a light seemed to break upon his comprehension. “Burned by Blueskin!” he repeated, and thereupon flung himself back in his chair and burst into a short, boisterous fit of laughter. “Well, by the Holy Eternal, Hi, if that isn’t a piece of your tarnal luck. Burned by Blueskin, was it?” He paused for a moment, as though turning it over in his mind. Then he laughed again. “All the same,” said he presently, “d’ye see, I can’t suffer for Blueskin’s doings. The money was willed to me, fair and true, and you have got to pay it, Hiram White, burn or sink, Blueskin or no Blueskin.” Again he puffed for a moment or two in reflective silence. “All the same, Hi,” said he, once more resuming the thread of talk, “I don’t reckon to be too hard on you. You be only half-witted, anyway, and I sha’n’t be too hard on you. I give you a month to raise that money, and while you’re doing it I’ll jest hang around here. I’ve been in trouble, Hi, d’ye see. I’m under a cloud and so I want to keep here, as quiet as may be. I’ll tell ye how it came about: I had a set-to with a land pirate in Philadelphia, and somebody got hurt. That’s the reason I’m here now, and don’t you say anything about it. Do you understand?”

  Colonel Rhett and the Pirate

  Hiram opened his lips as though it was his intent to answer, then seemed to think better of it and contented himself by nodding his head.

  That Thursday night was the first for a six-month that Hiram White did not scrape his feet clean at Billy Martin’s doorstep.

  VI

  Within a week Levi West had pretty well established himself among his old friends and acquaintances, though upon a different footing from that of nine years before, for this was a very different Levi from that other. Nevertheless, he was none the less popular in the barroom of the tavern and at the country store, where he was always the center of a group of loungers. His nine years seemed to have been crowded full of the wildest of wild adventures and happenings, as well by land as by sea
, and, given an appreciative audience, he would reel off his yarns by the hour, in a reckless, devil-may-care fashion that set agape even old sea dogs who had sailed the western ocean since boyhood. Then he seemed always to have plenty of money, and he loved to spend it at the tavern taproom, with a lavishness that was at once the wonder and admiration of gossips.

  At that time, as was said, Blueskin was the one engrossing topic of talk, and it added not a little to Levi’s prestige when it was found that he had actually often seen that bloody, devilish pirate with his own eyes. A great, heavy, burly fellow, Levi said he was, with a beard as black as a hat — a devil with his sword and pistol afloat, but not so black as he was painted when ashore. He told of many adventures in which Blueskin figured and was then always listened to with more than usual gaping interest.

  As for Blueskin, the quiet way in which the pirates conducted themselves at Indian River almost made the Lewes folk forget what he could do when the occasion called. They almost ceased to remember that poor shattered schooner that had crawled with its ghastly dead and groaning wounded into the harbor a couple of weeks since. But if for a while they forgot who or what Blueskin was, it was not for long.

  One day a bark from Bristol, bound for Cuba and laden with a valuable cargo of cloth stuffs and silks, put into Lewes harbor to take in water. The captain himself came ashore and was at the tavern for two or three hours. It happened that Levi was there and that the talk was of Blueskin. The English captain, a grizzled old sea dog, listened to Levi’s yarns with not a little contempt. He had, he said, sailed in the China Sea and the Indian Ocean too long to be afraid of any hog-eating Yankee pirate such as this Blueskin. A junk full of coolies armed with stink-pots was something to speak of, but who ever heard of the likes of Blueskin falling afoul of anything more than a Spanish canoe or a Yankee coaster?

  Levi grinned. “All the same, my hearty,” said he, “if I was you I’d give Blueskin a wide berth. I hear that he’s cleaned the vessel that was careened awhile ago, and mebby he’ll give you a little trouble if you come too nigh him.”

  To this the Englishman only answered that Blueskin might be —— , and that the next afternoon, wind and weather permitting, he intended to heave anchor and run out to sea.

  Levi laughed again. “I wish I might be here to see what’ll happen,” said he, “but I’m going up the river to-night to see a gal and mebby won’t be back again for three or four days.”

  The next afternoon the English bark set sail as the captain promised, and that night Lewes town was awake until almost morning, gazing at a broad red glare that lighted up the sky away toward the southeast. Two days afterward a negro oysterman came up from Indian River with news that the pirates were lying off the inlet, bringing ashore bales of goods from their larger vessel and piling the same upon the beach under tarpaulins. He said that it was known down at Indian River that Blueskin had fallen afoul of an English bark, had burned her and had murdered the captain and all but three of the crew, who had joined with the pirates.

  The excitement over this terrible happening had only begun to subside when another occurred to cap it. One afternoon a ship’s boat, in which were five men and two women, came rowing into Lewes harbor. It was the longboat of the Charleston packet, bound for New York, and was commanded by the first mate. The packet had been attacked and captured by the pirates about ten leagues south by east of Cape Henlopen. The pirates had come aboard of them at night and no resistance had been offered. Perhaps it was that circumstance that saved the lives of all, for no murder or violence had been done. Nevertheless, officers, passengers and crew had been stripped of everything of value and set adrift in the boats and the ship herself had been burned. The longboat had become separated from the others during the night and had sighted Henlopen a little after sunrise.

  It may be here said that Squire Hall made out a report of these two occurrences and sent it up to Philadelphia by the mate of the packet. But for some reason it was nearly four weeks before a sloop of war was sent around from New York. In the meanwhile, the pirates had disposed of the booty stored under the tarpaulins on the beach at Indian River inlet, shipping some of it away in two small sloops and sending the rest by wagons somewhere up the country.

  VII

  Levi had told the English captain that he was going up-country to visit one of his lady friends. He was gone nearly two weeks. Then once more he appeared, as suddenly, as unexpectedly, as he had done when he first returned to Lewes. Hiram was sitting at supper when the door opened and Levi walked in, hanging up his hat behind the door as unconcernedly as though he had only been gone an hour. He was in an ugly, lowering humor and sat himself down at the table without uttering a word, resting his chin upon his clenched fist and glowering fixedly at the corn cake while Dinah fetched him a plate and knife and fork.

  His coming seemed to have taken away all of Hiram’s appetite. He pushed away his plate and sat staring at his stepbrother, who presently fell to at the bacon and eggs like a famished wolf. Not a word was said until Levi had ended his meal and filled his pipe. “Look’ee, Hiram,” said he, as he stooped over the fire and raked out a hot coal. “Look’ee, Hiram! I’ve been to Philadelphia, d’ye see, a-settlin’ up that trouble I told you about when I first come home. D’ye understand? D’ye remember? D’ye get it through your skull?” He looked around over his shoulder, waiting as though for an answer. But getting none, he continued: “I expect two gentlemen here from Philadelphia to-night. They’re friends of mine and are coming to talk over the business and ye needn’t stay at home, Hi. You can go out somewhere, d’ye understand?” And then he added with a grin, “Ye can go to see Sally.”

  Hiram pushed back his chair and arose. He leaned with his back against the side of the fireplace. “I’ll stay at home,” said he presently.

  “But I don’t want you to stay at home, Hi,” said Levi. “We’ll have to talk business and I want you to go!”

  “I’ll stay at home,” said Hiram again.

  Levi’s brow grew as black as thunder. He ground his teeth together and for a moment or two it seemed as though an explosion was coming. But he swallowed his passion with a gulp. “You’re a —— pig-headed, half-witted fool,” said he. Hiram never so much as moved his eyes. “As for you,” said Levi, whirling round upon Dinah, who was clearing the table, and glowering balefully upon the old negress, “you put them things down and git out of here. Don’t you come nigh this kitchen again till I tell ye to. If I catch you pryin’ around may I be —— , eyes and liver, if I don’t cut your heart out.”

  In about half an hour Levi’s friends came; the first a little, thin, wizened man with a very foreign look. He was dressed in a rusty black suit and wore gray yarn stockings and shoes with brass buckles. The other was also plainly a foreigner. He was dressed in sailor fashion, with petticoat breeches of duck, a heavy pea-jacket, and thick boots, reaching to the knees. He wore a red sash tied around his waist, and once, as he pushed back his coat, Hiram saw the glitter of a pistol butt. He was a powerful, thickset man, low-browed and bull-necked, his cheek, and chin, and throat closely covered with a stubble of blue-black beard. He wore a red kerchief tied around his head and over it a cocked hat, edged with tarnished gilt braid.

  Levi himself opened the door to them. He exchanged a few words outside with his visitors, in a foreign language of which Hiram understood nothing. Neither of the two strangers spoke a word to Hiram: the little man shot him a sharp look out of the corners of his eyes and the burly ruffian scowled blackly at him, but beyond that neither vouchsafed him any regard.

  Levi drew to the shutters, shot the bolt in the outer door, and tilted a chair against the latch of the one that led from the kitchen into the adjoining room. Then the three worthies seated themselves at the table which Dinah had half cleared of the supper china, and were presently deeply engrossed over a packet of papers which the big, burly man had brought with him in the pocket of his pea-jacket. The confabulation was conducted throughout in the same foreign language whi
ch Levi had used when first speaking to them — a language quite unintelligible to Hiram’s ears. Now and then the murmur of talk would rise loud and harsh over some disputed point; now and then it would sink away to whispers.

  Twice the tall clock in the corner whirred and sharply struck the hour, but throughout the whole long consultation Hiram stood silent, motionless as a stock, his eyes fixed almost unwinkingly upon the three heads grouped close together around the dim, flickering light of the candle and the papers scattered upon the table.

  Suddenly the talk came to an end, the three heads separated and the three chairs were pushed back, grating harshly. Levi rose, went to the closet and brought thence a bottle of Hiram’s apple brandy, as coolly as though it belonged to himself. He set three tumblers and a crock of water upon the table and each helped himself liberally.

  As the two visitors departed down the road, Levi stood for a while at the open door, looking after the dusky figures until they were swallowed in the darkness. Then he turned, came in, shut the door, shuddered, took a final dose of the apple brandy and went to bed, without, since his first suppressed explosion, having said a single word to Hiram.

  Hiram, left alone, stood for a while, silent, motionless as ever, then he looked slowly about him, gave a shake of the shoulders as though to arouse himself, and taking the candle, left the room, shutting the door noiselessly behind him.

  VIII

  This time of Levi West’s unwelcome visitation was indeed a time of bitter trouble and tribulation to poor Hiram White. Money was of very different value in those days than it is now, and five hundred pounds was in its way a good round lump — in Sussex County it was almost a fortune. It was a desperate struggle for Hiram to raise the amount of his father’s bequest to his stepbrother. Squire Hall, as may have been gathered, had a very warm and friendly feeling for Hiram, believing in him when all others disbelieved; nevertheless, in the matter of money the old man was as hard and as cold as adamant. He would, he said, do all he could to help Hiram, but that five hundred pounds must and should be raised — Hiram must release his security bond. He would loan him, he said, three hundred pounds, taking a mortgage upon the mill. He would have lent him four hundred but that there was already a first mortgage of one hundred pounds upon it, and he would not dare to put more than three hundred more atop of that.