CHAPTER XLII.
BEAKS.
The wind was blowing in spells, like crowds moved during an argument, atone time mute as awe, again murmurous, and sometimes mutinous andfierce, when Hulda, having heard a few words only of her grandmother'soverture, glided from the old tavern and passed on into the night,terrified but not unthinking, till she reached some large pines thatseemed to say over her head, high up towards heaven: "Where now, ohwhere, oh-h-h wh-h-here, in the co-o-o-old, co-o-o-old w-h-h-h-ildernessof the wh-h-h-orld?"
"Anywhere!" answered Hulda, not afraid of cold or nature, so intense hadbecome her fear of men and women. "Still, where? I might go to Cannon'sFerry and tell my tale to those hard-hearted merchants, or to Seafordand beg a shelter somewhere there; but first I will try our old cottagehome again."
She went so quietly up the field lane that dogs could not have heardher, and, as she approached the little house, saw lights in it, and soonheard voices and saw moving figures within.
Knowing every knot-hole and crack of the little dwelling, Hulda soon hada perfect view of the contents of the house by standing in the dark, alittle distance from one of the low, small windows.
A table stood in the middle of the main room, on which was an oldmouldered chest with the earth clinging to it, and beside the chest werebones and shreds of clothing on the riven lid of the chest.
"You swear that the evidence you give shall be the truth, the wholetruth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God!" exclaimed a small,chunky, Irish-looking person, presenting a book to be kissed by ascrawny, chinless, goose-necked lad, whom Hulda immediately recognizedas Cyrus James.
"Shall I take him, Doctor Gibbons?" asked a fine-looking, easy-manneredman, of the magistrate.
"Yes, Mr. Clayton."
"Do you know the nature of an oath? What is it?"
"I'll be fried like a slapper on the devil's griddle ef I don't tellright," whined Cy James, zealously.
"No you won't; at least, not _first_. If you don't tell me the truthI'll have your two ears cut off on the pillory, and no slapper shallenter that hungry stomach of yours for a month. Goy!"
He looked at Cy James as if he had a mind to bite his nose off as a merebeginning.
"Now, Hollyday Hicks, you and Billy Hooper and the other constables takeaway this box, which smells too loud here, as soon as the witness hassworn to it. When did you last see this box, James?"
"About ten year ago, sir, when I had been bound to Patty Cannon fouryear, I reckon, I see Patty an' Joe Johnson an' Ebenezer, his brother,all toting this chist to the field an' a-buryin' of it."[8]
"What did you see them put in that chest?"
"A dead man--a nigger-trader. I can't tell whether his name was Bell orMiller; she killed two men nigh that time, an' I was so little that I'vegot 'em mixed."
"Did you see her kill this man?"
"No, sir, I wasn't home. I got home in time to see 'em packin' him inthe box. I hearn Patty tell the boys how she killed him. Oh! she wasproud of it, sir, becaze she didn't have no help in it."
Half a dozen heads of constables, some of whom Hulda knew, leanedforward together to hear the witness, while others removed the unsavoryremains. Mr. Clayton continued:
"How did she say she killed him?"
"She said he come to Joe's tavern with a borreyed hoss from East NewMarket, where he told the people he was buyin' niggers, and would takefifteen thousand dollars wuth if he could git 'em. He was follered out,an' Ebenezer Johnson got in ahead of him. They told him the tavern wasfull, an' he would be better tuk care of at a good woman's little farmclose by. They made him think, she said, that a gentleman with muchmoney wasn't allus safe at the tavern. Aunt Patty got him supper. He sitat the table after it a-pickin' of his teeth. She got her pistol an'went out in her garden a-hoein' of her flowers. Once she come up on himat the window to shoot, but he turned quick, an' she says to him: 'Oh,sir, I only want to see if you didn't need somethin' more.' 'No, no,'says he; 'I've made a rale good supper.' 'I loves my flowers,' AuntPatty says, 'an' likes to hoe 'em at sundown, so they can sleep nice an'soft.' 'Do you?' says he; 'I reckon you're a kind woman.' He turnedaround agin an' begin to look over his pocket-book. She hoed an' hoed,an' hummed a little tune. All at once she slipped up, an' I heerd hersay, 'Boys, I give it to him good, right in the back of the head, an' hefell on to the table, an' the water he had been drinkin' was red ascurrant wine.'"
"James Moore, I'll swear you next," the magistrate said to the newtenant of the farm; and this man proceeded to testify concerning thefinding of the chest as he was ploughing in a wet spot where he hadremoved some brush.
Cy James, being recalled, gave testimony as to other buried bodies,chiefly of children slaughtered in wantonness or jealousy, or to avoidpursuit.
"Take this boy, Joe Neal," said Constable Hicks,[9] "and hold him fast."
"Goy!" said Clayton, with a terrible frown at Cy James, "we may have tohang him yet! Guilty knowledge of these crimes for so many years, andexposure at last only for a private resentment, constitute an accessory.Well for you, depraved young man, if you had possessed the principle of_this_ young gentleman!"
The Senator placed his hand upon a sitting figure, and there arose inHulda's sight the image of her lover, Levin Dennis.
"Constables," said Dr. Gibbons, the magistrate, "I shall give you yourwarrants now. The Maryland authorities propose, without waiting forextradition proceedings, to deliver your prisoners at the state line."
"Goy!" said Clayton, "they may have friends in the executive chambers atAnnapolis. No, boys, act together, like patriots, as the Maryland andDelaware lads served in the same revolutionary brigade. Joe Johnson isdue here at noon to-morrow: be careful not to disturb old Patty norawaken her suspicions till he arrives. She is almost past doing evil,but he has a lifetime left to do it in."
"Constable Neal, I'll shove them over the line to you!" spoke theMaryland officer.
"Constable Wilson, look out when you lay on to old Patty: she may beloaded and go off," exclaimed the Delaware officer.
"Doctor John Gibbons," spoke Clayton, "waste no time with them at thehearing in Seaford, but get horses and send them right to Georgetownjail; they are slippery as eels. Goy!"
As Cy James was being taken to a secure place in the garret he turned toLevin Dennis, much wilted and crestfallen.
"Oh, Levin," he said, "Huldy won't have me now, I know. Won't you standby me, Levin? She's goin' to marry you, and I'll give ye all I'vefound."
"Huldy!" Levin exclaimed; "oh, must I leave her yonder at the tavernanother night?"
"No," answered Hulda, coming forward; "we are both preserved, my friend.But I must have made my bed in the forest this night if God had notdirected me to you."
As they clasped each other fondly, Senator Clayton exclaimed,
"What? Doves among the rattlesnakes. Goy!"
The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times Page 44