CHAPTER XXVI. POLLY.
It certainly did seem as though everything might be trying to assistThad. Why, even the elements lent a helping hand; for the wind had onlyrecently risen to such a busy degree that it was now sighing among theupper branches of all the trees, and rustling the leaves of oaks andpines and cypresses until there was raised such a commingling of varioussounds that possibly one might speak in an ordinary tone without itsbeing carried from the spring to where the concealed shack lay.
This was what Thad thought, for with a scout's education he noticedeverything that promised to have any connection with his affairs.
Providing, then, that the girl would not be so startled at his suddenand unannounced appearance that she would cry out, there was a chance ofthem carrying on a little heart-to-heart talk, by means of which hecould impart certain facts which must be of considerable interest toher.
"Watch out for the coming of the man, while I try to speak with her," hewhispered in the ear of Alligator Smith; who immediately stopped short,as though he thought it would be as well to lie in ambush right there,as go on any further.
Thad forgot all about his companion after that.
The girl was still by the spring. She had set her pail down, and was onher knees. Thad could not see exactly what she was doing, but imaginedthat it might either be getting a drink, or else in girlish fashionutilizing the clear water of the spring as a mirror, to look at herreflection.
A dozen quick, noiseless paces served to bring him close up to where sheknelt. He managed to get control of himself, and give a little cough, asthough in this fashion he hoped to alarm her less than by suddenlyspeaking.
The girl instantly turned her head. He saw that she was astonished, andimmediately Thad pressed his finger on his lips to beg of her not tocall out. At the same time he tried to have a reassuring smile on hisface, though in his excitement he hardly knew what he must look like.
"Please don't call out to betray me to that man!" he said, softly, "Idon't mean you the least harm. In fact, I have come all the way downfrom the North just to speak with you. Will you believe me enough tolisten, while I tell you something?"
She was on her feet now, and at first Thad feared he had so alarmed herthat her whole desire would be to run as fast as she could to the shack,perhaps screaming out loud, in her desire to have Jasper hasten to herassistance. In that event he had made up his mind to seize her, and thendepend on the guide to hold the angry man at bay when he came rushingup.
But if this was indeed her first intention she must have soon changedher mind. Possibly the friendly reassuring smile on his eager faceinfluenced her; then again she may have been braver than he had everimagined could be the case; and last of all perhaps she knew more abouther past than it had entered his mind to imagine.
"Yes, boy, if you promise not to come any nearer to me than you are now,I will hear what you want to say," she replied, in a voice that quiveredwith nervousness, fear, and perhaps anxiety. "But how could you everfind your way over here, when he told me no living person knew of thattrail under the mud."
"There was one man who knew about it," Thad went on to say, softly,thinking it wise to approach the wonderful subject that he wanted tospeak about by degrees, and first of all satisfy her girlish curiosity."But first of all, tell me if you believe the man you are with is yourown father?"
"He says he is, but somehow I do not believe him," she replied, drawinga long breath, while her eyes opened wider than before, as though hopesthat had lain half dormant in her heart for some time, once more flashedinto life. "At the convent school the sisters often talked about him,and they could not believe he was my father. He gave his name as Allan;but once when he came to see me an empty envelope fell from his coatpocket, and I saw that it was addressed to Felix Jasper; so ever sinceI've believed that must mean him."
"And you guessed what was true," said Thad, quickly, pleased beyondmeasure at what success had already come to him in his suddenly arrangedplans; "his right name is Felix Jasper. Years ago he used to be incharge of my mother's property, just after my father died; but he tookadvantage of her inexperience to defraud her and was discharged, but notprosecuted. Instead of being grateful he seemed to lie awake nightstrying to think up something dreadful, through which he might haverevenge for what he considered his wrongs. It is an old story, buthappens now and then, just as it used to do centuries ago. My littlebaby sister disappeared most mysteriously, and was never found, thoughthey hunted everywhere. Jasper was careful not to give the least clue;but my mother believed until she died that he was to blame. And now,many years afterwards, word reached my uncle and guardian that this sameFelix Jasper was seen coming into this swamp, having a girl in hiscompany who seemed to be just about as old as my little sister Paulinemust have been if she were alive. And I have come down here to find outif it might be true. Now you know why I asked you not to call out! Youdo not love that man, I hope?"
"I have hardly seen him more than four or five times in as many years,until he came two weeks ago, and told me I would have to leave theconvent school, and go with him, because he had to live abroad. And thenwe came here to this queer spot, and he has acted so strangely all thewhile, as though he feared some one might be meaning to do him aninjury. Ever so many times a day I have seen him examining a terriblepistol he carries in his pocket. Is it you he is afraid of, boy?"
"No, I don't think it is," replied Thad; "you see he is a thief, and hasrobbed a wealthy planter who employed him; so that he is afraid thesheriff and his posse will find him. And they are here close by, meaningto arrest him; so that you must not go back there to that shack, for itwould be too dangerous. But if you believe that he could not be yourreal father, have you not sometimes tried to picture who was, and whatyour right name might be?"
"Yes, oh! yes, I have, many, many times," she went on to say,breathlessly, so that Thad was emboldened to take a step toward her, andfollow it up with another. "And then there was that day when the sistersshowed me the clothes that were on me when he brought me there as ababy, saying that my mother had died, and he had to go abroad on a veryimportant mission. I shall never forget that there were three lettersembroidered on one of the garments; and oh! how often I used to dreamthat the day _might_ come when I could know whether my name were reallyMary Allen, or something else that those initials stood for."
"Listen," said Thad, his very heart seeming to stop beating, becauseeverything might depend on what answer she would make to the question hemeant to ask her now; "tell me, were those three letters P. C. B?"
"Oh! you have said them just as I saw them!" she exclaimed, in suddenawe, not unmixed with ecstacy; and Thad breathed freely again, while hisface lighted up with a joy that could no longer be denied.
"They stand for Pauline Chester Brewster!" he said, "and I do not for aminute doubt but that you are my own dear little sister; but all thatcan be settled when we see those sisters you speak of, in New Orleans,and the garments they have kept all these years are shown. You will notbe afraid of me any longer, will you?"
He was drawing very close to her when he said this. The little girl'sbright eyes were fastened upon his face. What she saw there must havegiven her complete confidence in the boy, for she suddenly extended bothhands toward him.
"No, I am not afraid of you. Why should I be when you have brought mesuch splendid news? And you look just like what I have always thought abrother must be. Oh! I do hope I won't wake up and find that it's allonly a dream; because that has happened so many times. It always made mecry, because I was so very much disappointed. But then this time itseems different, because I've heard you speak, and you have told me thethings I've always wanted to know. And so my name is Pauline?"
"Yes, or Polly for short," the delighted boy went on, as he took bothher extended hands in his; "do you think you will like it better thanMary? It was my mother's name too, and she was a Chester before shemarried my father. I am Thad Brewster, your own brot
her Thad."
"How queer it seems to me--to have a real brother," she went on to say;"but oh! we forget about _him_. He will be very, very angry if he findsme talking to you in this way; because he has always told me I mustnever say a single word to a stranger."
"Well, it's different when you're talking with your brother, you see,"Thad replied; but her words had awakened him to the fact that it wasmost unwise to continue to linger so close to the shack where Jasper wasstaying; and that the safest policy would be for them to reach the spotwhere Sheriff Badgely and his posse lay concealed, and leave the rest tothat astute peace official.
He wondered at such a young girl talking so well, but then she had beenall of her life in the charge of the sisters at the convent school, andconsequently was somewhat old-fashioned in her ways.
"But what will you do about it?" she asked him; "because I am sure hewill never let me go away with you, even if you are my brother."
"I don't mean to ask him," Thad told her. "All you have to do is to walkoff now with me, and we can laugh at him."
"Oh! but you don't know what a terrible man he can be!" she said, layinga little hand earnestly on his sleeve; "once I saw him furiously angry,and he frightened me very much, even if he did tell me I mustn't thinkhe was meaning me when he said such awful things. He will follow afterus, and do something wicked, I know he will."
"I hope he will follow us," said Thad, with perfect confidence; "becausethen he may step into a trap, and have his teeth drawn without beingable to do anybody harm. But come, let us hurry off."
She seemed to have the utmost faith in this boy who had so suddenlydawned upon her horizon with the astonishing claim that he was her ownreal brother; for without hesitation she was about to take his hand,when suddenly she gave utterance to a piteous little cry:
"Oh! dear, I just knew it would turn out like it always does!" sheexclaimed; and Thad, seeing that she was looking past him in a sort ofdaze, instantly turned his own head to ascertain what had caused thisnew alarm.
What he saw was not reassuring. There not twenty feet away stood the manof the shack, Felix Jasper. He was holding something that glistened inhis right hand; and seemed both angry and astounded to see a strangerhere on his private island that was guarded by that supposed to beimpassable bog.