CHAPTER II.
ALLISON IS SURPRISED.
"Oh, I mean it," said Tom, and one would have thought by the way heshook his head and frowned and made his riding-whip whistle through theair, that it would be useless for anybody to try to order him around."Just try me and see; that's all."
"And if you had been in my place you wouldn't have come home till yougot good and ready?" said Beardsley.
"You bet I wouldn't. I wouldn't be guilty of setting such an example tothe timid ones at home. This is the time when every man----"
"How many buildings have you got in this part of the country?" inquiredthe captain, shutting his right eye and laying his finger by the side ofhis nose. "Have you forgot the men who took Hanson away in the night,and piled up those weeds and stuff up agin my house?"
"Well, that's so; but still I don't think they would have been boldenough to do anything to you. You are a wealthy planter, while Hansonwas nothing but a common overseer, without a friend or relative in theworld so far as any one knows. Did you receive the proofs this letterspeaks of?"
"You bet I did," answered Beardsley, shaking his whip in the air. "Mydaughter got old Miss Brown to write to me just as them Pertectors ofthe Helpless--dog-gone the last one of 'em--said she would, and sure asyou live she found another letter on the gallery, and a whole passel ofstuff piled up agin the house, ready to be touched off with a match; andthe very same night Mrs. Gray's overseer was carried away. When she toldme all them things and begged me to come home I thought I had best come.But I don't mean to let the matter drop here, tell your folks. Thefellers who wrote that letter must be hunted down and whopped like theywas niggers. Did Marcy Gray do it?"
"I can't swear that he didn't," replied Tom guardedly. "But if he did,he disguised his hand so that I do not recognize it. I can't find thefirst letter in it that looks like Marcy's work."
Beardsley seemed disappointed as he returned the letter to his pocketand buttoned his coat, and Tom Allison certainly was. Two or three timesit was on the end of his tongue to declare that Marcy was the guiltyone, but he lacked the courage. He was afraid of the mysterious men whohad begun to carry things with so high a hand in the settlement, for hedid not know how soon they might turn their attention to him or to hisfather's property.
"Marcy is quite mean enough to do a thing of that kind, hoping to bringyou home so that you would not take him to sea any more," said Tom, whocould not resist the longing he had to say something that would leadBeardsley to declare war upon the boy who had served as his pilot. "Hemay have written the letter, but he could not have piled that lightstuff against your house, for he was not at home when the thinghappened. Has it struck you that the work must have been done by someone who belongs on your plantation? Your dogs would have raised aterrible racket if a stranger----"
"No, it wasn't," said Beardsley earnestly. "The dogs made furse enoughthat night to wake up everybody in Nashville; but they didn't none of'em do nothing, and that shows that they were afraid of the crowd thatwas there. My folks was that scared that they dassent none of 'em lookout of the winder; but the next morning the letter that was put on thegallery and the stuff to burn the house was both there."
"It's very strange that I never heard of it before," said Tom, who couldnot help telling himself that the recital made him feel veryuncomfortable. "It's just awful that things like these can go on in thesettlement and nobody be punished for them."
"Well, it ain't so strange that you didn't hear of it, when you bear inmind that my folks didn't say much about it for fear that they mightspeak to the wrong person," said Beardsley. "I reckon it was done by thesame fellers who took Hanson away to the swamp. Ain't nary idee who theywere, have you?"
"Nary an idea. I wish I had, so that I could expose them. Why, justthink of it, captain! If things like these are allowed to go on, who issafe? How do we know but you or I may be marched off in the same waysome dark night?"
"I don't know it, and that's just what's a-troubling of me," saidBeardsley, groaning again and rubbing his gloved hands nervouslytogether. "Such doings is too shameful to be bore any longer. There's aheap of traitors right here amongst us, and I don't see how we are goingto get shet of 'em."
"That's the thought that was running in my mind when I met you," saidTom savagely. "I know who some of the traitors are, but the truth is,they are so cunning you can't prove the first thing against them.There's that Marcy Gray for one."
"Say!" whispered Beardsley, reining his horse a little closer to Tom'sand tapping the boy's shoulder with his riding-whip, "you have hit thevery identical idee I have had in my mind for a long time. If Marcyain't a traitor, what's him and his mother keeping that money of theirnstowed away so quiet for?"
"Say!" whispered Allison in his turn, at the same time laying the handleof his own whip lightly upon the captain's knee, "that is something Ihave thought about more times than I can remember. If they haven't gotmoney, and plenty of it, hidden somewhere, I am mistaken. You know thatbefore Marcy came home from school his mother made a good many trips toRichmond, Newbern, and Wilmington; and everybody says those trips werenot made solely for the purpose of buying supplies for the plantation."
"I know it," assented Beardsley.
"When Mrs. Gray came home she made a big show of parading all herniggers in bran' new suits of clothes," continued Allison. "But she didnot have to go to three cities to buy the cloth those clothes were madeof, did she? She's got money, and I am sure of it."
"I know it," said Beardsley again. "I tried my best to make Marcy sayso, but he was too sharp for me. You see his share of the prize-moneythe _Hollins_ sold for amounted to seventeen hunderd dollars."
"Great Moses!" ejaculated Tom. "What a plum for that traitor to put intohis pocket! I wish I had it. But he told me he was to get eight hundredand fifty dollars."
"P'raps he did, for that was what the foremast hands got; but I promisedto give Marcy more for acting as pilot and I done it, consarn my fulepictur'! I wanted to get on the blind side of him, so't he would sorterconfide in me for a friend, don't you see? But I didn't make it. Thatboy might have cleared five thousand dollars if he had took out aventure the first time we run the blockade, but he wouldn't do it forfear he might lose the money. He said he might want to use themseventeen hunderd before the war was over."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom.
"That's what I thought," replied Beardsley.
"Seventeen hundred dollars are not a drop in the bucket to the sum heand his mother have on hand at this moment, and I'll bet on it," addedTom. "They've got thousands, and I wish I could have the handling ofsome of it."
That was what Captain Beardsley wished; but the trouble was he did notknow where the money was concealed, or just how to go to work to gethold of it. He had a partly formed plan in his head, but he did notthink that it would be quite safe to let Tom into the secret of it. Atany rate, he would tell all his news first, and think about thatafterward.
"That boy Marcy is a plum dunce to act the way he is doing now," saidthe captain, after a little pause. "If he would go into our navy, andthis war should happen to last a year or so longer, he would make a bigofficer of himself."
"It won't last six months longer," said Allison confidently. "TheYankees can't stand more than one Bull Run drubbing. But tell mehonestly, captain: Did Gray really show pluck on the night he got thatbroken arm?"
"He did for a fact," replied Beardsley. "He stood up to the rack like aman, and took the schooner through the inlet with that arm hanging byhis side as limp as a dish-rag. I'm free to say it, though I ain't nofriend of his'n."
"I am sorry you said it in the letters you wrote home to Shelby andDillon. I wish that splinter, or whatever it was, had hit his headinstead of his arm, for he carries himself altogether too stiff-leggedon the strength of it. If he had whipped the whole Yankee fleet he couldnot throw on more airs. But why do you say he could win promotion byenlisting in our navy? Do you think he would go among the Federals if hewasn't afraid?"
"
That's where he would go if it wasn't for his mother. It's where hisbrother Jack is at this minute."
"Captain," said Tom impressively, "you and I ought to be the very bestof friends, for we think alike on a good many points. Somebody, I don'tknow who it was, gave it out through the settlement that Jack Gray wentto Newbern to ship on a Confederate iron-clad; but I didn't believe it,and I don't think so now. If he and Marcy wanted to go to Newbern theywould have gone by rail, wouldn't they? Instead of that they went inMarcy's schooner."
"I don't care what anybody has give out or what anybody thinks," saidBeardsley doggedly. "I know what I know, and believe what I have seenwith my own two eyes, don't I? While I was standing into Crooked Inleton my way--say! I don't know as I had best tell you what I seen with myown two eyes."
"Why not?" demanded Allison, who was sure he was about to hear someexciting news. "You have already told me more than you had any businessto tell, if you don't think I can keep a secret."
"Well, that there is a fact. Look a-here. I aint said a word to nobodyabout this, and you mustn't let on that I told you; but while I wasrunning into Crooked Inlet on my way home from the last trip I made toNassau, I didn't see the steam launch that I was afraid might be waitingthere for me, but I did see Marcy Gray's schooner."
"Isn't that what I said?" exclaimed Tom gleefully. "What was MarcyGray's schooner doing outside, and in the night-time, too?"
"Hold on till I tell you how it was," replied the captain. "The firstthing I see was that the schooner had been disguised, but that didn't byno means fool your uncle Lon. Them two boys, Marcy and Jack, had towedher through the inlet with their skiff and were just about to get aboardagain and make sail, when I run on to 'em in the dark. I was that scaredto see 'em that I couldn't move from my tracks, for a minute or two. Ithought the Yankees had me sure."
"It almost takes my breath to have my suspicions confirmed in this way,"said Tom. "Did you watch them to see where they went?"
"Listen at the fule!" exclaimed the captain, in a tone of disgust. "Notmuch, I didn't watch them boys. I had enough to do to mind my ownbusiness; and knowing what brung them outside at that time of night,didn't I know where they had started for without watching 'em? Theydidn't go nigh Newbern. They went straight out to the Yankee fleet, andthere's where Jack Gray is, while me and you are riding along thisroad."
"Captain, I wouldn't have missed seeing you this morning for a bushel ofmoney," declared Tom, whose first impulse was to whip up his horse andcarry the joyful news to Nashville. "I've got a hold on Marcy Gray nowthat I shan't be slow to use."
"What are you going to do?" asked Beardsley anxiously.
"I'll let him know who he called a coward before a whole post-officefull of people," said Allison savagely. "He will take that word back onhis knees and do his best to make a friend of me, or I'll----"
"There, now!" cried Beardsley; and the tone in which he uttered thewords was quite as savage as Tom's. "I knew well enough that I had nocall to tell you all them things without first speaking to Shelby andDillon about them."
"Of course I shall consult you, before doing or saying anything toMarcy," replied Tom, wishing he had net been so quick to speak thethoughts that were in his mind. "I don't want you to think that I amgoing to take these matters out of your hands, for I don't mean to doanything of the sort."
"You had better not. You are nothing but a boy, and you would be sure tomake a mess of the whole thing if you tried it. Me and Shelby will dealwith Marcy and his mother."
"I shall be satisfied, so long as you do something to him that he canfeel. All I ask is to be around when it is done, so that I can see it.But you will have to be careful, captain. There are some about here whobelieve that the Grays are the best kind of Confederates."
"What makes them believe that when me and you know it aint so?"
"It's the way they worked things; and it was about the slickest scheme Iever heard of," replied Allison. "Why, captain, they ran down the riverpast Plymouth and Roanoke, with our flag flying from the _Fairy Belle's_masthead."
"Of all the imperdence! Where did they get a flag of our'n?"
"No one knows, unless Jack got it off the smuggler _West Wind_, that hepiloted into Newbern. Anyhow he got it, and kept it hung upon the wallof his mother's house in plain sight of all who went there."
"It was nothing but a cheat and a swindle, I tell you," shouted thecaptain. "Both them boys is Union, and their mother is too. I'll fix'em!"
"I say again that you had better be careful," cautioned Tom. "If itturns out that they are in favor of the South, you will burn yourfingers if you touch them; and if they are Union, they have friends towatch over and see that no harm comes to them. Have you forgotten themen who carried Hanson away in the night?"
"No, I ain't; and that's what makes me so mad. We-uns about here can'tdo nothing with that money---- Say! mebbe I could tell you somethingelse if you'll promise never to let on about it."
"All right. I never will," answered Allison, who was becoming impatientto hear all the man had on his mind. Nashville was in plain sight now,and of course there could be no more talking of this sort done afterthey got there. "Hold up a bit. Don't let your horse walk so fast."
"What I thought of saying to you is this," said Beardsley, once moresinking his voice to a whisper. "We-uns who live about here can't donothing by ourselves, but we can hint--just hint, I say--to someoutsiders that there's a pile of money in that there house of Mrs.Gray's that's to be had for the taking."
"Go on," said Tom, when Beardsley stopped and looked at him. "I amlistening, but I don't catch your meaning."
"I could easy find half a dozen fellers right around here who would beup and doing mighty sudden if I should say that much in their privateears," continued the captain. "But mebbe that plan wouldn't work. Ican't tell till I hear what Shelby thinks about it. But if it don'twork, we might put the Richmond officers onto them."
"What good would that do? If there is money in Mrs. Gray's house theRichmond authorities have no right to touch it."
"Aint they, now!" chuckled Beardsley. "Don't the law say that we-unsmustn't pay no debts to the Yankees, but must turn the money over to thefellers at Richmond?"
"But I am afraid Mrs. Gray doesn't owe any money to the Yankees."
"What's the odds whether you think so or not?" said the captainearnestly. "We can hint that she does, can't we? And can't we hintfurder, that instead of turning that money over, like the law says shemust do, she is keeping it hid for her own use!"
"Then why not make a sure thing of it by putting the government officerson the scent the first thing?"
"Because they won't divide, the officers won't. Don't you see? The otherfellers will."
Tom Allison was astonished now, and no mistake. For a minute or two helooked hard at Beardsley, but he couldn't speak.
"What do you stare at me that-a-way for?" demanded the captain. "I don'tsee nothing so very amazing in what I said. Didn't you tell me a minuteago that you would like mighty well to have the handling of some of thatthere money?"
"Of course I did, and I say so yet; but I wouldn't dare touch it if itwas got in that way. Don't misunderstand me now," said Allison, when hesaw Beardsley gather up his reins and change his riding-whip to hisright hand as if he were about to go on and leave Tom behind. "If youthink it would be quite safe----"
"What other way is there to get it?" snarled Beardsley. "I wasn'tjoking. These here aint no times for joking, and I meant every word Isaid. Why aint it safe? The folks in the settlement are mostly ourfriends, and even if they knew that some of the money went into ourpockets, they wouldn't say nothing about it."
"They would know it, and my father would say something to me, I bet you.But mind you," said Tom, as the two turned their horses toward thehitching-rack that stood across the street from the post-office, "if youand your friends think it can be done, I say go ahead and good luck toyou. And if you make a success of it, as I hope you will, no one willhear from me that I knew a thing about
it."
"And you won't let on about the other things I have told you?" said thecaptain, as he dismounted and spread a blanket over his horse. "I don'treckon I had oughter said so much. Mebbe Shelby won't like it."
"Will you tell me what he says after you have had a talk with him? Thenyou may depend upon me to keep a still tongue in my head. As for Shelby,I don't care whether he likes it or not. It is none of his business. Iknow, and have known for a long time, that he and his ring have somethings in hand that they won't let me hear of, and I am as warm a friendto the South as they dare be, and just as ready to help her."
"But you see you're a boy; and some men don't like to take boys intotheir secrets," replied Beardsley.
"I know I am a boy, but all the same I am a wild horse in the cane andhard to curry. If Shelby and his gang don't pay a little more attentionto me I will make them wish they had; and if Beardsley don't keep meposted in his plans, I'll knock them into the middle of next week. I'llfind means to get Hanson's abductors after him. By George! That's anidea, and I'll think it over as I ride home."
So saying Tom Allison hitched his horse to one of the pins in the rackand followed Beardsley across the street toward the post-office.