CHAPTER III.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD GOSSIP.
The streets of Nashville were almost deserted, for the cold wind, aidedby the driving rain that was falling steadily, had forced all the idlersto seek comfort within doors. The post-office was full of them, and whenthe captain walked in with Allison at his heels they greeted himboisterously, and asked more questions in a minute than he could answerin ten. First and foremost they wanted to know why Beardsley had comehome so unexpectedly, but that was a matter he did not care to say muchabout. All they could get from him was that he had some importantbusiness to attend to.
"But of course you are going back again," said one. "I would if I hadsuch a chance to make money as you have got. But perhaps you are richenough already."
"Well, no; I don't reckon I'll ran the blockade any more," replied thecaptain. "My schooner is safe and sound now and I want to keep her thatway. The Yankees are getting tolerable thick outside, and I don't careto have them run me down some dark night and slap me into one of theirprisons."
There were at least a dozen persons in the post-office, besides TomAllison, who knew that Beardsley had other and better reasons forquitting the profitable business in which he had been engaged, and threeof them were Shelby, Dillon, and the postmaster. These men knew by thecaptain's manner, as well as by the way he looked at them now and then,that he had something of importance on his mind, and they left the storeone after another, expecting Beardsley to follow and join them as soonas he could do so without arousing suspicion. A fourth man was AleckWebster, who leaned carelessly against one of the counters and listenedto what the captain had to say, although he did not seem to pay muchattention to it. If Aleck had been so disposed he could have toldBeardsley who wrote the letter that broke up his blockade running andbrought him home so suddenly, and so could several other Union men whowere in the office on this particular morning. They went there every dayto hear their doings discussed; and it gave them no little satisfactionto learn that they had aroused a feeling of uneasiness and insecurityamong the citizens which grew more intense as the days went by andnothing was heard from Hanson. Although Tom Allison knew nothing aboutthe letter that had been left on Beardsley's porch until the latter toldhim, there were many in the settlement who knew about it and werewondering who could have put it there. The captain's negroes were thefirst to find it out, and Mrs. Brown, the neighborhood gossip who readthe letter for Beardsley's daughter, was the second; and among them allthey had managed to spread the story considerably.
Tom Allison was like Captain Beardsley in one respect--he could not keepa secret any longer than it took him to find some congenial spirit whowas willing to share it with him. He was eager to tell all he knew, andsometimes he told a good deal more; consequently, the first thing he didafter Beardsley received his mail and left the office to find the threemen who had gone out a while before, was to give his particular friendand crony Mark Goodwin, a swaggering, boastful young rebel like himself,a wink and a nod that brought him across to Tom's side of the store.
"What is it, old fellow?" whispered Mark. "Your face is full of news."
"And so is my head," replied Tom. "I am loaded clear to the muzzle, andanxious to shoot myself off at _your_ head. I am going to ride down toexchange a few yarns with Mrs. Brown; will you go along?"
"What's the use?" exclaimed Mark, looking through the moist windows intothe street. "You won't get anything but lies out of her. And just seehow it rains!"
"It doesn't rain to hurt anything, and we can't talk here," said Tom. "Idon't care whether Mrs. Brown tells me the truth or not, so long as shewill aid me in spreading a few items of news that came to my ears thismorning. Better go, for I promise that I will surprise you. You know Irode down with Beardsley."
"And I rather wondered at it. I can remember when you used to speak ofhim in a way that was anything but complimentary. Did he tell you whatbrought him home?" said Mark, in a whisper. "Come along then. I am readyto be surprised."
The two boys mounted their horses and rode away through the drivingrain, and as they rode, Tom Allison electrified his friend by making aclean breast of everything Beardsley had told him, and which he hadpromised to keep to himself; and observing that Mark was interested andexcited by the narrative, Tom added to it a few details of his owninvention. He declared that Hanson had told Beardsley, in confidence,that Mrs. Gray owed a big pile of money to Northern men, and instead ofturning it over to the government, as the law provided, she was keepingit for her own use.
"And how does it come that Hanson could learn so much of Mrs. Gray'sprivate affairs?" demanded Mark. "He didn't live in the house, but inthe quarter with the niggers."
"Probably some of the house servants posted him," answered Tom. "Youknow that prying darkies sometimes find out a heap of things."
"That's so," assented Mark. "Tom, you have told me great news--Mrs. Graywith a gold mine hidden somewhere in her house, and Marcy taking hisbrother Jack out to the Yankee fleet to give him a chance to enlistunder the old flag! What are we coming to? What are you going to doabout it? You must have some plan in your head, or you wouldn't be goingto see Mrs. Brown. You had better be careful what you say in thepresence of that old witch, or she may get you into trouble."
"That is the very thing I wanted to talk to you about," replied Tom."What do you think we ought to do? I don't know whether I have thestraight of the story or not, but I am sure Mrs. Brown has, forBeardsley probably told her all about it as soon as he got home lastnight. That man can't keep a thing to himself to save his life. Ithought it might be a good idea to see what Mrs. Brown thinks about it,and to ask her if there is any truth in the report that a band of menhas been got together to rob Mrs. Gray's house."
"I will tell you one thing confidentially," said Mark. "If that part ofthe story isn't true, a few wags of Mrs. Brown's tongue will make ittrue. There are dozens of men right here in this country, and you and Iare acquainted with some of them, who would jump down on that house thisvery night if they were sure they could make anything by it."
"I know that, but I don't care; do you? I always did despise thoseGrays, and now that they have shown themselves to be traitors, I say letthem suffer for it. You heard Marcy tell me to put a uniform on before Ipresumed to speak to him again, didn't you?"
"Yes; and I heard his brother Jack call you a stay-at-home blow-hard. Ilooked for you to tackle the pair of them the moment they insulted you;but you surprised me and all the rest of your friends by keepingperfectly still," observed Mark, who knew well enough that Tom lackedthe courage to "tackle" the brothers, either of whom could have tossedhim half-way across the post-office without very much trouble.
"I was biding my time," replied Allison, making his riding-whip whistleviciously through the air just above his horse's ears. "It has come now,and if Marcy Gray doesn't take that insulting word back as publicly ashe gave it to me----"
"Oh, you needn't look for him to do that. Marcy isn't that sort of afellow."
"He'll wish he was that sort before I am done with him," said Tom, withspiteful emphasis. "That's one reason why I am going to see Mrs. Brown.I want her to spread it around that Marcy took Jack out to theblockading fleet."
"She is just the one to do it," said Mark, with a laugh. "And the way tomake her go about it as though she meant business is to tell her yourstory under a pledge of secrecy."
"And there is another matter that I want to speak to you about,"continued Tom. "What scheme have Shelby and Dillon and the postmasterand your father and mine got in hand that they take so much pains tokeep from us boys?"
"I wish I knew," answered Mark, whose face showed that his companion'swords had made him angry. "They talk about something or other as oftenas they get together, and if I take a step in their direction theyeither send me about my business, or stop talking. And I tell you Idon't like to be treated that way."
"That is just the way they treat me, and I don't like it either," saidTom. "More than that, I won't stand it."
"I don't
see how you are going to help yourself."
"Perhaps you don't, but I think I do. Beardsley belongs to the ring, ofcourse, and if he doesn't keep me posted in all their plans, I'll go towork to upset them."
"Why, Tom, are you crazy?" exclaimed Mark, who had never been moreamazed.
"No; but I am mad clear through. I am not willing to go into the armyunless I can have an office of some kind, but I am eager to fighttraitors here at home; and if those men won't give me a chance to helpthem, I shall fight on my own hook."
"But how can you? And how will you go to work to upset their plans whenyou don't know what they are? You take a friend's advice and behaveyourself. Why, Tom, I wouldn't willingly incur the enmity of the Unionmen about here for all the money there is in the State. They are toodesperate a lot for me to fool with. Nobody knows for certain who theyare, and that makes them all the more dangerous."
About this time the boys dismounted in front of Mrs. Brown's humbleabode--a small log-cabin which Beardsley had built for her in the edgeof a briar patch on his own plantation. That was the only neighborly actthat anybody ever knew the captain to be guilty of; but then it was notentirely unselfish on his part. Beardsley received important letters nowand then. He was not good at reading all sorts of writing, and when hecame upon a sentence that he could not master, it was little trouble forhim to run over to Mrs. Brown's cabin and ask her to decipher it forhim. And--it is a remarkable thing to tell, but it is the truth--thecontents of those letters were safe with Mrs. Brown. She would tell anyand every thing else that came to her knowledge, no matter how it mighthurt somebody, but who Beardsley's correspondents were and what theywrote about, no one could learn from her.
Having sheltered their horses in some fashion behind the cabin, the boysopened the door without knocking, and went in. There were two persons inthe single room the cabin contained--a little, dried-up woman who sat ina low rocking-chair in front of the fire with a dingy snuff-stickbetween her toothless gums, and one of Beardsley's negro girls who hadcome over to "slick up things."
"How do you find yourself this fine morning, mother?" said Tomfamiliarly. "We thought we would drop in to warm by your comfortableblaze, and see if you are in need of any little things we can get foryou. By the way," he added, putting his hand into his pocket, "it's along time since I gave anything toward buying a jar of snuff. Take thattill I come again."
"I see the captain has returned; and quite unexpectedly, too, I amtold," said Mark, pulling off his dripping overcoat and hanging it upona wooden peg in the chimney-corner. "I wish he might find the man whowrote him that threatening letter and broke up his business. I am surehe would make it warm for him."
"Every one of them triflin' hounds had oughter have a hickory wore outon their bare backs," said the old woman, in tones which sounded sonearly like the snarl of some wild animal that Tom Allison shuddered,although he had often heard her speak that way before.
"Do you know who they are?"
"Of course she knows who they are," exclaimed Mark. "The question is, isshe at liberty to tell."
"Mebbe I know, an' mebbe I don't," said the woman, with a contortion ofher wrinkled face that was intended for a wink and a smile. "I aint oneof them folks who tells all they know. I am a master-hand to keep thingsto myself when they are told to me for a secret."
"Everybody knows that, and it is the reason why everybody is so willingto trust you," said Tom; and seeing that he had not given the old womanquite enough to loosen her tongue, he turned to Mark and added: "I wassure we would forget it, we are so careless. We came away from yourhouse without ever once thinking of that side of bacon we were going tobring to Mrs. Brown."
"I knew we had forgotten something," said Mark regretfully, "and sure'syou live that's it. But it will keep till we come again, won't it,mother? Who did you say wrote that letter?"
"You're very good boys to be always thinkin' of a poor crippled bodylike me, who can't get about to hear a bit of news on account of thepesky rheumatiz that bothers me night an' day," whined the old woman."Now when I was a bright, lively young gal----"
"Did I understand you to say that Jack Gray had something to do with theabduction of his mother's overseer?" interrupted Mark, who knew it wouldnever do to let the old woman get started on the story of her girlhood."You astonish me; you do for a fact!"
"I disremember that I have spoke Jack Gray's name at all sense you twohave been here," said Mrs. Brown cautiously.
"But you did, though. Didn't she, Tom?"
"I thought so, certainly; and I told myself at the time, that I did notsee how Jack could have had any hand in Hanson's taking off, for I haveheard that he was not at home when the thing was done."
"No more he wasn't to hum. He was on his way to jine the Yankee navy,dog-gone him an' them," snapped the woman, whose tongue was fairlyloosened now. "But he left them behine who works as well fur him when heaint to hum as when he is."
"We know that very well," said Tom, who was surprised to hear it, "butwe don't know for certain who they are. Mark, don't you see that Mrs.Brown is looking for her pipe?"
Mark hadn't noticed it, but all the same he hunted around on the manteluntil he found the well-blackened corn-cob, but he could not bringhimself to light it. He filled the bowl with some natural leaf he saw ina box and handed it to the woman, who set it going with the aid of alive coal which she took from the hearth in her bony fingers.
"You two aint furgot the stranger who popped up in Nashville all on asudden like, about the time that Jack Gray came hum from Newbern, haveyou?" continued the old woman, after she had assured herself by a fewlong, audible puffs that her pipe was well lighted. "Lemme see if I havedisremembered his name. No; sounds to me like it was Aleck Webster."
"Don't know him," said Tom, in a disappointed tone.
"I don't know him either," chimed in Mark, "but I have seen him. Youknow old man Webster, Tom, who lives about six miles down the main road.Well, Aleck is his son."
"Now I do think, in my soul," exclaimed Allison, "things have come to apretty pass when Crackers like those Websters can throw a settlementlike this into a panic, and order prominent and wealthy planters likeCaptain Beardsley to quit business and come home on penalty of beingburned out in case of disobedience."
"You're mighty right," said Mrs. Brown, who was pleased to hear thecaptain called a prominent and wealthy planter. "Sich trash aint no callto live on this broad 'arth. They're wuss than the niggers, an' a heaplower down."
"But have you any evidence against the Websters?" inquired Mark.
"I've got a plenty. In the fust place they don't say nothing; an' folksas don't say nothing these times ain't fitten to live. Now is the daywhen every man oughter come out an' show their colors," said the woman,quoting from Beardsley.
"That means Marcy Gray," said Tom. "I wish I could see a gang of armedmen take him out of the house and carry him off."
"He mustn't be teched," said the woman very decidedly.
"Who mustn't--Marcy?" exclaimed Tom and Mark in a breath. "Who said so?What's the reason he mustn't be touched? He's a traitor."
"I don't know whether he is or not; but he mustn't be pestered.Leastwise by folks living around here in the settlement."
Tom looked at Mark, and Mark looked about for a chair and sat down. Thenthey both looked at the old woman. This was something mysterious, andthey wanted to have it explained.
"I aint got no more to say on that there p'int," said Mrs. Brown, hertone and manner showing that the question did not admit of argument."He'll be teched fast enough when the time comes, Marcy Gray will, an'don't you furget to remember what I'm tellin' you. But them as goes forMarcy will be folks that can't be pestered by the men who toted Hansonoff to the swamp."
"Ah! Now I see daylight," said Tom, with something that sounded like asigh of relief. "I thought you meant that Marcy was to be left alonealtogether for the reason that he was believed to be a good Confederate.And when these friends of ours, whoever they may be, go for him, Isuppose they'll n
ot neglect to look for the money that Mrs. Gray isknown to have in her house?"
"I aint heared that anybody knows for sartin that the money is there,"said Mrs. Brown. "Leastwise, they don't know it _yit._ There won't benothing much done till that there is settled fur a fact."
"Then Marcy will never be molested," declared Tom, throwing a chipspitefully into the fire. "He can go out to the blockading fleet asoften as he pleases and ship a dozen brothers in the Yankee navy if hewants to, and nothing will be done to him. If Jack Gray left men behindto work for him while he is at sea, Marcy must know who they are andwhere to find them, and he can set them on to Mark's father or minewhenever he feels like it. I'll touch him the first good chance I get,and don't you forget to remember _that._ He is a traitor, and I wouldn'tlet him alone if all the Captain Beardsleys in the country should sayso. And how is any one to find out for certain that his mother has moneyconcealed in her house? She isn't going to publish it to the world, isshe?"
The longer Allison talked the more his anger rose, and when he gotthrough he was stalking about the narrow limits of the cabin, shakinghis fists over his head in the most frantic manner. The old woman waitedpatiently for him to sit down again, and then she took her pipe from hermouth long enough to say:
"Kelsey is out of a job jest now."
"That's no news. He's always that way. He won't work when he gets thechance. He would rather beg his living or steal it."
"I know that he's mighty shiftless an' triflin', but he's a tol'ableoverseer, Kelsey is, when he onct makes up his mine to do something,"said the woman. "Now that Hanson has went off the Grays aint got nobodyto boss the hands."
"The idea!" cried Tom, who began to "see daylight" once more. "DoesCaptain Beardsley labor under the delusion that Marcy Gray will hirethat man Kelsey, who is next door to a fool, and allow him----"
"Yes, Kelsey is tol'able triflin', an' that there is a fact,"interrupted the woman. "But he aint nobody's fule. He's as sly an olefox as you can meet in a day's travel."
"Marcy Gray will not have him on the place, I tell you," said Tom. "Andeven if he should be dunce enough to hire him, how could Kelsey find outwhether or not there was any money in the house? If the captain hasanything against Kelsey, and wants him to disappear some dark night asHanson did, he is taking the right course to bring it about. That's whatwill happen to Kelsey if he goes to work on that plantation, and I wantyou both to remember my words."
"And let me tell you another thing," added Mark. "No one man is going tofind the hiding-place of that money if there is any about the house.When the building is down and the foundations are torn up, then it willbe found, and not before."
"That there is a fact," observed the woman.
"Where do you think it is concealed, any way?" inquired Tom. "I had anidea that it might be buried in the garden."
"I am willing to bet my horse against your jack-knife that it isn't,"replied Mark. "It is so close to the house that the family can keep aneye on all the approaches to it, and it is where fire can't touch it."
"Then it must be buried in the cellar," exclaimed Tom. "I declare! Ibelieve you have hit the exact spot. I should like to be left alone inthat place for about an hour with a shovel to work with. I would be richwhen I came out."
"You jest keep away from that there suller," said the old woman sternly."Don't go nigh the house, nary one of you."
The two boys elevated their eye-brows and looked at each other, and itwas as much as half a min ate before Mark Goodwin continued:
"You would be fooled if you looked anywhere but in the walls for it. Soa shovel would be of no use to you. I have been in that cellar whenMarcy and I were on better terms than we are now, and I know that thefloor is laid in cement. It would be a job, I tell you, for a woman todig it up and put it down again, and she couldn't do it so that the spotwould not show itself to the first person who might happen to go inthere."
"A woman!" exclaimed Allison.
"Yes, for a woman did the work," answered Mark, who could not havespoken with more confidence if he had been in Mrs. Gray's company on thenight the thirty thousand dollars were concealed. "You know Marcy wasnot at home when his mother made those trips about the country."
"What of that? Didn't she take some of her old servants into herconfidence?"
"No, sir. When people are trying to carry water on both shoulders asMrs. Gray is, they don't let one hand know what the other does."
"And I believe," said Allison, getting upon his feet again and walkingabout the cabin, "that if somebody should go for Mrs. Gray's coachman inthe right way, he would find out all about it. But I say, Mark, it'stime for us to be riding along. What shall we bring you when we comeagain, mother? Snuff and smoking tobacco are always acceptable, Isuppose?"
"And don't forget to say that you haven't seen either one of us for morethan a week," chimed in Mark. "Doings of some sort are liable to happenin the settlement at any hour of the day or night, and we don't want ournames mixed up with them. We shall attend strictly to our own business,and hope that those ruffians who carried Hanson away will do the same."
"I am mighty glad to hear you say that, and I don't want you todisremember what I have tole you," answered the old woman, with someearnestness. "You aint to go a-pesterin' of Marcy Gray an' his maw, kasethere is folks about here who won't by no means take it kind of you ifyou do."
The boys promised that they would bear her warning in mind, but TomAllison told himself that he thought he should do as he pleased aboutheeding it. He was not obliged to consult anybody's wishes, in dealingwith such a traitor as Marcy Gray had shown himself to be. He turned hisback to the fire while Mark was putting on his overcoat, and just then agentle snore reminded him that there was one person in the cabin whom hehad forgotten. It was the negro girl who, having cleared away the latebreakfast dishes and put the little furniture there was in the room torights, had drawn a chair to the table and fallen fast asleep with herhead resting on her folded arms. Tom took one look at her, and then heand Mark went out. Neither of them said a word, until they had mountedtheir horses and ridden into the road, and then Mark inquired:
"What do you know now more than you did when you came here? All I havelearned is that Beardsley is afraid of Marcy Gray, and don't wantanything to happen to him, if he can help it, for fear that the blamewould be laid at his door. I tell you, Tom Allison, as long as those menwho carried Hanson away are at large, we have got to look out what wesay and do. It's an awful state of affairs, but that is the way it looksto me."
That was the way it looked to Tom also; and as he could not say anythingencouraging, he held his peace, and rode on with his eyes fastened uponthe horn of his saddle.