XXVIII
A point of land just across the lake from the camp belonged to theDarlings' mother, the Princess Oducalchi. One night the light of firesand lanterns appeared on this point and the next morning it was seen tobe studded here and there with pale-brown tents. The Darlings wereannoyed to think that any one should trespass on so large a scale onsome one else's land. In a code of laws shot to pieces with classlegislation, trespassers are, of course, exempt from punishment; theirpresence and depredations in one's private melon-patch are none the lessdisagreeable, and Arthur Darling, as his mother's representative, waspeculiarly enraged.
Arthur, in his idle moments, when, for instance, he was not studying thewebs of spiders or classifying the cries of frogs, sometimes let hismind run on politics and the whole state of the Union. In such matters,of course, he was only a tyro. Why should the puny and prejudicedpopulation of Texas have two votes in the Senate when the hordes of NewYork have but two? Why, in a popular form of government, should theminority do the ruling? Why should not a hard-working rich man have anequal place in the sun with a man who, through laziness and a moralnature twisted like a pretzel, remains poor? Why should education beforced on children in a country where education, which means goodmanners and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, amountspractically to disfranchisement?
Arthur, in his political ruminations, could never get beyond suchquestions as these. If A has paid for and owns a piece of land, why isit not A's to enjoy, rather than B's, whose sole claim thereto isgreater strength of body than A, and the desire to possess those thingswhich are not his?
At least, Arthur could row across to the point and protest in hismother's name. If the trespassers were gentlefolk who imaginedthemselves to have camped upon public land, they would, of course, offerto go and to pay all damages--in which event, Arthur would invite themto stay as long as they pleased, only begging that they would not setthe woods on fire. If, however, the trespassers belonged to one of theprivileged classes for whose benefit the laws are made and continued, hewould simply be abused roundly and perhaps vilely. He would then take athrashing at the hands of superior numbers, and the incident would beclosed.
Colonel Meredith, seeing Arthur about to embark on his mission, offeredhelp and comfort in the emergency.
"Just you wait till I fetch my rifle," he said; "and if there's anytrifling, we'll shoot them up."
"Shoot them up!" exclaimed Arthur. "If we shot them up, we'd go fromhere to prison and from prison to the electric chair."
"In South Carolina," Colonel Meredith protested, "if a man comes on ourland and we tell him to get off and he won't, we drill a hole in him."
"And that's one of the best things about the South," said Arthur. "Butwe do things differently in the North. If a man comes on my land and Itell him to get off and he says he won't, then I have the right to puthim off, using as much force as is necessary. And if he is twice as bigas I am and there are three or four of him, you can see, without usingglasses, how the matter must end."
"Then all you are out for is to take a licking?"
"That is my only privilege under the law. But I hope I shall not have toavail myself of it. Where there are so many tents there must be money.Where there is money there are possessions, and where there arepossessions, there are the same feelings about property that you and Ihave."
"Still," said Colonel Meredith, "I wish you'd take me along and ourguns. There is always the chance of managing matters so that fatalitiesmay be construed into acts of self-defense."
"Get behind me, you man of blood!" exclaimed Arthur, laughing, and heleaped into a canoe, and with a part of the same impulse sent it flyingfar out from the float. Then, standing, he started for the brown tentswith easy, powerful strokes, very earnest for the speedy accomplishmentof a disagreeable duty. That anything really pleasant might come of hisexpedition never entered his head.
"Arthur gone to put them off?"
"Why, yes! Good-morning, Miss Gay."
"Good-morning, yourself, Colonel Meredith, and many of them. Want tolook?"
"Thank you."
Colonel Meredith focussed the glasses upon the brown tents.
"What do you make them out to be?"
"I can make out a sort of nigger carrying tea into one of the tents. Andthere's a young lady in black. She seems to be walking down to theshore to meet your brother. And now she's waving her hand to him."
"The impudent thing," exclaimed Gay. "What's my brother doing?"
"He's paddling as if he expected to cross a hundred yards of water in asecond. If the young lady comes any closer to the water, she'll getwet."
Suddenly blushing crimson, he thrust the field-glasses back into Gay'shands, and cried with complete conviction that he was "blessed."
In the bright field of magnification, hastily focussed to her ownvision, Gay beheld her brother and the young woman in black tightlylocked in each other's arms.