Cudjo's Cave

  XX.

  _UNDER THE BRIDGE._

  "The colonel wasn't aware of your sentiments," said Sprowl, "or hewouldn't have let him off for fifty substitutes."

  "Or if you and Ropes," retorted Bythewood, "had only put through the jobwith the celerity I had a right to expect of you, he would have beenstrung up before the colonel had a chance to interfere." And he puffedimpatiently a cloud of smoke, whose fragrance was wafted to the nostrilsof the listener under the planks.

  "Well," said Lysander, accepting a cigar from his friend, "if he getsout of the state,"--biting off the end of it,--"and never shows himselfhere again,"--rubbing a match on the stones,--"you ought to besatisfied. If he stays, or comes back,"--smoking,--"then we'll justfinish the little job we begun."

  Penn lay still as death. What his thoughts were I will not attempt tosay; but it must have given him a curious sensation to hear the questionof his life or death thus coolly discussed by his would-be assassinsover their cigars.

  "Where are you bound?" asked Lysander.

  "O, a little pleasure excursion," said Bythewood. "There's to be somelively work at home this evening, and I thought I'd better be away."

  "What's going on?"

  "The colonel is going to make some arrests. About fifteen or twentyUnion-shriekers will find themselves snapped up before they think of it.Stackridge among the first. 'Twas he, confound him! that helped theschoolmaster off."

  "Has the colonel orders to make the arrests?"

  "No, but he takes the responsibility. It's a military necessity, and thegovernment will bear him out in it. Every man that has been known todrill in the Union Club, and has refused to deliver up his arms, must besecured. There's no other way of putting down these dangerous fellows,"said Augustus, running his jewelled fingers through his curls.

  "But why do you prefer to be away when the fun is going on?"

  "There may be somebody's name in the list on whose behalf I might beexpected to intercede."

  "Not old Villars!" exclaimed Lysander.

  "Yes, old Villars!" laughed Augustus,--"if by that lively epithet youmean to designate your venerable father-in-law."

  "By George, though, Gus! ain't it almost too bad? What will folks say?"

  "Little care I! Old and blind as he is, he is really one of the mostdangerous enemies to our cause. His influence is great with a certainclass, and he never misses an opportunity to denounce secession. That heopenly talks treason, and harbors and encourages traitors arming againstthe confederate government, is cause sufficient for arresting him withthe others."

  "Really," said Sprowl, chuckling as he thought of it, "'twill be betterfor our plans to have him out of the way."

  "Yes," said Bythewood; "the girls will need protectors, and your wifewill welcome you back again."

  "And Virginia," added Sprowl, "will perhaps look a little more favorablyon a rich, handsome, influential fellow like you! I see! I see!"

  There was another who saw too,--a sudden flash of light, as it were,revealing to Penn all the heartless, scheming villany of thefriendly-seeming Augustus. He grasped the Stackridge pistol; his eyes,glaring in the dark, were fixed in righteous fury on the elegant curlyhead.

  "If I am discovered, I will surely shoot him!" he said within himself.

  "The old man," suggested Sprowl, "won't live long in jail."

  "Very well," said Bythewood. "If the girls come to terms, why, we willsecure their everlasting gratitude by helping him out. If they won't, wewill merely promise to do everything we can for him--and do nothing."

  "And the property?" said Lysander, somewhat anxiously.

  "You shall have what you can get of it,--I don't care for the property!"replied Bythewood, with haughty contempt. "I believe the old man,foreseeing these troubles, has been converting his available means intoOhio railroad stock. If so, there won't be much for you to lay hold ofuntil we have whipped the north."

  "That we'll do fast enough," said Lysander, confidently.

  "Well, I must be travelling," said Augustus.

  "And I must be looking for that miserable schoolmaster."

  So saying the young men arose from their cool seats on thestones,--Lysander placing his hand, to steady himself, on the edge ofthe butment within an inch of Penn's leg.

  Darkness, however, favored the fugitive; and they passed out from theshadow of the bridge without suspecting that they had held confidentialdiscourse within arms' length of the man they were seeking to destroy.They ascended the bank, mounted their horses, and took leave of eachother,--Bythewood and his black man riding north, while Sprowl hastenedto rejoin his companions in the search for the schoolmaster.