The Fatal Cord Part 9

d.i.c.k TARLETON.

In the conversation recorded d.i.c.k Tarleton has thrown some light on his own history. Not much more is needed to elucidate the statement made by him--that he must do his travelling _between two days_. He has admitted almost enough to serve the purposes of our tale which refers only to him, though a few more words, to fill up the sketch, may not be out of place.

Richard Tarleton was, in early life, one of those wild spirits by no means uncommon along the frontier line of civilisation. By birth and breeding a gentleman; idleness, combined with evil inclinations had led him into evil ways, and these, in their turn, had brought him to beggary. Too proud to beg, and too lazy to enter upon any industrious calling, he had sought to earn his living by cards and other courses equally disreputable.

Vicksburg and other towns along the Lower Mississippi furnished him with many victims, till, at length, he made a final settlement in the state of Arkansas, at that time only a territory, and, as such, the safest refuge for all characters of a similar kind. The town of Helena became his head-quarters.

In this grand emporium of scamps and speculators there was nothing in d.i.c.k Tarleton's profession to make him conspicuous. Had he confined himself to card-playing, he might have pa.s.sed muster among the most respectable citizens of the place or its proximity, many of whom, like himself, were professed "sportsmen." But, d.i.c.k was not long in Helena until he began to be suspected of certain specialities of sport, among others, that of _n.i.g.g.e.r-running_. Long absences unaccounted for, strange company in which he was seen in strange places--both the company and the places already suspected--with, at times, a plentiful supply of money drawn from unknown sources, at length fixed upon d.i.c.k Tarleton a stigma of a still darker kind than that of card-playing or even sharping. It became the belief that he was a _negro-stealer_, a crime unpardonable in all parts of planter-land--Arkansas not excepted.

Along with this belief, every other stigma that might become connected with his name was deemed credible, and no one would have doubted d.i.c.k Tarleton's capability of committing whatever atrocity might be charged to him.

Bad as he was, he was not so bad as represented and believed. A professed "sportsman," of wild and reckless habits, he knew no limits to dissipation and common indulgence. Immoral to an extreme degree, it was never proved that he was guilty of those dark crimes with which he stood charged or suspected; and the suspicions, when probed to the bottom, were generally found to be baseless.

There were few, however, who took this trouble, for from the first d.i.c.k Tarleton was far from being a favourite among the fellows who surrounded him. He was of haughty habits, presuming on the superiority of birth and education, and--something still less easily tolerated--a handsome personal appearance. One of the finest looking men to be seen among the settlements, he was, it need hardly be said, popular among the fair s.e.x--such of them as might be expected to turn their eyes upon a _sportsman_.

One of this cla.s.s--a young girl of exceeding attraction, but, alas! with tarnished reputation--was at the time an inhabitant of Helena. Among her admirers, secret and open, were many young men of the place and of the adjacent plantations. She could count a long list of conquests, numbering names far above her own rank and station in life. Among those were Planter Brandon, the lawyer Randall, and, of lesser note, the horse-dealer, Buck. None of these, however, appeared to have been successful in obtaining her smiles, which, according to general belief, were showered on the dissolute but handsome d.i.c.k Tarleton.

However it might have gratified the gambler's vanity, it did not add to his popularity. On the contrary, it increased the spite felt for him, and caused the dark suspicions to be oftener repeated.

Such were the circ.u.mstances preceding a terrible tragedy that one day startled Helena out of its ordinary tranquillity. The young girl in question was found in the woods, at no great distance from the town, in the condition already stated by d.i.c.k Tarleton, murdered, and d.i.c.k himself was charged with being the murderer.

He was at once arrested and arraigned, not before a regular court of justice, but one const.i.tuted under a tree, and under the presidency of Judge Lynch. It was done in all haste, both the arrest and the trial, and equally quick was the condemnation. The case was so clear. His pistol, the very weapon that had sent the fatal bullet, in the hurry and confusion of escape, was let fall upon the ground close by the side of the victim. His relation with the unfortunate girl--some speech he had been heard boastingly to utter--a suspected disagreement arising from it--all pointed to d.i.c.k Tarleton as the a.s.sa.s.sin; and by a unanimous verdict of his excited judges, prompted by extreme vindictiveness, he was sentenced to hanging upon a tree.

In five minutes more he would have been consigned to this improvised gallows, but for the negligence of his executioners. In their blind fury they had but slightly fastened his hands, while they had forgotten to strip him of his coat. In the pocket of this there chanced to be another pistol--the fellow of that found. Its owner remembered it, and, in the hour of his despair, determined upon an attempt to escape.

Wresting his wrists free from their fastening, he drew the pistol, discharged it in the face of the man who stood most in his way, and then clearing a track, sprang off into the woods!

The sudden surprise, the dismay caused by the death of the man shot at-- for he fell dead in his track--held the others for some time as if spell-bound. When the pursuit commenced d.i.c.k Tarleton was out of sight, and neither Judge Lynch nor his jury ever set eyes upon him again.

The woods were scoured all round, and the roads travelled for days by parties sent in search of him. But all returned without reporting d.i.c.k Tarleton, or any traces of him.

It was thought that some one must have a.s.sisted him in his escape, and suspicion was directed upon a hunter named Rook, who squatted near White River--the Jerry Rook of our tale. But no proof could be obtained of this, and the hunter was left unmolested, though with some additional stain on a character before not reputed very clean.

Such is a brief sketch of the life of Richard Tarleton--that portion of it spent on the north-eastern corner of Arkansas. No wonder, with such a record, he felt constrained to do his travelling by night.

Since that fearful episode, now a long time ago, he had not appeared at Helena or the settlements around--at least not to the eyes of those who would care to betray him. Gone to Texas was the general belief--Texas or some other lawless land, where such crimes are easily condoned. So spoke the "Puritans" of Arkansas, blind to their own especial blemish.

Even Jerry Rook knew not the whereabouts of his old acquaintance, until some six years before, when he had come to his cabin under the shadows of the night, bringing with him a boy whom he hinted at as being his son, the youth who had that day afforded such fatal sport for his atrocious tormentors.

The link between the two men could not have been strong, for the hunter, in taking charge of the boy had stipulated for his "keep," and once or twice, during the long absence of his father, had shown a disposition to turn him out of doors. Still more so of late; and doubly more when Lena showed signs of interference in his favour. Ever, while regarding his daughter, he seemed to dread the presence of Pierre Robideau, as if the youth stood between him and some favourite scheme he had formed for her future.

There need be nothing to fear now--surely not; if d.i.c.k Tarleton would but discharge the debt.

Ah! to suppose this would be to make the grandest of mistakes. The brain of Jerry Rook was at that moment busy revolving more schemes than one. But there was one, grand as it was, dire and deadly.

Let our next chapter reveal it.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWELVE.

A TRAITOR'S EPISTLE.

As already chronicled, d.i.c.k Tarleton has started along the forest path, leaving Jerry Rook under the cottonwood tree.

For some time he remains there, motionless as the trunk beside him.

The exclamation of chagrin that escaped him, as the other pa.s.sed beyond earshot, is followed by words of a more definite shape and meaning. It was d.i.c.k Tarleton who drew from him the former. It is to him the latter are addressed, though without the intention of their being heard.

"Ye durned fool! ye'd speil my plan, wud ye? An' I 'spose all the same if I war to tell ye o't? But I ain't gwine to do that, nor to hev it speiled neyther by sich a obs'nate eedyut as you. Six hundred dollars pre annul air too much o' a good pull to be let go agin slack as that.

An' doggoned if I do let it go, cost what it may to keep holt o't. Yes, _cost what it may_!"

The phrase repeated with increased emphasis, along with a sudden change in the att.i.tude of the speaker, shows some sinister determination.

"d.i.c.k," he continued, forsaking the apostrophic form, "air a fool in this bizness; a dod-rotted, pursumptuous saphead. _He_ git satisfakshun out o' that lot, eyther by the law or otherways! They'd swing him up as soon as seed; an' he'd be seed afore he ked harm 'ere a one o' them.

Then tha don't go 'beout 'ithout toatin' thar knives and pistols 'long wi' them, any more'n he. An' they'll be jest as riddy to use 'em. Ef't kim to thet, what then? In coorse the hole thing 'ud leak out, an'

whar'd this chile be 'beout his six hundred dollars?" Durn d.i.c.k Tarleton! Jest for the sake o' a silly revenge he'd be a speiln' all, leavin' me as I've been all my life, poor as he's turkey gobbler.

"It must be preevented, it must!

"How air the thing to be done? Le's see.

"Thar's one way I knows o', that appear to be eezy enuf.

"d.i.c.k has goed to the town, an's boun' to k.u.m back agin _from_ the town.

That's no reeson why he shed k.u.m back hyar. Thar's n.o.body to miss him!

The gurl won't know he ain't gone for good. He's boun' to k.u.m back afore mornin', an' afore thar's sunlight showin' among the trees. He'll be sartin' to k.u.m along the trace, knowing thar's not much danger o'

meetin' anybody, or bein' reco'nised in the dark. Why shedn't I meet him?"

With this interrogatory, a fiendish expression, though unseen by human eye, pa.s.ses over the face of the old hunter. A fiendish thought has sprung up in his heart.

"Why shedn't I?" he pursues, reiterating the reflection. "What air d.i.c.k Tarleton to me? I haint no particklar spite agin him, thet is ef he'll do what I've devised him to do. But ef he won't, ef he won't--

"An' he won't. He's sed so, he's swore it.

"What, then! Am I to lose six hundred dollars pre-annum, jess for the satisfakshun o' his spite? Durned ef I do, cost what it may.

"The thing'd be as eezy es tumbling off o' a log. A half-an-hour's squatting among the bushes beside that ere gleed, the pull in' o' a trigger, an' it air done. That mout be a leetle bit o' haulin' an'

hidin', but I kin eezy do the fust, and the Crik 'll do the last. I know a pool close by, thet's just the very place for sech a kinceelmint.

"Who'd iver sispect? Thar's n.o.body to know; neery soul but myself, an'

I reck'n that ere secret 'ud be safe enuf in this c.o.o.n's keepin'."

For some time the old hunter stands silent, as if further reflecting on the dark scheme, and calculating the chances of success or discovery.

All at once an exclamation escapes him that betokens a change of mind.

Not that he has repented of his h.e.l.lish design, only that some other plan promises better for its execution.

"Jerry Rook, Jerry Rook!" he mutters in apostrophe to himself, "what the stewpid hae ye been thinking o'. Ye've never yit spilt hewmin blood, an' mustn't begin thet game now. It mout lie like a log upon yur soul, and besides, it's jest possible that somebody mout get to hear o't. The crack o' a rifle air a sespishous soun' at any time, but more espeeshully i' the dead o' night, if thar should chance to be the howl of a wounded man comin' arter it. Sposin he, that air d.i.c.k, warn't shot dead at fust go. Durned ef I'd like to foller it up; neery bit o't. As things stan' thar need be no sech chances, eyther o' fearin' or failin'.

A word to Planter Brandon 'll be as good as six shots out o' the surest rifle. It's only to let him know d.i.c.k Tarleton's hyar, an' a direckshun beouts whar he kin be foun'. He'll soon summons the other to 'sist him in thet same bizness they left unfinished, now, G.o.d knows how miny yeer ago. They'll make short work wi' him. No danger ov thar givin' him time to palaver beout _thet_ or anythin' else, I reckin; an' no danger to _me_. A hint'll be enuf, 'ithout my appearin' among 'em. The very plan, by the Etarnal!"