The Fatal Cord Part 7

There is the carcase of the bear, black with buzzards, and the skin still hanging from the tree.

But the object of horror they expected to see hanging upon another tree is not there. That sight is spared them.

There is no body on the branch, no corpse underneath it. Living or dead, the Indian is gone.

His absence is far from re-a.s.suring them; the more so as, on scanning the branch, they perceive, still suspended from it, a piece of the rope they had so adroitly set to ensnare him.

Even across the glade they can see that it has been severed with the clean cut of a knife, instead of, as they could have wished, given way under its weight.

Who could have cut the rope? Himself? Impossible! Where was the hand to have done it? He had none to spare for such a purpose. Happy for them to have thought that he had.

They skulk around the glade to get nearer, still going by stealth, and in silence. The buzzards perceive them, and though dull birds, reluctant to leave their foul feast, they fly up with a fright.

Something in the air of the two stalkers seemed to startle them, as if they too knew them to have been guilty of a crime.

"Yes, the rope's been cut, that's sartin," says Buck, us they stand under it. "A clean wheep o' a knife blade. Who the divvel cud a done it?"

"I can't think," answers the young planter, reflecting. "As like as not old Jerry Rook, or it might have been a stray traveller."

"Whoever it was, I hope the cuss came in time; if not--"

"If not, we're in for it. Bless'd if I wouldn't liked it better to've found him hanging; there might have been some chance of hiding him out of the way. But now, if he's been dropped upon dead, we're done for.

Whoever found him will know all about it. Lena Rook knew we were here, and her sweet lips can't be shut, I suppose. If't had been only Rook himself, the old scoundrel, there might have been a chance. Money would go a long ways with him; and I'm prepared--so would we all be--to buy his silence."

"Lucky you riddy for that, Mister Alfred Brandon. That's jest what Rook, 'the old scoundrel,' wants, and jess the very thing he means to insist upon hevin'. Now name your price."

If a dead body had dropped down from the branch above them it could not have startled the two culprits more than did the living form of Jerry Rook, as it came gliding out of the thick cane close by the stem of the tree.

"You, Jerry Rook!" exclaim both together, and in a tone that came trembling through their teeth. "You here?"

"I'm hyar, gentlemen; an' jess in time, seeing as ye wanted me. Now, name yur price; or, shall I fix it for ye? 'Tain't no use 'fectin'

innercence o' what I mean; ye both know cleer enuf, an' so do this chile, all 'beout it. Ye've hanged young Pierre Robideau, as lived with me at my shanty."

"We did not."

"Ye did; hanged him by the neck till he war dead, as the judges say. I kim hyar by chance, an' cut him down; but not till 'twar too late."

"Is that true, Rook? Are you speaking the truth? Did you find him dead?"

"Dead as a buck arter gittin' a bullet from Jerry Rook's rifle. If ye don't b'lieve it, maybe you'd step down to my shanty, and see him streeched out."

"No, no. But we didn't do it; we didn't intend it, by Heaven!"

"No swarin', young fellars. I don't care what your intentions war; ye've done the deed. I seed how it war, and all abeout it; ye hung him up for sport--pretty sport that war--an' ye rud off, forgitting all abeout him. Yur sport hev been his death."

"My G.o.d! we are sorry to hear it. We had no thought of such a thing. A bear came along, and set the hounds up."

"Oh, a bar, war it? I thort so. An' ye tuk arter the bar, and let the poor young fellar swing?"

"It is true; we can't deny it. We had no intention of what has happened; we thought only of the bear."

"Wal, now, ye'll have to think o' something else. What d'ye intend doin'?"

"It's a terrible ugly affair. We're very sorry."

"No doubt ye air, an' ye'd be a precious sight sorrier of the young fellar had any kinfolk to look arter it, and call ye to account. As it be, there ain't n.o.body but me--and he warn't no kin o' mine--only a stayin' wi' me, that may make it easier for you."

"But, what have you done with--the--the body?"

Brandon asks the question hesitatingly, and thinking of Rook's daughter.

"The body? Wal, I've carried it to the shanty, an' put it out o' sight.

I didn't want the hul country to be on fire till I'd fust seed ye. As yet, thar ain't n.o.body the wiser."

"And--"

"An' what?"

"Your daughter."

"Oh! my darter don't count. She air a 'bedient gurl, and ain't gwine to blabbin' while I put the stopper on her tongue. Don't ye be skeeart 'beout thet."

"Jerry Rook!" says Brandon, recovering confidence from the old hunter's hints, "it's no use being basket-faced over this business. We've got into a sc.r.a.pe, and and we know it. You know it, too. We had no intention to commit a crime; it was all a lark; but since it's turned out ugly, we must make the best we can of it. You're the only one who can make it disagreeable for us, and you won't. I know you won't.

We're willing to behave handsomely if you act otherwise. You can say this young fellow has gone away--down to Orleans, or anywhere else.

I've heard you once say he was not to be with you much longer. That will explain to your neighbours why he is missing. To be plain, then, what is the price of such an explanation?"

"Durn me, Alf Brandon, ef you oughtn't to be a lawyer, or something o'

thet sort. You hit it so adzactly. Wal; let's see! I risk someat by keepin' your secret--a good someat. I'll stand a chance o' bein' tuk up for aidin' an' abettin'. Wal; let's see! Thar war six o' ye. My girl tolt me so, an' I kin see it by the tracks o' your critters. Whar's the other four?"

"Not far off."

"Wal; ye'd better bring 'em all up hyar. I s'pose they're all's deep in the mud as you in the mire. Besides, it air too important a peint to be settled by depity. I'd like all o' yur lot to be on the groun' an'

jedge for theerselves."

"Agreed; they shall come. Bring them up, Bill."

Bill does as directed, and the six young hunters are once more a.s.sembled in the glade; but with very different feelings from those stirring them when there before.

Bill has told them all, even to the proposal made by Rook; and they sit upon their horses downcast, ready to consent to his terms.

"Six o' ye," says the hunter, apparently calculating the price of the silence to be imposed on him; "all o' ye sons o' rich men, and all able to pay me a hundred dollars a-year for the term o' my nateral life. Six hundred dollars. 'Tain't much to talk abeout; jess keep my old carcase from starvin'. Huntin's gone to the dogs 'bout hyar, an' you fellars hev hed somethin' to do in sendin' it thar. So on that account o'

itself ye oughter be only too happy in purvidin' for one whose business ye've speiled. It air only by way o' a penshun. Hundred dollars apiece, and that reg'larly paid _pre-annum_. Ye all know what 'tis for.

Do ye consent?"

"I do."

"And I."

"And I."