The Lost Hunter Part 19

Contrary, however, to what might have been expected from his former submission, the prisoner required to see the written authority by which he was to be consigned to bonds, and refused to move until it had been shown, in which determination he was sustained by the bystanders. Thus unexpectedly resisted, the constable had no alternative but to release Holden or produce the instrument. He, therefore, put his hand into his pocket, and pulling out a number of papers, sought for the doc.u.ment. It was in vain; no warrant was to be found; and, after repeatedly shuffling the papers, he exclaimed: "I declare I must have lost it."

Whether he discovered the loss then for the first time, or what is far more probable, did not antic.i.p.ate its demand from one so flighty as Holden, and meant to procure one afterwards, is not certainly known, but the fact is certain, he had no written authority to arrest.

"You never had one. Is this the way you treat a free American? You desarve a ducking; you had better make tracks," exclaimed several indignant voices from the crowd, with whom a constable cannot be a popular character.

"It's my opinion," said the man in the fox skin cap, "Ba.s.set has made himself liable for a.s.sault and battery. What do you think, Captain?"

"I ain't clear on that point," returned his cautious companion, "but free trade and sailors' rights, I say, and I've no notion of a man's being took without law. I'm clear so far."

The discomfited constable not venturing to proceed, and, indeed, unable to conceive how, without Holden's a.s.sent, he could take him before the justice, now relinquished his prey, and endeavored to make his way out of the circle. Hereupon an agitation arose, none could say how, the persons composing it began to be swayed backwards and forwards in a strange manner, and somehow or other poor Ba.s.set's heels got tripped up, and before he could rise, several men and boys fell over him and crushed him with their weight, so that when he became visible in the heap, he presented a most pitiable appearance. His coat was torn, his neckerchief twisted so tight about his neck, that he was half choked, and his hat jammed out of all shape. It is doubtful whether he would have escaped so cheaply, had it not been for Gladding, who, after he thought Ba.s.set had suffered sufficiently, came to his a.s.sistance.

"I always stand by the law," said Tom, helping him to his feet, "but I admire your imprudence, Ba.s.set, in trying to take up a man without a warrant."

Ba.s.set's faculties were too confused to enter into a discussion of the subject then, and with many threats of taking the law against his tormentors, and, attended by Tom, he limped off the ice.

Loud and boisterous were the congratulations with which the crowd had greeted Holden on his escape from the clutches of the constable, but he waved them off with a dignity which repressed their advances, and gave some offence.

"If I'd known the old fellow was so proud," said one, "I guess Ba.s.set might have taken him for all I cared."

"I sort o' sprained my wrist in that last jam agin the constable,"

said another, laughing, "and it's een about as good as thrown away."

"Perhaps," cried a third, "when he's took agin, I'll be there to help, and perhaps I won't."

While these various speeches were being made, the young men with the ladies, had gathered around Holden, and were expressing their mortification at the annoyance he had experienced, and their pleasure at his escape.

"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" cried the enthusiast. "Surely their devices shall be brought to naught, and their counsels to no effect. He that sitteth on the circle of the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and spurn them in His displeasure.

Because for Thy sake, I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children."

He waited for no remark; he looked at no one; but taking up the pile of baskets which were tied together, threw them upon his back, and stalked over the ice in the direction of his cabin.

On their way home the young people discussed the events of the afternoon, dwelling on the meeting with Holden as on that which most occupied their minds.

"It is with a painful interest," said Pownal, "that I meet the old man, nor can I think of him without a feeling of more than common regard. I am sure it is not merely because he was lately of so great service to me, that I cannot listen to the tones of his voice without emotion. There is in them a wild melancholy, like the sighing of the wind through pine trees, that affects me more than I can describe."

"I know the feeling," said Faith. "There is to me also a strange pathos in his voice that brings the tears sometimes into my eyes before I am aware. What is the cause, I do not know. I never heard it spoken of till now, and did not suppose there was another affected like myself."

"You are a couple of romantic, silly things," cried Anne. "I flatter myself there is some poetry in me, but it takes a different shape.

Now, when I see Father Holden, I begin to think of Jeremiah and Zachariah, and all the old prophets, but with no disposition to cry."

"Tears were never meant to dim those blue eyes, dear Anne," said Faith.

CHAPTER XVI.

_Dogberry_.--You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore, bear you the lantern. This is your charge; you shall comprehend all vagrom men.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

It may well be supposed that the misadventures on the ice were ill calculated to soothe the excited mind of the constable. He bore a grudge towards the Solitary before, for his failure and the beating he had received at the island, and now to be made the object of such abuse in the presence of his townsmen, and that on account of a person whom he looked down upon as a sort of vagrant, was more than his philosophy could bear. For Ba.s.set, with that kind of logic which is so common with a certain cla.s.s of people, could not avoid regarding the Recluse as the culpable cause of his misfortune in both instances. "If he hadn't gone agin the law," he said to himself, "I shouldn't have tried to take him; and if I hadn't tried to take him, I shouldn't have been treated so." Whatever Hedge or Mills may think of such logic, it was satisfactory to Ba.s.set.

His lucubrations, moreover, were very different in the daytime from those in the solemn shades of night. As ghosts are said to disappear when they scent the morning air, so the constable's apprehensions of them fled at the rising of the sun. When in the dark at the island he received the blow that prostrated him on the earth, he was unable to determine in his confusion, whether it had been inflicted by the fisherman's ghost or by Holden. It never crossed his mind that it might have come from any one else. On this subject he had mused during the whole time of his return from his nocturnal disaster, without being able to arrive at any conclusion. If in those witching hours, when the stars gleamed mysteriously through the drifting clouds, and the wind moaned among the bare branches, he was inclined to one opinion rather than to another, it was to that which would attribute the blow to the ghost. But with the light of returning day the current of his thoughts changed. Things a.s.sumed an altered aspect. Fears of inhabitants of an unseen world vanished, and Ba.s.set was angry at himself for entertaining such silly imaginations. It was now evident that Holden by some means had obtained a knowledge of the design to capture him, or had suspected it, or had noticed the approach of the boat and laid in wait to take a most unjustifiable revenge. "I wish I could prove it," thought Ba.s.set; "if I wouldn't make him smart for striking an officer!"

We shall not be surprised to find that the constable feeling thus, provided himself with another warrant. Smarting under a sense of injury, both as a man and a baffled administrator of the law, he had immediately sought the Justice, revealed the loss of the instrument, and procured another. Upon returning to the river, where he hoped to triumph in the presence of those who had witnessed his disgrace, over one whom he now regarded as an enemy, he found to his infinite mortification that the bird had flown. He dared not follow alone, and meditating vengeance, he kept the fatal doc.u.ment safely deposited in his pocket-book, where "in grim repose" it waited for a favorable opportunity and its prey.

On the following Monday morning, the constable met Gladding in the street, whom he had not seen since the latter a.s.sisted him on the ice.

"How are you?" cried Tom, seizing him by the hand, and affecting the greatest pleasure at the meeting; "how do you feel after your row, friend Ba.s.set?"

"Oh, pretty well," answered the constable; "how is it with you?

"Alive and kicking," said Tom. "But, Ba.s.set, you hain't got the dents out o' your hat, I see."

"No, and I don't expect they ever will come out. It's good as two dollars damage to me," he added, taking off the hat and looking at it with a woeful face. "You're a little to blame for it, too, Tom."

"Me! You ongrateful critter," exclaimed Gladding, indignantly. "You want me to give you a new hat, don't ye?"

"What made you ask if I'd got the warrant?"

"I never said no such a thing. I only said sort o' promiscuously, you hadn't showed your doc.u.ment."

"Well, what was the use o' that? If you'd kept still there wouldn't been no fuss."

"Who'd ha' thought you'd ha' gone to take a man without being able to show your authority? Now I call that plaguy green, Ba.s.set. But who stood by you when everybody else desarted you, and got you out from under them rough boys, and helped you clean out o' the sc.r.a.pe? Darn it all, Ba.s.set, you're the ongratefullest varmint I ever did see, when, in a manner, I saved your life. Really, I did think, instead o'

blowing a fellow up in this way, you'd a stood treat."

"So I will," said Ba.s.set, who began to fancy he had found too much fault, and was unwilling to lose his ally; "so come along into Jenkins', and we'll take it on the spot. But you must give in, Tom, your observation was unfortunate"

"Unfortunate for you," returned Tom; "but I guess Holden thought 'twasn't unfortunate for him. Howsomever, you'll let the old fellow slip now, won't you?"

"Let him slip!" almost screamed the exasperated Ba.s.set, whom Tom's manner of treating the subject was not calculated to mollify. "Let him slip, you say. I'll see him, I'll see him"--but in vain he sought words to express the direful purpose; language broke down under the effort.

"Poh, poh," said Tom, "don't take on so, man--forget and forgive--luck's been on his side, that's all."

"I tell you what," said Ba.s.set, "who do you think struck me the other night?"

"Why, what could it be but Lanfear's ghost?"

"Don't talk to me about sperits; whose afraid o' them? But tell us one thing, did you see Holden when you looked into the window!"

"What makes you ask?" said the cautious Tom, "supposing I did, or supposing I didn't?"

"'Cause I know you didn't. Now it's my opinion," said Ba.s.set, lowering his voice and looking round suspiciously as if he were afraid of an action for slander should he be overheard, "that Holden himself made the a.s.sault."

"That ain't possible," said Gladding, confidently. "You and Prime stood by the door and would ha' seen him if he'd come out there, and I know he didn't jump out o' the window, for I should ha' seen him."