Southern Lights and Shadows Part 14

"De horse is in de stable, suh." The woman now rose as if to meet a climax, but her eyes were still on the fire.

"Did she go out walking?"

"Dis mawnin', suh."

"This morning!" he repeated, slowly, wonderingly, "and has not come back yet?"

The woman began to tremble, and her eyes, s.h.i.+ning and terrified, glanced furtively at her master.

"Where is Abram?"

"I dun'no', suh!" It was a gasping whisper.

The master gripped her shoulder, and with a maddened roar he cried her name --"Aggie!"

The woman sank down. Perhaps his grasp forced her down. "'Fo' Gawd!" she cried--"'fo Gawd, Ma.s.s Johnnie, I dun'no'!" holding up beseeching hands between herself and the awful glare of his eyes. "I'll tell you, suh, Ma.s.s Johnnie, I'll tell you!" crouching away from him. "Miss Nellie gimme out dinner en supper, den she put on she hat en gone to de ole chimbly en git some de brier what grow dey. Den she come back en tell Abram fuh git a bresh broom en sweep de ya'd. Lemme go, Ma.s.s Johnnie, please, suh, en I tell you better, suh. En Abram teck de hatchet en gone to'des de railroad fuh cut de bresh. 'Fo' Gawd, Ma.s.s Johnnie, it's de trute, suh! Den I tell Miss Nellie say de chicken is all git out de coop, en she say I muss ketch one fuh unner supper, suh; en I teck de dawg en gone in de fiel' fuh look fuh de chicken. En I see Miss Nellie put 'e glub en de brier on de step, en walk to'des de swamp, like 'e was goin' on de dam--'kase de water ent rise ober de dam den--en den I gone in de broom-gra.s.s en I run de chicken, en I ent ketch one tay I git clean ober to de woods. En when I come back de glub is layin' on de step, en de brier, des like Miss Nellie leff um--" She stopped, and her master straightened himself.

"Well," he said, and his voice was strained and weak.

The servant once more flung her ap.r.o.n over her head, and broke into violent crying. "Dat's all, Ma.s.s Johnnie! dat's all! I dun'no' wey Abram is gone; I dun'no' what Abram is do! n.o.body ent been on de place dis day--dis day but me--but me! Oh, Lawd! oh, Lawd en Gawd!"

The master stood as if dazed. His face was drawn and gray, and his breath came in awful gasps. A moment he stood so, then he strode out of the house.

With a howl the dog sprang forward, snapping the cord, and rushed after his master.

The woman's cries ceased, and without moving from her crouching position she listened with straining ears to the sounds that reached her from the stable. In a moment the clatter of horses' hoofs going at a furious pace swept by, then a dead silence fell. The intense quiet seemed to rouse her, and going to the door, she looked out. The glow had faded, and the gray mist was gathering in distinct strata above the marsh and the river. She went out and looked about her as she had done so many times during that long day. She gazed at the water that was still rising; she peered cautiously behind the stable and under the houses; she approached the wood-pile as if under protest, gathered some logs into her arms and an axe that was lying there; then turning toward the kitchen, she hastened her steps, looking back over her shoulder now and again, as if fearing pursuit.

Once in the kitchen she threw down the wood and barred the door; she shut the boarded window-shutter, fastening it with an iron hook; then leaning the axe against the chimney, she sat down by the fire, muttering, "If dat n.i.g.g.e.r come sneakin' back yer now, I'll split 'e haid open, _sho_."

Recovering a little from her panic, she was once more a cook, and swung the crane from over the fire, brushed the coals from the top of the Dutch oven, and pushed the tin kitchen farther from the blaze. "Ma.s.s Johnnie'll want sump'h'n to eat some time dis night," she said; then, after a pause, "en I gwine eat _now_." She got a plate and cup, and helped herself to hominy out of the pot, and to a roll out of the oven; but though she looked at the fowl she did not touch it, helping herself instead to a goodly cup of coffee. So she ate and drank with the axe close beside her, now and then pausing to groan and mutter--"Po' Ma.s.s Johnnie!--po' Ma.s.s Johnnie!--Lawd!

Lawd!--if Miss Nellie had er sen' Abram atter dat chicken--like I tell um--Lawd!" shaking her head the while.

Through the gathering dusk John Morris galloped at the top speed of his horse. Reaching the little railway station, he sprang off, throwing the reins over a post, and strode in.

"Write this telegram for me, Green," he said; "my hand trembles.

"_To Sam Partin, Sheriff, Pineville:_

"My wife missing since morning. Negro, Abram Was.h.i.+ngton, disappeared. Bring men and dogs. Get off night train this side of bridge. Will be fire on the path to mark the place.

"JOHN MORRIS."

"Great G.o.d!" the operator said, in a low voice. "I'll come too, Mr.

Morris."

"Thank you," John Morris answered. "I'm going to get the Wilson boys, and Rountree and Mitch.e.l.l," and for the first time the men's eyes met.

Determined, deadly, sombre, was the look exchanged; then Morris went away.

None of the men whom Morris summoned said much, nor did they take long to arm themselves, saddle, and mount, and by nine o'clock Aggie heard them come galloping across the field; then her master's voice calling her. There was little time in which to make the signal-fire on the railroad embankment, and to cut light-wood into torches, even though there were many hands to do the work. John Morris's dog followed him a part of the way to the wood-pile, then turned aside to where the water had crept up from the swamp into the yard. Aggie saw the dog, and spoke to Mr. Morris.

"Dat's de way dat dawg do dis mawnin', Ma.s.s Johnnie, an' when I gone to ketch de chicken, Miss Nellie was walkin' to'des dat berry place."

An irresistible shudder went over John Morris, and one of the gentlemen standing near asked if he had a boat.

"The bateau was tied to that stake this morning," Mr. Morris answered, pointing to a stake some distance out in the water; "but I have another boat in the top of the stable." Every man turned to go for it, showing the direction of their fears, and launched it where the log bridge crossed the head of the swamp, and where now the water was quite deep.

The whistle was heard at the station, and the rumble of the on-coming train. The fire flared high, lighting up the group of men standing about it, booted and belted with ammunition-belts, quiet, and white, and determined.

Many curious heads looked out as the sheriff and his men--six men besides Green from the station--got off; then the train rumbled away in the darkness toward the surging, turbulent river, and the crowd moved toward the house.

Mr. Morris told of his absence in town on business. That Abram had been hired first as a field-hand; and that later, after his marriage, he had taken Abram from the field to look after his horse and to do the heavier work about the house and yard.

"And the woman Aggie is trust-worthy?"

"I am sure of it; she used to belong to us."

"Abram is a strange negro?"

"Yes."

Then Aggie was called in to tell her story. Abram had taken the hatchet and had gone toward the railroad for brush to make a broom. She had taken the dog and gone into the broom-gra.s.s to catch a fowl, and the last she had seen of her mistress she was walking toward the dam, which was then above the water.

"How long were you gone after the chicken?"

"I dun'no', suh; but I run um clean to de woods 'fo' I ketch um, en I walk back slow 'kase I tired."

"Were you gone an hour?"

"I spec so, suh, 'kase when I done ketch de chicken I stop fuh pick up some light-wood I see wey Abram been cuttin' wood yistiddy."

"And your mistress was not here when you came back--nor Abram?"

"No, suh, n.o.body; en 'e wuz so lonesome I come en look in dis house fuh Miss Nellie, but 'e ent deyyer; en I look in de bush fuh Abram, but I ent see um nudder. En de dawg run to de water en howl en ba'k en ba'k tay I tie um up in de kitchen."

"And was the boat tied to the stake this morning?"

"Yes, suh; en when I been home long time en git scare, den I look en see de boat gone."

"You don't think that your mistress got in the boat and drifted away by accident?"

"No, suh, nebber, suh; Miss Nellie 'fraid de water lessen Ma.s.s Johnnie is wid um."

"Is Abram a good boy?"

"I dun'no', suh; I dun'no' nuffin 'tall 'bout Abram, suh; Abram is strange n.i.g.g.e.r to we."

"Did he take his things out of his room?"

"Abram t'ings? Ki! Abram ent hab nuttin' ceppen what Miss Nellie en Ma.s.s Johnnie gi' um. No, suh, dat n.i.g.g.e.r ent hab nuttin' but de close on 'e back when 'e come to we."

The sheriff paused a moment. "I think, Mr. Morris," he said at last, "that we'd better separate. You, with Mr. Mitch.e.l.l and Mr. Rountree, had better take your boat and hunt in the swamp and marsh, and along the river-bank.