Freaks of Fortune Part 27

"O, yes, he will!" replied Dock, confidently. "I've got things fixed this time so that he can't help planking down the money. He'll be glad to pay it, I can tell you."

"What have you done with the gal, cap'n?"

"We've got her; and Watson never'll see her again unless he pays the money--that's so."

"But he won't pay it; and I ain't go'n' to git my share on't at all,"

whined the miser.

"Yes, you will; don't be alarmed, Squire Fairfield."

"They've sent a steamer off arter the vessel."

"Have they, though?"

"Yes, they have; and Gayles has gone in her."

"All right; the steamer'll cost some money, and won't do any good.

She'll come back without the girl. My vessel isn't a great ways from New York, and when I say the word she'll start, whether I go in her or not. I tell you, Mr. Watson will be glad to pay the money before many days. He don't understand the matter yet. I'll come again in two or three days; and I reckon you'll have the money next time I come."

"Where are you stoppin' now?" asked Mr. Fairfield.

"Nowhere in these parts; but I'll be here in two or three days."

"But Watson won't pay that money, no more'n nothin' in the world."

"Yes, he will. He can't help doing it, if he wants his daughter again.

Where's Levi now?"

"He's round here; but what am I go'n' to do for what you owe me, if Watson don't pay the money?" asked the old man, anxiously.

"I'll pay it all just as I agreed to do. Now go to bed again, Squire Fairfield, or your wife will be out looking for you."

"But I want to know sunthin more about this business."

"You mustn't know any more than you do. I didn't mean you should know anything about it. I never told you anything. When you get the money, you hold on to it till I come. I don't know as it's quite safe for me to come here again, even in the night. I guess we'll fix it some other way."

Dock did "fix it some other way"--it is of no consequence how.

"After I get this money, and get all ready to start, I'm going to settle up matters with Levi and that n.i.g.g.e.r before I go. I expect I shall kill that n.i.g.g.e.r if I ever see him again."

"Shall you? Then now's your time!" yelled Mr. C. Augustus Ebenier, as he sprang from his covert, and rushed upon his enemy.

Dock Vincent was startled, as a braver man than he might have been under such circ.u.mstances; but the steward did not permit him to recover his self-possession. With an oak stick he carried in his hand, he dealt a heavy blow upon the head of the villain. But his cranium seemed to be made of more solid material than his African a.s.sailant's, for he attempted to rise, when the steward repeated the stroke so effectually that he lay still on the ground.

"Don't! Don't!" pleaded Mr. Fairfield, terrified by the tragic event.

"Don't tech him agin. Let him be."

But Dock was not deprived of his consciousness even by the severe blows he had received, and again he attempted to rise.

"Lay still! If you don't there'll be a dead man not far from here,"

said the steward, as he took his revolver from his pocket.

Dock saw it, and dared not move.

"Don't tech him no more. Let him go now."

"Not if I know it! Allow me to insinuate, in the most direct manner possible, that this man is my prisoner; and if he don't spend the rest of his days in the state prison, it will be an outrage upon humanity,"

added the steward.

"Don't tech him no more. Let him go. I'll give you twenty-five cents if you will," whined the miser, who had to open his heart very wide to make this liberal offer.

"He is going to jail, if there is such an inst.i.tution in these parts,"

replied Augustus.

"I'll give you fifty cents if you'll let him go," pleaded Mr.

Fairfield.

"If you would give me fifty thousand dollars, I wouldn't let him go,"

replied the steward. "Do you think I would sell my own soul for money?"

Augustus, with the revolver in his right hand, felt in all the pockets of his prostrate enemy for dangerous weapons, but he found none.

"Now get up," said he.

Dock obeyed, in momentary fear that one of the pistol b.a.l.l.s would be spinning through his head.

"Do you know where Mr. Watson's house is?" continued he.

"I do," replied Dock.

"Then march; and if you turn to the right or the left, or attempt any irregular proceeding, I promise you, on the honor of Mr. C. Augustus Ebenier, that I will give you the benefit of every bullet this pistol contains, six in number, by actual count. Forward!"

Dock marched in the direction indicated; he could not help doing so, bitter as the necessity was. Mr. Fairfield followed, begging and pleading with all his eloquence, and even offering as high as a dollar for the release of his friend.

"Old man, return to your humble abode, and give up your weary frame to the arms of Morpheus," said Augustus, when his patience was exhausted.

"In other words, venerable sir, go home, and go to bed."

The miser was terribly stricken by the sudden misfortune of Dock; not from sympathy, but because it foreboded the loss of the money the prisoner owed him. It is possible that he had some fear of being compromised before the courts. If he had, it was overborne by the greater dread of losing his money. He could not willingly return; and it was only when the steward threatened him with the terrible pistol that he did so.

Augustus walked about six feet behind his victim till he came to Mr.

Watson's house, and then directed him to go up to the side door.

"Ring the bell!" said the steward, in the stern tones of command.

"See here, steward, can't we arrange this thing," replied Dock, turning to his remorseless captor.

"Ring the bell! We'll arrange it in the court."

Dock rang the bell. Little did the father and mother of Bessie sleep while she was away from them, and they heard the bell the first time it was rung.