第117章 TO ST.LOUIS(1)

By eleven o'clock the next morning I had wound up my affairs, having arranged with a young lawyer of my acquaintance to take over such cases as I had, and I was busy in my room packing my saddle-bags for the journey.

The warm scents of spring were wafted through the open door and window, smells of the damp earth giving forth the green things, and tender shades greeted my eyes when I paused and raised my head to think.Purple buds littered the black ground before my door-step, and against the living green of the grass I saw the red stain of a robin's breast as he hopped spasmodically hither and thither, now pausing immovable with his head raised, now tossing triumphantly a wriggling worm from the sod.

Suddenly he flew away, and I heard a voice from the street side that brought me stark upright.

``Hold there, neighbor; can you direct me to the mansion of that celebrated barrister, Mr.Ritchie?''

There was no mistaking that voice--it was Nicholas Temple's.I heard a laugh and an answer, the gate slammed, and Mr.Temple himself in a long gray riding-coat, booted and spurred, stood before me.

``Davy,'' he cried, ``come out here and hug me.Why, you look as if I were your grandmother's ghost.''

``And if you were,'' I answered, ``you could not have surprised me more.Where have you been?''

``At Jonesboro, acting the gallant with the widow, winning and losing skins and cow-bells and land at rattle-and-snap, horse-racing with that wild Mr.Jackson.Faith, he near shot the top of my head off because I beat him at Greasy Cove.''

I laughed, despite my anxiety.

``And Sevier?'' I demanded.

``You have not heard how Sevier got off?'' exclaimed Nick.``Egad, that was a crowning stroke of genius!

Cozby and Evans, Captains Greene and Gibson, and Sevier's two boys whom you met on the Nollichucky rode over the mountains to Morganton.Greene and Gibson and Sevier's boys hid themselves with the horses in a clump outside the town, while Cozby and Evans, disguised as bumpkins in hunting shirts, jogged into the town with Sevier's racing mare between them.They jogged into the town, I say, through the crowds of white trash, and rode up to the court-house where Sevier was being tried for his life.

Evans stood at the open door and held the mare and gaped, while (Cozby stalked in and shouldered his way to the front within four feet of the bar, like a big, awkward countryman.Jack Sevier saw him, and he saw Evans with the mare outside.Then, by thunder, Cozby takes a step right up to the bar and cries out, `Judge, aren't you about done with that man?' Faith, it was like judgment day, such a mix-up as there was after that, and Nollichucky Jack made three leaps and got on the mare, and in the confusion Cozby and Evans were off too, and the whole State of North Carolina couldn't catch 'em then.'' Nick sighed.``I'd have given my soul to have been there,'' he said.

``Come in,'' said I, for lack of something better.

``Cursed if you haven't given me a sweet reception, Davy,'' said he.``Have you lost your practice, or is there a lady here, you rogue,'' and he poked into the cupboard with his stick.``Hullo, where are you going now?'' he added, his eye falling on the saddle-bags.

I had it on my lips to say, and then I remembered Mr.

Wharton's injunction.

``I'm going on a journey,'' said I.

``When?'' said Nick.

``I leave in about an hour,'' said I.

He sat down.``Then I leave too,'' he said.

``What do you mean, Nick?'' I demanded.

``I mean that I will go with you,'' said he.

``But I shall be gone three months or more,'' I protested.

``I have nothing to do,'' said Nick, placidly.

A vague trouble had been working in my mind, but now the full horror of it dawned upon me.I was going to St.Louis.Mrs.Temple and Harry Riddle were gone there, so Polly Ann had avowed, and Nick could not help meeting Riddle.Sorely beset, I bent over to roll up a shirt, and refrained from answering.

He came and laid a hand on my shoulder.

``What the devil ails you, Davy?'' he cried.``If it is an elopement, of course I won't press you.I'm hanged if I'll make a third.''

``It is no elopement,'' I retorted, my face growing hot in spite of myself.

``Then I go with you,'' said he, ``for I vow you need taking care of.You can't put me off, I say.But never in my life have I had such a reception, and from my own first cousin, too.''

I was in a quandary, so totally unforeseen was this situation.And then a glimmer of hope came to me that perhaps his mother and Riddle might not be in St.Louis after all.I recalled the conversation in the cabin, and reflected that this wayward pair had stranded on so many beaches, had drifted off again on so many tides, that one place could scarce hold them long.Perchance they had sunk,--who could tell? I turned to Nick, who stood watching me.

``It was not that I did not want you,'' I said, ``you must believe that.I have wanted you ever since that night long ago when I slipped out of your bed and ran away.I am going first to St.Louis and then to New Orleans on a mission of much delicacy, a mission that requires discretion and secrecy.You may come, with all my heart, with one condition only--that you do not ask my business.''

``Done!'' cried Nick.``Davy, I was always sure of you; you are the one fixed quantity in my life.To St.

Louis, eh, and to New Orleans? Egad, what havoc we'll make among the Creole girls.May I bring my nigger?

He'll do things for you too.''

``By all means,'' said I, laughing, ``only hurry.''

``I'll run to the inn,'' said Nick, ``and be back in ten minutes.'' He got as far as the door, slapped his thigh, and looked back.``Davy, we may run across--''

``Who?'' I asked, with a catch of my breath.

``Harry Riddle,'' he answered; ``and if so, may God have mercy on his soul!''

He ran down the path, the gate clicked, and I heard him whistling in the street on his way to the inn.