Chapter XXIII: In Tarleton's Toils

"The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from."
--JOANNA BAILLIE.

After a troubled sleep that brought little rest, Joscelyn opened her eyes on what she supposed would be a day of danger,--certainly a day of small deceptions. But in one way fortune favoured her; the morning was cold and raw, with now and then a flurry of snow, so she would have no occasion to leave the house, and need worry over no excuse for biding at home. But the early hours were full of quavers and starts; the least quick noise sent her blood racing through its channels. Her first real fright came when the guard in the back yard discovered bits of fresh mud upon the trellis of the porch.

"'Tis nothing," she said, with a touch of asperity when he showed it to her; "the maid threw a broken flower pot from the upper window, and this earth was no doubt spilled out as it fell--there are the remnants of the jar by the fence."

The guard bowed and withdrew; but there was a supercilious smile on his face, which filled her with nervous apprehension. In a hasty resentment that the man perhaps guessed at her duplicity, she could have struck him.

And yet a second time was she thrown into consternation, when her mother discovered the loss of the attic key from her bunch.

"Oh, it is not lost! I broke the string yesterday night, and doubtless I missed this one when I strung them up again. It is in my room this minute, I dare swear. Is there aught you need in the attic now?"

"Nay, I but feared the key was lost."

"Well, let me first finish this round of knitting and I will hunt it. Mother," she went on, after a pause, during which she picked up her stitches industriously, "had you not better go over and make my peace with Aunt Clevering? She was most angry with me last night."

"And good cause she had, Joscelyn; methinks I never heard any one make so rude a speech. What put you to it?"

"In faith, mother, I cannot tell. It was cruel and unwarranted, and you may tell her I say so, and that I am bitterly sorry. Make any excuse you please, only make it at once, for you know Aunt Clevering's displeasure grows like a mushroom when left to itself."

She had small hope that her aunt would be appeased, but she wanted her mother out of the way that she might carry her prisoner something to eat. It was close upon one o'clock, and not a morsel had she been able to give him. She drew the bolt of the front door after her mother, who was nothing loath to go upon this peace errand; and hurrying to the dining room, made hasty preparation to relieve Richard's needs. She was not used to doing things upon the sly, and her heart was in hot rebellion that she must stoop to such a thing among her own servants. There were hard lines of determination about her mouth, but the hands that sliced the meat and buttered the bread shook a little. Even when on the stair, she turned back, startled by a sound in the hall; but it was only the cat romping with her little ones, and so once more she went on. Softly she unlocked the attic door, and stepped in. The room was in partial twilight, having no window, but she saw Richard coming to meet her.

"No May-day sunshine was ever half so welcome," he whispered, taking her hand in both of his. "Tell me how matters have gone this morning. I have fretted myself into a fever lest I bring some annoyance upon you. And now you must promise me that if discovery comes, you will forswear all knowledge of my being here. I shall claim that the key was in the lock, and after I was inside, some one came and closed the door. Thus will you be free from blame."

"And think you any one will believe so flimsy a story? Nay, the only safety for either of us lies in your not being discovered. I understand that Tarleton is furious over his failure, and has already ordered a new search. I rely upon my own loyalty, and upon his lordship's order for our exemption. But if the worst comes, we must be prepared."

"I am." He touched his pistols and drew himself up until his magnificent figure was at perfect pose. "I shall die, Joscelyn, but like a soldier; not on the gallows."

She shuddered, and her eyes lost their coldness; the woman in her was touched by his cool courage in face of such a danger.

"Yes," she said, with a hesitating gentleness, "but I pray it come not to that. By being prepared I meant we must leave no tell-tale traces here such as these,"--she pointed to the platter and pitcher. "I shall take these away; your dinner I have brought in this bit of paper--leave no crumbs when you have finished. This jug contains water and this bottle wine; stand them in that corner with those empty bottles, and they will attract no attention."

"It shall be done, Joscelyn."

"Watch under the door; if there is an order given to search the house, I will try and warn you by a note."

"Joscelyn, desperate as I was, I should have sought some other shelter, had I not thought your loyalty would put your house beyond the shadow of suspicion. Will you not say you forgive me before you go? We may never meet again."

"There is nothing to forgive; you but put it in my power to requite an obligation," she said very gently.

"That is scarce a pardon. I would have you speak as though the forgiveness came from your heart, rather than from your head. Between us there can be no question of a debt; my love makes me your bondservant, and as such my service is yours rightfully."

"Your name is not known," she broke in hastily, "but I understand it is suspected that my rescuer of yesterday is the escaped spy."

"That accounts for Tarleton's doubt of you. Joscelyn, I will not stay here a moment longer and expose you thus. My mother's house has already been searched--"

"And will be again ere nightfall. What you propose is folly,--worse than folly; it is death to you and betrayal to me. There are double guards everywhere, for Colonel Tarleton is as much policeman as soldier. You could not leave this house and cross the street alive!"

"Then what must I do?"

"Why, in sooth, since you cannot go, you must remain." There was just a touch in her voice and smile which made him think of their early days of quarrel and make-up. It was such an intoxicating change from her manner of a moment ago that he lost his head and caught her for a moment in his strong arms. But she broke away, and gathering up the pitcher and platter prepared to go.

"There is just one thing," she said hesitatingly, "your despatches--?" He tapped his forehead. Again she paused irresolutely, the colour coming and going in her delicate cheeks. "I am saving you, not your despatches; do you understand?"

"You do not mean--?"

"Yes, I mean that Greene must learn nothing from you if you escape."

But his hand was over her mouth before she could go on. "You cannot make a request so unworthy of you and of me! Think you for one instant that I would buy my safety with the information that may save my comrades? No, no, Joscelyn dear; you did not ask such a thing of me, for you would not dishonour me, although you say you do not love me. I make no such bargain with you; either I carry my despatches to my general, or I walk out of your house this minute, and let the first ball that can hit me put an end to my life."

His hand was on the door, but she dragged him back; her face like ashes. "No, no, Richard; I will not ask it--indeed, I will not!"

Silently he kissed the hand upon his sleeve, and as they stood thus looking into each other's eyes, there came a sharp rapping at the door below. She went deathly pale for a moment, then waving him back, she stepped out into the hallway.

"It is only mother," she said, after listening a moment; "she has been over to Aunt Clevering's to make my peace for last night's rudeness. What I said was in desperation; I know not what evil genius put me to it."

He took her hand reverently for a moment. "'Twas no evil genius, but a brave spirit of self-sacrifice."

She locked the door, and went down the stair singing. At the foot she called out, "Coming, mother!" and ran to hide the dishes she carried, then back to the door and undid it, still singing her merry ditty.

"Why should you bolt the door, my daughter, seeing I was to be gone only a few minutes?"

"I was upstairs straightening things a bit, and the town is so full of confusion that I felt a trifle nervous."

"But here was the sentinel to protect you."

"Oh, I quite forgot him!" she smiled with deprecating politeness at the sentinel, who had paused at the steps and was watching her with an ugly frown upon his sullen face. He touched his hat with a shrug, and moved on upon his beat.

But a new terror came to the girl; evidently the man suspected her, and of course his suspicion would be carried to Tarleton. Why had she lingered upstairs talking with Richard? Everything she did worked the wrong way. Would the day never end? She strove to make amends for her false step by singing Tory songs as she went about the house, and by sending the guard a dainty luncheon. It was perhaps an hour before she remembered to ask her mother the result of her interview with Aunt Clevering.

"Oh, but I had a sad scene of it! Joscelyn, your tongue will be the ruin of us; I know it, I know it! Neighbour after neighbour has taken offence at your outspoken Toryism; and now Ann Clevering, dear to me as a sister, says she hopes you will never darken her door again. And if you go not, why, neither can I; and so I am cut off from my best friend by your unneighbourly caprice! And think what we have been to each other!" Here sobs choked the unhappy woman's utterance, and she could only turn her eyes reproachfully upon her daughter.

Joscelyn was deeply moved, as she always was, to wound her mother; but she put the best face possible on it in order to cheer the disconsolate old lady.

"There, mother dear, 'tis not worth crying over. Not go to see Aunt Clevering because I cannot go? Why, that is nonsense. Of course you will go, and she will come here just the same. I will keep out of her way until she forgives me--for she will forgive me, never you fear. I am not surprised at her anger, but it will all come out right in the end; so don't cry, little mother, you break my heart with your tears."

But in her heart was serious question whether she would ever again be received upon friendly footing in the house over the way, which had been to her as a second home. She would never tell that she had made that speech to turn inquiry from her own house, where Richard was hiding; and she now doubted much if he would escape to tell the story himself. She sang no more that afternoon, but sat silently over her knitting. The weather did not tend to mend her spirits; for the drizzle of the morning had turned into a steady downpour, and the wind moaned about the gables and up the throat of the wide chimney like a lost spirit hopelessly seeking its reincarnation. Her mother was still brooding over the break with the Cleverings, and now and then lifting her kerchief to her face in a gesture that was a reproach to Joscelyn, who strove not to see it; and yet she watched for it persistently out of the tail of her eye. She grew more miserable each moment; and so hailed with delight the entrance of Barry and a fellow-officer, who had come to bask in the warmth of her smile.

"Your visit is a charity, gentlemen," she said gayly, as she gave them chairs; "this weather serves one's spirits and one's ruffles alike, in that it leaves them both limp and frowsy."

"Your mother seems more out of sorts than you."

"Yes; mother is doing penance for my sin of last night, Captain Barry."

"Your sin? Why, methinks you never committed anything more heinous than a misdemeanour. Come, make me your confessor, and I promise you complete and immediate absolution."

"'Tis not your absolution, but Mistress Clevering's that I need; she has excommunicated me for telling of the attic closet," she spoke with an air of mock penitence that set her visitors off in a roar.

But Mistress Cheshire stopped them with a fresh burst of tears, "'Tis no matter for jesting with me, sirs. I am a subject of King George and wish him well, but he cannot take the place of Ann Clevering in my heart!"

"True, true," said Joscelyn, still with her air of pretence, only now it was playful; "she loves her king, but, you see, she lives not neighbours with him; and so, forsooth, she cannot compare her loaves with his on a baking day, nor ask the loan of his pie pans, nor offer her mixing bowl in return. Ah, gentlemen, there is a homely charm in proximity of which the poets wot not!"

And so the talk ran on for a few minutes, and the visitors agreed they had never found Mistress Joscelyn so charming or so witty. Then they fell to talking of the military news, of Tarleton's determination to ferret out the hidden spy, and of the burning of the Reverend Hugh McAden's library by that division of the army stationed at Red House, a few miles distant. To all of the first she listened with an outward show of indifference, but with an inward quaking. The other news interested her less; but for obvious reasons was also less embarrassing.

"I pray you, Captain Barry, why should the soldiers burn the reverend gentleman's library? 'Twas innocent enough, and he himself has been dead this twelvemonth."

"Well, they found from his books he was a Presbyterian; and being that, he must perforce be also a rebel."

"And they consigned his books to the same fate they believed him to be enjoying--the fire? Pray you, sir, were the flames _blue_? Being the very essence of Presbyterianism, they should have been blue, you know."

"Capital! I shall tell his lordship of your excellent joke."

She hated herself for her little pleasantry, for she had sincerely admired the minister, whom she had known since childhood; but she must keep up a show of gayety, that these young men might carry a good report of her to headquarters.

With the growing cloudiness the day was visibly shortened. Joscelyn, glancing now and then at the window, watched the going of the light with secret satisfaction. Already the opposite houses were becoming indistinct, and as the shadows grew apace, just in proportion did her spirits rise; the danger was drifting away, and the man upstairs now had a chance for life. But just as she was congratulating herself that the ordeal was past, there came a trampling of hoofs at the door; and Tarleton's voice, giving some order, made her realize that the crisis had perchance but just now come. For one awful moment the power of motion forsook her; then with a masterly effort at calmness, she said:--

"Mother, entertain the gentlemen while I see why Samuel does not bring the lights."

She managed to walk with becoming leisure to the parlour door; but once outside she almost flew up the stairs. Down on her knees before the fire in her room, she wrote rapidly upon a scrap of paper:--

"Be ready. Tarleton has come. They shall search _my room first_;
that must be your refuge. When I open the attic door, stand thou
close behind it; I will direct attention to the chest and shelves
at the far end--then, if any, is your chance."

She rose to her feet; the hall below was full of manly voices, above which her mother called, "Joscelyn, Joscelyn, come at once, here are more visitors."

"Yes, mother." Then with a crash she dropped the key basket, which she had snatched up, just in front of the attic door, and while gathering up the spilled keys with one hand, she slipped the note under the door with the other, and instantly felt it grasped and drawn away to the other side. She knew Richard could read it by means of his tinder-box. Then flinging the keys into the basket, she ran downstairs. As she entered the parlour, and saw before the hearth the short, square figure of Tarleton, the tremor passed out of her limbs. All day she had been starting and quaking; now in the presence of the real danger, she was calm and collected. She greeted the colonel with a fair show of hospitality, and fell immediately to talking of those ill-fated volumes of McAden. It was anything to gain time that the last lingering daylight might go. Tarleton let her run on for a few minutes, even let Barry repeat her poor little joke about the blue flames; then he cleared his throat and began:--

"Mistress Joscelyn, it behooves--"

But she interrupted him. "Why, dear me, did not mother give you a cup of tea? You must have one at once to kill that cold in your throat. What a terrible ride you must have had to-day in this storm. A soldier's life is indeed a hard one, and nobly does he win the fame which illumines his name! Two lumps, or three? Ah, you have a sweet tooth."

But she could not stave him off after he had drained his cup. She wanted to tell him how they came by the tea since the tax had stopped its sale, but he cut her short.

"Another time, Mistress Joscelyn, I shall be glad to listen to your story, which is no doubt an interesting one. But just now I have graver matters to discuss with you."

"Grave matters with me?" she repeated, with feigned surprise and a ripple of laughter that was like the tinkle of a silver bell. "That is an unusual kind of discussion for a soldier to hold with a woman. Are you going to ask my advice about your morning coffee or your next campaign? But I pray you, sir, proceed; I am all attention."

There was not a glimmer of daylight through the unshuttered window-sash. She felt the sinews in her hands and arms grow like iron, and her pulses beat with the perfection of rhythm. So does a great crisis sometimes steady a woman's nerves.

The short colonel rocked himself from toe to heel a moment as he looked at her half in unbelief, half in admiration of her coolness. Truly she was superb. Then he said:--

"The spy of yesterday has not been taken."

"So these gentlemen were telling me," smiling over at Barry.

"But it is most important to the safety of our command and the good of our cause that he be found--dead or alive."

She merely nodded, never taking her steady gaze from his face.

"That he could have gotten out of the town is impossible. My men ran him in from the west side, over the bridge of the Eno. The sentinels were at their posts upon the north, east, and south sides of the village; he could not have passed them without detection."

Again he paused; and finding that something was expected of her she said, in a most matter-of-fact way, "I see."

"Then the only conclusion to come to is, that he is still in the town. Well, now, every house in this vicinity, where he was last seen, has been thoroughly searched save yours. I have talked with Lord Cornwallis--"

She stood up suddenly, with a dignity of movement that well-nigh disconcerted him. "I pray you, Colonel Tarleton, cut your explanation short."

"Then in short, madam, I have here an order from his lordship to examine your house and premises."

She stretched out her hand for the paper silently, imperiously.

Barry had risen and come to her side.

"You will see," Tarleton made haste to add, "that your own loyalty is not impugned. The paper states explicitly that it is not believed you have any knowledge of the man's whereabouts; but it is thought possible he may have concealed himself secretly in your house. I have spoken to his lordship, and--"

"It were unnecessary to say so--I know full well, without the telling, who has so poisoned his lordship's mind against me. Every man, woman, and child in this community knows that I have never wavered in my allegiance to the king. I have been a target for Whig criticism, almost of persecution, because of that allegiance--and this is my reward!" she struck the paper sharply with her other hand. "Well, sir, I recognize the source!" she turned her eyes scornfully upon the man on the rug.

Tarleton ground his teeth, but his private orders were to use the lady with all gentleness, and he knew how to obey--under provocation. He began some sullen disclaimer, but she broke in imperiously:--

"Enough, sir; such paltry excuses weary me. Let us to business."

"You interpose no objection?"

"None, sir. In this house the mandates of his majesty's representatives are obeyed. Let me see; is it your wish to begin upstairs? Very well. Perhaps these gentlemen will be kind enough to watch the stair; the flight below the landing comes down just at this door."

"May I not come with you?" pleaded Barry, who was loath to have her out of his sight with the brusque colonel, lest some rude word be spoken to her,--a discourtesy he would have been hot to revenge even upon his superior officer.

Tarleton nodded assent, but Joscelyn laughingly interposed, "Nay, good captain, your boots show the effects of the weather; it would grieve my mother's housewifely heart to know they were leaving their impress upon her carpets. Wait here and guard the stair--are we three not enough to capture one?" She pointed as she spoke from herself and Tarleton to his orderly who had been standing at attention just inside the door. "I take it, Colonel Tarleton, that we shall be sufficient?" He bowed; and thrusting her knitting into her pocket, she moved out of the room, followed by the officer and his orderly. "Mother, look you to the comfort of these other guests; I shall return presently."

There was a threat in Barry's eyes as they met Tarleton's in a fleeting glance; but he merely saluted in silence as that officer passed out. One day Tarleton should pay for this needless offence to a girl so unprotected and so beautiful. It was most evident from her bearing to see that she had nothing to fear from an investigation. Yes, one day he should pay for it.

In the hall Joscelyn stopped to pick up the key-basket and the one candle in its tall brass candlestick. Thus did she leave the lower hall unlighted save from the open parlour door, for she wanted no radiance thrown upward to the story above. She talked unceasingly as they mounted the steps, raising her voice presumably to over-top the noise of the heavy boots, but really as a warning to the man hiding above. Not for a moment did she allow herself to consider the probably fatal outcome of this search. She needed every faculty of mind and body to meet the moments as they came. In the narrow upper entry she paused and lifted her candle; a few chairs, a spinning-wheel, and a table formed its only furniture. A cat could scarcely have hidden there.

"Proceed, I pray you," said Tarleton, after one glance around.

Three doors opened on this passage; the nearest of these, which was the one toward the front, she threw open. The white bed, the frilled curtains, the dainty toilet articles upon the dresser, were heralds enough to proclaim the occupant. Even Tarleton hesitated.

"To search here were useless."

"Nay, sir; I insist that you carry out your instructions."

She placed the candle on the table and waited haughtily while the inspection was made, nodding toward the wardrobe, "Open the doors and see if Betty Clevering knew whereof she spoke."

"There is no one here," said Tarleton, following her instructions, his big hand looking awkward enough among the pretty feminine garments. She picked up the light and opened the connecting door to her mother's room. Tarleton went with her first, however, nodding to the orderly to return by way of the passage, that none might creep by that means from the rear.

"An excellent precaution; I had not thought of it," said Joscelyn, detecting the unspoken order.

There was a bright fire on her mother's hearth, and she stood as though warming herself while the two men made their investigation. Her manner was so perfectly frank and unconcerned that Tarleton began to curse himself for a fool. At headquarters the other officers had opposed his plan, laughing at the evidence his guards had gathered--a little mud on a trellis in rainy weather, a locked door when a woman was left alone in her house in such troublous times! Truly, the short colonel was over-credulous to attach any significance to such trifles. Only by the most masterly persuasion had he wrung that order from Cornwallis. He did not relish the laugh he knew his failure would provoke, so he lingered somewhat in this room, examining the closet, and making the orderly climb up and look to see that no one was hidden on top of the tall tester. Finally, he announced himself satisfied.

Joscelyn's hands were like ice as she took up the light and led the way into the hall, and there stopped in front of the attic door.

"This is the only other apartment on this floor. It is the attic over the pantry and kitchen, and extends to the right the length of this hall and of mother's room, which you have just quitted. There is no other entrance but this door in the corner, as you will see."

"Take the light, orderly," said Tarleton, as she turned over the keys in the basket. This was not what she wanted, but she yielded it without a demurrer.

The key turned easily, and opening the door she stepped in, still keeping her hand upon the knob, which action brought her within a foot and a half of the wall behind. Still holding the door and facing about she pointed down the long, narrow apartment.

"Will you make yourselves at home, gentlemen?"

Tarleton's spirits rose; the shadows and heaped-up odds and ends in the far side of the room seemed a covert for noble game. There was no furniture at this end against which the door opened, only bags of seed and dried peppers and herbs hanging along the wall in rear of the girlish figure. His quick glance took this in; then motioning his orderly to follow, he went down the length of the apartment, the light glinting on the pistols in each man's hand. On the shelves were carefully folded piles of bedclothes, and behind the chest a smooth roll of carpet powdered with dust. The hair trunks and the broken bureau gave up no guest, nor did the deep shelves reveal anything suspicious.

All this while a hand had been plucking at Joscelyn's skirt, but Tarleton had kept his side face to her so that any action was impossible. Now, however, he called sharply to his aide to place the candle on the floor and help him search the big chest, remarking in a low tone that "Caskets like that sometimes held living jewels."

Joscelyn laughed. "Then will it be in the shape of mice, of which capture I wish you joy. A rat hunt is noble sport for one of his Majesty's gallant officers!"

As she intended it should, this speech but spurred Tarleton on to greater exertions. They would soon be coming back to the door, and she dared not risk the closing of it with what she knew was behind. But there was not much time left for action; for, obeying orders, the aide placed the candle on the floor, and opening the lid of the chest began overhauling the contents; his chief's back was also toward the door. Now, if at all, was the moment for action. Joscelyn's hand had been on the yarn ball in her pocket; quick as a flash it was out and the thread snapped apart. The floor slanted straight from her to the candle. With a deft cast she sent the noiseless ball down the room; it struck the narrow-bottomed candlestick, which careened and rocked over--and the next moment the room was in total darkness.

A cry broke from her and Tarleton simultaneously; his was an oath upon the orderly, hers a nervous relaxation of the strain that had been upon her.

"Colonel Tarleton, come quickly and guard the door whilst I find another light!" she cried, suppressing the dry sob in her throat; for in the momentary darkness she had felt a warm body crush past her on its way to the hall.

But at that instant the orderly found his tinder-box.