Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) CUDJO'S CAVE. BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE AUTHOR OF "NEIGHBOR JACKWOOD," "THE DRUMMER BOY," ETC. BOSTON: J. E. TILTON AND COMPANY. 1864. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by J. T. TROWBRIDGE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 4 SPRING LANE. CONTENTS. I. The Schoolmaster in Trouble II. Penn and the Ruffians III. The Secret Cellar IV. The Search for the Missing V. Carl and his Friends VI. A Strange Coat for a Quaker VII. The Two Guests VIII. The Rover IX. Toby's Patient has a Caller X. The Widow's Green Chest XI. Southern Hospitality XII. Chivalrous Proceedings XIII. The Old Clergyman's Nightgown has an Adventure XIV. A Man's Story XV. An Anti-Slavery Document on Black Parchment XVI. In the Cave and on the Mountain XVII. Penn's Foot Knocks Down a Musket XVIII. Condemned to Death XIX. The Escape XX. Under the Bridge XXI. The Return into Danger XXII. Stackridge's Coat and Hat get Arrested XXIII. The Flight of the Prisoners XXIV. The Dead Rebel's Musket XXV. Black and White XXVI. Why Augustus did not Propose XXVII. The Men with the Dark Lantern XXVIII. Beauty and the Beast XXIX. In the Burning Woods XXX. Refuge XXXI. Lysander Takes Possession XXXII. Toby's Reward XXXIII. Carl Makes an Engagement XXXIV. Captain Lysander's Joke XXXV. The Moonlight Expedition XXXVI. Carl finds a Geological Specimen XXXVII. Carl Keeps his Engagement XXXVIII. Love in the Wilderness XXXIX. A Council of War XL. The Wonders of the Cave XLI. Prometheus Bound XLII. Prometheus Unbound XLIII. The Combat XLIV. How Augustus Finally Proposed XLV. Master and Slave Change Places XLVI. The Traitor XLVII. Bread on the Waters XLVIII. Conclusion L'Envoy CUDJO'S CAVE. I. _THE SCHOOLMASTER IN TROUBLE._ Carl crept stealthily up the bank, and, peering through the window, saw the master writing at his desk. In his neat Quaker garb, his slender form bent over his task, his calm young face dimly seen in profile, there he sat. The room was growing dark; the glow of a March sunset was fading fast from the paper on which the swift pen traced these words:-- "Tennessee is getting too hot for me. My school is nearly broken up, and my farther stay here is becoming not only useless, but dangerous. There are many loyal men in the neighborhood, but they are overawed by the reckless violence of the secessionists. Mobs sanctioned by self-styled vigilance committees override all law and order. As I write, I can hear the yells of a drunken rabble before my school-house door. I am an especial object of hatred to them on account of my northern birth and principles. They have warned me to leave the state, they have threatened me with southern vengeance, but thus far I have escaped injury. How long this reign of terror is to last, or what is to be the end----" A rap on the window drew the writer's attention, and, looking up, he saw, against the twilight sky, the broad German face of the boy Carl darkening the pane. He stepped to raise the sash. "What is it, Carl?" The lad glanced quickly around, first over one shoulder, then the other, and said, in a hoarse whisper,-- "Shpeak wery low!" "Was it you that rapped before?" "I have rapped tree times, not loud, pecause I vas afraid the men would hear." "What men are they?" "The Wigilance Committee's men! They have some tar in a kettle. They have made a fire unter it, and I hear some of 'em say, 'Run, boys, and pring some fedders.'" "Tar and feathers!" The young man grew pale. "They have threatened it, but they will not dare!" "They vill dare do anything; but you shall prewent 'em! See vat I have prought you!" Carl opened his jacket, and showed the handle of a revolver. "Stackridge sent it." "Hide it! hide it!" said the master, quickly. "He offered it to me himself. I told him I could not take it." "He said, may be when you smell tar and see fedders, you vill change your mind," answered Carl. The schoolmaster smiled. The pallor of fear which had surprised him for an instant, had vanished. "I believe in a different creed from Mr. Stackridge's, honest man as he is. I shall not resist evil, but overcome evil with good, if I can; if I cannot, I shall suffer it." "You show you vill shoot some of 'em, and they vill let you go," said Carl, not understanding the nobler doctrine. "Shooting vill do some of them willains some good!" his placid blue eyes kindling, as if he would like to do a little of the shooting. "You take it?" "No," said the young man, firmly. "Such weapons are not for me." "Wery vell!" Carl buttoned his jacket over the revolver. "Then you come mit me, if you please. Get out of the vinder and run. That is pest, I suppose." "No, no, my lad. I may as well meet these men first as last." "Then I vill go and pring help!" suddenly exclaimed, the boy; and away he scampered across the fields, leaving the young man alone in the darkening school-room. It was not a very pleasant situation to be in, you may well believe. As he closed the sash, a faint odor of tar was wafted in on the evening breeze. The voices of the ruffians at the door grew louder and more menacing. He knew they were only waiting for the tar to heat, for the shadows of night to thicken, and for him to make his appearance. He returned to his desk, but it was now too dark to write. He could barely see to sign his name and superscribe the envelope. This done, he buttoned his straight-fitting brown coat, put on his modest hat, and stood pondering in his mind what he should do. A young man scarcely twenty years old, reared in the quiet atmosphere of a community of Friends, and as unaccustomed, hitherto, to scenes of strife and violence as the most innocent child,--such was Penn Hapgood, teacher of the "Academy" (as the school was proudly named) in Curryville. This was the first great trial of his faith and courage. He had not taken Carl's advice, and run, because he did not believe that he could escape the danger in that way. And as for fighting, that was not in his heart any more than it was in his creed. But to say he did not dread to meet his foes at the door, that he felt no fear, would be speaking falsely. He was afraid. His entire nature, delicate body and still more delicate soul, shrank from the ordeal. He went to the outer door, and laid his hand on the bolt, but could not, for a long time, summon resolution to open it. As he hesitated, there came a loud thump on one of the panels which nearly crushed it in, and filled the hollow building with ominous echoes. "Make ready in thar, you hound of a abolitionist!" shouted a brutal voice; "we're about ready fur ye!" Penn's hand drew back. I dare say it trembled, I dare say his face turned white again, as he felt the danger so near. How could he confront, with his sensitive spirit, those merciless, coarse men? "I'll wait a little," he thought within himself. "Perhaps Carl _will_ bring help." There were good sturdy Unionists in the place, men who, unlike the Pennsylvania schoolmaster, believed in opposing evil with evil, force by force. Only last night, one of them entered this very school-room, bolted the door carefully, and sat down to unfold to the young master a scheme for resisting the plans of the secessionists. It was a league for circumventing treason; for keeping Tennessee in the Union; for preserving their homes and families from the horrors of the impending civil war. The conspirators had arms concealed; they met in secret places; they were watching for the hour to strike. Would the schoolmaster join them? Strange to say, they believed in him as a man who had abilities as a leader, "an undeveloped fighting man"--he, Penn Hapgood, the Quaker! Penn smiled, as he declined the farmer's offer of a commission in the secret militia, and refused to accept the weapon of self-defence which the same earnest Unionist had proffered him again, through Carl, the German boy, this night. Penn thought of these men now, and hoped that Carl would haste and bring them to the rescue. Then immediately he blushed at his own cowardly inconsistency; for something in his heart said that he ought not to wish others to do for him what he had conscientious scruples against doing for himself. "I'll go out!" he said, sternly, to his trembling heart. But he would first make a reconnoissance through the keyhole. He looked, and saw one ruffian stirring the fire under the tar kettle, another displaying a rope, and two others alternately drinking from a bottle. He started back, as the thundering on the panel was repeated, and the same voice roared out, "You kin be takin' off them clo'es of yourn; the tar is about het!" "I'll wait a few minutes longer for Carl!" said Penn to himself, with a long breath. Unfortunately, Carl was not just now in a situation to render much assistance. Although he had arrived unseen at the window, he did not retire undiscovered. He had run but a short distance when a gruff voice ordered him to stop. He had a way, however, of misunderstanding English when he chose, and interpreted the command to mean, run faster. Receiving it in that sense, he obeyed. Somebody behind him began to run too. In short, it was a chase; and Carl, glancing backwards, saw long-legged Silas Ropes, one of the ringleaders of the mob, taking appalling strides after him, across the open field. There were some woods about a quarter of a mile away, and Carl made for them, trusting to their shelter and the shades of night to favor his escape. He was fifteen years old, strong, and an excellent runner. He did not again look behind to see if Silas was gaining on him, but attended strictly to his own business, which was, to get into the thickets as soon as possible. His success seemed almost certain; a few rods more, and the undergrowth would be reached; and he was congratulating himself on having thus led away from the schoolmaster one of his most desperate enemies, when he rushed suddenly almost into the arms of two men,--or rather, into a feather-bed, which they were fetching by the corner of the wood lot. "Ketch that Dutchman!" roared Silas. And they "ketched" him. "What's the Dutchman done?" said one of the men, throwing himself lazily on the feather-bed, while his companion held Carl for his pursuer. "I don't know," said Carl, opening his eyes with placid wonder. "I tought he vas vanting to run a race mit me." "A race, you fool!" said Silas, seizing and shaking him. "Didn't you hear me tell ye to stop?" "Did you say _shtop_?" asked Carl, with a broad smile. "It ish wery queer! Ven it sounded so much as if you said _shtep_! so I _shtepped_ just as fast as I could." "What was you thar at the winder fur?" "Vot vinder?" said Carl. "Of the Academy," said Silas. "O! to pe sure! I vas there," said Carl. "Pecause I left my books in there last week, and I vas going to get 'em. But I saw somebody in the house, and I vas afraid." "Wasn't it the schoolmaster?" "I shouldn't be wery much surprised if it vas the schoolmaster," said Carl, with blooming simplicity. "You lying rascal! what did you say to him through the winder?" Carl looked all around with an expression of mild wonder, as if expecting somebody else to answer. "Why don't you speak?" And Silas gave his arm a fierce wrench. "Vat did you say?" "I said, you lying rascal!----" "That is not my name," said Carl, "and I tought you vas shpeaking to somebody else. I tought you vas conwersing mit this man," pointing at the fellow on the bed. "Dan Pepperill!" said Silas, turning angrily on the recumbent figure, "what are you stretching your lazy bones thar fur? We're waiting fur them feathers, and you'll git a coat yourself, if you don't show a little more of the sperrit of a gentleman! You don't act as if your heart was in this yer act of dooty we're performin', any more'n as if you was a northern mudsill yourself!" "Wal, the truth is," said Dan Pepperill, reluctantly getting up from the bed, and preparing to shoulder it, "the schoolmaster has allus treated me well, and though I hate his principles,----" "You don't hate his principles, neither! You're more'n half a abolitionist yourself! And I swear to gosh," said Silas, "if you don't do your part now----" "I will! I'm a-going to!" said Dan, with something like a groan. "Though, as I said, he has allus used me well----" "Shet up!" Silas administered a kick, which Dan adroitly caught in the bed. Mr. Ropes got his foot embarrassed in the feathers, lost his balance, and fell. Dan, either by mistake or design, fell also, tumbling the bed in a smothering mass over the screaming mouth and coarse red nose of the prostrate Silas. The third man, who was guarding Carl, began to laugh. Carl laughed too, as if it was the greatest joke in the world; to enhance the fun of which, he gave his man a sudden push forwards, tripped him as he went, and so flung him headlong upon the struggling heap. This pleasant feat accomplished, he turned to run; but changed his mind almost instantly; and, instead of plunging into the undergrowth, threw himself upon the accumulating pile. There he scrambled, and kicked, with his heels in the air, and rolled over the topmost man, who rolled over Mr. Pepperill, who rolled over the feather-bed, which rolled again over Mr. Ropes, in a most lively and edifying manner. At this interesting juncture Carl's reason for changing his mind and remaining, became manifest. Two more of the chivalry from the tar kettle came rushing to the spot, and would speedily have seized him had he attempted to get off. So he staid, thinking he might be helping the master in this way as well as any other. And now the miscellaneous heap of legs and feathers began to resolve itself into its original elements. First Carl was pulled off by one of the new comers; then Dan and the man Carl had sent to comfort him fell to blows, clinched each other, and rolled upon the earth; and lastly, Mr. Silas Ropes arose, choked with passion and feathers, from under the rent and bursting bed. The two squabbling men were also quickly on their feet, Mr. Pepperill proving too much for his antagonist. "What did you pitch into me fur?" demanded Silas, threatening his friend Dan. "What did Gad pitch into me fur?" said the irate Dan, shaking his fist at Gad. "What did you push and jump on to me fur?" said Gad, clutching Carl, who was still laughing. Thus the wrath of the whole party was turned against the boy. "Pless me!" said he, staring innocently, "I tought it vas all for shport!" The furious Mr. Ropes was about to convince him, by some violent act, of his mistake, when cries from the direction of the school-house called his attention. "See what's there, boys!" said Silas. "Durn me," said Mr. Pepperill, looking across the field as he brushed the feathers from his clothes, "if it ain't the master himself!" In fact, Penn had by this time summoned courage to slip back the bolt, throw open the school-house door, and come out. The gentlemen who were heating the tar and drinking from the bottle were taken by surprise. They had not expected that the fellow would come out at all, but wait to be dragged out. Their natural conclusion was, that he was armed; for he appeared with as calm and determined a front as if he had been perfectly safe from injury himself, while it was in his power to do them some fatal mischief. They could not understand how the mere consciousness of his own uprightness, and a sense of reliance on the arm of eternal justice, could inspire a man with courage to face so many. "My friends," said Penn, as they beset him with threats and blasphemy, "I have never injured one of you, and you will not harm me." And as if some deity held an invisible shield above him, he passed by; and they, in their astonishment, durst not even lay their hands upon him. "I've hearn tell he was a Quaker, and wouldn't fight," muttered one; "but I see a revolver under his coat!" "Where's Sile? Where's Sile Ropes?" cried others, who, though themselves unwilling to assume the responsibility of seizing the young master, would have been glad to see Silas attempt it. Great was the joy of Carl when he saw Mr. Hapgood walking through the guard of ruffians untouched. But, a moment after, he uttered an involuntary groan of despair. It was Penn's custom to cross the fields in going from the Academy to the house where he boarded, and his path wound by the edge of the woods, where Silas and his accomplices were at this moment gathering up the spilt feathers. "All right!" said Mr. Ropes, crouching down in order to remain concealed from Penn's view. "This is as comf'table a place to do our dooty by him as any to be found. Keep dark, boys, and let him come!" II. _PENN AND THE RUFFIANS_. Penn traversed the field, followed by the gang from the school-house. As he approached the woods, Silas and his friends rose up before him. He was thus surrounded. "Thought you'd come and meet us half way, did ye?" said Mr. Ropes, striding across his path. "Very accommodating in you, to be shore!" And he laughed a brutal laugh, which was echoed by all his friends except Dan. "I have not come to meet you," replied Penn, "but I am going about my own private business, and wish to pass on." "Wal, you can't pass on till we've settled a small account with you that's been standing a little too long a'ready. Bring that tar, some on ye! Come, Pepperill! show your sperrit!" This Pepperill was a ragged, lank, starved-looking man, whose appearance was on this occasion rendered ludicrous by the feathers sticking all over him, and by an expression of dejection which _would_ draw down the corners of his miserable mouth and roll up his piteous eyes, notwithstanding his efforts to appear, what Silas termed, "sperrited." "You, too, among my enemies, Daniel!" said Penn, reproachfully. It was a look of grief, not of anger, which he turned on the wretched man. Poor Pepperill could not stand it. "I own, I own," he stammered forth, a picture of mingled fear and contrition, "you've allus used me well, Mr. Hapgood,--but," he hastened to add, with a scared glance at Silas, "I hate your principles!" "Look here, Dan Pepperill!" remarked Mr. Ropes, with grim significance, "you better shet your yaup, and be a bringin' that ar kittle!" Dan groaned, and departed. Penn smiled bitterly. "I have always used him well; and this is the return I get!" He thought of another evening, but little more than a week since, when, passing by this very path, he heard a deeper groan than that which the wretch had just uttered. He turned aside into the edge of the woods, and there beheld an object to excite at once his laughter and compassion. What he saw was this. Dan Pepperill, astride a rail; his hands tied together above it, and his feet similarly bound beneath. The rail had been taken from a fence a mile away, and he had been carried all that distance on the shoulders of some of these very men. They had taken turns with him, and when, tired at last, had placed the rail in the crotches of two convenient saplings, and there left him. The crotch in front was considerably higher than that behind, which circumstance gave him the appearance of clinging to the back of an animal in the act of rearing frightfully, and exposed a delicate part of his apparel that had been sadly rent by contact with splinters. And there the wretch was clinging and groaning when Penn came up. "For the love of the Lord!" said Dan, "take me down!" "Why, what is the matter? How came you here?" "I'm a dead man; that's the matter! I've been wipped to death, and then rode on a rail; that's the way I come here!" "Whipped! what for?" said Penn, losing no time in cutting the sufferer's bonds. "Ye see," said Dan, when taken down and laid upon the ground, "the patrolmen found Combs's boy Pete out t'other night without a pass, and took him and tied him to a tree, and licked him." The "boy Pete" was a negro man upwards of fifty years old, owned by the said Combs. "Wal, ye see, jest cause I found him, and took him home with me, and washed his back fur him, and bound cotton on to it, and kep' him over night, and gin him a good breakfast, and a drink o' suthin' strong in the morning, and then went home with him, and talked with his master so'st he wouldn't git another licking,--just for that, Sile Ropes and his gang took me and served me wus'n ever they served him!" And the broken-spirited man cried like a child at the recollection of his injuries. He was one of the "white trash" of the south, whom even the negroes belonging to good families look down upon; a weak, degraded, kind-hearted man, whose offence was not simply that he had shown mercy to the "boy Pete," after his flogging, but that he associated on familiar terms with such negroes as were not too proud to cultivate his acquaintance, and secretly sold them whiskey. After repeated warnings, he had been flogged, and treated to a ride on a three-cornered rail, and hung up to reflect upon his ungentlemanly conduct and its sad consequences. At sight of him, Penn, who knew nothing of his selling whiskey to the blacks, or of any other offence against the laws or prejudices of the community, than that of befriending a beaten and bleeding slave, felt his indignation roused and his sympathies excited. "It's a dreadful state of society in which such outrages are tolerated!" he exclaimed. "_I_ say, dreadful!" sobbed Mr. Pepperill. "The good Samaritan himself would be in danger of a beating here!" said Penn. "I don't know what good smart 'un you mean," replied the weeping Dan, whose knowledge of Scripture was extremely limited, "but I bet he'd git some, ef he didn't keep his eyes peeled!" And he wiped his nose with his sleeve. Penn smiled at the man's ignorance, and said, as he lifted him up,-- "Friend Daniel, do you know that it is partly your own fault that this deplorable state of things exists?" "How's it my fault, I'd like to know?" whimpered Daniel. "Come, I'll help thee home, and tell thee what I mean, by the way," said Penn, using the idiom of his sect, into which familiar manner of speech he naturally fell when talking confidentially with any one. "I am stiff as any old spavined hoss!" whined the poor fellow, straightening his legs, and attempting to walk. Penn helped him home as he promised, and comforted him, and said to him many things, which he little supposed were destined to be brought against him so soon, and by this very Daniel Pepperill. This was the way of it. When it was known that Penn had befriended the friend of the blacks, Silas Ropes paid Dan a second visit, and by threats of vengeance, on the one hand, and promises of forgiveness and treatment "like a gentleman," on the other, extorted from him a confession of all Penn had said and done. "Now, Dan," said Mr. Ropes, patronizingly, "I'll tell ye what you do. You jine with us, and show yourself a man of sperrit, a payin' off this yer abolitionist for his outrageous interference in our affairs." "Sile," interrupted Dan, earnestly, "what 'ge mean I'm to do? Turn agin' him?" "Exactly," replied Mr. Ropes. "Sile," said Dan, excitedly, "I be durned if I do!" "Then, I swear to gosh!" said Sile, spitting a great stream of tobacco juice across Mrs. Pepperill's not very clean floor, "you'll have a dose yourself before another sun, which like as not'll be your last!" This terrible menace produced its desired effect; and the unwilling Dan was here, this night, one of Penn's persecutors, in consequence. It was not enough that he had shown his "sperrit" by fetching the victim's own bed from his boarding-house, telling his landlady, the worthy Mrs. Sprowl, that Sile said she must "charge it to her abolition boarder." He must now show still more "sperrit" by bringing the tar. A well-worn broom had been borrowed of Mrs. Pepperill, by those who knew best how the tar in such cases should be applied: the handle of this was thrust by one of the men, named Griffin, through the bail of the kettle, and Dan was ordered to "ketch holt o' t'other eend," and help carry. Dan "ketched holt" accordingly. But never was kettle so heavy as that; its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly the broom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt his laudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for his benefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether. But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and the next instant flourished the club over Dan's head. "I didn't mean tu! it slipped!" shrieked the terrified wretch. After which he durst no more attempt to thwart the chivalrous designs of his friends, but carried the tar like a gentleman. "This way!" said Silas, getting the escaped feathers into a pile with his foot. "Thar! set it down. Now, sir," throwing away his own coat, "peel off them clo'es o' yourn, Mr. Schoolmaster, mighty quick, if you don't want 'em peeled off fur ye!" Penn gave no sign of compliance, but fixed his eye steadfastly upon Mr. Ropes. "I insist," said he,--for he had already made the request while the men were bringing the tar,--"on knowing what I have done to merit this treatment." "Wal, that I don't mind tellin' ye," said Silas, "for we've all night for this yer little job before us. Dan Pepperill, stand up here!" Dan came forward, appearing extremely low-spirited and weak in the knees. "Is it you, Daniel, who are to bear witness against me?" said Penn, in a voice of singular gentleness, which chimed in like a sweet and solemn bell after the harsh clangor of Silas's ruffian tones. Dan rolled up his eyes, hugged his tattered elbows, and gave a dismal groan. "Come!" said Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knocked him down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr. Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turned from the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart is a-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country. Ain't it, Dan?--say yes," he hissed in his ear, giving him a second slap, "or else--you know!" "O Lord, yes!" ejaculated Dan, with a start of terror. "What Mr. Ropes says is perfectly--perfectly--jes' so!" "Your heart is a-burnin', ain't it?" said Silas. "Ye--yes! I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan. "This man," continued Ropes, who prided himself on being a great orator, with power to "fire the southern heart," and never neglected an occasion to show himself off in that capacity,--"this individgle ye see afore ye, gentlemen,"--once more hitting Dan, this time with the toe of his boot, gently, to indicate the subject of his remarks,--"was lately as low-minded a peep as ever you see. He had no more conscience than to 'sociate with niggers, and sell 'em liquor, and even give 'em liquor when they couldn't pay fur't; and you all know how he degraded himself by takin' Combs's Pete into his house and doin' for him arter he'd been very properly licked by the patrol. All which, I am happy to say, the deluded man sincerely repents of, and promises to behave more like a gentleman in futur'. Don't you, Dan?" As Dan, attempting to speak, only gasped, Ropes administered a sharp poke in his ribs, whispering fiercely,-- "Say you do, mighty quick, or I'll----!" "O! I repents! I--I be durned if I don't!" said Dan. "And now, as to you!" Silas turned on the schoolmaster. "Your offence in gineral is bein' a northern abolitionist. Besides which, your offences in partic'ler is these. Not contented with teachin' the Academy, which was well enough, since it is necessary that a few should have larnin', so the may know how to govern the rest,--not contented with that, you must run the thing into the ground, by settin' up a evenin' school, and offerin' to larn readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, free gratis, to whosomever wanted to 'tend. Which is contrary to the sperrit of our institootions, as you have been warned more 'n oncet. That's charge Number Two. Charge Number Three is, that you stand up for the old rotten Union, and tell folks, every chance you git, that secession, that noble right of southerners, is a villanous scheme, that'll ruin the south, if persisted in, and plunge the whole nation into war. Your very words, I believe. Can you deny it?" "Certainly, I have said something very much like that, and it is my honest conviction," replied Penn, firmly. "Gentlemen, take notice!" said Mr. Ropes. "We will now pass on to charge Number Four, and be brief, for the tar is a-coolin'. Suthin' like eight days ago, when the afore-mentioned Dan Pepperill was in the waller of his degradation, some noble-souled sons of the sunny south"--the orator smiled with pleasant significance--"lifted him up, and hung him up to air, in the crotches of two trees, jest by the edge of the woods here, and went home to supper, intending to come back and finish the purifying process begun with him later in the evenin'. But what did you do, Mr. Schoolmaster, but come along and take him down, prematoorely, and go to corruptin' him agin with your vile northern principles! Didn't he, Dan?" "I--I dun know" faltered Dan. "Yes, you do know, too! Didn't he corrupt you?" These words being accompanied by a severe hint from Sile's boot, Mr. Pepperill remembered that Penn _did_ corrupt him. "And if I hadn't took ye in season, you'd have returned to your base-born mire, wouldn't you?" "I suppose I would," the miserable Dan admitted. "Wal! now!"--Sile spread his palm over the tar to see if it retained its temperature,--"hurry up, Dan, and tell us all this northern agitator said to you that night." "O Lord!" groaned Pepperill, "my memory is so short!" "Bring that rope, boys! and give him suthin' to stretch it!" said Silas, growing impatient. Dan, knowing that stretching his memory in the manner threatened, implied that his neck was to be stretched along with it, made haste to remember. "My friends," said Penn, interrupting the poor man's forced and disconnected testimony, "let me spare him the pain of bearing witness against me. I recall perfectly well every thing I said to him that night. I said it was a shame that such outrages as had been committed on him should be tolerated in a civilized society. I told him it was partly his own fault that such a state of things existed. I said, 'It is owing to the ignorance and degradation of you poor whites that a barbarous system is allowed to flourish and tyrannize over you.' I said----" But here Penn was interrupted by a violent outcry, the majority of the persons present coming under the head of "poor whites." "Let him go on! let him perceed!" said Silas. "What did you mean by 'barbarous system'?" "I meant," replied Penn, all fear vanishing in the glow of righteous indignation which filled him,--"I meant the system which makes it a crime to teach a man to read--a punishable offence to befriend the poor and down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes it dangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to a person towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy which others have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system----" "Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You've said more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of a mild coat of tar and feathers." "I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands; so I thought I might as well be plain with you." "And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys, strip him!" "Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which they mistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I have said has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow me to speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crime against your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?" "We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the man called Gad. "You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another. "If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; I cannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have never interfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, or injurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but, whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient and faithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, a simple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harm to no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites. How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Not many, I am sure." "What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?" interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, what good would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sech low, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at the north." "The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alone makes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, had the common school education of the north, you would not be engaged in such business; you would be ashamed of assaulting a peaceable man on account of his opinions; you would know that the man who comes to teach you is your best friend. If you were not ignorant men, you, who do not own slaves, would know that slavery is the worst enemy of your prosperity, and you would not be made its willing tools." The firm dignity of the youth, assisted by the illusion that prevailed concerning a revolver in his pocket, had kept his foes at bay, and gained him a hearing. He now attempted to pass on, when the man Gad, stepping behind him, raised the broom-handle, and dealt him a stunning blow on the back of the head. "Down with him!" "Strip him!" "Give him a thrashing first!" "Hang him!" And the ruffians threw themselves furiously upon the fallen man. "Whar's that Dutch boy?" cried Silas. "I meant he should help Dan lay on the tar." But Carl was nowhere to be seen, having taken advantage of the confusion and darkness to escape into the woods. III. _THE SECRET CELLAR._ No sooner did the lad feel himself safe from pursuit, than he made his way out of the woods again, and ran with all speed to Mr. Stackridge's house. To his dismay he learned that that stanch Unionist was absent from home. "Is he in the willage?" said the breathless Carl. "I reckon he is," said the farmer's wife; adding in a whisper,--for she guessed the nature of Carl's business,--"inquire for him down to barber Jim's." And she told him what to say to the barber. Barber Jim was a colored man, who had demonstrated the ability of the African to take care of himself, by purchasing first his own freedom of his mistress, buying his wife and children afterwards, and then accumulating a property as much more valuable than all Silas Ropes and his poor white minions possessed, as his mind was superior to their combined intelligence. Jim had accomplished this by uniting with industrious habits a natural shrewdness, which enabled him to make the most of his labor and of his means. He owned the most flourishing barber-shop in the place, and kept in connection with it (I am sorry to say) a bar, at which he dealt out to his customers some very bad liquors at very good prices. Had Jim been a white man, he would not, of course, have stooped to make money by any such low business as rum-selling--O, no! but being only a "nigger," what else could you expect of him? Well, on this very evening Jim's place began to be thronged almost before it was dark. A few came in to be shaved, while many more passed through the shop into the little bar-room beyond. What was curious, some went in who appeared never to come out again; Mr. Stackridge among the number. It was not to get shaved, nor yet to get tipsy, that this man visited Jim's premises. The moment they were alone together in the bar-room, he gave the proprietor a knowing wink. "Many there?" "I reckon about a dozen," said Jim. "Go in?" Stackridge nodded; and with a grin Jim opened a private door communicating with some back stairs, down which his visitor went groping his way in the dark. Customers came and went; now and then one disappeared similarly down the back stairs; many remained in the barber's shop to smoke, and discuss in loud tones the exciting question of the day--secession; when, lastly, a boy of fifteen came rushing in. His face was flushed with running, and he was quite out of breath. "What's wanting, Carl?" said the barber. "A shave?" This was one of Jim's jokes, at which his customers laughed, to the boy's confusion, for his cheeks were as smooth as a peach. "I vants to find Mishter Stackridge," said the lad. "He ain't here," said Jim, looking around the room. "It is something wery partic'lar. One of his pigs have got choked mit a cob, and he must go home and unchoke him." This was what Carl had been directed by the farmer's wife to say to the barber, in case he should profess ignorance concerning her husband. "Pity about the pig," said Jim. "Mabby Stackridge'll be in bime-by. Any thing else I can do for ye?" Carl stepped up to the barber, and said in a hoarse whisper, loud enough to be heard by every body,-- "A mug of peer, if you pleashe." "I got some that'll make a Dutchman's head hum!" said Jim, leading the way into the little grog room. "That's Villars's Dutch boy," said one of the smokers in the barber-shop. "Beats all nater, how these Dutch will swill down any thing in the shape of beer!" This elegant observation may have had a grain of truth in it, as we who have Teutonic friends may have reason to know. However, the man had mistaken the boy this time. "It is not the peer I vants, it is Mr. Stackridge," whispered Carl, when alone with the proprietor. Jim regarded him doubtfully a moment, then said, "I reckon I shall have to open a cask in the suller. You jest tend bar for me while I am gone." He descended the stairs, closing the door after him. Carl, who thought of the schoolmaster in the hands of the mob, felt his heart swell and burn with anxiety at each moment's delay. Jim did not keep him long waiting. "This way, Carl, if you want some of the right sort," said the negro from the stairs. Carl went down in the darkness, Jim taking his hand to guide him. They entered a cellar, crowded with casks and boxes, where there was a dim lamp burning; but no human being was visible, until suddenly out of a low, dark passage, between some barrels, a stooping figure emerged, giving Carl a momentary start of alarm. "What's the trouble, Carl?" "O! Mishter Stackridge! is it you?" said Carl, as the figure stood erect in the dim light,--sallow, bony, grim, attired in coarse clothes. "The schoolmaster--that is the trouble!" and he hastily related what he had seen. "Wouldn't take the pistol? the fool!" muttered the farmer. "But I'll see what I can do for him." He grasped the boy's collar, and said in a suppressed but terribly earnest voice, "Swear never to breathe a word of what I'm going to show you!" "I shwear!" said Carl. "Come!" Stackridge took him by the wrist, and drew him after him into the passage. It was utterly dark, and Carl had to stoop in order to avoid hitting his head. As they approached the end of it, he could distinguish the sound of voices,--one louder than the rest giving the word of command. "_Order--arms!_" The farmer knocked on the head of a cask, which rolled aside, and opened the way into a cellar beyond, under an old storehouse, which was likewise a part of Barber Jim's property. The second cellar was much larger and better lighted than the first, and rendered picturesque by heavy festoons of cobwebs hanging from the dark beams above. The rays of the lamps flashed upon gun-barrels, and cast against the damp and mouldy walls gigantic shadows of groups of men. Some were conversing, others were practising the soldiers' drill. "Neighbors!" said Stackridge, in a voice which commanded instant attention, and drew around him and Carl an eager group. "It's just as I told you,--Ropes and his gang are lynching Hapgood!" "It's the fellow's own fault," said a stern, dark man, the same who had been drilling the men. "He should have taken care of himself." "Young Hapgood's a decent sort of cuss," said another whom Carl knew,--a farmer named Withers,--"and I like him. I believe he means well; but he ain't one of us." "I've been deceived in him," said a third. "He always minded his own business, and kept so quiet about our institutions, I never suspected he was anti-slavery till I talked with him t'other day about joining us--then he out with it." "He thinks we're all wrong," said a bigoted pro-slavery man named Deslow. "He says slavery's the cause of the war, and it's absurd in us to go in for the Union and slavery too!" For these men, though loyal to the government, and bitterly opposed to secession, were nearly all slaveholders or believers in slavery. "May be the fellow ain't far wrong there," said he who had been drilling his comrades. "I think myself slavery's the cause of the war, and that's what puts us in such a hard place. The time may come when we will have to take a different stand--go the whole figure with the free north, or drift with the cotton states. But that time hain't come yet." "But the time _has_ come," said Stackridge, impatiently, "to do something for Hapgood, if we intend to help him at all. While we are talking, he may be hanging." "And what can we do?" retorted the other. "We can't make a move for him without showing our hand, and it ain't time for that yet." "True enough, Captain Grudd," said Stackridge. "But three or four of us, with our revolvers, can happen that way, and take him out of the hands of Ropes and his cowardly crew without much difficulty. I, for one, am going." "Hapgood don't even believe in fighting!" observed Deslow, with immense disgust; "and blast me if I am going to fight _for_ him!" Carl was almost driven to despair by the indifference of these men and the time wasted in discussion. He could have hugged the grim and bony Stackridge when he saw him make a decided move at last. Three others volunteered to accompany them. The cask was once more rolled away from the entrance, and one by one they crept quickly through the passage into the first cellar. Stackridge preceded the rest, to see that the way was clear. There was no one at the bar; the door leading into the shop was closed; and Carl, following the four men, passed out by a long entry communicating with the street, the door of which was thrown open to the public on occasions when there was a great rush to Jim's bar, but which was fastened this night by a latch that could be lifted only from the inside. IV. _A SEARCH FOR THE MISSING._ The academy was situated in a retired spot, half a mile out of the village. Stackridge and his party were soon pushing rapidly towards it along the dark, unfrequented road. Carl ran on before, leading the way to the scene of the lynching. The place was deserted and silent. Only the cold wind swept the bleak wood-side, making melancholy moans among the trees. Overhead shone the stars, lighting dimly the desolation of the ground. "Now, where's yer tar-and-feathering party?" said Stackridge. "See here, Dutchy! ye hain't been foolin' us, have ye?" "I vish it vas notting but fooling!" said Carl, full of distress, fearing the worst. "We have come too late. The willains have took him off." "Feathers, men!" muttered Stackridge, picking up something from beneath his feet. "The boy's right! Now, which way have they gone?--that's the question." "Hark!" said Carl. "I see a man!" Indeed, just then a dim figure arose from the earth, and appeared slowly and painfully moving away. "Hold on there!" cried Stackridge. "Needn't be afeared of us. We're your friends." The figure stopped, uttering a deep groan. "Is it you, Hapgood?" "No," answered the most miserable voice in the world. "It's me." "Who's _me_?" "Pepperill--Dan Pepperill; ye know me, don't ye, Stackridge?" "You? you scoundrel!" said the farmer. "What have ye been doing to the schoolmaster? Answer me this minute, or I'll----" "O, don't, don't!" implored the wretch. "I'll answer, I'll tell every thing, only give me a chance!" "Be quick, then, and tell no lies!" The poor man looked around at his captors in the starlight, stooping dejectedly, and rubbing his bent knees. "I ain't to blame--I'll tell ye that to begin with. I've been jest knocked about, from post to pillar, and from pillar to post, till I don't know who's my friends and who ain't. I reckon more ain't than is!" added he, dismally. "That's neither here nor there!" said Stackridge. "Where's Hapgood? that's what I want to know." "Ye see," said Dan, endeavoring to collect his wits (you would have thought they were in his kneepans, and he was industriously rubbing them up), "Ropes sent me to tote the kittle home, and when I got back here, I be durned if they wasn't all gone, schoolmaster and all." "But what had they done to him?" "I don't know, I'm shore! That's what I was a comin' back fur to see. He let me down when I was hung up on the rail, and helped me home; and so I says to myself, says I, 'Why shouldn't I do as much by him?' so I come back, and found him gone." "What was in the kittle?" Stackridge took him by the throat. "O, don't go fur to layin' it to me, and I'll tell ye! Thar'd been tar in the kittle! It had been used to give him a coat. That's the fact, durn me if it ain't! They put it on with the broom--my broom--they made me bring my
{'title': "Cudjo's Cave by J. T. Trowbridge", 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}