CHAPTER XII.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 396, 24 August 1889, Page 4

CHAPTER XII.

THE HONEYMOON IN THE BLUE JUDGE. These thoughts rapidly took my mind to my promised bride, her beauty, her love — now all mine again. For a momonb I was in heaven. The next instant I was on earth. The negio's hand was on my aim. Ho muttered l Hisfc I' We both listened. Someone was apparently, from tho noise, examining the boat that had brought us up tho river. 1 I'll see what (ley's up to i' whispered Caucus, and he stole irom the cabin, while 1 examined my levolver to bo suie that it was in condition for service. With it, the forethought of my sweetheart had piovided a little extra ammunition. For fear the dampness had affected the priming, foi some drops of water might have got on it when I had the trouble with Caucus on the rner, I carefully placed a little fresh powder in each ot its six nipples, and re-capped the cylinder. To do this I had to turn my back to the door in order to get tho light horn the candle. I was just finishing this when I heard a chuckle, and looking ovor my shoulder, saw a man standing in the dooiway of the cabin. To my sorrow, 1 recognised him. lie was Pete Bassctt, the Confederate detective. ' Wai i' lemavked he, with a giin, ' this is exhilarating as whisky ! To meet you agin, Mi&ter Bryant ! 1 heaid in Charleston foui hour-5 ago that you had cut out. Thar was a standing toward fiom a particular triend of yours to keep an eye on you, and l come after it.' ' How did you discover mo V murmuvedl, sapping tho \i\>b nipple of tho cylinder. ' Why, by instinct ' I know the gal was staying up har. 1 came and nosed around. I reckon'd if you went down the rner, our picket boatfe would havo nipped you. So when I discovered that ar skitl had been out to-night and evacuated in a huiry by the oai> lett in it, I calculated I'd nabbed you again. So come along ;' and he would lia\e approached mo. ■ Stand where you are !' ' Not by a darned sight '' ' Stand !' I coxered him with the cocked pistol. ' Crackey, I didn't know you were heeled !' He paused, astounded. Then he began : ' Now, Mr Bryant, you'd better take that thing down. You know you can't get out of this place, nohow. I'll go easy on you. I'll — if you put that cursed thing down — I'll let .you go, I'll only take in that lcd-headed nigger ! That'll stop the , talk. Lord ! won't they give it to that saffron-skulled dai key !' and tho detective gave a hideous chuckle to try and throw me off my guard. As he did so, a more hideous and awful , chuckle came from behind him. Bassetts . laugh closed with a gurgle. With a , smotheied cry, he fell senseless at my feot, and over him with a pick- handle that would have foiled an ox stood Caucus. ' Wonder if dat smash his head in. Call me safiron-skulled. D — n him !' and before I could interpo&e, another dreadful 1 blow fell upon the head of the senseless Ba?sett. • I jumped forward and caught Caucus' ' upraised hand, and not without difficulty 1 restrained him, tor the negro's e\'6s had become bloodshot and his nostrils dilated ' with the scent of gore. The black was going back to his barbarous instinct?. The meek slave was becoming like what he had sprung from, a Zulu warrior. 1 'What we does wid him?' he asked, showing his white teeth. ' Finish him up, and chuck him in de ribber ?' i ' No, no ; no murder !' ■ 'If we not fix him, he fix us. His life or : ours. If de rebs cotch us now, we's gwine in !' ' I know that, but I don't wWi to kill him.' 'He nearly dead now It no hint him. Why not? If we don't git him out ob de way, what becomo of us, Massa Bryant?' 'That's true,' I replied. 'We "will get him oub of the way, and I'll show you how.' , For an idea had just come to me by which we might be relieved ot the presence of Mr Bassett. ' We'll take most of his clothes , oil ; he'll hardly be known by the isst if the rebels pick him up. I suppose none of the , pickets down at Fort Pemberton know him : personally. If they do, he won't be in a condition to tell 'em anything, fora week or so. It he gets past them the Fedeial gunboats '11 take care of him to the end of the war. ' ' What do you mean to do '!' asked the black eagerly, for I had already pulled the coat and vest oil Mr Bassett, and was examining his linen. This I was relieved to find was in no very good shape, as regards either cleanliness or condition, and bore no marks by which he could be recognised. 'I'm going to put him adrift in the skiff. He'll float down the river. If the rebs pick him up they won't know him, and if he gets to the Union boats he can't hurt anyone.' ' Dats good, Massa Bryant !' muttered the negro with a grin. ' Hope he'll get to de sharks and 'gators, or de Yankee gunships. Call me sarsafras-skulled niggah — cuss him !' With that, aided by me, he dragged the insensible Bassott to tho boat, and, propelled by a vigorous push, the skifl with its load floated down tho stream. As we did so, however, Bassett gave a low groan, and this was echoed by a female voice beside me. I turned hurriedly, and Laura Peyton, with a pale face, gasped tremblingly to me. ' Lawrence — you — you have killed someone ?' ' Not exactly, darling,' I replied, taking her in my arms and trying to comfort her. ' But I've been fixing a man who stood between me and liberty and you !' With this I told her hurriedly of Mr Bassetts commission from Amos Pierson, , and what Caucus and I had done to the detective. ' This complicates matters fearfully,' sho returned, after a pause of consideration. ' Come what may, Lawrence, I am glad you did not kill him. Now that this has happened, you must get away from here instantly.' ' Not until you keep your promise !' ' How can I keep my promise ? Wbo can marry us here ? You act like a crazy man,' she muttered, wringing her hands. ' Until you are my wife, I make no attempt to leave South Carolina. I won't exist with the fear of losing you to make my life the miserable one it has been these la.st six months.' ' Whether you leave South Carolina or not, you must fly from here to-night !' 1 Not without hope 1' said I, doggedly. ' You must !' • Not without hope !'

4 Well, then,' she said, 'you stubborn one, I'll give you hope !' « How ?' • Leb me think,' she muttered, knitting her brows. ' Leb mo think !' And for a minute she remained motionless, oxcept that a silent tear or two ran down her cheeks. Then she cried suddenly, a look of resolution beaming in her eye : ' Listen to me, Lawrence Bryant, and remember, in all the life wo may go through together, whab Ido for love of you now. Like most men you love — a little selfishly — thabdoesn't make us women love loss, so long as you love less. Now in your selfishness you threaten a practical suicide, unless I do . what you demand — a thing that will separate me from the love of my family. I But why should Igo o\cr this again? I, becauso your death would break ray heart, have consontcd to this.' 'No, no !' 1 cried. ' Laura forgive mo !' for her generosity brought my selfishness home to me. ' You shall nob sacrifice yourself for my mad passion. ' I'll, for your sake, try and save myself — try and escape to the North. And when this awtul btrngglo is ended, it wo both live, I'll come back to you.' ' Come ba,ck to me perhaps after half a century. Who knows how long this war may continue ? Do they light any the less now that so many are killed — that there are so many widows and orphans, and each day makes more? No, Lawience — here she beamed on me — ' I'll not bake the chance^ of losing, neither. I'm glad now that you fought for our happiness. I'll many yon, come what may, as I promised. You wouldn't have me break my word to yon, would you, dear one ?' this last with a fibiful smile that contained two teais. 1 You'll marry me ?' I cried. ' As soon as possible !' ' How ?' 'A-a-h. How?' She gave another sigh, and thought hard again. Then said, ' I'll tell you how '' speaking with sudden determination. ' Theic is a part of this State so blessed by God that this cruel war has never reached it. Far away ro tlio noibhwest, cub oft" by the high peaks of the Blue Ridge and Alleghany from bho awful carnage and bloodshed of Tennessee, and boo far fiom the coast bo be engulfed in tlio cruel devastation that is scourging the country about here, the pretty mountains and upland valleys of Spartanburg county, save for the absence of Uioir sons, hardly know of bho carnage that is going on all lound them. My aunt, Miss Mam Pickens, has a little farm near the boundary of North Carolina, not far from Jacksoy Hill. She is an old lady of about seventy, and has lived theie as long as I can lecollcct, waited upon and tended by two negroes, who are as old a=> her&elf. She is bright and active foi a woman of her years, and would be sure to discover the ciicumstances that brought us to her, bub, iortunately, I being her favourite niece, received n letter from her not long ago stating that she was going to make a visit to her sister, in Augusta, Geoigia. The old cook is the only one left in the house She adores me, and will believe anything I tell her. In that portion of the State you would be unknown, and would be safe as it is possible for you to bo in the Confederacy. Meet me there, and I will keep my promise.' ' You will marry me there '!' ' Y-e-s !' she roplicd, slowly, with a sigh, then giving me a slight smile, murmuied : 'It is near " The Land ot the Sky." Lawrence, in happier days, I would have picked it out for — a — a honeymoon in the Blue Ridge,' the last with a blush that looked crimson in the light of the candle. ' You will meet me there?' 'Certainly. Come to my aunt's hou-e.' And sho gave me careful directions. 4 Four days from now I will be there. I can easily make bho excuse of visiting my aunt to my father, brother and sister, who do not know that she is absent fiom her mountain home. But how to get there?' At this she paused, and then cried despairingly, 'This war has made me so very poor i' The next moment, covonngher face with her hands, sho mutteied : ' I should not have bold this to i/ou /' 'Darling,' said I, ' why did you nob use the money that I sent to yon six months ago ?' There was a little reproach in my tone, for during this inteiview I had been looking at the plain homespun dress of my sweetheart, the coarse shoes, and the absence of all the little delicato adornments which she had been u«>ed to wear in the happier days ot our fiist engagement. ' Why didn't you spend the money ?' ' I could not Lake it from you, when I supposed you would not be my husband,' she cried. ' Oh, lam po glad now that I have been able to return ifc to you intact, without having touched a dollai ot it !' 'So am I,' replied 1. 'Fate made you save it. It gives us money enough to make the attemjit to become happy.' With this, afcet much entreaty, I forced upon her a sufheient amount lor all the requirements of hei journey. 4 Why,' she said, ' this almost makes me rich. Every dollar of this is worth twenty of Confederate money. Bub how are you to geb away ? That is the real difticulty. Without a pass you can biavel nowhere in this portion of the State' At this I began to think. How was I to leave the neighbourhood ot Charleston without a passport? Every train was guarded, and every traveller without papers looked upon with suspicion. This obstacle to our plans would have appeared unsurmountable had not, at this moment, my eye rested upon the coat and vest of the detective. Filled with a new hope, I seized Bassetts clothes and thoroughly searched them. In them 1 found a pocket book full of paper and money, which I thought best to take with me ; also a passport made out to travel on business of im portance bo bho Confederate Government. It was a general, unlimited, roving kind of passport, though, unfortunately, it gavea description ot Mr Basse tt with which I did not thoroughly agree, though our height and weight were about the same. 'I must try ib with these papers,' said I. 'They are my only chance. Leb Caucus guide me bo bhe railroad, in order that I may get a train for Columbia, thence on to Spartanburg. Then he can leturn and bring you to me.' I hurriedly asked her if the schedule time of the South Carolina Railroad had been altered in the last six months. She said she thought that it had not. If this was so, I knew the running time, and could make my arrangements accordingly. In order to caich the early train, it was necessary for me to start at once. I called Caucus, explained the matter to him, and he agreed to whab I said. He remarked that there wouldn't be any danger for himself in travelling with a young lady as well known as Miss Peyton, and he'could get along very well without me, as I had only been a source of danger to him ever sine* he had met me. We were all too much excited to make my parting with my sweetheart a tearful (or a sad one. Wo had not time bo think. Leaving her under the guidanco of Caucus, who knew the by-ways of the counbry throughly, I travelled rapidly north from the Slono River, crossing the Charleston and Savannah Railroad track, and taking a small counbry road, succeeded in reaching tho Seven-Mile sbabion on the

South Carolina Railroad. This was just sufficiently outside the picket lines of the Confederates around Charleston to be safe. Sending Caucus back to my sweetheart, with sti'ict injunctions to watch over her until I met them, I boarded the train, muflled myself up well about the head, and pretended to sleep, in order to avoid interrogations. The running time of all trains upon the railroad was now so bad, owing to their defective tracks, that 1 knew it would probably be evening before we reached Columbia. This suited me very well, as there was less chance of my being recognised in that town at night. Tho hardships and trouble I hac^been through had, to a certain extent, altered me, and the poor clothes 1 now wore, so different to my apparel of a tew months ago, made the change in me a great ono. Another thing in favour of my not being recognised was that the exigencies of the war had called all the young men away to the army, consequently the former biakemen and conductors had been removed, and their places taken by old men, who had nob seen me in my railroad position, and did -not know me. It was night when wo 1 cached Columbia. My ticket was taken up and my pass examined by tho last conductor. Among the things I had found in the pocket of the debecbive's coat was a plug of tobacco. Id niv haste I had transferred it to mine. This wa9 forbunabe, as I was jusb aboub bo leave the train when the conductor suddenly burned to me and said : ' Can you favour me with a chaw. Mr Bassett ?' 'A what?' ' A chaw of tobacco, of course.' I pub my hand in my pocket and found the plug. Had I not been able to do so, the conductor might have suspected me. I presume he knew Mr Ba&sett's habits, and that he never travelled without his tobacco. Leaving the tiain, and going inbo an oub-of-bhn way portion of the town, where I would be apt to meet no one who would recogniee me, I spenb mosb of the night. The next morning I senb a negro bo buy my ticket, for I was afraid the ticket-seller would remember mo. Having procured this, the early train took me up into the hills. I now felt more ab my ease. Every mile I went, carried me away nob onl\ from the scone of war, but from the people whom I had known, and who might recognise me. That evening I pub up at the little country hotel of Sparbanburg, the landlady of which was a widow, her husband having been killed ab Gettysburg. Here I waited — waited impatiently for two long clays, most of the time watching tho road leading north from Spartanburg, for I knew that along this my sweetheart must pass to the place where she had promised to be my bride. The beautiful country aboub me, bhe bracing atmosphere of these hills, so different to the clammy moisture ot the swamp country of the coast where I had toiled, all were naught to me — I looked only for her. I did not see her, but the evening of the second day the landlady said that Miss Peyton had hiied a waggon from her to go out to her Aunb Mary's place. That night I hardly se pt. The nexb morning I drove oub toward Cowpens Ford, and turning up a little mountain • road, an hour afterward, Mr Caucus, with an exclamation of delight and a horrible grin, opening the gate for me, I was in the , arms of my sweetheart once more. : ' Did I not keep my oromise ?' she said. • ' Did I not ? Bub oh ! how 1 had to fib to I my family. What deception ! I wonder ? if they will ever forgive me. My poor I father !' She commenced to wring her hands, and would have gone on in this style had nob I, ' inspired by her presence, said : ' Laura, this is no time for teai's. We must be L married at once.' r ' Ab once ?' bhis with a little tremble. ) ' Immediately !' I returned. ' Were we • to be met together, your situation would j now be embarrassing.' I 'Oh, I had forgotten that!' she cried, T giving me a delicious blush. ' Old Mr ) Huntington, tho minister who baptized me, 1 lives nob two miles from here. He is bobh a little deaf and a little blind, bub I ) imagine a ceremony performed by him will i be as binding as it solemnised by a minister with the complete u-e of his faculties. Will you ride over bo him and give him this nobe from me ? I think he remembers me as a ' child.' I soon found the old pieacher, and two i hours afterwards returned with him. Hero s a now rapture awaited me. Laura swept into the room. In some occult manner, in Columbia, she had obtained a white muslin di ess and a little French ribbon, perhaps the relic of her finery before the war. . Radiant with blushes and love, my bride was a perfect goddess of beauty. The marriage ceremony between us was . performed. Half an hour afterward the s minister drove away, and my bride and I strolled oub on the verandah of the old house. Behind us were the beautiful peaks of the s Alloghany and Blue Ridge, bhab cub oil bhe desolation of war from us. Below, a i hundred beautiful little hills gtadually rolled inbo bhe valleys that ran down to the sea coast, red with the blood of civil contest. In this fair country, divorced by nature from the passions of men, we had only to live for each other now and be happy while God would leb us. For a month we tried to live the life of forgetfulness, and in part ■ succeeded. What man would nob think that Heaven intended his fate to be happy, ble«sed as I was by the supreme love and beauty that my wife gave to me ? But still neither of us could forget the danger that surrounded us. This made us very cautious, and actuated by this, my ■ wife wrote several letters to her family describing bhe happy visit she was making her aunb. It was a curious honeymoon. The sudden opening of a door caused the bride to start ; a step upon the piazza or on the walk outside made the bridegroom handle his pistol. The faithful Caucus, however, was always on the alert, and nearly every day went down to Spartanburg to get the news ; but no troops were moving in this country, which had been denuded of all its young men, and we were far enough away from the great highways to bhe gaps of bhe Blue Ridge by which reinforcements were sent into the valley of tho Tennesseo to be rid of marching troops. We lulled ourselves into a hope that this might last for ever, until, one clear winter's day, the sword descended — our honeymoon in the Blue Ridge ceased for ever. Like mosb tragedies, it came unexpectedly.