University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

It is time, perhaps, that we should recur a little,
to trace the operations of some personages of our
story, whose agency, though unnoted by us through
several of the last chapters, had yet, in the mean
while, been actively exercised in bringing about the
events that were destined to follow. And it is with
a sort of reluctance of feeling that we turn from the
soul-kindling task of describing the noble exploits
of Allen and his patriot companions, to the low and
despicable plottings of the base Sherwood, and his
still more execrable associate in crime. Though
twice foiled in his attempts to procure the destruction
of Warrington, under the sanction of a despotic
law, of which advantage was taken mainly to
cloak the true motives of the act,—though signally
defeated in this, and the bolder attempt at assassination,
which was subsequently made at his instigation,
yet still restless as the dark spirit of evil, this
plotter of mischief, instead of relinquishing his object,
was now only the more intently engaged in devising
and putting in practice, new ways of accomplishing
his nefarious designs.

On the evening that Darrow had attempted the
life of Warrington in the woods, Sherwood was sitting
in his house, which was kept by a simple couple,

wholly in the interests of their employer. He
had just arrived from a visit to the house of Captain
Hendee, where, as the reader has been apprised, he
had been sowing the seeds of discord in that hapless
family. And the chilly reception, with which his
parting advances had been met by the indignant
girl, whom they were intended to soften and deceive,
more than ever confirming him in what his jealousy
had long since suggested, that her inclinations were
setting strongly towards his hated rival, and foreseeing
that some thing must speedily be done to counteract
the current, he was now revolving over the
different schemes that rose in his teeming brain for
effecting his purpose, in case of the failure of his
minion to remove the object, alike of his hatred and
his fears. While thus occupied in mind, Darrow,
whose coming was not wholly unlooked for, arrived,
and sulkily entered the apartment.

`Ah, Darrow!' exclaimed Sherwood, with his
usual hypocritical smile, `very glad to see you. I
knew not whether you would come to night, or return
to the fort.'

`Why,' replied the other, `when I concluded to
give it up for a d—n bad day's work, I found myself
nearer your house than the fort; so I came,
that's all.'

`Glad you did. So come, unrig, and sit down.
The old woman, in the other room, will have us
some supper ready soon. But no luck with your rifle
to day?' said Sherwood with a significant smile.

`None—except getting half tired to death, in this
cursed wild goose chase of yours,' petulantly replied
the surly minion.

`What! not even get a sight of the game, after
so much beating of the bush?'

`Yes, twice; and failed both times, as the devil,
who sent me on the errand, would have it,' answered
Darrow, with an equivocal glance at the other.

`Failed! how?' said Sherwood, without appearing
to notice the half intentional sarcasm of Darrow.

`Why, the first time, the devilish rifle missed fire,
for a rarity—the second, its owner missed his aim,
and had to take to his legs to save his bacon.'

`All this is very singular, Mr. Darrow,' observed
Sherwood, with a disappointed, and somewhat incredulous
look.

`Yes, but true for all that. Believe it or not, just
as you please, I care not a groat.'

`What mean you, Darrow?'

`Exactly what I say; and I am beginning to
mean something more, too.'

`You are a strange fellow, Darrow. But let us
have all your meanings, wants, and wishes, in a lump.
I am now in no humour for riddles.'

`Nor I neither. Well, then, though the fellow
escaped my bullet by no intended fault of mine, yet
I am not sorry I missed him. I have been thinking
over the business coming along, and for all your talk
about his life being forfeited, I can't make it out
much better than killing—not to use a worse word,—
which they say gives a fellow ugly dreams. So I
have made up my mind to let you do your own jobs
of this sort, in future. And if you persist in urging
me further'—

`Killing! who asked you to kill him?' interrupted
Sherwood in feigned surprise.

`Curse you, Jake, you know well enough you
meant that. But I am still willing to help take the
fellow, and hand him over to the Yorkers to punish,

or lend you a hand to carry any other point, if you
will do the clean thing by me. But in the first
place you must tell me what you fear from this fellow,
and why you are so specially set on having him
taken, more than Allen, or any other outlaw?'

`That is more than I intended to tell any one;
but as I suppose you will better serve my interests
by understanding this, you shall know the whole business:
well, after I had been here awhile, I noticed
that the girl, when the Captain said any thing in
praise of this Howard, as he supposed his name was,
never joined her father in praises of the fellow,
though she never had any ears for any thing else
while the slightest mention was made of him. And
if I so much as asked a question implying a doubt
about the fellow's perfection, she would show resentment
as plain as looks could do it. Now, Darrow,
if you would discover whether a girl entertains any
secret liking for a man, just introduce his name in
her presence, contriving both to praise and censure
him, and if she refuse to join you in either, but is all
attention when you praise, and grows restless when
you censure him, you may safely set it down that
love is secretly lurking about her heart. It was
something like this that led me to think, that this
Howard had made an impression, which I little relished.
This suspicion caused me to to obtain from
the old Captain a minute description of the fellow,
and having before had one of Warrington, it occurred
to me that this favorite might be no other than
the outlaw, himself. And being determined to
ascertain whether my conjectures were correct, I
made a secret journey to Bennington, where I got a
sight at Warrington, and where, by professing great
wrath against the Yorkers, I was let into secrets

which confirmed me in my suspicions. There, also,
I made arrangements for being apprised of Warrington's
future movements with one Willoughby,
who sent the word, which enabled me to ferret out
him and his band at Lake Dunmore. All this, however,
I kept secret from the Hendees, but took especial
pains to inspire the old man, and more particularly
his daughter, with a horror of the character of
Warrington. And now, Darrow, after the insufferable
scoundrel has caused me to be tied up and whipped
like a dog, and, to cap the climax, has found
his way into this family, and attempted to beguile
from me my betrothed, can you ask why I wish to
see him brought to justice?'

`Why, you seem to make out considerable of a
case of it, to be sure,' replied the other carelessly, as he
rolled his tobacco quid in his lips. `But betrothed
do you call her? Why, I thought you cared so little
about the girl, that you was quite undetermined
whether you would have her, or not?'

`Well, whatever I may have said before, I am not
undetermined now,—for the girl, in spite of men, or
devils, I swear I will have!'

`What mighty object is there, Jake, in breaking
your neck for her? Besure, she is a snug piece
enough, but you can catch other fish as fair, and
those, too, who will bring you hundreds to her none.'

`I have plenty of objects to answer: one is to defeat
this hated scoundrel,—another, to punish her
for presuming to like him. I don't say now I will
marry her. But she shall be mine, to do with as I
choose. I will have her, and keep her in a spot
where it shall be mine, not hers, to decide whose
wife she shall become. That, indeed, was mainly
my motive in drawing her into an engagement in the

first place: for you know, Darrow, that in case the
old concerns should happen to be ripped up, a matrimonial
plaster would cure all. And so long as I
kept things in this posture, I should have the remedy
at hand.'

`Yes, but what chance do you consider there is
of ripping up old matters?' asked the Sergeant,
throwing a keen enquiring glance at the other.

`Why, such a thing is possible, you know. The
old man, my father, I mean, as he grows weak and
childish, may repent, and kick over his own kettle,
and, of course, mine. Indeed, I have great fears of
this: for, though he never said any thing to me of
the kind, not dreaming that I ever met with you
here, or discovered by any other means the secrets
of his former management, yet I have lately observed
in him a sort of growing uneasiness, a whining,
melancholly way, which, with his great anxiety that
I should marry this girl, has made me rather jealous,
that his firmness is giving way in this quarter. Besides
this, there are other dangers: that boy, who,
you say the old man still thinks, was done for, may
yet be alive, and return to make me trouble.'

`Well, if he should, he would be a no very lousy
foe for you to contend with, Jake,—that is, if he is
as smart for a man as he was for a boy—I tell you,
he was a bright one for a four-year old. I liked him,
and never had the least notion of harming a hair of
his head.'

`What object had you, then, in making the old
man believe as you did?'

`Why, I mistrusted that would please the old man
best, and I'll be hanged if I don't believe it did,
Jake, if he is your father.'

`Well, there are these chances against me, and
then'—

`And then Bill Darrow may leak, you was going
to say, was you, Jake?' sneeringly asked the minion.

`O, no!' quickly responded the consummate dissembler
with a gracious smile, and a surprised air,
as if such a thought never entered his head. `No,
indeed. I should as soon fear myself. But I was
thinking, and about to say, that besides these chances,
Warrington's communication with the girl will
prove dangerous to my plans, and that they must be
stopped.'

`Well, how are you a going to do it, short of following
up the plan we have already been acting on
to so little purpose?'

`Why, I have already taken one step to day, by
informing Hendee, that his friend Howard was no
less than the outlaw Warrington in disguise. This,
was touching fire to his gun-powder temper; and
has pretty effectually blown the fellow up as regards
any open communication with the girl.'

`That may be, but it has also blown up your best
trap for taking him, you see, don't you?'

`Perhaps so, but I dare not risk his visits with the
standing he evidently held in their minds. And now
having broken off all open intercourse between the
girl and the audacious rascal, we must go to work
to sunder those ties, which may yet secretly remain.'

`Hum! That, I should think, would be like trying
to cut off sun-beams with a jack-knife. I should
like to know how the old boy you calculate to do
that?'

`O, easy enough, though my plan is not quite

made up. I will tell you in the morning. But will
you assist me in carrying it out?'

`Don't know but I will. But supposing I do, and
see you fairly through the whole scrape, what do
you finally intend to do for me?'

`Any thing almost that you may ask, Darrow.
You will own that the earnest money I gave you the
other day was a handsome affair?'

`Hum!—Yes, decent.'

`Well, from the late news, I suppose we shall
have war. Warrington and most of these rascally
settlers will be with the rebels. I, from several motives,
shall go for the king. And I have made up
my mind to get a Captain's commission, and raise a
company to act in this quarter. You shall be my
Lieutenant. And then we will use up these refractory
settlers in a way they little dream of. But hark!
The old woman is rapping for us to come to supper.
I will mature my plans, and open them to you, as I
said, in the morning.'