University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.
The Highwayman.

The person who had knocked upon the
window, to draw the attention of Herman,
was Wilkins Wild. When Herman went
down to him he was standing upon the side-walk,
close by the door.

`Herman,' said he in an eager tone, `you
say you would like to see your father? He
has just gone by towards the Saracen. He
was hurrying so that he did not see me. If
you come with me I can show him to you,
and introduce you as my friend Corney!—
He will be in his room, for that is his strong
hold.'

`Thank you, Wilkins. I wish of all things
to meet my father;' answered Herman with
deep emotion. `I will just go in and tell my
mother and sister good night!'

“Then that was your sister and your mother
who lives here!' observed Wild, after

Herman had gone up stairs and returned and
taken his arm.

`Yes, I found her through my sister whom
I met so strangely!'

`Then that was your sister. Do you know
I think I have seen her before, and under
circumstances that made a deep impression
upon me! Yet it could not be her, but somebody
very like! Whether it was, in truth, a
person or a picture, I am not certain; but the
face haunts me!'

At his first speaking Herman thought he
might have seen her in a cigar-store, but
when he mentioned a picture, his heart leap-to
his mouth; for he recollected that Wilkins'
account of the picture of the lovely child he
had seen at Mr. Carroll's, first led him to be
himself interested in her. And he trembled
at the thought that he might, by some accident,
make his memory perfect, and fully identify
Maria as the original of the picture, and,
of course, as the young girl who had so mysteriously
disappeared at the time of Shears'
murder, and whom Wild had hinted might
have been, possibly, its perpetrator!

To prevent him from dwelling upon this
dangerous subject, which, if pursued and Maria
identified by him, would place her wholly
in Wild's power, if he chose to use his information,
Herman said quietly:

`How did my father look? Was he well
clad?'

`He looked pretty hard used, my boy! But
you will see him for yourself. Here we are
at the Saracen! Come in! Not that door;
but by this private entrance down through
the cellar! He always goes strait to his room
first, and then if he finds the tap is clear he
goes down. Take care of your head as it is
low, and lay your hand upon my shoulder, as
it is as dark as a dungeon! There we are into
the light again in the court! Now mount
these stairs and step carefully, for they are
ricketty. It is the third door along the plat-form!'

`Whose room?'

`Your father's!'

Here Wild struck upon a door twice heavily.

`Who is it?' demanded a deep voice within.

`The Captain!'

`Aye, aye! come in,' answered the voice;
and the sound of a bar removed from the door
was heard, and the door cautiously opened a
little ways and the occupant peeped out.

`Two of you!' he said in a surprised tone,
pressing the door closer! `Who is the other?'

`A friend! Corney. You have heard me
speak of him!'

`Yes, yes. Come in both of you.'

And opening the door he let them in, and
carefully closed and barred it after them.

`You are cautious to night, Ruyter!' said
Wild in a careless tone.

`I have been at work and made a miss of
it, and the hounds are abroad!'

`Ah, that is bad! But you are safe enough
here! What have you been doing?'

`I bade a gentleman stand at the corner of
Barclay street, and he gave me his purse with
one hand, knocked me down with the other,
and sung out for the Watch. But I got to
my feet and rolled two of the Charlies into
the gutter, and so got clear!'

`With the purse?'

`Yes! Here it is!' he answered jingling
in his hand a handsome scarlet silk purse.—
There is in all thirty dollars in it!'

While he was talking Herman was silently
regarding his father's features. He was seat
ed by a rude table on which burned a tallow
candle in a wooden socket. The light struck
upwards against his features and gave to them
a sharp sinister cast that was revolting. Yet
he could trace in that dark countenance, disfigured
by uncontrolled evil passions, remains
of manly dignity and beauty. He was a man
about five and forty, heavily framed, and
wearing long grey or black hair flowing upon
his shoulders. His eye brows were thick and
bushy black, and beneath them glowed dark
eyes of the most viciously hardened expression.
Crime and years of imprisonment, during
which he brooded over revenge, had made
the man a demon. Sweet humanity with all
her gentle train seemed banished from his lineaments.
He wore a shaggy green box coat
and a red woollen sash was wound about his
neck without a collar. Upon the table by him
was a short club, a pistol, and an old glazed
leather cap, a pair of soiled thick deer-skin
gloves lay by the cap and upon one of them
were stains like blood.

See illustration, page 1.

Herman silently saw all this and then glanced
his eye around the narrow apartment occupied

by his father. It contained a rude
double cot-bed, three chairs, a chest and table,
all of the meanest description. There
were two square windows in the room, one
looking towards the street, the other into the
court yard. Each window contained but eight
small panes of glass, and was heavily barred
with oaken beams let into sockets. There
were two heavy bars also for the door, one of
which was now only in its place, the other
standing by its side.

`Do you know this man, Ruyter?'

`No. I saw him coming out of the Astor
House and as he looked like a gentleman and
a foreigner I thought I would make a lift by
following him!'

`Here is a name on the silver clasp,' said
Wild taking the purse. `It is Delorme! He
was an Englishman, for this is an English
name and a good family too!'

`Then he ought to have had more money
about him,' said the foot-pad growling. `I
will do better next time!'

`Your way of raising a revenue upon the
sovereign people, isn't so safe as mine,' said
Wild laughing. `You had best give up the
high ways and take to picking locks.'

`That is beneath me,' answered Ruyter.—
`If I have been in States' prison, I am at least
a gentleman in blood.'

`Every man to his taste. Now here is Corney
here, a man I dare say of as good blood
as you are, Ruyter, who has not disdained to
play the clasher on one occasion.'

Here Ruyter directed his gaze inquisitively
towards Herman whose sensations at such a
moment it would be difficult to describe. He
had seen his father only to despise him; and
as he sat before him he internally resolved
that he would never acknowledge him or be
made known to him. As his father kept his
gaze upon him Herman dropped his eyes and
tried to assume an indifference that he was
very far from feeling. He trembled each instant
lest by some means he should be recognized
by him. But his father after regarding
him steadily for a few moments looked away
with this remark,

`Your friend is young, Wild, and may do
better by and by than pick locks. If he will
come under my teaching I will made a gentleman
of him in my way!'

`I dare say he is very much obliged to
you. But by the by, have you found your
wite yet?'

`No,' answered Ruyter with a deep oath.
`I am persuaded she is in the city, for I have
found out that much. But where she conceals
herself, I can't yet find out!'

`What do you want to see her for? You
knew she is nothing to you now! State's
prison divorces!'

`I know that! But I mean to see the woman!
I know her well, and that I can intimidate
her to give me a home and money, too, if
I am short run!'

`What money has she?' carelessly wishing
to get all he could out of his friend.

`None of her own I reckon, for the person
who saw her said she was poor-looking! But
she has the control of my boys's twenty thousand,
and it is to get the possession of this
I would see her. This one idea has been uppermost
in my mind ever since I first entered
Sing-Sing.'

`Ah, yes! you had a son, I now remember!'

`Yes; a fine little fellow when I saw him
last—a boy of some six or seven years! And
he is living now if he hasn't been shipwrecked;
for I have heard he has grown up a fine
looking man and gone to sea. This money was
given him by his mother after she sold her old
rookery and the land, and it is in trust now
with somebody; but who I can't find out!—
Now if I can fall in with her I can get it all
out of her before he returns from sea; and
once in my possession, he may whistle for it!
If he or she are troublesome, I have a settler
here!' And he laid his hand significantly
upon his knife.

Wild looked aside at Herman's face, which
he saw was deadly pale, while his eye was
fearfully black, save a bright, intense star of
indignant light, blazing in the depth of its
centre. He was about to make some remark
to Ruyter, but the expression of Herman's
face checked his words. He saw that he was
about to speak, and he resolved to wait the
result.

`Sir,' said Herman, with fearful calmness,
and bending his eyes upon him, while he
smiled with an appalling aspect, `what would
you give to him who told you where you
could find Madame de Ruyter?'

`What would I give?' cried he eagerly, and

leaning earnestly forward upon the table; I
would give him one hundred dollars, so that
he did it!'

`What security have I, if I give you this information,
that you will pay me?'

`My word! Do you doubt it?'

`No. I will take your word. Come with
me and I will take you to her abode!'

`You will! Do you know it?'

`Yes. I have been there this very night and
seen her!'

`You are my man!' cried Ruyter rising up
placing his cap on his head.

`The only condition I require is, that you
go with me unarmed! Leave your weapons
here!'

`A trap!'

`Do you fear? Then I am not bound to
show you!' answered Herman with a smile
of contempt.

`Then I will go without my weapons. I
can trust him—can I?' he asked in an under
tone of Wild.

`Yes, by all means! He is trump!' Then
puzzled at Herman's course, he, in his turn,
asked the latter in an under tone, `what in
the deuce he intended to do with the hoary
old villain?'

`Leave him to me,' answered Herman,
`and keep my secret!'

`I will!'

`Are you ready?' said Herman in a commanding
tone as he rose and approached the
door, the bar across which he took down with
his own hand.

`Yes, quite. But —'

`But what? Why do you hesitate?'

`I'm blamed if I like your looks, and suspect
a trap. If Wild was not here I should
believe you were an officer?'

`Then I will go without you. Come, Wilkins,
we will depart!'

`Nay, then, here goes with you, Mr. Corney!'
answered his father, who by no means
relished the singular tone and air of the young
stranger; and, under other circumstances, his
aroused suspicions would have deterred him
from committing himself to his guidance; but
his strong desire to see his former wife, for
whom he had been diligently on the look-out
since he had been out of prison, led him to
overcome his suspicious fears of a plan to arrest
him, and to accompany the young man on
the expedition before him. He therefore followed
him to the street, and here Herman,
after saying a few words to Wild, who left
and entered the tap of the Saracen's Head,
took the direction towards his mother's abode,
his father walking by his side with the silent,
watchful air and manner of a man who expects
each moment to be betrayed.

`Herman has taken a strange way of acting,'
said Wild as he entered the tap, after
looking down the street until they disappeared;
`he says it is all right, and bids me wait
for him in the little room where the good
dame Dirk is to have his supper ready. Well,
Herman is a devil of a fellow! The old man
has got into a scrape now, I will wager! It
was capital that he should have divulged his
whole plan right before Herman! If he knew
how I cheated him, passing his son off for Corney,
he'd put a knife into me! So, I only
pray Herman may keep him safe, whatever
he is going to do with the old rogue!'

When Herman reached the door leading
up the narrow and dark stair-way leading to
his mothers' room, he turned and addressed
his father in these terms.

`The woman you seek lives here. I will
go up first and prepare her for such an unlooked
for visitor. You say you were once
her husband, and the sudden sight of you
might affect her! Remain you here, while I
go up. But come into the entry and let me
close the door.

Ruyter obeyed though not without hesitation;
and when he saw the door shut upon
him he felt a little trepidation; and after he
saw Herman turn the key and place it in his
pocket, he became satisfied that he had been
trapped. He was about to spring upon the
young man and seize him by the throat, charging
him with treachery, but Herman had already
ascended the stairs and opened the door
at the top of the flight and entered the room.

`This place looks confoundedly suspicious,
and I don't by any means like this young fellow's
looks. He eyes me with an evil eye,
and means me no good! But perhaps he is
right in saying the woman lives here, and
means honestly. I will wait and see what
comes of it. I don't like his locking me in
here in this fashion. Let me see if one of
these panels is not loose! I would get out if
I could. Yes, the door is old and one gives
way! The fresh air enters! I'm out of my

trap!' He was about to yield to his fear and
escape, when he heard the sound of a female
voice above stairs, which at once arrested
him!

`Yes, that is madam! The young fellow
is right! I would know that voice in Patagonia!'
he exclaimed with satisfaction, and
hurriedly replacing the panel, he eagerly half
ascended the stairway. All was the next moment
still. He listened with the most intense
attention.

`Mother,' Herman said on entering suddenly,
as he did just as she about retiring for
the night, `mother, I have news of a painful
nature to communicate. My father is pardoned
out of prison!'

`I knew it, Herman, and have trembled
lest he should seek me!' answered his mother
with alarm visible on her countenance
and taking him by the hand with fear. Maria was
not visible, but a slight motion of the curtain
that concealed the bed, and a look which Mrs.
de Ruyter cast that way showed him that she
had already retired, fatigued with the duties
and events of the day.

`He does seek you! Nay—hear me with
firmness. `I have met him, but he knew me
not, knows me not! I was introduced to him
under the name of Corney. Such you must
call me before him, for you will see him in a
few moments!'

`See him! Oh, Herman, Herman, have
you brought your father hither?' she cried,
clasping her hands.

`Yes, mother! I did it from a laid plan. I
heard him say to a friend and to myself, supposing
me to be Corney, that he sought you to
get my property from you (knowing me, as he
said, to be at sea) and to get a home and asylum
with you by intimidating you. He said
he would give a hundred dollars to any one
to show him where you were. A scheme entered
my mind suddenly, and I said that I
would show him, for I knew where you lived.
He is now below in the entry! When you
see him meet him carelessly, and firmly, for I
shall be present. Be guided by me in the progress
of the interview; for this night I mean
to relieve you from all future fears from him.
I have thought it best if he was resolved to
see you, he had best see you once for all in
my presence. Now be calm, and I will bring
hin in! Be firm, dear mother, for I am with
you, and remember!'

Mrs. de Ruyter stood pale and confounded,
with her hands clasped upon her bosom, and
her eyes lifted to Heaven in prayer for
strength. Herman tenderly embraced her, repeated
his injunctions to be firm, and then
went towards the door.

`Come up, sir, the lady will see you,' said
Herman, opening the door and calling below.

When Ruyter entered and beheld his wife
standing, calm and self-possessed, though
very pale, in the centre of the room, he remained
a moment gazing upon her without
motion. Her matronly air and lady-like dignity,
abashed him, and made him feel the inferiority
to which crime had degraded himself.
Herman advanced a few steps, and stood
not far from his mother, giving her a look of
encouragement. But how could the poor lady
gather encouragement from such a source,
against such a danger! How could she gather
strength from the assurance that the son
would protect the mother against the father!
Her heart sunk within her; though she strove
to sustain herself, feeling that she had need!
At length the returned convict spoke:

`So,' he said, with a half smile, that on his
features was a leer of the grossest hardihood
of character, `so wife we have met again!'

`I am no longer your wife, sir,' she answered
firmly.

`That is as we may agree, madam, he answered
with irony, and advancing a step
nearer to her. `I say young fellow,' he added,
turning to Herman, here is the purse I
took, you know when! Take it in part pay
and go. To-morrow I will pay you the balance
of what I agreed to!' As he spoke he
tossed the purse to Herman. Take it and go
back to the Saracen! I have some little private
affairs with this lady to talk over!'

`I keep the purse but shall not leave until
I receive the balance,' answered Herman,
placing the purse in his pocket.

`There are thirty dollars in it,' answered
the convict with a savage glance!'

`There should be seventy more. Till I receive
it I shall not leave you,' answered Her
man with positiveness. `Say what you say
before me if you cannot pay me what you
owe!'

`Then go to the devil for the balance,'
answered Ruyter with a brutal oath. `Listen
if you will, I care not!'