University of Virginia Library

12. CHAPTER XII.
HELL-FIRE DICK ENGAGES IN A NEW VENTURE.

It was by no means a difficult task with Pete Blodgit — a
fellow very well versed in woodcraft — to find the traces of the
scouting party under “All-fire Dick,” and to make his way to
the spot where they harbored. He first encountered “Skin-the-Serpent,”
whom he accompanied until they came up with
Joe Best; and the three then rode on together till they found
the leader of the gang, who was more deeply buried in the
woods. Ralph Brunson had not yet returned with Zeke Rodgers
and his bloodhounds, and Dick, the captain, was fast becoming
impatient, in his eagerness to begin the chase.

In a thick copse, some half a mile in the rear of the garden
of the Barony, the whole party assembled; and here, all alighted,
and our overseer made his report. His conviction, that
Willie Sinclair had not yet succeeded in making his way to the
mansion-house, was naturally that of the group; and they now
longed for nothing so eagerly as the arrival of Brunson, Rodgers,
and the dogs, in order to run down the fugitive with his burdensome
bag of guineas. To beat the woods, or make any alarm,
until the hounds and the additional force of hunters were put
on the scent, was no more their policy than it would have been
had their game been the royal buck himself. But, while they
all declared their impatience at the delay, a new and bolder
idea seized upon All-fire Dick, induced by some of the particulars
given by Blodget, in his narration of what happened on his
visit. Dick, the Diabolical, had listened for a while in silence;
but now put in:—

“You say,” said he to the overseer, “that the old man kain't
move his timbers?”

“Kain't stir a peg, no more than ef he had no legs at all.
Thar he sets in a big chair with soft cushions; and his legs lay

on a bench covered with saft pillows; and he sets by the table;
and his gould-headed stick lays on the table easy to his hands.
Jest so I left him. When he wants to move, Little Peter lifts
him about from place to place.”

“The dem'd old rascal! He was always trying to look like
a sort of king!” exclaimed Skin-the-Serpent.

“Jest so! and he never had a good word yit for a poor man!
He talked to me jest as ef I was no better than a nigger.”

“Well! he's rich, I reckon!” quoth Dick.

“Rich as a Jew, they say; but that don't give him any
Christian right to talk to a poor man as ef he was a nigger.”

“Yes! a rich man has a right to talk as he pleases! and you
knows it; and you feels it! Ef you didn't, why didn't you
clap a stopper on his mouth when he talked to you as ef you
was a nigger?” was the retort of Dick.

“I'd like to know how I was to do that?”

“You'd like to know! Why, a man naterally knows, when
he's got the heart of a man beating in his buzzum! Hadn't
you your arms, and hands, and feet; and wan't you armed with
a whip; and hadn't you a knife in your belt; and wan't he
thar — before you, disabled as I may say — onable to lift a limb
to help himself agin an inimy?”

“Yes, but thar was that double-j'inted nigger, Benny Bowlegs;
— a fellow that's as strong as a horse, and ain't afeard of
the devil; and didn't I know that Little Peter was nigh about,
too? and he's as strong as Benny, and he ain't afeared neither!
Ef I had lifted finger agin the kurnel, they'd ha' mounted me
right away; and I couldn't ha' held a hand agin them two!
If it hadn't been for them, I'd ha' soon showed the old kurnel
that he wan't to hev' his own way always. I thought of giving
him a wipe with a hickory towel more than once.”

“You thought of it, did you!” quoth the outlaw chief, with a
look expressive of the fullest disgust. “And I tell you, Pete
Blodgit, that you'd no more have thought of lifting we'pon agin
ole Sinclair, disabled as he is, so long as his eyes was upon you,
than you'd ha' thought of fighting a whole British rigiment!
It wan't the niggers that kept you from trying your hands upon
him; but 'twas his eyes upon your'n; and your own cowardly
sperrit; and what you knowed of him of old: for, impudent as

he is, and a tyrant all over, there's no denying that he's got
spunk enough to fight the devil. But I ain't afeared of him;
and I never seed the nigger yit that had the impidence to look
into my eyes; and I'll go and and hev' a talk with the old rascal,
and see what I can make out of him?”

“You go — to `the Barony'? — and what for?” said Skin-the-Serpent,
suspiciously. “The young fellow ain't thar!”

“But the old one is?”

“Well, but it's neither the old one nor the young one that
we wants — it's the guineas.”

“Jest so, Sarpent, and it's the guineas that I'm arter. Thar
must be smart pickings in that old house, I'm a thinking. The
colonel's rich as a Jew. Why, the very stick that he walks with
has as much as five guineas on the head of it! And I reckon
thar's a chist of gould and silver put away somewhar about,
and the young woman has her jewels and fine things.”

Well, but how are you to git at them?”

“That's for me to find out! I wants to see how the land lies;
and what Blodgit tells us, shows that it's mighty easy, jist now,
to do so. I wouldn't like to come sudden up with the old kurnel,
ef he had his limbs and strength, and we'pons at hand; but,
you see, he ain't able to stir a peg, and I takes him by surprise.
The niggers I ain't afeared of; and don't you hear what Blodgit
says, that they've started off, jest now, when he did, to beat the
upper woods a-s'arching arter the body of the major? Ha! ha!
ha! s'arching arter the dead body of a man what's alive and
kicking. Well! don't you see that it's a first-rate chaince, jest
now, to look into the premises, and see what there is worth
picking up.”

The adventure became suddenly very plausible in the eyes of
the group. Skin-the-Serpent, in particular, seemed disposed to
abandon the hunt of the son, in order to do honor to the father.
They all began to suspect that the shares of Dick were to be
unnecessarily large.

“It won't do for you one to go. We kin all go. I reckon
there 'll be more than all of us kin bring away!” So spoke
Skin-the-Serpent.

Even Blodgit was not unwilling to return to the Barony; following,
Jackal-fashion, in the wake of the proper beasts of

prey. But Dick's genius over-ruled the rest with its usual potency.

“'Twon't do! That's jist the way with you! You'd all start
off, after the fresh deer, though you were on the hot scent of
the old one, and jist about to run him down! And you'd go
to the Barony, and be loading yourself down with more than
you could carry; so that if an inimy should git upon your track,
you'd have neither the heart to fight, nor the heels to run. It's
the baggage-wagons that half the time defeats the army. Now,
I'm not for gutting `the Barony,' I'm for picking up only what I
can safely put away; nice little things by way of ornament;
rings, and seals, and breastpins, and the like; as many watches
and silver spoons, as will lie snug together in coat and breeches
pocket; and as large a bag of gould as will set easy on a nag's
quarters. It may be that there's no gould at the house to be
got at. They hide away sich matters pretty closely; and then
the old kurnel's sich a d—d obstinate colt, that he'd never tell,
even though you was a-cutting his tongue out with a sheep's
scissors. But we know that the young one has the pure kinage
[coinage] in guineas, to the tune of one hundred, or thereabouts,
and we know that he's in these woods; and hyar [here] you
must watch and wait till Brunson and Rodgers come in with
the dogs; and, by that time, I hopes to be back with you and
take a hand in the hunt! It's only a short wisit that I means to
pay the kurnel; and if the men and dogs were ready, hyar, I
shouldn't think of going to `the Barony.' But I kaint bear to
be sucking my thumbs. I must be a-doing; and one hour or
so kaint spile our chainces in the hunt after the young buck.”

Of course, he silenced opposition, as was his wont. He gave
his instructions in brief terms. His plans had been promptly
conceived, as is always the case with the determined will.

“Hyar,” said he, “we're half a mile only to the back of the
garden; and the garden's but a small distance to the house.
I'll only have to pull down a few rails to get into the grounds,
and there's a smart sprinkling of trees, that 'll cover me pretty
close till I gets nigh to the building. Look for me baick in a
short hour and a-hafe! Keep the dogs close till I come!
Skairt the line of fences. Keep one of the fellows stationed
near the road at Fryar's Bend. All that you've got to do is

jest to keep the young one from gitting above you. That's
all!”

“S'pose something should happen to you, Dick?” suggested
Skin-the-Serpent.

“What's to happen?”

“Why, s'pose the kurnel's got a we'pon hid away close at
hand? He's an old sodger you know.”

“You hear Pete Blodgit says he haint! Why should he?
He don't think there's any danger. He don't calkilate our
chainces just now, when both armies is so far above. But, if I
aint back here in a short hour and a-hafe, then, prehaps, you'd
better ride up in a body, and ax after me. That's the how!”

With these words, having satisfied all scruples, silenced all
objections, completed his instructions, the outlaw departed on
his audacious adventure.

He rode a powerful steed, not so showy as useful, and he was
a dextrous and fearless rider. Suppose, in his case, as in that
of most of the common people of this country, that the costume
of our Dick of Tophet was of ordinary blue homespun, trowsers
and hunting shirt, yellow fringed, a rough and ragged coon-skin
cap; — that he was weaponed with broadsword and pistols, like
a regular dragoon; — as, indeed, he had been — and on both
sides of the war; — and that his hirsute visage was just as savage
as a wild grin, a sabre cut, untrimmed beard, unkempt hair,
and a general scorn of appearances could render it; — and you
can conceive sufficiently of the sensation which such a visiter
will surely make when he penetrates the parlor of Sinclair's
“Barony.”