Read Ebook: Eveline Mandeville Or The Horse Thief Rival by Addison Alvin

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Ebook has 131 lines and 10205 words, and 3 pages

"Keep your forked tongues out of my face, you hissing devils!"

These paroxysms, upon the horrors of which we have no wish to dwell, lasted all the night, but subsided about the dawn of morning. The last image conjured up by his distempered fancy seemed to be one of Hadley:

"Oh, Hadley," he pleaded in piteous tones, "do not look upon me in that way! Take from me those mournful eyes, oh, take them away! for that look burns into my heart! Hadley! Hadley! have pity on me! and spare me! Am I not tormented enough already?"

But we will not linger to depict this harrowing scene. When the fever subsided he was weak as an infant. His mother asked him if he knew her, and he whispered:

"Yes, oh, yes! God forgive me for bringing your 'grey hairs in sorrow to the grave!' Oh, that I could die with your forgiveness graven upon my heart; but I dare not hope--I dare not pray for it!"

"God bless you, my son! and forgive you as I do!" passionately exclaimed the parent; and her heart was writhing with agony!

What a fearful thing it is to bow a parent's head with shame! to crush out the joy from a tender mother's heart, and shut the light from her spirit forever! And, oh, what a fearful thing to die with this consciousness burning into the soul like the sting of scorpions!

None of the horrid visions that visited his fevered brain in the hours of delirium were half so painful as the anguished expression on that mother's face. It sunk to the great deep of the guilty son's soul; and, with that pale face bending over him, his last glimpse of earth, his sight paled and his spirit left its clay tenement for eternity. What a lesson in his life and death!

THE DISGUISED VILLAINS MEET HADLEY--THE RESULT--CONCLUSION.

As already stated, Bill and Dick had disguised themselves in the garb of gentlemen, and with certain disfigurements of countenance which completely hid their features and rendered it impossible to identify them, either in their character of villainous murderers, or as the abductors, on a former occasion, of their present captive. When Bill first discovered Eveline in the woods, he was about to make known to her that he and Dick were the friends who had promised to liberate her, but on second thought he deemed it best to keep up the disguise, and learn, if possible, whether she had any knowledge of his real intentions and their ultimate destination. Hence her inability to trace the voice, which sounded so familiar, to the wily villain who had enticed her to meet Hadley for the purpose of placing her in Duffel's power.

Bill endeavored by every indirect means, not calculated to excite suspicion, to draw from Eveline the facts of her situation, with the view of informing himself of her sentiments toward the friends who had promised her freedom; but she kept her own counsels, and completely baffled him in his object. He knew that the present course of deception could not long be persisted in, as, at furthest, on the morrow a development of facts must take place, or, at least, a continued persistence in the disguise as to destination would be impossible. How to make himself known in his real character was a matter which puzzled him not a little; for he well knew from her manners and from the resistance she had made to Duffel, that it would be no easy task to force her all the way to Virginia. If he could only manage to keep up appearances until a certain point was gained, which he hoped to reach by night on the second day, he felt pretty sure of final success; for he would then be on a route along which friends were numerous, and he knew where to stop for refreshments and at what places to put up for the night. But how to reach that point was the difficulty.

Poor Eveline was again in the toils of an enemy, and it would seem now that nothing but death could release her from the snare in which she had unconsciously fallen. In her situation, "ignorance was certainly bliss;" for while the web of fate was weaving so surely around her, she was thinking of home and friends with joy at heart, that soon she would return to the one and be greeted by the others. Alas! how little knew she of the dark purposes of the vile wretches who were confided in as friends!

Without lingering to describe the particulars of the day and night, except to mention that the latter was spent at a first class public house, and without the occurrence of any note worthy of incident, we will simply state that Bill, who let Dick into his secret, carried out his plans to the letter; and on the second day, about noon, communicated to Eveline the unwelcome and, to her, startling intelligence that they had missed their way and were somewhat bewildered, but still hoped all would come out right. All the horrors of her former night's adventure in the wilderness came up in her mind, and she shuddered at the thought that a repetition of its dreadful experience might be before her, but concealed her feelings as well as she could, though Bill saw that a sudden pallor overspread her face, and that she was really alarmed.

Bill produced a pocket compass, and pretended to take directions and shape their course from it. Toward evening, he announced the fact, that he was quite confident they were near a secluded dwelling occupied by an old half-hermit sort of a fellow and his family, which, though affording but poor accommodations, would be preferable to the forest as a shelter for the night. As predetermined by him, they reached this desolate looking habitation, and put up for the night. Seeing that Eveline was ill at ease, he found means to whisper in her ear:

"Do not be alarmed at appearances; these people are rough, but honest; and in any emergency, be assured we will defend you with our lives!"

"Halloo, the house!"

She waited a moment, and then heard the owner go to the door and demand:

"Who's there?"

"A benighted traveler, who has lost his way, and wishes to obtain shelter for the night."

"The house is already full of guests, and I cannot take any more."

"Let him in;" said Bill, whose voice Eveline recognized. "He may be worth taking in, you know."

The man then called out:

"My guests think you can be accommodated; so you may come in, I reckon, and share such fare and lodging as we can give, which are none the best."

"If you will show me the way to the stable, I will first see to my horse," said the traveler.

The host pointed out a shed where the beast could stand, and soon the two returned to the house.

The moment the new-comer entered the door, Bill and Dick cast inquiring glances at each other; paleness as of death was on their cheeks, and superstitious alarm at their hearts; for in the stranger they beheld CHARLES HADLEY! Was it his ghost come to torment them in the hour of their triumph and security? Several minutes passed before they could be assured of his identity, that he was veritably flesh and blood, and not a spirit. It was well for them that the obscure light of the room cast their features in shadow, or their blanched cheeks and disquiet looks might have betrayed them. In a very short time they found it convenient, as on a former occasion, when seeking the life of the same man, to go out to see after their horses.

"Well, Dick!" said Bill, when they were alone, "What now?"

"I think the best thing we can do is, to leave the gal in his care, and cut stick for Virginny as straight as we can shoot."

"Nonsense! We can easily get old Sampson to kill him for his money, and that will save us from any further fear of his revealing our secret."

"I don't like this bizness of killin'; 'taint human, no way you can fix it."

"Come, Dick, don't make a fool of yourself. I want you to stand by me now, like a man."

"I shall have nothing to do with killin' Hadley; you may jist put a peg there, and say no more about it."

"Well, let me alone, then, and don't interfere with my plans, and I'll do it myself."

"Ef it's to be done at all, better let old Sampson do it. I'd a good deal rather his hands should be made red with Hadley's blood than mine. The truth is, Hadley is a first rate chap, and it's a mean, cowardly act to take his life." "Come, come! no more of that sort of talk. If you don't want to help me, just let me alone; with old Sampson's aid, I can get along without you; but I don't see what has come over you, of late."

With this understanding, the rascals returned to the house--if house it could be called--and very soon afterward intimated that they would retire.

"As the stranger seems very tired," said Bill to the host, "we will willingly remain until you show him his room," and he gave the proprietor of the premises a knowing wink.

As Hadley rose to follow the host, he thanked the men for their kindness, and Dick turned away to conceal his feelings, for he was really sick at heart, bad as he was, at the thought that so noble a fellow should fall a sacrifice for such a base purpose; and he half resolved to give him warning of his danger, and save his life. While his thoughts were thus occupied, the host returned, and he and Bill very soon went out together, Dick too well knew for what purpose.

"Ef I could only let them out and get them off safely, I'd do it," mused Dick; "but there it is, I can't do it, and it's no use tryin'."

But notwithstanding he came to this hopeless conclusion, he continued to think about the matter. At last he concluded:

"Well, ef I can't do anything else, I ken give the feller a friendly word of advice, jist to kinder put him on his guard, like."

So he stepped to the door of Hadley's room, and gently tapping it until he gained the occupant's attention, whispered in his listening ear:

"There is danger about, stranger, and ef you take the advice of a friend, you'll not sleep over heavy to-night. Better have your arms ready for anything that may happen."

"Thank you! my friend," whispered Hadley, in response.

"No thanks, stranger; I'd help you more, if I could; but my hands are kinder tied like, and if they were free, sarcumstances would prevent me from givin' you any aid."

Having thus compromised the matter with his conscience, Dick walked away, resolved to have nothing to do with the affair. Indeed, his sickness of the "wimen bizness" was hourly increasing, and he was half tempted to leave Bill, unless he would relinquish Eveline.

While these events were transpiring, Eveline, wide awake and excited by fear, continued to listen to every sound without, remaining perfectly still herself, so that the inmates of the house supposed she was sleeping.

We will here remark, that the house was a double-cabin, with a kitchen attached to one of the ends, and a sleeping-room to the other. The family were in the kitchen, and Eveline was in the room opposite to it on the same side, but at the other end of the house. The part of the cabin leading to and from the kitchen, was in one large room; but the part leading to and from Eveline's room, was divided into three apartments, two small sleeping-rooms, and one large hall-shaped one, extending the full length of the house, which was a kind of sitting-room, and into it opened all three of the bed-rooms, two at the side and one at the end. There was a rude chamber above these rooms, furnished with beds; for old Sampson's was a rendezvous for thieves and pickpockets, who often assembled there in considerable numbers, rendering it necessary for him to have these various accommodations for their benefit. Old Sampson himself was an outlaw, and many a murder had been committed in his house, and always in the room occupied by Hadley, with which there was a secret communication, and beneath it a vault for the reception of the dead bodies of his victims, until such time as they could be removed without detection.

With this brief explanation, we return to the thread of the narrative.

When Eveline heard the voice of the stranger, she was struck with its peculiarity, but, as it was louder than she had been used to hear Hadley speak, she did not recognize it, and the few brief words she afterward heard him utter, were too indistinctly heard by her to elicit the truth. When, however, she heard that well-known voice thanking the men for their kindness, she recognized it in a moment, and but for the fact that he was just retiring, she would have rushed out and thrown herself in his arms.

Hadley had not long been gone, when she heard a low murmuring of voices back of her room, and noiselessly approaching the side of her apartment nearest the speakers, she placed her ear to a crevice in the logs, and listened.

"I don't want to go to extremes unless there is good reason to believe he has considerable money about him."

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