Meredith Nicholson

“ I should think that a man with a nice sister like Mrs. Atchison would have a better opinion of women than you seem to have. I never saw you until you came to my father’s house to tell me about the jug—and you know I didn’t. And as for that Barbara Osborne, while I don’t doubt that even in South Carolina a Daughter of the Seminole War might wink at a gentleman in a moment of extreme provocation, I doubt if she did, for she lacks animation, and has no more soul than a gum overshoe. ”

“ He knew little enough about the Appleweight case, but he felt from his slight knowledge that he was well within his rights in putting spurs to the sheriff of Mingo County. If the sheriff failed to respond in proper spirit and it became necessary to use the militia, he was conscious that serious complications might arise. He had not only a respect for law, but an ideal of civic courage and integrity, and the governor’s inexplicable absence aroused his honest wrath. The idea that a mere girl should be forced to sustain the official honour and dignity of a cowardly father further angered him. ”

“ Mr. Ardmore, from a bench in the State House Park, thus concluded a long reverie. It was late afternoon, and he had forgotten luncheon in his absorption. There was no manner of use in recurring again to that episode of the lonely siding. He had found the girl—indubitably the girl—but not the wink! Miss Jerry Dangerfield was not the winking sort; he was well satisfied on that point, and so thoroughly ashamed into the bargain that he resolved to lead a different life and be very heedful of the cry of the poor in the future. ”

“ Ardmore, how dare you suggest that we call United States troops into North Carolina! Don’t you know that would be an insult to every loyal son of this state? I should have you know that the state of North Carolina is big enough to take care of herself, and if any president of the United States sends any troops down here while I’m running this office, he’ll find that, while our people will gladly die, they never surrender. ”

“ Down the sharp declivity the wagon plunged like a ship bound for the bottom of the sea.
The pursuers bent gamely to their task in the rough road, with Cooke slightly in the lead. Suddenly he shouted warningly to the others, as something rose darkly above them like a black cloud, and a trunk fell with a mighty crash only a few feet ahead of them. The top had been shaken off in the fall, and into it head first plunged Ardmore.
“There’s another coming!” yelled Collins, and a much larger trunk struck and split upon a rock at the roadside. Clothing of many kinds strewed the highway. ”

“ I dare not— (A voice: Oh, don’t be afraid, Governor!) —I dare not take too personally this expression of your good-will. It is not myself but the great state of South Carolina that you honour, and on behalf of mine own people, who have always stood sturdily for the great principles of the constitution (Cheers) ; who have failed in no hour of the country’s need, but have tilled their fields in peace and defended them in the dark days of war, I thank you, my friends, with all my heart, again and again. ”

“ She spoke of her friends, as Southern people have a way of doing, as though every one must of course know them—a habit that is illuminative of that delightful Southern neighbourliness that knits the elect of a commonwealth into a single family, that neither time and tide nor sword and brand can destroy. Ardmore’s humility increased as the names of the great and good of North Carolina fell from her lips ”

“ Miss Osborne had asked Griswold to await the outcome of the day, and, finding himself thus possessed of a vacation, he indulged his antiquarian instincts by exploring Columbia. The late afternoon found him in the lovely cathedral churchyard, where an aged negro, tending the graves of an illustrious family, leaned upon his spade and recited the achievements and virtues of the dead. Men who had been law-makers, others who had led valiantly to battle, and ministers of the Prince of Peace, mingled their dust together; and across the crisp hedges a robin sang above Timrod’s grave. ”

“ In North Carolina, in the absence of the governor, I am governor! Don’t look so shocked; when I say I, I mean I—me! Do you understand what I said?”
“I heard what you said, Miss Dangerfield.”
“I mean what I said, Mr. Ardmore. I have taken you into my confidence because I don’t know you. I don’t [76] know anything about you. I don’t want to know anything about you. I’d be ashamed to ask anybody I know to help me. The people of North Carolina must never know that the governor is absent during times of great public peril. And if you are afraid, Mr. Ardmore, you had better not accept the position.” ”

“ Yet his own imagination was far more fertile than Ardmore’s, and he would have hailed a troop of mail-clad men as joyfully as his friend had he met them clanking in the highway. Thus modern as we think ourselves, the least venturesome among us dreams that some day some turn of a street corner will bring him face to face with what we please to call our fate; and this is the manifestation of our last drop of mediæval blood. The grimmest seeker after reality looks out of the corner of his eye for the flutter of a white handkerchief from the ivied tower he affects to ignore ”

“ They were already halted and at parade rest at the side of the street, and a mounted officer in khaki, galloping madly into view, seemed to focus the eyes of the gathering crowd. He was a gallant figure of a man; his mount was an animal that realized Job’s ideal of a battle-horse; the soldiers presented arms as the horseman rode the line. Miss Dangerfield waved her handkerchief, standing eagerly on tiptoe to make her salutation carry as far as possible.
“Who is that?” asked Ardmore, with sinking spirit.
“Why, Rutherford Gillingwater, of course.” ”

“ The flags of North and South Carolina were everywhere entwined; nor were the stars and stripes neglected. They surveyed the long table in the dining-room, where gold and silver and crystal were bright upon the snowy napery.
“The matter of precedence is serious, Tommy,” urged Mrs. Atchison. “I cannot for the life of me remember what two monarchs do about entering a room at the same time.”
“Nor do I, Nellie,” said Ardmore; “unless they sprint for the door, and the one who gets through first takes the head of the table. ”

“ Jerry gained her own saddle in the least bit of a panic, and when she had mounted and made sure of the leading-strap with which her prisoner’s horse was provided, she rode on at a rapid walk until she reached the clearing, where the stumps again grimly mocked her. She stopped to listen, and heard through the still night first one cry and then many voices in various keys of alarm and rage. Then she bent toward the prisoner, tore the bandage from his eyes, and with more difficulty freed him of the gag. ”

“ Why have they been permitted to shoot at our helpless and unresisting men if they are not ready for war?”
“They were not shooting at our men, Mr. Ardmore. Their pickets are very tired from loss of sleep, and they were trying to keep awake by shooting at a buzzard that hung over a field yonder, where there is, our scouts inform us, a dead calf lying in one of your pastures.”
“They shall have better meat! Buzzards shall eat the whole state of South Carolina before night! Colonel, I order you to prepare at once to move your troops across that creek.” ”

“ The company in the bungalow were all laughing heartily at some sally by the adjutant-general of South Carolina, who insisted upon giving a light note to the proceedings, when hurried footsteps sounded on the veranda, and a sergeant appeared in the doorway and saluted.
The adjutant-general, annoyed at being interrupted in the telling of a new story, frowned and bade the sergeant produce his prisoner. At once a man was thrust into the room, a tall man, with a short, dark beard and slightly stooping shoulders. ”

“ You seem rather intelligent for a barn burner and timber thief. Come now, what is your name?”
The prisoner gazed down upon the imperturbable figure of his captor through the slats of the corn-crib. Ardmore returned his gaze with his most bland and child-like air. Many people had been driven to the point of madness by Ardmore’s apparent dullness. The prisoner realized that he must launch a thunderbolt if he would disturb a self-possession so complete—a tranquillity as sweet as the fading afternoon. ”

“ Jugs had not figured prominently in Ardmore’s domestic experiences; but as he sat under the tree on the curb before the Guilford House he wondered, as many [59] other philosophers have wondered, why a jug is so incapable of innocency! A bottle, while suggestive, is not inherently wicked; but a jug is the symbol of joyous sin. Even the soberest souls, who frown at the mention of a bottle, smile tolerantly when a jug is suggested. Jugs of many centuries are assembled in museums, and round them the ethnologist reconstructs extinct races of men ”

“ They were such nice little hands, and so peaceful in their aimless trifling with the tape that he was sure his eyes had betrayed him into imagining she had clenched them in the quiet drawing-room at the mansion. This office, now that its atmosphere enveloped him, was almost as domestic as the house in which she lived. The secretary had vanished, and a Sabbath quiet was on the place. The white inner shutters swung open, affording a charming prospect of the trees, the lawn, and the monument in the park outside. ”

“ Mr. Collins was not only in capital health and spirits, but he rejoiced in that delicious titillation of expectancy which is the chief compensation of the journalist’s life. His mission was secret, and this in itself gave flavour to his errand; and, moreover, it promised adventures of a kind that were greatly to his liking.
As the woodland closed in about him and the curving spur carried him farther from the main right of way, he ceased whistling, and his steps became more guarded. ”

“ The Mississippian had resented Griswold’s rejection of the possibility of personal violence between the governors, and wished to return to the subject.
“It’s not only themselves,” he declared, “but each man has got the honour of his state to defend. Suppose, when they met in the railway office at Atlanta this morning, Dangerfield had drawed his gun. Do you suppose, gentlemen, that if North Carolina had drawed South Carolina wouldn’t have followed suit? I declare, young man, you don’t know what you’re talking about. If Bill Dangerfield won’t fight, I don’t know fightin’ blood when I see it.” ”

“ Billings, of the Bronx Loan and Trust Company, had said that Miss Dangerfield was peppery, but his employment of this trifling term only illustrated his weak command of the English language. It is not pleasant to be pilloried for undreamed-of crimes, and Ardmore’s ears tingled. He must plunge deeper and trust to the gods of chance to save him. ”

“ The way to answer him is not to answer at all.”
“The way to answer him is to make North Carolina put Appleweight in jail, for crimes committed in that state, and then, if need be, we can satisfy the cry for vengeance in South Carolina by flashing our requisition. There is a rule in such cases that the state having the heaviest indictments shall have precedence; and you say that in this state it’s only a matter of a ham. I am not acquainted with the South Carolina ham,” he went on, smiling, “but in Virginia the right kind of a ham is sacred property, and to steal one is a capital offence.” ”

“ The broad grin on the porter’s face—a grin of delight, as though he had spoken with some exalted deity—filled Ardmore with bitterest envy.
He went back to smoke and plan his future movements. For the first time in his life he faced to-morrow with eager anticipations, resolved that nothing should thwart his high resolves, though these, to be sure, were somewhat hazy. Then, from a feeling of great satisfaction, his spirit reacted, and he regretted that he had been deprived of the joy of prolonged search. ”

“ I need not say to gentlemen of your intelligence that a lost governor is ripe fruit in my business, and I have reason to believe that for some purpose of his own the governor of North Carolina is hiding in this very neighbourhood.”
Cooke glanced at Ardmore for instructions, but the master of Ardsley preferred to keep the matter in his own hands.
“So you want to find the governor of North Carolina, do you? Well, you shall not be disappointed. You are too able and zealous to be wasted on journalism. I have a feeling that you are destined to higher things. ”