Abner

“ In this way there began a series of midnight adventures that were a great joy to Abner and an even greater to George’s dog, who asked nothing better in her sport than the help of human allies. On these nights of misty moonlight the secret beauty of the country-side smote on Abner’s heart though he knew nothing of it but that he was happy. In the daytime the land was dead and nothing lived in it but he and his fellow men, but when evening came the hills, the woodlands, the rivers and the upland wastes of heather tingled with life. ”

“ It is not for my brother Rufus and Elnathan Stone and me to decide this question."
"To decide what question?" said Gaul.
"Whether you are to live or die!" said Abner.
The hunchback's face grew stern and resolute. He sat down in his chair, put his stick between his knees and looked my uncle in the eyes.
"Abner," he said, "you are talking in some riddle. . . . Say the thing out plain. Do you think I forged that will?"
"I do not," said Abner.
"Nor could any man!" cried the hunchback. "It is in my brother's hand—every word of it; and, besides, there is neither ink nor paper in this house. ”

“ You, Abner, have not visited my house, nor you, Randolph, although you live at no great distance. It is not thus that one gentleman should treat another. And especially when I and my dead brother, Adam, were from distant parts and came among you without a friend to take us by the hand and bring us to your door."
He sighed and put the fingers of his hands together.
"Ah, Abner," he went on, "it was a cruel negligence, and one from which I and my brother Adam suffered. You, who have a hand and a word at every turning, can feel no longing for this human comfort. ”

“ It was Abner, who had wrenched one of the posts bodily from under the others, and swung it now high in air. Some one clutched it, and for the moment stayed its descent, yelling, meanwhile, “Look out! Look out!” as though life itself depended on the volume of his voice.
The ground cleared itself as if by magic. On the instant there was only Abner standing there with the post in his hands, and little Hurley beside him, the lower part of his face covered with blood, and his coat torn half from his back. ”

“ And so a man falls into silence when he travels in this twilight, and he looks and listens with his senses out on guard.
It was an old wagon-road that we entered, with the grass growing between the ruts. The horses traveled without a sound until we began to enter a grove of ancient beech trees; then the dead leaves cracked and rustled. Abner did not look behind him, and so he did not know that I came. ”

“ And the Justice followed, like one who goes upon a patent and ridiculous fool's errand.
They came into an upper chamber, where a great bulk of a man sat in a padded chair looking down upon his avenue of trees. He looked with satisfaction. He turned his head about when the three came in and then his eyes widened in among the folds of fat.
"Abner and Mr. Randolph and Miss Julia Clayborne!" he gurgled. "You come to do honor to the dead!"
"No, Wolf," replied my uncle, "we come to do justice to the living." ”

“ When I got the steer out and across the road into the drove Abner had come up out of the wood. He was in the saddle, his clenched hand lay on the pommel.
I was afraid to ask Abner questions when he looked like that, but my curiosity overcame me.
"What did you do with the gun, Uncle Abner?"
"I put it back where it was," he said.
"Do you know who the owner is?"
"I do not know who he is," replied Abner without looking in my direction, "but I know what he is—he is a coward!"
The afternoon drew on. The sun moved towards the far-off chain of mountains. Silence lay on the world. ”

“ Abner puffed stolidly at his pipe. ‘When he comes back,’ he said, ‘I reckon I’ll have a look round for another job.’
‘Where?’ she asked, in alarm.
‘Oh, anywhere out of this place,’ he said. ‘I’m sick of Halesby. I reckon I’ll go to Coventry or Wales. There’s good money in Wales.’
‘Abner,’ she cried. ‘Oh, Abner, you’m not going to leave me? Not with him. . . . I couldn’t abide it, Abner. Abner, if you leave me, I’ll make a hole in the cut, God strike me if I won’t!’ She could contain herself no longer and went sobbing upstairs. ”

“ Abner plunged on through the wood. He knew that he was running for his life. It was good to be running for his life. He went on crashing through the undergrowth of the wood battling with back-springing saplings, torn with briers, laughing, curiously, wildly exultant. He did not stop to think that he had lost touch with the others. In an affair of this kind each must look to himself. He only knew that he had escaped out of the mouth of danger. His head spun with the elation of his heart pumping blood into his brain. ”

“ While one is the servant of neither, one has the courage of neither; but when he finally makes his choice he gets what his master has to give him."
Then he spoke to Dix.
"Sit down!" he said; and it was in that deep, level voice that Abner used when he was standing close behind his words. Every man in the hills knew that voice; one had only a moment to decide after he heard it. Dix knew that, and yet for one instant he hung there on his toes, his eyes shimmering like a weasel's, his mouth twisting. He was not afraid! If he had had the ghost of a chance against Abner he would have taken it. ”

“ The prisoner was the center of interest. He sat with a stolid countenance like a man careless of the issues of life. But not everybody was concerned with him, for my Uncle Abner and Storm watched the girl who had been accustomed to bake for Marsh and red up his house.
She was a beauty of her type; dark haired and dark eyed like a gypsy, and with an April nature of storm and sun. ”

“ She put her hand through Abner's arm and he looked down upon her, grave and troubled.
"My child," he said, "leave the horse where he stands and come with me, for my motive, also, is no tribute of respect; and you go with a better right than I do."
"I suppose," the girl hesitated, "that one ought to respect the dead, but this man—these men—I can not."
"Nor can I," replied my uncle. "If I do not respect a man when he is living, I shall not pretend to when he is dead. One does not make a claim upon my honor by going out of life." ”

“ It pleased Randolph to have thus touched my uncle.
"A great poet, Abner," he repeated, "and more than that; he drew lessons from nature valuable for doctrine. Men should hymn as they labor and fill the fields with song and so suck out the virus from the curse. He was a great philosopher, Abner—William of Avon."
"But not so great a philosopher as Saint Paul," replied Abner, and he turned from the bees toward old Dudley Betts, digging in the fields before his door. ”

“ In a few minutes Abner was ready and had crossed the patch of waste ground that lay between the terrace and the Stourton Road. This highway was more desolate than he had ever seen it before. In some of the upper windows subdued gas-jets were burning, but most of them took on the gray light of a moon that could not be seen. He was halfway into Halesby before he really woke. Then, in the cool night air, he forgot his grudge against his father for waking him. Even the foul dust of the Stourton Road smelt sweet. He had never felt fitter nor more awake in his life. ”

“ Dix had got back the quiet of his face; this banter had put him where he was when Abner entered. "This is all fools' talk," he said; "if I had killed Alkire, what could I have done with the body? And the horse! What could I have done with the horse? Remember, no man has ever seen Alkire's horse any more than he has seen Alkire—and for the reason that Alkire rode him out of the hills that night. Now, look here, Abner, you have asked me a good many questions. I will ask you one. ”

“ She need never know, and the secret might live out everybody's life. Moreover, for all his iron ways, Abner was a man who saw justice in its large and human aspect, and he stood for the spirit, above the letter, of the truth. ”

“ It is well drawn, Abner; but I am not pleased to 'grant.'"
"Gaul," said Abner, "there are certain reasons that may move you."
The hunchback smiled.
"They must be very excellent to move a man to alienate his lands."
"Excellent they are," said Abner. "I shall mention the best one first."
"Do," said Gaul, and his grotesque face was merry.
"It is this," said Abner: "You have no heirs. Your brother's son is now a man; he should marry a wife and rear up children to possess these lands. And, as he is thus called upon to do what you cannot do, Gaul, he should have the things you have, to use." ”

“ A mild January did little to dry the sodden workings, and the task of shovelling earth was heavier to Abner than his old labours in Mawne Pit. His mate, Munn, who lodged miserably in a leaky labourer’s cottage on the river-bank at Mainstone, was taken ill with bronchitis, and Abner worked alone. Up to his ankles in reddish clay he toiled, his hands were rufous and his trousers caked with it. The burden of the wet earth weighed on him. It was like a sullen enemy that made his feet leaden and strained against the muscles of his arms. All the labourers felt it. ”

“ The words swept over her mind in a flood and made her deaf. Then she saw Abner shaking with laughter at her performance and pulled herself together.
‘I’ve finished with you, you great beast!’ she said. ‘A dirty chap that goes running all over the country after women! I’m not going to take turn and turn about with a married woman, so don’t you think it! You and that great stick of a Condover as George Malpas got sick and tired of in three year . . . you and your Mary!’
‘Here, drop that?’ said Abner darkly. ”

“ Dillworth did not reply, but again that dry, nervous laugh broke out.
"I will answer for you, Dillworth," said Abner—"you are afraid!"
Abner extended his arm and pointed out over the pasture lands, growing dimmer in the gathering twilight, across the river, across the wood to where lights moved and twinkled.
"Yonder," said Abner, "lives Lemuel Arnold; he is the only man who is a defendant in your suit, the others are women and children. I know Lemuel Arnold. I intended to stop this night with him until I thought of you. I know the stock he comes from. ”

“ Because those hand-holts were never knotted in by any human fingers! You know what the old folk say?"
"I know," answered my uncle. "Do you believe it, Betts?"
"Eh, Abner!" he croaked in the guttural whisper. "If there were no witches, why did our fathers hang up iron to keep them off? My grandmother saw one burned in the old country. She had ridden the king's horse, and greased her hands with shoemakers' wax so her fingers would not slip in the mane. . . . Shoemakers' wax! Mark you that, Abner!"
"Betts," cried Randolph, "you are a fool; there are no witches!" ”

“ How would you help that?"
"Now, Abner," said Dillworth, "to help that you would have to make the world over."
Again Abner was silent for a while.
"Well," he said, "perhaps it could be done if every man put his shoulder to the wheel."
"But why should it be done?" replied Dillworth. "Does Nature do it? Look with what indifference she kills off the weakling. Is there any pity in her or any of your little soft concerns? I tell you these things are not to be found anywhere in Nature—they are man-made." ”

“ But your law, Randolph, stood before him."
"Well," replied the Justice, "he takes no gain from it; he lies yonder waiting for the grave."
"But his brother takes," said Abner, "and this child loses."
The Justice, elegant in the costume of the time, turned his ebony stick in his fingers.
"One should forgive the dead," he commented in a facetious note; "it is a mandate of the Scripture."
"I am not concerned about the dead," replied Abner. "The dead are in God's hands. ”

“ Gaul was watching Abner closely. He knew that this was some digression, but he met it with equanimity. He put his big, hairy fingers together and spoke with a judicial air.
"Your argument," he said, "is without a leg to stand on. It is the dead who govern. Look you, man, how they work their will upon us! Who have made the laws? The dead! Who have made the customs that we obey and that form and shape our lives? The dead! ”

“ It is the living who concern me."
"Then," cried the Justice, "you should forgive the brother who takes."
"And I shall forgive him," replied Abner, "when he returns what he has taken."
"Returns what he has taken!" Randolph laughed. "Why, Abner, the devil could not filch a coin out of the clutches of old Benton Wolf."
"The devil," said my uncle, "is not an authority that I depend on."
"A miracle of Heaven, then," said the Justice. "But, alas, it is not the age of miracles."
"Perhaps," replied Abner, his voice descending into a deeper tone, "but I am not so certain." ”

“ I will send for Rufus, but you must gain Campbell over to the waiting. And you must gain him, Abner, by your own devices, for I will not tell him that I have sent out for a witness to the freedom of my niece in this affair. If you can make him wait, the thing shall wait until Rufus is come. But I will turn no hand to help."
"Is Campbell in the house?" said my uncle.
"Yes," she said, "and ready when the minister is come."
"Is he alone?" said Abner.
"Alone," she said, with a satirical smile, "as a bridegroom ought to be for his last reflections." ”

“ Abner whispered between the two bowed heads. “He knows we couldn’t have moved far without making a noise. Remember, a single sound will mean a shot. Now follow me.”
With the same deliberation Abner felt his way through the forest. Never once did his foot descend so that even Stanley behind him could hear it. Once their way was blocked by a mass of alders, and Abner retraced his steps towards the foe until both Stanley and Bub began to feel an icy tickling about the roots of the hair. ”