Mr. Moss

“ Moss interrogated the foreman with uplifted eyebrows.
"Do you think it does make any difference?"
The foreman shrugged his shoulders. He was still. Captain Rudd spoke for him.
"It makes the difference between right and wrong--that's all."
Mr. Plummer leaned his elbows on the table; his spectacled countenance wore its most benevolent smile.
"Hearken to me, dear sir. We are all Christian men----"
"Not necessarily at this moment; at this moment we are jurymen--only jurymen."
Mr. Plummer sighed, as if in sorrow. He turned to the others, as if desiring their forgiveness for the captain. ”

“ Moss, as they drew round the fire in the "settin'-room," leaving the tea-things to take care of themselves.
It was not a long story, but a very interesting one to this circle of listeners; all about the wild life on the plains trading for mustangs, the terrible kick from a vicious horse that nearly killed Ben, sen., the long months of unconsciousness in the California hospital, the slow recovery, the journey back, Mr. Smithers's tale of the boy's disappearance, and then the anxious trip to find out from Squire Allen where he now was. ”

“ Mose had never had the fortune to see a moose. It would be just his luck, he thought, with a half-grin, to see one now, when he had no gun, and was quitting the woods forever.
Hark! there was the noise again, below and ahead of him now, but still to the left. He thought he almost saw a dark object push through the bushes, hardly a dozen yards away.
Mose leaped lightly down upon the moss at the base of his perch, and crept cautiously along under the ledge of rock, the cover of which would protect him quite to within a few feet of these bushes. ”

“ His whitened lips moved, emitting some husky, unintelligible sounds. Mose, stooping still lower, strained his ears to piece together these terrible words:—
"Starved—many days—don't tell Mose!"
With a cry of rage and horror Mose sprang to his feet. The things to be done mapped themselves, in the stress of this awful situation, with lightning swiftness before his brain. He strode to the woodshed door and opened it. Two sides of the old lean-to were gone, and the snow was drifted thick across the floor. ”

“ Moss and I became great friends. I put aside my dream among the 'vain fancies' of life, and took very kindly to the manor in its new aspect. Even the stuffed footman became familiar, and learnt to welcome me with a smile. The real Mrs. Moss was a more agreeable person than I have, I fear, represented her. She had failed to grasp solid happiness in life, because she had chosen with the cowardice of an inferior mind; but she had borne disappointment with dignity, and submitted to heavy sorrows with patience; and a greater nature could not have done more. ”

“ I thought a United States Jedge must be about eight feet high."
"Well, never mind what you thought. You are here to tell what you know. Here, you," he added, speaking to Mose, "what is your name?"
"M—M—M—M—M—M—"
"Well, never mind. Where do you live?"
"Well, if y—y—y—y—you don't know a feller's n—n—n—name it don't m—m—m—make no d—d—d—diffunce whar he lives, d—d—d—does it?"
Laz struck in. "He won't tell you a lie, Jedge. He won't have time." [308]
Rap, rap, at Laz.
"Never mind, sir. I will attend to you presently. You," he said, speaking to Mose. "Did you ever see Mr. Starbuck make whiskey?" ”

“ In these respects a very different man from his brother Marshall, who was a by-no-means bad-looking Hebrew, with a handsome beard and moustache, full scarlet lips, prominent brown eyes, and in face and figure showing a general liking for the flesh-pots and other good things of this life. Where Edward Moss wore dirt, Marshall Moss sported jewelry, and each brother was sufficiently vain of his display. ”

“ Caldwell made to the magazine were his reviews of "An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure of the Human Species," by Samuel Stanhope Smith, President of Princeton College. The reviews covered ninety pages and dealt with a philosophical and experimental examination of the strange case of Henry Moss, a Maryland negro, whose name, as Dr. Caldwell says, is as well known to the readers of periodicals as was that of John Adams or Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. Moss was a full-blooded African, whose skin, save in a few spots, turned white. ”

“ You want to get out o' town to-night; you're here for no man's good—you've got a 'graft.'"
Mose struck him with the flat of his left hand, and, swift as a rattlesnake's stroke, covered him with his revolver. "Wait right where you are," he said, and the man became rigid. "I came here as peaceable as any man," Mose went on, "but I don't intend to be ridden out of town by a jackass like you."
The other man remained calm. "If you'll kindly let me unbutton my coat, I'll show you my star; I'm the city marshal."
"Be quiet," commanded Mose; "put up your hands!" ”

“ As her visitor was going, Bertha suddenly said, "Wait a minute," and, going to her hand-bag, brought out an envelope addressed in Congdon's big scrawling hand. "Do you know these people?"
Mrs. Brent glanced at it. "Why, yes, Joe Moss is an artist. He's well-known here, and you'll like him. His wife is a very talented woman, and will be of great advantage to you. They know all the 'artistic gang,' as they call themselves, and they live a delightfully Bohemian life. ”

“ I've known Mose to stop out in the woods for three nights running—he's as much an animal as he is a man; but he's a tame animal, and you needn't be afraid of him. If you'd followed him and his bundle last night I reckon you'd have made a mighty queer discovery. He has his own little amusements and they aren't exactly ours, but since he doesn't hurt anybody what's the use in bothering? I've known Mose for well on to thirty years, and I've never yet known him to do a meanness to any [Pg 43] human being. There aren't many white folks I can say the same of. ”

“ Meantime Mossy had got out of the Lake of Shadows, and, following his mournful, lonely way, had reached the sea-shore. It was a dark, stormy evening. The sun had set. The wind was blowing from the sea. The waves had surrounded the rock within which lay the old man's house. A deep water rolled between it and the shore, upon which a majestic figure was walking alone.
Mossy went up to him and said,—
"Will you tell me where to find the Old Man of the Sea?"
"I am the Old Man of the Sea," the figure answered.
"I see a strong kingly man of middle age," returned Mossy. ”

“ If a man means to be hard, let him keep in his saddle and speak from that height, above the level of pleading eyes, and with the command of a distant horizon. Mrs. Moss heard the sound of the horse's feet, and, when her brother rode up, was already outside the kitchen door, with a half-weary smile on her face, and a black-eyed baby in her arms. Mrs. Moss's face bore a faded resemblance to her brother's; baby's little fat hand, pressed against her cheek, seemed to show more strikingly that the cheek was faded. ”

“ The old people passed close by the root of the tree. Giving them time to get away, I crawled out and went in search of Mose. I shouted as loud as I dared, and whistled around the neighborhood until near dark. I have never seen him since. His fear of falling into the hands of his master probably induced him to run and keep running. I gave up the search with great reluctance, because we were so near friends and I had a great desire to get the faithful fellow through. ”

“ When Mose is captured and framed, a liberal white woman lawyer takes his case, but cannot defeat the concerted line-up. Mose is dependable, sober, self-contained, with grim, double-edged humor, and burdened by the miseries of his people even more than by his own. ”

“ Subtly flattering her by including her among the very few who could understand his ideals, he seemed to draw her apart to his side—appealing to her for support against the coarse and foolish hosts represented by the Mosses, while Marshall Haney sat in a kind of stupor, his eyes alone speaking, as if to ask: "What the divil is the little man with the cough so hot about?"
Moss, accustomed to Humiston's savage diatribes, roared out objections or laughed him to scorn, while Mrs. Moss tried her best to turn the mad artist's mind upon more suitable subjects. ”

“ Moses and Towser cowered. But Mr. Izzard told Johnson to stop frightening "the best darkey on the place" and they rode away. [Pg 142] Mose dropped upon his one chair and was just about to give fervent thanks for the escape from detection, when Johnson, who had turned a short distance away and had galloped back, flung himself off his horse at the door and strode into the dusky hut.
"I b'lieve you know something about that Morris," he roared at the shrinking old negro. "You looked guilty. Tell me what you know or I'll thrash you within an inch of your black life." ”

“ Hain’t you been jawin’ enough? Say! Hain’t you goin’ to give a man no peace?”
Then he jumped up and shut off the machine. Of course the talking stopped. Old Mose grinned proud-like, just as if he’d done something worth while.
“Haw!” says he, “you will, eh? You will set there and jaw and jaw! I’ll show you. Jest like all folks, hain’t you? Want to keep wagglin’ your tongue all the time. But I kin shut you up. Old Mose is the feller that kin turn you off.” ”

“ He made it plain why men in that far land came together in vile dens to drink and gamble, and Moss glowed with the wonder and delight of those great boys who could rush away to the arctic edge of the world and die with laughing curses on their lips. ”

“ Moss, after confirming his supposition as to Estelle's whereabouts, did not wait for the broadside of questions which his father was sure to fire at him, but ran out to the stoop. Should he wait for her? Should he pin the brooch on her night-dress, and then, when she discovered it, overwhelm her with the good news? That would be fine, but it was far too severe a tax upon his patience. The next moment he was on the wing again.
No negroes were allowed to enter the laundry by the front door, or, indeed, by any door, unless employed about the place. ”

“ I should not be your friend if I represented this place as a bed of roses, especially Moss’s house. You’ll have hard work to hold your own with the boys, and harder still with some of the masters. You will get more criticism than backing-up from head-quarters. Still it is a splendid opening for a man of courage like you ”

“ She allus wakes hersel', long afore she's called. I'm the cook, sir. Vida, she kem runnin' to me, when she couldn't make Mis' Moss let her in. Oh, what is to pay?”
“It's a trick,” I said sapiently. “Mrs. Moss is doing this to make a sensation, and to fool us into thinking she's asleep. All the time she is sitting on the edge of her bed, chuckling at our scare.”
“Oh, do you think so?” and Edith Wesley looked greatly relieved. “Then beg her to stop fooling and open the door. Here comes Miss Field. You call Marybelle, won't you, Janet?” ”

“ In person rather above the ordinary height, well formed, graceful in demeanor, with a complexion, if I remember right, slightly ruddy, features duly proportioned, and often lightened with a genial and expressive smile. He was, altogether, a handsome young man, with manners unusually bland. It is needless to add that with intelligence, high culture, and general information, and with a strong bent to the fine arts, Mr. Morse was in 1810 an attractive young man. ”

“ After suffering much from gout, he died 26 March 1729, and was buried in his own cathedral, where a Latin inscription with his arms (ermine, a cross patée) marks his resting-place. He had married a Mrs. Hinton of Cambridge, who survived him, but he left no issue. The bulk of his fortune, after deducting a small endowment for a sizarship at Caius College, was bequeathed to one of his nephews, Charles Moss [q. v.] , bishop of Bath and Wells.
Moss is described as an excellent preacher and a kind and loyal friend. ”

“ Ah! Mossy, you are right, to be sure; to make a complete world we must have swords and pens. Well, my son, 'au revoir;' no, I cannot stay—I will return. I hasten to tell my friends that the pen of Dr. Mossy is on our side! Adieu, dear son."
Standing outside on the banquette he bowed—not to Dr. Mossy, but to the balcony of the big red-brick front—a most sunshiny smile, and departed.
The very next morning, as if fate had ordered it, the Villivicencio ticket was attacked—ambushed, as it were, from behind the Américain newspaper. ”

“ But you know the height of a topper. Not more than six inches or so. That wouldn't be anywhere near that high burner. And accident is impossible, for she would have smelled the gas at once, or very soon. Anyway, long before she could go to bed and get to sleep.”
Then Doctor Hewitt came. He was a fussy old man, and taciturn. Miss Field brought him to the room, and then asked me to go down and have some breakfast.
But my mind was made up. “Look here, Miss Field,” I said, “I am a detective. Mrs. Moss' death is, to my, mind, a mystery. ”

“ But even when the old country managers, and there were many, got their living honestly, and by fair means, the profession frequently had the hardest of lots. The strolling players were a merry-headed and easily contented race; but it would be difficult to name any class of people that have known greater oppression. Regarded by a large section of English people as rogues and vagabonds, they were often at the mercy of common informers and petty-minded magistrates.
A circumstance in the career of Moss, a clever actor, and respectable manager, well illustrates such petty persecution. ”

“ As Mose threw the rope over the bald-faced pinto the boys all chuckled and drew near, for they knew the character of the horse. Reynolds had said, "Take your pick o' the bunch," and Mose, with the eye of a horseman, had roped the pinto because of his size, depth of chest, and splendid limbs.
As he was leading his captive out of the bunch the cook said to Mose, "Better not take that pinto; he's mean as a hornet."
"Is his wind all right?"
"He's one o' the best horses on the range, all right, but he shore is mean all the way through. He always pitches at the start like he was fair crazy." ”