Redfield

“ Redfield had gone through epidemics before, but never one like this, and now his energy was gone. For the first time in his life the impulse had come upon him to own defeat and surrender. Other men, younger doctors than he, should take up the fight. As for him, he could not battle against such odds. He would give it up; he would go away. He would take this little boy with him and begin to live.
"I'll do it," he said, pressing David's face against his hollow and unshaven cheek. "I'll do it, little boy; I will be your father." ”

“ Redfield overheard this, and turned toward her. 46
“This is a rough school for you, Lee Virginia, and I should dislike seeing you settle down to it for life: but it can’t hurt you if you are what I think you are. Nothing can soil or mar the mind that wills for good. I want Mrs. Redfield to know you; I’m sure her advice will be helpful. I hope you’ll come up and see us if you decide to settle in Sulphur—or if you don’t.” ”

“ At last we exhausted our cartridges without touching the silent ring of sentinels, or making any of them move, and Redfield, throwing his rifle to the ground, laughed in the curious, unnatural way that makes one shiver. I bade him stop and I spoke with anger, but he paid no attention either to my words or my manner. His laughter ended shrilly, and then he said that he understood it all: that these animals had been hunted from the face of the earth except this lone herd, which was left here to hunt any man who came against it. ”

“ Redfield appeared. She started at the sight which met her eyes; but, seeing the situation at a glance, she ran back into the room out of which she had come, and quickly reappeared with a rope. With a woman's ready wit, she had found the means of bringing victory to her husband. She threw the rope around Brisbau's shoulders and wound it over his arms until he was powerless to resist further. ”

“ So far as Captain Redfield was concerned, he felt that he had been forsaken, betrayed. There was no man who stood with him. In vain he pleaded with his men to stand by him in his defense against a most dastardly plan to wrong him. He then inquired their attitude towards Brisbau, and received an evasive answer. ”

“ All the graces of hospitality were generously displayed, and mirth and good cheer possessed the men.
In the afternoon Captain Redfield was entertaining his guest in his private room. Brisbau said he would now advise him regarding the commission upon which he was sent; which was, in fact, none other than the execution of an order from Captain Kidd for the two cheats that he had secreted in that neighborhood. Captain Redfield was to be awarded a generous portion, and his arduous service as guardian of the treasure would terminate. ”

“ He had been wondering since his interview with Redfield how he had ever dared go as far in meddling with other people’s affairs. Face to face with Redfield’s wife, he was more self-conscious than was comfortable. It would not be easy to talk to Elizabeth of her difficulties, for the Poet was not a man whom women took into their confidence over a teacup. ”

“ Redfield’s exclusiveness, and also of the splendor of her establishment. She hurried away to dress with such flutter of joyous anticipation that Redfield felt quite repaid for the pressure he had put upon his wife to induce her to write that note. “You may leave Lize Wetherford out of the count, my dear,” he had said. “There is nothing of her discernible in the girl. Virginia is a lady. ”

“ After a long pause Redfield spoke again. “The memory of your father will make life for a time a bit hard for you in Roaring Fork—perhaps your mother’s advice is sound. Why not come to Sulphur City, which is almost entirely of the new spirit?”
“If I can get my mother to come, too, I will be glad to do so, for I hate the Fork; but I will not leave her there, sick and alone.”
“Much depends upon the doctor’s examination to-morrow.” ”

“ There is nothing like it to drive out the weariness from a heart that knows it must not grow too tired. So now, when Dr. Redfield left the house where he had been, it meant much to him that there should be such a welcome awaiting him at the gate. ”

“ A bunsen burner under the sand bath heats the sand, and, through the sand, the flask and its contents. Redfield had just lighted his burner and was busy weighing out his chemicals. Dunn passed behind him, and directing his attention to something across the room, tucked a match-end into the sand in Redfield’s bath and went on to his own table. Scarcely three minutes had elapsed when the half-dozen lads who had been watching furtively over their work heard a slight explosion, followed immediately by an exclamation from Redfield, who went crashing back on the row of tables behind. ”

“ The station was Redfield, and Throckham was three miles beyond it.
At Redfield a coachman with a dogcart awaited Hewitt—only one gentleman having been expected, as the man explained, in offering to give either of us the reins. But Hewitt wished to talk to the coachman, and I willingly took the back seat, understanding very well that my friend would get better to work if he first had as many of the facts as possible from a calm informant before discussing them with the dead man's relations, probably confused and distracted with their natural emotions. ”

“ When Captain Kidd forsook the King's commission to run down the pirates on the American coast, and organized his formidable squadron, Captain Redfield was chosen as his trusted counsellor, to accompany the brilliant leader on his adventures. He gave up his own ship, and was with Captain Kidd on many voyages, being entrusted with many a commission of importance. ”

“ Jack Redfield, as he was familiarly called by his friends, although young in years, had nevertheless “won his spurs” in the medical profession. He had a lucrative practice in Chicago, and occupied a chair in one of the leading medical colleges. His head was of a Napoleonic cast. He had deep-set, expressive blue eyes, short brown hair, a rather heavy blond mustache, and a square chin indicative of great strength of character. In physical proportions he seemed an athlete. ”

“ Redfield flung round impatiently.
“But you’re applying the wrong tests;—you don’t know all the circumstances! You wouldn’t have a child brought up in a home of strife, would you? I’m willing for Elizabeth to have full charge of Marjorie—I’ve waived all my right to her. I’m not as callous as you think: I’d have you know that it’s a wrench to part with her.”
“You haven’t any right to part with her,” said the Poet. “You can’t turn her over to Elizabeth as though she were a piece of furniture that you don’t particularly care for! It isn’t fair to the child; it’s not fair to Elizabeth. ”

“ Redfield answered: “It is unaccountable. I knew her father well; he was a reckless daredevil, with less real courage in him than there is in old Lize; but I can’t tell the girl that. She is sufficiently humiliated by her mother; she takes comfort in the thought that her father at least was brave and heroic.”
“I don’t believe in heredity as I did once,” his wife resumed. “Aren’t scientific men rather divided about it?”
“Yes, there are those who deny that there is any inheritance of the spirit, of character, insisting that the laws of transmission affect the body only. ”

“ This disclosure was startling, and a shock to the spirit which had upheld Captain Redfield. His first impulse was to attack the man for what he considered the basest treachery, but he desisted. Parley with him he could not. He could only await the consequences of the compact which had been hinted at. But upon one thing he was determined—not to disclose any knowledge of the secreted treasure without first having in hand the credentials from Captain Kidd which he had demanded. ”

“ I said. “The impression which she made upon me was that of one in whom the emotions and intellect were both powerful. Her will and cunning are well-nigh a match for yours. You will have to look sharp.”
“It is easier to pursue than to evade pursuit. She has much the most difficult strategy to conceive and execute. I tell you, Mr. Redfield, I’m bound to see that woman. I shall be so piqued at my failure, as to go into a decline, if I’m disappointed.” He seemed two-thirds in earnest, through his jocular assertion.
We did not linger long over the breakfast, being anxious to get back to Brooklyn. ”

“ IT GAVE HIM SUCH A SICK TURN THAT HE NEARLY DIED
"Uncle Brownwood Bear did not punish little Cousin Redfield," Mr. Crow said. "He thought Reddie had been punished enough. Besides, Reddie was sick for several days. But Uncle Brownwood put up the bear-ladder much stronger than before, and set the empty molasses-jug in the middle of the table, and kept it there a long time, and when Cousin Redfield tried even to look at it, it gave him such a sick turn that he nearly died." ”

“ The displeasure in his face seemed to remind Redfield that this was not a man one slapped on the back, or spoke to leeringly. He flushed and muttered an apology, which the Poet chose to ignore.
“A woman who has had half an acre of Mother Earth to play in for seven years and has fashioned it into an expression of her own soul, and has swung her baby in a hammock under cherry trees in bloom, must be pardoned if she doesn’t like being cooped up in a flat and asked to be polite to people her husband expects to make money out of. ”

“ Redfield. We all see things according to the color of the spectacles we happen to wear. Then you think it is a growing certainty that Miss Argyll, even under her present relief from past vows, will never favor his suit, nor that of any man, which is driving her cousin to these reckless habits? ”

“ They were mostly women past the time of life when men look at them curiously, but once Redfield was startled by meeting a young girl, as he was trying to go out, and began losing himself with her in that hopeless encounter of people who try to give way to each other and keep passing to the same side at once. ”

“ Father Wiliston and Toboso went down the hill, silently, with furtive, lawless steps through the cluster of houses in the hollow, called Ironville, and followed then the road up the chattering hidden brook. The road came from the shadows of this gorge at last to meadows and wide glimmering skies, and joined the highway to Redfield. Presently they came to where a grassy side road slipped into the highway from the right, out of a land of bush and swamp and small forest trees of twenty or thirty years' growth. ”

“ Reddie pulled, and tugged, and propped his feet against the side of the cave, and the table and benches, and got out of breath, and was panting and hot and his sore places hurt him awful, and he thought he'd have to give it up, but at last the end of the bear-ladder caught on the side of the cave where the jug was, and stayed there, and Cousin Redfield could let go of the rope, and get behind the ladder and push, and then, pretty soon, it was up straight, and he could get the molasses-jug as easy as anything. ”

“ There was, however, nothing in the Poet’s manner to sustain this hope—nor could he detect any trace of the furtive smile which, he recalled, sometimes gave warning of the launching of some absurdity by this man who so easily played upon laughter and tears.
[67] “There’s no such thing as you and me in this world, Redfield,” pursued the Poet—and his smile reappeared now, fleetingly, and he was wholly at ease, confident, direct, business-like. “We’re all Us—you might say that mankind is a lot of Us-es. And when you let the weeds grow up in your garden they’re a menace to all the neighbors. ”

“ Roderick, it might perfectly well happen, even though until now it has never crossed her thoughts."
"I'm very much in the dark about my daughter," said Averill. "What other men are there?"
"I imagine that Dick Redfield thinks about her a good deal, for one. He has invited himself over for dinner to-night."
"Dick Redfield and Max as rival suitors—how grotesque! Dick Redfield—do they think of marrying at that age?" ”

“ The Poet crossed the room, glanced at the [40] portrait that Redfield had made of him, and then leaned against the white marble mantel.
“We’ve wandered pretty far afield; we are talking as though this thing we call art were something quite detachable—something we could stand off and look at, or put on or off at will. I wonder if we won’t reach the beginning—or the end—of the furrow we’re scratching with our little plough, by agreeing that it must be in our lives, a vital part of us, and quite inseparable from the thing we are!” ”

“ The words were very pleasing; but Captain Redfield hesitated to make answer. "It may or may not be true," said he after a pause, "that Captain Kidd has buried possessions in this immediate locality. It is not to be denied that he has secreted treasure along the coast, but where? That is the question. I have some knowledge of the hiding place of some of it, but must have some written order over the signature and seal of the Captain to warrant me in disclosing it." ”

“ It was Jane Ray’s astonished, all but shuddering thought. “You!—and not—me! Oh, how can it be? You, who I thought would stay outside with me—and the like of me—forever, before you would bind yourself like this. Do you believe the things that he does? You could never be a hypocrite, Redfield Burns. Are you doing it for love of Robert Black? No, you wouldn’t do it, even for that, any more than I would. Then—what is it?”
She sat with a white face and watching eyes which burned darkly beneath her close-drawn, sheltering hat-brim, while Red took upon himself the vows which Black administered. ”