THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A CAROLINA CAVALIER " Good-bye, Sweetheart." (See page too.) CAROLINA A ROMANCE of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON AUTHOR of "A REBEL'S RECOLLECTIONS" " SOUTHERN SOLDIER STORIES " " THE LAST OF THE FLATBOATS" ETC.. ETC. ILLUSTRATED BV C. D. WILLIAMS LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1901, By LOT H ROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. 3rd THOUSAND March 1 6th THOUSAND April 0, igoi 1 2th THOUSAND May g, igoi TABLE Two men in a boat . . . . . 29 H ** CHAPTER III > ^ In which Roger Alton encounters an embarrassment 44 o- P. . _ 3 CHAPTER 17 In which destiny takes the helm . . 69 J CHAPTER 7 In which Helen tells a little story . . . 87 CHAPTER VI . " Good-by, sweetheart " .... 94 8 * CHAPTER VII o In which Roger Alton encounters the enemy . 104 CHAPTER VIII 5 Alton House . . . . . 125 CHAPTER IX Jack . . . . , . . 140 44810S TABLE ^ bed and a surgeon was sent for. He shook his head before he had examined half the wounds, and said: " Poor fellow ! There is no hope. He may become conscious to-night or to-morrow. I would advise that, if he does so, some one ques tion him as to any matters he may wish to ar range before death, for that he will die of these wounds is as certain as science itself." Marlborough was found to be in much bet ter case, and after dressing his wounds, the doctor predicted that, with his superb physical health and strength he would be on his feet again within a day or two and quite well with in a month. " But it was a narrow escape," he said. " If that sabre had struck one-quar ter of an inch farther to the left, his head would have been split open like a watermelon." 353 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Roger watched all night by the bedside of Humphreys, while Jacqueline attended poor Marlborough, whom she had insisted upon placing in her own bed upstairs. The next day Humphreys's consciousness returned as the physician had predicted that it would, and Roger said to him : " I am afraid you are very badly hurt, old comrade, and I want to know, in case anything should happen, if there is anything I can do for you." Humphreys looked at him for a moment out of his resolute gray eyes and said, in a feeble voice but without emotion or whimper: " Of course I understand. There is no hope for me. I am done for. And do you know, I am rather glad of it. I have lived for years hoping for a chance to make atonement. My time of atonement has come. I had hoped never again to associate myself with the des peradoes who were our comrades in that fight. I had hoped to begin a new life. I want to tell you all about that, but I cannot tell it twice, and I must tell it also to your father. Would you mind sending for him, and in the mean time, please give me a drink of brandy." The brandy was furnished and Colonel Al ton summoned. He was now so feeble from 354 A CAROLINA CAVALIER the effects of his wounds and his maladies that he had on this occasion to be carried down the stairs, across the hall and into the room of his wounded guest. The moment he entered and looked at Humphreys, there was recogni tion in the faces of both. "I see that you know me, Colonel Alton," said Humphreys. " My dear friend," said Colonel Alton, " I do know you, and for what you have done for me and mine I have come to thank you with all the strength and sincerity that I can com mand. Do not let us talk now. It will only increase your suffering, and perhaps your danger." " I do not mind the suffering, and, as to the danger, that cannot be increased. The hour of my death has been appointed. It is very near at hand. It makes little difference whether I hasten it by an hour or two or not. There are some things I must say before I die." Then he added : " I would like to have your daughter Jacqueline present. She too ought to know the facts in this case. It will pain her to know, but it is due to her that she should know." Accordingly, Jacqueline was summoned, for it was clear that to resist the wish of the dying 355 A CAROLINA CAVALIER man would only add to his agony. When all were gathered together he said : " Let me tell my story in my own way. It is a story greatly to my shame, and yet I cannot help thinking, as I stare death in the face, that perhaps, perhaps well, never mind. It is for you to judge me, not for me to be judge in my own case. Much of the story you know, Colonel Alton, but not all of it. Let me tell the whole of it, and pardon me if I weary you by recounting things that you already know. My name is William Vargave." At this both Jacqueline and Roger started. " Yes, I knew," the wounded man continued, " I knew that you would be shocked at hear ing this, but I cannot help it. My name is William Vargave. I was born to as honorable a house as any in the Carolinas. I was reared in all the pride and glory of our aristocracy, an aristocracy founded not so much upon birth as upon honorable achievement. My father, Colonel Alton, served with your father in the early Indian wars, before either you or I was old enough to carry a gun. When our time came, you and I served together in like manner against the Cherokees. You were cruelly wounded ; I escaped unhurt ; but we were com rades then,, and you did not forget it. 35 6 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Throughout all my young manhood you were the friend held most closely to my heart, and you were always the most generous and help ful of friends. I was cursed with a tempera ment that you sought to correct. I was cursed with a disposition to overweening con fidence in myself, in fortune, and in the future. I was a day-dreamer, an optimist, an enthusi ast, call it what you will. I was always plan ning great enterprises, and always failing in them. My failures taught me nothing. You, though you tried, could teach me no more than they did. " At last came the time when I dreamed a dream of fortune such as no man from Croesus down had ever dreamed before. I wrought out its details in my mind, with such care that I believed in it from the bottom of my soul. I could see no chance or risk of failure in it. On the contrary, it seemed to me that failure was as utterly impossible as a failure of the sun to rise in the morning. I invested in this scheme every dollar that I could raise. I mortgaged all my possessions to the utmost limit. I sold everything I had that was susceptible of sale. I still lacked a thousand pounds of enough to make the enterprise a success. I went to you and asked to borrow that money. You bade 357 A CAROLINA CAVALIER me halt. You told me that my scheme was visionary. You showed me if I had had the sense to see that only failure and disaster could come of it. You said to me : ' After you have gone into this matter and failed, when you have come out of it impoverished and in need of money, come to me, and you shall have it in whatever abundance I may be able to supply, but I cannot and will not help you into an enterprise of this kind by lending you money to be invested in it.' That in substance is what you said to me. You were wise. But I was a fool. I was so sure, so certain, as I thought, of a success that would startle this continent, that I made up my mind to seize upon the assistance that you refused to give me I forged your endorsement upon a note that I thought I knew I should be able to meet and take up long before maturity. " I see now as I saw long ago, how criminal it was, but I did not see it when the thing was done. I honestly believed that no possible harm could come to you or anybody else from my act. Had I believed that there was even the remotest chance of my failure to discharge that note before' its maturity, I would have burned off my right hand in the fire rather than write your name upon the back of that note. 358 A CAROLINA CAVALIER I hope you believe me in this. I am a dying man, telling only the truth." Colonel Alton was sobbing, and for a time he could not respond. Presently he said : (< I do believe you, my dear friend, and I have known from the first all that you now tell me. I have understood you as you did not understand yourself. But why bring up all these things now ? " " I must, I must, I must," said the dying man. " I cannot go to my grave until I have made full confession, as I have tried to make full atonement. When I found that my crime must be revealed, when I found that my friend must be a sufferer at my hands, or must choose between that and becoming the exposer of my guilt, I fled. But I fled not as a coward flees; I fled not to escape punishment that I would willingly have taken upon myself and endured as an atonement. I fled only to gain oppor tunity in order that I might at least repair to you the harm I had done to you. " In my youth I had been a sailor. I had al ways been interested in shipping ventures. I had often gone to sea to learn something of navigation, as you know. So I decided that the only place where I might earn the money that I owed you was at sea. 359 A CAROLINA CAVALIER " I went first to William Barnegal and laid my case before him. I thought he might help me, but he refused. In our boyhood he and I had been comrades as you and I had, and I thought that he still bore me some affection. I told him the truth and I learned then how soured and cynical he had become. He softened nothing in his dealing with me. He taunted me with the fact that I was a forger, and expressed wonder that, with the consciousness of such a crime on my mind, I should venture upon his premises. He then went so far as to say to me : 'If you could give me any proper se curity, I might lend you money at interest for the sake of the interest, but as I understand you, you are a beggar as well as a criminal ; ' and with that he bowed me out. " I went next to my father-in-law. He was a man, as you know, of imperious temper and almost an exaggerated sense of honor if it is possible to exaggerate that sentiment. He too repulsed me, and bade me take myself out of Carolina, saying : ' When you married my daughter, it was without my consent. I see now the wisdom that prompted me to withhold such consent. Go anywhere out of the world that I live in. As for your wife and daugh ter, well, at least I will see that they do not 360 A CAROLINA CAVALIER starve. I cannot promise you more than this/ " On that night I sailed in a little sloop out of the creek down there where my father-in- law lived. A man was swept overboard in the gale. The crew had been recently shipped, and the men were not known by name to their officers. I instantly conceived the plan of taking that poor fellow's name, and leaving it to be supposed that it was William Vargave who had been cast overboard and drowned. Under my new name of Thomas Humphreys, I followed the sea year in and year out. The work was slow and toilsome, and at last I des paired of ever accomplishing my purpose by such means. " I had in the meantime studied the com mercial situation very carefully. The British trade laws were oppressive and unjust beyond endurance. They were so unjust indeed that even had I still held myself to be a gentleman, and a man of honor, I should have had no scruple whatever in violating them, as other gentlemen in Carolina and at the north had no scruple in sharing the proceeds of their viola tion. I saw the opportunity that our peculiar coast interlaced as it is with inlets, sloughs, bayous, creeks, and little rivers offered for 361 A CAROLINA CAVALIER traffic of this kind in violation of the revenue laws. I found men engaged in this business who lacked the brains to conduct it skilfully, and who, for lack of brains, achieved nothing except now and then a term in jail, or, in ex treme cases, a gibbet. I made myself the lead er of these men. I organized them and became their chieftain. I could furnish them the brains they lacked, and the lack of which they themselves felt keenly. " I made myself their master. Such men always need and want a master. I ruled them with a high hand. I taught them that my commands whatever they might be were commands to be obeyed instantly and without question upon pain of instant death at my hands. I established a rendezvous here on the coast hidden away where there was not the slightest danger of any revenue officer ever finding it, and where it would have been great ly the worse for the revenue officer who did venture to find it. " In that traffic, which was legitimate en ough in its way, I accumulated money. I dealt fairly and honestly with my men, making that division of profits which we had agreed upon, and which was just. " It had been their habit to make little, if any, 362 A CAROLINA CAVALIER discrimination between smuggling and piracy. Many of them had sailed under the black flag, and at times they went into revolt against my authority, because I resolutely refused to en gage in enterprises of that sort. I held them down to smuggling. I forbade all forms of robbery, and on the whole, I think my associa tion with them was rather for the good of the community than to its hurt. We robbed the king of England of revenues to which he had no right, but we robbed nobody else. We de fied laws made to convert the people of these Colonies into tributaries of a greedy gang of London speculators, and in doing so as I lie here upon my death bed I feel that we did right. We were earlier than the rest of our country men in revolting against British oppression. Beyond that I do not see that we were guilty of any crime. When the British law forbade Americans to buy tea elsewhere than from British warehouses, we bought it in Spain or wherever else we could buy it cheapest, and we brought it into the Colonies and sold it openly here. When unjust British laws for bade the Colonists to export their products otherwise than through extortionate British merchants, we undertook their exportation without the extortion. We were rebels a lit- 3 6 3 A CAROLINA CAVALIER tie in advance of our countrymen, but not other wise, I sincerely think, were we sinners above them. " Nevertheless, I personally was a criminal. I was a forger. That crime still lies to my charge. Do not interrupt me please," he said seeing that Colonel Alton was about to pro test. " I know what you would say. You would say that I have sent you back the money I unjustly took from you. That is true,, but, as I said then I say now, the crime remains. " During all these years " here the man broke down from feebleness, and it was neces sary to administer restoratives before he could go on, but no persuasion could induce him to relinquish his purpose of continuing his story as soon as he had recovered strength enough to speak. To all entreaties to postpone it he re plied, " There is no future time for me. I must do now whatever I am to do. I must say now all that I have to say." When he felt a little stronger he began again: " During all these years I was mainly at sea, or in foreign lands, but I kept myself informed minutely of everything that concerned me in Carolina. I learned that for some reason which I have not yet fathomed, but which I took to be a cowardly fear of vengeance, Tiger 3 6 4 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Bill Barnegal had never revealed what I had told him of my crime. I learned how you, Colonel Alton, heroically sacrificed yourself and took up the burden which I had laid upon you. I learned how you defied even the power of a court to impoverish and imprison you, rather than expose my crime and bring my helpless and innocent family into disgrace. How I have honored you for your heroism! How I have loved you in their behalf, though to them I am a dead man, as you know. " When I saw Carolina threatened with the invasion that is now upon us, I could no longer resist the impulse that had been strong upon me from the first to join with my countrymen, and do battle for my native land. I came back to America in company with your son, but without his knowledge of anything concerning me. I separated myself from him almost at the moment of our landing. I begged him then to keep secret the fact of our having been as sociated even in that way. I did this for his sake, and in order that no revelation of my guilt, should it come as it easily might should involve him even indirectly in my shame. " Through your daughter I returned to you the money of which I had robbed you, and through her peril I have at last been enabled to 3 6 5 A CAROLINA CAVALIER make some small atonement, perhaps, for the wrong I did you. It is all that I can now do. My hours are numbered, and they are not many. I beg of you to write up to my credit at least the desire to serve you and yours, and I beg of you, in the name and for the sake of my innocent wife and daughter, who have mourned and still mourn me as a dead man, that the secret you have kept for so many years may be kept still." With that the dying man ceased. Colonel Alton, sobbing between his words said : " It shall surely be as you wish, my friend. To me there is no past this side of the days of our youth, when you and I were friends. All else is blotted utterly out of my mind and soul. We are living in new times. We are estab lishing new institutions. We are beginning a new life. We are putting the past behind us. In this republic there is no history back of the republic's birth. Concerning the man whose record in this struggle for liberty is good as yours is, there is no ante-dating evil to be re membered. Liberty looks forward, not back ward ; up and not down. God Himself accepts atonement as a blotting out of sin. Shall we poor mortals be more relentless than the Ar biter of the universe? I am beginning to see A CAROLINA CAVALIER things in a new light the new light of liberty. Your secret, my friend, shall never be made public. That part of your past which you re gret has been utterly blotted out by the atone ment you have made at cost of your life." He could speak no more. Rising with dif ficulty to his feet, he hobbled out of the room, leaving Jacqueline and Roger to close the eyes of the friend of his youth, who sank almost in stantly into his last sleep. 3 6 7 XXIX IN wbicb ALTON HOUSE receives VISITORS y^FTER Colonel Alton had recovered /-i himself from his passionate emotion, -^ -*- he sent for his son to consult with him. " I have promised our dead friend," he said, " that for the sake of his wife and daughter his secret shall still be kept inviolate, and yet I can not bear to think of burying him here without their knowledge, leaving his grave forever nameless. It seems to me that the wiser course, and the one he himself would have us pursue, is to send for his wife and daughter and tell the wife at least the full truth. We may tell her as little as possible with regard to her loved one's sin, as much as possible with re gard to his heroic atonement. As for the daughter, I shall leave that to Mrs. Vargave herself. She may do as she pleases. The girl is a thorough-paced gentlewoman, proud, strong, and able to bear such griefs as life may A CAROLINA CAVALIER bring to her. Perhaps it may be best to tell her all, but from the rest of the world we will con ceal all. I want you, if you will, to take some of your men as outriders, and go at once to Lonsdale to bring Mrs. Vargave and her daugh ter hither. We will then quietly lay our friend to rest. It is better that they should be here now, at any rate." " Yes," said Roger, " in the present dis turbed state of the community, two women left alone on a remote and isolated plantation with out any white man, not even an overseer to call upon for aid, are in a dangerous position. I will go for them father, and, with your permis sion, will myself tell Helen the whole truth. She has given me her love, and it seems to me she is entitled to hear from my lips, rather than from another's even from yours the sad story that must be told. I now clearly under stand how it is you so peremptorily forbade my marriage with Helen, and I understand how hard it was upon you that you could not explain to me the reasons for your course. But that is all past now. Vargave has made atonement with his life, sacrificed in the rescue of Jacque line from a fate too horrible even to contem plate. You have accepted the atonement in full, and so have I. You have granted him absolu- 3 6 9 A CAROLINA CAVALIER tion for his sin against you, and the world knows nothing of his crime. There is now no obstacle, so far as I can see, to the execution of my purpose of marrying Helen." " Wait a minute, my son," broke in Colonel Alton, " you forget. Tiger Bill Barnegal still lives and hates, and still knows the facts in this case. He has been baffled in the revenge he sought by the seizure of Jacqueline for I am persuaded that this crowning outrage was de vised by him and committed under his direc tion. When, my son, I refused my consent to your marriage with Helen, I told you that my objection was in no remotest way to her. You understand now what I meant by that. I was proud then, and saw things in the light of our old traditions. I can now so far lay them aside as to think of my dead friend as my friend still, and to forget that he ever sinned. But we now have a new duty to do, a duty to which he with his dying breath has invoked us. My duty, as I saw it before, was to protect the Al ton name, to forbid a marriage which would have made my grandchildren the grandchil dren also of a forger. To-day the forgery is a thing dead, done for, buried and forgotten. So far as we are concerned it does not exist. But Helen has still to be protected. We have 37 A CAROLINA CAVALIER promised him to shield her name, and we must do so at cost of all sacrifice, even though it be the sacrifice of your happiness and hers, my son. While Tiger Bill lives, you must not marry Helen. Should you do so, he would instantly see and seize his opportunity for vengeance. He would publish to the whole world the facts that the dead man in there has asked us to keep sacredly secret for the protection of his wife and daughter." " You are right, father," said Roger. " I see our duty clearly enough, and I see it as you see it. Let it be so. I will go at once to Lons- dale, but first I must make a few arrange ments." Leaving his father, Roger went first in search of Jacqueline. To her he hurriedly gave some instructions regarding her own safety. " We have not seen the last of this affair," he said, " but the terrible punishment which my cutthroat allies gave to your captors down there in the swamp at Coosawhatchie will teach them to wait a while before resuming hos tilities. In the end, however, it will also anger them and prompt them to still more desperate attempts hereafter. You must be protected. I am going to Lonsdale. I shall ask Charlie Barnegal to look up the survivors of my troop 37 1 A CAROLINA CAVALIER and recruit it so far as he can in my absence. But the more I think of it, the more necessary it seems to me that you should have protection here at home always within reach. " I like your idea of forming- a pickaninny brigade. You already have a supply of arms. I will ask Charlie to look a little to the instruc tion of your little black soldiers, and to supply you abundantly with ammunition. " Organize and drill the little negroes as thoroughly as you can, and let them learn from the beginning these two things : first, that guns are given to them to fight with, not to throw down when the enemy comes. And, second, that the way to fight successfully is instantly to obey every order given to them by their commander. You are their commander. Good-by, dear, I must talk now with Charlie, and I must be away." " But are you going alone to Lonsdale ? Are you going to bring Helen and Mrs. Vargave here without protection on the road in the present disturbed condition of the country? " " No, no,," he answered, " I shall pick up three or four trusty fellows whom I know on the way, and we will make a sufficient guard. If necessary, I know where our desperadoes are." A CAROLINA CAVALIER Then, seeking out Barnegal, Roger gave him such instructions as he needed, and said to him at parting : "I look to you, old fellow, to have our force as strong when I return as it was before those gallant fellows were killed under your command, and in the present con dition of the country I think you will find it easy enough to make it so. The whole countryside has been aroused and alarmed into activity by this escapade. Every young man in the com munity who has not sworn allegiance to King George, feels that his own home and every body's home is now in hourly danger. Every one of them, I take it, is ready to fight under the first leader that may summon him. Send out for them, muster them in the swamp, and have them ready against my return. Then you and I will see what we can do toward re-estab lishing order in this community. Good-by." And with that he swung himself into the saddle on the back of his trusty Bullet, and giving rein to the animal he was gone. He reached Lonsdale just after daylight the next morning. He had ridden the whole eighty miles in fifteen hours, and he patted Bul let on the neck in praise of his superb devotion and endurance; for all of that energy which Bullet had formerly been disposed to expend in 373 A CAROLINA CAVALIER resisting this master of his, was given now to the splendid doing of that master's will. But as Roger, followed by the four armed com panions whom he had summoned to his side as an escort, entered the avenue leading up to Lonsdale, he was horrified to see instead of the house, a shapeless and smoking ruin. With an exclamation of horror he said to his men: " The devils have made war upon these two defenceless women. God only knows what they may have done." With that he and his comrades plunged spurs into their horses, instinctively felt of their rifle flints, and with pistols drawn rode at a full run up to what had been the beautiful home. There was nobody there, not even an enemy, and it required some little search through the woodlands round about before they could dis cover any one even of the house-serving negroes. The one first found was the young black man who had waited upon Roger during his stay at Lonsdale the year before. How eagerly he welcomed the coming of white men whom he knew he could trust, his trembling and eager manner made quickly manifest. With a few hurried questions, Roger learned from him what had happened. 374 A CAROLINA CAVALIER " You see, sah," the negro said, " when the damned tories pardon me, massa, I didn't mean to swear " " Oh, swear all you like at them. Go on ; what about them ? " " When de tories corned here you see I seed 'em comin' an' I rushed into de house and almost dragged the Missus and Missee Helen to one of de quahtahs. Den I slipped back over dere in de woods and den I saw a big light, and I knows dey done set fire to de house. Dey didn't get de Missus or Miss Helen. I has got 'em hid away in de woods where I don't think even a tory could find 'em. But dey got most of de black people, and they done took dem off in a ship. I don't tink more dan one or two of 'em is left besides me, and I sup pose de one or two, if dere is any, is hid away somewhere out in de woods, and maybe dey will come back again some day, I don't know. That's all dere is to tell, Massa." In the meantime, Roger's men had been beat ing the bushes in every direction, hoping there to find some one at least of the marauders. They found none, but they saw that the looting of the plantation had been complete. Every thing that was portable and of value in the house seemed to have been carried away be- 375 A CAROLINA CAVALIER fore the building was set on fire. Here and there a bit of silver or other valuable had been dropped by the robbers in their flight, thus marking their trail, and telling the story of their evil deeds. There was nothing to be done but to go with the young negro to the hiding place in which he had bestowed his two mis tresses. The poor women had been frightened, of course, but, with the spirit of the high bred race to which they belonged, they had recovered their equanimity, and now indulged neither in hysterics nor in tears not even in bewailing. They welcomed Roger and declared them selves ready to go with him at once to Alton House. " You see," said Helen, with still a touch of playfulness in her manner, " we shan't detain you as we women generally do while we deco rate ourselves and pack useless baggage, for we have no decorations left, and no baggage either, and nothing to pack into it if we had. But how are we to go? Those fellows carried off every horse on the plantation, and as they burned the barns the carriages of course are gone too." " You can ride, I think, Helen," said Roger. " You haven't forgotten the lessons that your grandfather taught you. Bullet here has never 37 6 A CAROLINA CAVALIER been trained to pillion service, but you and I together, I am sure, can ride him double. I shall put you on my crupper, and for your mother we will make an arrangement among my men." Mrs. Vargave declared her own ability to ride a-pillion also if a quiet horse could be found in the cavalcade. One of the men in stantly responded, pledging his horse to good behavior if Mrs. Vargave would honor him by accepting a seat on the crupper. The horses were jaded, of course, all but Bullet, but they did their work well, and by stopping over night at a roadside tavern, Roger managed to make the long journey before the end of the next day. He was glad of the necessity of that over night stop at the tavern. It gave him an op portunity to inform Helen of the sad events that had brought about this journey. He felt that no other could tell her the story of her father's shame and her father's death with so much of tenderness as he could bring to bear, and from no other lips could she receive it with so little pain as from his. She bore it very bravely indeed, but she re jected Roger's suggestion that she should be the bearer of this news to her mother. " That 377 A CAROLINA CAVALIER belongs not to me nor to you, Roger, but to Colonel Alton." So it was arranged. Mrs. Vargave, still in ignorance of what had occurred, rode on to Al ton House with the feeling of an animal that had been hunted but is nearing a refuge. Very naturally, Roger avoided all direct reference to their own affairs in his talks with Helen as they jaunted along seated upon the same horse, yet she was left in no doubt of the tenderness of his love, or of his passionate de votion to her, nor could she in her turn, avoid letting him see how entirely he was master of her mind, her soul, her life. She tried hard in deed to avoid such a revelation, for now that it was made additionally certain that no engage ment could exist between her and Roger, all the pride of her bringing up prompted her to reti cence. Nevertheless, when these two reached Alton House, there was a closer bond of sym pathy between them than ever before, and a clearer understanding on the part of each that the tie between them was perfect for all time, whatever their external relations might be. On the arrival at Alton House there was much of agitation, of course. Mrs. Vargave must learn the terrible story which Roger had 378 A CAROLINA CAVALIER already told to Helen. Then there must be the quiet funeral, and then the waiting. Roger scarcely paused for supper before mounting Mad Bess, which he had ordered to be brought to the door, and pushing off into the swamp to find his followers. He felt that he had work to do and no time for delaying. He had explained to Helen that he would not attend the funeral, and she understood that this determination was prompted by a delicate con sideration for her mother. " You are right, Roger," she said. " It will be easier for mother if only a very few are pres ent to see my poor erring father laid in his grave." " Don't say that, Helen," said Roger. " Don't think of your father as a poor erring man. All that, as I told you, is past. You are to think now, henceforth and forever of your father as a hero, as one who in life denied him self every joy, risked every danger and endured every hardship to atone for an error committed without evil intent, one who met death at last as only a few heroic souls of this world can meet it. You wrong your father; you wrong me; you wrong those children whom it is my hope that you will some day bear to me, when you hold your father otherwise than in honor. 379 A CAROLINA CAVALIER It is a hero that you are about to bury, a noble man, a gentleman. Teach yourself that les son, dear, before I come, as I shall come when the time is ripe, to claim you for my wife." And with that he threw himself upon his splendid mare and was gone. 380 XXX MARLBOROUGH brings NEWS >^S he had expected, Roger found his /-i band greatly increased in numbers. -^ -*- Thanks to the awakened sense of all- embracing danger in the community, he found nearly forty men ready to answer his call. Not all of them were assembled in the swamp of course. It was part of his tactics indeed to keep but a small body there, and to distribute the rest about among their several homes where they could do the work at once of pickets and scout ing men. It was theirs to find out what was going on, and to report it promptly to their commander. It was theirs to answer his sum mons, whenever their services were needed in more active ways, which was now a thing of very frequent occurrence. In thus summoning them, Roger had adopt ed and applied a good many of Jacqueline's devices for silent communication. A litter of leaves at a crossroads, the dead branch of a 381 A CAROLINA CAVALIER tree thrown in apparent carelessness by the roadside; a little dust heap piled as with child ish hands; a diminutive bonfire built upon a knoll these and a hundred other signals had each its definite meaning for Roger Alton's men. And so perfect became the system of quick communication, that within less than an hour at any time he could bring every man of his band to his side. He had no one place of rendezvous even in the swamp, but he had means of indicating on each occasion of need the point at which his men were expected to join him for a foray. Barnegal had already, as he put it, " equip ped " Jacqueline's little army and established her arsenal in one of the wine cellars of Alton House. He went thither frequently on the plea that it was necessary for some one to look after the progress of her young soldiers in their organization and drill, but somehow it usually happened that when he reached Alton House he found the soldierly operations in so good a state of advancement, that he had nothing fur ther to do than sit awhile in converse with Jacqueline. Nevertheless, he refused to re linquish his theory that his presence as a drill- master was occasionally necessary. It was a very busy time for the next few 382 A CAROLINA CAVALIER v/eeks. The tories were reinforced presently by a small body of British regulars, who had been sent into that part of the country for the purpose of keeping the loyalists in heart and aiding them in their marauding enterprises. The patriots had become almost ceaselessly active in their endeavors to overawe the tory bands. There were skirmish fights almost daily. Now and then a miniature pitched bat tle occurred. The operations of Roger's band were no longer confined by any means to the narrow limits of the neighborhood. They made raids sometimes a hundred miles away, and oftener than not they were half that distance up or down the country. They operated sometimes in a single body, sometimes in detachments, ac cording to the need. The one idea that in spired all their activity was to make Carolina too hot to hold the British and their tory allies. Meantime General Marion was in the midst of his splendid career in the upper country, and Sumter was ceaselessly busy, wherever he could find a foe to fight. The British had already learned that their conquest of South Carolina, so far from making an end of war there, marked only its beginning. There came news one day that a body of 383 A CAROLINA CAVALIER British regulars supported by nearly a thou sand armed tories, was making more than or dinary trouble at a point near the mountains. A message from Sumter invoked the aid of Roger's band, and that young gentleman, marshalling all his force, hurried to the scene of conflict. For several days the righting was almost continuous, but each day, so far from diminish ing, increased the numbers of the patriots in the field. There were men by hundreds throughout the country who were accustomed to take up arms when fighting was on and to lay them down the moment the fighting was done. There was fighting enough now to call these men to their duty, and to keep them at it pretty continuously. One night, after a day of hard riding and hard fighting, Roger encamped his force now numbering somewhat more than fifty men in a little strip of woodland, and threw out his pickets to guard the camp while his men slept upon their arms. He was at supper when there came to him a visitor. He was a man lean and muscular in appearance, wearing a semi-cler ical garb composed of long stockings, high boots, knee breeches, and a tow linen coat that reached half way down his legs, but was cleric- 384 A CAROLINA CAVALIER ally cut in the collar. He was a strange figure one that the modern caricaturist would re joice in, but there was a deep earnestness in his face, and his soft blue eyes had a steely glint in them that meant battle when battle was necessary. He introduced himself to Roger, saying: " I am the pastor of a Presbyterian Church up there in the hills. My parishioners are a God fearing people, and they are always ready to do God's service when their pastor points out to them what it is. Last Sunday we met for service, when the news came to me of this dis turbance down here. I am an Irishman, as you probably guess, and while I hope the divine grace is always present with me, I still have a touch of the old Adam in my soul, and I fear that I was glad, when the devil, on whom it is my business to wage war, came forward in the form of these British and tories. It gives me a chance, you see, to know where my blows fall and when they tell. I did not preach last Sunday. There wasn't much time for it. I adjourned the meeting to the grove outside the church, and told my people what God expected of them. They are simple people, Captain Al ton, but if they are plain Irishmen by descent, they are enthusiastic Americans now. I told 385 A CAROLINA CAVALIER the women that they must work a little harder on the farms because I was going to take all the men away to fight, and the women waved their bonnets and hurrahed. Women don't say much in my congregation. We hold to the Pauline doctrine that women should be silent in church, but I knew what their bonnets meant, and so I turned to the men. ' There/ I said to them, ' You see what kind of patriots these your womenkind are. So now go you home as quick as you can, and meet me down at the foot of the hill there, all of you armed, every man bringing a little bit of bacon or what ever you have got in your house to live on. Bring it along. Let's have some cornmeal too. And bring your guns, bring a lot of powder, all you have got, do you mind ? ' It wasn't a very formal sermon, or a very elo quent one, and it had no gospel text, but it did its work. And I am camping over here by you, Captain, with one hundred and twenty men, and every man knows how to shoot straight and every man knows how to stand up in God's service. I tell them every day it is God's service they are doing." By this time, in his excitement, the old man had resumed the brogue of his boyhood out of A CAROLINA CAVALIER which he had so strenuously labored to drill his tongue.* It was in this sort of spirit that the war in Carolina was fought, and the men who fought it were of almost inconceivably different types. There were young planters of aristocratic lin eage like Roger Alton, and Charles Barnegal. There were born soldiers like Marion. There were the Scotch-Irish farmers of the moun tains believing primarily in the doctrine of predestination that held all events to be un alterably determined " before ever the founda tions of the world were laid," men who did their duty with the inspiring sense that every act of theirs was decreed by God himself. There were young roisterers who were inspired almost as much by the love of adventure and of the wild woodland life of partisan service as by sentiments of patriotism, though they held these too, very strongly. And there were des peradoes outlaws if you like like those whom Vargave had summoned to Jacqueline's rescue. It was a motley crowd, but heroic in all its parts. On the morning after Roger's meeting with the queerly clad old preacher whom he nick- * This is a historic fact. 387 A CAROLINA CAVALIER named Joshua, in memory of that great com mander whose authority extended even to the sun in Gibeon and the moon over the vale of Ajalon, the enemy was found to be dispersing. The patriot force was much too strong for it to meet in battle. The tories for the most part disbanded and took to the woods. The British regulars retreated as rapidly as they could, battling as they went, with one patriot band after another assaulting them. It was just then that startling news came to young Alton. It was brought by no less trust worthy a messenger than Marlborough, whose shoulder was still encased in bandages, and whose head was bound until it looked like that of a grand Turk in his turban. " I couldn't wait to get well, Mas' Roger," he said, " because somebody had to find you quick, and I knew Marlborough could do it quicker'n anybody else. Old Tiger Bill has got his people togeder again, and dey have burnt two barns on your plantation. We are expecting them at Alton House every hour, so I thought I would come and just tell you so that you might go back there. Miss Jacqueline she told me to say that if you had duty to do up here she would try and hold the fort until you 3 88 A CAROLINA CAVALIER got through, but to come as quick as you could." It was not a minute later before Roger had his band in motion, and they rode furiously. But the distance to Alton House was great, and time had been lost of course during Marlbor- ough's search for him. When Roger told Barnegal of the news brought to him by Marlborough, that young man was quick to see the explanation. " The old Tiger," he said, " like the coward that he is, has seized his opportunity. He knows that we are away, and he means if possible to reach and loot Alton House plantations. Let us hurry, Roger. Remember that Jacqueline and Helen Vargave are in danger. What matter if we ride half our horses to death and kill half our men. We must get there in time to save them." In that spirit, and spurred by that impulse, the two young warriors rode like the driving of Jehu, and the faithful fellows in their ranks followed them without murmur or complaint. 389 XXXI CAPTAIN JACK'S DEFENCE rOUNG Barnegal had judged rightly. Coward that he was, old Tiger Bill deemed it safe now in the absence of all the patriot bands from the lower country, to indulge in the luxury of a perfect vengeance. He believed it to be certain that no patriot with a gun in his hand remained in the region round about. He regarded Alton House as helpless ly defenceless, and so, when he mustered his men for its destruction, he for once placed him self at their head, and took personal charge of the enterprise. He established the headquarters of his party at the wheelwright's shop, and began at once to spread terror throughout the neighborhood. First of all, the outer barns of Alton House plantation were burned by night; this apparent ly for the sake of torturing the inmates of the mansion with apprehension. Against this method of procedure " Captain Jack " took no 39 A CAROLINA CAVALIER measures whatever. It was obviously useless to do so, and it would serve only to disclose the fact which she wished to conceal, namely, that she had an armed force at her command. Colonel Alton was at this time hardly able to sit in his chair, and his irritation at en forced inaction was not good for the gout that tortured him. The negro wheelwright, who brought to Alton House the first news of the band's ap proach, was fleeing to the swamps for safety. Nearly all the other negroes on the plantation those of them at least who worked in the fields were doing the same. Their terror of being captured and deported to the West In dies was limitless. They had somehow learned of what happened to negroes who were thus de ported to tropical islands. They had somehow found out that slavery was quite a different thing there, a much more horrible servitude than any that existed in the American states; that it was untempered by any touch of patriar chal relations; that in those countries the hireling overseer with his cruel whip stood al ways between the slave and his master, and that the one thought was to grind out of every man or woman or child the utmost dollar of earning with the minimum of food and shelter 39 1 A CAROLINA CAVALIER and with no clothing at all. It was a slavery inspired solely by greed of gain, unsoftened by sentiment, unrelieved by any sense of pity. It was into such bondage as this that the British sent every Carolina negro upon whom they could lay their clutches. And from this peril the negroes everywhere were accustomed to flee into the recesses of the swamps, whenever they saw signs of its coming. At Alton House, only the house servants re mained. The little company of pickaninnies, dressed in white uniforms with flaming red and yellow trimmings, all of which Jacqueline and Helen had provided to make them proud of themselves and their service, rallied round their young mistress. They had a certain expert- ness in the use of firearms, as every one had at a time and in a country where the chase was a daily occupation, and the use of gunpowder was almost an instinct. Upon hearing of the impending danger, Cap- ain Jack's first thought was to provision the fortress for she intended to make a fortress of Alton House and to stand a siege there, cer tain that if she could hold out long enough strong arms would come to her aid and her rescue. She had all the available pigs and chickens driven into the cellars and near-by 39 2 A CAROLINA CAVALIER out-houses, where they could be drawn upon in case of need, as a food supply. This had been originally Marlborough's suggestion. At his instance also for he had seen something of war by this time, and had learned some of its arts she had her little negroes dig shallow rifle pits in the grounds around the house, throwing the earth to the front as a sort of parapet. She had so located these pits that it was possible to pass from one to another with very little exposure, and in that way to retreat to the house whenever retreat should become necessary. Shots from these pits, coming ap parently out of the earth would be naturally more demoralizing to the approaching foe, es pecially in the night, than shots emanating from the source whence they might be ex pected. In all her preparations for defence, Helen Vargave was Jacqueline's efficient lieutenant. Full of suggestiveness, alert, and with a cour age that nothing could daunt, Helen was en thusiastic for the fray. " We are soldiers' sweethearts," she said to Jacqueline one day, " and that comes pretty nearly being soldiers, doesn't it? And besides, I am a crack shot. My grandfather taught me that among the other unladylike accomplishments that he in- 393 A CAROLINA CAVALIER stilled into me to the horror of my gover ness." It was at Helen's suggestion that an out house built of thick planks and heavy timbers was pulled down, and its materials erected into a kind of parapet at the edge of the great piazza. This defence was bullet-proof, and lying be hind it, the little black soldiers could do a maximum of damage with a minimum of danger to themselves. Most of the serving women in the household were helpless from the first, but a few of them remained calm enough to help. Two of these constituted themselves picket guards. They were strong young girls, clad in scant skirts and accustomed to run like deer. Taking turns they patrolled around the house and through the grounds throughout the nights of waiting. Each was armed, and each was in structed to fire an alarm when the enemy ap proached, if there were no other way of giving notice to the garrison, but to run home in silence instead, if there should be time for that. The defenders of the fortress had not to wait long for the assault. It came about midnight when the moon had gone down, and a deadly chill was in the air. Believing that the place was defenceless, or at most, that Colonel Alton 394 A CAROLINA CAVALIER might be able to fire only a single shot or so. Tiger Bill pushed his men straight towards the house by way of the main entrance, screening himself behind them that he might not by any chance receive the one stray shot anticipated. The tories were ill drilled, or rather, not drilled at all, and they came on slouchily, in a loose line, numbering perhaps eighteen or twenty men in all. As they approached the dark and apparently sleeping house, they saw a negro girl rise from the bushes near and scurry away, as they thought, to shelter. A moment later, " Crack-crack-crack-crack- crack ! " came from the rifle pits, less than twenty yards in front of them, and two of the men fell riddled with bullets. The rest hastily ran, and as they did so, trampled upon their leader, Tiger Bill, who had received one of the leaden messengers in his body. " Good for you, boys," cried Jacqueline, in low tones as she ran from one rifle pit to an other. " Are any of you hurt ? " " No missie," said little Dick, the smallest and youngest of her juvenile soldiers. " Those fellows didn't hurt nobody because they didn't git time to fire." The boys wanted to sally out and pursue the enemy, as they knew white soldiers often did 395 A CAROLINA CAVALIER when the enemy retreated under fire, but Jac queline was too prudent for that. " They will come back," she said, " and they will fire next time. They are angry now." With that, she took two or three of the boys with her and going to the point where the to- ries had received the fire, made a search for wounded men. She found two dead ones whom it was not worth while to waste time up on. She found another evidently wounded, crawling on hands and knees. Presenting her gun at his head, she bade him halt, and called for help from the house. Some strong young arms seized upon the wounded man in the darkness, and carried him bodily into the hall way. It was too dark to see him, for every light had been extinguished, and Jacqueline had no notion of relighting any of the torches while the danger should remain. So she di rected those of the housemaids whose terror permitted them to be of no other service, to carry the man above stairs into a rear room, and there to light candles. " We must look a little to his wounds," she said, " if they give us a minute for that." In the meantime she returned to the piazza where she found Colonel Alton. He had had himself wheeled out in his armchair, and now sat with 396 A CAROLINA CAVALIER his ammunition pockets slung from his shoul ders as if for the hunt, and his shot gun at full cock, lying across his knees. His gouty feet in the meantime were snugly resting on a pillow on top of the little board parapet before men tioned. "What are you doing here, father? Why are you not in your room? It will kill you to be exposed in this night air." " Do you suppose, daughter, that an old sol dier like me concerns himself much about night air, and little things like that? I am a bit helpless to get about without assistance, but I can sit here and shoot the next time those fellows come, and I have come here to do it. You go on with your work, dear. But if I were you, I would withdraw half your boys from the rifle pits, leaving only one or two in each. It is not well to expose your entire line in front, with no reserve to fall back upon." The girl acted at once upon the advice of the old commander, who, in losing the use of his legs, had not lost his skill in the art of war. This new disposition had hardly been made, when the tories appeared again, firing this time into the darkness and wildly. Under Col onel Alton's direction, the defenders in the pi azza reserved their fire, the boys in the rifle 397 A CAROLINA CAVALIER pits delivering theirs as rapidly as they might, and then, under directions previously given them, slipping back to the house. The tories were apparently deceived as to the location of the defence. They emptied their guns at the points where the rifle pits were situated, be cause from those points alone had come any re sistance. The rifles of that day were flint-lock ed, muzzle loaded affairs unprovided with car tridges, and loaded only by the measuring out and pouring in of powder, and then by a rather difficult pushing home of a leaden ball sur rounded by a bit of greasy cloth called a " patching." A gun once emptied was inno cent of harm until it could be reloaded, a mat ter requiring from half a minute to two min utes, according to the coolness or excitement of the man handling the weapon. At Helen's suggestion, Jacqueline had had enough pikes made long spears of wood, shod at the end with sharp-pointed steel to arm all her force in case of the failure of ammuni tion. With the instinct of the old soldier strong in him, Colonel Alton seized upon the moment when the tories had emptied their guns, and himself took command although he could not rise. With quick, sharp orders to Jack he di- 398 A CAROLINA CAVALIER reeled operations. The boys fired their guns at short range into the already confused ranks of the tories, and then seizing their pikes sallied forth at a run, and dashed headlong upon the enemy. It was the work of but a moment, but it was effective. Half a minute later not an un- wounded tory remained in the Alton House grounds. The boys returned, promptly reload ed their guns, and stood ready for another as sault. But no other came during that night, nor did Colonel Alton think another would be made for the present. He knew enough of the moods that govern undisciplined men in fight ing, to know that two such repulses as had been given to this band would work a demoraliza tion from which it would take time and effort for them to recover. He suggested to Jacque line, therefore, that she go at once to the wounded man's bedside, and ascertain if any thing could be done for him. To her horror she discovered that the man was none other than Tiger Bill himself! His wounds were apparently not very serious, but his habits of life were against him. Soaked with brandy as he had been for years his nerv ous system could endure but little of shock, and by the time that Jacqueline reached his 399 A CAROLINA CAVALIER bedside he was raving like a madman, in an at tack of delirium tremens. It required two or three pairs of strong arms to restrain him, but these fortunately were furnished by negro wo men unfit to serve as a part of the defensive force. When the facts were reported to Colonel Al ton, he said to Jack : " They will not come again to-night, my dear, and I doubt if they come again at all. They have lost their leader, and that, to a crowd of this kind, usually means dispersion." His conjecture was right so far as a renewal of assault that night was concerned. Jack's little negroes had proved themselves good fighting men, but to save their lives they could not conquer their racial disposition to fall into profound slumber the moment they grew still. They were good soldiers but bad sentinels, so Captain Jack bade them sleep on their arms where they were, and she and Helen alone guarded the camp throughout the night. The next day, scouts were sent out to learn what the enemy might be doing, and if possi ble to bring a surgeon to the house to attend upon Tiger Bill. The surgeon came and brought with him the information desired. He was a little old man oddly dressed in a 400 A CAROLINA CAVALIER fashion even then antiquated. In his disposi tion, an uncontrollable irascibility and an in stinctive gentleness were always at war with each other for the mastery. He punctuated all his sentences with " damns " and interlarded them with gently caressing phrases. His atti tude toward each human being was either one of intense antagonism and disgusted contempt, or one of exceeding tenderness and affection. And just now the mingled manifestation of his loathing for old Tiger Bill and his caressing affection for Jacqueline and Helen was still further complicated by his surgeon's instinct of mercy to a patient. His words would scarcely bear repetition here, but as he worked over the old man's wounds a continual tide of pattering vituperation flowed from his lips, interrupted now and then by exclamations of pity. " You deserve all you got, you damned old Ah, poor fellow, that hurt you, didn't it? I couldn't help it. After all I am glad I did it, you old scoundrel There, dear," (turning to Jacqueline) " don't stand so close to the bed. It pains you I know I had to open that artery, but I guess after all I must tie it up, or the poor fellow will be dead in a few minutes, and serve him right too, confound him Do, dear young lady, leave the room and leave this old 401 A CAROLINA CAVALIER villain to me. I will take care of him. No, no, I don't mean I will do him any harm not as a surgeon at least." And so he rattled on and on and on. When he was through, he turned to Jacque line and said : " He will get well of his wounds easy enough, if his jimjams do not return. Of course I must take care of that. Have you any opium in the house, my dear ? " Overstrained as she was, suffering from want of sleep, full of apprehension, and in stinctively sympathizing with the old man in his sufferings, Jacqueline nevertheless could not restrain her laughter at the comical chatter of the pudgy little old doctor. But in the end her indignation conquered her other emotions, as soon, at least, as the surgeon had reported old Tiger Bill out of danger. " I am glad of that of course," she said, to Helen, "but I don't think I ought to be. Think of it, Helen, that old beast coming here like a coward at the head of armed ruffians to make war upon a helpless invalid like my fa ther, and a lot of women like us ! Thank God, we have been able to beat him at that game anyhow ! " Then turning to her maid, she said : " Stay here, Molly, and if we are want- 402 A CAROLINA CAVALIER ed, any of us, call us. We must go and get some sleep." But first of all she inspected the defences of the house. She saw to it that each of her young soldiers received his proper meed of praise, reinforced by a hearty breakfast and a replenished bullet-pouch. Then throwing her self upon a joggling board for she would not leave the piazza, until the danger should be ut terly past she fell into a profound slumber as other military commanders have done in in tervals between their periods of strenuous, sol dierly work. With the coming of night, the watchfulness was resumed again. The boys were returned about nine o'clock to their rifle pits, and each of them was furnished with a great bowl of strong, steaming coffee, in order that they might remain awake during their tour of duty. They had slept practically all day, and had they been of a race other than their own, sleep would now have been impossible to them even without the caffeine stimulant. But Jacqueline knew their tendency to somnolence when inac tive, too well to trust them under such circum stances. From time to time she went through the rifle pits chatting a little in order to arouse 403 A CAROLINA CAVALIER her soldiers, and replenishing their coffee bowls. In this way she kept them on the alert, resorting now and then to the little trick of pretending to hear the enemy coming by way of additionally stimulating wakefulness. This time the night passed nearly away without an alarm. It was almost daylight, when from the fig orchard lying upon the east erly side of the house, the tories suddenly ap peared and made a furious dash to gain the piazza. Had they accomplished this, their suc cess in overcoming resistance would have been almost certain. Only half the little force was stationed behind the wooden parapet. The rest, as we know, were in the rifle pits in front. But Jacqueline had foreseen a situation of this kind, and had carefully instructed her little ne groes in anticipation of it. She blew a little whistle twice. That, by preconcerted agree ment, informed the young soldiers that the en emy was coming from the east, and it ordered them also to retire by way of the west from the rifle pits to the porch. They came as a timely reinforcement just after their comrades behind the defences had emptied their guns; and their second volley, coming unexpectedly to their enemies after they had supposed all the defen- 404 A CAROLINA CAVALIER sive rifles emptied, drove the tories back into the fig orchard. By this time the day was dawning, and Jac queline could see that the force in the orchard was much greater than that which she had suc ceeded in repelling on the night before. She had little hope now of making her resistance long successful. For the men in the bushes spread themselves out in open order and seized upon every point from which they could fight behind shelter. Hencoops, kitchen chimneys, large trees, negro quarters, and even the curb of the well became breastworks for the enemy. From these they poured an irregular but most annoying fire into the piazza, which of course was open and exposed except for its low, plank defence. Jack's little negroes stood their ground most manfully. " Poor fellows," she said to herself, " their courage will cost them dear, but it is better that they should die here fighting, than fall into the hands of those men." So she kept them at work loading as rapidly as they could, and under her direction reserv ing their fire until heads were exposed from be hind the barriers occupied by the enemy. " Do not waste your bullets," she presently 405 A CAROLINA CAVALIER enjoined the boys. " Do not shoot until you see something to hit." Nevertheless, the enemy was steadily gain ing an advantage. A squad of them would now and then quit the shelter from behind which they had been fighting, and hurriedly gain another nearer at hand. In this way they were slowly but surely encompassing the man sion to its fall. A fierce fusilade was now coming from be hind a log building used as a kitchen, and standing only thirty or forty feet distant from the house. Between it and the house was a smaller building where stores were kept. Should the enemy gain this, further resistance would be impossible, and Helen, seeing the sit uation, said to Jack : " I am going to burn them out of that kitch en." With that she seized and lighted two of the great pine torches in the dining room, and crouching low to the ground, ran quickly to the little storehouse. She waited within it for her opportunity, and, passing through, she ran to the kitchen building, climbed up the logs that formed its walls, and thrusting the torches through the window of the little upper sleep ing-room, plunged them into the straw of the cook's mattress. Dropping instantly to the 406 A CAROLINA CAVALIER ground she retreated to the house under a shower of bullets, but happily received no harm. In half a minute the kitchen was wrap ped in flames, and the men who had been hid den behind it, scampered hastily to the shelter of the big trees behind. 407 XXXII FIRE and SWORD one problem set Roger Alton to solve was to outride Time itself in his dash homeward. As was his custom, he kept silent for a time as the cavalcade thun dered forward, and tried to think out all the conditions that might cause delay, and all the devices that might help haste. At the top of a hill he halted his men to breathe their horses, and during the brief wait he gave them some hurried orders. The news of what was happening at Alton House had quickly spread among them from those of them who had been present when Marlborough delivered his message. They knew what their mission was, and they were eager to perform it well; for besides being sol diers, earnest in their work, and Americans full of implacable hatred to the tories and especially to Tiger Bill they were devoted to 408 A CAROLINA CAVALIER their young leader with a loyalty that knew no bounds. Roger said to them : " Men, we are going to ride night and day. We have enough in our food-bags to keep us from starving, but we are likely to ride our horses to death. Let every man of you change his horse for a fresher one whenever he has an opportunity. Leave the old one in exchange, and tell the owner of the new one that if he is not satisfied with the trade, Roger Alton will pay full price in gold for every horse taken. Tell them to come to me when this dash is over, and I will satisfy their utmost demands. But take the horses anyhow." " And say also," said young Barnegal, " that Charles Barnegal goes Roger Alton's security for every dollar. I pledge every acre of land that I own, and every shilling I have on earth in this behalf. But keep yourselves well mounted, and keep together as well as you can." With that they dashed forward again. Night and day they rode without ceasing, scarcely pausing even to give their horses breath, and when one of them dropped out of the ranks to get water, or to exchange his horse for a better one, he was not long in rejoining the band. Fortunately, no enemy was encountered on 409 A CAROLTNA CAVALIER the way to delay them, and fortunately too they had Maryborough for their guide. The young negro had been a ceaseless night hunter since his early boyhood. He had followed raccoons and opossums through all the woods within twenty miles of Alton House, and on the black est night that ever came could thread his way successfully through every swamp and wood land. Roger called him to his side as they reached the region over which he knew that Marl- borough's sporting proclivities had made him master. He said to him : " Marlborough, we want the shortest cuts. Never mind the roads when you know a quicker way. The thing is to get there." " I can save ten miles at least," answered Marlborough, " and between you and me, Mas' Roger, my head aches so bad that I am in a hurry to get to Alton House." With that effort to disguise his emotion by pretended levity, the black young giant burst into tears and wept like a woman. For expla nation, when he had conquered his emotion, he said : " Mas' Roger, you must excuse me, but I cannot help thinking what mought be hap- penin' at Alton House. Can't we ride faster, Mas' Roger?" 410 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Three o'clock on New Year's morning found the band at the edge of a swamp ten miles from Alton House, as the crow flies, fifteen at least by way .of the nearest traveled road. Here Marlborough said to his master : " Will you blow de horses a bit, while I goes into de bushes? I think mebbe I can find something." Sure of the negro's loyalty and confident of his sagacity, Roger bade him go on the pro posed search. He dismounted and was gone for perhaps ten minutes, until his master be came impatient of the delay and was about to move forward when he reappeared. " I'se found it, sah, I thought it was here. I can lead you now through de swamp. Dere's a little ole hut down there that I built once for some hunters. From there on for the next five miles I can follow de bank of de creek, though de water is a good deal out just now, and you may have to ride up to your stirrups now and then, or mebbe swim a little. It will save five miles at least, and when we gets out o* de swamp, we'll have hard open pine land for de rest o' de way." " Are you sure that you can find the way. We don't want to get lost in the swamp." " Suah, sah. I've tramped it many a time when I had to wade up to my armpits. You 411 A CAROLINA CAVALIER won't get lost if you foller me, and you won't lose no time, nuther." With that he mounted and led the way, the men riding behind in single file, for after all it was scarcely more than a squirrel path, broken through dense cane and among the overhang ing vines, that Marlborough was now thread ing. With a precision that seemed almost mir aculous, the negro picked his way in the in tense darkness through a morass that few white men would have been able to pass even in the brightest day. Half an hour of struggle with vines and cane, half an hour of flounder ing in mires and pushing through water of varying depths, brought the party at last to the farther limit of the swamp and into the pine land. There they renewed the gallop, and pushing forward in a course as straight as the flight of a bee, came in a little while longer into the open fields of the Alton House plantation. Here Roger was at home and needed no further guidance. Just as the day was breaking he heard the sound of guns. His men heard it too, and like madmen they dashed forward pell-mell wait ing for no leadership, every man pushing his horse to his utmost in his effort to gain the front and save time. Now and then a horse 412 A CAROLINA CAVALIER fell exhausted. His rider would throw him self, arms and all, upon the crupper of a com panion's steed. Still it was on, on, on, they went, no man thinking of himself or of any thing in the world except the rescue of the help less women assailed by cowards at Alton House. As they approached nearer, a sudden burst of flame greeted their eyes. " They have fired the house," said Barnegal. " Yes, and God knows," said Roger, " what has happened first. I know that Jack has made the stoutest resistance she could, but they have beaten her and got possession." The words were muttered between his teeth with a note of intended vengeance in every syllable. The men too were excited, and an gry beyond their customary resource of swear ing. They gritted their teeth and rode silent ly, every man thinking of the vengeance he meant to wreak as soon as his over-taxed ani mal could bear him to the scene of action. Without pausing to form in any regular or der, Roger led his men through the garden beds, over the glass of the cold frames, through a fence which Bullet crushed with his chest as he came upon it unawares, into the midst of the tories in the fig orchard. 413 A CAROLINA CAVALIER He saw in an instant that the enemy had not in fact gained possession of the house, that Jac queline was still holding out, and in order that she might know that rescue was at hand, and in order also that her young riflemen might not pour a volley into his own band, he blew a blast which he knew she would recognize, upon the silver-mounted huntsman's horn that he always carried slung over his shoulder, and used in lieu of a bugle. At that instant his men fell upon the tories with a savagery and determination not less- destructive in its purpose than that of the war painted wild Indian. Such of the tories as did not fall at the first onset, threw down their arms, and threw up their hands begging for quarter. Roger and young Barnegal called to their men that the enemy had surrendered, but Bur ton the bullet-headed, turned to the men near est him with the laconic remark: " Surrender be damned ! " The men understood him, and they shared his impulse. In the fury of their excitement and anger they were determined to leave no man of all that tory band alive. Right and left they dealt their sabre-strokes, and it was only by placing himself between them and the 414 A CAROLINA CAVALIER little squad which was all that remained of the enemy, that Roger at last succeeded in stopping the slaughter, and rescuing five of the men alive as prisoners. For weeks and months afterwards Burton and the men who had been around him in the melee used to wonder over their camp fires " why on airth Cap'n Alton dun it. Why on airth didn't he let us finish the job while we wuz at it? Whoever hearn of giving quarter to rattlesnakes, or takin' mad dogs prisoners ? " " Waal," answered one of the men, " of course I agree with you. I ain't got no use at all fer lettin' a man live when he's a coward and fights wimmin. But you know, the Cap'n's more differenter. He's eddicated, an' somehow eddication makes a fellow soft-like in his insides." " Who says Cap'n Alton's soft-like ? " spoke up one of the men in obvious resentment. " Oh, I didn't mean," responded the other, " I didn't mean just what you think. He's got grit, Cap'n Alton has. He's got sand in his gizzard if ever a man had in this world I don't mean that but when he's got the other fellow down, he won't kick him, even if he knows him to be a coward." " Somehow, I can't help liking that in him," 415 A CAROLINA CAVALIER said another one of the party, " though of course we can't rise to it, as the lawyers say in court. We can't quite understand it, but I guess arter all, it's right. Them fellers had give up, and you bet 'fore Cap'n Alton let 'em go, they wusn't in any condition to fight again." " What did he do with 'em ? " asked another. " He turned 'em over to some of Sumter's men, and they took 'em off up country. I reckon they's prisoners somewheres now. Any how, they ain't in the business of fightin' women no more, and I guess there won't be much more of that sort of fightin' down in our part of the country." But this is getting ahead of our story. The moment Roger had secured his prison ers against harm, he directed Burton with a squad of men to scour the grounds about the house and the fields for a mile away. " See that there's nobody left with a gun," he said to his follower. Burton, biting off a large mouthful of to bacco responded with the quite unmilitary but entirely characteristic remark : " You bet." Then Roger and Barnegal hurried to the house and met Jacqueline and Helen at the en trance. Both were agitated after the terrible 416 A CAROLINA CAVALIER experience they had been through, but both were radiant with the sense of victory. Hur ried greetings were followed by equally hurried inquiries on the part of the two young men as to the amount of damage done. Two of the brave little black fellows who had so stubbornly defended the mansion were lying on improvised cots, and the little old doc tor who had remained at the house after his first summons, attended their wounds. None had been killed, but the physician would not answer yet for the results in the case of these two. " Fortunately," he said, " they will have good nursing, anyhow," and with that the old man went off talking more to himself than to anybody else, and talking mainly in terms of profanity concerning the dastardly outrage that had been committed. " Damn it, Captain Alton," he said, sud denly, " I am afraid I have saved the life of the old miscreant that brought it all about. I have done my best for old Tiger Bill, and damn him, I believe he is going to get well." At this moment a negro woman rushed into the front room where this conversation was be ing held, and announced that Alton House was on fire. The flames which had served so well in repelling the attack of the tories had been 417 A CAROLINA CAVALIER caught by the wind and carried to the mansion itself. Roger's first care was to rescue the inmates of the house, particularly the wounded. The two stricken pickaninny soldiers were carried by their comrades to a negro cabin, but it was a much more difficult task to rescue Tiger Bill. He had grown stout in his later years for one thing, and at the first excitement of the fire he had become hysterical. Yet after some diffi culty he was sufficiently controlled to be carried to a place of safety. The little old doctor ex pressed the devout hope that perhaps some of his wounds had been opened in the process, and then went to bind them up in the event that that should prove to be so. All possible aid was summoned, including all of Roger's men to extinguish the fire, but a very few minutes' work showed clearly that there was no hope of accomplishing that; at tention was given instead to the saving of such valuables as could be easily and quickly re moved. Before the traditional breakfast hour of Al ton House had come, there was nothing left of Alton House but the splendid thickness of its massive walls. Jacqueline, who had borne up bravely in danger gave way completely as 418 A CAROLINA CAVALIER she saw the destruction wrought upon her home. When all was done that could be done, and Colonel Alton had been comfortably installed in his wheel-chair in an outhouse Roger called his band to arms, and set out upon the work that he now appointed to himself. " I mean to clear this whole region of to- ries," he said. " The fighting is growing vig orous in the North and the British are drawing away all of their regulars that have hitherto been scattered about the country to encourage and lead these tory raids. The tories, left to themselves, will not accomplish much, I fancy. At any rate, we will leave none of them here with a gun in possession or within reach." Leaving young Barnegal to comfort Jacque line and to superintend such arrangements as must now be made for the comfort of the house hold, Roger took his departure without waiting even for such breakfast as could be prepared. Just before he went the old doctor came to him, his eyes positively sparkling with delight. " It has done for him, Captain Alton ; I am sure it has done for him, damn him. I have got his wounds all right, but this last fright he's an awful coward isn't he? has brought back his jimjams, and upon my word I don't 419 A CAROLINA CAVALIER believe I shall be able to conquer them. At any rate, if I do, I will give you notice somehow so you can hold him prisoner." Roger knew the necessity of holding the old man prisoner. He knew how certainly the men under his own command would have taken him out and hanged him to the nearest tree if they had been permitted to get at him. So he was glad enough to draw off his force, and oc cupy them in other and more legitimate ways. 420 XXXIII THE PAPERS in the CASE THE doctor's prognosis proved correct. Old Barnegal, in spite of all that could be done for him, remained a raving maniac for two days longer, and then died in a spasm, the severity of which awakened the pity even of the doctor himself. For young Barnegal this event of course cre ated a totally new situation. He sent a mes senger to inform Roger of his plans, so that he might be summoned to his commander's side in the event of need, and then went at once to the lawyer who had long had charge of his uncle's affairs. He found him a man scrupu lously exact in everything, from the tying of his queue or the polishing of his finger nails, to the indexing and classifying and digestion of docu ments. After Barnegal had told him of Tiger Bill's death a bit of news which the old gentleman received without the slightest sign of emotion 421 A CAROLINA CAVALIER of any kind, the lawyer said to the young man: " You of course are the only heir. There are no other relatives to divide the estate with you, and certainly none to dispute your right to the succession. I see no reason why you should not go to The Live Oaks and take possession at once. As for the legal formalities, if you de sire me, Mr. Barnegal, to continue in my capa city as counsel to the estate, I will arrange them with very little trouble to you. I shall ask you now and then for your signature that is all." "But," said young Barnegal, "What if there is a will? My uncle never intended to die, leaving his estate to me, I know." " I presume not," answered the lawyer. " In fact, I have gathered that much from time to time from his well, let us call it his conversa tion if you will but still I tell you there is no will. The fact is, that your uncle was a person much under the domination of superstition, He had an impression which I find common enough among men of his temperament and well let me say his habits that the making of a will is apt to prove the precursor of an early death. He often talked with me on the subject and often declared his purpose presently to at tend to that business. But I assure you, he 422 A CAROLINA CAVALIER never did so. I have all his papers in charge here in my office." And opening a case marked "William Barnegal," he showed within an orderly array of documents, each carefully folded and endorsed, and all of them neatly tied with red tape into bundles, each bundle reposing in a carefully labeled pigeon-hole of its own. " By the way," said the man of law, taking out one of these parcels, " Here are some docu ments which it may be of interest to you to examine at your earliest leisure. They belong of right to you. They belonged to you of right while your uncle lived, though I could never persuade him to let me give them to you. He always intended instead to destroy them in order that they might never fall into your hands. Fortunately, I have been able to pre vent that. He has believed for many months past that he had destroyed them. He was con fident in his own mind that he had burned them in the dining-room fire at the Live Oaks, where he did in fact burn copies of them which I had carefully made, and which, when he de manded the documents at my hands for the purpose of destroying them, I substituted for the originals. You know the old gentleman's well, let us say, um unfortunate habits in 423 A CAROLINA CAVALIER life. On the day in question, I went to him on a summons demanding that I bring these docu ments to him. Foreseeing his purpose, and realizing how unjust to you it would be to per mit their destruction, I bound up copies in a bundle precisely similar to this, labeled it as this is labeled, and going to him, earnestly entreated him not to destroy the papers. He grew angry with me for indeed on that day he was rather 'more under um, let us say the influence of stimulants than usual. As I argued, and pleaded, withholding the papers, or seeming to withhold them, he grew hotter and at last he snatched the parcel from my hand, glanced at the superscription, and tossed the whole into the fire. Naturally, I did not tell him of the mistake he had made, or of the substitution which I had felt it my duty to practice. I, um let us say simulated regret at the catastro phe, and after a while I left him. Thus you see the original documents which I know con cern you in very vitally important ways, have remained in my possession, and I have now the pleasure of delivering them into your hands. No, don't open them now, please," seeing that Barnegal in his eagerness was about to cut the red tape ligatures, " don't open them now, please, but when you are quite calm. These 424 A CAROLINA CAVALIER documents are partly in English and partly in Spanish ; but mainly they are in French, a lan guage which I believe you read with reasonable ease." Barnegal signified that he did. " Sup posing that your knowledge of Spanish was " " I know nothing whatever of Spanish," said Barnegal. " Ah, so I feared," said the man of law, " and, as I was about to say, anticipating that difficulty, I have been at pains to make careful translations of the Spanish documents into English, placing them each with its original in order that you might have no trouble in going through the whole in consecutive order. Let me urge upon you to read them only in that way. It would produce confusion even in a legally trained mind to examine them other wise than in their proper order. You will go at once to The Live Oaks, I presume ? " Barnegal signified his intention of doing so. " Very well. You will perhaps have need to consult me now and then in order to learn matters of business detail which it would be im portant for you, as the new master of the estate, to know. Pray call upon me whenever you wish. Your uncle's papers at home if he left any will afford you probably little if any as sistance in elucidating his affairs. He was a 425 A CAROLINA CAVALIER careless person in such matters, as I have had frequent occasion to observe, and in view of that fact I have for some years past in fact ever since well, let us say, um, ever since well, ever since his unfortunate appetites if I may so characterize them got the better of his discretion, I have made it a practice to pos sess myself of every written document belong ing to him which might at any time be needed in the settlement of his affairs. No, no, you mistake me, if you suppose I have done this surreptitiously. I have in each case notified him that I had taken the paper, and would hold it subject to his examination at any time. I did so conscientiously in the discharge of my duties as his solicitor. It was with respect to those documents that you have in your pocket and which he wished to destroy it was with respect to them alone that I was, that I ever practised, well, let us say reserve in dealing with him, and I felt myself justified in doing so, as I have tried to explain to you, by my con sciousness that the documents in question be longed to you rather than to him, and that in any case he had no right to destroy them. In the absence of such a right, it was my duty to prevent him from doing an act which, if not quite criminal, would have bordered so nearly 426 A CAROLINA CAVALIER upon crime as to be well, let us say at the least regrettable. ' ' And so, with a laborious precision which amused while it annoyed the impatient young man, the lawyer laid before him every fact and consideration which he deemed it necessary then to communicate, stating each with as mi nute care, and as much exactitude of phrase as if he had been writing documents to be pres ently submitted to the scrutiny of a chancery court. When young Barnegal entered the mansion of The Live Oaks, whose late master lay still unburied at Alton House, he found among the servants there no indication of sorrow at their master's death. On the contrary, those who had been his immediate servitors the house hold people quickly gathered in the hall to welcome their new master with faces that indi cated only joy in the change. When the young man had spoken a few words to them, and sent them away about their several businesses, he wandered for a little while through the empty rooms, keenly feeling their desolate loneliness, and after a time find ing himself moved to some small degree at least of pity for the man who had so long lived there with no companionship but that of his 427 A CAROLINA CAVALIER own evil temper, no associates but his own un happy moods. " What a life it must have been ! " he ex claimed to himself. " For years this uncle of mine has dwelt here with no family, no wife, no children, no relatives, and even no visitors. I doubt if any white man has crossed his threshold in friendship for a dozen years at least. What a life, what a life, what a life! Tragedy would be light reading in comparison with the story of it." But it was now quite dark, and the young man, finding no bell anywhere rapped upon the table for one of the servants to come to him, unconsciously using the signal to which the dead man had so long accustomed those about him. The negro boy was startled at first by the thought that it was his late master's ghost that had summoned him. He entered with face and lips of that peculiar hue which in black men takes the place of pallor. Young Barne- gal ordered lights, and the servant announced that supper was served in the dining-room. The youth had fasted since early morning, and had made a long journey on horseback, but until now he had not thought of food, so that he was surprised when he recognized his own famished condition. 428 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Hastily despatching his supper, he bade the servants clear away the table furniture, bring abundant lights and leave him alone. " If I want you I will call you," he said. Then he sat himself down and opened the bundle which he knew held his fate. Taking up the first paper, he found it to be in the lawyer's handwriting. It read as fol lows in its introduction: " There are nine papers in this parcel. They are the property of Charles Barnegal, the younger, the son and successor of the late Charles Barnegal, and in the event of my death they should be placed in his hands without ex amination. These papers relate solely to the question of the legitimacy of the said Charles Barnegal, the younger. They are papers writ ten long before that gentleman was born and cherished for a time by the relatives of his mother in France. Later they came into pos session of William Barnegal, his uncle, who claimed them on the occasion of a death in France, and took possession of them in his capacity as guardian for his nephew, the said Charles Barnegal, the younger." Then followed a precise schedule of the pa pers in the bundle and a synopsis of each of them in its turn, which Barnegal ran through 429 A CAROLINA CAVALIER with constantly increasing excitement. Before he had finished his perusal of this first docu ment, his eyes were aflame and his tongue parched. He looked up from his work in search of water, and found instead a tray care fully set out with a decanter of brandy and ac companying glasses. The sight recalled him to himself, and with an amused smile he mut tered " Obviously the habits of the late owner of The Live Oaks were well understood by his servitors, and they do not know how completely they have died with him." With that he rapped upon the table, bade the boy remove the liquor and bring fresh water in its stead. The young negro in astonishment glanced at the decanter, and saw that its contents were still untouched. After he had served his master with the water demanded, the boy hastened to the kitchen to relate this wonderful news to the other serv ants gathered there. Barnegal proceeded to read the papers men tioned in the schedule. The first was a letter from Emile Gamier to Charles Barnegal. " From my maternal grandfather," the young man said to himself, " to my father." It was in French and read as follows: " My notary informs me of certain matters which it will be necessary for you to explain to me before I 43 A CAROLINA CAVALIER can proceed further with our negotiations for your mar riage with my daughter. Information has been given me from no less authoritative a source than your brother, Mr. William Barnegal, to the effect that two years and four months ago you were married in Madrid to a woman whose name Mr. William Barnegal does not know ; that she was a woman far beneath you in social status, ignorant, and perhaps depraved; that after a brief infatuation you quitted her or she quitted you, and you came to France. There is no intimation from your brother that this woman is dead. If not, she must still be your wife, and you are not free to marry any other woman. Permit me, sir, to hope that there is some error in this information, for I am loath to believe that you would be capable of asking for the hand of a pure and highly-bred young woman, knowing yourself to be already a married man." There, with the usual formalities of signa ture and address, the letter ended. The next document was the reply to this let ter. In it young Barnegal's father, then him self a young man, had written briefly, saying : " In answer to your inquiries, I beg to say that if you will give me sufficient time, I will secure from Madrid and lay before you quite satisfactory evidence of the essential falsity of the information given to you concerning me. I will show you that at the time of my supposed marriage to a Spanish woman who called herself Maria Ruiz, she was a person incapable of contracting mar riage, being in fact the wife already of a Spanish mer chant who had discarded her for her dissoluteness. I may say by way of explanation that at the time I met her she was posing as the maiden daughter of a widow, 43 1 A CAROLINA CAVALIER and seemed rather well placed socially, though deeply in need of money. An accident threw her into my way, and both she and the woman who professed to be her mother made the most of it. Their appeals to my sym pathies and to a certain sense of chivalry were too much for the not over strong head of a young man foot loose in the world and possessed of ample fortune. I married the young woman, as I supposed, only to learn very shortly into what a trap I had been drawn. I found both women to be adventuresses of the worst possible kind. I learned also of the fact that the woman was already a wife. Proof of these facts I will lay before you in such shape as to satisfy you I am sure, and surely such facts should be sufficient to acquit me of the charge brought against me. But these are not all. I will show you further by indisputable official evidence, that the woman herself is dead. Otherwise, void as our marriage was from the beginning, I should not now be a suitor for the hand of a woman whom I esteem as I do your daughter." Then followed a mass of legal documents written in Spanish, and attested by many Span ish notarial seals. They told in effect the story that Barnegal had promised to establish, and they added to it the bit of information that the woman in the case was very certainly dead, for the reason that she had been garotted for crime under the decree of a court. Added to these were some letters from Emile Gamier, warm, enthusiastic, loyal letters ad dressed to the young man whom he had per mitted scandal to wrong in his mind, and there 43 2 A CAROLINA CAVALIER was one little letter, written under permission evidently, and guarded in its phrases, as a French maiden's letters to her affianced hus band must always be, signed in the little femi nine hand with which Charles had become fa miliar as the handwriting of his mother many, many years before. Rising from the perusal of these documents, the young man paced the floor until he came in front of the portrait of his late uncle. It had been painted before dissipation and evil tempers had wrought their full havoc upon the visage depicted in it, but the likeness was strong yet, and the picture seemed to stare at him there in the midnight with sinister eyes. " What a devil you were ! " the youth ex claimed, as he looked back into the eyes that seemed to menace him from the canvas. " What a traitor you were ! What an incon ceivable liar and slanderer you were! " Midnight as it was, and weary as the young man ought to have been, but was not, he has tily rapped upon the table, and the serving man, who had been asleep in the corridor, as hastily responded. " Have my horse saddled and brought to the door immediately," was his command. 433 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Fifteen minutes later young Barnegal was pushing his horse at an almost cruel pace on the way to Alton House. 434 XXXIV THE END of a COMPLEXITY rOUNG BARNEGAL arrived at Alton House just as Jacqueline and her guests, the Vargaves, were sitting down to breakfast in the negro cabin which had served as their dining-room since the burning of the mansion. He had ridden so hard and so recklessly of mud, that his clothing was even more dishevelled than it had been at the end of the long march of rescue. His face was hag gard with excitement and loss of sleep, and the first impression his appearance produced upon Jacqueline was one of alarm. " Something has happened," she said to him " something terrible. Tell me, Charlie, tell me quickly what it is." " Yes, dear, something has happened," he replied, " but not something terrible some thing glad, and glorious and good instead." Then he hastily told her the substance of what he had discovered, and the character of 435 A CAROLINA CAVALIER the revelation made to him by the bundle of papers. His first impulse was to ask an au dience at once of Colonel Alton, whose suffer ings did not permit him to join the family at table, but for the first time in her life Jacqueline fainted. The courage that had carried her through trials which few women or few men either could have borne so well, gave way in the presence of the great good news. When she was sufficiently recovered to be left in the care of Mrs. Vargave and Helen, young Barnegal reflected that the mission on which he was about to go to Colonel Alton was one closely touching Jacqueline. " And for such a mission," he said, " a man should be at his most presentable best." Laughingly he said to Jacqueline, who was now under self-control, " Impatient as I am, I should wait to dress myself in silk attire for such a purpose, if I had any silk attire lying about anywhere. As it is, I can only submit myself to the hands and brushes of one of your servants, and let him make me as presentable as may be under the circumstances." A servant was summoned ; the young man's clothes were brushed; his riding boots were cleaned of the soil. After that, the youth se cured razors and proceeded to shave himself, 43 6 A CAROLINA CAVALIER arid put his hair in order. In the meantime, he had so far recovered his self-possession, that he felt equal to the task of " behaving like a grown man and a soldier," as he put it, during his interview with the old gentleman. Going to him at last upon his invitation, Barnegal drew the papers from the pocket into which he had thrust them in a degree of dis order which would have distressed the old so licitor deeply. He laid them upon the table in front of the older gentleman. " Colonel Alton," he said, " I lay before you complete, official, documentary proof of the honor of my father and mother." Then he hastily recounted the nature and substance of the documents and added : " I come to you now a man as well born as yourself one entitled to ask any man in all this land for the hand of his daughter. I come to you too as the head of my own house, for since the death of the man who so malignantly schemed against my father first, and, for re venge, against his memory and my mother's afterward, I have not a relative to represent the Barnegal name. If I were an Irishman, I should be entitled to call myself ' The Bar negal.' " The old gentleman, with great difficulty and 437 A CAROLINA CAVALIER greater dignity, rose to his feet and grasped the younger man's hand. A few broken words of affection were all that he could utter. Unable to go on he closed the interview saying : " Go now, my boy, and go with my blessing. Tell Jacqueline all that has happened. When you have done that," he added, recovering him self, " I have a mission for you." The young man asked eagerly what it was, as eagerly promising to fulfill it on the in stant. " No," said the elder, " not until you have seen Jacqueline and told her all. Here, take these documents with you. I will keep this schedule. It is quite all that I require. It is due to Jacqueline that, after yourself, she should be the first to read those papers. Take them to her, and you and she read them together. After that, go and find my son. Bid him, if it be pos sible, come 'to me. If his duties forbid that now, say to him for me that the last obstacle which stood in the way of his love and the or dering of his life as he had planned it, is gone. You perhaps have not realized it, Charles, but your uncle's death of which Roger is not yet informed removes a danger that hung over Helen's head until now. Say to Roger that I am ready now, whenever he wishes, to go to 438 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Mrs. Vargave with the request he once asked me to prefer to that lady." Barnegal went to Jacqueline, as he had been bidden, and told her all. Together they read all the papers, line by line. When they had done, Jack, always mindful of others, said : " You must go now, Charles, on the mission my father gave you. You must find Roger and hasten his hour of rejoicing." Singularly enough, the reading of those old, time yellowed documents by Barnegal and his sweetheart, had consumed the greater part of the day, though it had taken Barnegal by him self only an hour or two, during the preceding night, to go carefully through every one of them. Barnegal had slept no wink now for thirty- six hours, but no desire for sleep troubled him. He was young, strong and a seasoned night- rider ; but better still he was under the irresist ible stimulus of a great joy. So without a thought of weariness he swung himself upon a fresh horse, furnished by little Jack especially for this gladsome occasion, and set off at al most breakneck speed to follow and find Roger. The task of finding that young cavalier was not a difficult one, though he was more than twenty miles away. For, maddened by the 439, A CAROLINA CAVALIER dastardly assault upon Alton House and by the destruction wrought there, Captain Alton was making his presence terribly manifest, wher ever he went, and he went everywhere where a tory was likely to be found. When told of the good news, he placed Bar- negal in command of his force, which was now rapidly increasing in strength, and himself hastened home. " I will join you again to-morrow or the next day at latest, Charlie. Meantime con tinue the work with all possible vigor. You understand what it is. We must clear this whole region of tories and make a final end of their pestilent activity. Good-by! I'll be with you to-morrow or next day ! " 440 XXXV IN which MARLBO ROUGH attains MILITARY COMMAND THE task that Roger Alton had set him self was one requiring time and cease less activity. Now that Tiger Bill was dead the tories in that region were discour aged by the loss of his financial support and the stronger support of his matchless malignity, but they had gained, on the other hand, the courage of rats in a corner. Every man of them was now known in his true character. Every man of them expected that the success of the patriots would mean more or less of outlawry for him self and his family, and so they were impelled by fear of consequences which might come by means of a rope dangling from a tree to fight desperately. It was a fierce and bloody struggle, therefore, that Captain Alton's band had to wage, but little by little they achieved success. They broke up one tory band after another, and as they now manifested a determined purpose not 441 A CAROLINA CAVALIER to be content with the dissolution of the organ ized bands, but to drive every individual tory utterly out of that part of the state, their foes steadily decreased in numbers. Some of them fled to the protection of the British at Charles Town or Savannah. The bolder ones among them made their way to the scene of regular military operations in the northwestern part of the state and in North Carolina, where they en listed regularly in the British militia regiments which Cornwallis had organized as an auxiliary army. The spring of 1781 was well advanced by the time that Roger Alton and young Barnegal began to recognize their work in the lower country as practically accomplished, and by that time a new dawn seemed at hand for South Carolina. The partisans under Marion and Sumter, and, in smaller bands like that which Roger Alton had used so effectively, had com pletely baffled the expectations of the British. They had maintained an irregular but very fierce and effective warfare, after all possibility of war seemed to the British tacticians to be past. They had made it harder to hold South Carolina than it had been to overrun it. They had taught their foes new and undreamed-of lessons in the art of war. They had saved 442 A CAROLINA CAVALIER South Carolina, and the time had now come to reap the harvest they had sown. General Nathaniel Greene had all this time been conducting a campaign against Corn- wallis, almost matchles-s in history, in the brill iancy of its strategy and the tireless courage and endurance with which it had been carried out by a half-starved, ill-armed army of undis ciplined patriots. With an inferior force, this great general, chosen by Washington himself for the tremen dous task, had fought and manoeuvred Corn- wallis out of South Carolina, across North Carolina and into Virginia, where Washington and LaFayette a few months later made him bite the dust in humiliating surrender; and when Greene saw him well on his way to his doom, he himself ceased pursuit and turning about, re-entered South Carolina to try con clusions with the British forces there. The story of his reconquest of the state reads like romance in the pages of history. This is not the place in which to recount it even in outline. It was to aid in this splendid campaign that a messenger from Governor Rutledge now sum moned Roger Alton and his band to the upper part of the state. Before leaving, Roger placed 443 A CAROLINA CAVALIER Marlborough in charge of the immediate de fence of the Alton House plantations. There was not much danger of tory activity in that quarter now, but there was still enough to sug gest precaution. Roger therefore instructed his faithful serving man, who had by this time shown himself to be also a brave and capable soldier, to organize and arm all the able bodied negroes on the estate as a home guard, and ex plained to him that even without a white of ficer in command, such a force would be fully authorized in law as well as in morals, to do soldierly work in the way of home defence. His last charge to Marlborough was this : " I am leaving all that I hold dear on earth in your care, Marlborough. I expect you to keep them in safety." " If you don't find 'em safe when you come back, Mas' Roger, you won't find any but a dead Marlborough to blame for the failure ! " With that the loyal black man held out his hand and Roger grasped it warmly, saying : " I know that, Marlborough. I know your courage and your devotion. I trust you as I would trust myself." 444 T" T'ERY naturally Roger wanted to make j/ Helen his wife before going away V upon this new and arduous campaign, as Barnegal had done with Jacqueline. " I want to feel," Roger said, " that my highest purpose in life is achieved, whatever may be my fate with regard to the rest. I want you to be my wife if anything should happen to me. If you should be called upon to mourn me. I want you to have the right to mourn me as a husband dead on the field of honor, and not as a lover merely, whom the artificialities of our society would forbid you to mourn openly." " What have we to do with artificialities, Roger? " asked the girl with tear dimmed eyes. " As I told you long ago, I count myself, in my very soul, your wife, and should you fall as the hero falls, be sure I shall assert all my right as your wife to mourn my hero husband. It is the other things that I do not wish to com- 445 A CAROLINA CAVALIER plicate by the formalities of a marriage now the property things you know. Should any shilling's worth of your possessions come to me as your widow, I should feel that the love I bear you had been paid for with a price, and I could not endure that. No, no, Roger! Let us wait till independence is achieved for our country. Let us wait till you have fulfilled the last obligation to that Liberty that was your mistress before you thought of loving me." Then, in that lighter vein which she was cul tivating for the sake of sending her lover forth to battle with only cheerful memories, she added : " Besides you haven't yet fulfilled the con dition I imposed upon you when we first agreed, down there at Lonsdale, to call each other just ' Roger ' and ' Helen.' You remember, I told you you were going into the army and would come to be a ' major ' or something else as dignified as that. You are only a captain now. When you come back to me as a major I will marry you." There was no use in arguing the matter, as Roger saw clearly, and as his company was al ready assembled, for the march which was to begin within the hour, he had no further time for parleying. 446 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA AT TOQ A CAROLINA CAVALIER But while he was making his final disposi tions Helen went on a little mission of her own. From the storeroom she took an apronful of sugar lumps, and, without attracting any body's attention, fled with them to the stables. There she fed them one by one to Bullet and Mad Bess, saying to them as she did so : " Carry your master well. Bring him back to me in safety and I solemnly promise to feed you all the sugar lumps that are good for you, every day as long as you live." And in the years that came afterwards she kept her promise. Mad Bess, poor brute, was killed under her master in the operations near Ninety-six, and Bullet received a fearful bayo net wound in the fierce fighting at Eutaw Springs which in effect completed the redemp tion of South Carolina and ended the war in that part of the Union. But with the high health that he had enjoyed from his earliest colthood, he recovered, and it was upon his back that some months later Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Alton twice promoted for gallantry rode from recovered Charles Town to Alton House to claim his wife, and to begin, with her aid and counsel, the joyous work of recon structing the historic mansion in all the glory of architectural adornment to which its sturdy 447 A CAROLINA CAVALIER walls invited its new master for Roger was its master now, Col. Geoffrey Alton having passed away, full of years and of honors. Day by day, Helen went every morning to Bullet's paddock for she would not have him confined to a stall and paid him his pension of sugar plums. And even when the coming of a little Geoffrey Alton to be the future heir of Alton House, held her prisoner for a time, she did not forget, but sent the daily dole by trusty hands, with loving messages which she firmly believed the noble animal understood. Perhaps he did, for who shall set a limit to understand ing where love sends greetings ? 448 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. For I PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD H ? ' a University Research Library I NSIS^jWYfiWUTY 791 3 I