Part 23 (1/2)

”Elisha, I must hurry; I must fly! Turn back, and walk a little way with me, while you tell me more; but if you see any one coming or going on the road, whistle, to warn me, for I have no permit,” said Valentine, dropping behind the causeway, and plunging along through the water toward the city.

They could no longer see each other, and their conway.

”How you gwine cross bridge widout 'mit, Brudder Walley?”

”I don't know; I must try. Tell me more about Fannie.”

”Well, you know, 'out my tellin' you, how I tuk up de chile offen de flure, an' wash it, an' dress it, and git milk, and feed it. An' how I go for water, and wash her face, and give her drink, an' fan de flies offen her, till she come to her min', like; an' how I'd stay 'long o'

her till dis time, ony when she come to herself, she put her two hans togedder, so she did, de chile, and begged an' prayed me to come arter you, her 'dear Walley,' to come an' see her once more 'fore she died, an' take de poor baby home long o' you. An' so, dough I done travel dis yer yode once afore to-day, I takes my staff in my han' an' I sets off; an', franks be to de Lor', dey can't sturve me from trav'lin' de highway, dough I daren't now-a-day put my fut offin it, or onto one o'

der plantashunes. So, now, bress de Lor', here I is; an' long as I wur so hoped up as to fall in 'long o' you, all I got to do now is, to 'company of you back to de city.”

In a few earnest, fervent words, Valentine thanked his friend, and then, saving all his breath, and concentrating all his energies, in silence he toiled on, knee-deep in water and ankle-deep in mud, through the cypress swamp toward the city.

Old Daddy Elisha took up the burden of his hymn, and sang or intoned various portions of that weird melody as he walked.

Valentine, behind the causeway, in the shadow and the silence, pa.s.sed unquestioned; but Elisha was frequently hailed by some vigilant member of the voluntary police. If personally known to the questioner, he was allowed to pa.s.s; if not, he was required to show his papers; a light had to be struck to examine them, and all this took up so much time, that although Elisha had the high road to walk upon, and Valentine the swamp to wade through, the latter far outstripped the former, and arrived first at the bridge over the A---- River.

To cross this bridge was the only means from this direction of reaching the city; but the bridge was guarded at both ends by the patrol, or voluntary police; to elude their vigilance was the only desperate part of Valentine's undertaking.

The river was broad, deep and strong in current; no one had ever dreamed of the feat of swimming across it. It was bordered on this side by a marsh so deep that, in the attempt to pa.s.s it, a man of moderate size and strength must have been swallowed up.

The bridge was a continuation of the road and causeway, flanked by parapets extending across the river, and joining the road on the opposite side.

Valentine never thought of the impossible feat of wading the marsh and swimming the river, neither did he dream of attempting to cross the bridge in the very face of the patrol guard that twice before had arrested him; but he projected a scheme almost equally wild and hopeless. This plan was to cross the river by clambering along the water side of this parapet--a plan involving less risk of discovery by the patrol, certainly--but undertaken at the most imminent peril of death, by losing hold and dropping into the river below.

Valentine waded on through the cypress swamp, until the trees grew more spa.r.s.ely, and the mud under the water became deeper and more treacherous as it merged into the marsh nearest the river.

The poor fellow then clambered along, now on the broken causeway, his eyes all on fire with vigilance, and now dropping down into the swamp, and so in more peril and difficulty he went on, until he reached the place where the marsh merged into the river, and the road and causeway into the bridge and parapet.

Here he heard the patrol guard in their little guard-house laughing and talking over their drink, for they, too, had to keep the pestilence at bay with alcohol.

Here he attempted to gain the parapet, and in doing so, set in motion some alarm bell, at whose first peals he found himself suddenly surrounded, and in the hands of the patrol.

”My good fellow, that feat has been tried once before, so we prepared for the second, you understand,” said one of his captors.

They all knew Valentine; with most of them he was a great favorite, though to others he was, for the sole reason of his natural superiority, very obnoxious.

While Valentine stood overwhelmed with despair, he discerned Major Hewitt among the party; and gathering some hope from the presence of that gentleman, he clasped his hands and appealing to him, said:

”Oh, Major Hewitt, you know me, sir! You have known me from childhood!

Your dear lady knew me, too, and was very kind to the poor quadroon boy, when he was a child. And you know my poor little Fannie, too! Sir, my heart is breaking--that is nothing, but she is dying! Sir, my wife is dying, alone--not of the fever only, but of starvation, of thirst, of neglect, of bereavement of all aid; and she sends to me, sir--sends to pray me to come and see her poor face for the last time, and take her orphan baby from her dead arms, lest it die, too! You are powerful, Major Hewitt! Speak the word, and these gentlemen will let me pa.s.s!”

”Valentine, my poor boy, if your sorrow had not crazed you, you would understand at once that I cannot do so! But I tell you what I can do for you; I can persuade these gentlemen from detaining you in the guard-house, and I can write a note of intercession to your master.

Return to him, Valentine--take my horse! There he stands; go to Mr.

Waring; tell him what you have told me! Give him my note; he will not refuse you the permit, and when you have it, ride back hither as fast as you please,” said the major.

He scribbled a note in haste. Valentine mounted the horse, received the missive, and, thanking the major from the depths of his heart, rode off.