Part 37 (1/2)
”Don't--don't you think Pluto ain't thankful, Madame Caron,” said the soft tones of Margeret, and they were not quite steady tones, either.
Judithe did not look up for fear she should see tears in the melancholy, dark eyes; ”that black boy just so thankful he can't speak. He'll wors.h.i.+p you for what you've done for him, and well he may.”
There was a soft rustle beside her--the presence of lips on her hand, and then Judithe was alone in the room, and stronger than when she had entered it so short a while since, braced by the certainty that here, at least, she had been of use--practical use her own eyes could see, and all the evening a bird sang in her heart, and the grateful touch of the bondwoman's lips gave her more pleasure than she could remember through the same tribute of any courtier.
CHAPTER XXI.
When Pluto brought her mail, an hour later, he tried to express more clearly in words the utter happiness showing through every feature of his dark face, but she stopped him with a little gesture.
”I see you are glad--no need to tell it,” she remarked, briefly; ”if you want to thank me do it by helping any of your people whom you find in trouble. There are many of them, no doubt.”
And when Mrs. McVeigh thanked her for doing what she could not have done on such short notice, Judithe put the question aside quite as lightly.
”The man is a very good groom,” she remarked. ”I enjoyed my ride the more today for having him along to answer all my curious questions of the country. I meant to give him 'backsheesh,' as the Orientals call it, so why not select what the fellow most wants--even though it be a pickaninny?”
”Well, he certainly is singing your praises down in the cook-house. I even heard several 'hallelujas' from Aunt Dilsey's particular corner.
Judge Clarkson has endorsed the check and will send a white man horseback with it to Larues in the morning. Pluto starts tonight on foot across country--says he can't sleep, any way--he's so happy. The women are arguing already as to which shall have the special care of Zekal. Altogether, you have created a sensation in the household, and we all love you for it.”
”What further recompense to be desired? It really is not worth so much of praise.”
”Kenneth will not think so when he comes home,” and Kenneth's mother slipped her arm around the girl's shoulder affectionately, not noticing how her careless expression changed at mention of the name.
”Oh! Will he, then, be interested in such small things as pickaninnies?”
and her light words belied the look in her eyes.
”Will he? Well, I should think so! You have done just what he would want done--what he would do if it were possible. For two generations the McVeighs have neither bought nor sold slaves”--Judithe's eyes shot one disdainful flash--”just kept those inherited; but I'm sure that boy of mine would have broken the rule for his generation in this case, and he'll be so grateful to you for it. Pluto was his playmate and respected monitor as a child, and Pluto's Zekal certainly will have a place in his affections.”
Judithe picked up one of several letters, over which she had glanced, and remarked that she would expect a visitor within a week--possibly in a day or two, the master of her yacht, which from a letter received, she learned had reached Savannah before Louise. A storm had been encountered somewhere along the southern coast, and he would submit the list of damages--not heavy, yet needing a certain amount of refitting.
”Fortunate Louise did go down,” she said, with a certain satisfaction, as she laid down the communication. ”She will be perfectly happy, even hobbling around with a cane, if she is only buying things; she delights in spending money;” then, after a pause, ”I presume Col.
McVeigh's return is still uncertain?”
”Yes, rather; yet I fancy each morning he will come before night, and each night that he may waken me in the morning. I have been living in that delightful hopefulness for a week.”
Lena called them and they went out to the rustic seat circling the great live oak at the foot of the steps. The others were there, and the Judge was preparing to drive the three miles home with his sister.
Now that the invalid was better, and the wanderer returned from Mobile, Aunt Sajane bethought herself of the possible sixes and sevens of her own establishment, and drove away with promises of frequent visits on both sides.
Long after the others had retired for the night Judithe's light burned, and there was little of the careless b.u.t.terfly of fas.h.i.+on in her manner as she examined one after another of the letters brought her by the last mail, and wrote replies to some she meant to take to the office herself during her early morning ride; it was so delightful to have an errand, and Pluto had shown her the road.
After all the others were done she picked up again the communication she had shown to Mrs. McVeigh--the report from the yacht master, and from the same envelope extracted a soft silken slip of paper with marks peculiar--apparently mere senseless scratches of a thoughtless pen, but it was over that paper and the reply most of the evening was spent. It was the most ancient method of secret writing known to history, yet, apparently, so meaningless that it might pa.s.s unnoticed even by the alert, or be turned aside as the ambitious scrawlings of a little child.
Each word as deciphered she had pencilled on a slip of paper, and when complete it read:
”Courant brings word McV. is likely to be of special interest. If he travels with guard we can't interfere on road from coast, and you will be only hope. A guard of Federals will be landed north of Beaufort and await your orders. Messenger will communicate soon as movements are known. You may expect Pierson. We await your orders or any suggestions.”
There was no signature. Her orders or suggestions were written in the same cipher, and required much more time and thought than had been given to the buying and freeing of Pluto's pickaninny, after which she destroyed all unnecessary writings, and retired with the satisfied feeling of good work done and better in prospect, and in a short time was sleeping the calm, sweet sleep of a conscienceless child.
She rode even further next morning than she had the preceding day, when Pluto was her guide, and she rode as straight east as she could go towards the coast. When she met colored folk along the road she halted, and spoke with them, to their great delight. She asked of the older ones where the road led to, and were the pine woods everywhere along it, and what about swamps and streams to ford, etc., etc.
Altogether, she had gained considerable knowledge of that especial territory by the time she rode back to the Terrace and joined the rest at the late breakfast. She had been in the saddle since dawn, and recounted with vivacity all the little episodes of her solitary const.i.tutional; the novelty of it was exhilarating. That it appeared a trifle eccentric to a Southerner did not suggest itself to her; all her eccentricities were charming to the McVeigh household, and Delaven lamented he had not been invited as proxy for Pluto, and amused the breakfast party by anecdotes of hunting days in Ireland, and the energy and daring of the ladies who rode at dawn there.