Part 33 (1/2)
She turned from him and held out her hands to Sir Charles. He hurried to her and she clung to him. ”Take me away,” she said in a whisper.
”Take me home.”
He put his arm about her. ”You are faint,” he said tenderly. ”Come! the air will revive you.”
Supporting her on his arm, he guided her from the house. As they pa.s.sed the body stretched across the threshold, the skirt of her robe touched the blood in which it was lying. She saw it and shuddered.
”Blood is upon me!” she said. ”It is an omen!”
”A good one, then,” said her companion coolly, ”for it is the blood of a fanatic traitor. Think not of it.” He turned at the threshold and cast a careless glance back into the tobacco house. ”Woodson, get rid of this carrion, and bring these men quietly to the great house, where your master will deal with them.”
CHAPTER XXIII
THE QUESTION
”We know all but two things, but those are the most important of all,”
said the Governor, tapping his jeweled fingers against the table.
”It is much to be regretted,” said the Surveyor-General, ”that the presence of the young lady was so soon discovered. Otherwise--”
”Otherwise we might have had further information on more than one subject,” said the Governor dryly.
”We must make the best of what we have,” continued Carrington calmly.
”After all, it is enough.”
The Governor rose and began to pace the floor, his head thoughtfully bent, his unwounded hand tugging at the curls of his periwig. ”It is not enough,” he said at length, pausing before the great table around which the company were seated. ”Thanks to the gallant daughter of the gallant Verneys,”--a bow and smile to Patricia, sitting enthroned in the great chair in their midst,--”we know much, but it is not enough. These rogues have set a day upon which to rise; they have appointed a place to which they are to resort. That day may be to-morrow, that place any point in any one of a dozen counties.”
”I apprehend that the c.o.c.katrice was to be hatched near by,” said Sir Charles.
”It is the likeliest thing,” answered the Governor, ”seeing that their ringleader belongs to this plantation. But we do not know. And there may not be time to reach the planters, to give them warning, to arrest these d--d traitors, scattered as they are from the James to Rappahannock, and from Henricus to the Chesapeake. It might be best to a.s.semble the trainbands at this cursed spot if it can be found, and to await their coming in force. But to know neither time nor place--to start a hue and cry and have the storm burst before it reaches ten plantations--to guard one point and see fire rise at another a dozen leagues away--impossible! Gentlemen, we must come at the heart of this matter!”
”It is most advisable,” said Colonel Verney gravely. ”Examine the prisoners again,” suggested Sir Charles.
”One of them is no wiser than we. You are certain as to this, Mistress Patricia?”
”Yes, your Excellency.”
”Humph! one does not know; three are dead; there remain, then, that shaven and branded runaway and the two convicts.”
”You will learn naught from the runaway, your Excellency!” called out the overseer from where he stood at a respectful distance from the company. ”He's one of them crazy fanatics that wild horses couldn't draw truth from. No Indian torture stake could make him speak if he didn't want to,--nor keep him from it if he did.”
”I know that kind,” said the Governor, with a short laugh, ”and we will not waste time upon him, but will try if the convict--he who seems to have been their leader--be not more amenable. Bring him in, Woodson.”
When the overseer had gone, a silence fell upon the company gathered in the master's room. The Governor paced to and fro, perplexity in his face; the Colonel knit his grizzled brows and studied the floor; Dr.
Anthony Nash brought the writing materials displayed upon the table, closer to him, and held a quill ready poised for dipping into the ink horn, while the Surveyor-General with a carefully composed countenance toyed with a pink which he took from the bowl of flowers before him. Sir Charles leaned back in his seat and looked at Patricia who, seated between him and her father, stared before her with hard, bright eyes.
Her lips were like a scarlet flower against the absolute pallor of her face; her hair was a crown of pale gold. In the great chair, her white arms resting upon the dark wood, her feet upon a carved footstool, she looked a queen, and the knot of brilliantly dressed gentlemen her attendant council.
The door opened and the two overseers appeared with Landless, who advanced and stood, silent and collected, before the ring of hostile faces.