CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

_Captain Falconer Makes Suggestions_

It was not often that Mr. Sanders had a surprise, but he found one awaiting him when he left the Lumsden Place, and started in the direction of home. He had not taken twenty steps before he met the young Captain who had charge of the detachment of Federal troops stationed at Shady Dale.

"This is Mr. Sanders, I believe," he said without ceremony. "My name is Falconer. I have just been to call on Mr. Clopton, but they tell me there that he is at Mrs. Lumsden's."

"Well, I wouldn't advise you to go there," said Mr. Sanders, bluntly.

"The lady is in a considerbul state of mind about her gran'son."

"It is a miserable piece of business all the way through," remarked Captain Falconer. There was a note of sympathy in his voice, which Mr.

Sanders could not fail to catch, and it interested him.

"I called upon my cousin, Mrs. Claiborne, for the first time to-day,"

the Captain went on. "She has invited me to tea often, but I have refused the invitation on account of the state of feeling here. I know how high it is. It is natural, of course, but it is not justifiable.

Take my case, for instance: I am a Democrat, and I come from a family of Democrats, who have never voted anything else but the Democratic ticket, except when Henry Clay was a candidate, and when Lincoln was running for a second term."

"You don't tell me!" cried Mr. Sanders, with genuine astonishment.

"It is a fact," said Captain Falconer, with emphasis. "If you think that I, or any of the men under me, or any of the men who fought at all, intended to bring about such a condition as now exists in this part of the country, you are doing us a great wrong. Don't mistake me! I am not apologising for the part I took. I would do it all over again a hundred times if necessary. Yet I do not believe in negro suffrage, and I abhor and detest every exaction that the politicians in Washington have placed upon the people of the South."

Mr. Sanders was too much astonished to make appropriate comment. He could only stare at the young man. And Captain Falconer was very good to look upon. He was of the Kentucky type, tall, broad-shouldered and handsome. His undress uniform became him well, and he had the distinctive and pleasing marks that West Point leaves on all young men who graduate at the academy there.

"Well, as I told you, I called on my cousin to-day for the first time, and after we had talked of various matters, especially the unfortunate events that have recently occurred, she insisted that I make it my business to see you or Mr. Clopton. She told me," the Captain said, with a pleasant smile, "that you are the man that kidnapped Mr.

Lincoln."

"She's wrong about that," replied Mr. Sanders; "I'm the man that didn't kidnap him. But I want to ask you: ain't you some kin to John Barbour Falconer?"

"He was my father," the Captain replied.

"Well, I've heard Meriwether Clopton talk about him hundreds of times.

They ripped around in Congress together before the war."

"Now, that is very interesting to me," said the Captain, his face brightening.

He was silent for some time, as they walked slowly along, and during this period of silence, Meriwether Clopton came up behind them. He would have pa.s.sed on, with a polite inclination of his head, but Mr. Sanders drew his attention.

"Mr. Clopton," he said, "here's a gentleman I reckon you'd like to know--Captain Falconer. He's a son of John Barbour Falconer."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Meriwether Clopton, a wonderful change pa.s.sing over his face. "Well, I am glad to see a son of my dear old friend, anywhere and at any time." He shook hands very cordially with the Captain. "Let me see--let me see: if I am not mistaken, your first name is Garnett; you were named after your maternal grandfather."

"That is true, sir," replied the Captain, with a boyish laugh that was pleasing to the ear--he was not more than thirty. "But I am surprised that you should remember these things so well."

"Why, my dear sir, it is not surprising at all. I have dandled you on my knee many and many a time; I know the very house, yes, the very room, in which you were born. Some of the happiest hours of my manhood were spent with your father and mother in Washington. Your father is dead, I believe. Well, he was a good man; among the best I ever knew. What of your mother?"

"She has broken greatly," responded the Captain. "The war was a great burden to her. She was a Virginian, you know."

"Yes--yes!" said Meriwether Clopton. "The war has been a dreadful nightmare to the people on both sides; and it seems to be still going on disguised as politics. Only last night, as you perhaps know, a posse of soldiers arrested and carried off four of our worthiest young men."

"Yes, sir, I know of it and regret it," responded Captain Falconer. "And I have no doubt that a majority of the people here are incensed at the soldiers, forgetting that they are the mere instruments of their superiors, and that their superiors themselves take their orders from other superiors who are engaged in the game of politics. It is the duty of a soldier to blindly obey orders. To pause to ask a question would be charged to a spirit of insubordination. The army is at the beck and call of what is called the Government, and to-day the Government happens to be the radical contingent of the Republican Party. A soldier may detest the service he is called on to perform, but he is bound to obey orders.

I can answer for the officer who was sent to arrest these young men. He was boiling over with rage because he had been sent here on such an errand."

"I am glad to hear that," declared Meriwether Clopton, with great heartiness.

"His feelings were perfectly natural, sir," said Captain Falconer. "Take the army as it stands to-day, and it would be hard, if not impossible, to find a man in it who does not shrink from doing the dirty work of the politicians. Can you imagine that my mission here is pleasant to me? I can a.s.sure you, sir, it is the most disagreeable duty that ever fell to my lot. I am glad you spoke of these arrests. At your convenience, I should like to have a little conversation with you and Mr. Sanders on this subject."

"There is no time like the present," replied Meriwether Clopton. "Will you come with me to my house?"

"Certainly, sir; and with the more pleasure because I called on my cousin Mrs. Claiborne to-day. I have forborne to call on her heretofore on account of the prejudice against us. But these arrests made it necessary for me to communicate with some of the influential friends of the young men. I was afraid my visit to-day would prove to be embarra.s.sing to her. If I visit you at your invitation, the probability is she will have no social penalty to pay. I know what the feeling is."

Indeed, he knew too well. He had pa.s.sed along the streets apparently perfectly oblivious to the att.i.tude and movements of those whom he chanced to meet, but all his faculties had been awake, for he was a man of the keenest sensibilities. He had seen women and young girls curl their lips in a sneer, and toss their heads in scorn, as he pa.s.sed them by; and some of them pulled their skirts aside, lest his touch should pollute them. He had observed all this, and he was wounded by it; and yet he had no resentment. Being a Southerner himself, he knew that the feelings which prompted such actions were perfectly natural, the fitting accompaniment of the humiliation which the radical element compelled the whites to endure.

In the course of his long and frequent walks in the countryside, Captain Falconer had made the acquaintance of Gabriel Tolliver, in whose nature the spirit of a gypsy vagrant seemed to have full sway; and Gabriel was the only person native to Shady Dale, except the ancient postmaster, with whom the young officer had held communication. He seemed to be cut off not only from all social intercourse, but even from acquaintanceship.

"You may rest a.s.sured," declared Meriwether Clopton, "that if I had known you were the son of my old friend, I would have sought you out, much as I detest the motives and purposes of those who have inaugurated this era of bayonet rule. And you may be sure, too, that in my house you will be a welcome guest."

"I appreciate your kindness, sir, and I shall remember it," said Captain Falconer.

That portion of Shady Dale which was moving about the streets with its eyes open was surprised and shocked--nay, wellnigh paralysed--to see the "Yankee Captain" on parade, as it were, with Meriwether Clopton on one side of him, and Mr. Sanders on the other. Yes, and the hand of the son of the First Settler (could their eyes deceive them?) was resting familiarly on the shoulder of the "Yankee!" Surely, here was food for thought. Were Meriwether Clopton and Mr. Sanders about to join the radicals? Well, well, well! At last one of the loungers, a man of middle age, who had seen service, raised his voice and put an end to comment.

"You can bet your sweet life," he declared, "that Billy Sanders knows what he's up to. He may not git the game he's after, but he'll fetch back a handful of feathers or hair. Mr. Clopton I don't know so well, but I was in the war wi' Billy Sanders, and I wish you'd wake me up and let me know when somebody fools him. There ain't a living man on the continent, nor under it neither, that can git on his blind side."

"Now you are whistlin'!" exclaimed one of his companions, and this seemed to settle the matter. If Mr. Sanders didn't know what he was about, why, then, everybody else in that neighbourhood might as well give up, "and let natur' cut her caper."

"I understand now why Mrs. Claiborne referred me to you," said Captain Falconer, when Mr. Sanders had related the nature and extent of the information which he had been able to gather during the morning.

"The lady is kinder partial," remarked Mr. Sanders, "but she's as bright as a new dollar, somethin' I ain't seed sence I cut my wisdom teeth."

"You already know what I intended to tell you," said the Captain. But it turned out, nevertheless, that he was able to give them some very startling information. It was the general understanding in Shady Dale that the prisoners were to be sent to Atlanta; but the military authorities, fearing an attempt at rescue, perhaps, had ordered them to be sent to Fort Pulaski, below Savannah. There were other reasons, the Captain explained, for sending the young men there. They would be isolated from their friends, and, so placed, might be induced to confess; and if the circ.u.mstances surrounding them were not sufficient to produce such a result then other measures were to be taken.

Meanwhile, the circ.u.mstantial evidence against Gabriel was very strong--stronger even than Mr. Sanders had imagined. Bridalbin, whom Captain Falconer knew as Boring, had informed that officer of his own supposed discoveries with respect to Gabriel's movements; and the evidence he was prepared to give, coupled with the fact that Hotchkiss had p.r.o.nounced the lad's name with his last breath, made out a case of exceptional strength. Urged on by the vindictiveness of the radical leaders in Congress, it was more than probable that the military court before which the young men were to be tried, would convict any or all of them on much slighter evidence than that which had acc.u.mulated against Gabriel. It was all circ.u.mstantial evidence of course, but even in the civil courts, and before juries made up of their peers, men accused of crime have frequently been convicted on circ.u.mstantial evidence alone--that is to say, on probability.

"Now, this is what I wanted to say," remarked Captain Falconer, as they sat in the library at the Clopton Place, and after he had gone over the evidence, item by item: "I was given to understand by the officer who made the arrests that I would shortly be transferred to Savannah, or, rather, to Fort Pulaski, and placed in charge of the prisoners, the idea being that I, knowing something of the young men, would be able to extract a confession from them by fair means. This failing, there are others who could be depended on to employ foul. The officer, who is a very fine soldier, and thoroughly in love with his profession, dropped a hint that, all other means failing, the young men are to be put through a course of sprouts in order to extort a confession."

Mr. Sanders looked hard at the Captain; he was taking the young man's measure. What he saw or divined must have been satisfactory, for his face, which had been in a somewhat puckered condition, as he himself would have expressed it, suddenly cleared up, and he rose from his chair with a laugh.

"Do you-all know what I've gone an' done?" he asked.

"You do so many clever things, William, that we cannot possibly imagine what the newest is," said Meriwether Clopton.

"Well, sir, this is the cleverest yit. I've come off from Lucy Lumsden's an' clean forgot my hoss. It's a wonder I didn't forgit my head. Now, you might 'a' said, an' said truly, that I'd forgit a man, or a 'oman, but when William H. Sanders, Esquire, walks off in the broad light of day, an' forgits his hoss, an' that hoss the Rackin' Roan, you may know that his thinkin' machine has slipped a cog. Ef you'll excuse me, I'll go right arter that creetur. I'm mighty glad he can't talk--it's about the only thing he can't do--bekaze he'd gi' me a long an' warm piece of his mind."

Captain Falconer rose also, but Meriwether Clopton protested. "I should be glad if you would stay to dinner," he said. "I have several things to show you--some interesting letters from your father, for instance."

"But the ladies?" suggested the Captain, with a comically doubtful lift of the eyebrows. He had no notion of bearding any of the Confederate lionesses in their dens. "You know how they regard us here."

"Only my daughter Sarah is here. She knew your father well, and has a very lively remembrance of him. She was fifteen when you were three, and many a day she was your volunteer nurse."