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I left the others still seated about the table, and returned alone to the outer deck. I had no plans for the evening, and retain now only slight recollection as to the happenings of the next few hours, which I passed quietly smoking in the darkened pilot house, conversing occasionally with Thockmorton, who clung to the wheel, carefully guiding his struggling boat through the night-draped waters.
I do not know why, but every bit of evidence against the man came instantly thronging back to my mind the chance remark of Thockmorton on the Warrior about his suspicion of Indian blood; the high cheek bones and thin lips; the boy's earlier description; the manner in which our trail had been so relentlessly followed; the strange emblem found pinned to the blanket.
All I am interested in is justice to others." "To others? Oh, I suppose you mean those girls you know them then?" "I have never even seen them," I said, now speaking more easily. "Thockmorton chanced to tell me about them yesterday, and their condition appealed to me, just as it naturally would to any true man.
Thockmorton laughed heartily at their desperate struggle in the swell, and several of the crew ran to the stern to watch the little cockle-shell toss about in the waves. It was when I turned also, the better to assure myself of their safety, that I discovered Judge Beaucaire standing close beside me at the low rail. Our eyes met inquiringly, and he bowed with all the ceremony of the old school.
Clearly enough prompt action alone would carry the day. "Very well then, boys," I broke in sharply. "You agree to leave this settlement with me. Then I'll go at it. Two or three of you pick up the body, and carry it to Beaucaire's stateroom forward there. The rest of you better straighten up the cabin, while I go up and talk with Thockmorton a moment.
The very coldness of his tone served to send a chill through me. "To have a word with Thockmorton," I answered, angered at my own fear, and rendered reckless by that burst of passion. "What do you mean by your threat? Haven't you robbed enough men already with cards without resorting to a gun?"
Here is a young girl, educated, refined, of more than ordinary attractiveness Thockmorton tells me, brought up amid every comfort, and led to believe herself the honored daughter of the house, awakening in an instant to the fact that she is a slave, with negro blood in her veins a mere chattel, owned body and soul by a gambler, won in a card game, and to be sold to the highest bidder.
Surely you must know that he risked all he possessed on a game of cards and lost?" "Thockmorton knew something about it, and there were other rumors floating about the Landing, but I have heard no details." "You did not see the two men, then?" "No, I was not at home, and they went on down the river the next day on a keel-boat. You saw the play?"
Thockmorton had told me we were already approaching the mouth of the Illinois, and I lingered against the rail, straining my eyes through the gloom hoping to gain a distant glimpse of that beautiful stream. We were skirting the eastern shore, the wooded bank rising almost as high as our smokestack, and completely shutting off all view of the horizon.
A soldier was within a few feet of me, and had spoken, before I was even aware of his approach. "Lieutenant Knox." I looked about quickly, recognizing the major's orderly. "Yes, Sanders, what is it?" "Major Bliss requests, sir, that you report at his office at once." "Very well. Is he with Captain Thockmorton?" "Not at present, sir; the captain has gone to the post-sutler's."