For Freedom's Sake

Front matter

THE TIMES NOVELS " For Freedom's Sake'1 appeared in serial form in the Weekly Edition Times, February -J une 1806. FOR FREEDOM'S SAKE BY ARTHUR PATERSON AUTHOR OF -A MAN OF HIS WORD," "A SON OF THE PLAINS" &c. Ere LONDON OSGOOD, McILVAINE & CO. 45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. CONTENTS CHAr. PAGE I. TWO PROPHETS ....... I II. FIRST BLOOD ........ 13 III. THE MEN OF SANTONE 24 IV. THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET .... 39 V. THE SALOON ........ 52 VI. THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK .... 65 VII. JOHN BROWN OF OSAWATOMIE .... 77 VIII. RUTH 91 IX. A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE . . .100 X. THE HUBB FAMILY ....... 113 XI. THE POTTAWATOMIE RIFLES 126 XII. RUTH BREAKS THE LAW 137 XIII. THE LAW OF THE LAND 149 XIV. THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY .... 157 XV. THE RAID ........ I72 XVI. CAPTAIN HOWLETT COMMITS HIMSELF . . . 183 " WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS XVII NO REMISSION OF SINS " ....

CONTENTS VIII CHAie PAGE XVIII. MRS. HUBB'S IDEAS 204 XIX. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 2I4 XX. A SOLDIER'S " DUTY " 224 XXI. FOR THE PRISONER 235 XXII. JOHN BROWN'S APPEAL 249 XXIII. FOUL PLAY 259 XXIV. IN TIME 270 28l XXV. THE CAPTAIN COMMITS HIMSELF AGAIN XXVI. SATISFACTION 294 XXVII. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH . . . . . . JII

Chapter I Two Prophets

It was March, the month of rain and sleet, of snow and dust, of hot sun and icy wind ; when people, even those who lived regular lives in comfortable places and were not exposed to the scolding of the elements, complained of sore throats and rheumatism, and doctors had more work than they could do. As for those who were obliged to meet the weather on its own terms, chronic colds and an intense irritability were the least of their sufferings. It was a terrible month for families where the head of the house was of uncertain temper. We write of America in the year 1856. In those days a man who could travel in March from St. Louis to the Kansas frontier, two hundred and fifty miles, and retain his digestion and some appearance of cheerfulness and good spirits, was one of the marvels of his time.

There were only two routes. One by boat, the poor man's way, down the Missouri river among the roughest of human kind ; the other by stage coaches nearly destitute of springs, furnished A with the most uncompromising leather cushions, and journeying at an average pace of seven miles an hour. In the spring of 1856, however, and most of the year before, coaches and boats were crowded with passengers pressing westwards to take up claims on the virgin soil of Kansas. Most of the emigrants belonged to the farming class, hailing from all quarters of the Northern States, from Michigan and Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont. Land was offered by Government to all settlers at the lowest rates ; the climate was said to be dry and healthy ; the soil the most fertile in the States — what would you more ? Further, as a stimulus to all earnest-minded and religious members of the community, especially those of New England extraction, the report ran everywhere through the North, first in a whisper, and then as a cry from the house-tops through the Press, that unless Northern men were in a majority in this new territory it would become a slave State — the property of the " cotton lords " of the South.

So during the summer and autumn of 1855, and up to the time our story begins in the following March, Northern farmers and farm labourers, and such small tradesmen and mechanics who draw their trade from communities of farmers, poured steadily in, and towns and villages and scattered settlements arose like magic where a year before there had been prairie, canon, and wild wooded country which seldom saw the face of man. The population was a peaceful one, and knew not the use of fire-arms except to shoot a rabbit, hare, or wild duck. Their families migrated with them, mothers, sisters, wives, and children, and they came prepared to work hard and make the rich soil bring quick return for their labour, and by their votes as citizens of an enlightened Republic to elect for their territory legislators who would support the doctrine of a Free State for free men.

That was what the first Northern emigrants wanted. In spite of all that the Southern Press said afterwards, there was only one solitary spirit throughout the length and breadth of Kansas who came with the determination that slavery must ceast to exist, and that Kansas was the place where a crusade against this evil thing, a crusade such as no abolitionist, not even Garrison himself, had dreamed of, should be begun. The man who believed this was one John Brown. It had been the purpose of his life for nearly fifty years. The rest of the emigrants cared nothing about slavery except as it concerned their own territory, and when, in the summer of 1855, the first election of a territorial legislature took place, and " pro-slavery " men from the Missouri border, well-armed, took pos session of the polls, counting their own votes though some had not been twenty-four hours in the territory, and quashing by force all elections of " free State " men — the toiling, law-abiding, quiet Northern folk stood aghast, and for a while knew not which way to turn or what to do.

Reports of what had taken place soon reached the Eastern cities. The Northern papers, headed by the New York Tribune, with Horace Greeley as its editor, caught fire, and protests, denun ciations, and threats against the " border ruffians of Missouri " were scattered broadcast like sparks from the locomotive. But the months passed on. The so-called " bogus legislature," after enacting unopposed the most stringent code of laws protecting slavery interests, was recognised at Washington, where the Southern Democrats still held the Government ; and when the hard winter of 1855 gave place to spring thoughtful men looked with keenest anxiety at Kansas, read the papers feverishly, and speculated with intense interest upon the next act in the drama. On the evening of the twenty-first of March, the old Tecumseh coach from the East rolled and rumbled with the ponderous swagger of its kind into the town of Santone, twenty miles from the Missouri frontier.

There was only one passenger in it, and the bummers and loafers round Shappett's Hotel who formed a guard of honour, or more correctly speaking a self constituted committee of inspection, of every coach which arrived from the East, had nothing to do but to examine this solitary addition to the population of their town. They did it thoroughly, and the passenger, who had many bags and boxes, all of which he had to remove from the coach and convey into the hotel himself — for no self-respecting Western loafer ever " packs a trap " for love or money — thought he had never seen such an ill-conditioned set of gaping idiots in his life. When the stranger had conveyed his last bag, and himself, into the sanctuary of the hotel, the committee of inspection slouched lazily back into the saloon bar, those who had any money ordering drinks.

Refreshments having been duly served, the oldest and idlest of all, whose flaming nose, bleary eyes, and mottled complexion showed signs of long years of continuous drinking, coughed to command silence, threw his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the hotel, and remarked : " Naow, boys, tell me what ye make 'bout him ? " " Robert Holdenough by name — a blasted Boston bluenose by natur'," growled a young man, distin guished from the rest by the fact that he carried two revolvers, wore a wide-awake hat with a broad brim, large spurs on his boots, and leather riding trousers. He was drinking brandy, which did not appear to agree with him, and he spoke in a loud, overbearing tone. The blear-eyed man chuckled in a satirical manner. "Boston? I thought some fool would say that." " I know he is, then," retorted the other, glaring savagely about him as an echo of the old man's chuckle went round the saloon.

" It's on his trunks. Guess you never learnt to read." " Trunks be darned. Look at a face, Billy Ballinger, if you want to learn something. A child — even you — can read letters. It takes a man to read character. What is he ? Why a mongrel I tell ye. A bigger one never jumped ! Boston ? We-el, I'll grant he has the bluenose voice and make. That light grey kind o' eye, settin' deep ; beaky nose with a bridge shootin' out like the bow of a man-o'-war, long chin, lips with a pinch in 'em, and a figger put together loose-like and awk'ard as if natur' had been in a mighty hurry to be quit of the job — which most likely she were— and had forgot to finish him off. All that's Boston, if ye please. But no further. Did yer notice his hands ? They was no more the hands of a editor, parson, schoolmaster, clerk, or other Boston trash than mine are.

Those hands had done hard work, boys. So's his arms and legs. He laffed, too, at the driver's joke. If any man tells you that he ever heard a bluenose lass so, that man's a liar, and ye may tell him Jeremy J. Jilkes knows it. Now, what this man is I don't know, nor do you ; nor does nobody else— unless it's Isaac Shappett— and I don't want to know. But I tell you, Billy Ballinger, and you may tell your Captain, Pat Laughlin, and the rest of your Missouri crowd, that a cuss has arrived this night from the East, who ain't come to set on his thumbs, nor to fill up a newspaper with what he calls notes and I call blasted lies ; nor, least of all, to preach politics about making Kansas a Free State like Allen Elmore, and then runaway as soon as you begin to bluff him. This cuss ain't no Yankee spouter.

He's a man, though maybe a crooked one, and, mark my words, friends all, he's come to stay." These utterances from the oracle of the saloon had their due effect. No one, not even the man called Ballinger, disputed Jeremy Jilkes's authority when he was in the prophetic vein. One nearest to him silently filled his glass, and the conversation drifted to other matters. Meantime, in another part of the hotel, the subject of these remarks was eating supper, dividing his attention between the potato cakes, fried eggs, beef steak, and coffee — cooked and served in a manner which would have shamed many an hotel in New York — and his host, Mr. Isaac Shappett. This gentleman reclined easily in a low rocking chair, his feet on the back of another, and slowly read a letter of introduction Mr. Holdenough had just handed to him.

There was no conversation. Western etiquette for bade it until the traveller's hunger should be satisfied. But Mr. Holdenough, brimming over with the curiosity a man feels upon his arrival in a strange country, kept his mind as fully occupied with conjecture concerning Mr. Shappett's disposition and character as were his teeth with Mr. Shappett's good fare. The letter Mr. Shappett was reading, or appeared to read — for the first thing Robert Holdenough noticed was that the hotel-keeper's eyes were more often turned towards him than upon the paper before him — was from a man in Boston, who had been in Kansas the year before, and had been instrumental in persuading Holdenough to migrate there. This friend had spoken in the highest terms of Shappett, and not only recommended his hotel as the best in the town, but had advised Holdenough to seek Mr. Shappett's counsel before venturing upon any impor tant step.

The impression made upon Holdenough so far fully bore out his friend's words. Isaac Shappett at first sight was simply a fresh-coloured man of forty, with a square, strong face that bore good-humour in every line of it. He was short in stature, broad-shouldered, and inclined to be stout, but not to the extent of unwieldiness. There was a comfortable, prosperous look about the man. He wore no rings — as men of his class affected in those days, not even a gold breast-pin, and his watch chain, Robert noticed, was of steel ; but his dress, like all the fittings of his house, was in good preservation and scrupulously neat and clean. Clearly Kansas suited both Mr. Shappett's pocket and constitution. He looked contented with himself, his position, and the world around him. A better advertisement no new country could desire.

So much for Mr. Holdenough's first impressions. Then came a curious experience. Perhaps it was because the traveller was tired with his long journey ; nervous after many sleepless nights, or because, being born and bred a member of the gifted Yankee race, he was naturally suspicious, albeit inexperienced as yet in men and the world ; whatever it was Robert Holdenough had not finished his supper before he came strongly to the conclusion that there was something far more in Mr. Shappett than an easy temper and business shrewdness. Holdenough thought he saw in Shappett's little body an immense reserve force of physical strength, and the more he studied his face the more he began to suspect that behind the smooth forehead, pleasant mouth, and mild brown eyes lay a nature which had depths, perhaps of guile, perhaps of something nobler, but certainly depths of some kind, which the simple-hearted friend who had given him the introduction had never suspected.

Mr. Shappett's eyes were watchful ; at times when Robert met them fully he felt a slight nervous shock as if he had touched metal charged with electricity. This man was silently making a study of him, learn ing him off by heart, as he appeared to be learning the letter which he held in his hand. When the traveller's appetite was at last satisfied, Mr. Shappett rang a bell, and a brisk little woman, so like Isaac that it was easy to tell they were brother and sister, cleared away the dishes, upon which the hotel-keeper produced cigars and remarked that if Mr. Holdenough was anxious for any information about the country he should be happy to answer as many questions as Mr. Holdenough cared to ask him. Robert was nothing loth, and, like most young men of eager temperament, for such he was Yankee blood notwithstanding, as soon as his tongue was set going he lost the nervous curiosity about Mr. Shap pett which had before oppressed him.

Moreover, while intending to discover all he could about Kansas in general and Santone in particular, he very soon launched into an account of his own intentions, hopes, and plans, and, before the cigar Mr. Shappett presented him with came to an end, had unfolded as much of his past life, present circumstances, and plans for the future as any one could wish to know. As Robert talked strange gleams shot through Mr. Shappett's eyes ; now and then his lips twitched, and queer lines, half of amusement, half pitying, formed about his mouth. But when Robert, suddenly awakening to the consciousness that instead of pump ing Mr. Shappett a process precisely the reverse was taking place, abruptly ended his discourse and looked anxiously into his companion's face, nothing was to be seen there but an expression of the gravest and most respectful attention.

There was a slight pause, and then Mr. Shappett said in a deliberate, clear, but rather low voice which seemed habitual to him : " It is a fine thing for this new country of Kansas, sir, when young men, eddicated at our noblest uni versity, possessed with means, courage, and deter mination, consider that it is their business to settle here and take their place as citizens. It is a grand thing, but I am bound to admit the country ain't exactly used to it." Holdenough laughed. " Which means that such self-sacrificing patriots are not wanted ? " Mr. Shappett made a grave gesture of dissent. "Sir, you are too quick. You have not caught my meaning. I only said the country ain't used to you. Do you take up land ? " "As soon as I can. As I told you, I have worked on a farm nearly twelve months. I can swing an axe and even plough a bit.

The work suits me. A place of my own in this new country is about the height of my ambition at present. But I must look round first. I am as strong as a horse, and, I guess, as willing. I could live on the little pile my father left, but that would be poor work. Then there is another thing, my friend may have told you, I want to do all I can to keep slavery out of Kansas — out of the Union for that matter. Perhaps it is my chief object in coming here, any way, it is one. I suppose there are diffi culties, greater, perhaps, than we in the East know of. But the thing will have to be done or we shall be disgraced in the sight of the world." While Robert was speaking a great change came into Mr. Shappett's face. The pleasant good humour there vanished. His brows contracted, his eyes became fierce, almost threatening.

But he did not speak at once, and Robert, much astonished, had time to add : " Perhaps we differ on this point ? " " Perhaps we do. Now, friend, please listen to me. I reckon myself to be as steady-nerved and stiff-backed as most, but if any man were to offer me ten thousand dollars in gold to express to him such a sentiment as yours while in this country, I should refuse to do it, unless I knew the inside of that man's soul, and then I should only do it in a whisper close to his ear." At this suggestive remark, Robert blushed to the roots of his hair. " I thought Free State men were in a large majority here in Santone. They call it the Free State town back East." " I have heard that they do." "Then why should it be foolish or wrong to con fess Free State principles ? " Mr. Shappett raised a deprecating finger.

"Young man — gift of speech and the power of words do not belong to me. I never argued with a man in my life. I shall not argue with you. San tone is a fine town. It will one day, mebbe, be a city. There are Free State men in Santone, and there are those who call themselves Free State. There are also men who kind of get mad when a Free State is so much as talked about, and these men are every where. There is not one Abolitionist. You carry fire-arms, of course ? " " What, a revolver ? Certainly not." " Pity. Have you ever used one, anyways ? " " At college we got up pistol-shooting matches, and I won first prize, but that was a year ago." " What was the weapon ? " " We were ambitious. It was a ten-inch army Colt." Mr. Shappett nodded, and looked at the fire. His good humour seemed to have returned ; his brow was smooth again.

He kicked the logs on the hearth apart, and put his cigar-case in his pocket. "Time for bed, Mr. Holdenough, friend. To-morrow you should take a walk round town. Come and go as you please ; but remember that your home is here, until you build one for yourself. And if any man, or men you happen upon, git kind of curious or interfer ing, tell them where you are staying — and refer them to me. That will hold them — right there. One other thing. It may come to your mind that a Colt, or even a Sharpe's rifle, would be sort of comfortable to carry as a useful ornament. When the idee bites you, apply to me. I — I happen to have a friend in the gunmaking business, and sometimes I pick up little things like that cheap. They are guaranteed." Mr. Shappett held out his hand as he said good night. It was the first time he had shaken hands with his visitor since they met.

His face was literally brimming over with the most cheerful and benevolent of smiles. As Robert touched his fingers, they grasped his own with such a grip that he nearly cried out. Before he had time to reply, the hotel-keeper had left the room, and Miss Shappett appeared at the door with a candle to show the traveller to bed.

Chapter II First Blood

A profound sleep followed by an excellent breakfast, disposed Robert Holdenough to look with a very friendly eye upon the country of his choice and its inhabitants. On his way out he was met by Isaac Shappett. " Ready for business ? " " I hope so." " You carry a fine cane there." The hotel-keeper took up and weighed critically a stick Holdenough held. It was an oak sapling two inches in diameter and four feet in length — a stout farmer's staff. " Weighs more than a sword, it do," muttered Isaac to himself, " and he is six foot high, with arms like young trees " — then aloud, " Where do you tramp to-day, friend ? " " Can you give me the address of any man with land on sale ? " " Allen Elmore, land commissioner for Government, that is who you want. He lives a mile west bee line. We call his place the ' White House ' from its paint.

It is a square shanty with a fence around the garden. Mention me, and tell him you are on the look-out for likely locations, and he will talk to you all day. You will like Mr. Elmore — anyways you will like his folk, and in a new country, Mr. Holdenough, a stranger must begin by making friends." " By which he means me to understand," Robert said to himself as he left the hotel, " that I shall not like Allen Elmore at all. What uncanny ways of speech are cultivated by Isaac Shappett. Dry and deep. Never quite straight." Robert strolled leisurely along. He did not follow Mr. Shappett's directions at once, as he wanted to see the town. Santone had at this time a population of about a thousand inhabitants. The houses though rough were substantially built of logs. There were three broad main streets where wooden side-walks had been laid down to protect foot passengers from snow drifts in winter and mud in summer ; there was a fine river half a mile away ; the land was rich and fertile everywhere and there was abundance of timber.

No lack, indeed, of natural advantages existed round Santone. Robert had read of this and had pictured the town a little El Dorado of energy and indepen dence — a busy hive where the free men of the North strove with the difficulties and hardships of frontier life after the manner of latter-day pilgrim fathers. Two hours personal acquaintance with the place very much modified these ideas. Roughness he was prepared for, but not for the general appearance of poverty, shabbiness and neglect which met his eye everywhere but in the main streets. Weeds flourished round the houses, alternating with patches of ugly burnt soil, used apparently as a household dust-bin. Here and there an effort had been made to plant a vegetable garden, but all such attempts were clearly of last year's growth, and he could find no signs of such enterprise this spring.

Round every saloon, of which there were several, and at the corners of the streets, knots of idle men were gathered — some listless and silent, others talk ing in a restless anxious manner, with haggard faces which impressed Robert painfully. Even those labour ing at forge or workshop had a strained look, as if some blighting influence weighed down their spirits and haunted them day and night. No women were to be seen except now and then a face peering curiously at the stranger out of the window ; and as for children, when, once, he came across a few boys feebly playing at some mysterious game with buttons, they fled from him like rabbits. Poor thin little urchins they were, ragged and barefooted. Later in the morning he met others coming from the school house ; but though better clad and better fed, these had the same frightened appearance as the rest and went their ways in silence.

" It is as if the place were in a state of siege," Robert muttered. At that moment three men passed him, so different in appearance from those he had met hitherto, or indeed from any men he had ever seen, that he stared at them till one asked him in forcible language what he wanted. Robert passed on. But light began to break upon his understanding. These men were the " border ruffians " he had read of. Burly fellows, dressed in loose shirts of grey flannel and wide trousers, huge riding boots, and armed to the teeth, they walked down the centre of the street with an aggressive swagger, as if the world belonged to them. It was such men as these who had " guarded the polls " and carried the elections, and now upheld the laws decreed by the " bogus " legislature. Robert made his way back to the main streets, and found himself at Shappett's hotel.

It was past noon. He had seen enough of Santone for one day — for many days ; he would visit the White House and make the acquaintance of Mr. Allen Elmore. It was a relief to strike into a country road, the houses growing fewer every moment, and, ahead, open prairie land, dotted in places with farms and ploughed " claims " — breezy and free. He crossed the river, a broad powerful stream fringed with trees and meadow-land, where the shoots of green grass were sturdily pushing forth among the dead brown blades of last year. Robert's spirits rose again. He saw men ploughing as he passed ; brawny, hard-faced country men, utterly different from the pale, pasty faced crew in Santone. The soil they turned over was black and rich, and filled the morning air with a pleasant scent. Once again the possibilities of the territory presented themselves to the young man's imagination and he strode on lustily.

The ground was rising. The road became more lonely, and Robert was beginning to think the White House was further than he expected, when his attention was caught by voices, loud and threatening, and he noticed that a man he had been gradually overtak ing had been stopped by two others who were coming from an opposite direction. Robert quickened his pace, but the group took no notice of his approach after one os them had cast a careless glance to see whether he was armed. The man who had been stopped, and who now seemed in danger of rough usage, was in appearance a lawyer or doctor, being dressed in spotless black. The rest were Missourians. " Holt still now," said one of these, drawing and cocking a revolver. "Tell no lies, me boy. Come ! Ye're the worst Abolitionist of all ; for you're so sly, Allen Elmore, oh so cursed sly.

And it's my business and that of me friend here, to show ye that we sec through your foxy ways ; and by thunder, if ye don't swear to alter them as ye stand here, divil a bit will ye live one more day to lead good men by the nose. Now, I tell ye ! " The man in black smiled at this threat, but his lips were cold and white. " You make a grand mistake, Pat. Abolitionist ! Why such folk hate me worse than you do, I believe." " Yah, so ye say. How about Governor Shannon ? Who perswaded an' 'ticed an' coaxed him alone into Santone that day when he had all the boys, and me myself, at his back ? And when he was fair corralled, who gave him whisky till the good ould gentleman were blind dazy ; and who, thin, put the paper afore him which sent us all back to Missouri ? It was you, ye spalpeen. You !

Now, what shall we do to ye ? for we have ye tight enough, you bet ! " He laughed — the hoarse, fleering laugh of a man just tipsy enough to be dangerous. Mr. Elmore laughed too, a laugh with a very sickly sound, and putting his hand in his pocket, drew out a silver dollar. B " After all you have some logic on your side, Pat ; though I could put another face on the matter had I time. Let me pass, good friend, and take this for luck. Excuse me for being in a hurry ; there is business waiting at home that must be attended to." He pressed forward, scanning with anxious eyes the flushed bloated face of the Irish Missourian. Pat Laughlin laughed again, rather more good humouredly, lowered his pistol and pocketed the dollar. It appeared as if Mr. Elmore would go un scathed, but the action of taking out the money had exposed to view a massive gold watch-chain and bunch of seals, and upon this article Laughlin's companion, who was not drunk, coolly laid his hands, delivering a back-hander at the same moment in its owner's face and knocking him down.