Wrecked? : a novel

Chapter I. A Drive And What Came Of It

A WELL-BUILT and pretty farmhouse, with marks of old style to give it quaintness, and in all directions around it the proofs of cultivated good taste as well as comfort.

At one of the upper front windows a young lady sat, with a book in her lap. She turned her face from page and window toward the coming of a slow, quiet footstep, and the faint rustle of a stiff silk gown.

" Is it you, Aunt Maud ?"

" Yes, Nelly6 A letter from Kemp."

" To me !"

' No, to me ; but you may read it. He is coming home soon."

' Does he say how soon ? Is there anything more r

Nell Davenport's hand had gone out to receive the letter, but not eagerly. More as if such a taking were a due acknowledgment of the kindness which had brought Aunt Maud up-stairs. It was a white and well-shaped hand, with nothing too soft or pliable in its mould or in its defined unhesitating

2 WAITING FOR YOU, NELL.

motion. There is no other riddle so complex as the hand of a woman.

" He never says much, Nelly, about what he is doing. Fie seems anxious to get home, though, and he asks particularly after you."

" Does he? Thank him for that. Sometimes his letters are really interesting."

' So they are. But, Nelly, the letter isn't all. I almost wish it was.

There was a half-annoyed expression in the face and voice of Aunt Maud. It was the only token of any sort of disturbance in the calm correctness of her personal appearance, from her smooth, gray hair to the lower hem of her irreproachable silk skirts.

' Indeed ? Has anything happened to Kemp ?"

The envelope in her hand seemed almost to flash open of itself, and the sheet of manuscript it had held spread suddenly out under Nelly's dark, searching, gray eyes ; but Aunt Maud responded :

" Kemp ? Oh, no ! It's Link Bishop. He was at the bank, this morning, and Mr. Raynor gave him the letter to bring over. He's waiting, now, down-stairs. He wants you to go and take a ride with

hi y im.

" I can be ready in a minute."

I s'pose you'll have to go. It's a queer thing

for Link to do. He's always doing queer things.

You won't meet anybody."

' Now, Aunt Maud, what do I care if I do ? He

never asked me before, and I think I'd like a ride

A HIDDEN STING. 3

this morning. I'll read Kemp's letter when I get back.

Aunt Maud turned toward the door by which she had entered, remarking somewhat doubtfully :

" Well, you needn't mind riding with Link, just this once. His folks were old friends of your mother's."

Intentionally put there or not, there must have been a sting concealed in that seemingly simple utterance ; for Nell Davenport's clear and healthy, but almost colorless face flushed suddenly crimson, and her lips closed hard for a moment.

11 I've heard my mother say so."

" Yes, his father and mother are both dead now ; but they were kind o' brought up with yours. Shall I tell him you're coming?"

11 Do, please. I'll change my dress."

Aunt Maud was already on her way to the head of the stairs. Half a minute later, her delivery of Nell's message was replied to by a deep, strong, musical voice, with :

" Much obliged to you, Miss Henderson. Please tell Nelly, when she comes down, I'm out minding my team. They're kind o' playful. Got to keep an eye on 'em. She can come right along out."

"Yes, I'll tell her. Are they skittish? You mustn't let yourself get run away with."

" Me ? Run away with ? Ha-ha !"

He was striding away from the door of the old Henderson farmhouse, and his unchecked chuckle meant something, for Aunt Maud said to herself, as she looked after him :

4 LINK BISHOP.

' They've always been great horsemen, those Bishops. I remember when his father used to drive the Mauncingville stage-coach, and they did say there was no four-horse team could get away from him."

That was a great deal to say of any human being ; but, if Link Bishop's father had been a man of like pattern with his son, there was an excuse for such a popular superstition. Tall, gaunt, muscular, every line of his swarthy, saturnine face, and every movement of his awkward frame, was full of that conscious strength with which neither men nor brutes are disposed to grapple hastily. His face, nevertheless, was neither unpleasant nor unkindly, in spite of the mockery, not altogether merry, which lurked in the corners of the mobile mouth, and that played hide-and-seek at the ends of his heavy eyebrows.

Link had carefully hitched his horses before going into the house, and they were now standing at their post, as submissive, to all outward appearance, as if they had been two great, black, sixteen-hand lambs.

' If ever there was a pair of hypocrites ! ' ' growled Link, while he stroked the mane of the near horse.

You needn't show the white of your eye. I know you. I could feel your grit coming back to me, through the reins, all the way. Now, if Nelly'll come along, I'll give you about twelve miles to trot it out in. I'd just like to show her what you can do. She won't be afraid of ye, neither."

A GOOD CONDUCTOR. 5

He was not, and the black horses were well aware of it, as every horseman knows they would be. Still, a driver of less nerve and muscle might profitably have taken greater account of the areas of " white" their eyes were showing, in their quick, uncertain backward glances, as well as of the suppressed, tremulous uneasiness with which they were lifting and putting down their iron-shod feet.

There is an evil spirit which sometimes comes upon horses, and he almost invariably reaches them by way of the man whose fingers hold the reins over them. Directly from him, it may be, if any devil has been aroused in him. Through him, if he be a coward, and timidly permits himself to be used by the demon as a conductor.

There was no shadow of cowardice in Link Bishop, and he had not been used that morning as a conductor. He looked placid enough, too ; but there were words creeping one by one through his bushy mustache, and there was that in his black eyes which suggested an unsettled state of affairs behind them.

" Wonder what old Raynor meant. Called me Link, too. Yes, I understood him. He said, ' Of course you won't see Miss Davenport, but you may tell Miss Henderson her nephew writes me he's coming home.' That was it. Anyhow, Nelly may thank old Raynor for her ride. Wonder how it is I never came for her before. Did I need a kick to give me the courage ? That's it. I'll have plenty of pluck as long as I can feel that kick. Got it more through his eye than from anything he said,

6 THE BLACK SPAN.

too. There she comes. Now, Link Bishop, don't you be a coward, and earn another kick. There's nothing mean about Nelly. Looking prime, too."

Straight as a young pine and twice "as graceful, Nelly was tripping along the gravel walk toward the gate ; for her preparations had been made with the swift efficiency which belongs to such a face as hers. Link was no critic in such matters, but if he had been he could have found no fault with the plain, yet very becoming dress in which Nelly had done honor to his unexpected invitation. His eyes did flash over it, admiringly, and Nelly saw the flash, just as he said to her :

" Good-morning, Nelly. There never was a better day for a drive."

" I'm so glad you came for me. It's the very thing I was wishing for." <

" Is that so, now ?"

" Indeed it is. I've hardly been out of the house for a week. Do you know ? — Kemp is coming home."

" So Mr. Raynor was telling me, at the bank, in town, this morning. Now if you'll let me help you right in. I must keep a sharp eye on these horses. "

" They seem quiet enough." 'Hypocrites, Nelly. Worst kind. I've only had 'em a couple of weeks. They're fast, though. I never mean to put 'em down to farm work. Train 'em up, and sell 'em. Hey !"

The last exclamation was in a manner jerked from him as he settled himself at Nelly's right hand, for there came a sharp and sudden strain

MISCHIEF ! 7

upon the reins, and the fiery and powerful blacks moved jauntily away down the road.

' ' The devil's in 'em, ' ' he said to himself, and then he added aloud to Nelly : ' See how they step ! Hardly touch the gravel ! I'm right glad Kemp's coming. He's one of the best judges of horses I know of, spite of his Greek and Latin. He's one of the few fellows that going to college didn't spoil."

Nelly made no direct answer. Perhaps she had none to make, and then she was noticing, at that moment, how very tightly the reins were drawing and how remarkably lightly, truly, the two blacks were stepping. She only said :

" Kemp has no horses of his own, now. Father sold his, all but the farm horses, before he went to Europe."

" By the way, speaking of Mr. Henderson, when are he and your mother coming back? They've made a long thing of it."

" They were in Naples, the last we heard. Just about leaving for Paris, on their way home. We may get another letter, before they sail, or a telegram."

" Reckon it'll be a telegram. It would if it was me to send it."

" They've had a splendid time." 1 Course they have. Let me see, didn't they go out in July ?"

'Yes, just after Kemp was graduated. They'd have gone earlier in the season, but for that."

' July, August, September, October — why,

8 NOW FOR IT!

they'll yet have time for Thanksgiving turkey at home."

" Certainly. They might be here in a little more than two weeks from now. What is the matter with your horses ?"

"Matter with 'em? Nothing at all. Oats. Mischief. Guess I'll let 'em out a little, though, over this two-mile level. They need a good deal more exercise than I've had time to give 'em. Now, boys !"

A good deal of Nelly Davenport's time had been spent on a farm, and she was by no means ignorant of horses. She was even fond of them, and that is the next thing to being an expert in equine matters. She had ridden behind many a fast and coltish pair in her day ; but never before had she been a party to quite such an affair as was the trot of the next few minutes, over the " two-mile level."

It was a splendid piece of road, and it was almost deserted at that hour in the day. Country teams for Daynton had passed over it by the score, earlier in the morning, and they would do the same, going home, in the afternoon and evening. Now, however, Nelly and Link Bishop and his stormy pair of fast trotters had it all to themselves.

They, the blacks, did not seem inclined to ' break" as yet ; but their stride was lengthening, and they were bearing hard upon the bits.

'They've had bad training," said Link, apologetically. ' Their mouths have been ruined. Hard as iron."

The thou «;ht in her mind was ;

HURRAH ! 9

" So must your arms be."

His own unspoken remark was :

" They're getting worse every minute. What can have put so much mischief into them ! Two miles won't half let it out. I must give 'em the river road on top of it."

It was gloriously exciting and enjoyable, as long as neither of the occupants of that handsome light buggy was capable of such a discomfort as fear. It was well they were both sure of retaining that inestimable advantage over their black servants. Splendidly they were looking, too, those broadchested, full-bodied, clean-limbed horses — vigorous embodiments of irrepressible animal life and action. The foam flew from their mouths, now and then, and their shining coats began here and there to darken. The buggy and its occupants, so far as mere weight was concerned, did but serve to bring out with greater emphasis the grand expression of tremendous and visibly increasing power with which they were speeding onward.

Nelly Davenport could hardly repress the exultant exclamations that sprang to her open lips, and when she glanced aside at the face of Link Bishop she came within a breath of saying aloud :

" Why, he's almost handsome !"

There was fire enough in his coal-black eyes, and

an unwonted tinge of color showed through the

bronze upon his cheeks ; but it would have required

much more than that to have made what is called

' a handsome man" of Link Bishop. Most women,

IO MUTINY.

in fact, would have thought him decidedly the reverse, even at that moment.

It is quite possible some of the same women would have questioned Nelly Davenport's claim to beauty, had she made one. To be sure, her regular and expressive features had no quarrel among themselves ; her complexion was clear ; her form, though slight, was well proportioned ; her iron-gray eyes were deep and well set under a forehead wherein was room for thought to come ; her brownblack hair was luxuriant and well arranged : but there are critics in whose exacting judgment all this and even more comes fatally short of the undescribed and indescribable perfections they demand.

Link Bishop appeared to be giving all his outward attention to his team ; but he, too, managed to glance aside more than once.

" How she is enjoying it !" he said to himself. " There's more in her than some folks give her credit for. I knew it, though. How it brings her out ! Think of my owing all this to old Raynor !

" All this" included a great deal more than the pleasure he or Nelly was receiving at that moment. The demon in the black team was growing stronger and more masterful with every stride they made. It could not have been sent them from the flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes of Nell, for it was the rampant devil of indiscriminate rebellion.

The river road was almost as well made and kept as the two-mile level ; but it had its ups and downs, and to these were added the curves and windings

A CRISIS COMING. n

forced upon it by the sinuous course of the unnavigable stream down there at the left.

" Glad we did not meet anybody just there," exclaimed Nelly, as they swept around a sharper curve than ordinary, where the road had narrowed along the foot of a craggy hillside.

" Room to pass," said Link. " I'll take them through the cross-road, and home by way of the old turnpike."

" Right past your farm. And by our old place. Do. I'd really like to see them."

" Looking first-rate, both of 'em. They've been putting a new wing on your old house."

"Have they? I'm half sorry. I know it's a small one, and it's old now ; but then I was born there and — "

She stopped short, partly, it may be, because what she was saying had a tone in it which it did not please her to utter ; and more, it is quite likely, because of the manifest exertion of muscular power required to control Link's horses, They were trotting squarely as yet ; but it was plain enough that they would not have been with a weaker hand on the reins.

Another mile went by in a terrible hurry, and then it was well the cross-road, to the right, was a wide one, for the swerve into it would have thrown the buggy over had it been wheeled on a shorter radius.

" What horses they are !"

" I didn't know it was in 'em," said Link, a little soberly, " or I wouldn't have asked you to ride behind 'em."

12 A GRAND CATASTROPHE.

'Why, is there any danger? I'm enjoying

it.

He looked right into her face then, and the expression of admiration on his own was undisguised and without reserve as he replied :

"You're not scared a bit? Now if that isn't splendid ! Do you know what I'm going to do ?"

" How should I ?" laughed Nelly. ' Just you be ready, then. The big gate of your old farmyard is open, right straight ahead at the turn.. I'm going to drive through it, pull 'em up against the wagon-shed,' and then you jump ! No living man dare take that team back over the turnpike— that is, not with you in the buggy."

"Me? I'm not afraid ; but I'll be ready." 'Afraid? No, guess not, never saw anything like it."

There was no time for a complimentary remark just then, and Link was gathering his energies for a special effort of strength and skill. One moment without speech or even breathing ; but the rebellious blacks were guided, whether they would or not, and with mathematical accuracy, through the open gate that fronted the turn of 'the road. Their furious forward strain was momentarily pulled down, only in time to snap the head of the pole between them against the side of the wagon-shed at which they were aimed, a few rods from the gate, up the farm lane.

"Jump, Nelly!"

He was on his feet at the side of the buggy and his arms were out. Her hands met his, quickly,

IN PIECES. 13

firmly, without a second of hesitation, and her spring to the ground was as light and true as that of a mountain deer.

'.' O Link ! What will become of your buggy ?"

Some pieces of it would probably be kicked far enough to justify a division of the question, for the blacks were expending miles and miles of trotting and hauling power in the savagely vigorous use they were making of their heels.

Women ran out of the farmhouse, and men in the barn dropped their flails and came hurrying up to see if they could be of any assistance, but Link calmly told them :

" No use. They'll have to kick it out. Run and shut the gate, Billy. I won't use a whip on 'em till they finish their spree."

" You'd better give it to 'em then."

''Yes, sir! And cut their feed down, and set 'em to haulin' wood and pullin' a drain plough."

" Miss Davenport," said a thin, elderly woman,

who had all but run in coming from the house,

1 won't you come in ? How skeered you must be !"

'Scared?" exclaimed Link Bishop. "No

more'n I be."

' Thank you, Mrs. Peters, I will, in a minute. Link, have they gone crazy ?"

" Something like it. There is a great deal that's human about horses. There'll be just about enough left of that buggy and harness to pay for mending." 1 m so sorry !

In about three minutes more her pity for the blacks themselves overbalanced her sorrow for the

14 DISCIPLINE.

wreck. Their " spree" was over ; their vicious temper was cooling down ; they were utterly helpless and a little weary ; and now their discipline began. A heavy whip was no laughing matter in the hands of Link Bishop.

Chapter II. Very High Caste

The doorway of the First National Bank of Daynton had a heavily armored and self-protecting look. It was the great financial institution of Daynton ; it had Mr. Latimer Raynor for its president ; it stood at just about the right distance, socially, from the main gateway that led into the well-kept and exclusive seemmg grounds of the Raynor family mansion.

So nearly right was the distance that, in good weather, the head of the one and owner of the other could even walk home, if he chose to do so, for his noonday luncheon. No moderate compensation would, indeed, have induced him to speak of that refreshment as " dinner," and the greater part of such weather as really came called for the use of his carriage to come and go. It was only right that a man of noble birth and large possessions should keep a carriage, and ride.

The original Raynor, the founder of the house, had traded rum for skins with the Indians on the very spot where the bank building now stood, leaving behind him a lasting odor of — antiquity and nobility.

The Raynor farm had afterward occupied much of the present site of the growing and ambitious little city. This itself, moreover, had been known

16 AN OLD HOUSE, SIR.

as Raynorville, until another corporate name was forced upon it by the vulgar votes of an uncontrolled mob of electors. Enough of the old farm remained in the hands of Mr. Latimer Raynor, in spite of the divisions called for from time to time by the deaths and devises of his inconsiderate ancestors, to entitle him to think himself " the Raynor.

He so thought himself.

They manage these things better in England, as Mr. Latimer Raynor had been known to remark. In that favored land the estate of any noble family, however acquired — the estate or the nobility — can be kept together in spite of the selfish requirements of younger sons and of daughters. In spite, even, of any fatherly sentimentalism expressed in the form of " wills and testaments."

" The original Raynor farm, sir, with the outlying landed property of my ancestor, would have made me several times a millionaire to-day, sir. Our laws are shamefully defective, sir, in their provisions for the preservation of old families."

That was a subject he could follow very far, with a good listener ; but the business men of Daynton agreed that his head was remarkably clear upon every other. As clear as if they had been Mohawks and he the very original Raynor.

There was just enough about the family residence of the peculiar kind of antiquity which may best be described as "American" to relieve it of all vulgar newness, without detracting from its claim to elegance. Everything in its exterior

CROWS' FEET. 17

seemed prepared to remark to any inquisitive passer-by :

" You may well look twice, sir. The greatgrandfather of this house was rich. We are rich now. We are not common people at all."

In fact, no man of proper feeling, unless conscious that one or more of his own grandfathers had been remarkable, would have presumed to cross the threshold of that house without first wiping his feet carefully and getting quite ready to remove his hat.

Mr. Latimer Raynor could not have been called upon for either precaution, that noonday, and not only because of his ancestors. The carriage had preserved the polish of his boots, and his hat was in his hand before he reached his doorway. The latter, indeed, that he might the more easily wipe away a few beads of perspiration from a high, narrow forehead, -to which much new territory had of late years been silently annexed.

The original forehead had evidently been all the while under cultivation, for deeply ploughed wrinkles and like signs of culture furrowed it from side to side, and the ever watchful crows had left the imprint of their thievish feet in the corners of the field. There had ever been much corn to steal upon the Raynor farm, and the visits of the crows had continued for generations.

Ordinarily, the height of the present head of the house was about five feet, nine inches, but he was hardly so tall to-day. He was as one pressed down a little from his rightful stature, and the first words

1 8 ANTE CEDEN TS.

he spoke to the portly, middle-aged lady who awaited his coming in the dining-room were :

" Adeline, my dear, I am very glad Henderson is coming home. I find this load too much for me.

"I 'ope so. He's been gone long enough. I do wonder whatever 'e and Mrs. 'Enderson can find to keep them so long."

" I almost said as much to him, in one of my letters. Did I show you his reply ?"

' Do sit down, and eat something, Mr. Raynor. Now do. Mr. 'Enderson's letter, my dear? No, you must 'ave forgotten it entirely."

" Did I ? Well, then, it was sharp enough. He said you and I had spent more time away from the bank than he had, time and again, and it was his turn now."

' Now Mr. Raynor ! It is remarkable 'o\v some people do forget themselves. Think of what he was when you took him into the bank."

" He held a good deal of the stock, my dear. A good deal."

" Money isn't everything, Mr. Raynor, by no means. He was nobody at all till 'e was made cashier. And then 'e must go and marry that Mrs. Davenport ! 'Oo was she, I'd like to know ?"

" She was pretty, Adeline, and he thought she had money, too, I've no doubt."

" Pretty, indeed ! I'm 'alf displeased to 'ear you say it."

Whatever else she may have been ready to utter, in explanation of the expression of face with which

NEWS. 19

she had listened to the name of the present Mrs. Henderson — Nelly Davenport's mother — was cut short, like an error in book-keeping, by a species of double entry. A servant came in through the rear door with a tureen of soup, and, at the same moment, a young lady swept gracefully in from the front to a chair at the table.

Have you any news to-day, father ?"

A very musical and admirably modulated voice made the inquiry, and there was every excuse for the look of fatherly pride which Mr. Raynor turned upon the questioner.

11 Plenty of it, my dear. First, the Hendersons are coming home." v

" Nothing wonderful in that. Are they really coming ? Have you heard from them ?"

11 Only a telegram. Sent by Mr. Henderson's direction. They sailed from Havre, yesterday, in the Hermetic. I wonder why he should have selected one of the slowest old tubs afloat."

1 Why are you in such a hurry to see them ? I cannot say I am."

" Business, my daughter — business." ' After all, a summer in Europe may have done something wonderful for Mrs. Henderson."

4 Mr. Raynor," interposed his wife, " your soup will be cold. Katherine, do not annoy your father."

' But, mother, the news. I'm sure there is more to come."

Calmly, smilingly, beautifully unexcited, and yet expectant, sat the heiress of the house of Raynor,

20 LORD WHAT'S-HIS-NAME.

while her father tried the soup, and found it hot enough for further speech.

' The news ? Adeline, I have a letter from Carlton Forsythe. He and his English friend are to pay us a visit — quite a visit — on their way to the Adirondacks. "

'Is it Lord What's-his-name ?" asked Katherine, doubtfully.

' There is Forsythe's letter. Read it for yourself. He says his lordship is anxious to get an idea of American rural life."

"We must see that he 'as one," said Mrs. Raynor, with sudden energy, as her daughter silently handed her the manuscript. " It's not 'is family name, of course. Only 'is title. It's not at all familiar to me. But then there are so very many of them !"

'American rural life," said Katherine, scornfully. " How much of that will he find in Daynton?"

" We can show 'im all there is, my dear," said her mother. " We can at least give 'im an idea of American 'ospitality. "

" We can show him the country for ten miles around," said her father, " and after that he can kill deer, and catch trout in the Adirondacks, and hunt moose in Maine and the Canadas. "

' And when winter comes he can go home again with an idea that he knows all about us. Well, father, this is better news than the return of the Hendersons."

Mrs. Raynor had continued her study of Carlton

SKELETONS IN FAMILY CLOSETS. 21

Forsythe's epistle. It may have been that the burden of her coming duty as hostess was settling upon her ample shoulders, for she was neglecting her soup. She said :

" I liked Mr. Forsythe so much, w'en 'e was 'ere before. A young man of extraordinary capacity, I should say. And so very rich.

44 But, mother, his English friend — "

" My dear ! Parties, of course."

"No time for more than one. Out of season, too."

4 Katherine, my daughter, the season's nothing to do with it. Fm almost glad it'll all be over before the 'Endersons get 'ere."

44 By the way," exclaimed Mr. Raynor, " there's one thing Fd forgotten. Fve a letter from Kemp Henderson, too. He is coming home."