Chapter Ten

Where went Cassius Calhoun?

He went to the chamber of his cousin, young Henry Poindexter.

“Awake, Henry! awake!” was the abrupt salutation extended to the sleeper, accompanied by a violent shaking of his shoulder.

“Oh! ah! you, cousin Cash? What is it? not the Indians, I hope?”

“Worse than that – worse! Rouse yourself, and see! Quick, or it will be too late! Quick, and be the witness of your own disgrace – the dishonour of your house. Quick, or the name of Poindexter will be the laughing-stock of Texas!”

Obedient to the command of his cousin – without understanding why he had been so unceremoniously summoned forth – Henry was hurrying along the gravelled walks of the garden.

“What is it, Cash?” he inquired, as soon as the latter showed signs of coming to a stop. “What does it all mean?”

Calhoun pointed to the two figures standing between the trees. He told Henry that the man was Maurice the mustanger and the woman in his arms was Henry’s sister Louise. As if a shot had struck Henry through the heart, the brother bounded upward, and then onward, along the path.

“Stay!” said Calhoun, catching hold of, and restraining him. “You forget that you are unarmed! The fellow, I know, has weapons upon him. Take this, and this,” continued he, passing his own knife and pistol into the hands of his cousin. “On, my boy! Don’t give him a word of warning. As soon as they are separated, send a bullet into his belly; and if all six should fail, go at him with the knife.”

In six seconds Henry was by her side, confronting her supposed seducer.

“Low villain!” he cried, “unclasp your loathsome arm from the waist of my sister. Louise! stand aside, and give me a chance of killing him! Aside, sister! Aside, I say!”

Instead of drawing the pistol from its holster, or taking any steps for defence, Maurice Gerald appeared only desirous of disengaging himself from the fair arms still clinging around him, and for whose owner he alone felt alarm.

For Henry to fire at the supposed betrayer, was to risk taking his sister’s life; and, restrained by the fear of this, he paused before pulling trigger.

Louise, with a quick perception of the circumstances, suddenly released her lover from the protecting embrace; and, almost in the same instant, threw her arms around those of her brother.

“Go, go!” she shouted to Maurice, while struggling to restrain the infuriated youth. “My brother is deceived by appearances. Leave me to explain. Away, Maurice! away!”

“Henry Poindexter,” said the young Irishman, as he turned to obey the friendly command, “I am not the sort of villain you have been pleased to pronounce me. Give me but time, and I shall prove, that your sister has formed a truer estimate of my character than either her father, brother, or cousin. I claim but six months. If at the end of that time I do not show myself worthy of her confidence – her love – then shall I make you welcome to shoot me at sight”.

A plunge in the river announced that the midnight intruder was on his way back to the wild prairies he had chosen for his home.

“Brother! you are wronging him! indeed you are wronging him!” were the words of expostulation that followed close upon his departure. “Oh, Henry, if you but knew how noble he is! Believe me, brother, he is a gentleman; and if he were not – if only the common man you take him for – I could not help what I have done – I could not, for I love him!”

“Louise! tell me the truth! From what I have this night seen, more than from your own words, I know that you love this man. Has he taken advantage of your – your-unfortunate passion?”

Louise assured him that Maurice was too noble for that and was completely innocent.

“Why – oh! brother! why did you insult him?”

“Have I done so?”

“You have, Henry – rudely, grossly.”

“I shall go after, and apologise. If you speak truly, sister, I owe him that much. I shall go this instant. I liked him from the first – you know I did? I could not believe him capable of a cowardly act. I cannot rest till I have made reparation for my rudeness.”

So spoke the forgiving brother; and gently leading his sister by the hand, he hastily returned to the hacienda – intending to go after the young Irishman, and apologise for the use of words that, under the circumstances, might have been considered excusable.

As the two disappeared within the doorway, a third figure, hitherto crouching among the shrubbery, was seen to rise erect, and follow them up the stone steps. This last was their cousin, Cassius Calhoun.

He, too, had thoughts of going after the mustanger.

“I wonder,” muttered Cassius Calhoun, “whether he is in earnest? Going after to apologise to the man who has made a fool of his sister! Ha-ha! It would be a good joke were it not too serious to be laughed at.”

Just as Calhoun turned his eye upon the door of the stable, his cousin Henry coming from the inside pushed it wide open; and then stepped over the threshold, with a saddled horse following close after him.

“Fool! So – you’ve let him off?” spitefully muttered the ex-captain, as the other came within whispering distance. “Give me back my bowie and pistol. They’re not toys suited to such delicate fingers as yours! Where are you going?”

“After Maurice the mustanger – to apologise to him for my misconduct.”

The young gentleman sprang to his saddle; and rode hurriedly away.

Calhoun stood upon the stones, till the footfall of the horse became but faintly distinguishable in the distance.

Then, as if acting under some sudden impulse, he hurried along the verandah to his own room; reappeared in a rough overcoat; crossed back to the stable; came out with his own horse saddled and bridled; led the animal along the pavement, and once outside upon the turf, sprang upon his back, and rode rapidly away.

For a mile or more he followed the same road, that had been taken by Henry Poindexter. It could not have been with any idea of overtaking the latter: proceeding at a slower pace, Calhoun did not ride as if he cared about catching up with his cousin. He had taken the up-river road.

“A chance still left”, muttered he, “a good one, though not so cheap as the other. It will cost me a thousand dollars. What of that, so long as I get rid of this Irish curse, who has poisoned every hour of my existence! If true to his promise, he takes the route to his home by an early hour in the morning. There’s yet time for the Coyote to get before him on the road! I know that. He spoke of his hut upon the Alamo. That’s the name of the creek where we had our picnic. The Mexican must know the place, or the trail leading to it.”

***

On the same night that witnessed the tender and stormy scenes in the garden of Casa del Corvo, three travellers made the crossing of the plain that stretches south-westward from the banks of the Leona River.

The foremost of these nocturnal travellers seemed absorbed in some thought, sufficiently engrossing to render him unobservant of outward objects. Leaving his horse to its own guidance, he rode tranquilly over the prairie, till lost to view – through the dimness of the light.

Almost on the instant of his disappearance a second horseman spurred out from the suburbs of the village; and proceeded along the same path. He appeared intent on overtaking someone. It might be the individual whose form had just faded out of sight?

This was all the more probable from the style of his equitation – at short intervals he bent forward in his saddle, and scanned the horizon before him.

He also disappeared from view – exactly at the same point, where his precursor had ceased to be visible.

Just at that very instant a third horseman rode forth from the outskirts of the little Texan town. He was proceeding at a slow pace. But his manner betokened a state of mind far from tranquil.

At intervals he would slue himself round in the stirrups and scan the track over which he had passed; all the while listening, as though he expected to hear some one who should be coming after him.

An hour later, and at a point of the prairie ten miles farther from Fort Inge, the relative positions of the three travellers had undergone a considerable change.

The foremost was just entering into a sort of alley or gap in the chapparal forest; which here extended right and left across the plain, far as the eye could trace it.

Though he saw not him, he was seen by the cavalier in the cloak, following upon the same track, and now scarce half a mile behind.

The latter, on beholding him, gave utterance to a slight exclamation. It was joyful, nevertheless; as if he was gratified by the prospect of at length overtaking the individual whom he had been for ten miles so earnestly pursuing.

Without hesitation, he rode after.

It was a longer interval before the third and hindmost of the horsemen approached the pass that led through the chapparal; but instead of riding into it, as the others had done, he turned off at an angle towards the edge of the wood; and, after leaving his horse among the trees, crossed a corner of the thicket, and came out into the opening on foot.

An hour elapsed, during which the nocturnal voices of the chapparal had kept up their choral cries by a thousand stereotyped repetitions.

Then there came an interruption; abrupt in its commencement, and of long continuance. It was the report of a gun, quick, sharp, and clear. But no other sound succeeded the shot – neither the groan of a wounded man, nor the scream of a stricken animal.

Answer the following questions:

1) Why did Calhoun awaken Henry?

2) What did Henry do when he saw Louise and Maurice together? What did Calhoun want him to do?

3) How did Louise and Maurice behave when Henry appeared?

4) Why did Henry want to overtake the mustanger?

5) Where did Calhoun go after the scene in the garden?

6) Who were the three horsemen?