24. Gun-Getting
From a stand before the fireplace, Currie addressed the group collectively and individually.
"You-all are fools - dumb fools - to sit here looking like charmed snakes at this government hawk. Sandy Is too flighty to expect much of, and you, Tom, you act lately as if you'd Inherited his wobbllness of mind. Miss Emmy, I'd have hoped better sense from you than breaking bread with one who has only the family ruin In mind. As for you, Verney "
His voice bespoke a vital hurt as he turned upon the girl.
Parker slid out from between table and bench, crossed the room. His one chief realization was that he hated the hillbilly, had hated him from their first meeting, as never In his past had he hated any one. He was very angry, he warned himself; he must be careful. m
"Odd, Isn't It, Currie, that you are calling me the same names I was just calling you?" he commented, meeting the other's scowl with a suggestion of his lop-sided smile. "You have the ruin of this family In mind - that's what I was telling them. I have collected a few facts to support the charge. You can have nothing but unfounded suspicion to show against me."
A sneer first answered him. Then: "Good-la, you dare me open? I take that dare. What, Mr. Family-Friend, have you-uns got to say about this?"
From the inner pocket of his coat, Currie took out a letter, stepped toward the lamp, leaned to read the superscription.
"This billy-doo came in on to-day's stage and looked important enough that Asa Simms allowed Fd best fetch it special. Finding the party it's addressed to here saves me a ride after supper that like as not I wouldn't have got a thank-you for. Listen, you Metcalf simps, to the reading on the envelope: 'Mr. Calvin A. Parker, care Mrs. Hootie Plott, Dismal Gap, N. C "
Parker stepped forward, his hand outstretched. "If the letter is mine, give it to me. I never heard of such impertinence as examining a man's mail with him standing right in the room !"
"You didn't? Well, it's small fry compared with your impertinence being In the room. I'll hand over your mail when I'm through with the outside of it. That'll be enough to show the Metcalfs - you're welcome to what's inside. Look, you-all, at what is on the upper left-hand corner - printed there."
He showed them :
If not delivered in five days
Return to
Deputy Collector,
UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE,
Federal Building, New York City.
His confidence rose as he noted the reflex on the staring group. "But that's not all. On the other corner - see !"
The Metcalfs peered to read:
For Official Business Only
Penalty for Private Use
In Evading Postage
Three Hundred Dollars.
Currle laughed again. "It ain't likely - not with that line - that anybody would send our family friend a society note inside this envelope. Now, are you-all ready to see the slick for what he is?"
Old Tom, whose sight was none too keen, reached out for the missive and re-read the printed matter on the face of It, holding it close under the lamp.
A moment later the out-Norther found five hostile faces turned his way Instead of one.
"The letter Is easily explained," he declared. "It is undoubtedly from the man who sent me to the Blue Ridge."
"You don't deny, then, that you were sent?" Currle demanded.
"At Magpie Plott's request?" added Sandyred.
Old Tom worded his glare. "Do you 'spect weall didn't know that the drys had begged for a slick' to come down and clean us out?"
Still Vernaluska did not speak.
But Parker knew that she was remembering. Acute to what must be flashing through her mind as treachery In him, he reached out and seized the envelope.
"This letter, I know before opening. Is of a strictly personal nature. That Is foretold by the postage being paid on It. Don't you see the canceled stamp? It Is from a friend of mine who works for the Internal Revenue Service, Spencer Pope, by name."
''Spencer Pope!" With a subdued bellow Old Tom pounced upon the name. "And you admit he sent you to the sticks?"
"Why shouldn't I admit it? He is, however, only a personal friend. That I can demonstrate best by reading his letter aloud. I won't even glance it through first, which ought to show that I have no fear of its contents."
He promised the girl with a glance, then ripped open the envelope and unfolded the sheets within.
'Tt is from Spence, as I knew it would be. Listen:
Dear Cal:
We're leaving to-night for Ashville - Mrs. Brainard, Sylvia, and myself. It's out of season, of course; but Airs. B. Is interested in a place for sale near there, and insists on my advice as an original Tar-heel. So we'll all drop in to see you. It seems a way of killing several birds with the rock of one railroad fare. We're naturally interested in how many birds you've killed while there. Why your supercaution in not reporting through the mails? Are you overcoming the devils?
I hear they're pulling ofF the annual carnival on Friday next. So we'll take the stage over from the railroad that day, arriving, I believe, about noon. Sylvia says that in case you are trying to hide your real identity, as well as our mission in the Blue Ridge, under the disguise of a beard, you'd better shave for the occasion.
Hoping for a great report,
Spencer.
Although the news in this characteristic effusion was a surprise to Parker and the way it was put most unfortunate, he now looked up with what confidence he could muster.
"There's nothing official in that letter, as I predicted. Here, pass it around and see for yourselves."
An angry laugh sounded from the living-room door, where Sandy had planted himself. "We-all don't need to pass it. We see a-plenty. Rex, you line up again' the kitchen door - lucky you're wearing your gun. I got one on the stoop, stranger, so don't try to escape that way!"
'TU not try to escape," Parker retorted. "All I want to do is to explain; let me convince you that I "
''You've done convinced us a-plenty." Old Tom put the verdict, but without the hostility of his son.
He sidled toward the seat he had vacated at table and laid his huge hands upon the blank deeds left there.
'Tm going to give you a chance, Parker, to make your getaway," he continued. "ril call these boys offen you and see that a nary shot stops you on
the road if " He hesitated; shifted his gaze;
seemed to be thinking earnestly.
Parker understood. He returned a significant, warning look.
"I'm obliged for the reminder." He nodded to' Metcalf; then turned to the hillbilly. "The object of my present visit, Currie, Is to get your signature to the deed transferring that mountain farm from you to me. You have cashed the New York draft?"
"I sure have - trusting you none!"
"Nor I you, so you're to sign up to-night."
"Ain't objecting, am I?"
"If you'll provide pen and Ink, Mr. Metcalf," Parker suggested, "we'll legalize the transfer."
With a doubtful sort of glare, Currle turned on the old man. "What affair is it of yours, Tom, if I decide to sell what my pappy left me free and clear? Let me see this deed."
As her father's nervousness increased, Vemaluska intervened. Coming up behind him she took one of the documents and passed it to Currie.
"Best trust the stranger, Tommie," she advised. "It's all there is left to do."
He acted on her advice. "Pen and ink, Emmy," he ordered. "You, Sandy, hike to the barn and fetch Cotton Eye - we'd best have his signature for an outside witness."
The girl urged her brother on his errand. "Go on, Sandy, while Rex is in the mind. Go on."
" 'Pears to me you've changed your tune, Verney, since the other day," Currie made comment on her eagerness. "What's come over you that you want me now to sell the Bald to some one else?"
"Oh, it's because " She shivered, then lifted
a warming smile to him. "You know I hate to say I'm wrong, Rexey. But I see It from your view-point now. Likely the money, cash In hand, is worth more to you than the mountain."
He corrected In a fervent aside: "To me and to you, hon."
Despite her effort at duplicity, she showed even more nervousness than did the patriarch during the examination of the paper which ensued. Currie read It as though looking for "jokers." Cotton Eye blinked at It like an ebony owl, regardless of the fact that he held it upside down. But at last came the signatures, the negro's In the form of an "X" marked after the "Cotton Eye Lee'' which Vernaluska had written in for him.
Parker blotted the ink with the lamp's heat, and pocketed the document. 4
"Now," he said, "we can get to the signing of the second deed." fl
"The second deed?" Currie demanded.
"Yes. I had it drawn up at the same time, but it wasn't worth much until after you had honored the first."
He and Old Tom duly inscribed their names; Cotton Eye affixed another X in the witness line. Additionally, there were notes signed and their accompanying mortgage, then a receipt was given by the out-Norther for the hoarded hundred. Only when Rex Currie saw the bills handed over did he seem to grasp the significance of the transaction.
"So-ho, you've tricked me - the whole passel of you?" he asked In the quiet voice of fury just before it explodes. "You've gone and got hold of that mountain in spite of me, Tom Metcalf ! You really mean, then, to quit stillin' - to settle down Inside the law? As for you, you Interfering revenue reptile "
He turned on Parker.
"As for him" - Old Tom had folded his deed and placed It within the pocket of his shirt - "revenuer or no, he's kept his part of the bargain, and ril keep mine." He also turned to Parker. "You can go safe of lead, young feller. If you take the straight road home.
But Parker's attention was centered upon her with whom he had exchanged vows of mutual aid and trust. Her expression was hard to read, probably through remembering what had been and what was. There was no doubting the cut of her voice, however, when she answered his eyes.
"We-all are powerful obliged to you for turning over the Bald to us. We'll make the payments and interest regular. But after that letter to-night, you can't expect us to be friendly. It ain't - isn't manners, Is it, for a gent to stay after he's been asked to go?"
For a moment longer Parker looked at her, more hurt than seemed reasonable. In view of the fact that he could not blame her. When he spoke it was to the old man.
"l though I've always been dead set against doing things just because people told me to, in this case, I'll go and go straight if you'll entrust me with Currie's gun - I'm not afraid of yours and your son's."
The hillbilly started toward him.
"A gad-a-mighty chance you've got to strip me of my gun - you nor all the tricky Old Toms in the sticks ! I'll show you what that insult calls for."
"Up, Rexey - I got you covered!" With the flash of a small weapon which she had slipped from her waist, Vernaluska stopped Currie's hand halfway to his hip. "You leave dad lift your gun. If you make one false move I'll plug you."
For a moment he stopped to gape at her. None could have doubted she would make good her threat. But admiration for her and craving for her seemed only to infuriate him the more.
"You'd plug me just to save him? I believe you would. Lucky I don't need a gun."
He turned so that Old Tom could take the Colt from his hip; then, before any of them realized his intention, sprang upon Parker and bore him to the wall.
"You'll pay me - for everything - you've done-- and made them do," he panted as he withstood the shock of violent resistance. "I'll get the girl in spite of you - in spite of Old Tom and all the other - flames of hell. My game's been quiet long enough."
"You mean - your man-trap - noisy enough," countered Parker, with the gasps of one who has just wrenched a strangle clutch from his throat.
"Now I'm ready to fight - to win," the hillbilly contributed to the rough-and-tumble. "If there's anything left of you - after I "
But there was considerable left. Parker was proving himself wilhng and adept at in-fighting, with rapid-fire hooks and jabs which left his opponent little time for comment, when Sandyred threw his decisive muscular vote into the issue. Soon Currie was backed into a corner and held there under competent guard of the younger Metcalf pair.
After Parker had readjusted a loosened cuff-link and set his belt, he reached out for the gun which he had stipulated must be entrusted temporarily to him.
The deprived owner again offered objection. "Don't you go that far with your insults, Tom!"
When the old man had gone the whole way, he threatened Parker directly: "Gun or no gun, slick, you have a care for the next time we meet !"
With the commandeered weapon in hand, the out-Norther paused at the door. "The reason I wanted this gun, good folks," he said, "was merely to show you that I'm not leaving thus early because I came unarmed. Good night, all. Friday, at the carnival, I'll have Spencer Pope explain a little better than I've been able to do just who I am and why I'm in the Blue Ridge. Thank you so much for a diverting evening."
Turning, he walked into and across the livingroom. At the door which gave upon the gallery he paused to don his coat. In the brief wait he heard the start of Old Tom's next attack.
"This here's sure a diverting - a great evening. Rex Currie, for its the one you pack up your fiddle and duds."
"Me pack up, Tom?"
"You heard me. High time you left off pretending to be one of us ! I know dum well why you've stuck around, even though you don't know why I let you - you that's lifted your reviling eyes to my gal."
"Man alive, my eyes ain't ever been reviling 1 I'm wanting to marry Verney. I've asked her time and again."
"Natu'ly you want to marry her. Who wouldn't? But it's only a man that sizes up right before me that's a-going to succeed. You - a murdering Currie? I never did have no use for you, nohow nor your pappy before you, with his concealing ways. The only thing I ever wanted of the span of you, I've got to-night. Fve got Grumhly Bald! I'm going to be able to give Verney the chance she deserves in life and Sandy an education - if he'll take to It - and Emmy some old-age ease. As for you, I give you the go-by. An hour's good allowance for Parker - then you git and stay git !"
Cal Parker did not linger. What he had overheard, however, awoke in him the generosity of the victor. Before crossing the porch, he hung the weapon he had demanded upon the nail in the doorframe from which he had taken his coat. In the cabin on Fallaway awaited his own, which would best be his companion for the near future.