 CHAPTER 14 THE CONTRABANCE It was now that a new unpleasantness began to harass the already burdened people of Ohio. The decree of General Butler, making all slaves who came into camp contraband of war, affected the Negroes not only in his immediate vicinity, but wherever there was a union camp. Drunk with the dream of freedom at the first intimation of immunity, they hastened to throw off their shackles and strike for the long coveted liberty. Women, children, young able-bodied men, and the feeble and infirm, all hastened towards the union lines. Thence it was usually an easy matter, or at least one possible of accomplishment, to work their way north to the free state. Hardly a camp, hardly a column in which the officers were not reputed vigorously to oppose the admission of slaves, but presented a strange and varied appearance. In the rear, but keeping close to their saviors always, straggled a lot of half-clad, eager Negroes of all ages and conditions, bearing every conceivable form of movable property, bags, bundles, bedclothes, cooking utensils, and even an occasional calf or sheep trailed along. Many indeed found employment as the servants of officers, where their traditional qualifications as cooks or valets came into full play. But for the most part they simply hung on, worrying, and embarrassing the soldiers with their importunities, sickening and dying from fatigue and exposure, and conducting themselves all together like the great, helpless, irresponsible children that they were. To those who only a few years ago, primed with the prejudices of their masters, had looked upon the Yankees as monsters. There had come a great change, and every man who wore the blue had become as God's own vice-gerent. They had been told that the Yankees had horns, and many of them believed it, but on contact the only horn that they found was the horn of plenty, and their old faith and their masters infallibility died. They were not all a burden, though. In the gloom of the dark hours their light-heartedness cheered on the march. Their pranks, their hems, and their ditties made life and light. Through the still watches of the night, the lonely sentinel on his beat heard their singing, and sometimes he thought of home with a choking at his throat, and had a vision of a tender mother singing to the babe upon her breast. And he looked up to the stars, and was alone no more. The poor blacks, wandering in the darkness of their ignorance, were as frightened children in the night. They had lost faith in their masters, but it was not lost to them entire, only transferred to these new beings who mastered them by the power of love. Is it any wonder that they shouted and sang, and that often their songs were, Out of Old Egypt, De Promise Land, and Go Down Moses? One of the principal songs they sang ran thus, a long minor melody at first, then breaking in the improvisation into a joyous shout. In Egypt I sang a mournful song, O Lord, de life was had. They said your bondage won't belong, O Lord, de life was had. They preached and they prayed, but the time went on, O Lord, de life was had. The night was black when they talked of dawn, O Lord, de life was had. We thought it was day in the lightning flash, O Lord, de life was had. But night come down with the mastles lash, O Lord, de life was had. And then some clear voice would break into further improvisation. But the Yankees come and they set us free. Tank God hits better now. The Yankee man is the man for me. Tank God hits better now. He gave me bread and he gave me meat. Tank God hits better now. Eat never did seem so sweet. Tank God hits better now. For them it was better now, though they toiled and struggled and fell by the wayside. The abstract idea of freedom, which they did not yet understand, had become a fetish to them. And over the burning sands or through the winter snow where they trudged with bleeding feet, they kept their stalwart faith in it. They were free at last, and being free, no evil thing could hurt them. It was strange that most of them should not have become discouraged and gone back to the flesh pots still in Egypt. The Union officers did not understand these great children who flocked so insistently about their heels. Some were harsh to them, and others who would have been kind did not know how. But they stayed on and on, clinging to the garments of the army, going from camp to camp, until they swept like a plague of locusts into some northern town. Ohio, placed as she was, just on the border of the slave territory, was getting more than her share of this unwelcome population, and her white citizen soon began to chafe at it. Was their free soil to become the haven for escaped negroes? Was this to be the stopping ground for every runaway black from the south? Would they not become a menace to the public safety? Would they not become a public charge and sorely strain that generosity that was needed to encourage and aid the soldiers in the field? These and a thousand such conjectures and questions were rife about the hapless blacks. The whole gamut of argument that had been used in 49, 50, and 51 was run again. The menace of Maryland with her free negroes was again held up. The cry rose for the enforcement of the law for the restriction of emancipated negroes, while others went to the extreme of crying for the expulsion of all blacks from the state. Since 1829, there had been a gradual change for the better in the attitude of Ohio towards her colored citizens. But now, all over the state, and especially in the southern counties and towns, there had come a sudden revulsion of feeling, and the people rose generally against the possibility of being overwhelmed by an influx of runaway slaves. Their temper grew and ominous mutterings were heard on every side. The first great outburst of popular wrath came when negro men began offering themselves for military service, and some extremists urged the policy of accepting them. Take them, said the extremists, and you break the backbone of the south's power. While the southern men are in the field fighting against the government, their negro slaves are at home raising supplies for them and caring for their families. When we enlist them, whom have they to leave for such duties? But all the north held up its hands and cried, What? Put black men beside our boys to fight? Let slaves share with them the honoring glory of military service? Never! The army itself hurled back its protest. We are fighting for the union, we are not fighting for niggers, and we will not fight with them. From none of the states came a more pronounced refusal than from Ohio. She had set her face against men of color. What wonder, then, that they are coming into this state aroused all her antagonistic blood? Here, for the time, all party lines fell away, and all the people were united in one cause, resistance to the invasion of the Black Horde. It was at this time that Butler's proclamation struck through the turmoil like a thunderbolt, and the word contraband became a menace to the Whites and a reproach to the blacks. The free blacks of Dorberry themselves took it up, and even before they could pronounce the word that disgusted them, they were fighting their unfortunate brothers of the South as vigorously as their white neighbors. Contraband became the fighting banter for Black people in Ohio, but the stream kept pouring in. In spite of resistance, abuse, and oppression, there was a certain calm determination about these fugitive slaves that was of the stuff that made the Puritans. As far north as Oberlin and Cleveland, they did not often make their way. If it was their intention to stop in Ohio at all, they usually ended their journey at the more southern towns. While the spirit in the northern towns was calmer, it was perhaps just as well that they were not overrun. In Cleveland especially, numerous masters of the South, averse to making slaves of their own offspring, had colonized their discarded Negro mistresses and their illegitimate offspring, and these people, blinded by God knows what idea of their own position in the eyes of the world, had made an aristocracy of their own shame. In Dorbury, the Negro aristocracy was not one founded upon mixed blood, but upon free birth or manumission before the war. Even the church, whose broad wings are supposed to cover all sorts and conditions of men, turned its face against the poor children of a later bondage. After much difficulty, the Negro contingent in Dorbury had succeeded in establishing a small house of worship in an isolated section known as the Commons. Here, according to their own views, they met Sunday after Sunday to give praise and adoration to the God whom they, as well as the whites, claimed as theirs, and hither, impelled by the religious instincts of their race, came the contraband on reaching the town. But were they received with open arms? No. The God that fostered black and white alike, rich and poor, was not known to father these poor fugitives so lately out of bondage. The holy portals were closed in their faces, and dark-skinned pastors not yet able to put the H in the educational shibboloth, drool aside their robes as they passed them. Opposition was even expressed to their fellowship with the Christian body. It reached its height when, on a memorable Sunday, a quarterly meeting day in fact, three families of the despised presented themselves for membership in the Wesleyan Chapel. The spirit had been running high that day, and there had been much shouting and praising the Lord for His goodness. But at this act of innocent audacity, the whole tone of the meeting changed. From violent joy it became one of equally violent anger and contempt. These outcast families, seeking God, had stepped upon the purple robes of these black aristocrats, and they were as one for defiance. One aged woman, trembling with anger and religious excitement, tottered up, and starting for the door hurled this brief condemnation of the culprits who dared desire membership in her church. Why, before I'd see this church, this church, that we free people built, give up to these contrabands, I'd see it tore down brick by brick. She hurried down the stairs, and a number followed her. But some stayed to remain straight with the unreasoning contraband. They were told to form a church of their own and to worship together. But, said their spokesman, who had preached down on the plantation, why aren't we just as well worshipped with you? We's all colored together. The pastor tried in vain to show them the difference between people who had been freed three or four years before, and those just made free. But somehow the contraband and none of his company could see it, and the meeting was broken up. The rejected Christians, seeking their poor shanties in amazement, and the aristocrats gathering to talk among themselves over the invasion of their temple. With both white and black against them, it could not be long before the bad feeling against these poor people must break out into open attack. Theirs was a helpless condition, but they were not entirely alone. In all the town they had no stronger friend than Stephen Van Doran. A southerner by birth and education, he understood these people, who had for two centuries been the particular wards of the south. While he had no faith in the ultimate success of the Union arms, and believed that all these blacks must eventually go back into slavery once they had come. Yet he reasoned that they were there, and such being the case, all that was possible ought to be done for them. The Negroes were quick to recognize a friend, and his house soon became the court to which they took all their grievances. He had been keeping indoors, but now he began to circulate among his southern friends, and to do what he could to help his poor protégés. It was then that the first inklings of a contemplated attack upon them came to his ears. Some of the citizens of Dorbury, inspired by the public spirit which bar room speeches arouse, had determined to rise and throw off the stigma of Negro invasion. The embers of the people's passions had long smoldered, and when a pseudo-politician in the glow of drink had advised them to rise and drive the black plague beyond their borders, they had determined to do so. The conduct of the whole matter had been put into the hands of Raymond Stathard, for the politician declined to lead such an assault upon the plea that it was hardly the proper thing for a man who aspired to the legislature. Stathard was chosen first because he was the brother of the prosecuting attorney, which would give the movement prestige, and next because he was capable of doing anything when he was drunk. He usually was drunk, or becoming so. He was drunk when he made the speech, which instantly made him the leader of the aggressive movement. Gentlemen, he said, you all know me, and you know that I ain't the man to try to lead you into an unjust fight. Now am I? He was almost plaintive, and the crowd about him cried, no, no, thank you, he went on swaying at his table. Thanks, I'm glad to see that you appreciate my motives. You all know my brother, he's a straight straight man, ain't he? You all know, Philip Stathard. Now I'm a peaceable man, I am, but tonight I say our rights and liberties are being invaded, that's what they are. All the niggas in the south are crowding in on us, and pretty soon we won't have a place to lay our heads. They'll undercharge the laborer and drive him out of house and home. They will live on leavings, and the men who are eating white bread and butter will have to get down to the level of these black hounds. I don't like them anyhow, none of us like them. The whole war is on their account. If it hadn't been for them, we'd have been friends with the south today. But they've estranged us from our brothers, rent the country a sunder, and now they're coming up here to crowd us out of our towns. Gentlemen, I won't say any more. It shall never be said that Ray Stathard was instrumental in bringing a revolt against law and order. My brother's prosecuting attorney, you know, and we stand for the integrity of the law. But if I had my way, I take force and clear this town of every nigger in it. Gentlemen, drink with me. His final remark was the most eloquent plea he could have made. The gentleman drank with Mr. Stathard and voted his plan for saving their homes and workshops a good one. One man in passing had heard the sound of speechmaking within, and out of idle curiosity had paused at the saloon door in time to hear Stathard's stirring remarks. Stephen Van Doran listened with horror to what the drunken rowdy proposed, and then went with all speed to his brother. You're too sensible a man, Van Doran, said the prosecuting attorney, to believe that I have anything to do with this matter, or would countenance it. But I can do nothing whatever with this brother of mine. There is only one thing to do, and that is to warn the negroes. They are not used to fighting for themselves. They would be as helpless as children, and could be killed like sheep in a pen. They have their freedom, taken as you and I both believe illegally, let them rise to the occasion which liberty demands. And so the lawyer dismissed the subject, although Van Doran gave back the answer that what these blacks had to meet was not the result of liberty, but the mockery of it. Leaving Philip Stathard's house, Stephen Van Doran went his way, torn between conflicting opinions as to his duty. Would he be proving a traitor to his fellow citizens if he told the negroes of the designs against them? But were these men of the lowest social stratum, loafers, ignoramuses, and fanatics his fellow citizens? Was it not right that these poor fellows, slaves as they had been, and would be again doubtless, should be allowed the chance of defending themselves against assault? He argued with himself long and deeply that night, and in the end he decided that the blacks must be warned. He did not know when the attack would take place. Indeed, he felt sure that it would wait upon inspiration and opportunity, but the intended victims could be put upon their guard and then be left to look out themselves. He could do no more. Perhaps he had already done too much. On the morrow he saw some of the blacks, and after cautioning them to secrecy as to what they should hear, told them of their danger. They heard him with horror and lamentation. They were bitterly disappointed. Was this the freedom for which they had toiled? Was this the welcome they received from a free state? They already knew how the church had greeted them, but they were the more shocked because they found out for the first time that politics could be as hard as religion. One advantage which the negroes were to have was that in the sudden passion against their race the whites made no distinction as to bond or free, manumitted or contraband. This of necessity drew them all together, and they grew closer to each other in sympathy than they had yet known. The drawing together was not one of spirit only, but of fact. They began to have meetings at night after the warning, and a code of signals was arranged to call all of them together at the first sign of danger. Meanwhile, Stathard and his Confederates, believing that all their workings had been done in profoundest secrecy, only waited an opportunity to strike effectively and finally. The leader's first open act occurred one day when he seemed to have found an audience of sympathizers. He was strolling along busy with his usual employment of doing nothing when he noticed a crowd gathered at a point upon the street that led from the railway station. He sauntered towards it, but quickened his pace when he found that the center of the group was a small family of black folk who had just arrived from some place south of the river. There were a father and mother, both verging on old age, a stalwart, strong-limbed son, apparently about twenty, and two younger children. They were all ragged, barefoot, and unkempt. They had paused to inquire the way to the negro portion of the town, and immediately the people, some with animosity, some with amusement, had gathered around them. What's all this? asked the attorney's brother as he reached the group. None of the whites vouchsaved him an answer, and he turned his attention to the negroes. More niggers, he exclaimed. Why in hell don't you people stay where you belong? The blacks eyed him in silence. Why don't you answer when I talk to you? He took a step forward, and the outcasts cowered before him, all save the sun. He did not move a step, and there was a light in his eye that was not good to see. It was the glare of an animal brought to bay. Stothart saw it, and advanced no further, but went on. If I had you across the line, I'd teach you manners. The old woman began to cry. We come up here, said the young negro, because we hear it was a free state. It's free for white people, not for niggers. We hear it was free for everybody. That's the reason we come, me and Mammy and Papi and the children. We ain't to bother nobody. We just want to find some of our own people. There's enough of your people here now, and too many, and we don't want any more. You better go back where you come from. We can't go back there. It's been a long ways to come in, and we's about wore out. That's none of our business, back you go. Gentlemen, unless we put our foot down now, we shall be overrun by these people. I call you to act now. Turn them back at the portals of the city. Ohio is a state, and Albury as a town does not want these vagabonds. Unseen by Stothart, another man attracted by the gathering had joined the crowd, and now his voice broke the silence. Who made you, raised Stothart, the spokesman for the people of Ohio? The aristocratic loafer turned to meet the eye of Stephen Vandoren, and his face went red in a second. I don't know what right you've got to speak, Vandoren. You've done everything you could to hurt the Union. It is to the Union's greatest discredit that it has such men as you on its side. So you're in favor of letting the niggers overrun the town? I'm in favor of fair play, and I intend to help these people find their fellows. What are you anyhow? First a copperhead, then a rebel, then the champion of contraband. You're neither fish, flesh, foul, nor good-red herring. Whatever I may be, I'm not a conspirator, Stothart blanched at the word. Nor went on the old man. Am I a bar room orter and leader of ruffians? Come, boys, he said, addressing the niggers, and they grinned broadly and hopefully at the familiar conduct and manner of address of the south which they knew and loved. Away they went, behind Vandoren. Go on, Steve Vandoren, Stothart crowed after the old man like a vanquished cock. But you may have more work to do before you get through with your nigger pet. All right, was the sturdy answer. Whenever you and your hounds come for me, you'll find me waiting, and by heaven you'll leave me way to your men by a few ounces than you've ever been before. The younger man attempted to raise a jeer as the other man passed down the street. But the crowd refused to join him. There was something too majestic in the carriage of the old copperhead. He commanded an inevitable if reluctant respect. The same independent habit of thought and sturdy disregard of consequences that made him a copperhead made him a friend to these poor helpless blacks. Stothart, however, was not done. He was inflamed with anger at his defeat and the shame put upon him. He hurriedly left the crowd and went at once to the rendezvous of his confederates. All that day and night he harangued them as they came in one by one, setting before them the alleged dangers of the case and painting the affair of the afternoon in lurid colors. By midnight drunken men who mistook intoxication for patriotism talked solemnly to each other of the black invasion and shook hands in the unity of determination to resent this attack upon the dignity of the state. All the next day there was an ominous quiet in Dorbury. Men who had no other occupation than lounging about the courthouse corner and in the bar rooms were not to be seen. There were no violent harangs in the livery stables and groceries. Mr. Raymond Stothart was not out. About dusk the clients began to gather. One by one they came from their holes and hiding places and made their way to the rendezvous. Over their drinks they talked in whispers and the gaslight flared on drawn, swollen, terrible faces. Their general had found the wherewithal to buy liquor and he plied them well. Meanwhile, on Old McLean Street where stood the house of one of Dorbury's free black citizens, another gathering, equally silent, equally stealthy and determined was taking place. The signal had gone forth, the warning had been received and free Negro and contraband were drawing together for mutual protection. Not a word was spoken among them. It was not the time for talk. But they huddled together in the half lit room and only their hard labored breathing broke the silence. To the freemen it meant the maintenance of all that they had won by quiet industry. To the contraband it meant the life or death of all their hopes of manhood. Now all artificial lines were broken down and all of them were brothers by the tie of necessity. Contraband and the man who a few days ago had looked down upon him with supreme contempt now pressed shoulder to shoulder a common grayness in their faces, the same black dread in their hearts. In the back room sick with fear waited the women and children. Upon the issue of the night depended all that they had prayed for. Was it to be peace and home or exile and slavery? Their mother hearts yearned over the children who clustered helpless about their feet. If not for us God, for these all little ones they prayed. Their minds went back to the plantation, its pleasures and its pains. They remembered all. There had been the dances and the frolics and the meetings, but these paled into insignificance before the memory of the field, the overseer and the lash. Often, oh too often, they had bared their backs to the cruel thongs. Day by day they had toiled and sweated under the relentless sun. But must these the products of their poor bodies do likewise? Must they too toil without respite and labor without reward? They clasped their children in their arms with a hopelessness that was almost aggression. The little black babies that night did not know why their mothers hugged them with such terrible intensity or hushed them with such fierce tenderness when they cried. It was nearly midnight when the whisper ran round the circle in the front room. They are coming, they are coming. And the men drew themselves closer together. The sound of the shuffling of many feet and the noisy song of a drunken mob awoke the echoes of the quiet street. Then, of a sudden, the songs ceased as if some authoritative voice had compelled silence. Nearer and nearer moved the feet, softer now, but with drunken uncertainty. They paused at the gate. The lock clicked. The men within the room were tense as bended steel. Then came a thunderous knock at the door. No answer. There was a pause and apparently a silent conference. The rioters had sought several other suspected houses, the chapel among them, and found them empty. Here, then, was the place which they had definitely settled as the negro's stronghold. Open in the name of the law came a voice. The blacks huddled closer together. Then came a blow upon the door as from the stock of a gun. Gently, said the voice, gently, but the spirit of violence having once been given rain could not be controlled and blow after blow rained upon the none too strong door until it yielded and fell in with a crash. But here the mob found themselves confronted by a surprise. Instead of a cowering crowd of helpless men, they found themselves confronted by a solid black wall of desperate men who stood their ground and fought like soldiers. At first it was fist, stave, club, and the swift silent knife, and only the gasp of forced breath and the groan of some fallen man told that the terrible fight went on. Then a solitary shot rang out and the few salade began. The blacks began to retreat because they had few weapons putting their women folks behind them. Gradually the white horde poured into the room and filled it. Now boys, said Stothard's voice from the rear, rushed them and he sprang forward. But a black face confronted him, its features distorted and its eyes blazing. It was the face of the contraband boy whom he had abused the day before. A knife flashed in the dim light and in a moment more was buried in the leader's heart. The shriek half of fear, half of surprise which was on his lips died there and he fell forward with a groan while the black man sped from the room. The wild-eyed boy who went out into the night to be lost forever killed Stothard not because he was fighting for a principle but because the white man had made his mother cry the day before. His ideas were still primitive. The route of the negroes was now complete and they fled in all directions. Some ran away only to return when the storm had passed. Others, terrified by the horror of the night, went never to return and their homes are occupied in Dorbury today by the men who drove them from them. The whites too had had enough and their leader being killed they slunk away with his body into the night which befriended them. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of the Fanatics This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros The Fanatics by Paul Laurence Dunbar Chapter 15 License or Liberty In the days that ensued after the mustering out of Tom's regiment neither he nor Dorbury had time for idleness. The events attending the conflict both in the field and at home had followed each other too swiftly for that. Tom had found military service under the government in a capacity that gave him larger experience in the world of men. His letters had given his father exceeding joy and Mary and Nanny were inordinately proud of him. His messages to them were read over and over again as the girls prepared themselves for sleep or sat half-robed upon their bed sides. The Gossips had still spared the brother the story of the breaking up of his home and he went on with his work happy in his unconsciousness. When the final reorganization of the first took place in November he relinquished his other duties and joined his comrades at Louisville whence they set out on their journey further south. In the meantime Dorbury had continued to seethe as before with the conflicting elements within its narrow borders. Patriotism and prejudice ran riot side by side and it was a hard race between them. One set of men talked of the glory of righteous war while another deplored the shedding of fraternal blood. The war Republicans hurled invectives at the peace advocates and the latter hurled back invectives and reproaches. Before the first went back into the field an incident occurred which showed the temper of both parties. A meeting was being held in the square in front of the courthouse. Its object was to protest against what the opponents of the war called the attempted coercion of free citizens. Mr. Valendingham whose position both as a prominent citizen and former congressman gave weight to whatever he said had spoken and the hearts of his heroes were inflamed with bitterness. Another speaker half-hearted and little trusted rose to address the assembly. He was a fiery demagogue and depended for his influence upon his power to work upon the passions of the lower element. His audience knew this. He knew it and for an instant paused in embarrassment. Just at that moment nigger Edd strolled up and joined the crowd. The eye of the orator took him in and lighted with sudden inspiration. Here was all the text he needed. Raising his tall spare form he pointed in silence until every face was turned upon the negro. Then he said, gentlemen it is for such as that and worse that you are shedding your brother's blood. Without another word he sat down. It was the most convincing speech he had ever made. The unhappy advent of the negro had put a power into the words of a man who otherwise would have been impotent. It was the occasion and the man to take advantage of it. It may have been claptrap but in the heated spirit of the time it was a shot that went straight to the mark. The crowd began to murmur and then broke into hisses and jeers. Rude jests with more of anger than humor in them were bandied back and forth. One side was furious that blood should be spilled for such as the negro bell ringer while the other was equally incensed at being accused of championing his cause. Nigger Steelers abolitionists shouted one. Copperheads shouted the other while some of them tried fruitlessly to explain that they had no interest in niggers. He even wears your army cap, someone cried. Why don't you give him a gun? The stentorian voice of Bradford Waters rose over the storm. Your friends, the rebels, he said, have got the niggers digging trenches and tilling the fields at home to help them in food. Ah, that's their business was the reply. I don't know that a gun is any better than a spade. Back and forth the controversy raged, each party growing hotter and hotter. Negro Ed stood transfixed at the tempest he had raised. He looked from face to face, but in none of them found a friend. Both sides hated him and his people. He was like a shuttlecock. He was a reproach to one and an insult to the other. Gentlemen, gentlemen, he began to stammer to the men about him who were hustling him. Knock him down. He's been serving the men who fought our brothers. Tear off his cap, the black hound. It's the same our soldiers wear. Kill him. If it wasn't for his kind, we'd have had no trouble. What's he doing here anyhow? This is a white man's union, down with niggers. And so the bewildered black man was like to be roughly handled by both parties. But that an opportune interruption occurred. The gavel sounded sharp and harsh, and someone was speaking. Let it alone, the speaker said. He has done nothing to you. He has wrung our bells, followed our fires, amused our children, and always been harmless. The crowd began to remember that all this was true. He is not his people, nor the father of them. The trouble is not with him, but with us. It's not without. It's within. It's not what he is, but what we believe. Stephen Van Doren's voice had arrested the activities of the mob, and they gave him absolute attention. In the respite, the negro, glad of his release, slipped away with the insulted cap in his hand. What he felt is hardly worth recording. He was so near the animal in the estimation of his fellows, perhaps too near in reality, that he could be presumed to have really few mental impressions. He was frightened, yes. He was hurt, too, but no one could have given him credit for that much of human feeling. They had kicked a dog, and the dog had gone away. That was all. Yet Ed was not all the dog. His feeling was that of a child who has tried to be good and been misunderstood. He should not have felt so, though, for he knew Dorbury, and the Times, by an instinct that was truer than conscious analysis. And he should have known, if he did not, that the people who mistreated him were not sane and accountable. But the underdog does not stop to philosophize about his position. So Ed went his way in anger and in sorrow. After Van Doren's interruption, the meeting went on in a somewhat more moderate strain. Though the speeches that were made were bitter enough. A new but vigorous and efficient governor was in the chair, and at times the people chafed under the enforcement of measures which, in a state of war, he deemed necessary. No great disaster had yet come to their own troops to unite the people in one compact body, or to make them look farther than themselves or their fancied personal grievances. The sight of the wounded and the news of the dead had not yet thrilled them into the spirit for self-sacrifice. This was to come later. It was to come when the soil of the state was threatened by hostile invasion, when Pittsburgh Landing had told its bloody story, and the gloom of death hung over their homes. But now all was different. After the first enthusiasm for war had passed, a reaction had set in. Recruiting went on slowly. While the citizens looked on with but languid interest. On the other hand, they flamed with anger at every hint that their personal rights were being trampled on. When men lacking both honor and loyalty wrote seditious letters. When others more earnest than prudent talked in the public highways or harangued from platforms, it was all free speech, the fetish so dear to American worshipers, and they resented any attempt to restrain or abridge it. A man might live and work under the flag whose soldiers he counseled to desert. That was all within his private right. Another might assail the motives and powers of the government under which he lived, sneer at its chief executive, and pour out the vials of his wrath against the unholy war which the union was waging, and still it was only his right. Any attempt to check disaffection within its borders was construed into coercion, where now and then some two bold speaker was arrested by the authorities, war democrat and peace democrat united in denouncing the act as high-handed and unwarranted, and republican joined with them or was silent. Upon one thing they were all united, and that was their hatred and disdain for the hapless race which had caused the war. Upon its shoulders fell all the resentment and each individual stood for his race. If their boys suffered hardships in the field, they felt that in some manner they avenged them by firing a negro's home, or chasing him along the dark streets as he made his way home from church. It became an act of patriotism to push a black woman from the sidewalks. It only needed the knowledge that free men of color had offered their services to the state to bring out a storm of invective and abuse against the impudent niggers. There were some who expressed fear that the governor might yield to their plea and threatened if he did that they would call their sons and brothers from the army and resent the insult by withholding all aid from the union arms. But they need have had no fear of their governor. Strong as he was and independent, he was too wise a man not to know and to respect the trend of popular sentiment. And he heard with unyielding heart the prayer of the negro's to be put in the blue. But the time did come when the despised race was emancipated and they were accepted in the field as something other than scolions. The time came The time came, yes, but this governor was not one of the men who helped to hasten it. It may have been his personal feeling rather than his acquiescence to the will of the people that prompted his reply to the Massachusetts recruiting agent. The new England Commonwealth was recruiting her black regiments and was drawing men of color from every state. When the chief executive of Ohio was consulted he was so far from objecting to the use of his negro's by another state that he expressed himself to the effect that he would be glad if they would take every damned nigger out of the state. It may have been irritation at the anxiety and annoyance that this unwelcome population had caused the good governor which brought forth this strong expression. Whether it was this or not the fact remains that many black men of Ohio went into the Massachusetts regiments and when they had made for themselves a record that shamed contempt it was to that state that popular belief gave the honor of their deeds. This forecasting of events would be entirely out of place but that it serves in some manner to show the spirit of the times in a loyal and non-slave holding state at a crucial moment of the nation's life. It was a moment when only a spark was needed to light the whole magazine of discontent and blow doubt and vacillation into a conflagration of disloyalty. The spark was near being supplied on a Monday night in May. Upon the flint of Doreberry's public pride and prejudice the blow was struck and for a time the flash seemed imminent. For a long time a brave and rugged citizen of the little town a man having the courage of his convictions and deeply trusted by his fellow men had been outspoken in his denunciation of the war. Wherever he was he did not fear to express his belief in its illegality and unrighteousness. He was a strong man and an earnest one and in his strength and earnestness lay his power over his fellow men. He had represented them in Congress and he had done well. They believed in him and now when he dared to say of the nation struggling for its very life that it was wrong he found many followers though some like Bradford Waters had already fallen from Valendingham's side. For a while he went his way unmolested until one speech a thought too bold in expression brought down upon him the wrath a wrath rather restraining than vindictive of the government. It was near midnight when a small company of soldiers from Cincinnati went to the door of Valendingham's doorberry home. The inmates of the house were a bed and all was darkness and silence. There was no reply to the thunderous summons on the panels some inkling of the object of this midnight visit having leaked out or been suspected. The summons was repeated and while the men talked in low whispers below a head was put out of an upstairs window and a voice called aloud some apparently meaningless words which however were construed into a signal for aid. From this time the soldiers delayed no longer for in the present state of feeling the approach of reinforcements to those within would possibly result in bloodshed. This they were anxious to avoid so making their way into the house they went from room to room frequently having to break open locked and barred doors until they found the object of their search and in spite of threat and protest hurried away with him to a waiting train. A small crowd collected and followed the soldiers to the station but with the exception of a stone occasionally hurled it can find itself to threats and abuse. This will be heard from said one. It will do more to make Ohio fight against the war than anything else. Kidnappers, kidnappers was the cry. On the morrow the excitement in Dorbury was intense but history has dealt sufficiently with all that was done then with the speeches that were made the bombastic letters that were written the damage that was inflicted upon private property. The town iron clad in its personal pride gave itself up to an orgy of disloyalty. A tempest in a teapot someone will say but the spirit that raged in the teapot showed the temper of the larger cauldron which seathed over the same fire. What do you think of this later bit of work, asked Davies, on the way to the office the morning after the arrest? I think what I have always thought that whatever is good for the union is right but his tone was not so assured as usual. You used to think a great deal of valentingum though. In such a time as this I have no time for personal feelings I have said that before. Yes, it seems about true we all seem to have taken leave of our senses and to have suspended the operations both of our country's constitution and of our natural affections. It is a strange time and we must change with the times. It is a horrible a fanatical time and I shall thank God when it is over however the end may come to a union or peaceful separation. I have said that before. Yes, it seems about true and peaceful separation. I would rather see the country drenched in blood than the latter. Waters said Davies slowly as if the light were just dawning upon him. I am afraid you are a fanatic. I am afraid you are a fanatic. But Waters went on mootily and did not reply. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of the Fanatics This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rita Boutros The Fanatics by Paul Lawrence Dunbar Chapter 16 Dolly and Walter Down there in Virginia where Walter had now settled into staying with a certain self-satisfaction since of war flowed with vigor but did not reach and submerge the house where he kept the even tenor of his days. There were, of course, midnight visits at times from the soldiers of both sides. But the place enjoyed a peculiar exemption from molestation by either Confederate or Unionist to the one it was the home of old Colonel Stuart and Arden Southerner. To the others it was the place of abode of a paroled Union prisoner. Walter's position was anomalous and although he was forced into it he felt keenly that he was playing a double role. He no longer yearned to be with the Northern forces but would it not be foolish to proclaim his defection from the house tops. The Southern soldiers and his neighbors looked upon him as a Unionist chafing at restraint and laughed at him for a caged bantam. Had their surmises been true he would have scorned their laughter but as it was it cut him like a whip because to his shame what they laughed at did not exist nor could he tell them this. They would have thought even less of him as a renegade who changed his allegiance and views under the stress of imprisonment. He felt a thrill of envy for Nelson Ethridge who had flung himself, body and soul into the Union cause and from whom he heard occasionally when he rode over to see Miss Ethridge or when she and his sister Emily exchanged visits. Here's a man for you he would say to himself one who has not only dared but continues to dare one who, placed as I am placed would feel the galling bonds of his restraint and do something besides feel ridiculously comfortable. Perhaps it was because he was so young and youth takes itself seriously being in his own eyes either God or devil hero or craven that Walter was so hard upon his own failings. Sometimes however the truth that his position was not of his own seeking forced itself upon his mind was unwilling to accept this excuse he questioned himself if he were not glad that things had turned out as they had. To this he must answer yes and so he fell again to cursing his own complacency. It is not to be supposed however that he lived constantly in a state of self condemnation. Other moods were frequent and lasting. It took him a very short time to fall into the ways of a gentleman farmer and he took a boyish pleasure in directing the work of the Negroes about the place. His moments of greatest happiness were when he was writing about the fields on some duty or other and he would be joined by Emily or Miss Etheridge. But his greatest moments of depression would follow when he saw or thought he saw a question or a reproach in the girl's eyes. Since his arrival at the farmer's house he had come to see more and more of this radiant southern beauty and a frank friendship had grown up between them. Friendship, he called it for cherishing in his heart the memory of his regard for Nanny he did not dream that love could touch him. But slowly and reluctantly he began to compare the image in his heart with the fair girl at his side and the image suffered. He began to say that Nanny had appealed strongly to his boyish fancy while this woman reached his mature manhood. In spite of his self-questionings Walter failed to see the humor implied in the fact that without any great moral mental or spiritual cataclysm this mature manhood had come to him in a very short time after he had looked into Dolly's grey eyes. The woman rallied him about their first romantic meeting and she would laugh the most musical of laughs as he told her about his trepidation as he approached the house. When she forgot herself and was merry among friends she had the habit of falling into the soft southern manner of speech. It's right down mean she said to Walter in one of her bantering moods that you didn't let a body know that Nelson would have had a mighty nice time together but you were entirely too startling. If I had known that I was going to find friends behind those doors he bent his gaze tenderly upon her I should have acted differently knocked easily or roared me as gently as a sucking dove. Poor Nelson, I don't reckon many folks would have stayed on and dared capture like he did but Nelson always was such a man. Walter winced he thought he saw the question in her eyes and something veiled in what she said. Did she despise him after all and only give him the semblance of friendship for his sister's sake? The thought made him miserable although he never stopped to tell himself what logical reason there was for his being miserable if the girl whom he had known but a few weeks did despise him. The union has gained a man in your brother, he said because his head was in a tumult and he could not say anything else. She did not recognise the common placeness of his remark, however. It was praise for her brother and so sublime. Oh, I wish you could have known him she went on. You'd have been sure to love him. Don't you know, she said with a sudden impulse, since I've known you I've always thought of you and him in the same company marching together. I don't care on what uniform, blue or grey. They are there now, she added gravely. I've made you feel banned, but don't let's think of it. Yours is the fortune of war just as whatever happens to him will be. Walter was pale from forehead to lips and it was the knowledge of this that checked the girl with the belief that she had pained him by touching the subject of his detention. I'm not a very good unionist, said the young man, somewhat recovering himself. I'm a woman, Mr. Stewart, and I reckon you're too young to know just what that implies. I'm in favour of the union because Nelson's fighting for it and he wouldn't do anything that he didn't think was right. But I am a southern girl and I love the south. Now what am I going to do? You don't know, though, for it's only his principle. He gave her a quick suspicious glance. She was unconscious. He was on the rack. It isn't only women, he said. You only say that to be polite and because it's so different with you but I know better. He rose quickly and on the plea of some obligation moved away leaving her to Emily's company and conversation. The rest of the day was a trying time for Walter. It was now unmistakable. Dolly Etheridge had seen through him, had seen his weakness and his defection, and in her contempt for him delighted to stab him with her quiet sarcasm. What a thing he must be to call forth the girls discussed. How she must look down upon him when she compared him with her brother, such a brother, and in fancy he saw Nelson Etheridge sweeping the enemy before him because of a great nation. Well, anyway, Dolly could not think less of him than he thought of himself. He would rather not have seen her any more that night but he had promised to go with Emily to take her home. He appeared at supper with the best grace possible and when it was over joined the girls for the ride in the moonlight. It would have been pleasant to him this cantering by Dolly's side with the moon, a silver globe and the scent of magnolias coming sweetly to their senses but that his mind was sadly busy with what she must be thinking of him. He kept a moody silence while the girls chattered on. Sometimes even in his desperation he thought of violating his parole but his face grew hot with shame and the thought went as quickly as it came. Dolly and Emily, because they both believed Walter immersed in sad thoughts, respected his silence and when he had helped the girl alight at her door and given the horse to a black servant aroused from somewhere the former gave him her hand with a little sympathetic pressure that made his heart leap but then the next moment he was saying Bah, she is only sorry for having stabbed me so cruelly but the reason for the stabbing remains. As they turned their horses homeward again Walter seemed in no better mood for talking than before but the moonlight and the sweetness of the soft night seemed to have got into his sister's tongue. She drew her horse close to her brothers and laid her hand gently on his. I'm afraid you're not well tonight Walter what's the matter? Oh, nothing, nothing I'm really very well but you have been so silent and I really believed Dolly to her. I hardly think she could have cared much either one way or the other he said bitterly. If you can say that you know very little about Dolly or in fact about women at all you must know that she likes you and likes you very well. I don't believe it said Walter doggedly but something he did just at the moment to the horse he was riding made her arch her neck but she does like you and if she didn't you would soon know it she's very peculiar and as open as the day she can never conceal her thoughts and feelings. Some people call it a fault but I call it a virtue one would think at times that she was sarcastic or spoke under a veil he was making a great effort to be indifferent but the bridle in his hand grew tense why she's as innocent of such things as a child how stupid you are Walter I never knew you to be so before and I did so hope you would be good friends well well haven't we been it seemed so for a while but you were so different tonight was I did she notice it the question was eager being a woman she could scarcely help notice in it well I was thinking and then burst out what a glorious night it is and how sweet those magnolias are I didn't notice it before why Emily it's good to be alive one wouldn't have thought it of you a little while ago you were so quiet and subdued oh well there are times when the beauty of a night sinks into our souls too deep for words Walter winced in spirit at his own hypocrisy there I told Dolly that you felt more than you said you told her that she talks about me to you oh sometimes you come up in the course of conversation what a wonderful girl she is you do you think so that is she shows a deep affection for her brother which is commendable oh but don't most sisters there are very few such sisters as I imagine Miss Etheridge to be she forgave him instantly you teal old Walter and you think she likes me it was sweet to him to say it after his bitter thoughts I know she does and you should have known it too her brother must be a fine fellow you would like him I know let's sit out and talk a while it's all together too lovely to go in said the young man as they turned in at the gate I shall like it said Emily and giving their horses to a groom they sat down on the veranda steps for a few moments there was a silence between them and both sat gazing at the starry heavens then Walter said falteringly I I really I am very much interested in Miss Etheridge's brother tell me more about him then his sister laughed not teasingly nor banteringly as some sisters would have done but with a little satisfied note and she said brother mine there's only one thing more transparent than glass and her brother caught her about the waist and kissed her for some reason not quite clear to himself so they sat together along that night and talked of the Etheridge's brother and sister in the young man his fellow soldier Walter events a polite and conservative interest but he was apt to bring the conversation to the sister when it seemed to have a tendency to remain too long away from her if he found no more pertinent remark to make he would turn to Emily and say so you think she likes me and this was sufficient to start the stream of talk flowing in the proper channel when finally they sought their rooms that night and the young man dropped asleep there was a smile on his lips and the words on his tongue said to me she likes me what surprised Walter when the morning brought with waking a review of the night's happenings was that Emily simple Emily who had never had a love affair in her life that he knew should have discovered to him his own secret or maybe she had discovered nothing that really existed at the time perhaps the train had been laid the fuse set and her remark only been the match to set the whole of going however it made no matter at all how or when it happened it was true now to let Dolly know it was remarkable how soon and how easily all his fears and misgivings had disappeared it was as if this state of exultation had been waiting for him and he had but to step into it why had he delayed so long the days that followed were filled with softer sounds than the sounds of war and doings that had no shadow or show of the harshness of the camp Walter dazzled by the glory of the new world that had opened up before him forgot the hardness of his lot forgot perhaps even the deeper sympathy that should have gone from him to the men in the field for love is a jealous mistress he walked and rode much with his sweetheart he grasped grown bridal paths and under the ancient trees his heart sang a song to hers and hers replied in kind Emily like a good sister knew when to be judiciously absent and Dolly understood all that he would say to her long before he dared speak it was not until the warm southern November was painting the hills and valleys that he told her of his love and his hope it seems somehow Dolly that I have no right to speak to you placed as I am but what am I to do the message beats at my heart until at times I think you must hear it I love you and have loved you from the very first night that we met are you sure she asked quietly but with just a suspicion of mirth I was never sure of anything in my life did you always know that you loved me I did not always say to myself as I say it now sometimes tremblingly sometimes with exultation but I must always have known it else why should your lightest word have had the power of making me happy or miserable they were walking slowly over the crisp pine needles in the copes not far from the house she drew closer to his side and her hand slipped into his oh Walter she said I should make you miserable I never wanted to do that because because he said eagerly because I do love you he took her in his arms and held her close to him his head bowed humbly what am I to be worthy of this he said at last you are Walter my Walter my hero even in that moment of ecstasy he winced at the word hero he was not of the material of which heroes are made and he knew it but he would not shadow their happiness now let her think well of him if she could later he would try to deserve her and after all what man is so good so upright as the woman who loves him believes later when the deep solemnity of the first betrothal had given way to a gayer mood she asked him what will my Virginia friend say when I marry in a Yankee what can they say when you are more than half Yankee yourself I declare I'm not I'm southern clear through he took her hands and laughed down into her eyes no you're not you're just a woman and I'm only a man and we're both more lovers than anything else so let your friends say what they will and the answer seemed to satisfy her Walter himself was very well satisfied and when two young people are perfectly satisfied with themselves and each other the world is shut from their vision and time trips a merry pace let us keep a sweet secret for a while she said when the lengthening shadows warned them that it was time even for a lovers teta teta to be done let us he assented if we can it seems so much more our own can we? oh I can I know and you can of course for it's only women who are untrustworthy with secrets yes that's true but there are secrets and secrets there never was such a one as this before so we have no foundation upon which to make a conclusion you are goose she said and then paid him for being one Walter was right though they went into supper not been a table five minutes before everyone knew something in their faces or manner or the way they played with the food laughed inconsequently cast glances at each other told more plainly than words what had happened love had put on them his subtle sign of course Walter being a man thought that he was carrying off his part with wonderful grace and shrewdness but when Emily teased Dolly coming out on the veranda the newly betrothed hid her blushing face and cried oh Emily how did you know it was within a few days after this that reports began to come to the residents in and about Fairfax of the presence of gorillas foraging and marauding bands in the neighborhood and frequently greatly exaggerated accounts were given of their depredations Walter heard them all thinking at the heart for the safety of his betrothed she was alone there with only three or four black servants in whose valor or faithfulness he had little or no belief the first night or two that the rumors were current he contented himself with getting to horse and in silence and secrecy patrolling the road in front of the etharage cottage nothing occurred but as the rumors grew darker he seemed became more perturbed and he decided upon more vigorous measures but Dolly's danger had not occurred to him alone and before he could break the subject to his sister she had come to him with a troubled face Walter she said won't you excuse me I haven't been spying on you but I've guessed where you've been the last two nights a thrill half of shame and half of pride in himself shook him well wasn't I right Emily he asked of course you were for the time being but do you think it is enough you know we had word from Miss Mason that the gorillas visited her place last night and if it hadn't been for the servants they would have been rude or worse now Dolly is poor and has so few negroes about her well what can we do I wouldn't trust those black folks anyhow since they've got notions of freedom in their heads nor I but I can't go over there and stay Dolly could come here would she do you think she would of course she would mother and I both agree that this is altogether the best plan and we wondered if you'd mind riding over for her tonight would I mind the tone was quite sufficient and nothing more was needed to be said the moon was at the full and flooded the landscape with silvery light when accompanied by Sam a slave boy to whom he had become greatly attached and bearing the invitation from his mother and sister Walter set out for Dolly's house for a time they went their way in silence and then Sam with the uncontrollable desire of his race for lyric expression broke into a song that woke the echoes the young man who was hardly yet a master even in his thoughts listened with pleasure until he saw a dark form beside the road rise up gaze at them for a moment and then disappear into the surrounding wood shh said Walter without mentioning what he had seen I don't believe I'd sing anymore Sam there's no telling what we might start up wish to delude you to be a possum said Sam with easy familiarity but he hushed his song if we started up anything it might not be something so pleasant for you as a possum not pleasant for me replied Sam ha ha you do know this horse so you'd leave me would you you rascal well you're a great one Specks I'd have to leave you if I couldn't take you along as they approached their destination Walter suddenly drew rain and laid his hand on his companion's bridle he pointed quickly and silently to the form of a man clearly outlined in the moonlight he was standing at the front of the cottage window attempting to peer into the room through a crack between the lower blind and the sill so intent was he upon his spying that he had not noticed the approach of the others dismount here said Walter and tie the horses under the shadow mulberry tree I believe there's mischief going on the negro did as he was bitten and hastened back to his companion's side just as the intruder walked up and began knocking at the door after some delay the voice of a negro from within questioned who's that never mind was the answer you open up the silent watcher was breathless with interest but he kept cool enough to say Sam you slip around to the cabins and rouse what negroes you can be ready for whatever happens for there's no telling how many of them there are without a thought of his joke about desertion Sam slipped away leaping across the moonlit places from shadow to shadow while Walter crept nearer to the man at the door it had not been opened but a negro came from a side entrance and confronted the intruder why don't you open the door was the harsh question fired at the dark Cerberus well Sam I didn't just know who you was and I thought maybe I could tell you whatever you wanted to know it's none of your damn business who I am I'm here in the name of the law and you'd better open up all fired quick or it'll be the worst for you the negro went back around the house and in a few minutes the door opened as he passed the light Walter saw that he wore the uniform of a confederate officer the door closed behind him but Stuart becoming spy intern came near enough to hear what was said within where is your mistress in the officer's voice she done retired sir tell her I wish to see her she done retired very well let her get up tell her that her brother is supposed to be skulking within the lines and that I am sent to search the house for him you can search the house I shall begin with her room there is no one in her room but her sir how dare you talk back to me you black hound the harsh voice was suddenly checked and then Walter heard another that made his heart leap within his throat never mind mingo it said I am out of my room now Lieutenant Forsythe went on dolly calmly you are at liberty to begin there now and search where you please the tone reeked with scorn you will go with me was the reply a trusted servant may accompany you you will go with me I said as you will lieutenant but this is the way you pay your scores come when there is no man in the house save a servant to take revenge revenge for a woman's no we will not discuss that matter now Miss Etheridge Walter had pushed the door open and he saw that the man's face went red and white at dolly's words he saw too the fierce eyes of the black servant fixed on Forsythe and for an instant he wondered if he were needed in the next he had flung the door open and stepped into the room every eye turned upon him and he said clearly and why lieutenant Forsythe must the lady go with you oh Walter dolly cried and then checked herself with a sigh of relief the lieutenant was livid and who in hell are you he asked in a tense voice I am Walter Stewart at your service lieutenant the paroled Yankee eh oh I see he said in a tone that put murder in Walter's heart it is thus that you are protected Miss Etheridge you may go on with your search lieutenant that you have a perfect right to do but Miss Etheridge protected or not will not leave this room the two men stood glaring into each other's faces while Mingo relaxed from his vigilance was chuckling in a corner on a sudden there was a rush of feet without and four brawny men sprang into the room the open door and the loud voices had attracted Forsythe's minions who had been placed at a convenient distance the lieutenant smiled grimly as his men surrounded Walter I reckon Mr. Stewart he said with a sneer that you'll go a bit slower now I'm not so sure of that lieutenant said Walter and as he spoke four negroes led by Sam and bearing stout clubs swept into the room the soldiers if such the ragged gorillas whom Forsythe had taken as his accomplices could be called were completely taken by surprise and wilted as the threatening blacks now man to man lined up beside them while the disappointed officers stood there chewing his mustache with rage Walter had time for a few reflections upon the fidelity of a people whom he so little trusted because their fidelity militated against themselves and it settled something in his mind that made his eyes flash and his lips pressed close together you may proceed with your search now lieutenant said Dolly sweetly it is unnecessary now I suppose our bird has flown and I shall not put myself to the trouble of searching your empty rooms are you sure that you did not know before you came lieutenant that you would not find my brother here I am sure that I have found out some things that I did not know before he answered glancing meaningly at the girls protector and then the devil which is in every man became strong in Walter it overcame him his fist shot out and lieutenant Forsythe's lips spilled blood the officers eyes grew green and his hand went quickly to his holster and then the veneering that had cracked and shown the brute in him closed again and wiping the blood from his mouth he said with the calmness of intense anger what this calls for Mr. Stewart is entirely beyond the limits of my present official duty will you grant me the pleasure of a few minutes private conversation they stepped outside and a brief whispered conversation ensued they were equally placid when they returned attention about face forward march and without further word or sign Forsythe and his minions marched away follow them quietly Sam and see that they are up to no mischief and you Miss Etheridge get your things on for you must go with me he had forgotten all about the formal invitation when is it to be she asked in reply he would have tried to evade but she looked at him so steadfastly and earnestly that he could not tomorrow morning he said simply but it is to be taken up as a merely personal matter so I beg that you say nothing about it now go she pressed his hand quickly come long Miss Dolly said Mingo still chuckling with glee here a man standing behind the door with a flat iron I reckon if Mass Stewart had not come she'd have told that game rooster up for I could have said Robinson when Sam had returned and reported all well they got too subtle and started on their way two of the Negroes mounting and coming behind to prevent treachery Dolly and Walter rode side by side and Sam who rode before had neither eyes nor ears do you really believe he was looking for Nelson she asked do you oh Walter he has a grudge and he is relentless he proposed to me once and he has pursued me ever since for that reason if no other I shall try to kill him tomorrow and the shadow being convenient he kissed her there was some commotion in the house when the party reached home and the story was told in its entirety but nothing save praise fell to Walter's lot for his action Dolly respected his wishes and said nothing of the impending duel though her heart ached for her lover I shall see you before you go in the morning she said when they were alone for a moment before parting that night I shall be leaving very early before you are up before I am up Walter what can you be thinking of me why I shall not go to bed you must dear for I shall and I shall sleep well as you say I shall see you in the morning nevertheless Walter called Sam to him as he went up to his room End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of the fanatics this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros the fanatics by Paul Laurence Dunbar Chapter 18 an affair of honour the arrangements for the meeting between Walter Stewart and Lieutenant Forsythe were as simple as the brevity of their conversation indicated the whole matter was to be kept a profound secret as much on account of Walter's position as a paroled prisoner as because of the others place in the army they were to face each other in a small open space under the trees that lined a little creek about three miles from the Etheridge Cottage they were both familiar with the place and agreed upon it with equal readiness because of the secrecy which they wished maintained there were to be no witnesses besides the two seconds but each might bring with him a trusted friend or servant thus promptly they arranged the affair leaving only to the assistance yet to be chosen the task of marking the ground and giving the signal pistols were the weapons when after parting with Dolly Walter called Sam to his room it was to dispatch him on a delicate and doubtful errand recognizing the peculiar attitude of his neighbors towards him he had formed but few friendships and these only of the most tentative kind now in this emergency he needed a friend and a confidant his mind turned to but one person a young Dr. Daniel whose frank manner had won him as much as he dared yield himself he now sent the servant to bring to him this man upon the plea of most pressing business in less than an hour the young physician was with him he was an open-faced breezy looking young man of nine and twenty or thereabouts with the assured manner of perfect self-possession and self-reliance he came into the room with a soft though brisk step but stopped in surprise to see Walter pacing up and down the room come in doctor why, why man from the expression of that rascal of yours I expected to find you in bed tossing with a rage and fever or laid up with a broken leg I shall not be your patient tonight doctor tomorrow who can say a what's this not thinking a suicide are you I'm thinking of how good a shot my opponent may be the fact is Dr. Daniel I called you here on a business that is almost if not wholly impertinent but I hope you will pardon and help me for there is no one else to whom I may turn he then recounted to him the events of the night the physician's face already inclined to readiness grew redder and angrier as he went on now doctor concluded Walter I am sure that Forsythe's intentions were neither honest nor official and I have only tried to do my duty is it too much to ask you to forget what I am politically and to be my friend and second in this manner forget what you are damn what you are Stuart I'll tell you what I'll do man I'll change places with you I'll let you be my second it's my fight but don't you see it's a nasty business and might get you into complications I am willing to risk all that oh come now be sensible the lady's brother is a good friend of mine the lady is a good friend of mine but I know the whole story how he has tried to annoy that girl ever since she rejected him two years ago as any girl of decency and spirit would have done I know he has always kept just outside the limit that would give her brother the right to fill his carcass full of lead he has overstepped it now and I want a chance to get a shot at the dirtiest town in all Virginia give it to me wish I could old man wanted myself oh well I always was a selfish dog it's your say and if you want you won't but anyhow I'm with you and I'll be in at the death if I can't have the brush thank you doctor your kindness is even greater than I could have hoped for even from you yours isn't or you'd have given me a shot at that ker but remember if he happens to hit you and God forbid that I get the next chance at his hide I wouldn't want to leave the business to a better man and now let us complete our arrangements and then you may get to bed they talked for a short time longer and then Walter conducted the physician to his room while he gave his attention to one or two other duties the last words the buoyant young southerner said to him as he began to undress were well you're a lucky dog a shot at Forsythe it was before the darkness of the night had given way to the morning's gray that the men were up and ready for the saddle Dr. Daniel had already reached the lawn where Sam was holding the horses Walter loitered down the hallway half expecting yet half doubting that he should see Dolly she's asleep of course he told himself and I'm glad of it I didn't expect her to get up after such a night as she has had I was a brute to think of it nevertheless there was a dissatisfied feeling tugging at his heart as he stepped out on the veranda but his foot had scarcely touched the floor when his eye caught the flash of a woman's white shawl up under some vines that overhung the porch his heart suddenly relieved from its tension gave a great leap as he hastened towards her Dolly he said I was afraid you wouldn't come indeed I didn't want you to dear I had to come if only to bid you Godspeed Walter come back to me you will won't you to answer that lies beyond me my darling but I will try if I don't don't say that you will goodbye now goodbye Walter goodbye and strength to you and a safe return goodbye she went back and he hastened down and swung into the saddle we must not keep the gentleman waiting he said to the doctor as they rode away slowly until out of earshot of the house it will be enough to leave him lie waiting afterwards and I hope you will leave him for a long wait after it's all over well it's a chance you know and I'm willing to take it if he leaves me instead I guess Sam here can take me home across his horse Sam was trailing along carrying the pistol case but he caught the words and spurred up to his master mass Walter he said solemnly if that man hits you they can burn me or hang me but he ain't going to leave this place alive the doctor suddenly halted horse and turned on the negro now look here Sam it's all right for you to be protecting your master but whatever happens if you raise a hand against John Forsythe I'll kill you on the instant when your master is done with him he's my meat and he'll hardly take the reckoning of us both Sam looked appealingly to his master that's right the latter replied you're not in this part of it Sam but you did your share last night anyhow I'm not counting on leaving work for anybody this morning for the rest of the journey they rode in silence but Walter's thoughts were busy with the events that had filled his life in the weeks since he had left Ohio he reviewed the change that had come to him in his feelings towards the cause he had espoused he saw how remorse for the disagreement with his father his affection for his family and the glamour of the south had all combined to win him from a righteous allegiance and make him lukewarm or indifferent to what he had once felt to be the absolute right he saw that in spirit if not indeed he was as much a deserter as the various renegade who stole from the marching ranks to hide in the thickets and byways until his comrades had passed on he saw how much weaker a man he was now than on the day when he had gone out to his father's house in Dorbury though he did not see that the weakening process had been excusable even inevitable though he held himself mercilessly up to his own criticism the very fact that he was able to see these things in himself clearly was evidence of the approach of a new state of mind a change subtler than either of the others had been he had begun to get back to himself to be a man stronger than his surroundings with a spirit independent of his affections at first contact with it to him as to many others beyond his years the condition of the south its life and its people had seemed all chivalry and romance the events of the past and the present day's business had done more to tear aside this veil than anything else could have done it was clear to him now not all gods and goddesses in Dixie that if it were an Eden at least it was not free from serpents he had received a royally good shaking up and now he began to perceive that some hasty conclusions which he had reached were not based upon fact one of these was that the north was eaten up by commercialism while the south was free from it another that northern honor and southern honor were two essentially different things both these beliefs died in early death as he reflected that he or two men bought and bartered sold and intrigued the occurrences which had taken place within the last few months under his eyes now reacted one upon the other with the result of placing him surely strongly and logically where his first enthusiasm had placed him and for the first time since he had been paroled the irksome hatefulness of his situation was born in upon him now he chafed to be in the field again now he felt the thrill of fighting for a great cause his eyes were flashing and his teeth clenched hard when the voice of the doctor called him to the business at hand here we are he cried as gaily as though they were a party reaching the picnic grounds of course they dismounted and tied their horses and then began examining the ground it was a plot of greensward well surrounded by trees and sloping with a slow incline to a little creek that ran gurgling past a quiet pretty enough place but its very seclusion had made it the recipient of many a bloody secret in those days when men settled affairs of honor according to the code two trees stood opposite each other about twenty paces apart and these had won the name of the dueling trees because the distance between them being paced the principles were usually placed one under each and many a deadly combat had been waged beneath their softly sighing branches the grey dawn had given way to the warmer hues of mourning when two other riders cantered into the circle of trees and halted its foresight said the doctor and he only brings one of his troopers with him a second if it is true that he went on that errand last night without authority it is just as well that he does not have too many in his secret was the rejoinder the men greeted each other with the utmost formality though there was a touch of brusqueness in the physician's recognition of the lieutenant the two principles walked apart their seconds paused for a brief conference as to conditions in a little while Dr. Daniel came to Walter are you ready and steady old man both was the calm reply the conditions are these you ought to be stationed at twenty paces back to back at the word you ought to turn and fire where you stand then each has the privilege of firing until one or the other is hit are you satisfied perfectly very well we already said the doctor to forth sites trooper and together they paced off the ground already so well known then the men were put in their places and each second saw to the condition of his principles weapon Dr. Daniel stationed himself to the left and midway the ground while the trooper took a like position to the right are you ready gentlemen said the latter we already one then the clatter of horses hoofs broke the morning stillness and he paused both men waited with manifest impatience but neither spoke gone said the doctor quick to foresight have turned but it was too late a squad of horsemen in gray form burst into the enclosure and rode between the men Walter Stuart said the sergeant I arrest you upon the charge of violating your parole can you not wait just one moment until this business can be dispatched said Walter calmly but the officer spurred away from him with a Kurt your business is not ours never mind foresight scream Daniel I'll take the job off a Stuart hands lieutenant foresight is also under arrest said the sergeant foresight went very white but stood calm as a statue you took a miserable cowardly way to save yourself he said when he and Walter were brought together you are mistaken lieutenant said the sergeant breaking in one of your own men was the informant the lieutenant bit his lip the three prisoners for the trooper was also put under arrest mounted their horses and were surrounded by a close guard why am I to not arrested stormed the doctor we had no orders regarding you saw was the reply and the little cavalcade cantered away leaving the physician swearing with feeling and distinction never mind he said at last let's go home Sam if that old trooper had been a bit quicker Virginia had been rid of the meanest sneak that ever scourged but instead of that the party is broken up and nobody gets out of the mess but the doctor and the darky neither one worth arresting come let's go home End of Chapter 18