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"It is a trouble, isn't it? Can't you tell it to me?"
"Yes. I reckon there isn't any trouble worse than ours – no, I reckon there is nothing worse."
"Why, Miss Cassandra!"
"Because it's sin, and – and 'the wages of sin is death.'" Her tone was hopeless, and the sadness of it went to his heart.
"Is it whiskey?" he asked.
"Yes – it's whiskey 'stilling and – worse; it's – " She turned deathly white. Too sad to weep, she still held control of her voice. "It's a heap worse – "
"Don't try to tell me what it is," he cried. "Only tell me how I may help you. It's not your sin, surely, so you don't have to bear it."
"It's not mine, but I do have to bear it. I wish my bearing it was all. Tell me, if – if a man has done – such a sin, is it right to help him get away?"
"If it is that big brother of yours, whom I saw last night, I can't believe he has done anything so very wicked. You say it is not the whiskey?"
"Maybe it was the whiskey first – then – I don't know exactly how came it – I reckon he doesn't himself. I – he's not my brothah – not rightly, but he has been the same as such. They telegraphed me to come home quick. Bishop Towahs told me a little – all he knew, – but he didn't know what all was it, only some wrong to call the officahs and set them aftah Frale – poor Frale. He – he told me himself – last evening." She paused again, and the pallor slowly left her face and the red surged into her cheeks and mounted to the waves of her heavy hair.
"It is Frale, then, who is in trouble! And you wish me to help him get away?" She looked down and was silent. "But I am a stranger, and know nothing about the country."
He pushed his chair away from the table and leaned back, regarding her intently.
"Oh, I am afraid for him." She put her hand to her throat and turned away her face from his searching eyes, in shame.
"I prefer not to know what he has done. Just explain to me your plan, and how I can help. You know better than I."
"I can't understand how comes it I can tell you; you are a strangah to all of us – and yet it seems like it is right. If I could get some clothes nobody has evah seen Frale weah – if – I could make him look different from a mountain boy, maybe he could get to some town down the mountain, and find work; but now they would meet up with him before he was halfway there."
Thryng rose and began pacing the room. "Is there any hurry?" he demanded, stopping suddenly before her.
"Yes."
"Then why have you waited all this time to tell me?"
She lifted her eyes to his in silence, and he knew well that she had not spoken because she could not, and that had he not ventured with his direct questions, she would have left him, carrying her burden with her, as hopelessly silent as when she came.
He sat beside her again and gently urged her to tell him without further delay all she had in her mind. "You feel quite sure that if he could get down the mountain side without being seen, he would be safe; where do you mean to send him? You don't think he would try to return?"
"Why – no, I reckon not – if – I – " Her face flamed, and she drew on her bonnet, hiding the crimson flush in its deep shadow. She knew that without the promise he had asked, the boy would as surely return as that the sun would continue to rise and set.
"He must stay," she spoke desperately and hurriedly. "If he can just make out to stay long enough to learn a little – how to live, and will keep away from bad men – if I – he only knows enough to make mean corn liquor now – but he nevah was bad. He has always been different – and he is awful smart. I can't think how came he to change so."
Taking the empty basket with her, she walked toward the door, and David followed her. "Thank you for that good dinner," he said.
"Aunt Sally fetched the pa'triges. Her old man got them for mothah, and she said you sure ought to have half. Sally said the sheriff had gone back up the mountain, and I'm afraid he'll come to our place again this evening. Likely they're breaking up Frale's 'still' now."
"Well, that will be a good deed, won't it?"
The huge bonnet had hid her face from him, but now she lifted her eyes frankly to his, with a flash of radiance through her tears. "I reckon," was all she said.
"Are they likely to come up here, do you think, those men?"
"Not hardly. They would have to search on foot here. It's out of their way; only no place on the mountain is safe for Frale now."
"Send him to me quickly, then. I have cast my lot with you mountain people for some time to come, and your cause shall be mine."
She paused at the door with grateful words on her lips unuttered.
"Don't stop for thanks, Miss Cassandra; they are wasted between us. You have opened your doors to me, a stranger, and that is enough. Hurry, don't grieve – and see here: I may not be able to do anything, but I'll try; and if I can't get down to-night, won't you come again in the morning and tell me all about it?"
Instantly he thought better of his request, yet who was here to criticise? He laughed as he thought how firmly the world and its conventions held him. Sweet, simple-hearted child that she was, why, indeed, should she not come? Still he called after her. "If you are too busy, send Hoyle. I may be down to see your mother, anyway."
She paused an instant in her hurried walk. "I'll be right glad to come, if I can help you any way."
He stood watching her until she passed below his view, as her long easy steps took her rapidly on, although she seemed to move slowly. Then he went back to his fire, and her words repeated themselves insistently in his mind – "I'll be right glad to come, if I can help you any way."
Aunt Sally was seated in the chimney-corner smoking, when Cassandra returned. "Where is he?" she cried.
"He couldn't set a minute, he was that restless. He 'lowed he'd go up to the rock whar you found him las' evenin'."
Without a word, Cassandra turned and fled up the steep toward the head of the fall. Every moment, she knew, was precious. Frale met her halfway down and took her hand, leading her as he had been used to do when she was his "little sister," and listened to her plans docilely enough.
"I mean you to go down to Farington, to Bishop Towahs'. He will give you work." She had not mentioned Thryng.
Frale laughed.
"Don't, Frale. How can you laugh?"
"I ra'ly hain't laughin', Cass. Seems like you fo'get how can I get down the mountain; but I reckon I'll try – if you say so."
Then she explained how the doctor had sent for him to come up there quickly, and how he would help him. "You must go now, Frale, you hear? Now!"
Again he laughed, bitterly this time. "Yas – I reckon he'll be right glad to help me get away from you. I'll go myse'f in my own way."
Under the holly tree they had paused, and suddenly she feared lest the boy at her side return to his mood of the evening before. She seized his hand again and hurried him farther up the steep.
"Come, come!" she cried. "I'll go with you, Frale."
"Naw, you won't go with me neithah," he said stubbornly, drawing back.
"Frale!" she pleaded. "Hear to me."
"I'm a-listenin'."
"Frale, I'm afraid. They may be on their way now. For all we know they may be right nigh."
"I've done got used to fearin' now. Hit don't hurt none. On'y one thing hurts now."
"I've been up to see Doctor Thryng, and he's promised he'll fix you up some way so that if anybody does see you, they – they'll think you belong somewhere else, and nevah guess who you be. Frale, go."
He held her, with his arm about her waist, half carrying her with him, instead of allowing her to move her own free gait, and she tried vainly with her fingers to pull his hands away; but his muscles were like iron under her touch. He felt her helplessness and liked it. Her voice shook as she pleaded with him.
"Oh, Frale! Hear to me!" she wailed.
"I'll hear to you, ef you'll hear to me. Seems like I've lost my fear now. I hain't carin' no more. Ef I should see the sheriff this minute, an' he war a-puttin' his rope round my neck right now, I wouldn't care 'thout one thing – jes' one thing. I'd walk straight down to hell fer hit, – I reckon I hev done that, – but I'd walk till I drapped, an' work till I died for hit." He stood still a moment, and again she essayed to move his hands, but he only held her closer.
"Oh, hurry, Frale! I'm afraid. Oh, Frale, don't!"
"Be ye 'feared fer me, Cass?"
"You know that, Frale. Leave go, and hear to me."
"Be ye 'feared 'nough to give me your promise, Cass?"
"Take your hand off me, Frale."
"We'll go back. I 'low they mount es well take me first as last. I hain't no heart lef' in me. I don't care fer that thar doctah man he'pin' me, nohow," he choked.
"Leave me go, and I'll give you promise for promise, Frale. I can't make out is it sin or not; but if God can forgive and love – when you turn and seek Him – the Bible do say so, Frale, but – but seem like you don't repent your deed whilst you look at me like that way." She paused, trembling. "If you could be sorry like you ought to be, Frale, and turn your heart – I could die for that."
He still held her, but lifted one shaking hand above his head.
"Before God, I promise – "
"What, Frale? Say what you promise."
He still held his hand high. "All you ask of me, Cass. Tell me word by word, an' I'll promise fair."
"You will repent, Frale?"
"Yas."
"You will not drink?"
"I will not drink."
"You will heed when your own heart tells you the right way?"
"I will heed when my heart tells me the way: hit will be the way to you, Cass."
"Oh, don't say it that way, Frale. Now say, 'So help me God,' and don't think of me whilst you say it."
"Put your hand on mine, Cass. Lift hit up an' say with me that word." She placed her palm on his uplifted palm. "So help me, God," they said together. Then, with streaming tears, she put her arms about his neck and gently drew his face down to her own.
"I'll go back now, Frale, and you do all I've said. Go quick. I'll write Bishop Towahs, and he'll watch out for you, and find you work. Let Doctah Thryng help you. He sure is a good man. Oh, if you only could write!"
"I'll larn."
"You'll have a heap more to learn than you guess. I've been there, and I know. Don't give up, Frale, and – and stay – "
"I hain't going to give up with your promise here, Cass; kiss me."
She did so, and he slowly released her, looking back as he walked away.
"Oh, hurry, Frale! Don't look back. It's a bad omen." She turned, and without one backward glance descended the mountain.
CHAPTER VI
IN WHICH DAVID AIDS FRALE TO MAKE HIS ESCAPE
Elated by his talk with Cassandra, Frale walked eagerly forward, but as he neared Thryng's cabin he moved more slowly. Why should he let that doctor help him? He could reach Farington some way – travelling by night and hiding in the daytime. But David was watching for him and strolled down to meet him.
"Good morning. Your sister says there is no time to lose. Come in here, and we'll see if we can find a way out of this trouble."
Having learned not to expect any response to remarks not absolutely demanding one, and not wishing the silence to dominate, David talked on, as he led Frale into the cabin and carefully closed the door behind them.
Thryng's intuition was subtle and his nature intense and strong. He had been used to dealing with men, and knew that when he wished to, he usually gained his point. Feeling the antagonism in Frale's heart toward himself, he determined to overcome it. Be it pride, jealousy, or what not, it must give way.
He had learned only that morning that circumlocution or pretence of any sort would only drive the youth further into his fortress of silence, and close his nature, a sealed well of turbid feeling, against him; therefore he chose a manner pleasantly frank, taking much for granted, and giving the boy no chance to refuse his help, by assuming it to have been already accepted.
"We are about the same size, I think? Yes. Here are some things I laid out for you. You must look as much like me as possible, and as unlike yourself, you know. Sit here and we'll see what can be done for your head."
"You're right fair, an' I'm dark."
"Oh, that makes very little difference. It's the general appearance we must get at. Suppose I try to trim your hair a little so that lock on your forehead won't give you away."
"I reckon I can do it. Hit's makin' you a heap o' trouble."
David was pleased to note the boy's mood softening, and helped him on.
"I'm no hand as a barber, but I'll try it a little; it's easier for me to get at than for you." He quickly and deftly cut away the falling curl, and even shaved the corners of the forehead a bit, and clipped the eyebrows to give them a different angle. "All this will grow again, you know. You only want it to last until the storm blows over."
The youth surveyed himself in the mirror and smiled, but grimly. "I do look a heap different."
"That's right; we want you to look like quite another man. And now for your chin. You can use a razor; here is warm water and soap. This suit of clothes is such as we tramp about in at home, different from anything you see up here, you know. I'll take my pipe and book and sit there on the rock and keep an eye out, lest any one climb up here to look around, and you can have the cabin all to yourself. You see what to do; make yourself look as if you came from my part of the world." Thryng glanced at his watch. "Work fast, but take time enough to do it well. Say half an hour, – will that do?"
"Yas, I reckon."
Then David left him, and the moments passed until an hour had slipped away, but still the youth did not appear, and he was on the point of calling out to him, when he saw the twisted form of little Hoyle scrambling up through the underbrush.
"They're comin'," he panted, with wild and frightened eyes fixed on David's face. "I see 'em up the road, an' I heered 'em say they was goin' to hunt 'round the house good, an' then s'arch the cabin ovah Hanging Rock." The poor child burst into tears. "Do you 'low they'll shoot Frale, suh?"
"They'd not reached the house when you saw them?"
"They'll be thar by now, suh," sobbed the boy.
"Then run and hide yourself. Crawl under the rock – into the smallest hole you can. They mustn't see that you have been here, and don't be frightened, little man. We'll look after Frale."
