They carried with them old lanterns, made of tin and pierced with holes, and they sat down in a semi-circle before the door of the cabin or dog-kennel whichever it might be. Sheldon, who seemed to lead them in everything, spoke first.
“Now, boy, we want that paper, an’ we believe there is one way to get it. You write an’ tell your sis to send it up here. Then you can go, prompt.”
Black Smith was, it seemed, like many orators, not to be permanently suppressed.
“People have got to be learned that there’s no foolin’ with the mountain people,” said he.
“I don’t know anything about any paper,” insisted Herbert. “My sister didn’t tell me anything about a paper.”
“You don’t need to know anything about the paper,” said Sheldon. “We tell you that the girl got a sworn paper from Mammy an’ Mammy’s out of her head an’ she talks too much. She don’t know what she’s sayin’, but a sworn lie holds for the truth.” He leaned forward and laid a scrap of paper on Herbert’s knee. “You tell her that you’re here an’ that you’re safe, an’ that she shall send the paper, then by morning you can go.”
“She’ll send it to get her baby boy!” said he.
The insulting words brought Herbert to his feet.
“She won’t do anything of the kind. She’s gone for help, long ago, I can tell you that. Do you think she’ll sit down there and do nothing? You don’t know her! We were told that the instant you gave us any trouble we could have the constabulary come up here. They’ll wipe you out! They’ve got your deeds recorded! They’ll punish you for the present and the past.”
A dark figure appeared in the faint speckled circle of lamplight.
“I told you so!” said the woman’s voice, which Herbert had heard before. “Destruction is waiting for us! Destruction from our airless lives, according to the nurse, and destruction from the guns of the soldiers.”
“She’s exactly right,” said Herbert. “One of you has sense, anyhow!”
But Jinny’s tirade was not taken seriously by her kinsfolk. Sheldon returned and sat down heavily.
“You don’t suppose, boy, that we left her free to run round over the country, do you?”
Herbert shivered. Was a gun-barrel pointed also at Elizabeth? Nevertheless, he did not believe that she would follow the dictation of any gun-barrel. He saw the desperation of these outlaws on one side and Elizabeth’s indifference to danger and her anger at injustice on the other. There was also another element. Elizabeth would be wild with fear for him. At that thought Herbert’s cheeks reddened in the darkness. She would not expect him to be able to help himself!