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Page 23
By a little management I secured the next room to his, by which
arrangement I succeeded in passing a sleepless night, Mr. Blake
spending most of the wee sma' hours in pacing the floor of his room,
with an unremitting regularity that had anything but a soothing effect
upon my nerves. Early the next morning we took the stage, he sitting
on the back seat, and I in front with the driver. There were other
passengers, but I noticed he never spoke to any of them, nor through
all the long drive did he once look up from the corner where he had
ensconced himself. It was twelve o'clock when we reached the end of
the route, a small town of somewhat less than the usual pretensions
of mountain villages; so insignificant indeed, that I found it more
and more difficult to imagine what the wealthy ex-Congressman could
find in such a spot as this, to make amends for a journey of such
length and discomfort; when to my increasing wonder I heard him give
orders for a horse to be saddled and brought round to the inn door
directly after dinner. This was a move I had not expected and it
threw me a little aback, for although I had thus far managed to hold
myself so aloof from Mr. Blake, even while keeping him under my eye,
that no suspicion of my interest in his movements had as yet been
awakened, how could I thus for the third time follow his order with
one precisely similar, without attracting an attention that would be
fatal to my plans. Yet to let him ride off alone now, would be to
drop the trail at the very moment the scent became of importance.
The landlord, a bustling, wiry little man all nervousness and
questions, unwittingly helped me at this crisis.
"Are you going on to Perry, sir?" inquired he of that gentleman, "I
have been expecting a man along these three days bound for Perry."
"I am that man," I broke in, stepping forward with some appearance of
asperity, "and I hope you won't keep me waiting. A horse as soon as
dinner is over, do you hear? I am two days late now, and won't stand
any nonsense."
And to escape the questions sure to follow, I strode into the
dining-room with a half-fierce, half- sullen countenance, that
effectually precluded all advances. During the meal I saw Mr. Blake's
eye roam more than once towards my face; but I did not return his
gaze, or notice him in any way; hurrying through my dinner, and
mounting the first horse brought around, as if time were my only
consideration. But once on the road I took the first opportunity to
draw rein and wait, suddenly remembering that I had not heard Mr.
Blake give any intimation of the direction he intended taking. A few
minutes revealed to me his elegant form well mounted and showing to
perfection in his closely buttoned coat, slowly approaching up the
road. Taking advantage of a rise in the ground, I lingered till he was
almost upon me, when I cantered quickly on, fearing to arouse his
apprehensions if I allowed him to pass me on a road so solitary as
that which now stretched out before us: a move provocative of much
embarassment to me, as I dared not turn my head for the same reason,
anxious as I was to keep him in sight.
The roads dividing before me, at length gave me my first opportunity
to pause and look back. He was some fifty paces behind. Waiting till
he came up, I bowed with the surly courtesy I thought in keeping with
the character I had assumed, and asked if he knew which road led
towards Perry, saying I had come off in such haste I had forgotten to
inquire my way. He returned my bow, pointed towards the left hand
road and saying, "I know this does not," calmly took it.
Now here was a dilemma. If in face of this curt response I proceeded
to follow him, my hand was revealed at once; yet the circumstances
would admit of no other course. I determined to compromise matters by
pretending to take the right hand road till he was out of sight, when
I would return and follow him swiftly upon the left. Accordingly I
reined my horse to the right, and for some fifteen minutes galloped
slowly away towards the north; but another fifteen saw me facing the
west, and riding with a force and fury of which I had not thought the
old mare they had given me capable, till I put her to the test. It was
not long before I saw my fine gentleman trotting in front of me up a
long but gentle slope that rose in the distance; and slackening my
own rein, I withdrew into the forest at the side of the road, till he
had passed its summit and disappeared, when I again galloped forward.
And thus we went on for an hour, over the most uneven country I ever
traversed, he always one hill ahead; when suddenly, by what instinct
I cannot determine, I felt myself approaching the end, and hastening
to the top of the ascent up which I was then laboring, looked down
into the shallow valley spread out before me.
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