CHAPTER XIII.
"All these tales told in that dreamy undertone with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sunk deep in the mind of Ichabod."
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
It was on the village wharf that the coadjutors met. Basset, as he contemplated the martial bearing of the General and the burly form of Gladding, felt comforted. The clouds that all day long had lowered above his mental horizon parted, and patches of blue sky began to appear. It was a cause of special gratulation to him, which he realized more sensibly in the darkness than by day, that assistance so important as Gladding's had been secured, and that without additional expense. He was confident now of an easy victory. The associates jumped into the boat, the painter was cast off, the constable, as principal, took the steersman's seat, and Tom and Primus disposed themselves to row.
The night was neither clear nor dark, or rather was both by fits and starts. Light fleecy clouds were constantly passing over the heavens, now gathering densely together and completely hiding the stars, and now breaking up and revealing between the rifts then shining points. A low wind softly moaned through the leafless trees on the banks of the Severn, sadly chiming in with the murmur of the tide, which rose quite up to the Falls of the Yaupáae. In the indistinct light, just enough to stimulate and keep in active play the imagination, softening away all those harshnesses which the garish brilliancy of day discloses, and inviting the mind to supply with its own creations what is vague and deficient, the village presented an appearance more attractive, if possible, than by day. Along the margin of the river, and up the hill-sides, the lights scattered in every direction, and rising irregularly one above another, contended successfully with the struggling stars to light the way of the adventurers; while a low sound, the faint indication of life, hardly distinguishable from other noises, rose from the village, for it was yet early in the night, and imparted a sense of security by the consciousness of human propinquity. But gradually, under the skillful strokes of the oars, the sounds became fainter and fainter, and one light after another disappeared till, at a turn in the stream, the bold promontory of Okommakemisit hid the town from view.
A feeling of loneliness now, in spite of the presence of his two friends, began to creep over the constable. So long as the lights had been visible, he felt a strength derived from the vicinity of the habitations of his fellow-beings, as if, were anything untoward to happen, assistance was close at hand and ready to be proffered, but now he might die a thousand deaths, and none be the wiser for his wretched end. As these and other thoughts equally dismal chased each other through his mind, the silence became more and more oppressive (for it was only now and then, hitherto, a word had been uttered), and it was with an emotion of thankfulness and relief he heard it broken by the voice of Gladding.
"I say, Primus," he said, "do you know where you are?"
"I guess I does," answered the black, speaking from between his shut teeth, which the necessity of retaining the stump of a pipe he was smoking compelled him to keep tight together, "I is on de river 'joying a row wid two white genlmn."
"Any fool knows that," said Tom, "though for the matter of the enjoyment, there might be two words about that. Some jugs has two handles."
"Well, if dat doesn't please you, I all in a shiver wid de cold. My wood toe is almost freeze."
"That's a plaguy curus thing," said Tom. "You know Jim Hardy. Well I hearn him say he can feel the fingers in his hand that was ground off in the mill, just an much as in tother. I expect your experience is pretty much the same."
"Dat's a fact," said Primus. "I can feel de foot and de toes just as much as ebber, only de leg is a sort o' kind o' shorter. Now, Missa Gladding, you is a man ob gumption, can you splain dat?"
"Sartin," said Tom, who didn't wish to appear ignorant to the presence of the negro; "there's no great difficulty about that, though I rather think it takes more larning than you've got to onderstand the thing. You see," he added, recollecting as well as he could some Latin words he had heard used by the doctor, "the narves of the rigdum flagdum in circumnavigating through the humorous rusticus, deflastigated by the horrentibus oribus sort o' twist the aures arrectos into asinos, and that you see, to a man of larning makes the whole thing as clear as one of elder Sillyway's sarmons."
Primus fairly caught his breath at Tom's display of learning, who rose considerably higher also in Basset's estimation. After somewhat recovering from his astonishment, and as if he had been reflecting on the subject, the General said—
"Larning is a great ting, and perhaps you is right and perhaps you isn't, but I hear anoder way to 'count for it."
"Out with it then," cried Tom.
"White folks," said Primus, "hab one way to 'count for tings, and colored pussons hab anoder way. Now I hear a colored pussun, who come all de way from Africa, where dey onderstands dese tings, say it was de jumbee."
"The jumbee! What in natur's that!" inquired Basset, who had not before mingled in the conversation.
"Now, none of your tricks, Prime," cried Tom, suspecting the negro of an intention to mystify them with a jargon like that he had palmed off; "jumbee ain't Latin."
"Nobody say it was," returned Primus, "I guess de old fellow nebber hab much chance to study Latin. He better 'quainted wid de shovel and de hoe. Dat mean in de Congo language, sperit."
"Colored people are curus folks," ejaculated Basset
"I don't see fairly what you're driving at yet," said Gladding.
"Suppose jumbee does mean sperit, what then?"
"I mean dat de hand turn into a sperit. Don't you see, Missa Basset," exclaimed Primus, suddenly poking his wooden leg at the constable, "de sperit ob my leg?"
"Don't, don't, Prime," cried the startled constable, drawing back and nearly falling in his fright into the water. "What's the use of talking about sperits now? Come let us talk about something else."
"Well," grinned Primus, "if you don't see de sperit, I feel him."
"Don't talk so; you're spoiling all the pleasure of the sail by such kind o' nonsense," urged Basset.
"Don't you believe in sperits?" inquired the persevering General.
"I tell ye I don't like to talk about such things now," responded
Basset.
"Why I can give you chapter and varse for 'em," said Tom. "You remember, Basset, all about Samuel and the witch o' Endor, and that's authority, I guess."
"Well, if I do I don't care to be chattering all the time about 'em, though there's some says, they don't appear now as they used to in old times."
This was an unfortunate remark for the badgered Basset. His two friends, as if it were of the extremest consequence to convert him from an opinion so heretical, opened for his benefit a whole budget of ghost stories In spite of most unwilling ears he was obliged to listen with a fascinated reluctance to tales of supernatural wonders, in most of which the narrators had themselves been actors, or derived their information from persons, whose veracity it would be a sin to doubt. Among them was a legend told by Gladding, of a murdered fisherman, whose ghost he had seen himself, and which was said still to haunt the banks of the Severn, and never was seen without bringing ill-luck. It is the only one with which we will trouble our renders, and we relate it as a sort of specimen of the others:
"You see," said Tom, "it was the spring o' the year, and the shad begun to swim up stream, when I joined Sam Olmstead's company, and took a share in his fishing. Well, things went on pretty well for a while, it was fisherman's luck, fish one day, and none the next, and we was, on the whole, tolerable satisfied, seeing there was no use to be anything else, though towards the end, it's a fact, there wasn't many schools come along. We had built a sort o' hut of boards by the side of the river where we kept the nets, and where some on us slept to look after the property. Well, my turn came to stay at the shanty, and I recollect the night just as well! It was coolish, not so cool as this, though something like it, for there was some clouds floating around, but it was a good deal lighter, 'cause the moon was in her third quarter. I felt sort o' lonesome there, all alone with the nets and the fish, and I don't know what I should have done but for some of the 'O be joyful' I had in a jug. I tried my best to fortify my stomach, and keep up my sperits agin the damp, but I didn't seem to succeed. Finally, thinks I to myself, I'll go and take a snuff of the night air, perhaps it will set me up So I sort o' strolled down towards the shore, and then I walked up a piece, and then I walked back agin, and once in a while I'd step into the shanty and take a pull at old Rye. Well, seeing as how it agreed with me, and I begun to feel better, I kept making my walks longer and longer till I strolled to a considerable distance. It was in one of them turns I see the ghost. I supposed afore that ghosts always appeared in white, but this one didn't. He was dressed just like any other fisherman, in a dark grey jacket and trowsers and a tarpaulin. It seemed to me at first he wanted to git out of the way, but I made tracks for him, for I didn't then a bit mistrust about its being a sperit, and halloed out, 'Who's that?' The sperit, as soon as he heard me, came straight up, and then I noticed he had two fish dangling down by a string, and says he, in a sort o' hoarse voice, as if he'd caught cold lying in the ground, 'It's me; it's the ghost of Jimmy Lanfear.' Well, when I heard him speak so, my flesh began to kind o' crawl, though I didn't know but it might be some fellow who had stole the shad out of the shanty, for I never heard of ghosts carrying fish afore. So says I, 'What are you doing with them fish?' Then, says he, 'Them ain't any real fish; see if you can touch 'em.' And then he swung 'em round and round in the moonlight, and I did my best to catch 'em, but I might just as well have snatched at the moonshine, for my hands went right through 'em agin and agin, till I stubbed my toe, and fell somehow, and when I got up, the sperit was gone. Then I knew it was Jim Lanfear's sperit, who was murdered years ago right opposite the spot where I asked you, Prime, if you knew where you was; and I was sartin the luck was all up for that season, and sure enough it was, for we didn't make more'n two or three hauls more of any consequence."
"I am sure dere was one sperit dere," said Primus, in a musing way, and shaking his head.
"Now, Prime, what do you mean by bobbing up and down your wool? Do you intend to signify, you unbelieving old scamp, you doubt my word? I tell you I was no more corned than I am now. Why, if you want to, you can see Jim almost any dark night. Perhaps he's walking along shore now."
"What dat?" cried Primus, pretending to see something on the land.
Basset started, and strained his eyes through the darkness in the direction indicated, but could discover nothing. The vision of Primus and Gladding was better.
"Don't ye see someting," said the former, lowering his voice, "right under de bank. I can't just see de shape, but it seem as if it swim in de air widout legs. You eyes is younger, Missa Gladding; guess dey see furder dan mine."
"I can make him out now," whispered Gladding. "It's a man, sure as rates Golly!" he exclaimed, suddenly, "if it ain't Jim—look, Basset, look."
The constable had listened in an agony of terror to the colloquy, and at the exclamation of Primus, availing himself of his post as steersman, turned the bow of the boat towards the opposite shore, to place as great an interval as possible between himself and the spectre. The action had not passed unnoticed, though neither of his companions made any remark upon it. Repeatedly his head had flown round over his shoulder, to catch a glimpse of what he dredded to see, but, notwithstanding the excitement of his imagination, he could behold nothing.
"O, Tom! O, Prime!" exclaimed the poor fellow, "let us go home. I wish we was fairly out of this scrape."
"Why," said Tom, "we're 'most there now. We should be laughed at if we was to give it up so. Who's afraid o' sperits? They're nothing but moonshine. I vow," he cried, pointing over the opposite side of the boat, "if he ain't there agin! Look, Basset."
But Basset was too busy with his paddle to look. With a twist of his wrist he had whirled the bow of the boat in the direction of the bank they had just left, and was paddling away for dear life. This time he appeared to arrive at the condition that the middle of the stream would be the safest position, and having attained that, he kept, as nearly as he could judge, at equal distances from the banks. A short space only now remained to be passed over, and in a few moments they were abreast of the island. Here the two men rested on their oars, and a whispered consultation was held, at the conclusion of which the boat was quietly pulled towards the goal. This was not done, however, without another attempt on the part of the constable to postpone the capture for that night, but the proposal was overruled by his associates, who scouted at his fears, and declared there was no danger.
Basset's nerves were in a shocking condition. The doleful stories croaked into his ears the whole passage down; the darkness of the hour; Holden's terrible character; and the remoteness from any assistance other than that of Gladding and Primus, in whom his confidence diminished every moment, conspired to throw him into the abjectest trepidation. But there was no retreat; Gladding was as obstinate as a mule, and as for the General, true to his military reputation, he insisted on advancing, and the unfortunate officer of the law, who was as much afflicted, with spiritual as with material fears, found himself in a dilemma, the solution of which was taken away from him. No alternative remained. He must, be the consequences what they might, see the adventure through. Borrowing, therefore, courage from despair, with a timid step and palpitating heart, he left the boat and closely followed his companions.
No light was visible, and the constable began to hope that Holden was away from home, and made the suggestion that since such was undoubtedly the fact, they had better return and come another time. But Gladding, pointing to a canoe not before observed, convinced Basset of the contrary, and it was then agreed that they should first according to the plan arranged approach the cabin and reconnoitre through the window. This being the post of danger was offered to Basset who however could be prevailed on by no entreaties to accept it which finally forced Gladding to volunteer. They all stood now on a side of the hut where there was neither door nor window, being, indeed, the side they had been careful to approach in the boat. Gladding was to steal to one of the windows and after examining the interior (if possible) to return and apprise them of his discoveries. Accordingly he started off.
He had been gone but a few minutes when Primus began to be uneasy and proposed to change their position to one nearer the hut their figures being too much exposed where they were, in consequence of standing in relief against the sky and water. The constable would gladly have stuck by the boat, as furnishing a means of retreat, but dared not remain alone. Reluctantly therefore, and cursing the obstinacy of the provoking black he crouched his body towards the ground, and followed in the rear of the General, that brave officer seeming disposed to talk louder and make more noise generally than pleased his companion who, from time to time, earnestly remonstrated with him on the imprudence.
"What dat!" suddenly exclaimed Primus recoiling on the other and pointing with his hand directly in front.
"Where? where?" whispered Basset, with his heart in his mouth raising himself, and catching bold of Primus' arm.
"Hush!" said the General, "is dat a groan?"
At that instant a tremendous blow was applied to the shoulders of the constable which sent him flat upon his face, dragging the General who caught a part of the application after him. As Basset fell his hat dropped off and a paper flew out which Primus picked up and immediately pocketed, hastening then as fast as his wooden leg would permit towards the boat which lay only four or five rods distant. There he found Gladding preparing to push off, and scrambling in, they had just succeeded in getting her afloat, when Basset, without his hat flung himself, in the extremity of his terror, headlong in, pitching Primus down upon the bottom, breaking his wooden leg, and capsizing Tom into the water. It was so shoal that he found no difficulty in getting in again, escaping with only a thorough ducking. It was now sauve que peut, and the three addressed themselves, so far as their bewildered faculties would permit, to the business of escape.
Thus closed the adventures of that disastrous night. All the way home, Primus kept groaning over the loss of his leg, the only consolation he could extract out of the calamity, being that it was easier to mend than one of flesh, and cheaper, and upbraiding Basset with his haste and carelessness. Gladding insisted on being landed in order to prevent, by exercise, taking cold, threatening in his turn the constable, that if his clothes were spoiled he should come upon him for the damage. Poor Basset, quite confounded by these harrowing events, had not a word to answer, and replied only by shrugging and twisting his shoulders with pain. The departure of Tom made it necessary for him to assist the negro in rowing back the boat, which he did with a handkerchief tied about his head, which Primus lent him and wincing with the soreness of his bones, the negro interspersed his moans with expressions of sorrow over their ill luck and of wonder whether it was Holden or the ghost of the fisherman that assaulted the constable vowing he would "hab satisfacshum for de loss ob de leg."