He was interrupted by a deep, hollow voice that proceeded from an obscure corner, where a seeming old woman sat crouching, her form enveloped in a long cloak, her head hidden in a deep sunbonnet.
"Yes! there is 'an accursed thing hidden' in your midst! and I am the Achan in your camp!" And the figure arose, and the cloak fell, and the bonnet was dropped, and the stranger stood revealed.
"Valentine! Valentine!" cried Fannie, in a voice of agony.
He crossed quickly through the astonished group, to the spot where she cowered. He stooped and spoke to her a few earnest words, and sat her down where she could drop her poor, young head upon the lap of the trembling, sorrow-stricken Phædra, while he stood up and gazed upon the crowd, who remained, stunned with consternation into silence.
Valentine was frightfully changed in the last eighteen months. His flesh had wasted from his bones, until it left him almost a walking skeleton; his skin had darkened, and his eyes had sunken, and concentrated their fires until they burned like two imbedded stars; his voice was cavernous. While the negroes present returned his gaze in silent awe, he spoke:
"A price is on my head! the Governor, or the State, will purchase and emancipate any man here who will deliver me up to death. It is written that 'a murderer shall hang on a tree!' It is every man's duty to deliver, if he can, a felon up to justice! It is every man's duty here to procure, if he can, his own freedom! Therefore, it is doubly some man's duty to take me into custody. I have determined to die for my deed! Doubtless, I could go at any time, and surrender to the authorities. But in that case I should not do the little good I am now desirous of doing. I should not in dying procure some one of you his freedom! Therefore, I wish that one of you take me in custody, and attend me to M——. Come, choose! elect, or cast lots for him who is to be the freeman. Brother Portiphar——"
Before Valentine could say another word the old preacher, Elisha, who had been gradually getting over his astonishment, and, recovering his self-possession climbed over stools and chairs and the crouching forms of women and children, and made his way toward Valentine, whom he embraced with his left arm, while he closed his lips by laying over them his right hand.
"Hush, Brudder Walley, hush! You don't know what you'se a-sayin' of. You'se a prophesyin' of de ole law 'stead o' de new gospel! 'Sides which, would you temp' any brudder here to sin an' slave his 'mortal soul, sake o' freein' of his poor, perishin' body? Hush, Brudder Walley, an' let me prophesy. Bredren and sisters, is der a man or a woman in de soun' o' my voice as 'ould 'cept his free papers on de terms as Brudder Walley offers—at de price of a brudder's life an' a sister's happiness? Which ob yer here 'ould buy his freedom wid the price ob Walley's blood, and Phædra's and Fannie's tears? Would you, Brudder Portiphar? or you, Sister Deely? or you? or you? No, not one ob you. Now, brudders an' sisters, I'se got a proposition to make. Fust, bolt dat door, Brudder Isaac, an' see to de fastenin' o' dat winder, Sister Hera; no knowin' who'se 'bout. Now, let's speak low. An' what I want to propose is dis yer: dat ebery brudder makes a pledge afore he leabes dis room to be silent as to which has happen here dis night. Let Brudder Walley no more be lef in de power an' temptations ob de enemy; let him feel hissef free to 'tend our prayer-meetin's here in peace an' safety, for all as is happened of to-night. Let us pray wid him, an' try to 'lieve his poor soul ob its load o' sin an' sorrow!"
Elisha would have spoken longer, but here Portiphar arose, and said, in effect, that he did not fully agree with Brother Elisha; that he doubted whether they should be doing right to conceal Valentine, especially when the conscience of the latter urged him to the expiation of his crime.
Elisha could scarcely wait for the other to finish his remarks before he arose in a hurry, and said, in effect, if not in these words, and with some vehemence also, that he was the last to make light of the guilt that Valentine had brought upon his own soul, but that he also knew, and no one else knew so well, the maddening provocation that had driven him to his crime. That he prayed the sin might be washed away by repentance and faith in the Redeemer; that, for this reason, he wished Valentine to feel safe in coming among them, to share their prayers, and hymns, and exhortations, and all their other means of grace; that, undismayed and undistracted by the worldly sorrows of imprisonment, trial and impending execution, he might have time to work out his salvation! That therefore he should shield his sinful brother until they could prove to him that the gallows was a means of grace, "which I don't believe it is," concluded old Elisha, as he sat down in quiet triumph, for he saw that every man and woman among the warm-hearted creatures present coincided in sentiment with himself, and that Portiphar was put down and silenced, if not convinced.