“When will you return?”
“To-morrow,” and he was off at a tearing speed for his horses were tired of waiting, and longed to be on the road.
There was a little arroyo which passed about 500 yards on the west of Don Mariano's house and marked the west line of Darrell's land; as Clarence approached this dried brook, he saw Gasbang and Roper coming down from the opposite hill, evidently unable to check their horses. Roper was so intoxicated that he could with difficulty keep his seat, and as Gasbang seemed much frightened, Clarence took his phæton well off the road and waited so as to lend his assistance, if it should be required. But “the kind Providence which takes care of drunken sailors, children and the United States,” was watchful of Roper, and though he swayed and swung beyond possible equilibrium, he stuck to his seat with drunken gravity.
“Going to invest in more real estate?” Gasbang shouted as soon as he felt reassured by passing the great danger of sand and pebbles which his cowardice had magnified to him into a precipice. Roper laughed heartily, but Clarence, not understanding the allusion, made no answer and drove on without looking at them. If a kind fairy could have whispered to him what was the errand of these two men, he most assuredly would have turned back. There being no fairy but the blue-eyed one who had already told her dreams and fears, which he had not believed, he went on to town, and Gasbang took Roper to his house, carefully putting him to bed to take a nap that would sober him before he spoke with Darrell; for it was to speak with Darrell that he came.
While Roper slept, Gasbang went to see Mathews, Miller and Hughes, and together they held a consultation, at the end of which it was decided that, as Roper was too intoxicated yet, and Darrell disliked drunkards, they would go and have a preliminary talk with him themselves, and Roper would be pressed into service, if advisable, in the morning, when he would be sober.
Darrell had got tired of waiting for Mathews; so, after thinking of what Clarence had said, he decided that it would be better to have a talk with Hancock and Pitikin, who were about the most reliable of all the settlers. They perhaps knew what it was that Mathews had to say. He told Webster to saddle a horse and bring it around; he would go on horseback, as the wagon road to Hancock's was very long, around the fields.
But now when Webster had brought the saddled horse to the front steps, Darrell saw Mathews, Gasbang, Miller and Hughes coming in a two-seated wagon, and all seemed to be talking very excitedly.
“Tie the horse there. I'll wait for those men,” said Darrell, sitting down again. Webster did as he was told, and then walked straight up-stairs to his mother's room. Everett and Alice were with her.
“Mother, if I were you, I would go and sit in the parlor and do my sewing there by the windows on the piazza, while those bad men are talking to father,” Webster said.
“Why, Webster, go and listen unseen!” Mrs. Darrell exclaimed.