The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 119/212

They were only waiting.

At five o'clock he was still alive--just that, Smith came out to say.

Meredith sent his driver with a telegram to Helen which would give

Plattville the news that Harkless was found and was not yet gone from

them. Homer took the cab and left for the station; there was a train, and

there were things for him to do in Carlow. At noon Meredith sent a second

telegram to Helen, as barren of detail as the first: he was alive--was a

little improved. This telegram did not reach her, for she was on the way

to Rouen, and half of the population of Carlow--at least, so it appeared

to the unhappy conductor of the accommodation--was with her.

They seemed to feel that they could camp in the hospital halls and

corridors, and they were an incalculable worry to the authorities. More

came on every train, and nearly all brought flowers, and jelly, and

chickens for preparing broth, and they insisted that the two latter

delicacies be fed to the patient at once. Meredith was possessed by an

unaccountable responsibility for them all, and invited a great many to

stay at his own house. They were still in ignorance of the truth about the

Cross-Roads, and some of them spent the day (it was Sunday) in planning an

assault upon the Rouen jail for the purpose of lynching Slattery in case

Harkless's condition did not improve at once. Those who had heard his

statement kept close mouths until the story appeared in full in the Rouen

papers on Monday morning; but by that time every member of the Cross-Roads

White-Caps was lodged in the Rouen jail with Slattery. Homer and a heavily

armed posse rode over to the muddy corners on Sunday night, and the

sheriff discovered that he might have taken the Skilletts and Johnsons

single-handed and unarmed. Their nerve was gone; they were shaken and

afraid; and, to employ a figure somewhat inappropriate to their sullen,

glad surrender, they fell upon his neck in their relief at finding the law

touching them. They had no wish to hear "John Brown's Body" again. They

wanted to get inside of a strong jail, and to throw themselves on the

mercy of the court as soon as possible. And those whom Harkless had not

recognized delayed not to give themselves up; they did not desire to

remain in Six-Cross-Roads. Bob Skillett, Force Johnson, and one or two

others needed the care of a physician badly, and one man was suffering

from a severely wrenched back. Homer had a train stopped at a crossing, so

that his prisoners need not be taken through Plattville, and he brought

them all safely to Rouen. Had there chanced any one to ride through the

deserted Cross-Roads the next morning, passing the trampled fields and the

charred ruins of the two shanties to the east, and listening to the

lamentations of the women and children, he would have declared that at

last the old score had been paid, and that Six-Cross-Roads was wiped out.