Brother Against Brother; or, The Tompkins Mystery. Read online

  CHAPTER XIV.

  MRS. JUNIPER ENTERTAINS.

  Mrs. Julia Juniper was a wealthy widow, of easy conscience and uncertainage. Courted and flattered alike for her charms and her wealth, for Mrs.Julia Juniper had both, she was the acknowledged belle of the country,the leader of the elite and the ruler of fashion. When Mrs. JuliaJuniper gave a party it was sure to be successfully attended, and itneeded only to be known that she was to be at a ball to ensure thepresence of the very best society in the neighborhood.

  The widow was a little above medium height, slender and graceful, withdark, sparkling eyes, clear white complexion, and black hair. She wasvivacious as well as beautiful, and her sparkling wit was sufficient toenliven the dullest assemblage.

  Mrs. Julia Juniper owned and possessed (as the lawyers say) a largeplantation, and the granite mansion she had furnished with lavishelegance.

  Two or three weeks have passed since the occurrences last recorded, andmany startling events have taken place. Colonel Holdfast, with his forceat the Junction, had joined McClellan, and fought gallantly atPhillippi, on the 3d of June. Abner Tompkins had been promoted to acaptaincy, and Sergeant Swords and Corporal Grimm wore uniforms. UncleDan Martin accompanied the army as guide and scout, and was ofinvaluable service, as he knew every inch of the ground over which theyhad to pass. Colonel Scrabble had been compelled to fall back with hisforce about forty or fifty miles south, where a large force wasassembling near Rich Mountain. The colonel's regiment had beenrecruited, refitted, and furnished with arms by the Confederate States,and the colonel himself now held a commission. Owing to the fact thatLieutenant Whimple had been disabled, perhaps for life, by his fall fromhis horse in the race from Uncle Dan's cabin, Oleah Tompkins had beenpromoted to first lieutenant.

  The regiment was now encamped in the neighborhood of Mrs. Julia Juniper,and Mrs. Juniper, a Southern lady with all a Southern lady's prejudicesand passions, and intense likes and dislikes, loved her sunny South, andloved every one who was engaged defending it against the cold-bloodedNorthern invader, and, desirous of doing all she could to cheer thebrave hearts of her country's defenders, resolved to give a reception inhonor of the regiment. It was at the same time a first meeting and afarewell, for the colonel hourly expected orders to march further eastand join the troops massing in the valley of the Shenandoah underJohnston and Beauregard.

  It was the evening of the 9th of July, 1861, and the grand mansion ofMrs. Julia Juniper was ablaze with light and splendor. Thedrawing-rooms, parlors, reception rooms, and the spacious dining hallwere lighted early in the evening, festooned with flags, and lavishlyadorned with flowers. The piazza, the lawn, the conservatory, and eventhe garden, on this evening, were filled with a gay, laughing throng.Mrs. Julia Juniper had ordered all form and ceremony to be laid aside,and desired that her guests should consider her house their home. Shemet officer and private, as they entered, clasping the hand of each witha fervent "God save our sunny South." More than one young soldier,looking on that lovely face, resolved to fight till death for a cause sodear to her. Corporal Diggs was present, and as Mrs. Julia Juniper'shand clasped his, and he heard her say: "God bless, you, my dear friendand make your arm strong to defend our beloved country!" He felt proudthat he had not deserted, as he declared he should, after the retreatfrom Twin Mountain. Mrs. Juniper was everywhere, shedding on all thelight of her countenance, enlivening all conversation with the rich,warm tones of her voice or her merry, musical laugh.

  At least two hundred officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, fellin love with the widow, and twice as many privates were willing to liedown and have their heads amputated for her sake. Many of our Southernsoldier friends were present, among them Howard Jones and Seth Williams,both sergeants now. Corporal Diggs was in ecstacies of delight, but thepresence of his old tormentor, Seth Williams, was a slight drawback attimes to his happiness. Mrs. Juniper had introduced the corporal andSeth Williams to two charming young ladies, Miss Ada Temple and MissNannie Noddington, both of them bright, lively girls, fond of sport.Miss Temple made herself particularly agreeable to the littleapple-dumpling of a corporal.

  Mr. Corporal Diggs had on a neat little suit of gray, without shoulderstraps, but with yellow braid enough on his coat sleeves to indicate hisoffice and rank. His thick hair was parted exactly in the middle, hisburnside whiskers were neatly trimmed, and his glasses were on his nose.He tried to appear witty, making him appear silly enough to enlist thesympathy of any one except Seth Williams.

  Seth was bent on fun and mischief, and in Miss Nannie Noddington hefound an able accomplice and ally.

  Corporal Diggs was making an extraordinary endeavor to make himselfagreeable to Miss Temple, who laughed at his witticisms in a coquettishway that was wholly irresistible, and Corporal Diggs became brilliant,drawing continually on his immense fund of knowledge, talking science,physics, and metaphysics, history, literature, and art, at last touchingon the theme, sacred to love and lovers, poetry.

  "Hem, hem, hem! Miss Temple, I presume--hem--you are very fond ofpoetry," he said, leaning back in his chair, his soleful eyes gleamingthrough his glasses.

  "I am passionately fond of poetry, corporal," said the blonde beauty,with a winning smile.

  "I--hem, hem!--before I entered the army, used to be passionately fondof poetry, but the multifarious duties of an officer during theseexciting times will allow no thought of polite accomplishments."

  "He is inflating now," whispered Seth Williams to Miss Noddington. "Hewill explode soon in a burst of poetical eloquence."

  Mr. Diggs, as we have seen, had a peculiar stoppage in his speech,occasioned more by habit than by any defect in the organs ofarticulation.

  "Yes, Miss Temple, I--hem, hem, hem!--admire, or rather I adore poetry.The deep sublimity of thought--hem, hem, hem!--given forth in all ofpoetical expression and--hem, hem!--as the poet says 'the eye in finefrenzy rolling.'"

  "That was in his 'Ode to an Expiring Calf,' was it not?" said SethWilliams, who was one of the group.

  No one could repress a smile, and Miss Noddington was attacked by aconvulsive cough.

  "You always have a way of degrading the sublime to the ridiculous, Mr.Williams," said the little corporal, loftily.

  "Who of the English poets do you like best, Corporal Diggs?" asked MissTemple, pretending not to notice Williams' sally and the consequentdiscomfiture of her companion.

  "I--hem, hem!" said the little fellow, leaning forward and locking hishands, with all the dignity that he assumed when about to give one ofhis opinions. "I--hem--am rather partial to Scott. I don't know why,unless his wild poems rather suit my warlike nature. I like to read ofMarmion, the Lady of the Lake, and the Vision of Don--Don--hem--Don--"

  "Quixote," put in Seth Williams.

  The bright black eyes of Miss Noddington twinkled, but Miss Templefeigned sympathy with the corporal, whose memory was evidently bad.

  "But--hem, hem!--Miss Temple," he went on, heroic to the last, "that isa sublime as well as a truthful thought of Scott, who says,--hem,hem!--how does it begin? Oh yes:

  "O, woman, in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to--"

  "Squeeze," put in Seth Williams, who was really boiling over withmischief.

  Miss Temple looked shocked, but Miss Noddington only buried her blushingface in her handkerchief.

  The discomforted Corporal Diggs cast a furious glance at Seth Williams,who sat with a face as solemn as any judge on the bench.

  "Mr. Williams, such talk is very unbecoming any gentleman," said he,rising and looking as furious, to use Seth Williams own words, "as anenraged potato bug."

  "I beg the pardon of all the company," said Seth, whose face was gravityitself. "I wanted to find some word that would rhyme with ease, andspoke the first that came to my mind."

  "The word, sir, is 'please,'" said Corporal Diggs, re-seating himselfafter entreaty from the ladies, who assured him that it was only a_lapsus linguae_ on the part of Sergeant Williams.

  "Now, corp
oral, do go on and repeat the entire verse, for I do so admireSir Walter Scott," pleaded Miss Temple, whose roguish blue eyes weresparkling almost as brightly as those of her friend, Nannie Noddington.

  "Yes, Corporal Diggs," said the beautiful Nannie, "do go on and give usthe entire stanza."

  "Yes, the entire canto," put in Seth.

  There was no refusing the appeal from those blue eyes of Miss Temple orthe sparkling black eyes of Miss Noddington, so, after a few "hems" anda moment spent in bringing the poem to his memory, the corporal beganagain:

  "O, woman, in our hours of ease Uncertain, coy, and hard to please; Yet seem too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

  This time both ladies laughed outright, and even Seth Williams couldnot restrain a smile, while the corporal wondered what in the worldcould be the matter with them.

  "Your version is no better than mine," said Seth Williams.

  "Oh! Corporal Diggs, you are too cute, you made that mistake onpurpose," laughed Miss Temple.

  The corporal, hearing his witty blunder praised on all sides, concludedto pretend it was an intentional joke, originating from his own fertilebrain; Miss Temple smiled on him, Miss Noddington declared himcharmingly cute, and the corporal felt himself quite a hero.

  After further favoring the company with choice selections, he launchedout on history, which he brought down to the present time by allusionsto his adventures since he had been in the army.

  "Have you ever been in any engagement, corporal?" asked sweet MissTemple.

  "Yes, Miss Temple, I have been where bullets flew thicker--hem,hem!--than hail stones; replied Corporal Diggs.

  "Where was it?" asked the blonde.

  "Once at Wolf Creek."

  "Were you not frightened?"

  "I was as cool as I ever was in my life," replied Corporal Diggs,leaning back in his chair, and looking very brave.

  "That was because you were so deep down in mud and water under thedrift-wood," put in Seth Williams.

  Corporal Diggs turned a look of wrath on his companion. "Who said I wasin the mud and water?" he demanded, fiercely. "Who saw me in the mud andwater?"

  "No one, I don't suppose; but Lieutenant Whimple found you on the bank,looking very much as though you had just left the hands of Crazy Joe."

  Before Corporal Diggs could reply, Miss Temple, rising, begged him towalk with her on the piazza.

  As the two went away, Seth laughed for the first time during theevening, and told his companion the story of Crazy Joe's mud man.

  The lawn had been converted into a dining-room, and long rows of tableswere spread there; Chinese lanterns hung from all the trees, and an armyof black waiters was in attendance.

  The dining hall had been cleared and fitted for dancing, and already thesoft sound of music was heard there, and gay dancers were glidinggracefully through the waltz.

  It was nearly two o'clock in the morning, when Oleah Tompkins tired ofdancing walked into the conservatory, and from there into the garden.His thoughts naturally flew back to his home, to his parents, and to herhe had learned to love with all the warmth and ardor of his Southernheart. A hand touched him on the shoulder. He turned and beheld standingbehind him a mulatto, one who had played the leading violin in theorchestra. He was between forty and fifty years of age, a man of graveand somber countenance.

  "Well, sir, what will you have?" demanded the lieutenant, turningsharply about.

  "Is your name Tompkins?" asked the man.

  "Yes. What is your business with me?"

  "I was anxious to be sure," said the mulatto, "for I assure you,Lieutenant Tompkins, that I may sometime be able to give you somevaluable information."

  "If you have any information to give, why not give it now?" demanded theyoung officer.

  "I have reasons that I can not give. To tell the reasons would be togive the information."

  Oleah looked fixedly into the mulatto's face. There was somethingunusual about him, something that impressed the young lieutenantstrangely, yet, what it was, he could not tell.

  "What is your name?" he asked.

  "They call me Yellow Steve."

  "How long have you been in this State?" asked Oleah, after a pause.

  "About two years," was the answer.

  "Have I ever known you before?"

  "I don't think you ever saw me before."

  "Well, have you ever seen me before?"

  "No."

  "Then what can you have to tell me that would interest me?"

  "I can tell you something of the early history of her you call yoursister, something that no one on earth but myself knows. You shall knowit in the future."

  The mulatto turned, pushed open the door of a Summer house near by, anddisappeared.

  "Stay!" cried Oleah. "By heavens, if you know anything of her, I willnot wait, I will know it now."

  He sprang through the door after the mulatto, but the Summer house wasvacant. The strange musician had disappeared as suddenly as if he hadsank into the earth. After searching vainly through the grounds Oleahreturned to the house. The other musicians (all colored) knew the"yaller man who played first fiddle," but, as "he lived no whereparticularly, but about in spots," no one could tell where he would mostlikely be found.

  It was late that night before Lieutenant Tompkins sought his tent, andsleep came not to his eyes until nearly daylight. When he did sleep, thestrange mulatto was constantly before his eyes--his yellow skin, hisyellow teeth, and yellow eyes all gleaming.