But although the
suddenness of the alarm and the cry of Caesar had impelled the
freebooters to so hasty a retreat, they grasped the hoard with a hold
that death itself would not have loosened. Perceiving everything to be
quiet within, Katy at length mustered resolution to enter the dwelling,
where she found the peddler, with a heavy heart, performing the last sad
offices for the dead. A few words sufficed to explain to Katy the nature
of her mistake; but Caesar continued to his dying day to astonish the
sable inmates of the kitchen with learned dissertations on spooks, and
to relate how direful was the appearance of that of Johnny Birch.
The danger compelled the peddler to abridge even the short period that
American custom leaves the deceased with us; and, aided by the black and
Katy, his painful task was soon ended. Caesar volunteered to walk a
couple of miles with orders to a carpenter; and, the body being habited
in its ordinary attire, was left, with a sheet thrown decently over it,
to await the return of the messenger.
The Skinners had fled precipitately to the wood, which was but a short
distance from the house of Birch, and once safely sheltered within its
shades, they halted, and mustered their panic-stricken forces.
"What in the name of fury seized your coward hearts?" cried their
dissatisfied leader, drawing his breath heavily.
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