CHAPTER XIV.
A HOT CHASE.
That afternoon, Rectus and I went over to the African settlement to seehow the kingdom worked. It was rather soon, perhaps, to make a call onthe new queen, but we were out for a walk, and might as well go that wayas any other.
When we came near the house, we heard a tremendous uproar, and soon sawthat there was a big crowd in the yard. We couldn't imagine what wasgoing on, unless the queen had changed her shilling, and was indulgingin the luxury of giving a scramble. We ran up quickly, but the crowd wasso large that we could not get into the yard, nor see what all thecommotion was about. But we went over to the side of the yard,and--without being noticed by any of the people, who seemed too muchinterested to turn around--we soon found out what the matter was.
Priscilla had usurped the throne!
The rocking-chair had been brought out and placed again in front of thewindow, and there sat Priscilla, leaning back at her ease, with thecrown on her head, a big fan--made of calf-skin--in her hand, and ageneral air of superiority pervading her whole being. Behind her, withher hand on the back of the chair, stood Poqua-dilla, wearing her newturban, but without the red shawl. She looked as if something hadhappened.
In front of the chair was the Lord High Chancellor. He had evidentlygone over to the usurper. His red ribbon, very dusty and draggled, stillhung from his shirt-collar. The four courtiers sat together on a bench,near the house, with their coats still buttoned up as high ascircumstances would allow. They seemed sad and disappointed, andprobably had been deprived of their rank. The _Hof-rath_ stood in thefront of the crowd. He did not appear happy; indeed, he seemed a gooddeal ruffled, both in mind and clothes. Perhaps he had defended hisqueen, and had been roughly handled.
Priscilla was talking, and fanning herself, gracefully and lazily, withher calf-skin fan. I think she had been telling the people what sheintended to do, and what she intended them to do; but, almostimmediately after our arrival, she was interrupted by the _Hof-rath_,who said something that we did not hear, but which put Priscilla into awild passion.
She sprang to her feet and stood up in the chair, while poor Poqua-dillaheld it firmly by the back so that it should not shake. I supposed fromthis that Priscilla had been standing up before, and that our old friendhad been appointed to the office of chair-back-holder to the usurper.
Priscilla waved her fan high in air, and then, with her right hand, shetook off the crown, held it up for a minute, and replaced it on herhead.
"Afrikins, behole yer queen!" said she, at the top of her voice, andleaning back so far that the rightful sovereign had a good deal oftrouble to keep the chair from going over.
"Dat's me!" she cried. "Look straight at me, an' ye see yer queen. An'how you dar', you misribble Hop-grog, to say I no queen! You 'serve tobe killed. Take hole o' him, some uv you fellers! Grab dat Hop-grog!"
At this, two or three men seized the poor _Hof-rath_, while the crowdcheered and laughed.
"Take him an' kill him!" shouted Priscilla. "Chop his head off!"
At this, a wild shout of laughter arose, and one of the men who held the_Hof-rath_ declared, as soon as he got his breath, that they couldn't dothat,--they had no hatchet big enough.
Priscilla stood quiet for a minute. She looked over the crowd, and thenshe looked at the poor _Hof-rath_, who now began to show that he was alittle frightened.
"You, Hop-grog," said she, "how much money did you grab in demscrahmbles?"
The _Hof-rath_ put his hand in his pocket and pulled out some pennies.
"Five big coppers," said he, sullenly.
"Gim me dem," said she, and he brought them to her.
"Now den, you kin git out," said she, pocketing the money. Then sheagain raised her crown and replaced it on her head.
"Afrikins, behole your queen!" she cried.
This was more than we could stand. To see this usurpation and robberymade our blood boil. We, by ourselves, could do nothing; but we couldget help. We slipped away and ran down the road in the direction of thehotel. We had not gone far before we saw, coming along a cross-road, thetwo yellow-leg men. We turned, hurried up to them, and hastily told themof the condition of things, and asked if they would help us put downthis usurpation. They did not understand the matter, at first, but whenwe made them see how it stood, they were greatly interested, andinstantly offered to join us.
"We can go down here to the police-station," said I, "and get somehelp."
"No, no!" said the tall yellow-leg. "Don't tell those fellows. They'llonly make a row of it, and get somebody into trouble. We're enough tocapture that usurper. Let's go for her."
And we went.
When we neared the crowd, the shorter yellow-leg, Mr. Burgan, said thathe would go first; then his friend would come close behind him, whileRectus and I could push up after them. By forming a line we could rushright through the crowd. I thought I ought to go first, but Mr. Burgansaid he was the stoutest, and could better stand the pressure if thecrowd stood firm.
But the crowd didn't stand firm. The moment we made our rush, and thepeople saw us, they scattered right and left, and we pushed rightthrough, straight to the house. Priscilla saw us before we reached her,and, quick as lightning, she made a dive for the door. We rushed afterher, but she got inside, and, hurling the crown from her head, dashedout of a back-door. We followed hotly, but she was out of the yard, overa wall, and into a side lane, almost before we knew it.
Then a good chase began. Priscilla had a long start of us, for we hadbungled at the wall, but we were bound to catch her.
I was a good runner, and Rectus was light and active, although I am notsure that he could keep up the thing very long; but the two yellow-legssurprised me. They took the lead of us, directly, and kept it. Behind uscame a lot of darkeys, not trying to catch Priscilla, but anxious, Isuppose, to see what was going to happen.
Priscilla still kept well ahead. She had struck out of the lane into aroad which led toward the outskirts of the town. I think we werebeginning to gain on her when, all of a sudden, she sat down. With ashout, we rushed on, but before we reached her she had jerked off bothher shoes,--she didn't wear any stockings,--and she sprang to her feetand was off again. Waving the shoes over her head, she jumped and leapedand bounded like an India-rubber goat. Priscilla, barefooted, couldn'tbe caught by any man on the island: we soon saw that. She flew down theroad, with the white dust flying behind her, until she reached a biglimestone quarry, where the calcareous building-material of the town issawn out in great blocks, and there she made a sharp turn and dasheddown in among the stones. We reached the place just in time to see herrun across the quarry, slip in between two great blocks that werestanding up like statue pedestals on the other side, and disappear.
We rushed over, we searched and looked, here and there and everywhere,and all the darkeys searched and looked, but we found no Priscilla. Shehad gone away.
Puffing and blowing like four steam-fire-engines, we sat down on somestones and wiped our faces.
"I guess we just ran that upstart queen out of her possessions," saidthe tall yellow-legs, dusting his boots with his handkerchief. He wassatisfied.
We walked home by the road at the edge of the harbor. The cool air fromthe water was very pleasant to us. When we reached the hotel, we foundMr. and Mrs. Chipperton and Corny sitting outside, in the entrancecourt, waiting for supper-time. A lot of arm-chairs always stood there,so that people might sit and wait for meals, or anything else that theyexpected. When Corny heard the dreadful news of the fall of our kingdom,she was so shocked that she could scarcely speak; and as for Mrs.Chipperton, I thought she was going to cry. Corny wanted to rush rightdown to Poqua-dilla's house and see what could be done, but we were allagainst that. No harm would come to the old woman that night from theloss of her crown, and it was too near supper-time for any attempt atrestoration, just then.
"Only to think of it!" said Mrs. Chipperton. "After all we did for her!I don't believe she was queen more than an hour. It's the sh
ortest reignI ever heard of."
"And that Priscilla!" cried Corny. "The girl we trusted to do so much,and----"
"Paid every night," said I.
"Yes," she continued, "and gave a pair of mother's shoes to, for thecoronation! And to think that _she_ should deceive us and do theusurping!"
The shorter yellow-legs, who had been standing by with his friend, nowmade a remark. He evidently remembered Corny, on the Oclawahasteam-boat, although he had never become acquainted with her or herfamily.
"Did your queen talk French?" he asked, with a smile; "or was not thatthe language of the Court?"
"No, it wasn't," said Corny, gravely. "African was the language of theCourt. But the queen was too polite to use it before us, because sheknew we did not understand it, and couldn't tell what she might besaying about us."
"Good!" said the tall yellow-legs. "That's very good indeed. Burgan, youowe her one."
"One what?" asked Corny.
"Another answer as good as that, if I can ever think of it," said Mr.Burgan.
Corny did not reply. I doubt if she heard him. Her soul still ached forher fallen queen.
"I tell you what it is," said Mr. Chipperton, who had kept unaccountablyquiet, so far. "It's a great pity that I did not know about this. Ishould have liked nothing better than to be down there when that usurpergirl was standing on that throne, or rocking-chair, or whatever itwas----"
"Oh, my dear!" said Mrs. Chipperton. "It would never have done for youto have exposed your lung to such a scene of turmoil and confusion."
"Bother my lung!" cried Mr. Chipperton, who was now growing quiteexcited. "I would never have stood tamely by, and witnessed such vileinjustice----"
"We didn't stand tamely by," said I. "We ran wildly after the unjustone."
"I would have stood up before that crowd," continued Mr. Chipperton,"and I would have told the people what I thought of them. I would haveasked them how, living in a land like this, where the blue sky shines onthem for nothing, where cocoa-nut and the orange stand always ready forthem to stretch forth their hands and take them, where they need but aminimum of clothes, and where the very sea around them freely yields upits fish and its conchs,--or, that is to say, they can get such thingsfor a trifling sum,--I would have asked them, I say, how--when freecitizens of a republic, such as we are, come from our shores of liberty,where kings and queens are despised and any throne that is attempted tobe set up over us is crushed to atoms,--that when we, I say, come overhere, and out of the pure kindness and generosity of our souls raisefrom the dust a poverty-stricken and down-trodden queen, and place her,as nearly as possible, on the throne of her ancestors, and put upon herhead a crown,--a bauble which, in our own land, we trample underfoot----"
At this I shuddered, remembering the sharp points I had filed in ourcrown.
"And grind into the dust," continued Mr. Chipperton,--"I would ask them,I say, how they could think of all this, and then deliberately subvert,at the behest of a young and giddy colored hireling, the structure wehad upraised. And what could they have said to that, I would like toknow?" he asked, looking around from one to another of us.
"Give us a small dive, boss?" suggested Rectus.
"That's so," said Mr. Chipperton, his face beaming into a broad smile;"I believe they would have said that very thing. You have hit itexactly. Let's go in to supper."
The next day, Rectus and I, with Corny and Mrs. Chipperton, walked downto the queen's house, to see how she fared and what could be done forher.
When we reached Poqua-dilla's hut, we saw her sitting on her door-step.By her side were several joints of sugar-cane, and close to them stoodthe crown, neatly filled with scarlet pepper-pods, which hung veryprettily over the peaked points of brass. She was very still, and herhead rested on her breast.
"Asleep!" whispered Corny.
"Yes," said Mrs. Chipperton, softly, "and don't let's waken her. She'svery well off as she is, and now that her house is a little morecomfortable, it would be well to leave her in peace, to peddle what shepleases on her door-step. Her crown will worry her less where it is thanon her head."
Corny whispered to her mother, who nodded, and took out her pocket-book.In a moment, Corny, with some change in her hand, went quietly up to theyard and put the money in the queen's lap. Then we went away and lefther, still asleep.
A day or two after this, the "Tigress" came in, bringing the mail. Wesaw her, from one of the upper porticoes, when she was just on the edgeof the horizon, and we knew her by the way she stood up high in thewater, and rolled her smoke-stack from side to side. She was thegreatest roller that ever floated, I reckon, but a jolly good ship forall that; and we were glad enough to see her.
There were a lot of letters for us in her mail. I had nine from the boysat home, not to count those from the family.
We had just about finished reading our letters when Corny came up to usto the silk-cotton tree, where we were sitting, and said, in a dolefultone:
"We've got to go home."
"Home?" we cried out together. "When?"
"To-morrow," said Corny, "on the 'Tigress.'"
All our good news and pleasant letters counted for nothing now.
"How?--why?" said I. "Why do you have to go? Isn't this something new?"
Rectus looked as if he had lost his knife, and I'm sure I had neverthought that I should care so much to hear that a girl--no relation--wasgoing away the next day.
"Yes, it is something new," said Corny, who certainly had been crying,although we didn't notice it at first. "It's a horrid old lawsuit.Father just heard of it in a letter. There's one of his houses, in NewYork, that's next to a lot, and the man that owns the lot says father'shouse sticks over four inches on his lot, and he has sued him forthat,--just think of it! four inches only! You couldn't do anything withfour inches of dirt if you had it; and father didn't know it, and heisn't going to move his wall back, now that he does know it, for thepeople in the house would have to cut all their carpets, or fold themunder, which is just as bad, and he says he must go right back to NewYork, and, of course, we've all got to go, too, which is the worst ofit, and mother and I are just awfully put out."
"What's the good of his going," asked Rectus. "Can't he get a lawyer toattend to it all?"
"Oh, you couldn't keep him here now," said Corny. "He's just wild to beoff. The man who sued him is a horrid person, and father says that if hedon't go right back, the next thing he'll hear will be that old Colbertwill be trying to get a foot instead of four inches."
"Old Colbert!" ejaculated Rectus, "I guess that must be my father."
If I had been Rectus, I don't think I should have been so quick to guessanything of that kind about my father; but perhaps he had heard thingslike that before. He took it as coolly as he generally took everything.
Corny was as red as a beet.
"Your father!" she exclaimed. "I don't believe it. I'll go this veryminute and see."
Rectus was right. The stingy hankerer after what Corny called fourinches of dirt was his father. Mr. Chipperton came up to us and talkedabout the matter, and it was all as plain as daylight. When he foundthat Mr. Colbert was the father of Rectus, Mr. Chipperton was very muchsurprised, and he called no more names, although I am sure he had beengiving old Colbert a pretty disagreeable sort of a record. But he satdown by Rectus, and talked to him as if the boy were his own fatherinstead of himself, and proved to him, by every law of property inEnglish, Latin, or Sanscrit, that the four inches of ground werelegally, lawfully, and without any manner of doubt, his own, and that itwould have been utterly and absolutely impossible for him to have builthis house one inch outside of his own land. I whispered to Rectus thatthe house might have swelled, but he didn't get a chance to put in thesuggestion.
Rectus had to agree to all Mr. Chipperton said--or, at least, hecouldn't differ with him,--for he didn't know anything on earth aboutthe matter, and I guess he was glad enough when he got through. I'm sureI was. Rectus didn't say anything except that he was very so
rry that theChipperton family had to go home, and then he walked off to his room.
In about half an hour, when I went upstairs, I found Rectus had justfinished a letter to his father.
"I guess that'll make it all right," he said, and he handed me theletter to read. It was a strictly business letter. No nonsense about thefolks at home. He said that was the kind of business letter his fatherliked. It ran like this:
DEAR FATHER: Mr. Chipperton has told me about your suing him. If he really has set his house over on four inches of your lot, I wish you would let it stand there. I don't care much for him, but he has a nice wife and a pleasant girl, and if you go on suing him the whole lot of them will leave here to-morrow, and they're about the only people I know, except Gordon. If you want to, you can take a foot off any one of my three lots, and that ought to make it all right.
Your affectionate son, SAMUEL COLBERT.
"Have you three lots?" I asked, a good deal surprised, for I didn't knowthat Rectus was a property-owner.
"Yes," said he; "my grandmother left them to me."
"Are they right next to your father's lot, which Chipperton cut into?"
"No, they're nowhere near it," said Rectus.
I burst out laughing.
"That letter wont do any good," I said.
"You'll see," said Rectus, and he went off to mail it.
I don't know what kind of a business man Mr. Chipperton was, but whenRectus told him that he had written a letter to his father which wouldmake the thing all right, he was perfectly satisfied; and the next daywe all went out in a sail-boat to the coral-reef, and had a splendidtime, and the "Tigress" went off without any Chippertons. I think Mr.Chipperton put the whole thing down as the result of his lecture toRectus up in the silk-cotton tree.