Dark of the moon - Dr. Gideon Fell 22 Read Online Free PDF Page A

get rid of Skeene. The years rolled; he found his excuse. Big Nat had two Indian wives who actually were slaves; the law forbade slavery for Indians if not for Negroes. One day in 1692 Governor Morton dispatched his military aide, Captain Waring, to give Skeene walking-papers and turn the man out. Captain Waring crossed from the mainland in a small boat, but wasn't sure where to find Skeene. Richard Maynard offered to guide him.
    "They rode over on the embryonic trail which was the only path that then existed. No sooner had they dismounted than Big Nat came rushing out of the house, his arms loaded with primitive weapons. Paying no attention to the governor's officer, he directed all venom at his old enemy. He flung weapons at Richard's feet, bellowed the sort of challenge no Maynard could refuse, and charged in hell-roaring.
    "Quite a battle must have danced on those lonely sands beside the swamp. They fought Indian-style with knives and tomahawks, knife in the right hand and tomahawk in the left.
    "Richard Maynard, a good swordsman but unused to butcher's work like this, had great speed or great luck. He was far from squeamish; he didn't mind fighting with the knife. But to split any man's skull with a tomahawk, whether thrown from a distance or used hand-to-hand, seemed to him bloody barbarism. He dodged Skeene's first rushes, then lost his head and waded in.
    "The tomahawk, you know, was only a smaller hatchet with a flat surface, no hammer-head, on the side opposite its cutting edge. Even the blunt side was deadly enough. Skeene charged again, striking upwards with the knife for his opponent's belly. With the tomahawk turned in his hand, blunt side inwards, Richard whacked hard at the right side of Skeene's head. Skeene failed to parry with knife-arm; the blow struck him senseless or worse; even as he was falling Richard stabbed him to the heart.
    "They buried Big Nat at the edge of the swamp where he fell. Since Captain Waring had witnessed everything, Richard Maynard's 'trial' was no trial at all. The jury discharged him almost with a vote of thanks, certainly with recorded thanks that Skeene had been given Christian burial. So far the story's true; it's a matter of record; you can find it under sign and seal. But afterwards, Dr. Fell . . . afterwards . . . !"
    Dr. Fell, who had been listening in cross-eyed absorption, here reared up.
    "With exemplary patience," he said, "I have heard very tolerable sensationalism. Cheerfully will I continue listening. So far, however, there has been no puzzle to keep us awake o' nights."
    "Richard Maynard, they say, was kept awake o' nights."
    "Well?"
    "Again the years rolled on," Alan continued. "No trace, apparently, remained of Big Nat Skeene. His hut fell to ruin; his wives returned to their Tuscarora tribe. Except for an influx of settlers, then as later, James Island remained the same. It was Richard Maynard who gradually changed.
    "Never very genial, he grew so morose and edgy that his children were afraid to go near him. To anyone who would listen he complained that something or somebody was following him everywhere. He would go through the roof at a suddenly opened door; he dreaded the hour of dusk, and couldn't bear the night.
    "One day in 1698 he rode again to the other side of the island. Nobody knows why he went there. His horse returned that night; he didn't. At dawn they found his body in the swamp a few hundred yards north of Big Nat's grave. The right side of his head had been battered in: not with a cutting edge, but as though by repeated blows from the blunt side of a tomahawk. His own footprints, only his, were in the soft mud roundabout. No weapon of any kind could be found.
    "There's the story, Dr. Fell. Make of it what you like; I apologize for such foolishness. But Nathaniel Skeene living was no fit associate for anybody. Nathaniel Skeene dead would have been still less desirable company."
    Dr. Fell had shut his eyes tightly and was groping in the air.
    "Stop!"