Brother Against Brother Part 9

CHAPTER IX

A MOST UNREASONABLE BROTHER

t.i.tus Lyon dropped into his seat once more when Levi approached. He scowled at the manager as he swept by with a bow to his employer. He had been talking very loud about what was fair and right, and he could not deny that the expense of supporting the orphans ought to be divided among the three brothers. According to Noah's calculation, the boot had been transferred to the other leg, and he owed his brother something on this account if the matter was to be equitably adjusted.

t.i.tus could not gainsay the position of the planter, and he tried to choke down his wrath; and just then he would have vented it upon the innocent overseer if he had not flown like the wind across the bridge, making the planks dance a hornpipe under the feet of his steed. As the malcontent was silent for the want of an argument with which to combat that of his brother, Noah went over the subject, and clinched the nail he had driven in before.

"I'll look the thing over again when I go home, for I want to be fair and right in everything I do," said t.i.tus, after he had sought in vain for an argument with which he could upset the theory of Noah. "I only claimed that you owed me half of the ten thousand; I didn't ask for the whole on't."

"You never asked for even half of it before; you only told others that I owed you that sum," replied Noah.

"Well, I believed it."

"In that case neither you nor the colonel would pay anything towards the support of the children for ten years, for the law would divide the property equally between us," replied Noah. "I can't tell exactly how the matter stands till I figure it up; but I think you will owe me something if we settle it on the basis you suggest."

"I guess we'd better drop the subject till we have both looked it over agin," added t.i.tus, utterly disgusted with the result of the argument.

"I don't say that Dunk hadn't a right to dispose of his property as he pleased; but jest s'pose'n he had left it all to me and gi'n you nothin'--would that been right?"

"If he had had any reason for doing so, it would have been his right to do so; but I should say I should not be in condition to be an impartial judge in the matter," said Noah with a smile.

"Did he have any reason for treating me any wus than he did you?" asked t.i.tus sharply, as he sprang to his feet again. "Dunk wa'n't no abolitionist, and went with the folks round here on politics. He 'n' I agreed, and never had no dispute on these things."

"I don't think the colonel did treat you any worse than he did me. He chose to pay for supporting the orphans, though I never asked him to do so, or hinted at any such thing. We have talked that over, and nothing more need be said about it now. I have indicated how that thing might be fairly settled, and we will let it rest there."

"But I still say Dunk used me wus 'n he did you; and as a brother you are in duty bound to set me right, as you said one of the same blood should do."

"I don't understand you, Brother t.i.tus; for I am not aware that the colonel treated me any better in his will than he did you," replied Noah, wondering what further complaint his brother could make.

"Didn't he give five thousand dollars to that cuss that just rid over the bridge?" demanded t.i.tus with a sort of triumphant tone and manner, as though he had the planter where no argument could avail him. "That was just the same as taking twenty-five hundred dollars out of my pocket, as well as out of yours."

"But you don't bear in mind, my dear brother, that the colonel was disposing of his own property, and not yours or mine," said Noah with a p.r.o.nounced laugh at the absurdity of the other's position.

"Don't go to dearin' me, Noah; it will be time enough for that sort of thing when you've done me justice," snarled t.i.tus.

"When I've done you justice!" exclaimed the planter, rising from his seat again to vent his mirth. "I must do you justice because your brother and mine gave Levi Bedford five thousand dollars! Must I pay you twenty-five hundred dollars on this account?"

"I didn't say so."

"But you implied it; for you were trying to prove that the colonel used me better than he did you. It seems to me that you ought to make your claim on Levi, if anybody."

"You git ahead faster'n I do. I only meant to say that Dunk didn't use me right when he gave his money to this mean whelp; but he treated you as bad as he did me, Noah."

"I have no complaint whatever to make, and I am glad the colonel remembered Levi handsomely; he deserved it, for he had always been a useful and faithful overseer," added Noah very decidedly.

"Let that rest," said t.i.tus when he found that he made no headway in the direction he had chosen. "I s'pose you won't agree with me, but I say Dunk ought to have left this place to me instid of you. I was his oldest brother, and I have lived here eight years, and know all about the plantation, while you never saw it till after Dunk was dead."

"I am inclined to think the colonel knew what he was about, and he made his will to suit himself," answered Noah.

"I should think he made it to suit you. Of course I know it's law, but it wa'n't right," growled t.i.tus.

"If you think it was not right, why don't you contest the will, and have it set aside?"

"Don't I say it was law; and I suppose it can't be helped now," and the injured man tried to put on an air of resignation. "But I ain't done."

"I should say you had said enough; for there seems to be no foundation for any of your complaints. I think the colonel meant to be fair and just, and make an equal distribution of his property between you and me.

Taking out fifteen thousand dollars he gave to charity and his friends"--

"That was giving away what belonged to you and me," interposed the objector.

"You are as unreasonable as a pig in a cornfield, Brother t.i.tus!"

exclaimed Noah, whose abundant patience was on the verge of exhaustion.

"Duncan was giving away his own property, and not yours or mine, as you appear to think he was, especially yours; for I believe he did just right. Taking out the fifteen thousand and the ten he paid for the support of the orphans,--which I suppose you mean to have settled up in another way,--there was seventy-five thousand dollars left, which he divided equally among his brothers and the representatives of the one who died over ten years ago. That is according to the valuation annexed to the will."

"It's mighty strange, Noah, that you can't see nothin' when it's p'inted out to you," stormed t.i.tus, his wrath rising to the boiling point at his repeated defeats; for, "though vanquished, he could argue still."

"I don't believe at all in your pointing, Brother t.i.tus."

"You talk about that valuation; but it was a fraud, and it was meant to cheat me out of eight or ten thousand dollars!" roared the malcontent, gesticulating violently. "It ought to been thirty thousand dollars more'n 'twas! I say it out loud; and I know what I'm talkin' about!"

"I don't think you do, Brother t.i.tus. I think you had better stop drinking whiskey for a week, and then we can talk this subject over more satisfactorily."

"Do you mean to accuse me of bein' drunk, Noah Lyon?" demanded t.i.tus, shaking his fist in the face of his brother; and at this moment that colt was das.h.i.+ng over the bridge at a dead run, with Levi on his back.

"I don't think you are drunk, Brother t.i.tus, as tipplers understand the word, but you are under the influence of liquor, and it affects your judgment," replied Noah as gently as though he had been speaking in a prayer-meeting.

"Then you mean that I _am_ drunk!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THEN YOU MEAN I AM DRUNK."]

Both of his fists were clinched, and he was shaking one in the face of the planter, when the bay colt dashed in between them, Noah falling back before the menacing demonstration of t.i.tus. Levi had dismounted at the end of the bridge, and seated himself in the arbor where he could still see the two men. When t.i.tus shook his fist in the face of the planter, he leaped upon the colt as though he had been fifty pounds lighter, and galloped to the scene of the wordy contest.

"What do you want here?" demanded the visitor, with a very unnecessary expletive.

"What is it, Levi?" asked Noah.

"I didn't know but you might want me," replied the manager; but the demonstrative person was his employer's brother, and he refrained from using the strong language that came to his tongue's end.

"I don't want you for anything just now, Levi," replied the planter, sorry that there should have been a witness to the stormy interview with his brother; and he wondered if he had not been too plain-spoken, mild and dignified as he had been.

"What do you mean, you scoundrel, by stickin' your nose in where you're not wanted?" demanded t.i.tus savagely, as he shook his fist, relieved from duty before the planter, in the direction of the overseer.

Levi wheeled his horse so that he crowded the angry man out of his place, and made him spring to keep out of the way of the fiery animal; but he made no reply to the abuse cast upon him. Noah nodded his head in the direction of the mansion, and the manager rode off, though it was evident to his employer that he was itching to lay hands on the turbulent visitor.

"I hate that villain!" gasped t.i.tus.

"And he despises you as thoroughly as you hate him; so there is no love lost. But I think you had better conduct yourself a little more peaceably, t.i.tus; for I do not like to have the people on the plantation see that there is any difficulty between us, for we are brothers, I wish you to remember. Perhaps we had better drop the subject where it is, for it is almost suppertime," said Noah with the most conciliatory tone and manner.