“So there is somebody ter home,”he said, slipping his pistol back into its holster and moving into the hall until he stood directly below her.“All alone, little lady?”
Like lightning, she shoved her weapon over the banisters and into the startled bearded face. Before he could even fumble at his belt, she pulled the trigger.The back kick of the pistol made her reel, as the roar of the explosion filled her ears and acrid smoke stung her nostrils.The man crashed backwards to the floor, sprawling into the dining room with a violence that shook the furniture.The box clattered from his hand, the contents spilling about him.Hardly aware that she was moving, Scarlett ran down the stairs and stood over him, gazing down into what was left of the face above the beard, a bloody pit where the nose had been, glazing eyes burned with powder.As she looked, two streams of blood crept across the shining floor, one from his face and one from the back of his head.
Yes, he was dead. Undoubtedly.She had killed a man.
The smoke curled slowly to the ceiling and the red streams widened about her feet. For a timeless moment she stood there and in the still hot hush of the summer morning every irrelevant sound and scent seemed magnified, the quick thudding of her heart, like a drumbeat, the slight rough rustling of the magnolia leaves, the far-off plaintive sound of a swamp bird and the sweet smell of the flowers outside the window.
She had killed a man, she who took care never to be in at the kill on a hunt, she who could not bear the squealing of a hog at slaughter or the squeak of a rabbit in a snare. Murder!she thought dully.I've done murder.Oh, this can't be happening to me!Her eyes went to the stubby hairy hand on the floor so close to the sewing box and suddenly she was vitally alive again, vitally glad with a cool tigerish joy.She could have ground her heel into the gaping wound which had been his nose and taken sweet pleasure in the feel of his warm blood on her bare feet.She had struck a blow of revenge for Tara—and for Ellen.
There were hurried stumbling steps in the upper hall, a pause and then more steps, weak dragging steps now, punctuated by metallic clankings. A sense of time and reality coming back to her, Scarlett looked up and saw Melanie at the top of the stairs, clad only in the ragged chemise which served her as a nightgown, her weak arm weighed down with Charles'saber.Melanie's eyes took in the scene below in its entirety, the sprawling blue-clad body in the red pool, the sewing box beside him, Scarlett, barefooted and gray-faced, clutching the long pistol.
In silence her eyes met Scarlett's. There was a glow of grim pride in her usually gentle face, approbation and a fierce joy in her smile that equaled the fiery tumult in Scarlett's own bosom.
“Why—why—she's like me!She understands how I feel!”thought Scarlett in that long moment.“She'd have done the same thing!”
With a thrill she looked up at the frail swaying girl for whom she had never had any feelings but of dislike and contempt. Now, struggling against hatred for Ashley's wife, there surged a feeling of admiration and comradeship.She saw in a flash of clarity untouched by any petty emotion that beneath the gentle voice and the dovelike eyes of Melanie there was a thin flashing blade ofunbreakable steel, felt too that there were banners and bugles of courage in Melanie's quiet blood.
“Scarlett!Scarlett!”shrilled the weak frightened voices of Suellen and Carreen, muffled by their closed door, and Wade's voice screamed“Auntee!Auntee!”Swiftly, Melanie put her finger to her lips and, laying the sword on the top step, she painfully made her way down the upstairs hall and opened the door of the sick room.
“Don't be scared, chickens!”came her voice with teasing gaiety.“Your big sister was trying to clean the rust off Charles'pistol and it went off and nearly scared her to death!”……“Now, Wade Hampton, Mama just shot off your dear Papa's pistol!When you are bigger, she will let you shoot it.”
“What a cool liar!”thought Scarlett with admiration.“I couldn't have thought that quickly. But why lie?They've got to know I've done it.”
She looked down at the body again and now revulsion came over her as her rage and fright melted away, and her knees began to quiver with the reaction. Melanie dragged herself to the top step again and started down, holding onto the banisters, her pale lower lip caught between her teeth.
“Go back to bed, silly, you'll kill yourself!”Scarlett cried, but the halfnaked Melanie made her painful way down into the lower hall.
“Scarlett,”she whispered,“we must get him out of here and bury him. He may not be alone and if they find him here—”She steadied herself on Scarlett's arm.
“He must be alone,”said Scarlett.“I didn't see anyone else from the upstairs window. He must be a deserter.”
“Even if he is alone, no one must know about it. The negroes might talk and then they'd come and get you.Scarlett, we must get him hidden before the folks come back from the swamp.”
Her mind prodded to action by the feverish urgency of Melanie's voice, Scarlett thought hard.
“I could bury him in the corner of the garden under the arbor—the ground is soft there where Pork dug up the whisky barrel. But how will I get him there?”
“We'll both take a leg and drag him,” said Melanie firmly.
Reluctantly, Scarlett's admiration went still higher.
“You couldn't drag a cat. I'll drag him,”she said roughly.“You go back to bed.You'll kill yourself.Don't dare try to help me either or I'll carry you upstairs myself.”
Melanie's white face broke into a sweet understanding smile.“You are very dear, Scarlett,”she said and softly brushed her lips against Scarlett's cheek. Before Scarlett could recover from her surprise, Melanie went on:“If you can drag him out, I'll mop up the—the mess before the folks get home, and Scarlett—”
“Yes?”
“Do you suppose it would be dishonest to go through his knapsack?He might have something to eat.”
