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diff --git a/11436.txt b/11436.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1fde31d --- /dev/null +++ b/11436.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5238 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stories by American Authors, Volume 1, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stories by American Authors, Volume 1 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 4, 2004 [EBook #11436] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES AMERICAN, VOL 1. *** + + + + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Amy Petri and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +STORIES BY AMERICAN AUTHORS. VOLUME I + + +[Illustration] + + + + +Stories by American Authors VOLUME I + + WHO WAS SHE. By BAYARD TAYLOR + + THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE. By BRANDER MATTHEWS AND H.C. BUNNER + + ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. By WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP + + BALACCHI BROTHERS. By REBECCA HARDING DAVIS + + AN OPERATION IN MONEY. By ALBERT WEBSTER + + +1903 + + +[Illustration: BRANDER MATTHEWS] + +Stories by American Authors VOLUME I + + + + +WHO WAS SHE? + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR. + +Come, now, there may as well be an end of this! Every time I meet your +eyes squarely I detect the question just slipping out of them. If you +had spoken it, or even boldly looked it; if you had shown in your +motions the least sign of a fussy or fidgety concern on my account; if +this were not the evening of my birthday, and you the only friend who +remembered it; if confession were not good for the soul, though harder +than sin to some people, of whom I am one,--well, if all reasons were +not at this instant converged into a focus, and burning me rather +violently in that region where the seat of emotion is supposed to lie, I +should keep my trouble to myself. + +Yes, I have fifty times had it on my mind to tell you the whole story. +But who can be certain that his best friend will not smile--or, what is +worse, cherish a kind of charitable pity ever afterwards--when the +external forms of a very serious kind of passion seem trivial, +fantastic, foolish? And the worst of all is that the heroic part which I +imagined I was playing proves to have been almost the reverse. The only +comfort which I can find in my humiliation is that I am capable of +feeling it. There isn't a bit of a paradox in this, as you will see; but +I only mention it, now, to prepare you for, maybe, a little morbid +sensitiveness of my moral nerves. + +The documents are all in this portfolio, under my elbow. I had just read +them again completely through, when you were announced. You may examine +them as you like, afterwards: for the present, fill your glass, take +another Cabana, and keep silent until my "ghastly tale" has reached its +most lamentable conclusion. + +The beginning of it was at Wampsocket Springs three years ago last +summer. I suppose most unmarried men who have reached, or passed, the +age of thirty--and I was then thirty-three--experience a milder return +of their adolescent warmth, a kind of fainter second spring, since the +first has not fulfilled its promise. Of course, I wasn't clearly +conscious of this at the time: who is? But I had had my youthful passion +and my tragic disappointment, as you know: I had looked far enough into +what Thackeray used to call the cryptic mysteries, to save me from the +Scylla of dissipation, and yet preserved enough of natural nature to +keep me out of the Pharisaic Charybdis. My devotion to my legal studies +had already brought me a mild distinction; the paternal legacy was a +good nest-egg for the incubation of wealth,--in short, I was a fair, +respectable "party," desirable to the humbler mammas, and not to be +despised by the haughty exclusives. + +The fashionable hotel at the Springs holds three hundred, and it was +packed. I had meant to lounge there for a fortnight and then finish my +holidays at Long Branch; but eighty, at least, out of the three hundred, +were young and moved lightly in muslin. With my years and experience I +felt so safe, that to walk, talk, or dance with them became simply a +luxury, such as I had never--at least so freely--possessed before. My +name and standing, known to some families, were agreeably exaggerated to +the others, and I enjoyed that supreme satisfaction which a man always +feels when he discovers or imagines that he is popular in society. There +is a kind of premonitory apology implied in my saying this, I am aware. +You must remember that I am culprit and culprit's counsel at the same +time. + +You have never been at Wampsocket? Well, the hills sweep around in a +crescent on the northern side and four or five radiating glens +descending from them unite just above the village. The central one +leading to a waterfall (called "Minnehehe" by the irreverent young +people, because there is so little of it), is the fashionable drive and +promenade; but the second ravine on the left, steep, crooked, and +cumbered with bowlders which have tumbled from somewhere and lodged in +the most extraordinary groupings, became my favorite walk of a morning. +There was a footpath in it, well-trodden at first, but gradually fading +out as it became more like a ladder than a path, and I soon discovered +that no other city feet than mine were likely to scale a certain rough +slope which seemed the end of the ravine. With the aid of the tough +laurel-stems I climbed to the top, passed through a cleft as narrow as a +doorway, and presently found myself in a little upper dell, as wild and +sweet and strange as one of the pictures that haunt us on the brink of +sleep. + +There was a pond--no, rather a bowl--of water in the centre; hardly +twenty yards across, yet the sky in it was so pure and far down that the +circle of rocks and summer foliage inclosing it seemed like a little +planetary ring, floating off alone through space. I can't explain the +charm of the spot, nor the selfishness which instantly suggested that I +should keep the discovery to myself. Ten years earlier, I should have +looked around for some fair spirit to be my "minister," but now-- + +One forenoon--I think it was the third or fourth time I had visited the +place--I was startled to find the dint of a heel in the earth, half-way +up the slope. There had been rain during the night, and the earth was +still moist and soft It was the mark of a woman's boot, only to be +distinguished from that of a walking-stick by its semicircular form. A +little higher, I found the outline of a foot, not so small as to awake +an ecstasy, but with a suggestion of lightness, elasticity, and grace. +If hands were thrust through holes in a boardfence, and nothing of the +attached bodies seen, I can easily imagine that some would attract and +others repel us: with footprints the impression is weaker, of course, +but we cannot escape it. I am not sure whether I wanted to find the +unknown wearer of the boot within my precious personal solitude; I was +afraid I should see her, while passing through the rocky crevice, and +yet was disappointed when I found no one. + +But on the flat, warm rock overhanging the tarn--my special throne--lay +some withering wild-flowers, and a book! I looked up and down, right and +left: there was not the slightest sign of another human life than mine. +Then I lay down for a quarter of an hour, and listened; there were only +the noises of bird and squirrel, as before. At last I took up the book, +the flat breadth of which suggested only sketches. There were, indeed, +some tolerable studies of rocks and trees on the first pages; a few not +very striking caricatures, which seemed to have been commenced as +portraits, but recalled no faces I knew; then a number of fragmentary +notes, written in pencil. I found no name, from first to last; only, +under the sketches, a monogram so complicated and laborious that the +initials could hardly be discovered unless one already knew them. + +The writing was a woman's, but it had surely taken its character from +certain features of her own: it was clear, firm, individual. It had +nothing of that air of general debility which usually marks the +manuscript of young ladies, yet its firmness was far removed from the +stiff, conventional slope which all Englishwomen seem to acquire in +youth and retain through life. I don't see how any man in my situation +could have helped reading a few lines--if only for the sake of restoring +lost property. But I was drawn on, and on, and finished by reading all: +thence, since no further harm could be done, I re-read, pondering over +certain passages until they stayed with me. Here they are, as I set them +down, that evening, on the back of a legal blank: + + "It makes a great deal of difference whether we + wear social forms as bracelets or handcuffs." + + "Can we not still be wholly our independent + selves, even while doing, in the main, as others + do? I know two who are so; but they are married." + + "The men who admire these bold, dashing + young girls treat them like weaker copies of themselves. + And yet they boast of what they call 'experience!'" + + "I wonder if any one felt the exquisite beauty + of the noon as I did, to-day? A faint appreciation + of sunsets and storms is taught us in youth, + and kept alive by novels and flirtations; but the + broad, imperial splendor of this summer noon!--and + myself standing alone in it--yes, utterly + alone!" + + "The men I seek _must_ exist: where are they? + How make an acquaintance, when one obsequiously + bows himself away, as I advance? The fault + is surely not all on my side." + +There was much more, intimate enough to inspire me with a keen interest +in the writer, yet not sufficiently so to make my perusal a painful +indiscretion. I yielded to the impulse of the moment, took out my +pencil, and wrote a dozen lines on one of the blank pages. They ran +something in this wise: + + "IGNOTUS IGNOTAE!--You have bestowed without + intending it, and I have taken without your + knowledge. Do not regret the accident which has + enriched another. This concealed idyl of the hills + was mine, as I supposed, but I acknowledge your + equal right to it. Shall we share the possession, + or will you banish me?" + +There was a frank advance, tempered by a proper caution, I fancied, in +the words I wrote. It was evident that she was unmarried, but outside of +that certainty there lay a vast range of possibilities, some of them +alarming enough. However, if any nearer acquaintance should arise out of +the incident, the next step must be taken by her. Was I one of the men +she sought? I almost imagined so--certainly hoped so. + +I laid the book on the rock, as I had found it, bestowed another keen +scrutiny on the lonely landscape, and then descended the ravine. That +evening, I went early to the ladies' parlor, chatted more than usual +with the various damsels whom I knew, and watched with a new interest +those whom I knew not. My mind, involuntarily, had already created a +picture of the unknown. She might be twenty-five, I thought: a +reflective habit of mind would hardly be developed before that age. Tall +and stately, of course; distinctly proud in her bearing, and somewhat +reserved in her manners. Why she should have large dark eyes, with long +dark lashes, I could not tell; but so I seemed to see her. Quite +forgetting that I was (or had meant to be) _Ignotus_, I found myself +staring rather significantly at one or the other of the young ladies, in +whom I discovered some slight general resemblance to the imaginary +character. My fancies, I must confess, played strange pranks with me. +They had been kept in a coop so many years, that now, when I suddenly +turned them loose, their rickety attempts at flight quite bewildered me. + +No! there was no use in expecting a sudden discovery. I went to the glen +betimes, next morning: the book was gone, and so were the faded flowers, +but some of the latter were scattered over the top of another rock, a +few yards from mine. Ha! this means that I am not to withdraw, I said +to myself: she makes room for me! But how to surprise her?--for by this +time I was fully resolved to make her acquaintance, even though she +might turn out to be forty, scraggy, and sandy-haired. + +I knew no other way so likely as that of visiting the glen at all times +of the day. I even went so far as to write a line of greeting, with a +regret that our visits had not yet coincided, and laid it under a stone +on the top of _her_ rock. The note disappeared, but there was no answer +in its place. Then I suddenly remembered her fondness for the noon +hours, at which time she was "utterly alone." The hotel _table d'hote_ +was at one o'clock, her family, doubtless, dined later, in their own +rooms. Why, this gave me, at least, her place in society! The question +of age, to be sure, remained unsettled; but all else was safe. + +The next day I took a late and large breakfast and sacrificed my dinner. +Before noon the guests had all straggled back to the hotel from glen and +grove and lane, so bright and hot was the sunshine. Indeed, I could +hardly have supported the reverberation of heat from the sides of the +ravine, but for a fixed belief that I should be successful. While +crossing the narrow meadow upon which it opened, I caught a glimpse of +something white among the thickets higher up. A moment later, it had +vanished, and I quickened my pace, feeling the beginning of an absurd +nervous excitement in my limbs. At the next turn, there it was again! +but only for another moment. I paused, exulting, and wiped my drenched +forehead. "She cannot escape me!" I murmured between the deep draughts +of cooler air I inhaled in the shadow of a rock. + +A few hundred steps more brought me to the foot of the steep ascent, +where I had counted on overtaking her. I was too late for that, but the +dry, baked soil had surely been crumbled and dislodged, here and there, +by a rapid foot. I followed, in reckless haste, snatching at the +laurel-branches right and left, and paying little heed to my footing. +About one third of the way up I slipped, fell, caught a bush which +snapped at the root, slid, whirled over, and before I fairly knew what +had happened, I was lying doubled up at the bottom of the slope. + +I rose, made two steps forward, and then sat down with a groan of pain; +my left ankle was badly sprained, in addition to various minor scratches +and bruises. There was a revulsion of feeling, of course,--instant, +complete, and hideous. I fairly hated the Unknown. "Fool that I was!" I +exclaimed, in the theatrical manner, dashing the palm of my hand softly +against my brow: "lured to this by the fair traitress! But, no!--not +fair: she shows the artfulness of faded, desperate spinsterhood; she is +all compact of enamel, 'liquid bloom of youth,' and hair-dye!" + +There was a fierce comfort in this thought, but it couldn't help me out +of the scrape. I dared not sit still, lest a sun-stroke should be +added, and there was no resource but to hop or crawl down the rugged +path, in the hope of finding a forked sapling from which I could +extemporize a crutch. With endless pain and trouble I reached a thicket, +and was feebly working on a branch with my penknife, when the sound of a +heavy footstep surprised me. + +A brown harvest-hand, in straw hat and shirtsleeves, presently appeared. +He grinned when he saw me, and the thick snub of his nose would have +seemed like a sneer at any other time. + +"Are you the gentleman that got hurt?" he asked. "Is it pretty tolerable +bad?" + +"Who said I was hurt?" I cried in astonishment. + +"One of your town-women fro them hotel--I reckon she was. I was binding +oats, in the field over the ridge; but I haven't lost no time in comin' +here." + +While I was stupidly staring at this announcement, he whipped out a big +clasp knife, and in a few minutes fashioned me a practicable crutch. +Then, taking me by the other arm, he set me in motion toward the +village. + +Grateful as I was for the man's help, he aggravated me by his ignorance. +When I asked if he knew the lady, he answered: "It's more'n likely _you_ +know her better." But where did she come from? Down from the hill, he +guessed, but it might ha' been up the road. How did she look? was she +old or young? what was the color of her eyes? of her hair? There, now, I +was too much for him. When a woman kept one o' them speckled veils over +her face, turned her head away and held her parasol between, how were +you to know her from Adam? I declare to you, I couldn't arrive at one +positive particular. Even when he affirmed that she was tall, he added, +the next instant: "Now I come to think on it, she stepped mighty quick; +so I guess she must ha' been short." + +By the time we reached the hotel, I was in a state of fever; opiates and +lotions had their will of me for the rest of the day. I was glad to +escape the worry of questions, and the conventional sympathy expressed +in inflections of the voice which are meant to soothe, and only +exasperate. The next morning, as I lay upon my sofa, restful, patient, +and properly cheerful, the waiter entered with a bouquet of wild +flowers. + +"Who sent them?" I asked. + +"I found them outside your door, sir. Maybe there's a card; yes, here's +a bit o' paper." + +I opened the twisted slip he handed me, and read: "From your dell--and +mine." I took the flowers; among them were two or three rare and +beautiful varieties, which I had only found in that one spot. Fool, +again! I noiselessly kissed, while pretending to smell them, had them +placed on a stand within reach, and fell into a state of quiet and +agreeable contemplation. + +Tell me, yourself, whether any male human being is ever too old for +sentiment, provided that it strikes him at the right time and in the +right way! What did that bunch of wild flowers betoken? Knowledge, +first; then, sympathy; and finally, encouragement, at least. Of course +she had seen my accident, from above; of course she had sent the harvest +laborer to aid me home. It was quite natural she should imagine some +special romantic interest in the lonely dell, on my part, and the gift +took additional value from her conjecture. + +Four days afterward there was a hop in the large dining-room of the +hotel. Early in the morning a fresh bouquet had been left at my door. I +was tired of my enforced idleness, eager to discover the fair unknown +(she was again fair, to my fancy!), and I determined to go down, +believing that a cane and a crimson velvet slipper on the left foot +would provoke a glance of sympathy from certain eyes, and thus enable me +to detect them. + +The fact was, the sympathy was much too general and effusive. Everybody, +it seemed, came to me with kindly greetings; seats were vacated at my +approach, even fat Mrs. Huxter insisting on my taking her warm place, at +the head of the room. But Bob Leroy--you know him--as gallant a +gentleman as ever lived, put me down at the right point, and kept me +there. He only meant to divert me, yet gave me the only place where I +could quietly inspect all the younger ladies, as dance or supper +brought them near. + +One of the dances was an old-fashioned cotillon, and one of the figures, +the "coquette," brought every one, in turn, before me. I received a +pleasant word or two from those whom I knew, and a long, kind, silent +glance from Miss May Danvers. Where had been my eyes? She was tall, +stately, twenty-five, had large dark eyes, and long dark lashes! Again +the changes of the dance brought her near me; I threw (or strove to +throw) unutterable meanings into my eyes, and cast them upon hers. She +seemed startled, looked suddenly away, looked back to me, and--blushed. +I knew her for what is called "a nice girl"--that is, tolerably frank, +gently feminine, and not dangerously intelligent. Was it possible that I +had overlooked so much character and intellect? + +As the cotillon closed, she was again in my neighborhood, and her +partner led her in my direction. I was rising painfully from my chair, +when Bob Leroy pushed me down again, whisked another seat from +somewhere, planted it at my side, and there she was! + +She knew who was her neighbor, I plainly saw; but instead of turning +toward me, she began to fan herself in a nervous way and to fidget with +the buttons of her gloves. I grew impatient. + +"Miss Danvers!" I said, at last. + +"Oh!" was all her answer, as she looked at me for a moment. "Where are +your thoughts?" I asked. + +Then she turned, with wide, astonished eyes, coloring softly up to the +roots of her hair. My heart gave a sudden leap. + +"How can you tell, if I cannot?" she asked. + +"May I guess?" + +She made a slight inclination of the head, saying nothing. I was then +quite sure. + +"The second ravine, to the left of the main drive?" + +This time she actually started; her color became deeper, and a leaf of +the ivory fan snapped between her fingers. + +"Let there be no more a secret!" I exclaimed. "Your flowers have brought +me your messages; I knew I should find you"-- + +Full of certainty, I was speaking in a low, impassioned voice. She cut +me short by rising from her seat; I felt that she was both angry and +alarmed. Fisher, of Philadelphia, jostling right and left in his haste, +made his way toward her. She fairly snatched his arm, clung to it with a +warmth I had never seen expressed in a ball-room, and began to whisper +in his ear. It was not five minutes before he came to me, alone, with a +very stern face, bent down, and said: + +"If you have discovered our secret, you will keep silent. You are +certainly a gentleman." + +I bowed coldly and savagely. There was a draft from the open window; my +ankle became suddenly weary and painful, and I went to bed. Can you +believe that I didn't guess, immediately, what it all meant? In a vague +way, I fancied that I had been premature in my attempt to drop our +mutual incognito, and that Fisher, a rival lover, was jealous of me. +This was rather flattering than otherwise; but when I limped down to the +ladies' parlor, the next day, no Miss Danvers was to be seen. I did not +venture to ask for her; it might seem importunate, and a woman of so +much hidden capacity was evidently not to be wooed in the ordinary way. + +So another night passed by; and then, with the morning, came a letter +which made me feel, at the same instant, like a fool and a hero. It had +been dropped in the Wampsocket post-office, was legibly addressed to me, +and delivered with some other letters which had arrived by the night +mail. Here it is; listen! + + "NOTO IGNOTA!--Haste is not a gift of the gods, + and you have been impatient, with the usual result, + I was almost prepared for this, and thus am not + wholly disappointed. In a day or two more you + will discover your mistake, which, so far as I can + learn, has done no particular harm. If you wish + to find _me_, there is only one way to seek me; + should I tell you what it is, I should run the risk + of losing you,--that is, I should preclude the + manifestation of a certain quality which I hope to + find in the man who may--or, rather, must--be + my friend. This sounds enigmatical, yet you have + read enough of my nature, as written in these + random notes in my sketch-book, to guess, at least, + how much I require. Only this let me add: mere + guessing is useless. + + "Being unknown, I can write freely. If you find + me, I shall be justified; if not, I shall hardly need + to blush, even to myself, over a futile experiment. + + "It is possible for me to learn enough of your + life, henceforth, to direct my relation toward you. + This may be the end; if so, I shall know it soon. + I shall also know whether you continue to seek + me. Trusting in your honor as a man, I must ask + you to trust in mine, as a woman." + + * * * * * + +I _did_ discover my mistake, as the Unknown promised. There had been a +secret betrothal between Fisher and Miss Danvers; and singularly enough, +the momentous question and answer had been given in the very ravine +leading to my upper dell! The two meant to keep the matter to +themselves, but therein, it seems, I thwarted them; there was a little +opposition on the part of their respective families, but all was +amicably settled before I left Wampsocket. + +The letter made a very deep impression upon me. What was the one way to +find her? What could it be but the triumph that follows ambitious +toil--the manifestation of all my best qualities, as a man? Be she old +or young, plain or beautiful, I reflected, hers is surely a nature worth +knowing, and its candid intelligence conceals no hazards for me. I have +sought her rashly, blundered, betrayed that I set her lower, in my +thoughts, than her actual self: let me now adopt the opposite course, +seek her openly no longer, go back to my tasks, and, following my own +aims vigorously and cheerfully, restore that respect which she seemed to +be on the point of losing. For, consciously or not, she had communicated +to me a doubt, implied in the very expression of her own strength and +pride. She had meant to address me as an equal, yet, despite herself, +took a stand a little above that which she accorded to me. + +I came back to New York earlier than usual, worked steadily at my +profession and with increasing success, and began to accept +opportunities (which I had previously declined) of making myself +personally known to the great, impressible, fickle, tyrannical public. +One or two of my speeches in the hall of the Cooper Institute, on +various occasions--as you may perhaps remember--gave me a good headway +with the party, and were the chief cause of my nomination for the State +office which I still hold. (There, on the table, lies a resignation, +written to-day, but not yet signed. We'll talk of it afterwards.) + +Several months passed by, and no further letter reached me. I gave up +much of my time to society, moved familiarly in more than one province +of the kingdom here, and vastly extended my acquaintance, especially +among the women; but not one of them betrayed the mysterious something +or other--really I can't explain precisely what it was!--which I was +looking for. In fact, the more I endeavored quietly to study the sex, +the more confused I became. + +At last I was subjected to the usual onslaught from the strong-minded. A +small but formidable committee entered my office one morning and +demanded a categorical declaration of my principles. What my views on +the subject were, I knew very well; they were clear and decided; and +yet, I hesitated to declare them! It wasn't a temptation of Saint +Anthony--that is, turned the other way--and the belligerent attitude of +the dames did not alarm me in the least; but _she!_ What was _her_ +position? How could I best please her? It flashed upon my mind, while +Mrs. ---- was making her formal speech, that I had taken no step for +months without a vague, secret reference to _her_. So, I strove to be +courteous, friendly, and agreeably non-committal; begged for further +documents, and promised to reply by letter, in a few days. + +I was hardly surprised to find the well-known hand on the envelope of a +letter, shortly afterwards. I held it for a minute in my palm, with an +absurd hope that I might sympathetically feel its character, before +breaking the seal. Then I read it with a great sense of relief. + + "I have never assumed to guide a man, except + toward the full exercise of his powers. It is not + opinion in action, but opinion in a state of idleness + or indifference, which repels me. I am + deeply glad that you have gained so much since + you left the country. If, in shaping your course, + you have thought of me, I will frankly say that, _to + that extent_, you have drawn nearer. Am I mistaken + in conjecturing that you wish to know my + relation to the movement concerning which you + were recently interrogated? In this, as in other + instances which may come, I must beg you to consider + me only as a spectator. The more my own + views may seem likely to sway your action, the less + I shall be inclined to declare them. If you find + this cold or unwomanly, remember that it is not + easy!" + +Yes! I felt that I had certainly drawn much nearer to her. And from this +time on, her imaginary face and form became other than they were. She +was twenty-eight--three years older; a very little above the middle +height, but not tall; serene, rather than stately, in her movements; +with a calm, almost grave face, relieved by the sweetness of the full, +firm lips; and finally eyes of pure, limpid gray, such as we fancy +belonged to the Venus of Milo. I found her, thus, much more attractive +than with the dark eyes and lashes--but she did not make her appearance +in the circles which I frequented. + +Another year slipped away. As an official personage, my importance +increased, but I was careful not to exaggerate it to myself. Many have +wondered (perhaps you among the rest) at my success, seeing that I +possess no remarkable abilities. If I have any secret, it is simply +this--doing faithfully, with all my might, whatever I undertake. Nine +tenths of our politicians become inflated and careless, after the first +few years, and are easily forgotten when they once lose place. I am a +little surprised, now, that I had so much patience with the Unknown. I +was too important, at least, to be played with; too mature to be +subjected to a longer test; too earnest, as I had proved, to be doubted, +or thrown aside without a further explanation. + +Growing tired, at last, of silent waiting, I bethought me of +advertising. A carefully-written "Personal," in which _Ignotus_ informed +_Ignota_ of the necessity of his communicating with her, appeared +simultaneously in the Tribune, Herald, World, and Times. I renewed the +advertisement as the time expired without an answer, and I think it was +about the end of the third week before one came, through the post, as +before. + +Ah, yes! I had forgotten. See! my advertisement is pasted on the note, +as a heading or motto for the manuscript lines. I don't know why the +printed slip should give me a particular feeling of humiliation as I +look at it, but such is the fact. What she wrote is all I need read to +you: + + "I could not, at first, be certain that this was + meant for me. If I were to explain to you why I + have not written for so long a time, I might give + you one of the few clews which I insist on keeping + in my own hands. In your public capacity, + you have been (so far as a woman may judge) upright, + independent, wholly manly: in your relations + with other men I learn nothing of you that is not + honorable: toward women you are kind, chivalrous, + no doubt, overflowing with the _usual_ social + refinements, but--Here, again, I run hard upon + the absolute necessity of silence. The way to me, + if you care to traverse it, is so simple, so very simple! + Yet, after what I have written, I cannot even + wave my hand in the direction of it, without certain + self-contempt. When I feel free to tell you, + we shall draw apart and remain unknown forever. + + "You desire to write? I do not prohibit it. I + have heretofore made no arrangement for hearing + from you, in turn, because I could not discover + that any advantage would accrue from it. But it + seems only fair, I confess, and you dare not think + me capricious. So, three days hence, at six + o'clock in the evening, a trusty messenger of mine + will call at your door. If you have anything to + give her for me, the act of giving it must be the + sign of a compact on your part, that you will allow + her to leave immediately, unquestioned and + unfollowed." + +You look puzzled, I see: you don't catch the real drift of her words? +Well--that's a melancholy encouragement. Neither did I, at the time: it +was plain that I had disappointed her in some way, and my intercourse +with, or manner toward, women, had something to do with it. In vain I +ran over as much of my later social life as I could recall. There had +been no special attention, nothing to mislead a susceptible heart; on +the other side, certainly no rudeness, no want of "chivalrous" (she used +the word!) respect and attention. What, in the name of all the gods, was +the matter? + +In spite of all my efforts to grow clearer, I was obliged to write my +letter in a rather muddled state of mind. I had _so_ much to say! +sixteen folio pages, I was sure, would only suffice for an introduction +to the case; yet, when the creamy vellum lay before me and the moist pen +drew my fingers toward it, I sat stock dumb for half an hour. I wrote, +finally, in a half-desperate mood, without regard to coherency or logic. +Here's a rough draft of a part of the letter, and a single passage from +it will be enough: + + "I can conceive of no simpler way to you than + the knowledge of your name and address. I have + drawn airy images of you, but they do not become + incarnate, and I am not sure that I should recognize + you in the brief moment of passing. Your + nature is not of those which are instantly legible. + As an abstract power, it has wrought in my life + and it continually moves my heart with desires + which are unsatisfactory because so vague and + ignorant. Let me offer you, personally, my gratitude, + my earnest friendship: you would laugh if + I were _now_ to offer more." + +Stay! here is another fragment, more reckless in tone: + + "I want to find the woman whom I can love--who + can love me. But this is a masquerade where + the features are hidden, the voice disguised, even + the hands grotesquely gloved. Come! I will + venture more than I ever thought was possible to + me. You shall know my deepest nature as I myself + seem to know it. Then, give me the commonest + chance of learning yours, through an intercourse + which shall leave both free, should we not + feel the closing of the inevitable bond!" + +After I had written that, the pages filled rapidly. When the appointed +hour arrived, a bulky epistle, in a strong linen envelope, sealed with +five wax seals, was waiting on my table. Precisely at six there was an +announcement: the door opened, and a little outside, in the shadow, I +saw an old woman, in a threadbare dress of rusty black. + +"Come in!" I said. + +"The letter!" answered a husky voice. She stretched out a bony hand, +without moving a step. + +"It is for a lady--very important business," said I, taking up the +letter; "are you sure that there is no mistake?" + +She drew her hand under the shawl, turned without a word, and moved +toward the hall door. + +"Stop!" I cried; "I beg a thousand pardons! Take it--take it! You are +the right messenger!" + +She clutched it, and was instantly gone. + +Several days passed, and I gradually became so nervous and uneasy that I +was on the point of inserting another "Personal" in the daily papers, +when the answer arrived. It was brief and mysterious; you shall hear +the whole of it. + + "I thank you. Your letter is a sacred confidence + which I pray you never to regret. Your + nature is sound and good. You ask no more + than is reasonable, and I have no real right to refuse. + In the one respect which I have hinted, _I_ + may have been unskilful or too narrowly cautious: + I must have the certainty of this. Therefore, as a + generous favor, give me six months more! At + the end of that time I will write to you again. + Have patience with these brief lines: another + word might be a word too much." + +You notice the change in her tone? The letter gave me the strongest +impression of a new, warm, almost anxious interest on her part. My +fancies, as first at Wampsocket, began to play all sorts of singular +pranks: sometimes she was rich and of an old family, sometimes +moderately poor and obscure, but always the same calm, reposeful face +and clear gray eyes. I ceased looking for her in society, quite sure +that I should not find her, and nursed a wild expectation of suddenly +meeting her, face to face, in the most unlikely places and under +startling circumstances. However, the end of it all was +patience--patience for six months. + +There's not much more to tell; but this last letter is hard for me to +read. It came punctually, to a day. I knew it would, and at the last I +began to dread the time, as if a heavy note were falling due, and I had +no funds to meet it. My head was in a whirl when I broke the seal. The +fact in it stared at me blankly, at once, but it was a long time before +the words and sentences became intelligible. + + "The stipulated time has come, and our hidden + romance is at an end. Had I taken this resolution + a year ago, it would have saved me many + vain hopes, and you, perhaps, a little uncertainty. + Forgive me, first, if you can, and then hear the + explanation! + + "You wished for a personal interview: _you have + had, not one, but many_. We have met, in society, + talked face to face, discussed the weather, the + opera, toilettes, Queechy, Aurora Floyd, Long + Branch and Newport, and exchanged a weary + amount of fashionable gossip; and you never + guessed that I was governed by any deeper interest! + I have purposely uttered ridiculous platitudes, + and you were as smilingly courteous as if + you enjoyed them: I have let fall remarks whose + hollowness and selfishness could not have escaped + you, and have waited in vain for a word of sharp, + honest, manly reproof. Your manner to me was + unexceptionable, as it was to all other women: + but there lies the source of my disappointment, + of--yes--of my sorrow! + + "You appreciate, I cannot doubt, the qualities + in woman which men value in one another--culture, + independence of thought, a high and earnest apprehension + of life; but you know not how to seek + them. It is not true that a mature and unperverted + woman is flattered by receiving only the + general obsequiousness which most men give to + the whole sex. In the man who contradicts and + strives with her, she discovers a truer interest, + a nobler respect. The empty-headed, spindle-shanked + youths who dance admirably, understand + something of billiards, much less of horses, and + still less of navigation, soon grow inexpressibly + wearisome to us; but the men who adopt their + social courtesy, never seeking to arouse, uplift, instruct + us, are a bitter disappointment. + + "What would have been the end, had you really + found me? Certainly a sincere, satisfying friendship. + No mysterious magnetic force has drawn + you to me or held you near me, nor has my experiment + inspired me with an interest which cannot + be given up without a personal pang. I am + grieved, for the sake of all men and all women. + Yet, understand me! I mean no slightest reproach. + I esteem and honor you for what you + are. Farewell!" + +There. Nothing could be kinder in tone, nothing more humiliating in +substance. I was sore and offended for a few days; but I soon began to +see, and ever more and more clearly, that she was wholly right. I was +sure, also, that any further attempt to correspond with her would be +vain. It all comes of taking society just as we find it, and supposing +that conventional courtesy is the only safe ground on which men and +women can meet. + +The fact is--there's no use in hiding it from myself (and I see, by +your face, that the letter cuts into your own conscience)--she is a +free, courageous, independent character, and--I am not. + +But who _was_ she? + + + + +THE DOCUMENTS IN THE CASE. + +BY BRANDER MATTHEWS AND H.C. BUNNER. + +PART FIRST: + +DOCUMENT NO. I. + +_Paragraph from the "Illustrated London News," published under the head +of "Obituary of Eminent Persons" in the issue of January 4th, 1879:_ + +SIR WILLIAM BEAUVOIR, BART. + +Sir William Beauvoir, Bart., whose lamented death has just occurred at +Brighton, on December 28th, was the head and representative of the +junior branch of the very ancient and honourable family of Beauvoir, and +was the only son of the late General Sir William Beauvoir, Bart., by his +wife Anne, daughter of Colonel Doyle, of Chelsworth Cottage, Suffolk. +He was born in 1805, and was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, +Cambridge. He was M.P. for Lancashire from 1837 to 1847, and was +appointed a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber in 1843. Sir William married, +in 1826, Henrietta Georgiana, fourth daughter of the Right Honourable +Adolphus Liddell, Q.C., by whom he had two sons, William Beauvoir and +Oliver Liddell Beauvoir. The latter was with his lamented parent when he +died. Of the former nothing has been heard for nearly thirty years, +about which time he left England suddenly for America. It is supposed +that he went to California, shortly after the discovery of gold. Much +forgotten gossip will now in all probability be revived, for the will of +the lamented baronet has been proved, on the 2d inst., and the +personalty sworn under L70,000. The two sons are appointed executors. +The estate in Lancashire is left to the elder, and the rest is divided +equally between the brothers. The doubt as to the career of Sir +William's eldest son must now of course be cleared up. + +This family of Beauvoirs is of Norman descent and of great antiquity. +This is the younger branch, founded in the last century by Sir William +Beauvoir, Bart., who was Chief Justice of the Canadas, whence he was +granted the punning arms and motto now borne by his descendants--a +beaver sable rampant on a field gules; motto, "Damno." + +PART SECOND: + +DOCUMENT NO. 2. + +_Promises to pay, put forth by William Beauvoir, junior, at various +times in 1848:_ + + I.O.U + L105.0.0 + April 10th, 1848. + William Beauvoir, junr. + +DOCUMENT NO. 3. + +_The same_. + + I.O.U + L250.0.0 + April 22d, 1848. + William Beauvoir, junr. + +DOCUMENT NO. 4. + +_The same._ + + I.O.U. + L600.0.0. + May 10th, 1848. + William Beauvoir, junr. + +DOCUMENT NO. 5. + +_Extract from the "Sunday Satirist," a journal of high-life, published +in London, May 13th, 1848:_ + +Are not our hereditary lawmakers and the members of our old families the +guardians of the honour of this realm? One would not think so to see the +reckless gait at which some of them go down the road to ruin. The D----e +of D----m and the E----l of B----n and L----d Y----g,--are not these +pretty guardians of a nation's name? _Quis custodiet?_ etc. Guardians, +forsooth, _parce qu'ils se sont donnes la peine de naitre_! Some of the +gentry make the running as well as their betters. Young W----m B----r, +son of old Sir W----m B----r, late M.P. for L----e, is truly a model +young man. He comes of a good old county family--his mother was a +daughter of the Right Honourable A----s L----l, and he himself is old +enough to know better. But we hear of his escapades night after night, +and day after day. He bets all day and he plays all night, and poor +tired nature has to make the best of it. And his poor worn purse gets +the worst of it. He has duns by the score. His I.O.U.'s are held by +every Jew in the city. He is not content with a little gentlemanlike +game of whist or _ecarte_, but he must needs revive for his especial use +and behoof the dangerous and well-nigh forgotten _pharaoh_. As luck +would have it, he had lost as much at this game of brute chance as ever +he would at any game of skill. His judgment of horseflesh is no better +than his luck at cards. He came a cropper over the "Two Thousand +Guineas." The victory of the favorite cost him to the tune of over six +thousand pounds. We learn that he hopes to recoup himself on the Derby, +by backing Shylock for nearly nine thousand pounds; one bet was twelve +hundred guineas. + +And this is the sort of man who may be chosen at any time by force of +family interest to make laws for the toiling millions of Great Britain! + +DOCUMENT NO. 6. + +_Extract from "Bell's Life" of May 19th, 1848:_ + +THE DERBY DAY. + +WEDNESDAY.--This day, like its predecessor, opened with a cloudless sky, +and the throng which crowded the avenues leading to the grand scene of +attraction was, as we have elsewhere remarked, incalculable. + + * * * * * + +THE DERBY. + +The Derby Stakes of 50 sovs. each, h. ft. for three year-olds; colts, 8 +st. 7 lb., fillies, 8 st. 2 lb.; the second to receive 100 sovs., and +the winner to pay 100 sovs. towards police, etc.; mile and a half on the +new Derby course; 215 subs. + + Lord Clifden's b.c. _Surplice_, by Touchstone.......... 1 + Mr. Bowe's b.c. _Springy Jack_, by Hetman.............. 2 + Mr. B. Green's br.c. _Shylock_, by Simoon.............. 3 + Mr. Payne's b.c. _Glendower_, by Slane............... o + Mr. J.P. Day's b.c. _Nil Desperandum_, by Venison...... o + + * * * * * + +DOCUMENT NO. 7. + +_Paragraph of Shipping Intelligence from the "Liverpool Courier" of June +21st, 1848:_ + +The bark _Euterpe_, Captain Riding, belonging to the Transatlantic +Clipper Line of Messrs. Judkins & Cooke, left the Mersey yesterday +afternoon, bound for New York. She took out the usual complement of +steerage passengers. The first officer's cabin is occupied by Professor +Titus Peebles, M.R.C.S., M.R.G.S., lately instructor in metallurgy at +the University of Edinburgh, and Mr. William Beauvoir. Professor +Peebles, we are informed, has an important scientific mission in the +States, and will not return for six months. + +DOCUMENT NO. 8. + +_Paragraph from the "N.Y. Herald" of September 9th, 1848:_ + +While we well know that the record of vice and dissipation can never be +pleasing to the refined tastes of the cultivated denizens of the only +morally pure metropolis on the face of the earth, yet it may be of +interest to those who enjoy the fascinating study of human folly and +frailty to "point a moral or adorn a tale" from the events transpiring +in our very midst. Such as these will view with alarm the sad example +afforded the youth of our city by the dissolute career of a young lump +of aristocratic affectation and patrician profligacy, recently arrived +in this city. This young _gentleman's_ (save the mark!) name is Lord +William F. Beauvoir, the latest scion of a venerable and wealthy English +family. We print the full name of this beautiful exemplar of "haughty +Albion," although he first appeared among our citizens under the alias +of Beaver, by which name he is now generally known, although recorded on +the books of the Astor House by the name which our enterprise first +gives to the public. Lord Beauvoir's career since his arrival here has +been one of unexampled extravagance and mad immorality. His days and +nights have been passed in the gilded palaces of the fickle goddess, +Fortune, in Thomas Street and College Place, where he has squandered +fabulous sums, by some stated to amount to over L78,000 sterling. It is +satisfactory to know that retribution has at last overtaken him. His +enormous income has been exhausted to the ultimate farthing, and at +latest accounts he had quit the city, leaving behind him, it is shrewdly +suspected, a large hotel bill, though no such admission can be extorted +from his last landlord, who is evidently a sycophantic adulator of +British "aristocracy." + +DOCUMENT NO. 9. + +_Certificate of deposit, vulgarly known as a pawn-ticket, issued by one +Simpson to William Beauvoir, December 2d, 1848:_ + + =John Simpson, + Loan Office, + 36 Bowery, + New York.= + + _Dec. 2nd, 1848_, + + _One Gold Hunting-case Watch and_ Dolls. Cts. + + _Chain 150 00_ + + _William Beauvoir_ + + Not accountable in case of fire, damage, moth, robbery, breakage, &c. + 25% per ann. Good for 1 year only. + +DOCUMENT NO. 10. + +_Letter from the late John Phoenix, found among the posthumous papers of +the late John P. Squibob, and promptly published in the "San Diego +Herald":_ + + OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA, Jan. 3, 1849. + + MY DEAR SQUIB:--I imagine your pathetic inquiry + as to my whereabouts--pathetic, not to say + hypothetic--for I am now where I cannot hear the + dulcet strains of your voice. I am on board ship. + I am half seas over. I am bound for California + by way of the Isthmus. I am going for the gold, + my boy, the gold. In the mean time I am lying + around loose on the deck of this magnificent + vessel, the _Mercy G. Tarbox,_ of Nantucket, bred by + _Noah's Ark_ out of _Pilot-boat,_ dam by _Mudscow_ out + of _Raging Canawl._ The _Mercy G. Tarbox_ is one of + the best boats of Nantucket, and Captain Clearstarch + is one of the best captains all along shore--although, + friend Squibob, I feel sure that you + are about to observe that a captain with a name + like that would give any one the blues. But + don't do it, Squib! Spare me this once. + + But as a matter of fact this ultramarine joke of + yours is about east. It was blue on the _Mercy + G.--_mighty blue, too. And it needed the inspiring + hope of the gold I was soon to pick up in nuggets + to stiffen my back-bone to a respectable degree + of rigidity. I was about ready to wilt. But + I discovered two Englishmen on board, and now I + get along all right. We have formed a little temperance + society--just we three, you know--to see + if we cannot, by a course of sampling and severe + study, discover which of the captain's liquors is + most dangerous, so that we can take the pledge + not to touch it. One of them is a chemist or a + metallurgist, or something scientific. The other + is a gentleman. + + The chemist or metallurgist or something scientific + is Professor Titus Peebles, who is going out + to prospect for gold. He feels sure that his professional + training will give him the inside track in + the gulches and gold mines. He is a smart chap. + He invented the celebrated "William Riley Baking + Powder"--bound to rise up every time. + + And here I must tell you a little circumstance. + As I was coming down to the dock in New York, + to go aboard the _Mercy G.,_ a small boy was walloping + a boy still smaller; so I made peace, and walloped + them both. And then they both began heaving + rocks at me--one of which I caught dexterously + in the dexter hand. Yesterday, as I was + pacing the deck with the professor, I put my hand + in my pocket and found this stone. So I asked the + professor what it was. + + He looked at it and said it was gneiss. + + "Is it?" said I. "Well, if a small but energetic + youth had taken you on the back of the head + with it, you would not think it so nice!" + + And then, O Squib, he set out to explain that he + meant "gneiss," not "nice!" The ignorance of + these English about a joke is really wonderful. It + is easy to see that they have never been brought + up on them. But perhaps there was some excuse + for the professor that day, for he was the president + _pro tem._ of our projected temperance society, and + as such he head been making a quantitative and + qualitative analysis of another kind of quartz. + + So much for the chemist or metallurgist or + something scientific. The gentleman and I get on + better. His name is Beaver, which he persists + in spelling Beauvoir. Ridiculous, isn't it? How + easy it is to see that the English have never had + the advantage of a good common-school education--so + few of them can spell. Here's a man don't + know how to spell his own name. And this shows + how the race over there on the little island is degenerating. + It was not so in other days. Shakspere, + for instance, not only knew how to spell his + own name, but--and this is another proof of his + superiority to his contemporaries--he could spell + it in half a dozen different ways. + + This Beaver is a clever fellow, and we get on + first rate together. He is going to California for + gold--like the rest of us. But I think he has had his + share--and spent it. At any rate he has not much + now. I have been teaching him poker, and I am + afraid he won't have any soon. I have an idea he + has been going pretty fast--and mostly down hill. + But he has his good points. He is a gentleman + all through, as you can see. Yes, friend Squibob, + even you could see right through him. We are + all going to California together, and I wonder + which one of the three will turn up trumps first--Beaver, + or the chemist, metallurgist or something + scientific, or + + Yours respectfully, JOHN PHOENIX. + + P.S. You think this a stupid letter, perhaps, + and not interesting. Just reflect on my surroundings. + Besides, the interest will accumulate a good + while before you get the missive. And I don't + know how you ever are to get it, for there is + no post-office near here, and on the Isthmus the + mails are as uncertain as the females are everywhere. + (I am informed that there is no postage on + old jokes--so I let that stand.) + J.P. + +DOCUMENT NO. 11. + +_Extract from the "Bone Gulch Palladium," June 3d, 1850:_ + +Our readers may remember how frequently we have declared our firm belief +in the future unexampled prosperity of Bone Gulch. We saw it in the +immediate future the metropolis of the Pacific Slope, as it was intended +by nature to be. We pointed out repeatedly that a time would come when +Bone Gulch would be an emporium of the arts and sciences and of the best +society, even more than it is now. We foresaw the time when the best men +from the old cities of the East would come flocking to us, passing with +contempt the puny settlement of Deadhorse. But even we did not so soon +see that members of the aristocracy of the effete monarchies of despotic +Europe would acknowledge the undeniable advantages of Bone Gulch, and +come here to stay permanently and forever. Within the past week we have +received here Hon. William Beaver, one of the first men of Great Britain +and Ireland, a statesman, an orator, a soldier and an extensive +traveller. He has come to Bone Gulch as the best spot on the face of the +everlasting universe. It is needless to say that our prominent citizens +have received him with great cordiality. Bone Gulch is not like +Deadhorse. We know a gentleman when we see one. + +Hon. Mr. Beaver is one of nature's noblemen; he is also related to the +Royal Family of England. He is a second cousin of the Queen, and boards +at the Tower of London with her when at home. We are informed that he +has frequently taken the Prince of Wales out for a ride in his +baby-wagon. + +We take great pleasure in congratulating Bone Gulch on its latest +acquisition. And we know Hon. Mr. Beaver is sure to get along all right +here under the best climate in the world and with the noblest men the +sun ever shone on. + +DOCUMENT NO. 12. + +_Extract from the Dead Horse "Gazette and Courier of Civilization" of +August 26th, 1850:_ + +BONEGULCH'S BRITISHER. + +Bonegulch sits in sackcloth and ashes and cools her mammoth cheek in the +breezes of Colorado canyon. The self-styled Emporium of the West has +lost her British darling, Beaver Bill, the big swell who was first +cousin to the Marquis of Buckingham and own grandmother to the Emperor +of China, the man with the biled shirt and low-necked shoes. This curled +darling of the Bonegulch aristocrat-worshippers passed through Deadhorse +yesterday, clean bust. Those who remember how the four-fingered editor +of the Bonegulch "Palladium" pricked up his ears and lifted up his +falsetto crow when this lovely specimen of the British snob first +honored him by striking him for a $ will appreciate the point of the +joke. + +It is said that the "Palladium" is going to come out, when it makes its +next semi-occasional appearance, in full mourning, with turned rules. +For this festive occasion we offer Brother B. the use of our late +retired Spanish font, which we have discarded for the new and elegant +dress in which we appear to-day, and to which we have elsewhere called +the attention of our readers. It will be a change for the "Palladium's" +eleven unhappy readers, who are getting very tired of the old type cast +for the Concha Mission in 1811, which tries to make up for its lack of +w's by a plentiful superfluity of greaser u's. How are you, Brother +Biles? + +"We don't know a gent when we see him." Oh no(?)! + +DOCUMENT NO. 13. + +_Paragraph from "Police Court Notes," in the "New Centreville [late Dead +Horse] Evening Gazette" January 2d, 1858:_ + +HYMENEAL HIGH JINKS. + +William Beaver, better known ten years ago as "Beaver Bill," is now a +quiet and prosperous agriculturalist in the Steal Valley. He was, +however, a pioneer in the 1849 movement, and a vivid memory of this fact +at times moves him to quit his bucolic labors and come in town for a +real old-fashioned tare. He arrived in New Centreville during Christmas +week; and got married suddenly, but not unexpectedly, yesterday morning. +His friends took it upon themselves to celebrate the joyful occasion, +rare in the experience of at least one of the parties, by getting very +high on Irish Ike's whiskey and serenading the newly-married couple with +fish-horns, horse-fiddles, and other improvised musical instruments. Six +of the participators in this epithalamial serenade, namely, Jose Tanco, +Hiram Scuttles, John P. Jones, Hermann Bumgardner, Jean Durant +("Frenchy"), and Bernard McGinnis ("Big Barney"), were taken in tow by +the police force, assisted by citizens, and locked up over night, to +cool their generous enthusiasm in the gloomy dungeons of Justice +Skinner's calaboose. This morning all were discharged with a reprimand, +except Big Barney and Jose Tanco, who, being still drunk, were allotted +ten days in default of $10. The bridal pair left this noon for the +bridegroom's ranch. + +DOCUMENT NO. 14. + +_Extract from "The New York Herald" for June 23d, 1861:_ + + THE RED SKINS. + + A BORDER WAR AT LAST! + + INDIAN INSURRECTION! + + RED DEVILS RISING! + + WOMEN AND CHILDREN SEEKING SAFETY IN THE LARGER + TOWNS. + + HORRIBLE HOLOCAUSTS ANTICIPATED. + + BURYING THE HATCHET--IN THE WHITE MAN'S HEAD. + +[SPECIAL DESPATCH TO THE NEW YORK HERALD.] + +CHICAGO, June 22, 1861. + +Great uneasiness exists all along the Indian frontier. Nearly all the +regular troops have been withdrawn from the West for service in the +South. With the return of the warm weather it seems certain that the red +skins will take advantage of the opportunity thus offered, and +inaugurate a bitter and vindictive fight against the whites. Rumors come +from the agencies that the Indians are leaving in numbers. A feverish +excitement among them has been easily to be detected. Their ponies are +now in good condition, and forage can soon be had in abundance on the +prairie, if it is not already. Everything points toward a sudden and +startling outbreak of hostilities. + +[SPECIAL DESPATCH TO THE NEW YORK HERALD.] + +ST. PAUL, June 22, 1861. + +The Sioux near here are all in a ferment. Experienced Indian fighters +say the signs of a speedy going on the war-path are not to be mistaken. +No one can tell how soon the whole frontier may be in a bloody blaze. +The women and children are rapidly coming in from all exposed +settlements. Nothing overt as yet has transpired, but that the Indians +will collide very soon with the settlers is certain. All the troops have +been withdrawn. In our defenceless state there is no knowing how many +lives may be lost before the regiments of volunteers now organizing can +take the field. + + LATER. + + THE WAR BEGUN. + + FIRST BLOOD FOR THE INDIANS. + + THE SCALPING KNIFE AND THE TOMAHAWK AT WORK AGAIN. + +[SPECIAL DESPATCH TO THE NEW YORK HERALD.] + +BLACK WING AGENCY, June 22, 1861. + +The Indians made a sudden and unexpected attack on the town of Coyote +Hill, forty miles from here, last night, and did much damage before the +surprised settlers rallied and drove them off. The red skins met with +heavy losses. Among the whites killed are a man named William Beaver, +sometimes called Beaver Bill, and his wife. Their child, a beautiful +little girl of two, was carried off by the red rascals. A party has been +made up to pursue them. Owing to their taking their wounded with them, +the trail is very distinct. + +DOCUMENT NO. 15. + +_Letter from Mrs. Edgar Saville, in San Francisco, to Mr. Edgar Saville, +in Chicago:_ + + CAL. JARDINE'S + + Monster Variety and Dramatic Combination. + + ON THE ROAD. + + _G.W.K. McCULLUM, + Treasurer + HI. SAMUELS, + Stage Manager. + FNO. SHANKS, + Advance_. + + _No dates filled except with first-class houses. + + Hall owners will please consider silence a polite negative._ + + SAN FRANCISCO, January 29, 1863. + + MY DEAR OLD MAN!--Here we are in our + second week at Frisco and you will be glad to + know playing to steadily increasing biz, having + signed for two weeks more, certain. I didn't like + to mention it when I wrote you last, but things + were very queer after we left Denver, and "Treasury" + was a mockery till we got to Bluefoot + Springs, which is a mining town, where we showed + in the hotel dining-room. Then there was a + strike just before the curtain went up. The house + was mostly miners in red shirts and very exacting. + The sinews were forthcoming very quick my + dear, and after that the ghost walked quite regular. + So now everything is bright, and you wont + have to worry if Chicago doesn't do the right + thing by you. + + I don't find this engagement half as disagreeable + as I expected. Of course it aint so very nice + travelling in a combination with variety talent but + they keep to themselves and we regular professionals + make a _happy family_ that Barnum would not + be ashamed of and quite separate and comfortable. + We don't associate with any of them only + with The Unique Mulligans wife, because he beats + her. So when he is on a regular she sleeps with + me. + + And talking of liquor dear old man, if you knew + how glad and proud I was to see you writing so + straight and steady and beautiful in your three + last letters. O, Im sure my darling if the boys + thought of the little wife out on the road they + wouldnt plague you so with the Enemy. Tell + Harry Atkinson this from me, he has a good kind + heart but he is the worst of your friends. Every + night when I am dressing I think of you at + Chicago, and pray you may never again go on the + way you did that terrible night at Rochester. + Tell me dear, did you look handsome in Horatio? + You ought to have had Laertes instead of that + duffing Merivale. + + And now I have the queerest thing to tell you. + Jardine is going in for Indians and has secured six + very ugly ones. I mean real Indians, not professional. + They are hostile Comanshies or something + who have just laid down their arms. They + had an insurrection in the first year of the War, + when the troops went East, and they killed all the + settlers and ranches and destroyed the canyons + somewhere out in Nevada, and when they were + brought here they had a wee little kid with them + only four or five years old, but _so sweet._ They stole + her and killed her parents and brought her up for + their own in the cunningest little moccasins. She + could not speak a word of English except her own + name which is Nina. She has blue eyes and all + her second teeth. The ladies here made a great + fuss about her and sent her flowers and worsted + afgans, but they did not do anything else for her + and left her to us. + + O dear old man you must let me have her! + You never refused me a thing yet and she is so + like our Avonia Marie that my heart almost breaks + when she puts her arms around my neck--_she calls + me mamma already._ I want to have her with us + when we get the little farm--and it must be near, + that little farm of ours--we have waited for it so + long--and something tells me my own old faker + will make his hit soon and be great. You cant + tell how I have loved it and hoped for it and how + real every foot of that farm is to me. And though + I can never see my own darling's face among the + roses it will make me so happy to see this poor + dead mothers pet get red and rosy in the country + air. And till the farm comes we shall always have + enough for her, without your ever having to black + up again as you did for me the winter I was sick + my own poor boy! + + Write me yes--you will be glad when you see + her. And now love and regards to Mrs. Barry and + all friends. Tell the Worst of Managers that he + knows where to find his leading juvenile for next + season. Think how funny it would be for us to + play together next year--we havent done it since + '57--the third year we were married. That was + my first season higher than walking--and now I'm + quite an old woman--most thirty dear! + + Write me soon a letter like that last one--and + send a kiss to Nina--_our Nina._ + + Your own girl, + + MARY. + + P.S. He has not worried me since. + +[Illustration: Nina drew this herself she says it is a horse so that you +can get here soon.] + +PART THIRD: + +DOCUMENT NO. 16. + +_Letter from Messrs. Throstlethwaite, Throstlethwaite and Dick, +Solicitors, Lincoln's Inn, London, England, to Messrs. Hitchcock and Van +Rensselaer, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, 76 Broadway, New York, +U.S.A._ + + January 8, 1879. + + Messrs. HITCHCOCK & VAN RENSSELAER: + + GENTLEMEN: On the death of our late client, Sir + William Beauvoir, Bart., and after the reading of + the deceased gentleman's will, drawn up nearly + forty years ago by our Mr. Dick, we were requested + by Oliver Beauvoir, Esq., the second son of the + late Sir William, to assist him in discovering and + communicating with his elder brother, the present + Sir William Beauvoir, of whose domicile we have + little or no information. + + After a consultation between Mr. Oliver Beauvoir + and our Mr. Dick, it was seen that the sole + knowledge in our possession amounted substantially + to this: Thirty years ago the elder son of + the late baronet, after indulging in dissipation in + every possible form, much to the sorrow of his respected + parent, who frequently expressed as much + to our Mr. Dick, disappeared, leaving behind him + bills and debts of all descriptions, which we, + under instructions from Sir William, examined, + audited and paid. Sir William Beauvoir would + allow no search to be made for his erring son and + would listen to no mention of his name. Current + gossip declared that he had gone to New York, + where he probably arrived about midsummer, + 1848. Mr. Oliver Beauvoir thinks that he crossed + to the States in company with a distinguished + scientific gentleman, Professor Titus Peebles. + Within a year after his departure news came that + he had gone to California with Professor Peebles; + this was about the time gold was discovered in the + States. That the present Sir William Beauvoir + did about this time actually arrive on the Pacific + Coast in company with the distinguished scientific + man above mentioned, we have every reason + to believe: we have even direct evidence on the + subject. A former junior clerk who had left us at + about the same period as the disappearance of the + elder son of our late client, accosted our Mr. Dick + when the latter was in Paris last summer, and informed + him (our Mr. Dick) that he (the former + junior clerk) was now a resident of Nevada and a + member of Congress for that county, and in the + course of conversation he mentioned that he had + seen Professor Peebles and the son of our late + client in San Francisco, nearly thirty years ago. + Other information we have none. It ought not to + be difficult to discover Professor Peebles, whose + scientific attainments have doubtless ere this been + duly recognized by the U.S. government. As + our late client leaves the valuable family estate in + Lancashire to his elder son and divides the remainder + equally between his two sons, you will + readily see why we invoke your assistance in discovering + the present domicile of the late baronet's + elder son, or in default thereof, in placing in our + hands such proof of his death as may be necessary + to establish that lamentable fact in our probate + court. + + We have the honour to remain, as ever, your + most humble and obedient servants, + + THROSTLETHWAITE, THROSTLETHWAITE & DICK. + + P.S. Our late client's grandson, Mr. William + Beauvoir, the only child of Oliver Beauvoir, Esq., + is now in the States, in Chicago or Nebraska or + somewhere in the West. We shall be pleased if + you can keep him informed as to the progress of + your investigations. Our Mr. Dick has requested + Mr. Oliver Beauvoir to give his son your address, + and to suggest his calling on you as he passes + through New York on his way home. + + T.T.& D. + +DOCUMENT NO. 17. + +_Letter from Messrs. Hitchcock and Van Rensselaer, New York, to Messrs. +Pixley and Sutton, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, 98 California +Street, San Francisco, California._ + + Law Offices of Hitchcock & Van Rensselaer, + 70 Broadway, New York, + P.O. Box 4078. + + Jan. 22, 1879. + + Messrs. PIXLEY AND SUTTON: + + GENTLEMEN: We have just received from our + London correspondents, Messrs. Throstlethwaite, + Throstlethwaite and Dick, of Lincoln's Inn, London, + the letter, a copy of which is herewith enclosed, + to which we invite your attention. We request that + you will do all in your power to aid us in the + search for the missing Englishman. From the letter + of Messrs. Throstlethwaite, Throstlethwaite and + Dick, it seems extremely probable, not to say certain, + that Mr. Beauvoir arrived in your city about + 1849, in company with a distinguished English + scientist, Professor Titus Peebles, whose professional + attainments were such that he is probably + well known, if not in California, at least in some + other of the mining States. The first thing to be + done, therefore, it seems to us, is to ascertain the + whereabouts of the professor, and to interview + him at once. It may be that he has no knowledge + of the present domicile of Mr. William Beauvoir--in + which case we shall rely on you to take such + steps as, in your judgment, will best conduce to a + satisfactory solution of the mystery. In any event, + please look up Professor Peebles, and interview + him at once. + + Pray keep us fully informed by telegraph of your + movements. Yr obt serv'ts, + + HITCHCOCK & VAN RENSSELAER. + +DOCUMENT NO. 18. + +_Telegram from Messrs. Pixley and Sutton, Attorneys and Counsellors at +Law, 98 California Street, San Francisco, California, to Messrs. +Hitchcock and Van Rensselaer, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, 76 +Broadway, New York._ + + SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. + Jan. 30. + + Tite Peebles well known frisco not professor + keeps faro bank. + + PIXLEY & SUTTON. + (D.H. 919.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 19. + +_Telegram from Messrs. Hitchcock and Van Rensselaer to Messrs. Pixley +and Sutton, in answer to the preceding._ + + NEW YORK, Jan. 30. + + Must be mistake Titus Peebles distinguished + scientist. + + HITCHCOCK & VAN RENSSELAER. + (Free. Answer to D.H.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 20. + +_Telegram from Messrs. Pixley and Sutton to Messrs. Hitchcock and Van +Rensselaer. in reply to the preceding._ + + SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., + Jan. 30. + + No mistake distinguished faro banker suspected + skin game shall we interview + + PIXLEY & SUTTON. + (D.H. 919.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 21. + +_Telegram from Messrs. Hitchcock and Van Rensselaer to Messrs. Pixley +and Sutton, in reply to the preceding._ + + NEW YORK, Jan. 30. + + Must be mistake interview anyway + + HITCHCOCK & VAN RENSSELAER. + (Free. Answer to D.H.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 22. + +_Telegram from Messrs. Pixley and Sutton to Messrs. Hitchcock and Van +Rensselaer, in reply to the preceding._ + +SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Jan. 30. + +Peebles out of town have written him + +PIXLEY & SUTTON. (D.H. 919.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 23. + +_Letter from Tite W. Peebles, delegate to the California Constitutional +Convention, Sacramento, to Messrs. Pixley and Sutton, 98 California +Street, San Francisco, California._ + + SACRAMENTO, Feb. 2, '79. + + Messrs. PIXLEY & SUTTON: + San Francisco. + + GENTLEMEN: Your favor of the 31st ult., forwarded + me from San Francisco, has been duly + rec'd, and contents thereof noted. + + My time is at present so fully occupied by my + duties as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention + that I can only jot down a brief report of my + recollections on this head. When I return to + S.F., I shall be happy to give you any further information + that may be in my possession. + + The person concerning whom you inquire was + my fellow passenger on my first voyage to this + State on board the _Mercy G. Tarbox_, in the latter + part of the year. He was then known as Mr. William + Beauvoir. I was acquainted with his history, + of which the details escape me at this writing. + He was a countryman of mine; a member of an + important county family--Devonian, I believe--and + had left England on account of large gambling + debts, of which he confided to me the exact + figure. I believe they totted up something like + L14,500. + + I had at no time a very intimate acquaintance + with Mr. Beauvoir; during our sojourn on the + _Tarbox_, he was the chosen associate of a depraved + and vicious character named Phoenix. I am not + averse from saying that I was then a member of a + profession rather different to my present one, + being, in fact, professor of metallurgy, and I saw + much less, at that period, of Mr. B. than I probably + should now. + + Directly we landed at S.F., the object of your + inquiries set out for the gold region, without adequate + preparation, like so many others did at that + time, and, I heard, fared very ill. + + I encountered him some six months later; I + have forgotten precisely in what locality, though I + have a faint impression that his then habitat was + some canon or ravine, deriving its name from certain + osseous deposits. Here he had engaged in + the business of gold-mining, without, perhaps, + sufficient grounds for any confident hope of ultimate + success. I have his I.O.U. for the amount + of my fee for assaying several specimens from his + claim, said specimens being all iron pyrites. + + This is all I am able to call to mind at present + in the matter of Mr. Beauvoir. I trust his subsequent + career was of a nature better calculated to + be satisfactory to himself; but his mineralogical + knowledge was but superficial; and his character + was sadly deformed by a fatal taste for low associates. + + I remain, gentlemen, your very humble and + obd't servant, TITUS W. PEEBLES. + + P.S.--Private. + + MY DEAR PIX: If you don't feel inclined to + pony up that little sum you are out on the bay + gelding, drop down to my place when I get back + and I'll give you another chance for your life at + the pasteboards. Constitution going through. + + Yours, TITE. + +PART FOURTH: + +DOCUMENT NO. 24. + +_Extract from the New Centreville [late Dead Horse] "Gazette and Courier +of Civilization," December 20th, 1878:_ + + "Miss Nina Saville appeared last night at the Mendocino + Grand Opera House, in her unrivalled specialty of _Winona + the Child of the Prairies;_ supported by Tompkins and Frobisher's + Grand Stellar Constellation. Although Miss Saville + has long been known as one of the most promising of California's + younger tragediennes, we feel safe in saying that the impression + she produced upon the large and cultured audience + gathered to greet her last night stamped her as one of the + greatest and most phenomenal geniuses of our own or other + times. Her marvellous beauty of form and feature, added to + her wonderful artistic power, and her perfect mastery of the difficult + science of clog-dancing, won her an immediate place in + the hearts of our citizens, and confirmed the belief that California + need no longer look to Europe or Chicago for dramatic + talent of the highest order. The sylph-like beauty, the harmonious + and ever-varying grace, the vivacity and the power of the + young artist who made her maiden effort among us last night, + prove conclusively that the virgin soil of California teems with + yet undiscovered fires of genius. The drama of _Winona, the + Child of the Prairies,_ is a pure, refined, and thoroughly absorbing + entertainment, and has been pronounced by the entire + press of the country equal to if not superior to the fascinating + _Lady of Lyons_. It introduces all the favorites of the company + in new and original characters, and with its original music, + which is a prominent feature, has already received over 200 + representations in the principal cities in the country. It abounds + in effective situations, striking tableaux, and a most quaint and + original concert entitled 'The Mule Fling,' which alone is worth + the price of admission. As this is its first presentation in this + city, the theatre will no doubt be crowded, and seats should be + secured early in the day. The drama will be preceded by that + prince of humorists, Mr. Billy Barker, in his humorous sketches + and pictures from life." + +We quote the above from our esteemed contemporary, the Mendocino +_Gazette_, at the request of Mr. Zeke Kilburn, Miss Saville's advance +agent, who has still further appealed to us, not only on the ground of +our common humanity, but as the only appreciative and thoroughly +informed critics on the Pacific Slope to "endorse" this rather vivid +expression of opinion. Nothing will give us greater pleasure. Allowing +for the habitual enthusiasm of our northern neighbor, and for the +well-known chaste aridity of Mendocino in respect of female beauty, we +have no doubt that Miss Nina Saville is all that the fancy, peculiarly +opulent and active even for an advance agent, of Mr. Kilburn has painted +her, and is quite such a vision of youth, beauty, and artistic +phenomenality as will make the stars of Paris and Illinois pale their +ineffectual fires. + +Miss Saville will appear in her "unrivalled specialty" at Hanks's New +Centreville Opera House, to-morrow night, as may be gathered, in a +general way, from an advertisement in another column. + +We should not omit to mention that Mr. Zeke Kilburn, Miss Saville's +advance agent, is a gentleman of imposing presence, elegant manners, and +complete knowledge of his business. This information may be relied upon +as at least authentic, having been derived from Mr. Kilburn himself, to +which we can add, as our own contribution, the statement that Mr. +Kilburn is a gentleman of marked liberality in his ideas of spirituous +refreshments, and of equal originality in his conception of the uses, +objects and personal susceptibilities of the journalistic profession. + +DOCUMENT NO. 25. + +_Local Item from the "New Centreville Standard," December 20th, 1878:_ + +Hon. William Beauvoir has registered at the United States Hotel. Mr. +Beauvoir is a young English gentleman of great wealth, now engaged in +investigating the gigantic resources of this great country. We welcome +him to New Centreville. + +DOCUMENT NO. 26. + +_Programme of the performance given in the Centreville Theatre, Dec. +21st, 1878:_ + + HANKS' NEW CENTREVILLE OPERA HOUSE + + A. Jackson Hanks.....................Sole Proprietor and Manager. + + FIRST APPEARANCE IN THIS CITY OF TOMPKINS & FROBISHER'S GRAND + STELLAR CONSTELLATION, + + Supporting California's favorite daughter, the young American + Tragedienne, + + MISS NINA SAVILLE, + + Who will appear in Her Unrivalled Specialty, + + "Winona, the Child of the Prairie." + + THIS EVENING, DECEMBER 21st, 1878, + + Will be presented, with the following phenomenal cast, the accepted + American Drama, + + WINONA: THE CHILD OF THE PRAIRIE. + + WINONA.................................................... Miss + FLORA MacMADISON..................................... BIDDY + FLAHERTY........................................... OLD AUNT DINAH + (with Song, "Don't Get Weary").............Miss NINA SALLY + HOSKINS............................................. SAVILLE (With + the old-time melody, "Bobbin' Around.") POOR JOE (with + Song)...................................... FRAULINE LINA + BOOBENSTEIN................................. (With stammering song, + "I yoost landet.") SIR EDMOND BENNETT (specially + engaged)................E.C. GRAINGER WALTON + TRAVERS.........................................G.W. PARSONS GIPSY + JOE..................................................M. ISAACS + 'ANNIBAL 'ORACE 'IGGINS................................BILLY BARKER + TOMMY TIPPER.....................................Miss MAMIE SMITH + PETE, the Man on the Dock................................SI HANCOCK + Mrs. MALONE, the Old Woman in the Little House.... Mrs. K.Y. BOOTH + ROBERT BENNETT (aged five)......................Little ANNIE WATSON + + Act I.--The Old Home. Act II.--Alone in the World. Act III.--The + Frozen Gulf: THE GREAT ICEBERG SENSATION. Act IV.--Wedding Bells. + + "Winona, the Child of the Prairie," will be preceded by + + A FAVORITE FARCE, + + In which the great BILLY BARKER will appear in one of his most + outrageously funny bits. + + New Scenery......................by....................Q.Z. Slocum + + Music by Professor Kiddoo's Silver Bugle Brass Band and Philharmonic + Orchestra. + + Chickway's Grand Piano, lent by Schmidt, 2 Opera House Block. + + AFTER THE SHOW, GO TO HANKS' AND SEE A MAN + + Pop Williams, the only legitimate Bill-Poster in New Centreville. + + (New Centreville Standard Print.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 27. + +_Extract from the New Centreville [late Dead Horse] "Gazette and Courier +of Civilization," Dec. 24th, 1878:_ + +A little while ago, in noting the arrival of Miss Nina Saville of the +New Centreville Opera House we quoted rather extensively from our +esteemed contemporary, the Mendocino _Times_ and commented upon the +quotation. Shortly afterwards, it may also be remembered, we made a very +direct and decided apology for the sceptical levity which inspired those +remarks, and expressed our hearty sympathy with the honest, if somewhat +effusive, enthusiasm with which the dramatic critic of Mendocino greeted +the sweet and dainty little girl who threw over the dull, weary old +business of the stage "sensation" the charm of a fresh and childlike +beauty and originality, as rare and delicate as those strange, +unreasonable little glimmers of spring sunsets that now and then light +up for a brief moment the dull skies of winter evenings, and seem to +have strayed into ungrateful January out of sheer pity for the sad +earth. + +Mendocino noticed the facts that form the basis of the above +meteorological simile, and we believe we gave Mendocino full credit for +it at the time. We refer to the matter at this date only because in our +remarks of a few days ago we had occasion to mention the fact of the +existence of Mr. Zeke Kilburn, an advance agent, who called upon us at +the time, to endeavor to induce us, by means apparently calculated more +closely for the latitude of Mendocino, to extend to Miss Saville, before +her appearance, the critical approbation which we gladly extended after. +This little item of interest we alluded to at the time, and furthermore +intimated, with some vagueness, that there existed in Kilburn's +character a certain misdirected zeal combined with a too keen artistic +appreciation, are apt to be rather dangerous stock-in trade for an +advance agent. + +It was twenty seven minutes past two o'clock yesterday afternoon. The +chaste white mystery of Shigo Mountain was already taking on a faint, +almost imperceptible, hint of pink, like the warm cheek of a girl who +hears a voice and anticipates a blush. Yet the rays of the afternoon sun +rested with undiminished radiance on the empty pork-barrel in front of +McMullin's shebang. A small and vagrant infant, whose associations with +empty barrels were doubtless hitherto connected solely with dreams of +saccharine dissipation, approached the bunghole with precocious caution, +and retired with celerity and a certain acquisition of experience. An +unattached goat, a martyr to the radical theory of personal +investigation, followed in the footsteps of infantile humanity, retired +with even greater promptitude, and was fain to stay its stomach on a +presumably empty rend-rock can, afterward going into seclusion behind +McMullin's horse-shed, before the diuretic effect of tin flavored with +blasting-powder could be observed by the attentive eye of science. + +Mr. Kilburn emerged from the hostlery without Mr. McMullin. Mr. Kilburn, +as we have before stated at his own request, is a gentleman of imposing +presence. It is well that we made this statement when we did, for it is +hard to judge of the imposing quality in a gentleman's presence when +that gentleman is suspended from the arm of another gentleman by the +collar of the first gentleman's coat. The gentleman in the rear of Mr. +Kilburn was Mr. William Beauvoir, a young Englishman in a check suit. +Mr. Beauvoir is not avowedly a man of imposing presence; he wears a seal +ring, and he is generally a scion of an effete oligarchy, but he has, +since his introduction into this community, behaved himself, to use the +adjectivial adverb of Mr. McMullin, _white_, and he has a very +remarkable biceps. These qualities may hereafter enhance his popularity +in New Centreville. + +Mr. Beauvoir's movements, at twenty-seven minutes past two yesterday +afternoon, were few and simple. He doubled Mr. Kilburn up, after the +fashion of an ordinary jack-knife, and placed him in the barrel, +wedge-extremity first, remarking, as he did so, "She is, is she?" He +then rammed Mr. Kilburn carefully home, and put the cover on. + +We learn to-day that Mr. Kilburn has resumed his professional duties on +the road. + +DOCUMENT NO. 28. + +_Account of the same event from the New Centreville "Standard" December +24th, 1878:_ + +It seems strange that even the holy influences which radiate from this +joyous season cannot keep some men from getting into unseemly wrangles. +It was only yesterday that our local saw a street row here in the quiet +avenues of our peaceful city--a street row recalling the riotous scenes +which took place here before Dead Horse experienced a change of heart +and became New Centreville. Our local succeeded in gathering all the +particulars of the affray, and the following statement is reliable. It +seems that Mr. Kilburn, the gentlemanly and affable advance agent of the +Nina Saville Dramatic Company, now performing at Andy Hanks' Opera House +to big houses, was brutally assaulted by a ruffianly young Englishman, +named Beauvoir, for no cause whatever. We say for no cause, as it is +obvious that Mr. Kilburn, as the agent of the troupe, could have said +nothing against Miss Saville which an outsider, not to say a foreigner +like Mr. Beauvoir, had any call to resent. Mr. Kilburn is a gentleman +unaccustomed to rough-and-tumble encounters, while his adversary has +doubtless associated more with pugilists than gentlemen--at least any +one would think so from his actions yesterday. Beauvoir hustled Mr. +Kilburn out of Mr. McMullin's, where the unprovoked assault began, and +violently shook him across the new plank sidewalk. The person by the +name of Clark, whom Judge Jones for some reason now permits to edit the +moribund but once respectable _Gazette_, caught the eye of the congenial +Beauvoir, and, true to the ungentlemanly instincts of his base nature, +pointed to a barrel in the street. The brutal Englishman took the hint +and thrust Mr. Kilburn forcibly into the barrel, leaving the vicinity +before Mr. Kilburn, emerging from his close quarters, had fully +recovered. What the ruffianly Beauvoir's motive may have been for this +wanton assault it is impossible to say; but it is obvious to all why +this fellow Clark sought to injure Mr. Kilburn, a gentleman whose many +good qualities he of course fails to appreciate. Mr. Kilburn, +recognizing the acknowledged merits of our job-office, had given us the +contract for all the printing he needed in New Centreville. + +DOCUMENT NO. 29. + +_Advertisement from the New York "Clipper" Dec. 21st, 1878:_ + + WINSTON & MACK'S GRAND INTERNATIONAL MEGATHERIUM VARIETY + COMBINATION. COMPANY CALL. + + Ladies and Gentlemen of the Company will assemble for rehearsal, at + Emerson's Opera House, San Francisco, on Wednesday, Dec 27th, 12 M + sharp. Band at 11. J.B. WINSTON EDWIN R. MACK--Managers. Emerson's + Opera House, San Francisco, Dec. 10th, 1878. Protean Artist wanted. + Would like to hear from Nina Saville. 12-11. + +DOCUMENT NO. 30. + +_Letter from Nina Saville to William Beauvoir._ + + NEW CENTREVILLE, December 26, 1878. + + My Dear Mr. Beauvoir--I was very sorry to + receive your letter of yesterday--_very_ sorry--because + there can be only one answer that I can + make--and you might well have spared me the + pain of saying the word--No. You ask me if I love + you. If I did--do you think it would be true + love in me to tell you so, when I know what it + would cost you? Oh indeed you must never + marry _me_! In your own country you would + never have heard of me--never seen me--surely + never written me such a letter to tell me that you + love me and want to marry me. It is not that I + am ashamed of my business or of the folks around + me, or ashamed that I am only the charity child + of two poor players, who lived and died working + for the bread for their mouths and mine. I am + proud of them--yes, proud of what they did and + suffered for one poorer than themselves--a little + foundling out of an Indian camp. But I know + the difference between you and me. You are a + great man at home--you have never told me how + great--but I know your father is a rich lord, and I + suppose you are. It is not that I think _you_ care + for that, or think less of me because I was born + different from you. I know how good--how + kind--how _respectful_ you have always been to + me--_my lord_--and I shall never forget it--for a girl + in my position knows well enough how you might + have been otherwise. Oh believe me--_my true + friend_--I am never going to forget all you have + done for me--and how good it has been to have + you near me--a man so different from most others. + I don't mean only the kind things you have + done--the books and the thoughts and the ways + you have taught me to enjoy--and all the trouble + you have taken to make me something better than + the stupid little girl I was when you found me--but + a great deal more than that--the consideration + you have had for me and for what I hold best in the + world. I had never met a _gentleman_ before--and + now the first one I meet--he is my _friend_. That is + a great deal. + + Only think of it! You have been following me + around now for three months, and I have been + weak enough to allow it. I am going to do the + right thing now. You may think it hard in me _if + you really mean what you say,_ but even if everything + else were right, I would not marry you--because + of your rank. I do not know how things are at + your home--but something tells me it would be + wrong and that your family would have a right to + hate you and never forgive you. Professionals + cannot go in your society. And that is even if I + loved you--and I do not love you--I do not love + you--_I do not love you_--now I have written it you + will believe it. + + So now it is ended--I am going back to the line + I was first in--variety--and with a new name. So + you can never find me--I entreat you--I beg of + you--not to look for me. If you only put your + mind to it--you will find it so easy to forget me--for + I will not do you the wrong to think that you + did not mean what you wrote in your letter or + what you said that night _when we sang Annie Laurie + together_ the last time. + Your sincere friend, + NINA. + +DOCUMENTS NOS. 31 AND 32. + +_Items from San Francisco "Figaro" of December 29th, 1878:_ + +Nina Saville Co. disbanded New Centreville. 26th. No particulars +received. + +Winston & Mack's Comb. takes the road December 31st, opening at Tuolumne +Hollow. Manager Winston announces the engagement of Anna Laurie, the +Protean change artiste, with songs, "Don't Get Weary," "Bobbin' Around," +"I Yoost Landet." + +DOCUMENT NO. 33. + +_Telegram from Zeke Kilburn, New Centreville, to Winston and Mack, +Emerson's Opera House, San Francisco, Cal.:_ + + NEW CENTREVILLE, Dec. 28, 1878. + + Have you vacancy for active and energetic advance + agent. + + Z. KILBURN. + (9 words 30 paid.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 34. + +_Telegram from Winston and Mack, San Francisco, to Zeke Kilburn, New +Centreville:_ + + SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28, 1878 + + No + + WINSTON & MACK. + (Collect 30 cents.) + +DOCUMENT NO. 35. + +_Bill sent to William Beauvoir, United States Hotel, Tuolumne Hollow, +Cal.:_ + + _Tuolumne Hollow, Cal., Dec. 29, 1878._ + + _Wm. Beauvoir, Esq._ + + Bought of HIMMEL & HATCH, + Opera House Block, + JEWELLERS & DIAMOND MERCHANTS, + + Dealers in all kinds of Fancy Goods, Stationery and Umbrellas, Watches, + Clocks and Barometers. + + TERMS CASH. MUSICAL BOXES REPAIRED. + + _Dec. 29, One diamond and enamelled locket._........ $75.00 + _One gold chain_........................................... 48.00 + _______ + $123.00 + + _Rec'd Payt._ + _Himmel & Hatch, + per S._ + +PART FIFTH: + +DOCUMENT NO. 36. + +_Letter from Cable J. Dexter, Esq., to Messrs: Pixley and Sutton, San +Francisco:_ + + NEW CENTREVILLE, CAL., March 3, 1879. + + Messrs. PIXLEY & SUTTON: + + GENTS: I am happy to report that I have at last + reached the bottom level in the case of William + Beaver, _alias_ Beaver Bill, deceased through Indians + in 1861. + + In accordance with your instructions and check, + I proceeded, on the 10th ult., to Shawgum Creek, + when I interviewed Blue Horse, chief of the Comanches, + who tomahawked subject of your inquiries + in the year above mentioned. Found the Horse + in the penitentiary, serving out a drunk and disorderly. + Though belligerent at date aforesaid, + Horse is now tame, though intemperate. Appeared + unwilling to converse, and required stimulants + to awaken his memory. Please find enclosed + memo. of account for whiskey, covering extra + demijohn to corrupt jailer. Horse finally stated + that he personally let daylight through deceased, + and is willing to guarantee thoroughness of decease. + Stated further that aforesaid Beaver's + family consisted of squaw and kid. Is willing to + swear that squaw was killed, the tribe having no + use for her. Killing done by Mule-Who-Goes-Crooked, + personal friend of Horse's. The minor + child was taken into camp and kept until December + of 1863, when tribe dropped to howling cold + winter and went on government reservation. Infant + (female) was then turned over to U.S. Government + at Fort Kearney. + + I posted to last named locality on the 18th ult. + and found by the quartermaster's books that, no + one appearing to claim the kid, she had been duly + indentured, together with six Indians, to a man + by the name of Guardine or Sardine (probably the + latter), in the show business. The Indians were + invoiced as Sage Brush Jimmy, Boiling Hurricane, + Mule-Who-Goes-Crooked, Joe, Hairy Grasshopper + and Dead Polecat. Child known as White Kitten. + Receipt for Indians was signed by Mr. Hi. + Samuels, who is still in the circus business, and + whom I happen to be selling out at this moment, + at suit of McCullum & Montmorency, former partners. + Samuels positively identified kid with variety + specialist by name of Nina Saville, who has + been showing all through this region for a year + past. + + I shall soon have the pleasure of laying before + you documents to establish the complete chain of + evidence, from knifing of original subject of your + inquiries right up to date. + + I have to-day returned from New Centreville, + whither I went after Miss Saville. Found she had + just skipped the town with a young Englishman + by the name of Bovoir, who had been paying her + polite attentions for some time, having bowied or + otherwise squelched a man for her within a week + or two. It appears the young woman had refused + to have anything to do with him for a long + period; but he seems to have struck pay gravel + about two days before my arrival. At present, + therefore, the trail is temporarily lost; but I expect + to fetch the couple if they are anywhere this side + of the Rockies. + + Awaiting your further instructions, and cash + backing thereto, I am, gents, very resp'y yours, + + CABLE J. DEXTER. + +DOCUMENT NO. 37 + +_Envelope of letter from Sir Oliver Beauvoir, Bart., to his son, William +Beauvoir:_ + + _Sent to Dead Letter Office._ + + _Mr. William Beauvoir_ + _Sherman House Hotel_ + _Chicago_ + _United States of America_ + +_not here_ +_try Brevoort House_ +_N.Y._ + +DOCUMENT NO. 38. + +_Letter contained in the envelope above_: + + CHELSWORTH COTTAGE, March 30, 1879. + + MY DEAR BOY: In the sudden blow which has + come upon us all I cannot find words to write. + You do not know what you have done. Your + uncle William, after whom you were named, died + in America. He left but one child, a daughter, + the only grandchild of my father except you. + And this daughter is the Miss Nina Saville with + whom you have formed so unhappy a connection. + She is your own cousin. She is a Beauvoir. She + is of our blood, as good as any in England. + + My feelings are overpowering. I am choked by + the suddenness of this great grief. I cannot write + to you as I would. But I can say this: Do not + let me see you or hear from until this stain be + taken from our name. + + OLIVER BEAUVOIR. + +DOCUMENT NO. 39. + +_Cable dispatch of William Beauvoir, Windsor Hotel, New York, to Sir +Oliver Beauvoir, Bart., Chelsworth Cottage, Suffolk, England_: + + NEW YORK, May 1, 1879. + + Have posted you Herald. + + WILLIAM BEAUVOIR. + +DOCUMENT NO. 40. + +_Advertisement under head of "Marriages," from the New York "Herald," +April 30th, 1879:_ + +BEAUVOIR--BEAUVOIR.--On Wednesday, Jan. 1st, 1879, at Steal Valley, +California, by the Rev. Mr. Twells, William Beauvoir, only son of Sir +Oliver Beauvoir, of Chelsworth Cottage, Surrey, England, to Nina, only +child of the late William Beauvoir, of New Centreville, Cal. + +DOCUMENT NO. 41. + +_Extract from the New York "Herald" of May 29th, 1879:_ + +Among the passengers on the outgoing Cunard steamer _Gallia_, which left +New York on Wednesday, was the Honorable William Beauvoir, only son of +Sir Oliver Beauvoir, Bart., of England. Mr. Beauvoir has been passing +his honeymoon in this city, and, with his charming bride, a famous +California belle, has been the recipient of many cordial courtesies from +members of our best society. Mr. William Beauvoir is a young man of +great promise and brilliant attainments, and is a highly desirable +addition to the large and constantly increasing number of aristocratic +Britons who seek for wives among the lovely daughters of Columbia. We +understand that the bridal pair will take up their residence with the +groom's father, at his stately country-seat, Chelsworth Manor, Suffolk. + + + + +ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. + + +BY WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP. + + + + +I. + + +GRUYERE'S. + +In the spring of the year 1870 the premium on gold had fallen so low +that it began to be thought by sanguine people that specie payments +would be resumed at once. Silver in considerable quantities actually +came into circulation. Restaurants, cigar-stands, and establishments +dealing in the lighter articles of merchandise paid it out in change, by +way of an extra inducement to customers. + +On one of these days Henry Barwood, a treasury clerk, and Megilp, the +rather well-known picture restorer, met by accident at the door of +Gruyere's restaurant. Gruyere's place, although in the business +quarter, is not supported to any great extent by the hurrying throng of +bankers', brokers', merchants', and lawyers' clerks who overrun the +vicinity every day at lunch-time. It is a rather leisurely resort, +frequented by well-to-do importers, musicians, and artists, people who +have travelled, and whose affairs admit of considerable deliberation and +repose. Barwood in former times had been in the habit of going there +occasionally to air his amateur French, burn a spoonful of brandy in his +coffee, and enjoy an economical foretaste of Paris. Returned to New York +after a considerable absence, to spend his vacation at home, he was +inclined to renew this with other old associations. + +Megilp, sprung from a race which has supplied the world with a large +share of its versatility of talent and its adventurous proclivities, was +familiarly known at Gruyere's as "Mac." He was removed above want by the +possession of an income sufficient, with some ingenuity of management, +to provide him with the bare necessaries of life. + +He found leisure to come every day to retail the gossip of the studios, +and fortify himself for the desultory labors in which he was engaged. He +liked the society of young men for several reasons. For one thing, they +were more free with their purses than his older cronies. The +association, he also thought, threw a sort of glamour of youth about his +own person. Finally, they listened to the disquisitions and artistic +rhapsodies in which he was fond of indulging, with an attention by no +means accorded by his compeers. + +Barwood was of a speculative turn of mind, and had also by nature a +strong leaning towards whatever was curious and out of the common. These +proclivities Megilp's conversation, pursuits, and studio full of +trumpery were calculated to gratify. A moderate sort of friendship had +in consequence sprung up between them. + +They made mutual protestations of pleasure at this meeting. Barwood +considered it an occasion worthy of a bottle of Dry Verzenay, which was +not demurred to by Megilp. + +The payment of specie was so entire a novelty that, when the inquiries +and explanations natural after a long separation were concluded, it was +among the first topics touched upon. + +"Sure it's the first hard money I've seen these ten years, so it is," +said Megilp. + +"That is my case also," said Barwood. "I took as little interest in the +matter as any boy of fourteen might be expected to; but I remember very +well how rapidly specie disappeared at the beginning of the war." + +"And where has it been?" said Megilp. "There's many fine points of +interest about it, do you see. Consider the receptacles in which it has +been hoarded--the secret places in chimneys, under floors and under +ground, the vaults, old stockings, cabinets, and caskets that have +teemed and glittered with it. Then there's the characters again, of all +its various owners: the timid doubters about the government, the +speculators, the curiosity hunters, the misers"-- + +"Yes," said Barwood, "the history of a single one of these pieces for +the period would probably make a story full of interest." It did not +detract from the value of Megilp's conversation, in Barwood's view, that +the worthy artist said "foine" and "hoorded" instead of adopting the +more conventional pronunciation. + +"But what I'm after telling you isn't the singular part of it at all," +resumed Megilp, taking some silver from his pocket and evidently +settling down to the subject. "What is ten years to it? According to the +mint reports a coin of the precious metals loses by wear and tear but +one twenty-four hundredth of its bulk in a year. These pieces I hold in +my hand, coined forty years ago, are scarcely defaced. In another forty +they will be hardly more so. What, for instance, has been the career of +this Mexican dollar? Perhaps it was struck from bullion fresh from a +Mexican mine. In that case I have nothing to say. But just as likely it +was struck from old Spanish plate or from former coin, and then it takes +us back to the earliest times, and its origin is lost in obscurity. The +same metal is time after time re-melted, re-cast, re-stamped, and thus +maintained in perpetual youth. This gold piece upon my watch-chain was +perchance coined from the sands of the Pactolus, and once bore +Chaldaean characters. And to what uses has it come? + + 'Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away;' + +and so the pieces paid for the ransom of the Inca of Peru or Richard the +Lion-hearted, the material of the spurs of Agincourt, the rings of +Cleopatra and Zenobia, the golden targets of Solomon, fashioned from the +treasures of Ophir, may purchase soap and candles and mutton-chops for +John Smith. And yet why not? We ourselves have come down to commonplace +usages; why should not the works of our hands? You with your +conventional hat and English walking-coat, I with my spectacles and +Irish brogue, have had ancestors that wore coats of mail in the first +crusade, or twanged cross-bows with Robin Hood, sailed in the ships of +Tarshish, and traded to Tyre and Sidon." + +"You think, then," said Barwood, "that some part of the coinage of +antiquity is still in circulation." + +"To be sure I do, don't I tell you? I say the precious metals are +indestructible. All the coins that have figured prominently in history +are in some shape or other among us still. Twenty-four hundred years of +active use are needed to wear out a coin completely. How long will it +last with moderate use, and with intervals of lying buried for hundreds +of years, as much of the coinage of antiquity now extant in its +original condition has done? We have among us the rings, bolts, chains +bracelets, drinking-vessels, and vases that glitter in the narratives of +all the chroniclers, and embody the pomp and luxury of all the ages. + +"My silver dollar here, which I ring upon Gruyere's table, and with +which, had it not been for your amiable politeness, I should have paid +for my frugal lunch, has haply been moulded in Cellini's dagger-hilts or +crucifixes, or formed part of a pirate's booty from a scuttled galleon +on the Spanish Main. For aught I know, it was current money in Nineveh +and Babylon. Perhaps it is one of the pieces paid by Abraham to the +children of Heth for the double cave that looked towards Mamre." + +"Or one of the pieces for which Judas betrayed the Master," suggested +Barwood. + +Megilp looked startled, and involuntarily pushed the money away from +him. "That is a singular fancy of yours." + +"It came to me quite spontaneously this moment," said Barwood. "I don't +know but it is, and yet it was a very natural sequence from what +preceded." + +Both were abstracted for some moments, and contemplated in silence the +bubbles twisting up the stems of the delicate wine-glasses. + +"Do you suppose," finally said Barwood, "that those coins, if extant, +carry with them an enduring curse?" + +"There's no good in them, you may depend," said the other. By this time +both bottle and plates were empty. The train of thought they had been +pursuing seemed to have found its climax in the turn given it by +Barwood. Over their coffee and dessert they discussed more cheerful +topics. + +"Come around to my place before you leave town," said Megilp, as they +shook hands at parting. "I have a one-legged bronze Hercules from +Pompeii. I think ye'll enjoy it." + +As he hobbled away he muttered to himself more than once, "It's the +divil's own fancy, so it is." + + * * * * * + +II. + +ETHEREAL CLAIMS. + +The business of the Bureau of Ethereal Claims at Washington was +conducted by a moderate force of clerks, under the direction of General +Bellwether. The general had been a little of everything in his time. At +the outbreak of the war he abandoned an unprofitable insurance agency to +raise a company. He displayed considerable courage and strategic talent +in his campaigning, came out a brevet brigadier, and had been making a +good thing of it ever since in the government service. The office +bristled with military titles. Everybody except Barwood and Judge +Montane was either colonel, major, or captain. As to the judge, a +middle-aged, uncommunicative man who was known to be supporting a large +family, he confessed one day over a bottle, ordered in by the bureau +during the general's absence, that his title was chiefly honorary. + +"What court did you used to be judge of, Montane?" inquired young Mars +Brown. + +"I'll tell you, boys," replied the judge, yielding to the genial +influences of the occasion; "I'm just no judge at all, do you see, +except may be as I'd be a good judge of whiskey or the like." + +It was doubtful whether the claims of some others of the number could +have been much better established. + +Mars Brown, son of the senator of that name,--a man whose influence few +generals or bureaus of claims could afford to disregard,--was naturally +the most privileged character in the office. He chatted familiarly with +the general when that irregular chief was present, absented himself for +several days at a time with perfect unconcern, came late in the morning, +and went early, as he explained, to make up for it. He was a handsome +fellow, thoroughly confident of himself, and companionable. He +displayed, among other accomplishments, an acquaintance with the manners +and customs of horses and dogs, and a facility in the management of +boats, guns, and fishing tackle that made him an indisputable authority +on all matters of the sort. His stock of stories was immense, his wit +always ready and very comical. He could convulse a dinner-party when +everything else failed, by making ridiculous faces. Among ladies of all +ages he was a sort of conquering hero. He was consequently in general +social demand as the life of the company. + +Such was Mars Brown, whom Barwood, shortly after his return to +Washington, began to regard with distrust and dislike, as a possible +rival in the quarter where his affections were chiefly centred. + +It might have been expected, from the general's excessive preoccupation +with lobbyists and politicians, that the business of the bureau should +languish, and so it did. The brunt of it was borne by a few clerks--of +whom Barwood was not one--whose tenure of office depended upon efficient +work rather than upon influential backing. Government work must be +performed by somebody, and it happens that, in spite of the great +principle of rotation, the heads of men of undeniable usefulness rest +firm upon their shoulders while hundreds are toppling all about them. + +The bureau was not without spasmodic attempts at discipline. The general +spent an occasional forenoon in lying in wait for delinquents, whose +shortcomings he made the text for some very forcible remarks. The +business of the office, he would state warmly, should be attended to, or +he would make unpleasant theological arrangements for himself if he +didn't know the reason why. With Brown he never went much further than +to request, as a personal favor, that he would try to be on hand a +little oftener and rather earlier, to which Brown always acceded quite +cordially. + +Admirable punctuality of attendance and of office hours was almost +always observed for a couple of days after these formalities, and then +things resumed the even tenor of their way. + +Whatever might be the effect of this state of affairs upon the other +employes of the office and upon the general public, it was certainly +disastrous to the private interests of Henry Barwood. Naturally of an +unpractical, somewhat morbid disposition, he needed the stimulus of a +business life in which the necessity for action and its results when +performed were constantly apparent. If engaged in his own ventures, +taking risks and devising plans, he might have abandoned his +speculations and fancies, and become a man of affairs. As it was, he +found too much opportunity for their indulgence. + +Every day from nine to three he assorted, copied, and made abstracts of +applications and reports, the objects of which were remote, their +expediency questionable, and their ultimate fate problematical. Without +interest in the work and without any particular pressure for its +performance, he dreamed over it, and often awoke from his reveries to +find his figures inaccurate and his sentences meaningless. + +Morbid people are probably as incomprehensible to themselves as to +others. The world is viewed by each through the medium of his own +ill-adjusted temperament. Objects are seen in a strangely tinted light, +which is more than suspected to be delusive, yet cannot be decolorized. +Barwood's vision was affected by such a distorting influence. He +discovered subtle meanings in ordinary things or circumstances, in the +manner of a nod from an acquaintance or the tone of a remark, and +brooded over them. He continually scrutinized and questioned his own +motives and those of others. + +The mind of every human being is a puzzle to every other. With what is +it occupied when left to its own devices? There is, in Barwood's +handwriting,[1] proof that his brain was filled with a procession of +changing activities and impressions which were for the most part +melancholy,--aspirations for fame, distrust in his own powers, +forecasting of probabilities, repining for past sins and follies, rage +and epithets for imaginary meetings with enemies. In the midst of all +there were moments of perfect peace made up of reminiscences of a +high-porticoed house, the grass-grown wheel-tracks and the sandy beach +of the village on the Connecticut coast where his early home had been. +His fancies were rich and full, but slightly chaotic. So also his will +was strong and imperious at times, but vacillating. + +It could not be said that he was not ambitious He would have desired +success in order to secure a kindly recognition and to obviate the jars +and harshness of life. But no one prevailing impulse had ever enlisted +his full powers. He saved money, with a general indefinite notion of +some day becoming a capitalist, and also gave much time to studies of +various sorts. He learned music among the rest, after coming of age, and +composed music of his own, using as an inspiration a favorite poem, +picture, or character. These compositions were marked by a quaintness +like that--if a comparison may be made to something tangible--, of a +Chinese vase or a broken bronze figure. His family, the Barwoods, had +been from the earliest times a race of shrewd and driving New England +storekeepers, the very antipodes of sentiment and dilettanteism. Such +incongruities are among the compensations of nature. The Holbrook farm +was the one locality, and Nina Holbrook the one figure, in the generally +sombre prospect which Barwood saw about him, that gleamed in sunshine. +By the interposition of Mars Brown these also were presently shadowed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: From entries in a carefully kept diary.] + + * * * * * + +III. + +THE SEARCH. + +It would have been strange, with Barwood's habits of retrospection and +continual casting about for the rare and curious, if the subject matter +of his conversation with the old painter at Gruyere's had not taken some +hold upon his imagination. But to explain the rapidity with which the +notion there suggested grew, and the absorbing interest with which it +finally held him, would be difficult. The influence of the mind upon the +body is known. By persistent direction of thought one can both create +and cure a pain in any specific spot of his organism. The mind has a +similar power over itself. By intense concentration upon one subject it +may suspend and finally destroy its faculty of interest in any and all +others. + +The idea that the price of the treason of Judas is still extant and +current in these every-day, commonplace times is at first sight utterly +incongruous and incredible, perhaps a little sacrilegious. Yet it is +evidently plausible. "The precious metals are indeed indestructible, as +Megilp has said," soliloquized Barwood. "They do not oxidize. The most +violent excesses of the elements have no effect upon them. If not still +extant, where then are the treasures of the ages? + +"Buried under ground or in the ocean. + +"What proportion of the whole has been thus disposed of? + +"In the absence of statistics a definite amount cannot be stated, but +from the nature of the case it cannot be large. This form of wealth has +been too highly esteemed, too jealously guarded, and too rigorously +sought for when lost. In the wars and convulsions of society it has +changed hands but it could not be destroyed. Alexander and Tamerlane and +Timour the Tartar and Mahomet might overrun the world, burning and +destroying, and melting its more fragile riches like frost-work. But the +money of the vanquished was useful to the victor for his own purposes. +Rome took from Alexander, the barbarians from Rome, and modern +civilization from the barbarians. The waves of time roll over and engulf +all the monuments of men, all that gold and silver buy and sell, and, as +it were, create; but these irrepressible tokens themselves float and +glitter in the foam-crests upon those very billows. It cannot, then, be +doubted that the instruments and accompaniments of most of the pomp and +luxury, the war, treasons, and varied mercenary crimes of the world, are +still acting their part in it. + +"And why not with the rest the fatal money which Judas cast down before +the chief priests in his remorse, going out to destroy himself?" + +These were the reflections that recurred again and again to Barwood, and +possessed him with a strange fascination. All coins acquired a new and +intense interest. He saw in each the exponent of centuries of human +passions and activities. It is true that in a country like our own a +large part of the coinage is fresh from the mine. Yet his occasional +encounters with foreign, especially Mexican and Canadian pieces, and a +consideration of the immense sums received at the great ports of entry, +were, in his regard, sufficient to leaven the whole. + +Is there anywhere in literature an account of the subsequent career of +the thirty pieces? + +The Capitol library, one of the most complete collections in the world, +offers unlimited facilities for research. There Barwood was to be found +some part of every day for months. + +The writer has seen a list of the works consulted by him in his singular +investigation. It numbers some hundreds, and includes commentaries of +all sorts upon the Gospels, lives of the apostles, collections of +apocryphal Gospels and Scriptural traditions, the works of the early +fathers, chronicles of the Middle Ages, treatises upon Oriental life and +customs, histories of symbolism and Christian art, a great number of +works upon numismatics, and, finally, accounts of great crimes and +calamities. For Barwood took a new view of history: he looked to find +that the great treasons, briberies, betrayals of trust, murders from +mercenary motives, and perhaps financial troubles, had been set in +motion by this fatal money, made the instrument of divine vengeance. + +"It has mown a swath through history," he said, "like a discharge of +grape." + +He believed it would appear, if the truth were known, in the bank +accounts of Manuel Comnenus, of Egmont, Benedict Arnold, and the +Hungarian Gorgey. + +His progress was by no means rapid. Much of the literature among which +he delved, musty with age, written in mediaeval Latin and in obsolete +characters, gave up its secrets with reluctance. Nevertheless he found +definite replies to the questions which he propounded to himself. A +collection of apocryphal Gospels "printed," according to the quaint +title-page, "for Richard Royston at the Angle in Amen Corner, MDCLXX," +relates particulars about Judas, among the rest, which do not appear in +the Scriptures. He was when young, it was said, a playmate of the boy +Jesus, who delivered him from a devil by which he was even then +possessed. The chief value of this book to Barwood was in a reference it +contained to a fuller Gospel of Judas Iscariot, not now extant with the +exception of some passages quoted in the writings of Irenaeus. But these +passages were upon the very subject of which he was in search. In a +treatise of Irenaeus's, therefore, of about the second century, Barwood +found the first definite mention of the coins. + +The main part of the story is that of the authorized version, but after +the account of the relinquishment of the coins by Judas, saying that he +had betrayed innocent blood, and of their use in the purchase of the +potter's field, occurs a passage translated[2] by Barwood as follows:-- + +"Now the shekels were of the coinage of Simon, the high priest, which +Antiochus authorized him to issue. They bore the pot of manna and the +flowering rod of Aaron, the high priest. But he to whom they were given +knew that they were the price of blood, and was afraid. And _he stamped +them with a mark in shape like a cross_. And great tribulations came +upon him, and tribulation came upon all that bought and sold with the +money of Judas." Later on, Leontinus, a Byzantine writer of the sixth +century, in a treatise devoted to showing the efficacy of certain forms +and processes in imparting virtue to inanimate matter, instances as well +known the malevolence inherent in the thirty pieces of silver of Judas, +which carry ruin wherever they go. From this time the legend is traced +down through successive periods. The Middle Ages, which so delighted in +the romantic, the mysterious, the portentous, received it implicitly. +Eginhard, abbot of Seligenstadt under Charlemagne, William of +Malmesbury, the English chronicler of the twelfth century, Roger Bacon +of the thirteenth, Malespini, the Italian chronicler of the same period, +and many others of equal note mention as fully established that the +coins of Judas were in circulation, and were inflicting serious injury +upon those into whose possession they came. It was said to be +impossible to amalgamate them with any other silver. They either would +not melt or in melting remained distinct. This, however, was a disputed +point. Some of the alchemists in their writings seem disposed to +attribute the ill success of their efforts at transmutation to the +presence of some taint of these pieces in the silver upon which they +were experimenting. + +Matthew Paris, who first popularized the legend of the Wandering Jew, as +now received, strangely enough makes no mention of them. + +The conclusions arrived at by Barwood were these:-- + +1. There was for hundreds of years a general belief in the existence and +active circulation of the thirty pieces paid to Judas. + +2. They were supposed to be sent as a divine judgment, and to leave ruin +in their track. + +3. The tradition gradually disappeared and cannot be traced in the +literature of modern times. + +Here was a valuable pursuit for a young American treasury clerk of the +nineteenth century! It would have been interesting to have got the +general's opinion upon it, if it could have been sought in some hurried +interval of his confidential transactions with Richard Roe, claim agent +and brother-in-law, or his attention to addition and division with +Congressman Doublegame. + +Barwood did not stop here. Now that his belief was put into tangible +shape, he felt impelled onward to its realization. He examined minutely +every coin collection in Washington. Then, as he could, he made journeys +to several of the great cities. Very seldom did he find a specimen of +Jewish money of any kind. Jewish coins are rare. "It is known that the +Jews had no coinage of their own until the time of Maccabeus. Simon +Maccabeus, by virtue of a decree of Antiochus (1 Macc. xv. 6) issued a +shekel and also a half-shekel. These with the exception of some brass +coins of the Herods, Archelaus, and Agrippa, and a doubtful piece +attributed to Bar Cochba, the leader in the last rising against the +Romans, are the only coins of Judea extant." + +Barwood began to be affected by a nervous dread brought on by his too +close study and constant preoccupation with this subject. As he alone +had felt this interest and prosecuted this strange inquiry, might it not +be that he was being drawn in some mysterious way within the influence +of the fatal money? Perhaps he himself was to be involved in its +relentless course. He shuddered at the thought, and yet was borne +irresistibly on, as he believed, in his pursuit. He imagined at times +that he felt a peculiar influence from the touch of certain pieces. This +he held to be a clairvoyant sense that they had figured in crimes. +Perhaps contact with a hand affected by powerful passion had imparted to +them subtle properties capable of being detected by a sensitive +organization. + +In such study and speculation Barwood passed the spring and summer of +1870. Towards the middle of August occurred the well-remembered flurry +in Wall Street consequent upon the breaking out of the French and +Prussian War. Gold jumped up to one hundred and twenty-three. Money was +loaned at ruinous rates. The whole financial system was disturbed. +Silver, then withdrawn from circulation, has not reappeared to this day. + +The effect of these events upon Barwood although not immediately +apparent, was highly important. With the disappearance of specie, the +daily sight and handling of which had given his conception a tangible +support, its strength declined. It was not forgotten at once, nor indeed +at all. But time drew it away by little and little. It threw mists of +distance and hues of strangeness about it, until at length Barwood +looked back upon it, far remote, as a vague object of wonderment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: Diary, June, 1870.] + + * * * * * + +IV. + +THE HOLBROOK FARM. + +The day had been sultry. Even after sunset the atmosphere was +oppressive, and pavements and railings in the city were warm to the +touch from the steady blaze to which they had been subjected. At the +Holbrook farm, however, occasional puffs of air stirred the silver +poplars skirting the road, and waved the brown timothy grass that grew +knee-deep up to the veranda. + +Porto Rico and Carter's boy turning somersaults in the grass--entirely +without the knowledge of the discreet Carter himself, it may be +assumed--suddenly relinquished this fascinating sport to rush for the +privilege of holding Barwood's horse, Porto Rico's longer legs and +general force of character gave him the preference. He jumped into the +saddle as soon as Barwood was out of it, and trotted off to the stable +with Carter's boy whooping and bobbing his woolly head in the rear. + +"Never you mine," said Carter's boy, "I'll have the other gen'l'm'n." + +"No other gen'l'm'n a'n't comin'," said Porto Rico. "Don't I done tole +you dey don't bofe come de same day?" + +The Holbrook house, three miles from the Capitol, of the dome of which +it commands a pretty glimpse across an expanse of foliage, is one of the +old residences remaining from the days of the slave-holders. Like many +such places it has been much altered and improved. It seems to have been +originally a one and-a-half-story stone dwelling, to which some later +proprietor has added a high-peaked roof, dormer windows, and ample +piazzas. It stands half-way up a slope, near the top of which is a +grove. A brook runs down through the woods on the other side of the +road, and beyond that rises a steep little bluff crowned with scrub-oaks +and chestnuts. + +The attraction that drew people to Holbrook farm was not the proprietor +himself, nor very much his maiden sister, the housekeeper, nor yet +Carter, the farmer and manager who came with them from Richmond. It was +rather the engaging manners and amiable beauty of Nina Holbrook, the +daughter of the house. The old gentleman was a partial paralytic, +whimsical, and not especially sociable. He was known to have lived in +princely style at Richmond, formerly. He was said to have met for some +years past with continual reverses, in the loss of property, in +sickness, and in the death of friends. The farm was bought with almost +the last remnants of a great fortune. + +As Barwood strode down the piazza, a young lady rose from her reading to +give him her hand. + +Blonde beauty is slightly indefinite. The edges are, as it were, too +much softened off into the background. The figure before Barwood was +fresh, distinct, clear-cut,--pre-Raphaelitish, to take a word from +painting. In all the details, from the ribbon in her feathery brown hair +to the pretty buttoned boot, there was the ineffable aroma of a pure, +delicate taste. + +To a man of Barwood's temperament falling in love was difficult. He +analyzed too closely. To ask the tender passion too many questions is to +repel its advances. + +Nevertheless, after two years of intimate association, in which he had +discovered in Nina Holbrook a frankness and loveliness of character +commensurate with her personal graces, he had arrived at this +condition. First, He believed that her permanent influence upon his +character could cure his moodiness and his unpractical tendencies, and +enable him to exert his fullest powers. Second, By making the +supposition that anything should intervene to limit or break off their +intercourse, he found that she had become indispensable to him. + +Their acquaintance had begun in some one of the ordinary ways in which +people meet. It might have been at a tea-party, or a secretary's +reception, or a boat excursion up the Potomac. They discovered that they +had mutual acquaintances to talk about. His evening rides began to be +directed through the pretty lanes that led to Holbrook. She loaned him a +book; he brought her confectionery; they played some piano duets +together. + +On her side the sentiment was different. She respected Barwood for fine +traits and was grateful for his many kindnesses to her. But certain +peculiar moods of his made her uncomfortable. His interest also was too +much occupied with books, speculations about the anomalies and problems +of life, and similar serious matters. She found it wearisome and often +difficult to follow him. She admired such things, but had not as much +head for them as he gave her credit for. Her taste was more practical, +commonplace, and cheerful. She was satisfied with people and things in +their ordinary aspects. + +She got on much better with Mars Brown, exchanging comments with him +upon the affairs of her friends and his, discussing the last party and +the next wedding, or laughing at his drollery. She confessed her +stupidity and frivolity with charming frankness. + +Barwood was conscious that he did not always interest her, although she +never showed anything but the most ladylike attention. He often went +away lamenting the destiny that had fashioned his nature to run in so +small and rigid a groove. His happiness, therefore, did not consist in +being with her, for then he was oppressed by a consciousness of not +entirely pleasing her. It was rather in retrospect, in his memory of her +sweet and earnest face, the tones of her voice, the shine of her hair. +He gave her such small gifts as he might within the restraints of social +propriety. It would have consisted with his notion of the fitness of +things to give her everything he had and leave himself a beggar. + +Barwood rode to Holbrook to-day with a definite purpose. He was aware, +although, as Porto Rico said, both gentlemen did not come on the same +day, that Mars Brown was devoting more attention in this direction of +late than the exigencies of his boat and ball clubs, his shooting and +fishing, and the claims of the social world in town would seem to +warrant. He did not yet really fear him as a rival. His presence was +only a suggestion of possibilities. There might at some time be rivals. +He had determined to forestall possibilities, and tell her of his +affection at once. + +Mars Brown was, however, a dangerous rival, although himself perhaps as +little aware of it as Barwood. He also had met Nina and been impressed +by her animated beauty. Accustomed to success, he had ridden out to +Holbrook to add one more to his list of flirtations and conquests. The +results had by no means answered his expectations. When he approached +sentiment Nina laughed at him. By degrees he had been piqued into +earnestness, and had for the first time in his life approximated to a +serious esteem and attachment. + +Although Nina laughed at first, later on she sometimes blushed at his +voice or his step, or when she put her hand into his. If his customary +shrewd vision had not been disturbed by some unusual influences at work +within himself, he would have seen it. + +He had the audacity that charms women, and with it a frank, open face, a +hearty laugh, an entirely healthy, cheerful disposition, and an air of +strength under all his frivolity. + +It has been said that Barwood had come to the farm to-day with a +definite purpose. He drew up one of the comfortable chairs at hand, and +sat down near to Nina. They talked at first of ordinary things, the +unusual heat, the news of the day, and what each had been doing since +their last meeting. + +The secluded prospect before them was very peaceful. Barwood felt its +soothing influence acting upon the perturbation of his spirit. + +"I am improving my mind, you see," said Nina, holding up to him one of +Motley's histories, which she had apparently been reading. "I do not +believe even you can find fault with this." + +"Am I in the habit of finding fault with anybody, Miss Nina?" + +"Oh no, I don't mean that exactly, but you know so much, you know, that +you frighten one." + +"Thank you," said Barwood with a grave smile, "you flatter me." + +"Why were you not at the Hoyts' last Tuesday?" said she. + +"I was not invited, and, strange to state, I am a little diffident about +going under such circumstances." + +"Ah, you are! how singular! But I wish you had been there, if it was +only to see Betty Goodwin. You used to know her. It is such a short time +ago that she was a little girl. Now she is out of school and as +important as anybody. You should have seen the attention she had, and +her perfect self-possession. It makes me feel extremely antiquated. Am I +very much wrinkled?" + +Barwood gazed with admiration at her animated face. She was to him the +personification of youth and beauty. The notion of age and wrinkles in +her regard was inconceivable. + +"Why, of course," said he; "Methuselah wasn't a circumstance." + +She dismissed the subject with a little pout. + +"I am so glad you have come early," she resumed. "I wish the others +would imitate your example." + +"The others? What others?" + +"Mr. Hyson, the Hoyt boys, Mr. Brown, Fanny Davis, and the rest. You did +not suppose you were to do them alone, I hope." + +"Do what alone? I don't understand." + +"Why, the tableaux--Evangeline. Did you not get my message yesterday?" + +"I got no message. Am I to be implicated in tableaux?" + +"Why, certainly. You are to be Evangeline's father. They are for the +benefit of the French wounded. I sent Carter to tell you yesterday. We +are to arrange the preliminaries this evening." + +Barwood saw that if he would not postpone his purpose no time was to be +lost. The visitors might arrive at any moment. + +Literature is full of the embarrassments of the marriage proposal. To +all who are not borne along by an impetuous impulse it is a trying +ordeal. Barwood was too self-conscious ever to be transported out of +himself. + +"I have something to say to you, Miss Nina," he began, "which I have +come from town expressly to say. It is of the greatest moment to me." + +She continued to look straight before her at the glowing evening sky, +and so did he. The crickets and katydids had commenced their chorus and +the tree-toads their long rhythm. Fire-flies flitted in the uncertain +light. There came from the woods the call of the owl and the +whippoorwill. + +"We have sometimes laughed together at sentiment," he continued, "and +voted it an invention of the story-books; but there are times--there is +a sentiment--which--in short, dear Nina, I have come to ask you to be my +little wife. I have loved you almost since our first meeting." + +"Oh, Mr. Barwood," said she, looking hastily towards him, with +heightened color and a tone of regret, "you must not say so. I cannot +let you go on." + +"I must go on," said he. "I have never felt so strongly upon any subject +as this. I know I am not worthy of such happiness, yet I cannot bear the +thought of losing it. Consider our long friendship. You will be mine? +Oh, say so, Nina!" In the terrible dread that his petition was already +refused, he became a little incoherent. + +Nina, a tender-hearted young lady, was by this time in tears. His +evident distress, and her recognition of the great compliment he had +paid her, would have commanded almost any return save the one he asked. +But the sacrifice was too great. She had not thought it would ever be +necessary to change their relation of friendship. + +"I am very sorry to have to say what is painful to you," said she, with +a sob only half repressed. "I want you to be always my friend. I shall +be very unhappy if our friendship is to be broken, but _I_ cannot--you +will find some other"-- + +"Do not speak further," he interrupted, impetuously. "You have not yet +said no. Reserve your answer; take time to consider. Let me still hope." + +"No," she began, "I ought"--but wheels and merry voices were heard at +the gate. "Oh! I cannot let them see me now," she said, and hurried +away. In a moment more the Robinsons' carriage was at the steps. When +Nina came down with a sweet, subdued manner, there was a jolly party of +ten or twelve in the drawing-room. Mars Brown was already amusing +everybody with his absurd posturing. + +"I want to be Evangeline," said he, wrapping a lady's shawl about him +and sitting on the arm of a chair in a collapsed attitude. "No, on +second thought, I want to be Basil the blacksmith." He made imitations +of tremendous muscular power with a tack-hammer that happened in his way +for a sledge. Everybody on such occasions has his own notions of the +picturesque. A deal of talking was required in arranging the various +scenes. Evangeline must manifest a "celestial brightness," according to +the lines. "I don't think you do it quite right," said Julia Robinson. +"You should smile a little." + +"Oh no, not at all; she should have an earnest, far off look," said +another critic. + +"Of course she should," said Mars Brown, rumpling his hair and +contorting his features into an expression of idiotic vacancy; +"something this way." + +"We ought to have a real artist to arrange them," said Nina; "what +would I give if old Mr. Megilp were here." + +"Did you know Megilp?" exclaimed Barwood. + +"Why, of course I did. He was my drawing teacher at Richmond for years." + +"What a small world it is, to be sure," said Barwood, giving vent to a +favorite reflection. The mention of Megilp brought back for a moment a +remembrance of their last meeting and conversation, and the strange +pursuit into which it had led him. + +The signing of the marriage contract was selected by the amateurs as an +appropriate subject for illustration. + +"We must have a table," said Miss Travers. "At one side sits the notary, +lifting his pen from the document which he has just signed, and at the +other her father, pushing toward the notary a roll of money in payment." + +"Here you are," said George Wigwag, taking his place and assuming the +appropriate gesture; "here's your notary; bring on your old gentleman +and his money." + +"A roll of old copper cents would be just the thing," said Miss Travers. +"They look antique enough." + +"Will some gentleman deposit with the treasurer a roll of antique copper +cents?" said Brown, passing a hat. "No gentleman deposits a roll of +copper cents. Very well, then the wedding can't go on." + +"Do you think I'll sign marriage contracts for copper?" said Wigwag. +"No indeed; I'm not that kind of a notary." + +"I will bring down some of papa's curiosity coins from his cabinet," +said Nina. "I don't believe he will scold me, just for once." + +She returned in a moment with a dozen or more silver pieces, and placed +them on the table by Barwood. He began to examine them carelessly. + +"I did not know your father was a numismatist," said he. + +"Oh yes," said Nina, "he always had a great taste in that way. His +collection now is nothing. When we broke up in Richmond most of it was +sold off. He retained only a few of the most valuable pieces, which he +keeps in a case in his room. I don't know much about such things, for my +part. Here is one that is considered curious. It was taken out of a +wreck on the California coast, I believe, and was the last papa bought +before his failure. I think it is Russian, perhaps, or Arabic--no, let +me see"-- + +Barwood, with an abstracted air, took it to examine. Suddenly he uttered +a strange exclamation and fell back in his chair, pale, trembling, +almost fainting. + +_The coin was a Jewish shekel, with a cross cut through at one side._ + +He pleaded sudden illness, and rode hastily homeward in a state of +indescribable agitation. + + * * * * * + +V. + +YOUNG FORTINBRAS. + +Barwood's strange and almost forgotten conception was thus at length +realized, and the interest with which it had inspired him intensely +revived. One of the fatal pieces was found. He would now fain have +overthrown the structure of probabilities which he had labored so +painfully to elaborate. He reviewed step by step all the details of his +former study; but no argument availed in the face of the extraordinary +corroboration now offered. The piece was "stamped with a mark in shape +like a cross," and the account of Irenaeus was verified. + +That this fatal piece should appear in the hands of the people whom of +all others he most esteemed and with whom his own fortunes were most +intimately bound up, was a terrible shock. This, then, was the clew to +the catalogue of Holbrook's misfortunes. What surpassing crime could the +old man have committed to be so signally marked out for vengeance? But +the question of most vital interest was what could be done to save the +family so dear to him from their impending fate. + +With the recovery of some calmness, he felt that his first duty was to +remove the coin from their possession. But how was it to be done? He +could not disclose his knowledge of its baleful properties. It would be +set down as the vagary of a disordered brain; nobody would entertain it +for an instant. His object must be accomplished, if at all, by artifice. + +When he next rode to the farm, nearly a week had elapsed since the +evening into which so many distracting emotions had been crowded. He +exerted himself to display unusual cheerfulness, with the double object +of removing any disagreeable impression which might have been the result +of his sudden departure on that occasion, and also of finding means to +forward his purpose. The subject uppermost in the thoughts of both was +at first carefully avoided, and they talked much in their usual fashion. + +"Those coins, Miss Nina, which were used the other evening in the +tableau," said he, with a careless air, "can I see them again? I found +them interesting, but owing to my sudden illness, as you know, had +scarcely time to examine them." + +"My father was displeased at me for taking them," said she, "and has +forbidden me to do so again. I think he would show them to you himself +with pleasure, if he were here, but he went North yesterday on business +which will detain him a week. He took the key of his cabinet with him." + +Disappointed in this, there seemed to be for the present no resource. He +recurred again to his love. If she would consent to be his, he thought, +he might disclose the danger, and they could plan together to avert it. +He told her with what anxiety he had been awaiting her decision, and +then once more made his appeal with all the ardor at his command. As he +finished, standing close beside her, he took her hand. + +She did not withdraw it, but still went on to tell him with great +calmness and dignity that what he desired could never be. She hoped +their friendship might always continue, but as for a closer relation, it +would be unjust to him as well as herself to enter into it without the +affection which she could not give. + +He went away apparently very much broken down, saying that his life was +a burden to him, and that he had no use for it. The next day he came +again and acted so strangely, mingling appeals to her with talk about +her father's coins, that she was a little frightened. + +The few days that succeeded made a striking change in the appearance of +Barwood. He became pale and haggard, and seemed to have lost his +capacity for business and fixed attention. He sat staring helplessly at +his papers for an hour at a time. The general, who with all his +iniquities was a good-hearted chief, thought he was sick, and told him +to stay at home and take care of himself. His reflections at this time +were tormenting. He saw that he had indeed been drawn within the +influence of the fatal coin. It was at him that its malignity was +directed, and he believed that his doom was approaching, as indeed it +was. Sometimes he gazed at his altered face in the glass, while tears +streamed down his cheeks. He said aloud, in a piteous tone, "Poor Henry +Barwood." + +The sympathy of the world is generally upon the side of the unsuccessful +lover. He is considered to have been defrauded of happiness which should +by right have been his. But is it fair? Because her face is sweet, her +manners are amiable, her form is slender and graceful, and her hair has +a golden shine, and Barwood or Brown or Travers, as the case may be, in +common with all the world, recognizes it, does that establish a claim +upon her? Just as likely as not he has a snub nose and only fifteen +hundred a year, and cannot dance the Boston. No! sympathy is well +enough, but let not the blame be cast upon Chloe every time that Daphnis +goes off in despair to the Sandwich Islands, or the war in Cuba, or +turns out a good-for-nothing sot. Let it rather be set down as one of +the ill-adjustments of which there are so many in life, and the +endurance of which is no doubt of service in some direction not yet +fully understood. + +In about a week there came from Holbrook Farm a message which was not +needed to complete the measure of Barwood's unhappiness. + +"My father," wrote Nina, "has just returned. He has decided that we are +to remove permanently to Connecticut, where my aunt has fallen heir to +the Holbrook homestead. We shall leave next Monday. Will you let us see +you before we go?" + +He mounted his horse and started at once. He did not know exactly what +he should do or say. His ideas were in a state of confusion, and there +was a numbness over all his sensations. He gave himself up blindly to +his destiny. + +He saw Nina sitting in the shade of an apple-tree, half-way down the +lawn, near a little plateau which served for a croquet ground. He tied +his horse to the fence outside, much to the disappointment of the +rollicking negro boys, and walked up. Nina held in her lap a tray of +coins which she was engaged in brightening. She assumed a sprightliness +not quite natural, and evidently designed to obviate the awkwardness of +their peculiar relation. + +"We have had an accident," said she. "One of our chimneys fell through +the roof during the storm last night. It shook down the plaster upon +papa's cabinet. The glass was broken and the rain came in so that this +morning it was in a sorry condition. I am repairing damages, you see. If +I were superstitious," she continued, "I should fear that something was +going to happen. I meet with so many omens lately. I spill salt, cross +funerals, and make one of thirteen at dinner parties." + +Barwood replied as best he could; he did not know exactly what. He was +in no mood for flippancy. He assumed a dozen different positions in a +short space: first sitting on a camp-chair beside her, then hurried +walking up and down, then careless prostration upon the grass. The old, +useless argument was gone through with again. She told him at last that +it annoyed her, that he was very inconsiderate. Then again he paced up +and down the little croquet ground. She saw him twisting and clutching +his hands together behind him. At the fifth or sixth turn as he came by +she had the marked shekel in her hand. He took it from her and looked at +it curiously. + +"Yes, it is indeed," said he in an unnatural voice, "fatal money, and I +am its latest victim!" + +He threw it towards the woods with great force. + +It rose high in the air, skimmed the trees, and they saw it twinkle into +the brook. + +It was a very little incident. No magic hand arose from the water. The +beauty of the August day was not marred. The rain of the past night had +swollen the brook, which ran hurriedly on to the Potomac, making little +of this trivial addition to its burdens. + +Nina did not reproach him. She felt that her father would consider the +loss irreparable, yet she had no words for this extraordinary rudeness. +After two or three turns more in his walk he stopped close beside her. + +"For the last time," said he, "have I urged everything, and is it of no +use?" + +She made no answer. + +"You have said so?" he persisted. + +"Yes, I have said so," she replied, with a touch of impatience, and +without raising her eyes. "I am engaged to Mars Brown." + +He went forward several steps and stood still. Glancing up she saw him +hold a little revolver to his temple. It was one she had known him to +carry for protection when riding late in the evening. He seemed to +deliberate one terrible moment while she sat spell-bound as if by +nightmare, and then he fired and fell. + +She tried to reach his body, but fainted on the way. Mars Brown, riding +to Holbrook for a half-holiday, was almost within sight. + +Upon the closing scene of Hamlet, where the characters, after a period +of stormy conflict and exquisite anguish, lie strewn by violent death, +arrives young Fortinbras at the head of his marching army. Tall, sturdy, +elastic, dressed in chain-mail, victorious, careless, the impersonation +of ruddy life, the young Norway conqueror leans upon his sword above the +pitiable sight. + +So this brilliant young man, elegant in figure, well dressed, joyous, +cynical, came whistling up the path. He cut off the clover tops with his +walking-stick. The butterflies, the pleasant aromas, and all the +manifestations of rural beauty pleased him. + +"Egad," said he, "this isn't so bad, you know." + +In a moment he stood by the apple-tree, and the whole sad spectacle was +before him. + + * * * * * + +The telegraphic column of a New York newspaper gave the story next +morning, in the conventional manner, as follows: + + "Henry Barwood, a treasury clerk, was killed + yesterday at the Holbrook estate near Washington, + by the discharge of a pistol in his own hands. The + shooting is thought to have been accidental, + although he had been ill and depressed for some + days, and is said to have shown symptoms of insanity + on former occasions." + + + + +BALACCHI BROTHERS. + + +BY REBECCA HARDING DAVIS. + +"There's a man, now, that has been famous in his time," said Davidge, as +we passed the mill, glancing in at the sunny gap in the side of the +building. + +I paused incredulously: Phil's lion so often turned out to be Snug the +joiner. Phil was my chum at college, and in inviting me home to spend +the vacation with him I thought he had fancied the resources of his +village larger than they proved. In the two days since we came we had +examined the old doctor's cabinet, listened superciliously to a debate +in the literary club upon the Evils of the Stage, and passed two solid +afternoons in the circle about the stove in the drug-shop, where the +squire and the Methodist parson, and even the mild, white-cravated young +rector of St. Mark's, were wont to sharpen their wits by friction. What +more was left? I was positive that I knew the mental gauge of every man +in the village. + +A little earlier or later in life a gun or fishing-rod would have +satisfied me. The sleepy, sunny little market-town was shut in by the +bronzed autumn meadows, that sent their long groping fingers of grass or +parti-colored weeds drowsily up into the very streets: there were ranges +of hills and heavy stretches of oak and beech woods, too, through which +crept glittering creeks full of trout. But I was just at that age when +the soul disdains all aimless pleasures: my game was Man. I was busy in +philosophically testing, weighing, labelling human nature. + +"Famous, eh?" I said, looking after the pursy figure of the miller in +his floury canvas round-about and corduroy trowsers, trotting up and +down among the bags. + +"That is one of the Balacchi Brothers," Phil answered as we walked on. +"You've heard of them when you were a boy?" + +I had heard of them. The great acrobats were as noted in their line of +art as Ellsler and Jenny Lind in theirs. But acrobats and danseuses had +been alike brilliant, wicked impossibilities to my youth, for I had been +reared a Covenanter of the Covenanters. In spite of the doubting +philosophies with which I had clothed myself at college, that old +Presbyterian training clung to me in everyday life close as my skin. + +After that day I loitered about the mill, watching this man, whose life +had been spent in one godless theatre after another, very much as the +Florentine peasants looked after Dante when they knew he had come back +from hell. I was on the lookout for the taint, the abnormal signs, of +vice. It was about that time that I was fevered with the missionary +enthusiasm, and in Polynesia, where I meant to go (but where I never did +go), I declared to Phil daily that I should find in every cannibal the +half-effaced image of God, only waiting to be quickened into grace and +virtue. That was quite conceivable. But that a flashy, God-defying actor +could be the same man at heart as this fat, good-tempered, gossiping +miller, who jogged to the butcher's every morning for his wife, a basket +on one arm and a baby on the other, was not conceivable. He was a close +dealer at the butcher's, too, though dribbling gossip there as +everywhere; a regular attendant at St. Mark's, with his sandy-headed +flock about him, among whom he slept comfortably enough, it is true, but +with as pious dispositions as the rest of us. + +I remember how I watched this man, week in and week out. It was a +trivial matter, but it irritated me unendurably to find that this +circus-rider had human blood precisely like my own it outraged my early +religion. + +We talk a great deal of the rose-colored illusions in which youth wraps +the world, and the agony it suffers as they are stripped from its bare, +hard face. But the fact is, that youth (aside from its narrow-passionate +friendships) is usually apt to be acrid and watery and sour in its +judgment and creeds--it has the quality of any other unripe fruit: it is +middle age that is just and tolerant, that has found room enough in the +world for itself and all human flies to buzz out their lives +good-humoredly together. It is youth who can see a tangible devil at +work in every party or sect opposed to its own, whose enemy is always a +villain, and who finds treachery and falsehood in the friend who is +occasionally bored or indifferent: it is middle age that has discovered +the reasonable sweet _juste milieu_ of human nature--who knows few +saints perhaps, but is apt to find its friend and grocer and shoemaker +agreeable and honest fellows. It is these vehement illusions, these +inherited bigotries and prejudices, that tear and cripple a young man as +they are taken from him one by one. He creeps out of them as a crab from +the shell that has grown too small for him, but he thinks he has left +his identity behind him. + +It was such a reason as this that made me follow the miller assiduously, +and cultivate a quasi intimacy with him, in the course of which I picked +the following story from him. It was told at divers times, and with many +interruptions and questions from me. But for obvious reasons I have made +it continuous. It had its meaning to me, coarse and common though it +was--the same which Christ taught in the divine beauty of His parables. +Whether that meaning might not be found in the history of every human +life, if we had eyes to read it, is matter for question. + +Balacchi Brothers? And you've heard of them, eh? Well, well! (with a +pleased nod, rubbing his hands on his knees). Yes, sir. Fifteen years +ago they were known as The Admirable Crichtons of the Ring. It was +George who got up that name: I did not see the force of it. But no name +could claim too much for us. Why, I could show you notices in the +newspapers that--I used to clip them out and stuff my pocket-book with +them as we went along, but after I quit the business I pasted them in an +old ledger, and I often now read them of nights. No doubt I lost a good +many, too. + +Yes, sir: I was one of Balacchi Brothers. My name _is_ Zack Loper. And +it was then, of course. + +You think we would have plenty of adventures? Well, no--not a great +many. There's a good deal of monotony in the business. Towns seem always +pretty much alike to me. And there was such a deal of rehearsing to be +done by day and at night. I looked at nothing but the rope and George: +the audience was nothing but a packed flat surface of upturned, staring +eyes and half-open mouths. It was an odd sight, yes, when you come to +think of it. I never was one for adventures. I was mostly set upon +shaving close through the week, so that when Saturday night came I'd +have something to lay by: I had this mill in my mind, you see. I was +married, and had my wife and a baby that I'd never seen waiting for me +at home. I was brought up to milling, but the trapeze paid better. I +took to it naturally, as one might say. + +But George!--he had adventures every week. And as for acquaintances! +Why, before we'd be in a town two days he'd be hail-fellow-well-met with +half the people in it. That fellow could scent a dance or a joke half a +mile off. You never see such wide-awake men nowadays. People seem to me +half dead or asleep when I think of him. + +Oh, I thought you knew. My partner Balacchi. It was Balacchi on the +bill: the actors called him Signor, and people like the manager, South, +and we, who knew him well, George. I asked him his real name once or +twice, but he joked it off. "How many names must a man be saddled with?" +he said. I don't know it to this day, nor who he had been. They hinted +there was something queer about his story, but I'll go my bail it was a +clean one, whatever it was. + +You never heard how "Balacchi Brothers" broke up? That was as near to an +adventure as I ever had. Come over to this bench and I'll tell it to +you. You don't dislike the dust of the mill? The sun's pleasanter on +this side. + +It was early in August of '56 when George and I came to an old town on +the Ohio, half city, half village, to play an engagement. We were under +contract with South then, who provided the rest of the troupe, three or +four posture-girls, Stradi the pianist, and a Madame Somebody, who gave +readings and sang. "Concert" was the heading in large caps on the +bills, "Balacchi Brothers will give their aesthetic _tableaux vivants_ +in the interludes," in agate below. + +"I've got to cover you fellows over with respectability here," South +said. "Rope-dancing won't go down with these aristocratic church-goers." + +I remember how George was irritated. "When I was my own agent," he said, +"I only went to the cities. Educated people can appreciate what we do, +but in these country towns we rank with circus-riders." + +George had some queer notions about his business. He followed it for +sheer love of it, as I did for money. I've seen all the great athletes +since, but I never saw one with his wonderful skill and strength, and +with the grace of a woman too, or a deer. Now that takes hard, steady +work, but he never flinched from it, as I did; and when night came, and +the people and lights, and I thought of nothing but to get through, I +used to think he had the pride of a thousand women in every one of his +muscles and nerves: a little applause would fill him with a mad kind of +fury of delight and triumph. South had a story that George belonged to +some old Knickerbocker family, and had run off from home years ago. I +don't know. There was that wild restless blood in him that no home could +have kept him. + +We were to stay so long in this town that I found rooms for us with an +old couple named Peters, who had but lately moved in from the country, +and had half a dozen carpenters and masons boarding with them. It was +cheaper than the hotel, and George preferred that kind of people to +educated men, which made me doubt that story of his having been a +gentleman. The old woman Peters was uneasy about taking us, and spoke +out quite freely about it when we called, not knowing that George and I +were Balacchi Brothers ourselves. + +"The house has been respectable so far, gentlemen," she said. "I don't +know what about taking in them half-naked, drunken play-actors. What do +you say, Susy?" to her granddaughter. + +"Wait till you see them, grandmother," the girl said gently. "I should +think that men whose lives depended every night on their steady eyes and +nerves would not dare to touch liquor." + +"You are quite right--nor even tobacco," said George. It was such a +prompt, sensible thing for the little girl to say that he looked at her +attentively a minute, and then went up to the old lady smiling: "We +don't look like drinking men, do we, madam?" + +"No, no, sir. I did not know that you were the I-talians." She was quite +flustered and frightened, and said cordially enough how glad she was to +have us both. But it was George she shook hands with. There was +something clean and strong and inspiring about that man that made most +women friendly to him on sight. + +Why, in two days you'd have thought he'd never had another home than the +Peters's. He helped the old man milk, and had tinkered up the broken +kitchen-table, and put in half a dozen window-panes, and was intimate +with all the boarders; could give the masons the prices of job-work at +the East, and put Stoll the carpenter on the idea of contract houses, +out of which he afterward made a fortune. It was nothing but jokes and +fun and shouts of laughter when he was in the house: even the old man +brightened up and told some capital stories. But from the first I +noticed that George's eye followed Susy watchfully wherever she went, +though he was as distant and respectful with her as he was with most +women. He had a curious kind of respect for women, George had. Even the +Slingsbys, that all the men in the theatre joked with, he used to pass +by as though they were logs leaning against the wall. They were the +posture-girls, and anything worse besides the name _I_ never saw. + +There was a thing happened once on that point which I often thought +might have given me a clew to his history if I'd followed it up. We were +playing in one of the best theatres in New York (they brought us into +some opera), and the boxes were filled with fine ladies beautifully +dressed, or, I might say, half dressed. + +George was in one of the wings. "It's a pretty sight," I said to him. + +"It's a shameful sight," he said with an oath. "The Slingsbys do it for +their living, but these women--" + +I said they were ladies, and ought to be treated with respect. I was +amazed at the heat he was in. + +"I had a sister, Zack, and there's where I learned what a woman should +be." + +"I never heard of your sister, George," said I. I knew he would not have +spoken of her but for the heat he was in. + +"No. I'm as dead to her, being what I am, as if I were six feet under +ground." + +I turned and looked at him, and when I saw his face I said no more, and +I never spoke of it again. It was something neither I nor any other man +had any business with. + +So, when I saw how he was touched by Susy and drawn toward her, it +raised her in my opinion, though I'd seen myself how pretty and sensible +a little body she was. But I was sorry, for I knew twan't no use. The +Peterses were Methodists, and Susy more strict than any of them; and I +saw she looked on the theatre as the gate of hell, and George and me +swinging over it. + +I don't think, though, that George saw how strong her feeling about it +was, for after we'd been there a week or two he began to ask her to go +and see us perform, if only for once. I believe he thought the girl +would come to love him if she saw him at his best. I don't wonder at it, +sir. I've seen those pictures and statues they've made of the old gods, +and I reckon they put in them the best they thought a man could be; but +I never knew what real manhood was until I saw my partner when he stood +quiet on the stage waiting the signal to begin the light full on his +keen blue eyes, the gold-worked velvet tunic, and his perfect figure. + +He looked more like other men in his ordinary clothing. George liked a +bit of flash, too, in his dress--a red necktie or gold chain stretched +over his waistcoat. + +Susy refused at first, steadily. At last, however, came our final night, +when George was to produce his great leaping feat, never yet performed +in public. We had been practising it for months, and South judged it +best to try it first before a small, quiet audience, for the risk was +horrible. Whether, because it was to be the last night, and her kind +heart disliked to hurt him by refusal, or whether she loved him better +than either she or he knew, I could not tell, but I saw she was strongly +tempted to go. She was an innocent little thing, and not used to hide +what she felt. Her eyes were red that morning, as though she had been +crying all the night. Perhaps, because I was a married man, and quieter +than George, she acted more freely with me than him. + +"I wish I knew what to do," she said, looking up to me with her eyes +full of tears. There was nobody in the room but her grandmother. + +"I couldn't advise you, Miss Susy," says I. "Your church discipline goes +against our trade, I know." + +"I know what's right myself: I don't need church discipline to teach +me," she said sharply. + +"I think I'd go, Susy," said her grandmother. "It is a concert, after +all: it's not a play." + +"The name doesn't alter it." + +Seeing the temper she was in, I thought it best to say no more, but the +old lady added, "It's Mr. George's last night. Dear, dear! how I'll miss +him!" + +Susy turned quickly to the window. "Why does he follow such godless ways +then?" she cried. She stood still a good while, and when she turned +about her pale little face made my heart ache. "I'll take home Mrs. +Tyson's dress now, grandmother," she said, and went out of the room. I +forgot to tell you Susy was a seamstress. Well, the bundle was large, +and I offered to carry it for her, as the time for rehearsal did not +come till noon. She crept alongside of me without a word, looking weak +and done-out: she was always so busy and bright, it was the more +noticeable. The house where the dress was to go was one of the largest +in the town. The servant showed us into a back parlor, and took the +dress up to her mistress. I looked around me a great deal, for I'd never +been in such a house before; but very soon I caught sight of a lady who +made me forget carpets and pictures. I only saw her in the mirror, for +she was standing by the fireplace in the front room. The door was open +between. It wasn't that she was especially pretty, but in her white +morning-dress, with lace about her throat and her fair hair drawn back +from her face, I thought she was the delicatest, softest, finest thing +of man- or woman-kind I ever say. + +"Look there, Susy! look there!" I whispered. + +"It is a Mrs. Lloyd from New York. She is here on a visit. That is her +husband;" and then she went down into her own gloomy thoughts again. + +The husband was a grave, middle-aged man. He had had his paper up before +his face, so that I had not seen him before. + +"You will go for the tickets, then, Edward?" she said. + +"If you make a point of it, yes," in an annoyed tone. "But I don't know +why you make a point of it. The musical part of the performance is +beneath contempt, I understand, and the real attraction is the +exhibition of these mountebanks of trapezists, which will be simply +disgusting to you. You would not encourage such people at home: why +would you do it here?" + +"They are not necessarily wicked." I noticed there was a curious +unsteadiness in her voice, as though she was hurt and agitated. I +thought perhaps she knew I was there. + +"There is very little hope of any redeeming qualities in men who make a +trade of twisting their bodies like apes," he said. "Contortionists and +ballet-dancers and clowns and harlequins--" he rattled all the names +over with a good deal of uncalled-for sharpness, I thought, calling them +"dissolute and degraded, the very offal of humanity." I could not +understand his heat until he added, "I never could comprehend your +interest and sympathy for that especial class, Ellinor." + +"No, you could not, Edward," she said quietly. + +"But I have it. I never have seen an exhibition of the kind. But I want +to see this to-night, if you will gratify me. I have no reason." she +added when he looked at her curiously. "The desire is unaccountable to +myself." + +The straightforward look of her blue eyes as she met his seemed +strangely familiar and friendly to me. + +At that moment Susy stood up to go. Her cheeks were burning and her eyes +sparkling. "Dissolute and degraded!" she said again and again when we +were outside. But I took no notice. + +As we reached the house she stopped me when I turned off to go to +rehearsal. "You'll get seats for grandmother and me, Mr. Balacchi?" she +said. + +"You're going, then, Susy?" + +"Yes, I'm going." + + * * * * * + +Now the house in which we performed was a queer structure. A stock +company, thinking there was a field for a theatre in the town, had taken +a four-story building, gutted the interior, and fitted it up with tiers +of seats and scenery. The stock company was starved out, however, and +left the town, and the theatre was used as a gymnasium, a concert-room, +or a church by turns. Its peculiarity was, that it was both exceedingly +lofty and narrow, which suited our purpose exactly. + +It was packed that night from dome to pit. George and I had rehearsed +our new act both morning and afternoon, South watching us without +intermission. South was terribly nervous and anxious, half disposed, at +the last minute, to forbid it, although it had been announced on the +bills for a week. But a feat which is successful in an empty house, with +but one spectator, when your nerves are quiet and blood cool, is a +different thing before an excited, terrified, noisy audience, your whole +body at fever heat. However, George was cool as a cucumber, indeed +almost indifferent about the act, but in a mad, boyish glee all day +about everything else. I suppose the reason was that Susy was going. + +South had lighted the house brilliantly and brought in a band. And all +classes of people poured into the theatre until it could hold no more. I +saw Mrs. Peters in one of the side-seats, with Susy's blushing, +frightened little face beside her. George, standing back among the +scenes, saw her too: I think, indeed, it was all he did see. + +There were the usual readings from Shakespeare at first. + +While Madame was on, South came to us. "Boys," said he, "let this matter +go over a few weeks. A little more practice will do you no harm. You can +substitute some other trick, and these people will be none the wiser." + +George shrugged his shoulders impatiently: "Nonsense! When did you grow +so chicken-hearted, South? It is I who have to run the risk, I fancy." + +I suppose South's uneasiness had infected me. + +"I am quite willing to put it off," I said. I had felt gloomy and +superstitious all day. But I never ventured to oppose George more +decidedly than that. + +He only laughed by way of reply, and went off to dress. South looked +after him, I remember, saying what a magnificently-built fellow he was. +If we could only have seen the end of that night's work! + +As I went to my dressing-room I saw Mrs. Lloyd and her husband in one of +the stage-boxes, with one or two other ladies and gentlemen. She was +plainly and darkly dressed, but to my mind she looked like a princess +among them all. I could not but wonder what interest she could have in +such a rough set as we, although her husband, I confess, did judge us +hardly. + +After the readings came the concert part of the performance, and then +what South chose to call the Moving Tableaux, which was really nothing +in the world but ballet-dancing. George and I were left to crown the +whole. I had some ordinary trapeze-work to do at first, but George +was reserved for the new feat, in order that his nerves might be +perfectly unshaken. When I went out alone and bowed to the audience, I +observed that Mrs. Lloyd was leaning eagerly forward, but at the first +glance at my face she sank back with a look of relief, and turned away, +that she might not see my exploits. It nettled me a little, I think, yet +they were worth watching. + +Well, I finished, and then there was a song to give me time to cool. I +went to the side-scenes where I could be alone, for that five minutes. I +had no risk to run in the grand feat, you see, but I had George's life +in my hands. I haven't told you yet--have I?--what it was he proposed to +do. + +A rope was suspended from the centre of the dome, the lower end of which +I held, standing in the highest gallery opposite the stage. Above the +stage hung the trapeze on which George and the two posture-girls were to +be. At a certain signal I was to let the rope go, and George, springing +from the trapeze across the full width of the dome, was to catch it in +mid-air, a hundred feet above the heads of the people. You understand? +The mistake of an instant of time on either his part or mine, and death +was almost certain. The plan we had thought surest was for South to give +the word, and then that both should count--One, Two, Three! At Three the +rope fell, and he leaped. We had practised so often that we thought we +counted as one man. + +When the song was over the men hung the rope and the trapeze. Jenny and +Lou Slingsby swung themselves up to it, turned a few somersaults and +then were quiet. They were only meant to give effect to the scene in +their gauzy dresses and spangles. Then South came forward and told the +audience what we meant to do. It was a feat, he said, which had never +been produced before in any theatre, and in which failure was death. No +one but that most daring of all acrobats, Balacchi, would attempt it. +Now I knew South so well that I saw under all his confident, bragging +tone he was more anxious and doubtful than he had ever been. He +hesitated a moment, and then requested that after we took our places the +audience should preserve absolute silence, and refrain from even the +slightest movement until the feat was over. The merest trifle might +distract the attention of the performers and render their eyes and hold +unsteady, he said. He left the stage, and the music began. + +I went round to take my place in the gallery. George had not yet left +his room. As I passed I tapped at the door and called, "Good luck, old +fellow!" + +"That's certain now, Zack," he answered, with a joyous laugh. He was so +exultant, you see, that Susy had come. + +But the shadow of death seemed to have crept over me. When I took my +stand in the lofty gallery, and looked down at the brilliant lights and +the great mass of people, who followed my every motion as one man, and +the two glittering, half-naked girls swinging in the distance, and heard +the music rolling up thunders of sound, it was all ghastly and horrible +to me, sir. Some men have such presentiments, they say: I never had +before or since. South remained on the stage perfectly motionless, in +order, I think, to maintain his control over the audience. + +The trumpets sounded a call, and in the middle of a burst of triumphant +music George came on the stage. There was a deafening outbreak of +applause and then a dead silence, but I think every man and woman felt a +thrill of admiration of the noble figure Poor George! the new, +tight-fitting dress of purple velvet that he had bought for this night +set off his white skin, and his fine head was bare, with no covering but +the short curls that Susy liked. + +It was for Susy! He gave one quick glance up at her, and a bright, +boyish smile, as if telling her not to be afraid, which all the audience +understood, and answered by an involuntary, long-drawn breath. I looked +at Susy. The girl's colorless face was turned to George, and her hands +were clasped as though she saw him already dead before her; but she +could be trusted, I saw. _She_ would utter no sound. I had only time to +glance at her, and then turned to my work. George and I dared not take +our eyes from each other. + +There was a single bugle note, and then George swung himself up to the +trapeze. The silence was like death as he steadied himself and slowly +turned so as to front me. As he turned he faced the stage-box for the +first time. He had reached the level of the posture-girls, who fluttered +on either side, and stood on the swaying rod poised on one foot, his +arms folded, when in the breathless stillness there came a sudden cry +and the words, "Oh, Charley! Charley!" + +Even at the distance where I stood I saw George start and a shiver pass +over his body. He looked wildly about him. + +"To me! to me!" I shouted. + +He fixed his eye on mine and steadied himself. There was a terrible +silent excitement in the people, in the very air. + +There was the mistake. We should have stopped then, shaken as he was, +but South, bewildered and terrified, lost control of himself: he gave +the word. + +I held the rope loose--held George with my eyes--One! + +I saw his lips move: he was counting with me. + +Two! + +His eye wandered, turned to the stage-box. + +Three! + +Like a flash, I saw the white upturned faces below me, the +posture-girls' gestures of horror, the dark springing figure through the +air, that wavered--and fell a shapeless mass on the floor. + +There was a moment of deathlike silence, and then a wild outcry--women +fainting, men cursing and crying out in that senseless, helpless way +they have when there is sudden danger. By the time I had reached the +floor they had straightened out his shattered limbs, and two or three +doctors were fighting their way through the great crowd that was surging +about him. + +Well, sir, at that minute what did I hear but George's voice above all +the rest, choked and hollow as it was, like a man calling out of the +grave: "The women! Good God! don't you see the women?" he gasped. + +Looking up then, I saw those miserable Slingsbys hanging on to the +trapeze for life. What with the scare and shock, they'd lost what little +sense they had, and there they hung helpless as limp rags high over our +heads. + +"Damn the Slingsbys!" said I. God forgive me! But I saw this battered +wreck at my feet that had been George. Nobody seemed to have any mind +left. Even South stared stupidly up at them and then back at George. The +doctors were making ready to lift him, and half of the crowd were gaping +in horror, and the rest yelling for ladders or ropes, and scrambling +over each other, and there hung the poor flimsy wretches, their eyes +starting out of their heads from horror, and their lean fingers loosing +their hold every minute. But, sir--I couldn't help it--I turned from +them to watch George as the doctors lifted him. + +"It's hardly worth while," whispered one. + +But they raised him and, sir--the body went one way and the legs +another. + +I thought he was dead. I couldn't see that he breathed, when he opened +his eyes and looked up for the Slingsbys. "Put me down," he said, and +the doctors obeyed him. There was that in his voice that they had to +obey him, though it wasn't but a whisper. + +"Ladders are of no use," he said. "Loper!" + +"Yes, George" + +"You can swing yourself up. Do it." + +I went. I remember the queer stunned feeling I had: my joints moved like +a machine. + +When I had reached the trapeze, he said, as cool as if he were calling +the figures for a Virginia reel, "Support them, you--Loper. Now, lower +the trapeze, men--carefully!" + +It was the only way their lives could be saved, and he was the only man +to see it. He watched us until the girls touched the floor more dead +than alive, and then his head fell back and the life seemed to go +suddenly out of him like the flame out of a candle, leaving only the +dead wick. + +As they were carrying him out I noticed for the first time that a woman +was holding his hand. It was that frail little wisp of a Susy, that used +to blush and tremble if you spoke to her suddenly, and here she was +quite quiet and steady in the midst of this great crowd. + +"His sister, I suppose" one of the doctors said to her. + +"No, sir. If he lives I will be his wife." The old gentleman was very +respectful to her after that, I noticed. + +Now, the rest of my story is very muddled, you'll say, and confused. But +the truth is, I don't understand it myself. I ran on ahead to Mrs. +Peters's to prepare his bed for him, but they did not bring him to +Peters's. After I waited an hour or two I found George had been taken to +the principal hotel in the place, and a bedroom and every comfort that +money could buy were there for him. Susy came home sobbing late in the +night, but she told me nothing, except that those who had a right to +have charge of him had taken him. I found afterward the poor girl was +driven from the door of his room, where she was waiting like a faithful +dog. I went myself, but I fared no better. What with surgeons and +professional nurses, and the gentlemen that crowded about with their +solemn looks of authority, I dared not ask to see him. Yet I believe +still George would rather have had old Loper by him in his extremity +than any of them. Once, when the door was opened, I thought I saw Mrs. +Lloyd stooping over the bed between the lace curtains, and just then her +husband came out talking to one of the surgeons. + +He said: "It is certain there were here the finest elements of manhood. +And I will do my part to rescue him from the abyss into which he has +fallen." + +"Will you tell me how George is, sir?" I asked, pushing up. "Balacchi? +My partner?" + +Mr. Lloyd turned away directly, but the surgeon told me civilly enough +that if George's life could be saved, it must be with the loss of one or +perhaps both of his legs. + +"He'll never mount a trapeze again, then," I said, and I suppose I +groaned; for to think of George helpless-- + +"God forbid!" cried Mr. Lloyd, sharply. "Now look here, my good man: you +can be of no possible use to Mr.--Balacchi as you call him. He is in the +hands of his own people, and he will feel, as they do, that the kindest +thing you can do is to let him alone." + +There was nothing to be done after that but to touch my hat and go out, +but as I went I heard him talking of "inexplicable madness and years of +wasted opportunities." + +Well, sir, I never went again: the words hurt like the cut of a whip, +though 'twan't George that spoke them. But I quit business, and hung +around the town till I heard he was going to live, and I broke up my +contract with South. I never went on a trapeze again. I felt as if the +infernal thing was always dripping with his blood after that day. +Anyhow, all the heart went out of the business for me with George. So I +came back here and settled down to the milling, and by degrees I learned +to think of George as a rich and fortunate man. + +I've nearly done now--only a word or two more. About six years afterward +there was a circus came to town, and I took the wife and children and +went. I always did when I had the chance. It was the old Adam in me yet, +likely. + +Well, sir, among the attractions of the circus was the great and +unrivalled Hercules, who could play with cannon-balls as other men would +with dice. I don't know what made me restless and excited when I read +about this man. It seemed as though the old spirit was coming back to me +again. I could hardly keep still when the time drew near for him to +appear. I don't know what I expected, but when he came out from behind +the curtain I shouted out like a madman, "Balacchi! George! George!" + +He stopped short, looked about, and catching sight of me tossed up his +cap with his old boyish shout; then he remembered himself and went on +with his performance. + +He was lame--yes, in one leg. The other was gone altogether. He walked +on crutches. Whether the strength had gone into his chest and arms, I +don't know; but there he stood tossing about the cannon-balls as I might +marbles. So full of hearty good-humor too, joking with his audience, and +so delighted when they gave him a round of applause. + +After the performance I hurried around the tent, and you may be sure +there was rejoicing that made the manager and other fellows laugh. + +George haled me off with him down the street. He cleared the ground with +that crutch and wooden leg like a steam-engine. "Come! come along!" he +cried; "I've something to show you, Loper." + +He took me to a quiet boarding-house, and there, in a cosey room, was +Susy with a four-year-old girl. + +"We were married as soon as I could hobble about," he said, "and she +goes with me and makes a home wherever I am." + +Susy nodded and blushed and laughed. "Baby and I," she said. "Do you see +Baby? She has her father's eyes, do you see?" + +"She _is_ her mother, Loper," said George--"just as innocent and pure +and foolish--just as sure of the Father in heaven taking care of her. +They've made a different man of me in some ways--a different man," +bending his head reverently. + +After a while I began, "You did not stay with--?" But Balacchi +frowned. "I knew where _I_ belonged," he said. + +Well, he's young yet. He's the best Hercules in the profession, and has +laid up a snug sum. Why doesn't he invest it and retire? I doubt if +he'll ever do that, sir. He may do it, but I doubt it. He can't change +his blood, and there's that in Balacchi that makes me suspect he will +die with the velvet and gilt on, and in the height of good-humor and fun +with his audience. + + + + +AN OPERATION IN MONEY. + +BY ALBERT WEBSTER. + +I. + +In an elegant and lofty bank-parlor there sat in council, on an autumn +morning, fourteen millionaires. They reposed in deep arm-chairs, and +their venerable faces were filled with profound gravity. Before them, +upon a broad mahogany table, were piles of books, sheaves of paper in +rubber bands, bundles of quill pens, quires of waste paper for +calculations, and a number of huge red-covered folios, containing the +tell-tale reports of the mercantile agencies. They had just completed +the selections from the list of applicants for discount, and were now in +that state of lethargy that commonly follows a great and important act. + +The president, with his hands pressed together before him, was looking +at the fresco of Commerce upon the ceiling; his ponderous right-hand +neighbor was stumbling feebly over an addition that one of the +bookkeepers had made upon one of the papers--he hoped to find it wrong; +his left-hand neighbor was doubling his under-lip with his stout +fingers; an octogenarian beyond had buried his chin in his immense neck, +and was going to sleep; another was stupidly blinking at the nearest +coal-fire; two more were exchanging gasping whispers; another was wiping +his gold spectacles with a white handkerchief, now and then stopping to +hold them unsteadily up to the light; and another was fingering the +polished lapel of his old black coat, and saying, with asthmatic +hoarseness to all who would look at him, "F-o-u-r-teen years! +f-o-u-r-teen years!" + +A tall regulator-clock, with its mercury pendulum, ticked upon the wall; +the noise of the heavy rumbling in the streets was softened into a low +monotone, and now and then a bit of coal rattled upon the fender. + +The oil-portraits of four former presidents looked thoughtfully down on +the scene of their former labors; the polished wainscots reflected +ragged pictures of the silent fourteen, and all was perfectly in order +and perfectly secure. + +Presently, however, there was an end to the stagnation; the white heads +began to move and to look around. + +The president's eyes came gradually down from the Commerce, and, after +travelling over the countenances of his stirring _confreres,_ they +settled by accident upon the table before him. There they encountered a +white envelope, inscribed "to the President and Honorable Board of +Directors--Present." + +"Oh gentlemen! gentlemen!" cried the president, seizing the letter, "one +moment more, I beg of you. Here's a--a--note--a communication--a--I +don't know what it is myself, I'm sure, but"--the thirteen sank back +again, feeling somewhat touched that they should be so restrained. The +president ran his eye over the missive. He smiled as one does sometimes +at the precocity of an infant. "The letter, gentlemen," said he, +slipping the paper through his fingers, "is from the paying teller. It +is a request for"--here the president delayed as if about making a +humorous point--"for a larger salary." Then he dropped his eyes and +lowered his head, as he might have done had he confessed that somebody +had kissed him. He seemed to be the innocent mouthpiece of a piece of +flagrant nonsense. + +There was a moment's silence. Then a heavy-voiced gentleman took up a +pen and said: + +"Is this man's name Dreyfus--or--or what is it?" + +"Let me think," returned the president, returning once more to the +Commerce; "Dreyfus?--no--not Dreyfus--yes--no. Paying teller--hum--it's +curious I can't recall--it commences with an F--FIELDS--yes, Fields! +that's his name--Fields, to be sure!" + +The questioner at once wrote down the word on the paper. + +"This is the second time that he has applied for this favor, is it not?" +formally inquired another of the thirteen, in the tone that a judge uses +when he asks the clerk, "Has he not been before me on a former +occasion?" + +"Yes," replied the president, "this is a renewal of an effort made six +months ago." + +There was a general movement. Several chairs rolled back, and their +occupants exchanged querulous glances. + +"Suppose we hear the letter read," suggested a fair soul. "Perhaps"--a +septuagenarian, with snowy hair and a thin body, clad in the clerical +guise of the old school, and who had made a fortune by inventing a +hat-block, arose hastily to his feet, and said: + +"I cannot stay to listen to a dun!" + +A chorus from the majority echoed the exclamation. All but four +staggered to their feet, and tottered off in various directions; some to +pretend to look out at the window, and some to the wardrobes, where was +deposited their outer clothing. + +"Clarks," stammered the feeble hatter, feeling vainly for the arm-holes +in his great-coat--"clarks presume on their value. Turn 'em out, say I. +Give 'em a chance to rotate. You've got my opinion, Mr. President. +Refuse what's-his-name, Fields. Tell him he's happy and well off now, +without knowing it. Where _can_ be the sleeves to--to this"--his +voice expired in his perplexity. + +Fields's cause looked blue. One director after another groped to the +door, saying, as he went, "I can't encourage it, Mr. President--tell him +'No,' Mr. President--it would only make the rest uneasy if we allowed +it--plenty more to fill his place." + +The hatter's voice stopped further mention of the subject. He stood at +one end of the apartment in a paroxysm of laughter. Tears filled his +eyes. He pointed to another director, who, at the other extremity of the +room, was also puzzling over a coat. "There's Stuart with my mackintosh! +He's trying to _put it on--_and here am I with _his_ coat trying to put +_that_ on. I--I said to myself, 'This is pretty large for a slim man +like you.'--Great God, Stuart, if I hadn't been quick-sighted we might +have stayed here all night!" He immediately fell into another fit of +laughter, and so did his friend. They exchanged coats with great +hilarity, and those who had gone out of the door lumbered back to learn +the cause of it. The story went round from one to the other, "Why, +Stuart had Jacobs's coat, and Jacobs had Stuart's coat!" Everybody went +into convulsions, and the president drew out his pocket-handkerchief and +shrieked into it. + +The board broke up with great good feeling, and Jacobs went away very +weak, saying that he was going to tell the joke against Stuart on the +street--if he lived to get there. + +Three gentlemen remained, professedly to hear Fields's letter read. Two +staid because the room was comfortable, and the other because he wanted +to have a little private conversation with the president afterward. + +Therefore the president wiped away the tears that Stuart's humor had +forced from his eyes, and opened the crumpled letter, and, turning his +back to the light, read it aloud, while the rest listened with looks of +great amusement in their wrinkled faces. + + "_To the President and Directors of the ---- National Bank._ + + "GENTLEMEN: I most respectfully renew my application for an increase + of my salary to five thousand dollars per annum, it now being four + thousand. I am impelled to do this because I am convinced that I am + not sufficiently recompensed for the labor I perform; and because + other tellers, having the same responsibilities, receive the larger + sum per annum; and, lastly, because I am about to be married. + + "I remember that your answer to my first application was a definite + refusal, and I blamed myself for not having presented the case more + clearly to your distinguished notice. Will you permit me to rectify + that fault now, and to state briefly why I feel assured that my + present claim is not an unreasonable one? + + "1. While ten years ago we agreed that three thousand dollars was a + fair compensation for the work I was then called upon to perform, + and four years later agreed that four thousand dollars was then fair + pay for my increased tasks, caused by the increase of your business, + is it not just that I should now ask for a still further advance in + view of the fact that your business has doubled since the date of + our last contract? + + "It has been necessary for me to acquaint myself with the signatures + and business customs and qualifications of twice the former number + of your customers, and my liability to error has also become greater + in like ratio. But I have committed no errors, which argues that I + have kept up an equal strain of care. This has made demands upon my + brain and my bodily strength, which I think should be requited for. + + "2. I, like each of you, will one day reach an age when the body and + mind will no longer be able to provide for themselves. But between + us, should we continue our present relations, there would be this + vital difference: You would have made an accumulation of wealth that + would be sufficient for your wants, while I would be poor in spite + of the fact that I labored with you, and next to yourselves did the + most to protect your interests. In view of my approaching + incompetence (no matter how far off it is), I am working at a + disadvantage. Would it not be right to enable me to protect myself + from this disadvantage? + + "3. While you pay me a price for my labor and for my skill as an + _expert_, do you compensate me for the trials you put upon my + probity? You pay me for what I do, but do you reward me for what I + _might_, but do _not_ do? Is what I do _not_ do a marketable + quantity? I think that it is. To prove it, inquire of those whose + servants have behaved ill, whether they would not have paid + something to have forestalled their dishonesty. + + "There is a bad strain to this paragraph, and I will not dwell upon + it. I only ask you to remember that enormous sums of money pass + through my hands every day, and that the smallest slip of my memory, + or of my care, or of my fidelity, might cause you irreparable loss. + Familiarity with money and operations in money always tend to lessen + the respect for the regard that others hold it in. To resist the + subtle influences of this familiarity involves a certain wear and + tear of those principles which _must_ be kept intact for your sake. + + "I beg you to accept what is my evident meaning, even if my method + of setting it forth has not been particularly happy. I have assured + myself that my claim is a valid one, and I await your obliging reply + with anxiety. + + "I remain, very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, + + "----FIELDS, _Paying Teller."_ + +At the end the president suddenly lowered his head with a smile, and +looked over the top of his glasses at his audience, clearly meaning, +"There's a letter for you!" + +But two of the gentlemen were fast asleep, nodding gently at one another +across the table, while their hands clasped the arms of their chairs. +The other one was looking up toward the roofs of the buildings opposite, +absorbed in speculation. + +The president said, aloud: + +"I think, as long as Fields has made such a touse about it, that I'd +better draft a reply, and not give him a verbal an--" + +"Draft!" said the speculator, brought to life by the word. "Draft did +you say, sir? What?--On whom?--" + +"I said 'draft a reply' to--to this," returned the other, waving the +letter. + +"Oh, a reply! Draft one. Draft a reply--a reply to the letter about the +salary. Oh, certainly, by all means." + +"And read it to the directors at the meeting next Friday," suggested the +president. + +The speculator's eyes turned vacantly upon him, and it was full half a +minute before he comprehended. "Yes, yes, of course, read it to the +directors next Friday. They'll approve it, you know. That will be +regular, and according to rule. But about Steinmeyer, you know. When a +man like Steinmeyer does such a thing as--but just come to the window a +minute." + +He led the president off by the arm, and that was the last of Fields's +letter for that day. + + * * * * * + +II. + +Fields was truly on the anxious-seat. + +As he had said in his letter, he was engaged to be married, and he +wanted to be about the consummation of the contract, for he had already +delayed too long. His _affiancee_ was a sweet girl who lived with her +widowed mother in the country, where they had a fine house, and a fine +demesne attached to it. When the time for the marriage was finally +settled upon, the lady instantly set about remodelling her domicile and +its surroundings, and making it fit for the new spirits that were soon +to inhabit it. She drew upon her accumulation of money that had thriven +long in a private bank, and expended it in laying out new lawns, +planting new trees, building new stables, erecting tasteful graperies +and kiosks. This sum was not very large, and it included not only what +had been saved out of the earnings of the farm, but also what had been +saved out of the income from the widow's property, which consisted of +twelve thousand dollars in insurance stock. + +Fields had thus far expended nearly all of his salary of four thousand +dollars. He was accustomed to use a quarter of it for his own purposes, +and the rest he applied to the comfort of his aged parents, whom he +maintained. Thus it will be seen that Fields's desire to add to his own +wealth had reason to be. + +Just at this time there stepped in the Chicago fire. On the second day +Fields began to be frightened about the twelve thousand dollars in +insurance stock. Telegrams poured into the city by hundreds, and the +tale grew more dismal with each hour. + +His fears were realized. The widow's money was swept away, and a sort of +paralysis fell upon the country-house and all its surroundings. The +carpenters went away from the kiosks, the masons from the face-walls, +the smiths from the graperies, the gardeners from the lawns, and +everything came to a stand-still. The extra farm-hands were discharged, +and much of the work was left unfinished. + +What was to be done? + +The mother and daughter wept in secret. Their careers had been +interrupted. Desolation was out-of-doors, and desolation was in their +hearts. The earth lay in ragged heaps; beams and timbers leaned half +erect; barns were party-colored with the old paint and the new, and the +shrubbery was bare to the frosts. Joys which had smiled had fled into +the far distance, and now looked surly enough; all pleasures were +unhorsed, and hope was down. + +It was under these circumstances that Fields wrote a second time to the +honorable board of directors to ask them to pay him better wages. + +Friday came. There was a meeting, and Fields knew that his case must now +be receiving consideration. + +At eleven o'clock the directors emerged from their parlor, and passed +by his desk in twos and threes, chatting and telling watery jokes, as +most great men do. + +"They look as if they had entirely forgotten me," said Fields to +himself. + +Pretty soon the cashier came and placed a letter upon his counter. + +"Ah!" thought the teller, "I was mistaken. I wonder if I can read it +here without changing countenance?" + +He could but try it. He tore off the envelope. It went thus: + + "_Mr.----Fields, Paying Teller._ + + "DEAR SIR: The president and directors, to whom you addressed a + request for an increase of salary, must beg to criticise the + arguments advanced in your polite note. + + "They do not understand why you should place a new value upon your + honesty because in other people there happens to be sometimes such a + thing as dishonesty. It is a popular notion that honesty among men + is rare, but the idea is a mistaken one. Honesty of the purest kind, + as honesty is usually understood, is very common. They cannot help + feeling, also, that you somewhat overestimate the value of your + work, which to them seems to be only a higher sort of routine, + calling for no intellectual endeavor, and requiring but little more + than an ordinary bookkeeper's care for its perfect performance. But + for the differences that _do_ exist between your tasks and those of + the bookkeeper you will remember you are already compensated by a + salary a fourth larger. + + "Briefly, they consider their bank a piece of money-making + mechanism, of which you are an able and respected part; but they + cannot understand how you could hope to raise their fear of + peculations and villainies when their system of checks and + counter-checks is so perfect. They have never lost a dollar by the + immorality of any of their employes, and they are sure that matters + are so arranged that any such immorality, even of the rankest kind, + could occasion them no inconvenience. + + "Nor do they comprehend why your idea that increase of business + justifies a request for an increase of salary may not be met with + the suggestion that your hours of labor are the same as your former + hours, and that all you were able to perform in those hours, to the + best of your capacity, was purchased at the beginning of your + connection with them. + + "In regard to the pure question of the sufficiency of your salary, + they hint in the kindest manner that all expenditures are + contractible as well as extensible. + + "They hasten to take this opportunity to express to you their + appreciation of your perfect exhibits; and, complimenting you upon + the care with which you have fulfilled the duties of your post, they + remain your obedient servants." + +The teller felt that a more maddening letter could not have been +written. Its civility seemed to him to be disagreeable suavity; its +failure to particularize the points he made to be a disgraceful evasion; +and the liberty it took in generalizing his case to be an enormous +insult. + +The very first sentence on honesty put him in the light of a +blackmailer--one that threatened mischief if his demands were not +complied with. The next sentence went to show that he was an egotist, +because he thought his labors required wear and tear of brain. The third +called him a sound cog-wheel. The latter part of the same said that a +villain could do no evil if he wished to, for they (the directors) had +protected themselves against villains. Then it went on to say that the +writers did not understand how anxiety and caution could be involved in +the pursuit of his duties; and then it was thrown out that his marriage +was _his_ seeking--not theirs. Finally, they patted him on the head. + +The devil! + +Fields passed a sleepless night. He felt that he had been belittled to +the extremest point, and that there was not a foothold left for his +dignity. His soul was incised and chafed, and he lay awake thinking that +degradation of himself and his office could have proceeded no further. + +Toward morning he hit upon a plan to establish himself in what he +believed to be the proper light. "It will require nerve," reflected he, +doubtingly, "and not only nerve in itself, but a certain exact quantity +of it. Too much nerve would destroy me, and too little nerve would do +the same thing. I think, however, that I can manage it. I feel able to +do anything. Even a paying teller will turn if--" etc., etc. + + * * * * * + +III. + +On the following Monday there was a special meeting of the directors for +the purpose of examining the books and accounts of the bank. The +bank-controller was expected to call for an exhibit within the coming +week, and it was desirable that the directors should feel assured that +their institution was in the proper order. The call of the controller +was always impending. It might come any day, and it would require an +exhibit of the condition of the bank on any previous day. He was +permitted to make five of these calls during the year, and, inasmuch as +he was at liberty to choose his own days, his check upon the banks was +complete. If he found a bank that had not fulfilled the requirements of +law, he was obliged to take away its charter, and to close it: hence the +examination-meeting in the present case. The accounts of the tellers +were passed upon, the cashier's books were looked over, as were also +those of the regular bookkeepers. There seemed to be no errors, and the +contents of the safes were proved. There was perfect order in all the +departments. The clerks were complimented. "Now," said Fields to +himself, "is my opportunity." + +On the next day at ten o'clock the directors again assembled--this time +for their regular labors--to examine the proposals for discount. + +The day happened to be cold and stormy. The twenty clerks were busily +and silently at work behind their counters and gratings, and the +fourteen directors were shut tight in their mahogany room. There was but +little passing to and fro from the street, though now and then a +half-frozen messenger came stamping in, and did his errand, with +benumbed fingers, through the little windows. The tempest made business +light. + +At eleven o'clock Fields wrote a note and sent it to the directors' +room. The boy who carried it knocked softly, and the president appeared, +took the letter, and then closed the door again. + +Then there was a moment of almost total silence; the clerks wrote, the +leaves rattled, and it seemed as if it were an instant before an +expected explosion. + +Presently an explosion came. The clerks heard with astonishment a tumult +in the directors' room--exclamations, hurried questions, the hasty +rolling of chairs on their casters, and then the sound of feet. + +The door was hastily drawn open, and those who were near could see that +nearly all the directors were clustered around it, straining their eyes +to look at the paying teller. Most of them were pale and they called, +in one voice, "Come here!" "Come in here at once!" "Fields!" "Mr. +Fields!" "Sir, you are wanted!" "Step this way instantly!" Fields put +down his pen, opened the tall iron gate which separated him from the +counters, and walked rather quickly toward the den of lions. An opening +was made for him in the group, and he passed through the door, and it +was shut once more. + +He walked across the room to the fireplace. He took out his +handkerchief, and, seizing a corner between a thumb and forefinger, +slowly shook it open, and then turned around. + +"This note, sir! What does it mean?" cried the president, advancing upon +him, waving the paper in his trembling hand. + +"Have you read it?" demanded Fields, in a loud voice. + +"Yes," said the president. He was astonished at Fields's manner. He cast +a glance upon his fellow-directors. + +"Then what is the use of asking me what I mean? It is as plain as I can +make it." + +"But it says--but it says," faltered the venerable gentleman, turning +the paper to the light, "that you have only money enough to last until +twelve o'clock. Your statement yesterday showed a balance to your credit +of three hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars. That will last at +least--" + +"But I have not got three hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars. I +have only got twenty-seven thousand dollars!" + +"But we counted three hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars." + +"When?" + +"Yesterday." + +"Yesterday--yes. But not this morning." + +"Great God!" cried Stuart, thrusting himself forward, "what!--" He fixed +his feeble eyes upon Fields, but could speak no further. His arms fell +down by his sides, and he began to tremble. He did not have sufficient +courage to ask the question. Somebody else did. + +"What has become of it?" + +"That I shall not tell you!" returned Fields, looking defiantly at one +director after another. + +"But is it gone?" cried the chorus. Many of the faces that confronted +Fields had become waxen. The little group was permeated with a tremor. + +"Yes, it is gone; I have taken it." + +"You have _taken_ it!" "_You_ have taken it!" "_You have taken it!_" + +The directors, overwhelmed and confounded, retreated from Fields as if +they were in personal danger from him. + +"In Heaven's name, Fields!" exclaimed the president, "speak out! Tell +us! What!--where!--the money! Come, man!" + +"You had better lock the door," said the teller; "some one will be +coming in." + +One of the most feeble and aged of the board turned around and +hastened, as fast as his infirm limbs would permit him, and threw the +bolt with feverish haste, and then ran back again to hear. + +"Yes," said Fields, with deliberation, "I have taken the money. I have +carried it away and hidden it where no one can lay hands upon it but +myself." + +"Then--then, sir, you have stolen it!" + +Fields bowed. "I have stolen it." + +"But you have ruined us!" + +"Possibly." + +"And you have ruined yourself!" + +"I am not so sure of that." + +"Stop this useless talk!" cried a gentleman, who had heretofore been +silent. He bent upon Fields a look of great dignity. "Make it clear, +sir, what you have done." + +"Certainly. When I left the bank last night I put into my pockets one +hundred and fifty thousand dollars in greenbacks of the +one-thousand-dollar denomination, one hundred thousand dollars in +national-currency notes of the one-hundred-dollar denomination, and one +hundred thousand dollars in gold certificates. I left to the credit of +my account twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and sixty-two dollars and +some odd cents. Eight thousand of these have been already drawn this +morning. It is not unlikely that the whole of what is left may be drawn +within the next five minutes, and the next draft upon you will find you +insolvent. If the balance is against you at the clearing-house, you +will undoubtedly be obliged to stop payment before one o'clock." + +Fields's interlocutor turned sharply around and sank into his seat. At +this three of the young members of the board--Slavin, a wool-dealer, +Debritt, a silk importer, and Saville, an insurance actuary--made a +violent onslaught upon the teller, but others interposed. + +What was to be said? What was to be done? Somebody cried for a +policeman, and would have thrown up a window and called into the street. +But the act was prevented. It was denounced as childish. After a moment, +everybody but Fields had seated himself in his accustomed place, +overcome with agitation. Those who could see devoured the teller with +their eyes. Two others wept with puerile fear and anger. They began to +realize the plight they were in. It began to dawn upon them that an +immense disaster was hanging over their heads. How were they to escape +from it? Which way were they to turn to find relief? It was no time for +brawling and denunciation; they were in the hands of an unscrupulous +man, who, at this crucial moment, was as cool and implacable as an +iceberg. They watched him carelessly draw and redraw his handkerchief +through his fingers; he was unmoved, and entirely at ease. + +"Can it be possible!" said a tall and aged director, rising from his +chair and bending upon the culprit a look of great impressiveness--"can +it be possible that it is our upright and stainless clerk who confesses +to such a stupendous villainy as this? Can it be that one who has earned +so much true esteem from his fellow-men thus turns upon them and--" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" replied Fields, impatiently, "that is all true; but it +is all sentiment. Let us descend to business. I know the extent of my +wickedness better than you do. I have taken for my own use from your +bank. I have robbed you of between a quarter and a half million of +dollars. I am a pure robber. That is the worst you can say of me. The +worst you can do with me is to throw me into prison for ten years. By +the National Currency Act of 1865, section 55, you will see that for +this offence against you I may be incarcerated from five to ten +years--not more than ten. If you imprison me for ten years, you do your +worst. During those ten years I shall have ample time to perfect myself +in at least three languages, and to read extensively, and I shall leave +the jail at forty-five a polished and learned man, in the prime of life, +and possessed of enormous wealth. There will be no pleasure that I +cannot purchase. I shall become a good-natured cynic; I shall freely +admit that I have disturbed the ordinary relations of labor and +compensation, but I shall so treat the matter that I shall become the +subject of a semi-admiration that will relieve me from social ostracism. +I have carefully reviewed the ground. I shall go to jail, pass through +my trial, receive my sentence, put on my prisoner's suit, begin my +daily tasks, and all with as much equanimity as I possess at present. +There will be no contrition and no shame. Do not hope to recover a +dollar of your money. I have been careful to secrete it so that the most +ingenious detectives and the largest rewards will not be able to obtain +a hint of its whereabouts. It is entirely beyond your reach." + +Fields was now an entire master of the situation. The board was filled +with consternation; its members conferred together in frightened +whispers. + +"But," pursued Fields, "do you properly understand _your_ situation? My +desk is virtually without money. My assistant at this instant may +discover that he has not sufficient funds to pay the check he has in his +hand. In a moment more the street may be in possession of the facts. +Besides the present danger, have you forgotten the controller?" Nothing +more could now add to the alarm that filled the room. + +"What shall we do, Fields? We cannot go under; we cannot--" + +"I will tell you." + +The room became silent again. All leaned forward to listen. Some placed +their hands behind their ears. + +"I do not think that the drafts upon us to-day will amount to eighty +thousand dollars. You might draw that sum from the receiving teller, but +that would occasion remark. I advise you to draw from your private +accounts elsewhere one hundred thousand dollars, and quietly place it +upon my counter. I would do it without an instant's delay." + +"But what guarantee have we that you will not appropriate that also?" + +"I give you my word," replied Fields, with a smile. + +"And to what end do you advise us to keep the bank intact?" + +"That we may have time to arrange terms." + +"Terms--for what?" + +"For a compromise." + +"Ah-ha!" + +Here was a patch of blue sky--a glimpse of the sun. Fields was not +insensible to moderation, after all. + +"What do you propose?" eagerly demanded three voices. + +"I think you had first better insure yourselves against suspension," was +the reply. + +In ten minutes one of the directors hurriedly departed, with five checks +in his wallet. These were the contributions of his fellows. The +president passed out to see how matters stood at the paying teller's +desk. No more drafts had been presented, and the nineteen thousand +dollars were still undisturbed. He returned reassured. He locked the +door again. + +"Now, sir," said he to the paying teller, "let us go on." + +"Very well," was the reply. "I think you all perceive by this time the +true position of affairs. I possess three hundred and fifty thousand +dollars, and your bank has lost that sum. I have detailed the benefits +which will accrue to me, and the trouble which will in all likelihood +accrue to you. It will be unpleasant for you to throw your selves upon +the mercies of your stockholders. Stockholders are hard-hearted people. +Each one of you will, in case this matter is discovered, find his +financial credit and his reputation for sagacity much impaired; and, +besides this, there will be incurred the dangers of a 'run' upon you, to +say nothing of the actual loss to the institution, which will have to be +made good to the last dollar. But let us see if we cannot do better. +Notwithstanding the fact that I have fully made up my mind to go to +prison, I cannot deny that _not_ to go to prison would be an advantage. +Therefore, if you will promise me immunity from prosecution, I will +return to you to-morrow morning a quarter of a million dollars. I ask +you to give me a reply within five minutes. The proposition is a bare +one, and is sufficiently plain. I shall require your faith as directors +and individuals, and in return I will give my pledge, as a robber of the +highest grade--a bond which perhaps is as good as any that can be made +under the circumstances." + +The directors no sooner saw that it lay within their power to regain +five-sevenths of their money than they began, almost with one voice, +threaten Fields with punishment if he did not return the whole. + +"Gentlemen," cried the paying teller, interrupting their exclamations, +"I must impose one more condition. It is that you do not mention this +affair again--that you keep the whole matter secret, and not permit it +to be known beyond this apartment that I have had any other than the +most agreeable relations with you. All that is imperative. There remain +but two more minutes. The president will signify to me your decision." + +The time elapsed. Fields put his watch into his pocket. + +"Well, sir?" said he. + +"We accept the terms," replied the president, bowing stiffly. + +Fields also bowed. A silence ensued. Presently a director said to +Fields: + +"May I ask you what led you to this step?" + +"Sir," replied the teller, with severity, "you are encroaching upon our +contract. I may speak of this affair, but you have no right to." + +Then he turned to the board: + +"Do you wish me to go back to my work?" + +There was a consultation. Then the president said: + +"If you will be so kind." + +Fields complied. + +The business of the day went forward as usual. The teller's counter-desk +was supplied with money, and no suspicion was aroused among his +fellows. + +As each director went out of the bank, he stopped at Fields's window, +and addressed some set remark to him upon business matters; and so +intimate did the relations between them seem that the clerks concluded +that the lucky man was about to be made cashier, and they began to pay +him more respect. + +In the intervening night there again recurred to the directors the +enormity of the outrage to which they had been subjected. The incident +of recovering so large a part of what they had originally supposed was +gone had the effect of making them partially unmindful of the loss of +the smaller sum which the teller finally agreed to accept in place of +punishment. But in the lapse between the time of the robbery and the +time of the promised restitution, their appreciation of their position +had time to revive again, and when they assembled on the next morning to +receive the money from Fields, they were anxious and feverish. + +Would he come? Was he not at this moment in Canada? Would a man who +could steal one hundred thousand dollars return a quarter of a million? +Absurd! + +Every moment one of them went to the door to see if Fields had appeared. +The rest walked about, with their hands behind them, talking together +incoherently. The air was full of doubts. The teller usually came at a +quarter past nine, but the hour arrived without the man. Intolerable +suspense! + +Two or three of the directors made paths for themselves amid the chairs, +and anxiously traversed them. Slavin took a post beside a window and +gazed into the street. Debritt, with his right hand in his bosom, and +with his left grasping the upper rail of a seat, looked fixedly into the +coals. Stuart sipped at a goblet of water, but his trembling hand caused +him to spill its contents upon the floor. No one now ventured to speak +except in a whisper; it seemed that a word or a loud noise must disturb +the poise of matters. The clock ticked, the blue flames murmured in the +grate, and the pellets of sand thrown up by the wind rattled against the +windows. + +But yet there were no signs of the paying teller. + +Was it possible that this immense sum of money was _gone?_ Could it be +true that they must report this terrible thing to the world? Had they +permitted themselves to become the lieutenants to a wily scoundrel? Were +they thus waiting silent and inactive while he was being borne away at +the speed of the wind, out of their reach? + +All at once Fields came in at the door. + +He was met with a gladness that was only too perceptible. Every +gentleman emitted a sigh of relief, and half started, as if to take the +delinquent by the hand. + +Fields had expected this. He was shrewd enough to act before the feeling +had evaporated. + +He advanced to the table. The directors hastened like schoolboys to +take their accustomed places. They bent upon the teller's face the most +anxious looks. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "I believe that you fully understand that I return +this large sum of money to you at my own option. You recognize the fact +that most men would endure, for instance, an imprisonment of ten years +rather than lose the control of a quarter of a million of dollars." + +The directors hastened to signify "Yes!" + +"But," continued Fields, taking several large envelopes from his inner +pockets, "I shall be content with less. There is the sum I mentioned." + +The directors fell upon the packages and counted their contents. The +table was strewed with money. Fields contemplated the scene with +curiosity. Presently it was announced that the sum was complete. + +"Now, gentlemen," said Fields, "you have suffered loss. I have a hundred +thousand dollars which I have forced you to present me with. That is a +large sum, though to us who are so familiar with millions it seems +small, almost insignificant; but, in reality, it has a great importance. +You now see, my friends, what a part of your money-making mechanism may +achieve. There is no bank, even of third-rate importance, in this city, +whose receiving teller or paying teller may not do exactly as I have +done. On any day, at any hour, they may load themselves with valuables +and go away. You, and all directors, depend servilely upon the pure +honesty of your clerks. You can erect no barrier, no guard, no defence, +that will protect you from the results of decayed principle in them. +They are deeply involved in dangerous elements. Ease, luxury, life-long +immunity from toil, wait upon their resolution to do ill. This +resolution may be the determination of an instant, or the result of +long-continued sophistical reasoning. You cannot detect the approach to +such a resolve in your servant, and he, perhaps, can hardly detect it in +himself. But one day it is complete: he acts upon it. You are bereft of +your property; he flees, and there is the nine days' stir, and all is +over. Your greatest surety lies in your appreciation of your danger. I +have proved to you what that danger consists of; you did not know +before. Your best means of defence is to respect, to the fullest extent, +the people upon whom you depend. They are worthy of it. An instant's +reflection will show you that neither of you would be proof against a +strong temptation. For the sake of recovering a sum of money you have +compounded with felony. All of you are at this moment in breach of the +law. You have submitted without a struggle to the dominant impulse. The +principle of exact honor which you demand in me does not exist in +yourselves. But let us end this disagreeable scene. Perhaps I have +demonstrated something that you never realized. I hope you understand. I +now surrender to you the one hundred thousand dollars, which you +thought I had stolen. I had no intention of keeping it; I only pretended +to take it in order to impress you with my ideas." + +Every director arose to his feet in haste. Fields placed another packet +upon the table, and, in face of the astonished board, left the +apartment. + +An hour afterward he was again summoned to the parlor. He advanced to +his old position at the end of the table. It was clear that the temper +of the assembly was favorable to him. + +"Mr. Fields," said the president, "your attack upon us was singular and +rapid, and I think it has made the mark that you intended it should. +Your mode of convincing us was, one might say, dramatic; and, though I +believe you might have attained your object in another way, we +acknowledge that your letter had but little effect. We now wish to +provide for you as you claim, and as you deserve. But we cannot look +upon you with quietude. It is almost impossible to see you without +shuddering. We must place you elsewhere. If you remained here, you would +always be in close proximity to a quarter of a million dollars." + +"But you believe in my integrity?" + +"Perfectly." + +"You understand my motives?" + +"Fully." + +"And you acknowledge them to be just?" + +"Unqualifiedly just." + +"Well?" + +"But you personify a terrible threat. You are an exponent of a great +danger, and you could not ask us to live with one who showed that he +held a sword above our heads. That would be impossible. We therefore +offer you the position of actuary in the ---- Life. Mr. Stuart is about +to resign it, and at our request he has consented to procure you the +chair. Your salary will be thrice that you now receive. Do you accept?" + +"Without an instant's hesitation," replied Fields. + +He then shook hands with each director, and they separated excellent +friends. + + * * * * * + +Fields winged his way to the farm in the country, and told the news. +That is, he told the best of it. He told the actual news after hours, +when there was but one to tell it to. + +There was a shriek. + +"Oh, if they _had_!" + +"Had what--Sun and Moon!" + +"Why, sent you to prison." + +"Well, we should have had to wait ten years, that's all. After that, we +should have been worth, with interest added to the capital, five hundred +and sixty thousand dollars." + +"Sir! Can you suppose that I would ever marry a robber, a wretched +robber?" + +"Never! But it is different where one robs for the sake of principle." + +"Y--yes, that is true; I forgot that. I think that principle is a great +thing. Don't you?" + +"Exceedingly great." + +In the spring the face-walls and the lawns and the kiosks went forward +according to the original design, and the actuary frequently brought his +city friends, directors and all, down to look at them. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Stories by American Authors, Volume 1, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES AMERICAN, VOL 1. *** + +***** This file should be named 11436.txt or 11436.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/3/11436/ + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Amy Petri and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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