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diff --git a/old/old/1213.txt b/old/old/1213.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d72a9ec --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/1213.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2456 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, by Mark +Twain + + +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: The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg + + +Author: Mark Twain + +Release Date: April 1, 2005 [eBook #1213] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1907 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG + + +I. + + +It was many years ago. Hadleyburg was the most honest and upright town +in all the region round about. It had kept that reputation unsmirched +during three generations, and was prouder of it than of any other of its +possessions. It was so proud of it, and so anxious to insure its +perpetuation, that it began to teach the principles of honest dealing to +its babies in the cradle, and made the like teachings the staple of their +culture thenceforward through all the years devoted to their education. +Also, throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way +of the young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to +harden and solidify, and become a part of their very bone. The +neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy, and +affected to sneer at Hadleyburg's pride in it and call it vanity; but all +the same they were obliged to acknowledge that Hadleyburg was in reality +an incorruptible town; and if pressed they would also acknowledge that +the mere fact that a young man hailed from Hadleyburg was all the +recommendation he needed when he went forth from his natal town to seek +for responsible employment. + +But at last, in the drift of time, Hadleyburg had the ill luck to offend +a passing stranger--possibly without knowing it, certainly without +caring, for Hadleyburg was sufficient unto itself, and cared not a rap +for strangers or their opinions. Still, it would have been well to make +an exception in this one's case, for he was a bitter man, and revengeful. +All through his wanderings during a whole year he kept his injury in +mind, and gave all his leisure moments to trying to invent a compensating +satisfaction for it. He contrived many plans, and all of them were good, +but none of them was quite sweeping enough: the poorest of them would +hurt a great many individuals, but what he wanted was a plan which would +comprehend the entire town, and not let so much as one person escape +unhurt. At last he had a fortunate idea, and when it fell into his brain +it lit up his whole head with an evil joy. He began to form a plan at +once, saying to himself "That is the thing to do--I will corrupt the +town." + +Six months later he went to Hadleyburg, and arrived in a buggy at the +house of the old cashier of the bank about ten at night. He got a sack +out of the buggy, shouldered it, and staggered with it through the +cottage yard, and knocked at the door. A woman's voice said "Come in," +and he entered, and set his sack behind the stove in the parlour, saying +politely to the old lady who sat reading the "Missionary Herald" by the +lamp: + +"Pray keep your seat, madam, I will not disturb you. There--now it is +pretty well concealed; one would hardly know it was there. Can I see +your husband a moment, madam?" + +No, he was gone to Brixton, and might not return before morning. + +"Very well, madam, it is no matter. I merely wanted to leave that sack +in his care, to be delivered to the rightful owner when he shall be +found. I am a stranger; he does not know me; I am merely passing through +the town to-night to discharge a matter which has been long in my mind. +My errand is now completed, and I go pleased and a little proud, and you +will never see me again. There is a paper attached to the sack which +will explain everything. Good-night, madam." + +The old lady was afraid of the mysterious big stranger, and was glad to +see him go. But her curiosity was roused, and she went straight to the +sack and brought away the paper. It began as follows: + + "TO BE PUBLISHED, or, the right man sought out by private + inquiry--either will answer. This sack contains gold coin weighing a + hundred and sixty pounds four ounces--" + +"Mercy on us, and the door not locked!" + +Mrs. Richards flew to it all in a tremble and locked it, then pulled down +the window-shades and stood frightened, worried, and wondering if there +was anything else she could do toward making herself and the money more +safe. She listened awhile for burglars, then surrendered to curiosity, +and went back to the lamp and finished reading the paper: + + "I am a foreigner, and am presently going back to my own country, to + remain there permanently. I am grateful to America for what I have + received at her hands during my long stay under her flag; and to one + of her citizens--a citizen of Hadleyburg--I am especially grateful for + a great kindness done me a year or two ago. Two great kindnesses in + fact. I will explain. I was a gambler. I say I WAS. I was a ruined + gambler. I arrived in this village at night, hungry and without a + penny. I asked for help--in the dark; I was ashamed to beg in the + light. I begged of the right man. He gave me twenty dollars--that is + to say, he gave me life, as I considered it. He also gave me fortune; + for out of that money I have made myself rich at the gaming-table. And + finally, a remark which he made to me has remained with me to this + day, and has at last conquered me; and in conquering has saved the + remnant of my morals: I shall gamble no more. Now I have no idea who + that man was, but I want him found, and I want him to have this money, + to give away, throw away, or keep, as he pleases. It is merely my way + of testifying my gratitude to him. If I could stay, I would find him + myself; but no matter, he will be found. This is an honest town, an + incorruptible town, and I know I can trust it without fear. This man + can be identified by the remark which he made to me; I feel persuaded + that he will remember it. + + "And now my plan is this: If you prefer to conduct the inquiry + privately, do so. Tell the contents of this present writing to any + one who is likely to be the right man. If he shall answer, 'I am the + man; the remark I made was so-and-so,' apply the test--to wit: open + the sack, and in it you will find a sealed envelope containing that + remark. If the remark mentioned by the candidate tallies with it, + give him the money, and ask no further questions, for he is certainly + the right man. + + "But if you shall prefer a public inquiry, then publish this present + writing in the local paper--with these instructions added, to wit: + Thirty days from now, let the candidate appear at the town-hall at + eight in the evening (Friday), and hand his remark, in a sealed + envelope, to the Rev. Mr. Burgess (if he will be kind enough to act); + and let Mr. Burgess there and then destroy the seals of the sack, open + it, and see if the remark is correct: if correct, let the money be + delivered, with my sincere gratitude, to my benefactor thus + identified." + +Mrs. Richards sat down, gently quivering with excitement, and was soon +lost in thinkings--after this pattern: "What a strange thing it is! . . . +And what a fortune for that kind man who set his bread afloat upon the +waters! . . . If it had only been my husband that did it!--for we are so +poor, so old and poor! . . ." Then, with a sigh--"But it was not my +Edward; no, it was not he that gave a stranger twenty dollars. It is a +pity too; I see it now. . . " Then, with a shudder--"But it is +_gamblers_' money! the wages of sin; we couldn't take it; we couldn't +touch it. I don't like to be near it; it seems a defilement." She moved +to a farther chair. . . "I wish Edward would come, and take it to the +bank; a burglar might come at any moment; it is dreadful to be here all +alone with it." + +At eleven Mr. Richards arrived, and while his wife was saying "I am _so_ +glad you've come!" he was saying, "I am so tired--tired clear out; it is +dreadful to be poor, and have to make these dismal journeys at my time of +life. Always at the grind, grind, grind, on a salary--another man's +slave, and he sitting at home in his slippers, rich and comfortable." + +"I am so sorry for you, Edward, you know that; but be comforted; we have +our livelihood; we have our good name--" + +"Yes, Mary, and that is everything. Don't mind my talk--it's just a +moment's irritation and doesn't mean anything. Kiss me--there, it's all +gone now, and I am not complaining any more. What have you been getting? +What's in the sack?" + +Then his wife told him the great secret. It dazed him for a moment; then +he said: + +"It weighs a hundred and sixty pounds? Why, Mary, it's for-ty thou-sand +dollars--think of it--a whole fortune! Not ten men in this village are +worth that much. Give me the paper." + +He skimmed through it and said: + +"Isn't it an adventure! Why, it's a romance; it's like the impossible +things one reads about in books, and never sees in life." He was well +stirred up now; cheerful, even gleeful. He tapped his old wife on the +cheek, and said humorously, "Why, we're rich, Mary, rich; all we've got +to do is to bury the money and burn the papers. If the gambler ever +comes to inquire, we'll merely look coldly upon him and say: 'What is +this nonsense you are talking? We have never heard of you and your sack +of gold before;' and then he would look foolish, and--" + +"And in the meantime, while you are running on with your jokes, the money +is still here, and it is fast getting along toward burglar-time." + +"True. Very well, what shall we do--make the inquiry private? No, not +that; it would spoil the romance. The public method is better. Think +what a noise it will make! And it will make all the other towns jealous; +for no stranger would trust such a thing to any town but Hadleyburg, and +they know it. It's a great card for us. I must get to the +printing-office now, or I shall be too late." + +"But stop--stop--don't leave me here alone with it, Edward!" + +But he was gone. For only a little while, however. Not far from his own +house he met the editor--proprietor of the paper, and gave him the +document, and said "Here is a good thing for you, Cox--put it in." + +"It may be too late, Mr. Richards, but I'll see." + +At home again, he and his wife sat down to talk the charming mystery +over; they were in no condition for sleep. The first question was, Who +could the citizen have been who gave the stranger the twenty dollars? It +seemed a simple one; both answered it in the same breath-- + +"Barclay Goodson." + +"Yes," said Richards, "he could have done it, and it would have been like +him, but there's not another in the town." + +"Everybody will grant that, Edward--grant it privately, anyway. For six +months, now, the village has been its own proper self once more--honest, +narrow, self-righteous, and stingy." + +"It is what he always called it, to the day of his death--said it right +out publicly, too." + +"Yes, and he was hated for it." + +"Oh, of course; but he didn't care. I reckon he was the best-hated man +among us, except the Reverend Burgess." + +"Well, Burgess deserves it--he will never get another congregation here. +Mean as the town is, it knows how to estimate _him_. Edward, doesn't it +seem odd that the stranger should appoint Burgess to deliver the money?" + +"Well, yes--it does. That is--that is--" + +"Why so much that-_is_-ing? Would _you_ select him?" + +"Mary, maybe the stranger knows him better than this village does." + +"Much _that_ would help Burgess!" + +The husband seemed perplexed for an answer; the wife kept a steady eye +upon him, and waited. Finally Richards said, with the hesitancy of one +who is making a statement which is likely to encounter doubt, + +"Mary, Burgess is not a bad man." + +His wife was certainly surprised. + +"Nonsense!" she exclaimed. + +"He is not a bad man. I know. The whole of his unpopularity had its +foundation in that one thing--the thing that made so much noise." + +"That 'one thing,' indeed! As if that 'one thing' wasn't enough, all by +itself." + +"Plenty. Plenty. Only he wasn't guilty of it." + +"How you talk! Not guilty of it! Everybody knows he _was_ guilty." + +"Mary, I give you my word--he was innocent." + +"I can't believe it and I don't. How do you know?" + +"It is a confession. I am ashamed, but I will make it. I was the only +man who knew he was innocent. I could have saved him, and--and--well, +you know how the town was wrought up--I hadn't the pluck to do it. It +would have turned everybody against me. I felt mean, ever so mean; ut I +didn't dare; I hadn't the manliness to face that." + +Mary looked troubled, and for a while was silent. Then she said +stammeringly: + +"I--I don't think it would have done for you to--to--One +mustn't--er--public opinion--one has to be so careful--so--" It was a +difficult road, and she got mired; but after a little she got started +again. "It was a great pity, but--Why, we couldn't afford it, Edward--we +couldn't indeed. Oh, I wouldn't have had you do it for anything!" + +"It would have lost us the good-will of so many people, Mary; and +then--and then--" + +"What troubles me now is, what _he_ thinks of us, Edward." + +"He? _He_ doesn't suspect that I could have saved him." + +"Oh," exclaimed the wife, in a tone of relief, "I am glad of that. As +long as he doesn't know that you could have saved him, he--he--well that +makes it a great deal better. Why, I might have known he didn't know, +because he is always trying to be friendly with us, as little +encouragement as we give him. More than once people have twitted me with +it. There's the Wilsons, and the Wilcoxes, and the Harknesses, they take +a mean pleasure in saying '_Your friend_ Burgess,' because they know it +pesters me. I wish he wouldn't persist in liking us so; I can't think +why he keeps it up." + +"I can explain it. It's another confession. When the thing was new and +hot, and the town made a plan to ride him on a rail, my conscience hurt +me so that I couldn't stand it, and I went privately and gave him notice, +and he got out of the town and stayed out till it was safe to come back." + +"Edward! If the town had found it out--" + +"_Don't_! It scares me yet, to think of it. I repented of it the minute +it was done; and I was even afraid to tell you lest your face might +betray it to somebody. I didn't sleep any that night, for worrying. But +after a few days I saw that no one was going to suspect me, and after +that I got to feeling glad I did it. And I feel glad yet, Mary--glad +through and through." + +"So do I, now, for it would have been a dreadful way to treat him. Yes, +I'm glad; for really you did owe him that, you know. But, Edward, +suppose it should come out yet, some day!" + +"It won't." + +"Why?" + +"Because everybody thinks it was Goodson." + +"Of course they would!" + +"Certainly. And of course _he_ didn't care. They persuaded poor old +Sawlsberry to go and charge it on him, and he went blustering over there +and did it. Goodson looked him over, like as if he was hunting for a +place on him that he could despise the most; then he says, 'So you are +the Committee of Inquiry, are you?' Sawlsberry said that was about what +he was. 'H'm. Do they require particulars, or do you reckon a kind of a +_general_ answer will do?' 'If they require particulars, I will come +back, Mr. Goodson; I will take the general answer first.' 'Very well, +then, tell them to go to hell--I reckon that's general enough. And I'll +give you some advice, Sawlsberry; when you come back for the particulars, +fetch a basket to carry what is left of yourself home in.'" + +"Just like Goodson; it's got all the marks. He had only one vanity; he +thought he could give advice better than any other person." + +"It settled the business, and saved us, Mary. The subject was dropped." + +"Bless you, I'm not doubting _that_." + +Then they took up the gold-sack mystery again, with strong interest. Soon +the conversation began to suffer breaks--interruptions caused by absorbed +thinkings. The breaks grew more and more frequent. At last Richards +lost himself wholly in thought. He sat long, gazing vacantly at the +floor, and by-and-by he began to punctuate his thoughts with little +nervous movements of his hands that seemed to indicate vexation. Meantime +his wife too had relapsed into a thoughtful silence, and her movements +were beginning to show a troubled discomfort. Finally Richards got up +and strode aimlessly about the room, ploughing his hands through his +hair, much as a somnambulist might do who was having a bad dream. Then +he seemed to arrive at a definite purpose; and without a word he put on +his hat and passed quickly out of the house. His wife sat brooding, with +a drawn face, and did not seem to be aware that she was alone. Now and +then she murmured, "Lead us not into t . . . but--but--we are so poor, so +poor! . . . Lead us not into . . . Ah, who would be hurt by it?--and no +one would ever know . . . Lead us . . . " The voice died out in +mumblings. After a little she glanced up and muttered in a +half-frightened, half-glad way-- + +"He is gone! But, oh dear, he may be too late--too late . . . Maybe +not--maybe there is still time." She rose and stood thinking, nervously +clasping and unclasping her hands. A slight shudder shook her frame, and +she said, out of a dry throat, "God forgive me--it's awful to think such +things--but . . . Lord, how we are made--how strangely we are made!" + +She turned the light low, and slipped stealthily over and knelt down by +the sack and felt of its ridgy sides with her hands, and fondled them +lovingly; and there was a gloating light in her poor old eyes. She fell +into fits of absence; and came half out of them at times to mutter "If we +had only waited!--oh, if we had only waited a little, and not been in +such a hurry!" + +Meantime Cox had gone home from his office and told his wife all about +the strange thing that had happened, and they had talked it over eagerly, +and guessed that the late Goodson was the only man in the town who could +have helped a suffering stranger with so noble a sum as twenty dollars. +Then there was a pause, and the two became thoughtful and silent. And by- +and-by nervous and fidgety. At last the wife said, as if to herself, + +"Nobody knows this secret but the Richardses . . . and us . . . nobody." + +The husband came out of his thinkings with a slight start, and gazed +wistfully at his wife, whose face was become very pale; then he +hesitatingly rose, and glanced furtively at his hat, then at his wife--a +sort of mute inquiry. Mrs. Cox swallowed once or twice, with her hand at +her throat, then in place of speech she nodded her head. In a moment she +was alone, and mumbling to herself. + +And now Richards and Cox were hurrying through the deserted streets, from +opposite directions. They met, panting, at the foot of the +printing-office stairs; by the night-light there they read each other's +face. Cox whispered: + +"Nobody knows about this but us?" + +The whispered answer was: + +"Not a soul--on honour, not a soul!" + +"If it isn't too late to--" + +The men were starting up-stairs; at this moment they were overtaken by a +boy, and Cox asked, + +"Is that you, Johnny?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"You needn't ship the early mail--nor _any_ mail; wait till I tell you." + +"It's already gone, sir." + +"_Gone_?" It had the sound of an unspeakable disappointment in it. + +"Yes, sir. Time-table for Brixton and all the towns beyond changed to- +day, sir--had to get the papers in twenty minutes earlier than common. I +had to rush; if I had been two minutes later--" + +The men turned and walked slowly away, not waiting to hear the rest. +Neither of them spoke during ten minutes; then Cox said, in a vexed tone, + +"What possessed you to be in such a hurry, _I_ can't make out." + +The answer was humble enough: + +"I see it now, but somehow I never thought, you know, until it was too +late. But the next time--" + +"Next time be hanged! It won't come in a thousand years." + +Then the friends separated without a good-night, and dragged themselves +home with the gait of mortally stricken men. At their homes their wives +sprang up with an eager "Well?"--then saw the answer with their eyes and +sank down sorrowing, without waiting for it to come in words. In both +houses a discussion followed of a heated sort--a new thing; there had +been discussions before, but not heated ones, not ungentle ones. The +discussions to-night were a sort of seeming plagiarisms of each other. +Mrs. Richards said: + +"If you had only waited, Edward--if you had only stopped to think; but +no, you must run straight to the printing-office and spread it all over +the world." + +"It _said_ publish it." + +"That is nothing; it also said do it privately, if you liked. There, +now--is that true, or not?" + +"Why, yes--yes, it is true; but when I thought what a stir it would make, +and what a compliment it was to Hadleyburg that a stranger should trust +it so--" + +"Oh, certainly, I know all that; but if you had only stopped to think, +you would have seen that you _couldn't_ find the right man, because he is +in his grave, and hasn't left chick nor child nor relation behind him; +and as long as the money went to somebody that awfully needed it, and +nobody would be hurt by it, and--and--" + +She broke down, crying. Her husband tried to think of some comforting +thing to say, and presently came out with this: + +"But after all, Mary, it must be for the best--it must be; we know that. +And we must remember that it was so ordered--" + +"Ordered! Oh, everything's _ordered_, when a person has to find some way +out when he has been stupid. Just the same, it was _ordered_ that the +money should come to us in this special way, and it was you that must +take it on yourself to go meddling with the designs of Providence--and +who gave you the right? It was wicked, that is what it was--just +blasphemous presumption, and no more becoming to a meek and humble +professor of--" + +"But, Mary, you know how we have been trained all our lives long, like +the whole village, till it is absolutely second nature to us to stop not +a single moment to think when there's an honest thing to be done--" + +"Oh, I know it, I know it--it's been one everlasting training and +training and training in honesty--honesty shielded, from the very cradle, +against every possible temptation, and so it's _artificial_ honesty, and +weak as water when temptation comes, as we have seen this night. God +knows I never had shade nor shadow of a doubt of my petrified and +indestructible honesty until now--and now, under the very first big and +real temptation, I--Edward, it is my belief that this town's honesty is +as rotten as mine is; as rotten as yours. It is a mean town, a hard, +stingy town, and hasn't a virtue in the world but this honesty it is so +celebrated for and so conceited about; and so help me, I do believe that +if ever the day comes that its honesty falls under great temptation, its +grand reputation will go to ruin like a house of cards. There, now, I've +made confession, and I feel better; I am a humbug, and I've been one all +my life, without knowing it. Let no man call me honest again--I will not +have it." + +"I--Well, Mary, I feel a good deal as you do: I certainly do. It seems +strange, too, so strange. I never could have believed it--never." + +A long silence followed; both were sunk in thought. At last the wife +looked up and said: + +"I know what you are thinking, Edward." + +Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught. + +"I am ashamed to confess it, Mary, but--" + +"It's no matter, Edward, I was thinking the same question myself." + +"I hope so. State it." + +"You were thinking, if a body could only guess out _what the remark was_ +that Goodson made to the stranger." + +"It's perfectly true. I feel guilty and ashamed. And you?" + +"I'm past it. Let us make a pallet here; we've got to stand watch till +the bank vault opens in the morning and admits the sack. . . Oh dear, oh +dear--if we hadn't made the mistake!" + +The pallet was made, and Mary said: + +"The open sesame--what could it have been? I do wonder what that remark +could have been. But come; we will get to bed now." + +"And sleep?" + +"No; think." + +"Yes; think." + +By this time the Coxes too had completed their spat and their +reconciliation, and were turning in--to think, to think, and toss, and +fret, and worry over what the remark could possibly have been which +Goodson made to the stranded derelict; that golden remark; that remark +worth forty thousand dollars, cash. + +The reason that the village telegraph-office was open later than usual +that night was this: The foreman of Cox's paper was the local +representative of the Associated Press. One might say its honorary +representative, for it wasn't four times a year that he could furnish +thirty words that would be accepted. But this time it was different. His +despatch stating what he had caught got an instant answer: + + "Send the whole thing--all the details--twelve hundred words." + +A colossal order! The foreman filled the bill; and he was the proudest +man in the State. By breakfast-time the next morning the name of +Hadleyburg the Incorruptible was on every lip in America, from Montreal +to the Gulf, from the glaciers of Alaska to the orange-groves of Florida; +and millions and millions of people were discussing the stranger and his +money-sack, and wondering if the right man would be found, and hoping +some more news about the matter would come soon--right away. + + + + +II. + + +Hadleyburg village woke up world-celebrated--astonished--happy--vain. +Vain beyond imagination. Its nineteen principal citizens and their wives +went about shaking hands with each other, and beaming, and smiling, and +congratulating, and saying _this_ thing adds a new word to the +dictionary--_Hadleyburg_, synonym for _incorruptible_--destined to live +in dictionaries for ever! And the minor and unimportant citizens and +their wives went around acting in much the same way. Everybody ran to +the bank to see the gold-sack; and before noon grieved and envious crowds +began to flock in from Brixton and all neighbouring towns; and that +afternoon and next day reporters began to arrive from everywhere to +verify the sack and its history and write the whole thing up anew, and +make dashing free-hand pictures of the sack, and of Richards's house, and +the bank, and the Presbyterian church, and the Baptist church, and the +public square, and the town-hall where the test would be applied and the +money delivered; and damnable portraits of the Richardses, and Pinkerton +the banker, and Cox, and the foreman, and Reverend Burgess, and the +postmaster--and even of Jack Halliday, who was the loafing, good-natured, +no-account, irreverent fisherman, hunter, boys' friend, stray-dogs' +friend, typical "Sam Lawson" of the town. The little mean, smirking, +oily Pinkerton showed the sack to all comers, and rubbed his sleek palms +together pleasantly, and enlarged upon the town's fine old reputation for +honesty and upon this wonderful endorsement of it, and hoped and believed +that the example would now spread far and wide over the American world, +and be epoch-making in the matter of moral regeneration. And so on, and +so on. + +By the end of a week things had quieted down again; the wild intoxication +of pride and joy had sobered to a soft, sweet, silent delight--a sort of +deep, nameless, unutterable content. All faces bore a look of peaceful, +holy happiness. + +Then a change came. It was a gradual change; so gradual that its +beginnings were hardly noticed; maybe were not noticed at all, except by +Jack Halliday, who always noticed everything; and always made fun of it, +too, no matter what it was. He began to throw out chaffing remarks about +people not looking quite so happy as they did a day or two ago; and next +he claimed that the new aspect was deepening to positive sadness; next, +that it was taking on a sick look; and finally he said that everybody was +become so moody, thoughtful, and absent-minded that he could rob the +meanest man in town of a cent out of the bottom of his breeches pocket +and not disturb his reverie. + +At this stage--or at about this stage--a saying like this was dropped at +bedtime--with a sigh, usually--by the head of each of the nineteen +principal households: + +"Ah, what _could_ have been the remark that Goodson made?" + +And straightway--with a shudder--came this, from the man's wife: + +"Oh, _don't_! What horrible thing are you mulling in your mind? Put it +away from you, for God's sake!" + +But that question was wrung from those men again the next night--and got +the same retort. But weaker. + +And the third night the men uttered the question yet again--with anguish, +and absently. This time--and the following night--the wives fidgeted +feebly, and tried to say something. But didn't. + +And the night after that they found their tongues and +responded--longingly: + +"Oh, if we _could_ only guess!" + +Halliday's comments grew daily more and more sparklingly disagreeable and +disparaging. He went diligently about, laughing at the town, +individually and in mass. But his laugh was the only one left in the +village: it fell upon a hollow and mournful vacancy and emptiness. Not +even a smile was findable anywhere. Halliday carried a cigar-box around +on a tripod, playing that it was a camera, and halted all passers and +aimed the thing and said "Ready!--now look pleasant, please," but not +even this capital joke could surprise the dreary faces into any +softening. + +So three weeks passed--one week was left. It was Saturday evening after +supper. Instead of the aforetime Saturday-evening flutter and bustle and +shopping and larking, the streets were empty and desolate. Richards and +his old wife sat apart in their little parlour--miserable and thinking. +This was become their evening habit now: the life-long habit which had +preceded it, of reading, knitting, and contented chat, or receiving or +paying neighbourly calls, was dead and gone and forgotten, ages ago--two +or three weeks ago; nobody talked now, nobody read, nobody visited--the +whole village sat at home, sighing, worrying, silent. Trying to guess +out that remark. + +The postman left a letter. Richards glanced listlessly at the +superscription and the post-mark--unfamiliar, both--and tossed the letter +on the table and resumed his might-have-beens and his hopeless dull +miseries where he had left them off. Two or three hours later his wife +got wearily up and was going away to bed without a good-night--custom +now--but she stopped near the letter and eyed it awhile with a dead +interest, then broke it open, and began to skim it over. Richards, +sitting there with his chair tilted back against the wall and his chin +between his knees, heard something fall. It was his wife. He sprang to +her side, but she cried out: + +"Leave me alone, I am too happy. Read the letter--read it!" + +He did. He devoured it, his brain reeling. The letter was from a +distant State, and it said: + + "I am a stranger to you, but no matter: I have something to tell. I + have just arrived home from Mexico, and learned about that episode. Of + course you do not know who made that remark, but I know, and I am the + only person living who does know. It was GOODSON. I knew him well, + many years ago. I passed through your village that very night, and + was his guest till the midnight train came along. I overheard him + make that remark to the stranger in the dark--it was in Hale Alley. He + and I talked of it the rest of the way home, and while smoking in his + house. He mentioned many of your villagers in the course of his + talk--most of them in a very uncomplimentary way, but two or three + favourably: among these latter yourself. I say 'favourably'--nothing + stronger. I remember his saying he did not actually LIKE any person + in the town--not one; but that you--I THINK he said you--am almost + sure--had done him a very great service once, possibly without knowing + the full value of it, and he wished he had a fortune, he would leave + it to you when he died, and a curse apiece for the rest of the + citizens. Now, then, if it was you that did him that service, you are + his legitimate heir, and entitled to the sack of gold. I know that I + can trust to your honour and honesty, for in a citizen of Hadleyburg + these virtues are an unfailing inheritance, and so I am going to + reveal to you the remark, well satisfied that if you are not the right + man you will seek and find the right one and see that poor Goodson's + debt of gratitude for the service referred to is paid. This is the + remark 'YOU ARE FAR FROM BEING A BAD MAN: GO, AND REFORM.' + + "HOWARD L. STEPHENSON." + +"Oh, Edward, the money is ours, and I am so grateful, _oh_, so +grateful,--kiss me, dear, it's for ever since we kissed--and we needed it +so--the money--and now you are free of Pinkerton and his bank, and +nobody's slave any more; it seems to me I could fly for joy." + +It was a happy half-hour that the couple spent there on the settee +caressing each other; it was the old days come again--days that had begun +with their courtship and lasted without a break till the stranger brought +the deadly money. By-and-by the wife said: + +"Oh, Edward, how lucky it was you did him that grand service, poor +Goodson! I never liked him, but I love him now. And it was fine and +beautiful of you never to mention it or brag about it." Then, with a +touch of reproach, "But you ought to have told _me_, Edward, you ought to +have told your wife, you know." + +"Well, I--er--well, Mary, you see--" + +"Now stop hemming and hawing, and tell me about it, Edward. I always +loved you, and now I'm proud of you. Everybody believes there was only +one good generous soul in this village, and now it turns out that +you--Edward, why don't you tell me?" + +"Well--er--er--Why, Mary, I can't!" + +"You _can't_? _Why_ can't you?" + +"You see, he--well, he--he made me promise I wouldn't." + +The wife looked him over, and said, very slowly: + +"Made--you--promise? Edward, what do you tell me that for?" + +"Mary, do you think I would lie?" + +She was troubled and silent for a moment, then she laid her hand within +his and said: + +"No . . . no. We have wandered far enough from our bearings--God spare +us that! In all your life you have never uttered a lie. But now--now +that the foundations of things seem to be crumbling from under us, +we--we--" She lost her voice for a moment, then said, brokenly, "Lead us +not into temptation. . . I think you made the promise, Edward. Let it +rest so. Let us keep away from that ground. Now--that is all gone by; +let us he happy again; it is no time for clouds." + +Edward found it something of an effort to comply, for his mind kept +wandering--trying to remember what the service was that he had done +Goodson. + +The couple lay awake the most of the night, Mary happy and busy, Edward +busy, but not so happy. Mary was planning what she would do with the +money. Edward was trying to recall that service. At first his +conscience was sore on account of the lie he had told Mary--if it was a +lie. After much reflection--suppose it _was_ a lie? What then? Was it +such a great matter? Aren't we always _acting_ lies? Then why not tell +them? Look at Mary--look what she had done. While he was hurrying off +on his honest errand, what was she doing? Lamenting because the papers +hadn't been destroyed and the money kept. Is theft better than lying? + +_That_ point lost its sting--the lie dropped into the background and left +comfort behind it. The next point came to the front: _had_ he rendered +that service? Well, here was Goodson's own evidence as reported in +Stephenson's letter; there could be no better evidence than that--it was +even _proof_ that he had rendered it. Of course. So that point was +settled. . . No, not quite. He recalled with a wince that this unknown +Mr. Stephenson was just a trifle unsure as to whether the performer of it +was Richards or some other--and, oh dear, he had put Richards on his +honour! He must himself decide whither that money must go--and Mr. +Stephenson was not doubting that if he was the wrong man he would go +honourably and find the right one. Oh, it was odious to put a man in +such a situation--ah, why couldn't Stephenson have left out that doubt? +What did he want to intrude that for? + +Further reflection. How did it happen that _Richards's_ name remained in +Stephenson's mind as indicating the right man, and not some other man's +name? That looked good. Yes, that looked very good. In fact it went on +looking better and better, straight along--until by-and-by it grew into +positive _proof_. And then Richards put the matter at once out of his +mind, for he had a private instinct that a proof once established is +better left so. + +He was feeling reasonably comfortable now, but there was still one other +detail that kept pushing itself on his notice: of course he had done that +service--that was settled; but what _was_ that service? He must recall +it--he would not go to sleep till he had recalled it; it would make his +peace of mind perfect. And so he thought and thought. He thought of a +dozen things--possible services, even probable services--but none of them +seemed adequate, none of them seemed large enough, none of them seemed +worth the money--worth the fortune Goodson had wished he could leave in +his will. And besides, he couldn't remember having done them, anyway. +Now, then--now, then--what _kind_ of a service would it be that would +make a man so inordinately grateful? Ah--the saving of his soul! That +must be it. Yes, he could remember, now, how he once set himself the +task of converting Goodson, and laboured at it as much as--he was going +to say three months; but upon closer examination it shrunk to a month, +then to a week, then to a day, then to nothing. Yes, he remembered now, +and with unwelcome vividness, that Goodson had told him to go to thunder +and mind his own business--_he_ wasn't hankering to follow Hadleyburg to +heaven! + +So that solution was a failure--he hadn't saved Goodson's soul. Richards +was discouraged. Then after a little came another idea: had he saved +Goodson's property? No, that wouldn't do--he hadn't any. His life? That +is it! Of course. Why, he might have thought of it before. This time +he was on the right track, sure. His imagination-mill was hard at work +in a minute, now. + +Thereafter, during a stretch of two exhausting hours, he was busy saving +Goodson's life. He saved it in all kinds of difficult and perilous ways. +In every case he got it saved satisfactorily up to a certain point; then, +just as he was beginning to get well persuaded that it had really +happened, a troublesome detail would turn up which made the whole thing +impossible. As in the matter of drowning, for instance. In that case he +had swum out and tugged Goodson ashore in an unconscious state with a +great crowd looking on and applauding, but when he had got it all thought +out and was just beginning to remember all about it, a whole swarm of +disqualifying details arrived on the ground: the town would have known of +the circumstance, Mary would have known of it, it would glare like a +limelight in his own memory instead of being an inconspicuous service +which he had possibly rendered "without knowing its full value." And at +this point he remembered that he couldn't swim anyway. + +Ah--_there_ was a point which he had been overlooking from the start: it +had to be a service which he had rendered "possibly without knowing the +full value of it." Why, really, that ought to be an easy hunt--much +easier than those others. And sure enough, by-and-by he found it. +Goodson, years and years ago, came near marrying a very sweet and pretty +girl, named Nancy Hewitt, but in some way or other the match had been +broken off; the girl died, Goodson remained a bachelor, and by-and-by +became a soured one and a frank despiser of the human species. Soon +after the girl's death the village found out, or thought it had found +out, that she carried a spoonful of negro blood in her veins. Richards +worked at these details a good while, and in the end he thought he +remembered things concerning them which must have gotten mislaid in his +memory through long neglect. He seemed to dimly remember that it was +_he_ that found out about the negro blood; that it was he that told the +village; that the village told Goodson where they got it; that he thus +saved Goodson from marrying the tainted girl; that he had done him this +great service "without knowing the full value of it," in fact without +knowing that he _was_ doing it; but that Goodson knew the value of it, +and what a narrow escape he had had, and so went to his grave grateful to +his benefactor and wishing he had a fortune to leave him. It was all +clear and simple, now, and the more he went over it the more luminous and +certain it grew; and at last, when he nestled to sleep, satisfied and +happy, he remembered the whole thing just as if it had been yesterday. In +fact, he dimly remembered Goodson's _telling_ him his gratitude once. +Meantime Mary had spent six thousand dollars on a new house for herself +and a pair of slippers for her pastor, and then had fallen peacefully to +rest. + +That same Saturday evening the postman had delivered a letter to each of +the other principal citizens--nineteen letters in all. No two of the +envelopes were alike, and no two of the superscriptions were in the same +hand, but the letters inside were just like each other in every detail +but one. They were exact copies of the letter received by +Richards--handwriting and all--and were all signed by Stephenson, but in +place of Richards's name each receiver's own name appeared. + +All night long eighteen principal citizens did what their caste-brother +Richards was doing at the same time--they put in their energies trying to +remember what notable service it was that they had unconsciously done +Barclay Goodson. In no case was it a holiday job; still they succeeded. + +And while they were at this work, which was difficult, their wives put in +the night spending the money, which was easy. During that one night the +nineteen wives spent an average of seven thousand dollars each out of the +forty thousand in the sack--a hundred and thirty-three thousand +altogether. + +Next day there was a surprise for Jack Halliday. He noticed that the +faces of the nineteen chief citizens and their wives bore that expression +of peaceful and holy happiness again. He could not understand it, +neither was he able to invent any remarks about it that could damage it +or disturb it. And so it was his turn to be dissatisfied with life. His +private guesses at the reasons for the happiness failed in all instances, +upon examination. When he met Mrs. Wilcox and noticed the placid ecstasy +in her face, he said to himself, "Her cat has had kittens"--and went and +asked the cook; it was not so, the cook had detected the happiness, but +did not know the cause. When Halliday found the duplicate ecstasy in the +face of "Shadbelly" Billson (village nickname), he was sure some +neighbour of Billson's had broken his leg, but inquiry showed that this +had not happened. The subdued ecstasy in Gregory Yates's face could mean +but one thing--he was a mother-in-law short; it was another mistake. "And +Pinkerton--Pinkerton--he has collected ten cents that he thought he was +going to lose." And so on, and so on. In some cases the guesses had to +remain in doubt, in the others they proved distinct errors. In the end +Halliday said to himself, "Anyway it roots up that there's nineteen +Hadleyburg families temporarily in heaven: I don't know how it happened; +I only know Providence is off duty to-day." + +An architect and builder from the next State had lately ventured to set +up a small business in this unpromising village, and his sign had now +been hanging out a week. Not a customer yet; he was a discouraged man, +and sorry he had come. But his weather changed suddenly now. First one +and then another chief citizen's wife said to him privately: + +"Come to my house Monday week--but say nothing about it for the present. +We think of building." + +He got eleven invitations that day. That night he wrote his daughter and +broke off her match with her student. He said she could marry a mile +higher than that. + +Pinkerton the banker and two or three other well-to-do men planned +country-seats--but waited. That kind don't count their chickens until +they are hatched. + +The Wilsons devised a grand new thing--a fancy-dress ball. They made no +actual promises, but told all their acquaintanceship in confidence that +they were thinking the matter over and thought they should give it--"and +if we do, you will be invited, of course." People were surprised, and +said, one to another, "Why, they are crazy, those poor Wilsons, they +can't afford it." Several among the nineteen said privately to their +husbands, "It is a good idea, we will keep still till their cheap thing +is over, then _we_ will give one that will make it sick." + +The days drifted along, and the bill of future squanderings rose higher +and higher, wilder and wilder, more and more foolish and reckless. It +began to look as if every member of the nineteen would not only spend his +whole forty thousand dollars before receiving-day, but be actually in +debt by the time he got the money. In some cases light-headed people did +not stop with planning to spend, they really spent--on credit. They +bought land, mortgages, farms, speculative stocks, fine clothes, horses, +and various other things, paid down the bonus, and made themselves liable +for the rest--at ten days. Presently the sober second thought came, and +Halliday noticed that a ghastly anxiety was beginning to show up in a +good many faces. Again he was puzzled, and didn't know what to make of +it. "The Wilcox kittens aren't dead, for they weren't born; nobody's +broken a leg; there's no shrinkage in mother-in-laws; _nothing_ has +happened--it is an insolvable mystery." + +There was another puzzled man, too--the Rev. Mr. Burgess. For days, +wherever he went, people seemed to follow him or to be watching out for +him; and if he ever found himself in a retired spot, a member of the +nineteen would be sure to appear, thrust an envelope privately into his +hand, whisper "To be opened at the town-hall Friday evening," then vanish +away like a guilty thing. He was expecting that there might be one +claimant for the sack--doubtful, however, Goodson being dead--but it +never occurred to him that all this crowd might be claimants. When the +great Friday came at last, he found that he had nineteen envelopes. + + + + +III. + + +The town-hall had never looked finer. The platform at the end of it was +backed by a showy draping of flags; at intervals along the walls were +festoons of flags; the gallery fronts were clothed in flags; the +supporting columns were swathed in flags; all this was to impress the +stranger, for he would be there in considerable force, and in a large +degree he would be connected with the press. The house was full. The +412 fixed seats were occupied; also the 68 extra chairs which had been +packed into the aisles; the steps of the platform were occupied; some +distinguished strangers were given seats on the platform; at the +horseshoe of tables which fenced the front and sides of the platform sat +a strong force of special correspondents who had come from everywhere. It +was the best-dressed house the town had ever produced. There were some +tolerably expensive toilets there, and in several cases the ladies who +wore them had the look of being unfamiliar with that kind of clothes. At +least the town thought they had that look, but the notion could have +arisen from the town's knowledge of the fact that these ladies had never +inhabited such clothes before. + +The gold-sack stood on a little table at the front of the platform where +all the house could see it. The bulk of the house gazed at it with a +burning interest, a mouth-watering interest, a wistful and pathetic +interest; a minority of nineteen couples gazed at it tenderly, lovingly, +proprietarily, and the male half of this minority kept saying over to +themselves the moving little impromptu speeches of thankfulness for the +audience's applause and congratulations which they were presently going +to get up and deliver. Every now and then one of these got a piece of +paper out of his vest pocket and privately glanced at it to refresh his +memory. + +Of course there was a buzz of conversation going on--there always is; but +at last, when the Rev. Mr. Burgess rose and laid his hand on the sack, he +could hear his microbes gnaw, the place was so still. He related the +curious history of the sack, then went on to speak in warm terms of +Hadleyburg's old and well-earned reputation for spotless honesty, and of +the town's just pride in this reputation. He said that this reputation +was a treasure of priceless value; that under Providence its value had +now become inestimably enhanced, for the recent episode had spread this +fame far and wide, and thus had focussed the eyes of the American world +upon this village, and made its name for all time, as he hoped and +believed, a synonym for commercial incorruptibility. [Applause.] "And +who is to be the guardian of this noble fame--the community as a whole? +No! The responsibility is individual, not communal. From this day forth +each and every one of you is in his own person its special guardian, and +individually responsible that no harm shall come to it. Do you--does +each of you--accept this great trust? [Tumultuous assent.] Then all is +well. Transmit it to your children and to your children's children. To- +day your purity is beyond reproach--see to it that it shall remain so. To- +day there is not a person in your community who could be beguiled to +touch a penny not his own--see to it that you abide in this grace. ["We +will! we will!"] This is not the place to make comparisons between +ourselves and other communities--some of them ungracious towards us; they +have their ways, we have ours; let us be content. [Applause.] I am +done. Under my hand, my friends, rests a stranger's eloquent recognition +of what we are; through him the world will always henceforth know what we +are. We do not know who he is, but in your name I utter your gratitude, +and ask you to raise your voices in indorsement." + +The house rose in a body and made the walls quake with the thunders of +its thankfulness for the space of a long minute. Then it sat down, and +Mr. Burgess took an envelope out of his pocket. The house held its +breath while he slit the envelope open and took from it a slip of paper. +He read its contents--slowly and impressively--the audience listening +with tranced attention to this magic document, each of whose words stood +for an ingot of gold: + +"'The remark which I made to the distressed stranger was this: "You are +very far from being a bad man; go, and reform."'" Then he continued:--"We +shall know in a moment now whether the remark here quoted corresponds +with the one concealed in the sack; and if that shall prove to be so--and +it undoubtedly will--this sack of gold belongs to a fellow-citizen who +will henceforth stand before the nation as the symbol of the special +virtue which has made our town famous throughout the land--Mr. Billson!" + +The house had gotten itself all ready to burst into the proper tornado of +applause; but instead of doing it, it seemed stricken with a paralysis; +there was a deep hush for a moment or two, then a wave of whispered +murmurs swept the place--of about this tenor: "_Billson_! oh, come, this +is _too_ thin! Twenty dollars to a stranger--or _anybody_--_Billson_! +Tell it to the marines!" And now at this point the house caught its +breath all of a sudden in a new access of astonishment, for it discovered +that whereas in one part of the hall Deacon Billson was standing up with +his head weekly bowed, in another part of it Lawyer Wilson was doing the +same. There was a wondering silence now for a while. Everybody was +puzzled, and nineteen couples were surprised and indignant. + +Billson and Wilson turned and stared at each other. Billson asked, +bitingly: + +"Why do _you_ rise, Mr. Wilson?" + +"Because I have a right to. Perhaps you will be good enough to explain +to the house why _you_ rise." + +"With great pleasure. Because I wrote that paper." + +"It is an impudent falsity! I wrote it myself." + +It was Burgess's turn to be paralysed. He stood looking vacantly at +first one of the men and then the other, and did not seem to know what to +do. The house was stupefied. Lawyer Wilson spoke up now, and said: + +"I ask the Chair to read the name signed to that paper." + +That brought the Chair to itself, and it read out the name: + +"John Wharton _Billson_." + +"There!" shouted Billson, "what have you got to say for yourself now? And +what kind of apology are you going to make to me and to this insulted +house for the imposture which you have attempted to play here?" + +"No apologies are due, sir; and as for the rest of it, I publicly charge +you with pilfering my note from Mr. Burgess and substituting a copy of it +signed with your own name. There is no other way by which you could have +gotten hold of the test-remark; I alone, of living men, possessed the +secret of its wording." + +There was likely to be a scandalous state of things if this went on; +everybody noticed with distress that the shorthand scribes were +scribbling like mad; many people were crying "Chair, chair! Order! +order!" Burgess rapped with his gavel, and said: + +"Let us not forget the proprieties due. There has evidently been a +mistake somewhere, but surely that is all. If Mr. Wilson gave me an +envelope--and I remember now that he did--I still have it." + +He took one out of his pocket, opened it, glanced at it, looked surprised +and worried, and stood silent a few moments. Then he waved his hand in a +wandering and mechanical way, and made an effort or two to say something, +then gave it up, despondently. Several voices cried out: + +"Read it! read it! What is it?" + +So he began, in a dazed and sleep-walker fashion: + +"'The remark which I made to the unhappy stranger was this: "You are far +from being a bad man. [The house gazed at him marvelling.] Go, and +reform."' [Murmurs: "Amazing! what can this mean?"] This one," said the +Chair, "is signed Thurlow G. Wilson." + +"There!" cried Wilson, "I reckon that settles it! I knew perfectly well +my note was purloined." + +"Purloined!" retorted Billson. "I'll let you know that neither you nor +any man of your kidney must venture to--" + +The Chair: "Order, gentlemen, order! Take your seats, both of you, +please." + +They obeyed, shaking their heads and grumbling angrily. The house was +profoundly puzzled; it did not know what to do with this curious +emergency. Presently Thompson got up. Thompson was the hatter. He +would have liked to be a Nineteener; but such was not for him; his stock +of hats was not considerable enough for the position. He said: + +"Mr. Chairman, if I may be permitted to make a suggestion, can both of +these gentlemen be right? I put it to you, sir, can both have happened +to say the very same words to the stranger? It seems to me--" + +The tanner got up and interrupted him. The tanner was a disgruntled man; +he believed himself entitled to be a Nineteener, but he couldn't get +recognition. It made him a little unpleasant in his ways and speech. +Said he: + +"Sho, _that's_ not the point! _That_ could happen--twice in a hundred +years--but not the other thing. _Neither_ of them gave the twenty +dollars!" [A ripple of applause.] + +Billson. "I did!" + +Wilson. "I did!" + +Then each accused the other of pilfering. + +The Chair. "Order! Sit down, if you please--both of you. Neither of +the notes has been out of my possession at any moment." + +A Voice. "Good--that settles _that_!" + +The Tanner. "Mr. Chairman, one thing is now plain: one of these men has +been eavesdropping under the other one's bed, and filching family +secrets. If it is not unparliamentary to suggest it, I will remark that +both are equal to it. [The Chair. "Order! order!"] I withdraw the +remark, sir, and will confine myself to suggesting that _if_ one of them +has overheard the other reveal the test-remark to his wife, we shall +catch him now." + +A Voice. "How?" + +The Tanner. "Easily. The two have not quoted the remark in exactly the +same words. You would have noticed that, if there hadn't been a +considerable stretch of time and an exciting quarrel inserted between the +two readings." + +A Voice. "Name the difference." + +The Tanner. "The word _very_ is in Billson's note, and not in the +other." + +Many Voices. "That's so--he's right!" + +The Tanner. "And so, if the Chair will examine the test-remark in the +sack, we shall know which of these two frauds--[The Chair. +"Order!"]--which of these two adventurers--[The Chair. "Order! +order!"]--which of these two gentlemen--[laughter and applause]--is +entitled to wear the belt as being the first dishonest blatherskite ever +bred in this town--which he has dishonoured, and which will be a sultry +place for him from now out!" [Vigorous applause.] + +Many Voices. "Open it!--open the sack!" + +Mr. Burgess made a slit in the sack, slid his hand in, and brought out an +envelope. In it were a couple of folded notes. He said: + +"One of these is marked, 'Not to be examined until all written +communications which have been addressed to the Chair--if any--shall have +been read.' The other is marked '_The Test_.' Allow me. It is +worded--to wit: + +"'I do not require that the first half of the remark which was made to me +by my benefactor shall be quoted with exactness, for it was not striking, +and could be forgotten; but its closing fifteen words are quite striking, +and I think easily rememberable; unless _these_ shall be accurately +reproduced, let the applicant be regarded as an impostor. My benefactor +began by saying he seldom gave advice to anyone, but that it always bore +the hall-mark of high value when he did give it. Then he said this--and +it has never faded from my memory: '_You are far from being a bad +man_--''" + +Fifty Voices. "That settles it--the money's Wilson's! Wilson! Wilson! +Speech! Speech!" + +People jumped up and crowded around Wilson, wringing his hand and +congratulating fervently--meantime the Chair was hammering with the gavel +and shouting: + +"Order, gentlemen! Order! Order! Let me finish reading, please." When +quiet was restored, the reading was resumed--as follows: + +"'_Go, and reform--or, mark my words--some day, for your sins you will +die and go to hell or Hadleyburg_--TRY AND MAKE IT THE FORMER.'" + +A ghastly silence followed. First an angry cloud began to settle darkly +upon the faces of the citizenship; after a pause the cloud began to rise, +and a tickled expression tried to take its place; tried so hard that it +was only kept under with great and painful difficulty; the reporters, the +Brixtonites, and other strangers bent their heads down and shielded their +faces with their hands, and managed to hold in by main strength and +heroic courtesy. At this most inopportune time burst upon the stillness +the roar of a solitary voice--Jack Halliday's: + +"_That's_ got the hall-mark on it!" + +Then the house let go, strangers and all. Even Mr. Burgess's gravity +broke down presently, then the audience considered itself officially +absolved from all restraint, and it made the most of its privilege. It +was a good long laugh, and a tempestuously wholehearted one, but it +ceased at last--long enough for Mr. Burgess to try to resume, and for the +people to get their eyes partially wiped; then it broke out again, and +afterward yet again; then at last Burgess was able to get out these +serious words: + +"It is useless to try to disguise the fact--we find ourselves in the +presence of a matter of grave import. It involves the honour of your +town--it strikes at the town's good name. The difference of a single +word between the test-remarks offered by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Billson was +itself a serious thing, since it indicated that one or the other of these +gentlemen had committed a theft--" + +The two men were sitting limp, nerveless, crushed; but at these words +both were electrified into movement, and started to get up. + +"Sit down!" said the Chair, sharply, and they obeyed. "That, as I have +said, was a serious thing. And it was--but for only one of them. But +the matter has become graver; for the honour of _both_ is now in +formidable peril. Shall I go even further, and say in inextricable +peril? _Both_ left out the crucial fifteen words." He paused. During +several moments he allowed the pervading stillness to gather and deepen +its impressive effects, then added: "There would seem to be but one way +whereby this could happen. I ask these gentlemen--Was there +_collusion_?--_agreement_?" + +A low murmur sifted through the house; its import was, "He's got them +both." + +Billson was not used to emergencies; he sat in a helpless collapse. But +Wilson was a lawyer. He struggled to his feet, pale and worried, and +said: + +"I ask the indulgence of the house while I explain this most painful +matter. I am sorry to say what I am about to say, since it must inflict +irreparable injury upon Mr. Billson, whom I have always esteemed and +respected until now, and in whose invulnerability to temptation I +entirely believed--as did you all. But for the preservation of my own +honour I must speak--and with frankness. I confess with shame--and I now +beseech your pardon for it--that I said to the ruined stranger all of the +words contained in the test-remark, including the disparaging fifteen. +[Sensation.] When the late publication was made I recalled them, and I +resolved to claim the sack of coin, for by every right I was entitled to +it. Now I will ask you to consider this point, and weigh it well; that +stranger's gratitude to me that night knew no bounds; he said himself +that he could find no words for it that were adequate, and that if he +should ever be able he would repay me a thousandfold. Now, then, I ask +you this; could I expect--could I believe--could I even remotely +imagine--that, feeling as he did, he would do so ungrateful a thing as to +add those quite unnecessary fifteen words to his test?--set a trap for +me?--expose me as a slanderer of my own town before my own people +assembled in a public hall? It was preposterous; it was impossible. His +test would contain only the kindly opening clause of my remark. Of that +I had no shadow of doubt. You would have thought as I did. You would +not have expected a base betrayal from one whom you had befriended and +against whom you had committed no offence. And so with perfect +confidence, perfect trust, I wrote on a piece of paper the opening +words--ending with "Go, and reform,"--and signed it. When I was about to +put it in an envelope I was called into my back office, and without +thinking I left the paper lying open on my desk." He stopped, turned his +head slowly toward Billson, waited a moment, then added: "I ask you to +note this; when I returned, a little latter, Mr. Billson was retiring by +my street door." [Sensation.] + +In a moment Billson was on his feet and shouting: + +"It's a lie! It's an infamous lie!" + +The Chair. "Be seated, sir! Mr. Wilson has the floor." + +Billson's friends pulled him into his seat and quieted him, and Wilson +went on: + +"Those are the simple facts. My note was now lying in a different place +on the table from where I had left it. I noticed that, but attached no +importance to it, thinking a draught had blown it there. That Mr. +Billson would read a private paper was a thing which could not occur to +me; he was an honourable man, and he would be above that. If you will +allow me to say it, I think his extra word '_very_' stands explained: it +is attributable to a defect of memory. I was the only man in the world +who could furnish here any detail of the test-mark--by _honourable_ +means. I have finished." + +There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the +mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an +audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory. Wilson +sat down victorious. The house submerged him in tides of approving +applause; friends swarmed to him and shook him by the hand and +congratulated him, and Billson was shouted down and not allowed to say a +word. The Chair hammered and hammered with its gavel, and kept shouting: + +"But let us proceed, gentlemen, let us proceed!" + +At last there was a measurable degree of quiet, and the hatter said: + +"But what is there to proceed with, sir, but to deliver the money?" + +Voices. "That's it! That's it! Come forward, Wilson!" + +The Hatter. "I move three cheers for Mr. Wilson, Symbol of the special +virtue which--" + +The cheers burst forth before he could finish; and in the midst of +them--and in the midst of the clamour of the gavel also--some enthusiasts +mounted Wilson on a big friend's shoulder and were going to fetch him in +triumph to the platform. The Chair's voice now rose above the noise: + +"Order! To your places! You forget that there is still a document to be +read." When quiet had been restored he took up the document, and was +going to read it, but laid it down again saying "I forgot; this is not to +be read until all written communications received by me have first been +read." He took an envelope out of his pocket, removed its enclosure, +glanced at it--seemed astonished--held it out and gazed at it--stared at +it. + +Twenty or thirty voices cried out + +"What is it? Read it! read it!" + +And he did--slowly, and wondering: + +"'The remark which I made to the stranger--[Voices. "Hello! how's +this?"]--was this: 'You are far from being a bad man. [Voices. "Great +Scott!"] Go, and reform.'" [Voice. "Oh, saw my leg off!"] Signed by +Mr. Pinkerton the banker." + +The pandemonium of delight which turned itself loose now was of a sort to +make the judicious weep. Those whose withers were unwrung laughed till +the tears ran down; the reporters, in throes of laughter, set down +disordered pot-hooks which would never in the world be decipherable; and +a sleeping dog jumped up scared out of its wits, and barked itself crazy +at the turmoil. All manner of cries were scattered through the din: +"We're getting rich--_two_ Symbols of Incorruptibility!--without counting +Billson!" "_Three_!--count Shadbelly in--we can't have too many!" "All +right--Billson's elected!" "Alas, poor Wilson! victim of _two_ thieves!" + +A Powerful Voice. "Silence! The Chair's fished up something more out of +its pocket." + +Voices. "Hurrah! Is it something fresh? Read it! read! read!" + +The Chair [reading]. "'The remark which I made,' etc. 'You are far from +being a bad man. Go,' etc. Signed, 'Gregory Yates.'" + +Tornado of Voices. "Four Symbols!" "'Rah for Yates!" "Fish again!" + +The house was in a roaring humour now, and ready to get all the fun out +of the occasion that might be in it. Several Nineteeners, looking pale +and distressed, got up and began to work their way towards the aisles, +but a score of shouts went up: + +"The doors, the doors--close the doors; no Incorruptible shall leave this +place! Sit down, everybody!" The mandate was obeyed. + +"Fish again! Read! read!" + +The Chair fished again, and once more the familiar words began to fall +from its lips--"'You are far from being a bad man--'" + +"Name! name! What's his name?" + +"'L. Ingoldsby Sargent.'" + +"Five elected! Pile up the Symbols! Go on, go on!" + +"'You are far from being a bad--'" + +"Name! name!" + +"'Nicholas Whitworth.'" + +"Hooray! hooray! it's a symbolical day!" + +Somebody wailed in, and began to sing this rhyme (leaving out "it's") to +the lovely "Mikado" tune of "When a man's afraid of a beautiful maid;" +the audience joined in, with joy; then, just in time, somebody +contributed another line-- + + "And don't you this forget--" + +The house roared it out. A third line was at once furnished-- + + "Corruptibles far from Hadleyburg are--" + +The house roared that one too. As the last note died, Jack Halliday's +voice rose high and clear, freighted with a final line-- + + "But the Symbols are here, you bet!" + +That was sung, with booming enthusiasm. Then the happy house started in +at the beginning and sang the four lines through twice, with immense +swing and dash, and finished up with a crashing three-times-three and a +tiger for "Hadleyburg the Incorruptible and all Symbols of it which we +shall find worthy to receive the hall-mark to-night." + +Then the shoutings at the Chair began again, all over the place: + +"Go on! go on! Read! read some more! Read all you've got!" + +"That's it--go on! We are winning eternal celebrity!" + +A dozen men got up now and began to protest. They said that this farce +was the work of some abandoned joker, and was an insult to the whole +community. Without a doubt these signatures were all forgeries-- + +"Sit down! sit down! Shut up! You are confessing. We'll find your +names in the lot." + +"Mr. Chairman, how many of those envelopes have you got?" + +The Chair counted. + +"Together with those that have been already examined, there are +nineteen." + +A storm of derisive applause broke out. + +"Perhaps they all contain the secret. I move that you open them all and +read every signature that is attached to a note of that sort--and read +also the first eight words of the note." + +"Second the motion!" + +It was put and carried--uproariously. Then poor old Richards got up, and +his wife rose and stood at his side. Her head was bent down, so that +none might see that she was crying. Her husband gave her his arm, and so +supporting her, he began to speak in a quavering voice: + +"My friends, you have known us two--Mary and me--all our lives, and I +think you have liked us and respected us--" + +The Chair interrupted him: + +"Allow me. It is quite true--that which you are saying, Mr. Richards; +this town _does_ know you two; it _does_ like you; it _does_ respect you; +more--it honours you and _loves_ you--" + +Halliday's voice rang out: + +"That's the hall-marked truth, too! If the Chair is right, let the house +speak up and say it. Rise! Now, then--hip! hip! hip!--all together!" + +The house rose in mass, faced toward the old couple eagerly, filled the +air with a snow-storm of waving handkerchiefs, and delivered the cheers +with all its affectionate heart. + +The Chair then continued: + +"What I was going to say is this: We know your good heart, Mr. Richards, +but this is not a time for the exercise of charity toward offenders. +[Shouts of "Right! right!"] I see your generous purpose in your face, +but I cannot allow you to plead for these men--" + +"But I was going to--" + +"Please take your seat, Mr. Richards. We must examine the rest of these +notes--simple fairness to the men who have already been exposed requires +this. As soon as that has been done--I give you my word for this--you +shall he heard." + +Many voices. "Right!--the Chair is right--no interruption can be +permitted at this stage! Go on!--the names! the names!--according to the +terms of the motion!" + +The old couple sat reluctantly down, and the husband whispered to the +wife, "It is pitifully hard to have to wait; the shame will be greater +than ever when they find we were only going to plead for _ourselves_." + +Straightway the jollity broke loose again with the reading of the names. + +"'You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Robert J. Titmarsh.'" + +'"You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Eliphalet Weeks.'" + +"'You are far from being a bad man--' Signature, 'Oscar B. Wilder.'" + +At this point the house lit upon the idea of taking the eight words out +of the Chairman's hands. He was not unthankful for that. Thenceforward +he held up each note in its turn and waited. The house droned out the +eight words in a massed and measured and musical deep volume of sound +(with a daringly close resemblance to a well-known church chant)--"You +are f-a-r from being a b-a-a-a-d man." Then the Chair said, "Signature, +'Archibald Wilcox.'" And so on, and so on, name after name, and +everybody had an increasingly and gloriously good time except the +wretched Nineteen. Now and then, when a particularly shining name was +called, the house made the Chair wait while it chanted the whole of the +test-remark from the beginning to the closing words, "And go to hell or +Hadleyburg--try and make it the for-or-m-e-r!" and in these special cases +they added a grand and agonised and imposing "A-a-a-a-_men_!" + +The list dwindled, dwindled, dwindled, poor old Richards keeping tally of +the count, wincing when a name resembling his own was pronounced, and +waiting in miserable suspense for the time to come when it would be his +humiliating privilege to rise with Mary and finish his plea, which he was +intending to word thus: ". . . for until now we have never done any wrong +thing, but have gone our humble way unreproached. We are very poor, we +are old, and, have no chick nor child to help us; we were sorely tempted, +and we fell. It was my purpose when I got up before to make confession +and beg that my name might not be read out in this public place, for it +seemed to us that we could not bear it; but I was prevented. It was +just; it was our place to suffer with the rest. It has been hard for us. +It is the first time we have ever heard our name fall from any one's +lips--sullied. Be merciful--for the sake or the better days; make our +shame as light to bear as in your charity you can." At this point in his +reverie Mary nudged him, perceiving that his mind was absent. The house +was chanting, "You are f-a-r," etc. + +"Be ready," Mary whispered. "Your name comes now; he has read eighteen." + +The chant ended. + +"Next! next! next!" came volleying from all over the house. + +Burgess put his hand into his pocket. The old couple, trembling, began +to rise. Burgess fumbled a moment, then said: + +"I find I have read them all." + +Faint with joy and surprise, the couple sank into their seats, and Mary +whispered: + +"Oh, bless God, we are saved!--he has lost ours--I wouldn't give this for +a hundred of those sacks!" + +The house burst out with its "Mikado" travesty, and sang it three times +with ever-increasing enthusiasm, rising to its feet when it reached for +the third time the closing line-- + + "But the Symbols are here, you bet!" + +and finishing up with cheers and a tiger for "Hadleyburg purity and our +eighteen immortal representatives of it." + +Then Wingate, the saddler, got up and proposed cheers "for the cleanest +man in town, the one solitary important citizen in it who didn't try to +steal that money--Edward Richards." + +They were given with great and moving heartiness; then somebody proposed +that "Richards be elected sole Guardian and Symbol of the now Sacred +Hadleyburg Tradition, with power and right to stand up and look the whole +sarcastic world in the face." + +Passed, by acclamation; then they sang the "Mikado" again, and ended it +with-- + + "And there's _one_ Symbol left, you bet!" + +There was a pause; then-- + +A Voice. "Now, then, who's to get the sack?" + +The Tanner (with bitter sarcasm). "That's easy. The money has to be +divided among the eighteen Incorruptibles. They gave the suffering +stranger twenty dollars apiece--and that remark--each in his turn--it +took twenty-two minutes for the procession to move past. Staked the +stranger--total contribution, $360. All they want is just the loan +back--and interest--forty thousand dollars altogether." + +Many Voices [derisively.] "That's it! Divvy! divvy! Be kind to the +poor--don't keep them waiting!" + +The Chair. "Order! I now offer the stranger's remaining document. It +says: 'If no claimant shall appear [grand chorus of groans], I desire +that you open the sack and count out the money to the principal citizens +of your town, they to take it in trust [Cries of "Oh! Oh! Oh!"], and use +it in such ways as to them shall seem best for the propagation and +preservation of your community's noble reputation for incorruptible +honesty [more cries]--a reputation to which their names and their efforts +will add a new and far-reaching lustre." [Enthusiastic outburst of +sarcastic applause.] That seems to be all. No--here is a postscript: + +"'P.S.--CITIZENS OF HADLEYBURG: There _is_ no test-remark--nobody made +one. [Great sensation.] There wasn't any pauper stranger, nor any +twenty-dollar contribution, nor any accompanying benediction and +compliment--these are all inventions. [General buzz and hum of +astonishment and delight.] Allow me to tell my story--it will take but a +word or two. I passed through your town at a certain time, and received +a deep offence which I had not earned. Any other man would have been +content to kill one or two of you and call it square, but to me that +would have been a trivial revenge, and inadequate; for the dead do not +_suffer_. Besides I could not kill you all--and, anyway, made as I am, +even that would not have satisfied me. I wanted to damage every man in +the place, and every woman--and not in their bodies or in their estate, +but in their vanity--the place where feeble and foolish people are most +vulnerable. So I disguised myself and came back and studied you. You +were easy game. You had an old and lofty reputation for honesty, and +naturally you were proud of it--it was your treasure of treasures, the +very apple of your eye. As soon as I found out that you carefully and +vigilantly kept yourselves and your children _out of temptation_, I knew +how to proceed. Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak +things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire. I laid a plan, +and gathered a list of names. My project was to corrupt Hadleyburg the +Incorruptible. My idea was to make liars and thieves of nearly half a +hundred smirchless men and women who had never in their lives uttered a +lie or stolen a penny. I was afraid of Goodson. He was neither born nor +reared in Hadleyburg. I was afraid that if I started to operate my +scheme by getting my letter laid before you, you would say to yourselves, +'Goodson is the only man among us who would give away twenty dollars to a +poor devil'--and then you might not bite at my bait. But heaven took +Goodson; then I knew I was safe, and I set my trap and baited it. It may +be that I shall not catch all the men to whom I mailed the pretended test- +secret, but I shall catch the most of them, if I know Hadleyburg nature. +[Voices. "Right--he got every last one of them."] I believe they will +even steal ostensible _gamble_-money, rather than miss, poor, tempted, +and mistrained fellows. I am hoping to eternally and everlastingly +squelch your vanity and give Hadleyburg a new renown--one that will +_stick_--and spread far. If I have succeeded, open the sack and summon +the Committee on Propagation and Preservation of the Hadleyburg +Reputation.'" + +A Cyclone of Voices. "Open it! Open it! The Eighteen to the front! +Committee on Propagation of the Tradition! Forward--the Incorruptibles!" + +The Chair ripped the sack wide, and gathered up a handful of bright, +broad, yellow coins, shook them together, then examined them. + +"Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!" + +There was a crashing outbreak of delight over this news, and when the +noise had subsided, the tanner called out: + +"By right of apparent seniority in this business, Mr. Wilson is Chairman +of the Committee on Propagation of the Tradition. I suggest that he step +forward on behalf of his pals, and receive in trust the money." + +A Hundred Voices. "Wilson! Wilson! Wilson! Speech! Speech!" + +Wilson [in a voice trembling with anger]. "You will allow me to say, and +without apologies for my language, _damn_ the money!" + +A Voice. "Oh, and him a Baptist!" + +A Voice. "Seventeen Symbols left! Step up, gentlemen, and assume your +trust!" + +There was a pause--no response. + +The Saddler. "Mr. Chairman, we've got _one_ clean man left, anyway, out +of the late aristocracy; and he needs money, and deserves it. I move +that you appoint Jack Halliday to get up there and auction off that sack +of gilt twenty-dollar pieces, and give the result to the right man--the +man whom Hadleyburg delights to honour--Edward Richards." + +This was received with great enthusiasm, the dog taking a hand again; the +saddler started the bids at a dollar, the Brixton folk and Barnum's +representative fought hard for it, the people cheered every jump that the +bids made, the excitement climbed moment by moment higher and higher, the +bidders got on their mettle and grew steadily more and more daring, more +and more determined, the jumps went from a dollar up to five, then to +ten, then to twenty, then fifty, then to a hundred, then-- + +At the beginning of the auction Richards whispered in distress to his +wife: "Oh, Mary, can we allow it? It--it--you see, it is an +honour--reward, a testimonial to purity of character, and--and--can we +allow it? Hadn't I better get up and--Oh, Mary, what ought we to +do?--what do you think we--" [Halliday's voice. "Fifteen I'm +bid!--fifteen for the sack!--twenty!--ah, thanks!--thirty--thanks again! +Thirty, thirty, thirty!--do I hear forty?--forty it is! Keep the ball +rolling, gentlemen, keep it rolling!--fifty!--thanks, noble Roman!--going +at fifty, fifty, fifty!--seventy!--ninety!--splendid!--a hundred!--pile +it up, pile it up!--hundred and twenty--forty!--just in time!--hundred +and fifty!--Two hundred!--superb! Do I hear two h--thanks!--two hundred +and fifty!--"] + +"It is another temptation, Edward--I'm all in a tremble--but, oh, we've +escaped one temptation, and that ought to warn us, to--["Six did I +hear?--thanks!--six fifty, six f--SEVEN hundred!"] And yet, Edward, when +you think--nobody susp--["Eight hundred dollars!--hurrah!--make it +nine!--Mr. Parsons, did I hear you say--thanks!--nine!--this noble sack +of virgin lead going at only nine hundred dollars, gilding and all--come! +do I hear--a thousand!--gratefully yours!--did some one say eleven?--a +sack which is going to be the most celebrated in the whole Uni--"] "Oh, +Edward" (beginning to sob), "we are so poor!--but--but--do as you think +best--do as you think best." + +Edward fell--that is, he sat still; sat with a conscience which was not +satisfied, but which was overpowered by circumstances. + +Meantime a stranger, who looked like an amateur detective gotten up as an +impossible English earl, had been watching the evening's proceedings with +manifest interest, and with a contented expression in his face; and he +had been privately commenting to himself. He was now soliloquising +somewhat like this: "None of the Eighteen are bidding; that is not +satisfactory; I must change that--the dramatic unities require it; they +must buy the sack they tried to steal; they must pay a heavy price, +too--some of them are rich. And another thing, when I make a mistake in +Hadleyburg nature the man that puts that error upon me is entitled to a +high honorarium, and some one must pay. This poor old Richards has +brought my judgment to shame; he is an honest man:--I don't understand +it, but I acknowledge it. Yes, he saw my deuces--_and_ with a straight +flush, and by rights the pot is his. And it shall be a jack-pot, too, if +I can manage it. He disappointed me, but let that pass." + +He was watching the bidding. At a thousand, the market broke: the prices +tumbled swiftly. He waited--and still watched. One competitor dropped +out; then another, and another. He put in a bid or two now. When the +bids had sunk to ten dollars, he added a five; some one raised him a +three; he waited a moment, then flung in a fifty-dollar jump, and the +sack was his--at $1,282. The house broke out in cheers--then stopped; +for he was on his feet, and had lifted his hand. He began to speak. + +"I desire to say a word, and ask a favour. I am a speculator in +rarities, and I have dealings with persons interested in numismatics all +over the world. I can make a profit on this purchase, just as it stands; +but there is a way, if I can get your approval, whereby I can make every +one of these leaden twenty-dollar pieces worth its face in gold, and +perhaps more. Grant me that approval, and I will give part of my gains +to your Mr. Richards, whose invulnerable probity you have so justly and +so cordially recognised to-night; his share shall be ten thousand +dollars, and I will hand him the money to-morrow. [Great applause from +the house. But the "invulnerable probity" made the Richardses blush +prettily; however, it went for modesty, and did no harm.] If you will +pass my proposition by a good majority--I would like a two-thirds vote--I +will regard that as the town's consent, and that is all I ask. Rarities +are always helped by any device which will rouse curiosity and compel +remark. Now if I may have your permission to stamp upon the faces of +each of these ostensible coins the names of the eighteen gentlemen who--" + +Nine-tenths of the audience were on their feet in a moment--dog and +all--and the proposition was carried with a whirlwind of approving +applause and laughter. + +They sat down, and all the Symbols except "Dr." Clay Harkness got up, +violently protesting against the proposed outrage, and threatening to-- + +"I beg you not to threaten me," said the stranger calmly. "I know my +legal rights, and am not accustomed to being frightened at bluster." +[Applause.] He sat down. "Dr." Harkness saw an opportunity here. He +was one of the two very rich men of the place, and Pinkerton was the +other. Harkness was proprietor of a mint; that is to say, a popular +patent medicine. He was running for the Legislature on one ticket, and +Pinkerton on the other. It was a close race and a hot one, and getting +hotter every day. Both had strong appetites for money; each had bought a +great tract of land, with a purpose; there was going to be a new railway, +and each wanted to be in the Legislature and help locate the route to his +own advantage; a single vote might make the decision, and with it two or +three fortunes. The stake was large, and Harkness was a daring +speculator. He was sitting close to the stranger. He leaned over while +one or another of the other Symbols was entertaining the house with +protests and appeals, and asked, in a whisper, + +"What is your price for the sack?" + +"Forty thousand dollars." + +"I'll give you twenty." + +"No." + +"Twenty-five." + +"No." + +"Say thirty." + +"The price is forty thousand dollars; not a penny less." + +"All right, I'll give it. I will come to the hotel at ten in the +morning. I don't want it known; will see you privately." + +"Very good." Then the stranger got up and said to the house: + +"I find it late. The speeches of these gentlemen are not without merit, +not without interest, not without grace; yet if I may he excused I will +take my leave. I thank you for the great favour which you have shown me +in granting my petition. I ask the Chair to keep the sack for me until +to-morrow, and to hand these three five-hundred-dollar notes to Mr. +Richards." They were passed up to the Chair. + +"At nine I will call for the sack, and at eleven will deliver the rest of +the ten thousand to Mr. Richards in person at his home. Good-night." + +Then he slipped out, and left the audience making a vast noise, which was +composed of a mixture of cheers, the "Mikado" song, dog-disapproval, and +the chant, "You are f-a-r from being a b-a-a-d man--a-a-a a-men!" + + + + +IV. + + +At home the Richardses had to endure congratulations and compliments +until midnight. Then they were left to themselves. They looked a little +sad, and they sat silent and thinking. Finally Mary sighed and said: + +"Do you think we are to blame, Edward--_much_ to blame?" and her eyes +wandered to the accusing triplet of big bank-notes lying on the table, +where the congratulators had been gloating over them and reverently +fingering them. Edward did not answer at once; then he brought out a +sigh and said, hesitatingly: + +"We--we couldn't help it, Mary. It--well it was ordered. _All_ things +are." + +Mary glanced up and looked at him steadily, but he didn't return the +look. Presently she said: + +"I thought congratulations and praises always tasted good. But--it seems +to me, now--Edward?" + +"Well?" + +"Are you going to stay in the bank?" + +"N--no." + +"Resign?" + +"In the morning--by note." + +"It does seem best." + +Richards bowed his head in his hands and muttered: + +"Before I was not afraid to let oceans of people's money pour through my +hands, but--Mary, I am so tired, so tired--" + +"We will go to bed." + +At nine in the morning the stranger called for the sack and took it to +the hotel in a cab. At ten Harkness had a talk with him privately. The +stranger asked for and got five cheques on a metropolitan bank--drawn to +"Bearer,"--four for $1,500 each, and one for $34,000. He put one of the +former in his pocket-book, and the remainder, representing $38,500, he +put in an envelope, and with these he added a note which he wrote after +Harkness was gone. At eleven he called at the Richards' house and +knocked. Mrs. Richards peeped through the shutters, then went and +received the envelope, and the stranger disappeared without a word. She +came back flushed and a little unsteady on her legs, and gasped out: + +"I am sure I recognised him! Last night it seemed to me that maybe I had +seen him somewhere before." + +"He is the man that brought the sack here?" + +"I am almost sure of it." + +"Then he is the ostensible Stephenson too, and sold every important +citizen in this town with his bogus secret. Now if he has sent cheques +instead of money, we are sold too, after we thought we had escaped. I +was beginning to feel fairly comfortable once more, after my night's +rest, but the look of that envelope makes me sick. It isn't fat enough; +$8,500 in even the largest bank-notes makes more bulk than that." + +"Edward, why do you object to cheques?" + +"Cheques signed by Stephenson! I am resigned to take the $8,500 if it +could come in bank-notes--for it does seem that it was so ordered, +Mary--but I have never had much courage, and I have not the pluck to try +to market a cheque signed with that disastrous name. It would be a trap. +That man tried to catch me; we escaped somehow or other; and now he is +trying a new way. If it is cheques--" + +"Oh, Edward, it is _too_ bad!" And she held up the cheques and began to +cry. + +"Put them in the fire! quick! we mustn't be tempted. It is a trick to +make the world laugh at _us_, along with the rest, and--Give them to +_me_, since you can't do it!" He snatched them and tried to hold his +grip till he could get to the stove; but he was human, he was a cashier, +and he stopped a moment to make sure of the signature. Then he came near +to fainting. + +"Fan me, Mary, fan me! They are the same as gold!" + +"Oh, how lovely, Edward! Why?" + +"Signed by Harkness. What can the mystery of that be, Mary?" + +"Edward, do you think--" + +"Look here--look at this! Fifteen--fifteen--fifteen--thirty-four. Thirty- +eight thousand five hundred! Mary, the sack isn't worth twelve dollars, +and Harkness--apparently--has paid about par for it." + +"And does it all come to us, do you think--instead of the ten thousand?" + +"Why, it looks like it. And the cheques are made to 'Bearer,' too." + +"Is that good, Edward? What is it for?" + +"A hint to collect them at some distant bank, I reckon. Perhaps Harkness +doesn't want the matter known. What is that--a note?" + +"Yes. It was with the cheques." + +It was in the "Stephenson" handwriting, but there was no signature. It +said: + + "I am a disappointed man. Your honesty is beyond the reach of + temptation. I had a different idea about it, but I wronged you in + that, and I beg pardon, and do it sincerely. I honour you--and that + is sincere too. This town is not worthy to kiss the hem of your + garment. Dear sir, I made a square bet with myself that there were + nineteen debauchable men in your self-righteous community. I have + lost. Take the whole pot, you are entitled to it." + +Richards drew a deep sigh, and said: + +"It seems written with fire--it burns so. Mary--I am miserable again." + +"I, too. Ah, dear, I wish--" + +"To think, Mary--he _believes_ in me." + + +"Oh, don't, Edward--I can't bear it." + +"If those beautiful words were deserved, Mary--and God knows I believed I +deserved them once--I think I could give the forty thousand dollars for +them. And I would put that paper away, as representing more than gold +and jewels, and keep it always. But now--We could not live in the shadow +of its accusing presence, Mary." + +He put it in the fire. + +A messenger arrived and delivered an envelope. Richards took from it a +note and read it; it was from Burgess: + + "You saved me, in a difficult time. I saved you last night. It was + at cost of a lie, but I made the sacrifice freely, and out of a + grateful heart. None in this village knows so well as I know how + brave and good and noble you are. At bottom you cannot respect me, + knowing as you do of that matter of which I am accused, and by the + general voice condemned; but I beg that you will at least believe that + I am a grateful man; it will help me to bear my burden. [Signed] + 'BURGESS.'" + +"Saved, once more. And on such terms!" He put the note in the lire. +"I--I wish I were dead, Mary, I wish I were out of it all!" + +"Oh, these are bitter, bitter days, Edward. The stabs, through their +very generosity, are so deep--and they come so fast!" + +Three days before the election each of two thousand voters suddenly found +himself in possession of a prized memento--one of the renowned bogus +double-eagles. Around one of its faces was stamped these words: "THE +REMARK I MADE TO THE POOR STRANGER WAS--" Around the other face was +stamped these: "GO, AND REFORM. [SIGNED] PINKERTON." Thus the entire +remaining refuse of the renowned joke was emptied upon a single head, and +with calamitous effect. It revived the recent vast laugh and +concentrated it upon Pinkerton; and Harkness's election was a walk-over. + +Within twenty-four hours after the Richardses had received their cheques +their consciences were quieting down, discouraged; the old couple were +learning to reconcile themselves to the sin which they had committed. But +they were to learn, now, that a sin takes on new and real terrors when +there seems a chance that it is going to be found out. This gives it a +fresh and most substantial and important aspect. At church the morning +sermon was of the usual pattern; it was the same old things said in the +same old way; they had heard them a thousand times and found them +innocuous, next to meaningless, and easy to sleep under; but now it was +different: the sermon seemed to bristle with accusations; it seemed aimed +straight and specially at people who were concealing deadly sins. After +church they got away from the mob of congratulators as soon as they +could, and hurried homeward, chilled to the bone at they did not know +what--vague, shadowy, indefinite fears. And by chance they caught a +glimpse of Mr. Burgess as he turned a corner. He paid no attention to +their nod of recognition! He hadn't seen it; but they did not know that. +What could his conduct mean? It might mean--it might--mean--oh, a dozen +dreadful things. Was it possible that he knew that Richards could have +cleared him of guilt in that bygone time, and had been silently waiting +for a chance to even up accounts? At home, in their distress they got to +imagining that their servant might have been in the next room listening +when Richards revealed the secret to his wife that he knew of Burgess's +innocence; next Richards began to imagine that he had heard the swish of +a gown in there at that time; next, he was sure he _had_ heard it. They +would call Sarah in, on a pretext, and watch her face; if she had been +betraying them to Mr. Burgess, it would show in her manner. They asked +her some questions--questions which were so random and incoherent and +seemingly purposeless that the girl felt sure that the old people's minds +had been affected by their sudden good fortune; the sharp and watchful +gaze which they bent upon her frightened her, and that completed the +business. She blushed, she became nervous and confused, and to the old +people these were plain signs of guilt--guilt of some fearful sort or +other--without doubt she was a spy and a traitor. When they were alone +again they began to piece many unrelated things together and get horrible +results out of the combination. When things had got about to the worst +Richards was delivered of a sudden gasp and his wife asked: + +"Oh, what is it?--what is it?" + +"The note--Burgess's note! Its language was sarcastic, I see it now." He +quoted: "'At bottom you cannot respect me, _knowing_, as you do, of _that +matter of_ which I am accused'--oh, it is perfectly plain, now, God help +me! He knows that I know! You see the ingenuity of the phrasing. It +was a trap--and like a fool, I walked into it. And Mary--!" + +"Oh, it is dreadful--I know what you are going to say--he didn't return +your transcript of the pretended test-remark." + +"No--kept it to destroy us with. Mary, he has exposed us to some +already. I know it--I know it well. I saw it in a dozen faces after +church. Ah, he wouldn't answer our nod of recognition--he knew what he +had been doing!" + +In the night the doctor was called. The news went around in the morning +that the old couple were rather seriously ill--prostrated by the +exhausting excitement growing out of their great windfall, the +congratulations, and the late hours, the doctor said. The town was +sincerely distressed; for these old people were about all it had left to +be proud of, now. + +Two days later the news was worse. The old couple were delirious, and +were doing strange things. By witness of the nurses, Richards had +exhibited cheques--for $8,500? No--for an amazing sum--$38,500! What +could be the explanation of this gigantic piece of luck? + +The following day the nurses had more news--and wonderful. They had +concluded to hide the cheques, lest harm come to them; but when they +searched they were gone from under the patient's pillow--vanished away. +The patient said: + +"Let the pillow alone; what do you want?" + +"We thought it best that the cheques--" + +"You will never see them again--they are destroyed. They came from +Satan. I saw the hell-brand on them, and I knew they were sent to betray +me to sin." Then he fell to gabbling strange and dreadful things which +were not clearly understandable, and which the doctor admonished them to +keep to themselves. + +Richards was right; the cheques were never seen again. + +A nurse must have talked in her sleep, for within two days the forbidden +gabblings were the property of the town; and they were of a surprising +sort. They seemed to indicate that Richards had been a claimant for the +sack himself, and that Burgess had concealed that fact and then +maliciously betrayed it. + +Burgess was taxed with this and stoutly denied it. And he said it was +not fair to attach weight to the chatter of a sick old man who was out of +his mind. Still, suspicion was in the air, and there was much talk. + +After a day or two it was reported that Mrs. Richards's delirious +deliveries were getting to be duplicates of her husband's. Suspicion +flamed up into conviction, now, and the town's pride in the purity of its +one undiscredited important citizen began to dim down and flicker toward +extinction. + +Six days passed, then came more news. The old couple were dying. +Richards's mind cleared in his latest hour, and he sent for Burgess. +Burgess said: + +"Let the room be cleared. I think he wishes to say something in +privacy." + +"No!" said Richards; "I want witnesses. I want you all to hear my +confession, so that I may die a man, and not a dog. I was +clean--artificially--like the rest; and like the rest I fell when +temptation came. I signed a lie, and claimed the miserable sack. Mr. +Burgess remembered that I had done him a service, and in gratitude (and +ignorance) he suppressed my claim and saved me. You know the thing that +was charged against Burgess years ago. My testimony, and mine alone, +could have cleared him, and I was a coward and left him to suffer +disgrace--" + +"No--no--Mr. Richards, you--" + +"My servant betrayed my secret to him--" + +"No one has betrayed anything to me--" + +--"And then he did a natural and justifiable thing; he repented of the +saving kindness which he had done me, and he _exposed_ me--as I +deserved--" + +"Never!--I make oath--" + +"Out of my heart I forgive him." + +Burgess's impassioned protestations fell upon deaf ears; the dying man +passed away without knowing that once more he had done poor Burgess a +wrong. The old wife died that night. + +The last of the sacred Nineteen had fallen a prey to the fiendish sack; +the town was stripped of the last rag of its ancient glory. Its mourning +was not showy, but it was deep. + +By act of the Legislature--upon prayer and petition--Hadleyburg was +allowed to change its name to (never mind what--I will not give it away), +and leave one word out of the motto that for many generations had graced +the town's official seal. + +It is an honest town once more, and the man will have to rise early that +catches it napping again. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG*** + + +******* This file should be named 1213.txt or 1213.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/1/1213 + + + +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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