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diff --git a/41678-0.txt b/41678-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13bf82d --- /dev/null +++ b/41678-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9668 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41678 *** + + BELFORD'S MAGAZINE. + + VOL. II. FEBRUARY, 1889. NO. 3. + + + + +_A FEW PRACTICAL FACTS FOR SENATOR EDMUNDS._ + + +I am a physician practising in a small manufacturing town, and am +doing very well so far as getting business goes--might even be able to +save a little money if it were not for the bad debts. They make my +income pretty small, considering the amount of hard work I am +compelled to do; and the time spent in endeavoring to collect my bills +takes a great many hours which, in justice to my patients who pay, +ought to be used in brushing up my medical studies and trying to keep +abreast with the rest of the profession. + +It is hard to get out of a warm bed at night and tramp off a mile or +so to look after a patient when you are not certain of ever getting +your pay, and it seems to grow worse instead of better. The number of +people who, because of their poverty, need a doctor the most are on +the increase; and yet so long as they are not poor because of vicious +habits, one really hasn't the heart to refuse when called upon. I hear +a great deal said about the prosperity of the workingman and the high +wages he receives, but observe as a matter of experience that only a +few are able to save enough to carry them through a few weeks' +illness, let alone paying the doctor, who is forced to wait months and +sometimes even years for his pay, getting it then a dollar or two at a +time. + +To be sure, some of my patients own homes of their own, but the most +of them are in debt, a mortgage being about as regular an attachment +to a workingman's house as a chimney. + +Wages, too, are not quite so high as they were when I began practice: +they fell pretty low at one time, and then, when human nature could +endure it no longer, came a strike. The employers were horrified; +there never had been a strike in this town before: the working men, +women, and children all received high wages. "There is John Smith, for +instance--earns eighty dollars a month. There is Miss Jones, who makes +two dollars a day. There are some who earn even more." True enough! +But one day I was called to see John Smith lying dead on his kitchen +floor; fell dead on coming home from work, died in the harness, worked +to death; a young man at that, and ought to have been good for twenty +years more. His employers wouldn't have allowed one of their horses to +work that way. + +I remember the first time I ever saw Miss Jones--a bright, pretty, +red-cheeked girl, fresh from the country and proud to think that she +could earn her own living; to-day you would not recognize her, bent, +haggard, and worn; the rosy cheeks all gone; and the sunken chest and +hollow cough too plainly prophesy the end is not far off. High wages? +Yes! for flesh and blood are cheap. + +Well, the strikers compromised, got a raise in wages of five per +cent., with pay once a month instead of half at the end of the month, +and the balance at the end of the year, as had been the custom. Most +of the employers gave up the "pluck-me store" system, and we had +better times. + +Every year there comes family after family, all skilled working men +and women, from over the ocean, and I begin to see men standing on the +street corners looking for work, while every now and then one of the +employers will cut down wages a little in some department of his +factory. + +I see the men and boys who were born here crowded out of their places +by the imported labor, leaving town, and later hear of them beginning +life over again in some western village, or taking up government lands +on the prairies. If it were not for the emigration out of the town, +wages would scarce be enough to support life, so fast does immigration +to the town keep up with the demand for labor. + +The place used to be full of little shops, and the business was +conducted by hundreds of small manufacturers who were but one remove +from their men; in fact, it was no uncommon thing for a man to begin +manufacturing for himself on the savings from two or three years' +labor. + +But now these small shops are used as tenements, and a dozen large +firms do nearly all the business, crowding the few small manufacturers +that are left closer and closer to the wall every year. This is +because much of our raw stock has to be imported: we can make only a +few kinds of our class of goods in this country. The large +manufacturer, who is generally an importer also, is thus able to offer +a full line of goods to the jobber, which the smaller fry can't do. + +The business is a highly protected industry, the people being taxed by +a tariff of fifty per cent to support it. + +In this connection a few figures may prove instructive: + + The total value of gloves manufactured during the + census year was $5,718,539 + For making which, labor received as wages 1,245,013 or 22% + And the raw material cost 3,404,937 + Leaving a surplus to the manufacturers of 1,068,589 or 23% + Yet their capital invested was only 2,690,048 + +The tariff of fifty per cent is sufficient therefore to enable the +manufacturer to pay, not the difference in wages between European +labor and American, but _all_ the wages and twenty-eight cents on the +dollar's worth of finished product besides; while--there being no +tariff on labor--foreign labor comes to compete with home labor just +so fast as the difference in wages will warrant the making of the +journey from the old country to the new. + +The tariff on gloves in an unfinished state is, however, but twenty +per cent, and at that rate many gloves are imported so nearly finished +as to require but little labor to fit them for the market: and here +the large dealer who imports is able to obtain another serious +advantage over the small dealer, and at the same time, while +pretending to protect labor, defraud it. + +The closing of the small shops, and the consequent driving of our +people into large factories, hurts the best skilled workman in that it +lessens the number of employers competing for his services. I have +been a protectionist in the past, for I was taught to believe that +protection raised wages; but the results of a careful inquiry as to +cause and effect have shown me pretty conclusively that it does not +and can not. + +I have talked with many workingmen who are beginning to perceive that +the tendency of wages to fall a little from time to time is due to the +competition of the "pauper labor of Europe," which coming to this +country, underbids them at the shop door, takes away their work, and +turns them out to shift for themselves; while the employer, who is +protected by a duty of fifty per cent, gets his labor in the lowest +market and sells his goods in the highest. + +Said a glove-cutter to me the other day: "Doctor, if all the +workingmen born and brought up here and all that have come from the +old country had remained here, wages would not be fifty cents a day. I +understand very well what keeps wages up in America: it's the great +West, with its free land acting as a safety valve; and the worst is +that so much of it has been given to railroads or sold to cattle +syndicates for a mere song. When the remaining free land is +appropriated, God help the workingman! + +"Yes, we're protected in all that we have to buy: food, clothing, and +shelter, in a way that increases the cost to us; but in what we have +to sell, our labor, we have no protection at all. They give us good +wages, for if they did not we would emigrate to the West and leave +them, and by reason of this confounded tariff they put up the price of +all we need so high that wages, measured by their purchasing power, +are not so large after all. If the difference in real wages was so +great as the protectionists claim, there would be more immigrants +coming from Europe in one day than do now in a year." + +The workingmen have been educating themselves in the last four years, +and are no longer to be deceived by superficial comparisons of the +differences in wages between countries; they will also examine into +the differences in conditions, productive power, and the like, which +the protectionist statistician omits to do. + + WILLIAM C. WOOD, M. D. + + + + +_IRAR'S PEARL._ + + +"One hundred golden pieces for this slave! Who bids?--who bids?" + +"One hundred golden pieces? Surely the man has some special talent to +be valued so highly." + +The speaker stopped, and drew near to the crowd that had gathered +about the group of captives crouched in the center of the +market-place. As he approached, one among the gathering said: + +"Room for the vizier; room, room!" + +And the assembled people drew back on either hand, leaving a pathway +clear. + +The man went forward, followed by his attendants, and faced the inner +group of the crowd, a picturesque gathering of armed Bedouins, swarthy +and turbaned, clustered about a number of captives whose lighter +complexion and free-flowing hair told of a more northern nativity, and +which the most ready-tongued of the warriors was now loudly offering +for sale. + +"One hundred golden pieces buys this slave," he cried again, his eye +quickly noticing the interest evinced by the glance of the new-comer; +an interest that his ready wit told him might be utilized to +advantage. + +"And why one hundred golden pieces for this man? Methinks I have seen +much stronger knaves sold for an hundred silver pieces; and, lo! you +ask for gold. Why?" + +"Your servant is a dog if he does not answer the question to the +satisfaction of the most exacting. This man comes from the sea that +lies beyond our northern mountains, and can live in the water. There +is no better diver than he; why, he has brought up pebbles that were +ten fathoms down, and surely each fathom's depth is worth ten golden +pieces." + +The speaker turned to the crowd for approval, and the affirmative nods +that greeted his appeal brought a smile of satisfaction to his dark +face. + +"If you speak truth, you are right," answered the vizier. "But where +is your proof?" + +"Ask the man; he will not lie." + +"Can you do what he claims for you?" questioned the vizier, turning to +the captive. + +A smile of mingled scorn and contempt passed like a flash across the +man's face, and then he said: + +"What will it matter to me whether I can or no?" + +"This," answered the vizier: "if you can, I shall purchase you for the +sultan's pearl fisheries. One pearl each day makes you free for the +remaining hours, and the sultan is not a hard master. I have known him +give slaves their freedom." + +"I need no freedom, for my people are here. Shall I have food and +shelter?" + +As he spoke his glance swept along the faces of the captives and +turned away, a bitter disappointment in it, as though it could not +find those for whom it sought. + +"You will have food and shelter; yea, and garments for all needs." + +"I can do more than he says," said the man. + +"Then I will give the golden pieces for him. Bring him to my palace +before the sun sets." + +And as the man bowed low in answer, the vizier turned and went slowly +down the street that led to the sultan's palace. + +That evening his new slave lay asleep on a rug in the rose-scented +corridor of the palace, and dreamt of freedom and love all through the +long hours of the night. + +The next day the vizier carried the man to the sultan's divan, and +having told of his accomplishments, presented him to his royal master, +whose great delight was the vast hoard of pearls that burned like +smothered sunbeams in his treasury. + +That same day the man was sent to the pearl fisheries on the gulf, and +it was ordered that should he prove successful he was to have a house +for his special accommodation, and, on his parole of honor, be allowed +the freedom of the city and ten leagues of the adjacent country. + +Taken to the fisheries, he soon proved himself the master of all +engaged in that dangerous work, and was quickly made the favorite of +the sultan by the brilliancy and largeness of the pearls that he +found. He was given a small house seated in the center of a garden +where fruits and flowers commingled in fragrant profusion, and his +food and clothing were such as he himself chose, for the orders of his +royal master made his wishes in these things law. + +His labor for the day was soon over, one pearl, often the result of a +five minutes' bath, made him free for the remainder of the twenty-four +hours. This time he employed in reading or in taking solitary walks +along the shore of the bay opposite to that where the fisheries were +located. Here a mass of frowning cliffs rose in dark grandeur against +the sky, and over and among these he would clamber for hours, their +steep acclivities and the wind-notes that echoed among them seeming to +have a strange fascination for him. + +At last there came a rumor to the court that the sovereign of a +distant Indian realm had become possessed of a pearl whose size and +brilliancy of hue were unequalled in the world; and the sultan, +hearing of this, sent an envoy to ascertain the truth of the report. +The return of this messenger confirmed the statement, and filled the +sultan's soul with envy. He knew that he could not purchase the gem, +but he determined to stimulate the efforts of his fishers, and for +this purpose he caused it to be announced that any slave who should +find a pearl more brilliant and larger than that possessed by the +Indian monarch should be given his freedom and one hundred thousand +pieces of gold. + +To Irar, for such was the name by which the northern diver had elected +to be known, this proclamation brought no joy. Others of the fishers +made desperate exertions to obtain the prize. He brought his daily +pearl and went away, basking in the sunlight of his garden, or +climbing some rough cliff that he had not scaled before. + +When questioned concerning this indifference, he smiled, a scornful +and bitter light burning for an instant in his eyes, as he answered: + +"Why should I desire to change my life? I have food, a home, clothing; +and life can give nothing beyond these. I have no country, no friends. +The foray that brought me here swept my people from the face of the +earth. My labor is light, my holidays are many. What benefits can +freedom give me?" + +If the philosophy of his questioner could find no adequate reply to +this argument, the passion that slumbered within the slave was not to +be so dumb. + +He had finished his daily task, and was loitering through a shaded +lane just outside of the walls of the city, when he saw approaching +the veiled form of a woman. As she came near him, the wind, that +kindly agent of man, came blustering down the lane, and before the +little brown hands could grasp the filmy white gauze that told of +maidenhood, blew it back from the face, and gave Irar a vision that no +time nor distance could efface. + +He was a strongly-built and handsome fellow, young and brave, just +such a man as would please the eyes and heart of a maiden whose love +was waiting the call it would so gladly obey; and though a heightened +color was hidden by the quickly captured veil, a pleased smile made +answer to Irar's look of respectful admiration. + +To his salutation, a voice sweet as the nightingale's responded, and +then the little form went tripping on, and disappeared through a +gateway a short distance from where he stood. + +The sunshine of his garden, the conquering of mighty cliffs, ceased to +have an attraction for Irar, and his feet seemed drawn to the secluded +lane in which this vision had come to him. It was strange how many +errands there were calling the little maid along that shaded way; and +the wind was ever at hand to give one or more glimpses of the face +that was growing sweeter and brighter every day. But while joy was +always a portion of these meetings, now and then a dark thought would +give its stab; for was he not a slave? And how could he dare to look +forward to a time when one so beautiful should be his own?--aye, all +and all his own? + +He had discovered that were he free he could claim this jewel, for she +was a peasant's daughter: and yet how far above him, for she was +free. + +He had but just left her, having felt the warmth of her breath so near +his cheek that it thrilled him like wine, and the clinging clasp of +her hand was still tingling in his blood. + +"Oh that I could own this pearl!" he cried: and then he shouted aloud +in great joyfulness, for the sultan's proclamation flashed up in his +mind, recalled by the word he had used. + +He would find the sultan a pearl; he would be free--yes, and rich. But +his northern blood was cool, and he made sure that his dear one should +not suffer should he not succeed at first. + +When he met her the next day he said: + +"I have come to bid you good-bye for a time." + +Her little hand trembled, and her bosom heaved as though a sob were +welling up for utterance. + +"Only for a time, remember," he went on. "And when I come again it +will be to claim a bride." + +There was a supreme confidence in his tone, a foreshadowed success +that inspired even himself, as he asked: + +"Will she be ready for me?" + +For answer she nestled in his arms, and no wind was needed to tear the +veil aside that his lips might claim love's pledge from hers. + +"Shall I have to wait long?" she said. + +"No, perhaps a month; but I hope it will be less even than that." + +"Oh that Allah would make it less!" she answered. + +A long time they lingered in the rose-scented shadows, and then Irar, +with her kiss of hope and prayer warm on his lips, strode rapidly back +to his home. + +Arrived there, he rubbed his body thoroughly with oil to make it +mobile and supple, and then sought the slumber that would give him +strength for his search. + +With the first glinting of dawn he arose, and having partaken of a +plain repast, sat down to consider how he should act did he find the +pearl. + +Should he give the gem to the inspector of the fisheries? + +No, for the man was not friendly to him, and might prove false. + +The better way would be for himself to carry it to the sultan, and as +he laid it at the feet of his royal master, claim the reward that had +been offered. + +This plan satisfied him, and then another thought arose: How should he +hide it from the keen eyes of the watchful guards, whose duty it was +to see that no gem was carried away, and who stood ready to search +each diver as he appeared above the water? + +This was a more difficult problem to settle than was that concerning +the way in which the gem should be conveyed to the sultan; and the sun +had risen far above the mountains lying eastward from the city before +he could devise a plan that seemed to meet his needs. + +At last a smile of satisfaction took the place of the perplexed look +that had pervaded his face, and rising, he hastened to the bay. + +The divers were already at work, and one or two had finished their +labor and were going away, when Irar sprang into his skiff and was +rowed out to the deeper water, where the pearls lay hidden. He was not +so easy to please as he had previously been, but scanned the water +curiously, directing the boatmen to pull in many different directions, +while he stood in the bow, watching. + +Suddenly some mysterious prompting whispered, "Now!"--and without a +moment's hesitation he sprang from the skiff and sank swiftly down to +the indistinct depths below. + +Merciful Allah--did he see aright? + +Yes, there lay the pearl he sought, perfect, brilliant, a gem that +royalty itself could not outshine. + +To grasp it and thrust it into his mouth, yes, and to swallow it, was +but an instant's work; and then he quickly found another gem, and with +it sped upward to the surface. + +A half-hour had not passed, and now he was hastening back to the city, +buoyant, elate, his heart beating with swift throbs of joy. + +He did not seek his home, but turning down a narrow and unfrequented +street sought a dark, closely-curtained house, and knocking, was +silently admitted by a sallow-hued man, whose broad brow and gleaming +eyes, set deep under shaggy brows, told of a strange and subtle power +that only he could wield. + +"Well, friend Irar," he said, when he had led the young man to a dim +room at the back of the house, "can I do aught for you to-day?" + +"You can. Listen." And Irar told, as briefly as he could, of his love, +the sultan's promise, and his success. + +This done, he went on. + +"That you are skilled in the arts of surgery is well known. If the +pearl stays in my stomach it will be ruined. For an act that saved +your life, which I was glad to do, help me now." + +The man thought for a moment, and then said: + +"I will, but you will be sick for a week, and perhaps for a longer +time. What must be done in this case?" + +"Your word will be enough to excuse me from work. Will you not go to +the vizier and make the excuse I need?" + +"Yes; and now, was the gem hard to swallow?" + +"It was." + +"Sit quiet here, I shall soon be ready." + +Swiftly the man prepared two mixtures and brought out some thin knives +and other curious instruments. These and some bandages he placed on a +small table that he drew near to a slab standing in the middle of the +apartment. + +"Lie down here," he said, and Irar obeyed. + +"If you feel the pearl forced up into your throat, do not struggle, +but grasp the sides of the slab, and keep as quiet as you can: I will +see that no harm comes to you." + +"I will do as you say." + +"Now drink this;" and he handed Irar one of the potions he had +prepared. + +No sooner had Irar swallowed this than he grew faint and chill; and +then a horrible sickness filled him, and with violent retchings he +sought to relieve the oppression in his stomach. The man stood by, a +knife in his grasp, and just as Irar felt a lump stick in his throat a +hand was clasped tightly below it, and it was forced upward. Then a +swift movement of gleaming steel followed; and just as the pressure on +his lungs grew to a suffocating intensity, the lump causing this was +ejected from his throat, and stinging pain told of rapid punctures, +through which a thread was quickly drawn. + +Then a burning liquid was applied to his throat, and a bandage wound +about it, after which he was carried to a couch and told to remain +quiet. + +Then the man picked up the pearl and, washing it, held it up to the +light. + +"A right royal gem," he cried, his eyes gleaming. "Here, take it, or I +shall begin to envy you your prize;" and he thrust the pearl fiercely +into Irar's hand, going immediately from the apartment. + +In an hour he returned, holding a paper that bore the seal of the +vizier. + +"You are excused for a month," he said, "and before that time you will +be well: in fact, you will be able to move to your own house in two +weeks. The one thing needful is that you keep your neck quiet." + +It was not hard for Irar to do this, for did he not know that love and +freedom were both waiting for him? The days passed swiftly, for dreams +of a happy future filled both waking and sleeping hours, and the +contentment that pervaded his existence made his recovery rapid. + +At the end of a week the bandages were removed, and the surgeon looked +in surprise at the nearly healed cut. + +"This is better--much better than I hoped for," he said. "A week more +of quiet, and you will be all right." + +He bathed the wound with a lotion, replaced the bandages, and then +wandered restlessly about the room. This was but a repetition of his +course ever since Irar had come to him, and caused his guest no +uneasiness. + +After a time he grew quiet, and going to the window, seemed to be +pondering some plan. Then his face lightened, and coming back to +Irar's couch he said: + +"I will make a cooling drink for you, and then go out." And he left +the room, soon returning with the draught, which he held out to his +patient, who took it and drained the liquor to the dregs. + +Again the surgeon wandered about the room in a restless way, furtively +watching Irar, who soon felt a delicious languor stealing over his +senses. + +"Let me see your pearl once more," said the surgeon, and Irar +languidly handed it to him. + +Did he dream it?--or did he see the surgeon clutch it fiercely, then +thrust it hurriedly into his mouth and with a gleam of savage triumph +hastily swallow it? + +There was no certainty of this when he awoke, but a strange sensation +of indistinctness in his mind, which gradually cleared as his eyes +grew accustomed to the light. But he could not rid himself of the +thought, and he thrust his hand under the covering of the couch where +he had kept the pearl, and started up with a cry of horror. + +The pearl was gone! + +A man came running in, alarmed by his cry; and of him Irar demanded, +in a voice choked and hoarse with emotion: + +"Your master, quick!--where is he?" + +"I have not seen him for a week." + +"A week? And I?" + +"You have been asleep. My master said you would not wake before a week +had passed, and that he would return ere your slumber was broken." + +It was true, then, this horror that he had thought a dream; and he +buried his face in his hands that the servant might not see his +emotion. In a little time he grew calm, and raising his head, he said: + +"Has your master returned?" + +"No." + +He put up his hand, and felt his throat--the bandage was gone. To his +questioning look, the man said: + +"The master ordered it. It was taken off the third day after he went +away, and you can eat if you desire to." + +"I will. Bring me a light repast." + +In a little time he was eating the food brought, and calling for his +clothes he put them on and tried to walk. At first his steps were +unsteady, but they quickly grew firm. Finding that the pouch +containing his knife and purse was in its place, he went forth. But +instead of seeking his own home, or the lane that had so often been +the goal of his wanderings, he turned southward, and leaving the city +was soon pacing the sands leading towards the rocks that he had so +frequently explored. + +Soon he reached them, and began his usual clambering among them, going +on and on, but keeping near the sea. At times his hand would explore +the pouch where his knife was, and once he drew it forth, and his eyes +gleamed with satisfaction as his finger tested the keenness of its +blade. + +His glance sought every shadowy hollow, and twice he turned into +fissures that seemed to lead to a deeper gloom. But he returned and +kept on, reaching at last a bold crag, beneath which a gully of the +sea ran in--so narrow that he could almost step across it. + +The garrulous call of a gull drew his attention to a dark object that +rose and fell with the swelling and sinking of the tide, close to a +little square of sand at the head of this opening. It had a strangely +human look, and he made his way down to it. Taking off his sandals, he +gathered his garments up above the wash of the waves, and soon had +grasped the floating clothes that streamed out from the central mass. + +The strain caused this to turn over, and showed him the white and +livid face of the very man who had played him false. + +For a moment a savage joy filled his soul, and then his manhood +exerted its sway, and pity came; and as the softer feeling caused a +mist to gather in his eyes, he noticed that there was a large, +unnatural lump protruding from the dead man's throat. + +Hastily drawing the body on the sands, he drew forth his knife, and +carefully cut the flesh about this. + +A cry of joy came, as his pearl dropped from the slit and lay, clear +and shining, on the sand. + +Hastily secreting it, his better thought prompted him to bury the man +whose avarice had come so near wrecking his life, and finding an oar +blade on the sand, he dug a grave close to the rock, and dragged the +body to this. + +A small tablet fell from the clothing as he was doing this, and he +picked it up and put it in his pouch. Then he covered the body, and +heaped the sand high above it. + +Resting for a little time, he clambered back to the top of the cliff +and quickly returned to the city, hastening to the vizier's palace. + +His request to have audience with the sultan was immediately granted, +and the vizier being about to report to his royal master, Irar was +told to accompany him. + +Arrived at the palace, the vizier quickly made Irar's wish known. + +"The slave I gave your highness for a pearl-fisher desires to speak +with you." + +"Let him speak, for he has ever done his work well," said the sultan. + +Bowing his head low, Irar held out his hand, closed over the pearl. + +"Your highness promised freedom and gold to the slave who should bring +you the finest pearl on earth; will this one win the gift?" And he +unclasped his hand and showed the peerless gem it had hidden. + +With a cry of delight, the sultan said: + +"Yes, you are free, and the golden pieces shall be paid you when you +wish them--now, if it is your choice. More, I appoint you the +inspector of my pearl fisheries. Hand me the gem, and do you see our +wishes fulfilled." + +The last commands were addressed to the vizier, who took the pearl and +laid it in the sultan's hand. Irar bowed low, and withdrew to the +outer court by the palace gate. Here he was soon joined by the vizier, +who gave him the certificate of his freedom, and the royal decree +announcing his appointment to the inspectorship. + +He also gave Irar some costly jewels, saying: + +"You have done well. The sultan is overjoyed at this rare good +fortune, for the pearl is much larger than that of the Sultan of +Coromandel. He has remembered that I gave you to him, and so I share +my gain with you." + +Irar thanked him, and taking the papers, asked permission to be absent +from duty for a time. + +"You are free, and can do what you please, and you need not assume +your new duties for a week." + +Thanking him, Irar hastened away. It was growing late, but the sun +still shone in the lane when he turned down its shadowy way. The gate +was quickly reached; but before he came to it, it was flung open, and +the light and gladness of his life shone on him. + +As he clasped her in his arms, she murmured: + +"I have watched for you every day; but now I shall have no more +watching or waiting." + +"No, my darling, you will not. Lead me to your father: I would speak +with him." + +It took but a short time for Irar to secure the consent that he +sought. His royal appointment was a powerful factor in the argument, +and he returned to his home a happy man. + +As he was removing his garments before retiring, the tablet that he +had found on the surgeon's body fell to the floor. Picking it up, he +opened it, and saw some partly obliterated writing. Closely scanning +this, he read the following: + +"I have the pearl: it is mine. But since I have swallowed it I have +become possessed with the thought that there is another like it--yes, +larger and more brilliant--waiting my seeking; and to-night I shall go +out to the fisheries and find it. I shall go alone, in a skiff that I +have hired; and to-morrow I shall have two pearls, like which the +world has no more." + +"The fool!--he could not swim," said Irar, "for I rescued him from the +sea when he tried to. Well, he wrought his own punishment, and may +Allah forgive him as I do." And he sought his couch. + +One week after this occurred Irar carried to the larger home that was +allowed him as inspector of the pearl fisheries the sweetest and +fairest bride in all the wide Persian realms, a bride more pure and +lovely than the pearl that had given him his freedom and crowned his +love with triumph. + + THOS. S. COLLIER. + + + + +_THE FIRST REGIMENTS OF U. S. COLORED TROOPS_ + +AND HOW THEY WERE RAISED. + + +May 22, 1863, a general order, No. 143, establishing a bureau "for the +organization of colored troops," and providing for the detail of three +field officers as Inspectors of these troops and for the creation of a +board to examine applicants was issued from the War Department. + +Although some colored men had been enlisted in Louisville and, under +the authority of General Hunter, in South Carolina, the above order +was the first formal recognition of this class of troops by the +Government. + +The Inspectors were to supervise at such points as might be indicated +by the War Department "in the Northern and Western States," but +recruiting stations and depots were to be established by the +Adjutant-general as circumstances should require: the first clause +expressing the conservatism of President Lincoln, and the second +affording a wider range for the energies of Secretary Stanton. + +The first Inspector detailed was Colonel William Birney, of the 4th +New Jersey Volunteers. He was an Alabamian by birth, the son of James +G. Birney, who had been the Presidential candidate of the Liberty +party in 1840 and 1844. He had enlisted as a private and been elected +Captain in the 1st New Jersey, had served through the different +regimental grades, and had just been nominated to the Senate as +Brigadier-general. At the beginning of the war he predicted to his +friends, Secretary Chase and Henry Wilson (chairman of the Senate +Committee on military affairs), the exigency for calling colored +troops into the service, and had offered, in that event, to aid in +organizing them without regard to his grade in the white troops. Hence +his detail after more than two years' waiting. + +Reporting at Washington in the first days of June for his new duty, +Colonel Birney was kindly received by the Secretary of War, but found +that neither he nor Mr. Lincoln had marked out any definite line of +action or had any orders ready to give him. Day after day his anxious +inquiries were met by the same answer: + +"Wait a little longer; we are not ready yet." + +Finally, about the 10th of June, weary with oscillating between the +Ebbitt House and the War Department, the Colonel asked leave of Mr. +Stanton to organize a colored regiment at Washington. Written orders +were refused, but oral permission to do what he could was granted him. +He went to work at once, and before the 18th of June he had enlisted, +uniformed, armed, and equipped four hundred men, gathered from +Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria, and the country beyond. They were +of course very raw material, but their habits of obedience and +temperance were equivalent to the usual quickness and independence of +the white troops. They were proud of their new position and +enthusiastic in learning the manual of arms, even rising at four +o'clock in the morning to begin their drill, which they practised +incessantly through the day. The brightest among them were made +sergeants and corporals, while young officers from the white regiments +around Washington were detailed to serve as captains and lieutenants. + +By the end of the month the 1st U. S. Colored Regiment was full, and +Colonel Birney marched it down the avenue, past the White House to the +Capitol, and back; affording a rare spectacle to the crowds that +followed it, and one which the old inhabitants of the city certainly +had never expected to see. But there they were, ten companies of +black, brown, and yellow men, ex-slaves, dressed in the uniform of the +United States, armed and equipped like white soldiers, and pledged to +stand by the Government in its struggle with their former masters. +They made a fine appearance, marching quite as well as white soldiers, +and calling forth many compliments for themselves and their officers. + +Still no orders came from the War Department, and it was some time +before Colonel Birney understood the cause of the delay. Recruiting +for colored troops had been begun in Philadelphia and Boston, but +progressed slowly; and at Washington men were not obtained in any +great numbers from the resident free people of color, but were mostly +fugitive slaves from Maryland and Virginia. Colonel Birney represented +to Mr. Stanton the advantages of recruiting, in the States named, and +the superiority as soldiers of the men raised on farms to those +gathered in the alleys and slums of northern cities. + +The Secretary listened attentively, and after reflecting a few +moments, said: + +"Go over to the White House and have a talk with the President. Don't +say that I sent you. We will talk the matter over afterwards." + +The Colonel was promptly admitted to Mr. Lincoln's presence, and a +complimentary remark of the President on the excellent appearance made +by the colored regiment opened the way for his visitor to give his +views about recruiting from the Maryland farms. + +"What!" exclaimed Mr. Lincoln; "you surely do not mean that we should +take the slaves?" + +"Mr. President," replied the Colonel, "a man's allegiance to his +Government is not subordinate to claims of private parties upon him. +If he is willing to fight for his country he should be allowed to do +it." + +"But my pledge!" said Mr. Lincoln. "You forget my pledge to the loyal +slave States, in my proclamation of emancipation." + +Here, then, was the point of difference between Mr. Stanton and the +President. The former was willing to recruit colored troops in the +loyal slave States, and the latter was opposed to it. + +Of course the subject was dropped. + +On the 28th of June Col. Birney was ordered to Norfolk to recruit +slaves of rebels, but he had scarcely begun when another order brought +him back to Washington. + +Arriving about the 4th of July, Mr. Stanton showed him a letter from +General Schenck, commanding the district of Maryland, stating that +large numbers of free men of color had been gathered at Baltimore to +work on the fortifications, and that a competent officer, if sent at +once, might get a great many recruits among them. In answer to the +Secretary's question of what he thought of this, Colonel Birney +answered: + +"I can organize several regiments in Baltimore, but probably not from +the class mentioned by General Schenck. Free colored men will not +fight to help the Government maintain slavery in Maryland; and that is +the President's pledge. But the slaves will enlist, for they will get +their freedom by it. If you send me to Maryland it must be with the +knowledge that I will never recognize one man's right of property in +another. I believe, with the Vermont justice, that the only proof of +such a right is a deed signed and sealed by the Creator." + +Mr. Stanton laughed. "Well," he said, "whatever you do, remember you +do it on your own responsibility." This was repeated and emphasized. + +The Colonel accepted the terms, asking the favor, however, that Mr. +Stanton would do what he could for him in the event of the President's +displeasure. This was cheerfully promised, and the necessary orders +were then made out. A letter also was written to General Schenck +directing him to recognize Colonel Birney as in charge of the +recruiting of colored troops in Maryland, and to have his requisitions +honored by the ordinance, commissary, and quartermaster officers. +That is, the Colonel was to have _carte blanche_ for his special +business. + +The large barracks near Druid Hill Park having been assigned for his +use by General Schenck, who named them "Birney Barracks," the Colonel +telegraphed for the 1st Regiment. As the "Plug Uglies" before the war, +and the attacks made on the first northern volunteers by the Baltimore +populace, had given that city the reputation of being peopled chiefly +by roughs and rebels, it was thought best to have a sufficient force +there to overawe the violent. + +The regiment, under command of Colonel Holman, arrived at night +without accident. It was put into good condition, and a few days +later, with Colonel Birney riding at its head, was marched, with +music, flying colors, and fixed bayonets, through the principal +streets of the city, causing immense excitement and some apprehension +among all classes. Doors and blinds were hastily closed, and the +police gathered in force to be ready to repress disorders. But none +occurred. One man was arrested for hurrahing for Jeff Davis; but this, +scarcely worth noticing, was the only incident that indicated rebel +sentiment. + +From that date the populace accepted the situation, and it was quite +safe for recruiting squads of colored soldiers to march through every +quarter of the city. + +It was worth going some distance to see the sergeant selected to +command these squads march his men out. Black as a coal, his grand, +martial air and proud assumption of authority were most impressive, +while his stern, ringing voice made itself heard all over the drill +ground. No doubt his pompous manner, aided by his uniform, had much to +do in bringing in recruits. + +The business of recruiting was, however, one of peculiar danger in +other places. About this time a Lieutenant who had been left at +Norfolk by Colonel Birney was foully murdered. A little later another +was shot down near Benedict, and a recruiting agent was mobbed and +killed in Frederick County. On two occasions armed men lay in ambush +for the purpose of shooting Colonel Birney, but he was forewarned. + +It very soon became evident that more energetic means must be adopted +for filling up regiments. Accordingly, a requisition was made for a +small steamboat for the purpose of recruiting along the eastern shore +of Maryland. Before, however, completing his arrangements to do this, +Colonel Birney's attention was called to another matter, the result +of which did not tend to make him more popular with Maryland +slave-owners. + +Calling at General Schenck's office, one morning, a letter was handed +him to read by Adjutant-general Piatt, which I here copy _verbatim et +literatim_. It was addressed to President Lincoln and dated: + + + "BALTIMORE, June 15, 1863. + + "HON. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LICCLN. _Sir_: i would like to inquire + from you sir that we slaves are entitle to Be confine In + prison By our masters or not sir. We have bin In Prison for + two years and a half and some are Bin in here for seventeen + months and so our masters are Rible General A. B. Steward and + are now in the Rible Army sir and put us slaves here Before He + went into the Rible Army and we are Bin here Ever sence and we + are waitin to Be inlisted in the army or navy sir to fite for + the stars and stripes there is about 20 of slaves in the Balto + city jail our masters says that they are going to keep we + slaves in Prison untill the war is over or soon as he can get + a chance to send us slaves Down South to the Rebilious and we + all would like to have our Liberty sir and i sir i wish you + would do something For we Poor Slaves we have no shoes or + clothing to put Put on only what we Beg from the soldiers and + citizens that comes to the Prison i would like to have my + liberty. Direct your letter to Captain James warden in the + city jail then he will give the Slaves their Libberty from + your humble Servant." + +No name was signed to this document, probably from prudential reasons. +The name of the warden was, however, repeated, as though to emphasize +the address. + +Such an appeal could not but make a profound impression on Colonel +Birney. He caused some inquiries to be made among the colored people, +and learned that there were in the city at least three slave-pens in +which men, women, and children had been confined for safekeeping since +the beginning of the war. Thirty cents a head per day was the charge +for keeping them, and they were to remain in confinement until the +close of hostilities. + +Col. Birney decided that no time should be lost in attending to this +business. He called to see General Schenck about it, but the General +had gone to Washington. Colonel Piatt was in the office, however, and +unhesitatingly gave the required permit to open the jails. + +Taking with him a few soldiers, Colonel Birney visited, one after the +other, the dreadful pens where nearly one hundred human beings were +found in a condition of misery almost incredible to the present +generation. Nearly all the men and many of the women were chained in +some manner or other. One aged man wore an iron collar to which a +chain was fastened attached to an iron band around one ankle, and so +short that it was with difficulty a step could be taken. Another, +almost as old, was chained in a similar way from an iron belt to both +ankles. Some were handcuffed and some had only their ankles chained +together. The only place for fresh air or exercise was a small +court-yard inclosed by high brick walls which, being whitewashed, had +seriously affected the eyes of all the prisoners. Only a few of them +could see well at night, and some were almost totally blind. A few +afterwards recovered, but several lost their sight completely. In this +condition they had been kept for two years or more. + +A blacksmith was sent for, and in a few minutes every chain was broken +and the captives were told that they were free. The younger ones +received the announcement with shouts and laughter, and ran eagerly to +gather up all their little belongings and make themselves as tidy as +possible before leaving the prisons. Others were incredulous and timid +about accepting the boon offered to them, while the older ones, more +deeply imbued with the religious spirit, raised streaming eyes to +heaven and thanked the Lord that their deliverance had come at last. + +They were all marched to the barracks and examined by the surgeons. A +few only were found available as soldiers. The others were sent to the +Quartermaster's Department in Washington and disposed of there. The +expressions of gratitude from those who remained with us were most +fervent, but often a little amusing. Colonel Birney was spoken of +among them as a man sent by the Lord, a second Moses come to deliver +and lead His oppressed people. He was prayed for in their evening +prayer-meetings, and the Lord implored to be with him and "purtect him +always, on de right hand and on de left, in de front and in de rar;" +and one earnest old man was heard to pray: "Eben as he hab done it +unto de least ob dese, my chillun, say de Lord, he hab done it unto +me, and we prays dat de Lord will recognize dat fact and bless him +accordin'." + +The opening of the slave pens, and the revelations concerning the +treatment of the prisoners confined there, caused, as may well be +supposed, a great sensation. Owners of slaves began to discuss +measures to protect themselves from Colonel Birney's operations. +Reverdy Johnson was appealed to and secured as their representative, +and complaints were forwarded to Washington. That these were not +noticed at that time was due, in a great measure, to the influence of +the Hon. Winter Davis, then member of Congress, and of Judge Hugh L. +Bond, between whom and Colonel Birney a warm friendship existed as +well as entire unanimity of opinion on the colored soldier question. + +The Colonel now felt free to carry out the plans he had matured, of +the success of which he had not the slightest doubt. Taking with him a +few of his most reliable officers, he embarked on the steamer that had +been furnished him and started on his first voyage of discovery. He +was absent a little over a week, and was so much encouraged by what he +heard and saw that no delay was made in despatching the boat again, +this time in command of one of the lieutenant-colonels. + +And now all along the eastern and western shores the news flew that +able-bodied men would be received as soldiers, transported to a place +of safety, and no questions asked. On it went like the unseen blaze +beneath the pine brush, darting out now here, now there, still +travelling swiftly and silently until it reached the remotest +districts of the State, and the black population knew that its +emancipation was in its own hands. Soon one boat was not enough to +bring away all who were willing to serve in the Union army. A second +boat and then a third were added to the service, and recruiting +stations were opened in various parts of the State. To these flocked +the slaves, fugitives from both rebel and loyal masters, many of them +at the risk of their lives bringing their families with them, walking +often forty and fifty miles to reach the station. Here they were +protected until the boats came along which carried them to Baltimore. +A crowd always gathered to see them land, and followed as--often two +and three hundred together--they were marched in double file through +the streets to the barracks. + +It was certainly a grotesque but pathetic spectacle, that of these +people just escaped from bondage, all ragged, many of them with scarce +tatters enough for decency, barefooted and bareheaded, or with +handkerchiefs around their heads, dirty and forlorn, each one carrying +a little bundle containing his entire earthly possessions. + +Immediately upon their arrival at the barracks the men were examined, +the able-bodied ones enlisted, the rest otherwise disposed of. + +Before the 1st of August the 2d and 4th regiments were complete, the +7th and 8th more than half full, and the 9th was begun.[1] + +It was surprising how many men had to be rejected. Sometimes out of +a hundred recruits fifty would be found physically unfit for service. +But those accepted were, as a rule, fine, hearty fellows. + +The preliminary process to becoming a soldier was not always relished. +The carbolic soap bath in the river, with the after clipping and +shaving and shampooing, being in many cases a first experience, was +not submitted to in every instance without grumbling. A few even +rebelled, positively refusing to go into the water. A facetious +sergeant, detailed to supervise the scrubbing, originated an argument +which proved most effective. + +"Look at you now," he was heard to say, "you ignorant nigger! You +don't know nothin'. Don't you see your ole close a burnin' up on de +sho', and don't you know when you gits inter dat ribber and scrubs wid +de guvment soap you washes all de slavery out ob you? Go 'long wid +you!" + +And the subject, aided by a touch of the sergeant's foot, would make +no further resistance. + +But when, the bath and barbering over, comfortable under-clothing was +given them and they were then arrayed in bright new uniforms and a +glittering musket was put into their hands, surely Solomon in all his +glory never experienced the glow of satisfaction that warmed the +hearts of these ex-slaves as they viewed each other, and each man knew +that he looked just like his fellows. For the first time in their +lives they were men, not "boys,"--not chattels to be disposed of at +the will of a master, but owning themselves, treated with respect, and +considered worthy to take part with white men in defending the Union. +In many of them the almost immediate change in look and bearing from +cringing humility or unmeaning levity to earnest willingness and +self-confidence was strikingly apparent; in others the change came +gradually, as though time were needed to make them realize the +revolution that had taken place. But it was surprising how quickly the +vast majority learned well what was required of them, and how few +rascals there were. Intemperance and profanity were exceedingly rare +among them, and the guard-house opened its doors to a much less number +than was usual in white regiments. + +Of course there was general dissatisfaction among the abandoned +masters and mistresses, many of whom were left without a single +field-hand or house-servant. Scarcely a day passed without bringing +one or two of these owners or their agents to inquire for some Sam or +Tom or Dick. They were always invited up to headquarters to present +their claims, and the records were examined for their satisfaction. +If the names of their slaves were among the enlisted men, the +ex-owners were required to produce a certificate of loyalty from the +provost marshal of their district; and, if this was satisfactory, they +were referred to the Board of Claims, to be organized in Baltimore for +the purpose of deciding upon such cases. If they could show no proper +certificate, they were summarily dismissed. Very often a man would +change his name when he enlisted, thus making it very difficult for +his master to trace him, besides causing confusion and a good deal of +merriment among the young officers, as those who took new names +invariably forgot them. + +"Andy Smith!" the sergeant would cry at roll-call; but no Andy Smith +would answer until, the name having been repeated several times, some +comrade would nudge the fellow who had assumed it, saying: + +"You is Andy Smith; don't you 'member you is?" + +And then there would be a start and an exclamation of: + +"So I is--I done forgot!" followed by a loud "Here!" + +Amusing and sometimes pathetic scenes between masters and servants +were of frequent occurrence. It was surprising in how short a time a +poor, crying, slovenly slave became a bright, neat, self-asserting +man. + +One morning a tall, ungainly fellow, who had tramped several days to +get to us, was brought to headquarters. He looked as though he had +been driven and hunted all his life; but he was strongly built, and +his ebony countenance, though showing a good deal of anxiety, +expressed fearlessness and resolution. The officer who accompanied him +reported him sound in every way except that he stuttered badly. Before +the Colonel could speak to him, the fellow managed, with much +difficulty, to get out an earnest request that he should not be +"'jected." + +"But you could not give the countersign if challenged," said the +colonel. + +"Jes try me, please, mars Colonel," the poor man stuttered. He was +tried with the regular drill orders, and the proof of the man's pluck +was that, though surrounded by a crowd that laughed at his ridiculous +efforts, he made an heroic stagger at every order, and with a certain +air of dignity that had its effect. At any rate, the Colonel, pleased +with his manly bearing, told him that if he would come up the next +morning and give those orders without stuttering he should be mustered +into the service. Whether what his comrades asserted, that he spent +the night practising in the grove back of the barracks, was true or +not, it is a fact that the next morning he appeared bright and cheery, +and in a voice that resounded over the campus he repeated every order +promptly and intelligibly. He was accepted and a few days afterwards +put on guard at the foot of the hill. As he was quietly pacing up and +down his beat, a man rode up, sprang to the ground, and saying, "Look +after my horse, fellow," started to walk up the hill. He failed to +recognize in the neat, fine-looking soldier whom he had addressed his +runaway slave. But the slave knew his late master, and with the sense +of security inspired by his uniform and his loaded musket, he stepped +forward. He could now say "Halt!" without stuttering, and he said it +in a very decided tone. And then the master, looking sharply at him, +exclaimed with an oath: + +"Sam, you stuttering idiot! what are you doing here?" + +"Defendin' de country, mas--sa," Sam stuttered. + +His master burst out laughing, and with another oath ordered Sam to +stand aside and let him pass, as he had come to take his man back +home, and intended to do it. But Sam was not alarmed. He lowered his +musket significantly, and managed to say: + +"I aint nobody's slave no more, massa. I'se under the orders of de +United States Guvement, and dem orders is to let nobody parss here +what can't gib de countersign. Ef you kin do dat, you kin parss: ef +not--not!" + +The master raved and stormed in vain. Sam stood firm, until the +officer of the day who, unobserved, had witnessed the scene from a +clump of trees, thought best to interfere. He escorted the irate +Marylander to the Colonel's office, but it is hardly necessary to say +he was obliged to return home alone, as he came.[2] + +A very similar incident occurred shortly afterwards, which I believe +found its way into the papers: but it will bear repetition. + +A new recruit, feeling to an exaggerated extent the dignity and the +importance with which his uniform invested him, and realizing also, +perhaps, the solemn obligations of his oath, was approached while on +guard by his former master, and, with the usual oaths, ordered to get +out of the way. This the sentinel declined to do, and the master began +to abuse him for "a coward," "a black scoundrel," "a sneaking thief," +etc., etc., all of which the soldier bore unmoved. But when the white +man, still more infuriated by this indifference, damned the Union +Army and even the uniform the black man wore, the latter became +excited, and facing his angry master, said, in a very forcible manner: + +"Massa, you kin 'buse dis nigger as a nigger as much as you please: +dat don't hurt nobody. But when you damn dese buttons, you damns de +goviment, sar, and dat am treason, and I'se pledged to stop it. Now +scoot!" + +And he charged on the astonished master, driving him down the slope +and into the road, and kept his musket levelled at him until he saw +him get on a street-car and ride away. + +After a time, curiosity brought many people from the city every +afternoon to see the troops drill, and before the end of the summer it +became the fashionable thing for ladies and gentlemen driving out to +stop below the hill on which the barracks stood and remain during the +whole parade. Many even descended from their carriages and came up the +slope to get a better view. As to the colored population, the +barracks, and all that took place there, were full of interest for +them. It seemed as though each one felt that he or she gained +something in importance by belonging to a class that was attracting so +much attention. Those especially who had sons or brothers among the +troops rose at once in their own estimation and in their social scale. +I could cite a number of amusing illustrations of this vainglorious +sentiment, but one will suffice. + +The respectable matron who did my washing came to me one morning to +say that she would be obliged to give up my patronage, as her son had +just enlisted and she could not think of disgracing him by continuing +her business. Remonstrance was in vain; she retired from the suds, and +lived on her importance and, presumably, on her son's pay. + +One afternoon in the early fall two ladies came to headquarters. They +were dressed in fashionable mourning, were gentle of speech and +manner, and evidently belonged to the best society. They stated that +they owned a large farm in Calvert County, had been visiting in +Philadelphia, and had just learned that two "valuable boys" belonging +to them had run away and enlisted in Baltimore. The "boys" had been +brought up in the family, had always been kindly treated, were +perfectly contented, and must have been worked upon in some subtle +manner to have been induced to leave. They felt sure that if they +could see them they could persuade them to return, as they could not +bear the thought of the hardships the "boys" must undergo in army +life. + +The Colonel looked over the roll and found the names of the "boys," +who had enlisted two weeks before. He informed the ladies that, even +if willing, these soldiers could not be remanded to slavery; but if +they would like to see them, he would send for them. The ladies +requested that this should be done, and an orderly was dispatched to +bring the fugitives. + +Few worse specimens, as regarded raggedness and general evidences of +hard usage, than these two men had come up from the western shore. +When they now made their appearance in the office, tall, good-looking +fellows, in their clean uniforms and new shoes, and their countenances +beaming with satisfaction, it was no wonder that their mistresses did +not at first recognize them, and were embarrassed in addressing them. +A short conversation ensued, during which the men, though perfectly +respectful, let the ladies understand that they were neither ashamed +nor sorry for having left the old home. As the visitors, evidently +much chagrined, at last arose to go, one of them, extending her hand +to the younger one, said: + +"Well, John, good-bye; I am going home to-morrow. What shall I tell +the people for you?" + +"Give 'em my love, marm," said John, "an' tell em I's mighty glad I's +here, an' I wish dey was all here, too." + +The other lady had taken out her pocket-book, and now said to the +other: + +"And you, Will, what shall I say for you?" + +"Tell 'em all, marm," he earnestly replied, "dat de Lord hab broke my +yoke an' made me free. Tell em I'se happier dan I eber 'spected to be +in dis world--an' I blesses 'em all." + +"Very well," she said coldly, and dropped something into his hand. +Both ladies bowed and departed. + +The man Will stood looking reflectively at what his mistress had given +him. As the door closed on her, he turned to the Colonel and, showing +a silver quarter, said: + +"I'se worked fur dat woman mor'n twenty years, an' dis is de fust bit +ob money she eber gib me!" + +Towards the last of September Secretary Chase, being in Baltimore, was +invited by Judge Bond to drive out to the barracks and witness the +parade of the colored troops. His appearance was a pleasant surprise +to Colonel Birney, who, up to that time, had failed to elicit from him +any expression of interest in his work; though, on account of old +friendship and political sympathies, the Secretary was the first +person from whom the Colonel had expected support. But Mr. Chase had +not as yet gone beyond the President in his views concerning the +enlistment of slaves. He, however, expressed himself greatly pleased +as well as surprised at the fine display the troops made, and the next +week he repeated his visit, accompanied by Secretary Stanton. + +As it happened, one of the recruiting boats arrived that very day, +bringing over two hundred of the usual miserable crowd. Instead of +having the men among them inspected at once, the Colonel saved them +for his afternoon programme. + +The expected visit of the distinguished men became known in the city, +and long before the time for parade the road in front of the barracks +was blocked with open carriages filled with ladies and gentlemen. The +two secretaries, in a landau, were so placed that they had an +uninterrupted view of everything. + +The bugle sounded and the different companies, with bayonets and every +accoutrement glistening, marched in splendid order to their respective +positions. As the last company wheeled into line, and while the +spectators were enthusiastically expressing their admiration of its +soldierly bearing, the raw recruits who had arrived in the morning +filed up and, each one grasping his little bundle, were placed in line +with the others. Their tattered garments, shoeless feet, and +disreputable appearance generally, afforded a striking and painful +contrast to their uniformed brethren. The suggestiveness of the +spectacle could not but strike every beholder. Mr. Chase declared it +was the most impressive sight he had ever witnessed. Mr. Stanton +warmly congratulated Colonel Birney, and expressed his satisfaction +and his thanks that so much had been accomplished without embarrassing +him. + +The vigor with which recruiting had been pushed had taken the Maryland +slave-holders by surprise. For some weeks they made no appeal to the +government. Then, recovering their self-possession, they set to work +to procure a revocation of Colonel Birney's authority. + +Their first applications were made singly or by delegations to General +Schenck or, in his absence, to his Adjutant-general, Donn Piatt, both +of whom had steadily and cordially given their official aid and +support to Colonel Birney's operations, though, from the nature of his +orders, he was not subject to their command. The General, with quiet +dignity, referred the envoys to Secretary Stanton, but held out no +hope of change; but the adjutant gave them deep offence by his sturdy +patriotism, expressed with the wit and humor for which he has always +been celebrated. + +Secretary Stanton was deaf to remonstrances. But it was not long +before Reverdy Johnson and Governor Swann discovered that the +President was not aware of the enlistment of slaves. Petitions, +letters of complaint, and charges against Colonel Birney were now +poured in on Mr. Lincoln. Finally, Reverdy Johnson and the Governor, +at the head of a Maryland delegation of slave-holders, called on him +and presented the grievance with all the eloquence they could command. + +The President was much disturbed, and supposing General Schenck to be +the responsible party, wrote to him intimating a purpose to disavow +his acts. Thereupon the General went to Washington and, explaining his +position in the matter, protested against censure or disavowal, and +tendered his resignation as commandant in Maryland if such a step +against him was intended. Mr. Lincoln listened patiently. Then, after +a short pause, he said: + +"Schenck, do you know what a _galled prairie_ is?" + +The general knew every kind of prairie except that. + +"The galled prairie," resumed Mr. Lincoln, "lies on the slope back +from the narrow river bottoms, and is so called because the waters +from higher levels cut gulches in it. But it is rich land. On it grow +oak trees of a peculiar species. Their wood is almost as hard as iron, +and their roots grow deep down. You can't cut them or dig them up. +Now, general, how do you suppose the farmers treat them?" + +This was a poser. + +"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "they just let them alone and plough around +them." + +With this the President arose and shook hands, and General Schenck +returned to Baltimore, pondering over the parable of the "galled +prairies." + +Nothing further was said about censure, but Mr. Lincoln was troubled +on the score of his "pledge," and did not let the matter drop. + +Colonel Birney was very busy one day issuing the final orders for +despatching three boats to a point where, from information received, +several hundred good recruits were waiting. He was interrupted by a +telegram direct from the White House, as follows: + + "How many slaves have you enlisted?" + + (Signed) "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." + +The answer reached the President while Governor Swann and his friends +were making another call on him. + +"About three thousand," it said.[3] + +A short and, according to the report of the committee, a pretty sharp +discussion followed the reading of this answer, ending in the despatch +of another telegram to the colonel: + + "Hold on and care for what you have; enlist no more until + further orders. + + (Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN." + +Colonel Birney's disappointment can be imagined. In another hour his +boats would have been off and out of reach of telegrams. Now, all +orders had to be countermanded and the boats tied up. + +The next day the colonel went to Washington and had an interview with +Mr. Stanton, always his friend, and ready to do for him all that his +position towards the President permitted him to do. + +The latter Colonel Birney did not see, but the encouragement, +protection, and aid he received from the great war secretary, with +whose patriotism mingled no selfish ambition, enabled him, after a few +weeks, to reorganize his plans and continue the work which led to +emancipation in the State of Maryland. + +A new order was issued, by consent of the President, authorizing the +enlistment of slaves of rebels and of consenting loyal masters. + +The final details of this novel recruiting business will be given in +another chapter. + + CATHERINE H. BIRNEY. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The intermediate regiments were raised in Boston, Philadelphia, +and in Ohio. + +[2] Sam was a member of the 7th regiment, and in battle was +distinguished for his bravery. He was killed Oct. 27, 1864, in the +battle near "Kill House," Va. + +[3] A much larger number of slaves had been received at the barracks, +but the great majority, being non-combatants, had been transferred to +other points. + + + + +_THE OLD TUNE._ + + + With sad face turned aside, lest sudden comers see her weep, + She sits, her fingers softly trying, on the ivory keys, + To find a half-forgotten way--that memories + May soothe her yearning spirit into dreamful sleep. + + And now the old tune rises,--trembles,--slowly stealing round + That empty room, where often in the other years + It sang its love and tenderness, and gathered tears + To eyes that weep no more,--ah, sweetest, hallowed sound! + + IRENE PUTNAM. + + + + +_BOTH SIDES OF THE COUNTER._ + +ALMOST A TRAGEDY. + + + CHARACTERS. + + Mrs. ETHEL NEVERBY, _A Shopper_. + Mrs. MAUD SAMPELLE, _A Shopper_. + Mr. NEWCOME, _A Salesman_. + _A Chorus of Seven other Salesmen._ + + SCENE:--_The principal aisle of a fashionable shop. Mrs. + Neverby and Mrs. Sampelle discovered sauntering along near a + prominent counter strewn with rich woollen dress-goods. Mr. + Newcome, as they pause for an instant, makes a dash forward + toward the ladies: the seven other salesmen for a moment seek + to restrain his ardor; but he refuses to be restrained, and + instantly holds up to the gaze of the shoppers a piece of + cloth with a most alluring air. They pause--halt--whilst the + chorus, withdrawing, sing, in a low, melancholy voice--_ + +_Chorus._ + + Poor Newcome! + Nay, we must not seek to prevent it; + If we should, he would only resent it: + Let us then be all silent anent it. + Let him say of his breath, "I have spent it;" + Of his patience, "Behold! I have lent it;" + Of his will, "Woe is me! they have bent it;" + Of his garment, "Aye, lo! I have rent it; + Because I believed that they meant it: + Meant to buy-- + Heigh-o-heigh! + O--O--" + + [_Chorus retire and busy themselves with other remote + customers and goods, keeping, however, a wary and + observing eye fixed upon Newcome._ + +NEWCOME (_gushingly_). What can I show you this morning, ladies? + +ETHEL (_sweetly_). Oh, thank you, we are merely looking as we pass by. + +MAUDE. Oh yes, that is all. + +NEWCOME. It will do no harm to show you these goods, I am sure, +ladies. These double-width, all-wool, imported French suitings, in all +the latest shades, reduced, marked down only half an hour ago from two +dollars and a half a yard to--one-fifty! + +ETHEL (_takes a step nearer to the counter_). That blue is lovely, +isn't it, Maud? + +MAUD (_also taking a step counterward_). Yes, it is lovely. + +NEWCOME. Is blue the color that you are looking for, madam? + +ETHEL. Oh, not specially. + +NEWCOME. Now just allow me to show you these blues: ten different +tones,--the navy, Marie-Louise, slate, Russian, Princess of Wales, +robin's-egg, army, cobalt, indigo, steel,--all of them exquisite, and +very fashionable! + + [_Brings down pieces of goods and displays them._ + +MAUD. They are lovely. + +NEWCOME. All at the same price, one dollar and fifty cents, reduced +from two and a half only this morning. + +ETHEL. Why are they so low? (_Fingers goods_). Is there any +imperfection? + +NEWCOME (_ecstatically_). None in the world, madam--none in the world. +They are just an importer's surplus stock that our buyer got at a +tremendous reduction, and we are selling them at this absurd price +merely to get rid of them before taking stock. + +MAUD (_eying the goods behind the counter on shelves_). Ethel, that +gray is too sweet for anything; it would just match your chinchilla +furs perfectly! + +ETHEL. So it would! + +NEWCOME (_tossing aside the blues with a jubilant air_). Gray, did you +say, madam? We have a line of grays not to be found anywhere else in +the city; every possible tint and tone. Is it for yourself, madam? + + [_Gazing at Ethel as he moves heavy pile of grays from + shelf to counter._ + +ETHEL. Oh no; we are, as I told you, merely looking (_glances at +Maud_) for a friend. + + [_Chorus of clerics, softly and with a semi-sarcastic, + semi-melancholic demeanor, advance and sing_: + + They are looking for a friend, + Who is ill, and cannot spend + Any strength, but must depend + On their offices, and send + For some samples that may tend + To assist her health to mend. + So their time they gladly lend + To so laudable an end + As is "looking for a friend." + + [_Chorus retire and again busy themselves with other + customers._ + +MAUD. Yes, an invalid lady who is unable to go out at all; we thought +if we could take her some samples. + + [_Chorus groan weakly._ + +NEWCOME. Certainly, madam. + + [_Opens drawer and hands forth any number of packets of + samples._ + +ETHEL. Oh, how good you are! Thank you. Say, Maud, isn't that green, +up there, the top of that left-hand pile, isn't it too lovely and chic +for anything? + +MAUD. Perfect. + +NEWCOME (_abandoning the search for more samples_). Green--did you say +green, ladies? + +ETHEL. Oh, never mind! + +NEWCOME (_struggling with the greens, which threaten to topple over on +him_). No trouble at all, madam--none (_lands the greens successfully +on the counter_). We have, as you see, a complete line of the +greens--the most fashionable and stylish color of the season. Do be +seated, madam, and just let me show you these unparalleled goods, +one-fifty only a yard, reduced from two and a half, all-wool, +warranted imported French dress material. We sell no domestic goods in +this establishment. + +MAUD. We might look at them, dear. + + [_Approaches seat._ + +ETHEL. Well (_approaches seat_)--I suppose we might; we promised her +we would look at everything, you know, and report this afternoon. + +NEWCOME (_displaying goods_). There, ladies! I am sure there is not to +be found anywhere in the city, or indeed out of it, such a selection +of greens; all tones and shades to suit every taste and complexion. Is +it for yourself, may I ask, madam? + +MAUD. Oh no, no, no--for a friend. + +NEWCOME. And what complexion is the lady, light or dark? We have tints +to suit all. + +MAUD (_to Ethel_). Would you call her fair or dark, dear? + +ETHEL. Oh, dark, of course. + +MAUD. You would! Why, I thought she was just about my complexion. + +ETHEL. So she is, love, exactly. + +MAUD. Why, darling! I am not dark, surely; I am considered to be very, +very fair for a person with such dark hair and eyes. + +ETHEL. Now, I would call you a perfect brunette, dear. + +MAUD. How funny! Why, I'm just exactly your complexion. + +ETHEL. Oh, my love, only reflect--my hair is yellow and my eyes are +blue! + +MAUD. I know, dearest, but you have an olive skin. + +NEWCOME (_who has been patiently holding up the greens at the risk of +breaking his arms_). There, ladies! I am sure we have a selection of +shades in these greens that must suit the most fastidious. + +ETHEL. They are beautiful! + + [_Sits._ + +MAUD. Lovely! + + [_Sits._ + +NEWCOME (_warmly, and much encouraged by the ladies having taken +seats_). Oh, I can always tell at a glance what will suit a customer. +Now, what you desire is not the common grade of colorings, but +something elegant and yet not conspicuous--like this new reed-green, +for example. + + [_Holds up the goods._ + +ETHEL. How sweet! + +MAUD. Isn't it? + +ETHEL. Do you really think she would like green? + +MAUD. I don't know; she is so particular, you know. + +ETHEL. Yes, I know. Didn't she-- It seems to me she said something or +other about brown--didn't she? + +MAUD. Why, yes, to be sure, I believe she did. + +NEWCOME (_casting the greens into a reckless oblivion_). Brown? We +have a selection in all the browns that is not to be found elsewhere, +I am confident. (_Struggles with great pile of browns; grows warm +with effort; pauses to mop his brow with handkerchief; finally +brings down huge number of browns and lands them on counter._) +Our--assortment--of--browns--is (_heaves a deep sigh_), I may say, +unequalled. + +ETHEL. What a sweet shade that is! + +MAUD. Isn't it? + +ETHEL. Are these the same price as the others? + + [_Fingers the browns._ + +NEWCOME. Exactly the same, madam; one dollar and fifty cents a yard, +reduced from two and a half; all-wool. + +MAUD. Are you sure they are all-wool? This piece feels rather harsh to +me. + +NEWCOME. Every thread, madam; that I will guarantee. We are not +allowed to misrepresent anything in this establishment. You can see +for yourself. + + [_Recklessly frays out a few inches of the brown._ + +ETHEL (_also fingering goods_). Yes, they are all-wool; French, did +you say? + +NEWCOME. Every piece imported. We keep no domestic woollen goods +whatever. We have no call for anything but the foreign goods. + +MAUD. How wide did you say? + +NEWCOME. Double width, madam--forty-four inches. + +ETHEL. Five, seven--let me see, it would take about--how much do you +usually sell for a costume? + +NEWCOME (_with hilarity, holding up the browns_). From eight to ten +yards, madam, according to the size of the lady. For your size I +should say eight yards was an abundance--a great abundance. + +ETHEL. She is just about my size, isn't she, Maud? + +MAUD. Just about. It wouldn't take eight yards, I shouldn't think, of +such wide goods made in Empire style. + +ETHEL. No, I suppose not; but then it's always nice to have a piece +left over for new sleeves, you know. + +MAUD. Yes, that's so. + +NEWCOME. An elegant shade, ladies, becoming to anyone, fair or dark. I +am sure any lady must be pleased with a dress off of one of +these--serviceable, stylish, the height of fashion. + +ETHEL. Is brown really so fashionable this season? + +NEWCOME. I am sure we have sold a thousand yards of these browns to +ten of any other color. + +MAUD. Is that so? + +ETHEL. I do wonder if she really would prefer brown. What do you +think, dear? + +MAUD. Well, it depends somewhat, I think, on how she is going to have +it made. + +ETHEL. True. Well, I think she said in _directoire_. + +MAUD. Plain full skirt? + +ETHEL. Yes, smocked all around--no drapery at all. + +MAUD. Candidly, love, do you like a skirt without any drapery at all? + +ETHEL. Well, no, I can't say I do. Do you? + +MAUD. No. I like a little right in the back, you know--not too much. +But I think a little takes off that dreadfully plain look. Don't you? + +ETHEL. Yes. + +MAUD. How are y-- I mean how is she going to have the waist? + +ETHEL. I don't know. I heard her say that she was going to have a puff +on the sleeve. + +MAUD. At the elbow? + +ETHEL. No, at the shoulder. + +MAUD. And revers, I suppose. + +ETHEL. Yes, those stylish broad ones. + +MAUD. Of velvet? + +ETHEL. Velvet or plush. + +NEWCOME (_who has been manfully holding the browns up above his head, +permits them to gently descend_). We have a full line in plushes and +velvets, ladies, to match all these shades. + +MAUD. How nice! + +ETHEL. So convenient! + +NEWCOME (_mildly_). Do you think you'll decide on the brown, madam? + +ETHEL. Oh, dear! I don't know. It is so hard to shop for some one +else! + +MAUD. It is horrid. + +ETHEL. I vow every time I do it that it shall be the last. I am always +so afraid of getting something that the person won't like. + + [_Sighs._ + +NEWCOME. Any lady must like this brown, madam. Just feel the texture +of this piece of goods, and take the trouble to examine the quality. +Why, I have never in all my experience sold a piece of goods of such a +class at a cent less than two dollars a yard--never. + +MAUD. It is very fine. + +ETHEL (_vaguely eying the goods behind the counter on the shelves_). +Is that a piece of claret-colored that I see up there? + +NEWCOME (_lays down the browns with a faint sigh of reluctance_). Yes, +oh, yes. + +ETHEL. Never mind to get it down. + +NEWCOME. No trouble in the world to show anything; that's what I am +here for. (_Sighs as he attains the clarets and fetches them to the +counter._) Rich shades; ten tints in these also, calculated to suit +any taste. + +MAUD. I always did like claret. + +ETHEL. Yes, it is so becoming. + +MAUD. It has such a warm look, too! + +ETHEL. Now, that--no, this one--no, please, that darker piece--yes. +Maud, dear, that made up with plush and garnet buttons and +buckles--Oh, did I tell you I saw some such lovely garnet trimmings at +Blank's last week, only seventy-five cents a yard, just a perfect +match for this. Wouldn't it be too lovely for anything? + +MAUD. Indeed it would. I am almost tempted myself. Claret is my color, +you know. + +NEWCOME. A splendid shade, madam, and only just two dress lengths +left. + +ETHEL. Is this the same goods as the others? + +NEWCOME. The very same; all-wool imported suitings, forty-four inches +wide, reduced from two-fifty a yard to only one dollar and a half. + +MAUD. Wouldn't that be just perfect with that white muff and boa of +mine, dearest? + +ETHEL. Too startling, love. Do you know, I think you made a mistake in +getting that white set. + +MAUD. Why? + +ETHEL. Too striking. + +MAUD. Do you think so? + +ETHEL. Yes. Of course it's lovely for the theatre and opera. + +MAUD. It's awfully becoming. + +ETHEL (_to Newcome_). Now, do you really sell as much claret color as +you do green or brown this season? + +NEWCOME. Oh yes, madam; if anything, more. You see claret is one of +the standards, becoming alike to young and old. Why, a child might +wear this shade. Claret will always hold its own; there is a change in +the blues and the greens and the browns, but the claret is always +elegant, and very stylish. + +MAUD. I think so too. + +ETHEL (_meditatively_). I do wonder if she would like claret better +than brown. + +NEWCOME. I can show you the browns again, ladies. + +ETHEL. Oh, never mind. + +NEWCOME. No trouble in the world. (_Holds up browns and clarets +both._) Now you can judge of the two by contrast. + +MAUD. Both lovely. + +ETHEL. Which do you like best, love? + +MAUD. My dear, I don't know. + +NEWCOME. You can't go amiss, madam, with either of those, I am sure. +Any lady must like either of them. + +ETHEL. Oh, dear! I wish people would get well and do their own +shopping; it is so trying! + +MAUD. Horrid! + +NEWCOME. An elegant piece of goods, madam; will wear like iron. + +ETHEL. What would you do, dear? + +MAUD. I really don't know what to say. When does she want to wear it? + +ETHEL. Dinner and theatre. + +MAUD. By gaslight, then? + +ETHEL. Yes, of course. + +MAUD. Does the gaslight change the shade much? + +NEWCOME. Just a trifle, madam; it makes it richer. + +MAUD. Darker? + +NEWCOME. Just a half a tone. + +ETHEL. Then that must be considered. Oh, dear! + + [_Sighs plaintively._ + +MAUD. Why not look at it by gaslight, love? + +ETHEL. Oh, I hate to give so much trouble! + +NEWCOME. No trouble in the world, madam--a pleasure. I will gladly +show you these goods by gaslight, for I am confident you will only +admire them the more. Here, boy (_calls boy, and hands him a pile of +goods_), take these to the gaslight-room. This way ladies, please. +(_They cross the aisle and enter the gaslight-room, preceded by the +boy, who sets down the goods and retires._) There! look at that! Isn't +that a rich, warm, beautiful color! + + [_Displays clarets._ + +MAUD. Lovely! + +ETHEL. Yes, lovely--but (_dubiously_) I am so afraid she won't like +it. + +MAUD. It is very perplexing. + +ETHEL. Yes. Oh, how sweet those browns do look in this light! Don't +they? + +NEWCOME. Ah, I just brought over the browns, madam, for I thought you +might care to see them too. + + [_Displays browns._ + +MAUD. How they do light up! Don't they? + +NEWCOME. Newest tints, every one of them. Not been in stock over a few +weeks, and those browns have sold like wildfire. + +ETHEL. For my own part I always did like brown. + +MAUD. Yes, so do I. + +ETHEL. It's so ladylike. + +MAUD. Yes, and it's a color that is suitable to almost any occasion. + +ETHEL. Yes. Now that lightest piece would be just too sweet, wouldn't +it, made up with that new Persian trimming? + +MAUD. Exquisite! Say, do you know I priced some of that trimming the +other day. + +ETHEL. Did you? how much? + +MAUD. Awfully expensive! Five dollars a yard. + +ETHEL. How wide? + +MAUD. Oh, not more than four inches. + +ETHEL. It wouldn't take much, would it? + +MAUD. That depends on where you put it. + +ETHEL. Well, just on the bodice and sleeves and collar. + +MAUD. About two yards and a half. + +ETHEL. Fifteen dollars? + +MAUD. Yes. + +NEWCOME. This brown trimmed in the manner you mention, ladies, would +be very elegant. + +MAUD. Yes, so it would. I wish now that I had looked more particularly +at the browns out by the daylight. + +NEWCOME. It is easy to look at them again, madam, I am sure. Here, +boy, carry these goods back to the counter where you got them. (_Boy +crosses, laden with goods; Newcome and ladies follow._) That's it. +(_Boy retires._) Now, madam, just look at that shade by this light. +Isn't that perfect? + +ETHEL. Yes, it's lovely, but-- + +MAUD. Did she say she wished a brown especially, dear? + +ETHEL. No, she left it to me entirely. + +MAUD. How trying! + +ETHEL. Yes. I--I really, you know. I don't dare to take the +responsibility; would you? + + [_Newcome's arms falter slightly in upholding the goods._ + +MAUD. Frankly, my love, I think shopping for anyone else is something +dreadful. + +ETHEL. It is so trying and so embarrassing. I don't dare really to get +either (_Newcome's arms fall helpless; he sighs_) one of them. + +MAUD. They are lovely, though; aren't they? + +ETHEL. Yes, if (_Newcome revives a little_) I thought she would really +be satisfied. + + [_He essays once again to hold up the browns._ + +MAUD. But, dear, they never are. [_His arms again droop._ + +ETHEL. No, never. No matter how much trouble you take, or what pains +you are (_he sighs feebly_) at (_he totters_), they are so ungrateful. + +MAUD. Yes, always. + +ETHEL. Well, I believe we can't venture to decide this morning (_he +staggers_) about the shade. We will very likely return to-morrow. + + [_He raises a weakly deprecating hand._ + +MAUD (_aside, as the two ladies are going_). Well, we got off quite +nicely. + +ETHEL. Yes, didn't we! I wouldn't be seen in either of those horrid +things; would you? + +MAUD. No. + + [_Newcome falls to the earth with a groan of despair; the + Chorus rush forward and gently raise him in their arms. + As they bear him off, they sing, in a doleful and yet + half-malicious fashion_: + +_Chorus._ + + Poor Newcome! + You are not the first man they have ended, + And left on the cold ground extended; + Or to whom they have sweetly pretended, + On whose taste they have weakly depended;-- + Whom they've left on the cold ground extended, + Minus money they never expended, + On goods that they never intended + To buy, + Heigh-o, heigh, + O--O--! + + [_They retreat_, C., _as the ladies exeunt_, R., L. _Music + pianissimo as curtain falls._ + + FANNIE AYMAR MATHEWS. + + + + +_IRISH NORAH TO ENGLISH JOHN._ + +(Her theory of Home Rule under the Union.) + + + "It manes, and shure and where's the harm?" + Said Nora to her spouse; + "It manes: if you must mind yer farm, + That I shall mind me house." + + + + +_BELLA'S BUREAU._[4] + +A STORY IN THREE SCARES. + + +SCARE THE FIRST. + +I almost flung myself into Dick Vandeleur's arms when he entered my +library that evening. + +"Can you imagine why I sent for you in such a deuce of a hurry?" I +blurted out, embracing him effusively in my pleasure at seeing him. + +"Well, I did think there might have been a woman in the case," he +drawled, in his deliberate way, stopping to adjust his neck-tie, which +had worked its way over his ear during the struggle. "But then, as I +happened to have acted as your best man only two months ago, when you +married the most charming of women, why, b'Jove, I--" + +"Well, it is a woman," I groaned, cutting his speech short. + +"The devil!" + +"Yes, and the very worst kind, I fancy, if thoroughly aroused." + +"But, my deah boy, with such a wife it's--it's--it's--" + +"Yes, it's all that and a good deal more," I growled, gloomily. "Don't +add to my misery with your ill-timed reproaches. Richard, a back +number of my unsavory career has turned up to deprive me of my +appetite and blight my being. You remember Bella Bracebridge, of the +nimble toes, at whose shrine I worshipped so long and so idiotically? +Well, I received a letter from her only yesterday." + +"No!"--incredulously. + +"Yes." + +"What!--little Bella who used to caper around in such airy garments at +the Alhambra?" + +"The very same. I only wish I could be mistaken," with a despairing +groan. "It seems she married money and retired from the stage. By some +means she disposed of her husband, and is now a rich and probably +good-looking widow. She has purchased an estate within half a mile of +here, and is going in heavy for style. She wants to make me the +stepping-stone to social success; she sighs for the purple penetralia +of the plutocracy. See what a predicament I am in! To introduce her in +this house would plant the most unjust suspicions in Ethel's +Vassarian mind, while her mother, Mrs. McGoozle, might institute +awkward inquiries into the dear, dead past"--with a shiver of +anticipation. "Now, my dear Vandeleur, that woman means mischief. She +has got about a hundred of my letters breathing the most devoted love: +if dear Ethel got a glimpse of a line she would go into hysterics. +Bella has hinted, even politely threatened, that unless I show her +some attention, which means introducing her to my wife's circle of +friends, she will publish those letters to the world or send them to +the dramatic papers. Now you must help me out of this scrape." + +"Delighted to be of any service, I'm sure," tapping his boots +impatiently with a jaunty little cane. "But, really, you know, I don't +see--" + +"Why, it's easy enough. Don't you remember we were once the pride of +the school because we robbed watermelon patches so skilfully? What a +narrow shave that was in the apple orchard the night before +commencement, when you--" + +"Yes, yes, I remember, deah boy; but what have those childish pranks +got to do with the present case? We don't want to rob an apple +orchard"--by way of mild protest. + +"It is another kind of fruit that we are after--the fruit of youthful +follies. Here," opening a cupboard and throwing out two pairs of +overalls somewhat the worse for paint, two jumpers ditto, and several +muddy overshoes, "Vandeleur, if you love me put these things on." + +I fancy I can see him now adjust his glass and survey me with bulging +eyes. I certainly did have nerve to ask that famous clubman, so +irreproachable in his dress, to assume such inartistic and plebeian +garments. + +It took a great deal of palavering before I could persuade him that I +was lost unless he consented. How he grunted as he reluctantly laid +aside his silk-lined white kersey coat and evening dress, and tried to +put on the overalls with one hand while he held his aristocratic +aquiline nose with the other. + +"Really, I hope I shan't be found dead in these togs," he remarked +ruefully, as he surveyed himself in the glass. "What would Flossy say? +and how the chaps at the Argentine would wonder what I'd been up to!" + +I cut short his speculations by thrusting a soft slouched hat on his +head and dragging it down over his eyes. + +"There now!" I said, standing off and contemplating him critically +and admiringly; "you have no idea, my boy, how becoming this costume +is. One might imagine you had been born a stevedore." + +He looked rather sour at this doubtful compliment, and hitching up his +baggy trousers, asked, "Well, what is the next misery?" + +"It is twelve o'clock," I said, referring to my watch. "My wife has +gone to bed. Like Claude Duval, we will take to the road." + +After a stiff libation of brandy and soda we stole softly downstairs +and found ourselves in front of the house. Only one light glimmered in +the black pile, where Ethel was going to bed. + +"Where away?" asked Vandeleur, as I turned the path. + +"To storm Bella's bureau," I cried, leading the way through the dark. + + +SCARE THE SECOND. + +With much difficulty we found ourselves at last in the spacious +grounds of Bella's estate. I had laid my plans carefully the day +before, and there seemed no possibility that they would miscarry. By +liberal fees I had learned from her butler that she was to spend that +night in New York with a friend, and for a further consideration he +offered to leave one of the drawing-room windows open so that we +should have a clear field. + +Everything seemed to be working beautifully, and I already felt the +coveted letters in my grasp. We found the French window ajar, and with +tremulous hearts stepped over the sill and into the room. After +several collisions with the furniture, of which there seemed to be +what we thought an unnecessary amount, we finally scraped our way into +the hall. + +Here was a quandary. We were in a hall, but what hall? Whether the +stairs led in the right direction there was no one present to consult. +We walked or rather crawled up them, nevertheless. I tried the first +door on the landing, and was rewarded with "Is that you?" by a female +voice that sent us scuttling along the passage in undignified haste. + +Well, at last, after many narrow escapes from breaking our necks, we +reached Bella's room. I knew it the moment I saw the closet full of +shoes. Bella was always proud of her feet, and had, I believe, a pair +of boots for every hour of the day. + +To make things even more sure that I had arrived at the chaste temple +of my former flame, there was the famous bureau of ebony inlaid with +ivory--that bureau which contained enough of my inflammatory letters +to reduce it to cinders. + +"Can you regard that bureau with equanimity?" I exclaimed, +unconsciously assuming a dramatic attitude. "Does it not recall your +vanished youth--the red horizon of your adolescence? Ah," I cried, +overcome by the sight of that familiar bit of furniture, "how often +have I slid a piece of jewelry into that top drawer as a surprise for +Bella! Her delighted shriek which followed the discovery rings in my +ears even now. Oh, halcyon days of happy holiday, mine no more, can a +lifetime with a funded houri wholly fill your place?" + +"That's all very well," cried Vandeleur, who can assume a disgustingly +practical tone when he wants to. "While you are rhapsodizing here over +your poetical past, some stalwart menial may arrive with a +blunderbuss, and fill our several and symmetrical persons with No. 2 +buckshot. Perhaps Bella may have missed her train or her friend. She +might return here at any moment and surprise us"--looking around him +uneasily. + +"Anybody would think that you had never been in a boudoir at this time +of night," I retort savagely. + +I begin to pull out the drawers of the bureau, breaking locks in the +most reckless way, and tossing the contents of these dainty +receptacles about in the most utter confusion. Vandeleur, with his +eyeglass adjusted, is poking into everything in the closet as if he +were looking for a mouse, only pausing now and then to glare around +with an apprehensive shiver. + +"Dear me," I soliloquize, while the contents of those bureau drawers +are tossed here and there in the fever of my search. "How everything +here reminds me of the past! She has even preserved the menu card of +that memorable dinner at Torloni's; and here--here is a lock of brown +hair tied with a pink ribbon! I really believe it must be mine!" + +"My deah boy," howls Vandeleur, shaking me by the arm vigorously, +"will you cut short your soliloquy? Is this a time for poetry, when we +might get ten years if we were found burglarizing this house?" + +I pay no attention. + +"And here is the steel buckle from her shoe that fell off the night we +danced together at the French ball. Poor dear Bella! that was not the +only dance we led where folly played the fiddle!"--with a thrill of +reminiscence. + +"If you don't find those letters in just two minutes," interrupts the +dreadful Vandeleur, "I shall post for home." + +"In one second, my boy--one second." + +Now I examine the bureau carefully for a concealed drawer. I seem to +have ransacked every corner of that precious article in vain. Visions +of Bella's vengeance flash before my eyes. I can see the demoniac +smile on her face as she gloats over my downfall. The white wraith +conjured up by the thought of those fateful letters fills me with a +mad fury, and I long to dash that hateful bureau into a thousand +pieces and flee the house. + +But the demolition could not be executed noiselessly, and the +situation is perilous enough already for a man of my delicately +organized constitution, with a heart that runs down with a rumble like +a Waterbury movement; so I think I won't break the bureau. + +I renew my mad search for the missing drawer, that seems to be of a +most retiring disposition, as drawers go. I bethink me of stories of +missing treasure: how the hero counted off twenty paces across the +floor, and then dropped his dagger so that its blade would be imbedded +in the wood, and then dug through several tons of masonry, until he +found a casket, sometimes of steel, sometimes of iron, and sometimes +of both. + +And then he did a lot more mathematical calculating, and pressed a +knob, and there you are! Ah! a thought--I had forgotten to apply +myself to the moulding of the bureau, as a hero of the middle ages +would have done under the circumstances. + +I begin from side to side, up, down, and around. Ha! ha! at last! A +little drawer shoots out almost in my face, startling me like a +jack-in-the-box. + +A faint perfume of crushed violets salutes my nostrils. The +letters--they are there in the bottom of the drawer! I know them too +well by the shape of the square large envelopes. They cost me many a +dollar to send through the stage-door by the gouty Cerberus at the +gate when Bella trod the boards. + +I reach out my hand to seize them, when an awful scream causes me to +stagger back in dismay. + +Bella Bracebridge, in a jaunty travelling dress, stands in the doorway +in the attitude of a tragic queen--her eyes flashing, her bosom +heaving, just as she looked the day she asked for a raise in salary +and didn't get it. + +She steps towards me: I retreat, transfixed by her defiant attitude. +She fear a common burglar? Never! + +I know she intends to seize me and scream for help, and I am afraid, +too, that she may recognize my face. So I step back--back, edging +towards the window. + +She reaches out her hand to seize me, then totters and falls in a dead +faint. + +I look around for Vandeleur. He has lost all presence of mind; is +staring at the figure on the floor, with wild, dilated eyes, and an +expression of hopeless idiocy on his face. I can hear people moving +below stairs. Her scream must have aroused the house. "Vandeleur," +shaking him by the arm, "we must run for it. Do you understand? Ten +years! Hard labor!"--the last words hissed excitedly in his ear. + +"What? where? who?" he mumbles, with a face as expressive as that of +codfish. + +I rush to the balcony to see if we can make the jump below. It is +dark, but the leap must be made. Better a broken leg than a ball and +chain on a healthy limb for years and years. + +I drag Vandeleur in a helpless condition out on the balcony, boost him +up on the railing, and push him off. Then I leap after him. + +Fortunate fate! We fall into a clump of blackberry bushes, and not a +moment too soon. Lights flash out from above. I hear the hum of +excited voices, Bella's calm and distinct above the rest, as she gives +the ominous order, "Let those bloodhounds loose!" + +Ugh! We scramble out of the bushes in the most undignified haste, +leaving most of our outward resemblance to human beings on the thorny +twigs. Then helter-skelter over the fields and hedges, stumbling, +staggering, and traversing what I suppose to be miles of country. + +Vandeleur is snorting like a steam calliope in bad repair, and I am +breathing with the jerky movement of an overworked accordion. "I can +go no farther," he exclaims, dropping down in a huddled heap at the +foot of a scrubby pine-tree like a bag of old clothes. + +I don't feel much in a hurry either, but I try to infuse some life +into him by hustling him and shaking him in a brutal and unsympathetic +manner. + +"Do you hear that?" I howl in despair as the baying of the bloodhounds +rolls towards us over the meadow like muttered thunder. "There is +nothing to do but climb this tree, unless you want to furnish a free +lunch for those brutes." + +"Free lunch? get me some," he mumbles, relapsing into his old idiotic +state again. Then I fall upon that unfortunate man in a fury of rage, +and pound him into a consciousness of his danger. + +He consents at last to be pushed or rather dragged up in a tree, whose +lowest limb I straddle with a feeling of wild joy and ecstasy just as +the hounds rush past below, their flashing eyes looking to me just +then as large as the headlights of a host of engines. + +"Let's go home now," again murmurs the helpless creature at my side, +shaking so on the limb that I am compelled to strap him there by his +suspenders. + +"Ain't we going home?" he chatters. "I want a good supper, and then a +bed--_bed_," lingering on the last word with soothing emphasis. + +"Oh, you'd like a nice supper, would you?" I growl. "Well, those +bloodhounds are after the same thing. Perhaps you had better slide +down the tree and interview them on the chances. Then one or the other +of you would be satisfied." + +"But they've gone away." + +"Well, you needn't think you have been forgotten, just the same. Don't +you see, wretched man, that the morning is breaking," pointing to the +east, where the sun had begun "paintin' 'er red." "Once in the high +road we should be discovered at once; here at least we are +safe--uncomfortably safe," as I moved across the limb and impaled +myself on a long two-inch splinter with spurs on it. + +He fell into a doze after that, only rousing himself now and then to +utter strange croaking sounds that frightened me almost as much as the +baying of the bloodhounds. I think I fell asleep too for a few +moments, for when I was roused by an awful yell proceeding from my +companion I found that he had burst his bonds and fallen out of the +tree, while the bright sun was shining in my eyes. + +Visions of Ethel's face over our charming breakfast-table rose before +me, and I seemed to scent afar off the steam of fragrant mocha in a +dainty Sèvres cup as she held it towards me. The thought of that +morning libation settled the business. + +I would march stalwartly home--yea, though a thousand bloodhounds with +dangerous appetites barred my way! + +I slid down the tree and found Vandeleur still asleep. I don't believe +that even the fall had waked the poor fellow up. + +I had only to whisper the word "Breakfast" in his ears to have him +start as if he had received a galvanic shock. + +"Where?" he asked, with tears in his eyes. + +"Home." + +We crawled along through the bushes in the wildest haste our poor +disjointed and almost dismembered bodies would carry us; like a pair +of mud-turtles who had seen better days did we take to all-fours. + +Fortunately, my place was not far away, and we had just strength +enough to crawl up on the porch and fall against the door heavily. + +"Breakfast," I gasped, as Ethel's lovely face appeared suddenly at my +side like a benignant angel's. + +"What--what can I get you?" murmured the dear girl, in an agony of +mind, hurrying here and there, her eyes suffused with tears. + +"Bloodhounds!" murmured Vandeleur, relapsing into idiocy. + + +SCARE THE THIRD. + +If you have ever had the fortune to be married to a Vassar graduate of +the gushing and kittenish order, between nineteen and twenty, you will +understand how difficult it was to explain my dilapidated appearance +that memorable morning. + +The ingenuity of my fabrications would have stocked a popular romance +writer with all the modern conveniences; and I am sure the recording +angel must have had difficulty in keeping pace with my transgressions +unless he or she understood short-hand. + +Vandeleur took an early opportunity to escape to the city, knowing +very well that he would be held accountable for my degraded and +dilapidated condition. The friends of a married man always are held +responsible by his wife for any of his moral lapses, no matter when or +where they may occur. + +If I had only succeeded in my undertaking I might have viewed even my +wounds--of which there were many--with some equanimity. But to have +suffered in vain was enough to try the strongest soul; and I am afraid +I was unnecessarily brusque to Ethel when she insisted on soaking me +hourly in the most horrible liniments of her mother's decoction. I was +pickled for about a week by her fair hands, and had become so +impregnated with camphor and aromatic compounds that I exhaled spices +like an Eastern mummy or a shopworn sachet-bag, and longed to get away +from myself and the drugstore smell that clung to me closer than I +ever want my brother to cling. I consented to the embalming process, +because I wanted to look respectable when Ethel's mother, Mrs. +McGoozle, put in an appearance. I knew I could not so easily satisfy +her mind regarding that night of folly without the sworn affidavits of +half-a-dozen reputable citizens. She said I wrote so much fiction +that it had become a habit with me never to tell the truth. + +My eyes had just begun to lay aside mourning when I received at the +dinner-table one stormy night the local paper. I took it for my wife, +who had a penchant for reading the patent-medicine advertisements; but +on the present occasion I displayed an unholy eagerness to get at its +contents. More misery! More horrible complications! + +Almost the entire sheet was given up to a description of the burglary. +There was a picture of Bella's house and of Bella herself; of the +cook, of the coachman--yes, and even of the bloodhounds. + +I had puzzled my brain since that night in trying to imagine why the +hounds had sped past our tree, our noble tree, instead of gathering in +convention at its base and talking the matter over among themselves +while we starved to death upstairs. The paper gave the solution of the +problem. They were pursuing the trail that led to our milkman's +farm--the poor creature of whom I had basely borrowed our suits and +overshoes. + +The worthy man had been arrested and haled before the nearest justice +of the peace, and had he not been able to prove an _alibi_ to the +effect that he was watering his cows at the time, he would have been +summarily dealt with. + +But he had held his peace about my share in the transaction--bless +him! and being a thrifty man, had brought a suit against Bella for +threatening his life with her dogs. + +Yet I had no cause for congratulation, for now I was in the milkman's +power as well as Bella's; and the very next day the honest fellow put +in an appearance, very humble and yet very decided, and insisted that +I should present him with Ethel's prize Frisian cow as a premium on +his silence. + +And I had to consent, though my wife had hysterics in parting with the +animal, and sobbed out her determination to tell Mrs. McGoozle +everything when that lady arrived in a few days. + +This may not sound very terrible to you, but I knew the dreadful +import of her words. + +There was a flash of light through the gloom of my suicidal thoughts +the next morning that made my heart beat high with hope. + +I read in the morning paper that Bella, the cause of all my trouble, +was dead, and that there was to be a sale of her effects at a New York +auction-room the next day. + +Of course that dreadful bureau was in the lot, and I knew that if it +fell into unscrupulous hands there was enough material in that little +drawer to stock a blackmailing establishment for years and years. + +I took the first train for the city on the day of the sale. The +bureau--Bella's bureau--was just being put up as I entered the place. + +I had a thousand dollars in my pocket, so I felt rather contented in +mind. The bidding on the bureau began in a discouraging way. The +hunger of the crowd had been appeased before I came, and they +displayed a lukewarm interest in the bureau. I bid two hundred dollars +finally to settle the argument. I was tired of the delay. I wanted to +settle forever the incubus that preyed upon my spirits. "Two hundred," +I cried exultantly. + +"Three hundred dollars," came in quiet tones from the corner of the +room. The words seem to ripple in an icy stream down the back of my +neck. Could it have been the echo of my voice that I heard? + +"Four hundred," I cried uneasily. The terrible thought flashed over +me, that perhaps another lover had turned up, who believed that his +letters were in the bureau, and was just as anxious to get it as I. +Horrible! + +"Four hundred is bid for this beautiful Louis Fourteenth bureau," +howled the auctioneer, repeating my bid. "Why, gents, this is a shame: +it's--" + +"Five hundred," said the voice from the corner, in calm, cold tones. + +Ah, if I could slip through the crowd and throttle his utterance +forever. + +"Six hundred," I screamed, in desperation. + +Then my unseen foe woke up and we began to bid in earnest. Six, seven, +eight hundred, ran the bids. + +In one of the lulls of the storm, when the auctioneer began to wax +loquacious regarding the beauties of that bureau, I slipped secretly +around to the cashier's desk. + +Would he take a check? I implored. No, he would not; and I thought he +wore a triumphant glitter in his fishy eyes. The terms of the sale +were cash: it was to conclude that day. I turned away, sick at heart. + +"A thousand!" I cried, in desperation, staking my last dollar. There +was a moment's ominous silence. I began to feel encouraged. I watched +the fateful gavel poised in the air, with my heart in my teeth. It +wavered a moment, then began to slowly descend. Never had I seen such +a graceful gesture defined by man as the freckled fist of the +auctioneer described at that moment of hope. + +"Twelve hundred," croaked the demon in the corner. + +The crowd blended into a pulp of color. I fainted. + +I lingered about the city all that night, searching in vain for a +lethean draught at the haunts where consolation is retailed at two +hundred per cent profit. I did not find the nepenthe I sought for +anywhere on draught, so I went home in disgust. + +Ethel received me in her usually effusive manner. She knows I object +to being hugged at all hours of the day, yet I have never been able to +cure her of that affection-garroting process so much in vogue with +young wives of the gushing order. + +"What do you think?" she chirped, when I had staggered to a chair in a +half-strangled condition. "Dear mother has just sent us the most +beautiful present--" + +"Oh, I suppose so," I sneer savagely. "She generally does present us +with something beautifully useless. Perhaps this time it's a +dancing-bear, or a tame codfish"--with a wild laugh. + +"Oh, how can you talk so!" lifting a dab of cambric to her nose with a +preliminary sniff that is generally the signal of tears, according to +our matrimonial barometer. "You know dear mother is so fond of you." + +"Well, it's a case of misplaced affection," I growl, lounging out of +the room just in time to avoid the rising storm. + +I dash upstairs and smoke a cigar in my own room. Then I feel better, +and stroll into Ethel's boudoir, resolved to pitch her mother's +present in the fire if it doesn't suit me. She ought to be suppressed +in this particular. "Wha--what! No--yes, it is!" The bureau, Bella's +bureau, stands in the chaste confines of Ethel's satin-lined nest. I +fling myself upon it, tear the little drawer open--hurl the bundle of +letters into the grate with a cackling laugh. + +Ethel enters timidly just then, and looks first at me and then at the +burning papers with doubt and wonderment in her blue eyes. + +"I have been paying some old debts," I say, with an uneasy laugh. +"These are some of the I.O.U.'s you see burning." + +She lays a soft little arm around my neck and a curly head on my +immaculate shirt-front. Oh, spotless mask for such a darksome heart! +I wonder she cannot catch the sound of its wicked beating. + +"I have been worried about you lately, dear," she whispers, with a +tender tremor in her voice. "I thought perhaps you might--you +might--have become entangled with some other--other--" Then she burst +into tears. + +"How often must I tell you, darling," patting her cheek softly, "that +you are the only woman I ever loved?" + +"Oh, Jack!" + + ERNEST DE LANCEY PIERSON. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[4] The rights of dramatization of this story are reserved by the +author. + + + + +_A SHOT ON THE MOUNTAIN._ + + + An eagle drifting to the skies + To gild her wing in sunset dies, + To float into the golden, + To swing and sway in broad-winged might, + To toss and heel in free-born right, + High o'er the gray crags olden. + + A dark bird reaching on aloft, + Till far adown her rugged croft + Lies limned in misty tracing-- + Till, riding on in easy pride, + Her cloud-wet wings are ruby pied, + Are meshed in amber lacing. + + An eagle dropping to her cave + On dizzy wing through riven air, + A bolt from heaven slanted; + A startled mother, arrow-winged, + A mountain copestone, vapor-ringed, + An eyry danger-haunted. + + An eagle slanting from the skies + To stain her breast in crimson dyes + Beneath the gilt and golden; + A shred of smoke--the gray lead's might-- + A folded wing--the dead bird's right-- + Abreast the gray crags olden. + + The blush light fades along the west, + The night mist rolls to crag, to crest, + To cowl the ghostly mountain; + Black shadows hush the eyry's calls; + Below, a broad brown pinion falls-- + The last light from the fountain. + + J. W. RUMPLE. + + + + +_EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT._ + + +PURIFYING THE POLLS BY LAW. + +The edifying efforts made by Congress to throw guards about the ballot +would be encouraging were they based on a little knowledge of the +fact, and the reason for it. As it is, the _be-it-enacted_ agreed on +is little better than a solemn protest. Our learned law-makers would +enjoy greater progress if they would remember that we have had for a +century all the law necessary to punish such corruption, and that the +trouble lies in our inability to enforce its provisions. + +What is really wanted is a tribunal to try and enforce the stringent +enactments already in existence. This does not now exist. When a +candidate for Congress corruptly purchases enough votes to secure his +return to either House, he knows that such Chamber, being the judge of +such applicant's qualifications, forms a court without a judge to give +the law or an impartial jury to render a verdict. The Committee on +Elections in either House is made up of the Democratic or Republican +party, and so the jury is packed in advance. + +This is not, however, the only evil feature in the business. There is +probably no organized body so ill-fitted for adjudication upon any +subject as Congress. Returned to place by parties, the members are +necessarily partisans. Their tenure of office is so brief that they +have no time in which to learn their legitimate duties through +experience, and these duties are so numerous, to say nothing of being +encroached upon by services entirely foreign to their positions, that +they have no opportunities for study. The consideration then of any +subject from a judicial point of view is simply impossible. It is +"touch and go" with them, and the _touch_ is feeble, and the go +hurried. It seems that a case of purely judicial sort has no place in +Congress; and yet we have seen an instance--for example, in the New +Idria contention--where the courts had been exhausted, from an Alcalde +to the Supreme Court of the United States, and yet the complainant, +worsted in every one of these tribunals, came through the lobby into +Congress, and for over ten years kept that body in a tumult. Of course +this was kept alive by the corrupt use of stock to the extent of ten +millions, based on the credit of a company that would be such when +Congress gave its illegal approval. This fact alone proves the +dangerous and uncertain character of a legislative body that takes on +judicial functions. + +When a contested election goes before the standing committee called +into existence as a court, it passes into a secret committee-room, +where the so-called evidence, put on paper, is supposed to be +considered. What would be said of a jury impanelled avowedly from the +party of one side, and then made into a court to sit and deliberate +with closed doors against the public? + +It is true that the finding is shaped into a report and goes before +the House. But no member of that body, especially of the House of +Representatives, has either time or opportunity to read the evidence, +or even to listen to the arguments made by contestants upon the floor. +That tribunal has lost all power in its loss of public confidence. It +not only brings the law into contempt, but itself into such disrepute +that its findings are worthless. This is the condition of Congress in +public opinion. So far as contested elections are concerned, it is +regarded with contempt. To make matters worse, and pay a premium on +vice, the losing party is allowed the same mileage and pay given his +successful competitors. + +If all contests were turned over to the United States courts, to be +tried in the locality where the wrong complained of was done and the +witnesses live, there would be few contested elections, and some +chance given to punish bribery and other corruption. + +Again, the prohibition against the subscription or payment of money +has exceptions that open wide the doors to corruption. To say that +money may be used for any purpose is to leave the evil precisely where +the law-makers found it. It were better to have the government furnish +the tickets, as the government supplies the ballot-boxes, rents the +polling-places, and pays the officials for their services. The ballot +is as much a necessity to the machinery of election as the boxes; and +because it would be difficult and troublesome to supply them is far +from saying that it is impossible. + +Then, to punish both bribe-giver and bribe-taker in the same way is to +throw a guard about the iniquitous transaction. The bribe-taker should +go acquit. Of course this would be in a measure opening a door to +blackmailers, and make the candidacy extremely dangerous. Such it +ought to be. The sooner we put a check on the shameless solicitations +for office the better it will be for the Republic. Let the offices, as +of old, in the purer days of the fathers, seek the man--and not the +man, as now, the offices. If the effect of this would be to drive +timid, decent men from office, it would not be worse than the present +system. A candidate for the House of Representatives must not only pay +his two years' salary in advance to "heelers," as they are called, but +must get drunk in every saloon in his district. We cannot make matters +worse, and there is a chance in a change for an improvement. + +True reform to be effectual must be radical. A compromise with evil is +a surrender to hell. To cut a poisoned shrub even to the ground +relieves the eye for a time, but the root is made more vigorous by the +trimming. The constitutional governments of Europe have rid themselves +of bribery and other corruption by digging out the roots. This is the +only course open to us. When members of the House can bribe their way +to place, when Senate chairs are sold in open court, when it calls for +only two millions to purchase the Presidency, and all done by men of +high social position, we have reached the lowest level, and our great +Republic is a mere sham and a delusion. We are not menaced with the +loss of liberty and guaranteed rights. They are gone. + + +THE MUGWUMP ELEMENT. + +The purchase of the Presidency in open market, now generally +recognized, is less disheartening than the apathetic indifference in +which such corruption is regarded by the people. In all communities +men may be found to buy, and men to sell, the sacred privilege upon +which our great Republic rests; but it is rare--so rare that this +experience is almost without precedent--that good citizens, knowing +the nature of their free institutions, are willing to have them +destroyed without an effort in behalf of their preservation. + +To get at not only the fact but the reason of it we must remember that +politics to the average citizen has all the fanaticism of religion, +and all the fascination of gambling. We have the country divided in +two hostile camps, and in these organizations themselves we have lost +the objects for which they were organized. This is the tendency of +poor human nature the world over. It is probably more pronounced in +religion than in any other form. A man will not only fight to the +bitter end, but die as a martyr, for a sect whose dogmas he has never +read, or, if read, fails to comprehend. Politics is our popular +religion. Taking the great mass of our citizens, we are pained to +write that it is about our only religion. + +We say that we have two hostile camps, in both of which the objects +for which they were organized have been entirely lost. The ordinary +Republican can give no reason for being such save that he is not a +Democrat, and the Democrat has the same reason, if it may be called +such. Each will avow, without hesitation, that the other camp is made +up of knaves and fools. The folly of thus designating over half our +entire voting population does not strike the partisan. + +Parties, however, are not called into existence and held together +through intellectual processes. They are founded on feeling. For years +and years the brightest minds and purest characters preached, with +burning eloquence, upon the wrongs of negro slavery, and got ugly +epithets and foul missiles in return, if indeed they were listened to +at all. At a moment of wild frenzy an armed mob at Charleston shot +down our flag. In an instant the entire people of the North rose to +arms, and a frightful war was inaugurated. The flag sentiment +outweighed the Abolition arguments. + +It is not our purpose to give the philosophical view of that contest. +We use it only, so far, in illustration. The sectional feeling that +brought on that armed contest continues in another direction, and +divides the two great parties. It is so intense that each is willing +to see the republic under which we live utterly destroyed, so that one +may be conquered or the other defeated. + +We are all agreed that the ballot is the foundation-stone of our +entire political structure. On this was built the form of government +given us by the fathers, and was the grand result of all the blood and +treasure, of life and property, so patriotically poured out in the +Revolution that made us independent. Yet this ballot is openly +assailed, its processes corrupted with money, and its usefulness +entirely destroyed, without arousing the indignation of an outraged +public. Men of wealth, of high social position, members of churches, +and leaders in what are called the better classes, subscribe and pay +the money knowingly that is to be used in the purchase of "floaters in +blocks of five" or more, while voters, well-to-do farmers, and +so-called honest laborers are organized willingly into blocks and +shamelessly sell that upon which they and their children depend for +life, liberty, and a right to a recompense for toil. When the result +is announced bonfires are burned, and loud shouts go up amid the roar +of artillery, expressive of the joy felt in such a triumph. + +These men of means--it makes no odds how the means are +accumulated--are not aware that in this they are cutting away the +foundations under their feet, and that, too, with ropes about their +necks. Their only security, not only to the enjoyment of their +property but to their lives, lies in the very government they are so +eager to destroy. We have called attention to the fact that humanity +suffers more from an inequality of property than from an inequality of +political rights. These last are rapidly getting to be recognized and +secured in constitutions throughout the civilized world. Kings and +emperors have come to be mere figure-heads above constitutions, and +the political dignity of the poor man is generally acknowledged. But +the poor man remains, and the castle yet rears its lofty front above +the hovels of the suffering laborers. Humanity is yet divided between +the many who produce all and enjoy nothing, and the few who produce +nothing and enjoy all. This is the inequality of property, and +governments yet hold the sufferers to their hard condition. It is +called "law and order," as sacred in the eyes of the Church as it is +potent in courts of justice. + +There is no government so poorly fitted to the execution of the hard +task of holding labor down as this of the United States. In Europe +through the dreary ages the masses have been born and bred to their +wretched condition. With us, on the contrary, there has been a great +expenditure of toil and treasure to teach labor its rights. In Europe +great armies are organized and kept upon a war footing for police +duty. We have no such conservative force upon which to rely in our +hour of peril, and yet so far our government has held sway through our +habitual respect for that which we created. These wealthy corruptors +are rapidly destroying this respect. They are teaching the people that +their ballots are merchantable products, and their ballot-box a rotten +affair. + +Violence follows fraud as surely as night follows day, or a +thunderstorm a poisoned atmosphere. The day is not distant when these +millionaires will be hunting holes in which to hide from the very mobs +they are now so assiduously calling into existence. God in his divine +mercy forgives us our sins when we are repentant, but the law that +governs our being--called nature--knows no forgiveness. The wound +given the sapling by the woodman's axe is barked over, but that cut, +slight as it seems, remains, and may hasten decay a hundred years +after. The wrong done the body politic may fester unseen, but it +festers on all the same. + +Fortunately for the people there is yet a feature in the situation +that gives us hope. We are blessed with no inconsiderable body of men +of sufficient sense and conscience to rise above party control and +vote in support of good measures and honest, capable men. These are +not men dominated by one idea, and devoted to some one measure that is +to remedy all our political ills. These are "cranks," so called, +because they believe that human nature is constructed like +machinery--something like a coffee-mill that has a crank that, if +turned and turned vigorously, will put the entire machine in good +running order. To some this is temperance, to others the tariff, to a +third our common-school system: and so they give their lives to a +vociferous demand for help to turn the one peculiar crank. + +We refer, not to such as these, but the thoughtful, patriotic few who +rise above party obligations to a consideration of their country's +good. These men are not organized into a party,--unless the fact of +two men thinking and feeling alike make a party,--and, as compared to +the Republican and Democratic camp-followers, are few in number. But, +in the evenly divided condition of the two organizations, these men +hold the balance of power, and are dreaded in consequence. Had it not +been for the money used by Republicans, and the treachery practised by +a few leading Democrats, these independents would have given New York +to the Democracy, and Grover Cleveland would be President for the next +four years. + +These men are derided, scoffed at, and held in high disdain by the +partisans of both parties. They are called Mugwumps; and when this +strange epithet is hurled at them the assailant seems to feel +relieved. This is no new thing. Among the traditions of the Church is +one to the effect that as the devil talks he spits fire. All reformers +are treated to this. It is well remembered that in the troublous times +of '61 the Mugwumps, then denounced as Abolitionists, came to the +front and carried the government through its dark hour of peril to a +triumphant close. They were brave, brainy, patriotic men, not +disturbed by the abuse heaped upon them. + +We are comforted to observe the power of these few men as proved in +the debate on the civil-service law of the House when an appropriation +was called for to sustain the Commission. The debate proved what we +all know--that probably not a member of the House but regards the +reform in utter loathing and wrath. And yet, when the vote was taken, +but a small minority were willing to put themselves on record in +opposition. The same clear appreciation of the evil consequences +attending this corruption of the ballot, and the conscience that makes +itself felt as that of the people, are forcing a reform in that +direction. The time is not distant when the now much-reviled Mugwumps +will be regarded, as are the Abolitionists, as the true patriots of +the day. God would have forgiven Sodom and Gomorrah could five +righteous men have been found in either city: this not out of regard +for the five, but from the evidence afforded that if that number +existed, these wicked places could not be altogether lost. + + +OUR HOUSE OF LORDS. + +The dignity of this unnecessary and disagreeable body was somewhat +disturbed by a Senator in a wild state of intoxication, who from his +place in the Chamber assailed in unseemly language the presiding +officer. + +Great consternation fell upon the British House of Commons when the +discovery was made that an entire session had been gone through +without "that bauble," as Oliver Cromwell called it, being upon the +table. When Doctor Kenealy, friend and attorney of the Tichborne +Claimant, was about being sworn in as a member of Parliament, it was +observed that he had a cotton umbrella under his arm. A horror too +profound for utterance fell upon the House, and all proceedings were +arrested until the obnoxious compound of cotton and whalebone was +removed. + +We refer to these events for the purpose of impressing upon our +delegated sovereigns from sovereign States, that unless the +proprieties are preserved their dignity cannot be maintained. What +would be thought of the British House of Lords if Lord Tomnoddy, for +example, were to roll in very drunk, and make personal remarks +touching the integrity of the presiding officer? The thought of such +an event threatens insanity. The British Empire would totter, the +throne shake, and the House of Lords disappear forever. + +The inebriated Senator was not arrested, or even rebuked. We all know +why. On his one vote depends the Republican control of the Senate. To +seize upon, arrest, and cart away, under charge of drunken and +disorderly conduct, the Republican majority of the Senate was so +preposterous as not to be entertained. + +As force could not be used, strategy was resorted to, and the +inebriate Solon was invited out to take more drinks, in the hope that +a little more liquid insanity would render him _hors de combat_. + +This is not the first instance of embarrassment of like sort. When the +men who organized the Star Route dishonesty of the Post-office +Department were indicted, it was found that the head and front of this +offending was a United States Senator. He held the one vote that gave +his party its supremacy in the Senate. To send the Republican majority +vote to the penitentiary was not to be thought of--and so the court +was packed to acquit. + +A body that subordinates its dignity to the supremacy of a party +cannot long retain that awe-inspiring respect so necessary to its +existence. Our House of Lords should bear in mind that the only +reason--if such it may be called--for its existence, is in this +dignity. If the Senate is not the holy, embalmed mummy of a dead king +once known as State sovereignty, it is naught; therefore, when a +Senator endangers this title to existence by unseemly conduct, either +as an inebriate or as a bribe-taker, he should be incontinently +expelled. The expulsion should be conducted with great ceremony. He +should be divested of his robes in the presence of the august +body--robes being procured for the occasion. One might be borrowed +from the Supreme Court. Then the culprit should be conducted by two +assistant Sergeants-at-Arms, one having hold of each arm. The +Sergeant-at-Arms should march behind, bearing the mace. We believe the +Senate has that utensil; if not, that of the House of Representatives +could be procured. At the main entrance the Sergeant-at-Arms should +fetch the mace into a charge, and planting the eagle in the small of +the culprit's back, thrust him out. All the while the chaplain, in a +solemn but distinct voice, should read the Service for the Dead. +After, the presiding officer should give three distinct raps of his +ivory gavel, and say in joyous but decorous voice, indicative of +triumphant yet seemly satisfaction: "The expurgated Senate will now +proceed with the business of legislating for the House of +Representatives." + +So necessary is dignity to the existence of this august body, that the +presiding officer should have an eye continually to it; and when a +Senator, in debate, makes himself ridiculous, he should at once be +called to order. When, for example, the Hon. Senator from Vermont (Mr. +Edmunds) gave his grotesque picture of a common American laborer being +possessed of a piano, and a wife in silk attire, in his own cottage +home, he should have been promptly called to order. The presiding +officer should have remarked that the picture, being imperfect, was in +a measure untrue, and as such could not be entertained by the Senate. +The Senator, however, has the privilege of amending his sketch by +saying that the laborer has not only the luxury found in a piano and +silk-clad wife, but a mortgage on the premises. This, although +improbable, is not impossible for a common laborer; and if the Hon. +Senator will vouch for the fact that he knows one such, his statement +may go on record for what it is worth. + +This would serve to abridge the liberty of speech guaranteed to us by +the Constitution. But we must remember that the same larger freedom +exercised in a bar-room, or upon the streets, or on the floor of the +House of Representatives, is a menace to the dignity of the Senate; +and in view of this, freedom of speech is somewhat circumscribed. +When, therefore, the Hon. Senator from Indiana (Mr. Voorhees) shakes +his senatorial fist at the Hon. Senator from Kansas (Mr. Ingalls), and +calls him an anathematized offspring of a female canine, or words to +that effect, he fractures the dignity of the Senate, and further +adjudication does not turn on the truth of the utterances as in a +court, for we are forced to remember that it is one-half of the +sovereign State of Indiana shaking its fist at one half of the +sovereign State of Kansas. This is very like the old story of the +sheriff of Posey County, Kentucky, who being agitated in a robust +manner by an angry citizen, called on his assailant to desist, as he +was "shaking all Posey County." + +How long the practical common-sense citizens of the United States +will submit to this worn-out superstition of a Senate is a question +that strikes every thoughtful mind. The body was born of a narrow +sectional feeling, long before steam navigation and railroads made the +continent more of one body than was a single colony before the +Revolution; and was a concession to State sovereignty, with the new +and accepted principle of home rule found in State rights. It further +confuses and demoralizes the civil rule of the majority under the +Constitution, as it gives to Rhode Island or Delaware the same power +held by New York or Pennsylvania. + +It was believed by the framers of our government that it would be a +conservative body, and serve as a restraint upon the popular impulses +to be expected from the House. This has not proved to be the fact. The +tenure of office given a Senator is of such length that it weakens the +only control found in public opinion, and this august body is more +extravagant, corrupt, and impulsive than the more popular body at the +other end of the Capitol. If any one doubts this, let such doubter +follow any appropriation bill, say that highway robbery called the +River and Harbor Appropriation, or pensions, from the House to the +Senate. + +The Senate has long since survived its usefulness, if it ever had any; +is to-day an object of contempt; and the sooner we have done with it +the better off we shall be. + + +OUR DIPLOMATIC ABSURDITY. + +There is a deep-felt apprehension indulged in by a class of our +citizens over the grave diplomatic complication found in the dismissal +of Lord Sackville West, and the refusal on the part of Her Gracious +Majesty of England to refill the vacant post at Washington with +another lord. Our national dignity is menaced so long as Mr. Phelps, +envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary residing at or near +St. James's, is permitted to remain. As soon as Sackville "got the +sack," to use a vulgar but expressive phrase, a reasonable time should +have been given Her Gracious Majesty to fill the place; and failing, +the Hon. Phelps should have been promptly recalled. This would have +been hard on the Hon. Phelps, but with our flag insulted and our eagle +scoffed at by an empty legation at the national capital, the Hon. +Phelps should have been prepared to wrap the star-spangled banner +about his diplomatic body and die--if need be--to the fierce screams +of the eagle. He might, after such a glorious demise, have been +consigned to that corner of Westminster Abbey that Dean Stanley +reserved for a distinguished American. It is true that we, in common +with the American people, have designated Senator Ingalls as the one +selected for that honor, and we are prepared to kill him any time, and +forward his remains to the spot, provided the Westminster people are +willing to receive them. But this is carrying us from our diplomatic +mutton. + +Under the circumstances, it is a comfort to know that all this +apprehension of these sensitive citizens is quite uncalled for. This +because we have no diplomatic service, no diplomatic agents, and +therefore no complications to speak of. + +The framers of our government, through some oversight, neglected to +supply us with a diplomatic service. They saw, it is true, no use for +such; nor was it possible to have a government as a trust, and give it +such powers. + +The diplomatic service pertains exclusively to a personal government. +It originated in a sovereign delegating certain powers, attributes of +the crown, to official agents whose duty was to reside near the courts +of other sovereigns, keep a watchful eye upon their movements, report +the same to their masters, and, from time to time, negotiate treaties +of advantage to their own sovereigns. To give these diplomatic agents +dignity and influence they were clothed with sufficient power to +commit their sovereigns to their official acts. This is not possible +with us. The sovereignty in our great republic is in the people; and +it finds expression, in this direction, through the Executive and +Senate. It cannot be delegated. When, therefore, a treaty is +negotiated between us and any foreign power, it is necessary to send a +special envoy to Washington to deal with the Executive. This has to be +sanctioned by the Senate: and our absurd House of Lords has served +notice on the world that the President himself cannot commit our +government to any treaty. + +Why, then, are our diplomatic agents, so called, sent abroad as +ministers? Ministers resident and _chargés d'affaires_ are merely +clerks of the State Department--no more, no less--who are sent abroad +to play at being diplomatists and get laughed at by the courts they +approach. + +The diplomatic corps of Europe, being an important part of their +several governments, is made up of men possessed of fine intellect and +great culture. To meet and associate with such, we send prominent +politicians who, being such, are ignorant of their own government, its +history and character, let alone those of Europe; and they are +tolerated from a good-natured wish to be agreeable, where there is no +profit in being otherwise. We do not suffer in this so much from our +lack of good breeding--for it is difficult for a prominent American to +be other than a gentleman--as we do from the ignorance of our official +agents. Ex-President Grant, for example, in his famous trip round the +world, posed at every court he approached as a royal personage. +General Badeau ("Adjutant-in-waiting"), acting as grand master of +ceremonies, arranged the household, and exacted from all comers the +etiquette due a sovereign. If our good citizens could have known the +ripple of laughter and ridicule that followed the result, in which our +great man was spoken of as "the King of the Yankee Doodles," they +would be more ashamed than proud of the performance. + +It is this ignorance of ourselves and our political fabric that places +us in a false position before the world. The clerk of the State +Department sent abroad by our government as a diplomatic agent, +instead of putting up at a hotel and opening an office in a common +business way, sets up an establishment and "takes on airs." As most +of the diplomatic business is done in a social way, he attempts to +entertain on a salary entirely inadequate to such work. As a court +costume is necessary--which means the sort of livery the diplomatic +agent affects in the presence of his own sovereign--and as we, having +no king, have no livery, our department clerk borrows one, either from +some European court or the theatre, and dances attendance in that. + +No man ever stood higher in the estimation of the world, on account of +his genius, than James Russell Lowell. That esteem was considerably +shaken, in the eyes of an admirer, when, calling on his minister at +London, he found the poet's slender legs encased in tights, and his +little body clad in a gorgeous coat covered with gold buttons. Of +course, Mr. Lowell could masquerade in any dress and remain the +brilliant poet and patriot; but the significance of this livery, its +shallow pretence and humble admission, made the admirer sick. + +The clerk of our State Department sent abroad under this state of +facts finds nothing to do. He is not interested in the business of the +foreign diplomatic corps; and if he were, his government has no hand +in the game, nor is the agent sufficiently instructed to take part +even were he interested. He is tolerated by those with whom he comes +in contact, and his strange associates repay their good-nature by the +amusement they get out of the poor fellow. + +There is no provision in our government for such an absurdity. The +framers of our Constitution provided none; and if our recollection +serves us right, it was not until 1856 that Congress recognized its +existence by a law fixing the rank and compensation. + +The thing ought to be abolished. When Andrew Jackson was first elected +President, he went to Washington fully resolved to put an end to the +absurd business. The politicians were too much for Old Hickory--and so +they are to-day too much for common-sense, the letter and spirit of +our government, and the dignity of our people. With a House of Lords +at home and a so-called diplomatic corps abroad, we are an object of +contempt from the rising of the sun till the setting thereof. + + + + +_THE PASSING SHOW._ + + +Sensationalism in art, as in literature, no doubt has its uses. It +serves to present old truths in a new light, and by a startling +grouping of ascertained facts helps to overcome the inertia of the +average man and make him think. There is a value in novelty, provided +it is rightly used, which is an important aid to the playwright or +scenic artist. But where sensationalism is manifested by a distortion +of facts, a falsification of history, or a violation of the principles +of human nature, its effect is demoralizing both to the artist and the +spectator, the author and the reader. Such an innovation has been +attempted by Mr. Henry Irving and Miss Ellen Terry in their +presentation of "Macbeth" at the Lyceum Theatre, London. It is +excellent acting, faithful reproduction of historic costumes, +exquisite scenery, but--it is not Shakspere. Nor is it human nature. + +Had it been only occasional alterations of the dramatist's lines, or +even the unnecessary division of the play into six acts instead of +five, or the cutting out of some of the characters, the genius of +Irving and Terry might have been pardoned the perversion. But when +they attempt to represent the ambitious, plotting, fiendish murderess +whom Shakspere has depicted, as a loving, devoted wife, who only seeks +to further a little job of killing for the purpose of promoting her +husband's interests, they meet with an infallible critic in the heart +of every intelligent spectator. It is against human nature, and no +amount of wonderful declamation or scenic magnificence can gloss it +over. The purpose of art is to portray nature, to refine it if you +will, but never to contradict. Lovers of the drama will be bitterly +disappointed that Mr. Irving, after having devoted the best years of +his life to the former, should at this late day, for the mere sake of +innovation, resort to the latter. + +Shakspere, the great philosopher of human nature as well as the +greatest dramatist of the centuries, knew full well that unlawful +ambition which includes crime excludes the tender, womanly devotion of +the true wife, and, far from picturing Lady Macbeth as an admirer of +her husband, shows her as sneering at him for his want of courage: + + "Yet do I fear thy nature; + Is too full o' the milk of human kindness." + + "Hie thee hither, + That I may pour _my_ spirits in thine ear." + +And this: + + "We fail. + But screw your courage to the sticking-place." + +Irving and Terry's play is not human nature and is not Shakspere; but, +overlooking these points, their conception is well carried out. It is +a wonderful spectacle. The resources of stage machinery have been +taxed to their utmost, and the English press is one chorus of +admiration at the marvellous landscapes, and at the quaint +ornamentation and the low, groined arches of the old Saxon castle. It +is a pity that these valuable adjuncts were not called unto the aid of +a more correct interpretation of the great ideal. + +And now we are likely to have an epidemic of Macbeths. Margaret Mather +has tried it at Niblo's, and Mrs. Langtry has been incubating a new +presentation, like Terry's, with a "few innovations." Irving's +reputation as a stage manager is such that when his "Macbeth" comes to +America everyone will want to see it. + +But will it ever come to America? For now, forsooth, there are some +members of the dramatic profession in this country who avow their +intention of appealing to Congress to regulate American taste by law, +and to exclude foreign actors under the contract-labor statute. This +brilliant idea originated in the fertile brain of Mr. Louis Aldrich, +and was nursed by the Actors' Order of Friendship. Into this Order +Messrs. Booth and Barrett were initiated with darkened windows and +mysterious rites, for the express purpose of fixing the stamp of their +approval upon the scheme. A delegation appeared before Congressman +Ford's Immigration Committee and begged that the proposed undemocratic +exclusion law shall contain a provision against the landing of foreign +pauper actors. + +But these gentlemen lacked in logic what they possessed in assurance. +They were willing to except "stars" from the operation of the law. +Well, why not exclude "stars"? Do they not compete quite as much with +American talent as the humbler aspirants of the stage? Even a "star" +of the magnitude of Louis Aldrich himself would probably find his rays +outshone in the presence of the brighter effulgence of an Irving or a +Coquelin. It is the "stars" who compete most with native talent, and +on this principle they should be the first excluded. Besides that, if +they are excepted, who is to define a "star"? It would be amusing to +see the Supreme Court of the United States gravely sitting in judgment +on such a question. By all means, Mr. Aldrich, return at once to +Washington and amend your petition. Let Mr. Ford include "stars" also +in his bill. And then let every protectionist crank in the country +have absolute exclusion of every possible competitor and of all kinds +of goods that he wants to sell, and pay a bounty to the farmers for +their crops, and then we shall all be able to raise ourselves by our +boot-straps into a region of perfect happiness. + +Of course there are two sides to every question, and, not wishing to +do an injustice, we will give the one maintained by the petitioners. +We have a law prohibiting the importation of labor contracted for +abroad. This law the courts hold is applicable to cooks, coachmen, and +ministers of the Gospel. Now why should an exception be made in behalf +of a theatrical manager who contracts for a lot of actors, more or +less cheap, in London, to play for him in the United States? Mr. +Aldrich does not ask that the man, be he star or stock, who comes of +his own motives shall be prohibited; but he does protest against the +importation of the cheap histrionic labor which is brought here, +precisely as other skilled or unskilled labor is got over, to compete +with the same labor in the United States. In other words, it is not a +question of taste, but one of bread. + +Another fact is overlooked that has a decided bearing on the question. +In all matters of art we are such a set of snobs that we cannot +recognize any merit in our artists until after they have been indorsed +by English critics and English audiences. If any law can be enacted to +correct this miserable condition, let us have it at an early day. We +know that the greatest actress known to the English-speaking +world--our Clara Morris--has failed to secure the fame and fortune to +which her genius entitled her simply because she neglected to secure +English approbation--which would have been heartily given her had she +ever appeared in London. + +Nor is it true that English stock is preferred to the American +product because of its superior excellence. Mr. Daly has shown the +absurdity of this claim by taking his admirable company to London and +carrying off the honors. In the face of this and every other fact, we +are told that the English comedian doing the society drama is superior +to ours because of his superior social position. That is something to +be relegated to the things which amuse. There is an adaptability about +the American that makes him at home in all conditions. It is possible +for an American actor to wear a dress suit with an ease that is +rivalled only by the French. What is the good of calling on an +Englishman to do on the stage what no Englishman can accomplish in +private life? If there is a John Bull on earth who can wear a dress +suit with ease and elegance, he has not yet been discovered. + +There now, we have given both sides. + +Mr. Edwin Booth offered his brother-actors a much better kind of +protection when, on New Year's Eve, he presented to them "The +Players'" club-house, with its fine library and its treasures of +dramatic art. After all, education and self-development are the only +legitimate means of attaining success; and he who offers his +fellow-beings facilities for improvement and self-help is a far +greater benefactor to them than he who endeavors to apply restrictive +methods. Such an institution has been Mr. Booth's dream for years. It +is a spacious house at No. 16 Gramercy Place, adjoining the residence +of the late Samuel J. Tilden. Mr. Booth purchased it for $75,000, and +spent $125,000 in alterations. The library is probably the finest +collection of dramatic literature in the world. Twelve hundred volumes +were presented by Mr. Booth, and two thousand by Lawrence Barrett, +besides a large number of rare works given by Augustin Daly, T. B. +Aldrich, Laurence Hutton, and others. It was a touching scene when, a +few moments before the old year died, Mr. Booth placed in the hands of +Augustin Daly for the Players' Club the title-deeds to this +magnificent property, and blushing like a girl before the assembled +actors, listened awkwardly to the simple words which Mr. Daly spoke in +reply. Then just after the midnight bells had rung he turned and lit +the Yule log, and the players began the enjoyment of their new home. + +A few days afterwards Mr. Booth closed his very successful +metropolitan engagement at the Fifth Avenue Theatre with "The Fool's +Revenge," Lawrence Barrett appearing in "Yorick's Love," and both the +tragedians started on a Southern tour. + +Miss Mary Anderson appears in a late issue of a sensational +publication as a severe censor of society ladies addicted to attempts +upon the stage. We say Mary Anderson; for her name appears at the end +of the article, and as she is a woman, we will not venture to say that +the property claimed is not her own. Some rude critics have charged +that Mary did not make this up out of her own fair head; and +throughout the profession a state of mind exists that is not +complimentary to the would-be authoress. + +The queerest part of the business, however, is, that such strictures +should come from Miss Anderson. She raided the stage as a society +woman, and struck at once for the honors. There was, if we remember +rightly, no long, weary preparation and laborious training for the +footlights. She went from the parlor to the greenroom, and she went in +with a flourish. She was of Kentucky birth, and Henry Watterson, whose +bright intellect is only surpassed by his good heart, not only +indorsed the ambitious society girl, but made up his mind to put Mary +down the American throat whether the people would or not. Mary was not +unpalatable to the American taste, but Watterson is her father--that +is, dramatically speaking. + +Then Stepfather Griffin came in. Stepfather Griffin was born a +theatrical advance and advertising agent. He did not know this. If we +were to dwell on what Stepfather Griffin does not know, we should fill +all the space of this magazine for the year. + +P. Griffin "caught on" to the provincial condition of our artistic, +literary, and dramatic life, which makes the approval of England +necessary to American success. So Poppy G. transported his American +star to London. He found the Prince of Wales necessary; and +Labouchere, M. P. and proprietor of _Truth_, taught the paternal agent +how to work the oracle. The Prince of Wales is a corpulent, +good-natured son of Her Gracious Majesty who rules all the earth save +Ireland. He is ever open to the advances and blandishments of an +American woman, or African woman, or any sort of woman, provided she +is lovely; and being approached, he expressed his desire to know the +star of Columbia. "Now," said Labouchere, "having got that far, the +thing to startle England and capture Americans is for Mary to decline +an introduction on high moral and republican grounds." This was done, +and Great Britain was startled and the Yankee Doodles were captured. +She returned to her native land with an English troupe, and made +Yankee Doodle go wild. + +Now Mary is absolutely the worst actress ever sent sweeping from the +drawing-room to the footlights. Possessed of a tall, angular figure, +and blessed with a sonorous and in some respects pliable voice, she +has the fatal gift of imitation. No actor can win the highest honors +of his exalted profession who is a mimic. The actor capable of giving +expression to the thought of his author really assists that author in +the creation of a character. He or she is the creator. Now the mimic +is one who reproduces second-hand the work of others. We are cursed +with a traditionary assortment of characters that have come down to us +from the Kembles; and any one capable of filling what Shakspere or +Bacon or somebody called the rôle of "a poor player who struts and +frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more" can win +applause through mimicry, but never be great. We first saw Mary as Meg +Merrilies, and the reproduction of Cushman was something marvellous. +And so we have had it ever since. As Fechter said of Booth's Hamlet, +that "he played everybody's Hamlet but his own," so it may be said of +Miss Anderson, that she reproduces in an acceptable way the wearisome +line of old characters that have come to be stage properties. + +Mrs. James Brown Potter, who has been playing to New York and Brooklyn +audiences in Tom Taylor's heavy drama, "'Twixt Axe and Crown," shows +considerable improvement over her acting of one year ago, but she +chose a very inappropriate piece for her reappearance. Mrs. Potter +reads her lines very well, is a very beautiful woman, and possesses +that indispensable adjunct of the modern actress, a very handsome +wardrobe. But she is not fitted for the part of Lady Elizabeth, who in +her youthful prison exhibits the same wilful capriciousness and +headstrong pride that she afterwards showed on England's throne. Mr. +Kyrle Bellew as Edward Courtenay, the romantic lover of Elizabeth, +played his rôle quite well. Mrs. Potter is naturally better suited to +fragile, feminine, girlish parts than she is to the heroic, and there +is plenty of room for improvement; but she is painstaking, persistent, +and has time before her. + +Edward Harrigan's drama of "The Lorgaire," the only new play of the +month, is a passable sketch of Irish life. It is much more ingeniously +devised than any of his previous efforts in this line, and since it +was first put upon the stage has been much improved, many offensive +lines being eliminated. + +Adolph Müller's new comic opera, "The King's Fool," was first +witnessed by an American audience in Chicago at the Columbia Theatre +on Christmas Eve. Its scene is laid at the court of Pampeluna, and the +plot is the development of a conspiracy to secure the succession to +the throne, the rightful heir being brought up as a girl, the Salic +law forbidding the accession of females. The king's fool discovers the +imposition, the young prince regains his throne, and the conspirators +are punished. + +A very enjoyable selection of pieces has been put on the boards at +Daly's Theatre, including "The Lottery of Love," "Needles and Pins," +"She Would and She Wouldn't," and "Rehearsing a Tragedy." Ada Rehan +scored her usual successes. Daly's Theatre is one where the spectator +is always sure of a pleasant evening's entertainment. At the Standard +"Miss Esmeralda" replaced "Monte Cristo, Jr." The new play was in +every way brighter and wittier, and offered more opportunities to the +talents of Nellie Farren and the admirable Gaiety Company. Margaret +Mather in her repertoire produced at Niblo's Garden shows steady +improvement. She makes a lovely Juliet, but in the difficult part of +Peg Woffington she is a failure. The "Yeomen of the Guard" is +withdrawn from the Casino, not from any lack of popular favor, but +because Manager Aronson has been obliged by a contract to restore +"Nadjy" to the stage. Herr Junkermann has been giving several very +creditable presentations at the new Amberg Theatre, to the delight of +our German citizens. + +Most admirable, yet most difficult and incomplete, was the first +production in America of Wagner's "Rheingold" at the Metropolitan +Opera House early in January. The stage machinery was very +complicated, and the illusions were perfect. As the curtain rose the +depths of the Rhine waters appeared to fill the scene, the sun's +struggling rays caused the precious gold to gleam; and the three Rhine +maidens appointed by Wotan to watch it were seen gracefully swimming +about the treasure. From this novel opening to the close, when the +gods cross the rainbow bridge that leads to Walhalla, the scenery was +a marvel of spectacular effect, but it did not rise to the excellence +of the displays at the Bayreuth festivals. The orchestra was in best +form, and the singing was the best that has been presented this +season--much better, for instance, than in the previous performance of +"Siegfried," where Herr Alvary's voice showed signs of wear, and Emil +Fischer actually became hoarse before the close. + +"Faust," "The Huguenots," "L'Africaine," and "Fidelio" were among the +musical triumphs of the Metropolitan. Handel's "Messiah" was +beautifully given at the same theatre by the Oratorio Society, with +the Symphony Society's orchestra, under the direction of Walter +Damrosch; while concerts by the Boston Symphony orchestra, by Theodore +Thomas, and by Anton Seidl complete the list of delightful musical +entertainments of the season. + + + + +_REVIEWS._ + + +THE CLOVEN HOOF UNDER PETTICOATS: _The Quick or the Dead_; _Eros_; +_Miss Middleton's Lovers_.--The characteristic American novel of the +day might be described as an episode clothed in epigram. It is +commonly little more than an incident, slight as to plot, startling in +contrasts of light and shade, and too often avowedly immoral in +tone--a fragment of canvas, with ragged edges, cut at random from a +picture by Gérôme, with figures questionably suggestive, and volcanic +in color. It affects a myopic realism in details, not seldom of the +sort which, with non-committal suavity, we have agreed to call +"improper." It is nothing if not erotic. It deals with humanity from +the anatomist's standpoint, and describes, with insistence and +reiteration, the physical attributes of its characters, leaving the +spiritual to be inferred from their somewhat indefinite actions, and +that sort of mental sauntering which is termed analysis, for want of a +better name. It sets its women before you in the language of the +slave-market. It leaves no doubt in your mind that they are +female--female to a fault. "You could not help feeling in her presence +that she was a woman; the atmosphere was redolent with her. You never +so much as thought of her as a human being, a sentient, reasoning +personage like yourself. She was born to be a _woman_ solely, and she +fulfilled her destiny." "She was sensuous and voluptuous. You received +from her a powerful impression of sex." "She was a naked goddess--a +pagan goddess, and there was no help for it." Realistic this may +indeed be, but it is hardly chivalrous, or consistent with that +respect which well-bred and sound-hearted men feel, or, for the +convenience of social intercourse, affect to feel toward that half of +human nature to which the mothers, sisters, and wives of the race +belong. A woman must be philosophical indeed who can accept as a +flattering testimony to her personal graces such a phrase as "She is +the most appetizing thing I have seen." To be regarded in the light of +a veal cutlet may possess the charm of gastronomic reminiscence, but +as a metaphor it is scarcely poetic. + +In reading this class of fiction one is constrained to wonder what +these ingenious weavers of verbal tapestries would have done for plot +and incident--such as they are--had the Seventh Commandment been +eliminated from the Tables of the Law. It is a never-failing +well-spring, a Fortunatus' pocket, a theme more rich in variations +than the Carnival of Venice; and it is amazing as well as instructive +to the uninitiated to discover in how many original and striking ways +a wife may be unfaithful to her husband, and what startling and +dramatic situations may be evolved out of the indiscretions of a too +confiding society-girl. But even the unmentionable has limits: the +glacial smile of the nimblest ballet-dancer may lose somewhat of its +fascination in the course of time; and in the overheated atmosphere of +the "passionate" novel may lurk the faintest intimations of a yawn. + +The fact is, this multiform, many-worded element in current fiction is +not true passion at all. It is a theatrical presentation, often well +set and brilliantly costumed; but too frequently you see the paint and +hear the prompter calling forgotten cues from the wings. It is keen, +witty, cynical; but it is not real. It is daring, flippantly defiant, +paroxysmal, and redundant in explosive adjectives; but it is not true +to nature. It is as different from the genuine, living human emotion +as the impetuous, fervid, and unpremeditated love-making of a youth is +from the cold-blooded, carefully-rounded, and artificial gallantries +of an aged suitor. Real passion is always poetic; there is a delicacy +in its very vehemence, and if reprehensible from the moralist's point +of view, it is never contemptible. Simulated passion, on the other +hand, is always coarse and undignified--even when, as in the case with +many of these novels, expressed in graceful and smoothly-flowing +sentences; often absurd and flavored with covert cynicism, as if it +despised itself and its object. Actual passion is almost entirely +wanting in American fiction. The purer school of James and Howells +makes no pretence of it,--ignoring its existence in human nature, as +if men and women were sentient shapes of ice,--and wisely, too; for +though the lack of it in romance is a fatal defect, it is better than +a poor imitation. Nathaniel Hawthorne, that isolated giant, drew from +the mysterious depths of his own great soul almost the only example of +true passion in the literature of this country. "The Scarlet Letter" +towers aloft like the Olympian Jove among terra-cotta statuettes, +perhaps the noblest work of fiction ever written. Here is passion, +almost awful in its intensity; suppressed, confined; struggling like a +chained Titan, and at length breaking loose and overwhelming itself +beneath its own agony and despair--passion, beautiful with youth and +hope, star-eyed, crowned with amaranth and clad in blood-red garments; +led onward by his dark brothers, Sin and Death, in swift tumultuous +flight, toward his unknown goal in the land of eternal shadows. + +Compared with this lordly poem, the erotic novel of the day, with its +prurient platitudes, is as a satyr to Hyperion. Putting aside all +question of the moral law in the relation of the sexes, is there not +something foolishly undignified in these gasping, gurgling adjectives? +"Soul-scorching, flesh-melting flame of his eyes." "Flammeous breath, +sweeping her cheek, stirred her nature with a fierce, hungerous +yearning." "Ignescent passion." "Gloating upon her hungerly." "Gives +her whole body a comprehensive voluptuous twist." "All entangled in +her sweet sinuous embrace." "Languorously inviting."--But we pause +upon the verge of the unquotable, daunted, stifled, in this mephitic +atmosphere. + +This is called Realism!--this affected posturing, at which good-taste +veils the face to hide the smile of contempt or the blush of common +decency--these ale-house stories transplanted to the drawing-room! Is +there--_is_ there nothing in that love, whose very name lingers upon +the lips like a song--that love which has inspired all poetry, all +romance from the beginning of time; which has thrown down embattled +walls, taken strong cities, changed the boundaries of empires, +marshalled armed thousands upon memorable fields of blood; which in +every age has nerved men to great deeds and rewarded them for great +sacrifices; the sunrise hope of youth, the evening meditation of the +old, the spirit of home, the tender light which gleams about the +hearth-stone, the glory of the world;--is there nothing, then, in this +but the blind impulse which draws animal to animal--which attracts the +groping inhabitants of the mire and the shapeless swimming lumps of +the sea? If it be so, then thrice sacred is that art which has power +to throw a mist of glamour about this hideous reality, and make it +seem beautiful to our eyes! Far better the divine lie than such truth! +But it is _not_ true: for real love, even though it pass the pale of +the law, and real passion, though it tempt to sin, have about them +always an inexpugnable dignity; and if condemned, it is not with +laughter or disgust. + +The erotic in American fiction is a recent and exotic growth, not +native to the soil. It is therefore unhealthy and unwholesome. It is +out of place in this cold northern air. In its own climate it is a +gaudy flower; in this temperate zone it is a poisonous, spotted lily, +rank of smell and blistering to the touch. The licentiousness of +Théophile Gautier is elevated by the power of his transcendent genius +to the plane of true art. In America it sinks into a denizen of the +gutter. + +A remarkable feature of this noxious development is the prominent part +taken in it by women. It is somewhat startling to find upon the +title-page of a work whose cold, deliberate immorality and cynical +disregard of all social decency have set the teeth on edge, the name +of a woman as the author. We are so accustomed to associate modesty +of demeanor, delicacy of thought and word, and purity of life with +woman, that a certain set of adjectives, expressive of virtue and +morality, have come to include the idea of femininity in their +signification. It is certainly surprising, if not repellent, to find +women the most industrious laborers in the work of tearing down the +structure of honor and respect for their sex, which has so long been +regarded as the basis of social existence. If this breaking of the +holy images be but another manifestation of the revolt of women +against the too narrow limits of ancient prejudice, it is only +additional proof that misguided revolution easily becomes mere +anarchy. While the dispensation which would confine women to the +nursery and kitchen, and exclude them from broader fields of action, +is happily a dead letter, it is quite certain that no condition of +civilization, however liberal, will ever justify loose principles or +lax manners, or what is almost as reprehensible and much more +despicable, the cynicism which sneers at virtue while it prudently +keeps its own skirts unsoiled. But it is probable that the women who +write this kind of fiction are misled by vanity, rather than actuated +by evil impulses. They imagine that in thus throwing off all restraint +they are giving evidence of originality of thought and force of +character; whereas they are, in fact, courting unworthy suspicion and +winning only that sort of applause which is thinly veiled contempt. + +In America social licentiousness is not inherent as a national +characteristic, nor inherited from a profligate ancestry. Whatever his +practice may be, the ordinary American is theoretically moral. He +recognizes moral turpitude, at least to the extent of dreading +exposure of his own backslidings. If he break the law, he nevertheless +insists upon the sanctity of the law. In a word, the social atmosphere +is pure and wholesome, though perhaps a little chilly; and if anyone +happens to be the proprietor of a nuisance, he is very careful to keep +it well concealed from his neighbors, and neutralize the evil odor +with lavish sprinklings of perfumery. + +With us Licentiousness is not a gayly-clad reveller, a familiar figure +at feasts and pleasure parties, taking his share in the festivities, +dancing, laughing, and frisking as bravely as any. He is not a jovial +Bohemian, of too free life perhaps, but not half a bad fellow--a +careless, reckless, roaring blade. On the contrary, he is a dark, +shadowy, saturnine personage: a loiterer in lonely places, a lover of +the night, skulking around corners and hiding his face in a ready +mask. He dreads the law, for he knows that if detected his companions +of yesterday will bear witness against him to-day, and lend their aid +to set him in the stocks, to be jeered at by all the world. He is +thin-blooded and pale; he shudders at the sound of his own footsteps, +and shrinks from his own shadow. He knows no songs in praise of +Gillian and the wine-cup, and if he did he would never dare sing them. +He dresses in the seedy remains of a once respectable suit; he is an +outcast, a beggar, a vagabond, down at the heels and owned by nobody. +Altogether, he is as miserable and forlorn a wretch as one would care +to see, and his _alter ego_ is hypocrisy. + +For this reason the licentious in American literature is and must be +cold, artificial, and repugnant. The erotic becomes mere bald +immorality, without grace, gayety, color, or warmth to lend it dignity +or render it tolerable. In the opulent, fervid period of the +Renaissance, art was born of passion and inspired by it to greatness. +The erotic was a legitimate element of all works of the imagination, +because it was a part of the social life of the day, and because, +being genuine, it could be made beautiful. When, after the Revolution +in England and the spread of Calvinism on the Continent, the minds and +manners of men were brought under closer restraint, licentiousness in +art began to be no longer natural and spontaneous, and therefore no +longer legitimate, until in the last century it degenerated into +simple indecency. When the erotic ceased to be quite as much a matter +of course, in fiction or poetry, as hatred, jealousy, or revenge, and +the reader learned to pass it over with a frown or pick it out with a +relish, according to his natural disgust of or morbid craving for the +impure, it became a blemish. It was no longer real, but an indecent +imitation. Compare "Romeo and Juliet," that divine poem of passion, +with the abominations of Waters and Rochester, popular in their day, +but now happily forgotten, or even Wycherly, not yet quite forgotten, +and mark how wide the difference between the true and the false, the +natural and the unnatural. + +To-day, in America at least, the physical is subordinate to the +spiritual. The mind is master, and the body in its bondage, if not +enfeebled, has at least become trained to passive obedience. All +impulses are submitted to the severe scrutiny of reason. Categories of +right and wrong, or perhaps the politic and the impolitic, are +strictly adhered to. Caution is largely in the ascendant. The world's +opinion is an ever-present restraining element. All these are results, +or at any rate concomitants of a loftier civilization. A society +guided by moral and intellectual forces is unquestionably upon higher +ground than one dominated by the physical. The world is, moreover, a +more comfortable place to live in than it used to be when, on account +of the color of the feather in one's hat, one must unsheathe and go at +it, hammer and tongs, to save one's skin. + +Passion does still exist in the human heart, but it is restrained and +modified by the necessities and conditions of the social life of the +day. To be a fit element of fiction it must be depicted in its +nineteenth-century guise--in other words, decently. To be a truthful +picture it can be depicted in no other way. To exhibit it posturing, +writhing, and gasping in mere hysteria is to lower it beneath the +standard of wholesome and worthy art. License without love, and +immorality without passion, are as unpardonable in a novel as they are +in human nature. + + +_Political Oratory of Emery A. Storrs_, by Isaac E. Adams (Belford, +Clarke & Co.).--The compiler of Mr. Storrs's political speeches begins +his introductory chapter with some questionable generalizations which +are belittling and somewhat unjust to the large class of true orators +to which his hero belongs. He says: "Few examples of political oratory +have been embalmed in literature. Men, too, remembered for oratorical +power are easily reckoned, and tower conspicuously along the shores of +time. There was once a Demosthenes, once a Cicero, once a Burke. The +time will come when, looking back upon the centuries of American +history, it will be said there was, also, once a Webster and once a +Lincoln." + +We must be permitted to observe that the line cannot be clearly drawn +between political and other oratory. In a broad sense, all the great +orators known to history have been political orators, because they +gained their fame chiefly in discussing the great and absorbing public +questions of their day. + +To these belongs Emery A. Storrs. Let a few extracts from this volume +of speeches suffice to show the style of his oratory. At Chicago, in +the darkest hours of our civil war, he said: "I have no doubt but that +this, the most wicked rebellion that ever blackened the annals of +history, will be ground to powder. I have no doubt but that our +national integrity will be preserved. I have no doubt but that the +union of these States will be restored, and that the nation will +emerge from the fiery trial through which it has passed, brighter and +better and stronger than it has ever been before. It would be +impossible, however, that a conflict mighty as that from which we are +now, I trust, emerging should not leave its deep and permanent impress +upon our future national character. It will give tone to our politics, +our literature, and our feelings as a people, for ages to come." + +At Cleveland, in the campaign of 1880, he said: "Have you seen any +trouble with the pillars of the government? The trouble was not with +the pillars--they did not rock; the trouble was with the gentlemen who +were looking at the pillars of the government. They were like the +gentleman who had been attending a lecture on astronomy. Going home +loaded with a great deal of Democratic logic, with a step weary and +uncertain, with the earth revolving a great many times upon its axis, +he affectionately clasped a lamp-post and said, 'Old Galileo was right +about it: the world does move.'" + +The logic of Mr. Storrs's speeches on war topics, which were immensely +popular, is embraced in the single sentence: "I think there can be +nothing more suicidal than to intrust into the hands of these men, who +sought the destruction of our national life, the direction of our +national interests." + +Hence the convenient 300-page volume under review will be valuable to +political speakers and writers who want their party zeal warmed up by +the earnest appeals of an impassioned, conscientious, and clear-minded +orator. The diction of Mr. Storrs is admirable, his language is almost +always felicitous, and in his logic there is a happy blending of grace +and force. If his range was not wide, he was always able to +concentrate learning and ability enough on any given occasion to show +a masterful oratorical power over immense masses of men. + + + + +A STORM ASHORE.[5] BY JAMES H. CONNELLY. + + +I. + +WHERE THE DEED WAS DONE. + +Three quarters of a century ago, when Sag Harbor was an important +whaling port, and before railroads were even dreamed of on that remote +part of Long Island, there were dotted along the eastern shore only a +few quaint little villages, already old, with a small population +scattered in their vicinity, consisting almost entirely of a hardy +race, who, though professedly cultivators of the soil, in reality drew +most of their subsistence from arduous and often perilous toil upon +the sea. Among the curiously inscribed tombstones in the graveyards, +where even then six generations were lying, were not at all unfrequent +those that bore the legend "killed by a whale." Of the younger men in +the community, there were few who did not aspire to go abroad as +whalers, and their elders, though settled agriculturists nominally, or +even petty tradesmen, had generally "been a-whaling," loved to spin +yarns about their cruises, and were still more than semi-nautical in +speech, manners, and industries. They naturally spoke of "the bow" of +a horse, or his "port-quarter," as occasion might require; belonged to +shore whaling companies; fished for the New York market to a limited +extent, and perhaps did some smuggling; as shore-living people, in +those days, generally seemed to think they had an inherent right to. +In their little "sitting-rooms" were many curious and interesting +things, brought from far distant lands, such as broad branches of fan +coral, stuffed birds of brilliant plumage, strange shells and sperm +whales' teeth adorned with queer rude pictures scratched upon them by +sailors whose thoughts of loved ones at home had prompted them to such +artistic endeavor. + +Between the villages were long reaches of woodland, or perhaps it +would be more correct to say thicket--broken here and there, where the +sandy soil seemed to give most promise, by tilled fields. Fierce +gales, through the long hard winter months, dealt cruelly with the +scrubby cedars and knotty little oaks in those woods, gnarling their +boughs, twisting their trunks, and stunting their growth, so that not +all the genial breath of spring, nor the ardent summer's sun could +quite repair the damage wrought them in the season of ice and storm. +But the hardy trees stood close together, as if seeking support and +consolation from each other in their hours of trial, when they creaked +and ground complaint to one another; so close that their interlaced +foliage kept always damp the leaf-strewn ground beneath, where the +fragrant trailing arbutus bloomed in earliest spring, and the tangled +whortleberry bushes later bore their clusters of bluish-purple fruit. +Here and there the dwarfed forest sloped gently down to broad expanses +of salt meadow, where snipe and plover found their favorite feeding +grounds among the rank rushes and long grass, or the soft marshy +slime, except when the full moon tides came rushing through the little +inlets between the white round sand dunes on the beach and, whelming +the lowland, snatched brown-leaf trophies from the very edges of the +wood. On the knolls between these meadows were favorite places for the +location of the homes of the earlier settlers, among whom were the Van +Deusts. + +The Van Deust homestead was one of the oldest dwellings on that +portion of the island, and those who at this time inhabited it were +the direct descendants of other Van Deusts, whose remote existence and +remarkable longevity were alike attested by the quaintly graven +tombstones in the ancient graveyard of the village, a mile away. + +It was a rambling one-story house, built of small logs covered with +boards now warped and rusty from age, but both roomy and comfortable +as well as picturesque. Those by whom it was erected loved better the +sea than the land, for they had not only sought out this, the most +commanding site they could obtain for its location, but had turned its +back upon the forest and the lane, and reared its broad porch upon the +side facing the ocean. Here, in the ample shade, the two old bachelor +brothers, its present occupants, inheriting as well the feeling as the +property of their ancestors, loved to linger. The ceaseless roar of +the waves was in their ears a wild tumultuous music, and their eyes +were never weary of the ever-changing beauty and glory of the world of +billows, blushing with the dawn, laughing with the noon, and frowning +beneath storm and night. Three broad and rugged elm trees shaded the +porch, and one gable of the house was rasped by the boughs of the +nearest tree of a thickly grown and badly cared for little orchard. +Bats and swallows flitted undisturbed in the summer evenings to and +from the low loft of the old homestead, through its various chinks and +refts; native song-birds build their nests and reared their young +under the eaves, and in the swinging branches of the venerable elms; +bees buzzed among the thick honeysuckle, and clematis vines that +twined about the pillar of the porch, and threw their long sprays in +flowery festoons between; and when the busy hum of those industrious +little toilers ceased at nightfall, the crickets' cheery chirp, from +among the rough stones of the old-fashioned fireplace within, took up +the refrain of insect melody. Neither insect, bird, nor beast feared +the two kindly old men who inhabited that home. One of the brothers +loved all living things, and was at peace with all, and the other was +like unto him, with the sole exception that he liked not women, nor +was willing to be at peace with them. Yet he had never been married! + +Peter, the elder by a couple of years, was the woman hater, and to +such an extent did he carry his antipathy toward the sex, that he +would tolerate no other female servant about the house than old black +Betsy, who was the daughter of a couple of slaves his grandfather had +owned, and who thoroughly considered herself one of the family, as +indeed her indulgent masters regarded her. The three old people +occupied the house alone. Brother Jacob once hinted to Peter that +perhaps it might be as well to get a young woman to assist old Betsy +in her work, and his so doing brought on what was more like a quarrel +between him and Peter than anything that had disturbed the monotony of +their uneventful lives up to that time. A compromise was finally +effected, by virtue of which a neighbor was engaged to come over for a +couple of hours daily to do such chores about the house as the +brothers felt beyond their strength, and to bring his wife along on +Tuesdays to do the week's washing and scrubbing. But on Tuesdays Peter +always went a-fishing, regardless of the weather, and was gone all +day, so avoiding sight of the neighbor's wife. Whatever the secret +cause for his bitter and contemptuous aversion to women may have been, +he kept it to himself. That they were fair to look upon, he denied +not. "But," said he, "they are wrecker lights, and the truer and +better a man is, the brighter they shine to lure him to the breakers. +And look at yourself, Jacob," he would add, when his brother ventured +to mildly expostulate against the vigor of his denunciations of the +sex; whereupon Jacob would turn away with a sigh, and the discussion +would be at an end. + +Back of the house a narrow lane, bordered by a neglected garden and a +cornfield beyond, led out to the distant highway. The Van Deust +brothers were not poor, as the humble style of their home might seem +to indicate; indeed they had the reputation, in all the country +around, of being wealthy, and were, at least, well off. The neglect +and indifference of age in its owners was the sole cause that the +surroundings of the old homestead, which might easily have been made +charming, presented such a picture of disorder and decay. + +Up the little lane, at a very early hour one bright summer morning, +two men might have been seen, driving in a light gig, approaching the +Van Deust mansion. One of them was a stout, ruddy-faced gentleman, of +fifty, or thereabouts, known to everybody in the county as Squire +Bodley. His companion, who held the reins, was a handsome young fellow +of twenty-four or twenty-five years, rustic in personal appearance and +garb, with a good frank open countenance that bore a pleasing +expression of intelligence and good nature. + +"Of course it's only a form, my going to be your security," said the +older man, as they jogged along, "for the Van Deusts know you as well +as I do, and knew your father, Dave Pawlett, before you, and a good +man he was. But still, Lem, I don't know any young fellow in all the +country round about that I'd take more pleasure in serving, even in a +matter of form, than you." + +"Thank you, sir," replied the young man warmly, with a grateful flush +upon his sun-burnt cheeks. "It's very kind of you, I'm sure, and I +can't tell you how much I feel it so. You know I want the lease of +that lower farm, but you don't know how almightily much I want it; and +nobody does but me and--one other person, perhaps." + +"Aha!" responded the Squire, with a chuckle, "I can make a guess about +who the other person is. And some day you and that other person will +be coming to me for a little business in my line, I reckon,--a sort of +mutual life lease, eh?" + +"Well, maybe so, Squire. I hope so," answered Lem, confusedly, and +with a little deeper flush, "But here we are at the gate. Wait a +moment, while I jibe the bow wheels and make the horse fast." + +As he spoke, he jumped lightly out of the vehicle, turned the horse a +little to one side, so as to make the descent of his companion more +convenient, and, after hitching the reins to a fence-post, accompanied +the Squire to the door of the house. There was no sound, or sign, as +yet, of any of the inmates of the old homestead being astir. + +"Well, they must be late risers here," soliloquized the Squire, as Lem +rapped and called at the door. + +At the end of a few minutes, a voice answered indistinctly from +within: "Who's there? What d'ye want?" And almost immediately after, +the shutters on the window of a little extension of the house, at the +end farthest from the orchard, were pushed open, and the head of an +aged black woman appeared with the echoing query, "Who dah? Wha' dy'e +wan'?" + +"It's me--Squire Bodley," responded that gentleman, answering the +first inquirer. + +Presently the door opened and Peter Van Deust appeared in it; a +weazened, thin little man, with a fringe of gray hair surrounding a +big white bald place on the top of his head, with a well-formed nose +and eyes still bright enough to suggest that he had been a +good-looking young fellow in his day; with lips that quivered, and +long lean fingers that trembled with the weakness of old age; but, +withal, a pleasant smile and a cheery ring, even yet, in his cracked +old voice. + +"Why, Squire!" he exclaimed, as he threw open the door, "I'm real glad +to see you. And Lem! You, too? Well, this is a pleasant surprise-party +for us early in the morning!" + +"It's not so very early, Peter," answered the Squire. "It is almost +seven o'clock." + +"Is that so? Well, I declare! I wonder why Jacob isn't up. He's mostly +an early riser, and as he's the boy amongst us, why we old +folks--Betsy and me--rely on him to wake us up in the mornings. Old +people, you know, get back to being like babies again for wanting +their good sleep. But Jacob has overslept himself this morning, sure. +I'll soon roust him out, though." + +As he spoke he went to a closed door at one side of the central +sitting-room, which was flanked by the separate apartments of the +brothers, and pounding upon it with his bony knuckles, called: + +"Come, Jacob, bounce out, boy! You're late! It's breakfast time, and +we've got visitors. Get up!" + +There was no answering sound from within. He waited a moment, then +knocked again, shouting: "Hello, Jacob! Jake! I say, get up! What' the +matter with you?" + +Still there was no response. The three men waiting, held their breath +to listen, and a vague sense of uneasiness crept over them. The songs +of the blue-birds, and the chirp of the martens; the humming of the +bees; the stamping of the horse hitched to the gig, and the clatter +old Betsy made in opening her door, were all sharply distinct in the +quiet summer morning air; but from the closed room there was no sound +whatever. Peter tried the door, but it did not yield. + +"He's locked his door!" exclaimed the old man, with an intonation of +surprise in his voice. + +"Maybe something has happened to him," suggested Lem. + +"What could happen to him? He was all right last night; never better +in his life. And he's younger than me. But it's queer he should have +locked his door. He don't mostly." He continued rapping and shouting +"Jacob, wake up!" in a more and more anxious tone. + +"The key isn't in the keyhole, I guess," he muttered half to himself, +fumbling at the lock with a bit of stick he picked up from the floor, +"but," stooping down and trying to peer through, "I can't see +anything, because it's all dark inside." + +"Haven't you some other key about the house that will fit the lock?" +asked the Squire. + +"Yes. Mine does, I guess. But I didn't think of it at first. I'll try +it." + +It fitted: the bolt was thrown back, and the door pushed open. The +sunshine darted in and fell, broad and clear, upon a still and ghastly +thing that laid in the middle of the floor--the corpse of an old man, +surrounded by a pool of blood. + +Peter gave a wild cry of horror, and fell back senseless into the arms +of Lem Pawlett, who was close behind him. They laid him on the old +hair-cloth sofa in the sitting-room, called Betsy to attend to him, +and then passed into the chamber he had opened. + +Murder had been done. Jacob Van Deust's skull had been beaten in by +some heavy instrument. One terrible crushing blow had mashed in his +left temple, and let out his little weak old life; but, as if for very +lust of killing the assassin had struck again and again, and the skull +was fractured in several places. The old man, it appeared, had risen +from his bed to meet his murderer, and had been struck down before he +could utter a cry of alarm. The window curtains were down, so that the +room was as yet only lighted from the door; but when those in front +were opened, and a flood of sunlight poured in, there were no +evidences apparent that there had been any struggle between the slayer +and his victim, nor were there at once visible any indications that +robbery, the only cause readily conceivable for the brutal murder of +such an inoffensive old man, had been the purpose instigating the +crime. The contents of the bureau drawers were much tumbled and +disordered, but it was presumable that they were so usually, through +the careless habits of the occupant of the apartment. There were no +marks of blood upon anything they contained, but it was evident that +the murderer had made some attempt at least to wipe his crimsoned +hands upon the old man's shirt after killing him, and that was +probably before he searched the bureau, if indeed he had troubled +himself to ransack it at all. On one pillow of the bed they found the +mark of a bloody hand. Perhaps the assassin was in such haste for +plunder that he groped where the old man's head had lain before +thinking of his bloody hand. Beyond that nothing appeared to them to +show that robbery had been done. + +But when Peter Van Deust had sufficiently recovered to be able to +speak coherently, he said that his brother habitually kept, somewhere +in his room, a wallet containing something over three thousand +dollars, and a bag of coin; how much he did not know. These were +nowhere to be found. + +Lem Pawlett was hastily dispatched by the Squire, soon after the +discovery of the crime, to summon some near neighbors; and as he drove +rapidly along the road, shouting to every person he saw--"Jacob Van +Deust has been murdered!"--it was but a very little while before a +dozen or more men were assembled at the scene of the crime. They were +all innocent, simple-minded folks, who had never seen a murdered man +before, had even been a little skeptical that such an awful thing as +murder was ever really done, except in the big cities where extreme +wickedness was naturally to be expected, and were actually stunned by +the shock of finding themselves in the presence of the evidences of +the perpetration of such a deed. From them, of course, no aid in +finding a clue to the perpetrator of the crime, or divining its real +motive, could have been expected. Yet every man of them was wise in +his own conceit, and among them were furtively exchanged whispers of +such hideous significance that the Squire, when they reached his ears, +felt himself compelled to take notice of and reply to them. + +"The old men have been all the time quarrelling for two months past," +said one to another. + +"Yes," replied he who was addressed. "I've heard 'em myself, cussing +each other over the fortune that was left them." + +"Sam Folsom," added a third, "told me that he'd heard that Peter had +threatened to knock Jake's head off more than once." + +"Oh! I've heard that myself," chimed in another. "And I did hear that +they'd had a regular fight and Jake got the best of it." + +"It's awful that two old men like them, on the edge of the grave, as +you may say, and brothers at that, should quarrel about money." + +"And one for to go and kill the other." + +At this point the Squire, who had overheard much of the preceding +conversation, interposed: "How do you know," he demanded abruptly, +turning on the last speaker, "who killed him?" + +"Well, I dunno exactly, of course," whined the fellow, hesitatingly, +"but it looks mighty like it." + +"Ah! And that pimpled nose of yours, Rufe Stevens, looks mightily like +you were a hard drinker; but you are ready to take your Bible oath +it's nothing but bad humors in your blood." + +There were a few suppressed chuckles at the Squire's retort from those +in the vicinity--for men will laugh even at the smallest things, and +in the very presence of the King of Terrors--and Rufe moved away, +muttering indistinctly. But the Squire's interference and +well-intended reproof had only a momentary effect in diverting the +attention of the neighbors from the evil bent of suspicion their minds +had taken; and they continued exchanging, and possibly augmenting, the +rumors they had heard of differences between the Van Deust brothers, +until the sentiment was general among them that Peter Van Deust should +be at once arrested for the murder of his brother. + + +II. + +ON INFORMATION AND BELIEF. + +That the reader may be properly informed of certain antecedent events +which, as will hereafter be seen, were intimately connected with, and +indeed leading directly to the murder of Jacob Van Deust, it will be +necessary for us to make a brief retrogression in our narrative and to +introduce various other members of that little seaside community who +bore their several important parts in the eventful drama of real life +here in progress of recital. + +Near the close of a day in earliest spring, when the sun, that had not +yet sufficient power to melt the lingering patches of snow that still +laid here and there among the thickets and on northern slopes, was +throwing its last red rays upon the lowering, leaden-tinted masses of +the western sky, two young girls wandered, with their arms about each +other's waists, in the shadows of the woods not far distant from the +village of Easthampton. One of them, somewhat above the medium height +of women, possessed a slender and graceful figure, and a face that, +seen under the large, crimson-lined hood of the cloak with which her +head was covered, appeared almost pure Grecian in its regularity of +feature and delicacy of outline. Her complexion was pale, but the +clear roseate flush of her cheeks, and the brilliancy of youth and +health sparkling in her eyes, demonstrated sufficiently that that +pallidity was simply the added charm with which kindly nature at times +enhances the loveliness of the most beautiful brunettes. The sentiment +expressed by her countenance was serious and earnest, but not sad, for +a faint smile, like the blossoming of some sweet hope, rested upon her +small red lips. Her companion, who seemed to be of about the same +age--not more than eighteen or nineteen years--was of a different +mould; possibly less beautiful, but hardly less bewitching. She was +somewhat shorter of stature and rounder of form, with a face in which +vivacity and determination were happily blended. Her laughing lips +were red and full, a merry mischievous light danced in her blue eyes, +and her hood thrown back upon her neck, left bare a round head covered +with a wavy wealth of brown hair. + +"Now, Mary," said the brown-haired maid, bending forward and looking +up archly in the face of her friend, "let us drop this nonsense of +pretending to look for trailing arbutus, when you know, just as well +as I do, that it will be a week, if not two, before there will be a +sprig of it in bloom; and I know, just as well as you do, that you +called me out for this walk to tell me something about Dorn Hackett, +and for nothing else. Isn't that so, now?" + +"Yes, you sharp little thing. You have guessed rightly, as usual. I +have received another letter from Dorn." + +"A letter from Dorn? The first for over a year, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, dear, it must seem almost like getting one from a stranger." + +"Whalers have so few chances to write home." + +"He has been gone a great while, hasn't he?" + +"It seems so to me, I confess. And three years really is a long time, +isn't it?" + +"Dear me, yes. I wouldn't let Lem go away from me that way. Who knows +but what he might marry somebody else while he was gone? Have you +never been afraid that Dorn would?" + +"Oh, no, Ruth. Never. He loves me too well for that, I know." + +"And you felt just as sure of that when you did not hear from him for +nearly two years?" + +"Yes," replied Mary, with a little hesitation, however: "for I know +the girl whose lover goes a-whaling must have patience; and I have +heard Uncle Thatcher tell a good deal about the countries to which the +whalers go, and I hardly think--" + +"That he would be likely to meet anybody there who would be able to +cut you out. Well, there's some comfort in that reflection, anyway. +But the letter! What does he say for himself?" + +"That he is coming home, Ruth; coming home at last. He is on the way +now. A fast sailing packet-ship brought the letter on ahead, and he +supposed that he would arrive a couple of weeks after I received it." + +"And when he comes you'll get married?" + +"I--hope so," replied Mary, in a little lower tone and with tears +gathering in her eyes. "But you know we are poor; and besides, Uncle +Thatcher--" + +"That, for Uncle Thatcher," exclaimed little Ruth, snapping her +fingers defiantly. "What has he to say about whom you shall marry? +That is a matter which concerns nobody but you and Dorn." + +"My mother, when she was dying in the big city, leaving me all alone, +put me in his charge, you know." + +"Well, what of it? It would be as much as I'd do to let my father and +mother interfere with my marrying any nice young man I liked, and I +don't believe parents can transfer that right--if it is a right--to +anybody. Uncle Thatcher, indeed!" she ejaculated scornfully, with a +toss of her little resolute round head. "What does he want you to do, +anyway? To live and die an old maid, to please him?" + +"No, I have been ashamed to tell anybody heretofore--even you, +Ruth--but he wants me to marry Cousin Silas." + +"That ugly, good-for-nothing cub of his?" + +"Yes; Silas asked me to once, and when I refused him, said that I was +only a pauper living on his father's charity, and threatened to tell +such stories about me that nobody else would have me. He hurt and +frightened me terribly, and Dorn found me in the woods crying about +it. In the fullness of my heart I told him all. I couldn't keep it to +myself when he asked me why I cried. And do you know what he did? He +went right off and gave Silas such an awful pounding that he was laid +up for two weeks." + +"Good! I like Dorn Hackett better than I ever did before. That's just +what I should expect of Lem in such a case." + +"That was the time Silas was reported to be so sick, just before Dorn +went away. He never dared to talk about me as he said he would, I +guess, but as soon as he got well went right off to New York. Uncle +Thatcher blamed Dorn for hurting Silas, and has hated the thought of +him ever since. And oh, Ruth! you don't know what I've had to suffer +from Aunt Thatcher!" + +"Now you just take my advice and put your back right up at her; and as +soon as Dorn comes home, you two go right off and get married, and if +Uncle Thatcher tries to interfere, have Dorn pound him, too--worse +than he did Silas." + +Mary smiled through her tears and replied: "Dorn says he has done well +and talks about buying a share in a coasting schooner--and a +house--and--furniture--and I think he said something about getting +married right away." + +In sympathetic exuberance of joy the two girls embraced and kissed +each other, Ruth exclaiming: + +"And we'll get married on the same day, won't we? And in spite of +Uncle Thatcher, or anybody else, Mary Wallace will be Mrs. Dorman +Hackett, and Ruth Lenox will be Mrs. Lemuel Pawlett. But I wish Lem's +name didn't rhyme with 'pullet' and 'gullet.'" + +The two charming young friends were so busy with their theme that not +until they were close before him, in the little bridle path through +which they wandered, did they notice the presence of a third person: a +smoothly-shaven, little, elderly gentleman, primly dressed in black +and wearing a band of crape upon his tall silk hat. He was upon +horseback, sitting silent and motionless. He had seen the girls slowly +strolling toward him, waited until they almost collided with his +horse's nose and had executed a little concerted scream of surprise, +and then addressed them in a slow, measured and precise manner, +saying: + +"I am endeavoring to find the residence, or residences, of two persons +known as Peter and Jacob Van Deust, supposed to be brothers, who, +according to my present information and belief, reside somewhere in +this vicinity. Can either of you young ladies direct me definitely +upon my way, and if able, will you be so kind as to do so?" + +"Follow the path you are on," answered Ruth, "until you enter the main +road; turn to your right about a quarter of a mile, then go up a lane +that you will see on your left--the first that has an elm tree on each +side of its entrance--and it will lead you straight up to the Van +Deust homestead." + +"I am very much obliged to you for your apparent courtesy and the +seeming accuracy of the details of your information," responded the +little gentleman, with grave deliberation, bending almost to the +horse's mane as he spoke. Then straightening himself, and shaking the +reins, he urged his steed into a gentle trot and soon disappeared in +the gathering evening shades at a bend of the path. + +"'Supposed to be brothers'--indeed!" exclaimed Ruth, when he was out +of sight. "I'm sure their faces will afford him sufficient +'information and belief' on that score when he sees them." + + +III. + +A GOLDEN RAIN. + +The Van Deust brothers sat smoking their pipes in the twilight on the +wide porch of the old homestead overlooking the sea. + +"I met Thatcher to-day when I was over at the village," said the +younger brother, Jacob, "and he wanted to put the ten acre lot in corn +on shares." + +"Well," responded Peter, "I suppose he might as well have it as +anybody. Somebody will have to work it. We are getting too old, Jacob, +for ploughing and such-like hard toil ourselves, and a third will be +all we'll want. What did you tell him?" + +"I didn't give him any definite answer. I wish somebody else would +offer to take the lot. I don't like that Thatcher." + +"Why?" + +"He is a hard, severe-looking old fellow, and I'm sure he treats that +pretty niece of his badly." + +"Oh! He does, eh? And now, Jacob, what the mischief is that to you? +And what has it to do with his putting the ten-acre lot in corn on +shares?" + +"I've seen her crying." + +"Bah! Girls are always crying. They like it. They do it for practice." + +"Peter, you'd kick a boy for throwing stones at a wild bird, wouldn't +you?" + +"That's another matter. Birds are birds, and they're God's creatures; +but women are the devil's creatures, and you'll never see Peter Van +Deust trouble himself to lift his foot to a boy that throws stones at +them. If the girl don't like the treatment her uncle gives her, I +suppose she can find some fellow fool enough to marry her. 'Most any +of 'em can do that." + +"Peter, you shouldn't talk that way. A poor girl has her feelings +about marrying where her liking goes, just as much as a man has." + +"Yah!" snarled Peter, contemptuously, vigorously puffing his pipe, and +for some minutes both men were silent. The younger of the two sank +into a reverie, and awoke from it with a start, when his brother +resumed the conversation, saying: + +"I tell you what it is, Jacob. You were spooney on Mary Wallace's +mother forty years ago, and I'm blessed if I think you have got over +it yet. She threw you overboard then, not for a better looking +man--for you were a fine, trim, sailor-built young fellow in those +days--but for a richer one. She thought--" + +"No, no, Peter! No, no! Don't say that! Don't say that! She didn't +want to marry Wallace. I know she didn't. But her father and mother +compelled her to it. She loved me best, I know she did. But you are +right in saying I haven't got over it, Peter. I never shall. I'll love +her just the same still, if I meet her in heaven. And when I see +Mary's sweet young face, the love that is in my heart for her mother's +memory cries out like a voice from the grave of all my hopes and joys, +and I can hardly keep from taking poor Lottie's child in my arms and +weeping over her." + +"Which, if you were to do, she would think you were crazy, and right +she would be," commented Peter, snarlingly. + +"Hello!" sounded shortly, in a sharp wiry voice, from the little lane +at the back of the house. + +Peter, rising from his bench and going to the end of the porch, +replied with a sailor-like "Aye, aye, sir," to the hail of the +stranger, who was none other than the little elderly gentleman already +encountered by Ruth and Mary in the woods. Without dismounting, the +visitor asked, in a slow and cautious manner, + +"Am I justified in presuming that I am upon the premises of the +parties known as Peter and Jacob Van Deust?" + +"This is where we live," replied Peter, a little puzzled by the +stranger's manner. + +"Pardon me, sir, but your reply is not an answer to my question. Am I +to understand that you are one of the said parties?" + +"I'm Peter, and this is Jacob," responded the elder brother, pointing +with the stem of his pipe at the younger. "But come alongside before +you get off any more of that lingo." + +Methodically and carefully the rider dismounted, fastened his nag to +the fence, and pushing open the little gate, stepped upon the low +porch-floor, where, after an elaborate bow to each of the brothers +separately, he continued: + +"Assuming your affirmation to be correct and capable of substantiation +by documentary evidence, and believing that you are, as you represent +yourselves--or, rather, as one of you has represented--Peter and Jacob +Van Deust, permit me, gentlemen, to have the pleasure of offering you +my congratulations." + +So saying, he raised his tall hat with old-time courtesy, repeated his +bows to the brothers severally, and replaced his beaver with such +exactitude that not a hair of his nicely-brushed wig was disarranged. + +"Congratulations upon what? Upon being Peter and Jacob Van Deust?" +demanded Peter, who began to look upon his visitor as a probably +harmless lunatic. + +"Naturally, sir. For reasons which you shall presently apprehend. Have +you, or have you had, sir, to your knowledge, an uncle named Dietrich +Van Deust?" + +"Yes. It was Uncle Dietrich who went away to the Indies when we were +boys, wasn't it, Peter?" said the younger brother. + +"Yes, and settled somewhere there; I forget where. Batavia, I think, +was the name of the place; but I ain't sure, for it is an age since I +heard from him." + +"Your remembrance is correct, nevertheless, sir," responded the +stranger. "It was in Batavia that he took up his residence, and in +Batavia that he died, at an advanced age, an old bachelor, possessed +of large wealth, as I have been given to understand; and I offer my +congratulations to you, gentlemen, for the reason that you are his +fortunate heirs to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars." + +The mere mention of that stupendous sum, as it seemed to them, fairly, +stunned the two simple-minded old men who received this intelligence. + +"Oh, Peter! It can't be there's so much money," gasped Jacob. + +"Let me turn it over in my mind. Take a seat, sir," said Peter, +pushing forward a stool for the visitor, reseating himself on his +bench and slowly rubbing his forehead. Jacob went out to put away the +little gentleman's horse, and while he was gone Peter relighted his +pipe and smoked in silence. When the younger brother returned, the +visitor resumed the conversation. + +"My name," said he, "is Pelatiah Holden, and my profession that of +counsellor-at-law. Here is my card," presenting one to each of the Van +Deusts, and then continuing: "Four months and fourteen days since, I +received from the firm of Van Gulden & Dropp, of Amsterdam, Holland, +information to the effect that a client of theirs named William Van +Deust was joint heir in the estate of Dietrich Van Deust, deceased, of +Batavia; and they desired me, in order to facilitate the partition of +the estate, to discover two other heirs, nephews of the deceased +Dietrich Van Deust, named respectively Peter and Jacob Van Deust, sons +of Jan Van Deust. + +"That was father's name," interpolated Jacob in an undertone. + +"As I have been already informed, sir, and do not doubt your ability +to establish by legal proof," replied Mr. Holden, bowing gravely to +him and going on with his narration. "Since that time, until three +weeks ago, I have been seeking you, and it has only been during four +days past that I have been satisfied that your claim to be the sons of +Jan Van Deust, and nephews of Dietrich--and consequently inheritors +under the will of the latter--could be legally established. Hence the +apparent delay. But you will perceive, gentlemen, from my explanation, +that I have notified you of the gratifying fact of the bequest, at the +earliest practicable and proper moment." + +Peter nodded silently, not having yet completed, seemingly, the +serious task of "turning it over in his mind." But Jacob effusively +stammered: + +"Oh, we were not in any hurry, sir." + +The lawyer resumed, speaking with the deliberate precision of one who +reads an indictment: "Under the terms of the will, you are to enjoy +this inheritance jointly while you both live, and expend it all, if +you please, but by mutual consent. And should any of it remain at the +time of the demise of either of you, it must descend to the survivor, +untrammelled by any right of bequest on the part of the first +decedent. And no contract, bargain, agreement, stipulation, or +understanding whatever between you, concerning its disposal shall be +made, by which the one surviving may be bound, or influenced in its +administration; and to the fact that he is in no wise so bound, the +survivor must make oath when entering into sole possession, else the +sum so remaining must lapse to residuary legatees belonging to a +remote branch of your family in Holland. What your uncle's intentions +may have been in framing his will in this unusual manner, I do not +pretend to say; nor is it, indeed, my province to inquire; but the +facts are--as I know from an attested copy of the will in my +possession--as I have had the honor of presenting them to you. And +now, gentlemen, permit me to renew my congratulations and express the +hope that you may long be joint possessors of this handsome +inheritance." + + +IV. + +TRUE LOVE. + + "The winds are fair, the sky is bright, + The sails are drawing free, + And loud I sing, my heart is light, + My loves returns to me. + + To the no'nothe east and the sou'sou' west, + And every other way, + He's sailed from the girl that loved him best, + But he comes back to-day. + + "Land ho!" "Land ho!" + "Land on the starboard bow!" + "Land ho!" "Land ho!" + He's in the offing now. + + The nights were dark, the days were drear, + When he was on the deep, + Now night is gone, the day is clear, + And I no more shall weep. + + To the no'nothe east and the sou'sou' west, + And every other way, + He's sailed from the girl that loves him best, + But he comes back to-day. + + "Land ho!" "Land ho!" + "Land on the starboard bow!" + "Land ho!" "Land ho!" + He's in the offing now." + +So sung pretty Mary Wallace, as, sitting at the foot of a little tree, +her favorite haunt and old time trysting-place in the woods, she +abandoned herself to happy anticipations of her lover's return. Each +hour might bring him now. Her bonnet was thrown aside and her black +curls rippled down loosely over her shoulders. Her head was thrown +back into the palms of her hands interlocked behind it, and her +beautiful face, thus upraised, beamed with innocent gladness. And she +sang, as the birds sing, from sheer happiness. + +"He's in the offing now," sang a full, rich, manly voice, joining hers +in the last line of her song, and with a little inarticulate cry of +surprise and joy she sprang to her feet, to be the next moment +enfolded in the strong arms of her sailor lover, back from the sea. + +Dorn Hackett was a fine-looking young fellow, of a size worthy of a +woman's liking, with a handsome, expressive face, hazel eyes, brown +hair, broad and well-balanced head, square shoulders, deep chest, and +such powerful arms as might have served for the model of a Hercules. + +"Why, darling, you are crying!" he exclaimed, as with gentle force he +raised her face from his breast and looked into her eyes. + +"Ah, Dorn, they are happy tears. Do you not know that a woman weeps +when her heart is full, just because it _is_ full, whether it be +filled with joy or sorrow?" + +"Well, you shall never cry for sorrow again, if I can prevent it." + +"Then you will never again leave me for so long a time. Oh, Dorn, it +seemed as if you never would come back; and my heart ached so with +longing for you. You don't know how unhappy I have been sometimes, +while you were away." + +"Why? Has that rascal Silas been making you any more trouble?" +demanded the young man, his eyes blazing, and his hands involuntarily +clenching in sudden anger. + +"No, no, Dorn. He went away very soon after you did, and has not +returned since." + +"Then that uncle of yours, I suppose--" + +"He has been no worse than before; rather better, perhaps as Silas was +not here to be urged upon me and you were gone--none but I knew +where--and, as he no doubt hoped, never to come back. But I begin to +think, sir, that you didn't love me at all as much as you professed, +or you would have felt something of the loneliness that I suffered and +understand better why I was unhappy." + +"Darling, I--" + +"What a foolish girl I have been! Crying my eyes out for one who was +no doubt very merry without me and well contented." + +"Ah! You only say that to make me tell you again how much I love you, +little Mollie. I've felt lonely enough, sometimes, it is true; but +never enough to cry about it, I must confess; and I rather think the +fellow is soft-headed as well as soft-hearted who pipes his eye and +gets down in the mouth when he can say to himself that every day that +passes, and every new exertion he makes, brings him nearer to the girl +he loves. Why, instead of getting blue with thoughts of my far-away +little Mollie, they gave me courage, and strength, and happiness. They +warmed me as I lay along the yard furling sail in the icy gale; they +made short the long hours of the night when I took my trick at the +wheel; they nerved my arm when I struck for the life of a whale." + +"I find myself beginning to believe again that you really did love +me." + +"Love you? Why, I couldn't live without loving you." + +"And you never thought that while you were so long away I might learn +to love somebody else?" + +"No. Never even dreamed of such a thing," he replied simply. + +"Ah! Now I know you loved me, for only perfect love, knowing but its +own fullness and truth, is so trustful. And you were right, dear Dorn. +I could love no one but you." + +"Well, my pet," continued Dorn, after the natural ceremonial of due +recognition of such a sweet avowal--the form and manner of which +youthful readers may readily figure to themselves, and older ones +perhaps find suggested by memory--"we'll not have much longer to wait +now. Our cruise was a good one, and when the shares are figured up and +paid off, I'll have a handsome little sum coming to me. Then an owner +in New Haven, Mr. Merriwether, wants me to take immediate command of a +schooner trading between that port and the West Indies, and has +offered me such a pretty share of the profits that I have agreed to +make a few trips for him. Then I shall have enough to build a cage for +my bird, and to buy, not simply a share in a schooner, but a whole +schooner--all by myself, I hope, and we will be made folks for life." + +"Oh! You're going away again, Dorn?" + +"Yes, but only for short voyages of a month or so at a time, and I'll +be over to see my little Mollie every time I'm in home port; and in +the fall, if not before, we'll be married. No more long voyages for +me." + +"I'm so glad to hear you say that, dear; and I can wait patiently, +even happily, when I may see you sometimes." And, possibly for +happiness still, the girl began crying softly again. + +"Come, come, little Mollie," said her sailor lover, consoling her with +a kiss, "there's no occasion to rig the pumps in such fair weather as +this." + +Mary smiled through her tears, and dried her eyes. + +"Now," he continued, "let me hear your voice, darling. Tell me +something." + +"What shall I tell you?" + +"Tell me again if you still love me." + +For answer she put her arm around his neck, drew his face down to +hers, and kissed him. What words could have been so complete and +eloquent an assurance as that chaste and tender caress? + +"My own dear little wife," he exclaimed, embracing her passionately. + +"Don't call me 'wife' until I am one," she said, with assumed +earnestness, "for I'm told it's unlucky." + +"Well, maybe it may be," he answered slowly and doubtingly. "There's +no denying that there is something in luck. Every sailorman knows +there are unlucky things, such as sailing on a Friday, and drowning a +cat, and lots more, and that may be so. Well, I won't take any chances +on it. But I've thought of you for eleven hundred days and nights as +my little wife, and the words sprang naturally to my lips. Still I'll +try not to call you so any more until we are married." + +"And to prevent any harm from your indiscretion I suppose I must use +the counter-charm." + +"And that is--?" + +"To call you," and winding her arms again about his neck she whispered +in his ear, "my big husband." + +And then, of course, there were more suitable ceremonials, endearments +and caresses, and mutual protestations of undying affection, such as +young people so circumstanced have always made, make yet, and +doubtless will make to the end of time. + +How very short the time seemed to the lovers from the moment of their +meeting until by a glance at the stars, the true sailor's clock, Dorn +saw that it was near the hour for him to leave Elysium and hasten to +join a shipmate, who was waiting for him in a light sail-boat off +Napeague Inlet, to take him back to New London and the stern realities +of life. And so, after a final settlement as to the probable time of +his return from his first West Indian voyage; and a little more +previsionary talk about the happiness of which they were so well +assured the enjoyment in the coming autumn; and consequently more +love-making and caressing, all of which could have no interest for +anybody but themselves, the lovers parted. + + +V. + +THE POISON OF GOLD. + +There was no difficulty whatever in establishing the identity of the +Van Deust brothers, and no obstacles were interposed to prevent their +entering into possession of their fortune as speedily as the forms of +law and the time requisite for communication with Holland would +permit; for in those days it had not yet become a branch of the legal +business to stir up vexatious will contests, based upon the fictitious +claims of presumptive heirs, in order that lawyers might fleece the +real inheritors. Even before the money arrived from Holland Peter +wanted a few thousand dollars of it in the house as a tangible +evidence of the reality of their wealth; and Mr. Holden very +cheerfully humored his whim by making him an advance of the required +amount. The old man had no idea of investing the money, or buying +anything with it; but he loved to run his fingers through the +glittering coins from time to time and listen to the mellifluous music +of their chinking; to count, and recount, and pile the yellow discs, +and think what he could do with them if he had a mind to. The unhappy +fact was that this sudden acquisition of wealth had developed a really +miserly disposition in the elder brother. As is very common, +especially among those who only acquire large fortunes late in life, +possession begat in him a longing to possess. He even felt it an +injury that he had been all those years without that money, the +existence even of which he had not known, and for which, now that he +clutched it, he really had not the slightest use. He had never been +one at whom the tongue of scandal might have wagged the reproach of +prodigality, even in his youth; but his jealously careful economy was +greater now than it had ever before been. + +Jacob proposed one day that they should purchase two black broadcloth +suits and crape-bound hats, to be worn as mourning for Uncle Dietrich; +but was completely discomfited by the look of pained surprise with +which Peter regarded him, and the tone in which he replied: + +"Now, Jacob, would you go to making ducks and drakes of our little +money in that way, and at your time of life?" + +No, Jacob resigned his idea of a tribute to Uncle Dietrich's memory, +and penitently declared he really had no notion of becoming a +spendthrift; and thereafter he uncomplainingly and unquestioningly +left his elder brother to the sole administration of their joint +wealth. + +When the bulk of their inheritance arrived and was placed in the hands +of Mr. Holden for investment on bond and mortgage in New York, that it +might yield more dollars to covetous Peter's longings, then the old +man's troubles indeed began. When he heard of a fire, he trembled to +think that perhaps it was property mortgaged to the Van Deust Fund +that was burned. When he read of a bankruptcy he shuddered for fear +that the delinquent might have been indebted to the Van Deust Fund. +When he had no bad news, then his anxiety was even greater, for at +times he was capable of thinking it possible that worthy little Mr. +Holden might have run away with the Van Deust Fund bodily. All this +made him a very uneasy and unhappy old man. Jacob's kinder and more +trustful nature gave place to none of those anxieties, and Peter +resented his seeming indifference to the Van Deust Fund. + +"Jacob," said he, one day, "we might live to see the Fund doubled." + +"Well, Peter, if it were, what more good would it do us?" + +The elder brother felt almost sick with disgust at that unambitious +reply, and said that he felt so. + +Thus it was that Peter's temper, never a remarkably sweet one, became +so sour that meek old Jacob grew to look upon him with actual dread +and would shun him, or sit looking askance and timidly at him, when +they smoked together on the porch in the evenings, in the habit but +not the content of former days. And, seeing this, a new suspicion +entered Peter's soul to plague him. + +"I suppose," said he, one day, with a grim smile, "that you think +because I'm the oldest, I'll die first." + +"Now, now, Peter, my dear Peter! I assure you I never had such a +thought," protested horrified Jacob. + +"Oh, it's only natural you should. I don't blame you. But I'm good for +a good many years yet, Jacob; a good many years yet." + +"I trust and fervently hope and pray, brother Peter, that you may be +good for very many years to come." And the tender-hearted old man's +voice trembled, and his eyes were moist as he spoke. "Why," said he, +"to think of your dying, Peter, gives me a--a--a--" + +"An idea, eh?" + +"No, no, Peter, not at all that. No. A cold shudder, I meant; but you +startled me so I couldn't think of the word. After all the many years +we have lived together, all by ourselves, with no other companions and +hardly any other friends than each other! Why, Peter, if I were to +lose you, I'd want to die myself, right off." + +"Humph. Not you. I know what you'd want to do a heap more. And I don't +blame you. Oh, no. It's natural for you. But I know." + +"Know what?" + +"I know what you'd do with the Fund if I was out of the way." + +"Then you know much more, Peter, than I should know, even if I had it +in my hands, to do what I pleased with this blessed minute." + +"Why, you'd be a special Providence for the women. That's what you'd +be, you soft old noodle. You'd give it away to the young ones that +wanted to marry, like Mary Wallace; to the middle-aged ones who were +sorry they had married, like Mrs. Richards. Oh, you don't think I've +noticed and understood your hinting 'how poor she was,' and 'how hard +she must find it to get along with her five small children and +deserted by her worthless husband;' and I've no doubt, if the truth +were known, he had some good reasons for leaving her. And you'd give +it to the old ones, just because they were old women. You'd give a lot +of it to Mary Wallace, for her mother's sake, I've no doubt. Oh, yes. +Beautiful ideas you'd have, and fine things you'd do with the Fund if +I was out of the road." + +"If I should do all that you have said, brother, I think the Fund +would be doing a great deal more good than it does now." + +"Aha! There! You admit it! I knew it! But you needn't think you'll +ever get the chance. I'll live to bury you yet." + +By this time he had worked himself up into a veritable passion; his +lean old fingers trembled with the agitation of his wrath, and his +perverted senses were deaf and blind to the loving kindness of Jacob's +meek and gentle response, "And I hope, Peter, that you may." + +"You don't. You're a hypocrite," he retorted, furiously. Jacob looked +at him sadly, shook his head, and after lighting his pipe in silence, +strolled away for his evening smoke to the woods, where he was wont to +retire when Peter made the house too warm for him. + +But the crushed worm, proverbially at least, eventually turns; and one +day the younger brother, badgered beyond endurance by those +oft-repeated taunts and reproaches, which were always accompanied by +cruel raspings of the old wound in his heart, faced his tormentor and +replied: + +"Well," he said, "take it by and large, and I think if I should do all +that you have said with the money I'd make a better use of it than +you'd be likely to." + +"What do you know about what I'd do with it?" + +"No more than you know what I would; but I've got just as good a right +to guess as you have." + +"Well, what do you 'guess'?" retorted Peter, with a sneering wicked +grin. + +"Why, I imagine that as long as you lived you would hang on to every +penny of it, like an old miser as you are, and when Death loosed the +greedy clutch of your avaricious fingers from it, it would be +discovered that you had left it all to found a home for worn-out, +dried-up, useless, ill-natured old animals such as we are, creatures +who have outlived all love but that of self, and deserve no other; men +who, like you, have no without a blush for what they are, and a sigh +for what they might have been." + +"Jacob, you're a chuckle-headed ass." + +"Peter, you're a soulless old curmudgeon, and a brute." + +"Don't you talk to me like that. For two cents I'd knock your head +off." + +"For a money consideration I've no doubt you'd try it; but I'll bet +you a thousand dollars you can't knock one side of it off." + +"You'll bet a thousand dollars! I'd like to know where you'd get 'em." + +"Right in the house. Half the money that's there belongs to me. It all +belongs to me just as much as to you." + +"Oh, indeed! And you'd like to knock me in the head and get possession +of it, wouldn't you?" + +"No. But I'd like to jam some sense into your thick skull, and bleed +out some of the meanness and selfishness that fills your heart." + +"Faw de Lo'd's sake. Is you boys a qwa'lin'?" demanded old black +Betsy, coming up on the porch; and they slunk away ashamed before her. + +But when Jacob had once "read the Declaration of Independence," as he +styled his self-assertion against Peter's domineering disposition, he +soon fell into the habit of repeating the precedent, and as Peter did +not willingly or easily relinquish his sovereignty--the prerogative of +seniority in his opinion--they had many a wordy wrangle, and not +infrequently uttered to each other such threats as might well have +seemed ominous if overheard by strangers. And they were overheard, and +their quarrels were repeated and magnified in circulation from mouth +to mouth; so that it was not long before it became matter of common +notoriety in the community that the two old men had actually had +knock-down fights; and once, when Peter was laid up with the +rheumatism, and Jacob was nursing him most tenderly and +assiduously--notwithstanding the invalid's temper was just then even +worse than usual--it was popularly believed that the elder brother had +been almost killed by the younger in a bloody combat, and there were +those who even talked of "speaking to the squire about it." But the +brothers never did come to blows, and the only immediate result of +their quarrels was a formal division between them of the money on hand +in the house, after which it was allowed to lie in two parts, as +useless as it before was in one. Jacob indeed had some idea of giving +his share to Mary Wallace, but could not exactly make up his mind upon +what pretence or with what excuse to offer it, and feared to offend +her. + +One day he sat on a little mossy bank by the roadside when she passed +him, coming from the woods with a bunch of wild flowers in her hands +and going toward her uncle's house. She was close to him, but did not +see him. Her thoughts were upon her absent lover, and in the +exaltation of her happiness she was oblivious to all about her but her +own joy. The old man's eyes were upon her, however, reading her secret +in her countenance transfigured by love and hope. Ah! how her look +brought back her mother's face to his remembrance. + +"Little she would care," he said softly to himself, "for the money +now. She has love; and that is better than gold." + + +VI. + +WHAT WOULD STEADY SILAS. + +But when approaching her home, Mary controlled her countenance and was +quite demure. The happy ones do well to hide their felicity, lest the +envy it would beget should make the world intolerable. And about Uncle +Thatcher's house there was an atmosphere that made very easy the +repression of joyous emotion. It was a square frame dwelling, two +stories high, in a bare sandy yard surrounded on three sides by a +rickety fence of rails and on the forth--the front--by palings, with a +gate in the middle of them. There were no shutters on the windows, +that looked like great staring dead eyes, sometimes with a blaze of +fury in them when the sun, low in the west, glared upon them; and +there was no porch, but only a big stone for a step at the door. There +were no vines trailing against the walls; no flowers in the yard, but +only weeds in the fence corners; and no trees. Everything that might +have adorned or softened the expression of the place was lacking. The +birds always flew swiftly by it and never stopped there to sing. + +At one end of this cheerless home was a crumbling well-curb, to which +came often, to draw water, a tall, gaunt, sallow and slatternly woman, +who continually wore a sun-bonnet and had her sleeves rolled up on her +lean sinewy arms. A tangled wisp of unkempt sandy hair never failed to +dangle below the curtain of the sun-bonnet on the back of her neck. +That woman was Aunt Thatcher. + +Behind the house, and separated from it by a stable-yard, knee-deep in +time of rain, with muck and foul green water, stood an old barn, from +which was diffused a dull but quite perceptible odor of animal +decomposition, arising out of a great pile of crude whalebone, or +"ballein", and some barrels of whale oil. Uncle Thatcher was captain +of a shore whaling company, and in his barn those articles were +generally stored until they could be sent to market. The "ballein" +needed to be kept some time, for cleaning, scraping, and splitting +before it could be sold. + +As Mary reached the gate, she stood still for a few minutes, +contemplating the scene of thriftlessness and apparent poverty before +her; a picture for which, as she well knew, no good reason existed in +fact, for Uncle Thatcher was by no means a poor man. As captain of the +whaling crew, his annual gains were considerable. Then he owned a +fishing smack and a large share in a big coasting schooner that plied +from Sag Harbor, both of which paid him well. But better than either +of those to him was an industry, the nature and importance of which +Mary little understood, although she suspected something of its +mysteries. At certain times each month Uncle Thatcher and one +particular neighbor used to go fishing in a stout whaleboat rigged +with a sail, on moonlit nights, and upon those occasions they were +almost always lucky enough to find one or two casks of rum--doubtless +washed overboard from some vessel homeward-bound to New Haven from the +West Indies. (It was wonderful how many casks of rum were thus lost +overboard in those days, just off Napeague Inlet.) Or, by the +accidental use of a grapnel, they would chance to fish up some bottles +of valuable "bay-oil" from the bottom. Uncle Thatcher used to bury +that treasure-trove in the sand, back of his barn, and it always +mysteriously disappeared at night, when nobody was watching it. Yet he +never seemed to take those losses to heart, but would find and bury +more rum and bay oil, in the same place, to be lost in just the same +way. "Smuggling, eh?" Well, yes. But they didn't call it that. They +spoke of it as "finding and saving things." + +While Mary stood at the gate, Uncle Thatcher himself sat upon the +stone door-step, sharpening with a whetstone the edge of a +"blubber-spade"--a sort of huge long-handled chisel, used to cut a +whale's blubber from his carcass and into strips. He was a tall man, +wirily and powerfully built, past middle-age, but still bearing well +his years. His gray eyes were overhung by exceedingly bushy iron-gray +brows; his nose was large and beak-shaped; his lips, thin and +straight; his ears wide and thick; and his hands big and bony, with +thick fingers, flat at the ends and having great joints. + +Looking up from his work, he demanded of the young girl, in a tone of +querulous surprise, "Where on earth have you been? I've been looking +everywhere for you to turn the grindstone." + +"I'm ready to do it now, uncle," responded Mary, evading a reply to +his question by the prompt proffer of her services. + +"Oh, I don't need you now. Your aunt turned it." + +He gave a few rubs of the whetstone on the shining blade, in an +absent-minded way, and then laying the long spade across his knees, +and looking sharply at Mary, said slowly, as if carefully choosing his +words: + +"You don't get used to our way of living out here on the beach, do +you, Mary? You'd rather be back in the city, where you lived when you +were a little girl, wouldn't you?" + +"Oh, no, uncle. My memories of the city do not make me wish to return +to it. Papa and mamma died there, and after we lost papa we had to +live in a very poor part of the city, where the tall houses hid the +sunshine, and the air was always bad, and there was so much misery, +and dirt, and sickness all about us. Oh, I loathed it as a child, and +it makes me almost sick to think of it now. No, I do not wish to go +back to the city. I like best the bright sunlight and the pure ocean +breezes. I love even the storms." + +"But if you could live in a nice place in the city?" + +"No. I think I would be afraid to go back there now." While talking +she had advanced from the gate, and now stood near her uncle. + +"Sit down here beside me, Mary. I want to talk to you a little," said +he. + +She obeyed, trembling slightly, for she felt a vague presentiment that +he proposed pressing a subject that she dreaded. But he was slow to +begin, seemed to hesitate, and relapsed into thought while he pared +his already stubby nails upon the sharp edge of the blubber-spade. At +length, he "made out his bearings" and opened the attack. + +"You know," he said, "that Silas has been a little wild, perhaps, in +days gone by, as a young man of spirit is most likely to be; but I +hope you have no hard feelings against him on account of his +foolishness that time. You know he was only a boy, then; and he was, +as you may say, carried away with you, and all struck of a heap when +you gave him the mitten so plainly. Maybe he deserved all he got that +time, and I guess it done him good; so we'll call that square and let +by-gones be by-gones. Is that your idea?" + +"Yes, uncle," answered Mary timidly, in a low voice. + +"Give us your hand on it." + +With a little smile the girl extended her hand, which Uncle Thatcher +took very seriously, and treated to a solemn pump-handle-like shake. + +"And now here's the point," he went on, still holding her fingers; +"Silas is going to settle down and be steady. He wrote to me about +three months ago, from Boston, and said he'd got work there as a +ship-carpenter, and had quit his wild ways, and wasn't going to call +on me for any more money. Well, he has kept his own word about the +money, and by that I judge he's all right, earning an honest living, +and doing as he said. But he likes living in the city better than down +here on the beach. And now do you know what would do more than +anything else to keep him steady?" + +Mary shook her head. She had an idea of what he meant, but did not +wish to encourage him in the direction he was tending. + +"A good wife would," said Uncle Thatcher very decidedly. + +"Then I hope he will succeed in finding one in Boston," replied the +girl, with purposeful evasion of the direct attack. + +"That's not my idea. I don't want him to marry a Boston girl. I've got +my eye on a girl who I know is all that a good wife should be, the +very one that Silas ought to have. You know who I mean. It's you, +Mary." + +"A girl should never marry a man she doesn't love, uncle, and I don't +love Silas." + +He bit his lips, was silent for a moment, and then resumed: "You're +only a girl, yet, and can't rightly be expected to know your own mind; +and besides, it's three years since you have seen Silas. You don't +know how you might feel towards him if you were to see him again now." + +She shook her head, for she thought she did know very well, as she +mentally put Silas and Dorn in contrast, but did not answer. + +"I hope," he continued, viewing her with a little growing suspicion, +"that you've got over that childish notion you had once about that +young Hackett chap. He's gone, the Lord knows where, and I'll be +bound, never thinks of you any more. Now, if you marry Silas, I can +give you a good start in life. I'm not poor, and if you and Silas +prefer to live in the city, why I'll furnish a house for you there +nicely, and start him in some business, and--" + +"Oh, no, no, uncle! Please do not talk any more about it. I can't +marry Silas. Indeed, I can't." + +Uncle Thatcher's face crimsoned with anger, but he restrained himself, +and said: "Ah, I suppose you still think that young Hackett will come +back of the same mind that he went away. Aha! Not he! Those young +sailor chaps have a wife in every port. And he'd better not come +snooping around here, if he does come back, or I'll--" + +Suddenly breaking off his speech, he sprang to his feet, clutched his +hat from the ground, and started off for the beach, running at the top +of his speed. His quick eye had seen, afar off upon the bluff +overlooking the sea, a man on horseback, who waved, with excited +gestures, a small red flag. + + +VII. + +PURSUIT AND CAPTURE. + +As Uncle Thatcher ran, so ran his neighbors. Bounding across fields, +leaping fences, rolling down the sandy face of the bluff, they arrived +breathlessly before a small wooden hut at the foot of a sand dune, a +little distance up from the edge of the beach--the boat-house of the +whaling company. Their captain, having good legs and wind, timely +notice and the shortest distance to travel, was, as usual, first to +reach the goal, and by the time the crew arrived, had already thrown +open the large double doors which constituted the entire front of the +hut, revealing within a completely fitted whale-boat that stood +chocked upon ways that ran down into the surf. There was too much +excitement, and too little breath among the eager men who joined him, +for waste of words. Each knew his place and busied himself with the +duties pertaining to it. One looked to the harpoons. Another saw that +the lance was in its place, and the lashing of its wooden cap thrown +off. A third was careful to see that the long line, nicely coiled in +its tub, was free from loops or kinks in the coil. By this time all +the crew were assembled, and grasping the thwarts of the boat, from +beneath which the chocks were kicked out, ran her swiftly down to the +water's edge and launched her, springing in over her sides as she rode +out upon a receding wave. Uncle Thatcher sat in the stern. The bow oar +was held by Lem Pawlett, a sturdy young fellow who had earned by his +strength, skill, and courage the envied post of harpooner. + +Once launched, the men rested on their oars a few moments, and looked +up inquiringly to the man on horseback, as if awaiting a signal from +him. During this brief period of inaction, a little good-natured +chaffing passed between the younger men in the boat and their +disappointed neighbors who came too late to take places at the oars. +All belonged to the same company, but only the first comers were, by +their rules, allowed to man the boat. The crew would have fatigue, +peril, possibly death to encounter, but they would also have the +excitement of the chase and a somewhat greater share of the profits, +in the event of success, than those who remained behind; so there was +always a great effort made by every man to be first to catch the +signal of the mounted lookout, who was on the bluffs all day long--and +first, if possible, to reach the boat-house. + +"Aha! There's Dan!" exclaimed one in the boat. "This is the third +time, hand-running, that he has missed going out. It looks as if he +was afraid since we tackled that finback." + +"If you couldn't run any better than you can row, I'd beat you here +every time," retorted Dan. + +"I dreamed last night of rolling a bar'l of oil," remarked a +middle-aged man in the crew, "and I'd a swore this morning that I'd be +after a whale before the day was over. I never knowed it to fail." + +"And then," answered one on shore, "you came down and sat on the beach +all day, waiting for the signal. It isn't fair to play dreams on the +rest of us that way, is it boys?" + +"No. We've got to pull him out of bed at daylight hereafter, and swear +him on what he dreamed the night before." + +"You'd better not try it. I keep a gun." + +"But you don't know how to load it. You want to come right out of that +boat now, and start fair, Billy." + +"I'll run you fifty yards on the beach for your place, Billy." + +"That wasn't what the dream meant, Billy." + +"What did it mean then?" + +"Why, that you were going to find a bar'l of rum in the Napeague sedge +next light of the moon." + +There was a general laugh, for Billy's operations against the peace +and dignity of the customs authorities were, like those of Uncle +Thatcher, an open secret among his neighbors. + +Suddenly Uncle Thatcher raised his hand, and all were silent, turning +their eyes to the man on the bluff, who was looking through a glass +out upon the sea, while holding his little red flag extended at arm's +length and still. After a few moments he raised the bit of bunting +twice above his head, held it motionless for an instant, pointing +toward the east, then waved it once. + +"She blows and breaches two points south of east, and a mile away," +exclaimed Uncle Thatcher, translating the language of the flag. "Pull, +boys! Pull away!" + +With arrow-like swiftness the boat darted from the shore; but hardly a +sound, as the oars plied rapidly in the rowlocks and the ashen blades +bent in the heaving billows, could have been heard a half-dozen yards +away. Nearer and nearer they drew to the whale, and by this time the +rowers were panting with their exertions; but not a man lost his +stroke, and not a word was uttered save the captain's low and earnest +caution: "Harder a port." Although so close to the monster that they +could hear it blow, not one of the crew turned his head. + +"Up bow!" commanded the captain. + +In an instant Lem Pawlett, throwing his oar into the boat, was upon +his feet, with a harpoon poised in both hands above his head, his face +toward the bow. He was within four or five fathoms of the whale. +Another stroke of the oars reduced the distance to two; and then, with +a mighty effort, he launched the keen-pointed iron into the huge, +black, shining mass that lay before him. Quick as thought the +harpooner was in his seat, oar in hand, ready to respond to the +instantaneously given order, "Back all!" And the boat seemed to spring +away from its dangerous proximity to the whale, almost as if its +motion was a recoil from Lem's powerful stroke. The huge creature, +thus rudely startled, leaped clear of the water, in sudden fright and +pain; then darted straight downward toward the bottom. And now ensued +the most anxious moments of the chase. The line attached to the +harpoon ran out from its coil in the tub abaft of 'midships, around +the logger-head astern, and thence forward, between the men as they +sat at their oars, and over a roller in the bow, following the fleeing +whale so fast that it fairly hissed. Lem sat ready with a hatchet in +his hand to cut it, if necessary, as it might at any moment be, to +save a man's life. For, should a kink or loop occur in that swift +speeding rope, and catch one of the crew by arm, or leg, or neck, it +would either kill him at once or hurl him, like a stone from a sling, +into the sea, were it not quickly severed. + +Fortunately for his hunters, nature has placed the whale under two +serious disadvantages. His field of vision is so limited, owing to the +position of his eyes, that it is not difficult to approach him closely +if his pursuers are cautious to keep back of his flukes; and he must, +from time to time, come to the surface to breathe. However deep and +far he may plough his way beneath the waves, his enemies know that it +is only a question of time when he will have to come up and subject +himself to another attack; and however mighty his energies, he must +eventually succumb, if the harpoon holds and the line is not cut. + +Down, down went the tortured animal, until the men began to cast +anxious glances at the supply of line remaining in the tub. But +presently the speed slackened. The whale was coming up again. Having +once more taken breath, and made a violent but vain effort to shake +himself free by beating the waves with his huge flukes and tail, the +leviathan started off at his highest speed, swimming near the surface. +The boat, following in his wake, dragged along with such velocity that +great sheets of water and crests of foam leaped from her bows, and the +crew were drenched with spray. Suddenly he again "sounded," as his +diving toward the bottom is technically termed by whalers. But this +time his stay beneath the surface was less prolonged. He was becoming +exhausted. Still he continued to make prodigious struggles to escape. + +At length he lay quivering upon the surface, resting. Swiftly, once +more, the boat approached him, and Uncle Thatcher, jumping from his +place at the stern, stepped lightly forward upon the seats, carrying +the lance, a long, keen-edged and pointed blade of steel. It is the +post of honor, which belongs of right to the officer in command of a +whale-boat, to give the _coup-de-grace_ to the whale, to launch this +steel "into his life." With strong and practiced arms Uncle Thatcher +drove the weapon deep into the monster's vitals, and so quick was he +that he was enabled to strike with effect a second time before the +"flurry," or death-struggle, began, and the boat again backed away. As +if mad with agony and despair, the dying mountain of flesh beat the +water about him into foam; rushed frantically to and fro, seeming to +seek his enemies; rolled over and over; all the while, whenever he +spouted, throwing crimson torrents of his life-blood into the air. +Gradually he became weaker and weaker; at last was still. The victory +was won. + +Slowly and laboriously the crew towed the enormous carcass to the +beach, followed closely by the back fins of several large sharks, +attracted to the place by the scent of the whale's blood. + + +VIII. + +SILAS'S FRIEND FROM BOSTON. + +A novel and animated scene was presented at the beach the night after +the capture of the whale. On a grassy little plateau that sloped +gently down between two low sand-dunes toward the sea, was erected a +rude shed, beneath which, set in brick-work furnaces over bright wood +fires, were two huge kettles for the "trying out" of the oil from the +whale's blubber. Aboard whaling ships it is customary to leave the +blubber to "ripen" for several days, in close rooms, before it is put +into the kettles, as this, it has been ascertained, increases the +yield of oil; but the shore whalemen rarely do this. They simply begin +at once with the tenderest and most easily treated portions, and by +the time they get through, unaccustomed olfactories in the vicinity +generally attest that the "ripening" process has been perfected. + +Half-a-dozen boys fed the furnaces--first with wood, and later with +blubber "scraps," or "cracklings." When not doing that, they scuffled +with each other, wrestled on the grass, shouted with gleeful +excitement, and unceasingly munched corn and doughnuts cooked in the +boiling oil. By the ruddy light of a bonfire before the shed, men cut +in strips, with blubber-spades, the enormous masses and slabs of fat, +stripped off the whale's carcass down in the surf, and dragged up here +on a low, broad-wheeled wagon, drawn by two scraggy horses. Other men +carried those strips inside the shed, where one who sat at a raised +bench, with a two-handled knife, "minced" them for the kettles. Still +others tended the kettles; skimming out, from time to time, the crisp, +brown "cracklings," and adding other masses of fat in their stead; +sometimes ladling the oil into barrels. When not otherwise busy, they +chewed cracklings. Several women came with panfuls of sweet dough, +twisted in curious shapes, which, when thrown into the seething oil, +were quickly converted into the toothsome doughnuts in which the boys +so much delighted. + +At one side laid a great pile of black, fibrous, ragged-looking +material, dug from the mouth of the whale, the "ballein," which, when +carefully cleaned, dried, split, and otherwise prepared, is known as +the whalebone of commerce and corsets. + +The work went on with unabated vigor all that night, and all the next +day, and gave promise of continuing even three or four days longer, +for the "trying out" of the oil from a big whale, as this one was, is +no light task. + +On the evening of the second day a well-dressed stranger appeared at +the scene of operations, inquiring for Mr. Thatcher; and upon finding +the grim old veteran--who had as yet taken no rest since starting in +pursuit of the whale--introduced himself as a friend of Silas's, from +Boston, and expressed an earnest desire to meet the young man. + +"Why, he is in Boston," said Uncle Thatcher. + +"He was, but has left there, and I expected to meet him here," replied +the stranger. + +"Here?" + +"Yes. I was out of town when he went away, rather suddenly, and so did +not see him, unfortunately. But he left word for me that he was going +to New York to look for a better job, and would pay a visit to his +father's on the way." + +"So you knew him well in Boston, did you?" + +"Yes; oh, yes; knew him very well. He was quite a friend of mine." + +"He was doing well, I suppose? Working and keeping steady?" + +The father's voice faltered slightly; he hesitated a little, and +picked up a bit of crackling, which he munched as a cover to his +anxiety, while he looked wistfully at the stranger. + +The man from Boston seemed just a little embarrassed, but only for an +instant, when he answered very reassuringly: "Steady? Oh, yes. Steady +as a deacon." Muttering to himself, "some deacons, at least." + +"Working at ship-carpentering, I believe?" + +"Oh, yes. Certainly. A fine ship-carpenter he is, too." + +"When did you see him last?" + +"H'm. Well, let me see. It must have been--yes, it was two weeks ago +yesterday. I'm quite disappointed not to find him here." + +"He may have stopped over somewhere on the road a day or two; and if +you're in no hurry, and will wait for him, you are welcome to stop +with me. I'll give you Silas's own room." + +"Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Thatcher; but I have already made +other arrangements. I have promised to go over and stop with a friend +in the village, and after I have looked on a little while at your very +interesting industry here, I think I'll go back there, and return +to-morrow. Silas may have come by that time." + +"Very well. Suit yourself, sir, Mr. ----; I didn't rightly catch your +name--Mr. ----?" + +"Ketchum, Mr. Thatcher, Ketchum." + +"Mr. Ketchum. Glad to know you, Mr. Ketchum. Glad to know any friend +of my son Silas's." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"Make yourself as comfortable as you can, and will you have a little +something to take, to keep the cold out?" + +Mr. Ketchum said he would not object to having "a little of something +to take," and Uncle Thatcher brought it out of a fence corner, from +among the weeds, in a stone jug, with a corn-cob stopper. But Silas's +friend from Boston was surprised to find that the jug contained +delicious "double-canned" St. Croix rum, old and of magnificent +flavor, and very accurately and shrewdly thought to himself, "These +beach-combers never paid the duty on liquor like that; smugglers here, +I'd bet my life." + +He went over and stood near the kettles. + +"Was this considered a very large whale?" he asked the man who was +stirring the oil. + +"Well, pretty fair-sized." + +"What do you call pretty fair-sized?" + +"Well, a whale eighty feet long is a pretty fair size." + +"Was this one eighty feet long?" + +"No." + +"How long was he, then?" + +"About sixty-five feet." + +"Do you ever really get them eighty feet long?" + +"Oh, yes. I've killed whales ninety feet long." + +"I've seen 'em a hundred feet long," volunteered the man who was +mincing the blubber. + +"I've know'd 'em to be a hundred and twenty feet long in the Indian +Ocean," put in another, lifting a pile of minced blubber on a +four-tined fork, and tossing it into a kettle. + +"Whales is ketched a hundred and fifty feet long," said a +solemn-looking man, who stood leaning on the handle of his +blubber-spade just outside the shed. + +A little silence fell upon the group, which Mr. Ketchum was the first +to break, again addressing the man at the kettle, asking him: + +"How much oil will you get out of this one?" + +"About eighty bar'ls, I guess." + +"He must have been pretty fat." + +"Well, so-so." + +"How much have you obtained from one whale?" + +"I've seen a hundred bar'ls took." + +"I've helped to 'try out' one hundred and fifty bar'ls from one +whale," said the mincer. + +"Right whales, full-grown, not uncommon gives one hundred and +seventy-five bar'ls, and sperms has been known to give as high as two +hundred and twenty," spoke up the man with the fork. + +The solemn blubber cutter once more came to the front, leaning on his +spade, and said oracularly: "I've know'd 'em yield two hundred and +fifty bar'ls." + +The relators of solid facts inside the shed perceived that they had no +chance as long as that untrammelled person with the blubber-spade had +the advantage of the last call every time, and so relapsed into +taciturnity. + +Uncle Thatcher did not somehow like the look of Silas's Boston friend, +though he could not tell why, and felt relieved when Mr. Ketchum at +length took his departure for the village. But when he went home at +midnight to take a little much-needed rest, he was almost convinced +that he saw the figure of the stranger near a clump of bushes a little +distance from the doorway. + +The next morning Mr. Ketchum came, again, with seemingly unabated +interest in the process of trying out whale's blubber, and remained +about the shed all day, waiting with inexhaustible patience for his +friend Silas. + + +IX. + +THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN. + +That third evening, at an early hour, Uncle Thatcher said that he felt +worn out and believed he would go home to bed, as the little sleep he +had caught the night before had not done him any good. Thereupon Mr. +Ketchum said that he, too, felt tired, and would go back to the +village at once. Yet two hours afterward Mary Wallace saw, near her +uncle's house, a man who, from his description, seemed to be Silas's +Boston friend. Uncle Thatcher became very uneasy. A feeling like a +presentiment of some impending calamity oppressed him and kept him +awake. + +While he lay thus, silent and watchful, by the side of his snoring +spouse, he heard a slight rasping noise, as of a window being +cautiously raised, in an adjoining room at the back of the house. +Rising noiselessly, and passing to the apartment whence the sound +proceeded, he reached it just in time to encounter a man who had that +moment entered by the window and, clutching the intruder, was about to +deal him a blow, when his hand was stayed by the man saying in a +hoarsely suppressed, yet familiar voice: + +"Look out, dad, it's me!" + +Silas had come home. The unhappy father sank down upon a chair and was +silent for a few moments, mastering his agitation before he could +control his voice to demand: + +"Why do you come in this way, like a thief in the night?" + +"I didn't want to wake the family up," answered Silas, in a sulky +tone. + +"Where do you come from?" + +"Boston." + +"Why did you leave there?" + +"I heard of a chance for a better job in New York, and am going down +there." + +"Have you been working steadily in Boston, and behaving yourself as +you promised me you would?" + +"Of course." + +There was a ring of insincerity in the young man's voice that did not +escape his father's notice. + +"Did you expect to meet a friend here?" + +"Why of course, dad; I always expect to meet you as a friend." + +"I mean a friend of yours from Boston." + +"From Boston? No. Why?" + +"There is a man here looking for you; has been here two days; says he +is a friend of yours." + +Silas dropped into a chair and in a low voice muttered an oath. + +"Sit still there until I get a light. I want to have a look at you," +said Uncle Thatcher, rising. + +"No, no, dad. Don't get a light, or--wait a bit. I'll fix it." + +Silas quickly stripped of its blankets a spare bed that stood in the +room and carefully hung them up over the window upon the shade-roller, +so as to prevent any ray of light straggling through to the outside. +His father waited patiently until this preparation was complete and +then went to the kitchen, whence he returned in a few moments with a +lighted candle. + +"Silas, you've been lying to me," was his first exclamation at sight +of his son. + +"Well, what do you want to ask a feller so many questions for?" was +the scapegrace's dogged reply. + +"You have, you young scoundrel. Your face isn't that of an honest +working-man, and your hands--let me see them! Yes, as I expected. +Honest toil makes hands hard, and rough, and big, as mine are. Yours +are not so. Now tell me the truth about what you've been doing, and +what you are up to now--if you can tell the truth--or I'll break your +back, you scamp." + +"Well. There's no use a-makin' a fuss about it. I was at work. Not at +ship-carpentering, but at tending bar. I couldn't get anything else to +do. And I got into a little bit of trouble. That's all." + +"'That's all,' eh? What sort of trouble?" + +Silas hesitated; the old man, as he well knew by experience, was +almost certain to look through his most adroitly constructed lies, and +he did not dare to tell the truth. + +"I didn't do nothin'," said he at length, sullenly. "It was some of +the rest of the boys, and I was mixed up with them, as they were +friends of mine--and--I was afraid of being arrested--by mistake. +That's all." + +"Ah! And 'that's all,' eh? And what did your friends, 'the boys,' do?" + +"I dunno." + +Uncle Thatcher gripped his son by the shoulder and stood silently +regarding him for a few moments, as if debating with himself whether +to carry out his threat or not. Then his hand dropped, and he said: + +"Something tells me not to ask you. You'll either lie to me, or you'll +tell me some truth that, coming from your lips, would sicken my heart +with shame that you are my son." + +"I didn't do nothin', I tell you." + +"No more uncalled-for falsehoods, Silas. You have come here for money, +haven't you?" + +"If you have a few dollars to spare, I'd like to have some. I'm +broke." + +"I don't know why I should waste any more money on you." + +"I've always acted like a friend to you, dad. I could have made a good +stake turnin' up your smugglin' business here, but I never did," +replied Silas in a suggestive tone. + +His father looked at him with a countenance full of disgust, and +answered grimly: "Oh, it's hush-money you're after, is it?" + +"Well, no; I didn't exactly mean that, dad. But I want to borrow a few +dollars." + +"And when you get them, you'll leave?" + +"Yes." + +Uncle Thatcher left the room. As soon as he was alone Silas proceeded +to make a strange toilette. Drawing a bottle of some fluid from his +pocket, he poured its contents sparingly upon a comb that he found on +the bureau and vigorously combed his hair with it. From sandy brown +his head quickly became an intense black. Then hunting up his father's +razor, which he knew was kept in that room, he speedily removed his +red moustache and goatee. While doing this before the mirror, he +noticed his eyebrows and carefully blackened them. Last of all, he put +a false black beard, which he drew from one of his pockets, upon his +chin. + +His father, returning with a roll of bank-notes in his hand, started +with surprise at sight of Silas's transformation, and the look of +disgust deepened on his face; but he made no remark upon it and Silas +wasted no time in offering any explanation. Greedily the young man +clutched the pile of money that was silently extended to him, saying +as he did so: + +"If that friend of mine from Boston turns up again, try to keep him +hanging around here for a few days, if you can, and don't tell anybody +that I've been here. And now I'll be off." + +"Do you wish to see your mother?" + +"No. It's no use. She needn't know I've been here. She'd be sure to +chatter about it. Women are never to be trusted." + +"How are you going?" + +"The way I came." + +"Through the window?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +"Well, it's the most direct road to the boat I've left lying in the +cove, and I don't care about going out at the front door, which my +dear friend from Boston, if he's the man I think he is, will probably +be watching at this moment." + +He made a movement towards the candle to extinguish it. + +"Stop!" said the old man. "Before you go I have a few words to say to +you. This may be the last time I shall ever see you. I am almost +tempted to say that I hope it may be, for fear I may next have to see +you in a felon's cell, or perhaps on the gallows, as I can only expect +a dark and terrible fate for you. I have done all that lay in my power +to make a decent man of you, and what are you? A hunted fugitive, +disguised to evade an officer who seeks to arrest you for some crime, +for such I understand now to be the mission of the man who has been +here inquiring for you. Now, I never want you to come back here, or +remind me of your existence until you can do so in open day, with a +clear conscience and without fear of any man. I have given you there +two hundred dollars, and it's all you'll ever get from me, alive or +dead, if your life does not entirely change. Nor will you ever be able +to squeeze any hush-money from me again. I smuggled, because I was +eager to amass money to leave to my son. I will never do so any more. +That source of income gone will still leave me enough for my lifetime, +which will be sufficient, since I have no hope of you; but I will have +none to waste on a criminal profligate--not another dollar. I'm not a +poor man, it is true, but neither am I rich one, with thousands that I +don't know what to do with, like the Van Deusts. All I have--" + +"Like the Van Deusts?" interrupted Silas. "Have they got so much +money?" + +"All I have," continued the old man without noticing the interruption, +"has been gained by hard work and risk, and you have squandered +viciously enough of my earnings." + +"Where did the Van Deusts get their money?" + +"A distant relative left them a fortune of I don't know how many +thousands. But that is nothing to you. Pay attention to what I am +telling you. Hereafter you will have to provide for yourself. Choose +your own way to do it, but I warn you that you will find an honest way +the best. I did hope to see you marry Mary Wallace. She has a little +money coming to her, that I managed to get saved for her out of the +wreck of her father's estate, of which she knows nothing. I thought it +might as well be kept in the family. But she is a good girl and I can +never again have the face to urge her to take the hand of my son until +he proves to me that he is worthy of a decent man's, or woman's +regard. And now, there's your way. Take it, and go." + +"No hard feelin's I hope, dad," growled the young man sullenly, +offering his hand. + +"'Hard feelings,' no. Grief and shame, yes. Go! And the best blessing +I can give you is, may God save you from the gallows." + +Silas shuddered, dropped the extended hand which his father had not +taken, turned to the light and blew it out. Then he took down the +blankets from the window, carefully and noiselessly raised the sash, +jumped out into the darkness and disappeared. + +Uncle Thatcher stood for a long time at the window listening, waiting, +fearing; but no unusual sound reached his ears. + +The next morning he found Silas's friend from Boston already at the +trying-out shed when he arrived there, although it was yet only dawn; +and leading him a little to one side, put to him the direct question: + +"What did you wish to arrest my son for?" + +Mr. Ketchum started slightly, looked sharply at his questioner, and +then as if comprehending that, however the old man's knowledge of his +errand was obtained, further attempts at concealment would be useless, +replied: "Burglary." + + +X. + +THE NIGHT BEFORE---- + +The days grew long and hot; bees came humming in at open windows; wild +roses bloomed along the roadsides; the blackberries were turning from +red to their riper hue; and the smell of new-mown hay was in the air. +But still, though weeks had passed since Silas's disappearance in the +darkness, no one but Uncle Thatcher knew aught of his son's visit, not +even his lean, hard-visaged wife, who sometimes wondered "why the boy +didn't write," but to whom, on that subject, he made no reply. He +seemed to grow older and more careworn, day by day, but locked his +pain and grief in his own breast closely. Not only did he cease from +all attempts to influence Mary in his son's behalf, but even, one day, +when he overheard her aunt chiding her sharply for her repulsion of +Silas's suit, he said roughly: + +"Let the girl alone. She is old enough to choose for herself." + +Mary could not understand the change that had come over him, but was +very glad of it, from whatever cause it sprang. + +Dorn had been back twice from West Indian voyages and was again away. +After probably two more voyages they were to be married. It was all +arranged. He had picked out the schooner he intended to buy and knew +her price. He had selected the place he proposed purchasing to build +their home, and already--through Lem Pawlett, who acted under Ruth's +directions, at Mary's instigation--knew what it would cost him; a +modest sum sufficiently within his means. And he even confessed that +he had already bought a lot of furniture and stored it in New Haven, +in one of Mr. Merriwether's lofts. Yet in all these negotiations and +preparations, Dorn had not once been seen in the vicinity of +Easthampton by anybody but his betrothed. Her years of struggle with +Uncle and Aunt Thatcher on the subject of Silas had inspired her with +an overpowering dread of what they might say or do, if they knew that +she actually contemplated the definitely conclusive step of marrying +somebody else than their boy; and yielding to her earnest petitions, +Dorn had consented to keep himself carefully out of sight, until such +time as he was ready to come for her with a pair of fleet horses and +carry her off to Sag Harbor, to make her his wife. + +"But I'm sure I don't know what to make of Uncle Thatcher," said Mary +to her friend Ruth, in the course of one of their little confidential +evening chats in the woods, "for he is kinder to me than he ever was +before, and never once speaks to me about Silas. Sometimes I even +think he might not make much fuss about it if I were to marry Dorn +right under his nose." + +"Don't you trust him for that, Mary. There's no telling how these men +will act, especially the old ones. As a rule, the quieter a man is the +slyer he is, and the more he means mischief. Oh, I tell you, I've +studied Lem, and--But I haven't told you what Lem is going to do. You +know, I suppose, that poor Mrs. Richards has heard at last from her +brother in Philadelphia, and he has sent for her to come to him and +bring her children, and she's going away." + +"Yes. I heard Uncle Thatcher talking about it to-day." + +"Well, that will leave the Van Deust's lower farm without a tenant; +though it hasn't had one, as you may say, since Richards ran away; but +then the Van Deusts let her live along on it and do the best she +could; and I guess that must have been Jacob's doings that she was +allowed to, for I believe that old curmudgeon Peter would have turned +her out when she couldn't pay the rent, if he'd had his own way about +it; and I never did like his looks, anyway, for I never heard of his +having a good word or a pleasant face for any woman yet; and I think +when a man always looks savage when he sees a woman he--" + +"Oh, Ruth! Do go a little slower! You are the wildest talker. And you +do get a person so mixed up." + +"And I get mixed myself sometimes, too. Where was I? Oh, I was saying +that Mrs. Richards was going away, and the Van Deust's lower farm +would be to let. Well, Lem is going up to the Van Deust's to-morrow +morning to get the lease of it, if he can, and Squire Bodley is going +to be his security; and as soon as he gets it, you must try to be +ready, dear, so that we can all get married at the same time, for Lem +is in an awful hurry--and maybe I don't care about waiting a great +while longer myself, either." + +"And neither do we," exclaimed a cheery, hearty voice at her elbow, as +Dorn stepped forward and put his arm around Mary's waist. + +"Oh, you, Dorn Hackett!" cried Ruth, with a little scream. "How you do +frighten a person!" + +"So you've been eaves-dropping, have you, sir?" said Mary, looking up +archly at her lover. + +"No. I was just standing here waiting, in hope of seeing you, and you +girls were so busy talking that you walked right up to me." + +"And how do you come to be at my elbow when I thought you were far +away at sea?" + +"We sailed three days ahead of time, and made a much quicker trip than +usual, so that I am over a week ahead of the time Mr. Merriwether +looked for me. As I was in port, of course I embraced the first +opportunity, when I could leave the schooner in charge of the mate, +and came to see my Mary." + +"How good you are, Dorn," whispered the happy girl, pressing his +hands, and with the love-light in her eyes. + +"And how much I love you!" he whispered in reply. + +"I guess I'd better be getting along home," suggested Ruth, stopping +in the path, in readiness to turn back. + +"Don't let me drive you away," replied Dorn, gallantly. "It has been a +long time since we have met, and I have not yet even asked how you +are." + +"Oh, you see I'm quite well, and you haven't really appeared to me to +be gone away at all, so far as I was concerned, for I've heard so much +about you all the time." + +"Now, Ruth, are you going to tell tales?" protested Mary. + +"Oh, no. I'm no chatterer. Not the least bit. But I know when I'm in +the road, and I know it now. Two are company and three are not. And I +see signs of its getting too warm here for me. So good night, good +folks. I'll leave you to make your arrangements." + +"So as not to keep you waiting a great while," retorted Dorn, +mischievously. + +The merry little maiden blushed and laughed as she turned and ran away +down the path. + +"What a lucky chance that I have found you, darling!" said the young +man low and tenderly, drawing his beloved closely to his side and +walking slowly with her. "And it was only a chance; for of course you +didn't expect me. But if I had not met you here I think I should have +stormed Castle Thatcher to get sight of you. I do not believe I could +have waited until another evening." + +"I wonder if you were so impatient all the three long years you were +away?" + +"No, of course I was not, for I knew just how long a time I had to +look forward to of separation from you, and made my mind up to it. A +man should always be able to make his mind up to bear philosophically +what he knows is inevitable. It is only when he is disappointed in +what he has every reason to expect, that he has any right to growl. +I've always had a great deal of sympathy with the old prophet who got +so mad about the worm. He had made up his mind, no doubt, to stand +like a philosopher the heat of the sun when he hadn't any shelter, +though he did feel the heat mighty bad. But when he got a good shade +over him, and was comfortable, it was enough to make a saint mad to +have a malicious grub come along and cut down his vine." + +"Yes, dear; I think you've got the story fixed up your own way, and +are, maybe, not altogether sound upon its moral. But no matter now. +When do you go away again?" + +"We will not sail for a week or ten days, probably, so that I'll have +a chance to come over and see you again, once at least, before we go. +The owner wants me to wait for the completion of a cargo, and they +can't be got together before about the time he expected me back, +which, as I have already told you, I have forestalled by a week." + +"What is the cargo that you speak of as 'they'?" + +"Mules. And I hate 'em," he replied savagely. + +"You hate them? Why?" + +"Well, of all the satanic brutes, the mule is the worst. He has the +cunning and the malice of an imp. Every minute he is awake he is +either planning or executing some mischief, and he's always awake. My +crew will need a barrel of arnica and an acre of sticking-plaster to +cure them of the bites and kicks they'll get from those mules before +they are landed in the West Indies. And I suppose we'll have to wear +out a wagon-load of hoop-poles on the brutes to keep them from +rolling the schooner upside down." + +"Why, Dorn! How could they do that?" + +"Easily enough. When we are loading them we have to run lines from the +mast-heads to the wharf, to keep them from rolling her over there. +When they are shipped, they have to be tied, head to head, along a +beam running fore and aft, as close as they can well stand. By a +concerted arrangement among themselves, those on one side will sway +their bodies as far back as they can, and those on the opposite will +sway forward. Then they will reverse the motion; and so they'll go +alternately--singing with their sweet voices while they are at +it--backward and forward, giving their motion to the vessel, and +rolling her more and more every moment; and they would very soon have +her on her beam ends if we didn't wade in among them with hoop-poles +to divert them from their fun. And they are liable to play that game +any minute, day or night. Oh, I've taken out one load of mules and +know what to expect of them." + +"Dorn, 'a man should always be able to make his mind up to bear +philosophically what he knows is inevitable.'" + +"Come, I give up. Let's don't talk about mules any more, little +Mollie. I get mad when I think about them--even if they do pay well. +But I have a pleasanter topic. Something to tell you." + +"And that is?" + +"That immediately upon my next return home, which will be in about six +weeks, or seven, at the farthest, we will be married." + +When at length Mary's lover left her that evening and she returned +home, she was surprised to find Aunt Thatcher sitting on the front +door step. + +"Mary Wallace, I want to know where you've been all this night?" +demanded the shrewish woman in a shrill key. + +"I--met Ruth Lenox--and--we talked and walked," answered Mary +hesitatingly, and with very natural evasion of the searching inquiry. + +"And you've got the face to stand there and tell me that? Well, I +expected it of you, and made an errand over to Mrs. Lenox's myself, +and Ruth was at home, where a decent young girl should be at night, +with Lem Pawlett sitting beside her on the porch. So I've caught you +in one story, have I? Now I ask you again where you've been, and I +want to hear what you've got to say for yourself. Not that I expect to +believe a word you say, but I want to hear what kind of a story a +young woman can make up for herself after being out all night, nobody +knows where, or who with." + +"Oh, aunt! I have not been out all night. It is only nine o'clock." + +"It's ten minutes past nine," retorted the shrew, craning her long +neck around over her shoulder to see the face of the tall clock that +stood against the wall near the bureau, upon which a solitary tallow +candle gave a smoky yellow light. + +"Where have you been? I want to know," she demanded again. +"Gallivanting around with some young man, I suppose. I shouldn't +wonder if that Dorn Hackett that you were so much took up with three +years ago, had come snooping around again. Has he? Eh? Why don't you +answer me?" + +"I--I--have nothing to say, aunt." + +"Oho! you've 'nothing to say,'" sneered Aunt Thatcher, mimicking the +girl. "Well, I shouldn't think you would have, after such goings on. I +believe in my soul you've been with that fellow to-night. Can you look +me in the face and tell me you haven't?" + +No, Mary could not look her in the face, or anywhere else, and lie +about it, for she was not accustomed to falsehood, so she held her +peace. + +"Yes, I thought so," continued the termagent, with a snarl of +malicious triumph. "I thought so. And I know what will come of it. Oh, +yes. But you needn't think to stay in my house when everybody comes to +know of your disgrace. You can trapse after your lover, who'll be gone +far enough by that time, no doubt. And what would Silas think of you +if he knew of your conduct? Do you suppose my boy would ever look at a +girl that get's herself talked about as you will? You shameless--" + +"Shut up! There's been enough of this jaw and too much," suddenly +interrupted Uncle Thatcher's rough voice, as he himself appeared in +the door, looking in his night-dress of close-fitting shirt and +drawers even bonier, longer, and more angular than ordinarily; like +the silhouette of a skeleton almost. + +"I don't care! I will speak!" snapped his vixenish wife, turning to +face him. + +"And ef you do I'll choke you." + +"You would? You'd raise your hand to the mother of Silas?" + +"Yes, and wring your blasted neck if you don't mind me when I tell you +to shut up." + +Whether Uncle Thatcher had ever found force necessary to maintain his +authority in the household or not, was best known to him and his wife; +but at all events she did not seem to regard his threat as an idle +one, for with a snort of baffled rage she sprang up and rushed into +the house, without uttering another word. + +Mary was standing with her back toward the door, with her hands +covering her face, and crying. Uncle Thatcher laid one of his big +hands on her shoulder and patting it gently, as he would have soothed +a horse, said to her: + +"Come, little girl. Don't cry any more. I ain't a going to have you +plagued out of your life about that cuss. Go to bed now. And just tell +me if she tries to worry you any more." + +He disappeared inside the door, and Mary, wiping her eyes, followed +him, passing to her little room, but sleep was slow in coming to her +hot eyes and her last waking thought was: + +"Who did uncle mean by 'that cuss'? Was it Dorn or Silas?" + +But at length the weary lids closed and in happy dreamland, far away +from care, and fear, and strife, she wandered with her lover. + +The night wore slowly on. Incoming billows of the rising tide moaned +sullenly upon the sandy beach and sent a rustling hiss through the +shivering reeds and rushes in marshy inlets; whippoorwills piped from +the cover of the leafy wood and drowsy cocks, awaking at the midnight +hour, called to each other from their barn-yard roosts. All other +sounds of motion and of life were hushed, save that an owl darted in +sudden fright from one of the Van Deust elms, at sight of a pale-faced +man who sprang out of a back window of the old homestead and ran down +the lane, looking back over his shoulder and wiping blood from his +hands, as he ran. + + +XI. + +WHAT LEM PAWLETT DISCOVERED. + +It was on the morning succeeding that night, that Lem Pawlett and +Squire Bodley made the discovery of the murder of Jacob Van Deust, as +has already been described. As the reader will remember, the neighbors +assembled about the corpse of the murdered man, believed that they had +grounds for suspecting Peter Van Deust of the assassination of his +brother, and even discussed the advisability of his arrest. He, +unconscious of the ugly rumors afloat about him, and regardless of the +dark looks of those by whom he was surrounded, lay upon his face in +his room, weeping as one without hope for the lifelong companion so +cruelly reft from his side. He had never known, until death parted +them, how dear to him was his gentle-hearted brother and how very +lonely the world would be without him. And every unkind passionate +word he had uttered, and every selfish thought to which the evil +promptings of avarice had given birth in his heart, since that unlucky +fortune came them, seemed now to rise up before him like an accusing +ghost, so that the old man, burying his face in his hands, sobbed +aloud: + +"Oh, Jacob, Jacob! I am so sorry for it all." + +Perhaps the spirit freed from that weak lump of clay in the crimson +pool, might have heard the cry and, knowing the true meaning and the +penitence of the sorrowing heart, have well forgiven; but a neighbor, +leaning against the door-post and peering curiously in at the +grief-stricken old man, turned quickly to his comrade without the +threshold and exclaimed in a low excited whisper: + +"Gosh! Joe. He's just as good as owned up that he did it, and says +he's 'sorry for it' now, 'cause he's scared of being found out." + +And then by the time this had been repeated to a half-dozen--as it was +in little more than as many minutes--those who heard the story last, +learned that Peter had just made to somebody a full confession of +having murdered his brother. But in the very height of the excitement +to which this gave rise, Lem Pawlett, who was still prying about the +room, with something of an instinctive detective genius guiding his +movements, made an important discovery. + +Drawing aside the figured chintz curtains that hung close over the +back window of the dead man's room, he noticed that a mud-wasp's nest +of clay had fallen to the sill, from the place where the insect had +stuck it in the angle of the sash and frame of the window, two or +three feet above. Knowing how firmly the ingenious little builders of +those houses are accustomed to place them, he recognized that some +unusual violence must have been employed to break it loose. That it +had not been intentionally knocked down was probable, else the clay +would not have been left littering the window sill. That the mischief +had been freshly done, was manifest. He tried the sash, and found that +it could easily be lifted. Its only fastening had been a nail, thrust +into a hole in the frame above the sash; but rust had corroded the +nail to merely a thin rotten wire. The head of it came off in his +fingers, when he felt it, and he observed that it had been broken, +with what seemed a fresh fracture, just where it entered the frame. It +must, he thought, have been broken by some one lifting the sash from +without, as a person opening the window from the inside would have +been likely to pull it out first, as a matter of convenience. He +raised the sash fully, and uttered an exclamation of surprise, the +first sound that had called anybody's attention to his investigations. + +There, plain to be seen in the soft black wood of the old sill, were +two deep dents that appeared to have been made by some flat, +square-edged metal instrument, an inch wide. The one beneath that side +of the sash upon which the nail was broken off, was a little the +deepest. Upon the bottom of the sash, on the outer side, were two deep +impressions corresponding with the dents in the sill, and seemingly +made by the same instrument, which, as Lem judged, was some sort of a +stout chisel, used as a lever. All the marks were fresh. + +The loose earth of the little garden just beneath the window, where +the drip of the eaves had kept it soft and damp, showed the treading +there of feet shod in high-heeled and square-toed shoes, or boots, +such as might have been made for city wear, and not at all like those +worn in the country. Following those tracks, they led Lem, and the +crowd now at his elbow, to a point where the weight of a person +crossing the rickety old "worm" fence had broken a rotten rail; and, +near by, one of the high-heeled shoes had trodden down the stem of a +lily that was in its path. The fracture of the rail was fresh, and the +lily, broken from its stem and lying on the humid earth, was not yet +withered. But the high heel had crushed one of its snowy petals. + +In the lane, outside the fence, the tracks were lost. + +The importance of these discoveries was at once apparent, even to the +dullest of comprehension; and there was no longer a question in the +minds of any but that the murder had been committed by some burglar +who had entered through the window, and that old Peter was innocent. +The reflection that there was in the community some one capable of +such an awful deed, or that somebody from the wicked world outside had +come among them to strike so terrible a blow, sent a thrill of mingled +horror and fear through all present. + +"Gracious alive!" exclaimed a very old man, whose hollow cheeks, +sunken and bleary eyes, white hair, and tottering limbs suggested that +the least possible thing of which he could be robbed was his remnant +of life, "we are none of us safe in our beds with such goings on!" + +"No. But the man who did this must be found and punished," responded +Lem Pawlett, excitedly. + +"Sake's a mercy! Who can ever find out such things? The man that did +it isn't going to tell on hisself!" + +"God's finger will point him out," said Squire Bodley, solemnly. + +"Well, maybe so. But--I dunno," murmured the old man, whose faith in +Providence seemed somewhat shaky. + +Squire Bodley picked out a jury, and announced to all assembled that +he would hold the inquest at his office in the village one week from +that date, at six o'clock in the afternoon, at which time he hoped any +person who might meanwhile become cognizant of any new facts that +might have even the smallest possible bearing upon the subject to be +investigated, would come before him and make them known. And--as it is +always the theory among country people that a crime among them must +have been perpetrated by some one from the nearest city--he exhorted +all to use their utmost diligence to learn whether any suspicious +strangers had lately been seen in the neighborhood. + +That afternoon he despatched a message to New York, requesting the +assistance of an experienced professional detective, to aid in +dissipating the mystery that seemed to overhang the murder of poor +old Jacob Van Deust, who, on the second day after his death, was laid +away among the dust of many other Van Deusts in the village graveyard. + + +XII. + +THE INQUEST. + +During the week preceding the inquest, the Van Deust murder was the +constant theme of conversation through all the country-side; and when +the important day arrived upon which Squire Bodley proposed to begin +the official investigation into the affair, people came thronging into +Easthampton from all directions; on horseback, afoot, in old-fashioned +carryalls, and upon rough farm-wagons; as if every homestead within +ten or fifteen miles around had been emptied for the occasion. It was +not mere curiosity by which they were actuated, but an earnest and +widely-spread desire to aid in the discovery and procure the +punishment of the assassin; for in those days there was no community +on Long Island, as there has since appeared to be, in which murder +would be popularly winked at and condoned, and its perpetrators, +though known, permitted to go unscathed of justice. + +Squire Bodley's office was a small, one-story building, without any +other partitions than a railing that shut in about one-third of it, +where his table customarily stood. The sign "Lumber" over its one +door, indicated that the worthy magistrate did not confine his +energies to his judicial duties. There were three windows--one +opposite the door and one in each end--of such a good convenient +height from the ground that a man standing outside could rest his +elbows on either of the sills, and witness comfortably all that +transpired within. Long before the hour for the commencement of the +proceedings, the space outside the railing was densely packed; the +lower halves of the windows were filled with elbows and heads; and as +many people as could find standing room within sight or hearing, upon +wagons drawn up near the windows and door, were already perched and +waiting, while many late comers wandered uneasily about, watching for +some one in the front racks to give out through sheer exhaustion, and +resign his advantageous place. + +As a preliminary proceeding, the Squire had his sashes removed +entirely from their frames, and carried away to a place of safety; but +even yet the little room was oppressively hot and close. Then candles +had to be brought and lighted, for although it was midsummer, when the +days are long, this evening was cloudy, and but little of the dull +light could penetrate through the crowded windows. So it was that it +was almost seven o'clock when the Squire finally got himself seated at +his table, with three candles, pen, ink and paper before him, that he +might write down the evidence, and called the first witness. + +That first witness was Lemuel Pawlett, who was somewhat abashed by his +position, and had a little difficulty, at first, in understanding that +he was required to give a circumstantial account of the finding of the +body of the murdered man, and what followed thereupon. + +"Why, you know all about it, Squire, as well as I do. You were with +me. What's the use of telling you?" + +"But I have to write down your statement, as your evidence, Lem, not +simply for my own knowledge, but for others, to promote the ends of +justice. Go ahead and tell your story as if you were telling it to +these people here, and never mind what I know about it." + +"All right, Squire;" and Lem, turning his back upon the Squire, began +reciting the affair to the audience. "Him and I went up to Van Deust's +a week ago to-day--" + +"Who do you mean by 'him?' Who accompanied you?" + +"Why, you! You yourself, Squire, you know you did!" + +But at length the little difficulty of starting him aright was +overcome, and then Lem went ahead, telling his story in a plain, +straightforward way, and the Squire duly wrote it all down. + +Two neighbors corroborated Lem's narration of the finding of the +traces of the burglarious entry and the flight of the assassin. + +Deacon Harkins volunteered testimony as to having overheard quarrels +and interchange of threats of violence between the Van Deust brothers +more than once. At this old Peter, who sat near the Squire, became +greatly excited. Springing to his feet, trembling with emotion, and +with his voice pitched to a high, unnatural key, he cried: + +"Yes, it is true. I did threaten my brother--God forgive me!--more +than once. I was mean enough, cruel enough, wicked enough to say +harsh, spiteful things to wound that gentle soul; but I never meant +him harm. No. The One above, who reads all hearts, knows well that I +would rather my right hand withered, rather put it into the fire and +burn it off than raise it against Jacob's life. We wrangled sometimes, +as old men will--no, _he_ didn't, the fault was all mine. And oh, to +think that he is gone, without my being able to ask him to forgive +me!" + +His voice broke, and he dropped exhausted upon a chair, letting his +face fall forward upon his arms, on the end of the Squire's table, +where he wept bitterly. + +"Arthur Wiltsey!" called the Squire. + +A stout, plainly dressed, and honest looking countryman took the +stand, and, having been sworn, testified: + +"Last Thursday afternoon--" + +"The day succeeding the discovery of the murder of Jacob Van Deust?" +interrupted Squire Bodley. + +"Yes, sir. The day after the murder. I was passing through the neck of +woods on the lower end of my place--" + +"How far is your place from the Van Deusts'?" asked the Squire. + +"Why, you know, Squire, as well as I do! I bought the place off you." + +"Never mind about what I know. Tell us what you know. How far is your +place from the Van Deusts'?" + +"About a mile and a half." + +"Very well. About a mile and a half. Go on." + +"When near a path that makes a short cut to the Babylon road, I found +these things. They were lying among some huckleberry bushes, and the +white bag was the first thing that caught my eye. Afterwards I saw the +other." + +As he spoke he drew from his pocket and deposited upon the Squire's +table, two objects: an old worn-out sheepskin wallet, and an empty +canvas bag about nine inches long by three in width, and tied around +with a bit of fishing line. + +"The bit of string," continued the witness, "was a few feet away from +the other things; but I judged it might belong to them, and fetched it +along." + +"Have you ever seen these things before, Mr. Van Deust?" asked Squire +Bodley. + +The old man who, buried in his freshly-awakened grief and remorse, had +paid no attention to what was going on until he was called by name, +looked up dazedly. The Squire pushed before him the objects found by +the witness. He looked at them for a few moments, silently and without +moving, as if fascinated by them; then slowly reached out his +trembling hands, and took them up. + +"Yes," he said, with an effort, after having carefully examined them, +"I recognize them. They belonged to my brother Jacob--his wallet and +coin bag. And I know that the wallet, at least, was in his possession +the day before he was found dead." + +Absolute stillness reigned in the dense crowd from the commencement of +Farmer Wiltsey's testimony until the conclusion of Peter Van Deust's +identification of his brother's property; and then such a buzz of +exclamations, and remarks, and conjectures broke out that the Squire +was compelled to rap vigorously on his table, and call "Order!" and +"Silence!" more than once before he could proceed with the business. +But there was little more to be offered. + +One man thought he had heard a horse galloping down the Babylon road +about one o'clock on the morning of the discovery of the murder, but +he did not know if anybody was on the horse, and was not even positive +that it was a horse he heard; it might have been a cow. So his +evidence went for nothing. + +Peter Van Deust testified, very briefly, that the last time he saw his +brother alive was about half-past nine o'clock on the night of his +death. An old gentleman, a friend from New York--their lawyer in +fact--had visited them in the afternoon on business, and had gone away +a little while after supper. Then they sat up somewhat later than +usual, talking over what they would do with their lower farm, which +would be left without a tenant when the Richards family moved away. He +had looked at the clock when he went to bed, and knew it was half-past +nine. Jacob was then in his usual health and spirits, except that he +complained a little of a slight cough, and it was the witness's +impression that his brother, after going to bed, had called old Betsy +to prepare him something to alleviate that. But he was not very sure +about that, as he was almost asleep at the time, and had not thought +to speak to Betsy about it since. + +Squire Bodley hesitated as to whether he should press any inquiry +about the friend from New York, and cast an inquiring look at a +stranger who sat near him. But the stranger, who seemed to understand +perfectly what he would have asked, made a slight negative sign. Still +the Squire was not satisfied and, leaning over to him, whispered: + +"That New Yorker must have been there nearer the time of the murder +than anybody else outside the family; most likely knew the old man had +money in the house, and just where it was kept; may have laid around +until all was quiet, and then gone back to--" + +"It's quite possible he did," interrupted the stranger, in a tone +audible only to the Squire, "and I'm not losing sight of it; but it +won't do to bring out too much on the inquest. He might get wind of +the suspicion against him and skip. Never show your hand if you want +to win." + +"All right," assented the Squire, doubtfully, "if you say so." + +"Oh, yes, it's all right. Keep it shady, and I promise you the man +from New York will be turned up in good time." + +Peter Van Deust's evidence was closed. + +Black Betsy was the last witness. She said that on the night of the +murder, at about half-past ten o'clock, Jacob called her up to prepare +him something for his cough. She was lying down at the time, but not +asleep, as rheumatism mostly troubled her a good deal in the early +part of the night, and went to him as soon as he called. Having made +for him a cough mixture of honey, vinegar, and rum, she gave it to +him; he bade her good-night, and she went back to bed. Being asked how +she knew it was half-past ten when he called her, she said that she +knew it by the line of the full moonshine on her floor, and was +positive that she could not have been more than ten minutes wrong at +farthest. After returning to her bed the rheumatism kept her awake +about an hour, she supposed, or maybe an hour and a half. Then she +dropped asleep, and did not awake until called up by Squire Bodley and +Mr. Pawlett. Her hearing, she affirmed, was very good, and she was +sure that from the time she gave Jacob his medicine until she went to +sleep there were no unusual noises about the house. + + +XIII. + +A STAB IN THE DARK. + +Squire Bodley adjourned the inquest for another week, in the hope that +there might be discovered in the interim some further evidence, and +his sweltering office was quickly cleared of jury, witnesses, and +auditors, all save one man, the stranger to whom he had whispered +while Peter Van Deust was on the stand. That person, a ruddy, +smooth-faced man of medium height, and probably forty or forty-five +years of age, with nothing distinctive about his appearance except, +perhaps, a pair of very keen gray eyes, was the detective who had been +sent from New York to apply his sagacity to ferreting out, if +possible, the robber and assassin of Jacob Van Deust. + +"Well, Mr. Turner," said the Squire, lighting his one remaining candle +by the flickering flame of the last surviving of the three that had +melted and guttered down to the sockets of the candlesticks, "I guess +this will be light enough for us to see to talk a little by. What do +you think of the case?" + +"It isn't so blind as some I've had hold of, and cleared up, too; but +it is dark enough, nevertheless. All I can see that we may say we +think we know is, that the old man was killed, probably after 11:30 or +12 o'clock at night, by a burglar who got into his window by means of +a jimmy and who, after killing him and robbing the premises, escaped +by the Babylon road, most likely." + +"I neglected to bring it out when he was on the stand, but Peter has +told me that some other articles besides the money are missing; a set +of garnet jewellery belonging to his mother that Jacob always kept in +his room; an old silver watch and a heavy square onyx seal, with a +foul anchor cut on one side of it. None of them of any great value." + +"It's just as well you didn't mention them; just as well or better. +Such things, if looked for quietly, and nothing said about them, are +sometimes valuable clues. And it is well you didn't ask about the +lawyer from New York. All these are things we will have to look into +quietly. There's nothing like doing things quietly. The great trouble +about inquests, generally is, that they bring out the very things +which put criminals on their guard, and so make the detective's work +all the harder--sometimes even baffle him altogether." + +"Squire, are you busy?" demanded a sharp nasal voice. + +The two men looking up, and shading the candlelight from their eyes +with their hands, saw standing in the door a tall, thin, +scraggy-looking woman, wearing a sun-bonnet. + +"No, not particularly. Walk in, Mrs. Thatcher, walk in. What can I do +for you?" replied the Squire. + +The woman came forward with shuffling, hesitating steps; paused, made +a furtive attempt to poke up out of sight the wisp of unkempt sandy +hair, dangling in its accustomed place on the back of her neck; and +finally answered, with a doubtful look at the stranger: + +"Well, I had something to tell you, private-like, about that murder." + +"Indeed! Well, you can speak right out before this gentleman. He is +helping me to inquire into it. But why, if you have anything to tell, +did you not come up to the inquest?" + +"I didn't care to speak before so many folks; and I thought it would +be better to tell you quietly." + +"And what is it you have to tell me?" + +"I expect, Squire, I know who killed Jake Van Deust." + +"The deuce you do!" exclaimed the detective, bouncing in his seat. + +"Yes, sir; I was told what the Squire said a week ago to-day about +suspicious strangers in the neighborhood, and I thought to myself, I +know of one, and I ought to tell him." + +"Well?" + +"Well, it's a young man who used to live in this neighborhood, but who +disappeared--ran away, I guess, for some reason best known to +himself--about three years ago or a little better. He's been back +lately, hiding around in the woods and meeting a foolish girl--" + +"Aha!" interrupted the detective, with a chuckle, and rubbing his +hands; "if there's a girl in the case, we'll have him, sure." + +"Yes, sir, a foolish girl, who don't know the sin and the shame of +what she's a-doing. And as far as I can find out, he has kept himself +out of sight of everybody but her. But he was about the neighborhood +late on the night that Jake Van Deust was killed--that I'm sure of; +and met the girl that night--I know he did." + +"And who is the girl?" + +"My niece, Mary Wallace, sir. The more's the pity!" + +"And the young man?" + +"His name is Dorman Hackett." + +Squire Bodley gave a gasp of surprise. He remembered Dorn Hackett as a +strong, handsome orphan lad who had grown up almost to manhood in the +neighborhood; a young fellow with a fine, frank, courageous face, and +of whom he had never before heard an evil word; but he remembered, +too, now that he came to think of it, that he had not seen the young +fellow for a long time; and sighed to think that even the best boys +sometimes grow up to be very wicked men when exposed to the +temptations of vicious life in the great cities, and it was possible +that Dorn Hackett, like many others, "had gone to the bad." + +"You say that this young man has been away for three years?" asked the +detective. + +"He hasn't dared to let anybody here, except that girl, see his face +for that long." + +"And of course you know nothing of where he has been, and what he has +been doing all that time?" + +"No; how should I? Loafing around New York, I dare say. Such +characters mostly goes there." + +"Around New York, eh? If he's a New York thief, I'll be sure to know +him. If we only knew what he's been doing." + +"What would a fellow be likely to be doing who has no trade, and no +money, and no home, and no respectable friends, and nobody to see to +him?" snapped Aunt Thatcher. + +"He might have told your niece." + +"If he did, she wouldn't be likely to tell me. It's as much as I could +do to find out that he was sneaking around here in the woods, late on +the night Jake Van Deust was killed." + +"She met him that night, did she?" + +"Yes, she did." + +"What kind of a looking person in this Hackett?" + +"A big, ugly, red-headed fellow, with a face like a bull-dog." + +Squire Bodley smiled gently to himself, thinking how such a +description would be apt to assist the detective. He had penetration +enough to discern that there was some animus in the woman's mind +stronger than a mere desire to aid the ends of justice; but said +nothing about it at the time, feeling a little timid about seeming to +interfere in the work of the professional detective. + +When Mr. Turner and the squire had both thanked Mrs. Thatcher for her +"valuable information," she took her departure, and the two men were +left alone to discuss the course to be pursued. Squire Bodley had a +very good opinion of Mary Wallace; and if he had had his own way would +have directly questioned her about her lover; but against that course +the detective strenuously protested. Direct ways are never the chosen +methods of the professional fishers of men. + +"By no means," said he. "Let the girl know that her lover is suspected +and she will be sure to get word to him somehow and he'll be off. Not +a word about it to anybody. Leave me to work it out my own way, and my +name isn't Richard Turner if I don't soon lay my hand on the shoulder +of Dorman Hackett." + + +XIV. + +A JOLLY, JOLLY SHIPMATE. + +"The Whaler's Haven" was in those days a place of no small pretensions +and of no mean fame among the sailormen of New London, which was then +quite an important shipping town, especially for the whaling interest. + +Railroad tracks now cover the ground it then occupied, and the cutting +away of the bluff in that vicinity, to give place for some heavy +industries that require to be near the water and the iron road, has +completely changed the appearance of all the surroundings, even, of +that once favorite resort of the marine element of the population of +the town, so that not one trace of it remains, save in memory. But it +is not of the present we have to treat, or the many changes--some of +them very sad ones--that have been wrought in the maritime interests +of our coast. Our story dates back to a time when a big American flag +floated above a long and wide two-story frame building where those +railroad tracks now lie; a building that was further adorned, as to +its peak, by a carved and painted wooden statue of the goddess of +liberty, that seemed to have been the figurehead of some vessel; and +as to its front, by a very widely-spread and gayly-gilded American +eagle, holding in its beak, over the door, a huge and brilliantly red +scroll, upon the flaming convolutions of which, in brightest blue, one +might read the legend "The Whaler's Haven." + +By day, there was little, except its size, to distinguish the Haven, +to the eye of the casual observer, from several other establishments +of kindred character in the vicinity; but at night, in the figurative +language of Jonathan Schoolcraft, its proprietor, "the eagle +screamed." Then, until hours that were at once late and early--late +for revel and early for labor--the fiddle squeaked out jigs and reels; +the thumps and shuffles of dancing feet made the walls vibrate and the +windows jingle; glasses clinked merrily; noisy laughter, cheers, and +sometimes--but not often--sounds of quarrel, broke upon the night. It +was Schoolcraft's boast "that a sailor never was robbed in this +house;" and, truth to tell, he made the claim good, farther than most +men do who keep such establishments and make like affirmations. Over +the little bar, near the front door was a sign in letters so prominent +that they might have been regarded as a sort of painted shout, +commanding patrons of the house: "Have your fun in a decent way;" and +Jonathan was never weary of repeating that counsel to his guests. He +would not let a sailor in his house get too drunk--that is, too drunk +to be able to find his money, when the liquor was to be paid for--and +he was sternly opposed to fights in the Haven; for, as he said, "they +break the peace, and break heads, and sometimes break glasses, which +is worst of all." + +One sultry evening in July, when it was too hot to dance and almost +too warm to drink rum, a cloud of dullness seemed to settle down upon +the Whaler's Haven. Jonathan himself went out for a walk, to get cool; +the barkeeper languidly leaned over the bar and yawned; only four or +five sailors--boarders in the Haven when on shore--lounged between the +door and the bar, "swapping yarns" concerning their seagoing +experiences, and all feeling so depressed and spiritless, through the +heat, that they almost stuck to the truth in their narrations; and two +or three of them were talking of going to bed, when a stranger, who +was evidently not a sailor, entered, called for a drink, and invited +all present to join him. A stranger who was not a sailor was always +the object of a little suspicion in the Haven; still none present +cared about offending one who introduced himself so courteously, and +the waiting sailors took their rum just as naturally as if liking, and +not simply complaisance, gave it its relish. Then one of them returned +the stranger's treat and soon another; and another, so that in a +little while the heat was forgotten, tongues began to wag freely, the +yarns became much more spirited, and the impression gained ground that +the stranger was a right good fellow. + +And so it was that, without his ever being able to tell exactly how it +came about, Billy Prangle, a stout old sailor, found himself in almost +confidential conversation with the pleasant stranger--a smooth-shaven, +gray-eyed, ruddy man of forty or forty-five years--upon the subject of +his friend and ex-shipmate, Dorn Hackett. + +"A nobler, braver lad never signed articles," said he, "nor a better +sailorman. We messed together for three years; and take him by and +large, alow and aloft, I make bold to say that of the sixteen men in +the fo'cas'le,--and all good men, too, mind you--he was the best." + +"I'm delighted to hear you speak so highly of him," replied the +stranger, with apparent heartiness, "How long is it since you sailed +with him?" + +"Only a little better than four months ago. We came off the cruise +together, fishing in the North Pacific." + +"Fishing? I thought you said he was in a whaling vessel?" + +"Well, so I did, my hearty. We calls whales fishes. When we speak of +taking a whale we always says taking a fish." + +"Ah, excuse me. I didn't understand. And where is your friend now?" + +At this moment one of the old sailors called him aside and said to him +in an undertone: + +"Mind your eye, Billy. I've been a listenin' to you and that lubber +that doesn't know a whale's a fish, and it looks squally to me. As I +make him out, he's been a leadin' you on to talk about Dorn Hackett, +and maybe it ain't for Dorn's good he means it." + +"If I thought he meant the boy any harm he'd get his nose rove foul in +the shake of a fluke." + +"Well, just keep your weather eye skinned on him." + +"But, shipmate, it's as good as saying that Dorn may be in some sort +of a scrape to be afraid to talk about him." + +"And so he may; and small blame to him, either, bein' a likely young +fellow as he is. Shore is a mighty dangersome place for a good-looking +young fellow like him." + +"Right you are, shipmate," assented Billy, solemnly shaking hands +before returning to his conversation with the stranger. From that time +he did watch carefully; and having a little natural cunning of his +own, managed to evade the numerous and artfully-put inquiries with +which he was plied, and still to draw the stranger on, with hope of +information, until he satisfied himself that his comrade's warning was +not uncalled for. + +While this was going on the drinks were call on freely, and the +stranger unconsciously was falling a victim to the fiery potency of +the rum--a beverage to which he was not accustomed. He had tried to +evade anything more than a mere show of drinking it, but believed that +this was looked upon with such suspicion by all about him, that it was +better for him to drink and trust to the hardness of his head to carry +the liquor off safely. Little he knew how much he lacked of being a +match for that tough old tar, Billy Prangle, in the consumption of +that seductive but treacherous fluid. Gradually he lost his customary +caution; and finding himself baffled in all his attempts to "pump" the +old sailor, conceived that it would be a good idea to offer Billy a +hundred dollars if he would conduct him to and point out Dorn Hackett. +"That sum," he thought to himself, "would tempt a man like him to do +almost anything to gain it." So he made the proffer. Billy heard the +proposition gravely, and even feigned to view it favorably; but +manifested a great deal of curiosity as to why his ex-shipmate was in +such demand. + +The stranger felt that he had gone too far for any reticence to be of +service, now, and that perhaps a confidence might make him more secure +of this valuable ally; so he replied: "I'll tell you; but mind you're +not to say a word about it to any living soul until we have captured +him." + +"Would I be likely to throw away a chance to make a hundred dollars?" +exclaimed Billy. + +That answer, critically considered, could hardly have been deemed a +promise; but the stranger took it for one, and continued in a +confidential tone: + +"He's wanted for murder and robbery." + +"Murder and robbery! Dorn Hackett?" + +"Yes, the murder and robbery of an old man near Easthampton, Long +Island, where he has been going to see his sweetheart, a girl named +Mary Wallace." + +"And you tell me that Dorn Hackett is suspected of a thing like that?" + +"Yes, indeed, he is. He was in the neighborhood on the night of the +murder, and everything points to him; and I bet my head--" + +"That you are a lying, landlubberly--" broke out Billy Prangle, in a +torrent of quite unreportable expletives, the unregenerate lingo of +the fo'cas'le; and before the stranger recovered from his +astonishment, the indignant tar had commenced to make good that threat +with reference to his nose. + +Mr. Turner--for the stranger, now rolling on the floor with Billy, was +no other than that experienced professional detective--was a sturdy +fellow, well able, ordinarily, to take care of himself, and made as +good a fight as he could; but even had he been entirely sober he would +hardly have been able to cope with this sinewy son of the sea who +smote him so suddenly. While they struggled on the floor, Billy's +friends looked on with placid interest; interfering not, nor +questioning, and seemingly cheerfully confident of the result. The +barkeeper--Schoolcraft being away--seemed to enjoy the excitement, and +leaned over the bar to get a better view, while he shouted +encouragingly: "Go in, Billy! Wade in, old man!" + +And Billy followed the advice so well that it was not long until the +detective cried "enough," and was allowed to get up; when Billy led +him to the door and dismissed him with a parting kick. + +Self-reproachfully, and much humbled in spirit by his defeat, Richard +Turner left the Haven. But it was not in his nature to give up a chase +for one defeat. If he had not genius, he at least had that which is +sometimes almost as good--persistence. He did not even waste time in +thinking about the whipping and the kicking he had received, but he +did reflect that it was something singular that a poor old chap like +that sailor should have thrown a chance away whereby he might have +gained one hundred dollars so easily--merely by selling a friend, +perhaps to the gallows. Would he, Richard Turner, have been so stupid? +"Hardly," he said to himself. But he had to accept facts as he found +them, however strange they might seem, and the two most prominent ones +claiming his attention were: first, that he had made a blunder; +second, that he must work all the more rapidly to forestall the +possible chances of his indiscretion leading to the escape of the man +he hunted. Fortunately, the whipping had sobered him completely; and +having repaired as well as he could the damages he had sustained in +person and raiment, he continued until late at night, in other +sailor's haunts, his pursuit of information, but took care to give a +wide berth to the "Whaler's Haven." Before daylight he left the place +in a fast sloop and with a fair wind, bound for New Haven. There +fickle fortune made him amends for her unkind humor at New London, and +facts that seemed to go far toward establishing Dorn Hackett's guilt +came readily to his knowledge. The most important were these: + +On the afternoon preceding the murder of Jacob Van Deust the young man +went over to Long Island on Mr. Hollis's sloop. Nobody but himself +knew why he went. The men on the sloop expected him to return to New +Haven with them that night, but he did not do so. They left the Long +Island shore about the hour that it was supposed the murder was +perpetrated and, presumably, before he could have run from Van Deusts' +to the cove where the sloop laid. When he re-appeared in New Haven the +next morning his clothing was dabbled with blood; and his hands, +though he had evidently tried to wash them, still showed sanguinary +stains. He said that the blood was his own; that he had a severe fall +while running through the woods on Long Island. That he had fallen +seemed probable, since he had a bad cut on his head and one ankle was +lame; but that the blood was all his own, at least admitted of +question. Why he had been running through the woods he did not say; +but it was natural to suppose that he had been trying to reach the +sloop and get to New Haven as quickly as possible, to make ground for +claiming an alibi in case he should be suspected of the murder. + +The other significant discoveries that the detective made, and what he +did in New Haven, will be noted in their proper place. Suffice it here +to say, that the agent of justice felt that he had reason to +congratulate himself upon a triumph. + +Billy Prangle, when he had kicked out the tempter, lost no time in +fully imparting to his comrades the excellent cause he had for his +suddenly violent conduct, and was heartily censured by all for not +hammering the stranger twice as much. + +"What?--Dorn Hackett guilty of murder and robbery?" + +They who had known him for years; sailed with him; messed with him; +faced death by his side in the tempest and the perilous chase of the +monsters of the deep, knew how absurd such a charge must be. Every man +of them had belonged to the same crew with Dorn for three years, and +there was not one of them who did not groan to think that he had not +had Billy's chance at the stranger. In consultation among them, it was +unanimously resolved that it was plainly their duty to take the matter +in hand. + +"Jerry Slate has got a fast little sloop," said Billy Prangle, "that I +can borrow to take me over to Napeague. I'll go there and see that +girl of Dorn's that he spoke of--Mary Wallace, he called her. Here, +you barkeep', log that on a bit of paper for me, so that I won't let +it go adrift. You, Sam, go down by Wainright's packet in the morning +to New Haven, which it was the last place I heard of Dorn hailing +from, and see that you find him and tell him all about it." + +Thus the jolly tars arranged it among themselves to serve their friend +as best they could. And so it was that, on the afternoon of the +succeeding day, a weather-beaten old sailor--Billy Prangle +himself--after various inquiries in the neighborhood, "ranged +alongside" of Uncle Thatcher's house, asking for "a gal by the name of +Mary Wallace." + +"What do you want?" demanded Aunt Thatcher, who happened to "answer +his hail." + +"Be you Mary Wallace?" asked Billy, with an affectation of profound +astonishment. + +"No, I ain't. But I'm her aunt, and you can tell me your business." + +"Right you are, old gal, I can; but I'll see you furder, first," +replied the unabashed veteran, who had already been told by some +neighbor that she was a "snorter." + +"What do you mean, you impudent fellow?" + +"I always does my business with the principals, mum." + +Mrs. Thatcher slammed the door in his face and retired. But half an +hour afterward, when she happened to be out in the yard, she saw that +the sailor had lighted his pipe, seated himself on the stone step at +the door, and literally laid siege to the house. She reflected that +Uncle Thatcher would soon be home to his supper; and in view of the +strange way he had acted of late, did not know how he might take it +into his head to look upon her treatment of the visitor. Tartar as she +was, she had a wholesome respect for him when he chose to assert +himself, and deemed it most prudent to avoid an encounter. + +With an ill-grace she went to Mary, who was sewing in her room, and +said snarlingly: + +"There's an old vagabond at the door who wants to see you." + +Mary went out and found Billy calmly puffing his pipe and waiting. He +looked up at the sound of the opening of the door, and seeing the tall +handsome girl who stood there, sprang to his feet, with a beaming +smile and outstretched hand, saying: + +"Ah! You're the right one. I thought I'd fetch you." + +Mary gave him her hand, smilingly asking: + +"Did you wish to see me, sir?" + +"Yes; the mate has been out here trying to rig the pump on me, but it +wouldn't draw. What I'm here for concerns nobody but you and Dorn. +Come out to the gate, for she's a listening beside that window. I just +see the curtain shake." + +Mary started at mention of her lover's name by this stranger, and +unhesitatingly accompanied him as he requested; while Aunt Thatcher, +who was indeed listening by the window, could almost have torn her +sun-bonnet strings with vexation and rage when they passed beyond +range of her hearing. + +Billy, like many other maladroits, flattered himself that he had no +little skill in conducting a delicate mission, and thought it was +rather a neat way of sparing the girl's feelings to affect to be very +busy refilling his pipe, without looking at her, as he put the blunt +question: + +"Be you Dorn Hackett's sweetheart?" + +Mary blushed and stammered, not knowing what to reply. + +"'Cause," continued Billy, "he's maybe in some trouble." + +Trouble! Trouble for Dorn! That thought swept away in an instant her +timidity and maiden bashfulness, and anxiously she replied: + +"Yes, yes; he is very dear to me. What is it? What has happened to +him? Tell me quickly!" + +"Don't get excited. It ain't no great matter. But they are looking for +him to arrest him." + +"Arrest Dorn? For what?" + +"Murder and robbery." + +Mary gave a little cry and would have fallen, had not Billy caught +her; and holding her against the fence, awkwardly enough, but firmly, +adjured her: + +"Steady, steady! Brace up! Hold hard!" + +In a few moments she regained sufficient control over herself to +listen while the old sailor related to her, with characteristic +circumstantiality of detail, all the events of the preceding evening +leading up to his visit to her. She did not for an instant imagine +that Dorn could possibly have been guilty of such crimes, but the mere +idea of his being suspected of them so horrified her as almost to +deprive her of the power of reasoning. How could he have fallen under +suspicion? How could it come to be known that he was in the +neighborhood on that fatal night? There was but one person, she +believed, besides herself who knew of his visit, and that was Ruth +Lenox. Ah, yes! There was her aunt, who suspected it at least, and who +had questioned her so sharply about him. Ruth Lenox would never have +breathed such a foul calumny against Dorn. But her aunt? "Yes, it +would be just like her," thought Mary. + +Billy had no further information to impart, no advice to give, and no +consolations to offer. The latter would have been especially out of +his line. It seemed to him enough to give a person warning to look out +for him or herself, as the case might be; which, he reasoned, would be +all he would require under any circumstances; and so, having +discharged his errand to the best of his ability in the manner we have +seen, he relighted his pipe and "got under way," with a clear +conscience as to having done his duty by a shipmate. + + +XV. + +AND THE TROUBLE BEGINS. + +Ruth Lenox was, just at this time, on a brief visit to the house of a +married brother, who lived near Babylon; so that Mary was not able to +consult with her only confidante until the second day after Billy +Prangle's visit. Who could tell the agony of mind she felt during that +time as the leaden hours dragged slowly by? It seemed to her fearful +and excited imagination as if at any moment she was liable to hear of +her lover's capture and imprisonment, and she was powerless to do +aught to save him. One hope only suggested itself to her mind: that he +might have sailed away from New Haven before his pursuers could reach +him, and that by the time of his return from the West Indies the real +murderer might be discovered, and the foul suspicion against Dorn +entirely dissipated. But she was not left to cherish in peace even +that small germ of comfort, for Aunt Thatcher, with the astuteness and +malice of a feminine fiend--and if there is a distinction of sex among +the devils, the female ones must surely be far the worst--divined that +the sailor who visited Mary had come from Dorn, or in his interest, +and embittered every hour of the poor girl's life by the wagging of +her venomous tongue. As soon as Billy had gone away she demanded to +know what his business was; and receiving no reply--for Mary felt that +she would rather have died than give her aunt the satisfaction of +knowing the hideous intelligence he brought--proceeded to treat the +subject in her own lively fashion. + +"Oho! So you don't want to tell! Well, I don't wonder at it. I'd be +ashamed, too, if I was in your place. But I can guess without your +telling me. It's some word from Dorn Hackett, I'll be bound. Wants you +to go and take up with him while he's in port, maybe. If you do, you +needn't think to come back here with your disgrace. I s'pose he thinks +he's got a heap of money now. Did he let you know how much he got by +killing old Jake Van Deust?" + +"Oh, aunt!" exclaimed Mary. "You know that is a wicked falsehood! You +know Dorn never would have done such a thing!" + +"Don't tell me I lie, you impudent, deceitful, good-for-nothing hussy! +Don't you dare to talk back to me! I know what I know! Oh, I'll have +the satisfaction of seeing him hanged yet!" + +Mary burst into tears and left the house. That bit of dialogue was a +sample of what the heart-sick miserable girl had to endure constantly +when Uncle Thatcher was not present. When he was by, the vixen did +not dare to torment her victim, and Mary might have had a stop put to +the woman's malignant attacks had she appealed to him; but from that +extreme measure she revolted. + +When Ruth returned home Mary hastened to her with her load of +troubles, and was not disappointed in her expectation of sympathy and +consolation. + +"Don't you be afraid, dear," said little Ruth, in a very confident and +protecting tone. "It will be all right. You'll see that it will. I'll +make Lem fix it." + +"Lem?" + +"Yes. He shall go and find out who did kill Mr. Van Deust, and then +I'm sure there can't be any more talk about Dorn. And I know, just as +well as anything, that it was all started by that spiteful, wicked old +aunt of yours. Lem told me, the night before I went away, that he saw +her go into the Squire's office the evening of the inquest, after +everybody else was gone but a strange man, and she stayed a long time; +and I'd just risk my neck on it that that was the time she put him up +to the notion of Dorn doing it. And I think he might have had more +sense--a man like him, who has known him from he was a boy, and no +stranger to what she is. But don't be afraid, dear. I'll start Lem +right out to catch the real murderer, and I'll tell him I won't marry +him until he finds him; and that'll bring him to his senses, I guess, +for he's getting in an awful hurry about it." + +Ruth was very earnest and emphatic, and her friend understood and was +comforted by her, although it was not always easy to comprehend the +breathless torrent of words that the energetic little maid poured +forth, with reckless disregard alike of punctuation and of pronouns, +when she became excited, as she now was. + +Lem was very reluctant to undertake the task that Ruth sought to +impose upon him. + +"It ain't my business," he protested, "and I don't know anything about +it. I wouldn't even know how to begin. How would I look going around +the country asking people, 'who killed Jake Van Deust?' And I swon I +don't know any other way to tackle the job. Squire Bodley told me he's +got a real sharp fellow from New York at work--a chap that makes a +business of catching thieves and murderers, and knows all about it. +And I might do no end of mischief if I went to meddling." + +"Now don't talk to me that way, Lem Pawlett. I won't have it. You've +got a heap more sense than you give yourself credit for, and more than +most people would think, to look at you, I must say. Wasn't it you +that found the marks on the window, and tracked the murderer out to +the lane? Of course it was. None of them gawks standing around saw +anything until you showed it to them. And as for that smart chap from +New York--why, he's the very one that went and bleated out his +business to a lot of sailors in New London,--Dorn's friends all of +them,--and they thrashed him, and served him right, too. And that's +how we come to know about his being after Dorn, which, if he had any +sense, he wouldn't be. And you've got to find some way to clear Dorn +for Mary's sake, or I'll never forgive you, and I won't marry you +until Dorn and Mary can stand up with us, and--so there, now." + +Lem started home that evening, after his interview with Ruth, in a +very despondent mood, and at a much earlier hour than usual, almost +inclined to rebel against her authority, yet feeling that he must +eventually succumb to her will. As he strolled moodily down the +village street, wondering "what on earth" he should do, and thinking, +as he subsequently confessed, that perhaps it might be as well to +amuse Ruth by letting her imagine him very busy in Dorn's affairs, +while he simply left matters to take their own course, confiding in +Dorn coming out all right somehow, at last, his attention was +attracted to the presence of an unwonted number of persons in the +principal store, and the prevalence among them of some unusual +excitement. Entering to learn what was going on he was just in time +to hear the mail-rider, who had arrived but a little before, conclude +a sentence with the words "and so he's in Sag Harbor jail already." + +"Who's in jail?" Lem demanded, with a sinking at the heart, for he +well knew that no idle putting off would do for Ruth if her friend's +lover were really locked up. + +"Dorn Hackett," replied the mail-rider, proud of his news, and glad to +have the opportunity of repetition to a new auditor,--"for the murder +and robbery of Jacob Van Deust." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Lem. + +"It's so, I tell you. They caught him in New Haven last night. If +they'd missed him until to-day, he'd have been off for the West +Indies; but a New York officer, who got on his track in New London, +caught him. And they say he fought like a tiger. Both the officer's +eyes are blacked; but one of 'em is a little staler color than the +other, and I guess he must have been in two musses lately. Anyhow, he +had two New Haven constables to help him to put handcuffs on Dorn, and +then they brought him over in a sloop; and so he's in Sag Harbor jail +already." + +"Him that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. The +Lord wouldn't let him escape," snuffled Deacon Harkins from his perch +on the sugar barrel. + +"That's what comes of young men leaving their homes where they were +brought up, and going off to the big cities to make their fortunes and +get into evil ways," sagely observed the store-keeper, reflectively, +chipping off a bit of cheese for himself. + +"Yes." "That's so." "Just what a body might have expected," murmured +several voices. + +"How do they know he did it?" asked Lem, in an aggressive tone, +resenting the willing acceptance of Dorn's probable guilt, which was +manifestly the disposition of the group about him. + +"Ain't he arrested? What more d'ye want?" retorted Deacon Harkins. + +"Oh! That's reason enough for you, is it? That's the sort of a +Christian you are! Condemn a man before he's tried! Hang him on +suspicion! As if the law never got hold of the wrong person! Well, I +don't believe Dorn Hackett was the chap that ever would have done such +a deed, and I don't care if he was arrested a hundred times, I'd bet +my life no jury but a jury of Deacon Harkins's would ever find him +guilty." + +"There goes another young man I don't never expect any good of," +remarked Deacon Harkins, in a self-satisfied tone, as though his +condemnation quite settled the here and the hereafter of Lem Pawlett, +as that young man, having "said his say," strode out angrily, and went +on his way. + +But Lem heard him not, and would have cared little if he had, for just +then his mind was busy with a new and firm resolve. + +"I'll do it," he muttered to himself, "to spite that consarned old +deacon, who never was known to have a good word for anybody, as much +as to please Ruth! I'll save Dorn Hackett; by the great horn spoon, I +will!" + + +XVI. + +LEM OPENS THE CAMPAIGN. + +Dorn Hackett sat moodily upon his low bed in a little cell of Sag +Harbor jail. His elbows rested upon his knees, and his aching brow was +supported by his palms pressed against his temples. He might, had he +wished to do so, have caught a glimpse of sunshine through the narrow +window high up in the wall; might have seen the green branches of the +venerable elm that, swayed by the wind, swept its foliage from time to +time across that little space of sky; might have heard the blithe +carols of the song-birds that flitted among the old tree's boughs, and +even perched and sang upon the stone window ledge; but he had no heart +to look anywhere but on the ground; no thought for aught but his own +misery and shame. It seemed to him a terrible thing that he should be +locked in a jail. What would Mary say when she learned of it, as she +inevitably must? Ah! She would not believe that he could be guilty, +certainly not; but the shame of him would break her heart. + +His life had hitherto been one singularly free from reproach, and of +the many things to which even passably good men become accustomed and +hardened, by contact with the world, he was almost as innocent as his +sweetheart herself. He had not gone off to a big city to make his +fortune and fall into evil ways, as the Easthampton storekeeper had +said. Out of the three years and some months since he quitted the +village, he had spent, altogether, but a few weeks on shore. He had +been out at sea, doing bravely and well the manly work to which he had +dedicated himself, and from even the ruder and, to some natures, +demoralizing influences by which he was there surrounded, he had been +protected by the purifying charm of his ever-faithful love. A +retrospective view of his whole life brought to his memory no thought +of regret or shame for aught that he had done, no remembrance of +anything he would have wished to hide from the knowledge of her he +loved best, and in whose regard he had most desire to stand well. + +But there was one thing that, were it to do over again, he would not +have repeated. He would not have knocked down the officer who came to +arrest him, as he did in his first natural heat of indignation at +hearing himself charged with being an assassin and a thief. No, he +would not do that over again, for after he was ironed he had heard men +say that he did it in a desperate hope of escape, and that he would +not have done it if he had not been guilty. And yet it seemed to him +the most natural thing for an innocent man to do under the +circumstances. Could he have imagined that such a construction would +be put upon it? And now what had he to look forward to? He knew +nothing, absolutely, of the murder, of the inquest, or of the grounds +upon which he was suspected, save that he had a vague remembrance of +hearing it said, amid the excitement attendant upon his arrest, that +he had been in the vicinity of where Mr. Van Deust was murdered, on +the night that the old man was killed. Yes, that was probably true; +and how could he prove, or even state, the innocent purpose of his +presence there. Could he ask Mary to come into court and testify to +their love-meeting in the woods? No. Not even to save his life. + +His reflections were broken by the sound of footsteps in the corridor +without, and the sound of the jailor's voice saying: + +"This is his cell." + +The prisoner looked up and met the frank, kindly face and outstretched +hand of Lem Pawlett. + +"Well, Dorn, old fellow, I'm mightily sorry to see you here," he said +cordially, as the jailor walked away, leaving him standing in front of +the grated iron door of the cell, through which his hand was thrust to +grasp that of Mary's lover. + +"Does--do they know of it?" stammered Dorn. + +"Does Mary, you mean. Well, yes, I guess she does. Uncle Thatcher was +at the store last night when the mail-rider brought the news, and he +has most probably mentioned it at home. But, Lord bless you man! she +don't think anything of it. Cheer up. Don't get down in the mouth. She +won't believe a word against you, you may be sure. And it don't come +on her like a shock, as it were, because she has been expecting it." + +"She expected it?" + +"Yes. She has known for two or three days that they were after you, +but had no way of getting any word to you." + +"But how did they come to be after me?" + +"That was Aunt Thatcher's doings, I believe; but I'll tell you all +about it, as far as I know." + +Thereupon the good fellow proceeded to give as full and correct an +account, as his information enabled, of the facts already better known +to the reader, beginning his narrative with the discovery of the +murder and concluding it with an expression of his determination of +the night before, to "try to straighten out the tangle." + +"God bless you, old fellow," responded Dorn, with tears of gratitude +in his eyes. "I can't tell you how it warms my heart to have one +friend stand by me in a time like this. But little did I ever think, +when we were boys playing together, that you would ever have to do +such a thing for me." + +"That's all right, Dorn. Don't say any more about it. I'll be glad if +I can do anything, and so will Ruth and Mary. And now, let's see what +is to be done. The first thing is for you to tell me, as clearly and +exactly as you can, every incident you can remember of where you were +and what you did that night." + +"Everything is as clear in my mind as the occurrences of yesterday. +Let me begin at the beginning. I reached New Haven in the forenoon of +that day, and, having made a much quicker voyage than was expected, +found that I would have several days at my disposal. Of course my +first thought was of going to see Mary. I left the schooner in charge +of the mate, to see to the taking out of her cargo while I was gone, +and got a man named Hollis to bring me over to Napeague in a little +fishing smack. He had to come, any way, to get a couple of pipes of +rum that had rolled off a trader's deck one night. I left him at the +beach, telling him that if I did not meet him there at half past nine +o'clock that evening he need not wait for me, as I might have to +remain over a day, or even two; for you know, as Mary would not be +expecting me, I did not know whether I should meet her at the usual +place that evening or not, and I couldn't go to her uncle's to see +her." + +"No. I know all about that." + +"Well, I was fortunate enough to meet her, walking with Ruth, and +naturally remained with her as long as I could. It was nine o'clock, +as near as I could judge by the rise of the moon, when we parted, and +I set out for the beach to meet Hollis. I was a little afraid of being +late, and took a short cut through the woods that I thought I knew +just as well as when we used to go huckleberrying in them when we were +boys. But there had been at least one change that I knew nothing of--a +new road." + +"Ah, yes. The new one across from Amagansett." + +"I suppose so. Whatever it is, I found it very suddenly. I was running +at the time, along a little path that I knew well, and all at once +went plunging down, head foremost, nine or ten feet into a cut. It's a +wonder--and, as I then thought, a mercy--that I didn't break my neck. +Lately I've had my doubts as to whether it wouldn't have been better +for me if I had." + +"Stow that, and pay out your yarn." + +"When I could collect my scattered senses, I found that I had cut two +ugly gashes in my head, upon sharp pointed roots or stubs of some +sort, and had sprained my left ankle so that it was exceedingly +painful for me to attempt to walk. While I sat there, thinking what I +should do, a little elderly gentleman, on horseback, came along upon +the new road into which I had fallen. I told him I was hurt, and he +very kindly assisted me, first to fix up my head--giving me his +handkerchief to use with my own for the purpose,--and then to get over +to the beach. Hollis was gone. The accident had delayed me far beyond +my time, and he, of course, supposed that I was not coming. When I got +my ankle in the cool sea-water it felt better, but still I could not +walk any distance on it. Just then a small smack came along, with an +old man and a boy in it--strangers to me--probably out on some +smuggling errand, and I offered the old man ten dollars to take me +over to New Haven, which he accepted gladly. The kind little gentleman +helped me into the boat and bade me good-night, saying that he had yet +to ride to Sag Harbor. We had very little wind, and it was daylight +when the old man landed me in New Haven. I had lost a good deal of +blood from the cuts on my head, and felt half sick and drowsy from it, +so that I slept nearly all the time I was in the boat. And that's all +I can tell you about that night." + +"Well, man alive, that's enough. All we've got to do is to find the +little gentleman and the old man to prove that you left the island +before eleven o'clock, for it was after that hour that Jacob Van Deust +was murdered. That will show clearly enough that whoever did kill him, +at all events, you didn't; and that's all we care about just at +present." + +"Ah! If I had the slightest idea of who they were. But I never thought +to ask their names, and indeed didn't take much notice of anything; +for, as I said, I was dizzy, and half-sick, and drowsy, with the loss +of blood; so that even if they had told me who they were, I don't know +that I should have been able to remember. If the old man was, as I +suppose, a smuggler, he would hardly be likely to willingly expose +himself to inconvenient questioning in court. Old men are cautious +about taking such chances, especially for people who are nothing to +them." + +"Can you give me a description of the little gentleman on horseback? +or tell me anything about him that might lead to his identification?" + +"No. Only I remember he said he was a stranger, and knew nobody in the +neighborhood except the Van Deusts. The way he came to mention that +was in talking of taking me somewhere." + +"Well, as he mentioned the Van Deusts, old Peter doubtless knows who +he is. Ah! Come to think about it, he said at the inquest that his +lawyer from New York had called on him that evening. Why, it's all +plain sailing now. I'll go to the old man right away and ask him, and +he'll tell me who his lawyer is, and I'll go and see him, and we'll +have you out in a jiffy." + +"Lem, I can't tell you how I appreciate your kindness and the trouble +you are taking in my behalf." + +"Don't try to. It's all right, I tell you. You'd do the same for me; I +know you would. And I rather think I begin to like the job, knowing +how it will spite that old cuss, Deacon Harkins." + +The remainder of the young men's chat at the cell door had no especial +significance or bearing upon the progress of the events of our story, +and may as well, therefore, be omitted. Suffice it to say, that when +they separated, Dorn felt infinitely more hopeful and cheerful than +he had before since his arrest, and Lem had far greater confidence in +the result of his novel undertaking of detective work. Of course Lem +carried away with him many loving messages to Mary, which were, in due +time, faithfully delivered through Ruth. + +It was too late that evening when the young man reached his home for +him to call upon Peter Van Deust, but he went up to the homestead +under the elms the next morning, at as early an hour as he dared hoped +to find anybody astir. He found the lonely old man, already seated +upon the long bench on the porch, in his accustomed place, with his +pipe in his mouth, and his gaze turned toward the sea; but the pipe +had gone out unnoticed, and the eyes saw nothing of the glory of the +dawn upon the ocean, for they were blinded by tears that unconsciously +filled them. Lem stood silently looking at him for some moments, +hesitating to speak, and hoping to be noticed; but the old man did not +seem to know that he was not alone, until Lem's voice, bidding him +"Good-morning," awoke him with a start from his reverie. Then the +start, with which he had been recalled, extended itself in a long fit +of nervous trembling, and it was with a weak and quavering voice that +he responded to his visitor's salutation. It was painful to see how +the unhappy man had broken down in the little time that had passed +since the death of his brother. It seemed to have added at least ten +years to his age. + +"I suppose, Mr. Van Deust, that you have heard of Dorn Hackett's +arrest," began the young man, after a failure to find any other way +than a direct plunge to arrive at his subject. + +"Yes, yes, I was told of it yesterday. Dorn Hackett? Dorn Hackett? +They say he used to live around here, but I don't remember him. I +suppose I used to know him, though. And he was raised in the +neighborhood? It seems strange that any one who was raised near him, +and knew him, could ever have had the heart to kill Jacob, don't it?" + +"But, Mr. Van Deust, maybe he didn't do it at all." + +"Somebody did it; somebody climbed into his window and murdered him +for the sake of a little money. Beat in his skull and cut short his +little remnant of life, just to get a few dollars. Oh! it was a cruel +thing to do, to kill that poor, harmless, gentle, good old man. I wish +we had never heard of that cursed fortune. Jacob would be alive +to-day, if we hadn't." + +His agitation while he spoke was extreme. He trembled like a leaf in +the wind; tears ran down his withered cheeks; his voice was broken by +sobs, and at length his emotion so obstructed his utterance that Lem +could not understand him as he went rambling on about his brother's +untimely end. After a little time, during which Lem silently waited +for him to regain a little calm, his mood seemed to change to one of +suspicion and fear for himself. + +"I suppose they'll come to kill me next," he exclaimed. "They'll think +there's more money; but there isn't--there isn't a dollar in the +house. I'll never have a dollar in the house again; and I'll get a +dog, a savage big dog, and I'll load the gun. Oh, I've got a gun, +though it hasn't been loaded in forty years." + +"Mr. Van Deust, a little elderly gentleman on horseback was in this +neighborhood the night your brother was murdered, and he said he knew +you. Who was he?" + +"Why, he's my lawyer, the man who brought us the intelligence of--But +what do you want to know for? What right have you to come here asking +me questions about my private affairs--about my lawyer? Do you think +he brings money here? No, he don't! he don't! there isn't a dollar in +the house. It's none of your business! Go away from here. I won't +answer any more of your questions. I was a fool to tell you so much! +Begone! begone! Betsy! Betsy! Help! help!" + +The old man's excitement seemed to have crazed him, temporarily, at +least. He continued raving, and Lem, finding it impossible to get in a +word of explanation, went away, no little disgusted with the rebuff he +had encountered at the very commencement of his task of hunting up an +_alibi_ for Dorn. Returning to Sag Harbor, he succeeded in finding the +man who had hired a horse to the little elderly gentleman on several +occasions, but could learn nothing from him beyond that fact. The +gentleman, according to the man's statement, always arrived by boat +from New York, got the horse, rode away, came back, paid, and +disappeared, probably by boat again. And that was all that the owner +of the horse knew about him. + +Then Lem went to New York, saying to himself that he "would ask every +little elderly lawyer in New York if he was the man," before he would +give up the pursuit. Little did the unsophisticated young fellow, who +had never before been away from home, imagine the magnitude of the job +he had cut out for himself. + + +XVII. + +LOVE THAT IS NOT ASHAMED. + +The closing of the inquest upon the body of Jacob Van Deust was a mere +formality. It was generally understood that there was within reach, if +not in actual possession, some evidence that would go far to connect +Dorn Hackett with the crime, and Squire Bodley even hinted as much in +a few remarks that he made to the jury; but it was deemed injudicious +to make it known at this juncture, and the jury, by the Squire's +direction, returned a verdict of "death by violence at the hands of +some person unknown." + +Mary Wallace, ignorant of the slow, serpentine, and deadly ways of the +thing men amuse themselves by calling "justice," when the finding of +the jury was told to her that night found it difficult to understand +why Dorn should be kept in jail, when there seemed to be no evidence +which the coroner's jury has found sufficient to connect him with the +crime. + +"Uncle," said she, timidly approaching grim Mr. Thatcher, as he sat on +the stone door-step, surrounded by a litter of fine shavings that he +had scraped from a whale-lance handle that he was finishing by the +last light of day, "why is it that, if the jury gave their verdict +that the murder was done by some unknown person, they don't let Mr. +Hackett out of jail?" + +"Did you ever see a cat playing with a live mouse that she had +caught?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"How she lets it go a little way off, making it think it is going to +escape, and then pounces on it again? How she pretends she isn't +paying any attention to it, and has no notion of hurting it, and then +suddenly tears it to pieces?" + +"Yes, uncle," repeated Mary with a shudder. + +"Well, that's the way the law does with a man." + +Mary covered her face with her hands, and wept softly, while he went +on: + +"If they still hold on to Dorn Hackett, it is because they hope to get +proof enough against him to make him out guilty. I have heard lawyers +say that the law presumes every man to be innocent until he is proved +guilty; and when I was a younger man, I actually believed that; but as +I have got older, I have learned that practically, in the +administration of the law, when a crime is committed somebody has got +to suffer for it, for the sake of the moral effect on the community; +and it don't really make much difference who it is, so long as the +poor devil who is caught cannot prove himself innocent, which is +sometimes a mighty hard thing to do. He may not be guilty, but they +will try to make him out so. Better hang him than admit having made a +blunder in his arrest." + +"Oh, but uncle! you don't believe Dorn could be guilty, do you?" + +He looked at her pale anxious face with a feeling of deep pity,--for +his eyes were keen enough to see that it was of her lover she +spoke,--and replied with unwonted tenderness: + +"No, my poor child. No, I don't; and I wouldn't if I knew nothing more +about him than your trust in him." + +Two low sounds mingled softly, and were doubtless duly noted by the +recording angel on duty: a sigh from Uncle Thatcher, and a sniff of +disgust from his lean and rancorous wife in the dark room behind him. +He sighed to think, as he looked at Mary, and appreciated the worth of +her full and perfect love, what a treasure his profligate son had lost +in her, among all the good he had recklessly cast from him. Aunt +Thatcher sniffed because she did not dare to express openly her +contempt for his weakness in manifesting sympathy for the poor orphan +who had won her hearty and unextinguishable hatred by rejection of +Silas's advances. + +"And if Dorn cannot, as you say it is difficult to do, prove himself +innocent, what will they do with him?" + +"They'll hang him," exclaimed Aunt Thatcher, in a tone of malicious +triumph, unable longer to contain herself, and now appearing in the +door to enjoy Mary's horror. + +Uncle Thatcher turned upon her with a look of disgust and retorted: + +"Sallie Thatcher, if the devil himself ain't ashamed of you, he's +meaner than I take him for." + +"Oh, indeed! I'm so bad, am I? Thank you, Mr. Thatcher. Just because I +don't choose to take up for a murderer and a thief. I'm sure any body +might have known what he'd come to when he commenced by nearly killing +my poor boy." + +"Your 'poor boy' deserved all he got, and more, too; and I've good +reasons of my own for thinking that we'll both see the day we'll have +to regret that Dorn Hackett didn't finish him then." + +Aunt Thatcher's surprise and rage at hearing those words deprived her +for a moment of the power of articulation, and she could only give +vent to her feelings by a sort of wild beast howl of fury. But very +soon her ready tongue loosened itself again, and she poured forth a +torrent of reproach, vituperation, and malediction directed at random +against her husband, against Mary, against Dorn, against the world, +indeed, excepting only her "poor injured boy." + +When Uncle Thatcher had had enough of this, he straightened himself up +before her, and she, as if fearing the weight of his heavy hand, +retreated into the dark room. But he did not seem to have any +intention of personal violence. He simply pulled the door to, locked +it on the outside, and sat down again. A moment afterward the door was +tried and rattled from the inside. + +"Stay in there and keep quiet, if you know what's good for you," +growled Uncle Thatcher. + +The rattling ceased, and all was again quiet. + +"Uncle," said Mary, after a little pause, "I want to go and see Dorn." + +"In jail?" + +"Yes." + +"Well," he replied, a little doubtfully, "people might talk." + +"Let them, if they will. I don't care--or, at least, I don't care +enough to prevent my going to him when he is in trouble. What can they +say, but that we are lovers. Well, yes, we are, and it is no time for +me to seek to hide it when others look coldly and cruelly on him. He +loves me--I know he does; and I love him--with all my heart. And we +were going to be married very soon, uncle. I would have told you +before, but I was afraid. Now you are so kind to me that I'm not +afraid to tell you any more. And oh, Uncle, I _must_ go to him!" + +"Forgive me, little Mary--and may God forgive me for having made poor +Lottie's orphan child afraid to put confidence in me. You say you want +to go and see him. You shall. I'll hitch up early to-morrow morning +and take you over to Sag Harbor myself." + +Long before daylight the next morning Mary, who had not closed her +eyes during the seemingly interminable night, was up and had breakfast +prepared. Whether Aunt Thatcher was still under the influence of the +sullen fury that possessed her when the door was closed upon her the +night before, or had fresh fuel added to the fire of her temper by +overhearing the arrangement between her husband and niece, did not +appear. At all events she spoke no word of question or remark, and was +still abed when they took their departure. + +The sun was not risen above the sea when Uncle Thatcher's old carryall +creaked through the one long rambling street of the little village, +and entered upon the Sag Harbor road; but his upward glinting beams +already spread with gold and crimson the lower edges of the fleecy +clouds on the eastern horizon. Diamonds of dew still clung to the long +grass blades, and the points of the forest leaves and the morning +breeze, heavy with the salt smell of the sea, was fresh and bracing. +Robins flitted across the road with sharp notes, as of query why folks +should be abroad so early, and a belated rabbit, homeward bound to his +burrow in the brush, sat up-reared upon his haunches and seemed +paralyzed by astonishment until the horses were almost upon him, when +he bounded swiftly away. Higher and higher rose the sun, and as his +ardent rays licked up the dew, light clouds of yellow dust swirled and +spread behind the rapidly-moving wheels. Past orchards, where red +winter apples glowed in the sunshine like balls of blood amid the +foliage of the trees; past fields still golden with the stubble of the +early ripened grain; past fallow lands, where the blue-bird carolled +gayly on the hollow stump in which he and his mate had reared their +springtime brood; past leafy woods, where nuts were ripening, the +wheels rolled fast until they reached the quaint old town--their +journey's end--and halted beneath the old-time tavern's venerable +elms. + +Leaving the horses hitched, after having carefully watered them, Uncle +Thatcher accompanied his niece to the jail and asked permission for +her to see Dorn Hackett, which the jailor, having no orders to the +contrary, readily accorded. Mr. Thatcher did not enter. Though far +from being a nervous man, he felt as if the close clammy atmosphere of +that stone warehouse of sin and sorrow sent a chill to his heart. +Besides, he had no business with Dorn Hackett. With a great breath of +relief he turned his back upon the jail and wandered off down to the +wharf to look at the shipping--for Sag Harbor had shipping in those +days--to learn if there was any change in the oil and whalebone +markets, and perhaps to ascertain what was coming to his share of that +schooner in which he was part owner. + +Dorn was just bidding adieu to his lawyer, when Mary appeared in the +corridor. + +"By jove! Here's a pretty girl come to see some prisoner!" exclaimed +the lawyer at sight of her. + +Dorn paid no attention to the remark. There was but one pretty girl in +the world about whom he cared to think, and he did not expect her to +come there. What, then, was his surprise when, the lawyer having +stepped aside to give place to the visitor at his cell-door, he looked +out and beheld the beautiful face of his own true-love, Mary. With a +cry of surprise and joy he thrust his arms through between the bars, +catching her in an embrace, and their lips met in a long and ardent +kiss. The lawyer, who was a young man, and possessed of a very lively +appreciation of feminine beauty, lingered a few moments and then +quietly took his departure. + +"I hardly know whether I am most glad or ashamed to see you here, +darling," said Dorn, looking tenderly at his beloved. + +"Glad, I hope, dearest. Should you feel ashamed of being unfortunate? +It is only guilt of which one need be ashamed; and that, I well know, +my dear Dorn has not." + +"True. But it is very hard to wash the prison taint off, even from an +innocent man." + +"Do not think so, my love. Everybody will know yet how true and good +you are, and will be all the kinder to you for the mistake that has +given us so much pain and trouble." + +"Ah, my dear girl, it is your love and not your reason that tells me +so. Even people who have no other reason for hating the man who has +been the victim of such a mistake, will find sufficient the +consciousness that they have erred in supposing him guilty, and will +always profess to view him with suspicion, whether they feel it or +not. There is nothing that people generally abhor so much as a +confession of fallibility. But, no matter. I have your love and +confidence, dear Mary; I'm sure I have, or you would not be here; and +for all beyond that I'd ask small odds from the world if I were free +again." + +"And you will be, dearest, I am sure of it. It can never be possible +that a man should be punished by law for that of which he is not +guilty." + +"Ah, you think so? Then you have not read much about people who have +been convicted upon circumstantial evidence. I have read a whole book +about such cases, and I tell you it takes very little real proof to +hang a man sometimes." + +"Oh, Dorn! Don't talk so! You make me wild with horror and fear!" + +"Well, there,--there,--darling. I won't say any more about it. I +shouldn't have said so much, but somehow I have got into a bad way of +talking back since I have had to make the acquaintance of a lawyer." + +And kissing her tenderly, he sought to remove the terror that he had +unthinkingly given her, making light even of what he had just said, +and forcing himself to speak much more hopefully than he dared to +feel. + +"Lem, you know," he said, "has gone to New York to find a witness who +will certainly clear me if we can bring him into court." + +"Ruth told me that he had gone, and the object of his going, as far as +she knew, but he did not give her any particulars." + +"No? Then I'll tell you all about it." + +Thereupon he proceeded to inform her of all the untoward events that +had happened to him after his leaving her on the last night they were +together; his running through the woods and falling into the new road; +the aid given him by the little elderly gentleman; the missing of the +boat he had hoped to catch; the opportune arrival of the old man, +probably a smuggler, etc., etc., just as has already been narrated in +his interview with Lem, but much more slowly, as this time the story +was much broken by affectionate condolences and consequent digressions +to love-making. He told her also of Lem's unsuccessful attempt to +learn from Peter Van Deust who the little gentleman was. + +"What a pity it is," she said, "that you did not think to ask him his +name! Was there nothing about him that you can remember that might +help to his identification--no personal peculiarity of look, or dress, +or manner of speech?" + +He shook his head regretfully, saying, "I was not much in the humor to +notice peculiarities just then. But yes, come to think about it, there +was one little incident that rather amused me at the time, badly as I +felt; but I have not thought of it since until now. The little +gentleman had a very slow, cautious, and precise way of speaking. I +asked him what time it was, when we were down at the beach. He pulled +out his watch and replied very deliberately: 'Without desiring to be +understood as committing myself to an affirmation of the absolute +accuracy of my time-piece, I may say that, to the best of my +information and belief, it is now eleven minutes past ten o'clock.'" + +"Ah, I have seen him! I recognize his phrase, 'information and +belief'!" exclaimed Mary, "and know just how he said it. Ruth and I +met him the first time he came into the neighborhood, looking for the +Van Deusts, 'supposed to be brothers' as he then said. Ruth imitates +him, sometimes, and does it very well. When we come to match together +our remembrances of him, I am sure we will be able to give Lem some +information that will help him to find the man." + +"I certainly hope you may," answered Dorn, "for I can do nothing more. +I have got to resign myself to play the passive part of a football for +other people to bounce about, without being able to help myself, +whether I am going into the goal or the ditch. I have a lawyer, but he +seems to look rather blue over the prospect." + +"Then get another." + +"And have two of them looking blue? No, no. That would be more than I +could stand. One is enough. Sailors don't take very kindly to lawyers, +any way, you know." + +At the end of an hour--a very short time as it seemed to them, but the +limit set by the jailor, who now appeared, looking in at the corridor +door from time to time, with an air of expectation--Mary said she +would have to be going. + +"How did you come over?" asked Dorn. + +"Uncle Thatcher brought me." + +"The--mischief he did! And did he know you were coming to see me?" + +"Yes, he brought me for the purpose. Oh, Dorn, he has turned to be +ever so kind and good to me! I told him I loved you--" + +"God bless you, my darling!" exclaimed her lover, interrupting her +with a kiss. + +"--and that we were going to be married. And he did not say one word +against it. He even said that he did not believe you were guilty; and +when I told him I wanted to come and see you, he answered that he +would hitch up early this morning and bring me; and so he did." + +"Mary, if I've ever said a word against Uncle Thatcher I want to take +it all back. A man who does me as good a turn as he has this day, I +can never after hold any grudge against." + +Mary went home that night with a much lightened heart, and looked so +nearly happy that Aunt Thatcher would have liked to have bitten her, +for sheer vexation and spite. + + +XVIII. + +DORN'S TERRIBLE MISTAKE. + +Dorn Hackett's preliminary examination by a committing magistrate took +place before Squire Bodley, and was even a more important event, for +all the country around, than the inquest had been. As upon the former +occasion, the Squire's little office was crowded densely, and +apparently by exactly the same persons who filled it then,--with the +exception that the small space within the railing was somewhat more +jammed by the addition of five more persons than were there at the +time of the inquest; the prisoner, Dorn Hackett; his lawyer, Mr. Dunn; +the prosecuting attorney; the officer who brought Dorn from Sag Harbor +jail, and a reporter from New York. Peter Van Deust was seated where +he sat before, looking fearfully worn and old, as was remarked by all +who knew him and viewed with surprise the great change that had been +wrought in him within the few weeks since his brother's murder. He had +more command over himself now, however, than he showed on the first +day of the inquest; and instead of bowing his head and weeping, leaned +upon the end of the table and fixed his eyes with a hungrily keen gaze +upon the witnesses and the prisoner, as if he would fain have +penetrated their hearts to know the truth. + +Lem Pawlett was called, but did not respond, and in his absence +another witness formally testified as to the facts of the discovery of +the murder. Peter Van Deust repeated his former testimony. Then the +prosecuting attorney called the name of Mary Wallace. + +"Stop a moment," interposed the prisoner's counsel. "I desire to know +the object of the prosecution in calling this witness?" + +"It is neither customary nor requisite," responded the prosecutor, +"for the State to give such information. At the same time, I have no +objection, under the existing circumstances, to inform the counsel +that we intend to prove, by this witness, that the prisoner was in the +vicinity of where this murder was perpetrated upon the night of its +perpetration; keeping himself in the woods, evading the sight of +former friends and neighbors, though he had not re-visited them or +made himself known among them for three years or more, and that he +parted from the person we have just called as a witness a little while +before the hour at which the murder, as we have reason to believe, was +committed." + +"We are ready to admit," replied Mr. Dunn, "that the prisoner was in +the woods within a half, or possibly a quarter, of a mile of the Van +Deust homestead on the night of the murder; that for what seemed to +him good and sufficient reasons, yet very innocent ones--which the +younger portion of my hearers will possibly imagine and appreciate +more readily than the old ones--he _did_ seek to avoid meeting any +inquisitive and gossiping friends; and that he parted from the person +whom the State has just called before the hour at which the murder was +committed. I believe those admissions cover all the State desires to +show by this witness, and consequently, I do not see that there can be +any necessity, at this time, for placing her on the stand." + +"None at all. We are satisfied with the admissions," assented the +prosecutor cheerfully, not at all dissatisfied with expediting +business in the close and heated quarters in which he found himself. + +A look of relief, almost of pleasure, passed over Dorn's face. He had +his Mary spared the embarrassment and unhappiness of appearing as a +witness against him, for that time at least. + +A man named Schooly, from New Haven, testified that he saw Dorn in his +boarding-house in that city two days after the date of the murder, and +he was then suffering from some cuts, bruises, and sprains which he +claimed to have received while running through the Long Island woods +at night. + +Detective Turner bore witness to the finding in the prisoner's room in +New Haven of a pair of pantaloons and a jacket stained with blood, and +a shirt which, though it had been washed, still bore blood stains. He +further narrated that the prisoner had stoutly resisted arrest; had, +indeed, fought hard to effect an escape; and upon being overcome and +searched, had been found to have, in a belt about his body, some three +hundred dollars in gold coins--which the witness here produced for +inspection by the magistrate, and possible identification by Mr. Peter +Van Deust. + +The old man looked them over a little, and then pushed them away with +a weary sigh, saying simply: + +"Jacob had gold in his bag; I don't know how much. Minted coins are +all alike." + +The case looked very weak for the prosecution. There was really +nothing beyond mere suspicion to connect the prisoner with the crime. +The prosecuting attorney, with a discontented look, whispered to the +detective,--who was evidently uneasy,--and shuffled over again the +pages of the testimony taken at the inquest, with a faint hope that he +might find there some previously overlooked clue to be of service now. +But there was nothing. + +The prisoner's counsel leaned back to his client and whispered +exultantly: "I defy any jury, or magistrate, to find on that evidence +anything worse than the Scotch verdict of 'Not Proven.'" + +"'Not Proven'?" exclaimed Dorn, "I don't want such a verdict as that. +Cast a cloud of suspicion and doubt over my whole life! No, I'd rather +be hanged at once and done with it. What I demand is a verdict of 'Not +Guilty.'" + +"Better be satisfied with what you can get. 'Not Proven' would be just +as good." + +"Not for me. I want to tell the Squire, and everybody, just what +happened to me that night. I'm sure that they will see I am telling +the truth, and I'll clear away this suspicion." + +An older and shrewder practitioner than Mr. Dunn would have positively +refused to permit his client to imperil, by a word, the present +promising condition of his case; but he could not help entering into +the feeling of the brave, handsome and earnest young fellow who +pleaded so hard to be permitted to defend himself with the truth, and +yielded. + +"If your honor pleases," he said simply, "my client requests to be +permitted to make his own statement of the events of the night in +question affecting him, or in which he had a part." + +"I shall be happy to hear him," answered Squire Bodley, who was +conscious of feeling prepossessed in Dorn's favor, and desirous of +seeing him clear himself from suspicion. + +The prosecuting attorney looked up with a new light of hope in his +eyes. Well he knew how even innocent persons sometimes tangle +themselves up in trying to tell a straight story, and how their +unpractised and unguarded utterances can be garbled, warped, and +misconstrued. But Dorn's manner gave him very little encouragement. In +a plain, straight-forward way, that went home with the force of truth +to the hearts of all who heard him, the young man told his brief tale +of mal-adventure on that luckless night. + +Why he had come to Long Island that evening and tried to avoid being +seen by anybody but the person he came to see was, he said, his own +business--had no bearing on this affair--and he did not propose to +make any statement about that. He did not need to. Already it had in +some way become matter of public knowledge all over that end of Long +Island that he had come to see Mary Wallace, his sweetheart, who stuck +to him so well in his trouble that she had been to see him in jail. +And nobody thought the worse of him for that, certainly. + +Having disposed of that matter so simply, he retold his story, from +the time of his starting to run through the woods to catch Mr. +Hollis's sloop up to his final arrival at his home in New Haven the +next morning. "Deeply I regret," he said, in concluding the narrative, +"that I do not know the two persons who assisted me; the gentleman on +horseback and the old man in the smack; and beyond measure grateful I +would be to them if they, learning of the trouble into which I have +innocently fallen, would come forward to corroborate my statement of +what happened that night." + +"And you know of absolutely nothing," said the prosecuting attorney, +after a little whispering with old Peter Van Deust, who was seen to +violently shake his head, "which might lead to the discovery of the +real existence of either of those persons who, according to your very +romantic story, came so opportunely to give you their aid?" He spoke +with an affectation of incredulity, which in his heart he was very far +from feeling. + +"Nothing whatever, sir," replied Dorn. "The only trace I have left of +either of them, except the memory of their kindness to me, is the +handkerchief which the little gentleman bound around my head. It has +been washed, with the rest of my clothing over which the blood flowed +from my scalp wounds, and was sent to me yesterday in the valise which +was forwarded to me from my boarding house in New Haven. I have it +with me. Here it is." + +So saying he drew from one of his pockets a large white linen +handkerchief, clean and neatly folded, which he handed to the +prosecuting attorney. That official took it in an absent-minded way, +looked at it negligently, and--his mind busy with some trap he was +minded to set for the young man--then tossed the light fabric +carelessly from him upon the table. It fell before old Peter Van +Deust, who snatched it up and, after turning it from one corner to +another for close examination, suddenly startled everybody by a loud +cry and the exclamations: + +"It was his! It was Jacob's! I can swear to it!" + +The old man was immediately recalled to the witness-stand, and +testified with much demonstration of excitement: + +"I felt that it was his as soon as I saw it, and when I examined it I +was sure of it. Jacob had some harmless, womanish ways about him. He +could sew, and knit, and embroider a little. He marked all his +clothing himself--every article of it I believe--in a very modest way; +hardly discernible at a casual glance, but very plain when you come +to look for it, as you can see on that handkerchief. Look in that +corner and you'll see his initials '_J. V. D._' worked with a single +white thread. You can hardly see it without you hold it so that the +light will show the lines of the letters lying across the threads of +the fabric. There! That way it shows plainly." + +It was as he said. The letters "_J. V. D._" were unquestionably there. + +Dorn sank back in his seat aghast and terrified by this astonishing +discovery. Who now believed his story of the little gentleman and the +old man in the smack? Nobody. Everybody saw that it was an artfully +concocted lie, and was indignant with him for duping them, by his +apparently ingenuous and honest manner, into momentarily believing +him. An audible murmur about the "finger of Providence" ran through +the throng, and Mr. Dunn groaned, half to himself and half to his +client: + +"Oh, I was afraid you'd play the devil somehow! Why couldn't you have +let well enough alone?" + +Squire Bodley, having carefully examined for himself the marked +handkerchief, said solemnly to the accused: + +"Young man, you have, I fear, placed the noose about your own neck. +You will stand committed to await the action of the Grand Jury. +Without bail, of course," he added, seeing that the prisoner's counsel +had risen and seemed about to say something. + +Whatever it was that Mr. Dunn had an idea of saying or doing when he +got upon his feet, he changed his mind and sat down again. The fact +was that he was as completely stunned as was his client by the +revelation that had been made. Dorn had sworn to him that he was +innocent, and he had believed it. But now--? He, even, began to have +his doubts. + +At this moment a sharp-featured woman, wearing a sun-bonnet and with a +tangled lock of sandy hair hanging down her back, having literally +fought her way to the railing, leaned over it and asked the magistrate +in an acidulous whisper: + +"Squire, can't I swear to something against him?" + +"It would be useless, now, Mrs. Thatcher," replied the Squire, "as he +has already been committed. But your evidence might be desired by the +Grand Jury. What can you testify to?" + +"I can swear," answered the woman, with eager spite, "that he's a +hardened villain, and that I believe he killed Jake Van Deust, and +that he's been keeping that fool niece of mine out in the woods to the +latest and most indecent hours of the night." + +"Madam," said the Squire, with mingled dignity and contempt, "you will +excuse my saying that you are simply disgusting! Go away!" + + +XIX. + +THE MAD AVENGER. + +Nobody could devote himself with greater assiduity to an almost +hopeless task than Lem Pawlett did to his pursuit of the unknown +lawyer. The weather was exceedingly hot in the city, and he, +accustomed to breathing the pure fresh breezes of the sea-shore, felt +it terribly oppressive. The pavements were very hard to his feet, used +to the soft earth and sand of the country, and he was actually lame +most of the time. The interminable streets and the multitude of people +confused him and gave him a horrible sense of isolation among them +all. Then he very much missed little Ruth's affectionate despotism, +and her practical good sense and encouragement, for he had so many +disappointments and discouragements to encounter that he was fairly +heart-sick almost all the while. Still the good fellow did not give up +his chase. He had come to town for a purpose, he said to himself, and +he would succeed in it or die trying. Day after day he haunted the +courts and the streets where there were most lawyer's offices, and it +was not long before he became actually a terror to all the little +elderly gentlemen who practised law in New York--and there were a +great many of them, as there are even yet. Seeing one who, it seemed +to him, might come within the somewhat wide specifications he alone +had for his guidance, of being small and past middle age, it was his +habit to buttonhole the suspected person and put to him directly the +question: + +"Do you know the Van Deusts of Easthampton?" + +They all said "No." A very few of them, at first, had curiosity enough +to add "why?" But upon his commencing his story which from his manner +promised to be long, they would always exclaim, "Ah! One +moment--excuse me. I see a man--" and would dart away. Generally they +did not even ask "why?" but darted away about their own business all +the same. + +His frequent repetitions of the same question were overheard by other +members of the bar than those to whom it was addressed, and it was +observed that the interrogation was always directed to little, elderly +gentlemen. So very speedily it became a stock-joke among the +profession for waggish counsellors to ask of his selected class of +victims, at the most inopportune times and unexpected places, "_Do_ +you know the Van Deusts of Easthampton?" until they were almost +maddened by the iteration. + +One jocose attorney christened Lem "The Mad Avenger," and by that +title he was soon generally known. The poor fellow was much puzzled to +account for the hilarity that his appearance in court sometimes seemed +to occasion; for the general interest that appeared to be awakened +among the lawyers when he approached one of whom he thought he should +ask his question; and for the angry haste with which the person so +approached would reply, oft-times before he said more than "Do you--" +with an emphatic "No. Never heard of them in my life." Sometimes he +asked the same person, twice or thrice even, on different days, for he +could not be expected to remember them all. + +There are always haunting the courts a few poor, harmless mad +people,--wrecks whose hearts and minds have been at some time crushed +by the Juggernaut of the law. The mercy of forgetfulness has wiped +away the memory of ruinous defeat and made place for ever-springing +hope in their breasts. They imagine always that their cases are +"coming on very soon--to-morrow, perhaps;" for the bitter, +heart-sickening lesson of legal procrastination is deepest graven, and +survives all else in their blighted brains. Lem got to be regarded as +one of those unfortunate beings. And then, even if he had got an +opportunity to tell his story to anybody, the chances are that it +would have been taken for a fiction of his imagination. Still he +plodded on indefatigably, with his eyes always open for the wanted +witness, and his one question ever trembling on his lips. His manner +of operation was certainly not the best,--not the one that a skilful +detective would have adopted,--but it was the best he knew; and sooner +or later Providence is pretty certain to help those who endeavor for +themselves as earnestly and well as they know how. + +Once only he sought to make a divergence from the path upon which he +had set out. He went to the police, thinking to ask their aid. The +superintendent received him brusquely, demanding as soon as he put +his foot over the threshold of the office:-- + +"Well, my man, what do you want?" + +"I have come, sir, to ask some help here in finding out about the +murder of Jacob Van Deust, of Easthampton, Long Island." + +The superintendent referred to a book at his elbow, and replied +curtly, "Man on that case now." + +"Yes, I know there is," answered Lem, "but it seems to me that he's on +the wrong tack, and--" + +The superintendent did not trouble himself to hide his contempt for +the criticism of an unprofessional, and a countryman at that, upon one +of his force of detectives, and interrupted with the abrupt retort: + +"Very probably. But I guess you are not likely to teach him his +business. Martin!"--turning to his messenger--"Tell the captain I'll +see him now." + +Lem accepted this discourteous dismissal, and found his way into the +street without anybody seeming to have noticed that he said, +"Good-day, sir." + +Singularly enough as it might appear, in view of the notoriety that +Lem's question had obtained among the lawyers, but for a very +excellent reason, nevertheless, the one man of all of them who could +have responded "yes;" the one man of whom he was in search, had not in +all this time heard that anybody was hunting an acquaintance of the +Van Deusts and, though he was the only person in New York who had any +direct business interest in the Van Deusts, knew anything about them +or would have been likely to know of any important event happening to +them, he had not even heard that Jacob Van Deust had been murdered. +That one man was Mr. Pelatiah Holden. Of late years he had practiced +very little in the courts. He had amassed a considerable fortune--one +so regarded in those days, at least--by the exercise of his +profession; and as he grew older and attained a high and deserved +reputation by his ability, gradually drifted into the comparatively +quiet, easy, and lucrative life of an office lawyer--one who gives +counsel to other lawyers in difficult and important cases. His deep +learning in the law, his wide knowledge of rulings and precedents, and +his great caution in forming and framing opinions, gave weight and +value to his advice, and put him in the position of a general who +plans battles for others to fight, but seldom finds himself directly +engaged in combat. + +It was his custom to go to his office at an early hour every week-day +morning; lock himself in a little inner room, the walls of which were +covered with a magnificent legal library; receive there only persons +who came on such important business as could not be attended to by Mr. +Anderson, his old and able confidential clerk; have a lunch handed +into him at noon precisely; and, at four o'clock to leave for his home +somewhere in the upper part of the city. During his seclusion in that +inner room, he was constantly busy, poring over law books, reading +points submitted by counsel, and writing opinions. When a person was +admitted to see him, the very atmosphere by which he was surrounded, +was a warning against waste of time in idle conversation. Not one, of +even his most intimate friends, would have dreamed of taking up his +time with mention of a new lunatic haunting the courts. + +So it was that Lem met him and passed him by in the street, +unconsciously, over and over again, not even knowing that he was a +lawyer. The young man was so uneasy, restless and unhappy, as the days +flew rapidly by, and the time for Dorn's trial was drawing nearer--for +the grand jury had found an indictment against him within a week +after his commitment by the magistrate, and he was to be tried for his +life at the next session of the court--that he could no more sleep at +night than rest in the daytime, and was almost constantly strolling +aimlessly about the streets, growing thinner, more careworn and +despondent daily. + +One evening, as he was passing the front of the old Chatham Street +theatre, he was surprised to hear himself called by name, and turning, +found himself face to face with Silas Thatcher. He had not seen the +scapegrace for more than three years, had never been at all intimate +with him, and hardly recognized him now, so greatly had his appearance +changed. Silas was dressed in black cloth, wore a silk hat, flashing +breast-pin and shining boots, had a moustache and goatee, and was +smoking a long cigar. In all respects he was a good sample of the lot +of a dozen or more fellows lounging near the theatre door, every one +of whom was known to the police as a gambler or a thief, and most of +them as deserving official notice in both characters. The vulgar +affectation with which he sought to impress his rustic acquaintance, +did not lacquer over the coarse blackguardism of his customary +manners, and Lem, without well knowing why, felt an instinctive +dislike for, and distrust of, him. Still, he stood and talked a little +while, telling the last news he had from home; that Uncle and Aunt +Thatcher and Mary were all well; that Eben Stebbins had gone +a-whaling; that the schooner "Pretty Polly," with Captain Marsh and +three men, had been lost in a gale; that Dorn Hackett had come back +and been arrested on suspicion of having murdered Jacob Van Deust-- + +"Murdered old Jake Van Deust! You don't mean to say that you folks +down in that dead-alive little village, have had the sensation of a +real murder!" + +"Ah! yes. A terrible sensation, too, the killing and robbery of a +poor, weak, old man, and the arrest of an innocent person for the +crime." + +"Let's go and get a drink, while you tell me all about it." + +"No, thank you. I don't drink. But I can tell you all about it here, +all the same." And he told the whole story, at least, as far as it was +known to the public, instinctively suppressing, however, all mention +of the evidence he hoped to find in the city. + +"That handkerchief business will be likely to hang him, won't it?" +asked Silas. + +"It seems very serious to his friends." + +"Mighty queer that he should have had the thing!--if he isn't guilty." + +"And yet I am as sure as that I am alive this moment, that if they +hang Dorn Hackett for that murder, they will hang an innocent man for +the crime of another." + +"Come, let's go and take a drink, just one. Take something light if +you like. And then we'll go around and see some life. Come on. I want +a drink." + +"No, you'll have to excuse me, Silas. I never drink, and I feel pretty +tired; and, I think I'll go to bed." + +"Go to bed! now! Why, a man isn't a hen. Night is the only time to see +life in New York. I've only been up a couple of hours or so. Come +along, and I'll show you the elephant." + +"No, thank you. I have no desire to see him. I'd rather go to bed. +Good-night." + +"Well, good-night,--if you will go." + +Silas, when left alone, hastily entered the bar-room attached to the +theatre, and called for a glass of brandy. While he was pouring out +the fiery beverage, an acquaintance entered, and, looking at him with +surprise, exclaimed:-- + +"Why, Sile! What the deuce is the matter with you? You look as if +you'd seen a ghost!" + +"Maybe I have. What'll you take?" answered Silas, dryly. + +"Brandy," replied his friend, and the young man's looks were no more +commented on. + + +XX. + +RUTH'S LETTER. + +When Lem reached the humble hotel on Pearl Street, at which he put up, +he found a letter addressed to him in the clerk's rack. It had arrived +while he was out that afternoon. No need for him to open it to know +who it came from. One glance at the superscription was enough for him +to see that Ruth's chubby little hand had guided the pen. Retiring to +his little room he opened the missive, trimmed his solitary candle, +and with a countenance of happy anticipation sat himself down to read. + +"DEAR OLD LEM," she wrote, "I'm beginning to think that you are away +an awful long time, and I'm getting real anxious about you sometimes. +Perhaps you have found some handsome city lady that you think you like +ever so much better than me, and have no idea of coming back to the +village. If so, just mention the fact while I have some chance left. I +hear that Deacon Harkins is looking out for a fourth wife, and who +knows--But there, I won't plague you any more, you big, good-hearted, +stupid dear. I know you won't fall in love with anybody but your +little Ruth, any more than she will with somebody else than her big +Lem, and I can answer for her. But there! I haven't much time to write +about you and I, for I've got something real serious to tell you, +something that may be a great deal of help to you in what you are +trying to do; that is, supposing you are trying what you started for, +and not just to capture the handsome city lady. Mary has been to see +Dorn in jail, and had a talk with him about the little elderly +gentleman, and he has remembered something more than he told you that +makes us both sure we have seen him, and would know him again; and +it's a wonder to me that he didn't think of telling you, for he's a +man you couldn't mistake. But then you men are all so flighty and slow +to think about things, and you never get them right until a woman +takes them in hand." + +Lem scratched his head, looked perplexed, reread the long sentence, +and then muttered to himself: + +"Ah, yes! I see. Dorn has remembered something more--and it's the +little elderly gentleman she and Mary have seen--and it's a wonder +Dorn didn't think of telling me that something he has remembered--and +the little elderly gentleman is a man I couldn't mistake. Yes, it's +all clear now." And he read on: + +"I remember him just as well as if I saw him only yesterday, and I'll +tell you exactly how he looked. He wore a wig, very dark brown, nearly +black, and very neatly brushed; and he had a shirt bosom with a +frill--like those queer old heroes of the revolution in our pictorial +book of American History; and his tall silk hat had a very wide crape +around it; and he had a funny little breast-pin in his frill that +looked like a square of glass with gray hair under it, and little +pearls around it, like grandmother's brooch. He had on a stock, a +very wide, stiff stock, that kept his head up very straight; and when +he bowed he moved as if he was only hinged in the middle. He spoke +very deliberately, and seemed to be afraid somebody would snap him up +right off if he didn't say exactly the right word, and he appeared to +be too cautious ever to say anything positive. He spoke of the Van +Deusts as 'supposed to be brothers,' and when Dorn asked him what time +it was, he looked at his watch and replied that, 'according to his +information and belief it was eleven minutes past ten.'" + +"Now I'm sure, Lem, that such peculiarities as his must mark him out; +so that when you know them you will have little difficulty in finding +him. Do your best, darling, and make haste, for the time is getting +terribly short for poor Dorn and dear Mary,--and yet it seems awful +long to + + "Your own little + + "RUTH." + +"This is serious. This merits consideration and dissection," said Lem +to himself, spreading the letter on the table before him, and squaring +himself to go at it as a study. It was nearly morning when he felt +that he had fully mastered all its contents, and threw himself on his +bed for a short and troubled sleep. + +But the earliest lawyers on the street--those who snatch a subsistence +from the dregs and scum of humanity thrown up daily by the currents of +misfortune and vice, upon the strands of the police courts--saw "the +Mad Avenger" already prowling about the vicinity of their offices long +before the hour at which the civil and principal criminal courts would +be opened for business. When the judicial mills commenced their +grinding, he was within sound of their clatter, and from one to +another he wandered, anxiously and wearily, as was his custom. When +the day's grist was completed, and the grinders hurried away to their +respective offices to prepare more grain for the morrow's grinding, he +mechanically followed them. + +It was getting late in the afternoon; he had not yet seen anybody +approximating to the picture he had in his mind's eye--the portrait +drawn by Ruth--and he was just arrived at that period of the day when +he always felt most sick with disappointment, and most sorely tempted +to give up the seemingly useless pursuit and go home. He stopped +before the little hand-cart of a street fruit vender, which was drawn +up to the curbstone, to buy an apple. While he made the purchase he +heard the voice of a man, who halted just behind him, saying quickly: + +"Ah! I was just coming up to see you. Are you in Fordyce vs. Baxter?" + +"Not having been advised by my clerk," said a precise and deliberate +speaker in reply, "that any papers in an action so entitled had been +deposited in his hands, and having no other knowledge of such action +than your present mention of its title, I believe that I am justified +in saying, sir, that to the best of my information and belief--" + +"Aha!" shouted Lem, wheeling around and seeing before him the living +original of Ruth's very exact sketch--"You're the man I'm looking +for!" + +"What the--the--the--mischief do you mean, sir," exclaimed the little +gentleman, warding off the hand that Lem stretched out to clutch his +collar. + +"It's the Mad Avenger," said, laughingly, the gentleman interested in +Fordyce vs. Baxter. "He will ask you, in a moment, if you know the Van +Deusts of Easthampton." + +"Of course I will," retorted Lem, growing hot and angry, "I don't know +why you call me the Mad Avenger--my name is Lemuel Pawlett, and I do +want to know, for very serious reasons, if this gentleman is +acquainted with the Van Deusts of Easthampton." + +"And I reply that I am," answered Mr. Holden, sufficiently perturbed +by the immediate excitement to forget his customary caution and make a +positive statement without qualification. + +"Oh! The deuce you are! Then there really are Van Deusts of +Easthampton!" exclaimed the other lawyer, with genuine surprise and +beginning to feel an interest in the affair. + +"Thank God! I have found you, sir. Thank God!" ejaculated Lem, +fervently, "for I believe you can be the means of saving an innocent +man's life." + +"Bless my soul!" gasped Mr. Holden--"But, here! This is no place for a +consultation. Come up to my office;" and he began elbowing his way +through the crowd that had already gathered. + +"But _are_ you in Fordyce vs. Baxter?" called after him the gentleman +whose lucky inquiry had brought to Lem the good fortune of this +meeting. + +"No," Mr. Holden answered, still moving off. + +"Then remember that you are retained for the plaintiff!" + +"See Anderson about it," shouted back the little gentleman, +disappearing with Lem in the big doorway of the stairs leading to his +office. + +It was with profound astonishment and genuine sorrow that the worthy +lawyer heard of the murder of Jacob Van Deust, for he had achieved +quite a liking for the younger of the two brothers. + +"But," said he, "I am tempted to say that it seems to me somewhat +strange that I have not been notified of the fact by the surviving +brother." + +"Old Peter is greatly broken down, sir; more shaken by the loss of his +brother than any one would have believed he could be, seeing how hard +and selfish he always used to seem." + +"Ah!" replied Mr. Holden, meditatively, his eyes resting upon the +mourning band of his hat on the table before him. "The rupture of +life-long ties gives deep pain. We are such creatures of habit, if +nothing more. We miss a face to which we have long been accustomed; a +voice that we had thought was only in our ears, when it was in our +hearts all the while. When the grave covers that face and there is +only silence, or the sadness of its own echoes in the lonely heart, +the world is no longer the same--But, there!--Don't talk about it any +more. You have not yet told me how I can, as you said in the street, +save the life of an innocent man." + +"The man arrested for that murder, perpetrated at or about midnight, +as is supposed, is the one you found in the road suffering from the +consequences of a severe fall, and whom you helped to leave Long +Island, in a disabled condition, nearly two hours earlier that night +than Mr. Van Deust was killed." + +"Ah! If I did not know of what the police are capable, I should be +surprised at it." + +"You know he is innocent, sir; and I know it, and Ruth, and Mary, his +sweetheart; we all know it. But they would hang him if we couldn't +prove it." + +The reaction from his long sustained anxiety, the present excitement +and his joyful emotion over finding the man upon whom he looked as +Dorn's saviour, so affected the poor fellow that he cried like a +schoolboy. + +"Yes," assented Mr. Holden reflectively, "that is practically what the +law seems to require sometimes--and it is hardly ever an easy thing to +do. But, come, my good fellow! Leave that crying for the girls you +mentioned and give me all the facts you possess bearing on the case." + +"I--I--can't help it, sir. Don't mind me--I'll be over it directly. I +know it's weak, and foolish,--but I've been worked up so, fearing I +wouldn't find you in time." + +In a few minutes Lem recovered his self-control, and then it took but +a very short time for the skilful lawyer to elicit every detail of the +progress of Dorn's case. Lem was surprised at seeing him smile when +the discovery of the handkerchief, the strongest point against the +accused, as it was deemed, was mentioned, but did not dare to ask him +why he did so. When the narration was concluded, Mr. Holden asked: + +"When is his trial to come off?" + +"On Tuesday next, sir." + +"Tuesday next. H'm. Prosecution will take up first day; defence not be +reached before Wednesday--and this is Thursday--leaves me four days to +get through what I have on hand. Oh, Mr. Anderson!" + +The door opened noiselessly in response to his loud summons, and the +old clerk poked in his head. + +"If Mr. Sarcher comes to retain me in Fordyce _vs._ Baxter, you will +decline to take his papers unless he can wait for an opinion until +after next week." + +"Yes, sir." + +"That is all, Mr. Anderson." + +"Thank you." + +The clerk bowed and retired his head, again carefully closing the +door. Mr. Holden turned to Lem and said, cheerily: + +"With Heaven's help, young man, we will save your friend's neck." + +"Oh! I'm quite satisfied you will, sir, I'm easy in my mind about it, +now that I've seen you. Did you know there's a schooner goes to Sag +Harbor, Tuesdays and Fridays, starting at five o'clock in the evening +from Coenties Slip?" + +"Yes, I know. I have taken it before, and will again, God willing, +next Tuesday evening. Go home, see your friend and his sweetheart, and +cheer them up, especially the girl. Tell them I'll--well, no; on +second thoughts, you'd better say nothing about my evidence that you +can avoid;--he would tell his counsel who must be, metaphorically +speaking, an ass, or he would have kept his client quiet at the +preliminary examination--and it might get to the other side. That +might do harm. It is always unwise to let your antagonist in law know +your weapons." + + +XXI. + +THAT SWEET BOON--TRIAL BY JURY. + +On the day that Dorn Hackett's trial commenced, the little court-house +of Sag Harbor was by no means large enough to contain half the people +who came from all the country around to attend it. From the +neighborhood in which the murder had been committed, they seemed to +have come in a body. Old acquaintances, neighbors, friends of the +prisoner--who had known him since he was a child; who had heard as +fresh the news that his father, William Hackett, had been swept +overboard from a whaler's yard-arm and lost in a gale, and who had +seen the drowned man's little orphan boy grow up to young manhood +among them--were present by dozens; yet among them all one could +hardly hear a few faint expressions of sympathy for him, or hope for +the demonstration of his innocence. There is nothing for which +ignorant people, particularly rustics, are so ready as the acceptance +of the guilt of a person accused legally of a crime; nothing they +resent so deeply as what they believe to be an attempt to deceive them +by a false assumption of innocence. The discovery of the marked +handkerchief in his possession, had been, to their narrow minds, +conclusive evidence of Dorn's guilt and each man of them felt it an +insult to what he deemed his intelligence, that Dorn had, just before +that discovery, betrayed him into a temporary fear that they might not +have the right man after all. + +Deacon Harkins, who, by the way, had tried to have Dorn, as a child, +indentured to him by the county overseer of the poor, as soon as he +heard of the drowning of the lad's father--a slavery from which the +boy was saved by the kindness of a good old man, long since dead--was +prominent in the crowd about the court-house, quoting texts and +vaunting the foresight with which he had "always looked forward to +seeing that young man come to a bad end." Aunt Thatcher, was of +course, present, and--as might have been expected--vindictively +exultant. Mary Wallace, having been summoned as a witness by the +prosecution, was compelled to attend, and made her way through the +throng to the county clerk's office, beneath the court-room, where she +was given a seat to wait until she should be called. Happily there was +still humanity enough among the rough people who were eagerly awaiting +the conviction of her lover, to prompt some little sympathetic feeling +for her; and, as she went by, they at least refrained from saying, in +her hearing, that they hoped Dorn Hackett would be hanged. Aunt +Thatcher was incapable of such delicacy and reserve. She had been +saying that daily, and almost hourly, since she had heard of his +arrest, and she continued to say it now, loudly too, until the +disgusted county clerk ordered her to keep quiet or get out of his +office, to which she had forced her way with Mary. + +There was little difficulty in getting a jury, for in those days fewer +newspapers were read than now are; fewer people sought to escape jury +duty by deliberately "forming and expressing opinions relative to the +guilt or innocence of the accused" in advance of the trial; and, above +all, lawyers had not yet developed, as they since have, the science of +delay at that point of the proceedings. Twelve "good men and true" +were selected--perhaps a sample dozen as juries go. One of them heard +with great difficulty; two kept yawning and dropping asleep from time +to time; a fourth belied his looks, if he was not at least +semi-idiotic; three were manifestly weak, simple-minded persons, +devoid of moral force and easy to be influenced by a stronger will, +and the remaining five were evidently men who doubtless meant to do +right, but were obstinate to the verge of pig-headedness, and showed, +by the countenances with which they regarded the prisoner, that they +were already inimical to him. And before this "jury of his peers" Dorn +Hackett stood, to be tried for his life. + +It would be time and space lost to recite the thrilling opening speech +of the prosecuting attorney; to tell how vividly he depicted the +horrors of the crime that had been perpetrated; how artfully he +seemed, by word and gesture, to connect the prisoner with the crime at +every stage of its progress; how scornfully he dwelt upon "the absurd +story by which the murderer had sought to explain away the damning +proofs against him, and which his counsel might have the audacity to +ask this intelligent jury to believe," etc. It was more like a closing +than an opening speech, and when it was ended, five of the jury looked +as if they were satisfied that the proper thing to do would be to take +the prisoner right out and hang him to one of the big elms beside the +court-house. + +Mr. Dunn's heart sank within him. What had he to make headway with +against that speech, before those five men and with that fatal marked +handkerchief ever fluttering before his eyes? + +The hearing of the witnesses for the State continued slowly all the +first day. All that had been sworn to before the committing +magistrate, was repeated now, and there was really very little more, +but that little was adroitly handled, and the temper of the jury was +to make the most of it. Peter Van Deust produced a great effect when +he gave his testimony as to the identification of the handkerchief +belonging to his murdered brother, which was, in the language of the +prosecutor, cunningly woven into questions "voluntarily, confidently, +and impudently exhibited by the prisoner to sustain his preposterous +story." Poor Mary Wallace had to go on the stand and testify that Dorn +had been with her, walking and conversing, in the edge of the woods, +less than half a mile from the Van Deust homestead, on the night of +the murder, and that he left her about nine o'clock. Witnesses were +brought from New Haven to testify to Dorn's arrival in that city, the +morning after the murder, with his clothes bloody, head cut, and one +ankle sprained; and to his admissions that he had received those +injuries while running through the woods on Long Island the night +before. + +"Not," exclaimed the prosecuting-attorney, "as he would have it +believed, long before the murder, but when he was fleeing red-handed, +conscious that the brand of Cain was on his brow!" + +The prisoner's counsel protested against this sort of interpolation of +comments, as irregular and unfair, and the court sustained him in that +view, but the majority of the jury looked as if they would have +thanked the prosecutor for expressing their sentiments so forcibly. + +Then other witnesses were called to prove, as experts, that a man +would have time after the hour at which it was believed the murder was +committed,--say, at midnight--to run to the Napeague Inlet, take a +sail-boat and reach New Haven early the next morning. One, indeed, +testified that he had tried and accomplished the feat. + +And that was all the State had to offer. Still, the popular feeling +was that it was sufficient. + +"It would hardly amount to much before a city jury," said the +prosecuting-attorney, in confidential chat with some other lawyers at +the close of the day's proceedings, "but I guess it will be enough +down here." + +The jury, at the adjournment of the court for the day, gravely heard +the injunction of the judge, that they "should refrain from talking to +anybody about the case," and then went out and discussed the evidence +with their friends and neighbors. + +"The handkerchief must hang him; that's clear," said everybody. "How +could he have had it if he hadn't killed the old man?" + +Dorn was remanded back to the jail, where Mary had a little interview +with him, during which she wept almost constantly, and he spent all +his time in trying to console her with loving words and foolish hopes, +so that neither of them said or did anything particularly reasonable +or worthy of the telling here. And then Mary went back to the room +that had been assigned her in the tavern, and cried so all night, that +in the morning her eyes were red and swollen almost sufficiently to +justify in some measure the gratified assurance of Aunt Thatcher, that +she "looked like a fright." + +As for Lem Pawlett, it must be admitted that he acted in what seemed +to his friends a most reprehensible and unaccountable manner. +Following even too strictly the injunctions of Mr. Pelatiah Holden +about saying nothing to anybody, he would not even give them the +satisfaction of knowing positively that he had found his man, and +that the much needed evidence would be forthcoming in due time. He did +go so far, under Ruth's most severe pressure, as to assure her that it +would "be all right," but beyond that the little maiden found that for +once her power was set at naught. He felt resting upon him a +responsibility that temporarily out-weighted his love, and the gravity +of his stubborn silence awed the girl, and made her look upon him with +a new respect. But how he suffered! Bearing alone and in silence his +weighty secret, made him feel that virtually Dorn's salvation depended +upon him, and should anything happen by which that evidence would not +be forthcoming, and Dorn be hanged in consequence of its failure, he +would be neither more nor less than the executioner of his friend. The +next most unhappy man in the town that night, after the prisoner +himself, was Lem Pawlett. When, from sheer exhaustion, he fell asleep, +nearly at daylight, he had a horrid dream that he was tied hand and +foot, and powerless to speak, while his witness was fleeing swiftly +away from him on horseback, and that Dorn was standing before him, +under the gallows-tree, with a noose about his neck and a horrible +look of haunting reproach in his eyes. From that dream he awoke with a +howl of fright, and, fearing to go to sleep again, sprang up, dressed +himself and hurried out into the deserted main street of the still +slumbering town. + +He took his way toward the wharf. "Sometimes," he said to himself, +"the packet from New York gets in early; hardly so early as this, but +then she might have had an extraordinary good breeze last night." His +road led him by the jail. He shuddered as he passed the grim, gray +building, for never before had it seemed to him so big, so strong, so +terrible. Not one living thing did he meet in his lonely walk, and +when he reached the wharf the most profound silence surrounded him. +The tide was rising, but without the sound of its accustomed swash on +the piles. Its influx was indicated only by a slight ripple around the +obstacles it met. As far out as he could see the surface of the bay +was as smooth as a mirror. Going down some slimy green steps to a +boat-landing, he dipped one hand into the water, and held it above his +head. There was not even a breath of air moving. With sullen +resignation he seated himself upon a pile of lumber and waited. + +The dawn appeared, then suddenly the sun rose up behind the town, +casting upon the glassy surface of the water before him long shadows +of the tall warehouses, and of the people who now began to busy +themselves in the vicinity. Not the smallest ripple broke the outlines +of those shadows. He looked anxiously up at the sky. Ah! with what joy +he would have seen, in the direction of New York, a myriad of those +ragged fleecy clouds which sailors call "mare's tails," and believe to +be sure harbingers of wind. But there was not one to give him hope. +The sky looked like a monster dome of unflecked, burnished brass. It +was high tide, and a dead calm. + +With a groan he turned away and retraced his steps to the tavern. An +unwonted excitement began to be perceptible in the streets, the +continuation of that of the preceding day. Already people were +flocking in from the country, determined to be nearest the court-room +doors when they were thrown open. The tavern bar-room was crowded, +even before the sleepy bar-keeper had his eyes well rubbed open, and a +sort of general picnic scene was presented by the people breakfasting +on cold lunches in the shade of the elms. + + +XXII. + +IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE. + +When the court was opened that morning, at the usual hour, and the +expectant multitude rushed, scrambled, and tumbled in, to fight first +for front places and then for any place at all; the lawyers--who had +entered by the judge's private stairway--were already seated inside +the railing, chatting and laughing with cheerful indifference; the +prisoner, looking worn and haggard, was seated in his place, and the +two drowsy jurymen were already commencing to yawn. + +The defence began the presentation of its evidence immediately. Mary +Wallace was recalled to the stand to testify that when her lover was +leaving her on the evening of the night of the murder he told her that +he was going back to New Haven in Mr. Hollis's sloop. But the +prosecuting attorney objected, and the court ruled that the prisoner's +statements at that time were not admissible. Mr. Hollis, of New Haven, +bore witness that Dorn had come over from New Haven with him that +evening, had said that he might not return that night, and did not +return to the beach at the appointed hour to accompany him back. +Altogether, Mr. Hollis's evidence was rather injurious than otherwise, +and the prosecuting attorney looked pleased as he made a note of it. +Lem Pawlett was called to testify that the tracks left by the murderer +in the soft earth of Mr. Van Deust's garden were those of a man +wearing high-heeled, fashionable boots or shoes, and having much +smaller feet than Dorn Hackett; but as he had taken no measurements of +them, and only judged from memory, and didn't know the size of Dorn's +feet, and was, as he readily admitted, a friend of the prisoner, the +prosecuting attorney in cross-examination made it to be inferred from +his manner, that there was no doubt in his mind that the witness was +deliberately perjuring himself in the hope of helping the case of the +accused. And at least five of the jury responsively looked as if that +was the way they felt about it. + +Then witnesses were put forward as sea-faring experts to prove that on +the night of the murder there was almost a dead calm on the water, +such as would have made it impossible for a sail-boat to go from +Napeague Inlet to New Haven in the time that it was claimed by the +prosecution Dorn had gone. But when the prosecuting-attorney got to +bullying and confusing them in cross-examination, he made them say +that they could not really swear whether the calm was that night, or +the night before, or the night after, or two or three nights distant +either way; and one of them even admitted that perhaps it might have +blown a gale on that particular night, for all he was now prepared to +make oath to about it. Simple-minded people, who do not know how much +more lawyers bark than bite, when going through the ordeal of +cross-examination are apt to feel much as the toad proverbially does +when he finds himself under the harrow. + +Things were going swimmingly for the prosecution. The defence was forced +to fall back upon its last and always weakest intrenchment--proof of +previous good character and reputation. A few persons were found to +swear that they had known Dorn Hackett from his boyhood, and had +always considered him honest, industrious, truthful and kind-hearted, +and they were confident that such was his general reputation. Uncle +Thatcher was one of those witnesses, at his own request, and the +prosecuting attorney, who had, in some mysterious way, learned much +more than he should have been permitted to know about the witnesses +for the defence, asked him sneeringly: + +"Did not this excellent young man, about three years ago, perpetrate +an unprovoked and brutal assault on your son?" + +"No, sir," replied, the old man sternly. "He thrashed him, as he +deserved, for a contemptible action." + +But all those witnesses to good character had to admit that they had +known nothing of Dorn for three years past, during which time he had +been away from the village--whaling, it was said, but for all they +knew to the contrary he might have been living the most vicious and +ill-regulated life in some big city. Then a stronger witness in that +direction took the stand, Mr. Merriwether, of New Haven, owner of the +schooner of which Dorn was master, and he could, and did, swear +positively that he knew Dorn had been on a three years' whaling +voyage, had since been steadily in his employ, and was in all respects +moral, sober, and an entirely trustworthy young man of irreproachable +character. The prosecuting attorney seeing that this witness was one +who could not be easily bluffed or confused, contented himself with +asking: + +"You are his employer, are you not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And interested in getting him back to work for you, as you deem him a +good sailor?" + +"Yes, sir. But--" + +"Never mind. That will do, sir. I am through with this witness." And +the prosecutor sat down, looking with a scornful smile toward the +jury, as if he would have said to them confidentially: "You see this +man cares nothing whether the prisoner is guilty, or not, of all the +crimes forbidden by the Decalogue, if he only serves him well." + +In those days, a person accused was not permitted to go upon the stand +in his own behalf and give his testimony, under the sanctity of an +oath, as is now allowed him by the law. Then, he might be granted the +privilege of making his statement, but it would be merely a statement, +and the prosecution was very careful always, when a prisoner thus +spoke for himself, to impress upon the jury that his unsworn +affirmation of innocence was of no value whatever, when weighed in the +balance against other men's affidavits. Stress would be laid upon the +time and knowledge the accused had had to enable his preparation of +his own version of the affair, and undue prominence and importance +given to the fact that he could not be cross-examined. In this way an +artful prosecutor could generally neutralize all good effect the +accused might otherwise produce, if not, indeed, make the poor +wretch's asseverations of innocence absolutely harmful to him, by +stirring up the suspicion, antagonism, and secret consciousness of +infallibility in the minds of the jury, who resent attempts to deceive +them. + +Dorn was duly warned of this, yet he persisted in demanding to be +allowed to tell his own story, and the court granted him permission to +do so. He told it simply, clearly, and truthfully, as he had told it +before to Lem, to Mary, to his lawyer, and to the magistrate who +committed him, but he made no new converts to his innocence +now--unless it might have been the clear-sighted and experienced old +judge on the bench, who believed that he heard the ring of truth in +the young man's voice, and saw honesty in his frank, manly face. + +But at the conclusion of the statement, as Dorn left the stand and +returned to his seat by his counsel, the prosecuting attorney silently +held aloft before the jury the marked and identified handkerchief, +and that action was more conclusive in its effect upon their minds +than all that the prisoner had said. Looking upon their faces, the +lawyer for the defence murmured to himself, "We are lost!" + +As the day wore on Lem Pawlett was in agony, for his witness did not +appear. It made him dizzy and sick to see one witness after another +leaving the stand in such rapid succession, for he did not know how +soon the supply of them would run out, and the weak defence be +compelled to close before the one upon whom all depended should make +his appearance. "Why had he not come? The boat was due many hours ago, +and had not yet arrived! Becalmed, doubtless, on this one day of all +the days in the year. Perhaps he might not be aboard. He might be +sick. What if he should be a cunning villain, the real criminal, for +all his smooth exterior, who had purposely given that handkerchief to +Dorn to cast the guilt apparently on him? He smiled when it was +mentioned. And now he might be flying far away." These thoughts almost +maddened Lem. Bitterly he reproached himself that he had not staid in +New York and kept his witness under his eye until the last moment, and +brought him along by force, if necessary. Again and again he was +tempted to make his way to Mr. Dunn, and urge him to fight the day +through by all means; but each time he remembered what Mr. Holden had +said the prisoner's counsel must be, and refrained. Parched with +thirst, and blazing with fever, yet with a cold perspiration breaking +out all over him, poor Lem could hardly understand half that was going +on. But when Dorn's lawyer arose and said, "May it please the court, +the defence rests," the words came to his ears like a clap of thunder. +It seemed to him that that was the last moment of grace, and he +staggered to his feet, trying to say something; to cry a halt; to +appeal to the judge for time; to do, he did not know what. But his +tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, and a deputy sheriff, seeing +him standing there, waving his arms and looking as if he was about to +speak, shouted at him with such an awful voice, "Silence in the +court," that he sank down, stunned and speechless in his place, as +helpless as he had been in that awful dream of the night before. + +The prosecuting attorney began summing up to the jury. If he was +forcible in the opening, he was terrible now. Of course he assumed +that a clear case had been made out, as prosecutors always do; that +"there was no moral doubt of the guilt of the accused, any more than +if the jury had actually beheld him battering in the skull of his aged +victim, wiping the dripping blood from his hands upon the raiment of +the corpse, and clutching the gold, for lust of which he had done this +hideous deed." [Five of the jury looked as if they quite agreed with +him; three others glanced timidly and furtively at the faces of the +five, as if to read there what they too should think about it; the +sleepy men were very wide awake now, having had a good nap while the +evidence as to character was being introduced; and the deaf man had +both hands up to his ears to enable him to hear better, for if there +is anything that country people do love, it is a good strong speech.] + +In the midst of one of his most vigorous declamatory efforts the eye +of the prosecutor caught sight of the judge, who was sitting with +upraised gavel and a look as if he was only waiting for the end of a +sentence to arrest his progress. The speaker stopped, and the judge, +laying down his gavel, held up a note and said: + +"I am in receipt of a communication which is, if written in good +faith--that is, by the person whose name is signed to it--of so very +important a character, and has such a decided bearing upon the +interests of justice in this case, that I feel it would be in the +highest degree unwise to ignore it. I will therefore ask the +prosecuting attorney to have the kindness to at least postpone for a +short time the continuation of his address to the jury. The court will +now take a recess for half an hour." + +The densely packed and excited audience hardly waited the conclusion +of the sheriff's formal repetition of the formal order of the court, +to break out into a loud murmur of exclamations, conjecture, and +discussion as to what the important communication might be. The judge, +upon rising from his seat, made a sign to the prosecuting attorney and +the counsel for the defence to accompany him to his room, and the trio +went out by the private door, which they closed behind them. + +"What is it, Lem? What do you suppose they are going to do now?" Ruth +asked anxiously of the young man, who sat in a semi-inanimate +condition at her side, and who actually had not heard a word of what +the judge had said. He started from his dream, into which reality had +again plunged him, and replied miserably: + +"I don't know. Hang him, I suppose." + +"Don't talk nonsense, Lem. What's the matter with you? Wake up. Didn't +you hear what the judge said about his receiving an important +communication that had a decided bearing, and all that?" + +"Did he?" + +"Yes, 'a decided bearing upon the interests of justice in this case.' +Those were his very words; and he held up a letter." + +"Then it's all right now, Ruth! All right at last! He has come! He has +come!" + +"Who has come?" + +"The man who will save Dorn Hackett." + + +XXIII. + +TURNING OF THE TIDE. + +It seems a little strange to some people that a prosecuting attorney +should so hungrily devote himself to the conviction of an accused +person, even when, as is sometimes beyond question, he feels in his +heart that the individual against whom he is exerting all the force of +his trained legal ingenuity, eloquence, and mental power is, in fact, +guiltless of the crime alleged against him. If his gains depended upon +his success in obtaining a conviction, many who are accustomed to look +upon pecuniary interest as a sufficient excuse for almost anything not +absolutely prohibited by law, would understand him better. But such is +not the case. His salary is the same, whether he succeeds in hanging a +guiltless unfortunate or not. Success, in many cases, may help him to +re-election: but that is not always a serious consideration. Why, +then, when he cannot convict by clear proof of guilt, does he call to +his aid the technicalities of law, the power of precedent, and all +that may enable him to even prevent the prisoner accomplishing that +herculean task--the proving of his innocence? Simply because of the +development in him--and the conscious possession of the widest license +in its exercise--of the hunting instinct that is inherent in all +carnivorous animals, man included. He hunts the accused down to +death, with not even the cannibal's excuse of wishing to eat him, but +that he may have the joy of triumph in the achievement, and that his +reputation as a hunter may be enhanced,--as some men used to kill +buffaloes on the plains, as long as there were any, simply for the +sake of the killing. In other circumstances and relations of life he +may be gentle and kind-hearted; but put him in the chase, and he knows +no pity. Perhaps there are times when, after a conviction, he secretly +says to himself: + +"Thank God it was the jury's work, not mine! I did not convict him!" + +But he deceives himself. The average juryman, even one who is without +prejudice and means to do rightly, is but a tool of the most cunning +and able of the two lawyers pitted against each other before him. Some +drops of the innocent blood the jury sheds must cling to the hands of +the prosecutor. + +When the court resumed its session, after the brief recess, another +person sat within the railing among the lawyers, a little elderly +gentleman, at sight of whom Lem Pawlett almost wept for joy, and the +prisoner's heart felt a thrill of hope. + +Dorn's counsel formally announced to the court that since the closing +of the defence new and most important evidence, completely +demonstrating the innocence of the prisoner at the bar, had been put +in his possession, and he asked that the court grant permission for +the reopening of the defence and the admission of this testimony. + +The prosecuting attorney argued long and earnestly against the +introduction of any further evidence at the present stage of the +proceedings. In view of the high character and standing in the +profession of the proposed witness, who had been made known to him in +the judge's private room, and with whose reputation he was well +acquainted, he did not dare to cast a shadow of suspicion upon the +proposed evidence as manufactured and unworthy of belief or +consideration. Evading that issue, he confined himself to opposing as +informal, irregular, and liable to be viewed as a dangerous and evil +precedent, the reopening of the case. Even if improperly convicted for +lack of this evidence, the prisoner, he argued, would still have his +relief in a new trial, which the Court of Appeals would be sure to +grant if the new testimony was indeed material. + +Mr. Dunn made a strong plea for the accused against the injustice of +condemning an innocent man to await in prison, under the shadow of a +sentence of death, and in an agony of suspense, the slow action of the +Court of Appeals, rather than disturb the mere formality of a trial. + +Finally, the judge ruled--as he had intended to before either of the +lawyers said a word--that the new evidence should be admitted. + +The little elderly gentleman, responding promptly to the crier's call +for "Pelatiah Holden," took the stand, was sworn, and testified: + +"My name is Pelatiah Holden; I reside in New York, and am a lawyer by +profession. I have been the legal adviser of the brothers Peter and +Jacob Van Deust in certain money matters; and, upon business connected +with their affairs, visited their house on the evening of the 19th of +July, coming from New York by boat to Sag Harbor and thence riding +over on horseback." + +"That was the night upon which Jacob Van Deust was murdered, was it +not?" the prisoner's counsel interposed. + +"To the best of my present information and belief the murder was +perpetrated on the night of the 19th, or morning of the 20th." + +"Yes, sir. Proceed, sir." + +"I remained with the Van Deust brothers, taking supper with them, +receiving their signatures to some papers, and holding a consultation +with them in regard to the investment of certain monies belonging to +them jointly, until, as nearly as I can now remember, about fifteen +minutes before nine o'clock in the evening. They pressed me to remain +all night, which I declined to do, as I had business of importance to +attend to in New York, for other clients, and was desirous of +returning as speedily as possible to the city. When I took my +departure Jacob Van Deust accompanied me to where my horse was hitched +in the lane, and we stood there talking a few minutes. There was no +wind stirring, and the mosquitoes annoyed me very much. In switching +them from the back of my neck with my handkerchief I dropped it +accidentally, and the horse chanced to step upon it, trampling it into +the dirt of the lane. Seeing that it had been rendered unfit for +present use, Mr. Jacob Van Deust was kind enough to offer me the loan +of a clean one which he had in his pocket, and I thankfully accepted +it. I mounted my horse, said good-by, and set out upon a new road that +Mr. Van Deust--the younger brother, I mean--had recommended to me as +shortening considerably the distance I had to travel. + +"I had ridden, as nearly as I can judge, about a mile, or perhaps only +seven-eighths of a mile, when, in passing through a cutting that +depressed the roadway to a depth of nine or ten feet below the surface +of the ground on either side, I found, lying upon the ground and +groaning, a young man." + +"Do you recognize that man among those here present?" + +"I do, sir. It was the prisoner at the bar. He informed me that having +been unacquainted with the existence of that new road, he had just +sustained a severe fall into it. His injuries seemed to corroborate +his statement, at least so far as the severity of his fall was +concerned. His scalp was badly cut in at least two places, and he was +bleeding profusely. + +"When I assisted him to rise he found that one of his ankles--the +left, I believe--was so seriously sprained that he could not bear to +rest his weight upon it, and could not walk a step without assistance. +I used the clean handkerchief which was in my possession, together +with one he had, to bind up his head and stanch the flow of blood, +after which I supported him to the beach, where he hoped, he said, to +find a small vessel to take him to New Haven, where he resided. But he +was only able to move very slowly, and when we arrived at the water's +edge no vessel was in sight. While we were debating what was best to +be done with him, under the circumstances, a small fishing-boat came +within a short distance of the shore, and the person directing its +movements responded to his call. He offered the person in the +boat--who appeared to be an old man, accompanied by a boy--the sum of +ten dollars to take him over to New Haven, which offer was accepted. I +assisted him to enter the boat, and, when it had sailed away returned +to where I had left my horse tied to tree, remounted him, and +prosecuted my journey homeward." + +During the giving of this evidence, a stillness prevailed in the +court-room as if the speaker had been alone, and when his voice ceased +there was such an enormous sigh from the crowded audience as if all +were at once exhaling the pent-up breath they had not dared to free +before for fear of losing a word of what he said. Five jurymen and the +prosecuting attorney looked equally disgusted. + +"At what hour that night did you last see the prisoner?" asked Mr. +Dunn. + +"At twenty-seven minutes past ten o'clock." + +"In a small boat, sailing from the shore?" + +"Yes, sir. Very slowly, however, as there was very little wind." + +"From your knowledge of his condition at that time, do you believe it +would have been possible for him to have returned that night to Mr. +Van Deust's, entered that house, perpetrated the murder with which he +is charged and made his escape?" + +"No, sir. He was very weak from loss of blood, and I know, from +personal examination, that his ankle was so severely sprained that it +would have been a physical impossibility for him to have done what you +said." + +"Ah! you say that you examined his ankle. Did you notice at the time +what kind of shoes he wore?" + +"I did. He had on the low, broad, soft shoes, with hardly any heels, +which sailors customarily wear." + +"That is enough, sir. Thank you. Take the witness," said Mr. Dunn, +with an air of triumph, to the prosecuting attorney. + +That official did not seem to care about taking the witness. He knew +that it was a master in the art of cross-examination who was thus +lightly turned over to him, and had no hope of entrapping him or +shaking his testimony. Still, he had to make some show. + +Indifferently he asked: "Of course you have no idea of who the old man +in the boat was?" + +"To the best of my information and belief, his name was Jabez Sanborn. +I asked him and that was what he told me." + +Jabez Sanborn! Why, everybody around Sag Harbor knew about him; a shy +old man, reputed a miser, who lived with a lad, his grandson, in a hut +in the woods and was known to be addicted to wandering all along the +coast at night, in a little fishing-smack, on errands best known to +himself. Yes, the most likely man in the world to be met under just +such circumstances was old Jabez Sanborn. And the least likely man to +hear that a murder trial was going on in which he might be an +important witness--or perhaps to care if he had heard it--was also old +Jabez Sanborn. The prosecuting attorney felt that he had not drawn a +trump that time at least. While he cast about mentally for something +else that he might ask the witness, with at least the minimum of harm +to his side of the case, a startling diversion occurred to interrupt +the proceedings. + +Old Peter Van Deust, who had been sitting near the prosecuting +attorney and directly in front of the witness, suddenly sprang to his +feet, walked up to Mr. Holden, clutched with trembling fingers the +seal that dangled from his watchguard and, after examining it a +moment, cried shrilly: + +"It's all a lie! All a cunningly made up story! He is an accomplice of +the assassin! This was Jacob's seal. I'll swear to it!" + +Almost everybody had jumped up in the excitement of this interruption, +even the sedate judge was standing, leaning over his desk to get a +better view of what was going on before him but below his range of +vision, and there was a deafening chorus of exclamations from all +sides; but above all arose the sharp voice of Peter Van Deust, crying: + +"Arrest him! arrest him! I demand the arrest of this man as an +accomplice!" + +The only tranquil person in the assemblage was Mr. Pelatiah Holden. He +was surprised at his client's outbreak, but only for a moment. Then, +blandly saying to the almost mad old man who stood before him, shaking +a long, lean finger in his face, "Mr. Peter Van Deust, you seem to be +excited." + +He very calmly drew his watch from his fob-pocket and with the seal +attached to it, passed it up to the judge. The seal was a heavy, +square onyx, with a foul anchor engraved on one side. + +"I'd swear to it among a thousand," shrieked old Peter. "It belonged +to my father when he was in the navy. He left it to brother Jacob. It +was stolen by the thief who murdered him." + +The judge rapped his gavel until order was restored in the court-room, +and old Peter had been fairly dragged down into a seat by the +prosecuting attorney, who was nearest him--after which, addressing the +witness, he asked: + +"How did this seal come into your possession, Mr. Holden?" + +"Very simply, your Honor. But before I relate how, permit me to +request your Honor to issue strict injunctions to the officers at the +door to permit no exit from this court-room or communication by those +within to persons on the outside." + +The judge was evidently surprised, but his respect for the well-known +and honored Mr. Holden was sufficient to induce him to comply with the +request without asking its reasons. When the necessary instructions +had been issued to the court officers, Mr. Holden resumed: + +"About three weeks ago, while I was taking lunch one afternoon at +Windust's--a very popular and well conducted restaurant on Park Row, +New York--a young man came to the box in which I was seated and +offered this seal for sale. I am, as a rule, averse to the purchase of +personal property from unknown persons and in an irregular way, but +this young man told a melancholy story of his present need for money +for the sake of a widowed mother and sister, said that the seal had +belonged to his father who was a naval officer and asked for the +article a price that was at least its full value. That influenced me +to purchase it. I reflected that if it had been stolen it would have +been, in all probability, offered at a cheap price to effect ready +disposal of it, whereas if he really needed money, as he said, for his +mother and sister and the thing honestly belonged to him, he would +naturally try to get as much as he could. So I gave him seventeen +dollars for it and have since worn it." + +"What," asked the judge, "was your reason for requesting the careful +tyling of the doors before making that statement, Mr. Holden?" + +"Because I recognized to-day, in the court-yard without, as I was +entering this building, the young man from whom I purchased this +seal." + +"You believe so!" + +"I am certain of it. If your Honor will permit an officer to accompany +me, I believe that I will be able to bring him before you in a few +moments. When I saw him he was seated at the root of an elm tree near +the door, and alone." + +An officer was directed to accompany Mr. Holden and they went out +together by the private staircase. The curious throng in the +court-room, unwilling to lose a single incident of the eventful drama +unfolding itself before them, struggled hard to get out and follow the +officer and his guide, but were not allowed to do so, and returned to +their seats with a sense of injury. Everybody was intensely excited. +The prosecuting attorney leaning over the judge's bench held a long +and earnest conversation with him. The prisoner and his counsel +whispered together. The jury jabbered to each other so that even the +idiotic-looking one among them seemed to awake to an interest in the +proceedings. + +Suddenly the little door behind the judge was flung open, and Mr. +Holden entered, followed by the officer and a third person--a young +man, attired in a flashy sort of vulgar fashion, and wearing a dyed +mustache and goatee. Many audible exclamations of astonishment were +uttered among the audience, numbers of whom recognized this new actor +thus brought upon the scene. + +"That, your honor," said Mr. Holden, "is the young man who sold to me +the seal which you now have before you." + + +XXIV. + +THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE. + +"What is your name?" demanded the judge of the young man thus brought +before him. + +The fellow hesitated an instant, and a lie trembled on his lips; but +then looking around and seeing many who could identify him, he knew +that falsehood would be useless, and sullenly replied: + +"Silas Thatcher." + +"Where do you live?" + +"On Hester Street, near the Bowery, in New York." + +"What is your business?" + +"Haint got none." + +"What have you to say in reply to the statement which you have just +heard made by this gentleman, to the effect that you sold this seal to +him?" + +"Nothin'," answered Silas after a little hesitation. + +"Nothing? But do you not understand, young man, that this may be a +very serious matter? I do not ask you that you may criminate yourself +in any way, but with the hope that if you have any reasonable +explanation to offer you will not withhold it. How did this seal come +into your possession?" + +Silas paled, was visibly perturbed, and hesitated longer than before; +then responded doggedly: + +"I haint got nothin' to say. I want a lawyer, I do." The judge was +silent for a moment, then replied drily. + +"Of course you are entitled to counsel. You will stand committed for +further examination. Mr. Sheriff, adjourn court until the usual hour +to-morrow morning." + +It was a loving and a hopeful interview that Dorn and Mary had at his +cell door that evening, and Mr. Holden had the pleasure of being +present during at least a part of it, when he received the heartfelt +thanks of both for his opportune aid in their darkest hour. Peter Van +Deust, whose wits were manifestly failing, had not seemed to +comprehend what was done in the court-room after he had sustained the +violent mental shock of recognizing his murdered brother's seal, and +had clamored, at the adjournment of the court, for the arrest of the +New York lawyer. But the judge smilingly replied, that he would +himself be responsible for the attendance of Mr. Holden, whenever it +might be required, and had gone away down the main street to the +tavern, arm in arm with that gentleman; a sight that had fairly +stunned poor old Peter. After dinner Mr. Holden paid his visit to +Dorn's cell, and the judge said he, too, would like to go along "but +for the looks of it," as he "considered Dorn now virtually a free man, +and had all along suspected that he was an innocent one." + +The prosecuting attorney was alone in his office that evening, looking +over a _resumé_ of another case, that of a mere horse-thief, which +would succeed Dorn Hackett's in order of trial--for he had already +given up all hope of hanging Dorn--when the sheriff entered, with an +air of mingled eagerness and caution, to inform him, in a sort of +melodramatic whisper: + +"Silas Thatcher's father has asked permission to see his son in his +cell, and I have had him delayed until I could tell you. Do you wish +to overhear their interview?" + +"I--rather think--I'd like to," answered the prosecutor, meditatively. +"I shall have him in hand before long, no doubt, and might as well +know beforehand what he has to say for himself." + +The men passed together through the sheriff's office, and by a private +entrance therefrom into the rear part of the jail, first taking off +their boots that their steps might not be heard on the stone floor. + +When they entered the corridor, along one side of which the cells were +located, they moved with caution, and noiselessly entered a dark and +unoccupied cell adjoining that in which Silas was confined. After a +little quiet fumbling along the wall, the sheriff found the end of a +string, which he pulled, thus conveying to his assistant in the front +office of the jail, where Uncle Thatcher was waiting, a private signal +that all was ready. In a few minutes more the grim old man was shown +in by the jailor, and permitted to enter his son's cell, the door of +which was locked upon him. Every sound made there was clearly audible +where the prosecutor and sheriff were. + +Silas, to whom the interior of a prison was not altogether a novelty, +had laid down with a sort of philosophical content upon his little cot +bed, but sat up, somewhat surprised, when his father appeared. The +jailor put upon the stone floor the tin candlestick holding a tallow +candle which he had carried in, and went away. + +For some moments neither father nor son spoke a word. The old man was +the first to break the oppressive silence. + +"So," said he, "this is where I find you at last." + +"Yes, it is, and what of it?" retorted Silas sullenly. + +"My God! How I have dreaded this shame!--this horror! How the fear of +it has haunted me, day and night, for years!" + +"If you've come here for to preach to me, why, you might as well drop +it; that's all. I ain't no chicken. I'm a man, I am, and game for all +there is in the pot. I ain't afraid. I don't want no snivellins around +me!" + +"Silas, I haven't come here either to preach or snivel. I have come to +learn, if I can, whether the agony and blighting shame of seeing a son +hanged is likely to be mine or not." + +The young reprobate winced visibly at his father's plain speech, and +it was with a violent effort, belied by his pallid lips and quavering +voice, that he assumed sufficient bravado to reply: + +"What's the use of making a fuss about a feller's getting into a +little scrape? I'll get out of it all right. All I want is a good +lawyer. It might happen to any feller to get into a hole. Fellers get +into 'em all the time and get out of 'em again. This morning everybody +thought Dorn Hackett was in the worst kind of a hole, but to-night the +jailor tells me everybody says he's bound to get out of it." + +"Dorn Hackett was innocent. Are you?" + +Silas hesitated a moment before he replied: + +"Course I am! Every fellow's innocent until he's proved guilty." + +"Where did you get that seal?" + +"A--a--feller gave it to me." + +"Who was he?" + +"I dunno--never saw him before." + +"Silas, you are lying to me." + +"Well, what business have you got to come here pestering me with +questions, as if you was trying to catch me?" + +It was hard work for the old man, who was naturally of rather a +violent temper, to keep his hands off his rebellious son; +nevertheless, he restrained himself. + +"Silas," he exclaimed after a brief pause, "there is blood upon your +hands." + +"Where? No, there isn't! They're clean!" ejaculated the young man in a +tone of fright, starting to his feet and nervously examining his +hands. + +"Fool!" said the old man, with contempt, "did you think I meant red +drops that human eyes could see? No. But in the sight of God they are +dripping with the stains of a foul murder. I read your guilt in your +skulking eyes, your impudent assumption of brazen effrontery, your +falsehoods. Ah, you will not get out of this hole as easily as you +pretend to think. There is but one road open from here before you." + +"What is that, father?" asked Silas, tremblingly, for he had already +begun to lose the fictitious nerve that had hitherto sustained him. + +"The gallows!" responded the grim old man, sternly. + +"Oh, for the Lord's sake, don't talk like that!" pleaded the young +wretch, with a piteous howl. "It's all your fault, anyway. You +wouldn't let me have any more money, and I was hard up. You told me +the Van Deusts had a mint of money. I didn't mean to harm anybody, but +he jumped out of bed and clinched me; the jimmy was in my hand, and I +was afraid of being caught, and I--Oh! my God! what have I said? +You've got me all unnerved, with your cursed croaking. I didn't know +what I was saying. It wasn't true. I haven't been in a mile of Van +Deusts' for more'n three years. I don't know who killed Jake Van Deust +any more'n you do. Dorn Hackett did it. Why don't they hang him, curse +him! and be done with it!" + +He was crying, trembling. The unhappy father bowed his face in his +hands and was silent a long time, while Silas went rambling on: + +"I can prove I was in New York that night. There's lots of the fellers +will swear me out of it. What if I did have the seal? Didn't Dorn have +the handkerchief? I know where I got it. I buy'ed it one night from a +stranger that got broke in a faro bank. I can get fellers to swear +they see me buy it. All I want is a lawyer. You've got to get me +one--a good one. You will, won't you? I'm broke or I wouldn't ask you. +I've had awful bad luck lately. But I'll pay you back when I get out. +And you wouldn't see your son h--h--hanged, would you?" + +Uncle Thatcher raised his head and, looking fixedly at his son, asked +slowly: + +"Why did you come here to-day?" + +"I don't know," answered Silas, almost with desperation. "Because I am +a damned fool, I suppose. I met Lem Pawlett in the city, and he told +me about the trial, and--somehow--I had to come. I couldn't keep +away." + +"And you still think that a lawyer could get you out?" + +"Oh, yes. A good, sharp lawyer, from New York. I know of one that's up +to all the dodges. He gets lots of the fellers off. He'd clear me, I'm +sure of it." + +"And you do not see God's hand driving you here and giving you up to +man's justice? You think to contend against His will? To employ a +lawyer who shall shield you from the fate He has decreed? Foolish and +unhappy boy! you have sown and the day of harvest is nigh; the +harvest for both of us: for you the full sheaf of ripe dishonor and +death; for me the gleaning of bitter shame and grief. And to the Lord +of this harvest we may neither of us say 'nay.'" + +As he spoke he arose from the cot, where he had taken a seat early in +the interview, stood before his son, and continued: + +"It is not probable that I shall ever see you again. In due course of +time you will be tried, convicted, and hanged, and I shall hear of it +all: that will be enough for me. As far as other people will allow me +to, I shall endeavor to forget that I ever had a son. You have simply +to continue, as for years past, so far as affection or respect for his +counsels were concerned, in forgetting that you have a father. Send me +no gallows-tree messages of penitence and love. Carry your penitence, +if you have any, to your God; and may He, in his infinite knowledge +and justice, grant you such mercy and pardon as you deserve." + +With this farewell, the wretched father took his departure, preserving +his sternness of demeanor as long as he was in his son's sight; but in +the jail office without, he gave way to his natural grief, which he +could repress no longer, and much time elapsed ere he recovered +himself sufficiently to go home. Silas, left alone in his cell, threw +himself upon his bed, on his face, alternately weeping, cursing, and +praying, in a delirium of remorse and fear, and no sound of stealthy +footsteps leaving the adjoining dungeon reached his ears. + + +XXV. + +THE LESSON OF PETER VAN DEUST'S LIFE. + +Immediately upon the opening of the court, the morning after Silas +Thatcher's arrest, the prosecuting attorney arose and made a neat +little speech, in which he admitted his conviction that an error had +been made in the accusation of Dorn Hackett, expressed his +gratification at the discovery of the new and unimpeachable evidence +of the innocence of the accused afforded by his learned brother from +New York, and, in conclusion, desired to move the entry of a _nolle +prosequi_ in the case of the People _vs._ Dorman Hackett. In short, +never did hunter retire with better grace from a hopeless chase. The +motion was promptly granted by the court, and Dorn Hackett was a free +man once again. + +Lem Pawlett shouted and hurrahed at the top of his voice, defying two +sedate officers of the court who sought to hush him; and many others +joined in his cheers--almost all, indeed, for so fickle are the +multitude, so worshipful of success, and so easily influenced by +impulse, that their purposes and the currents of their feelings vary +like the shifting winds. How many there were who now said that they +"had always looked upon Dorn Hackett as a noble fellow, one who could +not be guilty of a crime!" How many who declared they had "thought his +arrest a great mistake from the first!" And they found it the easier +to forgive Dorn for escaping since they had another victim in +prospect, in his stead. Not even Deacon Harkins was altogether +unhappy, for he still had a horrid example at whom to aim his homilies +and texts. All that was necessary was to substitute the name of Silas +for that of Dorn, and his stream of malignant cant flowed steadily on. + +Dorn was conducted into the judge's private room, where he found Mary +awaiting him with open arms, glad smiles, and tears of joy in her +bright eyes. How happy and how beautiful she looked. He pressed her to +his breast, again and again, with rapture: but the lovers' hearts +were too full for speech. The greatest joys, like the deepest griefs, +are voiceless; mere words humble, even profane them. Could those two +loving ones have phrased the gratitude, to the Giver of all Good, that +thrilled their souls? Ah, no! They could only kiss and be happy. + +In the court-room without it was very evident that, for a time at +least, there need not be any hope of doing business. Even after Lem +had been silenced,--thanks not to the two sedate officers but to +little Ruth, who had by this time regained all her authority--there +was still kept up such a buzz of conversation, interchange of +ejaculations and comments, breaking out afresh in one place as soon as +quelled in another, lulling for an instant and then recommencing with +even greater vigor, that the judge and prosecuting attorney pantomimed +to each other that there might just as well be an adjournment until +the afternoon. And after the prosecutor had laid his little sacrifice +upon the altar of form, in a statement, audible only to those at his +elbows, that he would not be ready until afternoon to go on with the +next case upon the docket, the judge ordered an adjournment and +retired to his room. + +"Well, young folks," he said cheerily, finding the lovers in each +other's arms, of course, "you seem to be enjoying yourselves!" + +Mary blushed and hung her head, but Dorn looked up manfully and +replied, with a glad ring in his voice: + +"Ah, yes, sir! I cannot tell you how happy we feel! But you, sir, may +be able to know what is in the heart of a man who has been very close +to a shameful death, for a crime of which he was innocent, and who is +suddenly restored to life, and hope, and the love of the woman who is +dearer to him than all the world beside." + +"Yes, my boy," responded the good-hearted judge warmly, shaking his +hand. "Yes, I do appreciate your feelings; and while congratulating +you on the fortunate end of your trial, join you most heartily in +thanking God that another has not been added to the already too long +list of melancholy proofs of the fallibility of human wisdom in the +administration of justice. But it was a providential thing for you +that Mr. Holden arrived when he did, just in the nick of time." + +"Indeed it was, sir. I had ceased to hope for his coming. I would like +to see him before he goes away, to offer him my thanks." + +"So you shall. Right away, if you wish." And stepping to the door the +judge called in the little elderly gentleman, who came looking as +radiant with pleasure, almost, as if it had been himself who had just +escaped the gallows. + +After shaking hands with Dorn, congratulating him, and receiving his +thanks, Mr. Holden addressed himself to Mary and, with old-time +courtesy and gallantry, made her a pretty little speech of compliment. + +"You young folks intend to get married, don't you?" suddenly and +bluntly asked the judge. + +Mary flushed red as a peony, but smiled, and Dorn, too, felt the color +rising in his cheeks as he replied, half laughingly: + +"Yes, sir, if Mary doesn't change her mind." + +"How is that, Mary?" demanded the judge. "Have you any notion of +changing your mind?" + +"Oh, no, sir," answered the girl timidly, and with an affectionate +glance at Dorn. + +"I should think not, from the way I found you when I came in," added +the judge mischievously. "Well, you know what Franklin says, 'never +put off until to-morrow what can be done to-day.' Why not get the +business over right away, and complete the happiness of your day. +Stand right out there before me and I'll soon--" + +"Oh, no, sir," exclaimed Mary, in a half-frightened way, "Please, no, +sir. I promised Ruth that we would wait for her and Lem, and we are +all to stand up together." + +"Ah, indeed! Well where are your friends Ruth and her lover? They +ought to be here." + +"I think they are in the court-room outside," volunteered Mr. Holden. +"At least they were there a few moments ago, when I came in here. I +have the pleasure of knowing Mr. Pawlett, and can guess the relations +between him and a very pretty little girl sitting beside him." + +"You know Lem?" exclaimed Dorn. + +"Yes, he hunted me up in New York, and it was at his instance that I +came here to give my testimony." + +"And he didn't tell me a word about it when he came back; did not even +come to see me--left me to imagine that he had not succeeded in +finding you!" + +"Ah, he followed my instructions somewhat too literally. I advised him +not to tell anybody, but I did not exactly mean that he should not +mention it to you. Still, the fault, if any exists, is mine. And it's +all right now." + +"All right? Oh, sir, how can I ever sufficiently thank you and him for +what you have done?" + +"You need not mind thanking me any more; and as for him, I guess he +will consider the obligation squared if you facilitate his matrimonial +projects by calling in him and his sweetheart, and carrying out the +judge's suggestion for immediate action." + +"Yes, by all means," urged the judge, "call them in, and let us have a +wholesale hymenial tournament at once." + +Mr. Holden looked out into the court-room, which was by this time +almost emptied. Lem and Ruth were still there, however, and sturdy Mr. +Merriwether, of New Haven, who was talking to Mr. Dunn; and three or +four loiterers near the door; and a man who sat at the prosecutor's +table, and bent over it, his head resting upon his arms. + +"Come in here, Mr. Pawlett, and bring the young lady with you!" called +Mr. Holden. "And step this way, if you please, Mr. Dunn, and your +friend." + +While the persons thus indicated came forward, the loiterers at the +door, seeing no chance of their being included in the invitation, went +away. When Dorn had passed through another torrent of congratulations, +the judge genially resumed the direction of affairs. + +"Come!" said he. "When justice gets hold of a man, she cannot let him +go scot free, even if he is innocent. Something must be done to him. +If we can't hang him, we must at least marry him. And as you young +folks, Lemuel Pawlett and Ruth--I haven't yet been told the rest of +your name, Miss." + +"Ruth Lenox, sir." + +"Ruth Lenox, eh? A very pretty name--almost worthy of so pretty an +owner. Very well; as you, Lem Pawlett--and you, Ruth Lenox, have +confessedly aided and comforted Dorn Hackett in evading the fate that +a very blind justice had marked out for him, it is deemed right and +proper that you should suffer with him." + +Lem and Ruth, knowing nothing of what had transpired before they +entered the room, and not half understanding the judge's rapid and +somewhat figurative language, looked very much puzzled and even a +little alarmed. + +Mary led her friend to one side, and the two girls held a little +whispered consultation together, from which they returned blushing, +but apparently resigned, for each placed herself beside her lover. +Then the two couples ranged themselves in order before the judge, who, +dropping his jocose manner, and with the gravity befitting so solemn a +ceremonial as that of uniting two human lives "until death does them +part," proceeded to make the lovers husbands and wives. + +Then the judge resumed his jovial mood, and claimed as his fees the +first kiss from each of the brides, and Mr. Holden and Mr. Merriwether +followed suit, and Mr. Dunn was very certain not to let himself be +forgotten when any such fun as that was going on. There was a great +deal of hand-shaking, and expression of kind thoughts and good wishes +all around. And amid all this happiness nobody noticed for some little +time that the man, whom Mr. Holden had seen bowed over the +prosecutor's table, had arisen, come forward, and was standing in the +door. A weak, trembling old man he was, with thin, deeply furrowed +face, and a sad, weary look in his eyes. It was Peter Van Deust. + +"I suppose," said he, speaking in a slow, meditative way, and with a +weak, quavering voice, "that I have no right to come here as a +kill-joy among you. Love and youth were done with me long ago. The +first I drove from me, and the second left me. I can no more call back +one than the other, now. If Jacob were alive to-day, he'd be more at +home among you than I am." + +He paused a moment, sighed deeply, passed a tremulous hand over his +eyes, that were full of tears, and continued: + +"But I feel as if I ought to speak to you, to two of you at least, +and--beg your forgiveness. I erred, and I'm sorry. I ain't what I used +to be; my head's failing me, a little, sometimes, I guess. But they've +got the right man now, haven't they? They've got him at last! And +they'll hang him, won't they?" + +His voice was becoming momentarily more shrill, and his manner more +excited. Mr. Holden took his hand with a gentle, sympathetic pressure +that seemed to recall him to himself, and in a lower tone, half-choked +by a sob, the poor old man exclaimed: + +"Oh, you don't know how I miss Jacob! I didn't know how much he was to +me, how much we had grown together, until I lost him! He was so good, +so kind! Ah! If I had been more like him, people would feel for me now +more than they do. But it has taken me all my life to learn that love +is better than gold." + +Sadly and slowly he turned and moved away, through the deserted +court-room and the crowded street--lonely alike in both--to his +desolate home, from which, thereafter, he was seldom seen abroad. But +the lesson that it had taken him all his life to learn, he did not +forget; for, when they laid him down by Jacob's dust--ere again the +trailing arbutus put forth its fragrant blossoms beneath the dead +leaves of the forest--and read his will, they found that he had left +all he possessed to Mary Wallace, "for the sake of the kindly love my +dear brother Jacob bore for her in memory of her mother." + +What need can be to say the rest? how justice laid her heavy hand +upon profligate young Silas Thatcher, and his doom was that his +father had foretold; how Dorn entered into partnership with Mr. +Merriwether, who proved his staunch and life-long friend; how faithful +Lem Pawlett flourished, and how happy Ruth and Mary were. The interest +of our story is done. Even justice, good deeds, calm joys, and placid +lives are tame to tell. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] Copyright, 1888, BELFORD, CLARKE & CO. + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious typographical errors have been repaired, but archaic spellings +and grammatical usages have been retained. + +Both "have'nt" and "haven't" were used in the text--standardized to +"haven't." + +Both "its" and "it's" were used for "it is" in the text--standardized +to "it's." + +P. 408-409, "who, like you, have no without a blush for what they +are"; the page break was after "no", with possible loss of content, +making this sentence difficult to interpret. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Belford's Magazine, Vol. II, No. 3, +February 1889, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41678 *** |