diff options
Diffstat (limited to '57416-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 57416-0.txt | 8299 |
1 files changed, 8299 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/57416-0.txt b/57416-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccc96a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/57416-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8299 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57416 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + 1. Page scan source: Google Books + https://books.google.com/books?id=XYgnAAAAMAAJ&pg + (the New York Public Library) + + + + + + +[Illustration: Front cover. "Minion of the moon: A romance of the +king's highway." Thomas Wilkinson Speight] + + + + + + +[Illustration: "God people, your money or your lives!" he said.] + + + + + + +A MINION OF THE MOON + + + +BY +T. W. SPEIGHT +AUTHOR OF +"THE MYSTERIES OF HERON DYKE," "HOODWINKED," "BY +DEVIOUS WAYS," "THE HEART OF A MYSTERY," ETC. + + + + +NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY +156 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK MDCCCXCVII + + + + + + +Copyright, 1896, +BY +NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY + + + + + + +CONTENTS +-------- + THE PROLOGUE + +CHAPTER + I. "We fly by Night." + II. On the King's Highway + + + THE NARRATIVE + + I. A Prentice Hand. + II. In Search of a Lodging. + III. Mr. Ellerslie of Rockmount. + IV. The Squire of Stanbrook. + V. Family Matters. + VI. A Man who Never Forgave. + VII. Who shall be Heir? + VIII. "A Woman of a Thousand." + IX. Converging Threads. + X. The Sequel of Miss Baynard's Adventure. + XI. "Little Short of Miraculous." + XII. A Startling Recognition. + XIII. Love the Conqueror. + XIV. A Fresh Actor on the Scene. + XV. "Fate Points the Way." + XVI. The Shears of Atropos. + XVII. An Astounding Discovery. + XVIII. The Missing Heir. + XIX. Mutual Confidences. + XX. The Adventures of a Snuff-Box. + XXI. In Quest of the Missing Heir. + XXII. The Hon Mrs. Bullivant to Captain Ferris. + XXIII. A Joyful Surprise. + XXIV. A Parting and a Letter. + XXV. A Desperate Resolve. + XXVI. "For my Sake." + XXVII. Three Years After. + + + + + + +A MINION OF THE MOON. + + + +THE PROLOGUE. + + +CHAPTER I. +"WE FLY BY NIGHT." + + +When the nineteenth century was still a puling infant scarcely able +to stand alone, and not yet knowing what to make of the strange +hurly-burly into which it found itself born, Abel Ringwood and Sarah +his wife were respectively landlord and landlady of the King's Arms, a +noted commercial hotel and posting-house at Appleford, a town in the +North of England, on one of the great coach roads from the south to +Scotland. All His Majesty's mails, which travelled by that route, +stopped to change horses at the King's Arms, and, as there was a great +deal of private posting by noblemen and rich commoners in those days, +the hotel stables had seldom fewer than from twenty to thirty horses +in them at one time. + +In view of the fact that Appleford--was and is--on the high-road from +the south to Gretna Green, it was hardly to be wondered at that a week +seldom passed without one or more runaway couples stopping to change +horses at the King's Arms, and then hurrying on again, helter-skelter, +as hard as they could go. Thus there was nothing out of the common +when, about six o'clock on a certain December evening, a post-chaise +dashed up to the hotel door containing a runaway couple and a lady's +maid. + +The gentleman, although he seemed in a desperate hurry to get on, +induced the young lady to alight in order to relieve her cramped limbs +while fresh horses were being put into the chaise, and the lamps +freshly trimmed. She declined all refreshment, but he partook of a +glass of sherry and a biscuit, while a glass of steaming negus was +handed to the maid inside. The young lady, who was dressed from head +to foot in expensive furs, was exceedingly pretty, with large, +pathetic-looking eyes, and a wistful smile. The gentleman was +enveloped in a long military cloak, and was evidently connected with +the army. In three minutes and a half they were on the road again. +Everybody there, down to the stable-boy, wished them God-speed and a +happy ending to their adventure. The evening was clear and frosty; +there had been a slight fall of snow in the afternoon, which still lay +crisp and white on the hard roads; the moon would rise in less than an +hour. + +No long time passed before it was known throughout the hotel who the +runaways were. The post-boy whispered the news to John Ostler, who, a +few minutes later, told it to his mistress. The lady was Miss Dulcie +Peyton, the niece and ward of Sir Peter Warrendale, of Scrope Hall, +near Whatton Regis. The gentleman was a Captain Pascoe, the heir of an +old but impoverished family. + +According to report, Sir Peter had set his heart on his niece's +marrying some one who was utterly distasteful to her, and, with more +anger than politeness, had shown Captain Pascoe the door when that +gentleman had called upon him to ask permission to pay his addresses +to Miss Dulcie. It was further reported that for the last three months +or more the poor young lady had been virtually a prisoner, never on +any pretence being allowed outside the precincts of the park; and that +Sir Peter vowed a prisoner she should remain till the last hour of his +guardianship had struck, which would not be for three long years to +come. But "bolts and bars cannot keep love out," nor in either, for +that matter. The pretty bird had escaped from its cage, and everybody +devoutly hoped that it would not be recaptured. + +The runagates had not been gone more than forty minutes when up dashed +another post-chaise, out of which bounced a very irascible-looking, +red-faced, middle-aged gentleman, presumably Sir Peter Warrendale, +who, with much spluttering and several expletives, ordered fresh +horses to be instantly put into the chaise, and then, perceiving +comely Mrs. Ringwood where she sat among the glasses and bottles in +her little snuggery, he strode up to her, and in his arrogant way +demanded to know whether she had seen anything of a runaway couple, +who, so he was credibly informed, had passed through Appleford a +little while before on their way to Gretna Green. + +Now, the conscience of the worthy landlady was of that tender kind +that it would not allow her to tell a lie, but, in order to give the +fugitives a few minutes more start, she asked him to describe the two +persons to whom he referred. This he did in very few words, and +nothing was then left Mrs. Ringwood but to confess that she had seen +the young people in question, and that they had changed horses there +about an hour before. + +On hearing this, the red-faced gentleman indulged in more bad +language, ordered a glass of hot brandy-and-water, which half choked +him in his hurry to swallow it, and then, still growling savagely in +his throat, was shut up next minute in his chaise, and driven rapidly +away. One small service Mrs. Ringwood had been able to do the +runaways. She had secretly told John Ostler to let them have the two +best horses in the stables, and the latter, of his own accord, had +supplied the red-faced gentleman with the two worst. Unless something +unforeseen should happen, there was not much likelihood of the +fugitives being overtaken. + +Everything was going well with them, they had left Appleford about a +dozen miles behind, and had pretty well got over the worst part of the +fells, when one of the horses fell lame, and it quickly became +apparent that the poor animal was unable to go at any pace faster than +a walk, and that only with difficulty. What was to be done? + +The next place where they could hope to obtain fresh horses was five +or six miles ahead, and it was almost a certainty that before they +could get so far they would be overtaken by Sir Peter, who, they +had not the slightest doubt, was in close pursuit of them. The +quick-witted post-boy suggested that they should tie the lame horse to +a tree by the roadside, leaving it to be fetched later on, and press +forward as fast as possible with the remaining horse; but, even so, +the chances were that the irate Sir Peter would overtake them before +another hour had gone by. It was a desperate chance, but no other was +left them. + +The post-boy had just tied up the lame horse, and was on the point of +mounting the other, when, not more than a dozen yards from the chaise, +and as if he had sprung that moment out of the ground, a masked +horseman leaped the rough wall that divided the high-road from the +fells. "Stand, or you are a dead man!" he exclaimed in commanding +tones, as he presented a pistol at the postboys head. Then, turning to +the chaise window, which was open, and at the same moment flashing a +bull's-eye lantern on the travellers: "Good people your money or your +lives!" he said. The maid gave utterance to a scream; but the young +lady only clung in terrified silence to her lover's arm. + +A network of filmy clouds covered the sky; but the moon, which had now +risen, gave enough light to enable the postilion to see that the +highwayman was mounted on a powerful black horse with a white stocking +on its near fore-leg, and a white star on its forehead; that he wore a +bell-shaped beaver hat; that his mask just reached to the tip of his +nose, and that his outer garment was a dark horseman's cloak with +several capes to it. + +"I durst wager a thousand pounds to a farden it's Captain Nightshade," +he muttered under his breath. + +"Sir," said the young captain, bending forward so that his face was in +a line with the open window, speaking with much dignity and a +ceremonious politeness more common in those days than now, "here is my +watch, together with that of this lady, and here are our purses; but +if the feelings of a gentleman are still cherished by you--and by your +accent I judge you to be one--and if the sentiments of our common +humanity have still power to appeal to your heart, I beg and entreat +that you do not leave us wholly destitute of the means wherewith to +prosecute our journey. I and this lady are on our way to Gretna Green. +She has escaped from the custody of a most tyrannical uncle, who is +also her guardian, and who would fain force her into marriage with a +man whom she detests. That he is in pursuit of us, and no great +distance behind, we have every reason to believe. Now, sir, should you +be sufficiently hard-hearted to deprive us of the whole of our funds, +even should we by some miracle be enabled to reach the end of our +journey, the needful gold would still be lacking wherewith to forge +that link of Hymen which would give me a husband's right to protect +this dear girl from all the tyrannical uncles in existence." + +The highwayman had listened attentively. The reins lay on his horse's +neck; his left hand held the lantern, the light from which shone full +into the body of the chaise; his right grasped a pistol the barrel of +which gleamed coldly in the moonlight. + +"Sir, not another word, I entreat," he said when the captain had done +speaking, bowing low and withdrawing the light of his lantern at the +same moment. "Never shall it be said of me that I took toll of lovers +in distress. Rather would I do all that in me lies to aid them as far +as my poor powers might avail." + +"Sir, I thank you most heartily," answered the captain with as much +high-breeding as though he were addressing a duke. + +"One of your horses has fallen lame, is it not so?" demanded the +robber. + +"Alas! yes; and the chances are a score to one that we shall be +overtaken by Sir Peter before we can reach any place where we can +obtain fresh ones." + +The highwayman, who had put back his pistol into its holster, +refreshed himself with a pinch of snuff from a box, the jewels in +which flashed in the moonbeams, before he spoke. Then he said:-- + +"In that case, sir, it seems to me there is only one thing left you to +do." + +"And that is----?" queried the captain eagerly. + +"For you and the young lady to make use of my mare to speed you on +your journey. Leila will carry the pair of you to Gretna, and be as +fresh as a daisy at the end of it. And as for Sir Peter overtaking +you----" His scornful laugh rang clear through the frosty night. + +Captain Pascoe might be excused if he fairly gasped for breath as he +listened to this extraordinary proposition, but it was far too good an +offer to be lightly refused. As a matter of politeness he made some +slight demur, which the highwayman promptly overruled, and three +minutes later he was astride the black mare. Then the highwayman, +taking the young lady round the waist, swung her lightly on to the +crupper. + +"But what is to become of you?" queried the captain. + +"Never fear for me, sir," replied the other. "I shall know how to take +care of myself." + +Then in a low voice he gave the captain certain instructions where to +leave the mare, which he would send a trusty man to reclaim on the +morrow. + +Then the captain held out his hand, which the other frankly grasped. +"It is the hand of one," he said, "who, under different circumstances, +would doubtless have been a different man." + +Then the two men lifted their hats, the lady waved her hand, and half +a minute later black Leila and her double burden had disappeared round +a turn of the road. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +ON THE KING'S HIGHWAY. + + +The amazed post-boy was now directed to put the lame horse back into +its place and go slowly ahead, while the highwayman himself took the +captain's place inside the chaise. + +"Don't you be frightened, my dear," he said to the trembling +waiting-woman, whom her young mistress had done her best to reassure +before leaving her. "I love your sex far too dearly ever to harm one +of you. With your leave I will ride part of the way with you, and +should anybody ask my name, you may call me Mr. Darke." + +He removed his mask as he spoke; but it was too dark inside the +chaise to allow of his features being distinguished, even if the +waiting-woman had not been too terrified to do more than glance +furtively at him. + +They had gone on slowly for about a quarter of an hour when it became +evident that some other vehicle was approaching them rapidly from the +rear. + +"Keep your veil down and don't say a word," said Mr. Darke to his +companion after a backward glance through the open window. + +He drew his hat down over his brows and turned up the collar of his +redingote about his ears, so that even had it been daylight little of +his face would have been visible. It was not unlikely that the Sir +Peter of whom mention had been made might do the same as he had +done--throw the light of a lantern on the inmates of the chaise. + +Presently the pursuing chaise came up at a great pace, the post-boy +lashing his horses freely, and, passing the other one, drew up +suddenly some dozen yards ahead, straight across the narrow road, so +as effectually to bar its progress and bring it to a stand. + +Mr. Darke put his head out of the window. "Post-boy, what is the +meaning of this stoppage?" he called. "Why don't you go on?" + +"Can't do it, sir--road blocked by t'other shay." + +Before more could be said, Sir Peter himself came stalking up +trembling with rage, followed by his servant with a lantern. + +"So, so! sir, your nefarious scheme has not succeeded; your villainous +plot has miscarried, as it deserved to do," he stuttered, his words +tumbling headlong over each other in his passion. "I'll have the law +of you, sir, for this! You shall be taught that you cannot run off +with a gentleman's ward with impunity! You shall be cast for damages, +sir. Five thousand pounds--not one farthing less--damme!--But where is +that niece of mine--the shameless hussy? I will----" + +"May I ask, sir, the meaning of this singular outrage?" demanded a +grave, stern voice from the interior of the chaise. "If His Majesty's +liege subjects are to be stopped on the highway by every inebriate +brawler, it is indeed time for the hand of authority to intervene. I +am myself in the Commission of Peace, and I must demand from you your +name and address, sir, in order that further inquiry may be made into +this most discreditable proceeding." + +But by this time the servant had directed the rays of his lantern into +the interior of the chaise. Sir Peter stood like a man petrified. In +the farther corner sat a plainly-dressed, thin, angular woman, bolt +upright, and as rigid as a ramrod, who, although her face was hidden +by a thick veil, no one in his senses would for a moment mistake for +Miss Dulcie Peyton, and it was doubtless owing to the veil that he +failed to recognize in her that young lady's maid, with whose features +he was presumably not unfamiliar. Of the person who had addressed him +little could be seen save a large aquiline nose and a pair of fierce +black eyes. It was equally impossible, however, to confound him with +Captain Pascoe. + +"I crave your pardon, sir," said Sir Peter, in a tone of almost abject +apology, as he took off his hat and made a ceremonious bow. "I shall +never forgive myself for my stupid blunder; but the fact is I mistook +your chaise for the one in which a niece of mine--confound her!--is at +the present moment on her way to Gretna Green. We had tidings of her +at the place where we last changed horses, and I made sure that the +first chaise we should overtake must be the one of which we were in +pursuit." + +"Sir, your apology makes ample amends," responded Mr. Darke in the +most gracious of tones. "Your mistake was a most natural one. No doubt +the flight of your niece has been a source of much annoyance to you." + +The scowl on Sir Peter's face was not pleasant to see. + +"If once I clap hands on her, she won't escape me again. Bolts and +bars and bread-and-water--that's the only treatment for refractory +wenches. But pardon me for not introducing myself. I am Sir Peter +Warrendale, of Scrope Hall, near Whatton Regis." + +"And I, Colonel Delnay, of Scowthwaite, by Carlisle." At this point +the two gentlemen bowed ceremoniously to each other. "I trust, Sir +Peter, to have the pleasure of meeting you on some more auspicious +occasion." + +"With all my heart, Colonel, I reciprocate the wish. But, +ouns-an-codlins! I'm forgetting all about my runaway niece. May I ask +whether anything has passed you on the road at all resembling a +fly-by-night couple in a post-chaise?" + +"Nothing resembling what you speak of, Sir Peter, I give you my word. +Most likely they have a post-boy with them who is acquainted with the +short cut across the fells. It's a dangerous road for a chaise to +traverse after dark, and the chances are that they will come to grief +before they reach the end of it." + +"I'd give a hundred guineas, damme if I wouldn't, if one of their +linch-pins was to drop out! But I may yet be in time to overtake 'em." + +And so, with a few more polite phrases on both sides, the two men +parted. + +No sooner had the other chaise started on its way than Mr. Darke lay +back in his seat and gave vent to a burst of hearty laughter. Then, in +a full rich voice, he sang as under:-- + + + You may ride through the night, nor draw rein all the day, + Change horse as you list, and--tantivy! away! + But from Humber to Ribble, 'twixt Derwent and Dee, + You'll ne'er find a trace of sweet Ellen O'Lee! + + +"Poor uncle! Poor Sir Peter!" he exclaimed. "His pretty niece will +have been wed a couple of hours ere he crosses the Border. What a +surly old curmudgeon he looks! No wonder his little bird was tired of +its cage, and seized the first chance to flutter its wings and away." + +When they had gone about a mile further, he called to the post-boy to +stop, and alighted from the chaise. Dipping his hand into one of his +capacious pockets, he drew out something which he presented with a bow +to the maid. "Here's a trifle for you, my dear, to keep you in mind of +Mr. Darke," he said. "And now I must wish you goodnight and _bon +voyage_, with the hope that one of these days you will be run away +with by as gallant a gentleman as he who has carried off your +mistress." + +With that he took off his hat and swept her a low bow with all the +grace imaginable. Then, stepping up to the post-boy, he put a couple +of guineas into his hand, "just to drink my health with," as he said. + +Half-a-minute later he was lost to view in a plantation of young trees +which at that point lined one side of the road. The present he had +given the maid proved to be a chased-silver sweetmeat box of elaborate +workmanship, which had doubtless at one time been the property of some +person of quality. + + +Some six weeks later than the events just recorded, Mrs. Ringwood, the +landlady of the King's Arms, was drinking a dish of tea with her +friend, Miss Capp, who had been from home for a couple of months, and +was agog to hear all the news. + +"The young people had been three hours married by the time Sir Peter +reached Gretna Green," said the landlady, in continuation of what had +gone before. "He stormed and raved, as a matter of course, and vowed +he would have the law of Captain Pascoe; but it was well known that he +would never have dared to go into court and let the world know with +how much cruelty he had treated his orphan niece. When the captain and +his bride came south a week later they stopped and dined at the King's +Arms, and it was then I learned all the particulars I have just told +you of their strange adventure." + +"But what about Mr. Darke? What about the highwayman?" queried Miss +Capp eagerly. + +"I can tell you very little about him. As to who he really was, +nothing has ever come out. He may have been the notorious Captain +Nightshade, as the post-boy firmly believes, or he may not. The +post-boy says he recognized him by the horse he was riding--a black +mare, with a white stocking on the near fore-leg and a white blaze on +the forehead. In any case, the act was that of one who had not +forgotten that once on a time he was a gentleman." + +"It was the act of one who, whatever his other faults may be, has not +yet forfeited all right to that title," responded the enthusiastic +spinster, who envied Miss Peyton's maid her adventure. + +"By the way, I mustn't forget to tell you that poor Sir Peter was +unlucky enough to be stopped on his way back from Gretna Green, and +eased of his watch and purse, together with his snuff-box, which +latter it seems he set great store by, it being a sort of family +heirloom. And I have it from the post-boy in charge of the chaise that +as the highwayman was on the point of riding away he lifted his hat +and said: 'Colonel Delnay has the honor, Sir Peter, to wish you a very +goodnight.'" + + + +THE NARRATIVE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. +A PRENTICE HAND. + + +Among other wayfarers who, on a certain evening some four months +subsequently to the events already narrated, halted at the King's Arms +Hotel, Appleford, in order to refresh the inner man, was a stranger on +horseback, with a rather bulky saddle-bag strapped behind him, who, +judging from his style and appearance, might have been a cattle jobber +on his way to some fair, or farm bailiff, a "statesman" who farmed his +own acres, and had a comfortable little balance at the local bank; or, +at any rate, a man used to a healthy, outdoor country life, to whom +existence in a town would have been nothing less than intolerable. + +Having dismounted from his very serviceable nag, he gave it into the +ostler's charge, with strict injunctions that it was to be well cared +for, and then made for the coffee-room, where, five minutes later, he +was seated with a noble cold sirloin before him, and at his elbow a +tankard of the best old ale the house could supply. + +He was a prime trencherman, was John Dyce--they were common enough in +those days--and it would have made a modern dyspeptic stare to watch +the heroic way in which he attacked the sirloin, and with what +unequivocal appetite one well-mustarded slice after another, with its +accompaniment of delicious home-made bread, was disposed of. But not +even John could go on eating forever, and by and by he laid down his +knife and fork with an audible sigh, which might be partly due to the +satisfaction which comes--or should come--of comfortable repletion, +and partly a sigh of regret at having to bid farewell to the sirloin. +While the waiter cleared away he went as far as the stable in order to +satisfy himself that his nag was being properly looked after. He was +gone some little time, and when he came back he ordered a churchwarden +pipe, a screw of tobacco, and a tumbler of cold punch to be brought +him. + +There were some half-dozen people in the room who had been there when +he arrived, and a number of others had come and gone in the interim. +Now and then a bell would be heard to ring somewhere indoors, now and +then a chaise or other vehicle would rattle up to the door and come to +an abrupt stand. The _Highflyer_ coach, going south, had stopped for +exactly three minutes and a half in order to change horses, during +which time a majority of the passengers had crowded into the hotel, +clamoring for drinks of various kinds. + +John Dyce, sitting apart in a quiet corner of the long, oak-panelled, +low-ceilinged room, and puffing meditatively at his churchwarden, had +a quietly observant eye for every fresh face that came in. At +length--but not till his glance had travelled more than once, with +some anxiety in it, to the clock over the chimney-piece--his waiting +was rewarded. + +The coffee-room door opened, and there entered a little, +comfortable-looking, rosy-gilled man, in whose features professional +gravity seemed to be struggling against a latent sense of humor. He +was Mr. Tew, managing clerk to Mr. Piljoy, solicitor of Arkrigg, a +town at the other end of the county. His employer being laid up with +gout, he had been sent to Stanbrook in his stead in order to get +Squire Cortelyon's will duly signed and witnessed. Having accomplished +his errand, he was now on his way back home, with the will carefully +buttoned up inside his breast pocket. Squire Cortelyon was not +expected to live from hour to hour. + +"Bottle-green surtout with black velvet collar," muttered John Dyce to +himself. "Front tooth broken short off; red and black silk muffler +round his throat; white beaver hat the worse for wear. It must be +him." + +Mr. Tew beckoned the waiter. + +"Ham and eggs and a cup of strong coffee; and let me have them as +quick as possible. I must be on the road again in half an hour." + +"'Am-an'-eggs--yessir--have 'em in a jiffy. Going far, sir, to-night, +may I ask?" + +"Only as far as Arkrigg." + +"A dozen long miles, sir, and as nasty a bit o' road as any in the +county, being nearly all up-hill and windin' in an' out among the +moors--let alone its bein' such a favorite road with Captain +Nightshade." Then, insinuatingly: "Better stay where you are, sir. +Could put you up very comfortable. His Grace of Malvern stayed with us +a night last month, and before goin' away he says, says he----" + +"No, no," broke in Mr. Tew good-naturedly--waiters in our +great-grandfathers' days were often privileged mortals--"it's not a +bit of use your trying to tempt me. Home to-night I must get--highly +important; and as for Captain Nightshade, he flies at higher game than +the likes of me. If he were to strip me to the shirt, all I have would +hardly fetch him the price of a decent dinner and a bottle of wine. So +now for my ham and eggs." + +Not a word of all this had escaped John Dyce, but his stolid face was +absolutely devoid of expression. He had changed his position to the +settle near the chimney-corner, and was sitting with one hand buried +deep in his breeches pocket, while the other held his long pipe, his +gaze meanwhile being contemplatively fixed on a corner of the +well-smoked ceiling. + +He had already paid his "shot," and he now put down his pipe, stood +up, yawned, stretched himself, and then, after clapping his hat on his +head, strode slowly out of the room. Passing the bar, now empty of +customers, through the inner window of which he could see the plump +landlady busy with her knitting-needles, he paused for a few moments +at the top of the flight of broad shallow steps which led up to the +front door. Like so many similar establishments in those days, the +King's Arms Hotel formed three sides of a quadrangle, with the windows +facing into it, the fourth side consisting of an open gateway large +enough for a coach-and-four to be driven through with ease, having +shops on either side, the windows of which fronted on the main street. + +As John Dyce stood on the topmost step he looked to right and he +looked to left. For a small provincial town the hour was growing late. +In the inn yard no one was about. A light shone dimly through the +stable window, and in one corner Mr. Tew's chaise, with two or three +other vehicles, made a confused heap, dimly discernible. Half an hour +later, with the arrival of the _Comet_, bound for Edinburgh, the whole +place would wake up, as at the stroke of an enchanter's wand, to a +brief spasm of feverish energy and excitement. Meanwhile somnolence +reigned. + +John Dyce, whistling under his breath, descended the steps and picked +his way slowly in the direction of the stable, presumably in search of +the ostler; but it was not till a full quarter of an hour later that +he rode out of the inn yard, and, having crossed the market-place, +took the road which led due north out of the town. The clock of the +old church chimed the half-hour past ten as he left it behind. A +crescent moon was sailing in a clear sky. + +Presently John's nag broke into a gentle trot, and so the two jogged +quietly along till the last house in Appleford had been left some four +miles behind. Then, at a point where the road, dipping a little, cut +through the dark heart of a plantation of firs, he drew rein and let +his horse subside into a walk. He had got about halfway through the +plantation when, a little way ahead of him, what looked like an +irregular fragment of the blackness which walled him in on either hand +broke itself away, as it were, and, moving out into the middle of the +road, showed there clear and distinct by the light of the young moon, +and then, as he drew a pace or two nearer, took on itself the shape of +another horse and another rider. + +John seemed in nowise alarmed by the sudden apparition, but rather, +indeed, as if the _rencontre_ was not unexpected by him. + +"So! it is you; I was rather doubtful at first," said the other in a +full rich voice as he drew near. "Well, what luck have you had?" + +As well as could be seen, the speaker was a young and very handsome +man, with an unmistakable air of distinction. His outer garment was a +long, loose, dark blue cloak without sleeves, fastened at the throat +by a silver clasp, which hid the rest of his attire except his long +riding boots and his small three-cornered hat. His dark hair, the real +color of which could not be distinguished by that light, was slightly +sprinkled with powder and tied up behind with black ribbon into the +form of an ample queue. His hands were covered by a pair of buff +gauntlets, and from the holsters in front of him the stocks of a brace +of pistols bulged menacingly. + +John Dyce carried a finger to his forehead as his nag came to halt. +"Everything gone off all right, your honor," he said in reply to the +young man's question. "I left Mr. Tew at the King's Arms in Appleford. +He'd just ordered his supper, but seemed in a hurry to get on, and I +should say that by this time he's nearly ready to start again, so that +your honor's wait for him shouldn't be a long one. Before coming away +I managed, unseen by anybody, to draw the charges of his pistols, +which he had left behind him in the chaise when he went in to supper." + +"Well done, John! There's far more in that head of years than most +people give you credit for. But now you must leave me. I will await +Mr. Tew here. I don't think I could find a more convenient bit of road +for my purpose than this. You will wait for me, as arranged, at the +first toll-bar on the Whinbarrow road." + +"Better not send me away, your honor," said John in a tone of earnest +entreaty; "better let me keep with you, or, at least, be within hail +in case of accident." + +"No, no, John, I won't have you mixed up in the affair more than is +absolutely necessary. There's nothing to fear--more especially now +that you have drawn the charges of the pistols. But, at the best of +times, I don't believe Mr. Tew has an ounce of courage in that plump, +well-lined body of his. More likely than not he will take me for +Captain Nightshade, and be all a-quake with fright. So you must just +do as you are bidden, and make the best of your way to the place +agreed upon. And remember, I forbid you on any account to wait about +here." + +John attempted no further protest, knowing, probably, how futile it +would have been, but wheeling his nag round, without a word more +started off down the road at a gentle trot. + +The young man waited without stirring till the last thud of his +horse's hoofs had died into silence. Then he shivered--the night was +bitter enough to excuse his doing so--and drew his cloak more closely +around him; and then he glanced about him, somewhat timorously it +might have been thought. + +"Pish! what folly is this!" he muttered peevishly. "A gentleman of the +road, a despoiler of timid travellers, shivering and shaking because +he finds himself alone, drawing on for midnight, on a solitary bit of +the King's highway! I shall be frightened of my own shadow next. +Captain Nightshade would indeed laugh me to scorn." + +He patted his mare on the neck and began to walk her up and down on +the narrow stretch of turf which fringed the road on either hand. It +was not one of the great thoroughfares running north and south, busy +day and night with traffic in one or other of its manifold forms, but +merely a by-road between one provincial town and another. The only +living things seen by our young horseman while he waited were a drove +of cattle, in charge of a couple of men, on their way to Appleford +market. While they were passing he withdrew into the shade of the +plantation. + +After all, he had hardly so long to wait as he had feared he would +have. John Dyce had not been more than a quarter of an hour gone when +his straining ears caught the faint sound of wheels. He had already +adjusted the crape mask he had brought with him, and settled his chin +in the ample folds of the India silk muffler he had tied round his +throat. He now set his hat more firmly on his head, and drew a pistol +from its holster. + +And now, some distance down the road, there shone two yellow points of +flame, as they might be the eyes of some wild animal shining in the +dark. They were the lamps of the coming chaise. Nearer and nearer +sounded the hoof-beats of the horses on the hard road. A minute more +and the whole concern had passed out of the moonlight into the gully +of blackness in which our horseman was lurking. The moment for action +had come. Three strides of his horse brought him into a line with the +postilion. "Halt, or you are a dead man!" he called out in commanding +tones, as he held a pistol to the man's head, and at once the horses +were pulled up short on their haunches. It was not the first command +of the kind that postilion had been called upon to obey. + +The highwayman had brought no lantern with him. He knew, or thought he +knew, quite well who the occupant of the chaise was. He could just +discern a vague huddled-up figure in one corner. And now, in no +uncertain voice, came the formula, sacred by long use on such +occasions: "Your money or your life!" Not that it was the traveller's +money our young friend was risking so much to obtain, but something +very different, only he had not seen his way at the moment to vary the +customary command. + +The answer was a flash and a report from the interior of the chaise, +and the same instant a harsh voice yelled out, "Drive on Tim, and be +damned to you!" Hardly had the words left his lips before the +post-boy's lash came down heavily on his horses, and the chaise sprang +forward. + +Unused to such surprises, the young man's horse shied violently and +then backed towards the plantation, as if its rider had lost control +of it. What would have happened next there is no telling, had not +another horse and rider, springing from nowhere, as it seemed, +appeared at this instant on the scene. Our would-be highwayman, his +hat fallen off and his head thrown back, was swaying in his saddle, +and the newcomer was only just in time to grasp him round the waist, +and so save him from falling. + +A few seconds later he gave vent to a low whistle, expressive of an +amazement almost too deep for words. + +"By the Lord that made me--a woman!" was his whispered ejaculation. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +IN SEARCH OF A LODGING. + + +It was not the chaise of timorous-hearted Mr. Tew, but of hot-tempered +Sir Humphrey Button, which the young highwayman had so valorously +bidden to halt. + +At the last moment Mr. Tew had been accosted by an old friend whom he +had not seen for a number of years, and had been easily persuaded to +put off his departure for another hour in order to talk over bygone +days, and discuss a jorum or two of punch with him. + +Our young friend was not long in coming to himself, and mightily +surprised and discomposed he was at finding his waist firmly +encircled by a sinewy arm, and to dimly discern a pair of eyes gazing +intently into his own--his head was reclining on the stranger's +shoulder--through the orifices of a crape mask. He was bareheaded, and +his own mask had come unfastened and had fallen off. For a moment or +two he felt dazed, and could not make out what had happened to him. +Then in a flash he recalled everything. With a quick, resentful +movement he drew himself away from the stranger's clasp, and set his +back as stiff as a ramrod. For all that, his cheek was aflame with +blushes, but the kindly night hid them. + +"Thank you very much," he said in freezing accents, "but I am all +right now. I was never taken like it before, and trust I never shall +be again. It was too ridiculous." + +"Let us hope that you were more startled than hurt," said the other. +"For all that, it was a close shave." + +With that he swung himself off his horse, and, going a yard or two +down the road, he picked up the youngster's hat and mask. + +"There's a bullet-hole through the brim," he remarked, as he handed +him his property. "Yes, a very close shave indeed." Then, as he +proceeded to remount his horse, he added with a mellow laugh, "If an +old professor may venture an opinion, you are a prentice hand at this +sort of business." + +"Yes, indeed. This is my first adventure of the kind, and I am quite +sure it will be my last. If you are under the impression," he +continued, with a touch of hauteur which seemed to become him +naturally, "that the object of my adventure to-night was merely the +replenishing of my pockets by the emptying of those of somebody else, +you were never more mistaken. My intent was not money or jewels, but +to obtain possession of a will--of a most iniquitous will--the +destruction of which would have the effect of righting a great wrong. +Unhappily, my attempt has failed, and the wrong will never be righted. +I mistook my man. The traveller in the chaise was not the person I was +expecting. _He_ has doubtless made up his mind to stay the night at +Appleford." + +"A very wise resolve on his part, considering how unsafe the King's +highway is for honest folk after dark," retorted the elder man, with +his careless laugh. "But tell me this, young sir. Even if you had +succeeded in getting possession of the will and destroying it, what +would there have been to hinder the testator from having a fresh one +drawn up in precisely similar terms?" + +"Merely the fact that he is given up by the doctors, and that, in the +event of the first will having been destroyed, he would not have lived +to have a second one drawn up and signed. At any moment he may breathe +his last. Possibly he is dead already." + +"Your heroic attempt to right a great wrong is of a nature to appeal +to every generous heart. Such being the case, it will not, perhaps, be +deemed presumptuous on my part to suggest that where you have failed +it is just possible that I might succeed. Should you, therefore, be +pleased to accept of my services, I beg to assure you that they are +yours to command." Here he removed his hat and swept the youngster a +low bow. + +The other hesitated for a few moments, as hardly knowing in what terms +to reply, but when he did speak it was with no lack of decision. "From +the bottom of my heart I thank you, sir, for your offer, which I +assure you I appreciate at its full value; but, for certain reasons +which I am not at liberty to explain, it is quite out of the question +that I should avail myself of it." + +"In that case, there is nothing more to be said. Will it be deemed an +impertinence on my part if I ask in what direction you are now bound?" + +Neither of them had noticed a huge black cloud which had been +gradually creeping up the sky, and which at this moment burst in a +deluge of rain. As by mutual consent, the two men who had so strangely +come together pricked up their horses and sought such shelter as the +plantation afforded from the downpour. + +Then said the younger man in reply to the other's question: "What I am +anxious to do is to find my way into the Whinbarrow road, after which +I shall manage well enough." + +"Do you know the way to it from here?" + +"No more than a dead man." + +"It's an awkward road to hit on after dark, and you might flounder +about till daybreak without finding it. In five minutes from now what +little moonlight there's left will be swallowed up by this confounded +rain-cloud, after which it will be as dark as the nethermost pit. On +such a night for you, a stranger, to attempt to find the Whinbarrow +road would be the sheerest madness." + +"What, then, do you recommend me to do?" + +"I will tell you. Not more than three miles from here stands a lonely +house among the moors, Rockmount by name. Its owner, a solitary, is a +man well advanced in years--a scholar and a bookworm. But although +leading such a secluded life, his door is open day and night to any +one who--like yourself--has lost his way, or who craves the shelter of +his roof on any account whatever. To Rockmount you must now hie you +and put Mr. Ellerslie's hospitality to the proof: that you will not do +so in vain I am well assured. I know the way and will gladly guide you +there. Come, let us lose no more time. This cursed rain shows no signs +of leaving off." + +"But if this part of the country is so well known to you," urged the +other, "why not direct me the way I want to go, instead of pressing +me--and at this hour of the night--to intrude on the hospitality of a +stranger?" + +"There are two, if not more, very sufficient reasons why I am unable +to oblige you in this matter," responded the other dryly. "In the +first place, I could not direct you, as you call it, into the +Whinbarrow road. On such a night as this no directions would avail +you; I should have to lead you there, and plant the nose of your mare +straight up the road before leaving you. In the second place, my way +lies in an opposite direction. Matters of moment need my presence +elsewhere, and before the first cock begins to crow I must be a score +miles from here." + +As if to bar any further discussion in the matter, he took hold of the +bridle of the other's horse and, leading the way out of the +plantation, started off at an easy canter up the road in the direction +taken by the chaise. The younger man offered no opposition to the +proceeding. + +He seemed little more than a boy, and the night's adventures had +fluttered his nerves. To go wandering about in the pitch-dark, +hunting for a road that was wholly strange to him--not one of the +great highways, which he could hardly have missed, but a narrow +cross-country turnpike which had nothing to distinguish it from +half-a-dozen other roads--was more than he was prepared to do. He felt +like one in a half-dream; all that had happened during the last hour +had an air of unreality; he was himself, and yet not himself. +To-night's business seemed to separate him by a huge gap both from +yesterday and to-morrow. His will was in a state of partial +suspension; he allowed himself to be led blindly forward, he neither +knew nor greatly cared whither. + +Before long they turned sharply to the left up a rutted and stony +cart-track, which apparently led right into the heart of the moors. +Here they could only go slowly, trusting in a great measure to the +instinct and surefootedness of their horses. The highwayman still kept +hold of the other's bridle. The rain had in some measure abated, and a +rift in the clouds low down in the east was slowly broadening. + +Not a word had passed between them since they left the plantation. But +now, as if the silence had become irksome to him, the man with the +crape mask burst into song. His voice was a full, clear baritone: + + + "Oh, kiss me, Childe Lovel," she breathes in his ear; + "Night's shadows flee fast, the moon's drown'd in the mere." + He turns his head slowly. "Christ! what is't I see? + A demon rides with me!" shrieks Ellen O'Lee. + + +When he had come to the end of the verse, he drew forth his snuff-box, +tapped it, opened it, and with a little bow proffered it to his +companion. + +The moon had come out again, dim and watery, by this time, and they +were now enabled to see each other so far as outlines and movements +were concerned, although the more minute points of each other's +appearance were still to some extent conjectural. + +"_Bien oblige, monsieur_," replied the younger man, "but snuff-taking +is an acquirement--I ought, perhaps, to say an accomplishment--to +which as yet I cannot lay claim, and, in so far, my education may be +said to be incomplete." + +"'Tis a necessary part of a gentleman's curriculum--a pinch of Rappee +or good Kendal Brown serves at once to soothe the nerves, disperse +the vapors, and enliven the brain. But you are young yet, my dear +sir--_oh, les beaux jours de la jeunesse!_--and, with luck, have many +years before you for the cultivation of a habit which, unlike other +habits I could name, the older you grow the more quiet satisfaction +you derive from the practice of it. Amid the straits and +disappointments of life, when his fortunes are at their lowest, and +his fair-weather friends have fallen one by one away, many a man draws +his truest consolation from his snuff-box." + +"You speak like one grown old both in years and experience," said the +other laughingly. He was recovering his _sang-froid_, and, the failure +of his enterprise notwithstanding, was beginning to enjoy the +adventure for the adventure's sake. + +The highwayman gave vent to an audible sigh. "Experience keeps a dear +school," he said, "and 'tis only fools who fail to learn at it." + +And so for a time they rode on in silence. Then said the younger man, +"You seem to know your way hereabouts pretty well." + +"The home of my youth was no great distance away, and, as a lad, I +wandered over these moors and fells till I grew to know them, as one +might say, by heart." + +"Have we much farther to go, may I ask?" + +"Another ten minutes will bring us to our destination." With that he +proceeded to remove his mask and stuff it into one of his pockets. + +For a little while they jogged along side by side without speaking. +The tract of country they were traversing was wild and desolate in the +extreme. On every side stretched the bare swelling moorland--bare save +for the short sparse grass and the many-hued mosses which grew in its +hollows and more sheltered places, but left naked its huge ribs and +bosses of granite, which showed through the surface in every +direction, and seemed to crave the decent burial which only some great +cataclysm of nature could give them. Here and there at wide intervals +a narrow track-way unwound itself like a dusky ribbon till it was lost +in the distance. These rude by-roads had been in use for more +centuries than history or tradition knew of, and served to connect one +outlying hamlet with another. Over them from time to time paced great +droves of cattle and sheep on their way to one or other of the +frequent fairs which in those days, far more than now, brought the +country-side together and formed one of the most distinctive features +of English rural life. + +"Here we are at last," said the highwayman, as an indefinite mass of +black buildings loomed vaguely before them--for the rain was over and +gone, and the moon was again shining in a clear sky--which presently, +as they drew nearer, took on the shape of a long, low, two-storied +house, with a high-pitched roof and twisted chimneys, and having a +group of detached outbuildings in the rear. + +As they reined in their horses a few yards from the low wall, which +enclosed a space of rank and untended shrubbery, the younger horseman +saw, not without a sense of misgiving, that the whole front of the +house was in darkness. Not the faintest glimmer of light was anywhere +visible. + +"And do you mean to tell me," he asked in a low voice, for a +sense of night and darkness was upon him, "that this desolate and +out-of-the-world spot is any one's home?" + +"It is the home of Mr. Cope-Ellerslie, as I have already remarked." + +"How far away is Mr. Ellerslie's nearest neighbor?" + +"Four good miles, as the crow flies. But he is a recluse and a +student, and the loneliness of Rockmount was probably his main +inducement for becoming its tenant." + +"In any case, we are too late to-night to claim his hospitality. There +is not a light anywhere visible." + +"You mean that there's none to be seen from where we are standing," +retorted the highwayman dryly. "But that's no proof Mr. Ellerslie's +abed. He's a genuine nightbird, and often does not go to roost before +daybreak, so busy is he over his studies of one kind or another." + +At another time the younger man might have wondered how his +law-breaking companion had acquired such an intimate knowledge of the +habits of the recluse of Rockmount, but just then he had other things +to think about. + +"Follow me," said the highwayman, and with that he walked his horse +round a corner of the house, to where a large bow window, invisible +before, bulged out from the main building. + +"That is the window of Mr. Ellerslie's study," he resumed. "You can +see by the light shining through the circular openings at the top of +the shutters that he is still at work." + +"That may be," rejoined the other, "but doubtless all his household +are asleep long ago, and rather than disturb Mr. Ellerslie himself at +such an hour I would----" + +"What a fastidious young cock-o'-wax you are!" broke in the elder man. +"Do you think I would have brought you here if there had been nobody +but Mr. E. to the fore? As I happen to know, his old manservant never +on any account goes to bed before his master. Him we shall find as +wide awake as an owl at midnight. Follow me." + +He led the way back to where a ramshackle, loosely-hung gate, merely +on latch, gave admittance to a gravelled path which led up to a small +carriage-sweep in front of the house, on reaching which, at the +instance of the highwayman, they both dismounted. Then going up to the +door, he lifted the massive knocker and struck three resounding blows +with it slowly one after the other; after which, going back to his +companion, he said, "Here, young sir, we must part." + +"But not, I trust, before you have told me to whom I am indebted for +the very great service you have rendered me to-night." + +A bitter laugh broke from the other. "My real name," he said, "is that +of a broken and ruined man, whom the world already has well-nigh +forgotten. That by which I am customarily known nowadays is--Captain +Nightshade, at your service." + +The younger man showed no trace of surprise. "I suspected as much from +the first," he said. "In this part of the country only one _gentleman_ +of the road does us the honor of taking toll of us. The rest are +scum--mere vulgar ruffians, ripe for the gallows-tree." + +"Sir, you flatter me"--with a grave inclination of the head. "May I, +in my turn, if it be not deemed an impertinence, ask to whom I am +indebted for an hour of the pleasantest companionship it has been my +good fortune to enjoy for many a long day?" + +"_My_ name? Hum! I must consider. By the way, you remarked a little +while ago, and very truly, that, as far as your profession was +concerned, I was a prentice hand. Suppose, then, that you call me Jack +Prentice. 'Twill serve as well as another." + +"Mr. Jack Prentice let it be, with all my heart. 'Tis a name I shall +not forget. Ah! here comes somebody in answer to my summons." And, +indeed, there was a noise as of the undoing of the bolts and bars of +the massive door, which, a few seconds later, was opened wide, +disclosing a gray-haired serving-man in a faded livery, who stood +there staring into the darkness, shielding with one hand a lighted +candle which he carried in the other. + +Captain Nightshade strode up to the door, and in his easy, off-hand +way said, "You are one of Mr. Ellerslie's servants, I presume?" + +"I be," answered the old man laconically. + +"Then be good enough to present my compliments to your master, the +compliments of a neighbor--hem!--and tell him there's a young +gentleman at the door who has been belated on the moors and craves the +hospitality of Rockmount for the remainder of the night." + +Mr. Jack Prentice had followed close on the captain's heels, and, as +the candlelight shone full on the latter's face, he had now, for the +first time, an opportunity of seeing what the noted highwayman was +like. What he saw was a long, lean, brown face, the face of an ascetic +it might almost have been termed, had it not been contradicted by a +pair of black, penetrating eyes of extraordinary brilliancy, and by a +mobile, changeable mouth which rarely wore the same expression for +three minutes at a time. His rounded, massive chin seemed a little out +of keeping with the rest of his features, as though it belonged of +right to another type of face. His high nose, thin and curved, with +its fine nostrils, lent him an air of breeding and distinction. In +figure he was tall and sinewy. His black hair, tied into a queue not +more than half the size of his companion's, showed no trace of powder. +His prevailing expression might be said to be one of almost defiant +recklessness mingled with a sort of cynical good-humor. It was as +though into an originally noble nature a drop of subtle poison had +been distilled, which had served to muddy and discolor it, so that it +no longer reflected things in their true proportions, without having +been able to more than partially corrupt it. + +The old man-servant's lips worked as though he were mumbling over the +message with which he had been charged, then with a curt nod he turned +away, and, putting down his candlestick on a side table, was presently +lost to view in the gloom of the corridor beyond the entrance-hall. + +If Captain Nightshade had any consciousness of the brief but keen +scrutiny to which he had been subjected, he failed to betray it. While +they were awaiting the man's return, he slowly paced the gravelled +sweep, singing in a low voice a snatch of a ditty the last line of +which had something to do with "ruby wine and laughing eyes." + +Then the serving-man came back. + +"The master bids yo welcome," he said. "There's supper, bed, and +breakfast at yore sarvice. He's busy just now, but mayhap he'll find +time to see yo for a few minutes by an' by." + +"I felt assured you would not claim the hospitality of Rockmount in +vain," said Captain Nightshade. "And now, my dear Mr. Prentice, I must +wish you a very goodnight, coupled with the hope that sound sleep and +pleasant dreams will be yours. I have a presentiment that we have not +seen the last of each other, and my presentiments generally come +true." + +He would have turned away, but the other held out his hand. "I am your +debtor for much this night," he said. "You say you have a presentiment +that we shall meet again. When that time comes I may, perhaps, be able +to repay you. At present 'tis out of my power to do so." + +Their hands met for a moment and parted, and each bowed ceremoniously +to the other. Then Captain Nightshade climbed lightly into his saddle, +waved his hand, gave rein to his horse and disappeared in the +darkness. The same instant a second servant appeared from somewhere, +and, taking charge of Mr. Prentice's horse, led it away towards the +rear of the house. + +Then, with such a throb of the heart as one experiences on stepping +across the threshold of the unknown, doubtful of what one may find on +the other side, our young gentleman stepped across the threshold of +Rockmount and heard the bolts and bars of the great door shot one by +one behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +MR. ELLERSLIE OF ROCKMOUNT. + + +Having resumed possession of his candlestick, the old serving-man, +whose face wore a sour and suspicious look, beckoned Mr. Jack, and, +leading the way, presently threw open a door at the end of a corridor, +and ushered him into a spacious panelled room, in the grate of which a +cosy fire was burning. + +"Supper's bein' got ready, sir, and will be served in the course of a +few minutes," said the man, and with that he lighted a couple of wax +candles on the centre table and two more over the chimney-piece. Then +he stirred up the fire to a blaze and hobbled out of the room without +a word more. + +Mr. Jack's first action was to relieve himself of his sodden cloak, +which he laid over the back of a chair. That done, he spread his +chilled fingers to the blaze, and proceeded to take stock of his +surroundings. + +This was soon done, for the room held nothing calculated to arrest his +attention or excite his curiosity. It was sparsely furnished, and its +few chairs and tables, together with the bureau in one corner, +although of choice workmanship, were all venerable with age. Carpet +and hearthrug alike were faded and in places worn threadbare. Of +pictures or ornaments of any kind, except for a small malachite vase +on the chimney-piece, the room was wholly destitute. Judging from +appearances, it seemed clear that the master of Rockmount was not a +wealthy man. + +Scarcely had Mr. Jack concluded his survey before the door was opened, +and in came a middle-aged woman, carrying a supper-tray, which she +proceeded to deposit on a centre table, and then wheeled the latter +nearer the fire. The tray proved to contain a cold fowl, some slices +of ham, butter, cheese, bread, and a bottle of claret. To our young +friend, ravenously hungry and chilled to the marrow, it seemed a +supper fit for the gods. + +"Will you please to ring, sir, when you are ready for your coffee?" +said the woman. And then he was left alone. + +Not till half an hour had gone by did he ring the bell, by which time +his spirits had gone up several degrees. Intensely chagrined though he +was by his failure to secure that for which he had risked so much, +there was a relish about his adventure which he appreciated to the +full, which appealed at once to his imagination and to the +unconventional side of a character which had often vainly beat itself +against the restrictions and restraints by which it was environed. He +felt that to-night was a night to have lived for. It would dwell +freshly in his memory to the last day of his life. For the space of +one hour and a half he had been hand-and-glove with Captain +Nightshade, the most redoubtable highwayman in all the North Country; +and if some people might think that was nothing to be proud of, it was +at any rate something to remember. Whether he was proud of it or no, +he was conscious of a secret sense of elation, into the origin of +which he had no wish to inquire. He only knew that he would not have +foregone the night's experiences for a great deal. + +But the night was not yet over, although there seemed to be some +danger of his forgetting that fact, so busy were his thoughts with the +events of the last couple of hours. However, the bringing in of his +coffee served to break up his reverie, and he began to wonder whether +he was destined to see his unknown host. He was not left long in +doubt. + +"Mr. Ellerslie, sir, will do himself the pleasure of waiting upon you +in the course of a few minutes," said the woman. + +Together with the coffee she had brought in a case of spirits, with +the needful concomitants for the manufacture of grog, without a +tumbler or two of which, by way of nightcap, our great-grandfathers +rarely thought of wending their way bedward. + +While the woman cleared the table Mr. Jack went back to his chair near +the fire. The blaze, as he bent towards it in musing mood, resting an +elbow on either knee, lighted up a face that was very pleasant to look +upon. In shape it was a rather long oval, the cheeks as smooth and +rounded as those of a girl of twenty, with that pure healthy tint in +them which nothing but plenty of exposure to sun and wind can impart; +indeed, if you had looked closely, you would have seen that here and +there they were slightly freckled. Add to this a nose of the Grecian +type, long and straight, and a short upper lip with a marked cleft in +it. His hair, which was brushed straight back from his forehead, so as +to help in the formation of his queue, was of the color of filberts +when at their ripest, with here and there a gleam of dead gold in it. +His large eyes were of the deepest shade of hazel, heavily lashed, and +with a wonderful velvety softness in them, which, when he was at all +excited, would glow and kindle with a sort of inner flame, or, if his +temper were roused--which it easily was--would flash with scornful +lightnings, while the line between his brows deepened to a veritable +furrow. For, truth to tell, Mr. Jack Prentice was of a quick and +somewhat fiery disposition; a little too ready, perhaps, to take +offence; with an intense hatred for every kind of injustice, and a +fine scorn, for the little meannesses and subterfuges of everyday +life, the practice of which with many of us is so habitual and +matter-of-course that we no longer recognize them for what they really +are. + +But if Master Jack was a little too ready, so to speak, to clap his +hand on the hilt of his rapier, he never bore any after-malice. His +temper would flare out and be done with it with the suddenness of a +summer storm, which has come and gone and given you a taste of its +quality almost before you know what has happened. + +But we shall know more of "Jack," generous, loyal, and true-hearted, +before we have done with him. + +The door opened and Mr. Cope-Ellerslie came in. His guest stood up and +turned to receive him. + +The master of Rockmount was a tall, thin, elderly man, apparently +about sixty years old, with a pronounced stoop of the shoulders. His +outer garment was a dark, heavy robe or gaberdine, which wrapped him +from throat to ankle. His long, grizzled hair, parted down the middle, +fell on either side over his ears, and rested on the collar of his +robe; the crown of his head was covered with a small velvet skull cap. +He wore a short Vandyck beard and moustache, which, like his prominent +eyebrows, were thickly flecked with gray. For the rest, his face, when +seen from a little distance, looked like nothing so much as a mask +carved out of ivory with the yellow tint of age upon it; but when, a +little later, Jack was enabled to view it close at hand, it was seen +to be marked and lined with thousands of extremely fine and minute +creases and wrinkles, as it might be the face of a man centuries old. +But there was nothing old about the eyes, which were very bright and +of a singularly penetrative quality. + +Jack started involuntarily when his own traversed them. Of whose eyes +did they remind him? When and where had he seen that look before? Was +it in some dream which he had forgotten till they supplied the missing +link? If so, all else had escaped him. + +Hardly, however, had he time to ask himself these questions before his +host, advancing with a grave inclination of the head, said: "Welcome +to Rockmount, young gentleman. I am happy to be in a position to +extend to you the hospitality of my humble roof. You are neither the +first nor the second who, having lost his bearings in this remote +district, has found shelter here. You were fortunate in there being no +fog to-night; at such times to be lost on the moors is not merely +unpleasant, but dangerous. I am sorry my people were not prepared to +put before you fare of a more _recherché_ kind, but we are very +isolated here, as you may imagine, and so few are my visitors that it +would be folly to prepare for people who might never come. For my own +part, I may add that I am no Sybarite." + +There was a peculiarly hollow ring about Mr. Ellerslie's voice, as +though it reached one from out of the depths of a cavern; and yet it +seemed to his guest as if there was a note of half-familiarity in it, +as if he had heard it somewhere before--it might be long ago. But +that, of course, was absurd. + +While speaking, Mr. Ellerslie had advanced to the fire, and, motioning +his guest to resume his seat, had himself taken possession of a chair +on the opposite side of the hearth. + +Then Master Jack made haste to express his gratitude for the +hospitality so generously extended to him. + +"Very prettily turned, young gentleman," said Mr. Ellerslie, with a +nod of approval when he had come to an end. "You have good choice of +words, and express yourself without any trace of that affectation +which nowadays mars the speech of so many of our so-called bucks and +young men of _ton_." + +The blush of ingenuous youth mantled in Jack's cheeks for a moment or +two. He could not help noticing--and in after-days it was a point +which often recurred to him--that his host never smiled, that no +flitting shade of expression ever changed the mask-like, bloodless +features. They remained wholly unmoved in their set, waxen pallor. + +"And now," resumed Mr. Ellerslie, "will there be any impropriety in my +asking my guest to favor me with his name? But if, for any reason +whatever, he would prefer to remain incognito, he has merely to +intimate as much and his reticence will be duly respected." + +Mr. Jack was prepared for the question, and he answered it without +hesitation. "If, Mr. Ellerslie, we should ever meet in after-days, as +I sincerely trust we may, and you should accost me by the name of +Frank Nevill, you will find me answer to it." + +"It is a name I promise not to forget. You seem to have got _my_ name +quite pat, Mr. Nevill." + +Mr. Nevill, or Mr. Prentice, or whatever his real name was, laughed a +little uneasily. "It was from the--er--gentleman who acted as my +guide and brought me here that I learnt it." + +"How you learnt it, my dear sir, is a matter of no moment, so long as +you know it. But I am forgetting that the grog is waiting to be mixed. +You will join me over a tumbler, of course?" + +But this his guest politely but firmly declined doing. Mr. Ellerslie +was careful not to press him farther than good breeding sanctioned, +which, however, did not hinder him from mixing a stiff and steaming +tumbler for himself. Having tasted it and apparently found it to his +liking, he went back to his seat by the fire. + +"You were good enough just now, Mr. Nevill, to express a hope that you +and I might some day meet again. Such a meeting, although not beyond +the bounds of possibility--as, indeed, in this world, what is?--hardly +comes within the range of likelihood. You are just on the point of +stepping into the arena--the struggle, the turmoil, the dust, the +elation of victory or, it may be, the bitterness of defeat, lie +still before you; while for me it is all over. I have come out of the +fight with reversed arms, I have left the sweating crowd and its +plaudits--plaudits never showered upon me!--behind me forever. Here, +in this rude hermitage--somewhat bleak, of a truth, in winter time--I +hope to pass the remainder of my days, as Mr. Pope so aptly expresses, +it, 'the world forgetting, by the world forgot.' Therefore, my dear +Mr. Nevill, the chances are that after to-night you and I are hardly +likely to meet again. To you belong the golden possibilities of the +future, to me nothing but memories." + +He stirred his grog, took a good pull at it, and then went on with his +monologue:-- + +"Rockmount has now been my home for a couple of years, and I have no +desire to leave it. Here I live in the utmost seclusion with my books +and a few scientific instruments. An act of the blackest treachery +drove me from the world, a ruined man, bankrupt in hope, in +friendship, in means, with not one illusion left of all those with +which----but I weary you with my egotistic maunderings. Besides, the +hour is late--I cannot expect you to be such a night-owl as I am--and +doubtless you are hungering for your bed." + +Nevill protested, a little mendaciously, that he was not at all tired. +Tired he was, but not sleepy. He would willingly have sat out the rest +of the night with his singular host. + +Presently Mr. Ellerslie, having finished the remainder of his grog, +said, "By the way, towards which point of the compass are you desirous +of bending your steps in the morning?" + +"If I could only find my way to the Whinbarrow road, I should know +where I was." + +"One of my fellows shall go with you and not leave you till he has put +you into it. You have but to name your own hour for breakfast, and +Mrs. Dobson will have it ready for you." + +He rose, as intimating that the moment for retiring had come. A light +was burning in the entrance-hall, and two bed-candles had been placed +in readiness, one of which Mr. Ellerslie proceeded to light. + +At the foot of the stairs he held out his hand. It was a long, lean, +sinewy hand, Nevill could not help noticing, and not at all like that +of a man on whom age had in other respects set its unmistakable seal. + +"I am one of those mortals who have an uncomfortable habit of turning +night into day," remarked the elder man as he clasped his guest's +fingers. "I usually sit up till dawn is in the sky, and, as a +consequence, I sleep till late in the forenoon. As you tell me that +you want to be on your way at an early hour, I had better, perhaps, +say both goodnight and goodbye here and now----Ah, a mouse!" + +Frank Nevill gave a backward spring, and a little frightened cry +escaped his lips. Next moment the blood rushed to his face, and he +felt as if he could have bitten his tongue out for betraying him as it +had. + +But Mr. Ellerslie seemed to have noticed nothing. "We have not many +such vermin, I am happy to say," he resumed after a momentary pause. +"But these old country houses are seldom altogether free of them." + +And so presently they parted. + +Mrs. Dobson was awaiting Nevill at the head of the stairs. "Your room, +sir, is the third door on the left down the corridor," she said. "At +what hour would you be pleased to like breakfast?" + +"Will eight o'clock be too early?" + +"No hour you may name will be either too early or too late, sir." + +"Then eight o'clock let it be." + +Thereupon the woman curtsied, wished him a respectful goodnight, and +left him. + +As soon as he found himself in the room indicated, and with the door +not merely shut but locked, he sat down with an air of weariness, +almost of despondency. Body and brain were alike tired out, yet never +had he felt more wakeful than at that moment. Even had he been in the +habit of trying to analyze his emotions, which he certainly was not, +the effort to do so would have puzzled him just then. The bitter +consciousness that he had failed in the endeavor for which he had +risked so much was always with him, lurking, as it were, in the +background of his brain. He felt it like a dull, persistent ache which +never quite let go its hold of him, whatever other subject might be +occupying the forefront of his thoughts. And then, there were all the +other events of the day just ended, which---- + +He started to his feet. "I shall have to-morrow and a hundred +to-morrows in which I shall have nothing to do but think, and think, +and think. If I begin the process to-night I shall not sleep a wink." + +As yet he had given neither a thought nor a glance to the room, but he +now began to look about him with a little natural curiosity. + +It was a somewhat gloomy chamber, the walls having been originally +painted a dull chocolate color, which had not improved with the +passage of time. In one corner was a large four-poster bed, with +furniture of dark moreen. The dressing-table of black oak was +crowded with an assortment of toilet requirements and appurtenances, +silver-mounted and of most elegant workmanship. + +Then his wandering glances were arrested by something--a garment of +snowy whiteness--which had been laid over the back of a chair. Mr. +Nevill, crossing to it, took it up gingerly and opened it. It proved +to be a fine lawn _chemise de nuit_, frilled and trimmed with +beautiful lace--a garment such as a duchess might have worn, but +certainly never intended to be worn by one of the opposite sex. + +Our young friend dropped it as if it were a red-hot cinder, and, +sinking into the nearest chair, covered his face with his hands. From +head to foot he felt as if he were one huge blush. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE SQUIRE OF STANBROOK. + +Before proceeding to narrate the sequel of the strange adventure of +the _soi-disant_ Mr. Frank Nevill, it may be as well that the reader +should be made acquainted with the circumstances to which was owing +his appearance on the King's highway in the character of an amateur +Claude Duval. + +At the time with which our narrative has to do, Mr. Ambrose Cortelyon, +commonly known as Squire Cortelyon, of Stanbrook, an old family seat +in one of the most northern counties of England, was well over his +seventieth birthday. Thrown by his horse more than twenty years +before, he had not only broken his leg, but three or four of his ribs +into the bargain. + +Surgical science in those days, especially in country places, was not +what it is now. His leg was badly set, with the result that from that +time he had been a partial cripple, who when he walked any distance +alone, had to do so with the help of a couple of stout sticks, but who +usually preferred the arm of his factotum, Andry Luce, and one stick. + +Andry--of whom we shall hear more later--was a man of forty, with a +big, shaggy head and the torso of an athlete set on the short, bowed +legs of a dwarf. Further, he was dumb (the result of a fright when a +child), a deficiency which only caused his employer to value him the +more. He was clever with his pen and at figures, and kept the Squire's +accounts and wrote most of his letters, for Mr. Cortelyon hated pen +work, and besides suffered occasionally from gout in his fingers. + +Finally, Andry filled up his spare time by dabbling in chemistry in an +amateurish fashion, being quite content to experiment on the +discoveries of others, and having no ambition to adventure on any of +his own. + +A full-length oil painting of Squire Cortelyon, taken a short time +before his accident, and still in existence, represents him as a thin, +wiry-looking man of medium height, close shaven, with a long, narrow +face--a handsome face, with its regular, clear-cut features, most +people would call it; cold, unsympathetic light-blue eyes, and a dry, +caustic smile. His dark, unpowdered hair, cut short in front, is +doubtless gathered into a queue, only, as he stands facing the +spectator, the picture fails to show it. He is dressed in a +high-collared, swallow-tailed, chocolate-colored coat with gilt +buttons. His waistcoat is of white satin, elaborately embroidered with +sprays of flowers. His small-clothes, tight-fitting and of some dark +woven material, reach to the ankle, where they are tied with a knot of +ribbon and are supplemented by white silk stockings and buckled shoes. +Round his throat is wound a soft cravat of many folds; his shirt is +frilled, and he wears lace ruffles at his wrists. He stands in an easy +and not ungraceful posture, looking right into the spectator's eyes. +In one hand he clasps his snuff-box, deprived of which life for him +would have lost half its value. + +Although Squire Cortelyon courted and loved a cheap popularity, at +heart he was a man of a hard and griping disposition, whose chief +object in life, more especially of late years, had been the +accumulation of wealth in the shape of landed property. Even in early +life he had never either hunted or shot, but, for all that, he +subscribed liberally to the nearest pack of hounds, as also--but less +liberally--to the usual local charities. Although he employed a couple +of keepers, he did not preserve too strictly, a fact which tended to +his popularity among his poorer neighbors, while having an opposite +effect among those of his own standing in the county. In point of +fact, three-fourths of the game on his estates was shot by his keepers +and sent, under his direction, for sale to the nearest large town. + +When Ambrose Cortelyon, at the age of thirty-five, came into his +patrimony, it was not only grievously burdened with debt, but, as far +as mere acreage was concerned, owing to extravagant living on the part +of his two immediate progenitors, had dwindled to little more than a +third of what it had been sixty years before. From the first the new +Squire made up his mind that the follies of his father and grandfather +should not be repeated in his case. From the first he set two objects +definitely before him, and never allowed himself to lose sight of +them. Object number one was to wipe off the burden of debt he had +inherited from his father. This, by the practice of rigid economy, he +was enabled to do in the course of eight or ten years, after which he +began to save. Object number two was to become, in the course of time, +a large landowner, even as his great-grandfather and his more remote +ancestors right away back to the sixteenth century had been. + +Thus, in the course of time it came to pass that Ambrose Cortelyon +had become the owner of sundry considerable properties (not all of +them situated in his own county, but none of them farther off than a +day's ride) which, owing to one cause or another, had come into the +market. Every season--and what was true then seems equally true +to-day--brought its own little crop of landed proprietors who, owing +to improvidence or misfortune or both, had fallen upon evil days, and +whenever there was a likely property in the neighborhood to be had a +bargain, the Squire, or his agent Mr. Piljoy, was always to the fore. + +With the former it was an article of faith that, for one reason or +other, landed property would rise greatly in value in the course of +the next generation or two, and so constitute a stable inheritance for +those to come after him. In so believing the prescience with which he +credited himself was undoubtedly at fault. Many things were to happen +during the next half-century of which not even the most far-seeing of +the statesmen of those days had the slightest prevision. + +Squire Cortelyon was turned forty before he married. He fixed his +mature affections on a banker's daughter, who brought him a dowry of +ten thousand pounds, with the prospect of thirty thousand to follow at +her father's demise. But three years later the bank in which Mr. +Lowthian was senior partner failed, and the prospective thirty +thousand went in the general smash. Such a loss to such a man was +undoubtedly a terrible blow. A couple of years later still his wife +died, leaving him with one child,--a son. He had felt no particular +affection for her while living, and he was not hypocrite enough to +pretend to mourn her very deeply now she was dead. + +Ambrose Cortelyon was one of those men who never feel comfortable, or +at home, in the presence of children, and as soon as Master Dick was +old enough he was packed off to a public school, and for the next +dozen or more years, except at holiday times, it was but little he saw +either of his father or his home. From school he went to college, but +with his twenty-first birthday his career at Cambridge came to an end. +The life his father intended him for was that of a country gentleman, +with, perhaps, an M.P.-ship _in future_. Where, then, would have been +the use of wasting more time in competing for a degree which, even if +he should succeed in taking it, would be of no after-value to him? Far +better that he should spend a season or two in town, perfecting +himself in his French meanwhile--the country swarmed with _emigrés_ +glad to give lessons for the merest pittance--and after that devote a +couple of years to the Grand Tour. Mr. Cortelyon would have his son a +man of the world, and neither a milksop nor a puritan. With his own +hands he put a copy of "Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son" into +Dick's valise. "A book to profit by," he said. "Let me adjure you to +read and re-read it." + +Dick felt more respect--which till he was grown-up had not been +unmixed with awe--than affection for his father. All his life Mr. +Cortelyon had been a reserved and undemonstrative man, and averse from +any display of feeling or sentiment. Still, that his son was far +dearer to him than aught else in life, and that he looked with secret +pride and hope to moulding him in accordance with his own views and +wishes, can hardly be doubted. The mistake he made was in imagining +that Dick was fashioned on the same lines, mental and moral, as +himself; whereas the lad took after his mother in almost every +particular. Easy-going, affable to all, led far more by his heart than +his head, everybody's friend and nobody's enemy but his own--how was +such a young man, with his handsome person, well-lined purse, and a +certain element of rustic simplicity which still clung to him, to +escape shipwreck in the great maelstrom of London in one form or +another? + +At any rate, Dick Cortelyon did not escape shipwreck in so far as the +utter ruin of his worldly prospects was concerned. He had not been a +year in town before he committed the unpardonable folly--unpardonable +in the only son of Squire Cortelyon--of marrying a fascinating little +actress of no particular ability, who at that time was playing +"chambermaid" parts at one of the patent theatres for a remuneration +of a guinea a week. + +The marriage was kept by Dick a profound secret both from his father +and his friends. But it had to be told the former when, some months +later, he summoned Dick home on purpose to inform him that it was his +wish--really tantamount to a command on the part of such a man--that +he should "make up" to Miss Onoria Flood, the only daughter of a +neighbor, and do his best to secure her before any other suitor +appeared on the scene. + +When the fatal news was broken to the Squire he bundled Master Dick +out of doors without a moment's hesitation. There and then he took an +oath that he would never forgive him, nor ever set eyes on him again, +and he was a man who prided himself on keeping his word. At once he +stopped Dick's allowance. + +Some few years before these things came to pass, the Squire's +grand-niece--granddaughter of his sister Agatha--an orphan left +without means beyond a narrow pittance of eighty pounds a year, had +come to live at Stanbrook, no other home being open to her. Although +there was a difference of some six years in their ages, and although +they had only met at intervals, they had been to each other like elder +brother and younger sister. From the first Miss Baynard had conceived +an almost passionate liking and admiration for her handsome, +kind-hearted kinsman, and now that poor Dick was leaving home never to +return, she contrived to have a stolen interview with him before he +went. Although only just turned sixteen, she was in many things wise +beyond her years, and before parting from Dick she obtained from him +an address at which, he told her, a letter would at any time find him. +Not being sure what his future movements might be, he gave her the +address of his wife's uncle, who kept a tobacconist's shop in a street +off Holborn. That done, Dick kissed her and went, and with his going +half the sunshine seemed to vanish out of Nell's life. + +At once Dick Cortelyon broke with his old life and all its +associations. The fashionable world knew him no more: he disappeared, +he went under. He took a couple of furnished rooms in an obscure +neighborhood, and for the next few months his wife's earnings and the +proceeds of the sale of his watch and trinkets kept the pair of them. +But there came a time when his wife could earn no more; and then a son +was born to him. In this contingency he deemed himself a fortunate man +in being able to get a lot of copying to do for a law firm in Chancery +Lane. + +But poor Dick's trials and troubles--the fruit, as every reasonable +person must admit, of his own headstrong folly--were not destined to +be of long duration. When his child was about six months old he caught +a fever, and died after a very short illness. One of his last requests +was that when all was over his wife should write and inform Miss +Baynard of his death. This Mrs. Cortelyon did not fail to do. Her +letter conveyed the double news of Dick's death and the birth of his +son. + +[Illustration: "He gave her the address of his wife's uncle."] + +Miss Baynard at once took the letter to her uncle. His sallow face +became still sallower as he read the account of his son's death, but a +frown deeper than the girl had ever seen on them before darkened his +features by the time he had come to the end of the letter. + +"Had Dick not been idiot enough to wed that play-acting huzzy," he +said, "the lad would have been alive to-day. I owe his loss to her. +Neither her nor her brat will I ever countenance or acknowledge. Tell +her so from me. Stay, though; you may send her this ten-pound note, +with the assurance that it is the last money she will ever receive at +my hands." + +A few days later the note was returned to the Squire through the post, +accompanied by a few unsigned lines to the effect that the widow of +Richard Cortelyon would accept no help at the hands of the man who had +treated her husband with such inhuman cruelty. + +Not long after this Miss Baynard wrote to the widow, to the +address furnished by her in her letter, mentioning how attached she +had been to Dick, and hinting delicately at the happiness it would +afford her to send Mrs. Cortelyon a little monetary help now and +again. But at the end of a fortnight her letter came back marked, +"Gone away--present address not known," and enclosed in an official +envelope. It had been opened and resealed by the post-office +authorities. As it happened, the letter fell into the Squire's hands, +who, noticing only the official envelope, opened it without perceiving +that it was addressed to his niece. As a consequence he at once sent +for her. + +After explaining how it happened that he had opened the letter, he +continued: "I am astonished and annoyed, Nell--very seriously +annoyed--that, after what thou heard me say two or three weeks ago, +thou should have chosen of thy own accord to communicate with this +play-acting creature, and even to offer to help her out of thy own +scanty means. Fortunately, the woman has disappeared. No doubt she has +gone back to the life and the companions that are most congenial to +her--curses on her for a vile baggage! To her I owe it that my boy +lies mouldering in the grave. Never again, Nell, on pain of offending +me past forgiveness, do thou attempt to have aught to do with her. +'Tis beneath thee to notice such creatures in any way--and she above +all others." + +It was an injunction which Nell--who had listened to his tirade with a +sort of proud disdain and without a word of reply--determined to obey +or disobey as circumstances might determine. For the present she was +helpless to do more than she had done. Unfortunately, she had mislaid +the address given her by Dick at parting, otherwise she might perhaps +have been able to obtain tidings of Mrs. Cortelyon through the +latter's uncle, the London tobacconist. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +FAMILY MATTERS. + + +Four years passed away without bringing any further tidings of the +widow and her child, during all which time their names were not once +mentioned between uncle and niece. By the latter their existence was +by no means forgotten; she often thought about them, often longed to +see them. Whether it ever entered the mind of Squire Cortelyon that he +had a living grandson was known to himself alone. He grew old and made +no sign. + +Meanwhile Miss Baynard had shot up from a lanky slip of a girl into a +very beautiful young woman. + +When she first went to live at Stanbrook, the Squire, having no female +element in his house of a higher status than that of housekeeper, +engaged the services of Mrs. Budd--widow of the Rev. Onesimus +Budd--for the dual positions of _gouvernante_ and companion to his +orphan niece. Mrs. Budd's duties as governess had long ago come to an +end, but therewith she had assumed what to many people would have +seemed the much more responsible and onerous post of chaperon. But, +although a clever little woman in her way, Mrs. Budd was nothing if +not easy-going. For her the wheels of existence were always well +oiled. Nothing disturbed her much. Responsibility slid off her like +water off a duck's back. Life for her meant little more than a +sufficiency of sofas fitted with the softest cushions. She was +excessively good-natured, and, hating to be worried herself, was +careful never to worry others. She and her charge got on capitally +together, chiefly because she was too wise ever to offer any very +strenuous opposition to the whims and vagaries of that self-willed +young woman. A mild protest, by way of easement to her conscience, she +did now and then venture upon, which, however, Miss Baynard would +brush aside with as little effort or compunction as she would a +cobweb. + +To some of Squire Cortelyon's neighbors it seemed an inconsistency on +his part that he, who had packed off his son to school at the earliest +possible age, should have taken to his hearth, and have kept her +there, an orphan niece of no fortune, when he might so easily have rid +himself of her in the same way that he had rid himself of Dick. And +certainly, as has been remarked, the Squire was no lover of children, +and was generally credited with not having an ounce of sentiment in +his composition. For all that, Miss Baynard stayed on at Stanbrook, +knowing no other house, her great-uncle so far relaxing his ingrained +parsimony on her account as to pay Mrs. Budd's salary without a +murmur, and allow his niece a few--a very few--guineas a year by way +of pocket-money. + +Perhaps it might be said of Ambrose Cortelyon that he had never really +cared but for one person, and that one his sister Agatha, who had been +the solitary ray of sunshine that had brightened the home-life of his +youth--a youth repressed and stunted, and thrown back upon itself, but +in all higher respects uncared for, under the rule of a tyrannical and +passionate father, who was accustomed to flog him unmercifully for the +most trivial offences, and of an indifferent, cold-hearted mother, who +left her children to vegetate in the country for three parts of the +year, while she led the life of a woman of fashion in town. + +But Agatha Cortelyon, in the course of time, had grown tired and sick +of her life at home, and had ended by running away with, and becoming +the wife of, an impecunious young lieutenant in a marching regiment. +Thereafter brother and sister had never met. The young wife had died +three years later, leaving one daughter, who in her turn had grown up +and married, but who had never been acknowledged or recognized in any +way by her mother's family. She also had died young, her husband +having pre-deceased her, leaving one child, the Miss Elinor Baynard +with whom we have now to do. + +Not till then did Ambrose Cortelyon become aware of the existence of +his grand-niece. He had heard at the time of his sister's death, but +no further news having reference to her husband or child had reached +him, nor had he ever felt the least inclination to seek for any. Thus, +to find himself with a girl of twelve, of whom he had never heard, +thrown on his hands was for him anything but an agreeable surprise. +Immediately after her mother's funeral the child had been packed off +to Stanbrook by some half-cousins of her dead father--who had neither +the means nor the will to keep her--with almost as little ceremony as +if she had been a Christmas hamper. + +The Squire happened to be out riding when Nell was put down by the +coach at the gate of Stanbrook, and it fell to Mrs. Dace, the +housekeeper, to break the news to him on his return and hand him a +letter from one of the half-cousins which the girl had brought with +her. When, an hour later, the Squire, in response to Nell's timid +knock at the library door, gruffly bade her enter, he was quite +prepared to dislike her at first sight, and had already determined in +his mind to at once pack her off to some cheap country school, and so +rid himself, at any rate for some time to come, of her unwelcome +presence under his roof. + +Yet somehow he did neither one nor the other. Was it because he was +struck by a vague, elusive something in the girl's eyes, her air, her +manner, and the way she carried her head, which brought vividly to +mind the half-forgotten image of the dead-and-gone sister of his +youth, that his determination to send her away presently melted into +thin air and never again took shape in his thoughts? In any case, from +that day forward Stanbrook was Nell's home; but that its being so was +due not so much to the mere tie of relationship, by which her uncle +set no great store, as to a sentimental recollection on his part, was +what she had no knowledge of and would have found hard to credit. She +had grown up self-willed and high-spirited, and with no small share of +that determination of character--some people, chiefly such as had come +into contact with it, stigmatized it as sheer obstinacy--for which +the Cortelyons had always been noted. But above and beyond that, +she had an intense scorn for all that was mean, base, sordid, or +double-faced, and she was never slow to give expression to it. + +For many of the small conventions and grandmotherly restrictions with +which society at that period (leaving the present out of question) saw +fit to hedge round its fledglings, she betrayed a fine indifference, +going her own way without let or hindrance, and without deigning a +thought to what others might say or think about her. That she should +be regarded with favorable eyes by mothers with daughters about the +same age as herself could hardly be expected. They averred that she +set their darlings "a dangerous example"; but many of the darlings in +question secretly envied her, and wished that a kind fate had allowed +of their following her example. + +Her uncle must be credited with allowing her to do pretty much as she +liked. There was nothing strait-laced about the Squire. He was a +strenuous hater of shams in others, while not being without a few +little weaknesses of his own; and his niece's somewhat wilful +independence of character secretly delighted him, even when, as +sometimes happened, it opposed itself to his own flinty will, and +sparks resulted from the collision. + +Between two people so constituted there could be and was no question +of sentiment. From the first it had seemed to Nell that her uncle +simply tolerated her presence under his roof. He had taken her in +because no other door was open to her, and because it would never have +done for Squire Cortelyon's niece to have sought the shelter of the +workhouse. His kindness, if kindness it could be called, had in it, or +so she fancied, a certain grudging element which deprived it of +whatever grace it might otherwise have had. + +She knew nothing of a certain strange, haunting likeness on her own +part, nor how often, when her uncle's eyes seemed to be watching her +every movement, it was not her he saw at all, but some one known to +her only by hearsay, who had been in her grave these forty years or +more. + +When Dick Cortelyon had been a little more than four years in his +grave, the Squire, acting on his doctor's advice, went up to London +for the purpose of undergoing a certain operation. It was an operation +which is not usually supposed to be attended with any particular risk, +and Mr. Cortelyon was quite cheerful about it; but of course in such a +case, although he did not seem to think so, the question of age +becomes an important factor. At this time he was within a month or so +of his seventy-second birthday, but, barring his permanent lameness, +the result of an accident a score years before, he avouched himself to +be--and he fully believed it--as brisk and robust as when he was only +half that age. + +So up to town, accompanied by his niece, he travelled by easy stages +in the roomy and comfortable, if somewhat lumbering, family chariot, +which dated from his grandfather's time; while, perched in the rumble, +Tatham, his body-servant, made platonic love to Miss Baynard's elderly +maid, who had not known what it was to feel a man's arm round her +waist for more years than she cared to remember. + +Comfortable lodgings in Bloomsbury had been secured beforehand, and +there the operation was presently performed by one of the most eminent +surgeons of the day. + +Everything went well with the Squire, as he had felt sure from the +first it would do, and at the end of six weeks he was back at +Stanbrook thoroughly cured. + +But Miss Baynard, when she found herself in London, set herself a task +she had hitherto had no opportunity of undertaking. This was nothing +less than the hunting-up of her dead cousin's widow and child. + +As already stated, she had lost the address given her by Dick, and had +never afterwards found it. She remembered that the name on the slip of +paper, that of Dick's wife's uncle, was McManus, and that the man was +a tobacconist in a small way of business in one of the many turnings +off Holborn, but the name of the street itself she had clean +forgotten. + +Fortunately for her purpose, there was a sharp youth connected with +the lodgings who, besides making himself generally useful indoors, was +willing to run on errands of any and every kind for anybody disposed +to pay for his services. Him Miss Baynard engaged to discover for her +what she wanted to know; nor had she long to wait. Within a very few +hours he placed in her hands the address of Mr. McManus. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +A MAN WHO NEVER FORGAVE. + + +To the address thus obtained by her--her uncle being now well on the +road to recovery--Miss Baynard went next afternoon in a hackney-coach, +accompanied by her maid. + +Mr. McManus, a little, old, and very snuffy man, with a shrewd but +kindly expression, readily furnished her with the information asked +for, after Nell had introduced herself and told him for what purpose +she wanted it. + +"Ah, poor lass! I'm sadly afraid she's not long for this world," +remarked the old fellow with a melancholy shake of the head, in +allusion to Dick's widow. + +"Is she so ill as that?" queried Nell, thoroughly shocked. + +"Aye, that is she. Long afore next year at this time the daisies'll be +growin' over her grave. She caught a chill last Christmas, and it +settled on her chest, which was always delicate, and now--why now, as +I say, all the doctors in the world couldn't set her on her feet +again." + +"I cannot tell you how grieved I am to hear this. And the boy--her +child--what of him?" + +"Oh, he's as right as a trivet. A famous young shaver, and no mistake. +There's nothing the matter with him." + +Miss Baynard drove direct from Holborn to the address given her, which +was Lawn Cottage, Chelsea. There Marjory Cortelyon rented a couple of +rooms, a middle-aged widow, Mrs. Mardin by name, being at once her +landlady and her nurse. + +Nell, having sent in her name, was presently admitted to the invalid's +little sitting-room, with its pleasant outlook across a wide sweep of +sunny meadows, long ago covered with bricks and mortar. + +The ex-actress lay on a couch near the window, a frail figure, wasted +by illness to little more than skin and bone. That she had been very +pretty once on a time was still plainly evident, and in her large, +lustrous eyes, sunken though they were, Nell read something which went +direct to her heart. There had never been anything meretricious or +tawdry about her, otherwise Dick Cortelyon would not have made her his +wife. She had been good and pure, and, in her way, a lady. + +Nell, after pausing on the threshold for a couple of seconds while she +took in the scene, went quickly forward and, dropping on one knee by +the couch, bent over and kissed the dying woman. Tears dimmed her +eyes, and a few moments passed before a word would come. Indeed, +Marjory was the first to speak. At the touch of Nell's lips her ivory +cheeks flushed, and a lovely smile played for a few seconds round her +mouth. "My Dick loved you very dearly, and no wonder," she said +softly. "I have often longed to see you, and I'm sure I shall die +happier now that I have done so." + +Nell's visit lasted upwards of an hour. She explained to Marjory how +it happened that she had been unable either to communicate with her or +to visit her before. Greatly to her disappointment, young Evan was +from home, he having been taken into the country to spend a few days +with a married sister of Marjory's, but Nell was told that if she +chose to come again in a week's time he would then be back, and this +she promised herself that she certainly would do. + +By and by Nell said: "And now, Marjory dear, you must allow me to +renew the offer made by me in the letter which failed to find you. +Although you do not see your way to accept pecuniary help from Mr. +Cortelyon, there is no reason in the world why you should not accept +it from me, and I am quite sure that if poor dear Dick could speak to +you from the grave he would agree with all I say. That he left you +very poorly off, although through no fault of his own, I know full +well. Therefore, I say again, why not----" + +The sick woman held up one of her transparent hands. "You are kindness +itself, Miss Baynard," she said, "and were I in want of help, you +would be the first person to whom I would appeal; but I am not in want +of anything. I have everything I need, and more, thanks to the +generosity of Mr. Geoffrey Dare." + +"Of Mr. Geoffrey Dare?" echoed Nell. + +"Did Dick never speak of him to you?" + +"Not to my knowledge; but you must remember that when Dick first came +to London I was hardly out of the schoolroom, and that we saw very +little of him at Stanbrook afterwards, before that last visit of all, +with its unhappy ending." + +"Well, my husband and Geoff Dare--we always used to call him and speak +of him as 'Geoff'--were like brothers (not that all brothers hit it +off together by any means), and of all Dick's many fine friends he was +the only that was in the secret of our wedding. It was a secret he +told to nobody, and when Dick's father cast him off and hard times +came, he remained just the same Geoff that he had always been; not the +least bit of change did we ever find in him. Then, when my child was +born, nothing would suit him but that he must stand godfather to it. +All through Dick's illness, which lasted a matter of four months, +he would leave his gayeties and engagements at the other end of +the town--we were living at that time in a couple of rooms in +Clerkenwell--and come two or three times a week to sit with him and +cheer him up. And when all was over, it was his money that helped to +bury my husband, and it was on his arm that I leaned as I stood by the +grave-side--he and I by our two selves. Is there any one like him in +the world, I wonder?" + +She sank back exhausted; but a little wine and water which Miss +Baynard proceeded to administer speedily revived her. + +Then said Nell: "Judging from what you tell me, Mr. Dare must indeed +be a friend among a thousand, and for what he has done for you and +yours I honor and respect him. Now, however, that you and I have found +each other, there is no reason why you should any longer burden his +generosity. You and I, my dear Marjory, are cousins; Dick and I, as +you know, loved each other like brother and sister; consequently, it +is to me, and to me only, that you and Evan ought to look in time to +come." + +A faint smile, it might almost be termed a smile of amusement, lighted +up the sick woman's face. "'Tis very evident that you don't know Geoff +Dare, or you would not talk like that," she said. "Why, merely for me +to hint at such a thing would turn him into a thundercloud, and then +there would be an explosion fit to bring the roof off. Oh, he has a +fine temper of his own, I can tell you! And besides and worse than +all, it would cut him to the quick, and that is what I would never be +a party to doing. Then again, dear Miss Baynard, it isn't as if he was +a poor man. In that case what you urge would bear twice thinking +about. But Geoff is anything but poor, although--so Dick used to +say--far over-fond of the gaming table and the race-course, like most +young bucks of the day." + +Nell sat silent, if not convinced. The ground, so to speak, had been +cut from under her, and she was at a loss what to say next. + +Presently Mrs. Cortelyon spoke again. "While we are talking about Mr. +Dare, there is something else with which he is concerned that I may as +well tell you about, as my doing so may perhaps prevent any +misunderstanding in time to come." + +She closed her eyes for a few seconds while she inhaled her +smelling-salts. Then she went on: + +"Although both the doctor and Mrs. Mardin try to keep the truth from +me, I am not deceived. That my days are numbered, that a very few +weeks will bring the end, I know full well--and Mr. Dare knows it too. +The last time he was here I challenged him with the truth, and he +could not deny it. It was the uncertainty about my child's future, +which lay like a dead weight at my heart, that impelled me to do so. +But he--God bless him for it!--at once put my mind at rest on that +score. He gave me his solemn promise that when I am gone he will act a +father's part by his dead friend's child. He will bring up Evan as if +he were his own son. That the boy is his godson I have already told +you." + +"But what if Evan's grandfather should some day change his mind and +want to claim him?" The question sprang to Nell's lips almost before +she knew that it had formed itself in her mind. + +An angry light leapt into the young widow's eyes; a spot of vivid red +flamed out in either cheek. For a moment or two she bit her nether lip +hard, as if thereby to control her emotion. Then she said: "If I +thought there was any likelihood of my darling ever falling into the +hands of that cruel and wicked old man, I am quite sure that I should +never rest in my grave. Oh, if only, when I am dead, I may be allowed +to haunt him! But you do not think, do you, dear Miss Baynard, that he +is ever likely to want to claim Evan?" + +"One never can tell what may happen. Even the most self-willed people +sometimes see reason to change their mind. My uncle is an old man, and +Evan is his lineal heir. He has neither child nor grandchild but him. +What more natural than that he should some day turn round, hold out +his arms, and say: 'The past is dead and buried. Come to me. You +belong to me and to me only. I am rich, and all that I have is yours?' +What is to hinder such a thing from coming to pass?" + +Mrs. Cortelyon remained silent for a few moments as if considering the +picture thus presented to her. Then she said: "When Geoff comes next I +must talk to him about it. You have frightened me. Neither he nor I +have dreamt of such a possibility. When I am dead the child must +disappear, he must be hidden away by Geoff where the Squire, should he +ever want to do so, could not find him. Rather, I truly believe, could +I bear to see Evan stark in his coffin than walking hand in hand with +that flinty-hearted old man. I never hated any one in my life as I +hate him, and I shall keep on hating him after I am dead." + + +Miss Baynard paid two more visits to Lawn Cottage before the time came +for her and her uncle to go back to Stanbrook. Evan was at home on +both occasions, and on both occasions they went together for a long +walk. The boy took to her from the first. He was a handsome, healthy +child, and--or so it seemed to Nell--wonderfully like what his father +must have been at the same age. She would have liked dearly to take +him and set him down suddenly in front of the Squire, and leave the +rest to Nature's prompting, but such a course was out of the question. +All she could do was to extort a promise from Mrs. Cortelyon that if +that should come to pass which she herself asserted to be inevitable, +and the boy before long be left motherless, then should she, Nell, be +informed, either by Mr. Dare or Mr. McManus, where he could at any +time be found, and should be allowed to have access to him as often as +she might feel disposed to claim the privilege. + +When the time came for the two women to say goodbye, both knew that +the parting was a final one, but not a word was said by either to that +effect. Both feigned a cheerfulness which was the last thing in the +heart of either, and it was a relief to both when the ordeal was over +and the door shut between them. Then came the time for tears. + +Before leaving town Nell paid a second visit to Mr. McManus, and got +him to promise to write to her as soon as all was over. It was a +promise the old tobacconist faithfully kept, and Nell had only been +six weeks back at home when the fatal tidings reached her. + +After a little time given to tears in the solitude of her room, she +dried her eyes and went in search of her uncle. She found him in the +library, dusting and gloating over one of his cases of coins. He +looked up sourly as the door opened. When so engaged he did not like +being interrupted, but for that Nell cared not at all. + +Walking directly up to the table, she said without preface: "Uncle, +news has just reached me of the death of poor Dick's widow. She died +of consumption three days ago." + +The Squire dropped his duster, and, leaning back in his chair, grasped +an arm of it with either hand, and turned his cold eyes full upon her. + +"And pray, Miss Baynard, may I ask in what way the news concerns me?" + +He had not called her "Miss Baynard" since her last mention of her +cousin's name more than four years before, and Nell did not forget it. +But she was in no wise daunted. + +"If you choose to consider that the death of your son's wife is no +concern of yours, so be it. That is a matter between yourself and your +conscience. But, in case the fact should have escaped your memory, I +may be allowed to remind you that Dick left a child behind him--a +son--who is now both fatherless and motherless." + +"And what have I to do with that?" + +"Everything. He is your grandson, your sole descendant, your natural +heir. He is flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone, and ought to be +dearer to you than all the world beside. Poor Dick died years ago. Why +avenge his fault, if fault it was, on his innocent child? Think, +uncle, think and----" + +He brought down his fist heavily on the table. "Think, girl, say'st +thou? Zounds! there's no need for me to think. My mind was made up +long ago, and nothing thou can'st urge will move me from it. I tell +thee, my grandson is no more to me than the veriest beggar's brat that +crawls in a London gutter. Never will I acknowledge him, or have aught +to do with him in any way. And if thou hast any regard left for me, or +any care for my displeasure, thou wilt never speak of him in my +presence again. As thou ought to have found out by now, I am a man who +never forgives." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +WHO SHALL BE HEIR? + + +From that day forward Ambrose Cortelyon seemed to regard his niece +with a certain amount of suspicion and distrust, but it was a distrust +that found no expression in words, and although Nell was conscious of +an undefinable change in her uncle's manner towards her, she was +wholly at a loss to what cause to attribute it. + +The Squire was a man who expected those of his household, and all who +were in any way dependent on him, not merely to believe as he +believed, but to share his conviction that whatever decision he might +come to in any given set of circumstances was the right one, and that +all who differed from him were, theoretically, either fools or worse. +In short, he was one of that numerous class who have a firm belief in +their own infallibility in all the concerns of life; and as he was an +autocrat in his own domain, with nobody to contradict him, it was not +to be expected that his opinion of himself would become less confirmed +with advancing years. When, therefore, his niece chose to impugn his +action in a certain affair--and he now called to mind that it was not +the first time she had done so--and even to imply, not by her words +but by her manner, that his treatment of his grandson, or, to speak +correctly, his absolute neglect of him, was both cruel and unjust, he +was not, at any rate at first, so much angered as amazed at her +audacity in daring to set up her feeble girl's will in opposition to +his own, and, indeed, at her presumption in venturing to question his +decision in any way. + +Nor, when he came to think the matter over at his leisure, did his +surprise, not unleavened with resentment, diminish. He told himself +that he could not have believed it of her; she had hurt him in a +tender place, and he felt as if she could never be quite the same to +him again as she had been in the past: and she never was. + +It is just possible that the Squire's little smoulder of resentment +against his niece would gradually have died out had he not been beset +by a certain underlying consciousness, of which he vainly strove to +rid himself, that all through Nell had been undeniably in the right +and he indisputably in the wrong. Had he but seen his way to overlook +his son's _mésalliance_, and have brought him and his wife to +Stanbrook, in all probability Dick would still have been living. And +then, with regard to this grandson of his, this child of a play-acting +mother---- But when he got as far as that in his musings his passion +seemed to choke him. No, he had done right, quite right; no other +course was open to him. Come what might, he would never acknowledge +the brat. His blood was tainted; he was no true Cortelyon. But all his +arguing with himself did not suffice to pluck out the hidden thorn; it +was still there, rankling in his flesh. But if he could not get rid of +it, no one save himself should know of its existence, and he swore a +great oath that in the matter of his grandson he would not go back +from his word. + +A day or two after her interview with her uncle Nell replied to Mr. +McManus's letter. What she wished him to do was to inform Mr. Dare +that he need be under no apprehension that Mr. Cortelyon would claim +his grandson or interfere in any way with the boy's future. She +further asked to be informed of the latter's address when Mr. Dare +should have settled upon a home for him. + +To this the old tobacconist replied in the course of a week or two. +What he had to tell her was that for the present Mr. Dare had decided +to let Evan remain at Lawn Cottage in the care of Mrs. Mardin; but +that should he later think well to remove the child, Miss Baynard +should be duly advised of the change. + +And there for the present the matter rested. + +When Squire Cortelyon found himself once more at home, he went back to +his old mode of life with an added relish. He knew now that he had +just escaped a great danger. He had been led to believe that the +operation he was advised to undergo was of a very simple nature, but a +casual remark of the great London doctor, which he chanced to +overhear, had served to open his eyes after a very uncomfortable +fashion. In reality, the operation was anything but a simple one, +in view of possible consequences in the case of a man of threescore +years and ten. However, all is well that ends well. The dreaded +consequences had not developed themselves. He had come back home +feeling a new man, with every prospect of a renewed lease of life, +and he smiled grimly to himself to think how "that scoundrel of a +Banks"--his local medico--had succeeded in thoroughly hoodwinking him. + +So he went back to the old familiar routine as if there had never been +a break in it, save that life seemed to have taken on an added +sweetness now that he knew what he had escaped. He trembled when he +thought of the risk he had run, not merely in one way, but in another, +for had the operation had a fatal termination he would have died +intestate (he had torn up his will after his quarrel with Dick and had +never made another), in which case his detested grandson would have +been his heir-at-law and have inherited everything. It was enough to +put him in a cold sweat when he thought of it. Of course, the day +would come when he could no longer defer asking himself the question, +"To whom or to what shall I leave my property?" But it was an +uncomfortable question to face, and a difficult one to answer; so, as +there seemed no immediate need for answering it, he shelved it till +what he chose to term "a more convenient time." + +Pleasant to him were those long forenoons in the library, with no +company save that of Andry Luce, who kept his accounts, looked after +his rents, and to whom he dictated his correspondence. Pleasant it +was, with the help of Andry's sturdy arm, to stroll slowly about the +grounds, watching the gardeners and laborers at their work, chatting +with his bailiff, and giving his orders about this or the other. + +Not less pleasant was it, when the fit took him, to have himself +driven in his old shandrydan to one or other of his outlying +properties, some of which lay many miles away, and satisfy himself +that everything was going on as it should do, which meant so far as +the interests of his own pocket were concerned. + +But when the weather was bad, and he could not get out of doors, he +had other occupations wherewith to engage his time. He was an ardent +numismatist, and was very proud of his collection of coins and medals, +to which he kept adding from time to time as opportunity served. He +was also something of a bibliophile, and possessed a small but rather +choice collection of rare books and illuminated MSS. He would gloat +over these treasures as a miser gloats over his gold, and he derived +the most intense satisfaction from the belief (which on no account +would he have had disturbed) that his collections contained two or +three absolutely unique specimens in the way of coins such as no other +cabinet could match. + +And so some months passed away, and no such person as young Evan +Cortelyon might have been in existence for any mention of him between +uncle and niece. + +Then, as the winter crept springward, the Squire became unpleasantly +conscious that his physical powers were slowly, almost imperceptibly, +declining. For some little time he succeeded in persuading himself +that it was a mere temporary _faiblesse_ from which he was suffering, +due probably, in a great measure, to the moist oppressiveness of an +unhealthy season, which was carrying off numbers of younger people +than he. But when, at length, the weather vane on the stables veered +from southwest to northeast, and stuck there day after day, as if it +would never move again, bringing with it dry, sunny morns, and crisp, +bracing nights, he was obliged to seek for some other excuse for his +growing weakness. Not yet, however, would he give in and summon Dr. +Banks. Although the son on whom he had at one time built such hopes +was dead and gone, not for years had existence been sweeter to him +than it was just then, and yet, to all seeming, it was gradually but +surely slipping away from him. He felt as if a great wrong were being +done him. What was Providence about? + +At length his weakness so far increased that he reluctantly authorized +Andry to summon Dr. Banks, who had attended him, off and on, from the +date of his accident, and in the course of years had extracted more +guineas from his purse than the Squire cared to reckon up. + +"You have been very remiss, Mr. Cortelyon, very remiss indeed," said +the fussy little rural practitioner when he had completed his brief +examination, and had listened to the Squire's recital of his symptoms. +"You ought to have sent for me six weeks ago, if not earlier than +that. There has been a serious lowering of the vital forces, and, at +your time of life----" + +"At my time of life! Damme! what d'ye mean? You don't mean to call me +an old man, and I not seventy-three till next birthday! Zounds! I'm +only just in my prime. Banks, you're an ass! It will be time enough +for you to begin to hint at my age--only to hint at it, mind you--a +dozen years hence." + +Dr. Banks did his best, but his best in this instance proved of no +avail. The diminution of strength still went slowly on. At length the +Squire became too weak to go out of doors, even for a drive, and then +after a time the day came when he was unable to leave his bedroom. + +At Dr. Banks's request, that well-known physician, Dr. Mills, of +Lanchester, was called into consultation, but all he could do, after +making one or two minor suggestions, was to accord his full approval +to the treatment already adopted by his colleague. + +"I won't pay you your fee, doctor--hang me if I will, sir--till you +tell me what you think of me," said the Squire in his masterful way +when Dr. Mills was ready to go. + +"Well, Squire, to be frank with you, I think your condition a somewhat +grave one. But while there's life there's hope, you know. Yes, yes, we +mustn't give up hope on any account; and you could not be in better +hands than those of my friend Dr. Banks." + +"You would advise me to make my will, eh?" The cunning smile with +which he leered up into the physician's face hid a terrible anxiety at +the back of it. + +The doctor pursed out his lips. "In such matters it is always +advisable to be prepared, to take time by the forelock, as +one may say. And in your case, Mr. Cortelyon, I am inclined to +think--um--well, yes, that any testamentary arrangements you may have +to make should not----" + +"I understand," broke in the Squire with a wave of his hand. "Not a +word more is needed. Here is your fee. I am obliged to you for your +frankness; and so good-day to ye." He felt as if sentence of death had +just been pronounced on him. + +Yes, it was no longer possible to cheat himself with vain hopes of +recovery. The dread fact that for him life's business was nearly over +could no longer be ignored, and the sooner he clasped it to him and +made himself familiar with its grim visage, the better it would be for +him during the little time he could call his own. He had lately had +private information from Piljoy that a certain property, on which for +years he had set longing eyes, would be in the market before another +twelvemonth was over, and yet he, Ambrose Cortelyon, would not be +there to bid for it! Again he asked himself what Providence was about. + +Still, however much he might rail and rebel in secret at the dark +prospect before him, knowing all the while how childish and futile it +was to do so, his hard face in nowise softened to those about him, and +he betrayed no slackness of interest in any of the little everyday +affairs that went on around him. + +But another spectre, besides that grisly one which Dr. Mills's words +had called up, began to haunt him, hovering round his pillow by night, +and never being far from his elbow between daybreak and dark. There +was only one way of exorcising it, as he knew full well, and that was +by making his will. The entail had been cut off in his grandfather's +time, sixty years before. How hateful soever the necessity might be, +it was one which could not with safety be much longer delayed, unless +he wished that all he might die worth should go to his disowned and +unknown grandson. Beyond him and Nell, so far as he knew, he had not a +single living relative. Whom, then, should he make his heir? For him +it was fast becoming the question of questions. + +Oh, it was hard, hard, while he was still in what, rightly considered, +ought to be looked upon as the prime of life, to have to part from the +earthly possessions he loved so well, and which had cost him such long +and painful scraping to accumulate! But there was no help for it; +leave them he must; the fatal fiat had gone forth. At times, it may +be, his heart sent forth an anguished cry for his dead son; but if +such were the case, it in nowise served to mitigate the rancor, almost +inhuman in its bitterness, with which he regarded the dead man's +child. He had spoken no more than the truth when he said that he never +forgave. + +It was just about this time that the Hon. Mrs. Bullivant, having heard +of his illness, drove over from Uplands to see him. The Squire had +never been very popular among those of his own class, and even now, +when he was reported to be in failing health, there were not many +callers at Stanbrook. Such as there were got no farther than the +entrance hall, for in each case the Squire, on the plea of illness, +excused himself from seeing them, and probably the majority of them +were as well pleased that he did so. But of the Hon. Mrs. Bullivant a +special exception was made. She was shown up into his bedroom, where +the Squire lay in his huge four-poster, propped up with pillows, and +there she stayed for upwards of an hour. For this, however, there was +a reason. + +Mrs. Bullivant, when known to the world as Miss Onoria Flood, the only +daughter and heiress of a wealthy brewer, was the lady chosen by Mr. +Cortelyon for his son's prospective wife. He and Mr. Flood were +neighbors, so to speak, for only a short half-dozen miles divided +Uplands from Stanbrook, and when once the subject was broached--by the +Squire in the first instance--they were not long in coming to a quiet +understanding between themselves. Then Mr. Flood dropped a hint of +what was in the wind to Onoria, who was a dutiful daughter, and at +once fell in with her father's views. After that, all the Squire had +to do was to recall his son from London and break the news to him. To +Mr. Cortelyon the match seemed an eminently desirable one. Although +the brewer did not come of a county family, he was most respectably +connected, having one brother an archdeacon, and another high up in +the service of John Company. But the great attraction of all lay in +the fact that on coming of age Onoria would be entitled to a legacy of +twenty thousand pounds bequeathed her by her grandfather. Further, she +would be her father's sole heiress (he had Flood's word for that); and +as the brewer was of a gouty habit and somewhat plethoric withal, it +seemed not unlikely that---- Yes, in every way a most desirable match. + +But we know what happened when Dick was told his father's goodwill and +pleasure in the matter. However willing under other circumstances he +might have been to fall in with the old man's views, he was precluded +from doing so by the simple fact that he was already a married man. +Thereupon followed the quarrel, and all that sad succession of events +with which we are already acquainted. + +But Onoria did not go long unwedded. Before six months had gone by she +became the wife of the Hon. Hector Bullivant, the second son of Lord +Cossington, an impecunious peer, whose estates were mortgaged up to +the hilt. Neither affection nor sentiment had anything to do with the +union. Onoria married for position, the Hon. Hector for money. +Everybody who knew the young couple said that what followed was only +what they had prophesied all along, so easy is it to be wise after the +event. + +The Hon. Hector was a notorious gambler and _roué_, and within a +couple of years of his marriage he had contrived to dissipate his +wife's fortune to the last guinea. A few months later he came by his +end in a drunken brawl, greatly to the relief of everybody connected +with him, leaving behind him one child, a boy a little over twelve +months old. Then the widow went back home to her father, taking her +son with her. Not long afterwards Mr. Flood was carried off in a fit +of apoplexy. + +When his will was read it was a terrible disappointment to Onoria to +find that, instead of coming in for everything, as she had all along +been led to expect she would, she was merely left an income of six +hundred a year, together with the Uplands estate, and that everything +else was left in trust for her son. She had known that her father was +not likely to be a long liver, and, backed up by his wealth, she had +looked forward to a brilliant _rentrée_ into London society at no very +distant date, with, it may be, a second and more brilliant marriage in +the background. It was, indeed, a terrible disappointment. + +Mrs. Bullivant at this period of her life was what is generally +understood by the term "a fine woman," that is to say, she was built +on ample lines, and was of generous proportions. Later on she would +tend to obesity. She was black-eyed and black-haired, with regular +features of a cold, statuesque type, which, as she was essentially +unemotional and a thorough specimen of ingrained selfishness, formed a +fair enough index to her disposition. + +Such was the woman who came one day to see Squire Cortelyon on what +she had been given to understand was likely to be his deathbed. As a +matter of course, she knew of the quarrel between father and son, of +Dick's untimely death, and of his having left a widow and a child whom +the old man refused to acknowledge or to recognize in any way. She and +the Squire had not met since a little while before her marriage; +still, it seemed only what was due to good feeling and neighborly +sympathy, more especially in view of what had happened in the past, +that she should be desirous of seeing him once again before it was too +late. If there was any other motive, or half-motive, at work below the +surface, she would hardly have confessed its existence even to +herself. + +As already stated, the interview between her and the Squire lasted +over an hour. By the time it came to an end the sick man was pretty +well exhausted; still, he was glad, he was very glad, that he had seen +her. Her visit had supplied him with a ray of light where all had been +darkness before. She was a woman after his own heart--energetic, +capable, a man as regarded business ability, of a like saving +disposition and with an ambition similar to his own; that is to say, +to become a great landed proprietor, or rather, that her son should +become one when he grew up and came into his inheritance. He did not +think that Flood had treated her as handsomely as he ought to have +done. Still, Uplands was hers--a fine property, and one which could +not have come into more capable hands. + +Had the fates proved propitious, Onoria would have been his +daughter-in-law; it was owing to no fault of hers that she was not; +consequently she might, in a sense, be said to have a claim upon him. +Why should he not leave her a life-interest in his landed property, +the same, at her decease, to devolve upon her son, on condition of his +adding the name of Cortelyon to his present one? But it was a project +not to be hastily decided upon. He would think it over. And he did. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +"A WOMAN OF A THOUSAND." + + +About this time Tatham, the Squire's body-servant, fell ill, and at +his own request was allowed to leave Stanbrook for awhile and go to +stay with his married sister, who lived in the next county. Hitherto +he and Miss Baynard had shared the duties of the sick-room between +them, and as the Squire, instead of gathering strength, seemed to be +slowly losing what little was left him, it was evident that some one +must be found to fill Tatham's place during his unavoidable absence. + +Now in the village--a populous and thriving one--the outlying houses +of which lay within a bowshot of the park gates of Stanbrook, there +dwelt at this time a certain Mrs. Dinkel, herself English, but the +widow of a Dutchman who had formerly been head gardener at +Heronscourt, the seat of Sir Willoughby Freke. Mrs. Dinkel had been +left with enough to keep her comfortably in humble village fashion, +but being at the time of her husband's death scarcely beyond middle +age, and of an active disposition, she presently began to cast about +for some way not merely of adding to her limited income, but of +banishing from her life the idleness which her soul abhorred. + +Being determined to find work, she took the first chance that came in +her way, which was to nurse a young lady laid up with a virulent +fever. And thus it fell out that within a couple of years of that time +Mrs. Dinkel's name had become well known throughout a wide circle of +provincial society as that of a woman with a born gift for nursing. +Like many others of both sexes, she had not discovered her _métier_ +till late in life, but having once found it, she stuck to it. Still, +her services were not at the beck and call of anybody, nor were they +to be bought merely by the offer of a certain number of guineas. She +would only go out to nurse among gentlefolk, or, as she termed them, +"the quality," and whenever none of the quality stood in need of her +services she preferred to stay at home with folded hands, doing +nothing, till they should send for her. + +When a message from Stanbrook one day reached her, she responded to it +with alacrity. + +To the Squire it seemed very inconsiderate on Tatham's part that he +should choose to fall ill at such a time, but as he supposed there was +no help for it, it mattered not a jot to him, he said, whom they +supplied him with by way of temporary substitute. So, at the express +instance of Dr. Banks, Mrs. Dinkel was sent for. + +She was a woman of few words and strong nerve, who seemed never to +require more than two hours' sleep out of the twenty-four. All her +thoughts and attention were given to her patient; she moved about the +sick room almost as silently as a shadow, and before long the Squire +found her presence far more soothing, and her ministrations far more +gentle, than those of Tatham had been. Nell took to Mrs. Dinkel from +the first. They seemed to understand each other instinctively. The +sick man was the bond between them. Each in her separate way had for +the time being vowed herself to his service. + + +A few days later, and Mr. Cortelyon had finally made up his mind, +bitter as the need for doing so was to him. But it was indeed high +time that he should come to some conclusion, for the sands of life +were now beginning to run very low indeed, and he knew it. What but a +little while before had been a suggestion--not emanating from any +outside source, but his own suggestion to himself--had now become a +determination. To Mrs. Bullivant in the first place, and to her son +after her, he would bequeath three-fourths of everything he was worth. + +He was quite aware that, in the ordinary course of things--his +grandson being out of the running--his niece's claim upon him ought to +have had priority of that of everybody else. And he told himself that +it should have had if only Nell had been a clear-headed, sensible, +businesslike woman of the type of Onoria Bullivant. Unfortunately, +she was nothing of the kind. Instead, her head was crammed full of +high-flown, sentimental, and quixotic notions (he prided himself on +having read her thoroughly), and he felt morally sure that if he were +to leave her any large lump sum, say fifteen or twenty thousand +pounds, by way of legacy, she would be quite capable, when she found +that Master Evan had been left out in the cold, of making over a big +slice, perhaps even the whole of it, for the benefit of the brat. Such +a result as that must on no account be allowed to come to pass. What +he would do was, to invest a certain number of thousands in her name +in the Funds, just enough to bring in about three hundred a year, and +allow her the interest to live upon. With such an income she could not +do much harm, or what the Squire designated to himself as harm. Should +she be fool enough to take the boy to live with her, and assume the +responsibility of his future, why, she was welcome to do so. But owner +of Stanbrook and Barrowmead, and of his latest purchase, that big +property on the Yorkshire border, his grandson never should be. + +Thus it one day came to pass that Mrs. Bullivant received a note +written by Andry Luce, asking her, if convenient, to drive over next +day to Stanbrook in time for luncheon, and take her son with her. The +widow was a shrewd woman, and it seemed to her that such a note was +capable of but one interpretation, and as she drove through the +country lanes next day on her way to the Hall her heart beat high with +hopes, which, however wanting in substance they might be, were none +the less _couleur de rose_. + +In point of fact, before causing his testamentary dispositions to be +recorded in black and white the Squire was desirous of taking stock of +the youngster whom he was proposing to constitute his heir. If he +should prove to be a weak, puling child, or betray any signs of +delicacy of constitution, why, in that case that there would be good +reason for reconsidering his decision. + +As it turned out, the Squire had no cause for uneasiness on that +score. Young Gavin Bullivant, who had just entered on his fifth year, +looked as strong and sturdy as an oak sapling. He was a bright-eyed, +apple-cheeked lad, both inquisitive and acquisitive by natural +disposition, and not knowing what shyness meant. He was very like his +mother, but more in expression than features, and at times one caught +a far-off hint of something in his face, at once hard and cunning, +which seemed curiously out of keeping with his years. It was as though +a very old man--and not a good old man either--was peering at you from +behind a beautiful mask of childhood. + +"Not much likeness here to the late lamented--hey?" queried the Squire +after a good stare at him, which the boy returned with interest. + +Mr. Cortleyon had only met the Hon. Hector on one occasion, at a sale +of some of Lord Cossington's stock, and had felt no desire to +cultivate his acquaintance. + +"It may seem like self-flattery to say so," replied Mrs. Bullivant +with a complacent smile, "but both in looks and disposition dear Gavin +takes wholly after me. Even his grandfather cannot help admitting as +much." + +Then the Squire proceeded to put several questions to the lad, which +he answered with promptitude and aplomb. He betrayed no timidity in +the presence of the sick man, although to many a child of his age the +latter would have seemed a sufficiently formidable object, with his +parchment-like skin, his hollow cheeks, his heavy, grizzled eyebrows, +which seemed bent in a perpetual frown, and the strange half-fierce, +half-pathetic eyes beneath them, in which the flame of life seemed to +burn all the more strongly just now because it was so soon to be +extinguished forever. + +After that Gavin was planted in the big easy-chair, with a supply of +sweet cakes to keep him quiet while his mother and the Squire talked +together in confidential fashion. + +But it was not in Gavin to keep quiet for any length of time, and +hardly had the last cake gone the way of the rest before he had slid +from his perch to the ground, bent on a more minute inspection of the +room and its contents than he had yet been able to give them. So, +while the two elder people talked together in low tones, he went about +his self-imposed task, examining this object and the other, opening +every drawer that was unlocked in the big escritoire and making a +study of its contents, and in all respects making himself thoroughly +at home. + +At the end of three-quarters of an hour Mrs. Bullivant rose to take +her leave, for the Squire was showing signs of fatigue. There was upon +her a sense of disappointment, for nothing of a confidential nature +had fallen from the sick man's lips, and she was still at a loss to +imagine not merely why she had been sent for, but why she had been +asked to bring Gavin with her. Sick people are subject to strange +whims, but surely there was something more than a whim at the back of +Mr. Cortelyon's request to see her son! + +The Squire's keen eyes seemed to be reading her thoughts. "Onoria," he +said--and he was holding her hand as he spoke--"Onoria, I am about to +make my will, a new one, for I destroyed the old one some years ago +and I have sent for you to-day in order to tell you that it is my +intention to bequeath you the sum of three thousand pounds. Nor will +the boy be forgotten, as you will find when my testament comes to be +read. No thanks, please--they would only worry me, and--and I can't +afford to be worried nowadays." + +Mrs. Bullivant raised the hand that was holding hers to her lips and +kissed it. "Dear Mr. Cortelyon," she said, and for once her voice had, +or seemed to have, a tremor in it, "although you forbid me to thank +you for your act of noble generosity to me and my son, you cannot, at +any rate, hinder me from remembering you in my prayers." + + +[Illustration: "His mother now produced the Squire's watch and +appendages."] + + +A cynical smile lighted up the Squire's haggard face. Perhaps the +picture of Mrs. Bullivant on her knees, returning thanks for a +thumping legacy--for that was the form her remembrance of him would +take, if it took any--struck him as being a trifle incongruous. + +Next moment an exclamation escaped him. He had suddenly missed his big +gold watch, with its pendant of seals and trinkets, which he was in +the habit of keeping within reach on the little table by his bedside. +That it had been there only a few minutes before he was fully +convinced. Whither, then, had it vanished? + +Mrs. Bullivant at once began a search for the missing article, but at +the end of two or three minutes she gave it up as a bad job. Then her +eyes fell on Gavin, who had gone back to his perch on the easy-chair, +and had been watching her movements with much apparent interest. She +knew from previous experience that when he looked the most cherubic he +was usually most in fault. It seemed to her that he appeared too +unconscious to be wholly innocent. "Come here," she said, beckoning +him with her finger. He obeyed without hesitation. + +He had only lately been breeched, and very proud he was at having been +emancipated from petticoats. Pockets had not been omitted from his +jean trousers--cut short in the leg, as was the fashion, so as to +leave displayed an amplitude of white stocking--and from one of them +his mother now produced the Squire's watch and appendages. He flushed +a little and threw a timorous glance at the sick man, but, on the +whole, his mother was the more put about of the two. + +"I cannot imagine what made him do such a thing," she said, with tears +of vexation in her eyes. "But you may rest assured, dear Mr. +Cortelyon, that I will not fail to chastise him most severely when we +reach home." + +But the Squire was sniggering. "I trust, Onoria, you will do no such +thing," he said. "It was merely the trick of a child too young to know +the difference between _meum_ and _tuum_. The best course will be to +overlook it as if it were a matter of no consequence and so leave him +to forget it. Indeed, I am rather glad than otherwise to have had such +a proof of the young rascal's acquisitive faculty. It goes, I think, +to prove that he will not grow up a prodigal like his father." + +When his visitors had left him the Squire lay for some time deep in +thought. At length he said, speaking aloud, for he had just taken his +cordial and was alone: "The more I see of her, the more confirmed I am +in my decision. Her views in all that relates to the great question of +property are almost the counterpart of my own. She is a woman of a +thousand. What an admirable daughter-in-law she would have made! If +only that poor headstrong lad of mine had---- But why go back to that +business even in thought? The past is dead and buried; we have now to +deal with the present and to arrange for the future. I would give +something to be able to see Onoria's face while she is hearing the +will read. I told her about the legacy of three thousand pounds, but I +said nothing about a life-interest in my landed estate. I have left +that by way of a surprise, and what a joyful surprise it will be to +her! Well, well, to-morrow I will send for Piljoy." + +It was in the course of the afternoon of the second day after Mrs. +Bullivant's last visit that Mr. Piljoy arrived at Stanbrook. He was +genuinely shocked at the condition in which he found the Squire, whose +confidential business agent he had been for more than a quarter of a +century. The sick man's lamp of life had indeed flickered down to a +very feeble flame. Evidently no time must be lost in having the +all-important document drawn up and then signed and witnessed in due +form. + +So for a full hour or more the two men, lawyer and client, were +closeted together in the latter's bedroom. The will itself, engrossed +and ready for signature, was to be brought by Mr. Piljoy three days +later. + +The lawyer was to dine and stay the night at Stanbrook, as he had done +many times before; and in order that he should not lack company, his +old acquaintance Mr. Herries, the vicar, had been asked to meet him. + +Miss Baynard and Mrs. Budd honored the two gentlemen with their +company at dinner, but left them to their own devices as soon as the +meal was over. Then the lawyer and the vicar--the latter of whom was a +jovial, fox-hunting parson of what we are accustomed to term "the old +school!"--drew their chairs closer, in anticipation of a pleasant +evening over their long pipes and a steaming bowl of punch, and in all +likelihood they were not disappointed. + +At ten o'clock the vicar's man came with a lantern to light his master +home. By this time Mr. Piljoy was not quite so steady on his feet as +he customarily was, and when Andry Luce brought him his bed-candle and +proffered his arm to help him upstairs, he accepted it without demur, +for he had sense enough to know that at his time of life it would not +do to risk a fall. But, indeed, Andry had helped him in similar +fashion on more than one occasion before. + +Nor did the thoughtful Andry leave him till he had helped him off with +his coat, waistcoat, cravat, gaiters, and shoes. He also wound up his +watch, and placed it, together with his purse and bunch of keys, on +the dressing-table. One of the abominations of those days, known as a +rushlight, was left to burn itself away. + +An hour later, Andry, minus his shoes, stole into the bedroom, having, +earlier in the evening, taken the precaution to abstract the key of +the door. The lawyer's measured, long-drawn breathing convinced him +that he had nothing to fear. Inside the small valise Mr. Piljoy had +brought with him he found the paper of instructions for the drawing-up +of the Squire's will. To make himself master of its contents was the +object of his nocturnal intrusion. Five minutes by the dim aid of the +rushlight sufficed for his purpose. Then he put the paper back and +went his way as silently as he had come. + +Mr. Piljoy left Stanbrook immediately after breakfast, and without +seeing the Squire again, travelling, as he always did on such +occasions, by post-chaise. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +CONVERGING THREADS. + + +In the course of the same forenoon Andry Luce sought Miss Baynard with +the view of making a certain private communication to her. Talking on +Andry's part was, of course, done by means of his fingers, but long +practice had made Nell an adept at reading the language of the dumb. + +Andry, who retained no recollection of his parents, in his brooding, +self-contained fashion had never really cared but for two people, +to-wit, his young master, Dick Cortelyon, and Miss Baynard. One of +them was dead, and to the other was now given a double measure of that +love and devotion which had sprung full-grown from his heart the +moment he first set eyes on her, and had burnt there with a steady, +unflickering flame ever since. She was the secret goddess at whose +shrine he worshipped daily. His love was unmixed with any taint of +ordinary passion, and was as absolutely pure as that of a father for +his child. It was the one well-spring of living water his maimed life +knew. There was nothing in the wide world he would not have done, or +have attempted, at Miss Baynard's bidding. + +His object in seeing her this morning was to enlighten her with regard +to the provisions of the Squire's new will, which Mr. Piljoy was to +bring a couple of days hence for the purpose of having it signed and +witnessed. He did not tell her through what channel he had obtained +his information, and, naturally enough, Nell imagined that it was he +and not Mr. Piljoy who had drawn up the instructions, or, at any rate, +that he had been present at their specification by her uncle. But +before Andry's fingers, working although they were at their quickest, +had got more than half through their tale, Nell's thoughts were +otherwise engaged. + +She was rendered terribly indignant, as Andry knew full well she would +be, by the thought of the gross and cruel injustice of which Mr. +Cortelyon meditated making his innocent grandson the victim. She was +made both to love strongly and to hate strongly, and there was nothing +she hated more than aught that savored of cruelty or injustice. She +had loved poor dead and gone Dick as a younger sister loves a +handsome, generous, kind-hearted elder brother, and it made her blood +boil to think that his child should be treated as an outcast from the +hearth to which he ought to have been welcomed as the pride and the +heir. + +But what could be done? How could the purpose of this most iniquitous +will be defeated? She could discern no way--none. She was as helpless +in the matter as a new-born babe. Tears hot and passionate were shed +by her in the privacy of her own room. But of what avail are a girl's +tears? They fall, only to be dried up as quickly as a summer shower. + +Now, it so happened that about this time a certain peripatetic dealer +in rare books, coins, and curios of different kinds, of whom Mr. +Cortelyon had made sundry purchases at various times, called at +Stanbrook on purpose to submit to the Squire a choice illuminated MS. +of the fifteenth century, for which he was desirous of finding a +customer. The price asked was a high one, but after a little +haggling--he was too weak to hold out long--the Squire agreed to pay +it rather than let the treasure go. + +It was not so much that he had fallen in love with it on his own +account, as he believed that in it he had secured a rarity, to possess +which his friend Mr. Delafosse, who was also a bibliophile and a +numismatist, but more of the former than the latter, would be willing +to give in exchange a certain unique stater of Epaticcus which he, +Ambrose Cortelyon, had long coveted. Although he believed himself to +be so near his end, it seemed to him that he should die happier with +the precious stater shut up in his palm, and the knowledge that at +last it was his own. + +Yes, Nell should go to Dene House, taking the MS. with her and +negotiate the exchange. She was already known to Mr. Delafosse, who +was no stranger at Stanbrook, and, in point of fact, was a special +favorite of the old collector. Dene House was some twenty-five miles +away across country. She could go on horseback, accompanied by John +Dyce by way of escort. + +So great became his impatience that he would have her set out that +very afternoon. The days were already long, and she could reach Dene +House soon after sunset, stay there overnight--Mrs. Delafosse would +give her a hearty welcome--and be back home before noon on the morrow. + +So Nell was sent for, and the manuscript given into her charge. By +this time her uncle's weakness had become so extreme that his wishes +and instructions had perforce to be limited to a few whispered +sentences. But Nell gave him to understand that she knew exactly what +he wanted done, and he was satisfied. She would set out in the course +of the afternoon, and be back by midday on the morrow. + +About an hour later Dr. Banks arrived, accompanied by Dr. Mills. The +Squire had expressed a wish to see the latter about once a week, and +although all the doctors in the world could have done nothing for him, +that was no reason why his whim should not be humored. But there was +no need for a lengthened visit, and the pair had come and gone in the +course of half an hour. + +This was the day fixed for the return of Mr. Piljoy with the will, and +about half-past two a post-chaise drove up, from which, however, there +alighted not the lawyer himself, but his managing clerk, Mr. Tew. Mr. +Piljoy, he reported, was laid up with gout, and unable to come, but +he, Mr. Tew, was just as competent to see to the proper signing of the +will. + +Mr. Tew was not sorry to be told that the Squire was asleep and must +on no account be disturbed. He was both tired and hungry, and was glad +to be able to put the hospitality of Stanbrook to the proof before +having to attend to the business which had taken him there. + +It was not till close upon five o'clock that he was summoned to the +Squire's presence. The sick man was alone, propped up in bed as usual, +but Andry Luce had been instructed to keep within hearing of his +master's bell. + +Mr. Tew, having explained the cause of his employer's absence, went +on, at the Squire's request, to read the will aloud, slowly and +deliberately, the testator giving a nod of approval at the end of each +clause. Five or six minutes brought the reading to an end, and as he +took off his spectacles Mr. Tew said: "I presume, sir, that your +witnesses are in readiness?" + +The Squire nodded. "Ask Andry to summon the gardener and the groom. +They have been told to hold themselves in readiness," he whispered. + +The two subordinates in question were not long in making their +appearance, and very self-important, albeit somewhat sheepish, they +looked. They did not know they had been chosen as witnesses because +most of the older servants were legatees under the will, whereas they +were not mentioned in it. Besides, it had been ascertained that they +could actually sign their names, which, for persons of their class, +was regarded in those days as a very considerable accomplishment. + +Then Andry, who had charge of the proceedings, brought in the Squire's +big leaden inkstand, together with a couple of quill pens, which he +had cut and trimmed specially for the occasion. All being in +readiness, Andry put a stalwart arm round his master, and held him in +a firm support while the latter, with slow and painful elaborateness, +wrote his name at the foot of the will, which Mr. Tew held for him in +a convenient position. That done, the groom and the gardener in turn +followed their master's example, not without many strange facial +contortions as the pen travelled shakily over the parchment. Then they +touched their forelocks and shuffled out of the room, glad the +ceremony was over, and yet feeling themselves to be much more +important persons than they had been a quarter of an hour before. As +they shambled downstairs they whispered to each other that they had +set eyes on "th' owd Squire" for the last time. Of the contents of the +document signed by them they knew nothing. They had been told it was +their employer's will, and that was enough for them. + +Mr. Tew was not allowed to leave Stanbrook till after dinner, nor, +indeed, had he any particular desire to do so. He could not stay +overnight, as Mr. Piljoy would have done, but so long as he was back +at business by nine o'clock on the morrow, that was all that would be +expected of him. He was carrying back with him the signed will, in an +envelope sealed with the Squire's own seal, to be retained in the +custody of his employer till the time should have come for it to be +made public. + +Mrs. Budd and he dined alone. He was told that Miss Baynard, to whom +he had been introduced earlier in the afternoon, had in the meantime +left the Hall on some private business for her uncle, and was not +expected back till next day. + +Shortly after seven o'clock, Mr. Tew, who was beginning to be a little +muddled with the quantity of old port he had imbibed, bade Mrs. Budd +an almost affectionate farewell (she was a widow, and, to his +thinking, still a charming woman), climbed into his chaise, and was +driven off on his return to Arkrigg. + +Night settled down over the old house. In those remote country parts +people kept early hours, and when the hall clock chimed the half-hour +past ten the only light left burning in the Hall was the one in the +sick man's room. Near it sat Nurse Dinkel busily knitting--for she +could not bear her fingers to be idle--but watchful and alert, as she +always was. The Squire did not like to be looked at as he lay there, +and from where she sat she could not see him for the heavy curtains +that shrouded the head of the bed, but the slightest movement of his +fingers on the counterpane drew her to his side. + +She was a woman of some education, and had a low and pleasant voice, +and as Mr. Cortelyon's nights were often restless and wakeful, he had +got into the way of occasionally asking her to read aloud to him. Her +doing so took him for a time out of the dungeon of his own thoughts +and sometimes brought in its train the sleep he longed for. + +So to-night, after lying awake for some time, as motionless as if he +were already dead, he said, "Nurse!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"I want you to read to me." His voice was still very feeble, but +stronger than it had been in the afternoon; such fluctuations were +frequent with him. + +"Yes, sir. What would you like? Shall I go on with Mr. Pope from where +we left off the night before last?" + +"Aye, you can't improve on him. Draw back this curtain that I may the +better hear you." + +When the curtain had been drawn back Nurse Dinkel did not return to +her chair, but stood there, looking at her patient, nursing an elbow +in either hand. + +"Mr. Cortelyon, sir," she said after a brief pause, "I have something +on my mind which I wish most particularly to say to you, if you will +kindly give me leave to do so." + +"Surely, Mrs. Dinkel, I will listen to anything you may have to say. +But don't stand there while you talk. Go back to your chair." + +"Thank you, sir," she said, as she resumed her seat. "I will try not +to tire you, although what I wish to say may at the beginning seem a +bit tedious. You may or may not be aware, sir, that I have a son, +Cornelius by name, who is now turned thirty years of age. When he was +quite a boy--and a clever boy he was, though 'tis I who say it--the +late Sir Willoughby Freke took a great fancy to him. In the course of +time he went to London, at Sir Willoughby's expense, for he was bent +on studying to become a doctor. And study he did to such good purpose +that he passed all his examinations with flying colors. Hardly, +however, had he obtained his diploma before a very good offer was made +him to go out to Java, where he has relations on his father's side +engaged in business. It was an offer he felt bound to accept. That was +ten years ago, and now he has come back to England and is not going +abroad any more. His home will be in London, but before settling down +there he has come to spend a little time with his old mother, from +whom he has been so long parted. And now, sir, I come to the reason +why I have taken on myself to trouble you with all these dry +particulars. + +"My son has brought a wonderful discovery back with him from the East. +According to his account, it will cure certain diseases after all +other medicines have been tried in vain, and, in some cases, will +almost bring dead people back to life. What the drug consists of I +cannot tell you, because that is my son's secret, and one which he +would not think of opening his lips about even to me. All I know is +that the chief ingredient is the powdered bark of a certain tree, of +which he has brought a considerable supply back with him. Cornelius +feels as sure as it is possible for a man to be of anything that he +has only to introduce his discovery to the medical world of London to +find himself on the high road to a big fortune. His heart is buoyed up +not merely by hope but by certainty. + +"Well, sir, no longer ago than last Sunday afternoon, when you and +Miss Baynard were good enough to spare me from my duties for a few +hours, I had a long talk with my son, and took the liberty of telling +him about your illness. And what do you think he said, sir? Why this: +'If Mr. Cortelyon could only be persuaded into trying my drug, I feel +sure that it would give him a new lease of life.' Those were his very +words, sir--'a new lease of life.'" + +The Squire lay silent for a little while. Then he said, "And it is +your opinion that I ought to allow myself to be experimented upon by +this vaunted remedy of your son?" + +"Most emphatically it is, sir. Cornelius is no idle boaster; he always +knows what he is talking about, and he would not have said what he did +without good reason. He tried the drug again and again in several +desperate cases before he left Batavia, and in no instance was it a +failure." + +"But I am an old man, Mrs. Dinkel, and my case is not one of any +particular disorder, but a gradual decay of the vital forces, which +can have but one end--and that is now close at hand." + +"Don't say that, sir, I beg. Who can say what wonder my son's remedy +might not effect even in your case, as it has already done in those of +others? It is true that neither Dr. Banks nor Dr. Mills seems able to +do anything for you, but that is no reason why you should refuse the +help now offered you from another source. My son knows your age within +a year or two; I described to him all about your illness, and yet for +all that, it is his deliberate opinion that he can give you a fresh +lease of life." + +Again the Squire lay for some time without speaking. "Only one quack +the more," he murmured to himself with a touch of his old cynicism. +"Well, why not? From the highest to the lowest they're quacks, every +mother's son of 'em. As it is, I'm at death's door already, and if the +fellow can do me no good, I'll defy him to do me much harm." + +Then he said aloud: "D'you know, I'm half inclined to let this son of +yours experiment upon me, if only to take some of the brag out of him +and prove to him that in such a case as mine his wonder-working stuff +is no more effectual than a dose of senna would be." + +"Then you _will_ try it, sir! That is all I ask. In any case, no harm +can come of it." + +"My own opinion exactly"--with a dismal attempt at a chuckle. "Yes, I +agree to try it. Only, the affair must be kept secret; outside this +room nobody must know about it, unless it be my man, Andry Luce. And +now, when can this son of yours be smuggled into the house?" + +"It's only a little past eleven o'clock, sir, and if you think you can +spare me, I will go at once and bring him back with me. The servants +are all abed, and my son could come and go without one of them being a +whit the wiser." + +"That's a very good notion of yours, damme! Go at once, my dear woman; +but first give me a drink of that cordial. I shall want nothing till +you get back. And if I can coax that shy dog, Morpheus, to keep me +company meanwhile, so much the better." + + + + +CHAPTER X. +THE SEQUEL OF MISS BAYNARD's ADVENTURE. + + +It was with a bitter sense of helplessness that Miss Baynard continued +to brood over the news brought her by Andry Luce. The knowledge that, +with the exception of a certain legacy to herself and sundry small +bequests to old servants, the whole of her uncle's wealth, both in +land and money, would go to Mrs. Bullivant and her son, who were not +even cousins six times removed, cut her to the quick. The amazing +injustice of the thing, so to speak, struck her dumb. To think that a +man who knew full well his span of life had dwindled to a few brief +hours should, in cold blood, choose to perpetrate so black a sin--for +in her eyes it was nothing less--was to Nell wholly inconceivable. And +all for what? Merely because his son had married beneath him, and had +thereby brought to naught a certain ambitious scheme on which his +heart had been set. And now the innocent child was to suffer for its +father's fault, if fault it were. Oh, it was monstrous--monstrous! + +Of one thing she was quite sure: she would never touch her uncle's +legacy. Every shilling of it should go to the boy. But what was such a +pittance in comparison with the income which, when he should come of +age, ought to be his of inalienable right? Yet his name was not once +mentioned in the will! The last of the Cortelyons--bone of his bone, +and flesh of his flesh--might die in a gutter or come to the gallows +for anything the old man cared. Such a revenge was more than human; it +was fiendish, and could only have been prompted by the devil. Nell +burnt from head to foot with a fine flame of indignation when she +thought of these things, and for the next forty-eight hours she could +think of nothing else. + +It was in the course of the second afternoon after Andry Luce had told +her that she happened--herself unseen--to overhear the two doctors +talking together as they stood for a few moments in the corridor after +coming out of her uncle's room. "I give him three days at the +outside," one of them said. To which the other replied: "Hum! I +daresay you are right. But I shouldn't be a bit surprised if he were +to go off in his sleep between now and to-morrow." + +Nell gave one quick gasp, and a shudder ran through her from head to +foot. She had known for some time what each day was bringing nearer, +but to hear from the lips of those who knew that the end was so close +came upon her with a shock, and for a moment or two made her feel as +if she had suddenly come face to face with a skeleton. + +It was the day Mr. Piljoy had promised to bring the will for the +purpose of having it signed, and as she remembered this she could not +help saying to herself: "If I could only get hold of it and destroy +it, my uncle would hardly live to sign another in its stead, and Evan, +as his grandfather's heir-at-law, would succeed to everything!" + +Then a little derisive laugh at her folly broke from her lips. Get +hold of the will, forsooth! Why, she would not be allowed to so much +as set eyes on it. Her brain must be softening even to imagine such a +thing. + +About an hour later her uncle sent for her. It was in connection with +the errand to Mr. Delafosse that he wanted to see her. Having received +her instructions--given brokenly and in whispers--and had the precious +MS. committed to her charge, she left the room. He gazed after her, a +little wistfully as it seemed, thinking, perhaps, that she might have +kissed him before going--for in his heart he loved the girl--as at +another time she most likely would have done; but her proud, set face +had never changed while he gave her his message, and when he had done +she simply inclined her head and went. She felt that even if she were +never to see him alive again she could not forgive him; but he did not +know that. + +About two o'clock Mr. Tew, in Mr. Piljoy's stead, arrived with the +will. In the absence of Mrs. Budd, who had gone into the village, he +was received by Miss Baynard, to whom he explained the nature of his +business and apologized for his employer's absence. + +Nell's heart grew cold as she listened. Why did not Providence +intervene, and not allow so black a deed to be consummated? If only +Mr. Tew's arrival had been delayed for two or three days--she would +not have cared by what means--then would he have come too late, and +all would have been well. As it was, she could but wring her hands in +sheer helplessness. + +She was going sadly upstairs to her own room (after seeing Mr. Tew +planted in front of a pigeon pie), when an idea flashed across her +brain which for a moment or two seemed mentally to blind her. But it +was a notion at once so wild and extravagant that, after drawing one +long breath, her hands went involuntarily to her head, and she said to +herself, "My reason must be deserting me." For all that, she could not +thrust the notion from her; indeed, it had taken such a firm grip of +her that when she reached her room she found herself under compulsion +to sit down and face it, and, however bizarre and impracticable it had +at first seemed, to consider it dispassionately from a common-sense +point of view. The idea which had so startled her, and without any +conscious leading up to it on her own part, was nothing less than, in +the guise of a highwayman, to stop Mr. Tew when on his way back to +Arkrigg and despoil him of the will. + +When a young spark of nineteen or twenty, Dick Cortelyon, on the +occasion of one of his brief visits at home, had attended a fancy ball +in the neighborhood in the character of a gentleman of the road. In +the wardrobe in his room upstairs--a room left untouched since the +date of his quarrel with his father--the dress, wig, mask, pistols, +and other items of his make-up on that occasion were stored to the +present day, a fact which was within Nell's cognizance. The picture of +her cousin, masked and ready to set out for the ball, had impressed +her girlish imagination very vividly at the time, and had often +recurred to her memory since; and this recollection it must have been, +acting through some sub-conscious channel, which, while asking herself +despairingly how she could get possession of the will, had inspired +her with the idea of turning highwayman in reality--for one night +only. + +We know at what decision she arrived. Instead of scouting the idea and +casting it from her, as ninety-nine young women out of every hundred +would have done, she determined, _coûte que coûte_, to put it to a +practical issue. Whatever risks might be connected with, or follow on, +the affair she was prepared to face, if only she could thereby insure +the destruction of her uncle's iniquitous will. + +Fortunately for her, when she came to consider, several things seemed +to work in favor of her scheme, desperate as at first sight it had +appeared. + +In the first place, everything in the way of dress and accessories +needful for the part she had made up her mind to play were there ready +to her hand. In the second, John Dyce, who was to act as her escort, +had known her from childhood, was devoted to her, and could be +thoroughly depended upon to keep any secret she might think well to +entrust him with. In point of fact, John had originally been one of +her father's servants, and he it was who had brought her, a girl of +twelve, to Stanbrook, where he had remained ever since, filling the +part of man-of-all-work in the Squire's establishment. Then, again, it +was a good thing, so far as her purpose was concerned, that a married +cousin of John should be keeper of the first toll-bar on the +Whinbarrow road, which was the road she would have to journey by on +her errand to Mr. Delafosse. + +For the last time she asked herself, "Shall I adventure it, or shall I +not?" knowing all the while what the answer would be. By now the +afternoon was so far advanced that she must no longer delay her +preparations. She knew already that Mr. Tew would not set off on his +return journey till dinner should be well over. She herself would +start in the early dusk about an hour in advance of him. + +She made it her first business to see John Dyce and have a little +private talk with him. Next she invented an errand for her maid to a +neighboring village which would keep that elderly damsel out of the +way till after her own departure. Next came one of the most essential +features of the programme she was bent on carrying out: the +transformation of Miss Baynard into the guise of a young man. + +The change was affected in due course, and a very handsome and dashing +young blade she looked. She took a long survey of herself in the +cheval glass, blushing and smiling as she did so. Nell was a tall, +Juno-like young woman, and as her cousin Dick had been a somewhat +slender, medium-sized young fellow, his clothes fitted her almost as +if they had been made for her. + +But servants have prying eyes, and not thus would it do for her to be +seen leaving the house; besides, there was the risk of encountering +some one in the village to whom her face was known. So, over her man's +dress she now proceeded to put on certain articles of feminine attire, +to wit, a long riding-skirt, and a mantle with a hood to it, the +latter of which she drew over her head. It was a common enough costume +for ladies travelling on horseback. + +Into a couple of saddle-bags, which John Dyce had supplied her with, +she had already stowed away a number of things. Then, when all was +ready, she went down by way of the back staircase, and so out of the +house, unseen by any one save a gaping kitchen wench. In the court +near the stables were two horses in readiness, one of them being her +mare Peggy, a birthday gift, two years before, from her godmother, +Lady Carradine. John helped her into the saddle, then mounted his own +horse, and two minutes later they were cantering down the avenue. + +They rode through the village, and so on their way for a couple of +miles or more till they reached a little wooded hollow somewhat +removed from the high-road. There Nell, having doffed her riding skirt +and hooded mantle (her hair having been previously brushed back from +her forehead and fashioned into a queue), substituted for them the +three-cornered hat worn by her cousin at the fancy ball, with, by way +of overall, an ample riding cloak, well worn, which poor Dick had been +used to travel in. These articles she produced from the saddle-bags. +Neither was the mask forgotten. Although she had never seen Mr. Tew +before that day, and then only for a few minutes, it would not do to +leave the slightest opening for his recognition of her in the part she +was bent on playing. + +John, meanwhile, had been changing Peggy's sidesaddle for an ordinary +one. That done, he again helped her to mount. It was as well for Nell +in her new character that her mare had been thoroughly trained, and +that she was a fearless horsewoman. Whatever awkwardness or +embarrassment she might feel at first the friendly night covered up; +but presently she had other things to think of than any little hot and +cold shivers of her own. In the holsters in front of her were stuck a +brace of unloaded pistols. John's pistols, however, were fully +charged. + + +How Miss Baynard sped on her hare-brained expedition has already been +told: how she mistook the chaise of a stranger for that of Mr. Tew; +how she was fired at, but escaped with nothing worse than a fright; +and how the notorious Captain Nightshade appeared in the nick of time +and acted as her guide as far as Rockmount, where, under the name of +Mr. Frank Nevill (that of a cousin in India) she was made welcome, and +found shelter for the night. + +We left her just after Mr. Cope-Ellerslie's housekeeper had shown her +to her chamber; and now that the two threads of our narrative have +been brought together we will take up her history from the following +morning. + +When "Mr. Frank Nevill" went downstairs he found an excellent +breakfast awaiting him in the same room into which he had been shown +overnight. He was waited upon by Mrs. Dobson, who expressed much +concern at the smallness of his appetite. When the meal had come to an +end she said, "At what o'clock, sir, would you like your horse to be +brought round?" + +"As soon as it can be got ready, for I am anxious to get on my way." + +In ten more minutes he was in the saddle. In accordance with Mr. +Ellerslie's promise, a serving-man on horseback was in readiness to +show him the way as far as the Whinbarrow road. He did not part from +Mrs. Dobson without asking her to convey to her master his warmest +thanks for the hospitality which had been extended to him; nor did he +forget to press a guinea into her palm, reluctant though she was to +take it. + +As he turned away from the house he gave it a long backward look. It +was a two-storied domicile, plain to the verge of ugliness, built of +roughly-hewn blocks of the dark gray stone of the country. Its walls +were of great thickness, and it was roofed with huge slabs of slate, +well fitted to withstand the fierce gales which assailed it during the +winter months. It stood alone in the centre of a great plateau of +stony, desolate moorland, which spread away on every side till it was +lost in the distance. No other homestead or sign of man's occupancy or +vicinage was anywhere visible. A narrow rutted lane, originally, no +doubt, nothing more than a sheep track, passed close by it, seemingly +coming from nowhere and leading to nowhere. Frank Nevill shuddered as +he looked. What must it be like, he asked himself, to live there in +winter? What man in his proper senses would think of building a house +on such a spot? And yet Mr. Cope-Ellerslie seemed well satisfied to +live there! + +After traversing the lane for a matter of three or four miles, Frank +and his conductor emerged on one of the great highways running due +north and south. Crossing this, they found themselves after a little +while in a tangle of country roads, among which a stranger would +infallibly have lost himself. Frank's guide, however, evidently knew +every foot of the way, and at the end of a couple of hours, at a point +where the cross-road they had been traversing debouched into one much +wider, he pulled up his horse and said: "This is the Whinbarrow road, +sir; six miles straight ahead will bring you to Dunthale Prior. Do you +wish me to go any further with you, sir?" + +They were almost the first words the man had spoken, and Frank, as in +honor bound, had refrained from putting any questions to him. + +He now dismissed him with thanks and a little present for himself. +Twenty minutes later he drew rein and dismounted at the first +toll-bar, at which place it had been arranged that John Dyce should +await his arrival. + +And there honest John was, and a glad man was he to set eyes again on +his young mistress. Never before had he passed so wretched a night. +Fear and anxiety had rendered him half crazy, and had put all thought +of sleep out of his head. + +As already stated, the keeper of the toll-bar was a cousin of +John Dyce; and Mrs. Nixon, his wife, now proceeded to show "Mr. +Nevill" into a neat little bedroom. It was the last time that young +gentleman was seen by mortal eye. At the end of half-an-hour Miss +Baynard--stately and gracious, but with a defiant sparkle in her eye +which seemed to say, "Challenge me who dare!"--issued from the chamber +and made her way downstairs. + + +Miss Baynard reached Dene House on the stroke of noon, where she was +warmly welcomed by Mr. Delafosse and his wife. The old bibliophile +proved to be quite willing to exchange his gold stater of Epaticcus +for the rare MS. on vellum which Nell had brought with her. Although +genuinely grieved to receive such a bad account of his old friend, he +could not help reminding himself that there were several rarities in +Cortelyon's collection the possession of which he had long envied him. +Well, we must all die some time, and as his friend's collection would +be sure to come to the hammer, there would at length be a possibility +of his becoming the owner of such articles as he especially coveted. +All the more would they be valued by him for having been the property +of a man he so highly esteemed. + +After joining the Dene House family over their three o'clock dinner, +Miss Baynard set out on her return, and, there being nothing this time +to detain her on the road, Stanbrook was reached by dusk. As she rode +up the avenue she glanced anxiously at the windows. Had the Squire +been dead the blinds would have been drawn down. But there was no +change in the usual aspect of the house, and it was with a relieved +heart that she dismounted. + +She went up to her uncle's room without delay when told that he had +more than once asked for her. "There's a great improvement in him +to-day, my dear," Mrs. Budd had said to her in the entrance hall. "Dr. +Banks was quite struck by the change when he called this morning." + +Nell found her uncle awake. His eyes met hers questioningly as she +entered the room, but when she produced the coveted coin and placed it +in his hand his face lighted up wonderfully. "Good lass! good lass!" +he murmured. Then he gave a sigh of relief, and his lean fingers +closed lovingly over the stater. + + +As to whether Miss Baynard's attempt to purloin her uncle's will was, +or was not, under the circumstances morally justifiable, the writer +wishes it to be understood that the point is one with which he +considers himself in nowise concerned. His duty, as he apprehends it, +is simply that of a recorder of facts, without taking on himself +either to justify or condemn any actions, good, bad, or indifferent on +the part of his characters, who are allowed to go their own way +without let or hindrance, and as we all have to do, must accept and +make the best of whatever consequences may result therefrom. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +"LITTLE SHORT OF MIRACULOUS." + + +Yes, as Mrs. Budd had told Miss Baynard, there was a decided change +for the better in Mr. Cortelyon's condition, but by what means the +change in question had been brought about was known to three people +only--the sick man, his nurse, and the latter's son. + +Cornelius Dinkel had gone to Stanbrook in obedience to his mother's +midnight summons, taking with him a small quantity of his remedy, and +had spent an hour with the Squire, unknown to any of the household. + +He was a tall, sallow, dried-up man, who looked as if all the juices +of his body had been sucked out of him by the heat of a tropical +climate. He was thirty years old, but might well have been taken for a +man of forty-five. Nobody would have ventured to call him handsome, +but his expression was one of marked intelligence, in combination with +considerable will-power and great tenacity of purpose. + +"Mr. Cortelyon, my son," said Mrs. Dinkel, as she introduced the young +doctor into the sick room. + +Dinkel bowed gravely. The Squire blinked his eyes; he would have +nodded, but had not strength to do so. + +Then he said, speaking in a thin whisper, broken by frequent gaspings +for breath: "Your mother informs me that you have brought some +wonderful discovery back home with you, and she would fain cozen me +into the belief that by means of it you can succeed in prolonging the +life of a moribund like me. I tell you at once that I don't believe in +your ability to do anything of the kind. No, damme! I'm too far gone +for any hanky-panky of that sort, and both Banks and Mills would +simply dub you a quack for your pains." + +Dinkel's face remained impassive. "Permit me, Mr. Cortelyon," he said, +and with that he proceeded to submit the other to a brief but +searching examination. Till it had come to an end no one spoke. Then +taking up a position on the hearth with his back to the fire, and +speaking in the tone of one who felt himself master of the situation, +he broke the silence: + +"Your case, Mr. Cortelyon, I find to be exactly such as my mother +described it to me. That I can permanently cure you I at once admit to +be an impossibility. You are too advanced in life, and your +constitution is too nearly worn out, to warrant any such hope. But +that I can succeed in prolonging your life for weeks, nay, it may well +be for several months to come, I make no manner of doubt--such is the +marvellous efficacy of the remedy I have brought back with me from +abroad." + +This, to a man who had every reason for believing that a few more +hours would bring the end, was news indeed. Weeks--perhaps months--of +life, when he had looked forward to being buried about a week hence! +It was too marvellous to credit. + +For a little while he was too overcome to speak. Then he murmured, and +Dinkel had to bend over him in order to catch what he said: "I--I +cannot believe it--I cannot!" + +"Nevertheless, Mr. Cortelyon, I am not dealing in romance--heaven +forbid that I should in such a case!--but in sober fact. There is a +homely proverb which affirms that the proof of the pudding is in the +eating. I have brought with me a small quantity of my remedy. Will you +permit me to administer a dose of it to you?" + +Again there was a space of silence. The sick man's gaze was bent on +the young doctor as if he would fain read him through and through, +while his grizzled eyebrows made a straight line across his forehead, +he liked the look of him; there was something in that strong, earnest, +plain face which inspired confidence. Compared with him, Dr. Banks +looked like an amiable old woman. + +"First of all, I should like to know what this so-called wonder-worker +of yours is compounded of," he murmured, after a time. + +Dinkel shrugged his shoulders. "Its chief constituent is the dried and +powdered bark of the tatao tree--a tree indigenous to the island of +Java. The other ingredients consist of sundry drugs in certain fixed +proportions, the secret of which I am not at present prepared to +divulge." + +"Quite right--quite right. Very sensible on your part. You don't want +to poison me, I suppose--hey?" + +The ghost of a smile flitted across Dinkel's rugged face. "What should +I gain by that, sir? Only the hangman's noose. I think you ought to +credit me with a desire for lengthening your days, not for shortening +them." + +"It would puzzle you to make 'em much shorter than they seem likely to +be," gasped the Squire, with a painful imitation of one of his old +chuckles. "Well, well," he resumed, "I'll venture on a dose of this +stuff of yours, not because I've any faith in it, mind you, but merely +to take the cock-a-doodle out of you, and prove to you that you're not +the wonderfully clever fellow you're inclined to crack yourself up as +being." + +Not for days had the Squire spoken so much in so short a time, and as +the last words died from off his lips his eyes closed and he sank into +a half swoon. + +He could not have been in more competent hands, and before long he was +brought back to consciousness. His first words, in a feeble whisper, +were: "Give me the stuff; I'll take it." + +From his waistcoat pocket Dinkel extracted a tiny phial, no bigger +than his little finger, about three-parts full of a ruby-colored +fluid, which he proceeded to empty into a dessert spoon. + +"You won't find it at all disagreeable," he said, as he proffered the +spoon and its contents to the Squire. + +"It tastes not unlike the liquorice-root I used to be fond of when a +lad," murmured the latter half a minute later, and with that his eyes +closed again. + +Dinkel held up his hand, and for a little space neither he nor his +mother stirred. Then said the young doctor, "He is asleep, and if all +goes well, as I have every reason to think it will, he won't awake for +five or six hours. I will go now, and return between six and seven +o'clock." + +As already stated, Dr. Banks, when he called as usual in the course of +next forenoon, was considerably surprised at finding such a decided +improvement in his patient's condition, when, according to all the +rules and regulations of medical science, he ought to have been +nearly, if not quite, in a state of collapse. "It's merely a flash in +the pan--the sudden flare-up of a candle before it drops into +darkness," he said to himself. "He's a wonderful old fellow, and I've +evidently underrated the strength of his constitution." + +But next day, and the day after that, a still further improvement +unmistakably manifested itself. Dr. Banks rubbed his nose with his +forefinger and was clearly nonplussed. On the fourth morning he was +joined by Dr. Mills, who had been expecting from hour to hour to have +tidings of the Squire's demise. He and Banks did not fail to discuss +the case as they drove over to Stanbrook in the latter's gig, but +neither of them could make head or tail of it, and certainly it was +difficult for them to believe the evidence of their eyes when, on +entering their patient's room, they found him seated in his +easy-chair, propped up by cushions, and not only that, but dictating a +letter in a firm voice to his secretary, Andry Luce. + +He favored them with a curt nod, but did not otherwise notice them +till he had brought his dictation to an end. Then turning with a +sardonic smile, he said: "Good-morrow, gentlemen. Very pleased to see +you, especially you, Mills. You find an unlooked-for change in me +since you were here last week--hey? It's all your friend Jimmy Banks's +doing. From the hour he changed my physic, now four or five days +since, I began to mend. Why he didn't change it before, instead of +letting me get down to death's door first, the Lord only knows. But +Jimmy always was a wag. Don't shake your pow in that way, sir; you +know I'm speaking the truth. What grand weather for the crops we are +having just now! I'm told that both my corn and my taties are coming +on famously; but I hope to drive round in a day or two and see them +for myself." + +There was nothing to be done and very little to be said, and the two +doctors cut their visit as short as possible. + +Said Mills to the other after they had left the room: "What was the +change of medicine he spoke of? What fresh treatment have you been +subjecting him to?" + +"To none at all, I give you my word. I am sending him the same mixture +now that I was sending him three weeks ago--the one that you and I +agreed upon. No single ingredient has been changed. In saying what he +did he was only poking fun at us in his cynical way." + +"Possibly at you, Banks, but certainly not at me," rejoined the other +in his pompous way. "In any case, he's a very remarkable old man, and +although I could not quite follow you in thinking that his vitality +was at such a low ebb as you seemed to make out, I certainly did not +credit him with the possession of the marvellous recuperative powers +to which our eyes have just borne testimony." + +"Humph! You seem to be blessed with a very short memory, Mills. Your +own words on the occasion of your last visit were, 'I give him three +days at the outside,' and that's just a week ago." + +"Well, well; we are all liable to err, of course. Still, I'm afraid +that I allowed my judgment to be in some measure led astray by your +diagnosis. I ought to have subjected him to a more comprehensive +examination than seemed to be necessary at the time. For all that, I +cannot deny that his case is one of the most remarkable which has come +under my notice. In short, I should hardly be going too far if I were +to term his recovery, however temporary it may be, little short of +miraculous." + +Dr. Banks grunted. He was too indignant to reply in words. Only to +himself he said, "I always set you down in my own mind as a humbug, +and now I'm more convinced of it than ever." + +As the reader will have rightly surmised, the marvellous change in +Squire Cortelyon was wholly and solely due to the drug administered to +him by Cornelius Dinkel. Already, as we have seen, he was able to sit +up--although only for a short hour at first--and transact business; +and each day brought its own small addition of strength and vital +power. Soon he was able to go out on fine days for a drive, and a +little later he even got so far as, with the help of Andry Luce's arm, +to take short strolls about the grounds. + +But this eminently satisfactory state of things could only be +maintained on one condition: it was absolutely essential that a +certain regulated dose of the wonderful drug should be administered to +the patient daily. For the purpose of carrying out this arrangement +Dinkel made a point of coming to the Hall every evening after dark, +bringing the day's dose with him in a phial. He simply waited long +enough to see the Squire swallow it, and then went his way. + +Mrs. Dinkel remained at Stanbrook, nor, although he was so much +better, would her patient listen to a word about her departure. +Perhaps it seemed to him that so long as he could succeed in retaining +her services he would have a firmer hold on those of her son. Besides, +his man Tatham was not yet able to resume his duties. + +So interested was young Dinkel in the case of Mr. Cortelyon that for +the present he made up his mind to stay where he was. As his mother +had told the Squire, the object of his life now was to take his +discovery to London, and build up a fortune on the strength of it. But +he was gifted with the patience, slow but sure, of his father's race, +and was content to wait. + +By this time it had got rumored about the country-side that the +Squire's amazing recovery was due to Dinkel, or rather, to the effect +of some magic compound he had brought with him from abroad. Further, +it was commonly reported that so long as Dinkel continued to practise +his arts on the old man, the latter would not, or could not, die. +Among others, the whisper went that the Squire had sold himself, body +and soul, to the young doctor on condition of his life being prolonged +till he was a hundred. + +These rumors were not lessened by Dinkel's mode of life. He had fitted +up an old shed at the back of his mother's cottage, and there he +conducted his experiments. Strange-colored flames would often be seen +issuing from its chimney after dark, and one or two bolder spirits, +who had ventured to pry upon him, averred that they had seen him +warming his hands at a big glass jar which gave off blue sparks when +he touched it. Evidently he was a man to be both shunned and feared. + +But the love of life burns strongly in us. Not merely are we desirous +of prolonging our own existence, but the lives of those dear to us, +and among the villagers were three mothers who, their children having +been given up by the local doctor, went to Cornelius Dinkel as a last +resource, and prayed him with tears in their eyes to try to save their +little ones. He did try, and in two cases out of the three he +succeeded. + +Still, the country people, with their ingrained superstitious +prejudices, fought shy of him, and regarded him with a suspicion that +was largely mixed with dislike. "He's a man-witch, that's what he is," +they muttered among themselves. If he could prolong "th' owd Squire's" +life, why couldn't he save Molly Grigg's child?--and why didn't he +try his hand on old Tommy Binns, who was only eighty-seven when he +died? + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +A STARTLING RECOGNITION. + + +In view of the astonishing and wholly unexpected change for the better +in Mr. Cortelyon's condition, it became manifest to Miss Baynard that, +even if she had succeeded in despoiling Mr. Tew of the will, her doing +so would have been to no purpose, seeing that her uncle had lived long +enough to make half-a-dozen others had he been so inclined. She could +not help cherishing a faint hope that, now a fresh lease of life had +mercifully been granted him, he would see fit to change his mind in +the matter of his grandson, and, either by means of a codicil to his +present will, or the drawing-up of a new will, repair, in a greater or +lesser degree, the act of cruel injustice of which he had been guilty. + +But as time passed on Nell's hope faded and died. No allusion to his +will ever passed her uncle's lips, or she would have heard of it from +Andry Luce. It seemed that he was satisfied to let it stand unchanged. + +One day a brief letter from her godmother, Lady Carradine, was +received by Miss Baynard. Her ladyship was up in town for a +fortnight--her usual home was in Devonshire--and she wrote very +pressingly to Nell to join her there during her stay. + +This Nell was by no means loth to do; and as her uncle raised no +objection to her going, but rather urged her to accept the invitation, +she and her maid were driven over to Lanchester a couple of days +later, where she booked two inside places in the London mail. + +Nell was especially glad to find herself again in London, because she +would now be enabled to renew her acquaintance with young Evan, whom +she had not seen since his mother's death. + +But before going to Lawn Cottage, where, so far as she was aware, the +boy was still domiciled, she deemed it advisable to call upon Mr. +McManus, whom she found in nowise changed, but still as genial, as +shabby-looking, and as snuffy as ever. + +"Yes," he said in answer to a question, after he had ushered his +visitor into a little parlor behind the shop, "the young shaver is +quite well and hearty, or was so a week since, and is still in charge +of Mrs. Mardin." + +"And all the expenses in connection with him are still defrayed by Mr. +Dare?" + +"In that respect nothing is changed. I may, however, just mention that +some time ago a report reached me--although, mind you, Miss, I can't +tell how true it was--that between two and three years ago Mr. Dare +came to the end of his tether--was ruined, in point of fact (no doubt +gambling had to do with it), and had to give up all his fine +acquaintances and leave London. But be that as it may, I have it from +Mrs. Mardin's lips that the quarter's money for young Evan is always +punctually remitted. He's one of those gentlemen, is Mr. Dare, whose +word is his bond. I wish all so-called gentlemen were like him." + +The old man paused to refresh himself with a pinch of his favorite +mixture and then went on: + +"I myself, on a fine Sunday afternoon, sometimes manage to get as far +as Chelsea, in order to satisfy myself as to how the boy is getting +on. Although Mrs. Mardin knows me for his great-uncle on the mother's +side, that fact, at my request, has been kept a secret from Evan. From +the first I made up my mind that I would not spoil any chance the boy +might have of one day being acknowledged by his father's relations by +putting my humble self in the way, and when you entered the shop just +now, Miss, I was in hopes you had come to tell me that Mr. Cortelyon +had changed his mind at last, and had sent you to fetch his grandson." + +Nell shook her head sadly. "I am afraid there is no present likelihood +of my uncle doing anything of the kind. Up till now his feelings in +the matter have undergone no change." + +"And maybe he will go down to the grave without having known how sweet +it is to forgive. Poor old gentleman, how I pity him!" + +An hour later Nell despatched a note to Mrs. Mardin, telling her that +she hoped to be at Lawn Cottage in the course of the afternoon of next +day, and there the specified time found her. + +Evan had by no means forgotten his "Aunt Nell," and she was made very +glad thereby. But she had sent him so many presents of toys and other +things from time to time that it would have been odd if he had not +remembered her. To her he seemed to have grown more like his father +than ever. If his grandfather would but once have admitted the lad to +his presence, surely his hard heart would have softened at Evan's +haunting likeness to the dead man! But, as the old tobacconist had +said he would go down to the grave without having known how sweet it +is to forgive. + +Mrs. Mardin was nothing if not hospitable, and before long tea was +served; nor were the toothsome buns for which Chelsea was famed +forgotten. But scarcely had the first cup been poured out before Mrs. +Mardin rose suddenly to her feet. Some one had just passed the window, +and next moment there was a tug at the front-door bell. + +"I declare if here isn't Mr. Dare!" exclaimed the widow. "What a +strange thing that you and he should happen to come on the same day!" +And with that she hurried out of the room. + +Miss Baynard had often desired to make the acquaintance of this +unknown benefactor of her dead kinsman's widow and child, and now her +wish was about to be gratified. She stood up as the door opened, with +a slightly heightened color, and with a heart that beat somewhat +faster than common. + +A second later every vestige of color fled her face, and it seemed to +her as if her limbs were on the point of giving way under her. She +drew one long, gasping breath, and unconsciously her hand gripped the +back of her chair, as if to keep herself from falling. In the man who +now entered the room she had recognized--or she felt nearly sure she +had--the notorious Captain Nightshade, he who had come to her help +that night when she was reeling in her saddle after having been fired +at by the unknown traveller in the chaise, and who had afterwards +acted as her guide as far as Rockmount! + +It was true that she had only had a clear view of his face for a few +brief seconds, while the old serving-man stood at the open door with +his lighted candle, but the picture thus seen had burnt itself into +her memory as few things had ever done, and many a time since then had +she conjured it up in fancy till its every lineament seemed to have +grown familiar to her. + +And now, marvel of marvels, here before her, a living reality, was the +face she had never thought to see again--long and brown, with its +thin, high-ridged nose, its delicate nostrils, its black, brilliant +eyes, its mobile mouth, and its massive, rounded chin, together with +that air of almost defiant recklessness which of itself would have +served to mark the man out from his more commonplace fellows, and +which seemed to sit so easily upon him. And there, too, had further +proof been needed, was the tiny brown mole on the lower half of the +left side of his face, which had caught her attention at the time, as +a "beauty-patch" might have done on the cheek of one of her own sex. + +She tightened her grip on the back of the chair, and their eyes met. +Into his there came no flicker of recognition, no slightest evidence +which betrayed any consciousness on his part that they had ever met +before. His glance encountered hers with the clear, unwinking +steadfastness of one stranger regarding another. His features were +grave and composed; there was no start of surprise; the sallow of his +cheeks remained untinged by any faintest flush of color. Miss Baynard +was bewildered. Could it be that he had known beforehand whom he was +about to meet and had schooled himself accordingly? But this was a +question Nell had no grounds for asking herself. + + +[Illustration: "She had recognized the notorious Captain Nightshade."] + + +The girl's perturbation and amazement passed unnoticed by Mrs. Mardin, +whose eyesight was no longer what it once had been, and she now went +through the office of introducing the young people in the fewest words +possible. + +Miss Baynard curtsied a little _gauchement_, which was not like her. +Mr. Dare, with his hat pressed to his heart, made her a profound bow. + +"I am indeed fortunate in finding here to-day a lady whom it has long +been the chief desire of my existence to have the felicity of +meeting." + +Such a speech addressed nowadays by a young man to a young woman would +seem, and rightly so, absurdly high-flown and unreal; but to our +great-grandfathers and grandmothers it would have appeared nothing of +the kind. They and their progenitors for generations had brought the +art of compliment, especially as between the sexes, to a degree of +perfection of which we, in these degenerate times, retain little more +than the tradition. Very likely it was all very artificial and +insincere, but the fair sex of a day which now seems so far removed +not only expected it but liked it. If we have been brought up on +sugared food, the taste for it generally clings to us through life. + +If any doubt had lingered in Miss Baynard's mind with regard to the +dual personality of the man before her, his first words would have +finally dispelled it. She would have known his voice among a thousand. +How many times since she first heard those full deep tones had she +heard them again in her dreams? She would have blushed to tell how +often had she cared, or been able to count them. Yes, the last shred +of amazed doubt was gone. Had she encountered Dare in the dark and +heard him speak, she would have whispered to herself, "That is the +voice of Captain Nightshade, and of no one but him." + +And yet he had not recognized her! But perhaps there was nothing to +wonder at in that. So far as she knew he had had no opportunity of +scanning her features as she had of his, and probably had no curiosity +to do so, besides which he had been unaware of her sex, and had parted +from her as one man parts from another. To a man of his profession the +adventure of that night would seem a tame little episode hardly worth +the trouble of remembering. She was glad, she was very glad, that he +had failed to recognize her, and yet--being of the sex she was--even +while she told herself so she felt a bitter heart-stab. _She_ would +have known _him_ again anywhere, and under any disguise. + +But she put this thought from her, and drew a breath of reviving +courage. Her blood began to flow again, and soon a strange gladness, +for which she could not account, began to make itself felt at her +heart. + +Before this came about she had found words to reply to Dare's little +speech. + +"And I on my part, Mr. Dare, can say in all sincerity that I am very +glad to make your acquaintance. I have long wanted to be able to thank +you for your generous kindness towards both the dead and the living, +and now the time has come when I can do so. But pray let us be +seated." + +Mrs. Mardin had discreetly withdrawn. She was sorry that all the good +tea in the pot would be spoiled with standing, but such little mishaps +cannot always be avoided. + +Master Evan was in the garden, urging on his wild career on a big +rocking-horse which his Aunt Nell had sent him by carrier the day +before. + +"Dick Cortelyon and I were very dear friends, Miss Baynard, as you are +doubtless aware. When his premature death left those he loved on the +verge of destitution, was it not the place of him he had honored with +his friendship to come forward and shield them, in some measure at +least, from the chill blasts of penury? This it has been my privilege +to be able to do. 'Twas but little--very little--and had our places +been reversed I feel assured that Dick would have done the same by +me." + +"There I agree with you; but such friendships are rare, or so I am +bidden believe. For all you have done in the past, Mr. Dare, I thank +you from the bottom of my heart; it is what not one so-called friend +out of a hundred would have done. But from to-day his charge upon your +generosity must cease." + +A shade of perplexity passed across Dare's face. "Pardon me, Miss +Baynard, if I fail to apprehend your meaning." + +"What I mean is that my cousin's child must no longer be a burden on +you, and that it devolves upon those to whom he is bound by the ties +of blood to care henceforth for his future." + +"A burden, Miss Baynard! The word stabs me." + +"Pardon me, I was wrong. It ought never to have passed my lips. I am +very sorry." + +Mr. Dare bent his head as accepting the apology, and, indeed, for once +Nell looked almost abject. + +"From your remark," said Dare, "I can only conclude that Mr. +Cortelyon's hard heart has at length relented, and that he has made up +his mind to acknowledge his grandson." + +Nell shook her head. "I am sorry to say that nothing of the kind has +come to pass. My uncle is still as much embittered against the boy as +ever he was." + +"Excuse me, but you spoke of those to whom the boy is bound by the +ties of blood as----" + +"Am I not bound to Evan by the tie of blood, Mr. Dare?" + +"The fact is one which cannot be disputed. Then, you wish me to +understand----?" He paused. + +"That from now I charge myself wholly and solely with Evan's future. +'Tis what I have long wished, nay, determined to do, but till to-day +you and I have never met." The last words had hardly passed her lips +before a quick flush mounted to her cheeks. Unthinkingly she had given +utterance to an untruth. They two _had_ met before, although he seemed +to be wholly unaware of the fact. But there was no possibility +of recalling her words even had she been desirous of doing so. +"And----and consequently I have had no opportunity of making this +known to you before." The break had only been momentary. Had he +noticed it? She could not tell. + +Dare's face darkened, and the line between his eyebrows became more +marked. "I was certainly not prepared for this," he replied. "Had I +had any prevision of what I was about to hear, much as I value my +introduction to Miss Baynard, I think I should hardly have come near +Lawn Cottage to-day." + +Nell's eyes struck fire, and for a moment or two her teeth bit into +her underlip; but when she spoke it was with no trace of temper. + +"That was a very rude speech on your part, Mr. Dare, to address to a +lady. But, under the circumstances, I can make every allowance for +your feelings, and I am not going to take offence at it. The one thing +I am sorry about in connection with this affair is that some such +arrangement was not come to long ago." + +"And I am grieved that it should ever be come to. It will cut me to +the quick, I tell you plainly. When poor Dick lay on his deathbed I +gave him my word that while I had a crust his boy should not want, +and that I would do my best to make up to him for that stroke of +ill-fortune which was about to rob him of a father's love and care. It +was a promise which, as far as the exigencies and circumstances of my +life would allow, I have striven to fulfil to the best of my ability. +That life--my life--is a very lonely one, how lonely you cannot +conceive, and in the course of time my dead friend's son has grown +very dear to me. Yet now, Miss Baynard, you would come between us (how +cruel in some things is your sex!) and would deprive me of him." + +"You misapprehend my intentions, Mr. Dare. I have no wish to come +between you and the boy in any way. You will have full freedom to +visit him as often as you wish. All I say is, that henceforth all +charges in connection with him must be defrayed by me." + +Dare got up abruptly, crossed to the window, stared out of it for a +few moments, and then went back to his seat. + +"Look here, Miss Baynard," he said, "why should not you and I come to +a compromise in this matter, as one finds it advisable to do in so +many of the affairs of life? Suppose we share the expense--'tis a mere +bagatelle after all. Come, now, what say you?" + +Miss Baynard shook her head. "It cannot be, Mr. Dare. On this point my +mind is finally made up. I am very sorry if my telling you so causes +you any pain or annoyance, but there is no help for it. My action is +based on reasons which I do not feel at liberty to explain. Your +goodness in the past will never be forgotten by me, and I trust----" + +"Not a syllable more, I beg," said Dare, with a queer little break in +his voice. "My 'goodness,' forsooth! Revile me, strike me, but never +fling that word at me again as applicable to anything between me and +my dead friend! But I will urge you no longer. You tell me your mind +is made up, in which case there is nothing more to be said or done." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +LOVE THE CONQUEROR. + + +Although Dare had not succeeded in persuading Miss Baynard to reverse +or modify the decision she had come to in the case of her cousin's +child, and although he was at no pains to hide his chagrin and +disappointment, he and she did not fail to part as good friends are in +the habit of parting. Neither of them had any wish to part otherwise, +and it would have been hard to say which of them would have been the +more sorry to do so; indeed, Nell was unwilling to say goodbye till +she had obtained from him an address--that of a lawyer--to which she +could write in case she should have occasion to communicate with him +about the boy. + +Both of them put the selfsame question to themselves within five +minutes of their parting: "When and where, if ever, shall we meet +again?" + +Dare went direct from Chelsea to Holborn. Miss Baynard had said that +her action was influenced by certain reasons which she did not feel at +liberty to specify. Was one of those reasons based on the fact that he +was now a ruined man? If so, through what channel had the information +reached her? + +Finding Mr. McManus as usual in his shop, Dare at once challenged him +with being the tale-bearer. It was an accusation he made no attempt to +rebut; but that in saying what he had to Miss Baynard he had been +actuated by any feeling of ill-will towards Dare was too absurd a +notion to be entertained for one moment. However, the mischief was +done and could not be undone, and with all his faults Dare was not the +man to vent his annoyance on so helpless an object as the old +tobacconist. + +But Miss Baynard had spoken as if there were more reasons than one for +the decision she had arrived at. Might not another, and perhaps the +chief one, lie in the fact that in him she had recognized the man who +had been mixed up with herself in a certain memorable adventure, and +who, when asked his name, had told her that he was none other than the +notorious "Captain Nightshade"? It was a recognition he had not +counted on, being unaware how incautiously he had afforded her the +opportunity of scanning his features by the light of the serving-man's +candle at the door of Rockmount. But that she had recognized him was +an indisputable fact. Was it, then, to be wondered at that she should +refuse in such positive terms to permit him any longer to defray young +Evan's expenses with money which she doubtless regarded as the +proceeds of robbery on the King's highway? + +No, he felt bound to admit that it was not to be wondered at, and +that, in point of fact, no other course was open to her. And yet, +knowing him now to be that which he had told her he was, she had +parted from him with a cordiality in which he felt assured there was +no _arrière-pensée_. She had given him her hand frankly, and in her +beautiful eyes he had read nothing but kindliness, with just a hint of +sadness, or so he fancied, shining through it. And then, what had her +last words to him been? "Let us not say goodbye, but _au revoir_." +And this to the man who had confessed to being Captain Nightshade! + +But to attempt to follow the turnings and twistings of that +incomprehensible thing, a woman's mind, was what he made no +pretensions to doing. It was enough for him that her own lips had said +_au revoir_; and that a propitious fate in its own good time would +bring them together again he did not permit himself to doubt. + +Dare had had no thought or expectation of finding Miss Baynard at Lawn +Cottage; he had not even known that she was in town; consequently the +meeting was as great a surprise to him as it was to her. But what he +did know, and had known all along, was that she and the _soi-disant_ +"Mr. Jack Prentice" were one and the same person. So piqued had his +curiosity been by the adventure which had brought them together after +such a strange fashion, that after her departure from Rockmount he had +caused a watch to be set upon her movements till she had been traced +back to Stanbrook. That she should prove to be the cousin of his dead +friend, Dick Cortelyon, was merely one of those coincidences such as +people who habitually keep their eyes open can see happening around +them every day. + +Dare had been quite right in his surmise as to the reasons which had +actuated Nell in her refusal to allow him to contribute any longer, +even in part, towards the cost of Evan's maintenance. The fact that he +was a ruined man would of itself have been argument sufficient for the +step she had decided upon taking. But when, in addition, she had to +face the question, and it was one she could not shirk, "From what +source is the money derived which is remitted every quarter-day to +Mrs. Mardin?" she felt that no answer was needed from her. It was a +question which answered itself. And this state of things had been +going on for she knew not how long! Not another day must it last. + +She had only been a couple of days back at Stanbrook when a small +packet reached her through the post. It bore the London postmark, and +was addressed in a writing wholly strange to her. She opened it, not +without curiosity, to find that all it contained was the mask worn by +her on a certain never-to-be-forgotten occasion. She had been unable +to find it when, after reaching home, she proceeded to replace Dick's +habiliments in the closet whence she had disinterred them. To the best +of her belief she had inadvertently left it behind her in the bedroom +at Rockmount, but it was a point as to which she could not be +positive. Anyhow, here it was, sent back to her by an unknown hand, +and her receipt of it in such fashion raised more than one perplexing +question. + +But supposing she was in error in thinking she had left the mask at +Rockmount? In that case only one conclusion was open to her--that it +was not Mr. Ellerslie, but Mr. Dare, who had returned it. One or the +other of them it must be. If Mr. Dare were the sender of it, how +woefully in error she must have been in assuming that he had not +recognized her when they met accidentally at Lawn Cottage! And yet, by +not so much as the flicker of an eyelid had he betrayed any knowledge, +or even suspicion, of their ever having met before! If he did +recognize her on that occasion, then of course her secret--the secret +of her sex--was equally in his keeping. Perhaps he had known or +guessed it from the first! Had he not, when she reeled and all but +swooned in the saddle, caught her in his arms? and had she not, with +wandering senses, lain for a little while--a very little while--in his +embrace! Was it then he made the discovery, supposing it to have been +made at all? + +Hardly had she asked herself the question before a delicious thrill +went through her from crown to foot, and all the pulses of her being +began to palpitate with a strange, new, sweet life, far sweeter than +anything she had hitherto known. She felt as a chrysalis may feel when +it bursts its husk and first spreads its wings to the sun. + +She sat for some little time, her face hidden in her hands, although +she was alone, and her veins aglow with something that almost +frightened her. Then on a sudden her mood changed: she sprang to her +feet, and with clenched hands and hard-set face took to pacing her +room from end to end, doing silent battle with herself meanwhile. +Never had she been so assailed before, and she brought all the forces +of her womanly pride to bear on the insidious foe that was undermining +her outworks one by one. She had deemed herself invulnerable; she had, +as it were, set herself on a pedestal as a being apart, whom the one +great weakness of her sex--for such it seemed to her--could never +touch. And now nature was beginning to revenge itself by proving to +her that she was no stronger in some ways than the weakest of her weak +sisters. But she would not yield, she would not give way, she told +herself again and again with a sort of fierce despair, while conscious +all the while that one bastion after another was crumbling before the +enemy's assaults. "Shall not a woman remain mistress of her own fate?" +she cried despairingly. + +In some things she shall, my dear Nell, but not in all, as you are +proving to your cost. There is a power within you that is stronger +than yourself. + +At length, sick and weary at heart, she cast herself on her bed and +buried her face in the pillows. "Never, never will I submit!" she +moaned. But even as the words escaped her some traitor in the garrison +hauled down the flag which had flaunted itself so defiantly, and the +citadel was won. + +But who the sender of the mask was remained as much a mystery as +before. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +A FRESH ACTOR ON THE SCENE. + + +Except in a few occasional instances, Mr. Ambrose Cortelyon, who +prided himself on his possession of an unbiassed mind, was not in the +habit of being unreasonable either in his demands or his expectations, +whether they concerned himself or others. Thus, he was quite aware +that when his convalescence, so to call it, had reached a certain +point and made no advance beyond it, it would be both useless and +unreasonable on his part to look for any. Although Dinkel's marvellous +drug could do much, it could not work miracles. He, the Squire, must +not only be content, but must deem himself one of the most fortunate +of men that such a measure of health had been given back to him as was +now his, and henceforward his most fervent prayer must be for a +continuance of it for an indefinite time to come. + +Dinkel had held out to him the hope--nay, it had been next door to a +promise--of a prolongation of his life for several months. What was +there to hinder those months from extending themselves to years? He +himself could see nothing in the way. Why should he not go on as he +was going on now till his years had stretched themselves out to +fourscore? Of course, he was only living a half-life, as it were; it +was existence with sadly maimed powers, but only on such terms was +existence possible to him at all. When we can't have what we would, +the only wisdom is to content ourselves with what we have. + +He was quite aware of his utter dependence on Dinkel, but on that +score he had no fears. He knew that the young doctor meditated a +removal to London before long; indeed, the contingency had already +been discussed between them and provided for. Week by week Dinkel +would forward to his mother by coach a small packet containing seven +phials, the contents of one of which would be administered to the +Squire each day by Mrs. Dinkel, whose services had been exclusively +secured by the payment of a wage far more liberal than she could hope +to obtain elsewhere. Dinkel's own services were to be remunerated at +the rate of one hundred pounds a month for as long a time as he should +prove successful in keeping his patient in the land of the living. + +Under these circumstances, the Squire could bear to look forward to +Dinkel's proximate departure with tolerable equanimity. + +Dr. Banks, at the Squire's request, still kept up his visits to the +Hall, but he no longer came daily as of yore. At each visit the same +little farce, which each knew to be a farce, was enacted between him +and his patient. Having felt the latter's pulse and looked at his +tongue, Banks would remark in his inanely amiable way: "We are going +on famously--famously. Strength thoroughly maintained; total absence +of febrile symptoms; temperature absolutely normal. I think we could +not do better than keep on with the old medicine." + +"Of course we couldn't, Banks," the Squire would respond with a +chuckle. "It's wonderful stuff that of yours. Send another pailful +along as soon as you like." + +Then would Banks take his departure, knowing well that not one +drop of his medicine would be swallowed by the master of Stanbrook. +But he had a large family, and could not afford to quarrel with his +bread-and-cheese. He was no worse than the majority of his fellows, +for circumstances make humbugs of most of us, if not in one way, then +in another. + +He had heard all that common report had to tell him about Dinkel, and +about the magical drug he had brought with him from the East, but he +forebore to make any inquiries of his own into the matter. To him the +whole thing was an insoluble mystery; but, for all that, there was one +consolatory feature connected with it. So long as Mr. Cortelyon could +be kept alive, even were it with the connivance of the Foul Fiend +himself, so long would he, James Banks, continue to draw a certain +number of guineas for visits paid and physic supplied, although the +one might be nothing more than a solemn farce, and the other might be +poured down the kitchen sink. + +To himself he stigmatized Cornelius Dinkel as a "Son of the Devil." + + +But what about the Hon. Mrs. Bullivant all this time? + +After that last interview with the Squire, she had waited with +exemplary patience for the news of his demise. He was a dear old man, +and she had been grieved at finding him so near to death's door; but +all these things are ordained by Providence for the best, and it would +not only be useless but wicked to rebel against them. Of course, under +the circumstances, she would have to go into mourning--that is to say, +into a modified kind of mourning--for a short time. Society would +expect it of her when the dead man's munificent bequest to her was +made public. Well, she had the consolation of knowing that she never +looked better than she did in mourning. Dear, dear Mr. Cortelyon! + +Still, the expected news--one hardly likes to term it the longed-for +news--failed to come. It was strange, it was very strange. After +waiting a few more days with restrained impatience, she sent one of +her servants direct to the Hall with a diplomatically worded message +having reference to the state of Mr. Cortelyon's health. The answer he +brought back was both surprising and disconcerting. An unexpected +change had manifested itself; the Squire was very much better, and the +improvement seemed likely to last. + +"Oh, I am so glad, so very glad!" said Mrs. Bullivant to her messenger +when he had unburdened himself of his news. "You have relieved me of a +great anxiety." + +"So the improvement seemed likely to last, did it?" she said to +herself. But that was sheer nonsense. It had been her lot to see a +good deal of sickness and death, and if she had ever seen a man whose +hours were numbered, that man was Ambrose Cortelyon. The so-called +improvement, as to the nature of which every one about him seemed to +be laboring under a misapprehension, was but Nature's expiring effort. +She had been a witness of such things before. For a few brief moments +the lamp would flame up as brightly as ever it had done, and then +would come sudden darkness. + +It was with an easy mind that she set out next day for London, where +some law business connected with her late father's affairs rendered +her presence imperatively necessary. She was gone six weeks, during +the whole of which time she looked, morning by morning, to receive a +letter containing an announcement of the Squire's demise. But none +came to hand. It was both unaccountable and disappointing. It would +have been such an advantage to her to be able to buy her mourning in +town! She journeyed back home in anything but a pleasant frame of +mind. It was no longer "dear, noble-hearted Mr. Cortelyon," with her; +he was now a "nasty tiresome old man, who ought to be ashamed of +himself to be so long a-dying." + +On this occasion Mrs. Bullivant had a travelling companion in the +person of her half-brother, Captain Wilton Ferris, who was a son of +the late Mrs. Flood by her first husband. + +Captain Ferris, who had sold out of the army some years before in +consequence of a certain scandal with which his name was prominently +mixed up, was a handsome but blasé-looking man of forty. He was +well-known in London society as a gambler and a rake who had been +black-balled at more than one club. In his time he had gone through +two fortunes, his own and his wife's--he was now a widower without +family--and for the last few years had been reduced to living by such +wits as nature had endowed him with; but at length he had come to the +end of his tether. He had received a quiet hint that his presence on +the heath at Newmarket was undesirable; men looked shyly on him at the +card-table; his reputation with the dice-box seemed to have preceded +him wherever he went; pigeons worth the plucking were few and far +between; and, worse than all, a bill for five hundred pounds, bearing +his signature, would fall due in about ten weeks' time, his failure to +take up which would involve nothing less than social ruin--such ruin +as was still possible to him--and outlawry. + +His strait was a desperate one, and, as a last resource, he had come +to his half-sister, in the hope that once more--neither for the first +nor second time--he might find salvation at her hands. + +Mrs. Bullivant was a woman of tepid affections; nature had made her +so, and she could not help herself; but, in her limited and narrow +way, she had always cherished a fondness for her handsome, scampish +half-brother. Her own bringing-up had been of the most strait-laced +kind, and maybe for that very reason she liked him none the worse on +account of his faults, which--and so far one may give him credit--he +never strove to hide from her; in point of fact, she was the only +person in the world to whom he ever spoke frankly. As a consequence, +she cherished no illusions in respect of him; she knew that at his +time of life it was useless to look for any radical change or +improvement in him; that which he had been and was now he would remain +till the end. + +He had told her all about the "damnable fix" in which he now found +himself, and if she did not sympathize with him, that was probably +because it was not in her nature to sympathize with any one. On the +other hand, she did not blame him, as so many people in her place +would have done, for the reckless folly which had at length landed him +in such an _impasse_. + +But if she did not sympathize with him in words, she did something +else which was very much more to the purpose so far as he was +concerned. She said to him, "As soon as ever Mr. Cortelyon's legacy of +three thousand pounds comes into my hands--and I am expecting the news +of his death from hour to hour--I will place five hundred pounds of it +at your disposal." + +That had been a fortnight ago, but the wished-for news was still +lacking; so now Captain Ferris was journeying down to Uplands with his +sister, glad enough to get away from London for awhile, where, so +importunate were his creditors becoming, it was no longer safe for him +to venture out of his lodgings by daylight. Besides, at Uplands he +would be on the spot when the longed-for legacy, in which lay his only +hope of salvation, should drop into his sister's lap. + +At this time it so happened that Mrs. Bullivant was not in a position +to supply her brother out of her own resources with anything +approaching the sum needed to help him out of his difficulty. She had +just completed the purchase of a considerable slice of freehold +property abutting on her own estate, and for the present her balance +at her banker's might be said to be down to zero. + +Although the late Mr. Flood had never liked his stepson, and after his +wife's death, which occurred within a few years of their marriage, had +kept him at arm's-length as much as possible, he had yet felt +compelled, for the sake of appearances, to invite him now and again on +a short visit to Uplands, so that the Captain was no stranger to the +place and its surroundings. + +No sooner was breakfast over on the morning after the arrival of +himself and his sister than he set out on foot for a long ramble. The +way he took led him in the direction of Stanbrook, and when he reached +the village of that name, which, as we know, lay within a bowshot of +the Hall, he marched into the bar parlor of the White Hart Inn and +called for a bottle of the best sherry the house could furnish. + +Such an order was attended to by the landlord in person, which was +just what Ferris had counted on. + +After they had chatted together for a few minutes about the weather +and the crops, there was nothing out of the common in the Captain +asking the worthy Boniface to join him over a glass of his own wine. A +second glass helped to loose the latter's tongue, after which the rest +was easy. They gossiped together for upwards of an hour before Ferris +went his way. There was no need for him to seek further information +elsewhere; he had learnt all he wanted to know. + +What he had heard impressed him greatly; nor was its effect less +marked upon his sister, who was, however, inclined to be skeptical +with regard to some of the details. One thing was evident to both: +Mrs. Bullivant must go to Stanbrook on the morrow and ascertain for +herself how matters were progressing. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +"FATE POINTS THE WAY." + + +"Well, how did you fare? How much longer is the old scoundrel going to +keep Beelzebub out of his own?" + +These questions were addressed by Captain Ferris to his sister, who +had just got back from Stanbrook. He had been awaiting her return with +ill-concealed impatience. It seemed to him that she had been gone an +unconscionable time. + +"My dear Wilton, I wish you wouldn't flurry one so. I will tell you +all there is to tell if you will give me time. But first of all, mix +me a little brandy-and-water." + +Having taken off her outdoor things, inducted her feet into a pair of +roomy house-shoes, and planted herself in her favorite easy-chair Mrs. +Bullivant was ready to begin her narrative: + +"In the first place, the rumors which have reached us from various +quarters about Mr. Cortelyon's amazing recovery are not a bit +exaggerated. I know for a fact that, at the time I saw him last, he +had been given up by both his doctors, and was not expected to last +the week out. If I ever saw a man with death in his face, it seemed to +me he was that man. When I left him I bade him (mentally) a final +farewell. So far so good. But what do I find to-day on reaching +Stanbrook? The same man, truly, and yet another. Not the Ambrose +Cortelyon whom I left at death's door, on whose face I saw already the +shadow of the tomb, but Ambrose Cortelyon as I remember him a number +of years ago. For him Time's dial has been put back a decade. Can you +wonder if, for a few moments, I was struck dumb with astonishment? + +"I found him, not in his bedroom, but in his library, and how do you +think he was engaged? Why, in drawing up, with the help of his +secretary, a catalogue of the coins and medals which he has been +accumulating for the last forty years? When he turned to greet me his +voice was as firm and resonant as I ever remember it to have been. +Then his secretary left the room and we were alone. + +"He held out a lean, withered hand, and his face lighted up with one +of his peculiar smiles. (When Mr. Cortelyon smiles you never can be +sure whether he is smiling with you, at you, or merely at some hidden +thought of his own.) 'Welcome, Onoria!' he began. 'I have been +expecting a visit from you for some time past, but better late than +not at all. You are surprised--he!--he! (now don't deny it, I can read +your face like a book) at finding me perched here and busying myself +with my favorite trivialities, when, if only I had behaved as ordinary +mortals are wont to do, I should have been shouldered to my last abode +weeks ago, and you would have been a considerably richer woman than +you are to-day. Well, well, nobody can be more surprised than I. But +why don't you sit down? I hate to have people standing about and +staring at me.' + +"What I said in reply, when he gave me a chance of speaking, is not +worth repeating. As a matter of course, I explained how I had been +called from home and did not get back till yesterday, but he listened +without seeming to hear what I was talking about. Evidently he was +busy with his own thoughts. + +"His next words had reference to Gavin. He wanted to know whether the +boy was quite well. When assured on the point he nodded his head and +seemed pleased. Then he lay back in his chair for a little while +without speaking, twiddling between his fingers, as if he loved it, a +large gold coin which looked as if it might have been minted a couple +of thousand years ago. + +"At length he spoke: 'There is one matter, Onoria, about which I wish +to give you my assurance. It is this: that whether I die to-morrow or +not for five years to come, my will, as it now stands, will remain +unchanged. When once my mind is made up, it is made up for good; I +never go back from my decision. Consequently, you may make yourself +easy on that point. You know already that neither yourself nor your +son has been forgotten in the will; indeed, I will go so far as to +tell you this, that there is perhaps such a surprise in store for you +as you little wot of. And now let us talk of something else. I hear +the Browhead property is likely to come into the market in the course +of a few weeks. I wish you would drive as far some day soon, look over +it, and let me know what you think of it.' + +"Nothing more passed that it would interest you to be told about, and +before long I took my leave, but not till Mr. Cortelyon had requested +me to visit him again on this day fortnight and take Gavin with me." + +Captain Ferris's face was black as night. "Then it's quite evident the +old fox has made up his mind not to die just yet," he said. "And yet +it might be as well that he should not live too long. His promise +about the will may be taken for what it's worth. Invalids--and I +suppose Mr. Cortelyon may be counted one still--are notoriously +changeable, and any day may see your hopes dashed to the ground." + +Mrs. Bullivant looked at him, but his eyes did not meet hers. There +was something behind his words, but she was not quite sure what it +was. "Of course I fully admit, between you and me, that it would be a +great relief if the Lord were to see fit to take the poor man to +Himself," she said, after a pause. "But what can I do? In a case of +this sort one is absolutely helpless." The Captain was trimming his +nails, and did not reply. + +After waiting a moment or two, his sister said: "By the way, I have +something more to tell you. As I was driving back I overtook Ann +Thorpe, who used to be under-cook at Uplands, but left my service +three years ago to enter that of the Squire. I know her for a +talkative, simple-minded young woman, and the sight of her supplied me +with an idea which I at once proceeded to put into practice. Stopping +the carriage, I alighted, and bade Trotter drive on slowly and pick me +up at the toll-bar. Then I joined Ann, and we walked on together. It +was a lonely bit of road, and there was nobody to observe us. I was +desirous of putting certain questions to her which no one but an +inmate of the Hall could have answered to my satisfaction. + +"With the questions themselves I need not trouble you. What I wanted +from Ann was a confirmation or otherwise of the all but incredible +news you picked up yesterday with reference to the man Dinkel and his +doings at the Hall. What you had heard might be merely one of those +idle rumors in which ignorant folk delight, but which they are never +at the trouble to sift; or there might be a substratum of truth in it, +but so overlaid with fiction that it would be next to impossible to +separate the two. Strange to say, your statement was confirmed by Ann +Thorpe in almost every particular. + +"Mrs. Dinkel, the mother, has been acting as nurse to the Squire ever +since Tatham, his body-servant, had to resign his duties on account of +ill-health, and it was she who introduced her son at the Hall, but not +till her patient had been given up by his doctors and was hardly +expected to live from hour to hour. + +"As you were told yesterday, this young Dinkel is said to have brought +with him a marvellous drug from the Far East, which will almost bring +dead people back to life. In any case, it seems certain that he has +effected several remarkable cures in the village and neighborhood, and +from the date of his first visit to the Hall the Squire began to mend. +It appears that he goes there every evening after dark, taking with +him a dose of his wonderful medicine, which he will allow no one to +administer but himself. + +"I have told you already how changed I found the Squire from what he +was when I saw him last. It is a change which to me seems little less +than miraculous, and yet, so far as can be gathered, it is wholly due +to the man Dinkel. Dr. Banks, who has attended the Squire for years, +keeps on sending his physic as usual, but Ann Thorpe assures me that +the bottles are never as much as uncorked. From what I saw myself +to-day, and from what I gathered from Ann, it seems not unlikely that +the Squire may last for a year or two, or even longer. But life is +made up of crosses, and, however much one may try to convince oneself +that everything is ordered for the best, it is sometimes a little +difficult to do so." + +Captain Ferris shut his penknife with a click. "And what would be the +consequence, so far as Mr. Cortelyon is concerned, in case of anything +happening to this fellow Dinkel?" he asked. + +Mrs. Bullivant lifted her eyebrows. "Really, my dear Wilton, that is a +question which I have no means of answering." + +"For all that, it is one which might be worth considering." + +He got up, stretched himself, crossed to the window, and stood staring +out, whistling under his breath. His sister followed him with her +eyes. She could read between the lines of his character far more +clearly than any one else could. + +"In such a case as you speak of, I should think it would be a very bad +thing for Mr. Cortelyon," she said after a pause, in a low voice. + +"My own opinion exactly," he made answer, without turning round. + + + +The days followed each other till a week had gone by, and Captain +Ferris was still at Uplands. Indeed, he knew of nowhere else to go to. +London was too hot to hold him; the bailiffs were looking for him high +and low. Here at any rate, he could lie by for awhile. But not for +long. Hour by hour the day was creeping nearer when the fatal bill for +five hundred pounds would fall due. After that not even Uplands would +be safe for him. He must put the Channel between himself and the +bloodhounds of the law. + + +[Illustration: "The body of the 'Man-witch' had been found shot +through the heart."] + + +Little further allusion was made either by his sister or himself to +the subject which loomed so largely in the thoughts of both. What +more, indeed, was there to be said? Talk for talking's sake was what +neither of them was given to indulge in. For them, just then, life +seemed to be at a standstill. They were waiting breathlessly, so to +speak, for the tidings which still delayed their coming. Captain +Ferris was out and about a great deal, putting a discreet question +here, and eliciting a morsel of information there, but all he heard +pointed to an unchanged state of affairs at the Hall. Any fine +afternoon Mr. Cortelyon might be seen driving about the country roads +in the shabby old chariot which dated from his grandfather's era, and +had in those days ranked as one of the grandest coaches in town. + +"He'll live to be a hundert, you see if he doan't, sir," said one man +to whom the Captain had put a certain question. + +Ferris turned away with a stifled oath. + +It was on the afternoon of the tenth day after Mrs. Bullivant's return +from London that some startling news reached Uplands. It was brought +by the Tuxford carrier, who retailed it as a _bonne bouche_ to the +maids in the kitchen, whence, before long, it penetrated to the +drawing-room. The body of the "man-witch," Cornelius Dinkel, had been +found early that morning, shot through the heart, in Threeways Spinny. +So far nobody had been arrested for the crime. + +Mrs. Bullivant was alone in the drawing-room when her maid brought her +the news. Gavin had lately had a pony given him, and his uncle had +taken him out for a ride on it. A sudden vertigo took the mistress of +Uplands almost before her maid had got halfway through her story. She +motioned for her salts, and for a few moments lay back in her chair +with closed eyes and white face. Then presently, with a faint, "I'm +better; you can go," she dismissed the girl. + +It was not the news itself, startling though it was, which had had +such an effect on Mrs. Bullivant. It was a horrible suspicion which, +so to speak, had gripped her by the throat and refused to loosen its +hold of her. + +Yesterday evening, as daylight was dying into dusk, her brother had +left the house without saying either where he was going or when he +might be looked for back. But she was used to his queer moods and +apparently purposeless comings and goings, and found it best to +question him as little as possible. She had hardly thought to see +anything more of him till breakfast time next morning. Great, +therefore, was her astonishment when, on crossing the hall a little +after eleven o'clock on her way to her bedroom, she suddenly met him +face to face. He had entered the house by a side door which could be +opened from the outside without disturbing any of the servants. That +he was both surprised and disconcerted by the meeting he showed +plainly, his intention having apparently been to reach his room unseen +by any one. + +But it was not so much the fact of coming unexpectedly on her brother +as the appearance he presented that caused Mrs. Bullivant to start +back with a low cry of alarm. For his face was as colorless as that of +a corpse; his features were drawn and haggard; he looked at her with +eyes which she did not recognize as his, so strangely changed was +their expression; he was bareheaded, and his black hair, matted with +sweat, was all in disorder; while his chest rose and fell pantingly +like that of one who had outspent himself with running. Finally, both +his boots and his clothes were bespattered with mud, for much rain had +fallen in the course of the day. + +"Great heavens! Wilton, what ails you? What has happened to you?" +cried Mrs. Bullivant. + +"For God's sake not so loud! Such an adventure!" he panted. "Set upon +by two ruffians in a lonely part of the road. One of 'em I managed to +knock over with a lefthander--then took to my heels. If I hadn't +they'd have bludgeoned my brains out. Two to one, you know." + +"What a narrow escape for you! But what has become of your hat?" + +"I've not lost it, have I?" he gasped, while a great terror leapt into +his eyes. "If so, I'm lost too!" A moment later his expression +changed. "What a fool I am!" he exclaimed with a ghastly attempt at a +smile. "I've got it all the while. It fell off while I was running and +as the rascals were not far behind me I made a dash at it and crammed +it into one of my pockets. It will look a pretty object to-morrow, +_sans doute_. But now to bed, for I'm dog-tired." + +"Shall I send you up some hot water and----" + +"Curse it all, no! I want no eye but yours to see me to-night." He +glared at her for a moment as if he was about to strike her. Then with +a shrug and a sudden dropping of his hands, he said. "Forgive me, +Onny, I'm not myself to-night." And with that he passed her and went +swiftly upstairs, and presently she heard the key turned in the lock +of his room. + +It was the recollection of this scene which shook her with such a +terrible fear this afternoon. What had her brother meant by saying +that if his hat were lost he was lost too? Supposing he had lost it +and it had afterwards been found, what then? And why had he been so +anxious that no eyes save hers should see him on his return? Was there +any truth in the story of his encounter with the two men? But, above +all, had he had any hand in last night's tragedy? That he was utterly +unscrupulous she had long known, and she divined, without knowing, +that in his nature there were dark unsounded depths in which the most +ghastly secret might be hidden up forever. She was only too well aware +by what desperate reasons her brother was urged to wish Dinkel out of +the way. To him it might, and most likely would, mean all the +difference between salvation and ruin. + +She waited his coming with a quaking heart. She was sitting in a mixed +light, that of the dying afternoon and that thrown out by the glowing +embers on the hearth, when he entered the room. Having shut the door, +he stood there with the handle in his hand, without advancing. "Well, +have you heard the news?" he asked abruptly in a high, harsh voice, +very different from his usual smooth cultivated tones. "Dinkel's +dead--shot through the heart last night, presumably when on his way +back from Stanbrook. Body found early this morning by some hedgers on +their way to work. What will happen now, I wonder? There's the rub, +both for you and me." + +"I had already heard. The Tuxford carrier brought the news about an +hour ago." + +"Had I known that I needn't have hurried back, as I did, on purpose to +tell you. But no matter." + +"Have any traces of the--the perpetrator of the crime been discovered, +or have they any idea where to look for him?" + +"'Pon my soul, I don't know. I never asked. 'Twas a point that had no +interest for me. But now I'll go upstairs and make myself presentable, +and join you presently over a cup of tea. We have had a famous +scamper, the boy and I. But he will be with you in a minute or two." + +After tea they played ecarté for a couple of hours, and never had Mrs. +Bullivant seen her brother more cheerful and at his ease. She went to +bed not knowing what to think. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +THE SHEARS OF ATROPOS. + +The news of the tragedy in Threeways Spinny reached Stanbrook about +nine o'clock in the morning. The body of the murdered man had already +been taken home, and it was Mrs. Dinkel's next-door neighbor who was +deputed to convey the sad tidings to her. + +She was on the point of taking the Squire's breakfast upstairs when +the man arrived at the Hall, and asked to see her. + +Ten minutes later Mrs. Dinkel entered her patient's room. Like the +thoughtful creature she was, even in the midst of her distress she had +not forgotten the breakfast tray. Having placed it on the table by the +bedside, she turned to the Squire, and, in a voice which not all her +efforts could render firm, said: + +"Sir, a great misfortune has befallen me--the most terrible that could +have happened. My son has been murdered! The tidings have just reached +me. His body was found early this morning in Threeways Spinny. He had +been shot through the heart--he who had not an enemy in the world! +Sir, I must leave here at once. I am wanted at home, as you can well +conceive; but if----" + +"Dead! your son dead!" shrieked the Squire, almost as shrilly as a +woman might have done. Then for a few seconds he remained speechless. +His heart stopped beating, and a black veil dropped before his eyes. +But the very force of the shock brought its own reaction. He flung up +his arms, and then let them drop helplessly on the bed. "In that case, +what is to become of me?" he moaned. + +"The Lord in heaven only knows, sir, for I'm sure I don't," answered +Mrs. Dinkel. It was all she could do to crush down her emotion. + +The Squire sank back on his pillow with a groan. The bereaved mother +stood looking at him, anxious to go, and yet, so strong was the +professional instinct in her, not liking to leave him. + +Of a sudden he beckoned her to go closer to him, and when she had done +so he clutched her by the sleeve of her gown. In three short minutes +his face seemed to have aged a dozen years. His lips had turned of a +grayish purple, and a thin froth had gathered at their corners. His +eyes were the eyes of a terror-hunted soul brought to bay, and yet +ready to turn and curse with its latest breath the inexorable fate +which had driven it there. + +"Don't think I do not pity you, because that would be a mistake on +your part," he said. "I pity you and sympathize with you most +sincerely. But--but your son must have left a lot of the drug--you +know what I mean--behind him. Don't you think so, hey? And--and as +soon as ever you can spare time--in the course of the day, you +know--you will have a thorough search made, and ascertain the +quantity, and let me know at the earliest possible moment, won't you? +Yes, yes; he must have left quite a considerable quantity ready +prepared. I feel sure of it; so don't forget to send me word as soon +as you can." + +There was a terrible eagerness in the way he spoke, and he would not +loose his hold of her till she had promised him, that he should hear +from her in the course of the forenoon. + +When she was gone her place was taken by Miss Baynard. + +That morning the Squire's breakfast was sent away untasted, and he +made no effort to get up. Anxiety held him as with a vise--an anxiety +shot through and through with forebodings the most dire. He lay +without speaking, watching with feverish eyes the slow-moving fingers +of the clock on the chimney-piece, each of whose solemn ticks seemed +to him to mark a stitch in the tapestry of Doom. It was a few minutes +past two when a servant brought upstairs a small sealed packet, +together with a letter, both of them addressed to "Ambrose Cortelyon, +Esq.," and both of them just brought by a special messenger. The sick +man had no need to ask who was the sender. + +"Open the letter and read it aloud, Nell," he said, as soon as the +servant had left the room. It was not merely that he had lost the +control of his fingers--he shook from head to foot like one in an ague +fit. + +Nell did as she was bidden. + + +"Honored Sir" (she read), "In accordance with your wish and my own +promise, I have made diligent and careful search in every corner, +cupboard, and drawer of the room in which my poor son mixed his +physics and attended to his doctoring business, with the result (and +it grieves me much to have to tell it you) that I have not succeeded +in finding more than two phials of the stuff ready mixed for taking, +the which, under cover, I herewith send you. + +"It would appear to have been my son's custom not to prepare any large +quantity of the drug beforehand, perhaps--but on this point I speak +without certainty--because he found that some portion of its virtue +was lost with keeping. + + "I remain, honored sir, + + "Your obedient, humble servant, + + "Martha Dinkel. + +"P.S.--Since writing the above I have made another thorough search, +high and low, in every nook and corner of the premises, but it has +proved a sheer waste of time. + +"Mr. Cortelyon, sir, in the midst of my own distress, permit me +respectfully to observe that my heart bleeds for you." + + +When Nell had read to the last word, the Squire made no comment aloud, +only to himself he murmured: "_Mors ultima linea rerum est_." He had +not opened his Horace for years, but the line came back to him quite +freshly to-day. He knew that he was a doomed man, and that no earthly +power could save him. Well, according to all human calculations he +ought to have been dead and buried a number of weeks ago, but another +brief spell of life had been granted him, and if, through a tragic +misfortune which no one could have foreseen, it had come prematurely +to a close, why, there was no help for it. All that was now left him +to do was to wrap his toga about him and await the end with silent +stoicism. + +Although he took the two remaining doses of the drug in due course, he +made no attempt to rise from his bed after hearing of Dinkel's death. +From that hour life, with its manifold interests, became to him as a +dead letter. He had done with it, and it had done with him. They were +quits. + +So, day after day and night after night, he lay in the big four +poster, silent for the most part, and often without opening his eyes +for hours together; feeling his strength ebbing imperceptibly away, +and, between his fitful snatches of sleep, thinking, ever thinking, +for his mind remained as vigorous and lucid as ever it had been. What +strange and awesome thoughts must oftentimes have been his as he lay +there in grim resolute silence, waiting for his "order of release"! + +His niece and Andry Luce took it in turns to watch by him. It was an +easy task, there was so little that he wanted or that could be done +for him. Miss Baynard had taken it on herself to send for Drs Banks +and Mills, who responded to the summons in all haste. + +The Squire opened his eyes and favored them with one of his sardonic +smiles as they entered the room. + +"Eh-eh! come to see the last of your handiwork?" he said, and already +his voice had sunk to a half-whisper. "Very kind and attentive of you, +I'm sure. And besides, my case is such an interesting and uncommon +one. It will be something for you to wrangle over as long as you live, +and at the end you will know no more about it than you do now. Yes, +yes, very kind and attentive of you; but as for your physic, I'll have +no more on't--that's flat. Throw it to the dogs, as Shakespeare says. +And now, 'I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.'" + +Of course they could do nothing, and to Miss Baynard they were candid +enough to admit as much. It was a sad state of things. + +And so the muffled hours stole after each other one by one till a week +had gone by, by which time it became evident that the end was not far +off. + +No arrest had yet been made in connection with the murder of Cornelius +Dinkel, and it may here be added that none ever was made. The murderer +had left no traces behind him, and, search as diligently as they +might, not a tittle of evidence was forthcoming to back up any of the +theories propounded by the authorities in relation to the crime. + +On a certain afternoon, somewhat to Miss Baynard's surprise, Mrs. +Bullivant made her appearance at the Hall. It was a step which she had +not taken till after mature consideration. The first few days after +Dinkel's death had been passed by her in a fever of apprehension. +Precisely what it was that she feared she did not whisper even to +herself, but she could not bear a ring or a knock at the door without +experiencing a spasm of silent terror. Yet all this time her brother +remained as darkly quiet, as listless, and apparently as indifferent +to everything, save his own little comforts, as she ever remembered +him to have been. Wet or fine, he went out every day for a long walk, +and it was he who brought back the rumors he lighted on in his rambles +anent the Squire of Stanbrook. + +One day he brought back something which was more than a rumor. It was +something he had been told at second-hand as having emanated from no +less an authority than Dr. Banks. Mr. Cortelyon was at death's door, +and this time there was no possible chance of his recovery! Then it +was that Mrs. Bullivant debated with her brother whether she ought not +to pay one more visit to Stanbrook while the Squire was able to +recognize her. Captain Ferris was strongly of opinion that she ought +on no account to omit doing so. There was no knowing what influences +might be at work. What more easy than to persuade a dying man to +execute a codicil to his will, or even to have a fresh will drawn up, +cancelling wholly or in part the provisions of the one already in +existence? Most certainly she ought to see for herself how the land +lay, not merely in her own interest, but in that of her son, and, if +necessary, remain on the spot till all was over. + +Little persuasion was needed to induce Mrs. Bullivant to fall in with +her brother's views. By this time her vague, unspoken apprehensions +had in a great measure subsided. Dinkel had been dead more than a +week, and nothing had happened. Nothing would happen now, she told +herself. She would go to Stanbrook. + +More than once--indeed quite a number of times--when talking over her +last interview with Mr. Cortelyon, her brother had made her repeat one +sentence in particular which the Squire had addressed to her in +allusion to the contents of his will: "There is perhaps such a +surprise in store for you as you little wot of." To both her and the +Captain it was a sentence which seemed pregnant with golden +possibilities; and it is hardly to be wondered at that, on her way to +Stanbrook, her imagination built up more than one gorgeous aerial +fabric, although, as a rule, she kept that arrant jerry-builder in the +most complete subjection. + +On hearing that Mrs. Bullivant had arrived, Miss Baynard went +downstairs to receive her. When they met the former made as if she +would have kissed Nell, but the girl drew back a little haughtily. She +was not in the habit of being kissed, even by those of her own sex, +and in her visitor's case it would have seemed to her a veritable +_baiser de Judas_. But she could not, with any show of courtesy, +refuse her hand. + +"How is he, dear Miss Baynard?" were Mrs. Bullivant's first words. She +spoke in hushed tones, although as yet she had got no farther than the +entrance-hall. + +"He is sinking fast, and is almost speechless." + +"You shock me more than I can say." And, to do her justice, for the +moment she looked shocked. To herself she said, "If he is speechless, +or nearly so, it is too late for him to think of altering his will, +and, if he has done so already, I have come too late to help it." +Aloud she went on: "I had not the faintest idea that his illness had +assumed the gravity you tell me it has--news percolates to us so +slowly at Uplands--otherwise I should have been here before now. But +now that I am here, dear Miss Baynard, you must let me stay with you +till the end. Mr. Cortelyon, as you are probably aware, regarded me +with a very special affection. Had circumstances turned out +differently, I should have been his daughter-in-law. But my life has +been one long disappointment." + +Knowing what she did of the purport of her uncle's will, Nell felt +that, little as she liked the woman, she was not in a position to +object to her presence in the house. In a very little while Mrs. +Bullivant would be mistress of Stanbrook and of everything in it, +while she, Nell, would be little better than an outcast. But however +bitter and humiliating it might be to know this, she had other things +to think of just now. + +When Mrs. Bullivant and Nell entered the sick room together some +minutes later, Mrs. Budd, who had been keeping watch in the interim, +rose, curtsied to the newcomer, and went. + +Mr. Cortelyon lay with closed eyes and with both arms extended on the +coverlet; one shut hand held the coveted stater of Epaticcus, the +other grasped his silver snuff-box. An involuntary exclamation escaped +Mrs. Bullivant as her eyes fell on his face. Once before she had +believed him to be at the point of death, and only by what might +almost be termed a miracle had his life been prolonged. This time no +miracle would intervene. His hours, nay, his very minutes, were +numbered; Death's awful shadow was already closing round him; would he +live through the night? + +About half an hour later he opened his eyes, turned his head slightly +and stared about him. Mrs. Bullivant rose, crossed on tiptoe to the +bed and bent over him. "Dear Mr. Cortelyon, don't you know me?" she +murmured. "Yes, I am sure you do." + +For a second or two he peered up into her face with contracted lids, +as if not quite sure about her identity. Then, with an inarticulate +noise, which seemed more indicative of anger and repulsion than of +anything else, he raised both his hands and pushed her rather roughly +away. Mrs. Bullivant went back to her chair with a somewhat heightened +color in her cheeks. "Poor dear!" she said in an undertone; "it is +quite evident that he no longer knows what he is about." + +And so daylight slid slowly into dark, and the two women still kept +watch on either side of the bed. Dr. Banks, with a cheerful fire and a +magnum of port to keep him company, sat below in the library--merely +for form's sake, and because it would be an injustice to his wife, and +family not to make his bill as long a one as possible while the chance +was his of doing so. + +For some hours the dying man's skin had been gradually changing color, +till now it had become of one uniform leaden blue tint. Dr. Banks, who +stepped upstairs for a couple of minutes every half-hour or so, said +to himself that it must be one of the effects of "that damned drug." + +Midnight was drawing on. For upwards of an hour Mr. Cortelyon had been +lying to all appearance in a comatose state, when of a sudden he +opened his eyes and raised himself in bed without help--a thing he had +not done for days past. "The will! the will!--get it and destroy it +before it's too late!" he cried in harsh, insistent tones, punctuated +by gasps. "I've done wrong--wrong. I know it now--I feel it. To my +grandson all--all! To that woman"--pointing to the shocked Mrs. +Bullivant--"nothing. Send at once--not a minute's delay. Piljoy has +it. Or else it will be too late--too late!" + +Alas! it was already too late. He sank back, gasping for breath, with +eyes that were already beginning to glaze. Five minutes later all was +over. + +Mrs. Bullivant dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief. "Poor dear! I am +so thankful he did not suffer much," she said. "That he should wander +a little in his mind at the last is not to be wondered at. Nearly all +aged people do that when they are dying." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +AN ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY. + + +It was five days later. + +The funeral was over. Everything had been done decently and in order, +and in the great drawing-room at Stanbrook, the shutters of which of +late years had been rarely opened, a small company were assembled, by +invitation of Mr. Piljoy, to hear the reading of the dead man's will. + +Miss Baynard and Mrs. Budd sat together on one of the couches; a +little way removed, in stately isolation, sat Mrs. Bullivant; while +Mrs. Dace, the housekeeper, remained modestly in the background, with +Andry Luce and two or three other old servants to keep her company. + +The gentlemen comprised Mr. Herries, the vicar; Mr. Delafosse, Sir +James Dalrymple, of Langrig, and Squire Staniforth, of Claypool; the +two latter of whom, at Mr. Cortelyon's request, had agreed to act as +trustees under his will. They were clear-headed, thoroughly practical +men, with plenty of leisure on their hands, and, as such, had +recommended themselves to the late Squire, who was their senior by +more than a score years, and had known their fathers before them. + +Mr. Piljoy sat by himself at the big oval table in the centre of the +room. The will, as yet unopened, lay there in front of him. + +When everybody had settled into their places and the door was finally +shut, Mr. Piljoy cleared his voice, and, leaning forward a little with +his clasped hands resting on the table, said, addressing the company +at large: "Before breaking the seal of the document which I am here +for the purpose of reading to you, I may just remark for the +information of everybody, and in order to satisfy any curiosity which +might otherwise be felt on the point, that this is not the first +testament drawn up by me for the late Mr. Cortelyon. There was a much +earlier will, the provisions of which, I need scarcely tell you, were +of a widely different nature from those of the present one; but that +will was destroyed at the time of the unhappy quarrel between father +and son, of which, I daresay, most of those here have some cognizance. +For the next few years no will of any kind was in existence, nor could +Mr. Cortelyon be persuaded into making another till he found himself +overtaken by illness of a very serious kind. I will now, with your +permission, proceed to open and read the will." + +Sir James tapped his snuff-box, opened it, offered it to his +co-trustee, and then indulged himself with a large pinch. The servants +in the background laid their heads together and whispered among +themselves. Mrs. Bullivant tried to look as if the reading was a +matter which in no way concerned her, and almost succeeded. Miss +Baynard and Andry Luce alone knew what was coming. To the former the +whole proceeding was fraught with heartfelt torture, from which she +would fain have escaped had there been any way open for her to do so. + +The will itself was enclosed in a sheet of parchment secured with two +large black seals. These latter Mr. Piljoy did not break, but cut +round them with his penknife and got at the contents that way. Pushing +the envelope aside, he proceeded to unfold and straighten out the +will; then, having settled his spectacles more firmly astride his +nose, he gave a preliminary cough and turned over the first page. + +Apparently, however, he had forgotten to how many pages the document +extended, and in order to satisfy himself on the point, before +beginning to read he turned the leaves over one by one--there were +only five or six in all--till he came to the last one, on reaching +which his eye instinctively travelled to the foot of it. + +Next instant he gave a start and sprang to his feet, his eyes still +glued to the bottom of the will. He looked dazed--thunderstruck--and +well he might. + +"What is the meaning of this?" he cried. "What devilry has been at +work? The will is unsigned!" + +And so, indeed, it proved to be. There was the space for the three +signatures, those of the testator and the two witnesses, but the +signatures themselves were wanting. + +Over the scene that ensued we need not linger. The servants were told +that they were no longer wanted, and went back to their duties +terribly crestfallen. The legacies on which they had so surely counted +seemed to have dissolved on a sudden into thin air. + +For the first few minutes after the fatal announcement Mrs. Bullivant +sat like an image of stony despair. So stunned was she that, for the +time being, she seemed deprived of the power of coherent thought. She +was roused, in part at least, by some words addressed by Sir James +Dalrymple to Mr. Piljoy. + +"Of course the will as it stands is wholly inoperative, still, Mr. +Staniforth and I are a little curious with regard to its contents, so +perhaps you won't mind devoting a minute or two to our enlightenment. +There is no need for you to read out the different clauses; all we +want is to be made acquainted with the main features of the document." + +"Five minutes will suffice for that purpose," replied the lawyer. "To +begin with, there are some half-dozen bequests, varying in amount, to +as many old servants and dependents, with the details of which I need +not trouble you. To the testator's old friend, Mr. Delafosse"--bowing +to that gentleman--"are bequeathed sundry coins, medals, and other +curios, a list of which will be found among the private papers of the +deceased. Then I must not omit to mention that to each of you +gentlemen, for your trouble in acting as trustees, is left the sum of +one hundred and fifty guineas; and to Mr. Herries a similar sum for +distribution among the deserving poor of the parish. With regard to +his niece, Miss Baynard"--here he favored Nell with a bow--"the +testator's instructions are that a sum of money be invested in her +name in the public funds sufficient to bring her in an annual income +of three hundred pounds, the which she shall enjoy for life, the +principal at her demise to be divided among certain specified +charitable institutions. To the Hon. Mrs. Bullivant"--a bow for that +lady--"is left the sum of three thousand pounds in hard cash. Every +thing else of which the testator may die possessed--including the +Stanbrook and Barrowmead properties, another large estate on the +borders of Yorkshire, and certain other smaller estates--is willed in +trust to Gavin Bullivant, the son of the Hon. Mrs. Bullivant, on +condition that on coming of age he adds to his present cognomen that +of 'Cortelyon.' Finally, I may mention that as regards the Stanbrook +property Mrs. Bullivant is bequeathed a life-interest in the same." + +He ceased, and Sir James and his friend stared at each other in sheer +amazement, but in Mrs. Bullivant's presence they could not well give +expression to what they thought. Mr. Staniforth was the first to break +the silence. + +"Both Sir James and I were under the impression that the late Mr. +Cortelyon had a grandson. His only son died some few years ago, did he +not, leaving behind him a widow and one child?" + +"He did." + +"And yet in your summary of the contents of the will you made no +mention of either of their names." + +"The widow died some time ago. There was no mention of the boy's name +on my part for the very good reason that it is not included in the +will. Mr. Cortelyon never forgave his son's marriage, and refused in +any way to acknowledge his grandchild." + +Again the two men looked at each other, and again they refrained from +giving expression to the thoughts at work within them. + +Then said Sir James: "An unsigned will is so much waste paper. In case +no other will, duly executed, should turn up, what will happen?" + +"Only one thing can happen. The case will resolve itself into one of +intestacy, and everything--lock, stock, and barrel--will go to the +heir-at-law, that is to say, to the grandson of whom mention has just +been made." + +The two gentlemen nodded. That was their own view exactly. + +Miss Baynard had sat all this time without speaking or stirring. When +Mr. Piljoy made the startling announcement that the will was without +signature, she flashed a look at Andry Luce which seemed to ask in +bewilderment, "What is the meaning of this?" But Andry, nursing his +chin in the palm of one hand, was apparently staring straight before +him, and did not, or would not, meet her eyes. When, however, Mrs. +Dace and the others proceeded to leave the room, Andry, who was about +to follow them, glanced at Nell, and, in obedience to a signal from +her, resumed his seat. + +Nell as was dumfounded as Mrs. Bullivant by the turn events had taken. +She had not clearly comprehended what the result would be of the will +being unsigned till she heard Mr. Piljoy's declaration that, in the +event of no other will being found, everything would go to Evan as his +grandfather's heir-at-law. Then a great gladness took possession of +her, and her heart swelled with thankfulness. + +But of a sudden, a shiver of apprehension ran through her. Mr. +Staniforth was speaking: + +"Have you any reason whatever, Mr. Piljoy, for supposing that any +other will than this unsigned one is in existence?" + +Not Miss Baynard only, but Mrs. Bullivant as well, awaited the +lawyer's answer with strained breathlessness. + +Mr. Piljoy shrugged his shoulders. "That, sir, is a question which +just now I am hardly prepared to answer, and for this reason, that no +one can be more mystified and puzzled by the turn affairs have taken +this afternoon than I am. One supposition, and one only, suggests +itself to me as tending in the slightest degree to elucidate the +mystery. What that supposition is I will, with your permission, now +proceed to explain." + +He lay back in the big library chair, cleared his voice, and toyed +with his spectacles for a few seconds before proceeding. + +"In accordance with Mr. Cortelyon's instructions, his will was drawn +up by me in duplicate. This was done as a provision of safety; in the +event of any hitch or blunder occurring in the signing or witnessing +of one document, the other would be available. Gout having laid me by +the heels, I gave the duplicate wills into the charge of Mr. Tew, my +managing clerk, who was just as competent to see to the signing and +witnessing as I was. Here before me is the will which he next day +brought back and handed to me for safe custody in the belief that it +had been duly signed and witnessed; and here is the envelope that held +it, sealed in two places with Mr. Cortelyon's own seal, and with the +words, 'Ambrose Cortelyon--His Will' written across the face of it +with his own pen. Now, on consideration, it seems to me just possible +that, through some mischance, the unsigned will got substituted for +the signed one in the envelope. If my supposition has any basis of +fact, the question that naturally follows is, What became of the +duplicate will? Is there any one present, who is in a position to +throw any light on the point involved?" + +Whether consciously or unconsciously, as he asked the question his +eyes fixed themselves on Miss Baynard. The eyes of every one there +followed those of Mr. Piljoy. + +Nell stood up, her cheeks warmed with the fine glow of color. "My +uncle's secretary, Andry Luce, who is now present, was, I believe, in +the room when the will was signed." + +"Then he will doubtless be willing to answer to the best of his +ability any questions we may think well to put to him?" + +Turning to Andry, Nell said, "You are quite willing to answer any +questions Mr. Piljoy or these other gentlemen may ask you, are you +not?" + +The reply was two vigorous nods in the affirmative. + +Turning to Sir James and his friend, Nell said, "Unfortunately, Andry +is dumb, and has been so from his youth, so that I shall have to +translate his answers for you." + +"Come a bit more to the front, Andry, there's a good fellow," said Mr. +Piljoy, who knew him of old. Then he seemed to consider for a few +seconds while Andry changed his seat. + +"You were in the room when the will was signed?" was the lawyer's +first question. + +With a look at Nell, his quick-moving fingers spelled out the answer, +"I was," which was repeated aloud by her; and the same process had to +be gone through in the case of all his answers. + +"What persons were in the room at the time besides yourself and the +testator?" + +"Mr. Tew, and the two witnesses--Peter Grice, the groom, and Mike +Denny, the under-gardener." + +"Were you aware that Mr. Tew had brought two wills with him?" + +"I was, I saw both of them." + +"On entering the room what did he do with them?" + +"He gave them both to the Squire." + +"And what happened next?" + +"The Squire thrust one of them under his pillow, and gave the other +back to Mr. Tew for him to read it aloud." + +"And what happened when the reading had come to an end?" + +"The bell rang for me--I had been ordered out of the room while the +reading took place--and, on entering, Mr. Tew told me that the Squire +was ready for the witnesses, whom I had been careful to have close at +hand, so that there should be no delay." + +"Proceed." + +"The witnesses were brought into the room and placed where they could +see all that went forward. Pen and ink were in readiness. I raised the +Squire in bed--he was too weak to sit up without help--and supported +him with an arm round his waist. Mr. Tew placed the will in front of +him, gave him the pen, pointed out the place for him, and with that +Mr. Cortelyon slowly and carefully signed his name. Then Mr. Tew took +the will to the table and caused Grice and Denny to sign it one after +the other. When that was done the two men were dismissed." + +"Yes, and after that?" + +"Following the men into the corridor, by the Squire's orders I made +each of them a present of a crown piece. That done, I at once went +back to the room. Mr. Tew was standing by the table with the folded +will in his hand. 'Seal it up,' said my master to me. Mr. Tew having +handed to it to me, I at once proceeded to enclose it in the sheet of +parchment, out of which it was taken by Mr. Piljoy a little while +since, sealing the packet in two places with my master's own seal. +Then I held him up again, and with a trembling hand he wrote on the +envelope, 'Ambrose Cortelyon--His Will.' That done, the packet was +given into the custody of Mr. Tew, and the business was at an end." + +"Not quite, Andry, not quite--at least as far as we are concerned. You +are forgetting the duplicate will. What became of that?" + +"Mr. Tew had not been five minutes gone before my master drew the +other will from under his pillow, and, giving it to me, said, 'Burn it +now--at once.' There was a fire in the room, and, taking the will, I +thrust it between the bars. Mr. Cortelyon never took his eyes off the +grate till it was burnt to ashes." + +"You have no reason whatever for supposing that the unsigned will was +substituted for the signed one during the time you were out of the +room?" + +"No, sir--how should I? Mr. Tew never left the room, and when I went +back it was from his hands I received the will in order to seal it +up." + +Apparently Mr. Piljoy had no more questions to put. After a +glance round at the perplexed faces of his audience, he said: +"Notwithstanding the very clear and straightforward statement with +which Andry Luce has just favored us, the mystery of the unsigned will +remains exactly where it was before. We seem no nearer a solution of +it than we were at first, and I confess myself wholly at a loss to +advise as to what step, if any, it behoves us to take next. Never in +the whole of my experience have I been confronted with a state of +affairs so puzzling and inexplicable." + +"Never heard tell of owt like it, dang me if I have!" exclaimed Sir +James, who had a habit of lapsing into the vernacular now and again. + +"Licks cock-fighting all to bits, that it does," muttered Mr. +Staniforth. + +The Vicar and Mr. Delafosse spoke together in low tones. + +So far Mrs. Bullivant had maintained an unbroken silence. Though more +than once greatly tempted to do so, she had put a strong restraint +upon herself, and had sat there with compressed lips listening to all +that was said, passing through the whole gamut of feeling from hope to +despair, and finally struck to the earth, almost, as it seemed, beyond +recovery, by Mr. Piljoy's last words. There had been revealed to her a +golden vision far exceeding her utmost dreams, but between her and it +some malignant fiend had dug a shadowy gulf which he defied her to +overpass. She had been vouchsafed a glimpse of Paradise, only to have +the gates of pearl slammed in her face. It was maddening. Her very +soul was aflame with impotent rage. She was tortured almost beyond +endurance by the knowledge of all she had lost; of all that had +slipped through her fingers, as at the bidding of a necromancer, +before she had a chance of grasping it; of all that ought to have been +hers, but was not! + +She could no longer keep silent. "It is very evident to me," she +began, addressing herself directly to the lawyer, "that my helpless +boy and I have been made the victims of a vile conspiracy. Whether +you, sir, are in the secret of it or no I cannot say, but I give you +warning that I shall lose no time in placing the affair in the hands +of my solicitors, and that even if it cost me every shilling I have in +the world, this foul attempt to defraud me and mine shall be unmasked, +and the concocters of it brought to the bar of justice." + +She spoke with studied quietude and without any trace of passion, but +her hearers felt that in those smooth accents there was a hidden venom +far more dangerous than any mere outburst of feminine anger would have +been. + +"A vile conspiracy!" burst forth the irate lawyer. "I would have you +know, madame, that----" + +She stopped him with an imperious gesture. "I have said all I wish to +say, and no empty protestations on your part will avail anything. +Roguery has been at work and must be unmasked. It is enough that you +know my intentions." + +She had risen while speaking, and now, after the slightest possible +bow to Sir James and the others, she moved with her proudest and most +dignified air towards the door, which Andry hastened to open for her, +and so went her way, to the great relief of everybody there. + +"Well, that caps everything!" ejaculated Mr. Staniforth. "A sweet +temper to live with, eh, Jimmy?" + +"Ay, but think of all the woman has lost, and by a turn of fortune's +wheel the like of which I never heard tell of. No wonder she's put +about; in her place who wouldn't be? Not but what, mind you, I +consider the will a most unjust one, and I can't say I'm anything but +glad that things have turned out as they have." + +Mr. Delafosse had sat through the proceedings as mum as a mouse. He +had all a collector's selfishness, and although he told himself how +glad he was that, despite his late friend's unjust will, the rightful +heir would succeed to the property, he could not help being very +sorrowful on his own account. Under the changed circumstances of the +case not a coin, not a medal, not a curio of any kind would come to +him; and there were so many things in his friend's collection which +his soul coveted! It was very, very sad, but there was no help for it. + +When the others were gone Mr. Piljoy and Nell had a little +confidential talk together. + +"Never in the whole of my professional experience have I been so +perplexed and mystified as by the events of this afternoon," said the +lawyer. "I can't make head or tail of 'em, and that's a fact. Of +course, when I get back I shall question Tew very closely about all +that took place at the signing of the will, but I must say that I have +very little hope of his being able to throw any fresh light on the +affair. It's just as if we had all been made the victims of a +conjurer's trick. Not but what, Miss Nell, I'm more than pleased at +the way things have turned out, and I don't mind confessing to you +that I was strongly opposed to the will as it stands, and went as far +as I dared in the endeavor to persuade your uncle not to disinherit +his grandson _in toto_. But you know the kind of man he was, how +obstinate, and how utterly opposed to any suggestions from others +which ran counter to his own views; indeed, he would hardly listen to +me, and ended by telling me with an oath to mind my own business. On +one point only do I feel sorry. If no other will turns up, of which I +fail to see any likelihood, you, my dear Miss Nell, will be left out +in the cold, for in that case, as I have remarked already, the son of +Richard Cortelyon becomes the sole heir and legatee." + +"And do you think for one moment, Mr. Piljoy, that I am anything but +rejoiced that such should be the case?" demanded Nell, with sparkling +eyes. "If you do, you misjudge me strangely. Oh! it was a most unjust +and unnatural will, and my uncle himself acknowledged it to be so, +but not till too late. With his last breath he implored me to send for +the will and destroy it. His last conscious words were, 'To my +grandson--all; to that woman'--meaning Mrs. Bullivant, who was there +by the bedside--'nothing.' Had he but lived a few hours longer, the +will would have been destroyed in accordance with his wishes." + +"I am very glad you have told me this, Miss Nell, very glad indeed. If +one were superstitiously inclined, one would not find it hard to +believe that it was the Squire's own hand which, by some means unknown +to us, erased his signature from a document the existence of which, in +the clear light which sometimes comes to people at the point of death, +he saw reason to regret." + +"Should I live to be a hundred, I shall look back to this day as one +of the red-letter days of my existence," said Nell with fervor. "No +words could express to you how glad I am. But tell me, Mr. Piljoy, +what is the next thing to be done?" + +"My advice is that just at present we do nothing. Should it really +prove to be Mrs. Bullivant's intention to contest the heir's +claim--for one never can foretell what a desperate woman may or may +not choose to do--I shall doubtless hear from her solicitors before +long. Meanwhile, our best plan will be to rest quietly on our oars." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +THE MISSING HEIR. + + +Not till a fortnight had gone by did Nell hear from Mr. Piljoy. Then +he wrote as follows:-- + +"Dear Miss Baynard,--Before parting from you last I told you that on +getting back home I would lose no time in minutely questioning my +clerk Tew with regard to all that passed between Mr. Cortelyon and +himself at the signing of the will. As you may remember, the chief +point that wanted clearing up was whether there was any possibility of +the unsigned will having been substituted for the signed one during +the two or three minutes Andry Luce was absent from the room. Tew is +positive no such substitution took place. His words are: 'The signed +will was never out of my keeping from the moment the witnesses left +the room till Andry Luce's return, when, by Mr. Cortelyon's direction, +I gave the will to him to be enclosed and sealed up.' So we remain +just as wise as we were before. + +"I believe I told you that, for a little while to come, I thought it +would be advisable to remain quiescent in the affair while awaiting +the first move on the part of Mrs. Bullivant's solicitors, provided +they thought it advisable to move at all. Well, a couple of days ago I +was waited upon by Mr. Cotwell, the junior partner in a firm of +Lanchester lawyers. He met me in a by no means hostile spirit, the +main object of his visit being to obtain my permission to put to Tew +the very question I had put to him already. Of course Tew could only +give Mr. Cotwell the same answer that he had given me, and, so far as +Mrs. Bullivant was concerned, there was no satisfaction to be got out +of that. + +"Cotwell and I had a long confabulation before he left. From certain +hints he let fall, I judge that Mrs. B. has not scrupled to give +expression to her belief that she was designedly tricked by Mr. +C.--that of set purpose he caused the signed will to be burnt and left +the unsigned one in existence; all which is an absolute contradiction +of what Tew is prepared to swear to. But what strange beliefs will not +a disappointed woman cherish, more especially when she sees cause for +imagining that she has been hoodwinked into the bargain! + +"After all, it seems to be very doubtful whether Mrs. B. will go to +law. In my opinion it would be sheer madness on her part to do so, and +I have very little doubt that, privately, Cotwell thinks the same, +only, of course, he is bound to bark at the bidding of his client; but +when it comes to biting--we shall see. + +"At any rate, I shall wait no longer, but at once proceed to take the +necessary steps for legalizing the rights of the youthful heir, as if +no such person as Mrs. B. were in existence. + +"Will you be good enough to inform me at your convenience under whose +care the child is now living, and where he may be found, provided, of +course, that his present address is known to you?" + + +Nell's reply was sent by the next post. It was on a Friday morning +that Mr. Piljoy's letter came to hand, and had she not been suffering +from a cold which had reduced her voice to a mere whisper, she would +have set out for London within a few hours of her receipt of it. But, +although she was hungering to see the child, a delay of a few days +would not matter greatly, and doubtless she would be well enough to +travel (it was a matter of between two hundred and fifty and three +hundred miles, and all by coach) by the following Tuesday or Wednesday +at the latest. + +Tuesday morning came, and found Nell's few preparations made. Her +impatience would brook no further delay. Places for herself and her +maid had been secured in the London coach, which passed through +Tuxford shortly after midday. But a surprise was in store for her. + + +[Illustration: "Evan has been missing since yesterday."] + + +The postman's time for arriving at Stanbrook was ten o'clock or +thereabouts. This morning he brought a letter for Miss Baynard, which +she knew by the address, before opening it, to be from Mrs. Mardin. +One of those intuitions which come to us we know not how or whence +whispered to her that it was a bringer of ill tidings. Her fingers +trembled as she opened it. All it had to tell was told in little more +than a dozen words:-- + + +"Evan has been missing since yesterday, and cannot be found anywhere. +Come at once. + +"Harriet Mardin." + + +Never had the journey to London seemed so long and tedious to Nell as +it did on this occasion. From the coach office she drove to Lady +Carradine's, where, although she had not advised her ladyship of her +coming, she knew that she was sure of a welcome. Half an hour later +she was on her way to Chelsea. + +Mrs. Mardin received her with a burst of tears; indeed, the good soul +had done little else than cry since the child had been missed. Her +story did not take long in the telling. + +It was a fine afternoon, and Evan had been playing, as he was often +allowed to do, with some neighbors' children in a field not more than +a couple of hundred yards from the house. Mrs. Mardin had been on the +point of going to call him in to tea, when one of his playmates came +to tell her that Evan had gone off with a tall, dark gentleman, who +went up to him in the field, and, telling him that "a pretty lady" had +sent for him, led him away to a carriage which was waiting in the lane +close by, into which they both got and were at once driven away. From +the first Mrs. Mardin had felt convinced in her own mind that the boy +had been abducted by means of a ruse, and that there was no intention +of bringing him back. + +Then she went on to inform Nell that she had not only written to her, +but to Mr. Dare as well, who fortunately happened to be in town, and +had lost no time in making his appearance at Lawn Cottage. Further, +when told that Miss Baynard had been communicated with, and in all +likelihood would come as fast as the coach could bring her after her +receipt of the news, he had at once hired a room at an inn in the +neighborhood, thinking that she might perhaps like to see him and +consult with him in the matter as soon as possible after her arrival. + +At the mention of Dare's name the wild-rose tints in Nell's cheeks +deepened till they glowed like those of a damask rose, and the thought +of so soon seeing him again sent a rush of happiness to her heart, and +caused her to tingle from head to foot with a flush of gladness which +yet had in it a touch of apprehension. It might be a fact that her +strength had failed her in her struggle against fate, and that her +heart had secretly capitulated, but the secret was her own and should +never pass her lips. Her conqueror should never know that he had +conquered; on that point she was resolved. And yet in the midst of her +happiness she trembled at the thought of meeting Dare again. Was it +because she had a fear of betraying herself in her own despite, or was +it because she was conscious that she had to guard against a traitor +who had betrayed her once already? + +A question which Mrs. Mardin put to her did not tend to reassure her: + +"Shall I send word to Mr. Dare that you are here, Miss, and that you +would like to see him?" + +She was still hesitating over her reply when there came a ring at the +bell. "Why, that must be him!" exclaimed the widow; and so it proved +to be. He had been watching for Nell's arrival, had seen her come, +and, after waiting half-an-hour, had followed her to the cottage. But +of all this he said nothing. + +Nell strung herself up, and met him without any show of embarrassment, +but not without a touch of heightened color. Dare was as easy, cool, +and as much master of himself as he always was. The only difference +that any one who knew him well might have marked in him was that his +eyes to-day were more than ordinarily brilliant. When he had shaken +hands with Nell he sat down in the chair just vacated by Mrs. Mardin. + +Nell had not forgotten the return of the mask and all that was implied +thereby, and as her eyes met Dare's she could not help saying to +herself, "Does he still know me simply as Miss Baynard of Stanbrook, +or has he discovered in me the amateur highwayman to whom on a certain +occasion he behaved with such signal kindness?" But it was a question +she was no nearer being able to answer to-day than she had been the +first time she asked it. + +Dare plunged at once _in medias res_, like a man who has a matter in +hand in dealing with which there must be neither delay nor hesitancy. +Before his coming Nell had felt utterly helpless in the affair; she +had neither known what to do, nor what even to suggest; but she had +not been long in his company before she felt, figuratively speaking, +as if a strong arm had been put round her from which she drew both +comfort and support. His mere presence braced and strengthened her +like a tonic. + +"This is a very strange piece of business, Miss Baynard, which has +brought you and me together again," he began. "I presume that Mrs. +Mardin has made you acquainted with such scanty particulars as are +known to her. That the case is one of abduction there can, I think, be +very little doubt, if any at all. I saw the notice of Mr. Cortelyon's +death in the _Times_. Presumably the stolen boy is his grandfather's +heir. But doubtless you are in a position to inform me whether such is +or is not the case." + +"That Evan is his grandfather's heir is due to a singular and wholly +inexplicable circumstance, the nature of which it may be as well that +I should explain to you." + +With that Nell went on to relate to him the story of the will as +already known to the reader. He was intensely interested in the +recital. When she had come to an end he remained for some moments lost +in thought. + +Then he said: "So far as I can see at present, there is only one +person who would have any motive for spiriting away the boy. That +person is Mrs. Bullivant, and the motive--revenge. But to revenge +oneself on an innocent child! It seems too mean and cowardly, for +belief. Happily, Miss Baynard, you have seen but little of the darker +side of human nature. Mean and cowardly actions are far more common +than such as you have any notion of; but, if my supposition has any +truth in it, the case we are now considering will go far to widen your +knowledge of such things. With your permission, I will go at once to +Bow Street and report the circumstances of the abduction, so far as +they are known to us, to the authorities there, but without any +mention of Mrs. Bullivant's name, leaving them to take whatever steps +may seem advisable. As regards Mrs. Bullivant, I purpose making +certain private inquiries on my own account, the result of which I +will communicate to you as early as possible. Meanwhile, I would +suggest that it would be as well for you to write to Mr. Piljoy +informing him of the disappearance of the child, as also that the case +has been reported to the proper authorities. Finally, it may be +advisable that for the present my name should be kept in the +background." + +And so, after a little further talk they parted, with an agreement to +meet again at Lawn Cottage next day. A hackney coach was fetched, and +Dare saw Miss Baynard into it. She had been startled by his +announcement that he was about to go personally to Bow Street. Such a +proceeding on his part seemed to her the very acme of recklessness. +One would have thought it was the last place in the world at which +"Captain Nightshade" would have cared to show his face. She could not +help admiring him for his daring, but, all the same, she felt that she +should breathe more freely when she knew that he had gone and come in +safety. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. + + +One may be sure there was no failure of appointment next day on the +part of either of our young people. + +After Nell had informed Dare that the letter to Mr. Piljoy had been +duly written and dispatched, and he had given her a brief account of +his visit to Bow Street--where he had left a full description of +the missing child, compiled with information furnished by Mrs. +Mardin--there seemed little more to say or do. Of a certain task he +had set before himself, and of a certain journey he meant to +undertake, Dare deemed it best not to enter into any details. All he +gave Miss Baynard to understand was, that nothing should be left +undone on his part in his endeavor to trace the abducted heir. + +But Nell felt strongly that the time had come for a clear +understanding on both sides. Their masks had been seen through, their +disguise penetrated. Each of them had played a double part within the +other's knowledge, and yet each had pretended to ignore the fact. The +day of make-believe was at an end. + +She saw clearly that if any reference was to be made to their first +meeting, it must come from herself. Dare, she felt sure, would never +as much as hint at a circumstance, her silence about which could only +lead him to conclude that she was determined to ignore it. Further +than that, she wanted to set herself straight with him--to explain the +motives which led to her assumption for one night only of the _rôle_ +of a "gentleman of the road." She could no longer rest satisfied with +the consciousness that any action of hers should remain in his eyes +under the shadow of ambiguity or suspicion. + +That she had managed so far not to betray her other and far sweeter +secret she felt pretty well assured, and the knowledge comforted her +exceedingly; for, while determined to brush aside all the cobwebs that +had hitherto existed between them, she was equally as determined that +of that hidden flower which perfumed and made beautiful the garden of +her heart he should know nothing whatever. + +"You and I, Mr. Dare, had met on one occasion before our first meeting +under this roof," began Nell, turning her large hazel eyes, with a +sort of grave questioning in them, full upon him. + +It was not often that Dare was taken by surprise, but he certainly was +just now. His swarthy cheeks flushed with a color that was rare to +them; but it did not take him longer than half a dozen seconds to +recover himself. With a low bow, he said, "It is not for me to dispute +any statement Miss Baynard may choose to make." + +"My reason for referring to the occasion in question is because I am +desirous of explaining under what circumstances I was led to embark on +that hare-brained adventure." + +"Pardon me, but is any such explanation needed? Certainly it is not by +me. Such an impertinence is what I never dreamed of. Why go into a +matter which now belongs wholly to the past?" + +"For my own satisfaction, if for nothing else." + +Again Dare gravely inclined his head. It was evident Miss Baynard was +determined to have her own way, although probably she had nothing more +to tell him than he either knew or guessed already. + +"On the occasion of our first meeting of all," resumed Nell, "I +believe I remarked to you that the object of my escapade was, not to +despoil some innocent traveller of his purse, but to obtain possession +of a will which I knew to be in the keeping of a certain person who, +on his way home, travelling by post-chaise, was bound to pass the +place where I was lying in wait for him." + +"So much I gathered from what you told me." + +"The will in question was the one I spoke to you about yesterday, by +the provisions of which my uncle disinherited his grandson in favor of +the son of the woman between whom and himself there was no +relationship whatever. I thought then, as I think still, that the will +was a most unjust and iniquitous one and I determined, if it were +anyhow possible to do so, to get possession of it and destroy it. How +ignominiously I failed in the attempt you know already." + +"All this I understood from what you were good enough to tell me +yesterday. That served to throw a clear light on whatever had seemed +dark before." + +"When I ventured on my rash attempt, which, so fortunately for all +concerned, proved unsuccessful, my uncle had been given up by his +doctors, and I had every reason for believing that he could not +possibly live to make another will. As for the moral aspect of the +affair, I think perhaps that the less I say on that score the better. +I was carried away by a flame of indignation, which, so to speak, +swept me off my feet, thrusting all considerations of prudence, as +well as of right or wrong, into the background, blinding my moral +sense for the time being, and leaving room in my mind for nothing save +a burning desire, at whatever cost, to get the will into my hands. But +Fate defeated my purpose, and the end I aimed at was brought about by +far different means." + +Miss Baynard had relieved her mind, and one usually derives a sense of +comfort from being able to do that. She had put herself straight with +Dare; there was no longer any question between them of a dual +personality. He knew that in him she had recognized the Captain +Nightshade of her adventure, and he had heard from her own lips, if +there was any satisfaction in that, what he most likely knew or +guessed before, that she was the masquerader in male attire who had +played such an unheroic part on that occasion. + +But one confidence often tends to beget another, and now, strange to +say. Geoffrey Dare felt strongly impelled to crave Miss Baynard's +patience for a little while in order that he might make clear to her +under what stress of circumstances he had been driven to take to the +King's highway. + +Miss Baynard raised no objections to listening to anything he might +have to tell her. Did not Desdemona "seriously incline" to the Moor of +Venice, the while he told the tale of his adventures by sea and land, +and why should not she do the same? + +"What I have to tell you is in the main a record of faults and +follies," began Dare when leave had been given him, "but I will make +my narrative as brief as possible. Let me start by remarking that I +have good blood in my veins, and can trace back my ancestry in a +direct line for upwards of two hundred years. It was my misfortune to +lose both my parents long before I was out of my teens. On coming of +age I succeeded to a fortune of forty thousand pounds, the accumulated +income of my minority. Thereupon I at once plunged into all the +gayeties and temptations of town life, showering my guineas right and +left with lavish hands, as if they could never come to an end. Cards, +dice, and the turf helped me in turn on the downward road. I had no +one to counsel or warn me. The person who had filled the post of +guardian to me from the date of my father's death was himself a broken +man of pleasure, who encouraged rather than restrained me in the road +I was treading, and had no scruple about dipping his hand into my +purse whenever he had been more than usually unlucky at the tables. + +"Then by and by I fell in love, or what at that time I believed to be +love. But I know now, and have long known, that I was drawn to Miss +Tighe as in the fable we read how hapless mariners were drawn to the +sirens of the deep--because they had not enough will-power to resist +their wiles. However, I was infatuated, and--which was all she cared +about, for she was a compound of greed and selfishness--I lavished +jewelry and presents upon her as if I could not do enough to make +patent my folly. Thus it came to pass that my twenty-fourth birthday +found my fortune reduced to a very few thousands. The end came shortly +after with the elopement of Miss Tighe with the man whom (next to Dick +Cortelyon) I had accounted my dearest friend. + +"I was still staggering from this blow when another of my 'dear +friends,' by means of a forged cheque, contrived to defraud me of the +poor wreck of my fortune, save a few paltry hundreds, before putting +the Atlantic between himself and me. + +"It was not till ruin stared me in the face, and I knew not which way +to turn, that I took to the 'road'--as many a broken-down spendthrift +of as good birth as I has done before me. But it is some slight salve +to my conscience to know that I have never eased any man of his purse +who was not well able to bear the loss, that I have never despoiled +one of the opposite sex, and that I have never failed to distribute +among the poor more than half of all I have taken from the rich." + +He ceased, and for some moments neither of them broke the silence. His +eyes had been fixed on the window as he told his tale, and he still +kept them turned away from his companion. He was now softly tapping +his teeth with the nails of one hand. + +It was wrong, it was very wrong, and Nell admitted it to be such, but, +do what she would, she could not blame him. The man, by his own +admission, was a highwayman, a "minion of the moon"; of course the +fact had long been known to her, but it had never been so clearly +brought home to her before to-day, and yet all she could do was to +pity him! Oh, it was shameful! And besides, we all know how close pity +is akin to something else. She tried to despise herself, and to feel +enraged with herself, but could not. + +But they could not sit mum forever. It was her turn to speak. +Something she must say--but what? + +"The dangers and perils of the kind of life you have been speaking of +are many and great." Her words faltered a little in her own despite. +"Why not give it up, Mr. Dare? Why not try to find some other and more +reputable way of making a living? How I wish you would! How +I wish----" + +"Pardon me, Miss Baynard, but I _have_ given it up." He spoke with a +certain abruptness, and as he did so he turned his black eyes full +upon her. "Captain Nightshade's last adventure on the road was the one +in which you yourself were so singularly mixed up. From that night he +resolved to turn over a fresh leaf. For one short hour he had come +under an influence powerful enough and sweet enough to make a new man +of him. The resolve then made has never been broken." + +He spoke with an emphasis which left no room for mistake as to his +meaning. Nell's eyes sank before the half-veiled passion which had +suddenly leapt to life in his. Face and throat flushed a lovely color. +It was all she could do not to betray that she was a-tremble in every +limb. + +"I am very, very glad, Mr. Dare, to hear that you have seen your way +to a changed mode of life." Was it Miss Baynard who spoke or some one +else? What was this strange new feeling of timidity, almost of +shrinking, which had seized upon her? She might have been the veriest +bread-and-butter miss fresh from school. Never had she despised +herself more heartily than at that moment. + +"I have told you, Miss Baynard, that I left London a broken man," +resumed Dare after a pause. "I had, however, my mother's jewelry still +untouched, but, no other resource being now left me, I was compelled +to let it go. A little later the sum of four hundred pounds reached me +anonymously, with a letter stating that it was 'conscience money' +returned by a dying man, it having been won from my father twenty +years before by cheating at cards. That it came as a veritable godsend +I need hardly tell you." + +"And yet, if I would have let you, you would still have gone on paying +for Evan's maintenance." + +"I had promised my dead friend that I would care for the boy as if he +were my own, and, had you not come between me and him, it was a +promise I was resolved to keep at every cost. I had already decided on +my plans for the future, and when I left England I should have taken +the boy with me." + +"When you left England, Mr. Dare?" + +"I have some relations settled in Virginia who have more than once +pressed me to go out to them. It was, and remains, my intention to +settle there, and there to lay the foundations of a new life, very +different from the old one. Now I shall have to go alone. But first I +shall see this business through of my missing godson." + +Why did Nell's heart sink so unaccountably at this statement of Dare's +intentions? What did it matter where he might choose to make his +future home? Whatever he might secretly be to her, she was nothing to +him, and it was out of the question that she ever could be. She knew, +and she made no attempt to disguise the fact from herself, that when +he sailed away from England he would take her heart with him. But what +then? Of how many women was it not the lot to give away their hearts +in secret, and to go through life hopeless of a return? nay, in many +cases without the man to whom it was given knowing that he had such a +thing in his keeping? Her case would be merely one more added to the +number. + +Nell was to return to Stanbrook on the morrow, and before she and Dare +parted it was arranged that he should communicate with her there as +soon as he had any tidings of the missing child, and that the Bow +Street authorities on their part should do the same. + +There was one point with regard to which Nell wished that Dare had +seen fit to enlighten her, and that was as to the nature of the +relationship between himself and the mysterious Mr. Ellerslie of +Rockmount, for that a relationship of some sort existed between them +she now felt more convinced than ever. She had seen Mr. Ellerslie but +once, and that merely for an hour by candlelight, and, while conscious +of a strange illusive likeness on his part to some one, more +especially about the eyes, she had been unable to recall to mind who +that some one was. She knew now, and had known for some time, that the +original of the shadowy likeness was none other than Geoffrey Dare. +But no mention of Mr. Ellerslie's name had escaped the latter's lips, +and it was certainly not her place to question him. + +There was one more point as to which her curiosity seemed doomed to +remain equally unsatisfied. She was still ignorant whether she was +indebted for the return of her mask to Mr. Ellerslie or to Geoffrey +Dare. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +THE ADVENTURES OF A SNUFF-BOX. + + +It may or may not be remembered by the reader that in an early chapter +of this veracious history mention was made of a certain Sir Peter +Warrendale, and of his unavailing pursuit of his runaway niece and her +lover when on their way to Gretna Green. It was also told how, on his +return journey, he was stopped by a highwayman, whom, under the title +of "Colonel Delnay," he had met before under rather peculiar +circumstances, and was politely relieved of his purse, snuff-box, and +other trifles. + +No one need have wished for a worse character than that borne by Sir +Peter Warrendale for a score miles round Whatton Ferris. His private +life would not bear examination; as a landlord he was mean and +close-fisted to a degree, and in his magisterial capacity he was never +known to temper mercy with justice, but always to make a point of +inflicting the maximum penalty allowed by law on any poor wretch who +might have the misfortune to be haled before him. + +Notwithstanding his irascibility of temper and the bluster in which he +indulged when in pursuit of his runaway niece, Sir Peter was an arrant +poltroon at heart, and into such a fright did he fall when his chaise +was stopped by the sham Colonel Delnay that, happening to have his +snuff-box in his hand, he proffered it on the impulse of the moment, +together with his purse, if only his life might be spared. + +The box was studded with brilliants, and Dare--for he was the +"gentleman of the road"--being well aware of the mean and avaricious +nature of the man, and how the loss of it would grieve him to the +soul, took it, with the intention of returning it anonymously after +the lapse of a few weeks. But when, about a month later, he caused +certain inquiries to be made with a view to the restitution of the +box, he found that Scrope Hall was shut up, and that Sir Peter and his +family had taken their departure for Bath, and from thence were +expected to go to town. Then, somewhat later, came the news that +Scrope Hall was to let and that the baronet had taken up his permanent +residence in London. + +It may here be noted that it was Captain Nightshade's invariable +practice to limit his attentions to hard cash and bank-notes--to the +purse of the well-to-do traveller by chaise or coach, and the +plethoric money-bag of the wealthy landowner on its way to or from the +local bank. Watches, snuff-boxes, rings, and other trinkets he put +politely aside as "unconsidered trifles" with which he did not choose +to concern himself. + +Dare at the time troubled himself no further about Sir Peter's +snuff-box, but when he next went to London he took it with him, with +the intention of ascertaining Sir Peter's address and forwarding it to +him by a trusty messenger. But it was found that Sir Peter was on the +Continent, and when Dare went back to the North the box went with him. + +Once more he had brought the box to town, hoping on this occasion to +be able to rid himself of it. But before he had an opportunity of +doing so, the news of Evan's abduction reached him, and he at once +hurried off to Chelsea, and for the next two or three days his time +and thoughts were taken up with far more important matters than the +baronet's snuff-box. Meanwhile, with the carelessness, hardly removed +from recklessness, that was characteristic of him, he carried the box +about with him in his waistcoat pocket. + +Now, it so happened that in the course of the forenoon of the day +following that of his second interview with Miss Baynard, as he was +taking a short cut to his lodgings through one of the narrow and not +over savory lanes which divided Holborn from the Strand, he came on a +crowd of people gathered round a man who had fallen down in a fit, +either real or simulated. Dare had pushed his way steadily, through +the crowd and had got some yards beyond it, when some instinct, so to +call it, caused him to clap his hand to his waistcoat. Sir Peter's +jeweled snuff-box was gone! + +For Geoffrey Dare such an experience was certainly a novel one. No +sooner did he realize his loss than he broke into a cynical but not +unamused laugh. "Confound the rogue's impudence!" he exclaimed half +aloud. "Where were his eyes that he failed to recognize a gentleman of +his own kidney? It is to be feared that he will find himself landed at +Tyburn one of these days." + +He was still standing with his hand pressed to his empty pocket, and +staring at the fluctuating crowd, when a hand was laid on his shoulder +and a voice said in his ear: "What's the matter, Mr. Dare? You look as +if you had just lost something." + +Dare, turning, recognized the speaker for John Tipway, a famous Bow +Street runner, whose acquaintance he had made a couple of days before +when reporting the abduction of the young heir. + +"That's exactly what I have done," replied Dare. + +"Pocket picked, eh?" + +Dare nodded. + +"Anything of consequence?" + +"A very valuable snuff-box." + +"Ah-ha! A noted neighborhood this for petty larceny. Hardly a worse +anywhere. But come along with me to the office--I'm on my way +there--and lodge a description of the missing property. Who knows but +we may be able to recover it for you from the pawnbroker's or +somewhere else." + +Dare hesitated, and well he might, considering under what +circumstances the box had come into his possession. But in the company +of Mr. Tipway to have hesitated over a matter of that sort would have +tended to provoke suspicion, and that was what he could not afford to +do. So he accompanied the runner to Bow Street--not without a certain +relish for the comedy of the situation--and there furnished a +description of the stolen box, leaving an address, that of a humble +lodging in a back street in Bloomsbury, at which any tidings of it +might be communicated to him. + +By that night's coach he started for the North in order to take up the +quest to which he had vowed himself. + +About a fortnight later the snuff-box was found in the possession of a +swell-mobsman who had been arrested for another offence. + +Now, it so fell out that Sir Peter Warrendale, who was much put about +by the loss of his box--although he had himself almost thrust it into +the hands of the self-styled Colonel Delnay--not only because it was +intrinsically valuable, but because it was a cherished heirloom, had, +on his arrival in town some weeks after his encounter with the +highwayman, given a description of it at Bow Street, on the faint +chance that it might turn up at one of the London pawnshops, or in +some other fashion. A peculiarity of the box was that it had a false +bottom, a fact which Dare had failed to discover. But it was a feature +which Sir Peter, in his account of the box, had not forgotten to +specify, so that the Bow Street official, who happened to be blessed +with a good memory, found himself in possession of an article which +was claimed by two different owners and was stated to have been stolen +from both! + +Sir Peter Warrendale was communicated with, and at once identified the +box as his property, and explained the mystery of the false bottom, +under which lay _perdu_ a miniature of his great-grandmother when a +beauty of eighteen. + +The question that now put itself was by what means had the box come +into Dare's possession? It was a question which only himself could +answer. So a messenger was sent to his lodgings with a request that he +would go to Bow Street and identify the box. But Dare was not there, +and all the information his landlady could supply was that he had gone +into the country and that the date of his return was uncertain. + +Accordingly, a message was left requesting his presence at Bow Street +immediately upon his return to town. Meanwhile the snuff-box remained +in the hands of the authorities. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +IN QUEST OF THE MISSING HEIR. + + +Mr. Geoffrey Dare alighted from the London coach at Tuxford, a small +market-town some half dozen miles from Uplands. + +Next morning he set about making certain inquiries, which resulted in +his ascertaining that Uplands was now empty and to let, and that Mrs. +Bullivant had transferred herself and her belongings to a much smaller +house, known as Homecroft, about twenty miles away on the other side +of the country. The nearest town to Homecroft was Broxham, a place of +some twelve thousand inhabitants, and thither Dare lost no time in +betaking himself. + +After breakfast next morning he hired a horse and started for a long +ride. When he got back in the early evening he had learnt a good deal +more about Homecroft than he knew when he set out. Whether the +particulars thus gathered by him would prove of any after use it was +too early to determine: in point of fact, he had not yet decided upon +his course of action. The subject was one which needed careful +consideration if a fiasco were to be avoided, and just then he was +turning it over and over in his mind. + +Next day was Broxham horse and cattle fair, and from early morn till +late at night the little town was a busy scene in which business and +pleasure were strangely commingled. Dare was a lover of horseflesh, +and he found much to interest him in a casual way as he strolled idly +about the fair, mentally chewing over the question of what his next +step ought to be in the undertaking to which he had bound himself. + +In those days even more than now a horse fair acted as a sure magnet +for bringing together a small crowd of gypsies, and certainly there +was no lack of them on this occasion at Broxham. + +Dare had come across a couple of their encampments while riding out +the day before, but it was not till to-day when, as he stood on the +fringe of the crowd, listening to the chaffering and bargaining, but +thinking of other things, a smiling, black-eyed, ruddy-lipped _chi_ +sidled up to him and asked him to cross her hand with a bit of silver, +that of a sudden an idea came to him which seemed to open up a way out +of the difficulty with which he had been perplexing his brain ever +since he left London. + +If Dare crossed the girl's hand with a piece of silver, it was not +with the view of having his fortune told. Drawing her further apart +from the crowd, he stood in earnest talk with her for several minutes, +nor did they part till they had come to a mutual understanding. Dare's +last words to the girl were, "Tell your father that he may expect to +see me at dusk to-morrow." + +Dare was not unacquainted with Romany life and Romany ways. As a lad +of seventeen he had once spent a month of _vie intime_ at one of their +encampments, and the knowledge then acquired by him he hoped to be +able to turn to good account on the present occasion. + +Not till the sun had dipped below the horizon did he set out next +afternoon to walk the couple of miles or more which would bring him to +a certain furze-lined hollow among the moors, where a number of +gypsies whom the fair had brought into the neighborhood had made their +temporary home. He had got about halfway, and was on the point of +turning off the high-road--which was here unfenced and open to the +moors on both sides--at a place previously described to him, when he +was suddenly confronted by a man who started up from behind a thick +clump of brambles. Dare came to a halt, and for a few moments the two +stood measuring each other in silence. + +The stranger, an unmistakable gypsy, was the first to speak: "You are +the _gorgio_ that had something to say to my daughter yesterday at the +fair?" + +"I am." + +"And you want her, with my leave, to do something for you for which +you are willing to pay us in good red gold?" + +"You could not have put the case in fewer words." + +"Well, here we are, with only the rising moon and our own shadows for +company. We could not have a better chance for saying what is to be +said." + +Nothing could have suited Dare's purpose better. + +The _gryengro_, or horse-dealer, proceeded to charge and light his +pipe, while Dare refreshed himself with a copious pinch of snuff. +Then, by the light of the young moon, as they slowly paced the soft +turf to and fro, the latter went on to unfold his wishes: + +"About a mile on the other side of Broxham there stands in its own +grounds a small country house, the name of which is Homecroft. After +remaining empty for a long time, it has now found a tenant in the +person of Mrs. Bullivant, whose husband died a few years ago, and +whose one child, a boy of five or six, is at present from home, most +probably on a visit to his grandfather, Lord Cossington. Now, although +her own child is away, I have strong reasons for believing that Mrs. +Bullivant has another child, who has been stolen away from his +friends, hidden in the house, whose presence there is only known to +the _rawni_ herself and two or three of her domestics. So, what I want +to have found out for me is, whether there is, or is not, such a child +as the one I speak of under the roof of Homecroft, and the first +question is, whether your daughter can obtain that information for me +without arousing any suspicion on the part of Mrs. Bullivant or any of +her people." + +To this the gypsy, whose name was Enoch Bosworth, replied that he had +very little doubt his daughter Rosilla could manage to obtain the +required information if time were allowed her, and she was allowed to +go to work in her own way in the affair. Dare did not care how she +went to work, so long as she got him the needed particulars. It then +became a question of terms between the two men, and these having been +satisfactorily arranged, they parted, with an agreement to meet again +at the same hour and place four evenings later. + +Although Dare kept his appointment to the minute, he found the +_gryengro_ and his daughter waiting for him, and it soon appeared that +Rosilla had indeed made good use of her time. She was already in a +position to assure him that his belief in the presence of a strange +child at Homecroft was amply justified. Such a child was there, a boy, +with regard to whom none of the domestics knew anything--neither his +name, where he came from, the connection between him and the mistress +of Homecroft, or, in point of fact, why he was there at all. A +middle-aged woman who had been in Mrs. Bullivant's service for a +number of years, was his sole attendant, and none of the other +servants were ever allowed to speak to him--not that much chance of +doing so was given them, a couple of rooms having been set apart for +the boy and the woman, into which they were forbidden to penetrate. + +All this information the artful Rosilla, in the exercise of her +calling as a fortune-teller, had succeeded in worming out of Mrs. +Bullivant's maid, a girl of the name of Moggy Dredge, who, for some +reason or other, had conceived a violent dislike for her mistress--an +admission of which Dare did not fail to see the importance. + +He must contrive an interview with the girl Dredge, and this Rosilla +was commissioned to arrange for. If Mrs. Bullivant's maid would name +her own time and place for meeting a certain gentleman, name unknown, +and there answer a few questions he would put to her having no +reference to herself or her own business, she would find her pocket +the richer by a couple of guineas. + +Rosilla at once undertook to do her best to arrange the meeting in +question, which took place a couple evenings later at a solitary spot +a little way outside the palings of the Homecroft grounds. + +The gypsy-girl, of her own accord, went a little way apart out of +hearing while the _gorgio_ and the lady's-maid said what they had to +say to each other. + +Even before she quite comprehended what it was Dare wanted her to do, +Moggy did not hesitate to confess that, in her own words, she hated +her mistress "worse than poison," and that because of the latter's +treatment of her, and of the insults she saw fit to heap upon her. In +reply to this, Dare very naturally asked her why she did not leave +Mrs. Bullivant and go into service elsewhere. Thereupon Moggy burst +out crying, and, after sobbing quietly for a little while, confided to +Dare that she had had a "misfortune," and had thereby forfeited her +character, and that it was Mrs. Bullivant's knowledge of this fact +which enabled her to trample on the unhappy girl in the way she did. + +Moggy could tell Dare little more about the strange child than he had +already learnt from Rosilla. Nor had he expected that she would be +able to do so. What he had now to arrange for was the future, and he +did not part from the girl till she had given him her promise to +furnish him daily with a written report of everything she could hear +or gather having reference to the child. This report she was to place +each day after nightfall in the hollow of a certain tree, whence it +would be fetched by Rosilla, who would play the part of messenger +between her and Dare. Later, there would be three more guineas for +her, and she confessed that she was badly in need of money to help to +pay for the keep of her child. + +Moggy kept her promise, and night after night Dare received at the +hands of the gypsy-girl her brief and half-illegible reports, the +writing of which caused her many groans, and was the cause of much +perturbation of spirit. But it was not till ten days had gone by that +she found anything of consequence to communicate. Then, indeed, her +news was of a sufficiently startling kind. + +It had been arranged, Moggy wrote, that Mrs. Balchin, the child's +attendant, together with her husband, who was Mrs. Bullivant's +coachman, were to start next evening for Liverpool on their way to +America, the report being that, by the death of a relative in the +States, they had come in for a small fortune, which, however, could +not be paid over to them without their presence on the spot. But it +was not till Dare had got nearly to the end of Moggy's ill-spelt +effusion--he was painfully deciphering it in his room at the inn by +the light of a solitary candle--that of a sudden he sat up and gave +vent to a low whistle. The child, the mysterious child, about whom +none of the servants at Homecraft knew anything, was to accompany the +Balchins on their long journey--a journey, in those days, infinitely +more formidable than it is now. + +The little party of three were to leave Homecraft in Mrs. Bullivant's +carriage at half-past eight p.m., so as to reach Tuxford in time to +catch the night coach bound for the south. + +Dare sat for some time staring at the letter, but without seeing it, +when he had succeeded in mastering its contents. What step ought he to +take next? was the question he was revolving in his brain, and for +some time no satisfactory answer was forthcoming. + +Of course, all along he had been without any absolute certainty that +the child in question was young Evan Cortelyon. Morally sure he might +be, but that was hardly foundation enough on which to base any action +of a definite kind. If he were to go to Piljoy and state his +conviction in the matter, what could the lawyer do? At present no +evidence was available conclusive enough to justify an application for +a warrant, especially against a person of the social standing of the +Hon. Mrs. Bullivant. And yet, if the child were really Evan (as to +which he felt no sort of doubt in his own mind), then must he be +rescued at every cost. + +For a full hour he sat with bent brows, excogitating one scheme after +another, only to reject each in turn, till he had worked round to the +notion which had struck him first of all, but which he had put +temporarily aside till he had satisfied himself that no other plan was +equally feasible. + +At length he rose abruptly and pushed back his chair, "'Tis the only +way," he said aloud. "'Twas the first notion that came to me, and if I +had only had the sense to embrace it there and then, I might have +saved myself all this useless muddling of my brains. A year ago--nay, +far later than that--I should not have hesitated a moment; but +now----! What has come over me? What strange change has been at work +within me? Is that a conundrum very hard to crack, Geoff, my boy? It +may be true, after all, that the moon is made of green cheese." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +THE HON. MRS. BULLIVANT TO CAPTAIN FERRIS. + + +"My dear Wilton," wrote Mrs. Bullivant to her half-brother a couple of +days subsequently to the events recorded in the last chapter, "I have +some very singular news for you which I lose no time in communicating; +but whether--bearing in mind the peculiar features of the case--you +will be inclined to stigmatize it as bad news or to bless it as good, +seems to me somewhat problematical, and I at once confess that I am +myself at a loss to know in which light to regard it. + +"Although my disappointment in the matter of Mr. Cortelyon's will was +so extreme as almost for a time to drive me beyond myself, and to stir +up within me feelings and passions to which I had been a stranger +aforetime, and although I took a silent oath that, come what might, I +would be revenged for what I then regarded, and still regard, as the +vile trick of which I was made the victim; yet am I inclined to think +that had it not been for your persistent fanning of the flame which +just then burnt so fiercely within me, my passion would gradually have +cooled down, my reason would have again found its equipoise, and I +should never have given my sanction to a certain step, the rashness +and futility of which I recognized almost from the moment of agreeing +to it. + +"Mind, in writing this I am not imputing any blame to you; or, if +there is any, we share it on equal terms. Your own disappointment was +bitter enough in all conscience to goad you on to do things from +which, at another time and in your calmer moments, you would have +turned away as being not merely useless, but impolitic. + +"From the moment you placed young Cortelyon in my hands my almost +insane longing to be revenged for the foul wrong his grandfather had +done me slackened and grew faint, and I recognized with overwhelming +clearness what a blunder we had made and with what a burden I had +saddled myself. Now that I had got the child into my keeping what was +I to do with him? There was the rub. As for carrying out the dark hint +you one day let drop--only by way of trying me, I feel sure, and with +no thought that I would agree to act on it--as you know, I shrank from +it aghast. I have a child of my own, and I could not forget it; and, +little cause as I had to love young C., whatever else might happen to +him his life was absolutely safe so long as he remained under my roof. +But the perplexing question of how to dispose of him was one which +allowed me no rest. + +"As you are aware, from the date of the lad's arrival at Homecroft I +put him into the sole charge of Mrs. Balchin (whom, as I have good +reason for knowing, I can thoroughly trust), and kept him wholly +secluded from the rest of the household, for whose benefit I invented +a little fable explanatory of my reasons for acting as I did, but to +what extent they believed it I have no means of knowing. + +"If I had been uncomfortable before, you may imagine what effect your +letter had on me in which you informed me that a reward of five +hundred pounds was offered for the recovery of the missing heir. For +the next few days I was like a distracted woman, turning over in my +mind a dozen schemes, each one more wild and impracticable than the +last. + +"Then, all at once, the black clouds opened and a way of escape lay +clear before me. + +"As I daresay you may remember, not only Mrs. Balchin, but her +husband, is in my service, the latter having acted as my coachman ever +since my marriage. Well, a few mornings ago Balchin received a letter +from a firm of lawyers in New York informing him that a legacy +equivalent to five hundred pounds of English money had been left him +by an uncle lately deceased, but that it would be requisite for him to +go over to the States, and be prepared to prove his identity, before +the money could be paid him. When he came to me and showed me his +letter, and told me all this, I could have found it in my heart to +embrace him. + +"Can you guess, _mon cher frère_, what were the first words I said to +myself? They were these: 'Balchin's wife shall keep him company on the +voyage, and with them they shall take young Cortelyon. _But they shall +come back alone?_ + +"There is no need to trouble you with details. It will be enough to +state that by the evening of the second day after Balchin's receipt of +the letter all arrangements had been made, and the little party of +three were ready to start. They were to have the use of my carriage as +far as Tuxford, where they would join the night coach for the south on +their way to Liverpool, from which port they would sail by the first +available packet for New York, Balchin is a capable man, and I had no +fear about his failing to carry out the instructions laid down for +him. Of course the expenses of the journey, so far as his wife and the +child were concerned, were to be defrayed by me. + +"I ought to mention here that I had often heard Mrs. Balchin refer to +her numerous clan of cousins in America, and when I put the case +before her she readily engaged, for a hundred pounds paid down, to get +the boy permanently adopted by one of them. As you know, I could ill +spare any such sum, but I would have made a still greater sacrifice +rather than let the opportunity go by of ridding myself of what had +latterly become the incubus of my life. + +"The clocks were striking nine when they started, which would leave +them an hour and a-half for the journey to Tuxford. Balchin was on the +box, with the stable-boy beside him, whom it was necessary to take in +order that he might bring back the carriage. Inside were Mrs. Balchin +and the child, the latter soundly asleep under the influence of a +narcotic. You can but faintly imagine with what an intense feeling of +relief I watched the carriage disappear in the soft darkness of the +autumn night. + +"You will be wondering by this time as to the nature of the singular +news which I began this letter by telling you I had to communicate. +You shall now be told it, what I have written so far being merely the +needful introduction thereto. + +"Imagine, then, if you can, my feelings of mingled amazement and alarm +when, shortly after ten o'clock, my maid came to tell me that the +carriage had just returned, and that Balchin was very anxious to speak +to me. I ordered him to be at once admitted, and the moment I set eyes +on his face I knew that something had gone amiss, although the mere +fact of his presence there was enough to convince me on that point. + +"Without giving him time to speak, I said quickly: 'Where is the +child? Nothing has happened to him I hope?' + +"'Only this, ma'am, that we've been robbed of him,' was his reply. + +"And so it proved to be. As they were crossing Blaydon Heath they had +been stopped by a masked horseman carrying a pistol in one hand and a +small lantern in the other, who had bidden Balchin bring the carriage +to a halt, on pain of instant death. Naturally the man was much +frightened, seeing that in his wife's purse was not merely the +passage-money for all three, but the hundred pounds given by me for +the purpose just named. But in that respect his fears proved to be +unfounded. Riding up to the carriage window, the horseman first turned +his lantern full on Mrs. Balchin and then on the face of the sleeping +child. 'As I thought, madam, as I thought,' he said. 'I find you here +in possession of property which does not belong to you. With your good +pleasure I will relieve you of it. Nay, no demur, or you will find it +the worse for you. Child-stealing, allow me to remind you, is a crime +punishable with a long term of transportation. Hand the boy over to me +at once, and thank your lucky stars that you are allowed to escape so +easily.' + + +[Illustration: "The compliments of Captain Nightshade."] + + +"What could the woman do but comply? Indeed, as she has since told me, +she was nearly frightened out of her wits. Without dismounting, the +horseman opened the carriage door, and the child, still sleeping +soundly, was transferred to him. Placing the boy in front of him, with +one arm round him, he backed his horse from the carriage, and then +addressing Balchin, said, 'You can drive back home, and when you get +there give my compliments to your mistress--the compliments of Captain +Nightshade--and tell her she ought to go down on her knees and thank +me for having saved her from the consequences of a most shameful +crime.' With that he waved his hand, set spur to his horse, and +cantered off. + +"Such was the story brought back by Balchin. + +"Captain Nightshade, I must tell you, is a notorious highwayman who +for two or three years past has been the terror of this part of +England. For the last six or seven months, however, nothing has been +heard of him, and everybody was hoping that he had seen fit to +transfer his attentions elsewhere. + +"Now, tell me this if you can. How did he, of all people in the world, +succeed in discovering that young C. was hidden under my roof, and +that he was about to be smuggled away at that particular time? It is a +question which the oftener I ask it, the more bewildered I become. +Somebody must have acted the part of spy and traitor, but who is that +somebody? and through what mysterious channel did he or she succeed in +communicating my intentions to the highwayman? I have my suspicions in +the matter, but I refrain from inflicting them upon you. + +"Captain Nightshade's motive in getting hold of the boy is as plain as +a pikestaff. He will restore him to his friends, and claim the reward +offered for his recovery. + +"And after such an ignominious fashion has the scheme of revenge +hatched by you, and in a weak moment acceded to by me, collapsed and +crumbled to pieces. That I should ever have allowed myself to be mixed +up with any such affair seems to me, writing now, wholly +inconceivable; but it merely serves to prove to what lengths a woman +will go when blinded by passion, spite, and the overthrow of her most +cherished hopes. + +"Somehow, I have not much fear that the friends of young C., even +should the facts of the case be made known to them, will take any +further steps in the affair. They will not, I am quite sure, if Miss +Baynard has any say in the affair. I could love that girl, Wilton, +were it in my nature to love anybody. And to think that not a shilling +of her great-uncle's wealth will come to her! It is most shameful. + +"But enough, I am tired, and must leave till another day my answers to +certain questions which you ask in your last letter. + + "Your affectionate sister, + + "Onoria Bullivant." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +A JOYFUL SURPRISE. + + +All this time Miss Baynard was waiting at Stanbrook for the news which +seemed so long in coming. + +As one slow day followed another without bringing the longed-for +tidings her heart grew sick within her. Perhaps the boy had been +spirited out of the country, and she should never set eyes on him +again; perhaps something worse even than that had befallen him. Mr. +Piljoy came over on business connected with the estate, but brought no +comfort with him. Till some tidings of the missing heir should come to +hand no steps whatever could be taken with reference to the settlement +of the property. After his receipt of Nell's letter containing the +news of the abduction he had communicated direct with the authorities +in London, but, beyond a reply to the effect that the case was already +in hand and having their best attention, he had heard nothing. He had +more than one question to put to Miss Baynard having reference to Mr. +Geoffrey Dare, to which she contented herself with replying that Dare +had been her cousin's bosom friend, and was the missing boy's +godfather, and had promised poor Dick to look after him as if he were +his own son. What would have been Mr. Piljoy's horror and amazement +had he been told that Mr. Geoffrey Dare and the notorious Captain +Nightshade were one and the same person! Nell could not help laughing +a little to herself as her imagination conjured up the picture. + +But our heroine's state of soul-wearing suspense was not destined to +last much longer. + +On the evening of the second day after Mr. Piljoy's return home a +letter was brought her which caused her to start with amazement the +moment her eyes fell on it. The address was in the same writing as +that of the packet in which her lost mask had been returned to her. +For a space of some seconds she stood staring at it like one +fascinated; then with fingers that shook a little she broke the seal +and tore open the letter. Here is what she read: "Mr. Cope-Ellerslie +presents his compliments to Miss Baynard, and has much happiness in +informing her that news has reached him not only of the safety but of +the whereabouts of her young relative, Master Evan Cortelyon. + +"Should Miss Baynard think it worth her while to come as far as +Rockmount, Mr. Ellerslie will be pleased to tell her all that has come +to his knowledge in connection with the affair, in which case the +bearer of this letter is instructed to act as her guide and escort on +the journey." + +She could hardly make out the last few lines for the happy tears which +already dimmed her eyes, and so had to read them again. + +Go to Rockmount! Of course she would. Had it been to the end of Europe +she would have gone, and ten minutes later she was ready to start. Day +was already drawing to dusk, and timorous-hearted Mrs. Budd would fain +have persuaded her to put off her journey till morning. But timid +counsels had never prevailed with Nell, and it was not in the least +likely that they would in a case like the present. + +She had at once sent word to have her mare saddled and brought round, +and it was waiting for her, in charge of John Dyce, by the time she +was ready. Nell was hardly surprised at finding that the man who had +brought the letter, and who was waiting for an answer to it, was the +one who on the occasion of her first sojourn at Rockmount had acted as +her guide as far as the Whinbarrow road. Would he recognize in her the +young spark whom he had then escorted? It seemed hardly likely that he +would, and in any case, it did not matter greatly. It was far more +probable that he would recognize her mare Peggy. + +"I am going back with you to Rockmount," she said to him. + +"All right, mum," he replied, with a tug at his forelock. "You +couldn't have a finer evenin' for a ride." + +Neither man nor horse had lacked for refreshment while waiting. And so +presently they set out, Miss Baynard leading the way by about a dozen +yards. This lasted till they had gone some six or eight miles, and had +reached a point where it became necessary to diverge from the great +highway they had hitherto been traversing and take to one of the +tortuous cross-country roads which branched off into the desolate +region of fells and moors. Then the position of the two was reversed, +and it was the man who led the way. + +It was quite dark by the time they reached Rockmount, or as nearly so +as it ever is on a clear, starlit autumnal night. As Miss Baynard drew +rein in front of the house, her mind was busy with the incidents of +that other night, now many months old, when one whom she had since +learnt to love in secret with all the fervency of a first great +passion had brought her to the door of Rockmount and had there left +her. How full of incident for her those months had been! What a +changed life, both inwardly and outwardly, had hers become between +then and now! + +Her guide, having dismounted, gave a resounding knock on the great +oaken door and then helped Miss Baynard to alight. When that was done +he led the horses away towards the back premises, and the same instant +there was the sound of bolts and bars being unloosened one by one. So +remote and lonely was the house that it was no wonder the inmates +looked carefully to their fastenings. + +Then the door was opened, disclosing the same sour-visaged old +serving-man, carrying a lighted candle, whom Nell had seen on the +first occasion. + +"Be good enough to tell your master that Miss Baynard is here," she +said. + +Making an arch of one of his knotted hands, he peered at her for a +moment or two from under it. Then he said: "The Master is expecting yo. +Will yo be pleased to come in?" + +And so for the second time, Nell crossed the threshold of Rockmount. +The door having been shut behind her, the old fellow led the way +across the hall, and so brought her presently to the same sparsely +furnished room with which she was already so well acquainted. Then she +was left alone. + +As Nell looked round the room she could have fancied that only a few +hours had gone by since she was last there. The candles were alight, a +cheerful fire was burning in the grate; the heavy curtains of faded +red moreen were closely drawn; nothing was changed. From moment to +moment she looked to see Mr. Cope-Ellerslie enter. + +Would he, when they met, treat her as a stranger, or as one whom he +knew already? It was a question she had asked herself more than once +while on her way to Rockmount. That he knew the pseudo Mr. Frank +Nevill to be none other than Miss Baynard, of Stanbrook, he had +himself furnished her with proof positive in the return of her mask; +but did he know at the time he gave her a night's lodging who she was, +or did he not discover it till afterwards? And, in either case, by +what mysterious means had he made the discovery? She had not +forgotten, nor was it likely she should forget, that in the chamber +assigned her at Rockmount she had found a certain feminine garment, +but whether placed there by accident or design she had no means +whatever of knowing. If by design, then must Mr. Ellerslie from the +first have penetrated the secret of her sex. It was a thought which, +even after all this time, caused the blood to tingle in her veins. + +But these questions, personal to herself, perplexing though they were, +did not cause her for more than a minute or two at a time to lose +sight of the main object which had brought her to Rockmount, while +wholly at a loss to imagine how it had come to pass that the first +news of the lost child should have reached her through Mr. Ellerslie, +and neither through Bow Street nor Geoffrey Dare. Not that it mattered +greatly, so long as news of him had come to hand. She was all +impatience to hear what Mr. Ellerslie had to tell her. + +She could not help starting when the door opened, thinking to see him; +but it was Mrs. Dobson, the housekeeper, who now came in. Nell had by +no means forgotten Mrs. Dobson, and she scrutinized her a little +anxiously. Would the housekeeper recognize her? Would there be +anything in her manner to betray a knowledge of their having ever met +before? + +Mrs. Dobson, having shut the door, came forward a little way, crossed +her hands in front of her, and made Miss Baynard a respectful curtsey. +Then their eyes met, and Nell read nothing in those of the other which +she might not have read in the eyes of any stranger. Undisguised +admiration they betrayed of a surety, but to that our young lady was +so used that she thought nothing of it. + +"Madam," began the housekeeper, with the tone and manner of a +well-bred dependent, "my master desires me to say that in another room +there is a very charming little picture, a view of which he feels sure +would please you vastly. If you will be good enough to accompany me I +will conduct you to it." + +Miss Baynard stared at the housekeeper with wide-set eyes. "A +picture!" she said. "Surely Mr. Ellerslie has not asked me to +Rockmount merely to show me a picture!" + +"That is more than I can say, miss. My business is simply to repeat my +master's message. But I feel quite sure that if you knew what the +picture is, you would never forgive yourself for having refused to see +it. Do come, miss," she added next moment, seeing that Miss Baynard +still hesitated. + +"Very well, I will go with you," said Nell. + +Mrs. Dobson led the way through the gloomy old house to a bedroom on +the first floor, but not the one occupied by Miss Baynard on the +occasion of her first visit to Rockmount, although differing very +little from it in its furniture and appointments, except in one +particular. In the middle of the floor stood a couch, to which Nell's +eyes travelled instinctively the moment she entered the room. It had +been made up temporarily with pillows and coverlets, so as to form a +child's bed. A solitary wax candle was alight on the chimney-piece. + +A low, inarticulate cry broke from Nell. Brushing past the +housekeeper, she went swiftly forward and bent over the couch. The +truth had flashed across her as she set foot over the threshold, and +now her eyes verified it. There, in rosy slumber, his cheek pillowed +on one hand, the other arm flung with graceful abandon outside the +coverlet, lay the missing child. This was the picture Mr. Ellerslie +had invited her to come and see! + +Tears rushed to her eyes and overbrimmed them; a sob broke in her +throat. Not for a full minute, for fear of waking him, did she venture +to stoop and touch the peach-bloom of his cheek with her lips. Her +heart was full, and not till a few more moments had gone by would she +trust herself to speak. The housekeeper was at her elbow. + +"Who brought him, and how long has he been here?" she asked. + +"I found him keeping master company in the library when I came +downstairs this morning. Some one had brought him in the course of +the night. He has been playing about on the moors a good part of the +day--not, of course, without some one to look after him--and came to +bed thoroughly tired out. What a dear little gentleman he is! Not a +bit like many children I've known, but trying to make friends with +everybody. I suppose, miss, that you won't have any objection to +sharing this room with him to-night?" + +Miss Baynard was startled. "But I have not seen Mr. Ellerslie yet," +she objected. "When his message reached me, my only aim was to lose no +time in getting here, and certainly I had no thought or intention of +staying the night at Rockmount." + +"But consider the lateness of the hour, miss; and you would hardly +care, I should think, to have the child wakened in order to take him a +long journey in the middle of the night." + +"No, I certainly should not care for that. But when I left home I did +not know that Evan had been found, and that I was going to see him; +only that Mr. Ellerslie had a message of some kind for me which +concerned him." + +"Well, miss, master certainly expects you to stay till morning, and +asked me hours ago to arrange accordingly. But most likely he will +speak to you himself about it. And now, if you are ready, we will go +downstairs." + +But Nell could not go without another kiss. "He is not left alone +while he sleeps," remarked Mrs. Dobson as they left the room; "my +niece watches by him." + +Downstairs Miss Baynard found the table laid for one person, and three +minutes later a dainty little supper was brought in. + +"When shall I see Mr. Ellerslie?" she asked, as the housekeeper was on +the point of leaving the room. + +"He will do himself the honor of waiting upon you in the course of +half an hour." + +It was very rarely that Nell's appetite failed her, and her long ride +through the night air had, if anything, tended to sharpen it on the +present occasion. She was a healthy English girl, who came of a +healthy stock. She hardly knew that she had such things as nerves. She +was neither hysterical, nor anæmic, nor introspective. No +_fin-de-siècle_ questions troubled her, because the century was yet in +its infancy. She was a warm-hearted, warm-blooded creature, somewhat +too impulsive perhaps, and too easily led away by her own generous +instincts, and although an existence such as hers would nowadays be +regarded as intolerably narrow and antiquated, yet was her life an +exemplar of several of those minor if homely virtues with which so +many of our up-to-date young women profess to be, and probably are, +wholly unacquainted, and to regard with silent contempt. At any rate, +Miss Baynard did full justice to her supper. + +Scarcely had the table been cleared when Mr. Ellerslie entered the +room. To Nell it seemed as if she might have parted from him no longer +ago than the day before, so wholly unchanged was he from the picture +of him which still lived so freshly in her memory. There was the long, +grizzled hair parted down the middle, the short Vandyck beard and +moustache, the black velvet skull cap, and the dark monkish robe which +wrapped him from head to foot. There, too, was the set, mask-like face +with its thousands of fine wrinkles, which from a little distance +looked as if it were carved out of old ivory, a face which seemed to +emphasize the pair of brilliant black eyes that looked out from under +their heavy penthouse brows with an illusive something in them which +reminded Nell strangely of Geoffrey Dare. + +As he entered the room Miss Baynard rose and advanced to meet him with +both hands outstretched. "Oh, Mr. Ellerslie!" she said, and in her +voice there was a veiled emotion not far removed from tears, "how can +I ever thank you enough, how ever be sufficiently grateful to you, for +the glad surprise you have given me this evening? Surely you must be a +necromancer, or the good wizard of a fairy tale, for to me it seems +nothing less than a fairy tale to have one I hold so dear restored to +me in this fashion." + +Mr. Ellerslie took her hands in his, bent over them, and raised them +for a second to his lips. "Nay, nay, my dear young lady," he replied, +"if any thanks be due in the matter--though why there should be I fail +to see--then must they fall not to my share, but to that of my nephew, +Geoffrey Dare." + +An involuntary "Oh!" broke from Miss Baynard. His nephew! It was a +revelation which seemed to throw light on several things. + +"It was Geoff who brought the child here at a late hour last night, +asleep and perched on his horse in front of him. As to whom, where, +and how he picked the youngster up, I must refer you to him in +person." + +"But when shall I see Mr. Dare? Is he not here?" + +"At present he is not. Some business called him away in the course of +the day. But I have his promise that he will be back not later than +ten o'clock to-morrow morning." + +"And I shall see him then?" + +"Certainly you will, my dear Miss Baynard. He will be here immediately +after breakfast." + +By this time he had led her back to her chair, and had seated himself +in another on the opposite side of the hearth. + +Miss Baynard hesitated a moment, then she said: "When I left Stanbrook +in consequence of your message, Mr. Ellerslie, it was certainly +without any design of staying over night at Rockmount." + +"But, my dear young lady, as circumstances have fallen out, I fail to +see how you can very well help yourself; that is to say, unless it is +your intention to leave your young cousin for a time under my charge, +a charge, I need scarcely tell you, which I will very gladly +undertake." + +"You are very good, Mr. Ellerslie, but when I go back Evan must go +with me." + +"Then permit me to observe that, putting yourself out of the question, +the hour is far too late a one for the child to travel." It was the +same argument the housekeeper had made use of. + +"Besides, where's your hurry?" resumed Mr. Ellerslie. "The boy is +restored to you, and that, as I take it, is the main thing. The rest's +but leather and prunella." + +"You might have added, Mr. Ellerslie, by way of clinching your +argument, that it would not be the first time I have slept under the +roof of Rockmount." + +"Eh?" exclaimed Mr. Ellerslie, with a palpable start. + +"A certain Mr. Frank Nevill sought and found shelter here one night +early in the present year. It may be that you have not quite forgotten +the young man in question?" + +"I have not by any means forgotten him." + +"Furthermore, you have been for some time aware--for how long I do not +know--that the aforesaid Mr. Nevill and Miss Baynard, of Stanbrook, +were and are one and the same person. And how I happen to know this I +will now make clear to you. For a certain reason--which at the time +seemed to him all-powerful, but which after-circumstances turned to +foolishness--the _soi-disant_ Frank Nevill chose, for one night, to +enact the part of an amateur highwayman, and wound up his adventure by +accepting the hospitality of Rockmount. On quitting here next morning, +by some oversight he left his mask behind him. Time passed on, and +when three or four months had gone by the missing mask was forwarded +through the post to Miss Baynard, but without any word of explanation, +or any clue to the sender of it. And there the matter rested till this +afternoon, when Miss Baynard received a note from Mr. Ellerslie +informing her that he had certain news to communicate. To Miss B. the +writing seemed not wholly strange, and on comparing it with the +address on the sheet of paper, which she had kept, in which the mask +had been enclosed, she could not doubt that they had both emanated +from one pen. But doubtless much of this is old news to you, Mr. +Ellerslie. To Mr. Dare my double identity has for some time been no +secret, and he----" + +Mr. Ellerslie held up his hand. "Pardon me. Not even to me would my +nephew speak of matters which involved a point of honor between +himself and another. That which you have just told me has now become a +matter of little or no moment, and such being the case, there can be +no harm in my confessing that the identity of Miss Baynard with Mr. +Frank Nevill was suspected by me almost from the first. Why was the +same mare ridden by both, as one of my men, who chanced on Miss +Baynard next day when on her way back to Stanbrook, averred to be the +fact? But it was my housekeeper who was the first to raise a doubt in +my mind with regard to the sex of 'Mr. Frank Nevill.' That young blade +had not been ten minutes under my roof before she came to me and said, +'You may take my word for it, sir, that yon young gentleman in the oak +parlor is no more a gentleman than I am, and would be far more at home +in petticoats than in what he's wearing now.' Evidently Mrs. Dobson +knew what she was talking about. She is a woman of penetration, and I +have a great respect for her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +A PARTING AND A LETTER. + + +Next morning Miss Baynard and Evan breakfasted alone, Mr. Ellerslie +remaining invisible. But Nell, who was becoming accustomed to her +host's eccentricities, was hardly surprised at his non-appearance. Not +much appetite had she this morning. Dare was coming at ten o'clock, +and the thought of her forthcoming interview with him disturbed her +strangely. They were about to part. When she had given expression to +her gratitude, and they had taken leave of each other, and she had +gone her way and he his, what chance or likelihood was there of their +ever meeting again? By his own confession his business in England was +now at an end; in a few days, or a few weeks at the latest, he would +have left its shores, never to return; they would have passed out of +each other's life, and, except for one thing, all would be as it was +before they first met. + +Yes, save and except for one thing, but one which to Nell made all +imaginable difference. Then she had held her heart fast in her own +keeping, but what had become of the poor thing now? She had given it +away without having been asked for it. Could anything be more +shameful? It was gone from her past reclaiming; lost to her forever; +and yet he into whose keeping it had been given knew nothing about it. +And he never would know. He would carry it away with him, all +unwitting, and to all outward seeming, life with her would go on just +as before. She alone would know that she had lost something which +nothing else could make up to her, that some of the magic had faded +out of existence, and that the sun no longer shone quite so brightly +as it had been used to do. + +Hardly had the clocks struck ten when there came a tap at the door, +which was followed by the entrance of Geoffrey Dare. Young Evan was on +the floor busied with some toys which the housekeeper had disinterred +for him out of one of the garrets. The moment he saw who the newcomer +was, he called out: "Uncle Geoff, come here. One of my horses has only +got three legs, and I want you to make me a new one." + +"Presently, my dear boy, presently," he replied, as, after pausing for +a moment at the door, he went slowly forward, his eyes fixed full on +Miss Baynard. + +She was standing, supporting herself with one hand on the table and +with the other pressed to her side. For a little space her gaze met +his without the flicker of an eyelash and then dropped before the +ardor of his regard. Her heart was beating tumultuously, while the +quick rise and fall of her bosom told of the emotions at work beneath. +A lovely flush suffused both face and throat; but Dare was paler than +ordinary, and haggard and weary-looking, and might have just risen +from a sick bed. Both were putting a strong restraint on themselves, +but each showed it in a different way. + +Nell did not advance with impulsive outstretched hands, as she had +done in the case of Mr. Ellerslie. It was as though her limbs refused +to move under her. But when Dare came up and held out one of his +hands, she laid one of hers in it readily enough. "It did not take +long to bring you here, Miss Baynard," he said, "when once you knew +that my uncle had tidings of the boy." + +After pressing her hand slightly he had withdrawn his own. They might +have been the merest casual acquaintances, Nell felt a little +bitterly. And yet, unless her feelings had blinded her, as he entered +the room, she had detected in his eyes a flame of passionate ardor +from which her own had been fain to shrink abashed. Could it be that +he was hiding something from her, even as she was hiding something +from him? As this question flashed across her she raised her eyes once +more to his. But the flame which had so dazzled her a minute before +was no longer there. Had it been extinguished? or was it merely that a +veil had been temporarily drawn before it? + +It was after a scarcely observable pause that she answered his remark. +"You may be sure that after Mr. Ellerslie's message reached me I let +no grass grow under my feet. I came, looking to have merely some +tidings of the boy, whereas it was Evan himself whom I found! But I am +only telling you what you know already. When I began to thank your +uncle, under the belief that I owed Evan's recovery to him, he stopped +me. It seems that you are the person to whom my thanks are due. +Believe me, Mr. Dare, they are yours from the bottom of my heart." + +Dare bowed. "Not a word more on that score, I beg," he said with a +smile. "I need not tell you that it makes me very happy to have been +the means of restoring Evan to you; but, as you are aware, I myself +have a strong interest in the boy--strong enough to make it impossible +for me to leave a stone unturned till he had been found, whether by me +or some one else did not greatly matter." + +"I am very glad it was you, and not another, who found him." + +"And, of course, I am not sorry that such should have been the case." + +Miss Baynard had resumed her chair, and Dare had dropped into another +no great distance away. + +"If there is no secret involved in the affair, and it will be breaking +no confidence on your part, I should like you to tell me, not only how +you succeeded in discovering Evan's whereabouts, but by what means you +contrived to rescue him from the wretches--for wretches they must have +been--who, to gratify some vile purpose of their own, stole him away +in broad daylight." + +"'Tis a story very easily told. To your old friend Captain Nightshade +is due the boy's rescue from those who abducted him." + +"To Captain Nightshade? Oh!" + +"Who once more, and for the last time, revisited the glimpses of the +moon. But I am starting my story at the wrong end. I will tell it you +from the beginning, since you say you would like to hear it. First of +all, however, I must inquire into the state of Master Evan's horse, +which seems to be minus one of its legs." + +Miss Baynard left Rockmount two hours later, but without seeing Mr. +Ellerslie again, who sent his apologies by his nephew. His rheumatism +had come on in the night, and this morning he was unable to rise. + +Dare rode with Miss Baynard as far as the park gates of Stanbrook, +with Evan in front of him. Next day he was going to London, there to +complete a few preparations and arrange certain business matters for +Mr. Ellerslie, before setting sail for that New World where his home +would henceforth be. But this was not to be their final farewell; they +would see each other once more in about a fortnight, when Dare would +come north in order to bid his uncle goodbye, on which occasion he +would not fail to call at Stanbrook. He would not, of course, dream of +leaving England without seeing his godson again. + +And so they parted, both secretly consumed with love. Dare would not +open his lips. In the first place, he was far too poor to marry; and +then, to dream that, in any case, the proud and beautiful Miss Baynard +would stoop so low as to wed the notorious "Captain Nightshade" was +the veriest moonstruck folly. Had he but known how often Nell, with +despair gnawing at her heartstrings, murmured sadly to herself, "If +only he would say one word!" what a change, little less than +miraculous, would have come over him! + +But the word was not said, and they separated with nothing warmer than +a hand-grasp--torn asunder, not by Fate, but by their own pride, and +to the full as wretched as parted lovers are always said, or supposed, +to be. + + +Lady Carradine, having much leisure time on her hands, and being fond +of letter-writing, not infrequently obliged her goddaughter with one +of her lengthy and somewhat diffusely-worded epistles. To Miss +Baynard, in the retirement of Stanbrook, these occasional glimpses of +a life so different from her own were always welcome; and as her +ladyship had now taken up her permanent residence in London and saw a +good deal of company, she had much to tell that was both fresh and +interesting. + +Nearly a fortnight had gone by since Nell's return from Rockmount, and +she was looking daily for the coming of Dare, when one of Lady +Carradine's crossed and recrossed letters--postage in those days was a +consideration--came to hand. With only one part of her ladyship's +epistle are we in any way concerned. The part in question ran as +under:-- + +"I forget, my dear, whether I ever mentioned to you that among my many +acquaintances is numbered Sir Peter Warrendale, a baronet of old +family, whose home, when he is at home, is somewhere in your benighted +part of the country. Of late years, however, he has been seen a good +deal in town. I have a notion that his health is not quite what he +would like it to be, and that he has little or no faith in your rural +practitioners, which I can't wonder at. But that is his own secret. + +"He is now well on for seventy, a tetchy, cross-grained old man, with +a good word for nobody behind their back; and I have not the least +doubt he pulls me to pieces before others, just as he pulls others to +pieces before me. I candidly confess that I don't like him, but he +helps to amuse me, and to any one who does that I can forgive much. + +"I had not seen him for some little time till one evening about a week +ago, when he called upon me, evidently brimful of news, of which it +was needful that he should relieve himself to somebody if he wished to +escape a fit of apoplexy. I quite expected that I was about to be +treated to the latest scandalous _on dit_, or the most recent morsel +of society gossip, which would lose nothing in Sir Peter's telling, +but for once I was mistaken. What he had to tell me was the +particulars of a somewhat singular incident in which he had figured as +one of the chief actors. + +"It would appear that several months ago Sir Peter, while travelling +in his own chariot, was stopped by a mounted highwayman and relieved, +among other things, of a choice snuff-box--an heirloom, and set with +brilliants--by which he set great store. Although the affair happened +in his own part of the country, when he came to town, a few weeks +later, he reported his loss at Bow Street, and handed in a full +description of the box. This he did in the faint hope that the box +might some day find its way to one of the London pawnbrokers--to each +of whom a description of it would have been furnished--and, through +him, back to its rightful owner. + +"Time went on, and Sir Peter had given up all hope of ever seeing his +box again, when he was one day requested to betake himself to Bow +Street, and there, sure enough, he set eyes once more on his precious +heirloom. It had been found on the person of a low London thief who +had been arrested for something altogether different. + +"But now comes the most singular feature of the affair. The box had +been _twice_ stolen, once, several months ago, from the person of Sir +Peter, and a second time, a few weeks ago, here in London, from the +person of a certain Mr. Geoffrey Dare, and both losses had been +notified to the authorities. + +"Sir Peter having identified the box as his property, it became +needful to ascertain through what channel it had come into the +possession of Mr. Dare, who seems to be one of those numerous young +men of good family about whom one is continually hearing, who seem to +think that twenty thousand pounds will go as far as a hundred +thousand, and who, after their follies and extravagances have made +them the talk of the town for a few seasons, vanish and are no more +seen. At any rate, that, some two or three years ago, the young man in +question was a well-known figure in London society, and that, with the +help of the gaming table--an important factor in nearly all such +cases--he dissipated his fortune to the last shilling, are well +ascertained facts. + +"When inquired for at his lodgings--a couple of cheap rooms in some +horrid back street--it was ascertained that he had gone into the +country for an indefinite time, without leaving any word where he +might be found. Such being the state of affairs, nothing more could be +done till he should return, which he did about ten days ago. A message +had been left at his lodgings, requesting his attendance at Bow +Street, which he seems to have lost no time in obeying. There he was +questioned as to how the snuff-box came into his keeping, and, his +answers not being deemed satisfactory, he was confronted with Sir +Peter. + +"In him--although he admitted that the highwayman was masked--the +baronet professed to recognize the man who robbed him of his purse and +the box; indeed, on being pressed, he actually went so far as to swear +to his identity with the robber, although, from what he has confessed +to me, I cannot help thinking that the evidence on which he grounds +his accusation is of the flimsiest possible kind. + +"But be that as it may, after two or three remands at Bow Street, Dare +has been committed to take his trial for highway robbery at the next +Lanchester assizes, within a few miles of which town Sir Peter was +waylaid. + +"I had written thus far yesterday when Sir Peter himself rang the +bell. He brought me some further news with regard to young Dare which +is of a sufficiently remarkable kind. + +"It would appear that the authorities have some ground for believing +that in him they have laid hands on no less a personage than a certain +Captain Nightshade (a sobriquet, of course), whose exploits and +adventures as a gentleman of the road in the course of the past two or +three years have, according to Sir Peter, formed the fireside talk of +half the households in the north of England. It seems, however, that +some six or eight months ago he disappeared, and has not been heard of +since. But now that the runners have been laid on the scent, 'twill +not be their fault if they fail to run their quarry to earth. + +"Poor fellow! I can't help feeling sorry for him, although it may be +very reprehensible on my part to say so. I am afraid it will go hard +with him at his trial. 'Tis said that Captain Nightshade was one of +the most chivalrous of men, and never robbed a woman in his life." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. +A DESPERATE RESOLVE. + + +Lady Carradine's letter, figuratively speaking, smote poor Nell, like +a bolt from the blue. She had imagined several things, any one of +which might have delayed Dare's coming--he had given her to understand +that his business in London would not take up more than a fortnight at +the most--but no faintest dread or suspicion that, after so long a +time, he would be arrested and cast for trial on a charge connected +with his past career had ever entered her mind. It was like a stab in +the dark by an unseen hand, and she reeled under it, and felt for a +while as if she were hurt in a vital part past hope of recovery. + +She did not sleep a wink during the whole of the night after her +receipt of the news. Now and then she lay down for a little while on a +couch, but for the most part she spent the long dark hours in pacing +her room restlessly from end to end. No sooner, however, had the first +streak of daylight appeared in the sky than she quitted the house, +and, making her way down to the banks of the little river which ran +past the foot of the park, she followed its solitary windings for some +miles, till it drew near the village of Mosscrags, where the early +housewives were now astir, and the laborers going forth to their work; +then she turned and retraced the way she had come. It had seemed to +her that she could think more clearly and coherently under the free +air of heaven than in the confined space of her own chamber. + +All her thinking had for its intent the answering of one question: +"What can I do to help him?" But so bitterly did the sense of her +powerlessness weigh upon her that she could have beaten her head +against the wall in a tempest of rage and impotent passion. She could +do nothing--nothing; a month-old babe would be as competent to help +him as she was. The four walls of a jail held him, and there was no +door of escape open to him save that last one of all which led to the +gallows. Several times in the course of the night the shadows that +seem to lurk so thickly around one at such times had shaped themselves +into the ghastly semblance of a cross-tree with its dangling rope, +which, all imaginary though it was, had caused her soul to shudder and +grow sick within her. + +In the days to which our narrative refers the old barbarous and +inhuman penal code was still in full operation, and crimes which a +short term of imprisonment with hard labor would now expiate had the +last dread sentence of the law pronounced on them without hope of +reprieve. At the Lanchester spring assizes of that year, as Miss +Baynard did not fail to call to mind, a couple of men had been +condemned to death, one of them for sheep-stealing and the other for +shop-lifting. In the eye of the law the crime for which Geoffrey Dare +stood committed was of a much more heinous kind than either of those, +and should the charge be proved against him, as there seemed every +likelihood of its being, then would the gallows seen by Nell with the +eyes of her imagination develop into a very real erection on the roof +of Lanchester jail. In such a case as Dare's--whether or no they +succeeded in identifying him with "Captain Nightshade"--the death +penalty would indubitably be exacted. Justice would demand her victim, +while Mercy wept with her face turned to the wall. + +And still Nell's heart echoed persistently with the cry, "What can I +do to help him?" But it was a cry which both earth and heaven flung +back, and to which no answer was vouchsafed her. All that day and all +the next night she was like a distracted creature, but distracted +after the quiet fashion of one who craves for absolute solitude, and +to whom even the society of those nearest and dearest is distasteful, +if not positively unbearable. + +Kind-hearted Mrs. Budd was greatly put about, being altogether at a +loss to divine what was the matter with Nell, and whether the +strangeness of her manner was due to a mental or bodily cause. Never +before had she developed such peculiar symptoms, for no more sane and +healthy being ever existed. She had never swooned in her life, +although swooning, at proper times and season, was regarded rather as +a fashionable accomplishment than otherwise. She never fancied that +she was ill when nothing ailed her, or pretended that she had lost her +appetite; she was never troubled with qualms, or spasms, or "the +vertigo"; and as for being dyspeptic, she did not know the meaning of +the word. She had been rendered very anxious and unhappy by the +abduction of Evan, and proportionately happy by his recovery, but +there had been nothing in the way she bore herself at that time which +at all resembled the peculiar and inexplicable mood of which she had +been the victim for the last four-and-twenty hours. + +It was in a certain measure due to Mrs. Budd's instinctive tact, which +taught her when it was advisable to speak and when to keep silent, +that she and Miss Baynard had got on so well together. On the present +occasion her instinct told her that Nell was in no mood to bear +questioning, and she kept a guard on her tongue accordingly. But by +the afternoon of the second day her uneasiness had grown to such an +extent that she felt she should be lacking in her duty to one so much +younger than herself if she refrained any longer from endeavoring to +discover what it was that had changed Miss Baynard so unaccountably in +so short a space of time. + +"My dear Elinor, what is it that ails you? Whatever is the matter with +you?" she at length summoned up courage to ask. "You are not like the +same girl that you were at breakfast-time yesterday." + +"Am I not? And yet I am the same," replied Nell with a smile which had +more of tears than mirth in it. "What is't that ails me, do you ask! +Nothing more serious than a fit of the megrims, I assure you. But I am +apt to be dangerous at such times. You had better not come too near +me; I might grow worse and bite you." + +Then, before the astonished lady had time to collect her faculties, +she found herself hugged and kissed, and left alone. Half a minute +later she heard Miss Baynard singing as she went upstairs to her room. +Then a door clashed somewhere in the distance, and all was still. + +Some time in the dead of night Nell lay down on the couch in her +bedroom, and presently sank into the deep sleep of utter exhaustion. +In that sleep she had a very vivid dream, from which, at the end of a +couple of hours, she suddenly awoke. So strongly had the particulars +of her dream impressed themselves upon her that she lay for another +hour without stirring, turning them over and over in her mind till she +had mastered every detail of the scheme which, as she firmly believed, +had been revealed to her by some supernatural influence in her sleep. + +She had scarcely eaten a mouthful of anything since her receipt +of her godmother's letter, but this morning she appeared at the +breakfast-table as usual, and looking as if the last two days had been +blotted out of her existence. She was still a little pale, and dark +round the eyes, but the eyes themselves had lost that look of almost +fierce despair, as of a creature driven to bay and not knowing which +way to turn, which had been their dominant expression for the last +eight-and-forty hours. Now they shone with a serene and steadfast +lustre, which yet had in it a something of fixed resolution, as if +bent on carrying out some hidden purpose, which the busy brain behind +was brooding remotely over, even while its outward attention was +occupied and given with seeming abandonment to far other things. + +Mrs. Budd saw and was satisfied, and was far too wise to put any +further questions with reference to a state of affairs which was so +evidently over and done with. + +Nell followed Mrs. Budd's lead over breakfast-table-talk wherever that +good lady chose to let it wander, and her divagations were many and +various. She seemed in the best of spirits, and when the meal was over +she indulged herself and Evan with a wild romp. + +The boy had been much put about in his childish way because for the +last two nights he had been banished from his Aunt Nell's chamber to +that of Mrs. Budd (in those first days after his recovery Nell would +not entrust him at night to the care of any of the servants), but this +glorious romp made amends for everything. + +After that Nell disappeared for some hours, and was engaged upstairs +in her own rooms; but she joined Mrs. Budd and Evan at dinner, and in +the afternoon they all drove out together and watched the sunset from +the summit of Goat Scar. Then followed a long and happy evening. Never +had Mrs. Budd seen the girl more seemingly merry and light-hearted +than she was that day; she and the Nell of the day before were two +different beings. And yet at times there would come a pause in her +gayety, and for a few seconds the light in her eyes would deepen and +darken, and a look would come into them as if something had suddenly +crossed her vision, seen by herself alone. But, whatever it might be, +it went as quickly as it had come, and with one sharp-drawn breath she +was herself again. + +Next day at breakfast her mood was unaltered; but again, in the course +of the forenoon, she was invisible for a couple of hours. That there +was some secret business afoot Mrs. Budd felt satisfied, but, being +the most discreet of matrons, she would rather have tied a +handkerchief over her eyes than have allowed them to see what it was +evidently not intended they should see. Still, it was not without a +little shock of surprise that she heard the news which Nell broke +abruptly to her as soon as their two o'clock dinner had come to an +end. + +"I am about to leave you for a little while," said the girl, smiling +bravely. "At present I can tell you neither the object of my journey +nor my destination, but that you will know everything in good time I +do not doubt. Neither can I fix the date of my return, because that is +a point about which I am not quite clear. I leave Evan in your hands +with every confidence. That you will look well after him I feel +assured. He loves you and will be happy with you." + +After this followed a few directions with regard to household and +other matters; then Miss Baynard went to get ready for her journey. + +An hour later Mrs. Budd and Evan were waiting on the steps of the main +entrance to see her start. Presently, mounted on her mare Peggy, and +followed by John Dyce, also on horseback, she came riding round from +the stables, and a very fair and gracious picture she made in her long +dark-blue riding habit, over which she wore a short gray cloak lined +with black and tied with black ribbons, being in mourning for Mr. +Cortelyon. Her hat was of black beaver, broad-brimmed and ornamented +with two sweeping ostrich plumes of the same color. + +The afternoon sun, shining upon three or four heavy ringlets of +chestnut hair which had escaped from under her hat, made a golden +glory of them. The late pallor of her complexion had given place to a +lovely flush of color. Her eyes, while more than ordinarily brilliant, +did not smile as her lips did; rather did it seem as if they were +charged with the light of some great resolution which might need all +her courage to carry it through. + +Evan was held aloft for the sake of a last kiss. There was a fervent +"Heaven keep you, darling!" a flickering smile, the glisten of a tear, +a last wave of the hand, and Nell was gone. The widow and child stood +hand in hand till the trees of the avenue hid her from view and the +sound of hoof-beats had died into silence. Then they went back indoors, +but for both the light and gladness of the house had vanished. There +was a chill upon everything, their spirits included. + +An hour-and-a-half's good riding brought Miss Baynard and her escort +to the quaint old town of Lanchester, with its narrow streets and +narrower alleyways, with its many overhanging, lopsided houses, and +its grim old county jail, built of ragged graystone, which frowns +blankly down from the upper end of its wide, irregularly-shaped +market-place, as if in mute warning to all and sundry. Miss Baynard, +whose road led her past one corner of it, shuddered involuntarily as +she glanced at it out of a corner of her eye. For her just then that +gray old pile was the most vitally interesting spot in the whole +world. + +She was bound, first of all, for Langrig, the seat of Sir James +Dalrymple, which was situated in the suburbs of Lanchester. Sir James, +it may be remembered, was one of the trustees appointed under Mr. +Cortelyon's unsigned will, and very glad he was, when he came to learn +the contents of that document, to find that it was so much waste +paper, and that he would not be called upon to help in the carrying +out of what he regarded as its most wicked and unjust provisions. He +had a warm regard for Nell, not only for her own sake, but for that of +her father, whom he had known and liked, and with whom he had spent +many a roystering evening when they were young blades together about +London town. Finally, it may be mentioned that Sir James was chairman +of the Lanchester bench of magistrates. + +"I have come to you, Sir James, on rather a singular errand," began +Miss Baynard, when she had been shown into the library, where she +found the baronet sitting with one leg in a gout-rest, and after the +usual greetings had passed between them. + +"My dear young lady, my humble services are at your command in any and +every way." + +"At the present time there is a certain prisoner, Mr. Geoffrey Dare by +name, in Lanchester jail, awaiting his trial at the next assizes." + +"Which open in three weeks from now. To be sure--to be sure. The +rascal who is said to have waylaid Sir Peter Warrendale and robbed him +of his watch and snuff-box, and who is shrewdly suspected of being none +other than the notorious Captain Nightshade. But what about him?" + +"Merely this, Sir James, that I want you to give me an order of +admission--I know you have ample power to do so--to see him privately +in prison. When I say privately in prison, I of course mean without +witnesses." + +Sir James gave vent to a low whistle. "My dear Miss Baynard, do you +know that this is really a somewhat extraordinary request of yours?" + +"I am quite aware of it. But let me explain why I have preferred it." +She drew a long breath. Without she was prepared to tell a lie--nay, +more than one--she felt sure that her request would run the risk of a +refusal. Lies to her had ever been an abomination, but the aim she had +set before herself was such as to leave her no option in the matter. +When a man's life is at stake, and that the life of the person you +love best in the world, the ordinary rules of conduct are apt to get +mixed and blurred, and much may be forgiven. In such extreme cases +black is liable to be regarded as white, and white as any color you +please. + +Miss Baynard had come prepared to answer objections, and she went on +after a hardly observable pause. + +"The fact of the matter is, Sir James, that Mr. Dare, in his more +prosperous days, was the bosom friend of my late cousin, Dick +Cortelyon, whose young son, as you are aware, has just inherited his +grandfather's property. Well, it so happens that a couple of days ago, +in turning over some letters and other effects which had belonged to +my cousin, I came across a sort of rough diary which had been kept by +him during the last year of his life. In it there is a passage in +which he makes mention of a batch of rather important family papers +which, after he had fallen into disgrace at home, he had entrusted to +the keeping of Mr. Dare. Now, although I have sought for them high and +low, I have failed to find any trace of the papers in question, and am +consequently most anxious to ascertain from Mr. Dare what has become +of them; indeed, I think it most likely that they are still somewhere +in his keeping. Such is my reason, Sir James, for desiring an +interview with him. If it could be arranged for to-day I should esteem +it a great favor, as some very special business will take me from home +to-morrow, and the date of my return is altogether uncertain." + +"My dear Miss Baynard, not a word more is needed. I will at once write +and give you a note, addressed to Captain Jeffs, the governor of the +jail, authorizing him to permit you to have a private interview with +the prisoner Dare. What a pity, what a damnable pity it is (begging +your pardon) that a young fellow with good family and with the +brilliant prospects which, I am given to understand, were once +his, should have brought his kettle of fish to such a market as he +seems to have done! But, as we make our bed, so must we lie on it. +And now---- But, dear me! dear me! here am I running on without ever +thinking to ask you what you will take in the way of refreshment. +That's one of the fruits of being an old bachelor, and of having no +womenfolk to keep me up to the mark and teach me not to forget the +minor courtesies of life." + +In the result, Nell agreed to accept a glass of the baronet's +"particular old Madeira" and a biscuit. Not to have done as much as +that would have been to infringe the unwritten laws of north-country +hospitality. + +Then said Sir James: "I had Lawyer Piljoy here t'other day. His +purpose in coming was to tell me all about the lost child and its +recovery, and a most amazing story it is; and, further, to consult +with me as to what steps, if any, it is advisable to take in the +affair. The first thing I did was to send for Staniforth, who was to +have been your uncle's other trustee, and then we three laid our heads +together. I need not bother you with reciting any of our arguments pro +and con, but in the end we agreed that it would not, for various +reasons, be advisable that any further proceedings should be taken in +the matter. The child has been restored, which is the main thing to be +borne in mind, and we felt pretty sure that no attempt would be made +to abduct him a second time." + +"You say, Sir James, that the child has been restored, which is quite +true, but do you know whom we have to thank for it?" + +"Haven't the remotest notion. I asked Piljoy how it came about, but he +couldn't tell me. He said that if anybody knew, you did, but that +beyond telling him it was the Honorable Mrs. B. who had abducted the +youngster (what a she-cat that woman must be!) you had favored him +with no particulars." + +"It is to Mr. Geoffrey Dare, now a prisoner in Lanchester jail, that +the child's recovery is due. It had been arranged that he--the +boy--should be secretly transported to America, where we should never +have heard of him more, when Mr. Dare, having discovered what was +afoot, in the guise of a highwayman stopped the carriage in which he +was being carried off, and rescued him from the wretches to whose +charge he had been committed." + +"Never heard of such a thing in my life, damme if I did! Um--um! I +crave your pardon, my dear, but strong feelings have a way of finding +their vent in strong language. And young Dare did that, did he? Well, +well, we must see what can be done for him when his trial comes on. +Such stuff as he seems made of is too good for the gallows. And now I +will write you the promised note. I'm afraid you'll be a little later +than the regulation hour for seeing prisoners, but maybe Jeffs will +strain a point for once in a way. At any rate, I'll ask him to do so." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. +"FOR MY SAKE." + + +The late September afternoon was closing rapidly in when John Dyce +helped his mistress to alight from her mare, which had been reined up +close to the great, black, bolt-studded gates of Lanchester jail. It +was a rare thing for those gates to be opened except for the admission +of prisoners, the usual means of entrance and exit being by a postern +in the wall no great distance away. + +On this door Miss Baynard now proceeded to give three resounding blows +with the huge iron knocker. Half a minute later a small wicket was +opened, and a hirsute face peered out into the glowing darkness. + +"Be good enough to have this note given to Captain Jeffs without a +minute's delay," said Miss Baynard in her clear, imperious tones. "It +is of the utmost importance. I will wait here while you obtain an +answer." With that she handed in Sir James's note at the wicket, but +on the top of it lay a shining guinea. + +There was a grunt, and the wicket was shut. + +While awaiting an answer, Nell drew from one of her pockets a long +diaphanous black veil, which she proceeded to fix round the brim of +her hat and to fasten in a knot behind in such a fashion that it came +halfway down her face, leaving nothing of it exposed save her upper +lip, her mouth, and her chin. + +The wait seemed an intolerably long one, and her nerve was beginning +to give way a little, when the wicket was opened for the second time, +and the same hirsute face made its appearance. "The governor says it's +beyont the hour for visitors, and that ye should have come earlier; +but as ye're a friend o' Sir James Dalrymple's he'll admit ye. He +sends word that he's sorry not to come and speak to ye hisself, but +he's got company at dinner, and can't leave th' table." Such, in the +gruffest of tones, was the doorkeeper's welcome message. + +Then the wicket was closed again, and half a minute later the narrow +black door had opened to admit Nell. She slipped in like a shadow, the +postern was shut with a clash, and she found herself in a bare, +flagged ante-room or entrance-hall, with three or four doors opening +out of it, and dimly lighted with a couple of guttering candles. Here +was a second man, like the first, in uniform, who carried in one hand +a jingling bunch of keys, and to whom the doorkeeper introduced her +with the remark, "This is Willyam, mum, who will show ye the way if ye +will please to follow him." + +"Then perhaps William will oblige me by accepting this trifle," said +Miss Baynard; and before the turnkey knew what had happened there was +a guinea nestling in his palm. + +Then from some mysterious pocket Miss Baynard produced a large, flat +bottle containing a quart of the most potent brandy in the Stanbrook +cellars. "And here is something to share between you and to drink my +health in," she added, as she proffered the bottle for the +doorkeeper's acceptance, who took it as tenderly as if it had been a +month-old baby. + +"Eh, mum, but it's agen the rules to accept anything o' this sort," he +remarked, with a wag of his head. "We'll not engage to drink it. No, +no. Rules isn't made in order that they may be broke. We'll just hide +it away where nobody but ourselves can find it, so as not to put +temptation in the way of any other poor body." And with that the +rascal favored his fellow-officer with a portentous wink. + +The latter functionary now lighted a small lantern, and, having +unlocked one of the inner doors, he said, "If you will be pleased to +follow me, mum." + +By this time Nell's nerves were worked up to a point of tension that +was almost unendurable. She set her teeth hard and clenched her hands +as if she intended never to open them again. + +Success had attended her so far; would it desert her now? What she had +already achieved was as nothing in comparison with that which was +still before her. For a few moments it seemed as if the courage which +had hitherto sustained her were about to give way. + +As she followed the man she had merely a vague impression of a gloomy, +flagged, earth-smelling corridor, lighted only by the turnkey's +lantern; of a heavy iron door which had to be unlocked to allow of +their further advance; of another corridor the counterpart of the +first, save that on one side of it some half-dozen doors were ranged +at intervals. At one of these her conductor came to a halt, and, +having selected a key from his bunch, proceeded to unlock it. Then, +flinging wide the door, he said in deep, gruff tones which seemed to +fill the corridor, "Prisoner, a lady to see you," and with that he +moved aside to allow Miss Baynard to enter. + +At the words Dare sprang to his feet. He had been reading, stretched +at full length on the pallet which served him for a bed by night and a +couch by day. A wooden sconce, fixed against the wall, held a solitary +candle of the coarsest tallow, which diffused a dim, sickly light +through the cell. It was an indulgence his own pocket had to pay for. +Had not the volume on which he was engaged been in large print he +could not have seen to read it. + +At sight of him all Nell's failing courage came back to her with a +rush, mingled with a great wave of love and compassion. Hardly could +she command her voice while she whispered to the turnkey, "Leave us +for half-an-hour; don't come before." + +"All right, mum," whispered the man back. + +Then Nell stepped across the threshold of the cell, and the door +was locked behind her. Dare, his book fallen unheeded to the floor, +stood staring at her with wide-lidded eyes as though she were some +visitant from the tomb. Nell responded to his amazement with a +strangely-wistful smile, and eyes that no longer strove to hide a +secret which, she flattered herself, they had never revealed before. +She could not have spoken at that moment to save her life. She felt as +if a spell were upon her; everything about her was unreal. Dare +himself was not a creature of flesh and blood, but merely a projection +of her own imagination. Some sorceress had thrown an enchantment over +her which---- + +"Is it you, Miss Baynard, whom I see? and here, of all places in the +universe!" + +Dare's voice broke the spell that was upon her, and recalled to +her, as in a flash, the very real business--the matter of life and +death--which had taken her there, and which must be entered on without +a minute's unnecessary delay. + +"Yes, it is I, Mr. Dare," she answered in accents that were slightly +tremulous. "You did me and mine a great, nay, an inestimable service; +and I am here to see whether I cannot do something for you in return." + +A bitter smile lit up his sallow features for a moment. "It is indeed +good of you to have put yourself to so much trouble about such a +worthless wretch as I. But, were I a hundred-fold more worthy than I +am, neither you, Miss Baynard, nor any power on earth (save and except +the King's clemency, which is altogether out of the question) could do +aught to help me out of the coil of trouble which I have brought upon +myself." + +"Do not be too sure on that point, Mr. Dare. It is the humblest +instruments which sometimes avail for the most difficult tasks. We +have all read the fable of the lion and the mouse, and cases might +arise in which even such an inconsiderable person as I, owing to my +very insignificance might be able to do things which would be +impossible in any one of greater importance." Her voice was firm +enough by now, and her eyes confronted his unwaveringly. She had +pushed up her veil till only an edge of it was visible across her +forehead at the moment the turnkey had locked the door behind her. + +Dare bowed, but looked slightly puzzled. To what was all this the +prelude? That she had not come there without having some very special +purpose in view he could no longer doubt. But merely to see her face +again was to him what the sight of water is to some poor wretch dying +of thirst in the desert. To himself he always spoke of her as the Lady +of his Dreams. + +"Will you not be seated, Miss Baynard?" he now said, as he brought +forward a substantial three-legged stool, the only thing, except his +pallet, he had to sit on. "My accommodation is of the simplest, as you +can see for yourself. That, however, is not my fault, but an oversight +(shall we call it?) on the part of my custodians, whose affection for +me is so extreme that they cannot bear to part from me." + +So Nell sat down on the three-legged stool, while Dare stood a little +apart, with folded arms, resting a shoulder against the whitewashed +wall of his cell. + +Miss Baynard cleared her voice; the crucial moment had come at last. + +"I am not here this evening, Mr. Dare, merely to sympathize with you," +she resumed, "although that my most heartfelt sympathy is yours needs +no assurance on my part, but to put before you a certain definite +proposition, which has been carefully thought out in all its details, +and the carrying out of which seems to me perfectly feasible. Here, in +the fewest words possible--necessarily few because half an hour at the +outside must bring my visit to an end--is my proposition. It is simply +that you and I shall change places. In half a hour from now you shall +quit this cell in the guise of Elinor Baynard, and I shall stay where +I am, having, for the nonce, exchanged my personality for that of Mr. +Geoffrey Dare." + +Dare had sprung to "attention" long before Nell had come to an end. A +wave of dark crimson swept across his lean face, leaving it sallower +than before. His eyes lighted up with an intense glow. Would any +woman, he asked himself, any woman who was young and beautiful, put +such a proposition to a man if she did not love him? It was a question +he did not wait to answer. He would have time enough to consider it +later on. + +"Never had an undeserving man a more noble offer made him than you +have just made me. But, putting aside the insuperable difficulties in +the way of carrying it out, there are other reasons which----" + +"There are no insuperable difficulties in the way of carrying it out," +broke in Nell. "Every arrangement has been made, as you shall +presently hear. But remember this, that we have no time to waste in +explanations or idle objections." + +Dare bowed as accepting a correction. "Then permit me to say as +briefly as may be, Miss Baynard, that it cannot be, that on no account +whatever could I, or would I accept such a sacrifice at your hands." + +"A sacrifice! Oh, the mockery of the phrase!" Although she spoke +aloud, the words seemed addressed to herself rather than to Dare. She +had removed her riding gloves, and the long, slender fingers of one +hand now gripped those of the other convulsively. Her sharp, white +teeth bit into her underlip and left their mark there. She seemed to +be bracing herself for a final effort. + +"You are no doubt aware," she resumed, "that your trial will come on +in about three weeks from now." + +"That is a circumstance I am not likely to forget." + +"And have you considered, have you allowed your imagination to paint +for you what the consequence will be should the verdict at your trial +go against you?" + +"As, considering the evidence which will be brought against me, it is +nearly sure to do. Yes, I have fully considered the consequence, and +may be said to be on pretty familiar terms with it by this time. But +as for my imagination, I trust it is too well-bred to allow itself to +dwell unnecessarily on details which are best kept in the background +till the latest possible moment." + +"And the prospect does not appall you?" + +"Appall me? No. 'Tis not a pleasant one, I admit. But what would you? +I played a game with Fate, the dice went against me, and I have lost. +That, however, is no reason why I should bewail myself like a puling +child, or why my cheek should blanch at the prospect which I shall +presently be called upon to confront." + +"But will you not see, cannot you comprehend, that a door of escape is +open for you?" Her voice had in it a ring of almost passionate +impatience. The precious minutes were drifting away one by one. + +"Possibly so, but only at an expense which I do not choose to incur." + +"Oh, what headstrong folly! Did the world ever see its like? And you +would rather face your--your doom than accept this sacrifice, as you +choose to call it, at my hands?" + +"Even so. I have said it, and nothing will avail to move me from it." + +For a moment or two she beat her hands together in an agony of +helplessness. Then she stood up. Her face was colorless, and her +forehead contracted as if with a spasm of intense pain. + +"You do not know how cruel you are," she said in low, concentrated +tones. "You drag from me things which I thought never to reveal to a +living soul." She paused for a space of half-a-dozen heart-beats, as +though fighting against some hidden emotion. Then she went on. "Should +it be your fate to die, Geoffrey Dare, the same day that ends your +life shall end mine! I swear it." She lifted up her hands and let her +face sink into them. + +An inarticulate cry broke from Dare, a great light leapt into his +eyes, he drew a step nearer and held out both his arms. Then he half +drew back, with his arms extended in mid-air. "Such words, unless I am +a bad interpreter, can have but one meaning." He seemed to breathe the +syllables rather than to speak them. + +For a few seconds there was no reply, and when it did come he had to +strain his ears or he would have lost it. + +"Your death-day shall be mine. I have said it. Is not that enough?" + +A moment later his arms were about her, and he was straining her +passionately to his heart. "And you love me!--me!!" he ejaculated. +"Oh, miracle of miracles!" + +Sweet to him as a breath from Paradise was the whispered answer: "I +have loved you ever since the night you were so kind to Jack +Prentice." + +It was three minutes later. With what passed in the interim we are in +no way concerned. + +"But consider, my darling, think and consider before it is too late," +urged Dare. "That Miss Baynard of Stanbrook should stoop to love +Captain Nightshade--a highwayman--a minion of the moon! No, it must +not be! And I--I should be a scoundrel to accept so great a gift, +unless----" + +A hand was laid on his lips. "Oh, hush! I will not listen to such +words. You steal away a poor girl's heart, and then you bid her think +and consider! Too late, too late. But never, never will I forgive you +for having wrung my secret from me! Yet, what am I saying? On one +condition I will forgive you fully and freely." + +"And that is----?" + +"That without a word more of demur you do your share in helping me to +carry out the scheme which brought me here. What that scheme is I have +already told you." + +"But, my dearest----" + +For the second time a hand was laid on his lips. "Not a word! I will +not listen. You will do it, if not for your own sake, then for mine. +Do you hear? For mine." + +"For yours, then, let it be," he assented, but for the life of him he +could not see by what means she purposed carrying out her +extraordinary proposition. + +The prison clock began to boom the hour. Miss Baynard started. +"Heavens! Our little slice of time more than half gone, and nothing +done!" + +Then, without a word more, she untied her short gray cloak and laid it +aside. Under it she had on a loosely fitting bodice and her long +riding skirt, both of which garments a couple a minutes later lay in a +heap on the floor; and then to Dare's astonished eyes there stood +revealed the seeming figure of a young man, wearing a ruffled shirt +and cravat, a pair of dark small clothes and Hessian boots--all at one +time the property of unfortunate Dick Cortelyon. Only the plumed hat, +the veil, and the heavy chestnut curls still remained to bespeak their +owner's sex. But Nell's hands went quickly up to her head, there were +a few deft movements of her fingers, and the whole paraphernalia--hat, +veil, and ringlets came bodily away. Well might Dare's eyes open +themselves still wider. Before leaving home she had shorn off +her wealth of tresses, and then, by means of some feminine +sleight-of-hand, had contrived to secure them to the inner side of her +hat in such a way that when the hat was worn the curls lay in quite +natural fashion round the nape of the neck. + +Nor was Dare's wonder yet to end. From a pocket in her small-clothes +Nell now drew forth a black wig, a masquerade relic of poor Dick's, +and proceeded to draw it on over her close-cropped chestnut locks. +Then turning to her companion, who had been regarding her all this +time without a word, she said in mock-serious tones, "Your coat and +vest, sir, or your life!" + +At once Dare divested himself of the articles in question, and when +Nell had inducted herself into them her transformation was complete, +and a very dashing and debonair young buck she looked. + +"And now it is high time for Miss Baynard to make _her_ toilet," she +remarked; "but such an awkward young woman is she that it may be as +well I should lend her a helping hand." + +Dare, who recognized the futility of any further opposition, yielded +himself into her hands and did exactly as she bade him. Although Nell +was tall, he was three inches taller than she, but the riding skirt +admitted of ample allowance for the difference. When, however, it came +to the bodice, that garment cracked ominously, and the hooks and eyes +wholly refused to come together. But, happily, the gray cloak was +ample enough to hide all shortcomings. + + +[Illustration: "Your coat and vest sir--or your life."] + + +Lastly, the elaborate headdress--hat, veil, and curls--had to be +adjusted. This was a matter of some nicety, but presently it was +accomplished to Miss Baynard's satisfaction. Then, stepping back a +pace, she took a general survey of her handiwork. "Yes, I think you'll +do," she said, "although you do look so preternaturally tall. On no +account must you either speak or cough, and do for goodness' sake try +to mitigate that seven-league stride of yours. I suppose that, try as +you might, you couldn't mince or bridle a little, as all young ladies +are supposed to do?" + +Although she spoke with such seeming levity, her nerves were all +a-tingle with mingled apprehension and excitement. She felt as if she +were strapped down on the operating table, and waiting for the coming +of the surgeon with his terrible knife. + +The only remark made by Dare during the process of his transformation +was when Nell was on the point of crowning him with the hat and curls. +With a caressing touch on one of the tresses, he said: "Oh, my dear +one, to think you should have done this for me! What a sacrifice! Can +I ever forgive you?" + +"Of course you can," she answered lightly. "Am I not making you a +present of the rubbish, to do what you like with? Some lovers think +themselves well off if they can secure a tiny tress of their mistress' +hair, but so great is _my_ generosity that I freely present you with +enough to stuff a sofa cushion." + +He caught her in his arms and kissed her passionately. + +But now was heard a faint sound as of the unlocking and opening of a +door in the distance, and then, heralded by a cough, the noise of +approaching footsteps on the flagged floor of the corridor. Instead of +a bare thirty minutes, our young people had been nearly an hour +together. Whether the guineas and the brandy were in any way concerned +with such a liberal measurement of time is more than one would +undertake to decide. + +"The time to part has come," said Nell in a hurried whisper. "Listen. +My man John Dyce is waiting outside, in charge of my mare. He may be +trusted implicitly. He has had his instructions, and will ask no +questions. The future I leave wholly in your hands." + +More was impossible. The turnkey was at the door. After a preliminary +rap on it, he called out, "Time's up long since, mum. Are you ready?" + +"Quite ready, William, thank you," was Miss Baynard's clear response. + +So William unlocked the door, and drew it back on its hinges. What he +saw when he had done so was his prisoner, as it seemed to him, seated +on his pallet in a dejected attitude, with bowed head, and his elbows +resting on his knees; nor did he so much as look up at the opening of +the door. + +Just inside, waiting apparently for the opening of the door, and with +her back to the candle, was the young lady visitor, whose face was now +wholly hidden by her veil. As soon as the door was opened she passed +out without a word, and then stood aside for a moment, while it was +shut and relocked. That done, William, swinging his hand-lantern, and +not, it must sorrowfully be confessed, quite so steady on his feet as +he had been earlier in the evening, led the way, in happy ignorance of +the peck of trouble he was brewing for himself. + +Hardly was the cell door shut before Nell was kneeling by it with one +ear pressed to its cold iron surface. The footsteps died into silence, +then as before, was heard the clash of a distant door, and after that +all was still with a stillness as of the tomb. + +Then Nell stood up, a great calm, a great happiness almost, shining +out of her eyes. "If only I have succeeded in saving him," she said +aloud, "nothing else matters!" + +But next moment her overwrought nerves gave way. Staggering across the +floor and flinging herself face downward on the pallet, she burst into +a tempest of tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. +THREE YEARS AFTER. + + +_From Mrs. Dare to Lady Carradine_. + +"My Dear Godmother,--Your last letter, to hand five days ago, brought +me a large measure of happiness. In it you tell me that you have at +length forgiven me in full for what heretofore you have always +designated as my 'rash and ill-considered marriage.' It does indeed +make me glad to learn that I am once more to be taken back, fully and +freely, into your affections, the loss of which has been the bitterest +drop in the cup of my married felicity. + +"In your letter you put several questions to me having reference to +the events of the last few weeks prior to my departure from England. +These I will now endeavor to answer to the best of my ability. + +"Thanks to the interest brought to bear by your ladyship in a certain +high quarter, your scapegrace goddaughter, after having made three +appearances before the Lanchester bench of magistrates, was +unceremoniously set at liberty. This, of course, is ancient history to +you, but it is the point from which, for your information, I purpose +narrating as briefly as may be what befell me afterwards up to the +date of my departure for America. + +"I had only been a couple of days back at Stanbrook when a note +reached me which had been brought by a man on horseback. The writer of +it was Mr. Cope-Ellerslie, of Rockmount, whose acquaintance I had made +some time before under rather peculiar circumstances, asking me to go +back with his messenger, as the writer had some news of importance to +communicate. This I had no hesitation about doing, seeing that Mr. +Ellerslie was known to me as the uncle of Geoffrey Dare. + +"A couple of hours later I alighted from my mare at the door of +Rockmount. + +"A man between sixty and seventy, tall and bowed, habited in a +monkish robe, with a moustache and a short peaked beard, long +grizzled hair parted down the middle, and a singular waxen pallor of +complexion--such was the Mr. Ellerslie known to me, and such was the +man who now received me. I had assumed that it was in order to be +favored with some tidings of, or to receive some message from, his +nephew (who had been utterly lost to me from the moment the cell door +was shut between us), that I had been summoned to Rockmount. Nor was I +mistaken. + +"After having referred to the Lanchester affair in terms which I would +not recapitulate even if I could, Mr. Ellerslie went on to mark that +his nephew had not yet left the country, but was in safe hiding no +great distance away. Proceeding, he went on to observe that he was the +bearer of a certain message from Geoffrey, but that he found himself +somewhat at a loss for terms in which to convey it. Stripped, however, +of all verbiage it came to this: Geoffrey would not hold me to my word +or promise, given him in the cell at Lanchester, if, since then, and +after further consideration, I in the slightest degree regretted, or +wished, to recall, anything which had passed between us on that +occasion. + +"Then, before I had time to frame into words the answer which leapt +from my heart, Mr. Ellerslie proceeded to address me on his own +account. I was young and parentless, he remarked, and, so far as he +could judge, somewhat liable to be led away by generous but +undisciplined impulses. He begged of me to pause, to reflect coolly +and dispassionately, before linking my lot with that of a man who, +should no worse fate befall him, must henceforth be an outcast from +his native land. And so on, and so on, till I begged of him to cease. + +"Need I tell you, my dear godmother, in what terms I answered him? No, +I am sure I need not. You know your Nelly too well not to have guessed +already. + +"The pith of all I had to say was comprised in less than a score +words: 'Geoffrey Dare is my chosen husband, and, come weal or woe, I +will wed none but him.' + +"Mr. Ellerslie threw up his hands. 'If you will persist, my dear young +lady, in your headstrong course, then have I nothing more to urge. My +ambassadorial functions are at an end, and the sooner my nephew comes +and does his own talking the better for all concerned.' + +"Without a word more he rose and left the room, and five minutes later +Geoffrey entered it. + +"To relate what passed between him and me would not entertain you in +the least. It will be enough to state that if we had not been +betrothed lovers before, we became so from that hour. + +"It was to Rockmount that Geoffrey had directed his steps on the night +of his escape, and there he had been in hiding ever since. + +"When the time had come for me to take my departure in order that I +might get back to Stanbrook before dark, I said to him, 'But shall I +not see Mr. Ellerslie again before I go?' + +"'That you certainly will not,' he replied with one of his puzzling +smiles. 'Mr. Cope-Ellerslie is no longer in existence. He died about +an hour ago. His life was brief but necessary. Peace to his remains!' +Then, seeing my look of amazement, he added, 'Have you not yet found +out, or even suspected, that Mr. Ellerslie and Geoffrey Dare were one +and the same person?" + +"No, that I certainly had not. Nevertheless, I was now assured that +such was the fact, and I had to delay my departure for another half +hour while the mystery was cleared up for me. + +"When Geoffrey Dare left London a ruined man, bankrupt in love, in +friendship, in means (I long ago explained to you under what peculiar +circumstances he was induced to take to the King's highway), he came +to Rockmount, which was his own property, and which, owing doubtless +to its isolated situation in the midst of a wide stretch of desolate +moorland, had been untenanted for years. With him he brought three old +family servants, whom not even the rack or the thumbscrew would have +forced into betraying him. But it was Mr. Cope-Ellerslie, the scholar +and the recluse, who had become the tenant of Rockmount, and no +faintest suspicion ever got abroad that there was, or could be, any +connection between him and Captain Nightshade. + +"So far so good; but I still failed to comprehend the nature of a +disguise which so completely changed Geoffrey's identity that only an +hour before my eyes had failed to penetrate it. To take one point +alone: in Mr. Ellerslie's face, leaving out of account the difference +in the complexions, there bad been a thousand fine lines and creases, +whereas in Geoffrey's it would have puzzled one to find a dozen. + +"Then was I enlightened. Mr. Cope-Ellerslie's face was a mask, of +which moustache, beard, eyebrows, and hair formed component parts. The +foundation of the mask consisted of the skin of a newly-born kid, +pared or scraped to an exceeding fineness, and moulded to the features +while still plastic. Geoffrey had brought it with him from Italy +several years before, where such disguises seem to be not unknown, and +where it had been made for him in order that he might take part in a +certain carnival frolic. So simple sometimes is the explanation of an +apparently inscrutable mystery! + +"But my letter is dragging itself out to an unconscionable length, and +I must hurry on. + +"Of a certain quiet wedding in Holland, and of the after-sailing of +the two people concerned for the United States, I have no particulars +worth recounting beyond those already known to you. Here they have +lived happily ever since, and here--whatever home-sickness they may +have felt in secret--they had made up their minds to pass the rest of +their days, when a passage in your last letter set their hearts +dancing with a happiness so unlooked-for that since it burst into +their life like a flash of sunlight they have hardly been able to talk +about anything else. + +"You write, my dear godmother, that you have fair hopes of being +able, by and by, through bringing your influence to bear in the same +all-powerful quarter in which you brought it to bear once before, to +secure for Geoffrey a free pardon. What two happy and grateful beings +you would, in that case, make of my husband and me, I should fail to +tell you in any words. + +"You are kind enough to say, further, that you miss your Nelly's face +and long to see it again, as also that there is a big corner for her +in your will. We will say nothing about the latter, but, as regards +the former, let me whisper in your ear that you need not be very much +surprised if you see me in London in the course of next season. If +Geoffrey should be free to come with me, what happiness that would be! +But, in any case, I think you may look forward pretty confidently to +seeing your vagrant goddaughter. + +"You will readily believe me when I tell you that I am also very +desirous of setting eyes again on my young kinsman, Evan Cortelyon, +the account of whose abduction and recovery had for you such a special +interest. (Don't forget, please, that his recovery was wholly due to +my dear husband.) He has been made a ward in Chancery, and although I +have frequent news of him, and am assured that he is well and happy, +yet that is not like seeing him and feeling his dear arms about my +neck. + +"What you had to tell me in your last letter anent the Hon. Mrs. +Bullivant took me by surprise, as you said it would; but I'm afraid my +disposition is not of a sufficiently forgiving kind to allow of my +stating, with any regard for truth, that I feel sorry for her, because +I certainly do nothing of the kind. + +"My surprise arises from the fact that she--of all women I have ever +known the most unlikely--should have allowed herself to be so +thoroughly hoodwinked as she seems to have been over her marriage with +the Earl of Mortlake. Of course she was dazzled by the prospect of +becoming a countess, and by the likelihood--you say she regarded it as +a certainty--that in less than a twelvemonth she would be left a widow +(a titled widow with a handsome jointure), such a mere wreck of +humanity was his lordship, to all seeming, when she accepted him, +besides being more than double her age. + +"If this latter consideration was--and you appear to have no doubt on +the point--her chief reason for becoming his wife, then, indeed, must +her awakening have been anything but a pleasant one when she found +that the man who had been carried into the church by four of his +tenants, so feeble did he seem, was able, as soon as the ceremony was +over, not merely to walk unassisted out of the sacred edifice, but to +offer his bride the support of his arm. What a genuine comedy scene it +must have been for everybody there, save and except her newly-made +ladyship! + +"And now you tell me that his lordship is likely to live for a dozen +years to come. I know that he has been married twice before, and that +he has the reputation of being one of the most brutal and unfeeling of +husbands, a reputation with which it is hard to believe his present +wife can have been unacquainted. + +"Yes, on consideration I think I can afford to forget bygones, and to +spare a little pity for my lady countess. Hers is indeed an unhappy +fate; nor will she derive much consolation from the knowledge that she +owes it wholly to herself. + +"I have kept a very singular bit of news till the last. + +"You may remember that when we came here we brought with us the dumb +man, Andry Luce, who had been my Uncle Cortelyon's secretary and +factotum, and about whom you have often heard me speak. +Notwithstanding his infirmity, Geoffrey found him very useful in +keeping the books and accounts of the large property of which my +husband has the management. He was deeply attached to me, and I had a +very warm regard for him. + +"Well, I am grieved to have to relate that the poor fellow has come to +a sad end. About a fortnight ago he was fatally injured while trying +to stop a runaway horse and vehicle. Some days passed before he +succumbed to his injuries, and it was while he lay dying (I am +thankful to say he did not suffer much) that he confessed something to +me which perhaps I might otherwise have gone to the grave without +knowing. + +"You and I, my dear godmother, in days gone by, more than once +bewildered our brains in trying to solve the mystery of my uncle's +unsigned will, for if he had not believed it to be signed, why should +he have been so anxious in his last moments, as he certainly was, to +have it destroyed? + +"This was the puzzle which Andry's confession--spelled out to me word +by word on his fingers after the manner of dumb people--solved once +for all. + +"Andry was in the habit of dabbling in chemicals in his spare moments, +and it was with a chemically prepared ink, manufactured by him +specially for the purpose, that the will was signed by the testator +and the witnesses. The special property of the ink in question was +that, within forty-eight hours of its having been used, anything +written with it would fade out of existence, leaving nothing but the +blank, unsullied paper where it had been. + +"Of course it was a very wicked thing of Andry to do, but he had +somehow learnt the contents of the will, and his indignation at the +iniquity of its provisions seems to have utterly confused his sense of +right and wrong, as, I verily believe, it would have done mine had I +been in his place. + +"If you ask me what notice I intend taking of the information which +has thus strangely come into my keeping, I answer, none at all. And it +is a view in which my husband bears me out. I hold myself to be wholly +absolved from taking any action whatever in the affair, because my +uncle's last wish--nay, his positive command--was that the will in +question should be destroyed. + +"And thus, after all, his dying wish was carried out, but in a way +certainly never contemplated by him." + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Minion of the Moon, by +T. W. (Thomas Wilkinson) Speight + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57416 *** |