Strange secrets

Front matter

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Contents

n» Secret of SwalediifeCastlo..... ^ t

TIm Secret of the Mine 85

The Secret of Calverley Court.

Conclusion

It was a chill October eve, four weeks later. My mother thought me demented, for the restlessness that kept driving me out of doors, since within I could not keep quiet Enough had happened during those weeks to unsettle a rock. FirsI the strange confession that had fallen from Joe's lips, and the results of the investigation, so far private, that had been instituted, establishing King's complete innocence of the charge successfully fastened on him. A stranger*thing than this had been brought to light, and of its strangest feature I alone had knowledge.

I was now disturbed by increasing fears that these revelations had come too late. I had cabled to meet the ''Cam« bria," but the answer, by letter or in person, I had hoped for eight days ago came not My telegram might have missed one who probably travelled under some other nameit might have arrived too late, or Jem might have changed his deetiaatioii, tak^i another ship, drifted* out of reach; and woree and gloomier possibilities suggested^ themselves at times to- my Uinoy.

A hundred times I had gone down to the station on faint pretexts, till I vowed I would go- no more. My walk this evening took me alon^ the lane we called Shooter's Hill. I was planning advertisements to send to the American papers. The autumn mists rising on all sides made the cattle look colossal; the^ trees giants, the moon an auroral sun, human forms monsters. I see one coming down the lane, and; do what I will, my pulse quickens. This last week I have seen a hundred Jemmy Kings afar off, and it has« always- turned out to be a carter, or a pedler, or the dairyman. To-night, I am clear the person in the distance i& not Jem, — and' yet there is a train at about this hour, and his preternatural height may be an effect of the fog. Hurry forwaid: to meet him. and be disappointed, I will not. I wait, and as he comes nearer I recognize with a thrill, first histoid footstep, then — my heart bounding with satisfaction — I confront— 4tis old self — ^not as when we parted last on this very ground, but haler, and bronzed with sea travel, invigorated with revived hope and spirits, surer restoratives thanithe bi«ezes otthe Atlantic.

Being English we shake hands without speaking a word. At Ihst I> observe significantly :

"This time you'll not refuse to walk up with me, Jem."

Suddenly withdrawing his hand, with a doubt and suspicion that died very hard, he demanded, almost roughly :

'* It's all true, is it, what your message told me ? If you did it only to coax me back, though meaning kindly — it's the worst, cruellest wrong you ever did in your life. Before I go a step farther tell me straight how it stands. "

" Jemmy," said I> "you're cleared. Joe Murphy, the real culprit, has confessed.'

** Murphyy" he uttered, amazed — " Mick's own pal ! "

'*Say accomplice in theft — ^Joe, who had drunk himself to the very verge of hopeless imbecility, and was convinced he was dying. But for that he would never have come out with it They robbed Sampson Glover, and fought over the money that night Mick dared not get Murphy into trouble by naming him as his assailant Strong suspicion had fallen on^^ you— only confirmation was wanting. Mick gave it^— paid' off his grudge;"

" Aaida curse on- his villainy that sent me to rot inprisonr I '^ Jemj struck Iq) excitedly.

i

THE SECRET OF SWaLBcLIFFE CASTLE. 35

** Hush/' said I, " Mick is out of reach of man's curse now."

" Dead ? *' Jem uttered, his animosity unappeased V' Dead —unpunished ? "

** He left Eversfold, and lived in London under an assumed name. He became a partner in a band of sharpers, and two years later was, with them, convicted of forgery, and obtained a heavy sentence — but still under his assumed name, his real one remaining undiscovered. Nor should we ever have known his fate but for a strange circumstance. A photograph that happened to be sent me together with an answer to certain inquiries I had occasion to make of the governors of the Southbury convict establishment, identified him with the prisoner in question. He hanged himself in his cell at Swaleciiffe eighteen months ago. "

The effect of this intelligence on Jem was unanticipated by me. It not only sobered his passion, but the shock brought about a slow revulsion of feeling; and when he spoke again it was with an altered manner, as if awed into a kind of contrition.

"Masten Frank," he said, "there's something comes on me now — something I put out of sight in my trouble. Per- Impsyou won't shake hands so heartily when I've told you —but I'm not so white now as you'd paint me."

He was silent as if reluctant to utter his thought, then spoke with a sombre sort of intensity that was impressive — if not agreeably so— and convincing.

'* I might have murdered him that night, for his talk. I can hear him now, laughing and saying he knew she would follow his whistle, like others we knew — coupling Rose's aame along with theirs ! It wasn't the drink, as they said, it was the devil took hold of me then ; I could have killed him there, but they held me back. I swore an oath. * Perdition take my soul, but you sha'n't get home alive.' I meant it They turned me out, but I stood waiting for him two hours at tiie cross-roads where he used to pass. I meant to force him to a fight ; but there could be no fair fight between a slip lad like him and me. He never came. Had I gone home straight from the 'Cricketers,* I could have cleared myself, easy. But one had seen me hanging about there in the dark, another come in late, in a madman's temper. I myself could give no clear account of the time between ; and my own words and acts rose up in witness agtdnst me& I felt dazed, stupid-like^^and waked slowly from that devil's dream to find myself in a convict^ t4 STRANGE SECRETS.

** My poor fellow," said I, " you have more than expiated

!rour rash oath, which I take leave to doubt you would have olio wed up with a crime."

As we walked on Jem grew calm again, and he told me how his voyage had been prolonged by an accident to the ship. I told him how I had arranged that he was to come home with me, and stay there quietly till the inquiry was concluded, when the facts would be made public.

*• Do they know in the village? " he asked.

"One knows," said I, **Itold her, Jem; she is waiting and watching for you.**

Jem's attempts to preserve a manly indififerenc^ were most unsuccessful.

^ * * Not married yet ? " he asked constrainedly. * * But what's that to me? She never cared,"

** She cared enough," I returned, '* to have married you when you came out of prison a month ago— had it depended on her.*

'' Rose Evans />"

'* Rose Evans — she told me so then. For my part, Jem, I should ask no more than that of any girL"

Jem held his tongue ; we were approaching the pleasure ground at home ; our way led us past a green that lay near the back entrance, planted with sycamores and elms. I resumed :

** She has been at the house to-day, to do some needlework for my mother. Suppose, Jem, that should be her now, leaving the gate ? "

He had descried her already. She had seen us and stopped, uncertain what to do. Even at this distance I seemed to feel the charm of those soft full outlines, the pure bloom on her rounded cheek. Jem too had stopped dead— my destiny clearly was to join the hands of these shy village lovers.

"Won't I startle her too much?" faltered Jem tremulously and low like a girl.

"It will be no surprise," said I. "These three weeks she has looked for it every day. It was I who despairedshe never did."

Under the elms I left them. Call no man unlucky until he it dead.

A few days more and Jem will be the talk of the village^ ag:ain a little while, and Rose will be a bride. Jem has suffered certainly, but I foresee for him rarer compensation than the Home Secretary can bestow.

And the secret of Swalecliffe Castle? I have told the thing as it happened, let who will try to draw conclusions. One more added to the list of evidences of thin^ uiaaeen ; tales oyer which fools laugh and wise men pond^

THE SECRET OP THE MINB;

OK,

UP AND DOWN MOEL YAMMER.