University of Virginia Library

47. CHAPTER XLVII.
THE MONSTER'S DOOM.

“Ha! ha! ha! hah! Good! Go on, Tom! And so Miss
Z— didn't arrive, nor the literary fledgling from Summerton
either? Ha! ha! ha!” Such were the spasmodic
explosions of the half frantic Mallex, as he sat in
the library at his country house.

“Neither, sir, I was present when the letter from Miss
Z— was read. It stated that it had been ascertained
the late secretary of — was soon to espouse Mrs. Lonsdale;
and inasmuch as the relations subsisting between
the President and the ex-secretary were not such as to

render it desirable for Miss Z— to continue on terms of
intimacy with Mrs. L., or any member of her family, she
therefore declined the invitation, although she would be
happy to see the young author anywhere else.”

“Ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! It was Fawner furnished
that information. Take care, Fawner! But what did Alice
say to that?”

“She fainted. But when consciousness returned, she
sprang up and ran to her mother and demanded if it had
been her determination to marry you.”

“Ha! ha! ha! What did she say?”

“She admitted that such a proposition had been made
by the secretary. But as he had resigned and become deranged,
Miss Z— ought to have known there was no
possibility of such an event taking place. I am sure Alice
had never before supposed her mother desirous of forming
another matrimonial alliance.”

“No. It was my will that she should know nothing of
the project. Ha! ha! They'll groan, yet! I made their
investments for them after Lonsdale's death. But they'll
have enough to live on—to live on in poverty—and meditate
on their former prosperity—the pride, and fashion,
and high associates of other days! Ha! ha! go on,
Tom!”

“But, sir, they never injured you.”

“You don't know anything about it. Go on.”

“I accompanied Dr. Drastic, Dr. Castor, Mr. Persever,
Mr. Radley and Mr. Bainton to the cemetery, and witnessed
the exhumation of the remains of the boy, supposed
to be Ned Lorn Parke, that died at the house of refuge.
The bones were not decayed, and the enlargement of the
knee joint, as described by Mrs. Sutly, was instantly recognized.”

“That settles the legitimacy of this Ned, who has given
us so much trouble. He's to be rich, now, and his old
sweetheart, who discarded him, poor! Good, again! But
tell me how Bainton acted.”

“He called upon heaven and earth to witness his satisfaction—”

“The infernal rascal!” cried Mallex. “He knew it before.”

“And repentance,” continued Tom, “for the wrongs he
had inflicted on his nephew. He was pale, and weak, sir,
and delivered into the hands of Persever all the papers
necessary for a full restitution.”

“The fool!”

“No, sir. The doctors, after Mr. Bainton had been
placed in his carriage, said he could not survive many
days; and that he was dying of consumption.”

“Ha! ha! ha! Dying! That's the reward of his
honesty. Dying! It serves him right. I'm glad of it!”

“They say Ned will likewise inherit his fortune.”

“Certainly he will if—Tom! I'll put you in possession
of half my fortune the day after you inform me this
Ned died from the effects of a few inches of steel inserted
between his ribs.”

“Not for the wealth of the world!” cried Tom.

“I forgot, Tom; you are to die like Bainton, an honest
fool. You inherited it from your mother. But are they
going to take the old hag's deposition?”

“To-morrow, sir. She is ill, and it is feared she may die.”

“And if she thinks she's about to die, she, too, will become
honest and blurt out the whole affair! Scoundrels!
Perjured dogs!” cried Mallex, rising and making gigantic
strides across the room, “What more do they want? I
have resigned, dissolved, permitted them to reinstate the
heir of Parke—they have got the rotten bones, the money,
everything, everything, everything, but my life! It is a violation
of the compact—an infringement of the constitution—”

“Sir!” cried Tom, gazing in terror at the frightful aspect
of his father. “Do not be so furious. I think there
is no danger to be apprehended.”

“Ha! ha! ha! Don't be alarmed, Tom,” said he, resuming
his chair. “I sha'n't go mad in reality, if I can
help it. But how I happened to mention the constitution,
I am unable to say. Tom, this is to be a day big with
fate. Were all my letters put in the post-office?”

“Yes, sir,” said Tom.

“Well, if they keep their appointments, we shall see,
what we shall see. There's one of them below now. Withdraw,
Tom.”

Doctor Drastic entered.

“Doctor,” said Mallex, “they tell me you are poor.”

“I am, indeed,” said the doctor, with a slight sigh,
though smiling at the novelty of the remark.

“And I am rich. At this hour to-morrow you shall
have my check for twenty thousand dollars—”

“What for, sir?”

“For bringing me intelligence to-night that Mrs. Sutly
has breathed her last.”

“Good day, sir!” ejaculated the doctor, snappishly,
and rushing out of the house with contracted brows.

“Fool! The reason he is what they term honest, is
because he has not been accustomed to temptation! A
little practice, and he would be as great a rascal as the
rest of us.”

The next visitor whom he had summoned by letter, was
Radley. The lawyer appeared before him.

“Radley,” said he, “how much do you expect to realize
from this work?”

“Ten thousand dollars, which you are bound to pay.”

“Oh, I forgot that. That was stipulated in the treaty
of capitulation. Only ten thousand! Renounce your
associates, or rather betray them and work for me one little
month, and you shall have twenty thousand.”

“Twenty thousand dollars?”

“Yes. But the old woman out at the corpse-house must
be removed, quashed, silenced forever, this very night.”

“I cannot do it for a million! Bainton has the forged
certificate in his possession, and keeps the scrivener hid,
ready to convict me! I am held by him, obedient to his
will, until this business is finally settled.”

“That was a blunder of mine! I should have kept it.
But Bainton, you may rest assured, would never have
thought of preserving it for such a purpose. It was
Fawner! the viper I warmed into life to be stung by him!
Kill him, kill him, Radley, and you shall have another ten
thousand.

“What! be a murderer? Never! I have children!”
cried he, rushing forth in horror.

“That man would not hesitate to break half the commandments
in the decalogue, and we have Bible authority

for saying when one is broken all are ruptured. And it
is the lawyer who can make a distinction when there
is no difference! Acute as this one is, however, Dick
Sutly over-reached him. Ha! ha! ha! Good day, Dick!”

Dick himself appeared at that moment.

“You got my letter, Dick?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, what do you think I want with you?”

“Hanged if I know.”

“I want to make your fortune. What do you consider
a fortune?”

“Oh, twenty thousand dollars would be a mighty pile
for me.”

“You shall have it,—perhaps. Who do you suppose
prevented you from receiving a quarter of a million?”

“Mr. Radley said it was you.”

“Me? He's a liar!” roared the infuriated man. Dick,
I'll give you ten thousand dollars to cut his throat!”

“A big fee!”

“But, Dick, it was your mother. If she had not been
alive, you would have recovered the fortune. She will
talk.”

“True, sir; all creation can't keep her tongue still.”

“And if she wouldn't talk willingly, they had the power
to compel her to testify in court. So, with her still alive,
it was impossible for you to recover.”

“I shouldn't 'ave cried much, if she'd 'a died anytime
these ten years. She never loved me, nor I her.”

“Dick! if she were to die to-night, to-morrow you would
get the twenty thousand.”

“I wouldn't have any objections.”

“Do you understand? If she lives till to-morrow, you
can't touch a cent of it.”

“Then my chance aint worth much, and I've come here
for nothing.”

“Don't be stupid! You know when people won't die
themselves, there's a way to make them.”

“Oh, now I've got the idea! See here, Mr. Mallex, I
don't love my mammy, as I said before; but I wouldn't
do such a thing as to murder my own flesh and blood for
all the gold at the mint!”

“Couldn't you get some one else to do it for half the
money?”

“I'd be guilty all the same! I've hearn my mammy
say that twenty times; and I'm sure I never knew what
she said it for.”

“But I do. Ha! ha! ha! Well, Dick; suppose we
try one that is not your own flesh and blood. I'll give the
same amount for the scalp of Fawner—as much for Persever's—for
Ned Lorn's—the President's!—Now, there's a
chance for a splendid fortune!”

“I—I'm—frightened, sir—your big eyes scares me!
Excuse me—I can't do it!”

“Begone, then!” roared the infuriated man. “Oh that
it were Italy—Spain—any country but this! Ha! ha!
ha! How I would slaughter them! I'll—I'll do it here!
I will! I will!—Where are they?” cried he, seizing a
chair and shivering it to atoms against the wall near
the door, where poor Tom's face was partially seen. He
seized another, and attempted to pursue him, but was
pinioned from behind by four strong men whom Drs. Drastic
and Castor had sent thither for that purpose. They
had anticipated such a result. He was now raving mad
indeed! Foaming and bellowing under the anguish of disappointed
rage, to be succeeded by the torments of the
fitful memories of his crimes, the monster was confined in
the prison-room of his own mansion, and compelled to occupy
the same couch which he had remorselessly prepared
for another.