LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 242, 19 March 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MY FATHER’S WILL, BY FREDF.RICK TAT.BOT, AUTHOR OF £ JACK refill’s LEGACY,’ ‘ loteik’s FORTUNE,’ ETC. (Concluded ) ‘There’s no doubt,’ said the Inspector, looking gravely at me and shaking his head, ‘ that’s it’s a very suspicious case. on were seen in conference with this woman, sir ; the riot seems to have been got up in your interests ; you take advantage of it to get away, and ransack Mr Brutl’s office. Really, sir, if Mr Bruff insists —’ ‘ldo insist!’ shouted Mr Bruff. ‘Take him into custody, Mr Inspector.’

‘ You insist!’ cried a high-pitched female voice, and Hannah appeared in the doorway, pale with suppressed passion. ‘ You cowardly rascal ! you’d leave me to be torn to pieces. Yes, glad enough you’d have been—after insuring my life, you wretch ! and that young hussey down-stairs ! 0, you villain !’

Hannah made a desperate dart at her husband —for such he was —who clung to the inspector for pi’otection.

Baffled of her spring, Hannah turned to me. ‘ Ah, Master Diet, ’ she cried, ‘ you’re worth a dozen of such scoundrels. I’ll right you though, my boy. Here,’ she said, drawing a paper from her pocket— ‘ here’s the true will your father made just before he died, written with his own hands, and testified by me and Bridget. ’ Bruff made a snatch at the paper, but I ■was] too quick for him, and already had the document in my possession. Bruff gnashed his teeth in rage and terror. ‘ Well, you fiend,’ he cried, addressing Hannah, ‘it was you who tempted me to do it; you who drew me on to marry you ; you who turned the old man’s mind against his son with your false tales ; you who got him to make his will; you who brought me over when the young man had come back, and his father’s heart had softened to him, and set me to watch for his death, that we might steal the new will from the box.’

Here the police inspector put an end to farther confidences. ‘lt seems to me that there’s a pair of you,’ he cried ; * but it isn’t ray place to listen to you. ‘ I sha’n’t take your charge against this young gent; but if he asks me to take you into custody for purloining his father’s will, I’ll do it. ’ At this Bruff broke down at once; he threw himself on his knees before me, and begged of me to forgive me, promising that he would make amends in every way ; but I refused to listen to his prayers, and he was removed in custody. Indeed, I knew that if he had been left alone with Hannah, there would have been murder done that night. Then I made my Avay with the precious paper to the house of Polkhorn, the other lawyer, my father’s old friend. To him I quickly explained the circumstances, and showed the paper Hannah had given me. It was a short will, dated on the day before Hannah had come to Slapton to fetch Mr Bruff. It revoked all former wills, and left all his property unreservedly to me, his son.

‘ It’s as right as ninepence,’ said Mr Polkhorn, grasping me by the hand; ‘ and even if there were any informality in the will—and it’s a dangerous practice to make wills without a lawyer—but, if it were informal, the revocation is complete. It nullifies all former wills ; and as you’re the heir, you’re right, any way.’ Mr Bruff was prosecuted and convicted for stealing my father’s will, the circumstantial evidence being too strong to break down, although we were precluded from calling Hannah, a wife’s evidence being invalid. It appeared that Mr Bruff and Hannah had obtained complete ascendency over my father, and had persuaded him to make the will that had been propounded after his death. The clause which my father had insisted upon, making void the bequest in case of Hannah marrying after his decease, they had eluded by a secret marriage during his life. Mr Bruff had succeeded also in insuring the life of his wife for five thousand pounds to secure his interest in her annuity. My return and reconciliation with my father had upset all their plans, and the making of the new will had driven them to desperation. My father was too much afraid of his housekeeper to openly defy her, and he had written his will with his own hands, and had called Hannah and Bridget (the housemaid) to witness his signature, without telling her of the real nature of the document. But. Hannah had detected his purpose, and had determined to defeat it. He had not ventured to destroy the old will, but had placed the new one above it in the strong box, and retained the keys in his own possession. Hannah, knowing that he could not live many days, had brought Mr Bruff over to Halton to help her. He was to keep watch till my father died. The signal of his death was conveyed from Hannah’s bedroom window. The brass bird-cage hanging in the window by day, and a light burning there at night, were signals that my father was still alive. The moment when I had seen the light disappear had been the moment of my father’s death, which Hannah then concealed from me till their arrangements were completed. Thus Bruff was let in at the back door, possessed himself of the keys, opened the strong box, purloined the new will, and handed it over to Hannah to burn. Some misgiving or failing of heart had led Hannah, instead of destroying it, to keep it carefully. It was strange that a man so bold and determined in his schemes should have been physically a coward ; but so it was, and that was the cause of his undoing. Mrs Bruff’s unexpected visit to her husband’s establishment revealed some cause of jealousy, which, added to the ill-feeling engendered by her husband’s pusillanimity, caused the explosion which brought out the truth.

M r Bruff served three years in prison, and when released emigrated to America with the cause of the conjugal difficulty. Hannah subsists on a small annuity which I granted her in consideration of her past services. She has one little boy, who takes a good deal after his father.

Poor Sarah, who had suffered much for her zeal in my behalf, was compensated by a gift of a couple of hundred pounds from some unknown benefactor. But she has never quite forgiven me for putting it out of her power to * fettle’ Mrs Hannah. My five bony cousins were a good deal exercised in mind at the loss of their yearly five guineas. They threatened five several lawsuits; but as they went to Polkhorn to give instructions, he managed to talk them into acquiescence. But they have none of them spoken to me since. As for myself, when I found that I was no longer bound to leside at Halton, I lost much of my dislike to live there. lam building a nice house on a hill side, part of my property, and am looking out for a being of the other sex who is not of a roving disposition.