Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 19, 3 June 1871, Page 17

Tales and Sketches.

THE WINNING HAZARD. (From Chambehs's Jouenal.) CHAPTEE XIII. ' Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill' All the time Jack lay in the coffin, he heard the murmur of voices, and knew that there was sonething going on which he was powerless to prevent; and yet his head was in such a whirl, that he couldn't think what. He must get out of this horrible box in which he was shut up ; that was the first thing to be done. But he couldn't thing how. The thought occurred to him of the young woman* whose fate was commemorated in the song his cousin Sarah used to sing to him Jong ago, when he was a lad—the Mistletoe Sough —and how she was shut up in a box till she turned to a skeleton. But that was stupid, profitless thought. How to get out; that was the thing. He knew there was a way, if he could only think of it. Vice-chancellor Jawkins had something to do with it; he must hold on to the vice-chancellor till he could get a clue. It had something to do with Hornbook and Primer —with Bagsby, Q.C. He had it at last. Hurrah ! All the mist hanging about his mind seemed to clear away in a moment, and he was once more master of the situation. C-A-T, C-A-T. That was it—the secret handle, the combination spring ; he remembered it all. Jack was fortunate enough to have a box of wax matches in his pocket, and struck a light. 'An idea for Waldron, that'—Jack couldn't help thinking'— * to provide a receptacle for matches in the air tight coffin!' Sure enough, there were the three little dials, which Jack quickly arranged according to the prescribed formula, and was rewarded by seeing a little knob spring forward. To press this nob, and push back the lid, was the work of a moment; the lid noiselessly swung on its pivot, and Jack sprung to his feet erect and free.

The room was dark and empty, but there was a soft glow of light shinning between the crevices of the inner doorway, and Jack heard the sound of voices—of one voice, rather, in a ceaseless monotone.

'lt's somebody praying with my aunt,' said Jack to himself. ' I don't like to interrupt them ; but I've ventured so much to get here, that I will see my aunt now, parson or no parson. But I'll wait till the

prayer's over.' Jack stood leaning against the doorway, his arms folded—stood there in the dim deserted room. The night air, which flapped the window blind as it entered, blew refreshingly upon his cheek, but he still felt feverish and wretched. Darkness brooded over him, darkness and dim horror, none of whose dreaded shapes assumed form or consistency enough to be met and grappled with. But as he stood listening to the sigh of the wind among the trees, he heard, or thought he heard, the faint melody of distant bells. They say that evil spirits fly the sound of bells. Jack felt restored and strengthened by the soft chime, and eagerly and intently listened, but could hear no more; could only hear the monotonous hum from the inner chamber, which kept buzzing on, on, on. It ceased at last, and Jack gently opened the door, and stood on the threshold of his aunt's chamber.

In a big old fashioned bed, heavy with multitudinous hangings, sat Lady Lavinia Morgan, propped up with pillows. She wore a green shade over her eyes, too tender to bear even the mild rays of the waxcandleswhichwerelighted. Seemingly she had still some female vanity, for light rose colored gauze curtains hung about her, concealing in a measure the cadaverous hues of her face. The lawyer was seated at her bedside. He had a bundle of parchments in his hand; he had evidently been reading her ladyship's will. He was now resting a little, breathless and exhausted by his gallop over the fields of sheepskin. His drawl had ended, and he had resumed his natural voice. ' You understand perfectly, my lady, that by this will you cut off your natural kinsfolk from all share and parcel in your property ?' The cadaverous head was moved forward.

' Your ladyship will please to assure me by word of mouth.' There was a little pause, and then there came hissing from the bed the word ' Yes-s-s.'

' And that you are raising to an elevated position a person who is quite unsuited to maintain it ?' «Yes-s-s.'

'Then you have fully made up your mind to revoke the former disposition of your property, and bestow it upon these various charities and upon your doctor ?' ' Yes-s s.'

* Then I have only to see that this will is duly executed.—Doctor, we shall require three witnesses.' The doctor was standing with the pen in his hand. * Surely only two ? My brother and myself can witness it.' ' As landed property is involved, we shall require three; your brother and

yourself both are benefited by the will, and therefore cannot witness it.' ' I xtill toitness. it!' cried a deep voice from behind.

CHAPTEE XIV. ' These griefs and losses have so baited me, That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh To-morrow to my bloody creditor.'

' I wonder what Jack is doing now,' said Sarah Lowther to her uncle. They were sitting at night by the open window of the drawing room at the rectory, which looked out upon a lawn, sloping down to the little river which runs down the valley. Guisethorpe was a straggling, disconnected place, an encampment of stone huts rather than a village, and most of it lay on the slope of a bleak hill opposite to the rectory. Many twinkling lights, therefore, shone through the gloom. It was a dark, dull night, and no star wns visible; neither was there any sound to be heard except the babble of a little streamlet which ran by the rectory gate. ' Sarah, I wish he were safe back again. I want him very much. My troubles are heavy, Sarah, and I can't make head against them.' * But, uncle, why do you worry yourself so much about money matters? They can't take the living away from you, can they, uncle? And as for the rest, Jack can work—must work ; and it will do him good.' 'Yes. But Sarah, even if I could get over that—even if I could forget I have fooled away the money that ought to have been his—that I have done my duty by him so badly—even then, there is worse behind. I shan't even leave to him an honest name.'

' How can you say such things, uncle ? It isn't true —it can't be true.'

* Sally, it is too true. listen ! I was trustee for two poor orphan children, whose parents had left them a few hundreds," hardly earned and saved, just enough to keep them from the cold charity of strangers, to bring them up decently and respectably. Sarah, this little hoard, prudently laid up in the government funds, I ordered to be sold out, and to be thrown into the same yawning pit which has swallowed up all my means. And more than this, Sarah, the name of my fellow trustee was forged to this horrible transfer, and before many hours are over, all the world will believe Septimus Lowther to be a swindler and a forger !' Just then, the bells in the squat old tower of the grim old church which lay in the middle of the little fertile plain by the river—just then the bells struck up the commencement of a peal; and even those soft bells, to whose merry chimes so often the rector's footsteps had beaten time, as he had paced in cap and cassock and snowy bands the narrow stone causeway leading to the church —even those soft bells turned cruel to him in his misery, and jangled fuith. in aoouantion against him—a swindler and a forger, a swindler and a forger ! ' Uncle, uncle, what if the world does believe it, if it be not so ? If a man's soul be pure and steadfast, what matter the babble of the mob, the sneers of the proud, the verdicts of juries, the sentences of judges?' ' Child, you're young and enthusiastic ; these things matter a very great deal to me, who am older and wiser. -Sarah, I was this month one of the visiting justices of our county prison, and the other day I went to see the men on the tread wheel; and I'll tell you what I saw. A long hall, on the one side of which is a large glass box, like the signal station at a railway junction; here sit the warders watching their charge. Opposite, occupying the whole side of the hall, is a huge cage or shield, divided vertically "into open cells, and horizontally into two rows or galleries. Tne prisoners were resting ; and in each of those cells, squatted on a wooden board, clad in a grotesque harlequin suit of yellow checked stuff, hideous with close cropped hair and bare and pallid neck, was a man ! ". They've just knocked off for dinner," said the warder. "You would like to see the wheel at work, gentlemen ? I'll give them another minute." At the word of command, the men sprang from their seats. The huge wheel, whose floats were dimly visible through the openings of the cells, moved slowly round, with hoarse reverberations of sound, like the paddles at the starting of some sea-going steamship. Clinging to a wooden bar in front, scrambling painfully up the toilsome sides of this horrid wheel, the wretched scaramouches tumbled through their task : another minute's torture to amuse us, the justices. And, Sarah,/might be one of those poor wretched harlequins, scrambling over that cruel wheel.' • Uncle, they shan't take you away—they sha'n't put you in prison—we will escape, you and I; we will go abroad. Oh ! why didn't I know all this before P We have staid here too long.' A great volley of barking from the mastiff in the yard broke upon the stillness of the night. They heard the sound of wheels in the road which ran between the church and the rectory—wheels, the sound of which stopped opposite the rectory gate. ■My time has come at last,' said the rector.

' Uncle, we will go to the church. "We will not hide; but we will go to the church—we will go, and pray for help and succor, and will pray too for poor Jack. Surely, uncle, they won't drag you away from the altar.'

They past out into the darkness, the young woman and the old man. He leaned heavily on her arm, bub carried himself bravely too. If it were the last scene, he would go through it with dignity. 'Missus,' said a voice sounding from the inside of a pair horse carriage which had stopped at one of the stone huts which stood by the road side—' Missus, can yon direct us to the parish constable ?' ' Feyther,' shouted the young woman thus addressed, * here's a chap wants t' parish constable.' ' And where do you com fro' ?' said a grizzled old man, coming forward into the open doorway. ' We're from Lufftown, old chap, and we want to find parish constable.' * It's a nice time o' t' neet this to be wanting a constable,' said the man ; won't it do in t' morning ?' ' Now come, my lad, tell us right out, or else say you won't.' ' Why, you see, we don't matter much wi' constables, now we've got county police. There was a bit of a dispute at last vestry whether we'd 'pint another. I never mind hearing a body ask for parish constable, not for twenty years or more, at time that chap were murdered up at Miller's dough.' * Dang it, man ! tell us quick. Who is he, and where does he live ?' ' Why, Bill Brierly were t' chap as they 'pinted ; but Bill swore he'd have nought to do wi' it.' 1 And where shall we find Bill ?'

•Why, Bill mostly's going about bellringing. If ye'd happen to know whereabouts there was a bit of ringing going on, ye'd find Bill somewhere thereabouts.' 'I told you so,' said Good to his companion—' 1 told you as you'd ought to go to the county police; you'll never make nought out o' this.' ' Now,' said his companion—he was Joe Barker, a sort of hedge lawyer and Good's familiar—'now dost thou know more about law than me ?' ' If I did, I shouldn't pay thee to do my business for me.' ' Then thee hold thy tongue, and leave management to me. Listen !' The rapid clang of bells was borne by the evening breeze to their ears. ' Hark ye ! they're raising t' bells.' They sat and listened for a while, till the clang of the bells had taken order and method, and broken forth into a sweet melodious peal. 'Ay, there's no bells so sweet as Guisethorpe bells !' said the young woman who stood listening at the gate. ' Eight, lass,' said Good ; ' I'm a Guisetnorpe lad myaon. There's no bells like 'em!' ' Art thou Guisethorpe, then ? I expects you'll find Bill Brierly up at th' oud church there. No such a chap as Bill nowhere for a triple bob major.' ' Drive on to the church, coachman.' The tower of Guisethorpe church was a square massive structure, more like the keep of a fortalice than the crowning glory of a temple. It was pierced with round headed narrow openings in its upper courses; but church builders of a later age, thinking more of sweetness and light than the grim soldier priests of former centuries, had broken out larger windows beneath, through the twisted tracery of which the sweet clangour of the bells was pouring into the still night air. Good and Barker left their carriage, and went into the churchyard to listen. ' That E bell is a little weak,' said Good. ' Ay, and the P don't keep time, Bill. I think you and I could shew 'em better than that. Let's go inside.' The church itself was almost in darkness ; the round massive columns which supported the pointed arches of the nave were only just discernible in the gloom. At the west end of the church, a lofty arch supported the eastern face of the tower, through which, by the light of a couple of stable lanterns standing against the wall, the ringers wei*e visible, the ropes and their woollen tags. Very quaint and grotesque were the shadows cast on the tower walls—now the immense shadows of giant heads and arms would stretch out into the darkness of the loft above ; anon they would disappear into the shadows which lurked below. Very solemn were the faces of the men, as though they were performing some sacred mystic rites. Two of the performers were mere lads, pupils in the art; from the bells they were ringing, no doubt, had proceeded the uncertain sounds which had annoyed the correct ears of Good and his friend. ' Now, Joe, let thee and me shew 'em how to handle the ropes.' So saying, Good took his stand by a rope, taking the place of one of the lads, who was nothing loath to be relieved. Joe took the other rope, and away they went ding-dong, double grandsire triples and all. * How sweetly the bells sound !' said Sarah to her uncle. They were sitting side by side in the cold stone bench by

the altar There were two recesses still left; the third had been blocked up by a section of a marble sarcophagus, crowned by the bust of a Prig in a Periwig. The music of the bells came to them in a softened gentle cadence, falling upon them from far above, as though bells were being rung a long way off—in heaven perhaps. After listening for a while, Sarah took a key from her pocket, and unlocking the case of the organ, which stood in a recess that had once been a chantry chapel on the north side of the altar, and lighting a taper on either side, began to play a thrilling anthem. Septimus sat down on the cushioned altar steps, and harkened to the music. Sometimes the glorious diapason would fill the whole church, making the rafters to ring, and the windows dight with painted saints to quiver in their frames. And sometimes the strain would sink into a sad and plaintive wail, through which the glad music of the bells seemed to tell of joy after sorrow, of life after death. The bells ceased, but still Sarah sat at the organ : it was as though she dared not move: here at least was comfort and peace for a while ; and so she turned to the Psalms of the evening-it was the fourteenth of the month—and began to sing them. The rector took up the strain in bis well modulated counter, and by and by a strong and powerful voice joined in, a grand and luxuriant tenor; there was another voice too, an alto, faded, but well managed. Presently they came to a verse which Sarah gave with the whole force of energy and expression of which she was capable : ' Lo, these are the ungodly, these prosper in the world, and these have riches in possession ; and I said then have I cleansed my heart in vain and washed mine hands in innocency.' 'Eh, that were grand!' said a voice when the Psalm was finished. Many a time when I were a lad I've heerd old Tom Sogers the clerk snuffle out yon verse as you sung so powerful like. I thought at the time that Psalmist' were right about that. You'll not get on in t' wo'ld, Bill, I'd say to mysen, if your afeard of dirtying your fingers. Ah, ye may learn a deal o' wisdom out o't Psalms, if you read 'em right way.' Sarah turned upon the speaker. He was a great florid man, with a bulbous nose, red puffy cheeks, and narrow twinkling eyes. Beside him stood a bald headed, pasty faced man, a man of some fifty years of age, and yet who had the face of a boy-—of a cunning unscrupulous, and somewhat unprincipal boy ; repulsive in some aspects, and yet with a sort of guilelessness about it, that redeemed it from utter coarseness and wickedness. The red man was G-ood, and the white was Barker. Behind them stood a dogged looking Yorkshireman, who was Bill Brieriy. , A 0 . < -j ♦Do you wish to speak to me.' said the rector calmly. ' This is hardly a fitting place for conversation; suppose we walk towards*my house.' 1 Ay, ay ; we'll have a bit o' talk with thee presently; but I should like to look about th'oud place a bit. Shew us thy lantern, Bill.' Good took the lantern, and began to peer about. «Eh, parson, what'st thou done wi Commandments ? They were done up in gold and colors when I were a lad. Jem Eobison the painter and glazier from Lufftown burnished 'em up, and they were thought a deal of then. But you've wore out the Commandments eh, parson ?' ' You'll find them on either side of the chancel arch,' said Septimus coldly ; ' but I request you'll finish your inspection, for it is time to lock up the church.' So saying, he took his neice's arm, and walked stiffly towards the porch. The three men followed close in their footsteps. ' Now, I'll go no further with ye,' said the constable. I'm going to have a sup o' yale at Three Crowns; and if you like to come, you may, or else stop away.' ' "We'll come with thee, and have a sup ourselves presently, only thou come with us now. "vWve had job eno' to find thee; we'll not let thee go again.' ' But I'm not bound to come vt ith ye.'

* Yea, thou art. Aren't he, Joe ?' * Ay, to be sure. What does the hact say : " And he shall call to his assistance the constable, headboro' tithing man, and boro reeve, or other officer of the peace." Now, you can't deny but what you're constable.' ' I'm none so sure. If it's the law, I jnun abide by it, but I mun ask paarson. —Paarson !'

' Well, William ?' ' Am I parish constable, paarson ?' ' Certainly; you were appointed at the last vestry.' «And am I bound to go wi these chaps wherever they please to take me ?' ' I think you are bound to accompany them on their present errand.' * If that's the law, then I mun abide by it.—Coome along chaps.' CHAPTER XV. * O prenez misericorde! Ayez pitie demoy ! The agent's house on the Dinbrwich estate was not far from the Plas itself; it was built upon the same spur of the Pea Dinas Mountain, but a litttle more

to the east, higher up the valley.and nearer the level of the river. The view from it was more circumscribed, but perhaps as beautiful as from the higher Plas. It was a pleasant retreat; to Captain Trudgett, half pay of the Eoyal Artillery, and a Scotchman, a very pleasant retreat. Pleasant enough to his three daughters, tall girls with plenty of light hair and freckles ; but, for them, rather too much in the way of a retreat. Now Captain Trudgett had notice to quit—notice to leave his pleasant house, and the pleasant salary, and the pleasant influence and importance he held in the country as the practical ruler of such an extensive property. And that meant beginning life again upon a captain's halfpay, with three expensive daughters, no savings, and a few debts. The captain stood at the window of his little study or office, which was at the back of the house, and fronted the hill side and the east wing of the Plas. He had been busy writing till a late hour, preparing for the rent audit on the morrow ; for although he had had notice that Lawyer Jones and the Eev. Eobert Thomas would attend to receive the rents, he was too punctilious a man to fail to accurately perform his duties to the very last moment of his tenure of office. He was standing at the open window looking wearily out upon the night, and vaguely thinking of what was in store for him on the morrow. There was a soft breeze just rippling in from the sea, and the acacias and limes were rustling gently to its breath ; he had knocked out the ashes of his pipe, and was thinking of turning in, when he heard a shot —a pistol shot too! a sharp ringing report. He stood listening intently. There was another and another in quick succession. Then followed a profound stillness; then muffled cries, ' Help ! held !'

By this time the captain had reached the top of his garden, from which there was a private entrance to the Plas. There was somebody shouting from the third window of the east wing—a gray haired man, the captain could see ' Murder, murder, murder!' till his voice died away in a howl, as he was dragged from the open window. The captain was not a man to be flurried. He had been pruning his trees that afternoon ; there was a longish ladder lying at the top of his garden. To run and get it, and rear it against the window of the east wing, only took a moment. In another moment, he had crept through the half open window into the room. It was a bedroom ; a great square bed heavy with hangings, occupied one side of it, but that he hardly noticed ; for, in the further corner, lay a white headed old man—the old lawyer, in fact—and kneeling upon his breast, flourishing a knife in his hand, foaming at the mouth, glaring nind vaaa ike uufruuked pai'SOU, the will prophet of New Jerusalem. ' Yea, it shall be accomplished ! —yea, it shall be accomplished! Is it not a sacrifice ? Yea, it shall be a sacrifice !'

And sacrificed thelawy er certainly would have been, had not the captain seized the first thing that came to hand, which happened to be a heavy silver candlestick and floored the officiating priest. ' Eobert I've settled mine,' cried a voice from the next room ; and a head grimy with powder, bloody, ferocious, was protruded through the open door. _ ' Curse you,' said the captain; ' whatever job you've been about's a bad un !' And with that he brought his silver candlestick, rather dinted now, on the defenceless head of Dr Thomas Jones, who came heavily to the ground with a deep groan. ' It's like Chillianwalla,' said the captain his blood up, brandishing his candlestick, and looking round for another adversary. But all was quiet now. Only the ormolo clock on the marble chimney piece cried Tick, tack—tick, tack, as it had cried all the time while murder was being done. In the further room lay the body of a man, stretched limply on the floor, a little streamlet of blood oozing from a deep cut on his forehead. The captain was puzzled. What bad this desperate fight been about P Had he, perhaps by accident, knocked over the wrong man? That would be awkward. Had the doctor only been defending his mistress from some midnight assassin? The lawyer had gone off into a dead faint; he could throw no light on it. The captain advanced cautiously towards the bed ; he was a man of the most scrupulous delicacy, and really felt that in addressing Lady Lavinia in her bed, notwithstanding the scene he had just taken part in, he was committing a great solecism in manners. « Hem ! Lady Lavinia ; I trust you re not alarmed ?' There was no answer. Had they frightened the old lady into a fit ? or had they perhaps killed her ? The thought nerved the captain to throw back the curtains. There sat Lady Lavinia bolt upright, the green shade over her eyes ; a pen full or ink had fallen on the white coverlet, and streaked it with black.

1 She takes it cool enough,' said the captain to himself. * Perhaps she sits up when she faints; she's a very stiff old lady.' And with that thought he ventured to lay his hand upon her arm.

A touch sufficed. That which had been Lady Lavinia Morgan toppled slowly over upon her pillows : it was a corpse he had touched ! As he stepped back, horror struck at the sight, the bed clothes heaved, there was a groan and then a shriek, and something black, monstrous, hideous, rolled out upon the floor ! This was too much for the captain ; the living he could face—the dead, no. He would have jumped through the window the next moment, but that he saw in the doorway a man with a gash in his forehead, but still a man, with a hearty human face, and a divine human voice.

'Trudgett, old fellow, thanks for this. Get the key out of that doctor's waistcoat pocket, and throw open the doors, and let the free air into this chamber of horrors.' Jack Lowther had come to himself.

' Mercy, mercy, mercy !' shrieked the black thing lying on the floor. ' Spare my life, and I'll confess all.' ' What! it's Gwen Eoberts, is it ?' said the captain fiercely, all the more enraged that he had been so frightened. ' You murderous old wretch ! what! you've killed your mistress have you ?' 'lndeed, indeed, indeed, I never touched a hair of her head—no indeed. She died of her own accord, last Tuesday as was.'

' And I came here to see her execute her will,' said the old lawyer, who had now come to his senses. He was the first to comprehend the position. ' O dear, Mr Lowther, this is a most dreadful affair. I hope you're not shaken P You haven't suffered, have you ?—Capt. Trudgett, summoned MrLowther's people at once. Dear me, that you should come to the Plas under such dismal circumstances !'

The people didn't want summoning—they were outside the iron door, listening in horror to the row inside : the coachman and the ladies' maid, and the cook, and housemaid, in various states of deshabille. ' I congratulate you, my dear sir,' said the lawyer taking Lowther by the arm, and leading him out of the room. ' Splendid property, and all yours, my dear sir. I made the will a fortnight ago.' Just now a penniless student, wanting badly a hundred pounds, and seeing no way to get it: at this time, a landed swell, having a lawyer of his own, a captain of artillery in his suite, obsequious servants, and a broken head. Yes, that rather took off the cream of it—his head did ache consumedly.

(To be continued.)