CHAPTER XVIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 207, 18 June 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER XVIII.

UNEXPECTED >\ ITNESSES— CONCLUSION. The Superior Court was in session at Wallingham, and the day had arrived whicli hud been appointed fox* the trial of the cause of Jonas Crandal, Esq., guardian, versus Samuel Laybrook, M.D., c( a/., the plaintiff claiming custody of an infant ward wrongfully and forcibly \\ ithheld from him by the defendant. • As the day approached the interest became deep and absorbing ; and Avhen the appointed day had finally come the excitement was widespread and intense. The fair girl, claimed by Jonas Crandal as his ward, "was known to nearly e\eiybody. Especially did tho poor, the needy, and the distressed know her, as they had known and loved her father before her. Sympathy was strongly in her favour. What the law would say remained to lie f^een As the day had approached Mr Amberly, who had given his whole attention to the case, preparing it even to the minutest details, beforehand, had come to feel the necessity of having Darn ley Wcrter present to gh c hi^ testimony. Said he : " It will be the culminating point of our case. "With his testimony, clearly and straightforwardly given, tho court, and the jury, must be convinced. Oandal, you niusfc send for that man !"' And Jonas had said, — " I will go myself. He will come for me, lam .sure." And Jonas had gone ; and ho had found poor "Wertcr, in a comfortless garret, with a worn sack of straw spread upon the floor, for a bed, and with not a particle of food at hand, though he had half a pint of rum, hidden away in a small cupboard. Keeping the broken and shattered wretch sate in his garret, Crandal fed him, and clothed him ; and then proem ed a railway ticket, of third class, for Scotland, Werter having promised that he would go there ; and he went the more willingly because the villain made him believe that they were searching for him to prove the forgery of | that deed of guardianship. Ten pounds in gold — ten sovereigns — Crandal gave him, and saw him off. Then he had returned to his lawyer, and declared that Werter must be dead. At all events, no trace of him could be found. He described to Amberly the garret he had visited, where, an old woman told him, the poor wretch had passed his last days in the neighborhood of Lincoln's Inn. And Horace Amberly could have wept in his sympathy ; for he remembered Darnley Werteras he had been in the brighter and better years ; and he knew there had been vastly more of good than evil in his nature. A doubt of his client's good faith had not entered his mind. The case came on. Morna was in the court-room, provided with comfortable quarters, where her immediate friends were gathered around her. Jonas Crandal was there, and Captain Tom— the former cruel-looking, ugly and determined ; the latter seeming to regard the whole thing as a farce - a game of hazard —in which the chances were so evenly balanced that he could hardly decide "on which side he would stake his wager. He hoped, however, his father would win. Mr Amberly presented the case of his client. He made a concise statement of the facts, as he understood them. He was an eloquent man, and logical ; and he possessed, in au eminent degree, the happy faculty of telling a story in the fewest words and in the clearest and most interesting manner. He claimed the privilege of telling the jury why hi 3 client had been robbed of the custody of his ward : and, following this, he claimed the right to tell the court and jury why the thing should not have been done. Then he went on to toll how bfe client had been trusted by Sir William Dale — what great interest had been left in his hands, and how honest and honourable he had proved. " Aye, gentleman, so honest and true, under the watchful eye of the brother of Sir William the father of tihe ward in question — that that father, Doctor Lawrence Dale, made him steward of his possessions, without bond, with no surety whatever save that of character !"

Then he presented a picture of the steward's position, honoured and respected by all who knew him, with no breath of suspicion against him. (Here Tom was seen to smilo and hide Ins face.) This was the man whom Lawrence Dale had made guardian of his child. "But, did he do that ? I will fhow you, your honor, and you, gentleman of the jury." And ho produced the instrument and handed it to the sheriff. It was given first to the judge. He looked it over, and his countenance ' fell. Evidently, his sympathy was with the fair respondent ; but this was a stern fact, which he could not allow sympathy to put out of sight. lie had known Mortimer Rivrrs's legal papers — had been familiar with his judicial forms, and with his peculiar stylo and hand for years. Also, he had been long and intimatoly familiar with the hand of poor Darnley Werter. That the instrument in his hand had come from Mortimer Rivera's office he was as sure as he was that the sun would rise on the morrow. He then told how his cliont had held oil from claiming his rights as guardian until ho had come to feel it his duty to take her to the home that was to bo hers in the coming years, and teach her how to manage it. He wished that she should come to know the tenants of the Abbey, and that Iho vast interests involved should become familiar to her. And then, feelingly and patheticallyhaving accepted the man's own account of the affair— ho told how his client's beloved ward— the child of his old and dearest friend - about whom all the pure and warm affection of a father's heart was clinging— had been taken away from him ; and a\ hen he had asked that she should be restored to his loving care ho had met cold and cruel refusal. " And now, to this honourable court, and to you, gentlemen of the jury, he comes, asking that you will give him that which is his lawful right— the custody of his wardto all intents and purposes, as overy intelligent Englishman knows, his own child —as" much his own as though she were bono of his bone and flesh of his llehh." As yet he called no Avitnesses, as no point, saving only the nature and character of the guardian's credentials, was likely to be questioned. Mr Blackmoro, for the defence, mado a general denial. The claimant was in no sense, and in no way or manner, guardian of his client. He related all the circumstances attending^ Dr. Dale's preparation for his departure for India ; how lie had solemnly promised his daughter that Jonas Crandal should not be her guardian ; had promised her that she should be left entirely free ; and that her only guardian should be her promised husband. Then he drew a picture of Ralph Ashmore, as he must be remembered by nearly all who heard him speak— a young physician, who had won his way to distinction and renown, even in his early youth. And Morna Dale had been promised by her father as that man's wife. They were to have been married at the end of a year. Dr. Dale had loved this youth with all the strength of his loving heart. JIo had been as a son to him from his childhood, being, in fact, the adopted son of his dear brother, the baronet. ' ' I ask any sensible man, — Would the father, in hid right mind, have appointed the plaintiff in this case guardian of his daughter under such circumstances ?"' An audible " No ! No !" was heard over the whole room. At this point the court adjourned for dinner, Mr Amberly giving notice that he would call his witnesses after dinner. Poor Morna left the court sad at heart. She saw plainly that the case was going against her. If Amberly succeeded in establishing the honesty of the deed the court could not set it aside. But Dr. Laybrook bade her cheer up, and Mr Blackmore did the same. Said the latter : " Let them decide against us, and we will appeal to the Lord High Chancellor. Ah ! I have not done with the Crandals yet. I have a rod in pickle for them they do not dream of." " 0, Mr Blackmore ; is it —is it — about Ralph ?" " My clear young lady, I beg of you do not question me. It is of Ralph. I will tell you the rest if the case goes against us. " When the court came in, and business was resumed, after the noontide meal, Sir Amberly called his witnesses. Three old clerks, who had served Mortimer Rivers for years, declared, under oath, to the best of their knowledge and belief, that the instrument submitted to them, constituting Jonas Crandal guardian of Morna Dale, was genuine. They believed that to be the hona fide, signature of their old employer ; and, as to the part of Darnley Werter, that he had written the body of the instrument, was too self-evident to be for a moment questioned. Several other men — men who had been long familiar with old Rivers and his modes of business - also testified that the signature was his. Then came testimony touching the signature of Lawrence Dale ; and here he made a strong point. He dared any man present to point out wherein that signature was unlike the doctor's true sign-manual ; and he had turned, evidently with the intention of speaking to the opposing counsel, when he saw that individual, in a state of great excitement, whispering with a sergeant of police, who had just entered the room and crowded his way down to the bar ; and, before he could speak further, either to summon witness or to address Mr Blackmore, the lastnamed arose in his place and asked permission of the court to retire for a moment. "It is a matter, your honor, of the utmost moment, one, to me, perhaps, of life and death." Permission was granted, and he went out. He was gone not more than five minutes. All eyes were fixed upon him on his return, but a stone sphinx could not have been less demonstrative He was altogether too calm. Amberly knew, as though he had read it in letters of light on the wall, as did Belshazzar, that something had happened. But he was not a man to be crushed by an unseen danger, and he went on with his witnesses. The authenticity of the instrument was established. At this juncture a slip of paper, closely folded, was put into Blackniore's hand. He opened and recognised the writing of Arthur Morley. This was what was written : " Wake, up ! Make, a detyeralepush ! The jury are against you to a man. A.M." I A peculiar smile curled the lawyer's lips as he crushed tho paper into a wad, and slipped it into his pocket. A moment later his eye fell upon the superintendent, and ho motioned for him to come to him. When he had come he whispered a fow words into his ear. The officer gasped and caught his breath, and for a single moment his face was almost white. Blackmore repeated the whispered sentence, upon which, with a deeply-drawn breath, Morley moved away, but not to leave the room. He went and whispered to one of his inspectors, and that inspeqtor, in turn, was soon whispering to others. At this juncture the voice of the court caused a hush to fall upon the packed audience. " Mr Blackmore, have you anything to offer in rejoinder ?" "Your honor, I have to offer that the paper which has been put into this case is

a base and wicked forgery, as I have once before pronounced ifc." There was something in the tones of the counsel's voice— something so deep, so solemn, so majestic — that both judge and jury were startled. " Your honor, may I ask you, Had you in your own mind resolved that the instrument was genuine ? Would you, of your own judgment, havo allowed it ?" " Really, Mr Blackmore, this is unusnal, and out of placo and character : yet, as I know you moan well, I will frankly answer, I must have done so, as I think you would have done in my place." • While this conversation had been going on, there had been an unusual movement at the entrance to the chamber, and presently two men were seen following the police superintendent and one of his sergeants down towards the bar. Then said the counsel for tho defence : " Your honor, I thank heaven that I havo a witness who can very soon com ince you that the whole paper — " The sentenco was not finisho 1. At that instant a quick, low cry, as of infinite ecstasy, broko the quivering air, and Morna Dale was seen to spring forward into tho arms of a short, portly man, who clasped and held her close. At tho same moment another cry, equally joyous, had burst from the lips of Dr. Laybrook, and Tom Crandal, looking across from his place, beheld a sight that froze the blood in his veins, and held him for a brief space spoil-bound. He saw before him, alive and well, as strong and vigorous as over, though poorly clad, and embrowned by long exposure, the man whom lie had left to perish in a scuttled boat in tho midmouth of the English Channel ! Perhaps three seconds he remained under the .spell, then his senses came back to him, and very quietly he turned him about and glided away into tho open aisle, where he felt a hand on his shoulder, and a voice in his ear — only a whisper, tut it was a thunderbolt to him : "Tom! don't hurry. When wo arc ready to leave you will go with me ! Easy \ Do you want mo to slip the darbies on in this public placo ?" That conquered him. It was the face of Arthur Morley into which he looked, the voice of Arthur Morley in his ear. By and by Dr. Dale, for he was the man who had been holding Morna so closely, turned her over to her own dear lover, her dai'ling Ralph, while he took tho stand. The moment his eyes fell upon his own name on tho paper which had boen put into his hand, his memory went back to the timo of its writing. But he neoded not that reminder. He had mot Darnley Wcrter at Dover. That poor waif had parted with Crandal at the Broad street station in London. At the first junction, only a few miles out, he had met a man who had in his possession a Dover ticket. Darnley, wishing to go to France with his ten pounds, had exchanged with him his pass to Scotland, which had not been taken from him. The guard had kindly believed the pitiful story he told, and let him out ; and he had got as far as Dover perfectly sober when Dr. Dale met him, and, very naturally, in his great joy at discovering that the wicked deed forced upon him had not consigned Morna to the hands and power of a villain, he told the whole story. "0! Jonas! Jonas! Friend whom I trusted ! What shall I say ? How— o, how oould you find it in your heart to so betray me ?" For a brief space the strong man shrank and cowered. For a second, or more, ho had doubted tho evidence of his own senses ; but that doubt was quickly passed. Then he shrank and cowered ; and then, casting his eyes around, and seeing his son in the hands of Morley, with the eyes of the officer fixed significantly upon himself, his mood changed, and the true, inborn nature of the man manifested itself. With a half-mut-tered oath and a curso upon his luck he straightened himself and spoke : "Pshaw! what's the use! I give in, Doctor. The game is yours. Bear down lightly, if you can. I have not a word to say. There is my warrant of guardianship ; and even you won't dispute your signature to it. I have not another word to say. How I came by it you will never know." "Poor, deluded fool!" returned the doctor, more in pity than in anger. ' ' I know the whole story." "Eh ! Has— But— no that cannot be." "It can, Jonas, and so it is. Tho poor wretch whom you frightened into forging that deed, and whom you recently started on his way to Scotland, left the train on which you placed him, and turned his face, instead, to the south. I met him at Dover." At this juncture a deep, bitter groan burst from the lips of Horace Amberly. It was terrible to him to find how he had been deceived— how brutally, and even foolishly. Morley afterwards told him that, though he could not even break down the certificate of guardianship, ho had been prepared with rcliablo information which would have led tho Lord High Chancellor to put his conveto on it. Jonas heard the groans of his counsel, and met his blazing eyes for an instant ; then he bowed his head, and would not again look up. "Doctor Dale," said the judge, after he had grasped his hand with glowing warmth and fervour, " I understand you to pronounce that instrument a forgery ?" "I do, your honor. Shall I relate tho circumstances ?" "If you please." The doctor wont on at once. He told, first, how, and when, and for what he had written his name on that sheet of paper, afterwards folding the margin over, so that the slip might be torn off. Bnt, while he had been called out for a few moments, Mr Crandal had written the same name on another and similar sheet, and it had been used without the roguery being detected. Then he told the story of poor Darnley Werter— told of the hold which Crandal had upon him, and how he had literally forced him to save himself by committing a new crime. When the doctor had answered a few questions of the jury, and the matter of tho foi'gery was well understood, the judge went on : 5 ' My dear Doctor, though someAvhat out of regular course, 1 think it would be very interesting to all present for you to tell us how it is that we see you here after having so long mourned your death. " ' "It is all very simple, your honour." He spoke loudly and clearly, so that all might hear, and oven Jonas Crandal pricked up his ears. " You will remember I sailed in the ill-fated Regulus. At Cape Town I received intelligence of the death of my brother, whom I was on my way to Calcutta to see. The ship bringing that news arrived in Table Bay at the same time that our own ship entered, and I immediately sent my letters homo. At that time > there lay at Cape Town a French steamer just on the evo of sailing for my destination. I was assured that she was swift and safe ; and her commander cheerfully gave me passage, which I had sought, as the Regulus was to remain several days longer. You can imagine my anxiety to reach Calcutta ; and, I will further say, a strong and strange longing , had seized me to be at homo. " Thus, my friends, I providentially— if I may use that term in view of the melancholy fate of &o many others— escaped the terrible calamity that befell the Regulus and

her living freight. I arrived in Calcutta speedily and safely, closed my business without trouble or delay — for Sir William had been a methodical man, and his affairs were all in order when he passed away— l closed my business, settled everything that required sottling, deposited the greatwcalth that had fallon to me and mine, and took letters of credit on London, and then sailed for homo. "There would be no English steamer, I found, ready to start for two weeks, at least. The French steamer which had brought me from Cape Town was ready to sail, bound for Marseilles ; so again I took passage on board, her commander gladly giving me the privilege for the sake of my services, his own surgeon being doAvn with fever. " And now, your honor, and gentlemen - friends - comes a surprise. At Cape Town, on my way homo, judge of my as- ■ I tonishment at meeting Ralph Ashmoie, my daughter's promised husband. He was ragged and wwarn r his face the picture of misery and cankering care. He had been picked up at sea, weeks and months before, by a Swedish brig that had come fiom the North Sea down through the English Channel, bound for Australia. Her commander, who had done all in his power for the poor youth, had left him at Cape Town by his own request. He had taken Ralph from a small boat, without a sail or an oar, without a crumb of food or a drop of fiesh water— had taken him up uttorly insensible, and, for a time, he had thought dead. But ho had rovivnet after a time, and lmd recovered. The Swede had told him that his boat had boon found fifty to sixty miles off the extreme northwest headland of France. " I will only add : The poor boy had been at Capo Town only a week when I met him. The joy I must leave you to imagine. I took him to my bosom, and I haven't lost sight of him since. Home by the way of Marseilles, across France as swiftly as s>team could carry us : and we never knew the mischief brewing here till we landed at Dover and met poor Wertcr. You must allow me to say, the meeting was a blessing to him ; and if he shall not be troubled for this last wrong, I am fully persuaded that he will reform. That is all." Tho matter of the cause in hand, " Jonas Crandal v. Samuel Laybrook, ct «?.," was given to tho jury without a further "uord, and a verdict rendered instanter. Then as tho assembled people were eager beyond any power to restrain thorn, and as the court itself was in full sympathy, Ralph Ashmoro was asked if he would kindly tell his story, and he consented. He stood up, not in the witness-stand, but by the side of tho judge, and began. He told tho story as wo know it, from tho time of the assault and capture on Regent street on that dark, stormy November evening, to the moment when, having failed to attract the notice of tho pas-ing vessel, he had sunk down in his groat suffering and happily found rest in utter oblivion. He told of seeing the face of Tom Crandal, of the words that passed between them, of how he had begged that his cruel bonds might bo loosened ; of how at length Tom had come to look at or feel those bonds, but, instead of easing them, he had only felt to assure himself that they were secure. Then of his being loft alono ; of the discovery that the boat had been scuttled ; of his final attempt to throw himself forward upon his knees to pray ; and then how, almost miraculously, the khot of the cord had become caught in a belaying cleat, and at length cast loose. " After 1 fainted," he said, " I remember no more until I awoke, or came to my senses, on board the Swedish brig of which Doctor Dale has told you. The Swedes were very kind to me, and I only hope I may at some future time be ablo to repay them. Pardon me — I ean — say — no more !" And a little later, notwithstanding the multitude of gazers, his head had found a rest on Morna's shoulder, her loving arms entwined him ; and of all who saw there was scarcely a soul that did not look through blinding tears. What more need we tell ? You surely do not need to be told that Ralph and Morna were married, and that, too, without unnecessary delay ? nor that the event was one of the most joyous that Wallingham had seen for many a day. Sir Lawrence, feeling it his duty to make his home at the ancestral Abbey, gave up the dear old Grange to the young couple, whore, though wealthy beyond every want, or even power to legitimately expend, our hero continued the practice of his profession, not more from love of it than from love of his suffering fellows ; while our heroine, mo-\ cd by the same grand spirit, became Lady Bountiful of all" the region round about. And we know who are the cherished friends that give added brightness and bles&ing to their lives. Jonas Crandal, having been taken in hand by the government whose laws he had outraged, was tried and convicted, on several counts, and transported for life. He made no appeal. Tom's was a different fate. He broke away from tho officers who had arrested him ; and having drawn a pistol which had been concealed on his person, and turned upon his pursuers with direful threats and imprecations, he was shot, falling dead where he stood. A pleasing fact we may record at closing : Poor Darnley Werter, having been freely forgiven by those whom ho had so unwillingly sinned ae;ainst,turned over a new leaf, with a firm resolve that the rest of his days should be lived as nearly right as it was in him to do. And he kept the faith. Mr Blackmore took him into his office, where, in course of time, ho became an honored and trusted attorney. THE E.ND