CHAPTER XXIX.
"GREAT GOD, IT IS A GHOST--THE GHOST OF FAYNIE!"
We must now return to Faynie, and the thrilling position in which we soreluctantly left her.
As the bright blaze of light illumined the corridor Faynie beheld thedark form of a man creeping toward her.
"Great Scott! Some one must have touched an electric buttonsomewhere--the wrong button!" he cried, instantly springing behind amarble Flora--but not before Faynie had distinctly beheld him, beingherself unseen, because she was standing in the dense shadow.
"It is he! It is Lester Armstrong!" was the cry that sprang from herterrified heart to her lips, but no sound issued from them as theyparted.
She leaned back faint and dizzy against the wall, unable to utter eventhe faintest sound. "So this is Claire's lover--the Lester she told meabout--whom she is soon to marry! The dastardly wretch who wrecked mylife and left me for dead under the cold, drifting snow heap," was thethought that flashed through her dazed brain as she watched him, withbated breath and dilated eyes.
"It was only a false alarm; nobody would be roaming through thecorridor of this place at this ghostly hour!" he muttered, sallyingforth. "It seems that I was more scared than hurt on this occasion.Now for the library, to find that sum of money which my foolishmamma-in-law-that-is-to-be mentioned having placed there. It's a daringrisk, stealing into the house like a thief in the night to search forit, but there's no other way to get it, and money I must have withoutdelay.
"It's mighty dangerous going through this corridor in this bright light.I wish I knew where to turn it off; the chandelier is too high or I'd doit in that way. I'm liable to be seen at any moment, if any one shouldtake it into their head to come down through the house for any reasonwhatsoever."
The next moment he had disappeared within the library, closing the doorneatly to after him. The next moment he had lighted the shaded nightlamp that stood on the table.
Turning out the gas in the corridor, Faynie glided forward like ashadow, and, reaching the library, noiselessly pushed open the door,which he had left slightly ajar.
"What was he doing here?" she wondered vaguely, her eyes blazing withfierce indignation as she stood there considering what her next actionshould be. He decided, the question by exclaiming:
"Ha! This is the little iron safe she mentioned: of course the money ishere, and the will is probably here, too, for that matter, which statesthat all of the Fairfax fortune goes to the old lady--which means thepretty Claire ultimately. Well, the more money the better; there is noone more competent to make it fly at a gay pace than myself. A prince ofthe royal blood couldn't go at a faster pace than I have been goingduring these last three weeks! Ha, ha, ha!"
In a moment he was kneeling before the safe. To his intense satisfactionthe knob yielded to his deft touch.
"I shall have less trouble than I anticipated," he muttered, with alittle chuckle.
Faynie stood motionless, scarcely three feet behind him, watching himintently, with horror-stricken eyes and glued tongue.
She saw him take a roll of bills, and after carefully counting them,transfer them to his pocket.
Heirlooms, too, in the way of a costly diamond stud, sleeve links, andmassive watch and chain, which had been her father's, went the same way.
Faynie seemed incapable of interfering.
"Now we will soon determine what else there is here of importance--mytime cannot be more profitably spent than by informing myself."
Paper after paper he carefully unfolded, glancing quickly through theircontents, and as quickly tossing them back into the safe.
Evidently he had not yet found that for which he was searching sointently.
Suddenly he came across a large square envelope, the words on whichseemed to arrest his attention at once. And in a whispered, yetdistinctly audible voice, he read the words:
"Horace Fairfax, last message to his wife--dated March 22, 18--."
"Why that is the very date upon which he died," muttered Kendale. "Thismust have been written just before he committed suicide. Well, we willsee what he had to say."
And slowly he read, half aloud, as follows:
"MY DEAR WIFE: When you read the words here penned I shall be no more. I know your heart will be most bitter against me for what I have just done, but, realizing that my end was near, I have done it for the best.
"I refer to the making of my will.
"When a man sees death before him, he naturally wishes to see those nearest and dearest to him provided for, so far as he is able to do so.
"You will remember distinctly the conversation we had at the time I proposed marriage to you. I reminded you that I was a widower, with a daughter whom I loved far better than the apple of my eye.
"I told you that this daughter would succeed to all my wealth, if she lived, when time was no more with me; that no being on earth could ever change my views in this regard--ay, in fulfilling my duty.
"I asked you to marry me, knowing fully my intention in this matter, stating at the time that I would give you in cash an ample sum of money, which, if used frugally and judiciously, should last you the remainder of your natural life, providing you outlived me.
"You accepted me under those conditions; you married me, and I, as agreed, gave to you in a lump sum the money stipulated.
"It is needless to recall to you the fact that our wedded life has been a failure. You have made my life miserable--ay, and that of my sweet, motherless, tender little Faynie, until, in sheer desperation, she has fled from her home on the night I write this, and my grief is more poignant than I can well endure.
"You must feign neither surprise nor indignation when it is learned that my will gives all my fortune to Faynie, save the amount set aside for you.
"HORACE FAIRFAX."
"Well! By all that's wonderful, if this isn't a pretty how-do-you-do.Mrs. Fairfax and her girl are penniless, and I came so near marryingClaire. I have found this thing out quite in the nick of time. The girlis clever enough, but it takes money, and plenty of it, to make me putmy head into the yoke of matrimony.
"I must find this will he speaks of. It will be here unless the womanhas been shrewd enough to destroy it, and women never are clever enoughto burn their telltale bridges which lie behind them, and that's howthey get found out--at last.
"I see through the whole thing now. Mrs. Fairfax trumped up a will infavor of herself, a brilliant scheme. I admire her grit immensely. Ah,yes, here is the real will, in the same handwriting as the letter. Yes,it gives all to his daughter Faynie. And here is the spurious one, agood imitation, I admit, still an expert could easily detect thehandwriting of Mrs. Fairfax from beginning to end--signature and all.
"I think I will take charge of this one giving all the Fairfax wealth toFaynie."
But he did not succeed in transferring it to his pocket, for like aflash it was snatched from his hand.
With a horrible oath, Kendale wheeled about.
One glance, and his eyes fairly bulged from their sockets, his face grewashen white, his teeth chattered, and the blood in his veins seemedsuddenly to turn to ice.
"Great Heaven! It is a ghost!" he yelled at the top of his voice; "theghost of Faynie!"
CHAPTER XXX.
AT THE LAST.
The sound of that hoarse, piercing, awful cry echoed and re-echoed toevery portion of the house, and in less time than it takes to relate it,the servants in a body, headed by Mrs. Fairfax and Claire, were rushingtoward the library, from whence the sound proceeded.
One glance as they reached the open doorways, and a cry of consternationbroke from Mrs. Fairfax's lips, which was faintly echoed by her daughterClaire.
The servants were too astounded at the sight that met their gaze tobelieve the evidence of their own eyes.
Mrs. Fairfax was the first to recover herself.
"What is the mean
ing of this!" she exclaimed, striding forward andfacing Faynie and the horror-stricken man who stood facing her, histeeth chattering, as he muttered:
"It is her ghost!--her ghost!"
"Faynie Fairfax, why do I find you here, in the library, in the dead ofthe night, in the company of the man who is to wed my daughter Claire,and who parted from her scarcely two hours since, supposedly to leavethe house? Why are you two here together! Explain this mostextraordinary and most atrocious scene at once. I command you!" shecried, her voice rising to a shrill scream in her rising anger.
Faynie turned a face toward her white as a marble statue, but no wordbroke from her lips.
The presence of the others seemed to bring Kendale back to his senses.
"It means," spoke Faynie, after a full moment's pause, "that the hourhas come in which I must confess to all gathered here the pitiful storyI have to tell, and which will explain what has long been an unsolvedmystery to you--where, how and with whom I spent the time from the hourin which I left this roof until I returned to it.
"You say that this is the man who is your daughter's lover, Mrs.Fairfax--the man who is soon to marry Claire.
"I declare that this marriage can never be, because this man has aliving wife," she cried, in a high, clear voice.
"It is false!" shrieked Kendale. "The girl I married in the old churchis dead--dead, I tell you. I--I saw her buried with my own eyes!"
"She is not dead, for I am that unfortunate girl," answered Faynie, in avoice that trembled with agonized emotion.
"Listen all, while I tell my story," she sobbed. "Surely the saddest,most pitiful story a young girl ever had to tell."
Then, in a panting voice, she told her horrified listeners all, from thebeginning to the very end, omitting not the slightest detail, dwellingwith a pathos that brought tears to every eye, of how she had loved himup to the very hour he had come for her to elope with him; her horrorand fear of him growing more intense because of the marriage he forcedher into, with the concealed revolver pressed so close to her heart shedared not disobey his slightest command.
And how the conviction grew upon her that he was marrying her for wealthonly, and the inspiration that came to her to test his so-called love bytelling him that she had been disinherited, though she was confidentthat her father had made his will in her favor, leaving her his entirefortune.
Dwelling with piteous sobs on how he had then and there struck her downto death, as he supposed, and that he had made all haste to make awaywith her; and that she would at that moment have been lying in anunmarked grave, under the snowdrifts, if Heaven had not mostmiraculously interfered and saved her.
Faynie ended her thrilling recital by adding that she had not known,until that hour, that this man was Claire's lover, because they hadrefrained from mentioning the name of the man in her presence. How shehad come to the library in search of a book and had encountered himstealing through the halls, a veritable thief in the dead of the night,bent upon securing a sum of money which he had learned in some way wasin the safe, and that he now had it in his pocket, and that she hadprevented him from securing her father's will by snatching it from hisgrasp.
Mrs. Fairfax had fallen back, trembling like an aspen leaf. Sherecognized her husband's will in Faynie's hands, and that, although thegirl did not say so before the servants, she knew her treachery.
"Come, Claire, my child," she said, turning to her daughter, "this is noplace for you."
But Claire did not stir; she stood quite still, looking from the one tothe other, as though she could not fully comprehend all that she saw andheard.
By this time Kendale had recovered from his shock, and as he listened toFaynie's recital, realized that she was not indeed a ghost, but theheiress of the Fairfax millions, and his own wife at that. And when hefound his voice he cried out:
"The girl tells the truth! She is mine, and as her husband I am lord andmaster of this house, and of her."
As he uttered the words he strode toward Faynie with a diabolicalchuckle, and seized her slender wrists in his grasp.
"Unhand me!" shrieked Faynie, struggling frantically in his grasp,almost fainting with terror.
"No one dares interfere between man and wife," replied Kendale,mockingly.
He did not see three dark forms spring over the threshold, thrusting theservants hastily aside.
But in less time than it takes to tell it, a strong arm thrust himaside, and a tall form sprang between him and Faynie, while a voice thatstruck terror to his very soul cried out:
"You have come to the end of your rope, Clinton Kendale. You have lostthe game, while it was almost in your grasp!"
"Great Heaven, is it you, Lester Armstrong!" cried the guilty villain,fairly quivering with terror. "Oh, Lester, have pity--have mercy--I--"
"You shall have the same quality of mercy dealt out to you that you havemeted out to others!" replied Lester, sternly.
Suddenly Kendale wrenched himself free from his grasp, crying out,hoarsely and triumphantly:
"I am game yet. I have married the girl you love. She is my lawfullywedded wife. I have lost the Marsh millions, but you are checkmated,Lester Armstrong. I have the Fairfax fortune, and your Faynie!"
"Don't delude yourself into believing so prettily an arranged scheme,"exclaimed a voice from the doorway, and a woman whom Kendale had notnoticed among the crowd before glided hastily forward, threw back herveil, confronting the villain.
"Gertrude!" he cried aghast, staggering back.
"Yes, Gertrude, your wife," she replied. "Your wife, though you triedhard to induce me to go to Dakota and secure a divorce from you. I hadinstituted it and would soon have obtained it had I not read in thepapers of the great fortune you had fallen into, for you had told meyour cousin Lester Armstrong was dead, and you were to take his name andplace as assistant cashier--no one knowing of his death, and you couldeasily pass yourself off for him owing to your wonderful resemblance toeach other.
"For my sake," she added, "Mr. Armstrong has promised to let you gofree, providing you go with me."
"It is false!" shouted Kendale. "All you say is a lie, woman!"
"The man who accompanied us to the altar a year ago is here," he said."He has with him my marriage certificate," pointing toward some one onthe threshold, adding, "come forward, please."
And Halloran, who had left a sickbed to accompany her, came slowlyforward.
"So you are against me, too!" cried Kendale. "Then all is up, indeed. Iacknowledge that all that has been said is true. I had a few weeks of agay, merry life, and I'm not sorry, either. Come, Gertrude!"
And without a backward glance they slowly left the Fairfax mansion.
The reuniting of Faynie and her lover was extremely affecting, andwithin an hour a minister was called in who made them one forevermore.
Mrs. Fairfax and her daughter were offered a home for life, but theychose to leave the following day. Faynie and Lester had gone throughmany thrilling experiences, but were happily reunited--at last.
THE END.
No. 1113 of THE NEW EAGLE SERIES, entitled "In Love's Name," by EmmaGarrison Jones, is a story that tells of a romance that, after manysufferings, ends in a happy marriage feast.
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