by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XIII.
NETTA VISITS STOWMARKET.
"Well, Netta," Hilda said, after Dr. Leeds had left them, "I suppose youwill not in future laugh at my instincts. I only wish that they had beenstronger. I wish I had told my dear uncle that I disliked the man sothoroughly that I was sure there was something wrong with him, andimplored him not to become very intimate with him. If I had told him howstrongly I felt on the subject, although, of course, he could have leftor given him any sum that he chose, I do think it would have had someinfluence with him. No doubt he would have laughed at what he would havecalled my suspicious nature, but I think he would not have become sofriendly with the man; but, of course, I never thought of this. Oh,Netta! my heart seems broken at the thought that my dear uncle, thekindest of men, should have been murdered by a man towards whom histhoughts were so kindly that he appointed him his heir in the event ofWalter's death. If he had left him double the sum he did, and haddirected that in case of Walter's death the property should go tohospitals, the child might now have been safe in the house. It isheartbreaking to think of."
"Well, dear," Netta said, "we have our work before us. I say 'we'because, although he was no relation to me, I loved him from the first,when he came over with the news of your father's death. Had I been hisniece as well as you, he could not have treated me more kindly than hedid when I was staying with you last year, and during the last fourmonths that I have been with you. One could see, even in the state hewas in, how kind his nature was, and his very helplessness added toone's affection for him. I quite meant what I said, for until thismatter is cleared up, and until this crime, if crime it really is, isbrought to light, I will stay here, and be your helper, however the longthe time may be. There are two of us, and I do not think that either ofus are fools, and we ought to be a match for one man. There is one thingwe have, that is a man on whom we can rely. I do not mean Dr. Leeds; Iregard him as our director. I mean Tom Roberts; he would have given hislife, I am sure, for his master, and I feel confident that he will carryout any instructions we may give him to the letter."
"I am sure he will, Netta. Do you think we ought to tell him oursuspicions?"
"I should do so unhesitatingly, Hilda. I am sure he will be ready to gothrough fire and water to avenge his master's death. As aunt is out Ithink it will be as well to take him into our confidence at once."
Hilda said nothing, but got up and rang the bell. When the footmanentered she said, "Tell Roberts that I want to speak to him." When theman came up she went on, "We are quite sure, Tom, that you were mostthoroughly devoted to your master, and that you would do anything inyour power to get to the bottom of the events that have brought abouthis death and the carrying off of his grandson."
"That I would, miss; there is not anything that I would not do if youwould only set me about it."
"Well, Roberts, I am about to take you into our confidence, relyingimplicitly upon your silence and on your aid."
"You can do that, miss, safely enough. There is nothing now that I cando for my master; but as for Master Walter, I would walk to China if Ithought that there was a chance of finding him there."
"In the first place you must remember, Roberts, that we are acting onlyupon suspicion; we have only that to go upon, and our object must be tofind some proofs to justify those suspicions."
"I understand, miss; you have got an idea, and you want to see if it isright?"
"We ourselves have little doubt of it, Roberts. Now please sit down andlisten to me, and don't interrupt me till I have finished."
Then she related the grounds that she had for suspicion that theGeneral's death and Walter's abduction were both the work of JohnSimcoe, and also her own theory that this man was not the person who hadsaved the General's life. In spite of her warning not to interrupt, TomRoberts' exclamations of fury were frequent and strongly worded.
"Well, miss!" he exclaimed, when she had finished and his tongue wasuntied, "I did not think that there was such a villain upon the face ofthe earth. Why, if I had suspected this I would have killed him, if Ihad been hung for it a week after. And to think that he regular took mein! He had always a cheerful word for me, if I happened to open the doorfor him. 'How are you, Tom?' he would say, 'hearty as usual?' and hewould slip a crown into my hand to drink his health. I always keep anaccount of tips that I receive, and the first thing I do will be to addthem up and see how much I have had from him, and I will hand it over toa charity. One don't like setting out to help to bring a man to thegallus when you have got his money in your pocket. I must have been afool, miss, not to have kept a better watch, but I never thought ill ofthe man. It seemed to me that he had been a soldier. Sometimes when hewas talking with me he would come out with barrack-room sayings, andthough he never said that he had served, nor the General neither, Ithought that he must have done so. He had a sort of way of carrying hisshoulders which you don't often see among men who have not learned thegoose-step. I will wait, miss, with your permission, until I have gotrid of that money, and then if you say to me, 'Go to that man's roomsand take him by the throat and squeeze the truth out of him,' I am readyto do it."
"We shall not require such prompt measures as that, Tom; we must goabout our work carefully and quietly, and I fear that it will be a verylong time before we are able to collect facts that we can act upon. Wehave not decided yet how to begin. I may tell you that the only otherperson who shares our suspicions is Dr. Leeds. We think it best thateven Miss Purcell should know nothing about them. It would only causeher great anxiety, and the matter will, therefore, be kept a closesecret among our four selves. In a few days our plans will probably becomplete, and I think that your share in the business will be to watchevery movement of this man and to ascertain who are his associates; manyof them, no doubt, are club men, who, of course, will be abovesuspicion, but it is certain that he must have had accomplices in theabduction of the child. Whether he visits them or they visit him, is apoint to find out. There is little chance of their calling duringdaylight, and it is in the evening that you will have to keep a closeeye on him and ascertain who his visitors are."
"All right, miss, I wish he did not know me by sight; but I expect thatI can get some sort of a disguise so that he won't recognize me."
"I don't think that there will be any difficulty about that. Of coursewe are not going to rely only upon you; Miss Purcell and myself are bothgoing to devote ourselves to the search."
"We will run him down between us, miss, never fear. It cannot be meantthat such a fellow as this should not be found out in his villainy. Iwish that there was something more for me to do. I know several oldsoldiers like myself, who would join me willingly enough, and we mightbetween us carry him off and keep him shut up somewhere, just as he isdoing Master Walter, until he makes a clean breast of it. It iswonderful what the cells and bread and water will do to take a fellow'sspirit down. It is bad enough when one knows how long one has got tobear it; but to know that there is no end to it until you choose tospeak would get the truth out of Old Nick, begging your pardon fornaming him."
"Well, we shall see, Roberts. That would certainly be a last resource,and I fear that it would not be so effectual as you think. If he told usthat if he did not pay his usual visit to the boy it would be absolutelycertain we should never see him alive again, we should not dare retainhim."
"Well, miss, whatever you decide on I will do. I have lost as a goodmaster as ever a man had, and there is nothing that I would not do tobring that fellow to justice."
The girls waited impatiently for the next visit of Dr. Leeds. It wasfour days before he came.
"I hoped to have been here before," he said, "but I have been so busythat it has not been possible for me to manage it. Of course thisbusiness has always been in my mind, and it seems to me that the firststep to be taken is to endeavor to ascertain whether this fellow isreally, as you believe, Miss Covington, an impostor. Have you ever heardhim say in what part of the country he formerly resided?"
"Yes; he lived at St
owmarket. I know that some months ago he introducedto uncle a gentleman who was manager at a bank there, and had known himfrom boyhood. He was up for a few days staying with him."
"That is certainly rather against your surmise, Miss Covington; however,it is as well to clear that matter up before we attempt anything else."
"I will go down and make inquiries, doctor," Netta said quietly. "I amhalf a head shorter than Hilda, and altogether different in face;therefore, if he learns that any inquiries have been made, he will besure that whoever made them was not Hilda."
"We might send down a detective, Miss Purcell."
"No; I want to be useful," she said, "and I flatter myself that I shallbe able to do quite as well as a detective. We could hardly take adetective into our confidence in a matter of this kind, and not knowingeverything, he might miss points that would give us a clew to the truth.I will start to-morrow. I shall tell my aunt that I am going away for aday or two to follow up some clew we have obtained that may lead toWalter's discovery. In a week you shall know whether this man is reallywhat he claims to be."
"Very well, Miss Purcell; then we will leave this matter in your hands."
"By the way, doctor," Hilda Covington said, "we have taken Roberts intoour confidence. We know that we can rely upon his discretion implicitly,and it seemed to us that we must have somebody we can trust absolutelyto watch this man."
"I don't think that you could have done better," he said. "I was goingto suggest that it would be well to obtain his assistance. From what Ihave heard, very few of these private detectives can be absolutelyrelied upon. I do not mean that they are necessarily rogues, who wouldtake money from both sides, but that, if after trying for some time theyconsider the matter hopeless, they will go on running up expenses andmaking charges when they have in reality given up the search. What doyou propose that he shall do?"
"I should say that, in the first place, he should watch every eveningthe house where Simcoe lives, and follow up everyone who comes out andascertain who they are. No doubt the great majority of them will beclubmen, but it is likely that he will be occasionally visited by someof his confederates."
"I think that is an excellent plan. He will, of course, also follow himwhen he goes out, for it is much more likely that he will visit thesefellows than that they should come to him. In a case like this he wouldassuredly use every precaution, and would scarcely let them know who heis and where he resides."
"No doubt that is so, doctor, and it would make Roberts' work all theeasier, for even if they came to the man's lodgings he might be away,following up the track of someone who had called before him."
Netta returned at the end of four days.
"I have not succeeded," she said, in answer to Hilda's inquiring look asshe came in. "The man is certainly well known at Stowmarket as JohnSimcoe; but that does not prove that he is the man, and just as hedeceived your uncle he may have deceived the people down there. Now Iwill go upstairs and take off my things, and then give you a fullaccount of my proceedings.
"My first step," she began on her return, "was, of course, to find outwhat members of the Simcoe family lived there. After engaging a room atthe hotel, which I can assure you was the most unpleasant part of thebusiness, for they seemed to be altogether unaccustomed to the arrivalof young ladies unattended, I went into the town. It is not much of aplace, and after making some little purchases and inquiring at severalplaces, I heard of a maiden lady of that name. The woman who told me ofher was communicative. 'She has just had a great piece of luck,' shesaid. 'About ten months back a nephew, whom everyone had supposed tohave been lost at sea, came home with a great fortune, and they say thathe has behaved most handsomely to her. She has always bought her Berlinwool and such things here, and she has spent three or four times as muchsince he came home as she did before, and I know from a neighbor, ofwhom she is a customer, that the yards and yards of flannel that shebuys for making up into petticoats for poor children is wonderful. Doyou know her, miss?' I said that I did not know her personally, but thatsome friends of mine, knowing that I was going to Stowmarket, had askedme to inquire if Miss Simcoe was still alive. I said casually that Imight call and see her, and so got her address.
"I then went to call upon her. She lives in a little place called MyrtleCottage. I had been a good deal puzzled as to what story I should tellher. I thought at first of giving myself out as the sister of the younglady to whom her nephew was paying his addresses; and as we knewnothing of him except that he was wealthy, and as he had mentioned thathe had an aunt at Stowmarket, and as I was coming down there, I had beenasked to make inquiries about him. But I thought this might render herso indignant that I should get nothing from her. I thought, therefore, Ihad better get all she knew voluntarily; so I went to the house,knocked, and asked whether Miss Simcoe was in. I was shown by a littlemaid into the parlor, a funny, little, old-fashioned room. PresentlyMiss Simcoe herself came in. She was just the sort of woman I hadpictured--a kindly-looking, little old maid.
"'I do not know whether I have done wrong, Miss Simcoe,' I said, 'but Iam a stranger here, and having over-worked myself at a picture fromwhich I hope great things, I have been recommended country air; and afriend told me that Stowmarket was a pretty, quiet, country town, justthe place for an over-worked Londoner to gain health in, so I came downand made some inquiries for a single lady who would perhaps take me inand give me a comfortable home for two or three months. Your name hasbeen mentioned to me as being just the lady I am seeking."
"'You have been misinformed,' she said, a little primly. 'I do not saythat a few months back I might not have been willing to have entertainedsuch an offer, but my circumstances have changed since then, and now Ishould not think for a moment of doing so.'
"Rising from my seat with a tired air, I said that I was much obliged toher, but I was very sorry she could not take me in, as I was sure that Ishould be very comfortable; however, as she could not, of course therewas an end of it.
"'Sit down, my dear,' the old lady said. 'I see that you are tired andworn out; my servant shall get you a cup of tea. You see,' she went on,as I murmured my thanks and sat down, 'I cannot very well do what youask. As I said, a few months ago I should certainly have been very gladto have had a young lady like yourself to stay with me for a time; Ithink that when a lady gets to my age a little youthful companionshipdoes her good. Besides, I do not mind saying that my means were somewhatstraitened, and that a little additional money would have been a greathelp to me; but everything was changed by the arrival of a nephew ofmine. Perhaps you may have heard his name; he is a rich man, and Ibelieve goes out a great deal, and belongs to clubs and so on.'
"I said that I had not heard of him, for I knew nothing about society,nor the sort of men who frequented clubs.
"'No, of course not, my dear,' she said. 'Well, he had been away fortwenty years, and everyone thought he was dead. He sailed away in someship that was never heard of again, and you may guess my surprise whenhe walked in here and called me aunt.'
"'You must have been indeed surprised, Miss Simcoe,' I said; 'it musthave been quite a shock to you. And did you know him at once?'
"'Oh, dear, no! He had been traveling about the world, you see, for avery long time, and naturally in twenty years he was very much changed;but of course I soon knew him when he began to talk.'
"'You recognized his voice, I suppose?' I suggested.
"'No, my dear, no. Of course his voice had changed, just as hisappearance had done. He had been what he called knocking about, amongall sorts of horrible savages, eating and drinking all kinds of queerthings; it made my blood run cold to listen to him. But I never askedany questions about these things; I was afraid he might say that when hewas among the cannibals he used to eat human flesh, and I don't thinkthat I could like a man who had done that, even though he was mynephew.'
"'Did he go out quite as a boy, Miss Simcoe?' I asked.
"'Oh, no! He was twenty-four, I think, when he went abroad. He had asituation in the bank h
ere. I know that the manager thought very highlyof him, and, indeed, he was everywhere well spoken of. My brotherJoshua--his father, you know--died, and he came in for two or threethousand pounds. He had always had a great fancy for travel, and so,instead of looking out for some nice girl and settling down, he threw uphis situation and started on his travels.'
"'Had his memory been affected by the hot suns and the hardships that hehad gone through?' I asked.
"'Oh, dear! not at all. He recognized everyone almost whom he had known.Of course he was a good deal more changed than they were.'
"'They did not recognize him any more than you did?'
"'Not at first,' she said. 'When a man is believed to have been dead fortwenty years, his face does not occur to old friends when they meet anapparent stranger.'
"'That is quite natural,' I agreed. 'What a pleasure it must have beento him to talk over old times and old friends!'
"'Indeed it was, my dear. He enjoyed it so much that for three days hewould not move out of the house. Dear me! what pleasant talks we had.'
"'And you say, Miss Simcoe, that his coming has quite altered yourposition?'
"'Yes, indeed. The very first thing he said after coming into the housewas that he had come home resolved to make me and my sister Mariathoroughly comfortable. Poor Maria died some years ago, but of course hedid not know it. Then he said that he should allow me fifty pounds ayear for life.'
"'That was very kind and nice indeed, Miss Simcoe,' I said.
"By this time, seeing that my sympathy was with her, her heart openedaltogether to me, and she said that she felt sure that her nephew wouldnot like it were she to take in a lodger, and might indeed consider it ahint that he might have been more liberal than he was. But she invitedme to stay three days with her while I was looking about for suitablelodgings. I found that her house was a regular rendezvous for thetabbies of the neighborhood. Every afternoon there were some four orfive of them there. Some brought work, others came in undisguisedly togossip. Many of these had known John Simcoe in his younger days, and bycareless questioning I elicited the fact that no one would haverecognized him had it not been for Miss Simcoe having told them of hisarrival.
"The manager of the bank I rather shrank from an encounter with, but Imanaged to obtain from Miss Simcoe a letter her nephew had written toher when he was away from home a short time before he left England, andalso one written by him since his return. So far as I could see, therewas not the slightest resemblance between them.
"I thought that I might possibly get at someone less likely to be on hisguard than the bank manager, and she happened to mention as aninteresting fact that one of the clerks who had entered the bank a ladof seventeen, only a month or two before her nephew left, was nowmarried to the daughter of one of her gossips. I said that her story hadso deeply interested me that I should be glad to make his acquaintance.
"He came with his wife the evening before I left. He was very chatty andpleasant, and while there was a general conversation going on among theothers, I said to him that I was a great student of handwriting, and Iflattered myself that I could tell a man's character from hishandwriting; but I owned that I had been quite disconcerted by twoletters which Miss Simcoe was kind enough to show me from her nephew,one written before he left the bank, the other dated three or fourmonths ago.
"'I cannot see the slightest resemblance between the two,' I said, 'anddo not remember any instance which has come under my knowledge of thehandwriting of any man or woman changing so completely in the course oftwenty years. The one is a methodical, business sort of writing, showingmarks of steady purpose, regularity of habits, and a kindly disposition.I won't give you my opinion of the other, but the impression that wasleft upon my mind was far from favorable.'
"'Yes, there has been an extraordinary change,' he agreed. 'I canrecollect the former one perfectly, for I saw him sign scores of lettersand documents, and if he had had an account standing at the bank now Ishould without question honor a check so signed. No doubt the greatdifference is accounted for by the life that Mr. Simcoe has led. He toldme himself that for years, at one time, he had never taken a pen inhand, and that he had almost forgotten how to write; and that hisfingers had grown so clumsy pulling at ropes, rowing an oar, digging forgold, and opening oysters for pearls, that they had become all thumbs,and he wrote no better than a schoolboy.'
"'But that is not the case, Mr. Askill,' I said; 'the writing is stillclerkly in character, and does not at all answer to his owndescription.'
"'I noticed that myself, and so did our chief. He showed me a letterthat he had received from Simcoe, asking him to run up for a few days tostay with him in London. He showed it to me with the remark that in allhis experience he had never seen so great and complete a change in thehandwriting of any man as in that of Mr. Simcoe since he left the bank.He considered it striking proof how completely a man's handwritingdepends upon his surroundings. He turned up an old ledger containingmany entries in Simcoe's handwriting, and we both agreed that we couldnot see a single point of resemblance.'
"'Thank you,' I said; 'I am glad to find that my failure to recognizethe two handwritings as being those of the same man has been shared bytwo gentlemen who are, like myself in a humble way, experts athandwriting.'
"The next morning I got your letter, written after I had sent you theaddress, and told Miss Simcoe that I was unexpectedly called back totown, but that it was quite probable that I should ere long be downagain, when I would arrange with one or other of the people of whom shehad kindly spoken to me. That is all I have been able to learn, Hilda."
"But it seems to me that you have learned an immense deal, Netta. Youhave managed it most admirably."
"At any rate, I have got as much as I expected, if not more; I havelearned that no one recognized this man Simcoe on his first arrival inhis native town, and it was only when this old lady had spread the newsabroad, and had told the tale of his generosity to her, and so preparedthe way for him, that he was more or less recognized; she having noshadow of doubt but that he was her long-lost nephew. In the three daysthat he stopped with her he had no doubt learned from the dear oldgossip almost every fact connected with his boyhood, the men he was mostintimate with, the positions they held, and I doubt not some of theescapades in which they might have taken part together; so that he wasthoroughly well primed before he met them. Besides, no doubt they weremore anxious to hear tales of adventure than to talk of the past, andhis course must have been a very easy one.
"Miss Simcoe said that he spent money like a prince, and gave a dinnerto all his old friends, at which every dainty appeared, and thechampagne flowed like water. We may take it as certain that none of hisguests ever entertained the slightest doubt that their host was the manhe pretended to be. There could seem to them no conceivable reason why astranger should come down, settle an income upon Miss Simcoe, and spendhis money liberally among all his former acquaintances, if he were anyother man than John Simcoe.
"Lastly, we have the handwriting. The man seems to have laid his plansmarvelously well, and to have provided against every unforeseencontingency; yet undoubtedly he must have altogether overlooked thequestion of handwriting, although his declaration that he had almostforgotten how to use his pen was an ingenious one, and I might haveaccepted it myself if he had written in the rough, scrambling characteryou would expect under the circumstances. But his handwriting, althoughin some places he had evidently tried to write roughly, on the whole iscertainly that of a man accustomed at one time of his life to clerklywork, and yet differing as widely as the poles from the handwriting ofSimcoe, both in the bank ledger and in the letter to his aunt.
"I think, Hilda, that although the matter cannot be decided, itcertainly points to your theory that this man is not the John Simcoe wholeft Stowmarket twenty years ago. He attempted, and I think verycleverly, to establish his identity by a visit to Stowmarket, and nodoubt did so to everyone's perfect satisfaction; but when we come to gointo the thing step by step, we see that e
verything he did might havebeen done by anyone who happened to have a close resemblance to JohnSimcoe in figure and some slight resemblance in face, after listeningfor three days to Miss Simcoe's gossip."