by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XIV.
CAPTAIN BAYLEY.
DURING the time which had elapsed between the departure of Frank Norrisfrom England, and his arrival at the gold-diggings in California, muchhad happened at home which he would have been interested to learn had hemaintained any communication with his relatives there. On the morningwhen Frank had been accused by Dr. Litter of abstracting the note fromhis table, the latter had, as he had informed Frank he intended to do,sent a note to Captain Bayley informing him that a most painfulcircumstance had taken place with reference to his nephew, and begginghim to call upon him between twelve and one.
Captain Bayley had done so, and had, as Fred Barkley stated, beenfurious at the news which the Doctor conveyed to him; his fury, however,being in no degree directed towards his nephew, but entirely against thehead-master for venturing to bring so abominable an accusation againstFrank.
The evidence which Dr. Litter adduced had no effect whatever in stayinghis wrath, and so vehement and angry was the old officer, that Dr.Litter was obliged to ring the bell and order the servant to show himout. From Dean's Yard he took a cab, and drove direct to his solicitor,and requested him instantly to take proceedings against the head-masterfor defamation of character.
"But, Captain Bayley," the lawyer urged, "we must first see whether thisgentleman had any reasonable cause for his belief. If the evidence iswhat may be considered as strong, we must accept his action as taken_bona fide_."
"Don't tell me, sir," Captain Bayley exclaimed angrily. "What do I carefor evidence? Of course he told me a long rigmarole story, but he couldnot have believed it himself. No one but a fool could believe my nephewFrank guilty of theft; the idea is preposterous, it was as much as Icould do to restrain myself from caning him when he was speaking."
The lawyer smiled inwardly, for Dr. Litter was a tall, stately man, sixfeet two in height, while Captain Bayley was a small, slight figure, byno means powerful when in his prime, and now fully twenty years thesenior of the head-master.
"Well, Captain Bayley," he said, "in the first place it is necessarythat I should know the precise accusation which this gentleman hasbrought against your nephew. Will you be good enough to repeat to me, asnearly as you can, the statement which he made, as, of course, if weproceed to legal measures, we must be exact in the matter?"
"Well, this is about the story he told me," Captain Bayley said, morecalmly. "In the first place, it seems that the lad broke bounds onenight, and went with a man named Perkins--who is a prize-fighter, andwho I know gave him lessons in boxing, for I gave Frank five poundslast half to pay for them--to a meeting of these Chartist blackguardssomewhere in the New Cut.
"Well, there was a row there, as there naturally would be at such aplace, and it seems Frank knocked down some Radical fellow--a tailor, Ibelieve--and broke his nose. Well, you know, I am not saying this wasright; still, you know, lads will be lads, and I used to be fond ofgetting into a row myself when I was young, for I could spar in thosedays pretty well, I can tell you, Griffith. I would have given afive-pound note to have seen Frank set to with that Radical tailor.Still, I dare say, if the lad had told me about it I should have gotinto a passion and blown him up."
"I shouldn't be surprised at all," the lawyer said drily.
"No. Well that would do him no harm; he knows me, and he knows that I ampeppery. Well, it seems this fellow found out who he was, and threatenedto report the thing to the head-master, in which case this Dr. Littersaid he should have expelled him for being out of bounds, a thing whichin itself I call monstrous. Now, here is where Frank was wrong. He oughtto have come straight to me and told me the whole affair, and got hisblowing-up and his money. Instead of that, he asked three or four of theother boys--among them my nephew Fred--to lend him the money, but theywere all out of funds. Well, somebody, it seems, sent Frank a ten-poundnote in an envelope, with the words, 'From a friend,' and no more. Frankshowed the envelope to the others, and they all agreed that it was asort of godsend, and Frank sent the note to the tailor. Now it seemsthat the day before Frank got the note, the head-master, when he washearing his form, had put a ten-pound note, with some other things, onthe table, and being called out, he, like a careless old fool, left themlying there.
"Some time afterwards he missed the note, and does not remember takingit up from the table; still, he says, he did not suspect any of the boysof his form of taking it, and thinking that he had dropt it on the wayto his house, he stopped the note at the bank, happening to have itsnumber. A few days afterwards the note was presented; it was traced tothe tailor, who admitted having received it from Frank; and would youbelieve it, sir, this man now pretends to believe that my nephew stoleit from the table, and sent it to himself in an envelope. It's the mostpreposterous thing I ever heard."
Mr. Griffith looked grave.
"Of course, Captain Bayley, having met your nephew at your house severaltimes, I cannot for a moment believe him guilty of taking the note;still, I must admit that the evidence is strongly circumstantial, andwere it a stranger who was accused, I should say at once the thinglooked nasty."
"Pooh! nonsense, Griffith," the old officer said angrily; "there'snothing in it, sir--nothing whatever. Somebody found the note kickingabout, I dare say, and didn't know who it belonged to; he knew Frank wasin a corner, and sent it to him. The thing is perfectly natural."
"Yes," the lawyer assented doubtfully; "but the question is, Who didknow it? Was the fact of your nephew requiring the money generally knownin the school?"
"No," Captain Bayley admitted. "The doctor examined the four boys beforeFrank. They all declared that they knew nothing of the note, and thatthey had not mentioned the circumstance to a soul; but my opinion isthat one of them is a liar."
"It is certainly necessary to believe," Mr. Griffith said slowly, "thatone of them is either a liar or a thief. Of course there may be someother solution of the matter, but the only one that I can see, just atthe present moment, is this: Your nephew is the sort of lad to beextremely popular among his schoolmates; either one of these four boystook the note from the master's table, with the good-natured but mostmistaken idea of getting him out of a scrape, or they must havementioned his need of money to some of their school-fellows, one of whomfinding the note, perhaps in the yard, where the head-master may havedropped it, sent it to Frank to relieve him of the difficulty.
"These are possible solutions of the mystery, at any rate. But if youwill take my advice, Captain Bayley, you will not, in the present stateof affairs, take the steps which you propose to me against Dr. Litter.It will be time enough to do that when your nephew's innocence isfinally and incontestably proved. Of course," he said, seeing that hislistener was about to break out again, "you and I, knowing him, knowthat he is innocent; but others who do not know him might entertain somedoubt upon the subject, and a jury might consider that the Doctor wasjustified, with the evidence before him, in acting as he did, in whichcase an immense deal of damage might be done by making the matter asubject of general talk."
With some difficulty Captain Bayley was persuaded to allow his intentionto rest for a while.
"It is late now," he said, "but I shall go and see Frank to-morrow. Iwish I had seen him this afternoon before I came to you. However, I haveno doubt when I get home I shall find a letter from him--not defendinghimself, of course, as he would know that to be unnecessary, but tellingme the story in his own way."
But no letter came that evening, to Captain Bayley's great irritation.He told Alice Hardy the whole circumstances, and she was as indignant ashimself, and warmly agreed that the head-master should be punished forhis unjust suspicions.
"And do you say he is really going to be expelled to-morrow?" she asked,in a tone of horror.
"So the fellow said, my dear; but he shall smart for it, and the laws ofthe land shall do Frank justice."
At half-past nine the next morning Fred Barkley arrived at CaptainBayley's.
"Well," his uncle exclaimed, as he entered, "I suppose you have beensent t
o tell me they have got to the bottom of this rigmarole affair."
"No, uncle," Fred said, "I have, I am sorry to say, been sent to tellyou that Frank last night left his boarding-house and is not to befound."
Captain Bayley leapt from his seat in great wrath.
"The fool! the idiot! to run away like a coward instead of facing itout; and not a line or a message has he sent to me. Did you know, sir,that your cousin was going to run away?"
Fred hesitated.
"Yes, uncle, I knew that he was going, and did my best to dissuade him,but it was useless."
Captain Bayley walked up and down the room with quick steps, utteringexclamations testifying his anger and annoyance.
"Has he got any money?" he said suddenly, halting before Fred. "Did heget any money from you?"
Fred hesitated again, and then said.
"Well, uncle, since you insist upon knowing, I did let him have twentypounds which I got for the sale of my books."
"I believe, sir," the old officer said furiously, "that you encouragedhim in this step, a step which I consider fatal to him."
Fred hesitated again, and then said.
"Well, uncle, I am sorry that you should be so angry about it, but I ownthat I did not throw any obstacle in the way."
"You did not, sir," Captain Bayley roared, "and why did you not? Are youa fool too? Don't you see that this running away instead of facingmatters out cannot but be considered, by people who do not know Frank,as a proof of his guilt, a confession that he did not dare to stay toface his accusers?"
Fred was silent.
"Answer me, sir," Captain Bayley said; "don't stand there without a wordto explain your conduct. Do you or do you not see that this cowardlyflight will look like a confession of guilt?"
"I did see that, uncle," Fred said, "but I thought that better than apublic expulsion."
"Oh! you did, did you?" his uncle said sarcastically, "when you knewthat if he had stopped quietly at home we should have proved hisinnocence in less than no time."
Fred made no reply.
"Do you think we shouldn't have proved his innocence?" roared his uncle.
"I am sorry to say anything which is displeasing to you, uncle, but Ifear that you would never have proved Frank's innocence."
The words seemed to have a sobering effect on Captain Bayley. The bloodseemed to die out of his face; he put one hand on a chair, as if tosteady himself, while he looked fixedly in his nephew's face.
"Do you mean, Fred," he said, in a low voice, "do you mean that you havea doubt of Frank's innocence?"
"I should rather not say anything about it," Fred replied. "I hope withall my heart that Frank is not guilty, but----"
"What do you think?" Captain Bayley repeated; "have you any groundswhatever for believing him guilty?"
"No, sir, and I do not wish you to be in the slightest degree influencedby what I said." He paused, but Captain Bayley's eyes were still fixedupon him, as if commanding a complete answer.
"Well, sir," he went on hesitatingly, "I must own that, sad as it is tosay so, I fear Frank did it."
"Did he confess it to you?" Captain Bayley asked, in a strained, strangevoice.
"No, uncle, not in so many words, but he said things which seemed to meto mean that. When I tried to dissuade him from running away, and urgedhim to remain till his innocence could be proved, he said angrily,'What's the use of talking like that, when you know as well as I do thatit can't be proved.' Afterwards he said, 'It is a bad job, and I havebeen an awful fool. But who could have thought that note would ever betraced back to Litter?' and other remarks of the same kind. He may beinnocent, uncle--you know how deeply I wish we could prove him so--but Ifear, I greatly fear, that we shall be doing Frank more service byletting the matter drop. You know the fellows in the school all believehim innocent, and though his going away has staggered some of them, thegeneral feeling is still all in his favour; therefore they are sure tospeak of him as a sort of victim, and when he returns, which of coursehe will do in a few years' time, the matter will have died away and havebeen altogether forgotten."
The old officer sat down at the table and hid his face in his hands.
All this time Alice, pale and silent, had sat and listened with her eyesfixed upon the speaker, but she now leapt up to her feet.
"Uncle," she said, "don't believe him, he is not speaking the truth, Iam sure he is not. He hates Frank, and I have known it all along,because Frank is bigger and better than he; because Frank was generousand kind-hearted; because every one liked Frank and no one liked him. Heis telling a lie now, and I believe every word he has said since he cameinto the room is false."
"Hush! child," the old officer said; "you must not speak so, my dear. Ifit was only the word of one lad against another, it would be different;but it is not so. The proof is very strong against Frank. I would giveall I am worth if I could still believe him innocent, and had he come tome and put his hand in mine, and said, 'Uncle, I am innocent,' I wouldhave believed him against all the evidence in the world. It is not I whocondemn him, he has condemned himself. He sends me no word; he cannotlook me in the face and declare himself innocent. He runs away at night,knowing well that there could be but one construction as to this, andthat all would judge him guilty. No, Alice, it breaks my heart to sayso, but I can struggle no longer against these facts. The lad whom Ihave loved as a son has turned out a thief."
"No, uncle, no," the girl cried passionately, "I will never believe it,not to the end of my life. I cannot prove him innocent, but I know he isso, and some day it will be proved; but till then I shall still think ofhim as my dear brother, as my true-hearted brother, who has beenwrongfully accused, and who is the victim of some wicked plot of which,perhaps, Fred Barkley knows more than any one else," and, bursting intoa passion of tears, she ran from the room. Fred looked after her with anexpression of pity and sorrow.
"Poor child!" he said, "it is a terrible blow for her, and she scarceknows what she is saying."
"It is a terrible blow," Captain Bayley said, in a dreary voice, "a mostterrible blow to me and to her. No wonder she feels it; and I have beenplanning and hoping that some day, a few years hence, those two wouldget to like each other in a different way. I had, by my will, divided myfortune equally between you and him, but I have liked him best. Ofcourse, I brought him up, and he has been always with me; it was naturalthat I should do so. Still I wanted to be fair, and I divided itequally. But I was pleased at the thought that her fortune, which is, asyou know, a very large one, would be his, and enable him to make a greatfigure in the world if he had chosen; and now it is all over.
"Go away now, my boy, the blow has been too much for me. I am getting anold man, and this is the second great blow I have had. Do not take toheart the wild words of poor little Alice. You see she scarcely knowswhat she is saying."
Without another word Fred took his departure. When once out of sight ofthe house his steps quickened, and he walked briskly along.
"Splendid!" he said to himself; "a grand stroke indeed, and perfectlysafe. Frank is not likely to return for twenty years, if ever, and Idon't think the old man is good for another five. I expect I shall havesome trouble with that little cat, Alice; but she is only a child, andwill come round in time, and her fortune will be quite as useful to meas it would have been to him. I always knew he was little better than afool, but I could hardly have hoped that he would have walked into thetrap as he has done. I suppose that other blow old Bayley spoke of wasthat affair of his daughter. That was a lucky business for me too."
Fred Barkley was not mistaken, it was of his daughter Captain Bayley hadbeen thinking when he spoke. He had married young when he first went outto India, and had lost his wife two years later, leaving him with adaughter six months old. He had sent her home to England, and after atwenty years' absence he had returned and found her grown up.
She had inherited something of her father's passionate disposition, andpossessed, in addition, an amount of sullen obstinacy which was w
hollyalien to his nature. But her father saw none of these defects in hercharacter. She was very beautiful, with an air of pride and hauteurwhich he liked. She had a right to be proud, he thought, for she was avery wealthy heiress, for, his two elder brothers having died childlesswhile he was in India, the fine property of their father had alldescended to him.
Though the girl had many suitors, she would listen to none of them,having formed a strong attachment to a man in station altogether beneathher. He had given lessons in drawing at the school which had been herhome as well as her place of education during her father's absence, forCaptain Bayley had quarrelled with his sisters, both of whom, heconsidered, had married beneath them.
The fact that Ella Bayley was an only child, and that her father was awealthy man, was known in the school, and had, in some way, come to theears of the drawing-master, who was young, and by no means ill-looking.He had played his cards well. Ella was romantic and impetuous, and,before long, returned the devotion which her teacher expressed for her.
When her father returned home, and Ella left school to take her place atthe head of his establishment, she had hoped that she should be able towin from him a consent to her engagement; but she found his prejudiceson the subject of birth were strong, and she waited two years before shebroached the subject.
The wrath of Captain Bayley was prodigious; he heaped abusive epithetsupon the man of her choice, till Ella's temper rose also. There was apassionate quarrel between father and daughter. The next morning Ellawas missing; a week afterwards Captain Bayley received a copy of thecertificate of her marriage, with a short note from Ella, saying thatwhen he could make his mind up to forgive her and her husband, and toacknowledge that the latter did not deserve the abusive language that hehad applied to him, she should be glad to return and resume her place ashis affectionate and loving daughter. She gave an address at which hecould communicate to her.
Three years passed before Captain Bayley's anger had sufficiently calmeddown for him to write to his daughter saying that he forgave her. Theletter was returned by the people at the house, with a note saying thatmany months had elapsed since any inquiries had been made for lettersfor Mrs. Smedley, and that they had altogether lost sight of her. Nowthat the Captain had once made up his mind to forgive his daughter, hewas burning with impatience to see her again, and he at once employed adetective to find out what had become of her.
From the person to whose house the letter had been directed thedetective learned the address where she and her husband had residedwhile in London.
For a time it seemed they had lived expensively, the sale of Ella'sjewels keeping them in luxury for some months. Then hard times had comeupon them; the man had altogether lost his connection as a teacher, andcould, or would, do nothing to support his wife and himself; they hadmoved from the place they had first lived at, and taken much smallerlodgings.
Here the people of the house reported their life had been very unhappy;the husband had taken to drink, and there had been fierce and frequentquarrels between them, arising--the landlady had gleaned, from the loudand angry utterance of the husband--from the wife's refusal to appealto her father for assistance. They had left this place suddenly, and indebt; thence they had moved from lodging to lodging at short intervals,their position getting worse, until they were last lodged in a wretchedgarret. From this point they were traced with great trouble down toNottingham, where the husband obtained a precarious living by producingdesigns for embroidery and curtains.
Had he been steady he might have soon done fairly, but a great part ofhis time was spent in public-houses, and he was seldom sober. Whenreturning home one night in a state of drunkenness, he was run over by aheavy van and killed. As his wife possessed but a few shillings in theworld, he was buried at the expense of the parish and his widow at onceleft the town.
The people where she lodged believed that she had gone to London, takingwith her her six months old child, and had started to tramp the way onfoot. The woman said that she doubted whether she could ever have gotthere. She was an utterly broken woman, with a constant racking cough,which was like to tear her to pieces, and before she set out herlandlady had urged upon her that the idea of her starting to carry aheavy child to London was nothing short of madness.
After this all trace of Ella had been lost. Advertisements offeringlarge rewards appeared in the papers; the books of every workhousebetween Nottingham and London, and indeed of almost every workhouse inEngland, were carefully searched to see if there was any record of thedeath of a woman with a child about the time of her disappearance. Asimilar search was made at all the London hospitals, and at everyinstitution where she might have crawled to die; but no trace had everbeen found of her.
That she was dead was not doubted; for it was found that at Nottinghamshe had once gone to the parish doctor for some medicine for her child.The physician had taken particular notice of her, had asked her somequestions, and had made a note in his case-book that the mother of thechild he had prescribed for was in an advanced stage of consumption, andhad probably but a few weeks, certainly not more than a few months, tolive.
It was long before the search was given up as hopeless, and manyhundreds of pounds were spent by Captain Bayley before he abandoned allhope of discovering, if not his daughter, at least her child. During theyear which elapsed before he was forced to acknowledge that it washopeless, Captain Bayley had suffered terribly. His self-reproaches wereunceasing, and he aged many years in appearance.
It was three years after this, on the death of his sister, Mrs. Norris,whose husband had died some years before, that he took Frank into hishouse and adopted him as his son, stating, however, to all whom it mightconcern, that he did not regard him as standing nearer to him as hisheir than his other nephew, Fred Barkley, but that his property would bedivided between them as they might show themselves worthy of it. It wasthree years later still, that, at the death of her father, an oldfellow-officer, his household was increased by the addition of Alice,who had been left to his guardianship, but who had soon learned, likeFrank, to address him as uncle.