"But, sir," Alice said, more and more surprised, "what message could possibly be of sufficient importance for you to undertake so long a journey to deliver it?"
"I did not know how long you might be before you returned to England, Miss Hardy, and as I knew how anxiously the answer to my message would be expected, I preferred to follow you, in order that there might be no more delay than necessary."
Suddenly a thought flashed across Alice Hardy"s brain. She advanced a step nearer to her visitor, and exclaimed--
"Do you come from my cousin Frank?"
"You have guessed rightly. I met him abroad; I am not at liberty at present to say where. He rendered me one of the greatest services one man can render to another--he saved my life, and did much more; but upon that it is not now necessary to enter."
"But the message, sir," Alice interrupted, "you cannot know how we have been longing for a word from him all this time."
"I do not know yet, Miss Hardy, whether I have any message to deliver; it depends upon what you say in answer to what I tell you. I think I can give you his very words as we sat together the night before I left for England: "I have a little cousin, a girl, she was like my sister; I think, I hope, that in spite of everything she may still have believed me innocent. Will you see her, and tell her you have seen me? Say no more until you see by her manner whether she believes me to be a rascal or not.""
"No, no," Alice broke in, with a cry, "not for one moment; surely Frank never doubted me. Never for a single instant did I believe one word against him."
"Is anything the matter, my dear?" Captain Bayley asked, opening his door, for the sound of her raised voice had reached him.
"No, uncle," she cried, hurrying to him, "it is a message from Frank. Go away a minute, or----No," and she turned again to Mr. Adams, "surely my uncle can hear too, he is as interested as I am."
"My message was to you alone, Miss Hardy," Mr. Adams said gravely; "I must deliver it as it was delivered to me. It will be for you to decide whether, after hearing it, you think it right to observe the injunction it contains for your absolute silence."
"At least tell me, sir," Captain Bayley exclaimed, as much agitated as Alice, "whether he is alive and well."
"He is alive and well, sir--at least he was when I saw him last, now nearly four months ago."
"Thank G.o.d for that, at least," Captain Bayley said fervently. "Do not be long, Alice; you know what I shall be feeling." He went back into his room again, and closed the door, and Mr. Adams continued--
""If she thinks me a rascal, give her no clue to the part of the world where you have come across me, simply say that I wished her to know that I am alive and well." There, Miss Hardy, my message would have ended had you not declared your faith in his innocence; I can now go on: "If you see that she still, in spite of everything, believes that I am innocent, then tell her that I affirm on my honour and word that I am so"--Alice gave a cry of joy--"though I see no way of proving it. Tell her that I do not wish her to tell my uncle that she has heard of me; that I do not wish her to say one word to him, for, much as I value his affection, I would not for the world seem to be trying to gain the place he thinks I have forfeited, until I can appear before him as a rich man whom nothing could induce to touch one penny of his money, and who values only his good-will and esteem."
"That is all the message, Miss Hardy. But now that I see you have never believed him guilty, I am at liberty to tell you that we met in California, and to give you an address to which you can write at Sacramento, and I can tell you the story of our acquaintance; but as the story is a long one, and it is now late, I will, with your permission, call in the morning again."
Tears were streaming down the girl"s face as she lifted her head.
"Thank you, sir! oh, thank you so much! You cannot tell how happy your message has made me--how happy it will make us all, for I am sure that Frank will not blame me for breaking his injunction. He cannot tell the circ.u.mstances; he does not know that my uncle has fretted as much as myself. He evidently thinks that he believes him guilty, though why he should do so I don"t know, for at first he was just as much convinced as I was of Frank"s innocence, and it was only Frank"s silence and his going away without saying one word in defence of himself that made him doubt him. Would you mind sitting here for a minute or two while I go in to him? We want to hear so much, if you are not in a hurry."
"I am in no hurry," Mr. Adams said, smiling. "After travelling for two months to deliver a message, one would not mind sitting up for a few hours to deliver it thoroughly; and let me tell you that if my message has made you happy, your reception of it has given me almost equal satisfaction. I should have been grieved beyond expression to have had to write to him that you doubted him, for my dear friend said, "If your commission fails, I shall lose my last pleasant thought of home.""
"Poor Frank!" Alice murmured, as she turned to go to her uncle"s room, "how could he have ever doubted us?"
"Uncle," she said, as she entered, "I feel quite justified in telling you Frank"s message to me. Why it was sent to me instead of to you I do not know, except that it seems as if he thought that I might believe him innocent, while somehow he had an idea that you thought he was guilty."
"Does he say he is innocent, Alice?" Captain Bayley broke in.
"He does, uncle; he declares on his honour and word that he is innocent."
"Thank G.o.d!" the old officer said, dropping into a chair and covering his face with his hands. For a minute he sat silent, but Alice could see how deeply he was affected.
"Don"t say any more, my dear," he said, in a low, shaken voice. "I have heard quite enough; it was only Frank"s a.s.surance that I have been wanting all this time. I am content now. Thank G.o.d that this burden is lifted off one"s mind. Go in and tell Harry; I should like to be alone for a few minutes."
"Yes, uncle; and Frank"s friend is in the next room, and will tell us all about him when you are ready to hear it."
Harry was greatly delighted at the news, and after a few minutes Alice returned with him to the sitting-room. She knocked at her uncle"s door, and called out, "We are here, uncle, when you are ready to come in." In another minute Captain Bayley entered. He went up to Mr. Adams.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MEETING OF CAPTAIN BAYLEY AND MR. ADAMS.]
"You have brought me the best news I have ever heard, sir; you cannot tell what a weight you have lifted from my shoulders, and how I feel indebted to you."
"Yes, uncle, and do you know that Mr. Adams has been travelling nearly two months to deliver the message, knowing how anxious Frank will be to hear how it was received. He went to Egypt after us, and finding we had left has been following us ever since."
"G.o.d bless you, sir!" Captain Bayley said, seizing Mr. Adams"s hand and shaking it violently, "you are a friend indeed. Now in the first place, please tell me the message you have given my niece, for so far I have only heard that Frank declared that he is innocent; that was quite enough for me at first. I want to know why I was to be kept in the dark."
"The message will explain that," Mr. Adams replied, and he again repeated the message he had given Alice.
"Yes, that explains it," Captain Bayley said, when he had finished; "that"s just like the boy of old. I like him for that. But why on earth did he not say he was innocent at first?"
"That I cannot tell you; I know no more of the past than the message I have given you, except he said that he had been wrongfully suspected of committing a crime, and that, although he was innocent, the case appeared absolutely conclusive against him, and that he saw no chance whatever of his being cleared, save by the confession of the person who had committed the offence."
"But why on earth didn"t he say he was innocent?" Captain Bayley repeated, with something of his old irritation. "What possessed him to run away as if he were guilty without making one protest to us that he was innocent?"
"I cannot tell you, sir. As I said, I know nothing whatever of the circ.u.mstance; I do not even know the nature of the accusation against him. I only know, from my knowledge of his character, that he is a n.o.ble and generous young man, and that he never could have been guilty of any dishonourable action."
"n.o.body would ever have thought he would," Captain Bayley said sharply, "unless he had as much as said so himself by running away when this ridiculous accusation was brought forward. I should as soon have doubted my own existence as supposed he had stolen a ten-pound note had he not run away instead of facing it like a man. Until he bolted without sending me a word of denial or explanation. I would have knocked any man down who had said he believed him guilty. The evidence had no more weight in my mind than the whistling of the wind; my doubts are of his own creation. Thank G.o.d they are at an end now that he has declared he is innocent. He has behaved like a fool, but there are so many fools about that there is nothing out of the way in that. Still it was one of the follies I should not have expected of Frank. That he should get into a foolish sc.r.a.pe from thoughtlessness, or high spirits, or devilry, or that sort of thing, I could imagine; but I am astonished that he should have committed an act of folly due to cowardice."
"I won"t hear you, uncle, any more," Alice exclaimed; "I know that you don"t mean anything you say, and that you are one of the happiest men in the world this evening; but of course Mr. Adams does not know you as we do, and does not understand that all this means that you are so relieved from the anxiety that you have felt for the last two years that you are obliged to give vent to your feelings somehow. Please, Mr. Adams, don"t regard what my uncle says in the slightest, but tell us all about Frank.
As to his going away, we know nothing about his motives, or why he went, or anything else, and I am quite sure he will be able to explain it when we see him; as to running away from cowardice, uncle knows as well as we do that the idea is simply ridiculous. So please go on, and if uncle interrupts we will go down to another sitting-room and he shall hear nothing about it."
Mr. Adams then told the story of his acquaintance with Frank; how, when all seemed dark, when he was lying prostrate with fever brought on by overexertion and insufficient food, Frank had come to his son and had insisted on helping him; how he had helped to nurse him, and how, finally, Frank and his companions had worked the claim and realised a fortune for him. He told how popular Frank was among his companions, how ready he was to do a kindly action to any one needing it, and finally repeated the conversation they had had together the last evening, and Frank"s determination not to return to England until he had gained such a fortune that he could not be suspected of desiring to gain anything but his uncle"s esteem when he presented himself before him and declared he was innocent.
"The young scamp," Captain Bayley growled, "thinking all the time of his own feelings and not of mine. It"s nothing to him that I may be fretting myself into my grave in the belief of his guilt; nothing that I may be dead years and years before he comes home with this precious fortune he relies on making. Oh no! we are all to wait another twenty years in order that this jackanapes may not be suspected of being mercenary; three dozen at the triangles would do him a world of good, and if he were here I would----"
"You wouldn"t do anything but shake his hand, and shout "Frank, my boy, I am glad to see you back again," so it"s no use pretending that you would," Alice interrupted. "And now, Mr. Adams, it"s past twelve, and I feel ashamed that we should have kept you so long; but I know you don"t mind, and you have made us all very happy. You will come again in the morning, will you not? There is so much to ask about, and we have not yet even begun to tell you how deeply we are all obliged to you for your goodness in hurrying away from England directly you got home, and in spending weeks and weeks wandering about after us."
"I shall be glad to call again in the morning, Miss Hardy, but I shall start for England in the evening; I am anxious to be back now that my mission is fulfilled. My son is to be married in ten days" time, and he would like me to be present, although he said in his last letter that he quite agreed that the first thing of all was to find you and deliver the message, whether I got home or not. As I have several matters to arrange before his marriage, presents to get, or one thing or other, I shall go straight through."
"That is right," Captain Bayley said, "we will travel together, my dear sir; for of course we shall go straight back to England now. We have been dawdling about in this wretched country long enough. Besides, everything has to be arranged, and we have got to get to the bottom of this matter; so if you have no objection, we will travel home together.
If the young people here want to dawdle about any longer they can do so; I dare say they can look after themselves, or if not, I can make an arrangement with some old lady or other to act as Alice"s chaperon."
"You silly old man," Alice said, kissing him, "as if we were not just as anxious to get home and to get to the bottom of the thing as you are."
So the next afternoon the party started in the diligence which was to take them over the St. Gothard to Lucerne.
Alice had by this time heard, somewhat to the confusion of her ideas, that Frank was no longer the lad she had always depicted him, but a tall, powerful young man, rough and tanned by exposure, and a fair match in strength for the wildest character in the mining camp.
By the time they reached London Mr. Adams and Captain Bayley had become fast friends, and the first thing the next morning, Captain Bayley drove with Alice to Bond Street and purchased the handsomest gold watch and chain he could find as a wedding-present for young Adams, and a bracelet as handsome for Alice to send to the bride; then he sent Alice home in the carriage and proceeded to his lawyer"s. He returned home in the worst of tempers. Mr. Griffith had refused to admit that the receipt of Frank"s message had in any way changed the position.
"I understood all along, Captain Bayley, that your nephew, when accused by his master, had denied the theft; the mere fact that he now, three years later, repeats the denial to you, does not, so far as I can see, alter the situation in the slightest. He says that he"s not in a position to disprove any of the circ.u.mstances alleged against him. Of course you are at liberty to believe him now, just as you believed him at first, and as, on mature consideration, you disbelieved him afterwards; but that is a matter quite of individual opinion. You have announced to Mr. Barkley that you intend to leave him a third of your fortune, and it would be in the highest degree unjust to make any alteration now, without a shadow of reason for doing so. Personally, no doubt, it is a satisfaction to you to have recovered your belief in Frank"s innocence, but that ought not to interfere in any way with the arrangements that you have made. My own belief is, as I have told you, that, pressed for money, and afraid of expulsion were his escapade of going out at night discovered, Frank yielded to a momentary temptation--a grievous fault, but not an irreparable one--one, at any rate, for which he has been severely punished, and for which he may well be forgiven. So far I am thoroughly with you, but I cannot and will not follow you in what I consider your absolutely unfounded idea that he is innocent, and that his cousin--against whom there is not a vestige of evidence, while the proof the other way is overwhelming--is the real offender."
Whereupon Captain Bayley had returned home in a state of fury.