"That"s just what I was coming to. Sir John!" Brandon drew his chair nearer, apparently in deep excitement, and in a more nasal tone than ever, with a confidential air, he went on:
"You see, I mistrusted this young man who was carrying every thing before him with a high hand, right in my very teeth, and I watched him. I pumped him to see if I couldn"t get him to tell something about himself. But the fellow was always on his guard, and always told the same story. This is what he tells: He says that his father was Ralph Brandon of Brandon Hall, Devonshire, and that he got very poor--he was ruined, in fact, by--I beg your pardon, Sir John, but he says it was you, and that you drove the family away. They then came over to America, and he got to Cincinnati. The old man, he says, died before they left, but he won"t tell what became of the others. I confess I believed it was all a lie, and didn"t think there was any such place as Brandon Hall, so I determined to find out, naturally enough, Sir John, when two millions were at stake."
Potts winked.
"Well, I suddenly found my health giving way, and had to come to Europe.
You see what a delicate creature I am!"
Potts laughed with intense glee.
"And I came here after wandering about, trying to find it. I heard at last that there was a place that used to be Brandon Hall, though most people call it Potts Hall. Now, I thought, my fine young man, I"ll catch you; for I"ll call on Sir John himself and ask him."
"You did right, Sir," said Potts, who had taken an intense interest in this narrative. "I"m the very man you ought to have come to. I can tell you all you want. This Brandon is a miserable swindler."
"Good! I thought so. You"ll give me that, Sir John, over your own name, will you?" cried Brandon, in great apparent excitement.
"Of course I will," said Potts, "and a good deal more. But tell me, first, what that young devil said as to how he got to Cincinnati? How did he find his way there?"
"He would never tell."
"What became of his mother and sister?"
"He wouldn"t say."
"All I know," said Potts, "is this. I got official information that they all died at Quebec."
Brandon looked suddenly at the floor and gasped. In a moment he had recovered.
"Curse him! then this fellow is an impostor?"
"No," said Potts, "he must have escaped. It"s possible. There was some confusion at Quebec about names."
"Then his name may really be Frank Brandon?"
"It must be," said Potts. "Anyhow, the others are all right."
"Are what?"
"All right; dead you know. That"s why he don"t like to tell you about them."
"Well, now, Sir John, could you tell me what you know about this young man, since you think he must be the same one?"
"I know he must be, and I"ll tell you all about him and the whole cursed lot. In the first place," continued Potts, clearing his throat, "old Brandon was one of the cursedest old fools that ever lived. He was very well off but wanted to get richer, and so he speculated in a tin mine in Cornwall. I was acquainted with him at the time and used to respect him.
He persuaded me--I was always off-handed about money, and a careless, easy fellow--he persuaded me to invest in it also. I did so, but at the end of a few years I found out that the tin mine was a rotten concern, and sold out. I sold at a very high price, for people believed it was a splendid property. After this I found another mine and made money hand over fist. I warned old Brandon, and so did every body, but he didn"t care a fig for what we said, and finally, one fine morning, he waked up and found himself ruined.
"He was more utterly ruined than any man I ever knew of, and all his estates were sold. I had made some money, few others in the county had any ready cash, the sale was forced, and I bought the whole establishment at a remarkably low figure. I got old Brandy--Brandy was a nickname I gave the old fellow--I got him a house in the village, and supported him for a while with his wife and daughter and his great lubberly boy. I soon found out what vipers they were. They all turned against their benefactor, and dared to say that I had ruined their father. In fact, my only fault was buying the place, and that was an advantage to old Brandy rather than an injury. It shows, though, what human nature is.
"They all got sick at last, and as they had no one to nurse them, I very considerately sent them all to the alms-house, where they had good beds, good attendance, and plenty to eat and drink. No matter what I did for them they abused me. They reviled me, for sending them to a comfortable home, and old Brandy was the worst of all. I used to go and visit him two or three times a day, and he always cursed me. Old Brandy did get awfully profane, that"s a fact. The reason was his infernal pride. Look at me, now! I"m not proud. Put me in the alms-house, and would I curse you? I hope not.
"At last old Brandy died, and of course I had to look out for the family. They seemed thrown on my hands, you know, and I was too good-natured to let them suffer, although they treated me so abominably.
The best thing I could think of was to ship them all off to America, where they could all get rich. So I took them to Liverpool."
"Did they want to go?"
"They didn"t seem to have an idea in their heads. They looked and acted just like three born fools."
"Strange!"
"I let a friend of mine see about them, as I had considerable to do, and he got them a pa.s.sage."
"I suppose you paid their way out."
"I did, Sir," said Potts, with an air of munificence; "but, between you and me, it didn"t cost much."
"I should think it most have cost a considerable sum."
"Oh no! Clark saw to that. Clark got them places as steerage pa.s.sengers."
"Young Brandon told me once that he came out as cabin pa.s.senger."
"That"s his cursed pride. He went out in the steerage, and a devilish hard time he had too."
"Why?"
"Oh, he was a little crowded, I think! There were six hundred emigrants on board the _Tec.u.mseh_--"
"The what?"
"The _Tec.u.mseh_. Clark did that business neatly. Each pa.s.senger had to take his own provisions, so he supplied them with a lot. Now what do you think he gave them?"
"I can"t imagine."
"He bought them some damaged bread at one quarter the usual price. It was all mouldy, you know," said Potts, trying to make Brandon see the joke. "I declare Clark and I roared over it for a couple of months, thinking how surprised they must have been when they sat down to eat their first dinner."
"That was very neat," rejoined Brandon.
"They were all sick when they left," said Potts; "but before they got to Quebec they were sicker, I"ll bet."
"Why so?"
"Did you ever hear of the ship-fever?" said Potts, in a low voice which sent a sharp trill through every fibre of Brandon"s being. He could only nod his head.
"Well, the _Tec.u.mseh_, with her six hundred pa.s.sengers, afforded an uncommon fine field for the ship-fever. That"s what I was going to observe. They had a great time at Quebec last summer; but it was unanimously voted that the _Tec.u.mseh_ was the worst ship of the lot.
I send out an agent to see what had become of my three friends, and he came back and told me all. He said that about four hundred of the _Tec.u.mseh"s_ pa.s.sengers died during the voyage, and ever so many more after the landing. The obtained a list of the dead from the quarantine records, and among them were those of the these three youthful Brandons.
Yes, they joined old Cognac pretty soon--lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death not divided. But this young devil that you speak of must have escaped. I dare say he did, for the confusion was awful."
"But couldn"t there have been another son?"