"Well," said Nicholas, entering directly afterward, "what have you said to him? He dashed out of the yard, looking as black as a thunder-cloud."
"I told him that he had disgraced the family and I should never more acknowledge him as a brother."
"I"m glad you sent him off with a flea in his ear. I don"t want to see him around here again."
"I don"t think we shall."
There was one thing Mrs. Kent forgot--her brother"s brutal temper and appet.i.te for revenge. Had she thought of this she would, perhaps, have been more cautious about provoking him.
In the middle of the night Mrs. Kent awoke with a strange sense of oppression, the cause of which she did not immediately understand. As soon as she recovered her senses she comprehended the occasion--the crackling flames--and the fearful thought burst upon her:
"The house is on fire!"
She threw on her dress and dashed hastily from the room. She was about to seek the quickest mode of exit when she thought of Nicholas. He might be asleep, unconscious of his peril. She was a cold and selfish woman, but her one redeeming trait was her affection for her son. She rushed frantically to his chamber, screaming:
"Nicholas! Wake up! The house is on fire!"
She entered his chamber, but he was not in it. He had already escaped, and, full of selfish thoughts of his own safety, had fled without giving heed to his mother, though there would have been time for him to save her.
"He is safe!" thought Mrs. Kent, and, relieved of this anxiety, she sought to escape.
But the flames had gained too much headway. Her dress caught fire, and she ran frantically about, ignorant that in so doing she increased the peril. She was barely conscious of being seized and borne out by friendly hands. But though the flames were extinguished, she had already received fatal injuries. She lingered till the afternoon of the following day, and then died. Meanwhile Mr. Miller sent Jasper the telegram already referred to.
Nicholas looked serious when he was informed of his mother"s death, but his was not a temperament to be seriously affected by the misfortune of another. His own interests were uppermost in his mind.
"Will I get mother"s property?" he asked Mr. Miller, while that mother lay dead and disfigured in his presence.
"This is no time to speak of property," said Mr. Miller, coldly. "You ought to think of your poor mother"s fate."
"Of course I do," said Nicholas, trying to look sorrowful; "but I want to know how I"m going to be situated."
"Wait till after the funeral, at any rate," said the other, disgusted.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX.
HOW IT ALL ENDED.
Jasper did not reach home till after the funeral had taken place and his step-mother was buried. Though he had little reason to like her, he was shocked and distressed by her sad and untimely fate.
"How could the house catch fire, Mr. Miller?" he asked.
"It is supposed to have been set on fire."
"Who would do it?"
"From what Nicholas tells me I suspect that the fire was the work of Mrs. Kent"s brother."
"Her brother!" exclaimed Jasper. "I met him in the West."
"Then you probably know that he was not a very respectable character."
"I know that he was concerned in kidnapping a child."
"Nicholas tells me that he had just got out of prison, and applied to Mrs. Kent for help, which she refused. Incensed at this, he probably set the house on fire."
"I think he would be capable of doing it. Has he been arrested?"
"Not yet, but the police are on his track. I don"t think he can escape."
"Nicholas doesn"t seem to take his mother"s death very hard."
"No. I am disgusted with his selfishness. He seems to be princ.i.p.ally concerned about property which she leaves."
"I suppose he will inherit it."
"Yes. I don"t know in what state it is, but it ought to amount to thirty thousand dollars. It is a large slice of your father"s fortune."
"I do not begrudge it to him. I shall have enough."
"That reminds me that it is time to open the instrument which your father left with me."
The paper was opened then and there, and proved to contain the following direction: That in case Jasper and his step-mother did not get along harmoniously, his old friend, Mr. Miller, was empowered and requested to a.s.sume the guardianship of Jasper.
"That arrangement suits me precisely," said Jasper, warmly. "Will you accept the trust?"
"Cheerfully," said his friend. "I don"t think there is any danger of our disagreeing."
Jasper shook his head.
"If there should be any disagreement it would be my fault," he said.
"But won"t Nicholas need a guardian?"
"Yes; one will have to be appointed."
"I suppose his uncle would be willing to take the post."
"His uncle, if found, will hardly be in a position to act in that capacity."
d.i.c.k was not found. He disappeared, and from that day was not seen in the neighborhood. It is supposed that he went West and found a secure concealment in some of the distant territories, where probably he is engaged in the same discreditable courses for which he was already notorious.
As was antic.i.p.ated, Nicholas inherited about thirty thousand dollars. He selected as his guardian the young physician whom his mother had employed in her husband"s last sickness. But the man proved faithless to his trust, and ran away with the entire fortune of his ward, leaving him absolutely penniless. In this emergency Nicholas, humbled and mortified, appealed to Jasper to help him.
With his guardian"s permission, Jasper agreed, during his good behavior, to pay for his use an annual sum of five hundred dollars, urging him to continue at school. But this did not suit Nicholas. He obtained a place in New York, where he soon developed fast tendencies, and ended by running away with a considerable sum of money belonging to his employer.