"well, netta," hilda said, after dr. leeds had left them, "i suppose you will not in future laugh at my instincts. i only wish that they had been stronger. i wish i had told my dear uncle that i disliked the man so thoroughly that i was sure there was something wrong with him, and implored him not to become very intimate with him. if i had told him how strongly i felt on the subject, although, of course, he could have left or given him any sum that he chose, i do think it would have had some influence with him. no doubt he would have laughed at what he would have called my suspicious nature, but i think he would not have become so friendly with the man; but, of course, i never thought of this. oh, netta! my heart seems broken at the thought that my dear uncle, the kindest of men, should have been murdered by a man towards whom his thoughts were so kindly that he appointed him his heir in the event of walter's death. if he had left him double the sum he did, and had directed that in case of walter's death the property should go to hospitals, the child might now have been safe in the house. it is heartbreaking 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 his niece as well as you, he could not have treated me more kindly than he did when i was staying with you last year, and during the last four months that i have been with you. one could see, even in the state he was in, how kind his nature was, and his very helplessness added to one's[pg 151] affection for him. i quite meant what i said, for until this matter is cleared up, and until this crime, if crime it really is, is brought to light, i will stay here, and be your helper, however the long the time may be. there are two of us, and i do not think that either of us are fools, and we ought to be a match for one man. there is one thing we have, that is a man on whom we can rely. i do not mean dr. leeds; i regard him as our director. i mean tom roberts; he would have given his life, i am sure, for his master, and i feel confident that he will carry out any instructions we may give him to the letter."
"i am sure he will, netta. do you think we ought to tell him our suspicions?"
"i should do so unhesitatingly, hilda. i am sure he will be ready to go through fire and water to avenge his master's death. as aunt is out i think 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 footman entered she said, "tell roberts that i want to speak to him." when the man came up she went on, "we are quite sure, tom, that you were most thoroughly devoted to your master, and that you would do anything in your power to get to the bottom of the events that have brought about his death and the carrying off of his grandson."
"that i would, miss; there is not anything that i would not do if you would only set me about it."
"well, roberts, i am about to take you into our confidence, relying implicitly upon your silence and on your aid."
"you can do that, miss, safely enough. there is nothing now that i can do for my master; but as for master walter, i would walk to china if i thought that there was a chance of finding him there."
"in the first place you must remember, roberts, that we are acting only upon suspicion; we have only that to go upon, and our object must be to find some proofs to justify those suspicions."[pg 152]
"i understand, miss; you have got an idea, and you want to see if it is right?"
"we ourselves have little doubt of it, roberts. now please sit down and listen to me, and don't interrupt me till i have finished."
then she related the grounds that she had for suspicion that the general's death and walter's abduction were both the work of john simcoe, and also her own theory that this man was not the person who had saved the general's life. in spite of her warning not to interrupt, tom roberts' exclamations of fury were frequent and strongly worded.
"well, miss!" he exclaimed, when she had finished and his tongue was untied, "i did not think that there was such a villain upon the face of the earth. why, if i had suspected this i would have killed him, if i had been hung for it a week after. and to think that he regular took me in! he had always a cheerful word for me, if i happened to open the door for him. 'how are you, tom?' he would say, 'hearty as usual?' and he would slip a crown into my hand to drink his health. i always keep an account of tips that i receive, and the first thing i do will be to add them up and see how much i have had from him, and i will hand it over to a charity. one don't like setting out to help to bring a man to the gallus when you have got his money in your pocket. i must have been a fool, miss, not to have kept a better watch, but i never thought ill of the man. it seemed to me that he had been a soldier. sometimes when he was talking with me he would come out with barrack-room sayings, and though he never said that he had served, nor the general neither, i thought that he must have done so. he had a sort of way of carrying his shoulders which you don't often see among men who have not learned the goose-step. i will wait, miss, with your permission, until i have got rid of that money, and then if you say to me, 'go to that man's rooms and take him by the throat and squeeze the truth out of him,' i am ready to do it."[pg 153]
"we shall not require such prompt measures as that, tom; we must go about our work carefully and quietly, and i fear that it will be a very long time before we are able to collect facts that we can act upon. we have not decided yet how to begin. i may tell you that the only other person who shares our suspicions is dr. leeds. we think it best that even miss purcell should know nothing about them. it would only cause her great anxiety, and the matter will, therefore, be kept a close secret among our four selves. in a few days our plans will probably be complete, and i think that your share in the business will be to watch every movement of this man and to ascertain who are his associates; many of them, no doubt, are club men, who, of course, will be above suspicion, but it is certain that he must have had accomplices in the abduction of the child. whether he visits them or they visit him, is a point to find out. there is little chance of their calling during daylight, and it is in the evening that you will have to keep a close eye on him and ascertain who his visitors are."
"all right, miss, i wish he did not know me by sight; but i expect that i 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 course we are not going to rely only upon you; miss purcell and myself are both going to devote ourselves to the search."
"we will run him down between us, miss, never fear. it cannot be meant that such a fellow as this should not be found out in his villainy. i wish that there was something more for me to do. i know several old soldiers like myself, who would join me willingly enough, and we might between us carry him off and keep him shut up somewhere, just as he is doing master walter, until he makes a clean breast of it. it is wonderful what the cells and bread and water will do to take a fellow's spirit down. it is bad enough when one knows how long one has got to bear it; but to know that there is no end to it until you choose to speak would get the[pg 154] truth out of old nick, begging your pardon for naming 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 us that if he did not pay his usual visit to the boy it would be absolutely certain we should never see him alive again, we should not dare retain him."
"well, miss, whatever you decide on i will do. i have lost as a good master as ever a man had, and there is nothing that i would not do to bring that fellow to justice."
the girls waited impatiently for the next visit of dr. leeds. it was four days before he came.
"i hoped to have been here before," he said, "but i have been so busy that it has not been possible for me to manage it. of course this business has always been in my mind, and it seems to me that the first step to be taken is to endeavor to ascertain whether this fellow is really, as you believe, miss covington, an impostor. have you ever heard him say in what part of the country he formerly resided?"
"yes; he lived at stowmarket. i know that some months ago he introduced to uncle a gentleman who was manager at a bank there, and had known him from 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 am half a head shorter than hilda, and altogether different in face; therefore, if he learns that any inquiries have been made, he will be sure 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 shall be able to do quite as well as a detective. we could hardly take a detective into our confidence in a matter of this kind, and not knowing[pg 155] everything, 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 a day or two to follow up some clew we have obtained that may lead to walter's discovery. in a week you shall know whether this man is really what 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 into our confidence. we know that we can rely upon his discretion implicitly, and it seemed to us that we must have somebody we can trust absolutely to watch this man."
"i don't think that you could have done better," he said. "i was going to suggest that it would be well to obtain his assistance. from what i have heard, very few of these private detectives can be absolutely relied upon. i do not mean that they are necessarily rogues, who would take money from both sides, but that, if after trying for some time they consider the matter hopeless, they will go on running up expenses and making charges when they have in reality given up the search. what do you propose that he shall do?"
"i should say that, in the first place, he should watch every evening the house where simcoe lives, and follow up everyone who comes out and ascertain who they are. no doubt the great majority of them will be clubmen, but it is likely that he will be occasionally visited by some of his confederates."
"i think that is an excellent plan. he will, of course, also follow him when he goes out, for it is much more likely that he will visit these fellows than that they should come to him. in a case like this he would assuredly use every precaution, and would scarcely let them know who he is and where he resides."
"no doubt that is so, doctor, and it would make roberts' work all the easier, 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."[pg 156]
netta returned at the end of four days.
"i have not succeeded," she said, in answer to hilda's inquiring look as she came in. "the man is certainly well known at stowmarket as john simcoe; but that does not prove that he is the man, and just as he deceived your uncle he may have deceived the people down there. now i will go upstairs and take off my things, and then give you a full account of my proceedings.
"my first step," she began on her return, "was, of course, to find out what members of the simcoe family lived there. after engaging a room at the hotel, which i can assure you was the most unpleasant part of the business, for they seemed to be altogether unaccustomed to the arrival of young ladies unattended, i went into the town. it is not much of a place, and after making some little purchases and inquiring at several places, i heard of a maiden lady of that name. the woman who told me of her was communicative. 'she has just had a great piece of luck,' she said. 'about ten months back a nephew, whom everyone had supposed to have been lost at sea, came home with a great fortune, and they say that he has behaved most handsomely to her. she has always bought her berlin wool and such things here, and she has spent three or four times as much since he came home as she did before, and i know from a neighbor, of whom she is a customer, that the yards and yards of flannel that she buys for making up into petticoats for poor children is wonderful. do you know her, miss?' i said that i did not know her personally, but that some friends of mine, knowing that i was going to stowmarket, had asked me to inquire if miss simcoe was still alive. i said casually that i might call and see her, and so got her address.
"i then went to call upon her. she lives in a little place called myrtle cottage. i had been a good deal puzzled as to what story i should tell her. i thought at first of giving myself out as the sister of the young lady to whom her nephew was paying his addresses; and[pg 157] as we knew nothing of him except that he was wealthy, and as he had mentioned that he had an aunt at stowmarket, and as i was coming down there, i had been asked to make inquiries about him. but i thought this might render her so indignant that i should get nothing from her. i thought, therefore, i had 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 little maid into the parlor, a funny, little, old-fashioned room. presently miss simcoe herself came in. she was just the sort of woman i had pictured—a kindly-looking, little old maid.
"'i do not know whether i have done wrong, miss simcoe,' i said, 'but i am a stranger here, and having over-worked myself at a picture from which i hope great things, i have been recommended country air; and a friend told me that stowmarket was a pretty, quiet, country town, just the place for an over-worked londoner to gain health in, so i came down and made some inquiries for a single lady who would perhaps take me in and give me a comfortable home for two or three months. your name has been mentioned to me as being just the lady i am seeking."
"'you have been misinformed,' she said, a little primly. 'i do not say that a few months back i might not have been willing to have entertained such an offer, but my circumstances have changed since then, and now i should not think for a moment of doing so.'
"rising from my seat with a tired air, i said that i was much obliged to her, but i was very sorry she could not take me in, as i was sure that i should be very comfortable; however, as she could not, of course there was an end of it.
"'sit down, my dear,' the old lady said. 'i see that you are tired and worn 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 you ask. as i said, a few months ago i should certainly have been very glad to have had a young lady like yourself[pg 158] to stay with me for a time; i think that when a lady gets to my age a little youthful companionship does her good. besides, i do not mind saying that my means were somewhat straitened, and that a little additional money would have been a great help to me; but everything was changed by the arrival of a nephew of mine. perhaps you may have heard his name; he is a rich man, and i believe 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 for twenty years, and everyone thought he was dead. he sailed away in some ship that was never heard of again, and you may guess my surprise when he walked in here and called me aunt.'
"'you must have been indeed surprised, miss simcoe,' i said; 'it must have 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 a very 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 his appearance had done. he had been what he called knocking about, among all sorts of horrible savages, eating and drinking all kinds of queer things; it made my blood run cold to listen to him. but i never asked any questions about these things; i was afraid he might say that when he was among the cannibals he used to eat human flesh, and i don't think that i could like a man who had done that, even though he was my nephew.'
"'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 a situation in the bank here. i know[pg 159] that the manager thought very highly of him, and, indeed, he was everywhere well spoken of. my brother joshua—his father, you know—died, and he came in for two or three thousand 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 up his situation and started on his travels.'
"'had his memory been affected by the hot suns and the hardships that he had 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 for twenty years, his face does not occur to old friends when they meet an apparent stranger.'
"'that is quite natural,' i agreed. 'what a pleasure it must have been to him to talk over old times and old friends!'
"'indeed it was, my dear. he enjoyed it so much that for three days he would not move out of the house. dear me! what pleasant talks we had.'
"'and you say, miss simcoe, that his coming has quite altered your position?'
"'yes, indeed. the very first thing he said after coming into the house was that he had come home resolved to make me and my sister maria thoroughly comfortable. poor maria died some years ago, but of course he did not know it. then he said that he should allow me fifty pounds a year 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 opened altogether to me, and she said that she felt sure that her nephew would not like it were she to take in a lodger, and might indeed consider it a hint that he might have been more liberal than he[pg 160] was. but she invited me to stay three days with her while i was looking about for suitable lodgings. i found that her house was a regular rendezvous for the tabbies of the neighborhood. every afternoon there were some four or five of them there. some brought work, others came in undisguisedly to gossip. many of these had known john simcoe in his younger days, and by careless questioning i elicited the fact that no one would have recognized him had it not been for miss simcoe having told them of his arrival.
"the manager of the bank i rather shrank from an encounter with, but i managed to obtain from miss simcoe a letter her nephew had written to her when he was away from home a short time before he left england, and also one written by him since his return. so far as i could see, there was not the slightest resemblance between them.
"i thought that i might possibly get at someone less likely to be on his guard than the bank manager, and she happened to mention as an interesting fact that one of the clerks who had entered the bank a lad of seventeen, only a month or two before her nephew left, was now married to the daughter of one of her gossips. i said that her story had so 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 and pleasant, and while there was a general conversation going on among the others, i said to him that i was a great student of handwriting, and i flattered myself that i could tell a man's character from his handwriting; but i owned that i had been quite disconcerted by two letters which miss simcoe was kind enough to show me from her nephew, one written before he left the bank, the other dated three or four months ago.
"'i cannot see the slightest resemblance between the two,' i said, 'and do not remember any instance which has come under my knowledge of the handwriting of any man or woman changing so completely in the course[pg 161] of twenty years. the one is a methodical, business sort of writing, showing marks of steady purpose, regularity of habits, and a kindly disposition. i won't give you my opinion of the other, but the impression that was left upon my mind was far from favorable.'
"'yes, there has been an extraordinary change,' he agreed. 'i can recollect the former one perfectly, for i saw him sign scores of letters and documents, and if he had had an account standing at the bank now i should without question honor a check so signed. no doubt the great difference is accounted for by the life that mr. simcoe has led. he told me himself that for years, at one time, he had never taken a pen in hand, and that he had almost forgotten how to write; and that his fingers had grown so clumsy pulling at ropes, rowing an oar, digging for gold, 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 still clerkly in character, and does not at all answer to his own description.'
"'i noticed that myself, and so did our chief. he showed me a letter that he had received from simcoe, asking him to run up for a few days to stay with him in london. he showed it to me with the remark that in all his experience he had never seen so great and complete a change in the handwriting of any man as in that of mr. simcoe since he left the bank. he considered it striking proof how completely a man's handwriting depends upon his surroundings. he turned up an old ledger containing many entries in simcoe's handwriting, and we both agreed that we could not see a single point of resemblance.'
"'thank you,' i said; 'i am glad to find that my failure to recognize the two handwritings as being those of the same man has been shared by two gentlemen who are, like myself in a humble way, experts at handwriting.'
"the next morning i got your letter, written after i[pg 162] had sent you the address, and told miss simcoe that i was unexpectedly called back to town, but that it was quite probable that i should ere long be down again, when i would arrange with one or other of the people of whom she had 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. you have managed it most admirably."
"at any rate, i have got as much as i expected, if not more; i have learned that no one recognized this man simcoe on his first arrival in his native town, and it was only when this old lady had spread the news abroad, and had told the tale of his generosity to her, and so prepared the way for him, that he was more or less recognized; she having no shadow of doubt but that he was her long-lost nephew. in the three days that he stopped with her he had no doubt learned from the dear old gossip almost every fact connected with his boyhood, the men he was most intimate with, the positions they held, and i doubt not some of the escapades in which they might have taken part together; so that he was thoroughly well primed before he met them. besides, no doubt they were more anxious to hear tales of adventure than to talk of the past, and his course must have been a very easy one.
"miss simcoe said that he spent money like a prince, and gave a dinner to all his old friends, at which every dainty appeared, and the champagne flowed like water. we may take it as certain that none of his guests ever entertained the slightest doubt that their host was the man he pretended to be. there could seem to them no conceivable reason why a stranger should come down, settle an income upon miss simcoe, and spend his money liberally among all his former acquaintances, if he were any other man than john simcoe.
"lastly, we have the handwriting. the man seems to have laid his plans marvelously well, and to have provided against every unforeseen contingency; yet undoubtedly he must have altogether overlooked the question[pg 163] of handwriting, although his declaration that he had almost forgotten how to use his pen was an ingenious one, and i might have accepted it myself if he had written in the rough, scrambling character you would expect under the circumstances. but his handwriting, although in some places he had evidently tried to write roughly, on the whole is certainly that of a man accustomed at one time of his life to clerkly work, and yet differing as widely as the poles from the handwriting of simcoe, both in the bank ledger and in the letter to his aunt.
"i think, hilda, that although the matter cannot be decided, it certainly points to your theory that this man is not the john simcoe who left stowmarket twenty years ago. he attempted, and i think very cleverly, to establish his identity by a visit to stowmarket, and no doubt did so to everyone's perfect satisfaction; but when we come to go into the thing step by step, we see that everything he did might have been done by anyone who happened to have a close resemblance to john simcoe in figure and some slight resemblance in face, after listening for three days to miss simcoe's gossip."
