“Halloa, Jim,” said Nathans, “have you come to worry the good
gentleman?”
“I’ve come for what’s due me!” growled the boy.
“Due you? Nothing is due you. Don’t think you can demand a sum of money
and then get it. What have you done for us?”
“Got you the girl, and pointed out Cooper. You and Benson wouldn’t have
known about them if it hadn’t been for me.”
Nathans shrugged his shoulders.
“Heap you did for us. Look, the girl’s saddled upon her cousin for no
telling how long, and Cooper is only serving a term which does us no
good.”
Jim cackled a funny little laugh.
“Pooh,” said he. “I wouldn’t give five cents for that girl’s chance of
life if you two got your hands upon her. Poor little thing, she is too
pretty to be with men like you.”
He crossed his legs and puffed out smoke from a vile-smelling cigar.
“Don’t get too personal, young fellow,” said the Jew, “but there,
there, Benson, I’ll leave you with this young degenerate. Young fellow,
if you had made a finish of the job you began fifteen years ago, you
would not be in the position you are in now, and we would be able to
hold our heads up with the best of them.”
“Well, now all you have to do is to twist the girl’s neck like this,”
and the villain screwed his fingers deftly around, “and then we three
could be rich.”
He squinted his eye to one side as he said this, and the Jew gave a
great gasp.
“You’ve got a nerve, young fellow, that exceeds anything I have ever
seen. Now then, I’ll leave you to settle with Benson.”
All this time George Benson said nothing, but was looking curiously at
the miniature man. Jim Farren was of under size, with a brutal-looking
face. After the Jew had gone the escaped convict looked his question
and Benson said suddenly:
“Don’t you think you’ve a good nerve to come here and ask to get a
certain sum of money you did not earn? If you had not interfered with
our arrangements fifteen years ago and helped that sailor to escape
you would have been all right now. He would still have been serving a
sentence and the girl would be dead. You had better go away.”
“I’ve been seeing my Cousin Biddy,” said the man, thinking to gain time.
“Well, you had better leave this house, and don’t come around whining
to me. If you had had any sense you would have kept that Arkwright from
my heels. I dare not take a step for fear he will hound me.”
The man looked again sharply at Benson.
“I suppose you mean that you cannot kill the girl without it being
found out?”
“Hush, wretch, you talk too loud.”
“I am thinking my voice will be heard outside this wall if something
isn’t done soon,” replied Jim.
“Oh, you do, do you? You are trying to threaten me, are you? Well,
don’t do that, for it won’t work.”
“Oh, won’t it? Well, we will see. Now then, are youse going to give me
that money?”
“No.”
“Not one cent?”
“No, not even a half a cent, and if you try anything we will send you
up for the rest of your term.”
“Listen, Mr. Benson. Some folks situated like I am ain’t any too
particular how they live when they don’t have no money. I don’t know
but as I’d lief be at Blackwell’s as here in the city, but maybe I
rather be there if I could get even with men what has done me an
injustice.”
Benson’s face had grown white to his ears, and he had no hold upon his
temper. He rose suddenly to his feet, and Jim, thinking it best to get
out, ran into the hall.
There he met Biddy sailing down the stairs. This woman had improved
herself a great deal since coming in a mansion to live, and she eyed
her cousin with great scorn.
“Jim, why are youse about here with that dirty face? Seems to me youse
might have some thought for me. Now, get out of here and don’t come
again until it can be clean.”
“He’s gone back on me,” said Jim, pointing his finger to the library
door.
“Glad of it,” said the woman; “you are both as bad as you can be. I
hope you will find your way to jail for being so mean to our little
girl when she was small. If she were not an angel she would not let any
of you people in the house.”
“Oh, wouldn’t she?” cried he. “Well, she’d better not get too flip, for
Mr. Benson runs this house.”
“Who said he did?” asked the Irishwoman, her blue eyes fastening upon
the man keenly.
“He did,” replied Jim, looking toward Benson’s door.
Biddy muttered something about things going topsy turvy and that she
would tell Nellie her mind, and Jim walked out.
He slouched along the street with his hands in his pockets. His idea
was to think of some way he could get even with Benson without running
any risk himself.
* * * * *
One afternoon Nellie was sitting writing her daily letter to Tom. Her
mind had left the sheet before her, and with her eyes fixed upon the
ivy-covered church opposite she tried to weave a day dream which would
bring her happiness. How many weary months had passed since her Tom had
gone to prison, and each day her cousin became more insufferable and
she hated him more and more. He had constantly persecuted her with his
attentions.
It would be well to cite a little episode which had happened only a few
days before. Benson had gotten it into his mind that Biddy interfered
with Nellie as far as he was concerned; that is, influenced her
against him, so he determined to banish the woman from the house, and
with this intention he set about finding a woman who would take Biddy’s
place.
One morning he sent a peremptory message to Nellie to come to him in
the library, which was his favorite place to meet her.
“Helen,” said he, rising at her entrance, “you will listen to what I am
going to say to you, and know, please, before I begin, that it is for
your own good that I speak.”
“Then do not hesitate,” replied the girl with so much sarcasm in her
voice that the man’s face flooded with color.
“Please do not use that tone to me,” said he sternly.
“Very well,” and Helen sank gracefully back into her seat.
“Helen,” and Benson commenced in low, measured tones, “you are much
younger than I am, but that is no reason why I should not care for you
or you for me. I am only your second cousin.”
The man paused a moment, and Nellie, thinking it incumbent upon her to
speak, said:
“I do not see what you mean.”
“This,” replied Benson. “Nellie, I love you. I want you to be my wife,
and because I do love you I desire that you should come under good
influence, and I require that you should allow Biddy to leave this
house. It is a shame to keep her here.”
The girl’s face changed color. She did not speak and allowed him to go
on.
“I believe this woman exerts a bad influence over you, for she is not a
lady and could not be made into one, no matter how hard she would try,
nor whatever was done for her. I have hired you a good woman to take
her place, and have notified Biddy to leave to-night. I allowed you to
bring her with you because you were coming into a strange house. Will
you be good enough to say something, and not sit there looking at me
like that?”
Still the girl was silent, while a mixture of emotions were arising in
her breast. This man had taken such a hold upon her, had constituted
himself her husband without her consent, and would send away her
beloved Biddy, and----
Here her thoughts changed their current, and she thought of the man in
the prison cell. Marry George Benson--never. Let Biddy go out of her
life, delightful, droll old Biddy, whom she loved? No, she would go,
too, then.
Seeing that she was not going to speak, and hoping that she had taken
his words as they were meant, the man arose and opened the door which
opened into his private office.
“Miss Wallace, will you please come in?”
An angular-looking woman, with an evil eye, and who looked fixedly at
Nellie, glided into the room.
“This is your new companion, Nellie,” said Benson genially, “and I know
you will like each other. Now you will take her to your suite of rooms,
Helen, and show her where she is to sleep.”
It was now time for Nellie to speak. She rose like a young empress and
faced her guardian.
“You have gone a little too far,” said she, throwing back her head
haughtily; “just a little too far----”
But before she could say anything more the woman had taken her by the
arm and whispered:
“We shall be the best of friends. There is nothing Miss Standish can
ask me to do that I will be unwilling to try.”
Nellie shook off the white fingers.
“Don’t touch me,” shivered the girl; “I will not have you near me, do
you understand? I won’t have you in my Biddy’s place. I will bid you
good-night, Mr. Benson, and say that when I am twenty-one, I shall come
back and you shall leave this house, but now, to-night, do you hear,”
and the girl bent far forward and looked into the man’s eyes, “do you
understand, I am going back to the boathouse with my Biddy.”
With this sweeping statement, she flung herself out of the room, and
fled upstairs, and she no sooner came near the door but she heard the
sound of sobs. Opening it, she saw Biddy down upon her knees beside a
trunk throwing her things in promiscuously.
“What are you doing, Biddy?” asked the girl sternly.
“Mr. Benson has told me to leave, and, darlint, it is better for you. I
am not a lady, he says, but I loved you, child; I loved you.”
“Biddy, listen to me. Are you going back to the boathouse?”
“Yes.”
“Then I am going with you. I just told Mr. Benson, too, and also said
to that vixen in a black dress, who he said was to be my companion,
that I would have nothing to do with her.”
“Did you tell him that?” and Biddy sat down upon the floor and ceased
her sobbing and looked at her darling.
“I did, and I’m going with you, Biddy. I told him I would come back
when I was twenty-one and take charge of the house, and until that time
he could reign here with the companion he had chosen for me.”
Saying this, she had commenced to tear the things out of the closet.
But a knock caused her to cease.
Benson was standing looking at her with a pleading expression in his
eyes. He hated to admit that he could not tame this very young girl,
and that she would take no wish of his into consideration, much less an
order.
“What are you doing, Helen?” asked he, looking about the room.
“Getting ready to go with Biddy. I suppose the new companion will need
these rooms.”
“Don’t be foolish, Nellie,” commenced the man. “You are to stay in your
home, for it is not to be thought of, your leaving it.”
“Then if I stay, Biddy shall stay, too.”
Benson hesitated. The dark eyes under the shock of golden hair were
flashing at him their challenge.
“Then,” said the man slowly, “let Biddy stay. I did not think you would
take any such drastic measures. I hope you won’t regret it.”
“But she will,” he muttered as he made his way downstairs and dismissed
the new woman, who, with a very dark smile upon her face, laughed him
to scorn for his indecision.
“I should like the managing of that young girl for a little while,”
said she slowly, “and I think I could bring her to time.”
“Leave your address. I may need you,” replied Benson, as he showed her
the door.
* * * * *
And now this day Nellie was writing her experience to Tom.
“As if I could live here without Biddy, Tom,” wrote she. “And with the
woman he hired for my companion. You have no idea how repugnant she
was to me. Oh, Tom, is this misery never to cease? Now I have but a
little money to do as I want to with, but, my beloved, it won’t be long
before I can spend all the money I wish. Then for freedom for you and
happiness for me.”
* * * * *
This letter was received at the prison and the warden congratulated Tom
upon having such a constant little sweetheart, but the tone of the
missive was anything but satisfactory to Tom. He believed that Biddy
would be sent away and Nellie would be left alone with Benson.
He thought of this so long that the idea seemed to set his brain on
fire, and he could see his darling going through all sorts of things
and tortures to make her give over the money to Nathans and her cousin.
He pictured in his mind this woman, who had been brought to take the
place of the faithful Irishwoman, who had been his and Nellie’s friend
since their terrible experience in the river fifteen years before. He
suddenly made up his mind to escape that night from the prison.
And escape he did. He slipped out of his place in the line of men and
hid behind a large pile of lumber where some carpenters were at work.
One man had taken off his suit of blue overalls, and thrown it down
upon the boards, and instantly Tom had put this on, and had calmly
walked out of the gate with the set of carpenters.
When he once was in the open air his thoughts immediately went to
Helen. He would change his clothes, and then satisfy himself how his
sweetheart was getting along.
* * * * *
Helen Standish was growing impatient, and her twenty-first birthday was
fast crowding upon her--that time when she would be her own mistress.
This thought often haunted both Benson and Nathans. The Jew had
tormented Benson with his fears and worryings.
“You’ve got to marry that girl or put her out of the way,” commanded
the Jew, and Benson knew this to be a fact, for was he not involved to
such an amount that he could not stand under the strain much longer?
So this evening he sent for his ward, and said to her:
“My dear Helen, I am going to ask you a question. Will you marry me? I
love you, and I beg you to be my wife.”
The girl rose to her feet. Her eyes narrowed into just a squint,
for she seemed to be measuring his strength against hers. There was
something so strong in her feelings to-night. Was she not twenty-one
to-morrow and mistress of her own fortune? And did it not mean freedom
for her Tom?
“I thank you, my cousin,” said she, bowing low, “but I will have to
decline the honor. What is more, to-morrow I will want my home to
myself, as I am thinking of making several changes among the servants.
And then, my lawyer says that you should hand me a statement of all
the moneys spent since my grandfather died, and then please turn my
property over to me.”