That night the Governor's condition took an unfavorable turn and Dr.
Mosgrove was summoned. He remained until the crisis was passed.
"We must expect progress to be retarded now and then; but now that we've
got by this we may feel more confident. He hasn't been wholly conscious
at any time, but he's muttered a name several times--Julia; is that the
sister? Then the sight of her may help us in a day or two when his mind
clears up."
Archie was beset with many fears as he waited the arrival of Mrs.
Graybill. His utter ignorance of any details touching the life of his
friend seemed now to rise before him like a fog which he was afraid to
penetrate. And there was Ruth, with her happiness hanging in the
balance; she was in love with a man of whom she knew nothing; indeed the
mystery that enfolded him was a part of his fascination for her, no
doubt; and if in the Governor's past life there was anything that made
marriage with a young woman of Ruth's fineness and sweetness hazardous,
the sooner it was known the better. But when he caught a glimpse of Mrs.
Graybill in the vestibule of the train his apprehensions vanished. The
poise, the serenity of temper, an unquestioning acceptance of the fate
that played upon her life, which he had felt at their first meeting
struck him anew.
"Our patient is doing well. The news is all good," he said at once.
"I felt that it would be; I couldn't believe that this was the end!"
"We will hope that it is only the beginning!" he said gravely.
"A capital place for a beginning, or ending!" she remarked glancing with
a rueful smile at the desolate street and shabby hotel.
Putney and his wife had moved to Heart o' Dreams for a few days. It
would be a second honeymoon, Putney said. Mrs. Graybill was introduced
into the hotel without embarrassment. It might have seemed that she had
foreseen just such a situation and prepared for it. She won Dr.
Reynolds' heart by the brevity of her questions, and expressed her
satisfaction with everything that had been done. When she came down to
the dining-room for luncheon she avoided all reference to the sick man.
In her way she was as remarkable as the Governor himself. Her arrival
had greatly stirred Mrs. Leary, who, deprived of Sally's services,
served the table. Archie was struck by the fact that with only the
exchange of commonplace remarks the two women, born into utterly
different worlds, seemed to understand each other perfectly. He had
merely told Mrs. Leary that the Governor's sister was coming and warned
her against letting fall any hint of her knowledge of his ways.
"I've never been in these parts before," Julia remarked to Archie; "I
should be glad if you'd show me the beach. We might take a walk a little
later."
The hour in which he waited for her tried his soul. The Governor was the
one man who had ever roused in him a deep affection, and the dread of
finding that under his flippancy, his half-earnest, half-boyish
make-believe devotion to the folk of the underworld, he was really an
irredeemable rogue, tortured him. These were disloyal thoughts; he hated
himself for his doubts. It was impossible that a man of the Governor's
blood, his vigor of mind and oddly manifested chivalry could ever have
been more than a trifler with iniquity.
"I'm going to ask you to bear with me," said Mrs. Graybill when they
reached the shore, "if I seem to be making this as easy for myself as
possible. I know that my brother cares a great deal for you. He sent me
little notes now and then--he always did that, though the intervals were
sometimes long; I know that he would want you to know. Things have
reached a point where if he lives he will tell you himself."
"Please don't think I have any feeling that I have any right to know.
It's very generous of you to want to tell me. But first it's only fair
to give you a few particulars about myself. You said in New York that
you knew me and I must apologize for my failure to recall our meeting."
"It was fortunate you didn't! I've known some of your family, I think;
your sister is Mrs. Howard Featherstone. Away back somewhere the Van
Dorens and a Bennett owned some property jointly. It may have been an
uncle of yours?"
"Yes; Archibald Bennett, for whom I was named."
"That's very odd; but it saves explanations. We are not meeting quite as
strangers."
"I felt that the moment I saw the name Van Doren. I had never seen your
brother until we met in Maine; he was of the greatest service to me; I
was in sorry plight when he picked me up."
He was prepared to tell the story of the meeting, everything indeed that
had occurred. He had imagined that she would be immensely curious as to
all the phases and incidents of his relationship with her brother.
"Just now I shall be happier not to know," she said, and added with a
smile: "Later, when my heart is lighter than it is today you may tell
me."
She was magnificent, a thoroughbred, this woman, who walked beside him
with the air of a queen who might lose a throne but never the mastery of
her own soul. She was far more at ease than he, walking with her hands
thrust carelessly into the pockets of her coat, halting now and then to
gaze across the water.
"My brother is Philip Van Doren, and there were just the two of us. An
unusual sympathy bound us together from childhood, and there was never a
closer tie between brother and sister. I married his most intimate
friend. My husband betrayed him; it was the breach of a trust in which
they were jointly liable. It was not merely a theft, it was a gross,
dastardly thing, without a single mitigating circumstance. My husband
killed himself."
She spoke without a quaver of the beautiful voice, meeting his gaze as
she uttered the last sentence as though anxious to spare herself nothing
in her desire to convince him of her perfect composure. One might have
thought her an amiable woman attempting to entertain a dull companion by
summarizing a tale she had read that had not interested her
particularly.
"It broke Philip's heart; it broke his spirit! It destroyed his generous
faith in all men. He was a brilliant student in college and promised to
go far in the law; but he felt keenly the dishonor. The financial part
of it he of course took care of; that was the least of it. There was
always a strain of mysticism in him; and he had gone deeply into
astrology and things like that; and when the dark hour came he pretended
to find consolation in them. He was born under an evil star, he said,
and would not be free of its spell until he had passed through a period
of servitude. It sounds like insanity, but it was only a grim ironic
distortion of his reason. He said that if honor was so poor a thing he
would seek a world that knew no honor. I dread to think how he has spent
these years!"
"I have found him the kindest, the most loyal, the most lovable of men.
He has simply mocked at life--the life he used to know."
"Yes; I suppose that was the way of it," she said pensively. "In one of
his brief messages he spoke of a young woman who had interested him, but
I never can tell when he's serious--"
Archie met the question promptly.
"A charming young girl, Ruth Hastings, whose antecedents and connections
are the best. You need have no fears on that score. You shall see her,
very soon."
She permitted him to describe the meeting with Ruth and Isabel at
Rochester, and her face betrayed relief and pleasure as he made it clear
that the Governor's romance was in no way discreditable.
"It is curious, and in his own way of looking at things may be
significant, that your telegram reached me on the day following the
seventh anniversary of the beginning of his exile."
"He had looked forward to the seventh anniversary as marking the end of
the dark influences; he believed there would be a vast change in his
affairs."
"If only he lives!" she exclaimed. "Is it possible that he can ever step
back into the world he left?"
"You may be sure he has planned a return, with marriage at the very
threshold."
"Then God grant that he may live!" she said fervently.
The following evening, after Dr. Mosgrove's visit had left their hopes
high, Archie carried her to Heart o' Dreams. Happiness shone in the
stars over the northern waters. Putney Congdon and his wife were
enjoying to the full the peace that followed upon the storms of their
married life. They had established themselves in a tent on the outskirts
of the camp and declared that they might remain there forever. A girl
bugler sounded taps and the lights went out, leaving tired and happy
youth to the fellowship of dreams.
Isabel gave Archie no opportunity to speak to her alone, and he found
her aloofness dismaying. Her scruples against hearing protestations of
love from a man she believed she had injured were creditable to her
conscience, but Archie was all impatient to shatter them. She made a
candid confession to Mrs. Congdon, with Putney and Archie standing by.
"With malice aforethought I practiced my vampirish arts upon these two
men! And, Alice, the crudest thing you could do would be to forgive me!
I couldn't bear it. I flirted with Mr. Congdon; not only that but I took
advantage of his distress over his father's efforts to estrange you two
to counsel him to lead a reckless, devil-may-care existence. And I tried
the same thing on Mr. Bennett, only he was much more susceptible than
your husband and took me more seriously. I want you, one and all, to be
sure that I hate myself most cordially!"
"The end justified the means, I think," said Mrs. Congdon.
"I found a friend I'm not going to lose as one result," said Putney.
"And if the sick man across the bay recovers I hope I have another
lifelong friend there."
"Oh, it's all so strange!" cried Mrs. Congdon. "One might think that we
must suffer tribulation before we know what perfect happiness is! And I
never expect to understand all that has happened to you men. Is it
possible that you'll ever settle down again?"
"That depends--" Archie remarked, glancing meaningfully at Isabel,--a
glance which Mrs. Congdon detected and appraised with that prescience
which makes every woman a match-maker.
On the wharf they lingered, like a company of old friends reluctant for
even a brief parting; Ruth, lantern in hand, stood beside Mrs. Graybill,
looking like a child beside the stately woman. As Archie cried "All
aboard," Julia caught Ruth in her arms and kissed her.
"Good night, little girl!" she said softly.
It was like a benediction and the very graciousness of act and word
lightened Archie's vigil as all night he watched outside the Governor's
door.
V
On the eighth day Dr. Mosgrove announced that his visits were no longer
necessary; he ran up to Huddleston, he told Archie, for the pleasure of
meeting the agreeable people he found there. The Governor was making an
extraordinary recovery, and the bracing northern air would soon set him
up. Someone was always on the water between Leary's hotel and Heart o'
Dreams, and clouds no longer darkened the bay.
Dr. Mosgrove had made a careful examination of Carey, and recommended
that he be sent to a sanatorium for treatment. Perky undertook to carry
him to a private institution near Chicago suggested by the doctor, and
this became another of the series of strange errands that fell to the
lot of the _Arthur B. Grover_. Eliphalet Congdon had been importuning
Archie to release him, but it had seemed wise to give the erratic
millionaire more time in which to meditate upon his sins.
When the tug returned Archie found that the old gentleman had taken
advantage of a day's parole in Chicago to do considerable shopping. In a
new suit of clothes he really looked, as Perky said, like a white man;
but the change in him was not merely as to his outward person. He opened
a bag on deck and displayed with pride a pearl necklace he had purchased
for his daughter-in-law, a handsome watch for young Edith and another
for his grandson, whom Mrs. Congdon had left with a friend in the east.
"I guess I haven't been square with Putney," he remarked, "and now's a
good time to let him know how I feel about it. Here," he continued,
producing a bulky envelope, "is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
in government bonds that he may use as he likes."
"Grand; perfectly bully!" cried Archie. "Please consider yourself
discharged from the ship. We'll go right over to Heart o' Dreams and
spread the glad tidings."
Though so many vistas were brightening, Archie was still troubled by
Isabel's persistent refusal to see him alone, or to give him any
opportunity to break down the barriers she had raised against him. After
luncheon at the camp, where Eliphalet Congdon proved himself a very
likable human being, he sought her as she was leaving the dining hall.
Her young charges were skipping gaily about her; there was no question
of their admiration and affection for her. He caught the spirit of their
gaiety and took advantage of a moment when Isabel emerged smiling from
an adoring group to plant himself before her.
"You are running away from me!" he said sternly. "And that's not fair."
"Oh, this is my busiest day! You mustn't think a place like this runs
automatically."
"I think nothing of the kind. But your studied efforts to escape from me
are embarrassing. Ruth, the Congdons, Mrs. Graybill--everybody is
noticing it!"
"Certain matters are one's personal affair," she answered. "Really I
must ask you to excuse me."
"I refuse to be snubbed again! You are trampling me under foot, and I
refuse to be stepped on any more. I wish to assure you, Miss Perry, that
my love for you is not to be spurned with impunity!"
"Please be careful! Those girls over there are watching us."
"A wonderful opportunity for them to see a desperate man making love; an
invaluable part of their education! They will never forget how I fell
upon my knees and declared myself!"
"Oh, you wouldn't! You really wouldn't! You forget that these children
are highly impressionable!"
"So am I, and extremely sensitive. It would be fine if you'd join me in
a little walk. If you refuse I shall follow you the rest of the day
singing. The Governor and I did a good deal of singing in our travels
and--"
As he filled his lungs as though about to burst into song she hastily
turned toward the wood.
"You seem to forget that I'm mistress here while you're merely a guest!
I hate to say it, but you're in serious danger of becoming a nuisance."
"You're not resentful and hateful enough yet to frighten me away.
'He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all.'
"It's a fact we can't escape from that you and I are not free agents and
we haven't been from the very moment we met at May's house. And the
lines converge here; you've got to admit that!"
"But they lead away again in quite opposite directions. It is cruel of
you to insist--"
"I insist that I love you! That's the only thing that matters!"
"Except," she corrected, "your cheerful assumption that I reciprocate
the feeling, when--"
"Let me begin all over again," he interrupted hastily. "You must realize
that all the odd happenings that followed our meeting in Washington have
come out pretty well; only this little affair of ours--"
"You call it an affair! Calamity would be a better term for it."
This silenced him for some time. Tradition held that the trail they
followed was an inheritance from Indian times; it was like an
ineffaceable line drawn in the forest by the red men in assertion of
their permanent title to the soil.
As she walked before him, carrying her head high, his heart ached with
love for her. It would be best perhaps not to urge her further; to wait
until the camp closed and then see her in a different environment. It
might be that his sister would arrange this for him, and he took courage
from the thought.
"It has been in my mind for a day or two that May must be wondering
what's become of me. I always write to her, you know; and she imagines
me in the Rockies. There must be a stack of mail waiting for me at
Banff; I must wire to have it forwarded."
"You needn't necessarily give up the trip--"
She turned her head to dodge an overhanging bough and he caught a
glimpse of her face; she was crying; and new and world-shaking emotions
were stirred in him by the sight of her tear-wet cheek.
"Do you know," he said, "when we talk about clearing up things I'd
forgotten about that buried treasure. I think it would be a mistake for
me to leave without exhausting all the possibilities of finding your
grandfather's buried gold. I wonder if poor Carey knew any more about it
than you do!"
"I'm sure he didn't. There are holes here and there in these woods that
he dug in his search. He had an idea that it might be found in the ruins
of grandfather's house, but that stood where I built the camp hall and I
had the old cellar thoroughly explored. Why!" she exclaimed, stopping
short and glancing about thoughtfully, "that's strange."
"We're lost, I hope!"
"Not lost; but there was a fork in the trail and I must have made the
wrong turn. I don't remember that I ever saw that fallen tree before."
At some time, perhaps several years earlier, a storm had evidently
centered its fury about the place where they stood, and a big hemlock
crushing in its fall several smaller trees lay prone across the trail.
"That old fellow must have made a mighty crash when he went down. I'm
sure that I never came this way before."
"Here's an old scar," said Archie, "where some one must have blazed the
tree years and years ago. It's the mark of an ax or hatchet. And look!
Three other big trees bear the same mark. They define a square and must
have been made for some purpose!"
Discussion of the markings brought them immediately into accord. Isabel
was perplexed to find herself in a spot she had never visited before
though she had spent the previous summer on the land, planning the
camp, and thought she knew every foot of it. She peered into the pit
torn by the roots of the huge tree. The sunlight glinted brightly upon
something that lay half hidden in the earth.
"Oh, how wonderful!" she cried and placed a gold piece in his hands.
They knelt together, tearing up the weeds and loosening the earth. It
was Archie who quickly found a second coin, a ten-dollar gold piece
stamped 1859. With a stick he dug into the hole and soon they had made a
little heap of bright coins, laughing like children with each discovery.
A deeper probe resulted in the unearthing of a splintered cedar plank
evidently torn from a chest that had contained the money.
"Of all the astonishing things that ever happened this is the most
utterly paralyzing!" exclaimed Archie jubilantly.
Using the board as a spade he scooped out a capful of coins--gold,
American, English and French, which the Southerner had buried in the
northern wilderness.
"It won't do to leave this place unprotected, and we must stop or we'll
have more than we can carry. We must bring Putney back to help. It's my
guess that there's a chest of money at the foot of each of these blazed
trees."
"And pretty good hiding places, too, where the gold might have remained
forever if--"
"If you hadn't been hating me so that you lost your way!"
They stood with the heap of gold between them, the bewilderment of
discovery in their eyes.
"This is the end of the rainbow and the gold lies at our feet!" he
said, and he took her hands, and the one still wearing the bandage he
held very, very gently. "Love we know to be better than much fine gold;
and wouldn't it be a pity for the finding of these coins to mark the
very end, with nothing beyond! And life is so big and wonderful I want
your help to make mine of some use--"
She looked at him long and searchingly, and her eyes were so grave,
their questioning seemed so interminable, that he did not know until she
spoke that her lips had trembled into a smile.
"If you can forgive me," she said; and she laid her hands upon his
shoulders, lightly as though by their touch she were investing him with
her hope in life renewed and strengthened, and giving pledge that they
would walk together thereafter to the end of their days.
* * * * *
During his convalescence the matter of the sixty thousand dollars taken
from Seebrook at Cornford troubled the Governor greatly. While he had
not personally profited by that transaction it was, he said, his nearest
approach to actual larceny and he wished to make reparation, the more
particularly as Eliphalet complained that the sale of his stock was
frustrated by the mysterious substitution of Leary's stolen bills for
the money in Seebrook's trunk. Whereupon Archie bought the stock from
Eliphalet and sent it with ten thousand dollars in cash to Seebrook,
enclosing in the packet he confided to Briggs for delivery a note
explaining that the theft had been a mere bit of pleasantry for which
the guilty person offered the sincerest apologies.
Before he left the North the Governor made generous provision for all
who had shared his fortunes. Perky sold the _Arthur B. Grover_ to a
dredging company in Chicago and the proceeds were divided among the
crew. To each man's share the Governor made a substantial addition with
the stipulation that the recipient should engage thereafter in some
honorable calling. It may be said that in every instance of which the
present chronicler has knowledge the man thus endowed invested wisely in
a lawful business and so far has kept his promise.
When he closed the hotel Leary took Perky to his home further up the
lake, and as Mrs. Leary was perfectly capable of managing the
confectionery alone, the two old friends purchased a garage, where in
the abundant leisure of the long northern winters they discuss the
exploits of their lawless days and read the newspaper reports of the
performances of their successors in the predatory arts, deploring, of
course, the ineptitude of the new generation. The underground trail
ceased to exist with the passing of the Governor, and as you tour the
Green Mountain State you may pause at Bill Walker's farm and enjoy a
glass of buttermilk on his veranda without fear of a raid by the
constabulary.
Eliphalet Congdon is at peace with all the world, and wherever a chess
tournament is forward he may be observed, sometimes an interested
spectator, but not infrequently a participant and a shrewd and dangerous
adversary.
Sally Walker deserves and shall receive a final word. When Mrs. Graybill
left Huddleston, happy and wholly at ease as to her brother's future,
she took Sally with her, with every intention of adopting the girl and
carrying her abroad for a protracted stay. As Pete Barney was killed
late in the summer while attempting to escape from the Ohio
penitentiary, Sally was quite free to enter upon a new life, and from
all accounts she is realizing fully the expectations of her
benefactress.
In the loveliest of Colorado's valleys you may, if you exercise your
eyes intelligently, note three houses in the Spanish style, with roads
that link them together as though publishing the fact that the owners of
the surrounding ranches are bound by the closest and dearest ties. As an
adjunct of his residence Putney Congdon maintains a machine shop where
he finds ample time for experiment. The Archibald Bennetts are learning
all there is to know about fruit culture; and they are so happy that
they are in danger of forgetting the existence of cities. Farthest of
the three homes from the railroad, and where the hills begin, Philip and
Ruth Van Doren chose their abode. And you may see them any day that you
care to penetrate to their broad pastures, riding together, viewing with
contemplative eyes the distant peaks or the cattle that are the
Governor's delight, a link, he says, between the present and the olden
times when the world was young. And often at night, when they are not
with the Congdons or the Bennetts, they ride for hours in silence, so
great is their happiness, so perfect their understanding, so deep their
confidence in the stars.
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