THE LETTERS ON THE TRUNK
Miss Ri arrived betimes that Saturday morning. She was in high glee
and declared she had made the luckiest bid yet, for her "old horse"
proved to be a box of books. "Not bad ones, either," she declared, "and
those I have duplicates of, I can give away at Christmas. The box was
certainly well worth the two dollars I paid for it."
"New books, are they?" Linda inquired.
"Quite new, and it looks as if they had been selected for someone's
library. We'll have a good time looking them over when they get here.
Here's something else for your consideration, Linda: Berk Matthews went
with me. He is the greatest one to tease. I met him on the street and
couldn't get rid of him. I didn't want him to go to the sale, but the
more I tried to shake him off, the more determined he was to stay with
me, and finally I had to let him go along. Well, he became interested,
too. Oh, I have a joke on him. He bought a trunk."
"A trunk?"
"Yes, a nice little compact trunk, which he says will be just the
thing for him to take when he goes off with Judge Baker. It has the
letters J. S. D. on it, which Berk declares mean 'Judge Some Day,' and
he doesn't mean to change them. He is a nonsensical creature."
"What is in the trunk?"
"Oh, he hadn't opened it; for, of course, he had no key. He was in a
hurry to see his mother and sister, and didn't want to bother with the
trunk then. He is going to stay over till Sunday. That is a good son,
Verlinda. I wish you could see the beautiful little desk he bought for
his mother's birthday. I went with him to pick it out. It is on account
of the birthday that he went up to the city. I am firmly convinced that
he will not marry until he can give his mother just as much as he gives
his wife."
"That would be expecting a little too much, wouldn't it?"
"Not from Berk's present point of view. Nothing is too good for that
mother of his, and when Margaret was married, well, no girl in town
could have had a better outfit. I don't believe Berk has had even a new
necktie since."
"Then I'll crochet him one for a Christmas gift," said Linda smiling.
"What color would you suggest?"
"A dull blue would be becoming to his style of beauty."
"Not much beauty there."
"Not exactly beauty, maybe, but Berk looks every inch a man."
"And not any superfluous inches, unless you measure his shoulders and
take him in square measure."
"Well, Verlinda, you must admit he has a fine, honest face."
"So has Brownie, Miss Parthy's setter."
"That is just like a foolish girl. I'll venture to say you think Mr.
Jeffreys much better looking."
"Far handsomer. By the way--no, I'll not tell you; I'll let him do
that."
"You rouse my curiosity. Tell me."
"I don't need to, for here comes the young man himself."
Mr. Jeffreys was seen coming up between the borders of box which led
from Miss Parthy's back fence to Miss Ri's back door. He skirted the
chrysanthemum beds, and came around to the front door, Miss Ri watching
him the while. "Berk would have bolted in through the kitchen," she
commented. "I don't suppose anything would induce Mr. Jeffreys to be
seen coming in the back door. I am surprised that he did as much as to
come in through the garden." She went to the door to meet him.
Conscious of his lack of ceremony, Mr. Jeffreys began to apologize at
once. "I hope you will pardon my taking the short cut, Miss Hill; but
I promised Miss Turner that I would deliver this note into your hands
before the ink had time to dry."
"I should be much less inclined to forgive you, if you had taken the
long way around," replied Miss Ri. "Come in, Mr. Jeffreys, and let us
see what this weighty matter is."
He followed her into the sitting-room, where Linda was watering some
house-plants lately brought in. "Here, Verlinda, you entertain Mr.
Jeffreys while I answer this note," said Miss Ri. "It's about a church
meeting, and Parthy thinks I don't know, or haven't made up my mind to
go, or something. I shall have to relieve her mind."
Mr. Jeffreys drew near to Linda at the window. "I hope you slept
without fear of robbers," he said.
She looked up smiling. "Oh, yes. I felt very safe after your
examination of bolts and bars." She went on with her task, nipping off
a dead leaf here, straightening a bent twig there. "They don't look
very well, yet," she said. "It takes plants some time to become used to
a change of habitation."
"Like some people," he returned.
She gave him an understanding nod. "Yes, but just as surely they will
thrive under proper treatment."
Miss Ri left her desk and came toward them. "I'm not going to ask you
to deliver this, Mr. Jeffreys, for I want to send Parthy a lemon pie
that Phebe has just baked, and I'd never trust a man to carry a lemon
pie. Just sit down and I'll be back in a moment."
"Are you going to tell her?" asked Linda, when the door had closed
after Miss Ri.
"Maybe. It will depend. I won't force the information."
"Get her to tell you about her trip to town; she is so funny about it."
"Miss Hill, you are to tell me about your trip to town," began Mr.
Jeffreys when Miss Ri returned.
"I shall not do it," she declared. "What do you mean, Verlinda Talbot,
by trying to get me to tell my secrets?"
"Maybe if you do, Mr. Jeffreys will tell you one of his."
"In that case, we must make a compact. Can you keep a secret, Mr.
Jeffreys?"
"I have kept my own, so far."
"But another's is quite a different matter."
"I will keep yours, if you will keep mine."
"Then it is a bargain. Well, then, I have a fad for buying 'old
horse.' You don't know what 'old horse' is? It's the stuff the express
companies collect in the course of some months. If persons refuse to
pay expressage, if the address is wrong, if it has been torn off, you
see how it would be, they have a sale, an auction. I enjoy the fun of
buying 'a pig in a poke.' Sometimes it turns out a nice fat pig and
sometimes it doesn't."
"And this time?"
"It was a nice fat one. I became the possessor of a box of really good
and desirable books. Perhaps I shouldn't be so ready to tell, if Berk
Matthews hadn't been along; but I'm quite sure he will think it too
good a story on me not to tell it. But I have one on him, too. He bid
for a trunk, and it was knocked down to him."
"A trunk? You know I am interested in stray trunks. If mine had been
sent by express, I'd be very keen about it."
"How was yours sent?"
"A local expressman was to take it to the steamer and I was unable to
identify him when the trunk didn't turn up. I had his claim check, but
that was in the pocket-book of which I was robbed--so you see--There
was a tag on the trunk, but that might have been torn off. Well, let's
hear about Mr. Matthew's trunk. It's rather interesting, this, and may
give me a clue to mine."
"My dear young man, I fear a dishonest driver is what is wrong in your
direction, or your trunk may have been stolen from the wagon, or have
fallen off. However, that is an old subject, isn't it? Mr. Matthews' is
a neat little steamer trunk, of rather an old fashion. Of course, he
has no key, and had no time to get a locksmith, so we don't know the
contents."
"Mine was a small steamer trunk, not of a new fashion. It had been my
mother's; but, being small and in good condition, I used it for myself,
old as it was. It had her initials on it, for she had it before she was
married."
Miss Ri leaned forward and asked earnestly: "What were they?"
"J. S. D. Julia Somers Darby was her maiden name."
Miss Ri looked at him excitedly. "J. S. D.? My dear man, those are the
very initials on Berk's trunk."
It was Mr. Jeffreys' turn to look agitated. "Miss Hill, are you sure?
Do you think--?" he began. "Miss Hill, could it be possible that it is
my trunk? Will you tell me all the details? Where is this place that
you found it? Perhaps, though, I'd best see Matthews."
"But he has not yet come back."
"True; I had forgotten that."
"I can tell you where the place is," continued Miss Ri, "if it will do
any good," and she proceeded to describe the locality, Mr. Jeffreys
listening intently.
"It is well worth looking into," he decided. "I don't suppose there is
any chance of my catching Mr. Matthews in town before he leaves?"
"There is no boat up to-night, you know."
"That is so. I did not remember that this was Saturday."
"Moreover, if you were to take the train, very likely he would have
left by the time you could reach the city. Better possess your soul in
patience, Mr. Jeffreys, and wait till he gets back."
"I have been patient for some time," he responded quietly.
"To be sure, you have; so that twenty-four hours longer will not seem
impossible. It certainly is a curious coincidence, though doubtless
there are other steamer trunks bearing the initials J. S. D."
"Yes, I admit that; and how mine could have found its way to the
express office is another puzzle."
"I shouldn't bother much about the how, if you discover that it really
did reach there."
There was a pause for a moment, then Linda said: "You haven't told Aunt
Ri your secret yet, cousin."
Miss Ri wheeled around in her chair. "Cousin! What are you talking
about, Verlinda Talbot?"
"Our great-grandfathers were brothers, Miss Hill," said Mr. Jeffreys.
"It doesn't give a very near relationship, I admit, but there it is and
we are of the same blood."
"Well, I am astonished. Tell me all about it, right away. Your
great-grandfather on the Talbot side, is it, Verlinda? Yours was
Madison, and who was yours, Mr. Jeffreys?"
"Cyrus, whose daughter Lovina married Wyatt Jeffreys, after whom I am
named. My grandfather that was, you see."
"And that is why the name always sounded so familiar," exclaimed
Linda. "I am sure I have heard my grandmother speak of him, for you
see, Lovina would be her husband's first cousin. Go on, please, Mr.
Jeffreys."
"Very well. After the War of 1812, Cyrus Talbot removed to Western
Pennsylvania. I believe his house was burned during that war, and he,
like many others, was seized with the spirit of emigration to the West."
"The old house at Talbot's Addition was burned, you remember," cried
Linda, turning to Miss Ri, "though I don't know just when." She turned
again to Mr. Jeffreys.
"Lovina married a young Englishman," he continued. "In those days the
feeling was very bitter against the English, and her father refused
to see her; but after his death an old box of papers came into her
possession, and they were found to be his. He had married a second
time, but there were no children by this marriage. By his will, Cyrus
Talbot left most of his property in Western Pennsylvania to his wife,
but a clause of the will read: 'The remainder of my property to my
daughter Lovina.' A little farm in that part of the country to which
he emigrated was supposed to be all that came to Lovina, but the old
papers show, we believe, that he still had a claim to estates here in
Maryland. Lovina went to England after her marriage, and the papers
were left with some of the neighbors, though she seems to have had
possession of them afterward, for there was a memorandum giving the
name and address of the persons in whose care it was eventually left.
This memorandum my father found after her death, and when he came to
this country later on, he hunted up the box and told me several times
that there might be something in those papers if one had time or would
take the trouble to look them over. He settled in Hartford and died
there. My father left a life insurance which was sufficient for my
mother's needs and which has descended to me now that she is gone.
I have not studied a profession, but had a clerkship, which seemed
to promise little future, and after thinking over the situation, I
determined to make a break, come down here and see if there were really
anything to be done about that property."
He concluded his story. Miss Ri sat drumming on the arms of her chair,
as was her habit when thinking deeply. Linda, no less preoccupied, sat
with eyes fixed upon the plants in the window. It was she who broke the
silence. "It must be Talbot's Addition," she decided; "but, oh, what a
snarl for the lawyers."
"It certainly will be," agreed Miss Ri, with a little laugh. "My dear
man, I am thinking the game will not be worth the candle. However,
we shall see. If Berk takes up your case, you may be sure of honest
dealing, at least. He little knows what his purchase has brought about."
Yet it was not at the end of twenty-four hours that Wyatt Jeffreys
received the assurance he hoped for, though he sought the Jackson House
immediately upon the arrival of the morning boat. Mr. Matthews was
not there. Had he arrived? Oh, yes; he came in on the train the night
before, but went off again with Judge Baker first thing in the morning.
When would he be back? Not for some time. He took a trunk with him, and
would be making the circuit with the judge.
Therefore Wyatt Jeffreys turned disappointedly away. He went directly
to Miss Ri, who observed him walking so dejectedly up the gravelled
path, that she went out on the porch to meet him.
"Wasn't it your trunk?" she began. "I had worked myself quite into the
belief that it must be, so I am not ready for a disappointment."
"It is not exactly disappointment, but only hope deferred," was the
reply. "Mr. Matthews came last night, but went off early this morning
with Judge Baker."
"Pshaw! that is trying, isn't it? However, we must make the best of it.
Perhaps he didn't take the trunk."
"He took _a_ trunk."
"I wonder if he started from the Jackson House or his office? We might
make a tour of investigation. Just wait till I look to one or two
things, and then we'll see what can be done."
She did not keep him waiting long, and together they went first to the
square brick building, with its white columns, which was designated
the Jackson House. Its porch was occupied by various persons who, with
chairs tipped back, were smoking sociably. In the lobby were gathered
others who, less inclined for outdoor air, were taking a morning cigar
there. Miss Ri interviewed the clerk, porter, and chambermaid to gather
the information that Mr. Matthews had come in on the train with a
trunk, which came up on the bus with him and which the porter afterward
carried to his office; the same trunk it was which he took with him
that morning.
"Now we'll go to his office," decided Miss Ri as they left the hotel.
"I am wondering what he did with the papers. There is probably a
youngster in charge of the office, who can tell us something."
The office was just across the street. Here they learned that Mr.
Matthews had come in that morning in a great rush to gather up what he
should need for the trip. "He was here last night, too, Miss Ri," said
the lad, a fresh-faced youngster of seventeen or so. "He told me he had
to do some work, and he came to my house and got the key."
"Do you know if he took any papers from his trunk to leave behind?"
inquired Miss Ri.
"I don't know; but if he did, they would be in the little room
upstairs. I can see. Were there some papers of yours, Miss Ri? Perhaps
I could find them, if you will tell me what they are."
"There were some papers belonging to a particular case which I wanted
to get at," she explained.
The lad hesitated when she asked, "Could we go up to the little room?"
"It's not in very good order," he told her. "It's where Mr. Matthews
keeps odds and ends."
"We shall not mind the disorder," Miss Ri told him. So he led the way
up a narrow stairway to a little attic room with a small dusty-paned
window at each end. The room held a motley collection of things:
saddles and bridles, a shooting outfit, two or three old hats hung on
the wall, one or two boxes of books and pamphlets were shoved under
some rough shelves. The boy dragged out a large valise stuffed so full
that its sides gaped. It was locked, but from one end hung a cravat,
which Mr. Jeffreys drew out, slowly examining it, Miss Ri regarding him
questioningly.
"It looks very like one of mine," he said; "but I don't lay claim to
a particular brand of tie." He turned over the heavy valise, shaking
it from side to side. From the bulging crevice fell a card upon which
was printed, "Wyatt B. Jeffreys, Hartford Fire Insurance Co." The young
man held it out silently to Miss Ri, who gasped, "Of all things! That
settles it."