THE END OF THE JOURNEY
For a few minutes we were silent. Water and land and sky started into
new glories at the touch of the rising sun. The many-hilled city took
on the hues of a fairy picture, and the windows gleamed with the magic
fires that were flashed back in greeting to the god of day. The
few cotton-ball clouds that lingered about the mountain-tops, sole
stragglers of the army that had trooped up from the south at the blast
of the rain-wind, turned from pink to white. The green-gray waters of
the bay rippled lightly in the tide as the tug sent the miniature surges
trailing in diverging lines from its bow. The curtain of mist that hid
the Alameda shore rose and lightened at the touch of the warm rays. The
white sails of the high-masted ships scattered through the bay, drooped
in graceful festoons as they turned to the sun to rid them of the
rain-water that clung to their folds. The ferry-boats, moving with mock
majesty, furnished the signs of life to the silent panorama.
It seemed scarcely possible that this was the raging, tossing water we
had crossed last night. And the fiery scene of passion and death we had
just witnessed was so foreign to its calm beauties, that I could believe
it had happened elsewhere in some dream of long ago.
I was roused by the voice of Mrs. Knapp, who sat at the head of the
cabin stairs, looking absently over the water.
“I have not dealt frankly with you,” she said. “Perhaps it is better
that you should know, as you know so much already. I feel that I may
rely on your discretion.”
“I think I can keep a secret,” I replied, concealing my curiosity.
“I should not tell you if I did not have full confidence.” Then she was
silent for a minute. “That man,” she continued at last, with a shudder
in her voice, “that man was Mr. Knapp's brother.”
I suppressed an exclamation, and she continued:
“They have little in common, even in looks. I wonder you thought for a
moment that he was Mr. Knapp. Few people who know them both have traced
a resemblance.”
“Perhaps those who do not know them would be more likely to find
the common points,” I suggested. “Members of a family see only the
difference that marks one of them from another. The stranger at first
sees the family type in all and notes the differences later.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Knapp. “It's like picking out the Chinamen. At first
they are all alike. We see only the race type. Afterward, we see the
many and marked differences.”
“I think,” said I, leading back to the main subject, “that the
remarkable circumstances under which I had seen Mr. Lane had a good deal
to do with the illusion. This morning, for the first time, I saw his
face under full light and close at hand.”
Mrs. Knapp nodded. Then she continued:
“Mr. Knapp and his brother parted thirty years ago in Ohio. The
brother--the man who has just gone--was younger than Mr. Knapp, though
he looked older. He was wild in his youth. When he left home it was in
the night, and for some offense that would have brought him within reach
of the law. Mr. Knapp never told me what it was and I never asked. For
fifteen years nothing was heard of him. Mr. Knapp and I married, we had
come to San Francisco, and he was already a rising man in the city.
One day this man came. He had drifted to the coast in some lawless
enterprise, and by chance found his brother.”
Mrs. Knapp paused.
“And at once began to live off of him, I suppose,” I threw in as an
encouragement to proceed.
“Not exactly,” said Mrs. Knapp. “He confessed some of his rascality to
Mr. Knapp, but pleaded that he was anxious to reform. Mr. Knapp agreed
to help him, but made the condition that he should take another name,
and should never allow the relationship to be known. Mr. Lane--I can not
call him by his true name--was ready to agree to the conditions. I think
he was very glad indeed to conceal himself under an assumed name, and
hide from the memory of his earlier years.”
“Had his crimes then been so great?” I asked, as Mrs. Knapp again ceased
to speak.
“He had been a wicked, wicked man,” said Mrs. Knapp. “The full tale
of his villainy I never knew, but he had been a negro stealer,--one
of those who captured free negroes or the darkies from Kentucky and
Missouri in the days before the war, and sold them down the river. He
had been the leader of a wild band in Arkansas and Texas, who made their
living by robbing travelers and stealing horses. He had been near death
a hundred times, yet he had escaped unhurt. Mr. Knapp helped him.
He prospered in business, bought a ranch, and turned farmer. To all
appearances, he had reformed completely. No one would suspect in the
Sonoma rancher the daring leader of the outlaws in Texas.”
“I could believe anything of him,” I said grimly.
“You have had a taste of his quality,” said Mrs. Knapp. “Well, it was
seven years ago that he married. His wife was much younger than he,--a
lovely girl, and her parents were rich. How he got her I do not see. It
was his gift of the tongue, I suppose, for he could talk well. She was
not happy with him, but was better contented when, two years later, her
boy came. Mr. Lane was often from home, but I do not think she regretted
the neglect with which he treated her. He was not a man who made his
home pleasant while he was about. After a while he used to disappear for
weeks, spending the time in low haunts in the city, or none knew where.
Last year Mrs. Lane's father died, and she came in under the will for
more than a million dollars' worth of property. Then Mr. Lane changed
his habits. He became most attentive to his wife. He looked to her
wants, and appeared to the world as a model husband. But more was
going on than we knew. From the little she told me, from the hints she
dropped, she must have looked upon him with dread. She failed rapidly in
health, and six months ago she died.”
“Murdered?” I asked.
“I believe it with all my soul,” said Mrs. Knapp. “But there was no
evidence--not a particle. I tried to find it, but it was beyond the
power of the doctors to discover.”
“And his motive?”
“He thought he was heir to her fortune. When he found that she had left
it with Mr. Knapp and me, in trust for the boy, his rage was frightful
to see. His servants told me of his dreadful ravings. He dared not say
a word to Mr. Knapp, but he came and spoke to me about it. I was afraid
for my life that time. He said that the money was his, and he said it
with such meaning that I felt assured he would stop at nothing to get
it. But when he spoke, I cut him so short that he visited the house but
once again. Before he had time to put any of his wicked thoughts into
action I took the boy to my home, thinking that there I could keep him
in safety. Mr. Knapp pooh-poohed my fears, and when Mr. Lane made a
demand for the child was in favor of giving him up. 'The father is the
one to care for the boy,' he said, and washed his hands of the whole
matter.”
“Then Mr. Knapp had nothing to do with the affair, one way or the
other?”
“Oh, no--nothing at all. I believe, though, that Henry did use his name
with the police, to deter them from interfering with our plans.”
I remembered Detective Coogan's words, and knew that she was correct in
this supposition.
“Mr. Lane,” she continued, “threatened legal proceedings. But, knowing
his own past, and knowing that I knew something of it, too, he dared not
begin them. Mr. Knapp's feelings in the matter had made me unwilling
to keep the boy in my house, but at first I thought it the best way of
protecting him, and had him with me. Then one night the house was broken
into, and two men were discovered in the room where the boy usually
slept. I had taken him to my own bed that night, for he was ailing, and
so he escaped. The alarm was raised before they found him, and the men
fled. Mr. Knapp was confident that they were ordinary housebreakers, but
I knew better. I dared keep the boy there no longer, and called Henry
Wilton to assist me in making him safe. He found a suitable house for
the boy, and hired men to guard it. But after one experience in which
the place was attacked and almost carried by storm, Henry thought it
better to hide the boy and watch the enemy. The rest you know.”
Heaving a sigh as of relief, she went on:
“Mr. Lane was insane, I am certain. I tried to have Mr. Knapp take steps
to lock him up. But Mr. Knapp could not believe that his brother was so
wicked as to wish to take the life of his own child, and shut his ears
to the talk of his madness. I think he was fearful of a scandal in which
the relationship should become known, and the stories of his brother's
early days should come to the public. But there was a time, a few weeks
ago, when I was near spurring Mr. Knapp to action. It was at the time of
his trip to Virginia City. Mr. Lane came to the house while I was away
and scared the servants into fits with his threats and curses. Luella
had the courage and tact to face him and get him out of the house, and I
telegraphed for Mr. Knapp.”
“I remember the occasion, though I didn't know what was going on.”
“Well, Mr. Knapp was very angry, and had a long talk with Lane. He told
me that the creature cried and pleaded for forgiveness, and promised
amendment for the future. And Mr. Knapp believed him. Yet that very
night you were assailed with Luella in Chinatown.”
The truth flashed on me. The groans and cries behind the locked door in
Doddridge Knapp's office, the voices which were like to one man pleading
and arguing with himself, were all explained.
“I think the assault was something of an accident,” she continued; “or,
rather, it was more the doing of Terrill than of Lane.”
“What was the cause of Terrill's enmity?” I asked. “He seemed to take a
hearty personal interest in the case for a hired man.”
“For one thing, a family interest. I think he is a son of Lane's early
years. For another, he had a violent personal quarrel with Henry over
some matter, and you have had the benefit of the enmity. But I don't
think you'll hear of him again--or Meeker either. They will be in too
much of a hurry to leave the state.”
I thought of Terrill lying bruised and sore at Livermore, and felt no
fear of him.
“You took great chances in sending me to Livermore,” I said. “It might
have gone hard with Mr. Knapp's plans if I had not got back.”
“I thought of that. But if the boy had been where I supposed all would
have been well. I should have telegraphed you before nightfall to
return. But in the distraction of my search I did not give up till
midnight. I left a telegram at the office to be sent you the first thing
in the morning, but by that time you were here. It was a bold escape,
and I feel that we owe you much for it.”
At her last words we were at the wharf, and landed free from fear.
An hour later I reached my lodgings, sore with fatigue, and half-dead
for want of sleep. The excitement that had spurred my strength for the
last enterprise no longer supported me. I slept twenty-four hours in
peace, and no dream of Doddridge Knapp's brother or of the snake-eyes of
Tom Terrill disturbed my repose.