THE HOLE IN THE WALL.
As soon as Dock Vincent and Mat Mogmore had left the house, Mr.
Fairfield procured a case-knife,--for he was not the owner of so useful
an implement as a screw-driver,--and, with trembling anxiety, removed
the board that covered the hole in the wall. Thrusting his hand down
into the aperture, a cold chill swept through his frame when he failed
to touch the bags in which the gold was contained. With convulsive
energy, he felt in every part of the cavity; but the money had surely
taken to itself wings and flown away.
Had all the human beings upon the earth been suddenly destroyed before
his eyes, the effect upon the miser could not have been more
deplorable. He loved his money; he did not love his fellow-beings. His
heart almost ceased to beat beneath the shock, his lip quivered, and
the tears started in his eyes. His brain began to reel before the blow;
he uttered a prolonged howl, and rushed out into the kitchen rather
from impulse than because he desired or expected human sympathy.
Bessie Watson was terrified by the fearful aspect of Mr. Fairfield when
he entered the room, and for weeks the awful expression upon his face
haunted her like the vision of a midnight ghost. Levi was startled, and
Mrs. Fairfield, accustomed as she was to the ways of her husband, was
deeply moved by his singular conduct. When he was ailing, he was
subject to fainting fits; but he had never appeared so badly as on the
present occasion.
The miser trusted no person, had no confidence in any one, not even in
his wife. He had not told her that he had four thousand dollars in gold
in the house, for he feared that she might be tempted to rob him of his
treasure. Mrs. Fairfield, therefore, did not comprehend his despairing
utterances when he announced the loss of his money.
Levi and his aunt conveyed the senseless form to the front room, and
after working over him nearly half an hour, he came out of the fit, but
only to suffer the most intense agonies at the loss of his money.
"What on airth is the matter with you, Nathan?" asked his wife, when,
after another examination of the hole in the wall, he appeared in the
kitchen again.
Bessie had gone home; but Levi remained, to render any assistance in
his power in putting the house to rights.
"O!" groaned the miser, heavily, as he paced the room with furious
strides.
"Can't you tell what ails you?" continued Mrs. Fairfield.
"It's all gone," gasped he, with a prolonged sigh.
"What is it? What's all gone? Why don't you tell a body what has
happened?"
"My money is all gone! Somebody has stolen it--robbed me, ruined me!"
"Who on airth stole it?"
"I donno," replied Mr. Fairfield, glancing at Levi.
"How much was stole?"
"Four thousand dollars," sighed the miser.
"For massy sake!" exclaimed Mrs. Fairfield; and it was a question
whether she would not faint, for such a sum of money was beyond her
comprehension.
"Where was it, uncle Nathan?" asked Levi, who pitied the sufferings of
the old man.
The miser looked at his nephew. People always suspect those whom they
hate. If any wicked deed is done, they charge it upon those they love
the least, regardless of circumstances.
"Levi Fairfield, you stole my money!" continued the old man, fiercely.
"Nonsense, Nathan!" interposed Mrs. Fairfield. "Levi didn't do nothin'
of the sort."
"Didn't you tell me he went up in the attic before the fire? Didn't you
tell me you gave him a piece of candle?" demanded Mr. Fairfield,
earnestly; and doubtless he felt that Levi was guilty, for his
impulsive charge was made on the strength of a course of reasoning he
had followed out.
"What if I did tell you so? Levi didn't steal no four thousand dollars.
There's no sense nor reason in sayin' so," added aunt Susan.
"I say he did steal it. I know he did now," persisted the miser. "He
set the house afire, and then took the money. That boy hates me, and
he's bad enough to do anything, if he is go'n' to jine the church."
"Levi has money enough," argued Mrs. Fairfield. "Why should he steal
your money?"
"Cause he hates me."
"Uncle Nathan, I don't hate you, and I didn't steal your money," said
Levi, who had calmly listened to the debate between his uncle and aunt.
"Yes, you did; you set the house afire, so's to git a chance to git the
money. It's all plain enough to me," continued the old man, striding up
and down the room more rapidly than before.
"I suppose it will be useless for me to say anything," added Levi, more
in pity than in anger. "I am willing to do anything I can to help you
find the money, if it is lost, or catch the thief, if it was stolen."
"'Tain't no use for you to talk no more, Levi Fairfield," said the old
man, stopping in front of him. "You know all about it, and you took the
money. If you're a mind to give it all back to me, I won't say a word
to nobody about it."
"I did not take it, and I know nothing about it. I was not aware that
you had so much money in the house," replied Levi.
"What did you want of the candle, then, if you didn't steal the money?"
"I wanted it to grease the saw-mill, and the candle lies on a rock by
the brook now."
"Didn't you set the house afire when you went up in the garret?"
"I did not. I had no light, and not even a match in my pocket."
"Who did steal it, then, if you didn't?"
"I don't know. Where did you keep the money?"
The old man led the way to his chamber, and pointed out the hole.
"That's a bad place to keep money," said Levi.
"'Tain't no use to keep money in the bank now; they're all failin', and
folks is failin'; and a man that's got a little money is wus off than
them that hain't got none."
Levi asked a great many questions about the money, and the hole, which
uncle Nathan, hoping to find his money, answered. There was no evidence
to fasten the crime upon any one. The facts that appeared were, that
the money, in four bags, had been deposited in the cavity; that an hour
before the fire, the miser had assured himself the gold was safe; that,
after the fire, the board had been found in its place as before, but
the gold was gone. A dozen of the neighbors, at least, had been into
the room, and Dock Vincent and Mat Mogmore had been the last to leave.
Mr. Fairfield was sure that neither Dock nor Mat knew he had any money
in the house. There was no good reason for supposing they, any more
than any other of the neighbors, had taken the gold.
After a long and careful examination of the premises, and a patient
inquiry into all the circumstances, nothing could be brought forward to
implicate any person in the robbery. Levi was not willing to believe
yet that the gold had been stolen. He went down cellar, and surveyed
the timbers under the hole, hoping that the bags had dropped through;
but he could not find them. He could not determine whether or not there
was any connection between the fire and the robbery; but Mr. Fairfield
insisted that some one--he did not say Levi now--intended to burn the
house, so as to cover up the crime, or at least afford an opportunity
to commit the theft.
"How could any one set the fire in the roof?" asked Levi.
"They might have gone up there, as you did," replied the old man,
rather malignantly.
"Let us go up and see how the fire took," added Levi. "Aunt Susan had a
big fire in the oven."
"It couldn't ketch afire up there if she did," replied uncle Nathan, as
he followed his nephew up the ladder.
Some of the boards and shingles had been burned through, but the
rafters were only charred. Levi went up to the chimney and examined the
woodwork near it. The house was a very old one, and had been built upon
until its present proportions had been reached. The chimney, where the
fire had taken, was in the most ancient part, and the bricks were laid
in clay. Levi found that three or four of them, on one of the inside
corners, had dropped out. This was the defect which the owner had
repaired.
"There is a great hole in the chimney," said Levi.
"I know there is; but I stopped that up a month ago. I hadn't no mortar
nor nothin', and I just nailed a board over the hole."
"That's the way the fire took," added Levi, wondering at the
carelessness of his uncle.
"I didn't suppose there was any heat up here, twenty foot from the
fire," replied the old man, sheepishly.
"Aunt Susan had a rousing fire in the oven. The wind was pretty fresh,
and I suppose the sparks caught on the dry board. It is clear enough to
me that no one set the house on fire."
"I suppose they didn't, then; but somebody stole my money. Mebbe you'll
prove that nobody didn't steal it."
"I am willing to take your word for that;" and the miser's visible
sufferings were all-sufficient to convince any person that the money
was gone, whether any one had stolen it or not.
Levi tried in vain to obtain a clew to the lost treasure. He knew of no
one that had visited the house during the fire who was bad enough to
steal, unless it was Dock Vincent; but it was not right to suspect even
him of the crime without some evidence. Neither Levi nor his uncle saw
how Dock could have taken off the board, removed the bags, and then
restored the covering, while there were so many people in the house.
Dock Vincent, after his discharge from the state prison, had gone to
New York, where he had been employed as the mate of a steamer. Six
months before the story opens, his brother, residing in Boston, had
died, and as the deceased had no family, his property, amounting to
twenty-one thousand dollars, had been equally divided among his two
brothers and one sister. Dock fully believed that seven thousand
dollars on Cape Ann would entirely wipe out the disgrace of having
served a term in the state prison, and he returned to Rockport, dressed
in a nice suit of black.
Dock was mistaken; seven thousand dollars would not varnish his
character so that good men would associate with him. He blustered and
swelled, and declared that he had been taken up for nothing; that this
was not a free country; and that he was a better man than thousands in
town who had never been to the state prison. He never forgave Levi for
thwarting his plans, and swore roundly that he would be the ruin of him
and of Mr. Watson.
The best friend Dock had was Nathan Fairfield, and the miser was not
willing to believe that Dock had robbed him of his gold. After Levi
went home that day, his uncle persisted that he had stolen the money.