THE CONFESSION.
After a few moments the men went out and left Mellen alone with the
suicide--in his excitement Mellen forgot Elsie's presence, and the
dreadful state she was in.
"I am dying," said Ford; "I may live the night out--it don't matter! You
are glad to see my blood run--that's natural enough! Man, man, the
torment I go to isn't half as bad as that I shall leave behind for you."
"Say quickly what you wish," exclaimed Mellen, forgetting even his
hatred in the dreadful picture his enemy made, his garments red with
blood, his face pale with the death agony, distorted with baffled rage
and hate. "I believe nothing you say--you cannot move me."
"So be it," said the man. "These fellows have tied my hands--put yours
in my coat pocket--you'll find three letters, a paper and a roll of
money."
Mellen obeyed, shuddering to feel the blood drops warm on his fingers as
he drew forth the package.
"Read them," said Ford, briefly.
Mellen opened one after another of the epistles and read--they were in
Elsie's writing--they proved the truth of the villain's assertions. The
smaller paper was a marriage certificate. The roll of bills--each note
for a thousand dollars--was the price of Elizabeth's bonds.
Mellen staggered back with one heartbroken cry.
"I have touched you," exclaimed the man! "There lies your precious
sister in a dead faint--here I am, dying, a criminal, but your
brother-in-law none the less--stoop down, I want to whisper something."
Mellen bent his head, for his enemy was dying.
"It is a fair certificate you see, but I was a married man all the
time."
As Ford whispered these words a fiendish smile covered the lips on which
death was scattering ashes.
Mellen started forward with a wild impulse to choke the ebbing life from
his lips, but they whispered hoarsely:
"You can't fight a dying man--you'll only put me out of this cursed pain
if you choke me."
Mellen stood transfixed.
"I'll tell you the story," continued Ford; "novels always have dying
confessions in them--hear mine. I tell you because it is too late to
remedy what you have done--your wife is gone--I'm glad of it. She was
ten thousand times too good for any of you. She's dead, I dare say; just
the woman to do it, without a word, and all for that little heap of
froth."
Mellen could not speak; he felt about blindly for support, and sank into
a chair.
"I always hated you," Ford went on, and the hatred of a life burned in
his voice and convulsed his face. "When we were boys together, I swore
to pay you off for getting that old man's money away from me, his
rightful heir. That was bad enough, but your insolent kindness, your
infernal, condescending generosity, was ten times worse. Mighty willing,
you were, to dole out money that was more mine than yours, and claim
gratitude for it. But I had a little revenge at the time, remember. I
took away the woman you loved--I cheated you out of money--that was
something, but not enough. I came back to this country just after you
sailed from Europe, and even before I ever saw the woman who became your
wife, or your sister, I had formed my plan--it succeeded. I met that
bunch of flimsy falsehood--I made her love me--made her mad for me--you
wince--I'm glad of it. But mind me, I would not have married her after
all, but that I thought she had inherited half her old uncle's property.
It would not have been worth while to saddle myself with a thing like
that. Then came your turn to laugh, if you had but known it. I was taken
in--sold. The creature had not a cent, and no hope of one if she
offended you.
"It was a hateful position, especially as I did not care for the pretty
fool after the speculation failed, and what's better, she soon got over
caring for me, just as the other did, and wanted to be off her bargain.
I had given her a glimpse or two of my way of life. That did not
frighten her, but my poverty did. This little sister of yours has
luxurious tastes, and understands the value of wealth uncommonly well.
But she had told me just how far you had made your wife independent in
means. It was a pretty sum, and I saw a way of getting it.
"Elsie had told me a great deal about your wife, and I made my own
observations, though she detested me from the first, some women will
take such fancies. I say nothing of certain wires that I had laid in the
basement region of your house.
"The little goose yonder really believed that you had married that
glorious woman only as a companion for her--that you did not love her in
the least. I knew better; she was a woman to adore, worship for ever and
ever: and you are no fool in such matters, I know that of old our tastes
in that direction have always harmonized beautifully. Your wife adored
you; I can say this now that you have killed her, but that little witch
convinced her of the story she told me, and it was breaking her heart,
for that woman had a heart.
"To save you from trouble and the creature that you worshipped even in
her presence from disgrace, I knew that she would give up everything,
even her life, which you have taken at last.
"I told Elsie the truth, after I got a little tired of her, which was
early in the honeymoon; let her know frankly that I had a wife living in
Europe, though it was impossible for any one to prove it against my
will. The very day that I told her this I managed to convey some of her
letters to me--fond, silly things they were--into your wife's room. Then
I sent Elsie home to tell her own story.
"The girl was mad, crazy as a March hare, went into hysterics, made an
insane effort to kill herself, took poison and heaven knows what else in
the presence of your wife. I knew she would, and set her loose for that
purpose. These tragedies were kept up till your wife, thinking your soul
bound up in the girl, and herself nothing in comparison, made a solemn
promise never to betray Elsie's secret, and to shield her from all harm
with her own life if needful. I heard this and knew that my money was
safe.
"Your wife came to me, for I was not permitted to enter the house after
she found me out. There was a woman! I swear the only creature of the
sex that I ever respected. She was firm but grand in her generosity,
ready to sacrifice everything so long as it took Elsie out of my power.
I gave up more of the letters, reserving these three for use, unknown to
her. She raised all the money in her power at the time, but I kept the
certificate, resolved not to sell that without demanding the last cent
she possessed.
"In telling my grand secret, I had been cautious to keep all possibility
of proof to myself. They knew that my first wife, your old lady love,
was living, but had no means of proving the fact, or even that I had
ever been married at all, otherwise my position might have been
dangerous; as it was, those two women were like flies in a spider's web.
"Our child, your nephew, was born, and died, fortunately for us all.
They were obliged to trust me a little then. Your wife summoned me to
the house, for she was afraid to claim help from any other human
being--I went, and with my own hands buried it under a cypress tree in
your grounds. That heroic woman stood by and watched. She would not
trust me out of her sight, fearing that I might attempt to see Elsie,
whom she guarded like a mother bird when hawks are near. Noble soul. It
was all useless; I had no wish to see that faithless little imp, and as
for her, I dare say she was glad to get rid of me even at the bitter
cost she was paying. In fact I know she was, after that other noble
creature took up her burden.
"Well, after this I got a little money from your wife now and then,
under threats of claiming my wife, which always brought her to
terms--remember I had told her she was not my legal wife, but held
proofs that she was--I could claim or reject her as I pleased.
"But one day a new idea came into my head; I found out that you were
coming home just as the steamer which brought you was on the coast. That
your will had been made, leaving all you had to be equally divided
between your wife and sister. If you should never reach shore Elsie
would be worth claiming in earnest. But with that news came a letter
from my wife; against my commands she was following me to this country,
just when her presence was certain ruin."
The man broke off in his narration here, evidently convulsed with more
than physical pain, specks of foam flew to his lips, great drops of
agony stood on his forehead.
"Brandy; give me some brandy!" he cried out huskily. "Some brandy, I
say."
Mellen poured some brandy into a glass and held it to his mouth. He
drank eagerly, and sank back to the floor again.
"What's the use of talking about that? I would have saved her at the
last, and tried hard enough, but the storm was too much for me. After
all that, you baffled me and got on shore; the fiends must have guided
that pilot boat. I got frightened too. It was not a part of my programme
to go down with you."
"Wretch!" said Mellen, struck with a sudden idea, "you were the person
who nearly lost me among the breakers."
"Yes," answered Ford. "We both had a narrow chance, but the risk was
worth running--that is, if your will really was made--but when you once
touched shore all hope for me was over. I must leave America; I sent
word to your wife that I must have twenty-five thousand dollars or claim
my wife.
"She was trying to get it; she gave me the bracelet as a bribe for
delay, one night when I came. Still of one thing I pledge you my soul,
it is pretty much all I have left now, your wife never dreamed that I
was your enemy, Ford. She knew I was a villain, and held the fate of
that pretty fool in my hands. Now you have the whole story. I came here
to-night because I had not heard from her; now I believe she's dead. I
thought I would see that girl there. Now, then, Grantley Mellen, are you
satisfied? You have driven your wife away, you could believe her guilty,
and pet that frivolous thing in her place!"
"'When did I first see her?' when she was a flirty little school girl.
"'When did I marry her?' what there was of it, remember--just after you
started for California, when the widow Harrington innocently brought me
a guest into this house against the wishes of its mistress, who had seen
me about the boarding-school, charming the canary birds with serenades.
Once or twice she caught me with my guitar playing the fool under her
own window. Of course she was not certain whether the homage was
intended for her or Elsie, but I think took it to herself and was
indignant, giving me in exchange for my music, such looks as a queen
might bestow on her slave. I rather liked her for it; that kind of
homage was not suited to her. The heap of thistle down yonder liked it.
She knew what it meant. The only deep thing about such creatures is
their craft. That girl is cunning as a fox. The pure, innocent thing,
for whom that splendid creature was sacrificed; if I were not dying, the
idea would make me laugh.
"There, now are we even? You deprived me of a fortune I was brought up
to expect; I have managed to get some of it back. You loved a woman, and
I married her. You married another woman, the most glorious creature I
ever saw, and in a fit of jealous rage with me, turned her out upon the
world to die.
"Tell me now, if my revenge has been complete?"
Mellen ran to the door and opened it.
"Come in," he cried to the officers. "Carry that man away! Take him to
the lodge; he shall not even die here."
"As you will," cried Ford. "I will hold my tongue for that poor woman's
sake."
He could not walk, so they carried him down to the lodge, and there,
while waiting for a doctor to come, he sat looking death in the face,
with the same desperate bravado that had marked his conduct all the
night.