_Plot and counter-plot.--The difference between two sides of the same
question curiously illustrated._
As Mrs. Rowel very strictly kept her word with Fanny, and contrived
to evade telling the doctor any portion of the discovery that had been
made, that gentleman remained in the happy belief that his project
to convince his niece of the deceased lawyer's falsehood had entirely
succeeded. James Woodruff was therefore allowed to spend the day out of
his cell, as usual.
Early one morning, shortly after the interview between himself and his
daughter, already recorded, he was pacing mechanically up and down
the yard, revolving in his agitated and confused mind the inexplicable
doubts attending all that had recently occurred, when he was momentarily
startled from his reverie by observing something white skim above the
wall, make a seeming pause in the air, and then fall to the ground
within his inclosure. Woodruff advanced towards it, and beheld a piece
of paper folded up like a letter. He eagerly stooped to pick it up;
but his arms were bound in that accursed ligature, which made him
more helpless than a child. He threw himself wildly on the ground, and
gathered it up with his mouth; still he had no hands to open it. He
looked angrily round, but could not discover anything that might aid
him. He placed it between his knees;--the attempt failed, and the little
packet dropped again to the ground. Again he gathered it up, and rose
to his feet; he placed it against the wall, and with tongue and lips
contrived, after much trouble, to force it open. Again he sat on the
ground, placed it on his knee, and read as follows:--
“The young woman who came to see you is your own daughter, Frances
Woodruff. Be of good heart, as she is making all possible exertions to
liberate you. In order to effect this, it is necessary that you contrive
some pretext for staying out in your yard until ten o'clock at night,
or later, on the third night after this. If you should not succeed, then
try each night afterwards successively until you do succeed. You will
then see a head over the north-east corner of the wall of the yard
where the yew-tree stands, and opposite the thickest part of the east
plantation. Wait in the corner beneath, and a rope-ladder will be let
down, by which you can climb to the top and escape. This is written by
your daughter's friend, Colin Clink, who will do his best to get you
out; so do not be afraid of being betrayed.
“Fanny has seen this, and she prays God night and day that you will be
able to agree to it. Do not be afraid, as Colin is sure to come (happen
what may, short of death) at the time appointed. The third night,
mind,--or any night after, at ten o'clock.”
Poor James could scarcely believe his eyes. He almost doubted at first
whether he was not at length really growing insane, and whether the
circumstances which he fancied had so recently occurred were not mental
delusions, consequent 011 his burning desire to be at liberty. Could it
indeed be possible that the glorious hour was so near at hand?--that
his daughter was alive?--that he had seen her,--a beautiful young woman,
like what his own wife was when first he took her to his home;--that she
was aiding him once more to tread the earth _free?_--that he might again
have a home,--be revenged on the man who so cruelly wronged him,--and,
once more reinstated in his house at Charnwood, enjoy that greatest of
all earthly blessings, a father's pride in the beauty, the virtue, and
the heroism of his child?
These thoughts were almost more than he could bear, and he wept aloud,
as he mentally offered up a prayer of gratitude to Heaven for all its
goodness to him.
Afterwards, in order to prevent the possibility of any discovery, he
tore up the letter into the most minute fragments with his teeth, and
buried them in a hole which he made with his foot, near the trunk of the
old yew-tree. Nevertheless he was not safe. There were enemies without,
of whom he knew nothing, and treachery was at work to undermine Colin's
project.
It was stated some few pages back that Fanny and Colin were sauntering
in the fields on the old farm at Whinmoor, when the former related her
discoveries at Nabbfield, and the latter explained to her the plan he
had formed for assisting her father to escape. Now, at the time when he
was earnestly engaged in doing this, Miss Sowersoft was standing behind
an adjacent hedge, having stealthily crept there with her shoes off, in
order to gratify a certain irrepressible curiosity to know what object
Fanny could have in coming so far to see Colin, old George having
announced her arrival. Although Colin frequently, and very fortunately,
spoke in too low a voice for Miss Sowersoft to catch the meaning of the
projected attempt, and also mentioned so few of the details of his plan,
that she could scarcely make head or tail of it; yet so much reached her
attentive ear as sufficed to form in her mind the ground-work of some
very horrible suspicions of Colin's honesty. The great fertility of her
genius in matters of this description soon enabled her to make out,
from the broken discourse she had heard, that Colin was no better than
a thief, and that he actually meditated committing a burglary upon the
premises of Dr. Rowel some night in the course of the ensuing week;
while Fanny was doing neither more nor less than aiding and abetting
him in his nefarious attempt. But as her information was not of a
sufficiently positive kind to justify her in acquainting the constable,
and getting him immediately apprehended, she came to the conclusion
that Dr. Rowel ought at least to be put upon his guard, in order that he
might station proper watchmen in his neighbourhood to seize the culprit
whenever he might make his appearance. This matter also afforded such an
excellent opportunity for her to revenge herself upon Fanny for what she
had formerly said before the doctor's face, on the occasion of Colin's
illness, that she could not think by any means of allowing it to slip
by. Accordingly, some time before the night arrived which Colin had
appointed for his trial, Miss Sowersoft might have been seen marching
with important step up the gardens before the doctor's establishment,
with the intention of communicating to that gentleman in person some
hints of the imminent danger that threatened his property.
On her introduction to him, she announced the object of her visit in the
following manner. “It is a most unpleasant thing to me, Dr. Rowel, to
have to call upon you on such a case of secrecy as the present. You are
aware, doctor, that I have a boy about me over at the farm--”
“Yes, yes,” interrupted the doctor, “I know him well. Palethorpe, you
mean?”
“Oh no, sir!--oh no!--not him--by no means. He is a middle-aged man,
and a very honest one. No, no. I mean the boy that you attended a while
ago--Colin Clink. That boy, sir, I am sorry to say, is as vicious and
bad a character as ever crossed a threshold. I am sure, if he escapes
the gallows at last, it will only be because he was born to be drowned.
He has been hatching mischief of one sort or another every day since he
came into the world, and now he has got to such a pitch--”
Here Miss Sowersoft bent her head towards the doctor, and whispered
during the space of ten minutes, in so low a voice that nobody save the
doctor himself could catch a word of what was said.
“You amaze me!” exclaimed the doctor.
“I assure you, doctor,'” she reiterated, “I believe every word I have
said is as true as that you sit there.”
The doctor thanked Miss Sowersoft for her information, assured her two
or three times over that he would make the best use of it, and very
politely ended the conference by wishing her good morning.
Never, I verily believe, did any mischief-maker feel a greater degree of
self-satisfaction than did Miss Sowersoft, as she returned to Whinmoor.
What revenge should she not take when Colin was caught in the very fact
of house-breaking, and when Fanny would be immediately involved in the
same crime! The thought was so inspiriting, that she tripped along with
a degree of briskness which would have induced any one who did not see
her face to believe her at least twenty years the junior of herself.