THE CRASH AT LAST.
"YOU think there is no doubt," Helen was saying to her brother, holding
her pen suspended, while beaming smiles played about her mouth. "I
would not like to awaken expectations, if there is a doubt."
Frank's face reflected his sister's cheerfulness, as he answered: "God
willing, we shall leave here in a fortnight, to be in season for the
steamer the first of the month. Thanks to the elixir from the Golden
Spring, I feel as well as ever, and mean to take hold of work with
a will. Do you know, I have made arrangements to carry a couple of
hundred bottles of the water with me. I mean to have it analyzed, and,—"
"Take care, Frank," she said, interrupting him, "I may have a word to
say. You know Monsieur has given me a clean title, as he calls it, to
the Golden Spring, with a strip of land leading from the chateau to the
road." She laughed merrily as she held up the legal document to view,
but presently added:
"Keep quiet, now, while I finish my letter, and then we will walk to
the office and post it."
They were just in time to drop it into the bag. And then the rosy-faced
girl gave them a letter which had come by the morning diligence.
"Whose hand-writing is that?" asked Helen.
"I do not know," was the grave reply. And then each waited quietly for
the envelope to be unsealed, the same fear suggested to the minds of
both.
"It contains bad news for us."
The name at the bottom of the sheet afforded no information; and so,
with a sigh for which it would have been difficult to account, Frank
proceeded to read the first page, his sister leaning against his arm,
and looking over his shoulder.
"MR. FRANCIS J. EDMOND: I regret to be the bearer of ill tidings, but
necessity knows no law of kindness. I therefore proceed to inform
you, that through the perfidy of your guardian, Monson P. Tracy, your
entire fortune, with the exception of the estate in Maytown, has been
sacrificed. I write this at the request of the son of my partner, who
was Mr. Tracy's bondsman for the faithful execution of the will.
"The circumstances, as far as I can learn them, are these (Mr. Tracy
not being in a state to afford information on any subject): More than
a year ago, the lead mines came into the market. Mr. Tracy purchased,
from the agent, one hundred shares for you and your sister, paying ten
thousand dollars for the same, on the condition that one hundred shares
more be given him outright. For a short time the market for shares was
very brisk, the agent pressing their claims to public favor with equal
skill and shrewdness. Maps or charts of the locality were exhibited,
with the railroad, and a pretty village in the foreground, but all this
ended in moonshine.
"Further inquiry proved that there was not a-house within twenty miles,
and that the nearest railway was more than a hundred. The lead mines
sank, therefore, into the ground. Mr. Tracy, on ascertaining this fact,
quietly transferred his hundred shares to your side of the sheet, on
the conviction that you could afford the loss better than he could.
"All this occurred some months ago. But in January of this year,
another agent came on with charts, and specimens of the ore, which was
decided to be of the best quality. He established a new company, and
finally persuaded Mr. Tracy once more to give it his confidence, and
the influence of his name. This he consented to do for a price. He sold
out city stock by the consent of his bondsman, who was also infected
with the mania of speculation, and invested fifty thousand more of your
fortune, together with an equal amount of his own; which last, however,
it has been ascertained, he never paid for.
"Engineers were engaged to lay out and build a railroad to the spot.
And everything looked prosperous, when the crash came.
"On Wednesday of last week, Mr. Tracy was known to have received
letters which nearly rendered him frantic. He rushed to the broker's
office, and sold, at a ruinous discount, seventy-five thousand dollars
worth of stock belonging to you. But what he did with it, or what he
intended to do with it, cannot now be ascertained. By noon, of the same
day, the bulletins announced to all interested parties, that the lead
mine speculation was a failure. A party of scientific men sent to the
spot for the purpose of thorough examination, had reported the fact
that there was little or no lead there.
"To my partner, who had become too deeply involved to recover, it was a
fatal blow. He committed suicide the next morning under the influence,
it is charitably believed, of a sudden attack of insanity.
"Of Mr. Tracy I can only say, that the entire community have received
a shock. He was, as you are aware, a professor of religion. His name
has for years been before the public as a warm supporter of the great
benevolent objects of the day. He was a regular attendant on the
preaching of Mr. Manning, and his opinion was sought, almost equally,
in matters pertaining to religion and finance.
"Now the researches of Mr. Seymour, who was bondsman for him in the
case of young Quincy's fortune, has brought to light a series of crimes
worthy of a fiend.
"He has for forty years been living on his character for piety; and a
profitable speculation he has made of it. But the end came before he
expected. His iniquities have been brought to light, and the revelation
is one to amaze the most hardened villain.
"The miserable victim of his own avarice was found in a small room in
his own house. And when the sheriff broke into the apartment, he was
lying upon the floor in a fit, sheets of paper covered with figures,
and leaves from the account books, lying open near him, torn from the
binding, and still clutched in his hands. He was removed at once to an
upper chamber, where he was put under guard, but where, at the earnest
pleading of his wife, she was allowed to be with him."
"Frank, you ought to be there," Helen burst out, her eyes wildly
protruded. "You might save something from the wreck."
The young man stood still for one moment, then crushing the letter in
his hand, he answered hoarsely:
"We must start by the diligence to—night."
"I always knew he was a villain." faltered Helen, the tears streaming
down her checks. "Dear papa, how cruelly he was deceived!"
But presently recovering her self-control, she exclaimed: "I have no
time for regrets now. I must ride to the chateau and bid my scholars
good-by. Mr. Tracy can't throw away what we've given to them."
The hardest task remaining, was to bid farewell to the good clergyman,
who had become so dear to them both. It was well they had not much
time to dwell upon the parting. With his wrinkled hands on their bowed
heads, the tears coursing over his furrowed cheeks, he called upon God,
their father's God, to bless them, and keep them to the end. Then he
turned away, weeping as he went. But Helen ran after him, and throwing
her arms around his neck, kissed him again and again, saying:
"We shall never forget your kindness and love. Write us, dear father;
write everything that concerns you; and don't forget to pray that we
may meet again."
"We shall meet there," he said, reverently pointing his finger upward.
"I shall not be long here, but while I live, I shall never cease to
pray for you."
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