IN COURT.
Agnes Wilt awoke and said her prayers, unconscious of any event of the
night. At the breakfast-table she met Duff Salter, who took both her
hands in his.
"Agnes," said Duff Salter--"let me call you so hereafter--did you hear
the bell toll last night?"
"No," she replied with agitation. "For what, Mr. Salter?"
"The good priest of Kensington is dying."
"Beloved friend!" she said, as the tears came to her eyes. "And must he
die uncertain of my blame or innocence? Yet he will learn it in that
wiser world!"
"Agnes, I require perfect submission from you for this day. Will you
give it in all things?"
She looked at him a moment in earnest reflection, and said finally:
"Yes, unless my conscience says 'no.'"
"Nothing will be asked of you that you cannot rightfully do. Decision is
what is needed now, and I will bring you through triumphantly if you
will obey me."
"I will."
"At eleven o'clock we must go to the magistrate's office. I will walk
there with you."
"Am I to be arrested?" she asked, hesitating.
"If you go with me it will not be an arrest."
"Mr. Salter," she cried, in a burst of anguish, "I am not fit to be seen
upon the streets of Kensington."
He took her in his arms like a daughter.
"Yes, yes, poor girl! The mother of God braved no less. You can bear it.
But all this morning I must be closely engaged. An important event
happened last night. At eleven, positively, be ready to go out with me."
Agnes was ready, and stepped forth into the daylight on the main
thoroughfare of Queen Street. Almost every window was filled with
gazers; the sidewalks were lined with strollers, loiterers, and people
waiting. She might have fainted if Duff Salter's arm had not been there
to sustain her.
A large fishwife, with a basket on her head, was standing beside her
comely grown daughter, who had put her large basket down, and both
devoured Agnes with their eyes.
"Staying in the house, Beck," exclaimed the mother of the girl, "has
been healthy for some people."
"Yes, mammy," answered the girl; "it's safer standing in market with
catfish. He! he! he!"
A shipbuilder's daughter was on the front steps, a slender girl of dark,
smooth skin and features, talking to a grown boy. The girl bowed: "How
do you do, Miss Agnes?" The grown boy giggled inanely.
Two old women, near neighbors of Agnes, had their spectacles wiped and
run out to a proper focus, and the older of the two had a double pair
upon her most insidious and suspicious nose. As Agnes passed, this old
lady gave such a start that she dropped the spectacles off her nose, and
ejaculated through the open window, "Lord alive!"
At Knox Van de Lear's house the fine-bodied, feline lady with
nictitating eyes, drew aside the curtain, even while the dying man above
was in frigid waters, that she might slowly raise and drop her ambrosial
lids, and express a refined but not less marked surprise. Agnes, by an
excitement of the nerves of apprehension, saw everything while she
trembled. She could read the dates of all the houses on the painted
cornices of the water-spouts, and saw the cabalistic devices of old
insurance companies on the property they covered. Pigeons flying about
the low roofs clucked and chuckled as if their milky purity had been
incensed, and little dogs seemed to draw near and trot after, too
familiarly, as if they scented sin.
There were two working-men from Zane & Rainey's ship-yard who had known
kindness to their wives from Agnes when those wives were in confinement.
Both took off their hats respectfully, but with astonishment
overwhelming their pity.
Half the fire company had congregated at one corner of the street--lean,
runners of men in red shirts, and with boots outside their trousers.
They did not say a word, but gazed as at a riddle going by. Yet at one
place a Sabbath scholar of Agnes came out before her, and, making a
courtesy, said:
"Teacher, take my orange blossom!"
The flower was nearly white, and very fragrant. Duff Salter reached out
and put it in his button-hole.
So excited were the sensibilities of Agnes that it seemed to her the old
door-knockers squinted; the idle writing of boys on dead walls read with
a hidden meaning; the shade-trees lazily shaking in summer seemed to
whisper; if she looked down, there now and then appeared, moulded in the
bricks of the pavement, a worn letter, or a passing goose foot, the
accident of the brickyard, but now become personal and intentional. The
little babies, sporting in their carriages before some houses, leaned
forward and looked as wise and awful as doctors in some occult
diagnosis. Cartwheels, as they struck hard, articulated, "What, out!
Boo! boohoo!" Sunshine all slanted her way. Hucksters' cries sounded
like constables' proclamation: "Oyez! oyez!"
With the perceptions, the reflections of Agnes were also startlingly
alert. She seemed two or three unfortunate people at once. Now it was
Lady Jane Grey going to the tower. Now it was Beatrice Cenci going to
torture. Now it was Mary Magdalene going to the cross. At almost every
house she felt a kindness speak for her, except mankind; a recollection
of nursing, comforting, praying with some one, but all forgotten now.
"_Via Crucia, Via Crucia_," her thorn-torn feet seemed to patter in the
echoes of her ears and mind, and there arose upon her spirit the
sternest curse of women, direful with God's own rage, "I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception."
Thus she reached the magistrate's little office, around the door of
which was a little crowd of people, and Duff Salter led her in the
private door to the residence itself. A cup of tea and a decanter of
wine were on the table. The magistrate's wife knew her, and kissed her.
Then Agnes broke down and wept like a little child.
The magistrate was a lame man, and a deacon in Van de Lear's church,
quite gray, and both prudent and austere, and making use of but few
words, so that there was no way of determining his feelings on the case.
He took his place behind a plain table and opened court by saying,
"Who appears? Now!"
Duff Salter rose, the largest man in the court-room. His long beard
covered his whole breast-bone; his fine intelligent features, clear,
sober eyes, and hale, house-bleached skin, bore out the authority
conceded to him in Kensington as a rich gentleman of the world.
"Mr. Magistrate," said Duff Salter, "this examination concerns the
public and the ends of justice only as bears upon the death of the late
citizens of Kensington, William Zane and Saylor Rainey. It is a
preliminary examination only, and the person suspected by public gossip
has not retained counsel. With your permission, as the executor of
William Zane, I will conduct such part of the inquiry here as my duty
toward the deceased, and my knowledge of the evidence, notwithstanding
my frontier notions of law, suggest to me."
"You prosecute?" asked the magistrate, and added, "Yes, yes! I will!"
Calvin Van de Lear got up and bowed to the magistrate.
"Your Honor, my deep interest in Miss Agnes Wilt has driven me to leave
the bedside of a dying parent to see that her interests are properly
attended to in this case. Whenever she is concerned I am for the
defence."
"Yes!" exclaimed the magistrate. "Salter, have you a witness?"
"Mike Donovan!" called Duff Salter.
A red-haired Irishman, with one eyebrow higher than the other, and scars
on his face, walked into the alderman's court from the private room, and
was sworn.
"Donovan," spoke Duff Salter, standing up, "relate the occurrences of a
certain night when you rowed the prisoner, Andrew Zane, and certain
other persons, from Treaty Island to an uncertain point in the River
Delaware."
"Stop! stop!" exclaimed Calvin Van de Lear, rising. "It seems to me I
have seen that fellow's face before. Donovan, hadn't you a wooden leg
when last I saw you?"
"No doubt of it," answered the Irishman.
"Why haven't you got it on now?" cried Calvin, scowling.
"Because, yer riverence, me own legs was plenty good enough on this
occasion."
"Now, now, I won't!" ordered the sententious little magistrate.
"Proceed with the narrative," cried Duff Salter, "and repeat no part of
the conversation in that boat."
"It was a dark and lowering night," said the waterman, "as we swung
loose from Traity Isle. I sat a little forward of the cintre, managing
the oars. Mr. Andrew Zane was in the bow, on the watch for difficulties.
In the stern sat the boss, Mr. William Zane. Between him and me--God's
rest to him!--sat the murdered gintleman, well-beloved Saylor Rainey!
The tide was running six miles an hour. We steered by the lights of
Kinsington."
"Then you are confident," said Duff Salter, "that the whole length of
the skiff separated William Zane from his son?"
"As confident, yer honor, as that the batteau had two inds. They niver
were nearer, the one to the tother, than that, for the whole of the
ixpidition. And scarcely one word did Mr. Andrew utter on the whole ov
that bloody passage."
"Say nothing, for the present, about any conversations," commanded Duff
Salter, "but go on with the occurrences briefly."
"I had been a very little while, ye must understand me, gintlemen, in
the imploy of thim two partners. After they entered the boat they spoke
nothing at all, at all, for siveral minutes. It was all I could do wid
the strong tide to keep the boat pinted for Kinsington, and I only
noticed that Mr. Rainey comminced the conversation in a low tone of
voice. Just at that time, or soon afterward, your Honor, a large vessel
stood across our bow, going down stream in the night, and I put on all
my strength, at Mr. William Zane's order, to cross in front of her, and
did so. I was so afraid the ship would take us under that I put my whole
attintion to my task, not daring to disobey so positive a boss as Mr.
Zane, though it was agin my judgment, indade."
All in the court and outside the door and windows were giving strict
attention. Even Andrew Zane, whose face had been rather sullen, listened
with a pale spot on his cheeks.
"Go on," said Duff Salter gently. "You relate it very well."
"As we had cleared the ship, gintlemen, I paused an instant to wipe the
sweat from my brows, though it was a cold night, for I was quite spint.
I then perceived that Mr. Rainey and the master were disputing and
raising their voices higher and higher, and what surprised me most of
all, your Honor, was the unusual firmness of Mr. Rainey, who was
ginerally very obedient to the boss. He faced the boss, and would not
take his orders, and I heard him once exclaim: 'Shame on you, sir; he is
your son!'"
"Stop! stop!" cried Duff Salter. "You were not to repeat conversations.
What next?"
"In the twinklin' of an eye," resumed the witness, "the masther had
sazed his partner by the throat and called him a villain. They both
stood up in the boat, the masther's hand still in Mr. Rainey's collar,
and for an instant Mr. Rainey shook himself loose and cried--"
"Not a word!" exclaimed Duff Salter. "What was _done_?"
"Mr. Rainey cried out something, all at once. The masther fetched a
terrible oath and fell back upon his seat. 'You assisted in this
villainy!' he shouted. They clinched, and I saw something shine dimly in
Mr. William Zane's hand. The report told me what it was. I lifted one
oar in a feeling of horror, and the boat swung round abruptly on the
blade of the other, and Mr. Rainey, released from the masther's grip,
fell overboard in the dark night."
Nothing was said by any person in the court except a suppressed "Bah!"
from Calvin Van de Lear.
"Silence! Order! I won't!" exclaimed the lame magistrate, rising from
his seat. "Now! Go on!"
"I dropped both oars in me terror, and one of them floated away in the
dark. We all stood up in the boat. 'My God!' exclaimed the masther,
'what have I done?' As quick as the beating of my heart he placed the
pistol at his own head. I saw the flash and heard the report. Mr.
William Zane fell overboard."
There was a shudder of horror for a moment, and then a voice outside the
window, hoarse and cheery, shouted to the outer crowd, "Andrew is
innocent! Three cheers for Andrew Zane!"
The people in and out of the warm and densely-pressed office
simultaneously gave cheers, calling others to the scene, and the old
magistrate, lame as he was, arose and looked happy.
"No arrests!" he cried. "Right enough! Good! Now, attention!"
But Andrew Zane kept his seat with an expression of obstinacy, and
glared at Calvin Van de Lear, who was trembling with rage.
"Well got up, on my word!" exclaimed Calvin. "Who is this fellow?"
"Go on and finish your story!" commanded Duff Salter.
"God forgive Mike Donovan, your Honor!" continued the witness. "I'm
afraid if Mr. William Zane had been the only man overboard I wouldn't
have risked me life. He was a hard, overbearin' masther. But I thought
of his poor son, standin' paralyzed-like, and the kind Mr. Rainey
drownin' in the wintry water, and I jumped down in the dark flood to
rescue one or both. From that day to this, the two partners I never saw.
It was months before I saw America at all, or the survivin' okkepant of
the boat."
"You may explain how that came to be," intimated Duff Salter, grimly
superintending the court.
"Well, sir! As I dived from the skiff my head encountered a solid
something which made me see a thousand flashes av lightning in one
second. I was so stunned that I had only instinct--I belave ye call it
that--to throw my ar-rum around the murthering object and hold like
death. Ye know, judge, how drownin' men will hold to straws. That straw,
yer Honor, was the spar of a vessel movin' through the water. It was, I
found out afterward, one of the pieces which had wedged the ship on the
Marine Railway, where she had been gettin' repaired, and she comin' off
hurriedly about dusk, had not been loosened from her. I raised my voice
by a despairin' effort, and screamed 'Help! help!' When I came to I was
on an Austrian merchant ship, bound to Wilmington, North Carolina, for
naval stores, and then to Trieste. The blow of the spar had given me a
slight crack av the skull."
"That crack is wide open yet," said Calvin Van de Lear.
"Begorra," returned the Irishman, facing placidly around until he found
the owner of the voice, "Mr. Calvin Van de Lear, it would take many such
a blow, sur, to fracture your heart!"
"Go on now, Donovan, and finish your tale. You were carried off to
Trieste?" spoke Duff Salter.
"I was, sir. At Wilmington no news had been recaved of any tragedy in
Philadelphia, and when I told my story there to a gentleman he concluded
I was ravin' and a seein' delusions. The Austrian was short av a crew,
and the docthor said if they could get away to sea he could make me
effective very soon. I was too helpless to go on deck or make
resistance. Says I, 'It's the will av God.'"
A round of applause greeted this story as it was ended, and cheerful
hands were extended to the witness and the prisoner. Calvin Van de Lear,
however, exclaimed:
"Alderman, what has all this to do with the prisoner's ignominious
flight for months from his home and from persons he abandoned to
suspicion and shame? This man is an impostor."
"Will you take the stand, Mr. Andrew Zane?" asked Duff Salter.
"No," replied the late fugitive. "I have been hunted and slandered like
a wolf. I will give no evidence in Kensington, where I have been so
shamefully treated. Let me be sent to a higher court, and there I will
speak."
"Alas!" Duff Salter said, with grave emphasis, "it is you father's old
and obstinate spirit which is speaking. You are the ghost I thought was
his at the door of my chamber. Mr. Magistrate, swear me!"
Duff Salter gravely kissed the Testament and stood ready to depose, when
Calvin Van de Lear again interrupted.
"Are you not deaf?" asked the divinity student. "Where are your tablets
that you carry every day? You seem to hear too well, I consider."
"You are right," cried Duff Salter, turning on his interrogator like a
lion. "I am wholly cured of deafness, and my memory is as acute as my
hearing."
Calvin Van de Lear turned pale to the roots of his dry, yellow whiskers.
"Devil!" he muttered.
"My testimony covers only a single point," resumed the strong, direct,
and imposing witness. "I saw the face of this prisoner for the first
time since his babyhood in his father's house not many weeks ago. It
resembled his father's youthful countenance, as I knew it, so greatly
that I really believed his parent haunted the streets of Kensington,
according to the rumor. The supposed apparition drove me to investigate
the mysterious death of William Zane. I believed that Agnes knew the
story, but was under this prisoner's command of secrecy. Seeking an
assistant, the witness, Donovan, forced himself upon me. In a short time
I was confounded by the contradictions of his behavior. Looking deeper
into it, I suspected that in his suit of clothing resided at different
times two men: the one an agent, the other a principal; the one a
reality, the other a disguise. I armed myself and had the duller and
less observant of these doubles row me out upon the Delaware on such a
night as marked the tragedy he witnessed. When we reached the middle of
the river I forced the story of the coincidence from him by reasoning
and threats."
"Ha! ha!" exclaimed Calvin Van de Lear. "Is this an Arkansas snake
story?"
"The young Zane had gratified a wilful passion to penetrate the
residence of his father, and look at its inmates and the situation from
safe harborage there. He found that Donovan in his roving sailor's life
had played the crippled sea beggar in the streets of British cities,
tying up his natural leg and fitting a wooden leg to the knee--a trick
well known to British ballad singers. That leg was in Donovan's
sea-chest, as it had been left in this city, and also the crutch
necessary to walk with it. Mr. Zane and Donovan had exchanged the leg
and crutch, and the former matched his fellow with a wig and patches.
Thus convertible, they had for a little while deceived everybody, but
for further convenience Mr. Zane ensconced himself as a tenant in a
neighboring house, and when the apparatus was in request by Donovan, he
crossed on the roofs between the trap-doors, and still was master of his
residence."
"What does all this disclose but the intrigue of despairing guilt?"
exclaimed young Van de Lear. "He had destroyed the purity of a lady and
abandoned her, and was afraid to show his real face in Kensington."
"We will see as to that," replied Duff Salter. "I had hoped to respect
the lady's privacy, but Mr. Zane has refused to testify. Call Agnes
Wilt."
All in the magistrate's office rose at the mention of this name, only
Andrew Zane keeping his seat amid the crowd. Calvin Van de Lear
officiously sought to assist the witness in, but Duff Salter pressed him
back and gave the sad and beautiful woman his arm. She was sworn, and
stood there blushing and pale by turns.
"What is your name?" asked Duff Salter gently. "Speak very plain, so
that all these good friends of yours may make no mistake."
"My name," replied the lady, "is Agnes Zane. I am the wife of Mr. Andrew
Zane."
"Very good," said Duff Salter soothingly. "You are the wife of Andrew
Zane; wedded how long ago, madam?"
"Eight months."
"Do you see any person in this court-room, Mrs. Zane, that you wish to
identify? Let all be seated."
Poor Agnes looked timidly around the place, and saw a person, at whom
all were gazing, rise and reach his arms toward her.
"Gracious God!" she whispered, "is it he?"
"It is, dear wife," cried Andrew Zane. "Come to my heart."