_Back in Almaville._
The Hon. H. G. Volrees sat in his office room looking moodily out of the
window. Since the desertion of his young bride his life had been one
long day of misery to him. His mystification and anger increased with
the years, and he had kept a standing offer of a large reward for
information leading to the discovery of his wife. He had vowed vengeance
upon the author or authors of his ruin.
"Come in," said he in a response to a knock on his door.
A young Negro man walked in and Mr. Volrees turned around slowly to look
at his caller.
"This is Mr. Volrees?" asked the Negro.
Mr. Volrees nodded assent, surveying the Negro from head to foot, noting
the flush of excitement on his swarthy face.
"I understand that you have offered a reward for information leading to
the discovery of the whereabouts of your wife," said the Negro.
An angry flush appeared on Mr. Volrees' face and he cast a look of
withering contempt in the Negro's direction, who read at once Mr.
Volrees' disgust over the fact that he, a Negro, dared to broach the
question of his family trouble.
"Pardon me," said the Negro, turning to leave.
"Come back! Are you a fool?" said Mr. Volrees angrily, his desire for
information concerning his wife overcoming his scruples.
"My wife took me to be one and left me," said the Negro in a tone of
mock humility.
Mr. Volrees looked up quickly to see whether he meant what he was saying
or was making a thrust at him. The solemn face of the Negro was
non-committal.
"Now, what do you know?" asked Mr. Volrees gruffly.
"I know where your wife is," said the Negro.
"How do you know that she is my wife?"
"I was the porter on the train that you and she began your bridal tour
on," replied the Negro.
"How have you been able to trace her?"
"I was the porter on the train on which she first came to Almaville. She
came into the section of the coach for Negroes, and she and a Negro girl
created a scene."
"Go on!" almost shouted Volrees, now thoroughly aroused.
"The reward?" timidly suggested the Negro.
"Of course you get that. Go on!" said Volrees, with increasing
impatience.
"The affair was so sad-like that I always remembered the looks of the
two women," resumed the Negro. "One night not long ago I saw the Negro
girl buy a ticket to Goldsboro, Mississippi. It came to me like a flash
that she was going to see your wife. She had the same sad look on her
face that she had the night I saw them together. I followed this girl to
Mississippi and sure enough I came upon your wife."
Volrees had now arisen and was restlessly moving about the room, his
brain in a whirl.
"Was she living with some family, or how was she situated?" he asked.
"She and her husband live----"
"Her husband!" thundered Volrees, grabbing the Negro in the collar,
fancying that he was grabbing the other husband.
"The people there say that she is married," said the Negro timidly.
"I will choke the liver out of the miscreant," said Volrees, tightening
his hold in the Negro's collar as if in practice.
"I am not the man," said the Negro, with growing determination in his
voice. Volrees was thus recalled to himself and resumed his restless
tramping.
"No, you are not the man. You are only a ---- nigger."
Grasping his hat, Volrees strode rapidly out of the room. At the door he
bawled back,
"You will get your reward."
The Negro followed Volrees at a distance and noted that he went to the
office of an exceedingly shrewd detective.
In the course of a few days the city of Almaville was shocked with the
news that a Mrs. Johnson, wife of a leading Mississippi planter had been
arrested and brought to Almaville on a charge of bigamy. The prosecutor
in the case was the Hon. H. G. Volrees, who claimed that the alleged
Mrs. Johnson was none other than Eunice Seabright, who had married him.
Mrs. Johnson denied being the former Miss Seabright, and employed able
counsel to conduct her defense.
The stir in the highest social circles of Almaville was indeed great,
and for days very little was talked of save the forthcoming
Volrees-Johnson bigamy trial.