Said he, "My father's name is Henry Boyd, and my mother's, Mary Boyd,
and my home until last March was in Boston, Mass. Father and mother had
been brought up in the western part of that State, and were married
there, but soon after my birth they removed to Boston, and father
entered the store of N. B. Johnson, the wholesale dry goods dealer on
Sumner Street."
"He's the man who has spent the last summer or two on Hope Island,"
interrupted Judd, "and the one Bagsley called old Johnson."
"Yes," assented Budd; "though I did not know, until he alluded to it
to-night, that it was down this way that Mr. Johnson spent his summers.
"To go on with my story, however. Father slowly worked his way up from
one position to another until he was Mr. Johnson's confidential clerk,
and held that position until last fall. Of course his salary was a
comfortable one, and we lived nicely out in the Roxbury suburbs. I was
kept constantly in school, and as I seemed interested in my studies
father determined that I should have a college education, and with that
aim in view I last September entered the Boston Latin School.
"How little we know what is before us," continued Budd after a momentary
pause. "Had anyone then told me what I was to pass through in less than
a year I should have thought it simply impossible. In order to have you
understand what is to follow I must, however, go back a little in my
explanation.
"When I was about twelve years old, mother began to show signs of a
decline. She had had a fever, and never fully recovered. Still, as she
was able to be around most of the time and direct our one servant in the
care of the house, I, at least, thought but little about it. Not so
with father, however. Always thoughtful of others rather than of
himself, he watched mother with an ever-increasing anxiety until a year
ago last spring. Mother then contracted a severe cold, and it was soon
only too apparent that she had entered the first stages of a quick
consumption.
"All that summer she grew worse, and last October she was so feeble her
physician declared that the only hope of saving her life was to take her
immediately to a warmer climate for the winter. Father determined that
this should be done, but how he was to accomplish it he did not know.
Mother was too feeble to go without him and a woman attendant. The fall
drive at the store had begun, and father could not well be spared.
Then, too, there was the expense that would necessarily follow. This
was an important item; for though father had always had good pay, he
had, on account of his heavy expenses, saved scarcely anything.
"Father spoke to Mr. Johnson about a leave of absence, and he
reluctantly consented that father should be gone long enough to take
mother to Florida and arrange for her comfort there. The woman who was
taking care of her consented to go and stay there with her; and much as
father and mother hated to be separated, this seemed the only thing that
could be done. Father had about two hundred dollars on hand, and deemed
this enough to meet the expenses of taking mother down to Deland, the
place where they had decided to go. He then intended to send mother
money each month, or as it should be needed.
"So our house was given up. The goods were stored. A boarding-place
was secured for me, and on the first of the next week father and mother
were to start. I shall never forget that last evening we all spent
together," and Budd's voice grew husky. "It was at a friend's of the
family, where mother had been temporarily removed while the household
goods were being packed and stored. We were alone in mother's room, and
it almost seems as if mother knew she should never see me again, except
for the brief moment I should say good-by to her at the depot the
following morning. So she told me her last wishes, and gave me her
blessing.
"While we sat there a knock came at the door, and mother's nurse
entered.
"'Here, Mr. Boyd,' she said, 'is a letter for you. It has just been left
at the door.'
"Father took it, and noticing the firm-name on the corner of the
envelope, tore it open with some misgiving. It proved, however, to be a
great cause for rejoicing to us all, and no one dreamed that it was
otherwise than authentic. Written on the regular firm note-paper, and
with the firm-heading, it ran:
BOSTON, Mass., Oct. 15, 18--.
MR. HENRY BOYD:
_Dear Sir_--Possibly my reluctance to allow you a leave of absence may
have led you to believe I do not sympathize with you in your wife's
illness; but as a proof that I do, and also as a token of my
appreciation of your long and faithful service, I inclose a check for
five hundred ($500) dollars. Trusting you will return to us at the
earliest possible moment, and that your wife's sojourn in a warmer
climate may completely restore her to health,
I remain, yours truly,
N. B. JOHNSON.
"Now, father had seen more or less of Mr. Johnson's writing every day
for years, and the quaint, cramped penmanship of the letter, with the
familiar signature at the close, seemed identically those that were also
upon the check. That was the regular firm-check also, and the number
and perforation were in strict accordance with the firm-usages, and
therefore father, with a grateful heart, wrote a note of thanks, and
gave it to me to mail to Mr. Johnson as I went back to my
boarding-place. With joyful hearts, too--joyful in spite of mother's
feebleness--father and mother set out at an early hour the next morning
for the South. They had taken this unexpected generosity of Mr. Johnson
as a good omen, and neither had any suspicion that a cloud was gathering
above their heads that would soon mean death to one and an incarceration
in prison-walls for the other.
"In New York father was known, and he thought it wiser to cash his check
there than wait until he got farther South; so the next morning he
delayed one train, and at the opening of the bank where he was
acquainted presented his check for payment. The money was handed him
without any hesitation, and two hours later he, with his little party,
had resumed the journey.
"At Richmond, Charleston and Jacksonville they made brief stops, that
mother might rest, and it was not until the following week that they
arrived at their destination. Imagine, now, father's surprise, when he
registered at the hotel in Deland, to have an officer immediately step
forward and arrest him for forgery and theft. As soon as father
recovered his composure he demanded a full explanation of the outrage,
and at whose instigation the charges had been made. He was completely
overwhelmed when told that it was Mr. Johnson, and that he was charged
not only with the forging of the check, but also with taking a thousand
dollars in cash from the office safe.
"Father sent for a lawyer and consulted with him, hoping to arrange the
affair in some way so that mother would have no knowledge of it, and
having arranged for her comfort, he would then return to Boston and face
the charges, sure that he could prove them false. But father was a
stranger. No one was ready to offer bail for him, and the officer
clamored for his immediate requisition. There seemed but one
alternative. Mother must be told, and father return immediately to
Boston.
"When mother was told, the shock seemed to give her new strength, and
she declared she would not leave father while he was in trouble. The
whole party started on their return, therefore, with the officer. In
New York mother was taken with a hemorrhage, brought on, the doctors
said, by excitement and overdoing, and in six hours she was a corpse.
"I saw the account of father's arrest in that morning's paper, and a few
hours later got a telegram from father announcing mother's death, and
that night met him at the depot and took charge of the corpse, while the
officer took father to jail.
"The weeks that followed I cannot tell you of," continued Budd, after a
paroxysm of sobs. "Mother was buried, and father's trial came. Some
friends had rallied about him, good counsel was secured, and we hoped
confidently for his acquittal. Father told his story just as it was,
but Mr. Johnson declared he never either wrote the letter or sent the
check; and Bagsley, who had been an under-clerk in the office, and had
succeeded to father's position, produced bits of paper that he declared
he had found hid in the office, on which there had evidently been
constant practice to imitate the firm-name. This testimony, together
with the known facts that father needed the money, and was the only
clerk in the office that at that time had access to the safe and
check-book, convicted him. His story, and the drawing of the check and
the sending of it to the house, were declared to be simply plans on his
part to cover his crimes in mother's and his friends' eyes, and account
to them for the extra money he possessed, until he got safely out of the
State. The thousand dollars that had disappeared from the safe he was
supposed to have concealed. At the end, those who had claimed to be
friends deserted him, and Mr. Johnson was openly complimented on the
promptness with which he had acted. The Judge who presided at the trial
seemed to have caught the popular belief, for he, when pronouncing the
sentences, said:
"'Had the prisoner confessed his guilt and thrown himself upon the mercy
of the Court, he might have received the Court's clemency, since they
were his first offenses. His obdurateness, however, compels me to make
the sentences correspondingly harsh. I therefore sentence him on the
first charge to seven years, and on the second charge to five years, at
hard labor in the State's prison; the second sentence to begin when the
first has ended.'
"It was last January when this took place. From that time I knew not a
happy hour until I left the city. Our former friends refused to receive
me at their homes; school-mates treated me coldly or met me with sneers;
even the lady with whom I boarded told me I must leave. I at length
determined to seek a home where I was not known.
"The lawyer who had defended father at his trial seemed friendly, and to
him I went. From him I learned that father had returned to Mr. Johnson
the five hundred dollars he had got on the forged check, and that he had
told Mr. Johnson if he ever lived to get out of prison he should pay the
other thousand. 'You believe I have taken it,' he had said, 'and I will
not allow myself to rest until you at least are convinced that I have
not a cent that belongs to you.' The lawyer also added that father's
own money had paid the expenses South and return, and also mother's
funeral expenses, but that he had received no compensation for his
services.
"Through him I therefore disposed of all the household goods, selling
even my own, father's and mother's watches; in fact, everything that
would sell. After paying the lawyer in full, and all other bills, I
found I had five hundred and four dollars and seventy-five cents.
"I took five hundred of this and went to Mr. Johnson's office. He was
not in, and I sat down to await his coming. Bagsley was at the desk
father had occupied so long, and he scowled darkly at me. I had always
felt that he could tell all about the forged check and the thousand
dollars if he were willing to do so, and I fixed my eyes steadily upon
him. He grew uneasy at my fixed gaze, and evidently would have spoken
to me had not the presence of the other clerks prevented.
"Mr. Johnson soon came in, and though he seemed annoyed to see me, did
not refuse my request to see him privately. Once in his inner office, I
took out the money I had brought and handed it to him.
"'I pay this money, Mr. Johnson,' I said, 'not because father ever took
a dollar from you, but because you believe he did. This five hundred
makes an even thousand. The other five hundred I will pay as soon as I
can earn it. Will you give me a receipt for this?'"
Without a word he filled out the receipt, but on handing it to me he
said, not unkindly:
"'Will you tell me who did take it? If I knew I had wronged your father
I would not leave a stone unturned until I had made him full amends.'
"'Of course I have my suspicions,' I replied, 'but it is another thing
to prove them.'
"'Do you mean Bagsley?' he asked, lowering his voice and tapping
thoughtfully on the desk with his fingers.
"'Mr. Johnson,' I suddenly cried, a light flashing in upon my mind, 'did
you, the morning father started South, get a note from him thanking you
for the check?' and as he shook his head in reply, I went on: 'Well, the
night before, I mailed one to you. Who opened your mail that morning?'
"'Bagsley,' he replied; 'but how did he get access to the safe, and what
could have been his motive in so cruelly wronging your father, if
guilty?'
"'I don't know any more than you,' I answered, turning to go. As I laid
my hand upon the office door it opened, and Bagsley appeared. By the
look of rage on his face as he glanced at me I knew he had been
listening to our conversation. He walked over to Mr. Johnson with a
handful of papers he wanted him to sign, and I departed.
"Going back to the place where I was stopping, I remained all night, and
early the next morning took my pack and started out of the city. I had
so little money I had decided to walk to Providence, looking for work
all the way. Barely had I turned the first street corner when I ran
into Bagsley. He at once recognized me, and catching me by the arm,
hissed out the words:
"'You young rascal! I've a good mind to throttle you; and I will if you
ever come about the office again telling stories about me!' Then he
shook me and hurled me from him with a force that sent me into the
nearest gutter.
"Thoroughly angered by the treatment I had received, I sprung to my feet
and foolishly said:
"'Bagsley, it was you who forged that check and sent it to father to
cover your theft of the thousand dollars, and I'll prove it yet!'
"He came toward me, his eyes flashing with a murderous light and his
fists clinched. I expected ah encounter with him that would only end in
serious injury to one or the other of us, and braced myself for it. But
just then he caught sight of a gentleman coming down the street, and
shaking his fist in my face, he muttered:
"'The next time I meet you I'll kill you!' and then he turned the corner
and disappeared.
"I now know by his words here to-night that he has been looking for me,
and thus found out that I had left the city. His presence here
indicates also that he has been discharged for some reason from Mr.
Johnson's employ, and is allied with a gang of burglars. This only
strengthens my belief that he is guilty of the crimes for which my
father is now in prison.
"As to my tramp, it was a long and severe one. I reached Providence
finally without money and no prospect of work. Every effort there to
secure a job failed, and I continued my tramp. In the village over here
I heard of Benton, and that he wanted a lad about my age. It was cold,
a storm threatened, I was hungry, and had nowhere to lay my head. His
offer I was at the time thankful to accept, and began my work for him."
"Does your father know where you are?" asked Judd, as his partner
finished and bowed his head upon the table to conceal the emotions the
narrating of his story had awakened.
"I went to see him before I paid Mr. Johnson," Budd replied without
raising his head, "and had his approval of my course. After I hired out
to Mr. Benton I sent a brief line to him explaining that I had found
work. I did not give my address, for I was afraid if I got a letter
from the prison my story might come out, and I should have to seek a
home in some other place. I tell you, Judd, it's a heavy burden I
carry--one that will blight my whole life, and that has already, as you
see, changed my whole future."
"Yes, Budd, I know it," replied his companion; "and yet you know, and
your father knows, he is innocent, while I know my father is everything
that the people of this community may care to call him. Your mother was
confident of your father's innocence, and died before she knew of his
imprisonment, while my mother all her married life had the burden of
knowing she was married to a brute. Surely there is much yet for you to
be thankful for, and perhaps Bagsley's presence here means that you are
yet to prove his guilt and set your father free. Some light has been
thrown on the matter by this incident of to-night."
"You are right, Judd, and I will take heart at your words. The darkest
hour seems to have passed, and light has begun to come. I am pleasantly
situated, and can soon send Mr. Johnson a payment on the last five
hundred dollars. In some way, too, Bagsley may be led to confess the
part he has played, and then father can go free, and here I'll have a
home to which he can come until we plan for the future. But whatever
comes, and whatever plans are made, there will always be a place for
you. Brief as the time has been since I knew you, I love you like a
brother."
"We will be brothers," Judd declared. "Through thick and thin we'll
stand by each other;" and with a hearty shake of the hands the lads went
to bed, and were soon asleep.
And neither one for a single moment supposed that before the coming week
was over a darker cloud and a heavier burden would fall upon Budd's
heart, and that Judd's declaration would have a severe test.