A Prophecy Fulfilled
Among the passengers disembarking from a steamer at a Brooklyn pier was
a tall, gaunt man, who walked with a slight limp.
He was alone, and though he nodded pleasantly to one or two of his
fellow passengers, he walked by himself, and all details of landing
being over, he took a taxicab to a hotel restaurant, glad to eat a
luncheon more to his taste than the ship's fare had been.
He bought several New York papers, and soon became so absorbed in their
contents that his carefully selected food might have been dust and ashes
for all he knew.
Staring at an advertisement, he called a waiter.
"Send out and get me that book," he said, "as quick as you can."
"Yes, sir," returned the man, "it's right here, sir, on the news-stand.
Get it in a minute, sir."
And in about a minute Peter Boots sat, almost unable to believe his own
eyes, as he scanned the chapter headings of his father's book, detailing
the death and the subsequent experiences of him who sat and stared at
the pages.
He looked at the frontispiece, a portrait of himself, but bearing little
resemblance to his present appearance. For, where the pictured face
showed a firm, well-molded chin, the living man wore a brown beard,
trimmed Vandyke fashion, and where the expression on the portrait showed
a merry, carefree smile, the real face was graven with deep lines that
told of severe experiences of some sort.
But the real face grinned a little at the picture, and broke into a
wider smile at some sentences read at random as the pages were hastily
turned, and then as further developments appeared, the blue eyes showed
a look of puzzled wonder, quickly followed by horror and despair.
Peter closed the book and laid it aside, and finished his luncheon in a
daze.
One thing stood forth in his mind. He must take time to think--think
deeply, carefully, before he did anything. He must get away by himself
and meet this strange, new emergency that had come to him.
What to do, how to conduct himself, these were questions of gravest
import, and not to be lightly settled.
He thought quickly, and concluded that for a secure hiding-place a man
could do no better than choose a big city hotel.
Finishing his meal he went to the desk and asked for a room, registering
as John Harrison, which was the name by which he had been known on the
ship that had brought him to port.
Once behind the locked door of his room he threw himself into an
armchair and devoured the book he had bought.
Rapidly he flew through it; then went over it again, more slowly, until
Peter Boots was familiar with every chapter of the book that his father
had written in his memory.
Memory! And he wasn't dead!
The book, he saw, had gone through a large number of editions,
wherefore, many people had read the tale of his tragic fate in the
Labrador wild, and of his recrudescence and communications with his
parents, and now, here he was reading it himself.
It is not easy to realize how strange it must seem to read not only
one's own death notices but the accounts of one's return to earth in
spirit form, and to be informed of the astonishing things one said and
did through the kind offices of a professional medium!
A medium! Madame Parlato! And she "got in touch" with him! She succeeded
in getting messages from him--and materializations!
Peter's chicory blue eyes nearly popped out of his head when he read of
the "materialization" of his tobacco pouch.
"Jolly glad I know where it is," he thought; "I've missed the thing, but
how did it waft itself to a professional medium! Bah! the stuff makes
me sick!
"But Dad wrote it! Dad--my father! And mother's in the game! Got to read
the book all over again."
And again he delved into the volume, seeming unable to take in the
appalling fact of what had been done.
"They believe it!" he said at last, reaching the final page for the
third time; "they believe it from the bottom of their blessed souls!
"Who is that medium person? Where'd she get the dope to fool the old
folks? Let me at her! I'll give her what for! Messages to mother from
her departed son! 'Do not grieve for me,' 'I am happy over here,' Oh,
for the love o' Mike! what _am_ I going to do first?"
Followed a long time of thought. At first, chaotic, wondering,
uncertain, then focussing and crystallizing into two definite ideas.
One, the astonishing but undeniable fact of his father's belief and
sincerity, the other, what would happen if that belief and sincerity
were suddenly stultified.
"Good Lord!" he summed up, "when I appear on the scene that medium will
get the jolt of her sweet young life-- I assume she's young still, and
Dad----
"H'm, where will he get off?"
That gave him pause. For Benjamin Crane to have written such a book as
this, for it to have achieved such a phenomenal success and popularity,
for it to have been the means, as it doubtless was, of converting
thousands to a belief in Spiritism, then, for the whole thing to be
overturned by the reappearance in the flesh of the man supposed dead,
would mean a cataclysm unparalleled in literary history.
And his father? The dear old man, happy in his communications from his
dead son, how would he be pleased to learn that they were not from his
dead son at all, but the faked drivel of a fraudulent medium?
It was a moil, indeed.
Peter Crane had come home incognito, because he doubted the wisdom of a
sudden shock to his parents. Unable to send or get news, and making his
voyage home at the first possible opportunity, he had intended to learn
how matters stood before making his appearance.
He had intended telephoning Blair and Shelby, and if they said all was
well at home he would go there at once. But if there had been illness or
death he would use care and tact in making his presence known.
For Peter Boots had had no word of, or from his people for half a
year--all the long Labrador winter he had lived in ignorance of their
welfare and had suffered to the limit, both mentally and physically.
And he had thought they would probably assume his death--as, by reason
of this astonishing book he now knew they had done--and, what was he to
do about it?
Impulse would have sent him flying home--home to his mother, Dad and
Julie, and--and dear little Carly.
But--when he thought of the possibility of his reappearance being the
means of making his father's name a by-word of ridicule, of heaping on
the old man's fame obloquy and derision, of shocking his mother, perhaps
fatally, or at least into a nervous prostration, he was unable to shape
a course.
Could he tell Carly first? He glanced at a telephone book at his elbow.
No, that would never do. To hear his voice on the telephone would throw
her into a convulsion. He didn't believe she stood for that spirit
foolishness, but if, by any chance, she had been won over, his voice
would surely give her some sort of a shock.
The boys, then. Yes, that was the only thing. He must see them, but he
must telephone first and learn their whereabouts.
He could, he concluded, call in a disguised voice, and get a line on
things anyhow.
So, still in a haze of doubt and uncertainty, he looked up the number
and called Shelby.
As he rather expected, Shelby was not at his home, but the person who
answered could give no directions save to say that Mr. Shelby would
probably be home by six o'clock, and would he leave a message?
"No," returned Peter shortly, and hung up.
Getting next the number of the Leonardo Studios, he asked for Gilbert
Blair.
"W-what--who?" came a stammering response.
"Mr. Blair--Mr. Gilbert Blair," repeated Peter.
"Why--why, he's dead--Mr. Blair's dead."
"No! When did he die?"
"Coupla months ago. Murdered."
"What!"
"Yep, murdered."
Peter hung up the receiver from sheer inability to do anything else.
Of course it couldn't be true. Blair couldn't have been murdered, and he
must have misunderstood that last word. But his arm seemed paralyzed
when he tried again to take hold of the telephone.
He sank back in his chair and tried to think.
His subconscious mind told him that he had not misunderstood--that
Gilbert was murdered. He knew he had heard the word correctly, and
people do not make such statements unless they are true.
His thoughts gradually untangled themselves and he began to grapple with
the most important problems.
It was clear that he must learn what had happened in his absence. He
wanted to get hold of Shelby and ask about Blair. He wanted to go right
over to Blair's place--but if--if _it_ had occurred two months ago there
was small use going there now.
Also, he must preserve his incognito for the present, at least. His
return would be blazoned in the papers as soon as it was known, and the
effect on his father's reputation would be most disastrous.
He must learn more facts--the facts he had already discovered were so
amazing, what else might not be in store for him?
Concentrating on the subject of Blair's death he concluded his best
course would be to get a file of newspapers covering the past two months
and read about it.
In a big newspaper office he accomplished this, and spent the rest of
the afternoon reading up the case.
Of late the subject was not a principal one in the papers.
McClellan Thorpe was in prison, awaiting his trial, and the police,
while still on the job, were not over aggressive.
Pennington Wise was not mentioned, so Peter had no means of knowing that
that astute person was connected with the matter.
But the news of Thorpe's arrest struck Peter a new blow. While not as
chummy with Thorpe as with Shelby and Blair, Peter had always liked him
and found it difficult to believe him guilty of Blair's death.
Back to his hotel went the man registered as John Harrison, and, going
to the restaurant for dinner, he ate and enjoyed a hearty meal.
After all, strange and weird as was the news he had heard, his parents
were alive and well--and, strangest of all, they were not grieving at
his death.
He was relieved at this, and yet, he was, in an inexplicable way,
disappointed. It _is_ a blow in the face to learn that your loved ones
are quite reconciled to your death because, forsooth, they get fool
messages from you through the services of a fool medium!
Peter's ire rose, and he was all for going to his father's house at
once, and then, back came the thought, how could he put that dear old
man to the blush for having written that preposterous book?
From the papers, too, Peter had learned of the furor the book had made,
of the great notoriety and popularity that had come to Benjamin Crane
from its publication, of the enormous sales it had had, and was still
having, and of the satisfaction and happiness the whole thing had
brought to both Mr. and Mrs. Crane.
So, stifling his longing to go home and to see his people, Peter decided
to sleep over it before taking any definite steps.
He had small fear of recognition. Nobody in New York believed him alive,
or had any thought of looking for him. His present appearance was so
different from the portrait in the book that, after he had changed his
looks still further by a different brushing of his hair, he felt there
was no trace of likeness left save perhaps his blue eyes. And only one
who knew him well would notice his eyes, and he had no expectation of
running up against one who knew him well.
So, after dinner, he sat for a time in the hotel lobby, not wishing to
mingle with his fellow men, yet not wishing to seem peculiar by reason
of his evading notice.
Worn with the succession of shocks that had come to him, and weary of
meeting the big problems and situations, he thought of diversion.
"Any good plays on?" he asked the news-stand girl, and his winning smile
brought a chatty response.
"Plays--yes. Nothing corking, though. But say, have you seen the big
movie?"
"No; what is it?"
"'Labrador Luck,' oh, say, it's a peach! Go to it!"
"Where?" and Peter stopped himself just in time from exclaiming,
"Labrador anything would interest me!"
"Over in N'York. Hop into the sub and you're there."
Peter hopped into the sub and shortly he was there.
"Labrador Luck," he read from the big posters. "Monster production of
the Tophole Producing Company. Thrilling scenes, thrilling plot,
thrilling drama."
There was more detail as to the names of the Film Queen who was starred,
and the Film King who supported her, but without stopping to read them
Peter bought a ticket and went in.
The picture was under way, and as he sank into his seat he saw on the
screen the familiar scenes of the Labrador wild.
Not quite true to nature were they, this Peter recognized at once, but
he knew they were taken in a studio, not in Labrador itself, and he had
only admiration for the cleverness with which they were done.
With a little sigh of pleasure he gave himself up to a positive
enjoyment of the landscape, and, as the story went on, he was conscious
of a vaguely familiar strain running through it.
Suddenly a scene was flashed on, and an episode occurred which was one
of his own invention.
"Why," he smiled, "that's my very idea! Now how'd they get that? Oh, I
know, of course, such things often occur to various minds without
collusion, but it's sort of queer. If he follows up that lead, it will
be awful queer!"
The lead was followed up, and, a bit bewildered, Peter sat gazing while
the whole story was unrolled.
Greatly changed it was, greatly elaborated; the main plot side-tracked
by a counter-plot; the number of characters multiplied by a score; yet,
the mystery interest, the suspense element, the very backbone of the
piece was the plot he and Blair had worked out while up in the Labrador
wild.
"Labrador Luck!" he mused. "Fine name for it, too. The 'Luck' being that
old heirloom--just as I planned it. Wonder how it all came about?"
Then he realized how long he'd been away from Blair. How Blair,
doubtless, supposed him dead, and, most naturally, the boy had gone on
with the story, and here was the splendid result.
He sat through the thing enthralled, and when the finale came, so
exactly as he had planned that smashing great scene, he could have
yelled his applause. But he didn't, he simply sat still in glad
anticipation of seeing it all over again.
But he was disappointed. It was not a continuous performance--the long
play was a whole evening's entertainment, and opening and closing hours
were like those of a regular theater.
So Peter determined to come the next night to see it again, and to see
the first part that he had missed.
"Great old play," he thought, delightedly. "Wonder if Blair put it on
before he died, or if it's posthumous."
He picked up a stray program as he left the place--he had had none
before--and put it in his pocket to look over at home.
"At least, I'm not suffering from lack of interests or diversion," he
said, "but, by Jingo, I've just thought of it! What about money!
"I've enough to hang out at that hotel about a week and that's all. I'll
have to tell Dad I'm here, or get a job or rob a bank. And what can I do
to turn an honest penny? And I can't go to work under an assumed name!
Oh, hang it all, I've got to come to life! Much as I love Dad and much
as I want to save him from all ridicule and disaster about that
abominable book, I've simply got to live my own life!
"But I won't decide till my cash gets lower than it is now. I'll go a
bit further in my investigations and then we'll see about it."
Comfortably seated in his room he drew out the program to look over.
To his unbounded amazement he learned from the title page that the
author of the play and also the producer, or, at least, the president of
the producing company was--Christopher Shelby!
"Kit! Good old top!" he cried aloud.
"Oh, I must see him," he thought, "I just must see him! So Kit wrote the
thing--well, I suppose he and Blair did it together-- I recognize Kit's
hand more especially in the producing element--and then, old Gilbert,
bless him, was killed, and Kit went ahead alone-- I can't think Mac
Thorpe did for Gil--oh, I must see _somebody_ or I'll go crazy!"
And because he was afraid to trust himself to keep away from the
telephone any longer, Peter Boots went to bed.
The night brought counsel.
Clarifying his thoughts, Peter tried first to see where his duty lay.
To his parents, first of all, he decided, for he was a devoted son, and
all his life he had loved and revered both father and mother more than
most boys do. Julie, too, but, so far he had no reason to think she had
any special claim on him.
Well, then, what did his duty to his parents dictate?
Common sense said that they would far rather have their son with them
alive than to rest secure in the success of the book his father had
written.
But the book itself was, to his mind, quite outside the pale of common
sense, and could not be judged by any such standards.
Certain pages, special paragraphs in that book, stood out in his mind,
and he knew that never had there been such a fiasco as would ensue if
the long lost and deeply mourned hero of it should return! His return in
the spirit was so gloatingly related, so triumphantly averred, that his
return in the flesh would be a terrific anti-climax.
He remembered the gypsy's prophecy--how it had come true!
But the return, foretold by the second gypsy, was now verified in the
flesh and put to naught all the fake returns narrated in the book.
Much stress was laid, in his father's story, on the spiritual return
being what the gypsy meant. Now, Peter had proved that that prophecy
meant, if it meant anything at all, his return in the flesh.
Anyway, here he was, very much alive, and very uncertain what to do with
his live self.
Should he go away, out West, or to some distant place and start life
anew, under an assumed name, and leave his father to his delusion? Was
that his duty?
He was not necessary to his parents, either as a help to their support
or as a comfort to their hearts.
He did not do them the injustice to think that they had never mourned
for him, or that they had not missed him in the home. All this was fully
and beautifully set forth in the book.
But they had been compensated by the comfort and enjoyment afforded them
by their _seances_, and by the messages they continually received from
him!
And he could see no way, try as he would, that he could inform them of
his return without causing them dismay and distress.
For if they knew him to be alive he must take again his old place in the
home--and then what would his father be?
A laughing-stock, a crushed and crestfallen victim of the most
despicable sort of fraud!
It would never do. He couldn't bring positive trouble into his father's
life on the off chance of removing a sorrow, which, though real, was
softened and solaced by the very fraud that he would expose.
No; the more he thought the more he saw his duty was to eliminate
himself for all time from his home and friends.
And Carly?
He tried not to think about her, for his duty must be his paramount
consideration. He would wait a day or so, and then disappear again, and
forever.