FATHER AND SON--CONCLUSION.
"Jack, do you mean to say you would put your own father in prison?"
asked Dr. Mackey reproachfully, after Old Ben had tied his hands behind
him.
"I would--were he such a fraud and villain as you, Dr. Mackey," was our
hero's calm reply. "You will never make me believe that any of your
blood flows in my veins."
"Then you believe I am an impostor?"
"I do."
The doctor fell back and sank on a bench. Jack's firm manner appeared to
take his nerve from him.
"What shall you do next?" he asked finally.
"Take you straight to our plantation."
"No! no! Colonel----" Dr. Mackey stopped short. "Do not take me there,
I beg of you!"
"But I shall take you there, and what is more, I am going to find out
what Colonel Stanton has to say concerning you."
At this the surgeon grew as pale as death.
"You--have no right to take me to the plantation. Remember, I am a
Confederate officer. If you keep me a prisoner, you will be liable to
heavy punishment."
"We'll risk it." Jack turned to Columbus Washington. "See if the rain is
letting up."
The colored man went out and presently reported that the worst of the
storm seemed over.
"Then we will start," said Jack. "Now, Dr. Mackey, if you try to escape,
I will order Old Ben to fire at you."
"You are very hard on your father."
"If you call me your son again, I will knock you down where you stand."
At this curt threat the surgeon relapsed into silence, his brow showing
plainly that he was in deep thought. The cabin was soon left behind, and
Columbus Washington showed the most direct route to the Ruthven
plantation. Jack came behind the colored man, with Dr. Mackey beside
him, and Old Ben brought up the rear, his gun ready to shoot at the
first sign of opposition upon the prisoner's part.
The first streaks of dawn were beginning to show themselves when the
party of four came in sight of the mansion. As they came closer Dr.
Mackey showed increased alarm over the situation.
"Jack, let us come to terms," he said presently.
"What terms?"
"For reasons of my own I do not wish to visit Mrs. Ruthven's house while
Colonel Stanton is under her roof."
"Surely you are not afraid of a sick man, even if he is a Yankee spy."
At this the surgeon winced.
"It is not that. I--I----"
"I will not listen to you. March!"
"But, Jack----"
"March, I say, or Old Ben shall fire on you."
With something resembling a groan the surgeon went on, and in a few
minutes more the party gained the piazza, and Jack was using the big
knocker on the door lustily.
"Who is there?" came from an upper window, and then Mrs. Ruthven uttered
a cry of joy. "Jack!"
"Yes, mother; I am back again; safe and sound," he answered.
Mrs. Ruthven was soon down and let him in. She was naturally startled to
behold Dr. Mackey, especially as a prisoner.
"What can this mean?" she began, and then looked at Jack curiously.
"Jack, do you know the truth?"
"What truth, mother?"
"That this man is an impostor."
"I have thought so all along. But what do you know of this?"
"Colonel Stanton is here, Jack. He knows Dr. Mackey only too well."
"So I supposed from what this fellow said."
"To you?"
"No, to St. John."
"My dear Mrs. Ruthven, this is all a dreadful mistake," burst in the
surgeon. "I do not know Colonel Stanton at all. I spoke of a Colonel
Stanwood--quite a different person, I can assure you."
"I do not believe you, Dr. Mackey," answered Mrs. Ruthven emphatically.
"You are very hard upon me, madam."
"I think I have a right to be hard upon you, sir. You have tried your
best to rob me of my son."
"But he shan't do it, mother," put in Jack warmly.
"No, Jack, he'll never be able to do that--now," answered Mrs. Ruthven
significantly. And then she added, "See to it, Ben, that he does not get
away. I wish to speak to Jack in private."
"He shan't git away from Old Ben, nohow," answered the faithful negro.
Mrs. Ruthven led Jack into the parlor and closed the door carefully.
"My boy, I have a great surprise for you," she began. "Do you think you
can bear it?"
"What surprise, mother?" he asked quickly.
"Colonel Stanton is here, wounded. He has told me something of his past,
and it concerns you."
"Me?"
"Yes, Jack. You are not Dr. Mackey's son at all, but the son of the
colonel."
"I am Colonel Stanton's son!" gasped our hero, hardly able to frame the
words.
"I knew you would be amazed. But it is true, as he has proved beyond the
shadow of a doubt."
"But--but----" Jack tried to go on, but words failed him. He the son of
the colonel--the son of a Yankee officer? It was something of which he
had never dreamed. Yet, even on the instant, he remembered how much the
colonel had impressed him, and what a gentleman he had thought the
officer.
"I will tell you the story," went on Mrs. Ruthven, and did so. Jack was
all attention, and when he learned the true depth of Dr. Mackey's
villainy his eyes flashed fire.
"Now I understand why he didn't wish to meet Colonel Stanton face to
face," he said. "No wonder he is afraid."
"Your father is sleeping now," continued Mrs. Ruthven. "He is improved,
but still somewhat weak. You can go to him when he awakens. I think it
will be best, for the present, to keep the fact of Dr. Mackey's capture
a secret."
"You are right, mother."
The matter was talked over, and Dr. Mackey was later on taken to a
garret room and tied fast to an old four-poster bedstead, a piece of
furniture weighing considerably over a hundred pounds. Then Old Ben was
placed at the door to watch him.
Just before the colonel awoke Jack went in to see him. As our hero
looked at that handsome face his heart beat rapidly. He bent over and
kissed the colonel's forehead, and this awoke the wounded man.
"Jack, my son!" murmured the colonel, as his eyes rested on the face of
the youth. "My son, at last!"
"Father!" was the only word Jack could utter, but, oh, how much it
meant! Then he caught his parent by both hands, and for a moment there
was utter silence.
"I was so afraid something had happened to you," went on the colonel.
"Oh, Jack! you do not know how glad I am that we have found one
another!"
"And I am glad, too," replied our hero. "Do you know I was drawn to you
from the first time I saw you?" he added.
"And I was drawn to you--even though you were a little Confederate," and
the colonel smiled.
"And you are a Yankee!" cried Jack. "But I don't care what you are,
father," he continued hastily. "Blood is thicker than water; isn't it?"
"Yes, Jack; and what is more, I trust this cruel war will soon be over,
and we will have no North and no South, but just one country."
Jack remained with his parent for over an hour, then went off to see
what could be done with Dr. Mackey.
It was the middle of the forenoon when Marion discovered St. John
coming, accompanied by several Confederate soldiers.
"He has come to arrest my father," said Jack. "But he shan't do it."
"He will be surprised when we show him Dr. Mackey as a prisoner,"
returned Marion.
She went to let her cousin in, and St. John began at once to speak of
Colonel Stanton.
"He is a spy," said the spendthrift. "You should be ashamed to harbor
him in your house. These men will place him under arrest."
"I don't think they will," put in Jack, as he came forward. "So you are
here to do Dr. Mackey's dirty work, are you," he added.
"Eh? What--er--do you mean?" stammered St. John.
"You are found out, St. John," said Mrs. Ruthven, coming on the scene.
"And let me tell you that hereafter it will be best for you to remain
away from this place. You schemed to steal some of my things, but you
shall not do it."
"Why, Aunt Alice----" he began.
"It is true. Do you know that Dr. Mackey is a prisoner?"
At these words St. John fell back and grew very pale.
"A prisoner, did you say?" he faltered.
"Yes. He has plotted against not only Jack and myself, but also against
the Federal officer who is under my roof, badly wounded."
"You mean Colonel Stanton?"
"I do."
"He is a spy, aunt."
"He is nothing of the sort. He is a brave officer, and as such deserves
the best of treatment. St. John, the less you mix up in this affair the
better it will be for you."
A stormy scene followed, and St. John came out of it considerably
frightened, especially when he was told that the colonel was Jack's
father and that Dr. Mackey was proved to be a thorough villain.
"I--I won't ask for this arrest just now," he said, to the men he had
brought along. "We will let the matter drop for the present. The man is
too sick to be moved, anyway." And soon after he hurried away, and his
companions with him. He never showed himself at his aunt's door again.
"And we are well rid of him," said Marion. "He is as cowardly as he is
unprincipled."
On the day following Jack's return home there was a long-drawn battle in
the mountains between the Federal troops and the guerrillas, which
resulted in the killing off of a number of the outlaws, including those
who had held our hero a prisoner. In this contest Gendron was also
killed, and he died without revealing what he knew of Dr. Mackey's past.
The outlaws' camp was thoroughly searched, and here were found the goods
stolen from the trader who had been attacked in the storm, and also a
number of other things of value, including the tin box taken from the
wreck of the _Nautilus_. Later on this box, with its contents, was
turned over to Colonel Stanton.
"My precious papers!" said the officer to Jack, as he looked them over.
"My son, nothing now stands between us and our fortune."
A few words more and we will bring this tale to a close.
Colonel Stanton's recovery was slow, and by the time he got around again
the great Civil War was a thing of the past. For this the colonel was
truly thankful, and so were Jack, Mrs. Ruthven, and Marion.
As soon as it was possible to do so, the colonel resigned from the army.
This done, he set to work to prosecute Dr. Mackey and recover the
fortune due himself and Jack. As a result of these movements Dr. Mackey
received a term of ten years in prison, and inside of a year the
Stantons, father and son, came into possession of a fortune worth a
hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.
Colonel Stanton had thought at first to go back to the North and settle
down, but Mrs. Ruthven hated to part with Jack, and it was decided that
all should remain at the plantation. A year later the colonel married
the widow, so that Mrs. Ruthven, now Mrs. Stanton, became once more
Jack's mother.
"And that is just what I wanted," said Jack, after the wedding.
The ceremony at the plantation was a double one, for at the time Mrs.
Ruthven married the colonel Marion gave her heart into the keeping of
Dr. Harry Powell, who had now set up a lucrative practice for himself in
Philadelphia. The double wedding was a grand affair, and was the talk of
the neighborhood for a long time afterward. The Ruthvens from the other
plantation were invited, but while Mrs. Mary Ruthven came, St. John was
conspicuous by his absence.
St. John was now a worse spendthrift than ever, and it was not long
before the plantation went under the hammer, and Mrs. Mary Ruthven was
compelled to live upon her sister-in-law's charity. St. John drifted to
New Orleans and finally to the West, and that was the last heard of him.
Let us trust that he saw the error of his ways and turned over a new
leaf.
As for Jack, he proved to be indeed the son of a soldier, for some years
later he entered West Point Military Academy, and graduated with high
honors. From the Academy he, too, went West, but as an officer at one of
the well-known forts. His career here was full of daring and honor, and
he speedily rose to the position of colonel, which he filled with all of
his old-time bravery and loyalty.