CHAPTER XXV.
THE MYSTERY OF TRINITY CHURCH-YARD EXPLAINED AT LAST.
At the sight of Elijah Callister and his companion standing before himwith cocked pistols in their hands amid the shadows of the cellar,Frank Mansfield sprang from the hole in which he stood.
Seizing the pick-ax, he advanced bravely toward the man who long hadbeen the persecutor of himself and his afflicted family, heedless ofthe glittering muzzles of the revolvers pointed directly at his head.
Barney the Bootblack, Garibaldi and Sandy had meanwhile sought refugeamong the boxes and barrels, the little Italian making the cellar ringagain with his cries of fear.
"Shoot, if you dare, Elijah Callister!" cried Frank, with proudlycurling lip. "You helped to kill my father, you drove my mother mad.Murder me, if you dare! There is justice for such as you. As God hearsme, it will descend swift and sure upon your sinful head."
"Be careful, Lije," whispered the man by his side. "There are three ofthem--we can't kill them all. By Heaven! the lad is right, there hasbeen murder enough. Beside, he is my nephew, poor Helen's son, and Isay he shan't be killed!"
It was Reuben Tisdale, the burglar, the husband of the dead Mrs.Marley, by whose hand that unfortunate creature came to her untimelyend in the little house in the rear of the Donegal Shades.
As he spoke these words, with one blow he struck the pistol from thehands of Elijah Callister, his own hand falling to his side.
"Meddling fool!" cried the broker, fiercely, springing upon him. "Thetreasure for which we have risked so much lies uncovered before usat last, and now you would spoil it all! That boy must die or we areruined! I tell you he has been a spy upon us; he has----"
"Stop! He is my son, Elijah Callister, and he shall live! Harm one hairof his head at the peril of your life!"
Through the dark passages of the cellar the words resounded.
Instantly there burst upon the scene a blaze of light.
It rested upon the boxes and barrels, it fell upon the cobweb-hungbeams overhead, and, glancing back, lit up the faces of Callister,Tisdale and Frank with a strange, unearthly glare.
With a loud cry the bank burglar, heedless of the blow aimed at him byhis infuriated companion, sprang back.
"Lije! Lije! Look! look! It is Maria's ghost again!" he cried,frantically, clapping his hands before his face to shut out the lightwhich met his gaze.
Before them standing by the side of the hole in which the buriedtreasure lay hidden, was the form of the mysterious woman who hadplayed so stirring a part in this tale.
With one warning finger outstretched before her she glided forward andplaced her form in front of Frank.
"Go, vile wretches!" she fiercely cried. "Go and work evil no more tome and mine! May Heaven's vengeance fall upon you both for your manycrimes."
For an instant Elijah Callister stood regarding her with set teeth andeyes filled with snake-like glittering.
As he did so a mist seemed to rise before them, obscuring the woman andthe youth, who now held her clasped tightly in his arms, from view.
And the light increased.
Through the cellar a loud crackling noise was heard as the lightincreased.
One glance behind him explained the sounds.
The rubbish which filled the cellar had burst out into a sheet of flame.
"It's all up with us, Rube, curses on your folly!" he whisperedfiercely, as, grasping by the collar the man who had crouched coweringby his side, he dragged him toward the cellar stairs.
"Fire! Fire! Oh! missus! I've dropped the pan! and the hull business isa-burnin' up!"
Out from among the burning rubbish sprang a frightened boy.
It was Jerry Buck, with every hair standing up in horror, his jacketall ablaze.
"Take her through the window, boys!" cried Frank, springing toward thefleeing men. "Save her and save yourselves while I deal with thesevillains fate has thrown into my hands!"
He sprang toward Callister and seized him by the collar of his coat.
Too late!
With a sudden twist the stock-broker jerked himself free, and leavingthe coat in the hands of Frank, had followed Reuben Tisdale up thecellar stairs.
To attempt to follow them was useless.
A wall of seething flames, bursting forth from the rubbish of yearsaccumulated beneath the stairs, now intervened.
Meanwhile, Barney and Sandy had assisted the woman through the openwindow, gaining a place of safety without, while little Garibaldi wasbravely but vainly endeavoring to pull the burning jacket from the backof Jerry Buck that he might be able to escape.
All attempt to follow Callister was useless.
Frank saw that at a glance.
"Let him go," he muttered. "Heaven will deal with him according to hisdeserts. After all, I cannot harm him, for he is the father of the girlI love."
He sprang toward Jerry, and wrapping the coat left in his hands by thefleeing stock broker about him, thus smothering the flames, drew himhastily through the cellar window, Garibaldi, the Italian, followingwith all possible speed.
The mysterious woman, Barney and Sandy stood upon the snow coveredground awaiting them.
With a low cry of joy the woman threw herself into Frank Mansfield'sarms.
"My son--my darling boy!" she cried, wildly kissing his cheeks andstroking his hair. "Thank God I hold you in my arms once more! I havesought to prove your innocence, and though I have so far failed, comewhat will, we must not part again."
As she spoke these words behind the little group the roaring of theflames increased.
From the window of the first floor of the old mansion they now burstforth, illuminating the landscape for yards around.
"Mother, can this indeed be you?" cried Frank, gazing upon the wornfeatures of the woman in mingled astonishment and surprise.
"It is, my son. And did you think me dead?"
"I most certainly did. I left you beneath the church-yard wallwhen--when I went into the bank. When I came out you were gone, andnext morning I saw that which I could have sworn was your dead bodylying in a house in Catherine street in the rear of a place they callthe Donegal Shades."
The woman smiled sadly.
"Listen, Frank," she said, with more calmness than she had beforedisplayed. "Listen to my story, to be told in a few brief words, andyou will understand this mystery which has been puzzling you for weeks."
Here Barney was seen to glance at Jerry Buck, who stood quietly by,still wrapped in Mr. Callister's coat.
Neither spoke, however, and Frank stood breathlessly listening to whathis mother was about to tell.
"I escaped from the asylum where Mr. Callister had placed me," beganthe unfortunate Mrs. Mansfield, "some weeks since as you know. I hadbeen mad, but was so no longer, although no one would believe mewhen I told them so. My first care was to look for you, my son. Withsorrow I heard of your dissipation and wrong-doing, and knowing wellthe interest Mr. Callister had at stake in leading you into crime, Idetermined to watch over you in secret and save you if I could. Butthis was after the time when, in desperation at what I had heard, Iattempted to commit suicide by jumping into the river, from which I wasrescued by this brave boy, known to you as Jerry Buck, but instantlyrecognized by me as the outcast son of my unfortunate twin sister,Maria Tisdale, the wife of that man who a moment ago stood in thecellar of yonder burning house by Elijah Callister's side. Stop! Do notinterrupt me!" she exclaimed, seeing that Frank was about to speak. "Acrowd will gather here before many minutes. Before it comes we must befar away. I knew the lad's features at a glance, and I told him who andwhat I was. In return he took me to the home of the 'Bats' in the oldtomb beneath the church-yard wall.
"On the night of the bank robbery I followed you from the time you leftMr. Callister's office until I spoke to you in the street by the sideof the fence which surrounds the grave-yard of Trinity Church.
"You would not heed my warning--you left me in the hands of those twoyoung ruffians while you entered the bank
to do the wrong into whichyou had been led by that young villain, Cutts, whom I knew to be athief and an associate of thieves.
"No sooner had you entered than Cutts sprang back, and joining the twoyoung men who had held me down, all three ran off down Rector streetand disappeared.
"Meanwhile I slipped across the street and crawled beneath an emptytruck, determined to follow you in secret the instant you appeared.
"There I found this good boy, Barney, who told me of the bank robberyand just how it had occurred. He had with him the tin box, also,which the burglars had dropped in the street. Examining the papers Irecognized your grandfather's will at a glance.
"This I left with Barney, with instructions to give it to you, whileI took the parchment myself, that by no combination of circumstancesmight it be lost.
"It was by my directions that Barney rescued you and took you into thevault, and when I knew you were safe I started to meet my unfortunatesister, Mrs. Tisdale--who had long been suffering from insanity fromthe brutal treatment of her husband--whom I had just succeeded infinding upon the morning of the day in which these events occurred.
"At the corner of Rector street and Broadway I met Detective Hook.
"He followed me, but at Park Row and Frankfort street, seeing mysister, who exactly resembled me, awaiting me, I slipped away while hiseyes were for the moment turned, and saw him following her in my stead."
"Then it was she who was murdered?" cried Frank, lost in wonder andsurprise.
"It was," replied Mrs. Mansfield, sadly. "Murdered beyond all doubt bythe husband who drove her mad and made her life a curse."
"And he's the man I'll hang, even if he is my father!" exclaimed JerryBuck, who, with whitened features and firmly-set teeth, had beenlistening attentively to the woman's tale.
"See here," he added, stretching out his hand in which a bundle ofpapers was grasped. "I've been looking at these 'ere while you two havebeen talking, an' can read well enough to know that they'll give me thegrip on him an' his pal."
"Where did you find them?" cried Frank, eagerly.
He had seized the papers from Jerry Buck, and hastily examined them inthe light of the burning house from which the flames were now pouring,illuminating the surrounding scene with the brightness of day.
They were small, but well-executed plans of the vaults of the LispenardBank, all marked "duplicate," and bearing upon them Elijah Callister'sname.
"Where did I find them?" cried the boy. "Why, in the pocket of thishere coat to be sure. Come, we must take 'em to the chief of police.If they ain't the fixin' of him what killed my mother an' the fellerwhat's runnin' you down to earth, why, it won't be for want of tryin'on the part of the 'Bats in the Wall'--that's all I've got to say."