CHAPTER XX.
A MESSAGE FROM ABROAD.
"I LIKE this, grandfather. I think I like it better than anything I haveseen. In the sunlight the cathedral is too dazzling and white, and theeye does not seem to find any rest; but in the moonlight it is perfectlylovely. And then the music of that Austrian band is just right fromhere; it is not too loud, and yet we can hear every note. Somehow, Ialways like better not to see the players, but just to have the benefitof the music as we do now, and to sit taking it in, and looking at thatglorious cathedral, all silver and black, in the moonlight. It isglorious!" Harry murmured, "I could not have believed there was anythingso lovely."
"Yes, yes," Captain Bayley said absently, "the ices are good."
"I am not talking of the ices, grandfather, though no doubt they aregood. I am talking about the cathedral."
"Are you, my boy?" Captain Bayley said, rousing himself. "Yes, there arecathedrals which beat Milan when seen in broad daylight, but in themoonlight there is no building in the world to compare with it, unlessit be the Taj Mahal at Agra. Of course they differ wholly and entirelyin style, and no comparison can be made between them; the onlyresemblance is that both are built of white marble; but of the two, Iown that I prefer the Taj."
"I am afraid I shall never see that," Alice Hardy said, "but I am quitecontent with Milan; I could stop here for a month."
"A month, my dear!" Captain Bayley exclaimed, in consternation, "threedays will be ample. You know we agreed to stop here till Friday, andthen to go on to Como."
"Well, perhaps we will let you go on Friday, but we shall have to dawdleabout the lakes for some time. We can't rush through them as we havebeen rushing through all these grand old Italian towns. We must have along rest there, you know."
"Yes, I suppose so," the old officer said reluctantly; "but I like to beon the move."
Captain Bayley had, indeed, somewhat tried his two young companions byhis eagerness to be ever on the move. They had now been nearly two yearsabsent from England; they had visited all the principal towns of Germanyand Austria, had gone down the Danube and stopped at Constantinople, hadspent a fortnight in the Holy Land, and had then gone to Egypt andascended the Nile as far as the First Cataract, then they had taken asteamer to Naples, and thence made their way up through Italy to Milan,and now were about to cross over into Switzerland, and were, afterspending a month there, to go on to Paris, and thence home.
The highest surgical advice, and the most skilful appliances, aided bythe benefit he had derived from the German baths, had done much forHarry, and he had for months passed many hours a day in the hands of askilful shampooer, who travelled with him as valet. He had, to a greatextent, recovered the use of his legs, and now walked with theassistance of two sticks, and there was every hope that in time he wouldbe able to dispense with these aids, although he would always walksomewhat stiffly. Captain Bayley was delighted at this improvement inhis grandson, and would have been perfectly happy had it not been forthe continual worry caused him by the failure of his advertisements toelicit any news whatever of Frank.
It was this uncertainty that caused his restlessness, and he was forever pressing forward to the next town to which he had directed lettersto be sent, constantly suffering disappointments when he found the usualannouncement from his solicitor that no news had been obtained of hismissing nephew.
Alice and Harry shared his anxiety; but their pleasure in the new scenesthey were visiting prevented their being so entirely engrossed in thesubject as he was; and although scarcely a day passed without some talkas to Frank's whereabouts, and the probability of his discovery, theywere able to put the subject aside and to enter with full zest into thescenes they were visiting. But in Captain Bayley's mind the question wasalways uppermost; sincerely attached as he had always been to Frank, thethought that his favourite might have suffered a cruel and dastardlywrong, and might now be slaving for his living in some unknown part ofthe world, worried and troubled him incessantly, and he felt that, happyas he was at the discovery of his grandson, he could never be contentedand tranquil until this matter was cleared up. Besides, in his will FredBarkley was still standing as heir to one-third of his fortune, and thethought that he might die before the mystery was cleared up, and thatpossibly this property might go to the man he suspected of so foul acrime, was absolutely intolerable to the old officer. He had, indeed,been engaged in a correspondence with his lawyer, Mr. Griffith, inreference to his will, which he wanted worded so that Fred Barkleyshould not take the fortune left him until the question of the theft ofthe ten pounds should be cleared up. Mr. Griffith pointed out that itwas scarcely possible to frame a will in such a way.
"Had your nephew been publicly accused of the crime, doubtless a clausemight be framed by which the money would remain in the hands of trusteesuntil he had cleared himself to their satisfaction; but in this casethere is no shadow of suspicion against him. Another person has, in theeyes of those who know the circumstances of the affair, been adjudgedguilty. No one has breathed a word against the honour of your nephew;and therefore to say that he shall not touch the legacy until his honouris cleared would be to take a most extraordinary, and, I think,unprecedented course. In fact I don't see how it could be done."
Captain Bayley had replied hotly that it must be done, and, owing to hisfrequent changes of address, and the time occupied in the letterspassing to and fro, the correspondence had already lasted for somemonths. What enraged Captain Bayley most of all was that Mr. Griffithwould not admit that any doubt whatever existed as to Frank Norris'sguilt, nor that there was a shadow of reasonable suspicion against hiscousin; and each time the evidence was marshalled up, Captain Bayley hadto acknowledge to himself that the lawyer's arguments were unanswerable,and that the only grounds that he himself had for his doubts were hisaffection for Frank, and the fixed, passionate belief of Alice Hardy inhis innocence. That day Captain Bayley was exceptionally out of temperand irascible, for he had that morning received a letter from Mr.Griffith positively declining to draw up a clause for insertion in thewill of the nature he desired, and saying that if Captain Bayleyinsisted upon its insertion, much as he should regret it after so long aconnection had existed between them, he should prefer that his clientshould place himself in other hands.
"I trust," he said, "that this will cause no interruption in thepersonal friendship which has for years existed between us, but I wouldrisk even that rather than draft a clause which I consider would be inthe highest degree unjust, and which, I tell you fairly, would, Ibelieve, be upset in any court of law. Nothing would, in my opinion, bemore unfair, I may say more monstrous, than that a hand should bestretched from the grave to strike a blow at the honour of a young manof stainless reputation."
Captain Bayley at all times disliked opposition; he disliked itespecially when, as in the present instance, he felt that he was in thewrong.
When they returned to their hotel the waiter informed Alice that agentleman had called twice, while they were out, to see her. He had notleft a card, saying that Miss Hardy would not know his name, but that hehad a message to give her, and that he would not occupy her time morethan a few minutes if she would be good enough to see him.
"It sounds quite mysterious," Alice said, smiling to her uncle.
"Was it a young gentleman or an old?" she asked the waiter in French.
"An elderly gentleman, Signora."
"Some elderly millionaire, Alice," Captain Bayley growled sarcastically,as they ascended the stairs, "who has seen you in the streets, andwishes to lay himself and his fortune at your feet."
"That must be it," Alice laughed. "But perhaps he has brought me amessage from some of the many ladies we have met in our travels. Isuppose I had better see him if he comes again."
"I suppose so," Captain Bayley said. "He is not likely to eat you, andas my room opens off the sitting-room, you have only to scream and I cancome in to your rescue."
"Very well, I will scream, uncle, if necessary. But do you think hewants to see
me alone?"
"As he has only asked for you, and no one else, I suppose he does. Atany rate I have no lively curiosity as to his visit, and I don't supposeHarry has either. Most likely it's some man who wants to sell youjewellery or cameos, or to ask you for a subscription for the chaplain,or to beg of you on some pretext or other; they are always at it. He sawyour name on the hotel list standing without any male protector of thesame name. No doubt he thinks you are an elderly spinster with money."
"I expect it's something of that sort, Alice," Harry laughed.
But Alice insisted that she was convinced that the mysterious strangerhad something important to communicate to her. As she was taking herthings off there was a knock at the door, and the waiter said--
"The gentleman who before called is below."
"Show him up into our sitting-room," she said, and at once went in toreceive him. "He's just coming up, uncle," she said, tapping at CaptainBayley's door. He opened it a few inches.
"I have got my pistol handy, Alice, in case you scream."
Alice laughed, and as she turned round there was a knock at the door.The waiter announced Monsieur Adams, and an elderly gentleman entered.
"You must be surprised at the intrusion of a stranger at this hour ofthe evening, Miss Hardy; but my excuse must be that I have for nearlytwo months been following your footsteps, and I was afraid that if I putoff calling upon you until the morning I might find that you had gone."
"Following me for two months!" Alice repeated, in great surprise. "I donot understand, sir."
"Naturally, Miss Hardy, the statement appears a strange one to you; butthe fact is I made a promise to deliver a message to you. I found uponreaching England that you had left; I obtained your address at Cairo,and went there only to find you had left a fortnight before my arrival;then I followed you to Naples, and was a week too late. At Rome I missedyou by a day, and as I could not learn there, at your hotel, where youwere going next, beyond the fact that you had gone North, I have beenhunting for you ever since."
"But, sir," Alice said, more and more surprised, "what message couldpossibly be of sufficient importance for you to undertake so long ajourney to deliver it?"
"I did not know how long you might be before you returned to England,Miss Hardy, and as I knew how anxiously the answer to my message wouldbe expected, I preferred to follow you, in order that there might be nomore delay than necessary."
Suddenly a thought flashed across Alice Hardy's brain. She advanced astep nearer to her visitor, and exclaimed--
"Do you come from my cousin Frank?"
"You have guessed rightly. I met him abroad; I am not at liberty atpresent to say where. He rendered me one of the greatest services oneman can render to another--he saved my life, and did much more; but uponthat it is not now necessary to enter."
"But the message, sir," Alice interrupted, "you cannot know how we havebeen longing for a word from him all this time."
"I do not know yet, Miss Hardy, whether I have any message to deliver;it depends upon what you say in answer to what I tell you. I think I cangive you his very words as we sat together the night before I left forEngland: 'I have a little cousin, a girl, she was like my sister; Ithink, I hope, that in spite of everything she may still have believedme innocent. Will you see her, and tell her you have seen me? Say nomore until you see by her manner whether she believes me to be a rascalor not.'"
"No, no," Alice broke in, with a cry, "not for one moment; surely Franknever doubted me. Never for a single instant did I believe one wordagainst him."
"Is anything the matter, my dear?" Captain Bayley asked, opening hisdoor, for the sound of her raised voice had reached him.
"No, uncle," she cried, hurrying to him, "it is a message from Frank. Goaway a minute, or----No," and she turned again to Mr. Adams, "surely myuncle can hear too, he is as interested as I am."
"My message was to you alone, Miss Hardy," Mr. Adams said gravely; "Imust deliver it as it was delivered to me. It will be for you to decidewhether, after hearing it, you think it right to observe the injunctionit contains for your absolute silence."
"At least tell me, sir," Captain Bayley exclaimed, as much agitated asAlice, "whether he is alive and well."
"He is alive and well, sir--at least he was when I saw him last, nownearly four months ago."
"Thank God for that, at least," Captain Bayley said fervently. "Do notbe long, Alice; you know what I shall be feeling." He went back into hisroom again, and closed the door, and Mr. Adams continued--
"'If she thinks me a rascal, give her no clue to the part of the worldwhere you have come across me, simply say that I wished her to know thatI am alive and well.' There, Miss Hardy, my message would have ended hadyou not declared your faith in his innocence; I can now go on: 'If yousee that she still, in spite of everything, believes that I am innocent,then tell her that I affirm on my honour and word that I am so'--Alicegave a cry of joy--'though I see no way of proving it. Tell her that Ido not wish her to tell my uncle that she has heard of me; that I do notwish her to say one word to him, for, much as I value his affection, Iwould not for the world seem to be trying to gain the place he thinks Ihave forfeited, until I can appear before him as a rich man whom nothingcould induce to touch one penny of his money, and who values only hisgood-will and esteem.'
"That is all the message, Miss Hardy. But now that I see you have neverbelieved him guilty, I am at liberty to tell you that we met inCalifornia, and to give you an address to which you can write atSacramento, and I can tell you the story of our acquaintance; but as thestory is a long one, and it is now late, I will, with your permission,call in the morning again."
Tears were streaming down the girl's face as she lifted her head.
"Thank you, sir! oh, thank you so much! You cannot tell how happy yourmessage has made me--how happy it will make us all, for I am sure thatFrank will not blame me for breaking his injunction. He cannot tell thecircumstances; he does not know that my uncle has fretted as much asmyself. He evidently thinks that he believes him guilty, though why heshould do so I don't know, for at first he was just as much convinced asI was of Frank's innocence, and it was only Frank's silence and hisgoing away without saying one word in defence of himself that made himdoubt him. Would you mind sitting here for a minute or two while I go into him? We want to hear so much, if you are not in a hurry."
"I am in no hurry," Mr. Adams said, smiling. "After travelling for twomonths to deliver a message, one would not mind sitting up for a fewhours to deliver it thoroughly; and let me tell you that if my messagehas made you happy, your reception of it has given me almost equalsatisfaction. I should have been grieved beyond expression to have hadto write to him that you doubted him, for my dear friend said, 'If yourcommission fails, I shall lose my last pleasant thought of home.'"
"Poor Frank!" Alice murmured, as she turned to go to her uncle's room,"how could he have ever doubted us?"
"Uncle," she said, as she entered, "I feel quite justified in tellingyou Frank's message to me. Why it was sent to me instead of to you I donot know, except that it seems as if he thought that I might believe himinnocent, while somehow he had an idea that you thought he was guilty."
"Does he say he is innocent, Alice?" Captain Bayley broke in.
"He does, uncle; he declares on his honour and word that he isinnocent."
"Thank God!" the old officer said, dropping into a chair and coveringhis face with his hands. For a minute he sat silent, but Alice could seehow deeply he was affected.
"Don't say any more, my dear," he said, in a low, shaken voice. "I haveheard quite enough; it was only Frank's assurance that I have beenwanting all this time. I am content now. Thank God that this burden islifted off one's mind. Go in and tell Harry; I should like to be alonefor a few minutes."
"Yes, uncle; and Frank's friend is in the next room, and will tell usall about him when you are ready to hear it."
Harry was greatly delighted at the news, and after a few minutes Alicereturned with him t
o the sitting-room. She knocked at her uncle's door,and called out, "We are here, uncle, when you are ready to come in." Inanother minute Captain Bayley entered. He went up to Mr. Adams.
MEETING OF CAPTAIN BAYLEY AND MR. ADAMS.]
"You have brought me the best news I have ever heard, sir; you cannottell what a weight you have lifted from my shoulders, and how I feelindebted to you."
"Yes, uncle, and do you know that Mr. Adams has been travelling nearlytwo months to deliver the message, knowing how anxious Frank will be tohear how it was received. He went to Egypt after us, and finding we hadleft has been following us ever since."
"God bless you, sir!" Captain Bayley said, seizing Mr. Adams's hand andshaking it violently, "you are a friend indeed. Now in the first place,please tell me the message you have given my niece, for so far I haveonly heard that Frank declared that he is innocent; that was quiteenough for me at first. I want to know why I was to be kept in thedark."
"The message will explain that," Mr. Adams replied, and he againrepeated the message he had given Alice.
"Yes, that explains it," Captain Bayley said, when he had finished;"that's just like the boy of old. I like him for that. But why on earthdid he not say he was innocent at first?"
"That I cannot tell you; I know no more of the past than the message Ihave given you, except he said that he had been wrongfully suspected ofcommitting a crime, and that, although he was innocent, the caseappeared absolutely conclusive against him, and that he saw no chancewhatever of his being cleared, save by the confession of the person whohad committed the offence."
"But why on earth didn't he say he was innocent?" Captain Bayleyrepeated, with something of his old irritation. "What possessed himto run away as if he were guilty without making one protest to us thathe was innocent?"
"I cannot tell you, sir. As I said, I know nothing whatever of thecircumstance; I do not even know the nature of the accusation againsthim. I only know, from my knowledge of his character, that he is a nobleand generous young man, and that he never could have been guilty of anydishonourable action."
"Nobody would ever have thought he would," Captain Bayley said sharply,"unless he had as much as said so himself by running away when thisridiculous accusation was brought forward. I should as soon have doubtedmy own existence as supposed he had stolen a ten-pound note had he notrun away instead of facing it like a man. Until he bolted withoutsending me a word of denial or explanation. I would have knocked any mandown who had said he believed him guilty. The evidence had no moreweight in my mind than the whistling of the wind; my doubts are of hisown creation. Thank God they are at an end now that he has declared heis innocent. He has behaved like a fool, but there are so many foolsabout that there is nothing out of the way in that. Still it was one ofthe follies I should not have expected of Frank. That he should get intoa foolish scrape from thoughtlessness, or high spirits, or devilry, orthat sort of thing, I could imagine; but I am astonished that he shouldhave committed an act of folly due to cowardice."
"I won't hear you, uncle, any more," Alice exclaimed; "I know that youdon't mean anything you say, and that you are one of the happiest men inthe world this evening; but of course Mr. Adams does not know you as wedo, and does not understand that all this means that you are so relievedfrom the anxiety that you have felt for the last two years that you areobliged to give vent to your feelings somehow. Please, Mr. Adams, don'tregard what my uncle says in the slightest, but tell us all about Frank.As to his going away, we know nothing about his motives, or why he went,or anything else, and I am quite sure he will be able to explain it whenwe see him; as to running away from cowardice, uncle knows as well as wedo that the idea is simply ridiculous. So please go on, and if uncleinterrupts we will go down to another sitting-room and he shall hearnothing about it."
Mr. Adams then told the story of his acquaintance with Frank; how, whenall seemed dark, when he was lying prostrate with fever brought on byoverexertion and insufficient food, Frank had come to his son and hadinsisted on helping him; how he had helped to nurse him, and how,finally, Frank and his companions had worked the claim and realised afortune for him. He told how popular Frank was among his companions, howready he was to do a kindly action to any one needing it, and finallyrepeated the conversation they had had together the last evening, andFrank's determination not to return to England until he had gained sucha fortune that he could not be suspected of desiring to gain anythingbut his uncle's esteem when he presented himself before him and declaredhe was innocent.
"The young scamp," Captain Bayley growled, "thinking all the time of hisown feelings and not of mine. It's nothing to him that I may be frettingmyself into my grave in the belief of his guilt; nothing that I may bedead years and years before he comes home with this precious fortune herelies on making. Oh no! we are all to wait another twenty years inorder that this jackanapes may not be suspected of being mercenary;three dozen at the triangles would do him a world of good, and if hewere here I would----"
"You wouldn't do anything but shake his hand, and shout 'Frank, my boy,I am glad to see you back again,' so it's no use pretending that youwould," Alice interrupted. "And now, Mr. Adams, it's past twelve, and Ifeel ashamed that we should have kept you so long; but I know you don'tmind, and you have made us all very happy. You will come again in themorning, will you not? There is so much to ask about, and we have notyet even begun to tell you how deeply we are all obliged to you for yourgoodness in hurrying away from England directly you got home, and inspending weeks and weeks wandering about after us."
"I shall be glad to call again in the morning, Miss Hardy, but I shallstart for England in the evening; I am anxious to be back now that mymission is fulfilled. My son is to be married in ten days' time, and hewould like me to be present, although he said in his last letter that hequite agreed that the first thing of all was to find you and deliver themessage, whether I got home or not. As I have several matters to arrangebefore his marriage, presents to get, or one thing or other, I shall gostraight through."
"That is right," Captain Bayley said, "we will travel together, my dearsir; for of course we shall go straight back to England now. We havebeen dawdling about in this wretched country long enough. Besides,everything has to be arranged, and we have got to get to the bottom ofthis matter; so if you have no objection, we will travel home together.If the young people here want to dawdle about any longer they can do so;I dare say they can look after themselves, or if not, I can make anarrangement with some old lady or other to act as Alice's chaperon."
"You silly old man," Alice said, kissing him, "as if we were not just asanxious to get home and to get to the bottom of the thing as you are."
So the next afternoon the party started in the diligence which was totake them over the St. Gothard to Lucerne.
Alice had by this time heard, somewhat to the confusion of her ideas,that Frank was no longer the lad she had always depicted him, but atall, powerful young man, rough and tanned by exposure, and a fair matchin strength for the wildest character in the mining camp.
By the time they reached London Mr. Adams and Captain Bayley had becomefast friends, and the first thing the next morning, Captain Bayley drovewith Alice to Bond Street and purchased the handsomest gold watch andchain he could find as a wedding-present for young Adams, and a braceletas handsome for Alice to send to the bride; then he sent Alice home inthe carriage and proceeded to his lawyer's. He returned home in theworst of tempers. Mr. Griffith had refused to admit that the receipt ofFrank's message had in any way changed the position.
"I understood all along, Captain Bayley, that your nephew, when accusedby his master, had denied the theft; the mere fact that he now, threeyears later, repeats the denial to you, does not, so far as I can see,alter the situation in the slightest. He says that he's not in aposition to disprove any of the circumstances alleged against him. Ofcourse you are at liberty to believe him now, just as you believed himat first, and as, on mature consideration, you disbelieved himafterwards; but that is a m
atter quite of individual opinion. You haveannounced to Mr. Barkley that you intend to leave him a third of yourfortune, and it would be in the highest degree unjust to make anyalteration now, without a shadow of reason for doing so. Personally, nodoubt, it is a satisfaction to you to have recovered your belief inFrank's innocence, but that ought not to interfere in any way with thearrangements that you have made. My own belief is, as I have told you,that, pressed for money, and afraid of expulsion were his escapade ofgoing out at night discovered, Frank yielded to a momentarytemptation--a grievous fault, but not an irreparable one--one, at anyrate, for which he has been severely punished, and for which he may wellbe forgiven. So far I am thoroughly with you, but I cannot and will notfollow you in what I consider your absolutely unfounded idea that he isinnocent, and that his cousin--against whom there is not a vestige ofevidence, while the proof the other way is overwhelming--is the realoffender."
Whereupon Captain Bayley had returned home in a state of fury.
"But, after all, uncle," Alice said, after listening for some time tohis outburst against lawyers in general, and Mr. Griffith in particular,"it really is reasonable what Mr. Griffith says. You and I and Harry,who know Frank so well, are quite sure that he is innocent; but otherpeople who don't know him in the same way might naturally take the otherview, for, as Mr. Griffith says, the proofs were strong against him, andthere was nothing whatever to connect Fred Barkley with the crime. Ihave been talking it over with Harry since I came back, and he agreeswith me that we must, as you say, get to the bottom of the whole affairbefore we go any further.
"Well, isn't that what we have been trying to do all along?" CaptainBayley exclaimed angrily. "How are we to get to the bottom of it? If youwill tell me that I will grant that you have more sense in your headthan I have ever given you credit for."
"My idea, grandfather, is this," Harry said. "We have not yet heardFrank's side of the story. I am convinced that if we heard that weshould get some new light upon it; and my proposal is that you and Ishall at once start for California and see Frank, and hear all about it.It seems to me that he has been silent because he has some mistaken ideathat you believe in his guilt, and when you assure him that you have anabsolute faith in his innocence, he will go into the whole matter, andin that case we shall probably find some clue which we can follow up andget at the truth."
"The very thing, Harry," the Captain exclaimed impetuously, "we willstart by the first ship, you and I, and find this troublesome youngrascal, and have it out with him."
"And I shall go too, of course, uncle," Alice Hardy exclaimed; "I am notgoing to be left behind by myself."
"Impossible, Alice! you don't know what the country is. You could not gowandering about up in the mountains, looking for him through all sortsof mining camps, with no decent place for a woman to sleep."
"No, uncle; but I could stay at San Francisco till you came back withhim; there must be some sort of people there you could leave me with. Iam sure you would not be so unkind as to leave me in England in a stateof anxiety all these months. You know I enjoy the sea, and you will wantsomebody to look after you during the voyage, and to see that you don'tget into scrapes with that dreadful temper of yours. Besides, you musthave some one to scold; you could not get on without it, and you don'tscold Harry half so vigorously as you do me."
And so at last it was settled, and a week later Captain Bayley, hisgrandson, and Alice Hardy, sailed for Panama.