III.
CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.
"The two witnesses had scarcely entered the room before the dying womanstretched out her hand again for the pen. As I handed it to her andplaced the document before her on my portfolio, I asked:
"'Do you declare this paper to be your last will and testament and doyou request these persons to witness it?'
"She bowed a quick acquiescence, and put the pen at the place I pointedout to her.
"'Shall I support your hand?' I pursued, fearful she would not have thestrength to complete the task.
"But she shook her head and wrote her name in hastily, with a feverishenergy that astonished me. Expecting to see her drop back exhausted ifnot lifeless as the pen left the paper, I drew the document away andbent to support her. But she did not need my assistance. Indeed shelooked stronger than before, and what was still more astonishing, seemedeven more anxious and burningly eager.
"'Is she holding up till the witnesses have affixed their signatures?'I inwardly queried. And intent upon relieving her, I hastily explainedto them the requirements of the case, and did not myself breathe easilytill I saw their two names below hers. Then I felt that she could rest;but to my surprise but one sigh of relief rose in that room, and thatwas from the cringing, cruel-eyed inheritor, who, at the firstintimation that the document was duly signed and attested, sprang fromhis corner with such a smile that the place seemed to grow hideous, andI drew involuntarily back.
"'Let me have it,' were his first words. 'I have lived in this hole, andfor fifteen years made myself a slave to her whims, till I have almostrotted away like the place itself. And now I want my reward. Let me havethe will.'
"His hand was on the paper and in my surprise I had almost yielded it upto him, when another hand seized it, and the dying, gasping woman,mumbling and mouthing, pointed for the third time to the clock and thento one corner of the paper, trying to make me understand something Ientirely failed to comprehend.
"'What is it?' I asked. 'What do you want? Is not the will to yourliking?'
"'Yes, yes,' her frenzied nods seemed to say, and yet she continuedpointing to the clock and then to the paper while the angry man beforeher stared and muttered in a mixture of perplexity and alarm which addedno little to the excitement of the harrowing scene.
"'Let me see if I can tell what she wants,' suddenly observed the youngwoman who had signed the paper as a witness. And bringing her sweetwomanly face around where the rolling eye of the woman could see her,she asked with friendly interest in her tone, 'Do you wish the time ofday written on the will?'
"Oh, the relief that swept over that poor woman's tortured countenance!She nodded and looked up at me so confidingly that in despite of theoddity of the request I rapidly penned after the date, the words 'athalf-past ten o'clock P.M.,' and caused the witnesses to note theaddition.
"This seemed to satisfy her, and she sank back with a sign that I was toyield to her brother's demand and give him the paper he coveted, andwhen I hesitated, started up again with such a frenzied appeal in herface that in the terror of seeing her die before our eyes, I yielded itto his outstretched hand, expecting at the most to see him put it in hispocket.
"But no, the moment he felt it in his grasp, he set down the lamp, and,without a look in her direction or a word of thanks to me or the twoneighbors who had come to his assistance, started rapidly from the room.Disturbed and doubting my own wisdom in thus yielding to an impulse ofhumanity which may be called weakness by such strong-minded men asyourself, I turned to follow him, but the woman's trembling hand againstopped me; and convinced at last that I was alarming myselfunnecessarily and that she had had as much pleasure in making him herheir as he in being made so, I turned to pay her my adieux, when theexpression of her face, changed now from what it had been to one of hopeand trembling delight, made me pause again in wonder, and almostprepared me for the low and thrilling whisper which now broke from herlips in distinct tones.
"'Is he gone?'
"'Then you can speak,' burst from the young woman.
"The widow gave her an eloquent look.
"'I have not spoken,' said she, 'for two days; I have been saving mystrength. Hark!' she suddenly whispered. 'He has no light, he will pitchover the landing. No, no, he has gone by it in safety, he hasreached----' she paused and listened intently, trembling as she didso--'Will he go into _that_ room?--Run! follow! see if he has dared--butno, he has gone down to the kitchen,' came in quick glad relief from herlips as a distant door shut softly at the back end of the house. 'He isleaving the house and will never come back. I am released forever fromhis watchfulness; I am free! Now, sir, draw up another will, quick; letthese two kind friends wait and see me sign it, and God will bless youfor your kindness and my eyes will close in peace upon this cruelworld.'
"Aghast but realizing in a moment that she had but lent herself to herbrother's wishes in order to rid herself of a surveillance which hadpossibly had an almost mesmeric influence upon her, I opened myportfolio again, saying:
"'You declare yourself then to have been unduly influenced by yourbrother in making the will you have just signed in the presence of thesetwo witnesses?'
"To which she replied with every evidence of a clear mind----
"'I do; I do. I could not move, I could not breathe, I could not thinkexcept as he willed it. When he was near, and he was always near, I hadto do just as he wished--perhaps because I was afraid of him, perhapsbecause he had the stronger will of the two, I do not know; I cannotexplain it, but he ruled me and has done so all my life till this hour.Now he has left me, left me to die, as he thinks, unfriended and alone,but I am strong yet, stronger than he knows, and before I turn my faceto the wall, I will tear my property from his unholy grasp and give itwhere I have always wanted it to go--to my poor, lost, unfortunatesister.'
"'Ah,' thought I, 'I see, I see'; and satisfied at last that I was nolonger being made the minister of an unscrupulous avarice, I hastilydrew up a second will, only pausing to ask the name of her sister andthe place of her residence.
"'Her name is Harriet Smith,' was the quick reply, 'and she lived whenlast I heard of her in Marston, a little village in Connecticut. She maybe dead now, it is so long since I received any news of her,--Hiramwould never let me write to her,--but she may have had children, and ifso, they are just as welcome as she is to the little I have to give.'
"'Her children's names?' I asked.
"'I don't know, I don't know anything about her. But you will find outeverything necessary when I am gone; and if she is living, or haschildren, you will see that they are reinstated in the home of theirancestors. For,' she now added eagerly, 'they must come here to live,and build up this old house again and make it respectable once more orthey cannot have my money. I want you to put that in my will; for when Ihave seen these old walls toppling, the doors wrenched off, and itslintels demolished for firewood, for _firewood_, sir, I have kept mypatience alive and my hope up by saying, Never mind; some day Harriet'schildren will make this all right again. The old house which their kindgrandfather was good enough to give me for my own, shall not fall to theground without one effort on my part to save it. And this is how I willaccomplish it. This house is for Harriet or Harriet's children if theywill come here and live in it one year, but if they will not do this,let it go to my brother, for I shall have no more interest in it. Youheed me, lawyer?'
"I nodded and wrote on busily, thinking, perhaps, that if Harriet orHarriet's children did not have some money of their own to fix up thisold place, they would scarcely care to accept their forlorn inheritance.Meantime the two witnesses who had lingered at the woman's whisperedentreaty exchanged glances, and now and then a word expressive of theinterest they were taking in this unusual affair.
"'Who is to be the executor of _this_ will?' I inquired.
"'You,' she cried. Then, as I started in surprise, she added: 'I knownobody but you. Put yourself in as executor, and oh, sir, when it is allin your hands, find my lost re
latives, I beseech you, and bring themhere, and take them into my mother's room at the end of the hall, andtell them it is all theirs, and that they must make it their room andfix it up and lay a new floor--you remember, a new floor--and----' Herwords rambled off incoherently, but her eyes remained fixed and eager.
"I wrote in my name as executor.
"When the document was finished, I placed it before her and asked theyoung lady who had been acting as my lamp-bearer to read it aloud. Thisshe did; the second will reading thus:
"The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
"First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be paid.
"Second: I give, devise, and bequeath all my property to my sister, Harriet Smith, if living at my death, and, if not living, then to her children living at my death, in equal shares, upon condition, nevertheless, that the legatee or legatees who take under this will shall forthwith take up their residence in the house I now occupy in Flatbush, and continue to reside therein for at least one year thence next ensuing. If neither my said sister nor any of her descendants be living at my death, or if so living, the legatee who takes hereunder shall fail to comply with the above conditions, then all of said property shall go to my brother, Hiram Huckins.
"Third: I appoint Frank Etheridge, of New York City, sole executor of this my last will and testament, thereby revoking all other wills by me made, especially that which was executed on this date at half-past ten o'clock.
"Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight.
"Signed, published, and declared } by the testatrix to be her last will } and testament, in our presence, who, } at her request and in her presence } and in the presence of each other, } have subscribed our names hereto as } witnesses, on this 5th day of June, } 1888, at five minutes to eleven P.M. }
"This was satisfactory to the dying widow, and her strength kept up tillshe signed it and saw it duly attested; but when that was done, and thedocument safely stowed away in my pocket, she suddenly collapsed andsank back in a dying state upon her pillow.
"'What are we going to do?' now cried Miss Thompson, with looks ofgreat compassion at the poor woman thus bereft, at the hour of death, ofthe natural care of relatives and friends. 'We cannot leave her herealone. Has she no doctor--no nurse?'
"'Doctors cost money,' murmured the almost speechless sufferer. Andwhether the smile which tortured her poor lips as she said these wordswas one of bitterness at the neglect she had suffered, or ofsatisfaction at the thought she had succeeded in saving this expense, Ihave never been able to decide.
"As I stooped to raise her now fallen head a quick, loud sound came toour ears from the back of the house, as of boards being ripped up fromthe floor by a reckless and determined hand. Instantly the woman's faceassumed a ghastly look, and, tossing up her arms, she cried:
"'He has found the box!--the box! Stop him! Do not let him carry itaway! It is----' She fell back, and I thought all was over; but inanother instant she had raised herself almost to a sitting position, andwas pointing straight at the clock. 'There! there! look! the clock!' Andwithout a sigh or another movement she sank back on the pillow, dead."