Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California

"It's all right," James said, as, descending to the kitchen, he beckoned Mrs. Holl to follow him; "but the Captain says you are to cut it short; so if you wants an answer you had best put your question, whatever it is, short and to the point, or he will snap you up in a minute, I can tell you."

Mrs. Holl followed into the library. She was at no time a very clear-headed thinker, and the difficulty of putting her question into a few words pressed heavily upon her.

"Now, my good woman, what is it?" Captain Bayley said, as she entered. "I am going out in a few minutes, so come straight to the point, if you please."

"I will come as straight as I can, sir," Mrs. Holl said breathlessly, "but indeed, sir, I am a bad hand at explaining things, and if you snaps me up I shall never get on with it."

Captain Bayley smiled a little. "Well, I will try and not snap you up if you will come to the point. Now, what is the point?"

"The point, sir," Mrs. Holl said despairingly, "is a hand with three fingers a-holding of a dagger."

Captain Bayley looked astonished. "You mean my crest," he said; "why, what on earth are you driving at?"

"Evan saw it on the forks," Mrs. Holl explained.

"Yes, no doubt he did," Captain Bayley said; "but what of that? That's my crest."

"Yes, sir, so Evan said, and when he told me it just knocked me silly like, and says I to him, says I – "

"Never mind what you said to him," Captain Bayley broke in, "what is it you want to say to me? What is there curious in my crest being on my spoons? Now just wait one minute, and tell me as plainly as you can."

Mrs. Holl waited a minute.

"Well, sir, it struck me all in a heap, because I've got in the house a thing with just such another hand, a-holding of a knife in it."

"Oh!" Captain Bayley said, "you have got some article with my crest on it in your house. How did you come by it? It must have been stolen."

"No, sir, I will take my davey as the young person as was my son Harry's mother never stole nothing in her life."

"The young person who was your son Harry's mother," Captain Bayley repeated, in a somewhat puzzled tone. "Are you talking of yourself?"

"Lor' no, sir, the young person."

"But what young person do you mean? How can any young person have been your son Harry's mother except yourself?"

"He ain't really my son, you see, sir; he is the son of a young person who we took in, John and I, and who died at our house; Harry is her son."

A great change passed over Captain Bayley's face, the expression of impatience died out, and was succeeded by one almost of awe. He dropped the paper which he had hitherto held in his hand, and leaning forward he asked in low tones —

"Do you mean that a woman who had in her possession some article with my crest on it, and who had a child with her, died in your house?"

"Yes, sir, that's what I mean; the article is a little gold seal, with a red stone to it."

"How long ago was this?" came slowly from Captain Bayley's lips.

"About seventeen years ago," Mrs. Holl said. "The mother died a few days afterwards; the child is our Harry; and I came to ask you – but, good lawks!"

An ashen greyness had been stealing across the old officer's face, and Mrs. Holl was terrified at seeing him suddenly fall forward across the table.

She rushed to the door to ask for help. James was in the hall, having waited there, expecting momentarily to hear his master tell him to show his visitor out. He began to utter exclamations of dismay at seeing his master's senseless figure.

"I will lift him up," she said. "Run and fetch the butler and the cook, and then go for the doctor as quick as you can run; he has got a stroke."

The butler was first upon the scene. Mrs. Holl had already lifted Captain Bayley into a sitting position. "I have taken off his necktie and opened his collar," she said. The butler, who was unaware of Mrs. Holl's presence there, was astonished at the scene.

"Who are you?" he gasped, "and what have you been doing to the Captain? If you have killed him it will be a hanging matter, you know."

"Don't you be a fool," retorted Mrs. Holl sharply, "but run for some water; he has got a stroke, though what it came from is more nor I can tell."

To be called a fool by this unknown woman of coarse appearance roused the butler's faculties. He was sincerely attached to his master, and without reply he at once hurried away for water.

In five minutes the doctor, who lived close by, entered. Mrs. Holl was still holding up the insensible man; Alice stood crying beside her, the servants were looking on.

"Open the windows," he said.

Then he felt the Captain's pulse. For some time he stood silent; then he said —

"Lay him down at full length on the couch." Mrs. Holl, without the least effort, lifted the slight figure and laid it on the sofa.

"Now," the doctor said, "will you all leave the room except Miss Hardy and you?" he nodded to Mrs. Holl. As the servants retired reluctantly, the butler said —

"Please, sir, I don't know whether you know it, but that woman was with him alone when he got insensible. I don't know what she did to him, but I should recommend that we should have a policeman in readiness."

"Nonsense," the surgeon said. "However, it will be better that she should retire; but let her wait outside, close at hand, in case he wishes to speak to her."

Sarah Holl followed the servants into the hall. The doctor poured a few drops of cordial between Captain Bayley's lips, and placed some strong salts beneath his nostrils.

"You think he will come round?" Alice asked.

"He will come round," the doctor said confidently; "his pulse is gaining power rapidly. It is not paralysis, but a sort of fainting-fit, brought on, I should imagine, by some sudden shock; his heart is weak, and there was a sudden failure of its powers. I have warned him over and over again not to excite himself. However, I think there is no great harm done this time; but he must be careful in future; another such attack and it might go hard with him. See, he is coming round." In a few minutes Captain Bayley opened his eyes and looked round vaguely.

"Lie quiet for a little while, my dear sir," the doctor said cheerfully; "you have been ill, a sort of fainting-fit, but you will be all right in a short time. Drink this glass of cordial." He lifted his patient's head, and held the glass to his lips. As Captain Bayley drank it Alice placed a pillow under his head.

"How was it?" Captain Bayley asked, in a low tone.

"We don't know," the Doctor said; "but don't think about it at present. What you have to do now is to get quite strong again; it will be time afterwards for you to think what upset you. You have given Miss Hardy here quite a fright."

Captain Bayley nodded to Alice. "I never did such a thing before," he said. "I was reading here in the library – " Then he stopped, a sudden flush came to his face.

"Don't agitate yourself, my dear sir," the Doctor said soothingly, "agitation now would be a very serious thing. Drink a little more of this."

Captain Bayley did as he was told, and then asked —

"Where is the woman who was speaking to me?"

"She is outside," the Doctor said. "I told her to wait. But you really must not see her for a time."

"I am all right now," Captain Bayley said, rising to his elbow, "and it will agitate me less to see her than to wait. She brought me very strange news, news which I never thought to hear. It is not bad news, my dear," he said, to Alice, "it is the best news I ever heard. You need not go away, Doctor," he said, seeing the physician was preparing to leave; "you are an old friend, and know all about it; besides, it is no secret. You know how I searched for very many years for my daughter and her child, and came at last to the conclusion that both must be dead, for she was in a dying state when last heard of. Well, I have found that the boy is alive. He has been brought up by the woman who is the mother of a boy who works here."

"Oh! I know," Alice exclaimed, "Frank told me the story. She had told him about a woman who had fallen down at her door years ago, and how she had brought up the child. But O uncle!" she said pitifully, "I have a sad thing to tell you. Frank said that he was such a nice boy, so clever and good. Frank used to go and help him with his books, and he can read Latin and all sorts of things; but, uncle, he met with an accident when he was little, and he is a cripple."

For a minute Captain Bayley was silent.

"It is part of my punishment, dear," he said at last, "God's will be done. However, cripple or not, I am thankful to find that, from what you say, he is a boy whom I can own without shame, for the thought has troubled me always, that, should Ella's son be alive, he might have grown up a companion of thieves, a wandering vagabond. Thank God, indeed, it is not so! I am glad you told me, Alice. Now, let me see this good woman who has been a mother to him."

Mrs. Holl was again called in, and was asked to sit down.

"The question you wished to ask me," Captain Bayley said, "was, I suppose, whether I could give you any clue as to who was the woman you took in, and whose child you adopted? She was my daughter."

"Lor', sir!" Mrs. Holl exclaimed, "who would have thought such a thing?"

"Who, indeed," Captain Bayley repeated; "but so it was. For years I sought for her in vain, and had long since given up all hope of ever hearing of her. Have you got the seal with you?"

After some search Mrs. Holl produced from the corner of her capacious pocket the seal, carefully wrapped up in paper.

"That is it," Captain Bayley said, with a sigh. "Alice, go to my desk, open the inner compartment, and there you will see the fellow to it." Alice did as he requested.

"There, you see, Doctor, they are exactly alike. They were both made at the same time, soon after I returned from India, and now, Mrs. Holl, please tell us the whole story as I understand you told it to my nephew."

Mrs. Holl repeated the story in nearly the same words that she had used to Frank.

"God bless you!" Captain Bayley said, when she finished. "No words can tell how grateful I am to you, or how deeply I am moved at the thought of the kindness which you and your husband, strangers as you were to her, showed to my poor girl. I hope you will not mind sparing him to me now; your claims are far greater than mine, but you have other children, while I, with the exception of my ward here, am alone in the world."

"Lor', sir," Mrs. Holl said, wiping her eyes with her apron, "of course we will spare him. We shall miss him sorely, for he has indeed been a comfort and a blessing to us; but it is for his good, and you won't mind his coming to see us sometimes."

"Mind!" Captain Bayley exclaimed, "he would be an ungrateful rascal if he did not want to come and see you constantly. Well, if you will go home and prepare him a little, I will come round this afternoon and see him. It's no use shaking your head, Doctor, I feel myself again now; but I will lie down till lunch-time, and will promise not to excite myself."

CHAPTER XVI.

JOHN HOLL, DUST CONTRACTOR

IT was a pathetic meeting between Captain Bayley and his newly-found grandson. The latter had been astounded at the wonderful news that Mrs. Holl had brought home. His first thought was that of indignation, that his mother should have been a penniless wanderer in the streets of London, while her father was rolling in wealth; but Mrs. Holl's description of the old officer's agitation and pleasure, and the long efforts which he had made to find his daughter, convinced him that there must at least have been some fault on both sides.

"My poor boy," Captain Bayley said, as he entered the room, "if you knew how long and earnestly I have sought for you, and how many years I have grieved and repented my harshness to your mother, you would not find it in your heart to think hardly of me. We were both to blame, my boy, and we were both punished, heavily punished; but you shall have all the story some day. I know that it must be a bitter thought for you that she died homeless, save for the shelter which this good woman afforded her; but I hope that you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive an old man who has been terribly punished, and that you will let me do my best to atone by making your life as happy as I can."

Harry took the hand which the old officer held out to him.

"For myself, I have nothing to forgive, sir. My life has been a happy one, thanks to the kindness and love of my father and mother here; as to my real mother, of course, I do not remember her, nor is it for me to judge between her and you. At any rate I can well believe that you must have suffered greatly. I have been thinking it over, and it seems to me that the mere fact that your wishes have at last been carried out, and that you have so strangely found your daughter's son, would seem as if any wrongs you did her are considered by God as atoned for. I am sorry that I am a cripple; I have been sorry before sometimes, but never so sorry as now, for it must be a great disappointment to you."

"I am so pleased at finding you as you are, my boy," Captain Bayley said, "for I had feared that if you were alive it must be as a vagrant, or perhaps even a criminal, that your bodily misfortune is as nothing in my eyes. This is my ward, Miss Hardy; she is something like a granddaughter to me, and is prepared to be a sister to you."

"I have heard of her from Evan, sir," Harry said, with a bright look at the girl. "He has told me how every one in the house loves her, and how fond my kind friend – " But here he stopped abruptly. The tale of Frank's sudden departure was a subject of frequent discussion at the Holls', as well as in the servants' hall in Eaton Square; and although Harry's indignation on behalf of his friend had been extreme, he paused now before uttering the name, for at this first meeting with his relation he felt that no unpleasant topic should be introduced.

There was a moment's silence as he paused, but Alice advanced fearlessly and gave the boy her hand.

"Thank you, Harry, for what you say, and we shall be all the better friends because you love, as I do, my dear good cousin, Frank."

"Well, Harry," Captain Bayley said hastily, "when will you come home to me? I don't want to press you to leave your kind friends here too suddenly, but I am longing to have you home. I have the carriage at the end of the street if you will come now."

"No, grandfather, not to-day; I will come to-morrow. Father took his dinner away with him, and he will not be back till this evening, and I am not going to let him come and find me gone."

"Quite right, my boy, quite right," Captain Bayley said. "Then to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, I will come round in the carriage and fetch you. Mrs. Holl, remember that Harry Bayley owes you a deep debt of gratitude, which he will do his best some day to repay as far as it is in his power. Good-bye, Harry, for the present. I am glad your mother gave you my name; it seems to show she thought kindly of me at the last. Perhaps she found, poor girl, that I had not been altogether wrong in my opposition to her unhappy fancy."

The following day Harry was installed in Eaton Square. Captain Bayley was delighted to find how easily and naturally he fell into the new position, how well he expressed himself, and how wide was his range of knowledge.

"He is a gentleman, every inch," he exclaimed delightedly to Alice. "If you knew how I have thought of him you would understand how happy it makes me to see him what he is."

Captain Bayley lost no time in obtaining the best possible surgical advice for his grandson; their opinion was not as favourable as he had hoped. Had he been properly treated at the time of his accident he might, they said, have made a complete recovery; but now it was too late. However, they thought that by means of surgical appliances, and a course of medicinal baths, he might recover the use of his legs to some extent, and be able to walk with crutches. This was something, and the Captain determined at once to carry their advice into effect.

Between Alice Hardy and the lad a strong friendship speedily sprang up. The girl's bright talk, which was so different from anything he had hitherto experienced was very delightful to the lad; but the strong bond between them was their mutual feeling about Frank. From her Harry learned the charge under which Frank laboured, and his indignant repudiation of the possibility of such a thing delighted Alice's heart; hitherto she had been alone in her belief, and it was delightful to her to talk with one who was of her own way of thinking. She infected Harry with her own dislike and suspicions of Fred Barkley, and amused the lad greatly by telling him how, when she had heard of the discovery of his existence, she had, when Mrs. Holl left, gone straight up to her room and indulged in a wild dance of delight at the destruction of Fred's hope of being Captain Bayley's sole heir.

"It was glorious," she said. "I knew Fred hated Frank, though Frank, silly old boy, was always taking his part with me, and scolding me because I didn't like his cousin; and I am quite, quite sure that he has had something to do with getting Frank into this dreadful scrape, and it was glorious to think that just when he thought that he had got the field clear, and uncle Harry all to himself, you should suddenly appear and put his nose out of joint. That's a very unladylike expression, Harry, and I know I oughtn't to use it, but there's nothing else does so well. It's Fred's holidays now, and he is away; I expect uncle will write and tell him all about it. I wish he wouldn't, for I would give anything to see his face when he walks in and sees you sitting here and hears who you are."

"Oh! but I hope," Harry said, "that grandfather won't make any difference to any one because of me. What would be the use of much money to me. Of course I should like to have a little house, with a man to wheel me about; but what could I want beyond that?"

"Oh! nonsense, Harry. In the first place you are going to get better; and even if you were not, you could enjoy life in lots of ways. Of course you would have nice carriages and horses; you might keep a yacht – Frank was always saying that he would like to have a yacht, – and I don't see why you shouldn't go into Parliament. I am sure you are clever enough, and I have heard uncle say that three-fourths of the members are fools. He says something naughty before fools, but you know he swears dreadfully; he does not mean it, not in the least; I suppose he learned it in India. I tell him it is very wrong sometimes, but he says he is too old to get rid of bad habits. I wish he wouldn't do it; and the worst of it is, Harry," she said plaintively, "that instead of being very much shocked, as I ought to be, very often I can hardly help laughing, he does put in that dreadful word so funnily."

"No, I should not care about being in Parliament," the boy said. "If I were ever so rich I think I might like a yacht; still, a yacht, if it were only a small one, would cost a great deal of money, and I do hope that grandfather won't disappoint any one for my sake."

Captain Bayley had, however, a few days after the discovery of his grandson, and after having satisfied himself how lovable the lad was, and how worthy in all respects to be his heir, written to Fred Barkley, telling him that his grandson had been found, and that he was all that he could wish to find him.

"Naturally, Fred," he wrote, "this will make a considerable difference in your prospects. At the same time, as you have been led to believe that you would come into a considerable property at my death, and as you have done nothing to forfeit my confidence and affection, having proved yourself in all ways a steady and industrious and honourable young fellow, I do not consider it right that you should be altogether disinherited by a discovery which has occasioned me such vast pleasure. I have therefore instructed my solicitor to prepare a new will. By this he will settle my property in Warwickshire, and my town house, upon my grandson; but my other house property, and a portion of my money in stocks and shares, which has been accumulating for many years, will be left to you, the value of the legacy being, I calculate, about one-half of that of the property left to my grandson. Thus you will be in nearly the same position you would have occupied had not your cousin Frank forfeited, by his disgraceful conduct, his place in my affections."

Whatever may have been the feelings of Fred Barkley when he received this communication, he wrote a graceful letter of congratulation to his uncle, expressing his pleasure at the discovery of his long-lost grandson, and with many thanks for his kind intention on his own behalf. His anger and disappointment were so great that he did not return to town until the day before he was going up to Cambridge – having left Westminster at the end of the preceding term – for he did not feel himself equal, before that time, to continue to play his part, and to express personally the sentiments which he had written. What rendered his disappointment even more bitter was the thought that, indirectly, it was Frank who had dealt him the blow, for Captain Bayley had mentioned in his letter that it was through the boy whom his cousin had recommended as an assistant to the footman that the discovery had been made.

The visit that he paid at Eaton Square was a short one. To his relief Alice was not present, for he was certain that she would have watched him with malicious pleasure. But there had been a passage of arms between her and her guardian of a more serious nature than any which had occurred since she had been under his care, owing to her having expressed herself with her usual frankness respecting Fred's visit.

Her guardian had resented this warmly, and had rated her so severely as to what he called her wicked prejudice against Fred, that she had retired to her room in tears. This defeat of his favourite had not predisposed Harry to any more favourable opinion of his unknown cousin; but Fred, relieved from the presence of Alice, acted his part so well, and infused so genuine a ring into the tone of his congratulations, that he did much to dissipate the prejudice with which Harry was prepared to regard him. Alice was quick to observe the impression which Fred had made, and quarrelled hotly with Harry concerning it.

"I am disappointed in you altogether, Harry. I have looked upon you as being a real friend of Frank, and now you desert him directly his enemy says a few soft words to you. I despise such friendship, and I don't want to have anything more to say to you."

In vain Harry protested. The girl flung herself out of the room in deep anger, and thenceforth, for a long time, Harry was made to feel that although she wished to be civil to him as her guardian's grandson, yet that the bond of union between them was entirely broken. Harry himself had lost no time in speaking to his grandfather on behalf of Frank.

"My dear Harry," the old man said, "my faith in his innocence was as strong as yours, and, crushing as the proofs seemed to be, I would never have doubted him had he defended himself. But he did not; he never sent me a line to ask me to suspend my judgment or to declare his innocence; he ran away like a thief at night, and, although Fred generously tried to soften the fact to me, there is no doubt he admitted his guilt to him. Still, after the lesson I had in your mother's case, I would forgive him did I know where he was.

"I do not say, Harry, that I would restore him to his place in my affection and confidence, that of course would be impossible; but I would willingly send him a cheque for a handsome amount, say for five thousand pounds, to establish him in business, or set him up in a farm in one of the colonies."

"That is no use, grandfather," Harry said, "if he is innocent – as I most firmly believe him to be, in spite of everything against him, and shall believe him to be to my dying day, unless he himself tells me that he was guilty – he will not accept either your forgiveness or your money. What I wish is that he could be found. I wish that I could see him, or that you could see him, face to face, and that we could hear from his own lips what he has to say. He might, at least, account for his foolish running away instead of facing it out.