CHAPTER XXII.

THE CRASH AT LAST.

"YOU think there is no doubt," Helen was saying to her brother, holding her pen suspended, while beaming smiles played about her mouth. "I would not like to awaken expectations, if there is a doubt."

Frank's face reflected his sister's cheerfulness, as he answered: "God willing, we shall leave here in a fortnight, to be in season for the steamer the first of the month. Thanks to the elixir from the Golden Spring, I feel as well as ever, and mean to take hold of work with a will. Do you know, I have made arrangements to carry a couple of hundred bottles of the water with me. I mean to have it analyzed, and,—"

"Take care, Frank," she said, interrupting him, "I may have a word to say. You know Monsieur has given me a clean title, as he calls it, to the Golden Spring, with a strip of land leading from the chateau to the road." She laughed merrily as she held up the legal document to view, but presently added:

"Keep quiet, now, while I finish my letter, and then we will walk to the office and post it."

They were just in time to drop it into the bag. And then the rosy-faced girl gave them a letter which had come by the morning diligence.

"Whose hand-writing is that?" asked Helen.

"I do not know," was the grave reply. And then each waited quietly for the envelope to be unsealed, the same fear suggested to the minds of both.

"It contains bad news for us."

The name at the bottom of the sheet afforded no information; and so, with a sigh for which it would have been difficult to account, Frank proceeded to read the first page, his sister leaning against his arm, and looking over his shoulder.

"MR. FRANCIS J. EDMOND: I regret to be the bearer of ill tidings, but necessity knows no law of kindness. I therefore proceed to inform you, that through the perfidy of your guardian, Monson P. Tracy, your entire fortune, with the exception of the estate in Maytown, has been sacrificed. I write this at the request of the son of my partner, who was Mr. Tracy's bondsman for the faithful execution of the will.

"The circumstances, as far as I can learn them, are these (Mr. Tracy not being in a state to afford information on any subject): More than a year ago, the lead mines came into the market. Mr. Tracy purchased, from the agent, one hundred shares for you and your sister, paying ten thousand dollars for the same, on the condition that one hundred shares more be given him outright. For a short time the market for shares was very brisk, the agent pressing their claims to public favor with equal skill and shrewdness. Maps or charts of the locality were exhibited, with the railroad, and a pretty village in the foreground, but all this ended in moonshine.

"Further inquiry proved that there was not a-house within twenty miles, and that the nearest railway was more than a hundred. The lead mines sank, therefore, into the ground. Mr. Tracy, on ascertaining this fact, quietly transferred his hundred shares to your side of the sheet, on the conviction that you could afford the loss better than he could.

"All this occurred some months ago. But in January of this year, another agent came on with charts, and specimens of the ore, which was decided to be of the best quality. He established a new company, and finally persuaded Mr. Tracy once more to give it his confidence, and the influence of his name. This he consented to do for a price. He sold out city stock by the consent of his bondsman, who was also infected with the mania of speculation, and invested fifty thousand more of your fortune, together with an equal amount of his own; which last, however, it has been ascertained, he never paid for.

"Engineers were engaged to lay out and build a railroad to the spot. And everything looked prosperous, when the crash came.

"On Wednesday of last week, Mr. Tracy was known to have received letters which nearly rendered him frantic. He rushed to the broker's office, and sold, at a ruinous discount, seventy-five thousand dollars worth of stock belonging to you. But what he did with it, or what he intended to do with it, cannot now be ascertained. By noon, of the same day, the bulletins announced to all interested parties, that the lead mine speculation was a failure. A party of scientific men sent to the spot for the purpose of thorough examination, had reported the fact that there was little or no lead there.

"To my partner, who had become too deeply involved to recover, it was a fatal blow. He committed suicide the next morning under the influence, it is charitably believed, of a sudden attack of insanity.

"Of Mr. Tracy I can only say, that the entire community have received a shock. He was, as you are aware, a professor of religion. His name has for years been before the public as a warm supporter of the great benevolent objects of the day. He was a regular attendant on the preaching of Mr. Manning, and his opinion was sought, almost equally, in matters pertaining to religion and finance.

"Now the researches of Mr. Seymour, who was bondsman for him in the case of young Quincy's fortune, has brought to light a series of crimes worthy of a fiend.

"He has for forty years been living on his character for piety; and a profitable speculation he has made of it. But the end came before he expected. His iniquities have been brought to light, and the revelation is one to amaze the most hardened villain.

"The miserable victim of his own avarice was found in a small room in his own house. And when the sheriff broke into the apartment, he was lying upon the floor in a fit, sheets of paper covered with figures, and leaves from the account books, lying open near him, torn from the binding, and still clutched in his hands. He was removed at once to an upper chamber, where he was put under guard, but where, at the earnest pleading of his wife, she was allowed to be with him."

"Frank, you ought to be there," Helen burst out, her eyes wildly protruded. "You might save something from the wreck."

The young man stood still for one moment, then crushing the letter in his hand, he answered hoarsely:

"We must start by the diligence to—night."

"I always knew he was a villain." faltered Helen, the tears streaming down her checks. "Dear papa, how cruelly he was deceived!"

But presently recovering her self-control, she exclaimed: "I have no time for regrets now. I must ride to the chateau and bid my scholars good-by. Mr. Tracy can't throw away what we've given to them."

The hardest task remaining, was to bid farewell to the good clergyman, who had become so dear to them both. It was well they had not much time to dwell upon the parting. With his wrinkled hands on their bowed heads, the tears coursing over his furrowed cheeks, he called upon God, their father's God, to bless them, and keep them to the end. Then he turned away, weeping as he went. But Helen ran after him, and throwing her arms around his neck, kissed him again and again, saying:

"We shall never forget your kindness and love. Write us, dear father; write everything that concerns you; and don't forget to pray that we may meet again."

"We shall meet there," he said, reverently pointing his finger upward. "I shall not be long here, but while I live, I shall never cease to pray for you."

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