CHAPTER XVII.
THE SETTLEMENT.
The Settlement was a knot of small, poor houses, occupied by thriftless farmers, luckless fishermen, and laborers in the salt works. It was hardly half a mile from the sea shore, and the land was very sandy and barren.
The locality looked like a suitable field for the operations of Mr. Eugene Hungerford, when he should commence, in earnest, his philanthropic endeavors to improve the material condition of the race, and thus reach and stimulate the moral and spiritual nature. But with the exception of the laborers in the salt works, who lived here for convenience, the people were most unpromising subjects for the missionary of human progress. There was work enough in the villages if they chose to do it; but they were mostly idlers and vagabonds, who took their subsistence by stealth from the sea and the air; who followed no steady occupation, and had no definite aims, any more than they had any definite principles. If the lobster-pots of a Port fisherman were meddled with; if an orchard on the turnpike was robbed; if timber, iron, or cordage mysteriously disappeared from the ship-yards, or from a vessel,--the mischief was promptly charged upon some of the vagabonds of the Settlement, and, nine times out of ten, justly so charged.
Eugene Hungerford was not bent upon an expedition philanthropic on the present occasion. Nothing sublunary agitated him, when, as he turned his horse from the Mills Road, and actually penetrated the bounds of the Settlement, he discovered a chaise approaching them. The vehicle contained a lady and gentleman, and was drawn by a high-spirited black horse, familiar to Dick Birch, if not to Hungerford.
“We are too late!” exclaimed Dick, with ever so much disgust and dissatisfaction evident in his tones.
“Why so?”
“There’s Dr. Bilks. He has got here before me. I didn’t think he would take Mary with him to visit a patient. I am sorry I waited a moment in Summerville.”
“What difference can that make? The doctor will point out to you the house in which his patient lives,” laughed Eugene.
“I dare say he can by this time. I suppose Dr. Bilks has declared war upon me now, if he did not before.”
“I should not suppose he would love you, after the scorching you gave him on the stand.”
By this time the chaise was within a few rods of the buggy, and Engene turned out of the road to let it pass; but Dr. Bilks drew up his horse, and came to a dead halt within talking distance of the two gentlemen.
“How are you again?” said the doctor, in his usual easy, good-natured tones, and apparently not at all disturbed by the events which had transpired in the court-room. “If you are not in a hurry, I want to tell you a story,” continued Dr. Bilks, chuckling, as though he had something “rich” to relate; and, without waiting to learn whether the gentlemen were in a hurry or not, he proceeded: “A rather miserly man, out in Columbus, Ohio, where I came from, who was worth his hundred thousand, at least, was seen, one day, searching very diligently on the plank sidewalk, in one of the streets. The search was continued so long that the attention of the people was attracted, and some one asked him what he was looking for. After some hesitation he replied that he was looking for a cent he had lost. Of course the bystanders laughed heartily at the idea of a man worth a hundred thousand dollars searching half an hour or more for a single miserable copper. ‘O! it isn’t so much the cent I want,’ added the man, stung by the laugh, ‘but I wanted to know where the derned thing had gone to.’”
Eugene was polite enough to laugh at the story, but he was impatient for the application.
“Mr. Birch,” continued the doctor, blandly, “you rather had me on the hip this morning. Now, it isn’t so much the baby that I care for; but I wanted to know where the ‘derned’ thing was. In a word, Mr. Birch, I came down here to find that baby.”
“As you seem to be remarkably good natured about it, I suppose you found it,” replied Dick, rather coldly.
“On the contrary, I did not. It seems the poor baby died, and the mother has gone away.”
“Gone away?” exclaimed Dick. “Why, the child was born only night before last!”
“Bless me, I have known a woman to do her washing the day after,” laughed the doctor. “Out in Columbus, Ohio, where I came from, I knew an Irish woman who started for Cincinnati about two hours afterwards, and carried her baby with her. That isn’t the rule with our people, though it happens so sometimes.”
Mary, who sat by the doctor’s side, did not relish this conversation, and she turned away her head.
“Of course you found the house, doctor,” added Dick.
“I did, though I inquired half a dozen times. When I found it, the direction of the man who called me came up to my mind. The fact is, Mr. Birch, I have so many of these directions in my head, that I ought not to be expected to remember them. More than this, I did ask the parties for the name; but as the matter wasn’t all right with them, my question was evaded by suddenly turning my attention to the patient. It is the last house on the left-hand side of the road. Good morning, gentlemen;” and the doctor gave the reins to his spirited horse, and away he went.
“We are too late, Hungerford,” said Dick, impatiently. “He has fixed the matter to suit his own purposes; told them what to say, and paid them for saying it.”
“But if there is anything out of the way, we will probe it. I will send for one of those detectives, skilled in working up affairs of this sort.”
“We will go to the house, and see what we can make of it,” said Dick.
Eugene drove to the last house on the left, and both of the gentlemen went in. The dwelling, which was one of the meanest in the Settlement, was occupied by one Sandy McGuire, an Irishman, who had married an American woman at least ten years his senior. The character of both was “below par;” or, rather, they had nothing that could pass for character among decent people. Sandy lived by his wits--that is, by stealing and depredating upon exposed property. His wife had been a nurse before her ill-assorted marriage; but then and now she drank more liquor than a woman or a man should drink, and had fallen into disrepute before she became Mrs. McGuire, and had continued in disrepute since.
Hungerford knew something about the couple, and gave what information he possessed to Dick, who observed that Dr. Bilks had well chosen his subjects. They went in, and found Mr. and Mrs. McGuire on better terms with each other than they usually were, according to the speech of people.
“Take a sate, gintlemin,” said Sandy, with the utmost suavity in his tone and manner. “The likes of me don’t often say sich fine gintlemin in me own house.”
“We come on business,” added Dick.
“What bishness could the likes o’ you have wid the likes o’ me? Isn’t Misther Hungerford the richest man in the wurld?”
“Was there a child born in this house night before last?” demanded Dick, impatiently.
“Troth there was, thin! And the poor babby died just afther the docther go’n,” replied Sandy, promptly.
“Was it your child?”
“Ish’t me! ’Pon me life it wasn’t thin.”
“Whose was it?”
“Faix, yous may well ax that; but it’s a better man nor me that can answer yous.”
“Who was the mother?”
“Sorra one bit o’ me can tell yous, thin. It’s Mistress McGuire that can tell yous all about it. I’m a poor man, your honor, and whin I gits a shance to make an honist pinny, it isn’t the likes o’ me that can turn me bachk upon it.”
“Did you know the mother of the child?” demanded Dick, turning to Mrs. McGuire, who, out of respect to her liege lord, had been silent thus far.
“Well, no, sir, I can’t say I did know her. Accordin to my notion, she didn’t mean nobody should know her.”
“How came she in your house?”
“I’ll tell you all about it if you want me to; though I didn’t think there was go’n to be any fuss about it.”
“No fuss at all, Mrs. McGuire. If the woman was a stranger to you, how came she in your house?”
“I’ll tell you. I used to be a nuss over to Newington, and some folks there know I keep house over here. Well, about a week ago a man come over here to know if I would take in a woman that was goin to be sick, and not say anything about it, for a pooty good price. Well, we are poor folks, and don’t make much, nohow; so I wan’t much behindhand makin a bargain. The woman come with another woman, and both on ’em staid here till this forenoon. The child was born night afore last. We didn’t cal’late to have no doctor, but the woman was awful sick, and I sent my husband over to the Port arter Dr. Bilks. He got here about half arter ’leven, and staid till nigh on to two o’clock in the mornin.”
“Where is the child now?”
“The child died before mornin, and I reckon the mother wan’t very sorry; for she spunked up right off, and got smart enough to go off this forenoon.”
“The child died--did it?”
“Why, yes; that’s what I said.”
“Was it a boy or a girl?”
“A boy,” replied Mrs. McGuire, with some hesitation.
“You are sure it was a boy?” asked Dick, quietly.
“Well, I don’t just know whether it was a boy or not. I wan’t round much. I was seein’ to things in the kitchen.”
“You think it was a boy--do you?”
“I shouldn’t want to say I do think so: it may ’a been a gal; I ain’t sure it wan’t a gal. The fact on’t is, the child wan’t much account. Of course I know’d all the time that things wan’t right.”
“The child died, you say,” continued Dick.
“Yes; I cal’late the child was dead afore Dr. Bilks got back to the Port.”
“Very likely. What did you do with the body?”
“That’s where the shoe pinches,” said the woman, with a sickly smile.
Dick Birch was of the opinion that the shoe might pinch here, if anywhere.
“Can’t you tell?”
“I can, but I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve come here to git us into trouble.”
“I have not, Mrs. McGuire.”
“If we say anything you will git us into a scrape.”
“Don’t say the firsht woord about it, Mistress McGuire,” interposed her husband, solemnly.
“I don’t see that I can say anything,” added the wife.
“Of course the body was buried.”
“Av coorse,” replied Sandy, who seemed to be disposed to manage the difficult part of the case himself.
“And you buried it?”
“Ish’t me? Sorra one woord I’ll say about it.”
“How much did you get for this business?” asked Dick, finding that the man would be obstinate.
“A hundr’d dollars,” replied the woman.
“Have you the money?”
“To be sure I have,” said Sandy.
“How much did Dr. Bilks give you for telling this story?” demanded Dick, sharply.
“Dr. Bilks!” repeated Mrs. McGuire. “Not a cent.”
“Are you willing to go into court and swear to all you have stated?”
“Ivery word of it!” exclaimed Sandy, emphatically; and, whether true or false, there was no doubt he would do so.
Eugene proposed, in a whisper, that the man should be arrested for not reporting the birth and death of the child; but Dick assured him that a householder was not liable under six months for the penalty, which was only five dollars. As Dr. Bilks was the real manager of the case, it was best to fight the enemy with his own weapons.
“McGuire,” said Hungerford, “I will give you five hundred dollars if you will show me where you buried the child.”
The man was indignant, and positively refused. Eugene then offered him the same sum if he would tell the whole truth. He was tempted, shaken, but finally refused, evidently from fear of consequences.
“I will leave the offer open to you, McGuire. Dr. Bilks has probably given you one hundred dollars to tell this story. No woman has been here, no child has been born; it is all humbug.”
“D’ yous mane to say I lied to yous?” said McGuire, indignantly.
“That is what I mean; but you were paid for it,” replied Eugene. “We care nothing about the child or the woman. If you wish to make five hundred dollars, you have only to tell the truth.”
“That’s just what I’ve been doin’, your honor.”
“If you change your mind, let me know.”
It was not probable that he would change his mind till he had seen Dr. Bilks, who would give him the five hundred dollars rather than have his scheme exposed. McGuire was shaken and tempted by the large offer; and Dick saw it.
“McGuire, I will give you a thousand dollars for the truth,” continued Eugene, at Dick’s suggestion.
“A tousand dollars!” exclaimed the wretch, who had never seen so much money.
“Yes; five thousand,” added the _millionnaire_, without any prompting this time.
Dick laughed. Dick enjoyed a joke.
“O modther o’ Mary!” ejaculated the bewildered miscreant.
“Five thousand!” repeated Eugene, laughing heartily, as he glanced at his friend.
“Sure, you don’t mane so! You’re makin shport uv a poor man.”
“I’m in earnest. I will make my offer in writing,” added Eugene; and he took from his pocket a piece of paper on which he wrote in pencil, “_I agree to give Sandy McGuire five thousand dollars for the whole truth in regard to the child alleged to have been born at his house on Monday night last._” He dated and signed it.
“Let me witness it,” said Dick, laughing.
It was duly witnessed, though, being written in pencil and without a seal, it was hardly a legal document, yet the two gentlemen had no doubt it would prove to be a valuable instrument in the hands of its possessor.
“I’ll see your honor to-morrow,” said Sandy.
“After you have consulted Dr. Bilks,” laughed Dick.
“What would I want wid Dr. Bilks?” replied he, a gleam of caution evidently streaming through his mind. “I only want to think what the trudth is.”
“It is that for which you can get the most money,” said Dick, facetiously, as he walked out of the house.
[Illustration: THE OFFER IN WRITING.--Page 224.]
Eugene was intensely amused as he got into the buggy. Five thousand dollars was a large sum of money; but he seemed to be delighted with the idea of parting with it, if he had such an idea.
“I’m rather sorry you didn’t make it ten thousand,” chuckled Dick, as he joined Hungerford.
“Well, I will go in and change the paper.”
“Never mind; it will do just as well as it is. I don’t think Dr. Bilks can afford to pay out more than five thousand.”
“Has he much money?”
“He seems to be pretty well supplied with the article. He has several thousand dollars in the Poppleton Bank.”
“Good! We can find out at the bank whether he pays Sandy his price. I am rather sorry I did not make it ten thousand. If Dr. Bilks wants to dance, he ought to pay the fiddler,” laughed Eugene.
“It may turn out that you will be called upon to pay it yourself.”
“There is no possibility of such a contingency. His reputation is now in the hands of Sandy McGuire, and the rascal will have no more mercy upon him than upon the eel he skins for his dinner.”
“I hope he will skin him close. If I had reached the Settlement half an hour before the doctor, I should have headed him off.”
“Then you fully believe that he bargained with McGuire and his wife to tell this story?”
“I have no doubt of it. He was the person with Buckstone that night; and I shall not leave a stone unturned till I prove it.”
“But, Dick, you have no case. You are lame in the first and most essential point; you cannot prove his motive in being there.”
“If we prove the fact, the motive may be apparent.”
“There is no earthly reason why Dr. Bilks should have had anything to do with Buckstone.”
“There is a reason, though you may not see it.”
“Do you see it?”
“I have a theory.”
“What is it, Dick?”
“I say, as I have said before, that I know nothing about it, any more than yourself. The anxiety of Dr. Bilks to make it appear that I was the stranger assured me he had a motive for doing so. The doctor and myself have been quite intimate for the last six months. Of course, my very occupation, as your agent, led us to talk a great deal about you, and I think by this time he knows you very well. Still, I never told him anything about your affair with Mary until I was in a manner forced to do so, after Ross brought her home from New York. Of course, I spoke to him in confidence, though what I told him was little more than was known by everybody in town. I did tell him that you were still deeply interested in Mary’s welfare, and that I intended to do something to heal her wounds. I made him my confidant in this matter, because, as her physician, he could help me in the execution of my plan.”
“There was no harm in this, Dick.”
“There was not then.”
“Nor is there now.”
“Let us see. I told Dr. Bilks what I should propose to you in regard to Mary, and remarked that you would give her ten, twenty, fifty thousand dollars, if it would make her happy and contented.”
“That was true, Dick; and if you had said a hundred thousand, it would have been just as true,” added Eugene. “If she could not be my wife, I would not weigh money against her happiness as the wife of somebody else, for I still believe that I am the author of her misfortunes.”
“I told him so.”
“What did he say?”
“He added that you were a remarkable man. He was sure that Buckstone would marry her, for the money, if for nothing else. If the twenty thousand dollars which I named were in Mary’s hands, he could still have the benefit of it.”
“But you don’t show any motive, on the part of the doctor, for meeting Buckstone.”
“It is a mere surmise; but, as I view it now, Dr. Bilks sent for Buckstone himself.”
“Why should he do so, if he did?”
“I may as well out with it first as last. I think he and Buckstone together intended to pluck you,” replied Dick, desperately.
“But the money for Mary’s benefit was to be placed in the hands of Ross, as trustee.”
“I did not tell the doctor of that. It was an afterthought of mine.”
“It may possibly be,” said Eugene, musing.
“Let us look at it. Bilks writes to Buckstone, who comes to Poppleton privately, as he is directed to do. Bilks says, ‘If you marry Mary, you shall have twenty thousand dollars, but half of it shall be mine.’ Bilks makes it appear that it is through his agency that the money is to be obtained, and that without him it cannot be obtained. I don’t mean to say I am satisfied with this theory, Hungerford; but it is the only explanation of his conduct I can offer.”
“I think we must search farther for a solution.”
“It is evident the doctor intends to prove that I was the stranger on the island. I know I was not the person. Who put my handkerchief and my cigar into the boat on the Point?” demanded Dick.
“There is no evidence that it was Dr. Bilks.”
“He is the only man who knows anything about my cigars. Any one else would have used a common cigar. I tell you he was the man, whether we can prove it or not.”
“I am willing to believe it myself; but I think we had better not say much about it.”
“Not a word shall be said till the proof comes. In the mean time, we will treat him as usual, and watch him closely. He is a man of tricks and subterfuges.”
“You have already declared war against him.”
“He will not so regard it. He hasn’t soul enough to be indignant, and he will be your best friend, you may depend.”
“I cannot treat such a man as a friend.”
“You need only tolerate him. If you or any of the family are sick, send for him. I think he is a good doctor.”
“I will be as tolerant as possible; but, after all, it may turn out that he is an honest and true man.”
“It may, but it will not,” laughed Dick. “I shall have plenty to do in searching into this matter.”
“I hope you will get at the truth. Dick, I want to go over to the island. I have not seen Mary, except in the court-room, since my return. Perhaps she may know what the doctor did at the Settlement.”
“Don’t mention the matter to her. Have you any particular business there?” asked Dick.
“I have; very important business.”
“Hungerford, I remember what you said last night.”
“What?”
“That you would marry Mary if she were not the legal wife of Buckstone.”
“I did say so; I meant so. As the author of her miseries and misfortunes, it is my duty, as well as my desire, to give her back the good name of which the way of the world would deprive her.”
“If she was ever a wife, she is a widow now,” said Dick, suggestively.
“Speak out, Dick, if you have anything to say.”
“Hungerford, do you mean to marry her?”
“I do.”
Dick shook his head.
“I love her, and to me she is the same she always was. I believe she married Buckstone, without true love, in a frenzy of despair, when she was driven from her father’s house.”
“But think what she is.”
“You know what she is, Dick. She has violated no law of God or man. She has not sinned; she has been sinned against. There is no contamination of impurity about her; if there were, I should spurn her.”
“Without any sin, with nothing worse, at most, than indiscretion, she has become notorious in connection with these disgusting events.”
“Dick, I would have counted myself happy if I could have married her at the sacrifice of every dollar of my fortune, real and prospective, _before_ these events. This was not to be. I have spent months of misery under the blow. I cannot have her as she was; I will take her as she is: and a thousand times better to me as she as she is than any other could be as she was.”
“Hungerford, I have much to say to you about this matter. Don’t be rash or hasty.”
“I will not.”
“I will ask only one favor of you to-day: do not commit yourself if you see her.”
“Dick, I have already told my mother and sister what I intended to do.”
“What did they say?”
“They are of your opinion.”
“Then, for their sake, do not be hasty.”
“Dr. Bilks knows my intention.”
“What did he say?”
“He was of my opinion.”
“Of course!”
“Dick, one thing more. When I am married, your position will be changed.”
“My position?”
“You certainly could not be suspected----”
“Bah!” exclaimed Dick, turning red. “I should not be suspected if you had a wife. Hungerford, I am unalterably opposed to your marriage with Mary, whatever may be the result to me. My hopes were exposed to-day in the court-room, which shows that what did not occur to me till last night filled the thoughts of everybody else. My duty to Julia requires me to keep away from her. I shall do so. Never mind me, Hungerford. Don’t commit yourself to-day.”
“I will remember your wish; but I will not promise.”
They parted at the pier, and Eugene, sending his horse up to the stable by Dick, pulled over to The Great Bell.