leaving the wounded and the unwounded hunters to pursue their way through the forest, we shall return to the hut and over-hear hiram monk’s long-delayed confession.
as soon as the door was shut on the six hunters, he began. his face was turned towards mr. lawrence, but his eyes were fixed on his pillow, which was hidden by the coverlet; and his punctuation was so precise, his style so eloquent and sublime, and his story so methodical, complicated, and tragical, that once or twice a horrible suspicion that he was reading the entire confession out of a novel concealed in the bed, flashed across mr. lawrence’s mind.
if this dreadful thought should occur to the reader, he can mentally insert the confession in double quotation marks.
we are too humane to inflict the whole confession on the long-suffering reader; this abridged version of it will be quite sufficient, as it contains the main points.
“seventeen years ago, i was an official in k. hospital. my duties were to keep the record of the hospital; but still i passed considerable time with the maniacs, as my influence with those unhappy creatures was very great. i am a man of some education and ability, i may say, without ostentation; and till i met you, mr. lawrence, i was honesty itself.
“you were brought to our hospital a friendless man and a stranger; and it was rumored that you had been attacked by thieves, who, however, failed to get possession of your treasure. a great chest of gold and silver, labelled, ‘r. lawrence,’ to be retained till your friends or relatives could be found, was brought and deposited in our magazine. it was a most romantic story, a man travelling through the country with a vast sum of money in a strong-box!
[378]
“the demon entered into me, and i resolved to make it still more mysterious. in a word, i resolved to appropriate your fortune to my own use; and in order to do so the more easily and safely, i set about destroying every clue to your identity. all papers found on your person, which might lead to discovery, i carefully burned. it was i who wrote an account of the affair to the journals, and i purposely distorted your name beyond recognition. this, of course, was considered a mere printer’s blunder, and the ‘mistake’ was never rectified.
“here was a great step taken. i now flattered myself that none of your friends could possibly trace you to our hospital, and that all i had to do was to wait a short time, and then quietly slip away with my ill-gotten riches.
“but many difficulties lay in my way. your bodily health and strength gradually improved, though you still remained disordered in intellect. then, in order the better to work out my plans, i caused myself to be appointed your especial attendant, or keeper; and i made you to understand that you had a large sum of money, of which your enemies sought to rob you, deposited, for safe-keeping, in our vaults. with all a madman’s pertinacity, you took hold of this idea, and eagerly listened to all that i said. you ordered the chest of treasure to be brought into your own apartment, and you became suspicious of every one but me.
“here was another great point gained; and i now matured my plot to get the money. i induced you to believe that you were soon to be robbed, and that we must flee, as you were now strong enough to quit the hospital at any time. i obtained leave from the superintendent to go on a flying visit to a friend of mine in another state, and i made all my arrangements to depart openly. you were to have another keeper, of course; but i plotted with you to return at night, and we would escape together. i believed that the superintendent would never suspect me,—at least, not till too late,—but would think that you had eluded your new keeper’s vigilance in the night.
“that afternoon i set out ostensibly for frankfort in[379] kentucky; but i remained in the neighborhood, and at night i returned to keep my appointment with you. as i was perfectly familiar with all the entrances into the hospital, as well as with all their regulations, and as i had given you your instructions prior to my feigned departure, we easily made our escape with the chest of treasure.
“and now i had you and all your money wholly in my power; i could do what i pleased with you. but, to do myself justice, i must add—no, i affirm positively—that i had no intention of harming you. my design, matured beforehand, was to reach a certain cave, establish you in it, make provision for your subsistence and comfort, and then slip away with the hoards i coveted.
“i do not know whether we were pursued or not; but, if so, we eluded the pursuers, and in due time arrived at the cave, which, as i had supposed, would serve my purpose admirably. yes, it was an excellent place to desert you so treacherously—an excellent place.
“but we had barely arrived when you seemed to grow suspicious of me. that must be stopped immediately, and i hastened to make preparations for departure. i left you alone for a time, went to the neighboring city, and engaged a trader to take necessaries to a certain man who purposed living in ‘the cave,’ as it was called. i represented you as being deranged and idiotic, but quite harmless, and charged him to deal fairly with you, and keep his own counsel for a short time, in which case all would be well. then i returned to the cave, and acquainted you with such of these facts as you might know. that night i gathered up my own effects, as well as the stolen money, and fled.
“i did not suppose that you would remain long in the cave. on the contrary, i supposed that through the trader, or by some other means, your identity would soon be established. but i wished to place myself beyond the reach of pursuit before that should happen. to that end i had compacted with the trader; to that end i now fled precipitantly.
“my better nature returned for a moment, and i[380] thought of advertising your retreat, or even of calling upon your kinsmen. but i was dissuaded from this by fears of incurring danger of being apprehended by the superintendent of the hospital, whose suspicions must, by this time, have been aroused. may i enquire how long you remained in ‘the cave,’ mr. lawrence?”
“ten years.”
“ten years! then, indeed, i deserve the severest penalties that the law can inflict! ten years! i could not believe that from other lips than yours! and that man knew you were there all that time, and yet took no action to set you at liberty! but no; i had told him that it was better so, and i suppose he took it for granted that it was. yes, he is guiltless in the matter.
“to resume my confession. i escaped with the money intact, as i imagined; but when i came to open the receptacle, far away from you and the cave, i found, to my consternation, that more than half of it was missing, and its room taken up with stones and earth! you had evidently grown so suspicious of me as to abstract the money and conceal it in the cave during my absence in the city. that was the only solution of the mystery that occurred to me.
“how i raged! my punishment was beginning already. but i was not softened; if i had dared, i should have returned to the cave, and dug up every foot of ground within it. but i feared that detectives were already on my track, and i hurried on, a baulked and furious man.
“greater misfortune was yet to overtake me. the box containing the stolen treasure was torn asunder in a steamboat explosion on the mississippi, and the treasure was scattered and lost beyond recovery in the muddy waters. thus i lost what remained to me of the treasure, and was left, penniless, friendless, homeless; a fugitive, an outcast. since that time, i have lived i know not how; at one time stricken with fever in the tropics; at another time languishing in prison for some petty crime; sick, persecuted, longing for death. minions of the law often pursued me for minor irregularities;[381] but the secret of my one great crime never came to light. in my distress i joined the army, and hoped to find relief in fighting the battles of my country—my country, to which i was an odious reproach! i often thought of returning to the cave, to discover what had become of you, and to make such restitution as lay in my power; but i never had the moral courage to do so. for the last year, i have lived in this forest, in fellowship with this man, james horniss.
“i now surrender myself to outraged justice,—voluntarily, even gladly,—for i can endure this way of life no longer. forgive me, if you can, mr. lawrence, for i have been tortured with remorse in all these years.”
the villain’s story was ended; and uncle dick, henry, the officer of the law, and jim horniss, fetched a sigh of relief.
they felt extremely sorry for the sick man who had confessed so eloquently and prolixly; but mr. lawrence was not so “tortured” with pity as to plead for his release from punishment. in fact, he had nothing to say against the law’s taking its course with him. however, he spoke kindly.
“mr. monk,” he said, “i forgive you freely, for it was my own foolishness that led me into your power. as for the money, it seemed fated that it should melt away, and to-day not one cent of it remains. i am glad to see you in a better frame of mind, sir; but i must leave you now to see how it fares with my nephew. come, henry.”
“and your story?” asked the confessor, with a curious and eager air.
“excuse me, mr. monk,” said uncle dick; “but my story would seem prosaic, exceedingly prosaic, after yours. good day.”
and he and henry brutally strode out of the hut, leaving the ex-villain “tortured” with curiosity.
thus those two villains, hiram monk and jim horniss, pass out of this tale.
if the reader thinks it worth while, he can turn back to the twenty-second chapter, and compare the story[382] which mr. lawrence told mr. mortimer with the story narrated by monk in this chapter. but seriously, gentle reader, it is hardly worth while to compare the two. time is too precious to be fooled away in trying to comprehend the plots and mysteries put forth in certain romances.
mr. lawrence and henry hurried on in the direction taken by their fellow-hunters an hour before.
“mr. lawrence,” said henry, “i think i shall never go hunting again; i consider it a wicked waste of gunpowder and shoe-leather.”
“yes, for a company of heedless innocents, who know little or nothing about fire-arms, and still less about the habits of animals, it is all a piece of foolishness;” mr. lawrence replied. “for those who are prudent enough to keep out of danger, who can understand and enjoy hunting and trapping, and go about it systematically, it is all very well.”
parents and guardians, accept this as a warning—not that your sons, or wards, will clear up any appalling mystery by going hunting, but that they will be far more likely to destroy themselves than to return burdened with game.
