Kitabı oku: «Joshua Marvel», sayfa 38

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"No, sir; I think it will be best if Mr. Fewster will keep away from us."

"And you, Ellen? what do you say?

"I never wish to see him again. For the sake of what is past, I would have been content to see him, if he would have ceased from persecuting me; but after what he has said to you, I hope he will leave us in peace."

"You hear," exclaims George Marvel; "we are happy enough without you. Go, and never darken this door again!"

Solomon Fewster looks round, almost savagely; his face is white with passion, and all the vindictiveness of his bad nature comes into play.

"You are happy enough without me!" he sneers, with his knuckles to his mouth.

"Don't make too sure of that. I have been your friend hitherto. What if I now make myself your enemy? What if, when I go from this house, I spread about my version of your reason for leaving London? What if I tell your neighbors here of the real character of your sailor-hero, and how, because of his villainy, all your friends turned their backs upon you" -

But he has no time to say more; for the door, which has been partly open, swings on its hinges, and Joshua enters.

Not one of them recognizes him. In his strange garb, with his fur-cap pulled over his eyes, and with his face covered with hair, no trace of Joshua is discernible; and yet they look at him spell-bound, waiting for him to speak. He gazes at the forms of all the dear ones and grasps the back of a chair to steady himself. He takes them all in at a glance, and sees in one brief moment the changes in them that time has made. His mother's white hair; the deepened wrinkles in his father's face; Ellen more matronly than she was, but fair and pleasant to look at as when she was a girl; Susan, like an old woman; Dan grown a little stouter, and with the same dear boyish light in his eyes and on his face-but the child, clinging to Ellen's apron and looking at him wonderingly with Ellen's eyes and his! -

He had thought, before he entered, that he would be strong, but he has no more control over himself for a few moments than a straw in a fierce wind. Then muttering, "Justice first!" he turns upon Solomon Fewster a glance of hate and scorn, and grasps him by the shoulder with so powerful a grasp, that Fewster writhes with pain.

"I heard your last words," he says.

But directly he speaks, a thrill runs through them, and they are running towards him with outstretched arms, when he cries, -

"Stand off! By what strange chance I find you, I can scarcely imagine. But do not come nearer to me for a little while, or I shall fall dead at your feet!"

Awe-struck and trembling they obey him.

"I would not touch one of your dear hands till you have heard me and judged me, though death were the penalty for depriving myself of the joy! I would not receive one kiss from your honored lips upon my cheek till you have heard me and judged me, though I were sure that my tongue would be paralyzed in the utterance of what I have to say! Some part of your sufferings, some part of your pain, I know from my own suffering and pain, and I will clear myself before your eyes, so help me Thou! or go forever from my sight!"

Susan is running to him with cries of "Justice! justice!" and is about to throw herself upon him, when George Marvel's arm restrains and keeps her back. "Be still, madwoman!" he mutters sternly, and stands by her side, watchful of her, and no less watchful and attentive of every word that falls from his son's lips.

Joshua takes the cap from his head, and lets it fall to the ground, still keeping his strong grasp upon Solomon Fewster, whose cowardly blood grows thin as he writhes and listens.

"Justice!" echoes Joshua. "You shall have it, and so shall this base dog, whose presence pollutes the air I breathe. Listen well. Of another matter that we must speak of presently, and which is near and dear to all our hearts, I will say nothing before him. But in the 'Merry Andrew' in which I sailed from Gravesend, and which is now at the bottom of the sea, with many dear brave souls that were aboard her, was a villanous sailor-a Lascar, from whose hands I once rescued the woman who calls for justice, and who struck me down on that dreadful Christmas-eve when I first came home from sea. He shrinks and trembles beneath my grasp, this false friend, of whose bad heart I warned my brother Dan before the 'Merry Andrew' sailed. At one time during the voyage, when we were in danger, there was an attempt at mutiny, and this Lascar was one of the cowardly wretches who endeavored to spread dissatisfaction. When we were in dread peril, this Lascar sailor and a mutinous mate, whom we had to put in irons, strove hard to injure me and the captain-Heaven rest his soul-and, happily, failed. The ship was wrecked, and we had to abandon her, and take to a raft which we had made; and on that raft we suffered more than six weeks hunger and thirst, and every species of misery. Out of the entire crew and passengers only seven were saved, among them being myself and this Lascar sailor and his confederate, the mutinous mate. Before the captain died, he appointed me to succeed in the command, and I have the record from the log-book about me now. We got ashore. How we lived, you shall hear from me by and by; but once the Lascar (whom we suspected of having killed his confederate) stole upon me, and but that I turned my head in time, I should not be here now to expose the villainy of this cowardly wretch. Foiled in his devilish design, he told me then that he had been set to trap me, and was paid for it. Some time after that, I found the Lascar dead in the forest; and before I buried him-not wishing to leave a human creature however vile, to be eaten by birds and beasts-I obtained evidence which proved to me that the wretch who writhes now within my grasp was the master who paid him to ruin, and perhaps to murder me."

"A clever lie," Solomon Fewster manages to say, though he is shaking from terror.

"A lie! have the proofs. Be thankful that I have met you here among those who are all that the world holds dear for ma. If I had met you in the forest, in the midst of such scenes as I have witnessed lately, I would not have answered for your life."

Joshua hurls Solomon Fewster from him with such force that he falls, almost stunned, in the corner of the room. Then Joshua takes from his neck the bag containing; his relics, and selects from them the silver watch and the document which Fewster had given the Lascar, and after reading aloud the document and the inscription on the watch, lays them upon the table.

"Here are the proofs of your crime and your villainy," he says to Fewster. "Be thankful if you are allowed to escape punishment. Go and go quickly, and without a word!" He stands aside to let the man pass; and Solomon Fewster, without a word or a look to any one there, passes out of the room, and out of the village. And is never seen in it again.

When they are alone, Joshua turns to Susan, and, in a softer voice, says, -

"Susan, you cried for justice. Upon me!"

"Yes, upon you. Where is Minnie? What have you done with Minnie?"

The big tears roll down Joshua's beard at the mention of her name.

"You think I took her away?"

"You know you did."

"Then truly, if all of you believe as Susan believes, my life is darker than the darkest night." With upraised hand he checks them, from speaking; but he sees in their faces what gives him precious comfort. "When I went away from Gravesend," he says in a soft and gentle voice, "I had no knowledge that Minnie was aboard. When we got to Sydney I did not know it. My duties occupied all my time. We sailed from Sydney, and I was still in ignorance. But on the night the 'Merry Andrew' struck on the rocks I heard her voice for the first time. I suppose she thought that we were lost, and in her agony she made herself known to me; but I did not see her-the night was too dark. When I saw her the next day, I saw to my amazement that she had stained her face, and that her hair was not so long as she used to wear it. We were together on the raft. We were together on the shore. She was one of the seven who were saved. We lived together like brother and sister. When the savages discovered us, they had a strange fancy respecting her, and she obtained great influence over them. She used all her influence to protect me, and but for her I should have lived and died where the tribe we fell amongst chiefly wandered-in the north, many hundreds of miles from here." He takes from his bag Ellen's portrait, the lock of her hair he had cut before he left Gravesend, and Dan's Bible. He places these on one side. "What is left, Dan, is yours. This tress, cut not many weeks ago; this paper, which she desired me to give you, and which I have never read; this earth, which I gathered from her grave Before she died, she sent you all her dearest love, and a kiss for mother, Dan, and Ellen. She died pure as she had lived, dear, faithful, mistaken heart! As I hope for redemption, I speak the truth. If you believe me, take me to your hearts again, and let me live in them as I know I once lived!"

As he once lived! as he had always lived! They cluster round him, and kiss him, and sob over him. Had he not been saved from the deep-ay, and from greater perils-to comfort them? And they put his little daughter in his arms, who asks, hearing that he was her father, "Has God sent my father back? God is very good."

O good faithful mother! can this great bearded man be your son? Not often can such a cluster of loving hearts be seen-faithful to each other, believing in each other's goodness and purity, in face of terrible adverse circumstance. Their faithfulness is a proof of their own worth. To the pure all things are pure. But hush! for Minnie's last words; Dan is reading them aloud.

"I have learned, too late, the consequences of my fault. But I, and I alone, am to blame. No one knew it; no one suspected it; no one aided me in it. I am writing this upon a page of Dan's Bible, and it seems to me like an oath. I cannot live long. I am dying. But a long-life's devotion could not repay Joshua's brotherly care. All good angels guard him and you! If Joshua is preserved to give you this-and I believe he will be-think, while you read it, that my spirit is near; and forgive me, dear Dan and Ellen. My love to you both, and to good Mrs. Marvel and Joshua's father; and to Susan, who must have no bad thoughts of Joshua. God bless you, and send you happiness!
"Minnie."

Dan and Joshua sit talking together until late in the night. Ellen and Mr. and Mrs. Marvel are sitting up also, but in another part of the house. They know that Dan wants to speak to Joshua of Minnie, and they leave the friends undisturbed.

What is said to each other by the two faithful friends cannot be written here; but it may be easily understood by those who have read these pages. Joshua tells Dan as much as time will allow of his and Minnie's lives, and is tender and indignant in turns, as Dan relates to him the history of the family in Stepney after the sailing of the "Merry Andrew." Be sure that the Old Sailor is not forgotten. I650f tender speech and loving thought are worth any thing, the Old Sailor is rich indeed.

Their eyes are wet with tears, and their hands are in each other's clasp. Joshua has just finished his relation of Minnie's death, and of her words about the river-"So restless there, so quiet here!" – when a knock comes at the door and Ellen enters. He takes her in his arms, and they sit, the three of them, and talk in a state of wondering happiness.

Another knock at the door. – Mr. and Mrs. Marvel. The magnetism of love has drawn them all together.

"It reminds me of the night before you first went to see, Jo," says Dan. "Do you remember? The knocks at the door one after another."

"Josh," said George Marvel to his son, a fortnight afterwards, "what are you going to do?"

"What do you mean, daddy?" asked Joshua in return.

"What do I mean? Well, you don't want to go to sea again?"

"No, I shouldn't like to leave Ellen and Dan and all of you again."

"Well, then, what are you going to do? You must do something."

Mrs. Marvel sat silent, and smiled a little smile, but very slyly, so that no one should see it.

"You can get plenty of work as a wood-turner, daddy?"

"Yes, Josh, a good deal more than I can do-and well paid for it too."

"Well, daddy, I think" -

"Yes, Josh, you think" -