CHAPTER XI.
THE MIDNIGHT VISIT.
Late one night, while the wind was howling dismally, and the rain poured down in torrents, a carriage drawn by a pair of noble but weary and dripping horses, drew up before an inn in the village of ——, Germany.
Two men alighted, and muttering discontentedly about the storm, hastened within the friendly shelter of the inn.
It was not a first-class inn. All those were already filled to overflowing by the crowds who thronged the place to be present on the morrow at the commencement exercises of —— Institute.
The house before which our travelers had stopped, although clean and moderately well kept, was one in which the middle and lower classes collected every night to drink their beer, smoke their meerschaums and chat a while around the fire, which always burned brightly in the public room.
This room was now occupied by a dozen or more of this class, who left off their drinking and smoking as the strangers entered and shook the water from their dripping cloaks.
Mine host approached them with many smiles, asking what he could do for them, and at the same time assisting them to remove their wet garments.
“Give us a warm, private room, and something hot to eat and drink,” replied the younger of the two gentlemen, “and be quick about it too,” he added, “for we are almost perished with this cold, miserable storm.”
The speaker took off his hat as he spoke, revealing the handsome face of Ralph Moulton! While his companion proved to be Ralph Moulton the elder!
A man who was seated in the back part of the room, and rather in the shadow, started violently as the features of the new-comers were revealed; and he drew still farther into the shade, while he pulled up his coat collar, so that it half concealed his face; and then he sat in an attitude which showed that he was eagerly listening to catch every word that should be uttered.
In a few moments the host entered, saying their room was in readiness, and that supper would soon be served to them.
“A wet night!” he said, affably, while he lighted a candle.
“Yes, blast it!” replied Ralph, the younger, who constituted himself spokesman. “A mighty disagreeable night for any one to be out, especially if they have traveled as many miles as we have to-day.”
“Come to be here at the grand doings to-morrow?” asked the irrepressible keeper.
“Um—yes—partly. Please show us to our room now,” was the curt reply.
The host accommodatingly shut his mouth, and taking the candle preceded the strangers from the room.
The moment they had disappeared, the man who was sitting in the back part of the room, and who had been so affected upon their arrival, arose and left the inn.
Heedless of the driving storm, he proceeded quickly toward a drug store. Arriving there he purchased a fine white powder, and again returned to the inn.
He did not go back into the public room, but proceeding round to the back door, entered the kitchen where he seemed to be perfectly at home.
Going to the stove he sat down and appeared to be watching the servants while they prepared the strangers’ supper.
He seemed to be a favorite with the maids, with whom he laughed and joked in a familiar manner.
“Who are them new ones? Seen ’em?” at length asked one whom they called Mina, and who seemed to be queen of the kitchen.
“Strangers from over the water,” was the reply.
“Pretty grand, ain’t they? with their private rooms and supper served in them? Most folks who come here don’t feel so big but what they can eat in the room with common people.”
“Oh, well,” replied the man, “that’s the way with the bon ton, as they call them over in the United States.”
“What’s that,” asked Mina, with wide eyes and open mouth.
“Bon ton! Don’t you know what that means?” replied her companion, with an amused smile at her astonishment. “It means those who live at the top of the ladder!”
“How do you know? Have you ever been there?”
“Lord bless you, yes! I was born there!”
“Eh!” exclaimed the girl, amazed. “And you talk as much like a Dutchman as any of us!”
Again the man smiled. Had he chosen he could have entertained her with several other languages; but he did not choose to subject himself to her curiosity, and so remained silent, but watching intently every movement of the servants as they prepared the tempting viands for the new-comers.
Once he was left entirely alone in the room. He hastily arose, and noiselessly lifting the lid of the steaming coffeepot, emptied the whole powder he had obtained at the drug store within it, then resumed his seat and former position.
“What room do the strangers have? I thought the house was full,” he carelessly asked when Mina returned to her duties.
“Oh, the one over the keeping-room. We never let any but big bugs have that, you know, no matter how full we are,” replied the girl.
His eyes glowed with a strange bright light for a moment, then a look of fierce determination settled over his face.
Soon after he arose, and taking a candle retired to his room, which proved to be directly back of the one which Ralph Moulton occupied.
The house was a wide building, with a hall running through the center. The public room and kitchen were on one side of this, and on the other the keeping-room and dining-room; and overhead were chambers corresponding.
Between the room which the Moultons occupied and that belonging to the strange man was a huge chimney, leaving quite a space on one side for closets, one in each room, which were separated from each other only by a thin, loose, board partition.
The man, on entering his room, set his candle upon a table. He then began to disrobe himself, first removing a huge wig and heavy pair of whiskers, revealing the black, curling locks and handsome face of Ralph Moulton’s ally, Ronald Edgerton.
“I guess the old rascal couldn’t have known me, anyhow,” he muttered, with a complacent smile at the transformation, “but I felt rather ticklish when they came in so unexpectedly. To think that youngster should be so near me and not——”
He stopped suddenly, and looked around as if he feared some one might overhear what he was about to utter. Then, heaving a deep sigh, while a look of sadness overshadowed his face, he removed his coat.
“Well, I must to work now. I am bound to know if he has it in his possession. If I do not find it to-night I shall give up the game.”
Saying which, he took a small screw-driver from the table drawer, and going into the closet, listened intently.
He could hear nothing but the sharp rattling of dishes and the low muttering of voices.
He then cautiously applied his screw-driver, and removed an already loosened board at one end of the partition, and out of sight of the door, so that any one going to the closet would not discover the aperture.
He then carefully squeezed himself through this opening and found himself in the closet belonging to the other room, and could now hear the voices quite plainly.
He crept softly along to the door, and applying his ear to the crevice, could easily catch every word that was uttered. Squire Moulton was speaking, and he heard the words:
“Let the girl go to the duse, boy; you have something of more importance on hand just now.”
“I tell you, uncle, I would give up everything to gain Dora Dupont for my wife,” said Ralph, excitedly.
“What! would you give up an honorable name?” sneered the squire.
The young man colored angrily.
“I tell you,” he hissed, “I won’t be twitted with that again. You may carry out your own plans for revenge alone, for all me, if you can’t treat me decently.”
“Well, well,” interrupted his uncle, soothingly.
“No, no; it isn’t well, well. You are always throwing out something about my parentage, and I am about tired of it.”
“That’s all the thanks I get,” retorted Squire Moulton, hotly. “Here I am trying to help you to one of the first positions. Perhaps you would rather I would tell you outright that you are illegitimate, with no chance of claiming an honorable name?”
There was a touch of intense sarcasm in his tone.
“You know better than that, uncle, and that I am only too willing to believe that I am the rightful son of Mr. Ellerton; but it is not pleasant to be twitted about one’s obligations.”
“Very true,” returned the squire, with an evil smile. “But I wish you would let the girl alone.”
“I will not. I have sworn that I will have that girl for my wife, and have her I will.”
“Well, let us talk of something else, then. You know Ellerton will be here to witness the honors with which his son is to graduate. He has not yet arrived. I bribed the driver who was to bring him not to let him arrive until after the exercises had commenced. It won’t do to let father and son meet, you know—at least, not at present—it would spoil our plans. Have you made any arrangements to prevent it yet?”
“Yes; I saw Hans, the smuggler, told him what I wanted, and he has promised to have a decoy ready as soon as the exercises are over. I will see that he is kept out of the way until I bring the girl to terms and get my claim established; then he may go free, for all I care.”
“How are you going to manage it? You know as well as I do that the marriage was legal, and can only be annulled by both parties consenting to it.”
“I know it was legal, though I have told Dora Dupont that I could prove it was not. She won’t believe me, so I have given up trying to lie her out of it. But she is gloriously proud, and I can easily send her a dainty little note, purporting to come from her gallant husband, saying that time and absence have effaced the affection he once had for her, and planted other hopes and plans in his heart; and asking that she will consent to a divorce! Of course, you can easily imagine what the reply of such a proud little beauty would be to a note of that kind. And then my way is clear.”
“Hum!” murmured his listener, discontentedly. “I don’t know as I care, only I wish you would take up the other matter first. I hate the son as bad as I hate the father, and want to see him dethroned. Perhaps, on the whole, it would be a good idea to get the girl away from him; it will only make the victory more complete.”
“That’s it; now you talk like business,” returned Ralph, his good nature now fully restored at his uncle’s concession. “But,” he added, “I’m dused sleepy; so let us go to bed.”
“Very well; but first tell me how you are going to manage to keep young Ellerton out of the way while you do all this,” replied Squire Moulton.
Ralph lowered his voice to a whisper as he replied; and turn which way he would, their listener could not hear what he said, only once he caught the words “cave” and “smuggler.” But that was sufficient to set him on the right track.
The two plotters then retired to bed, and Ronald Edgerton returned to his room, to wait until the drug which he had put into their coffee should take effect.
Two hours passed, and again donning his disguise, Ronald again made his way through the closets into the adjoining room. He left his candle just within the closet, partly closing the door, so that the light should not disturb the sleepers.
He smiled triumphantly as he heard their deep, regular breathing, while he coolly set himself about investigating their luggage.
He found nothing there that seemed satisfactory, and so turned his attention to their clothing.
He found two wallets filled with money and drafts; but these he put back again, after a careful examination of their contents, and without taking anything from them.
It was evident that money was not the object of his midnight visit.
At length he found another smaller wallet in the breast-pocket of the squire’s coat. This he took to the light and opened.
It contained a number of papers, which he carefully examined, and then laid aside with evident disappointment.
The last one was in his hand, and he hesitated a moment before opening it, as if he dreaded to have his hopes blasted by not finding it to be the one he sought.
At length, with a half-desperate, half-resigned air, he unfolded it.
The instant his eyes caught sight of its contents his whole face lighted up with sudden joy.
It was the long-lost and long-searched-for paper!
“Ah!” he whispered to himself, with a deep sigh of relief. “Now I begin to feel like a man once more!”
Hastily unfolding it and concealing it about his person, he replaced the other papers, and laid the clothing back as he had found it. Then picking up the candle, he returned as noiselessly to his room as he had come, where after carefully replacing the board he had removed, he had retired to bed and slept soundly until morning.