Somewhat excited, and very watchful lest the intruders should return, the boys ate their long-delayed supper, and then entered the sitting-room. Budd sat down by the center-table and took up the Bible that had caused the robber Tom so much surprise. His face flushed greatly, and he seemed deeply moved by the emotions with which he was struggling. At length he said:

"Judd, you heard enough from Thomas Bagsley's lips to-night to prove he was the man I had declared him to be. You also heard him allude to my father. In justice to that father's memory, and also that you may know who I am and how I came to be here, I will now tell you what I have never before disclosed to a single person."

With these words Budd began a story which explained the mystery that had hung over him ever since he had appeared in that neighborhood, and revealed the tremendous burden that was weighing down his young life.

CHAPTER X.--BUDD'S STORY.

Said he, "My father's name is Henry Boyd, and my mother's, Mary Boyd, and my home until last March was in Boston, Ma.s.s. Father and mother had been brought up in the western part of that State, and were married there, but soon after my birth they removed to Boston, and father entered the store of N. B. Johnson, the wholesale dry goods dealer on Sumner Street."

"He's the man who has spent the last summer or two on Hope Island,"

interrupted Judd, "and the one Bagsley called old Johnson."

"Yes," a.s.sented Budd; "though I did not know, until he alluded to it to-night, that it was down this way that Mr. Johnson spent his summers.

"To go on with my story, however. Father slowly worked his way up from one position to another until he was Mr. Johnson's confidential clerk, and held that position until last fall. Of course his salary was a comfortable one, and we lived nicely out in the Roxbury suburbs. I was kept constantly in school, and as I seemed interested in my studies father determined that I should have a college education, and with that aim in view I last September entered the Boston Latin School.

"How little we know what is before us," continued Budd after a momentary pause. "Had anyone then told me what I was to pa.s.s through in less than a year I should have thought it simply impossible. In order to have you understand what is to follow I must, however, go back a little in my explanation.

"When I was about twelve years old, mother began to show signs of a decline. She had had a fever, and never fully recovered. Still, as she was able to be around most of the time and direct our one servant in the care of the house, I, at least, thought but little about it. Not so with father, however. Always thoughtful of others rather than of himself, he watched mother with an ever-increasing anxiety until a year ago last spring. Mother then contracted a severe cold, and it was soon only too apparent that she had entered the first stages of a quick consumption.

"All that summer she grew worse, and last October she was so feeble her physician declared that the only hope of saving her life was to take her immediately to a warmer climate for the winter. Father determined that this should be done, but how he was to accomplish it he did not know.

Mother was too feeble to go without him and a woman attendant. The fall drive at the store had begun, and father could not well be spared.

Then, too, there was the expense that would necessarily follow. This was an important item; for though father had always had good pay, he had, on account of his heavy expenses, saved scarcely anything.

"Father spoke to Mr. Johnson about a leave of absence, and he reluctantly consented that father should be gone long enough to take mother to Florida and arrange for her comfort there. The woman who was taking care of her consented to go and stay there with her; and much as father and mother hated to be separated, this seemed the only thing that could be done. Father had about two hundred dollars on hand, and deemed this enough to meet the expenses of taking mother down to Deland, the place where they had decided to go. He then intended to send mother money each month, or as it should be needed.

"So our house was given up. The goods were stored. A boarding-place was secured for me, and on the first of the next week father and mother were to start. I shall never forget that last evening we all spent together," and Budd's voice grew husky. "It was at a friend's of the family, where mother had been temporarily removed while the household goods were being packed and stored. We were alone in mother's room, and it almost seems as if mother knew she should never see me again, except for the brief moment I should say good-by to her at the depot the following morning. So she told me her last wishes, and gave me her blessing.

"While we sat there a knock came at the door, and mother's nurse entered.

"'Here, Mr. Boyd,' she said, 'is a letter for you. It has just been left at the door.'

"Father took it, and noticing the firm-name on the corner of the envelope, tore it open with some misgiving. It proved, however, to be a great cause for rejoicing to us all, and no one dreamed that it was otherwise than authentic. Written on the regular firm note-paper, and with the firm-heading, it ran:

BOSTON, Ma.s.s., Oct. 15, 18--.

MR. HENRY BOYD:

_Dear Sir_--Possibly my reluctance to allow you a leave of absence may have led you to believe I do not sympathize with you in your wife's illness; but as a proof that I do, and also as a token of my appreciation of your long and faithful service, I inclose a check for five hundred ($500) dollars. Trusting you will return to us at the earliest possible moment, and that your wife's sojourn in a warmer climate may completely restore her to health,

I remain, yours truly, N. B. JOHNSON.

"Now, father had seen more or less of Mr. Johnson's writing every day for years, and the quaint, cramped penmanship of the letter, with the familiar signature at the close, seemed identically those that were also upon the check. That was the regular firm-check also, and the number and perforation were in strict accordance with the firm-usages, and therefore father, with a grateful heart, wrote a note of thanks, and gave it to me to mail to Mr. Johnson as I went back to my boarding-place. With joyful hearts, too--joyful in spite of mother's feebleness--father and mother set out at an early hour the next morning for the South. They had taken this unexpected generosity of Mr. Johnson as a good omen, and neither had any suspicion that a cloud was gathering above their heads that would soon mean death to one and an incarceration in prison-walls for the other.

"In New York father was known, and he thought it wiser to cash his check there than wait until he got farther South; so the next morning he delayed one train, and at the opening of the bank where he was acquainted presented his check for payment. The money was handed him without any hesitation, and two hours later he, with his little party, had resumed the journey.

"At Richmond, Charleston and Jacksonville they made brief stops, that mother might rest, and it was not until the following week that they arrived at their destination. Imagine, now, father's surprise, when he registered at the hotel in Deland, to have an officer immediately step forward and arrest him for forgery and theft. As soon as father recovered his composure he demanded a full explanation of the outrage, and at whose instigation the charges had been made. He was completely overwhelmed when told that it was Mr. Johnson, and that he was charged not only with the forging of the check, but also with taking a thousand dollars in cash from the office safe.

"Father sent for a lawyer and consulted with him, hoping to arrange the affair in some way so that mother would have no knowledge of it, and having arranged for her comfort, he would then return to Boston and face the charges, sure that he could prove them false. But father was a stranger. No one was ready to offer bail for him, and the officer clamored for his immediate requisition. There seemed but one alternative. Mother must be told, and father return immediately to Boston.

"When mother was told, the shock seemed to give her new strength, and she declared she would not leave father while he was in trouble. The whole party started on their return, therefore, with the officer. In New York mother was taken with a hemorrhage, brought on, the doctors said, by excitement and overdoing, and in six hours she was a corpse.

"I saw the account of father's arrest in that morning's paper, and a few hours later got a telegram from father announcing mother's death, and that night met him at the depot and took charge of the corpse, while the officer took father to jail.

"The weeks that followed I cannot tell you of," continued Budd, after a paroxysm of sobs. "Mother was buried, and father's trial came. Some friends had rallied about him, good counsel was secured, and we hoped confidently for his acquittal. Father told his story just as it was, but Mr. Johnson declared he never either wrote the letter or sent the check; and Bagsley, who had been an under-clerk in the office, and had succeeded to father's position, produced bits of paper that he declared he had found hid in the office, on which there had evidently been constant practice to imitate the firm-name. This testimony, together with the known facts that father needed the money, and was the only clerk in the office that at that time had access to the safe and check-book, convicted him. His story, and the drawing of the check and the sending of it to the house, were declared to be simply plans on his part to cover his crimes in mother's and his friends' eyes, and account to them for the extra money he possessed, until he got safely out of the State. The thousand dollars that had disappeared from the safe he was supposed to have concealed. At the end, those who had claimed to be friends deserted him, and Mr. Johnson was openly complimented on the promptness with which he had acted. The Judge who presided at the trial seemed to have caught the popular belief, for he, when p.r.o.nouncing the sentences, said:

"'Had the prisoner confessed his guilt and thrown himself upon the mercy of the Court, he might have received the Court's clemency, since they were his first offenses. His obdurateness, however, compels me to make the sentences correspondingly harsh. I therefore sentence him on the first charge to seven years, and on the second charge to five years, at hard labor in the State's prison; the second sentence to begin when the first has ended.'

"It was last January when this took place. From that time I knew not a happy hour until I left the city. Our former friends refused to receive me at their homes; school-mates treated me coldly or met me with sneers; even the lady with whom I boarded told me I must leave. I at length determined to seek a home where I was not known.

"The lawyer who had defended father at his trial seemed friendly, and to him I went. From him I learned that father had returned to Mr. Johnson the five hundred dollars he had got on the forged check, and that he had told Mr. Johnson if he ever lived to get out of prison he should pay the other thousand. 'You believe I have taken it,' he had said, 'and I will not allow myself to rest until you at least are convinced that I have not a cent that belongs to you.' The lawyer also added that father's own money had paid the expenses South and return, and also mother's funeral expenses, but that he had received no compensation for his services.

"Through him I therefore disposed of all the household goods, selling even my own, father's and mother's watches; in fact, everything that would sell. After paying the lawyer in full, and all other bills, I found I had five hundred and four dollars and seventy-five cents.

"I took five hundred of this and went to Mr. Johnson's office. He was not in, and I sat down to await his coming. Bagsley was at the desk father had occupied so long, and he scowled darkly at me. I had always felt that he could tell all about the forged check and the thousand dollars if he were willing to do so, and I fixed my eyes steadily upon him. He grew uneasy at my fixed gaze, and evidently would have spoken to me had not the presence of the other clerks prevented.

"Mr. Johnson soon came in, and though he seemed annoyed to see me, did not refuse my request to see him privately. Once in his inner office, I took out the money I had brought and handed it to him.

"'I pay this money, Mr. Johnson,' I said, 'not because father ever took a dollar from you, but because you believe he did. This five hundred makes an even thousand. The other five hundred I will pay as soon as I can earn it. Will you give me a receipt for this?'"

Without a word he filled out the receipt, but on handing it to me he said, not unkindly:

"'Will you tell me who did take it? If I knew I had wronged your father I would not leave a stone unturned until I had made him full amends.'

"'Of course I have my suspicions,' I replied, 'but it is another thing to prove them.'

"'Do you mean Bagsley?' he asked, lowering his voice and tapping thoughtfully on the desk with his fingers.

"'Mr. Johnson,' I suddenly cried, a light flashing in upon my mind, 'did you, the morning father started South, get a note from him thanking you for the check?' and as he shook his head in reply, I went on: 'Well, the night before, I mailed one to you. Who opened your mail that morning?'

"'Bagsley,' he replied; 'but how did he get access to the safe, and what could have been his motive in so cruelly wronging your father, if guilty?'

"'I don't know any more than you,' I answered, turning to go. As I laid my hand upon the office door it opened, and Bagsley appeared. By the look of rage on his face as he glanced at me I knew he had been listening to our conversation. He walked over to Mr. Johnson with a handful of papers he wanted him to sign, and I departed.

"Going back to the place where I was stopping, I remained all night, and early the next morning took my pack and started out of the city. I had so little money I had decided to walk to Providence, looking for work all the way. Barely had I turned the first street corner when I ran into Bagsley. He at once recognized me, and catching me by the arm, hissed out the words:

"'You young rascal! I've a good mind to throttle you; and I will if you ever come about the office again telling stories about me!' Then he shook me and hurled me from him with a force that sent me into the nearest gutter.

"Thoroughly angered by the treatment I had received, I sprung to my feet and foolishly said:

"'Bagsley, it was you who forged that check and sent it to father to cover your theft of the thousand dollars, and I'll prove it yet!'