Part 62 (1/2)

”Your men's statement and the s.h.i.+p's log. The men speak of one heavy gale after another, in January, and the pumps going; but the log says, 'A puff of wind from the N.E.' And, here again, the entry exposes your exaggeration. One branch of our evidence contradicts the other; this comes of trying to prove too much. You must say the log was lost, went down with the s.h.i.+p.”

”How can I?” cried Wylie. ”I have told too many I had got it safe at home.”

”Why did you say that? What madness!”

”Why were you away from your office at such a time? How can I know everything and do everything? I counted on you for the head-work ash.o.r.e.

Can't ye think of any way to square the log to that part of our tale?

might paste in a leaf or two, eh?”

”That would be discovered at once. You have committed an irremediable error. What broad strokes this Hudson makes. He must have written with the stump of a quill.”

Wylie received this last observation with a look of contempt for the mind that could put so trivial a question in so great an emergency.

”Are you quite sure poor Hudson is dead?” asked Wardlaw, in a low voice.

”Dead! Don't I tell you I saw him die!” said Wylie, trembling all of a sudden.

He took a gla.s.s of brandy, and sent it flying down his throat.

”Leave the paper with me,” said Arthur, languidly, ”and tell Penfold I'll crawl to the office to-morrow. You can meet me there; I shall see n.o.body else.”

Wylie called next day at the office, and was received by Penfold, who had now learned the cause of Arthur's grief, and ushered the visitor in to him with looks of benevolent concern. Arthur was seated like a lunatic, pale and motionless; on the table before him was a roast fowl and a salad, which he had forgotten to eat. His mind appeared to alternate between love and fraud; for, as soon as he saw Wylie, he gave himself a sort of shake and handed Wylie the log and the papers.

”Examine them; they agree better with each other now.”

Wylie examined the log, and started with surprise and superst.i.tious terror. ”Why, Hiram's ghost has been here at work!” said he. ”It is his very handwriting.”

”Hus.h.!.+” said Wardlaw; ”not so loud. Will it do?”

”The writing will do first-rate; but any one can see this log has never been to sea.”

Inspired by the other's ingenuity, he then, after a moment's reflection, emptied the salt-cellar into a plate, and poured a little water over it.

He wetted the leaves of the log with this salt water, and dog's-eared the whole book.

Wardlaw sighed. ”See what expedients we are driven to,” said he. He then took a little soot from the chimney, and mixed it with salad oil. He applied some of this mixture to the parchment cover, rubbed it off, and by such manipulation gave it a certain mellow look, as if it had been used by working hands.

Wylie was armed with these materials, and furnished with money to keep his sailors to their tale, in case of their being examined.

Arthur begged, in his present affliction, to be excused from going personally into the matter of the _Proserpine;_ and said that Penfold had the s.h.i.+p's log, and the declaration of the survivors, which the insurers could inspect, previously to their being deposited at Lloyd's.

The whole thing wore an excellent face, and n.o.body found a peg to hang suspicion on so far.

After this preliminary, and the deposit of the papers, nothing was hurried; the merchant, absorbed in his grief, seemed to be forgetting to ask for his money. Wylie remonstrated; but Arthur convinced him they were still on too ticklish ground to show any hurry without exciting suspicion.

And so pa.s.sed two weary months, during which Wylie fell out of Nancy Rouse's good graces, for idling about doing nothing.

”Be you a waiting for the plum to fall into your mouth, young man?” said she.

The demand was made on the underwriters, and Arthur contrived that it should come from his father. The firm was of excellent repute and had paid hundreds of insurances, without a loss to the underwriters. The _Proserpine_ had foundered at sea; several lives had been lost, and of the survivors one had since died, owing to the hards.h.i.+ps he had endured.