Part 18 (1/2)
”I thought so,” said the detective.
”Yes, that is the letter.”
”I thought so, and did not open it because it is written on it 'To be opened by Mr. Townsend only.'”
”Where did you find it?”
”Never mind where I found it; what have I found?”
”You have found the letter which was left with me by Jacob Canfield.”
”You are certain?”
”I am. No doubt as to its ident.i.ty. I must have removed it from the safe in my office.”
”No doubt.”
”Yes, it's one of the most remarkable lapses of memory.”
”It is not so remarkable.”
”Where did you find it?”
Jack told where he had found the long missing letter, and then said:
”Now, sir, all you have to do is to open that letter and we will learn what you are directed to do.”
”We would have been wise to have searched for the letter at first.”
”Oh, no, we have prepared the way now to act on what the letter may disclose. But read it.”
”I will open it; you read it. I am so overcome I have not the strength to do so.”
”All right.”
Mr. Townsend did open the letter. We will not attempt to produce its contents in detail, but relate the main facts wherein the strange mystery of the extraordinary deposit was fully cleared up, and also how the remarkable cleverness of Detective Jack Alvarez was fully and most amazingly verified.
Jack had traced down to the real character. Jacob Canfield was the man who had made the deposit, and as Jack had discerned he held the money in trust. One morning the fishermen along the Jersey coast discovered a bark in distress off the sh.o.r.e. It was in the midst of one of the fiercest northeast storms in the remembrance of any man. No boat could go to the aid of the crew, and all efforts to send a line proved futile, and through the day the vessel was seen beating and thumping, and when night fell it was decided that ere morning she would have gone to pieces. Among those who were on the beach was Jacob Canfield, and at night he walked along the beach, when from the breakers he heard a cry.
Jake was a powerful swimmer, and he ran down into the water, and it did seem as though in fitness of time and place his rush was providential.
He saw a figure, brought in on a wave, and he plunged forward, seized the form of a man who had lost his strength and was being carried back, never to be plunged forward again alive. Jake dragged the half-drowned man ash.o.r.e and carried him to his own little home. At that time he lived alone, a widower. After hours of work he managed to restore the man to life, and at the rescued pa.s.senger's request he let no one know of the rescue. In the meantime, during the night the storm went down, and lo, the stanch bark withstood the mad a.s.saults of the waves, and life savers in good time were able to go aboard. They did so and later saved every man of the crew. There was one pa.s.senger, however, missing, named Harold Stevens. He was the only pa.s.senger, and he was washed overboard and drowned--that is, so every one believed. Luck favored the crew, as later on the baggage of the sailors was saved, and also the baggage of the missing pa.s.senger.
Meantime, as the rescued man revealed to Jake Canfield, he was Harold Stevens, and Jake was sent to bring the captain of the bark to his cottage, and the rescued pa.s.senger and the captain of the bark had a long conference. Later Harold Stevens went to New York, and being identified his baggage was delivered to him, and no one on the beach ever knew that Jake Canfield had been the saver of the life of the pa.s.senger reported as drowned. Six months pa.s.sed, and Jake married and entered into the misery of his second-hand family, and as he stated in his letter in confirmation of old Berwick, his misery began at once. He learned that he had married an evil woman with an evil lot of children.
Jake, however, was not a man to complain, and one day after the expiration of two years following the loss of the bark he received a summons to New York, and there met the man whose life he had saved.
CHAPTER X.
CONCLUSION.