UNCLE'S LEGACY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 959, 10 March 1910, Page 2

UNCLE'S LEGACY.

My uncle William was originally :i market gardener; made his money' by selling cabbages and onions, and that sort of thing. When he departed "to hoe the Gold:* Acres" he left two cottage*. One ;it High Bavnet wont to my brother Horace, and the other at Kew fell to me. It was a pretty villa, and even to be in temporary possession of it gladdened niv artistie soul.

I call it '•temporary" because of the ■eccentric and indefensible term* of my •relative's will. It stated that whereas we (meaning Horace and myself) had always led a life of idleness,, and had never done a day's real hard work since we were born, and because we had shown contempt for an honest and reputable occupation which originated with Adam (I), therefore the cottages would become our own properties only when we had, by toil and application, snown ourselves Avbrthy of them.

To each was attached about an acre of ground. This we were to cultivate and convert into a sort of kitchen-gar-den. We were expressly forbidden to employ any outside labour, on pain of forfeiture, and we were given one year in which to complete this loathsome job. I considered it a hideous outrage, and I said so to Woolctt, the legal Johnny who communicated to its the news of this atrocity. He only smiled, and advised us both to lose no time in getting to work. "I'ou've got a good deal to do, as you'll find," he said, "and only twelve months in which to do it. I shall look round from time to time to see how you are getting along, and make sure that you do not contravene the stipulation about outside help." When I went down to Kew- and saw the place, my heart sank. The ground was a wilderness, choked with stinging nettles and all kinds of weeds. I •saw it would take me months to clear these away. However, there was plenty of time, and I never did see the use of rushing things. The next morning I was looking out to see -what sort of a day it was when I saw a sailor coming along the road. Seeing me at the window, he stopped and asked if I could direct hmi to Richmond. "You're going away from it," I told him. "That's likely," he answered; "I don't know my way about. 'lt's twenty-three years since 1 was in these parts. I only landed from India last week." India! I am not an emotional man, (but that wonderful land fascinate,? me. India is my one hobby. Anyone who can tell me anything about it, or who has been tiiere, is welcome to talk all night. I Hung on a dressing-gown, hurried downstairs, and invited him in. He was hot and dusty and thirsty, and 1 was glad I had some bread and cheese and plenty of beer in the house. While he ate and drank I looked aUiim with peculiar interest. His stu%, wiry frame, the bronze on his face, neck and arms, and his crisp hair, all bore the unmiuakablc stamp of the East to my GY6S. He .vorc an unusual number of ornaments, and they were all solid gold. Besii/;s the thick rings in his cars, there were tvo massive ones on his arms, and several smaller on his lingers. "Looking at the gold, sir?" he said, catching my gaze. "Ah, I've got a bit of tliaf, haven't I? And I'm going to find a 'leap more, thanks to what I've brought home with me." Then lie unbuttoned the front of his shirt and hauled up something that was attached to a thin chain, which he slipped over his head and held out to me. It looked like, a small compass, but on a further scrutiny I saw that there was one dissimilarity. As he shook it and set the needle vibrating, this 'latter swung vertically instead of horizontally. "What is this?" "That's a gold-iiiuler," replied the sailor, whose name was Windward. "Got it from an Indian fakir nt Benares. Did him a good turn once and he did me one. I don't understand it myself, but there's magic in it, and you know what those fellows ever there can do in that line. As far as I can make out it's on the principle of the divining-rod. You've seen a man ;jo round with a hazel-twig to find water? Well, to find gold you do the same with this little article. When the needle dips —it's soma kind of magnetised ore, I believe—Miere's pur treasure."

I said the thing was absurd. Ik stuck to it that there were lots of places where old crins and ancient gold vessels were buried, and that the, goldfinder was going to make his fortune.

We were walking about in the garden, arguing, when suddenly he stopped. While speaking he'd been holding the little compass before iiim as he walked, and now we both looked at it in one electrical unity of thought. The needle was standing straight up and down! "Hullo! There's"gold here!" T burst out. "Don't move! Don't stir an inch! I'll get the pick!" I darted off to the porch, and was back in no time with both pick and shovel, and one of the garden-forks as well. I thrust the pick into Windward's hand, threw off my coat and begged him to start excavating at once. "Well, sir," he replied quite coolly, "I want half of whatever we find before I'll dig an inch." I thought this was pretty sleep, con".idering it was my ground and my pick fiul shovel, But I couldn't persuade oim to look at the matter in a just w{ reasonable way. He said I shouldn't know where to look without his goldfinder, and that, in fact, it was half shares or nothing. I never met such an obstinate man. When he got up to go, without considering me and my feelings in the least, I gave in,

He said he would trust to my word of honour, and as he rolled up his sleeves, he made, as it struck me. a most unnecessary display of his overdeveloped biceps, then he hove up Lhe pick, and we set to work. As miners say, we "struck the lode - ' almost at once. The pick grated on something, and up came a pottod-meat tin. We wrenched oil' the soldered-down lid, and—there was twenty golden sovereigns inside it.

. . . After that I would have backed Windward and his iijaehine against the world.

The very fever of (lie hunt was in my blood, and I begged Windward to let me handle the "finder" and do some prospecting myself, But he clung to the thing and wouldn't let if out of bis hands for a moment.

During the course, of the next; 'i'iv hours we unearthed, in various spots and at varying distances from each otlior, a biscuit fin, lialf a flour hag (tied with string), two jam-pots, a candle-box, a couple ot canvas moneyhags (such as cashiers use in banks),

and another pickle-jar. And all (>i these contained sovereigns and halfsovereigns, in what amounts we did not slop to ascertain.

Windward was plainly elated at this extraordinary El Dorado which we had stumbled upon. As for me. i was frankly delirious, At length, however, it bc-«iine evident that the golden vein was -workv.l out. At my earnest entreaty we continued to explore, and 1 think we did not neglect a single foot of ground anywhere, hut the needle no longer dipped. ; "That's the lot," said Windward, and as it was by now iiearly dark, I agreed with him that we had done enough. We bore our assorted spoil to the house and dumped it upon the dining-room table. Poured out in a heap it was a •rapturous sight. I lit the gas, and then Windward sat idown, and, in his methodical way, began to "count up," as though it were quite an everyday occurrence, instead of being an altogether incredible mys.tcry. The total came to ,C 250. . He counted again, and divided the .whole into two piles. Then taking up one of the canvas hags we had found he shovelled one of the piles into it .with a capacious hand. "Your share, sir, £125," he said, pushing the tog across to me. He shot the remainder of the gold, handfuls at a time, into the other bag. "And this." fa said, twisting a piece of string round the neck—"this is my half." Then he dropped the hag into his pocket, and said he must cut along to .Richmond, or all his folk would be in bed. Before I quite realised the turn affairs were .taking, he was shaking me warmly by the liand, wishing me luck, and promising to look me up again one day; -and the door slammed, and I heard him crunching down the road, singing n seaman's song at the top of his voice. He was gone. Gone oil, 1 reflected, with one hundred and twenty-live golden sovereigns, which it certainly seemed .to me — Well, I came to the conclusion that his views were most unprinei,pled,

The very next day I got a horrible shock. I was just going out when a .visitor arrived. He was a tall, dis-tinguished-looking man, immaculately dressed, and the gloss on his top-hat. almost took your breath away. He handed me his card, and directly I read ■the words, "Mr Mortimer Franklin, Aryan Club, Bombay," my .<pinc began to 'feel chilly. I didn't know why,; but it did.

"I have only just'arrived from India," began my visitor. "It was your uncle, Mr John Rice, whom I wished to see. But his solicitor, Mr Woolctt, told me yesterday that he is dead, and so he has sent me to you."

I waited. Mr Franklin fidgeted with ,his watch-chain and seemed embarrassed. ' "My errant is rather a ■humiliating oiie,''he said at length, with an obvious effort. "Tou prohalbly liave heard of the Bombay Universal Bank frauds which occurred some years ago, The .absconding cashier, who got away with a large sum of money, was-rwas my father. The facte which he communicated to me on his death-bed are these: He came to England and leased this house from your uncle. Finding at last that he was about to he arrested he secreted several hundreds of pounds in tite garden, meaning to return for the money when he should once more be free. He was taken back to India, •where he was sentenced, and died, "My object in coming here is to recover* that moiety of his defalcations which is interred in your garden and /restore it to its rightful owners. For that purpose, Mr Wollctt has advised me to see you and arrange to have this done at once." It did not take me two minutes to realise that there was absolutely no way out of this mess except I>t telling .the truth. I told him everything from the time Windward arrived to the moment of his departure with A'l'i) in his pocket. And I finished by going to the cupboard, and fetching the canvas bag which contained my share of the gold-finding enterprise. " "That's all I've got," T said, aml.be.de a mute farewell to all my hopes. Mr Franklin had listened'patiently, courteously, ana without remark to my account. Xow, still without a word, he took up the Ibag, untied liie string I 'had twisted round its neck, and tilted some of the sovereigns into ids hand. Then he let them drop back into the bag, and tied it up again. "This is a very strange story you tell me, Mr Rice." he said at last—"very strange, iv.dced! I have lived all my life in India, and I have never heard of the kind of gold-linder which you allege your sailor-friend made use of. I do not think there is such a thing in existence."

We had a little argument here. I had seen the thing at work, and he hadn't.

"Well, well," he said finally, "it is such an extraordinary story that I think we must leave this matter for adjustment in the hands of those wno are legally qualified to investigate it. "I shall not, of course, take this money away with me; under the present circumstances it would be neither possible nor advisable that I should do ■so. You must permit, however, to take precautions that it cannot lie tanip'.-ral with until tile matter is settled. Have you some sealing-wax?"

I went to a drawer in my writingtable and fetched what he required. He melted the wax thickly round the string, and sealed it with ■+ si-net ring on his linger. "That is all I think I need trouble you with at present." he added, picking itp his hat. and moving to the door. "1 shall at once put this matter in the hands of M r Wollctt." He marched off, stiff as a ramrod. I slung that scaled bag into a cupboard, and thought I would go out and get some fresh air. I felt T wanted it-luls of it. Turning round I trod on sonic thins.', and when I picked it up-U was

the gold-finder! Windward must hare dropped it, And that blessed M e,ue was vcrtiele again! Then 1 saw "lhe dodge. There was a spring in the side of lbs rim, and niv foot had done what, I found, Hie slighttest pressure of a lingar could efl>t—move the needle up or down at will. My brain buzzed. Frightful doiiliU began to assail me, The gold-finder was a fraud! If so. then Windward, the sailor, was a swindler, lint I could niake. nothing of it. If Windward had tricked me, and the gold-finder was a sham, then how had he known the exact spots sit which to delude me by manoeuvring the compass, and how was it that money was found in those places? I took it cab to Woolctt's Chambers at once. Of course, he didn't know anyone called Mortimer Franklin, and no gentleman answering to that name had called on him, or was likely to, he thought.

He asked mc to describe Windward, and when I had done so, inquired whether he had a slight cast in the. left eye. I remembered that he had. "i am strongly inclined to think," said the. lawyer, "from your description aim other circumstances, that the real the scope of the Imperial mind, is race of mountain savages. Xow, if torn■prepared to fight for those life-sits-He was my head clerk until a fortnight ago. Clever fellow, Baynes, with a. taste for amateur theatricals, and for living 'beyond 'his income. There were, discrepancies.; . . . Well, I couldn't

prosecute, hut he had to go, "By the way, it was Baynes who suggested this scheme to your uncle. Rice was in here one day complaining that he couldn't make his nephews work, and that he wouldn't leave them a cent if they didn't, meaning you and your brother. Baynes at once proposed this plan of the cottage .and the burled money. The old man was mightily taken with the idea. Baynes. very likely helped him to buy the coin, and of course knew where every parcel lay. Getting it again wasn't like burglary; it had to be done in the day, and without arousing your suspicions. So Baynes, as the sailor, gets half first with his fakement, and the other man Ibags the balance. Franklin's dodge in sealing that hag and leaving was a master stroke."

"My dear sir," I burst out, "if the man was a robber and came to rob me. why on earth did he leave the bag at all?"

"Oh, he did, did he?" observed Woolett. "Of course he did!" I cried, out of patience. "Didn't I tell you that it's at home now, locked in my cupboard?"

"Really? Well, (hat's a good thing, isn't it? So you won't be so very much the loser after all!"

With this dry remark Woolctt bowed me out, His manlier alarmed me. I tore back to Kew, rushed for the cupboard, and —yes, the bag was still there. I lugged it out. It felt all right. The familiar "chink" of the contents reassured me. I broke the seals and cut the string.

Kind friends, you, of course, have anticipated what I found. I had not, That beastly Ibag held a large assortmen of those round, gilt sequins, or spangles, which theatrical costumiers employ lavishly at pantomime time. Pretty but valueless,

Then there was another shock to *omc.

I thought I would write to Horace, and when I pulled open the drawer of my writing-table—well, this is \vliat had happened.

When Windward left me T had been disagreeably impressed by his parting look. It struck lire that, knowing I had that sum of money in the house, and also knowing his way about in it. he might pay mc a surreptitious visit N in the night, on plunder bent. It occurred to me tljat what I ought to have done was to empty the bag, fill it up again with coal-dust, cinders from the grate, anything, strew a few sovereigns on the top, in case he took a lqpk in, tie it up again, and leave it ready to be burgled that way. I was just congratulating myself on this scheme, and intending to get up and see to it, when I 'fell asleep. Xow, since childhood T have invariably walked in my sleep. I must have doiie so that night. The last thing 1 was thinking of guided my actions, as it does all somnambulists, so I mii't have carried out my plan, prepared the dummy bag und hid the money. And that is why I now found more than one hundred sovereigns in the-drawer of my writing-desk!

I was rather pleased to remember that when I brought the bag from the cupboard and handed it I Mr Franklin" it had been (though neither he nor I knew it then) as much a "dummr" ns the one he must have had ready in ( his own pocket. He, of course, changed the bags while I was getting the sealingwax and had niv back turned to him.

I went to bed consoled wiih. the thought that, at any rate, thanks to Windward, that garden was dug up, and the morrow should see me planting encumbers.

■ The morrow did not see me doing anything of Hie sort.. It saw me reading a curt note from Woolctt.

He said that I need not trouble to do anything further to the ground, as T had contravened the terms of the will by taking advantage of outside help! Words fail me.