ROMANCE OF AN INSURANCE OFFICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9322, 27 March 1889, Page 3

ROMANCE OF AN INSURANCE OFFICE.

BY J. MARSDEN SUTCLIFFE, Being Passages in the Experience of Mr. Agustus William Webber, Formerly General Manager to the Universal Insurance ■Company. (All Rights Reserved. THE CROSS HALL TRAGEDY. VI. Winter turned to spring, and with the appearance of the first primroses Nancy left the scene associated in her mind with bitterest shame and the most poignant anguish. Cross Hall, with the recollection of the terrible tragedy, was no home for her, now that William Bradburn was its master. She longed to hurry away from the place over which so many dark memories brooded: Timothy Bradburn's death, the corruption of her own innocence, and the discovery that her lover, for whose sake she had sinned so deeply, was at bottom shallow, selfish, and callous. Mingled with the recollections of her share in the awful crime, for which the innocent had paid forfeit, and her own womanly shame, she was tormented with utter selfloathing that it was for such a nature as that of William Bradburn's that she had sinned so doeply, and lost the peace of a still and quiet conscience. The fact stood out before her continually, and humbled her to the very dust.

There were times when she caught herself wishing that the man for whose sake she had lost all had some redeeming points about him, that her mind might take hold of and say : "In spite of all, there is some good in the man for whom I have sinned." Bub Nancy could find no shred of fact on which to build even that poor comfort. She was a simple country maiden, with no more conscience than a bird, when. William Bradburn overmastered her intelligence with his sophistical reasonings, and taught her to think chat, as hi? uncle was bent on depriving him of Cross Hall, which he looked upon as his birthright, he was justified in seeking to possess himself of some portion of the wealth, which he deemed his own. He painted his scheme in false colours, that Nancy accepted as true, when ho told her that he meant no harm—he was simply resolved on preventing a premeditated wrong being done to himself. And, on this understanding, Nancy, in an evil hour, consented to take the phial of laudanum to ensure him carrying out his plans undisturbed, and to leave open the window in her chamber through which William Bradburn entered the sleeping house. Nancy was awake when her lover stole through the window ; but there were a few drops of laudanum left in the phial, which Bradburn made her drink, and not until her breathing told him that she was asleep did he go forth to the execution of his design. The horrible discovery of the murder quickened the conscience of the young girl, and what the discovery of Mr. Bradburn's murder began Trestrail's unhappy death completed. No moral anodynes that William Bradburn knew of would paralyse her conscience more. She had striven in her long illness to acquit her lover for the murder of his uncle, believing that Bradburn had been sorely driven to adopt means that he had not contemplated originally, and that the deed had been done on the mad impulse of a moment and would be repented of. But when she found that her lover had stood silently by, seen Trestrail accused falsely, sentenced to death, and left without hope, the cold-blooded villainy of the man who could leave another to bear the penalties of his own sins revolted hor. And when Bradburn came to see her, exhibiting no compunction for his crimes, heaping insult on Trestrail, her lover stood before her stripped of everything that could conceal from her his moral deformity. Had she found him remorseful, bowed down with the load of guilty sorrow, her heart would have pitied him. Had he confessed to her that she was necessary to his existence, and that as they had been partners in sin they should be partners in bearing tho burden of its penalties, and go through life together, hiding their guilty .secret and by mutual offices endeavouring to make the burden lighter to one another, she would have consented at any cost of feeling to herself, judging that her idol was nob all base clay. Her love and pity, not her judgment, would have reconciled her to this ; for in her mind she was convinced that the wider apart their roads in life lay the better it would be for both. Only in the event of him constraining her to see that she was necessary to him, not to purchase his safety, but to enable him to live out his days, struggling under the burden of his crimes, could this have been brought about. But to the calculating arguments of the callous man she proved, as we have seen, inexorably deaf. Nancy had a sister in Liverpool, and to Liverpool she wont with her load of shame and sorrow. Bradburn drove her in his gig to Chester, and could think of no better means of employing his last moments with the woman who had sacrificed everything for him than to attempt to extract an oath from her that she would never under any circumstances reveal his secret. But this promise Nancy refused to give. " I shall not speak a word of this," she answered with dignity, " except under compulsion. Is it likely that I should? I have suffered too much ever to recur to th-• matter willingly, and with that undertaking you must be content." " But that is not enongh," Bradburn insisted. "You must swear, Nancy, to keep the secret, let come what may." " I shall not do that," she replied, firmly, and with some contempt in her tone. " Nothing but strong necessity will unseal my lips. Why should I proclaim my own shame? It is not likely! But if I am so placed that it is better to speak than to keep silent, I shall speak. Do not let us talk about it. The occasion is not likely to arise. The secret is in your own keeping, not in mine." And with that conditional promise William Bradburn was compelled at last to be satisfied.

Nancy made no secret of her destination when she quitted Cross Hall, and Doggett was soon in possession of information as to her whereabouts.

In September Doggett had an interview with his friend the chaplain, which ended in him throwing up his appointment in the Cheshire constabulary and journeying to Liverpool, where he at once made a point of calling on Nancy's sister, to whom he opened his business as an old friend and admirer. By dint of dexterous questions he managed to learn that Nancy's baby was born and had died in June ; and that Nancy herself had been two months in service with a Mrs. Nicholson in Bootle. The same week that saw Doggett arrive in Liverpool saw him establish himself in the business of a greengrocer in Bootle, and before the month was out the embryo detective reckoned Mrs. Nicholson amongst his best customers. In answer to Nancy's startled look when she recognised him, he explained that he had retired from the force. " Some day I will tell you all about ib," he said, "and then you will say I was right." Bub Doggett had to wait long before the opportunity for his explanation came. It came at last, and then Nancy learnt that , was the affair at Cross Hall that led to his I ' l retirement. Nancy felt that she would like the earth to open and swallow her when she heard Doggebb refer to Mr. Brad burn's murder, bub by a strong effort she contrived to command her feelings. "In what way?" she managed to ask, whilst her breath came quickly through her half-parted lips, " You did not suffer by it, did you ?" " Well, it was in this way, miss," Doggebb went on to explain, rejoicing that his opportunity had now come. " I was a fool ever to have joined the force, and that's a fact. I had no nerves for it. But what nerve I had was lost when I found that in joining the hunt against that poor Trestrail I had been pursuing an innocent chap to his death." " Innocent!" cried Nancy, now thoroughly alarmed, but mastering her emotion by a supreme effort, determined now to hear everything that the ex-policeman had to tell her. But, at the critical moment, a customer entered the greengrocer's humble shop and the. explanation had to be postponed. Doggett followed Nancy to the door as she took up her basket. * The Proprietors of the Xuw Zealand Herald have purchased the sole rijjht to publish these Stories in North New Zealand. i

" I suppose you never take a walk, Miss Baddeley ?" he said, in an insinuating tone. " Oh, yes ! I do, sometimes," said Nancy, who perceived that Doggett was anxious to complete his confessions, which she for her own reasons was no less anxious to hear, j now that her suspicions were thoroughly aroused, though they did not take the form of guessing at Doggett's real intentions. Before Nancy went away she had consented to allow Doggett to accompany her in her walk on the following Sunday. When Sunday came, Doggett, who was a smart, good-looking fellow, kept his appointment arrayed in his Sunday best. He escorted Miss Baddeley to Marsh Lane Station, and there the pair took tickets for Waterloo ; and whilst walking by the seashore Doggett told a moving story of his unfitness for the grim work of a policeman, and his remorse when, too late, he was convinced by the eloquence with which Trestrail's counsel pleaded for the life of his client that he had been assisting to hurry an innocent man to an ignominious death. "After that," he said, " I made up my mind that the force was not the place for me; but I determined to try it a little longer. It was no good; I found I should never be able to banish the memory of that business until I had left the force and put a distance between me and Cross Hall. No, Miss Baddeley, nature never meant me to be a policeman, or she would never have put such a feeling heart in my bosom," he concluded tenderly. " But how do you know that Mr. Trestrail was innocent?" Nancy asked, determined to use her opportunity to the full to turn Doggett inside out, little dreaming that the detective was in the way for performing that process on herself. " Because I happen to know who did it." "Tell me was all that Nancy could command herself to say. " William Brad burn did it, and I wish I had never known it."

Nancy felt her legs tottering under her, and would have fallen if Doggett had not put his arm round her to support her. " I am sorry I told you, Miss Baddeley, but don't be alarmed. Mum is th 3 word ! Do you think that, having helped to hang one man who was innocent, I am going to hunt another down. Let him live, and much good may it do him ! This shall be a little secret between you and me." Nancy, after recovering her composure, would have questioned Doggett further, but the detective kept his eye too strictly on the game he was playing bo be drawn into playing too fast. lie assumed a gay, lighthearted tone, and assured Nancy that the affair was best forgotten and buried out of sight. Bub the detective had gained his purpose. He had obtained from Nancy's terrified face a confirmation of his theory, and he had made Nancy afraid of him. It was not within the scope of his plans to startle the girl too much, but ib was part of his design that she should stand in such fear of him that she would not dare to refuse him when next ho proposed they should pa.v their Sunday afternoon together on the sands at Waterloo. Nor did she. Nancy was probably governed more by curiosity born out of her fears than by fear alone. She could not rest satisfied with the half-knowledge that Doggett consented to give out piecemeal. She had turned detective herself and was inclined to keep him well in sight. So the Sunday afternoon became an institution in which Nancy "tried*heir *mfledg'd wing "as a detective whilst Doggett played the part of lover. But from making love in jest to further his scheme, Doggett went on to make love in real earnest, and at this Nancy drew back. But she was fairly caught in the toils, and she felt some difficulty in resisting the advances of a man whom she came to believe knew her secret, and moreover held the life of William Bradburn in the hollow of his hand. Her last lino of defence was broken through when Doggett told her that he knew that Bradburn had entered Cross Hall through her bedroom window, and that her hands had mixed the opiate which had secured for Bradburn his opportunity. Nancy fainted outright when this disclosure was made to her ; and after that, she lay at Doggett's mercy, and he could turn her round his finger as he pleased. "If you know all this, why don't you arrest me ?" she asked him.

"Because 1 mean to protecb you from that danger." "I cannot understand you at all," she said with a perplexed look. " There is nothing for you to understand," T)ogo;etb answered. "Is ib likely that the woman I care for above anyone else in the world shall come to harm through me ? Not if I know it."

" How can you lovo a woman who has sinned as I have sinned?" Nancy asked. " Because you were nothing bub a tool in the hands of a villain. Make up your mind to it, Miss Baddeley, that harm shall not reach you whilst I am near to protect you, and that I shall never leave you until you come to me for good." "That will never be," Nancy said. "I shall never marry. How can you, who know my secret, think of such a thing?'' "I do think of it, though," Doggett answered, stubbornly. "Ib can never happen." " It will, though," said Doggett. Notwithstanding the detective's confidence in the success of his wooing, and in his own power to protect Nancy from the consequences of her complicity with William Bradburn, Doggett was by no means clear how he could contrive to work his way through the entanglement. He knew that he would be justified in placing his hand on Nancy's shoulder and whispering in her ear, "I arrest you as accessory to the murder of Timothy Bradburn," and, with Nancy in custody, of proceeding to the arrest of the greater culprit. Bub Doggett cherished no such intention. He was waiting for news from Cheshire, and when the news should come, lie relied on seeing his way bo the arrest of Bradburn without involving Nancy too deeply in the mire. He had extracted a promise from Sergeant Williams that if anything turned up of interest in connection with the owner of Cross Hall that Williams would write.

And so another winter wore away, and spring passed into summer, before the long hoped for intelligence came. Ib took a form that had scarcely entered into Doggett's calculations, but ho thought he saw his way to put his information to good use. "Mr. Bradburn is to be married to the eldest Miss Henshall, of the Grove Farm, on the 21st of next month." And that was all Williams' letter contained.

" So 1 hear Mr. Bradburn is going to be married," Doggett quietly remarked to Nancy when next he met her. " " Married?" cried Nancy. "Impossible!" He is to be married to one of the Miss Henshalls, of the Grove Farm, on the 21st of next month," Doggebb insisted.

" This marriage must be stopped," Nancy exclaimed, after taking time to think.'

"That is my opinion too," said Doggett; but how ?" There is only one way, and that is for you to unburden yourself of the secret that is ruining your happiness, and let justice have her way." Nancy shuddered at the suggestion, but said nothing ; whilst Doggett, making good use of his advantage, reasoned with her persuasively, trying to make Nancy see that she had no right to stand in the way of the right being done, or to leave Bradburn to enjoy the fruits of his crime, and bo go on adding villainy to villainy.

"Think of that poor woman about to link her life with that scoundrel, and save her," he said. " There are two ways in which you can do it. You can warn him that if the marriage goes on you will break silence. I tell you this because I know that it is what you are thinking of. At least I can guess that is your idea. But it will not do. You can save Miss Henshall by so doing, but you cannot undertake the task all your life of holding Bradburn back from presuming upon his position as an unsuspected man. If it is not Miss Henshall it will be someone else next time. What is to prevent him breaking off this marriage under the influence of your threats, and, aft"r selling Cross Hall, going somewhere where he is not known, setting up for a fine gentleman, and decoying some other poor lassie to take his hand in marriage, stained with a double murder? You cannot be dodging him round the world, clinging to him like his shadow, and keeping him from fresh evil."

" Give me a week to think about ib," Nancy said at last; "there is plenty of time."

And Doggetbconsentedthat Nancy should have a week to decide upon her course, a concession that he would nob have been disposed to make if he had suspected the use that Nancy was going to pub the week's respite to. For Doggett, now that he saw the consummation of his scheming and waiting close at hand, was resolved upon

employing the opportunity that Bradburn's projected marriage gave him to run hia man to earth. But Nancy had taken his exhortations so well, and the detective was so completely deceived by her apparent willingness to act upon his advice, that he consented to Nancy s request with a good grace, and did not suspect her intentions, especially as he conceived he had proved to her how futile it would be on her part to attempt to hinder the marriage. The week's respite, however, brought Nancy round to Doggett's views. "You will blame me for what I have done, when I tell you," she said, " but you will blame me less if you will hear me out to the end."

" Then I shall nob blame you at all, if you make good the latter half of your statement," Doggett returned, gallantly. " I have written to William Bradburn, warning him that if this marriage goes on I shall go to Cheshire and stop it. "I knew that was what you had been up to when you talked of blame, though 1 did not expect you would have taken the trouble to do that after my caution. What is his answer ? Took no notice of your letter, I expect." "He sends me this for answer," said Nancy, taking a letter from her pocket and reading: " 'I am not afraid of a jealous woman.—William Bradburn.' "

" The cur !" Doggett murmured below his breath, '' and a fool to boot. If that doesn't put her on her mettle, then ' woman at best's a contradiction still,' and no mistake," he added to himself.

" And now," said Nancy, "I put myself in your hands. You are right. William Bradburn derives all his power to go on working mischief from my guilty silence. His acts are mine, for without me he could do no wrong, and the time has come when I must speak as I told him." "He murdered his uncle?" Doggett asked. " I did not see him," Nancy answered, cautiously ; " but I can say that he was the only person in Cross Hall that night who could have entered Mr. Bradburn's room."

" That is enough," said Doggett. " Give me a kiss, Nancy ; all will be right at last." Bub Nancy shook her head emphatically at this suggestion. She felt that the course now marked out for her, as the accuser of her lover of happier times, involved her in the shame of his crime and in the stigma of a public disgrace, that polluted her to the very lips, and shut her off from the happiness of contracting an honourable marriage. They consulted together what steps they should take, but Doggett, who loved a dramatic situation, and had other reasons lying behind in favour of his plan, insisted that Bradburn must be left a free man until the day he went forth from Cross Hall an expectant bridegroom. The little greengrocer's shop in Marsh Lane was found with its shutters closed on the morning of the 20th of July, the eve of William Bradburn's wedding-day. Doggett, accompanied by Nancy closely veiled, had taken the early boat to Birkenhead for Chester, where the detective found he had much to do. Securing for himself and his charge a private room at the Grosvenor, he went in search of the head constable of the Chesire constabulary, with whom he held a long and satisfactory interview. Doggett, who had retired from the constabulary without assigning any reasons, now explained himself fully, and was immediately Reinstated and given authority to bring the matter that had engaged his attention through so many months to a satisfactory conclusion. But what he coveted most was the promise he obtained that the head constable, in the exercise of his discretion, would not think it necessary to permit Nancy Baddeley's arrest as an accessory, conditionally upon her undertaking to denounce William Bradburn for the murder of his uncle; a condition that Doggetb immediately accepted on Nancy's behalf. This over, the head constable drove him off to the residence of the nearest magistrate for the county, where Doggett swore a private information against William Bradburn, and in return received the warrant for his arrest. There was not a cloud apparent in William Bradburn's sky when he awoke on the morning of his wedding-day. By what means this abandoned man had contrived to make a truce with his conscience it

would be profitless to enquire. In the first instance he had no doubt suffocated the moral revolt within him by his specious plea that all that had happened had transpired in the effort to secure for himself his own endangered rights. The murder of his uncle was to him no more than an incident an unfortunate one and unpremeditated, it is true —still only an incident in his plan of securing justice for himself.

That he should have sought next to direct suspicion to Trestrail by visiting his chamber, and fastening on the sleeping and unsuspecting man signs of guilt apparently so unequivocal as to mislead the police, was due to the fears he entertained for his own safety, and to his selfish and abominable resolve to spare himself at any cost to others. Once he had begun to tread the path of crime, he went on without compunction, without faltering, with a firm and resolute step to the very end. Nancy's warning he had not only treated with lightness, but, in his hardihood, he even ventured to reward it with insult, attributing, her honest desire to save him from further sin, and an unconscious woman from a step that would wreck her life, to the worst possible motives. He hummed to himself a popular air as he dressed himself for the bridal, and joked with Selina and John Gubbins ere he went forth to meet his fate with as much effrontery as he had ever gone in and out amongst his fellow-men. It is not too much to say that when the blow came it fell upon him like a thunderclap, so little had he concerned himself with Nancy's warning.

The little church was thronged with village sightseers—for the bride was popular in the parish—and William Bradburn smiled with contentment as he entered the sacred building and noticed the crowd that filled the pews. Presently a merry peal from the bells announced the approach of the bride, and the marriage ceremony began.

Nancy, with whom sat Mrs. Williams, occupied a retired position, but she rose as Doggett gave the signal at the right moment, and advancing with rapid steps to the altar rails placed herself within sight of the bridegroom, and in a voice ringing with pathos and pain she cried, "I forbid this marriage. I accuse William Bradburn of the murder of his uncle."

"'Tis false!" cried Bradburn, purple with rage.

"'Tis true!" exclaimed Dogjjott. "I have known it these eighteen months past, and here is the warrant for your arrest. William Bradburn, you are my prisoner." Amid an indescribable scene of excitement Bradburn was led away, and hurried into one of the wedding coaches and driven back to Cross Hall.

Nancy, who had pleaded in vain that thi scene might be spared the unforbunat bride, wept bitterly as she saw the poor girl, supported 011 the arms of her relatives, carried into the vestry. Mrs. Williams, as soon as 'the church began to empty, drew Nancy away and took her to her own home.

Serjeant Williams met Doggett at the door of Cross Hall when that enterprising officer arrived with his prisoner securely handcuffed.

"It is all right," Williams said. " There are thousands of pounds worth of diamonds in yonder safe, and a policy of insurance with the Universal for fifteen hundred pounds on the life of Timothy Bradburn, which has not been claimed for." , " Anything else?" asked Doggett. There are some other papers and a bank-book belonging to the late Air. Bradburn."

"Any will?" asked Doggett. "No, there is no will, curse you !" cried Bradburn, finding his tongue for the first time.

"No, of course not," Doggett answered. "You have destroyed that, along with everything else that was of no value except to the right owners." 7 At the ensuing Chester assizes William Bradburn was tried and found guilty, and soon afterwards expiated his crimes on the scaffold.

About the same time the directors of the Universal decided that the frequency with which frauds were attempted on them justified the permanent engagement of a private enquiry agent; ancl the fame of the young officer who had succeeded in bringing William Bradburn to the doom -he so richly merited coming to the ears of Mr. Webber in connection with' the missing policy on Mr. Timothy Brad burn's life, the post was offered to Mr. Doggett and accepted by him.

And of Nancy ? These events have long since faded from the memories of the good people in the county of Chester, and all effort to trace Nancy has failed. But it is believed that Mr. Doggebb could tell something of her if he could be induced to speak. But though those who knew Nancy in the early days of her bright, girlish beauty might fail to recognise in the handsome buxom wife of Mr. Doggett the improved edition of Nancy Baddeley, there are some grounds for the suspicion that such was the case, and that Doggebb succeeded in his wooing.