CHAPTER II.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1634, 23 December 1882, Page 4 (Supplement)

CHAPTER 11.

Edward Maitland was a wealthy landed proprietor in one of the richest pastoral districts of Victoria. He had one son, Walter, of whom he was not a little proud, but with whom he was, perhaps, a little severe. Maitland pere was extremely afraid of his son Walter making a mesalliance — possibly, because he himself had married his father's cook, and was afraid that such little peculiarties were hereditary. However that may be, Walter was perfectly certain, that if he did marry beneath him, his father would straightway cast him off with the proverbial shilling. This was probably the reason why, with that ■strange perversity that makes the majority of people long for the precise thing that they are warned to shun, Mr. Walter Maitland fell over head and ears in love with the pretty daughter of John Morrison, a poor but honest selector in Gipps Land. Walter was a romantic youth in those days— he was but twenty years of age— and it afforded him a strange and fearful delight to masquerade in his shooting excursions under the name of Walter Brown- Under the #arne of Walter Brown he married pretty Jane Morrison, and straightway took a snug little cottage for her in a suburb of Melbourne, " '.There is no use of liying under ciroumptances which savour of the romantic., unless

wife ignorant ' of ' cphsiderifyd Bis,, exalted origin untile he, * became, his "own; master." , In the meantime, he' gave out- tthatt t he was a commercial traveller for a soft goods house ih the city. ,This was a very soft thing, indeed, if it had been analysed; but Mrs. Brown knew no more about softgoods than Mr. Brown, and she was, ofoourse, under the impression that, when her hushand was away visiting the paternal acres, he was perambulating the country in those< gorgeous vehicles so much affected by commercial gentlemen. The only person who knew of the little comedy, besides "Walter himself, was his cousin, Henry Maitland. Years rolled on, but Mr. Walter Maitland, much to the surprise of his aristooratic friends, remained a confirmed bachelor. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brown were blessed with one fair daughter, whom the perspicuous reader will immediately recognise as Lucy, who so strangely disappeared from the ken of her

lover, Victor Levisoa. The auspicious birth of a daughter made an additional attraction to the romantic dove cote of Mr. Walter Brown alias Maitland. But Walter continued the even tenor of his way. He was happy in his cottage as Walter Brown, and he was happy on his father's station as Walter Maitland. In either case he was a happy-go-lucky, careless, romantic dog, who hugged his own little mystery to his own heart, and never thought that any harm would come of it. All in good time he would appear as the prince in the fairy tale, and carry his astonished wife and no less astonished child to his palatial and ancestral home. But when one, with the best intentions ia the world, begins telling lies, or Jiving lies, things don't 'pan out,' properly always. Ten years after his marriage his father died and he succeeded to the property. Now, whether it was that he was ashamed of his wife ; or whether, as some have whispered, that he had another wife somewhere else ; or whether, simply that he was too easy going to alter the life which had grown habitual to him we cannot say : but, certain it is, that after the death of his father, and up to the time of his own — accidental death we were going to say, but deliberate murder is the phrase required he continued his dual existence. Walter was always an easy going, honest, careless soul; and we don't believe a word about the rumoured second wife. His faults were numerous enough; but his principal weakness was a pernicious habit of ' letting things slide,' and shunting off work of any kind and responsiblities of all kinds on to other shoulders. The pair of shoulders which took the most of this work were those of his cousin Henry. Henry Maitland was a clever man with a keen, dark eye which, to a close observer, had a slightly treacherous look, and his face, when he was not wearing his society mask, had a hungry avaricious expression. A good physiognomist would have said that he was a miser ; a good phrenologist would ehavput him down as a first class murderer ; they would both have been right. Henry Maitland had a badly balanced head. He had an abnormal development of two organs — very useful in their place but dangerous when in excess— acquisitiveness and destructiveness. Henry Maitland was Walters only surviving relative. If Walter died intestate he would succeed to the property. The only thing that stood in the way was the wife and 'daughter. How to get over this difficulty was the question. " Watty old boy," said Henry with the assumption of bluff heartiness and good humour, which he adopted always when not absolutely alone — tthis assumption of good naured roughness was the mask under which he found it most convenient to do the meanest of his actions—" Watty old boy, I want to talk seriously to you." "Oh bother! What is it?" " It is a matter which aiiects the welfare of your wife and child." "Of my wife and child?" said Walter muingly. "Yes I ought to bring them up here. What does it matter how people will talk. Married for the last seventeen years under an assumed name. After , all it will only be a i nine days wonder. Yes, you are quite right, Henry, I must bring them up at once." " That is a very good resolution, bravo 1" cried Henry in his most honesj anql effusive style : lam glad to hear you talk ljke fhat, but that is not what I was thinking about, dear boy." " Of what then?" i " Have you made your will, Walter ?" " No." ! " Careless fellow." 11 Why I don't look like dying, do I ?" " No, but we are all mortal, and if you were to die without making your will, see what possibilities of trouble might arise. You ought to think of your wife and daughter." " You are a good fellow Harry," said Walter impulsively, "let me do it at once; you're scribe enough for that I'm sure.' ; "Of course I can do it," replied IJarry slowly, " but had you not better get it done by j a lawyer ?" " Oh, hang lawyers ! They only confuse things. Three lines will do it. I'll leave all my property to Lucy, subject to the payment i of £1000 a year to my wife, and a thousand a year to you old boy, and the thing is done." " Well, yes, of course, that's simple enough, and if you wish me to do it, I'll draw up a will to-morrow." " Do, there's a good fellow, and then the i thing will be off my mind." Next day Henry stayed at home, and Walter rode into the township upon some business, j Henry was very busy all day writing out the j will, in the most elaborate legal style, with the help of some legal handbooks. After writing out one will, he wrote out another. In the first will he had disposed of the property as Walter Maitland instructed him. In the second will, he transposed the names in such a way, as to leave the bulk of the property to " my cousin, Henry Maitland," and one thousand a ye^r to Miss Jane Morrison, commonly, known as Mrs. Walter Brown. ' The two pieces of foolscap were etactjy the same in appearance to start with. Henry Maitland, to still further inorease-toe deception, made a series of .elaborate, but apparently accidental, blotches upon the first will ; and then, with a most commendable patience, proceeded to make fac simile blotches upori the second will. The two wills- were in appearance, identical. ' After he had finished j his task, Henry "went to the gun rack, took" out Walter's breech-loader, and took it down to the blacksmith's shop. ' There was nobody about, as Henryrhad aent the blacksmith to" hang a gate, at the extreme end of the run. With some curious tools, he worked away inllustfffiiously, at the inside of, the^lelt hand barm, Vw he wa£l appar&atty' satisfied.

seen,- Jwhen , lobfitigrth^u&ti 1 /the barrel; and j having finished his 7?ork to' ,his /entire sati£ J faction, he returned to the house, and replaced 1 the gun in the rack. When Waited returned in the evening,' he read the will first written, with many groans at 'its length. . " That is about what you want, isn't it ?" asked Henry cheerfully. "Oh yes!" said Walter, throwing it on the table with a sigh of relief. " I suppose you had better get in a couple of the men to witness it." Henry picked up the will, and walking oarelessly over to the fire-place, fang the bell. It did not require much sleight-of-hand to conceal the will Walter had just read, and return to his seat with the fac simile in his hand in place of the original. The housemaid now appeared in response to the ring, and she was instructed to send Thompson, the overseer, and Blake, the boundary rider, in. The fraudulent will was lying on the table. In five minutes it was duly signed, sealed, and delivered, and in five minutes more it was securely locked up in Mr. Walter Maitland's private safe. Then Mr. Henry Maitland planned a shooting excursion for the following morning. The most expensive guns are not absolutely safe ; and when Mr \\ alter Maitland's dead body was brought into the house, Henry Maitland said he would never have confidence in one of those new-fangled breech-loaders again.