THE STORY-TELLER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3157, 17 September 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE STORY-TELLER.

BUCK MAGIC; OR THE VEILED LADY

By Mrs Gkohgk Coiiuktt. The wildest case 1 ever had to deal with was connected with n family named Fawcett. Mr John Fawcett, a retired brewer, had died under very painful and suspicious circumstances. Apparently in robust health in the morning, in the evening he was dead, the doctor'certifying death to have licen the result of syncope. The distress of Mrs Fawcett and hor only chile!, Eva, now 19 years old was naturally very groat, for the trio had lived on the most affectionate terms with each other. Mr and Mrs Fawcett had never been known to exchange an angry word, and they had every justification for loving their daughter dearly.

Great therefore was the wonderment of all who heard the will read, when it transpired that Mr Fawcett had bequeathed the whole of his large fortune lo a sister, from whom he had been estranged for 2U years, leaving his wife and daughter penniless.

Thfire was a murmur of astonishment in the room, and then honest George Fawcett, the deceased's brother, exclar.ned loudly, " There has been some trickery at workhere; John Fawcett was both just and sensible, Mr Lawyer. He would never reduce his wife and child to beggary for the benefit of the only member of the family who ever reflected disgrace upon it.'"

"I thought as you do, Mr Fawcett," answered the lawyer, in a troubled voice. "But only the day before he died he brought this will to my office, affirming it to be the final disposition of his fortune. He ordered me to hand him a previously executed one, that he might destroy it, and as he forbade me me even to open this on?, until the time came for reading it at his funeral, I am as much surprised at its contents as anyone. Unfortunately it is perfectly in order, and as my client was undoubtedly of sound mind I see no chance of our being able to set it aside."

" Did my brother seem to think his death to be an event of the near future when he brought that will to you V

" He seemed to me less bright and more constrained than usual. Otherwise his behaviour was that of a man free from anxiety." " Who witnessed this will V " James Price and Alfred Thomson." "Now, Price and Thompson, what have you to say to this?" At this challenge from Mr George Fawcett, the butler and footman, who with the other servants, stood near the door, at Mrs Fawcett's wish, stepped forward.

" Well, sir," said the former, "it was just the day before he died that the master rang his bell, and ordered me to fetch Thomson into the room. Then he gave us a large piece of paper to sign, saying that it was his will. Of course we signed the will, but I wrote very badly for tny hand shook through nervousness."

" But why should you be particularly nervous I' ,

" Well sir, the veiled lady was standing over the three of us all the time. She never spoke a word and she looked like a spectre dressed in black, with nothing to be seen but her blazing eyes shining through the veil.

At this unexpected piece of information everybody became excited, and the lawyer, Mr Carey, exclaimed in astonishment, " Why this must be the woman my clerks saw waiting, an if desiring an interview with me, but who turned about, and went away without speaking to anyone as soon as Mr Fawcett came out of my private room. Her curious manner, and her impenetrable veil, were commented upon ir, my hearing."

" Then there really has been ?ome secret influence at work !" exclaimed (Jeorge Fawcett. " Who on earth is the woman. Who else has seen her f

As a result of this question, it transpired that, although Mi , and Mrs fawcett had not heard a whisper about this strange visitor, most of the servants had seen her at one time or another. But strange to say, they all regarded her with superstitious a wo, and they all had an impression that they" had an impression that they had been forbidden by Mr Fawcett to mention her to the ladies.

" Looks like a Hasan," remarked an ill-natured cousin, sapiently.

" Looks like nothing of the sort!" snapped choleric George; "my brother was a pure-minded man, genuinely fond of his wife and anyone who tries to throw a slur upon him reckons with me."

" Then how do you account for the fact tint his money is left away from his wife, if lie was really so fond of her?"

" Easily enough. That disreputable impish sister of ours is at the bottom of the mischief. J3ut she shan't enjoy her ill-gotten gains if I can help it. Where does; she live ?' " At York."

" I wonder what can have indufi'd John to allow her to control him like tlint ! But now I come to think of it, she had great influence over him In-fore she eloped with that mountebanking foreign fiddler. I wish I had seen her masqueradiug

round ! I would have given her a piece of my mind about the latest trick she played me. She ran up a bill of .£2OO "at a swell drapery establishment, on the pretence that she was my wife, at the very time too that my own wife, bless ber, was denying herself every luxury in order to help me out of business difficulties! Here you, Price— what was this veiled lady, as you call her, like?"

"Very tall, sir. But I cannot tell you what her face was like, as I have never sr-.en it. She is wellbuilt, though altogether a big woman—and her eyes ! 0 Lor' !'

"Tall and well-built! Why it can't have been Maria after all, for she is short, and she was as thin and long as a rail the last time ] clapped eyes on her. Has anyone seen this woman since my brother died T

" Yes, sir," answered both Price and Thomson in a breath. " She has been in the same room with the corpse every night while it was laid out, and last night we heard the corpse and her talking tsgether."

" Well, here was some startling news ! For a moment nobody seemed capable of providing a probable solution to the mystery, until Mr George again enquired.

" How did this veiled lady get in and out of the house T

''Through the glass door of the library, sir, just behind you. The master ordered me never to fasten it up. Leastways, 1 think he did."

" You think he did, eh ? You were supposed to look after the safety of the house, and yet you leave it at the mercy of burglars and strangers, because you think, but are not sure, that you received what would have been a very strange and unusual order in a house full of valuables ! How is it that you all, knowing of such a strange visitor, never said a word about her to your mistress V

" Well, sir, the master forbade us to mention her name. At least, we thought he did. But now that I come to think of it, sir, I don't really remember any such order."

" Why, you must be all mad, or else bewitched ? Surely '

" Bewitched ! That's just what it is!" cried the little lawyer at this juncture. '"Black Magic! That's what's been going on j"

"Something seems to have been going on," retorted Mr George,

angrily. "I never had to deal with such a lot of dunderheads in my life ! Perhaps some of you will be saying next that you are not sure, but you think that you have seen my brother lying dead in his coffin !"

" Well, sir," replied Price. "It seems a queer thing to say, but last night after the coffin lid had been screwed down, Thomson and myself had to go through this room, into which the master's coffin had been brought. We were not both compelled to come, but such uncanny things have been going on here lately that we have gone about the house in couples. We were nearly scared out of our wits, for there, beside the open window stood the muster himself with the veiled lady bsside him ! We both gave a yell, as anybody would have done under the circumstances. But before we could gather ourselves together to do anything else, the figures vanished, and I suppose it was just imagination after all, for the window was shut, and the coffin was screwed down as tight as the undertaker's men had left it." During all these extraordinary revelations, Mr Price's hearers had been getting momentarily more astonished and excited. The ladies shrieked with awe, and both Eva and Mrs George found it difficult to avoid fainting under the feeling of horror, as Mr John Fawcett had already done. There was a confused mixture of many voices, and then the lawyer was heard exclaiming— " I believe there has been a a lot of hocus-pocus business going on here. John Fawcett couldn't be in his coffin and standing at the library door at one and the same time. Perhaps he isn't dead after all. Let's go and pee !"

And away the little gentleman flew, seizing his hat as he sped through the hall and running in the direction of the cemetery as hard as he could go, followed by an excited crowd of servants, friends, and relations of the deceased. Mr George just stayed long enough to say a few soothing words to the ladies, and then he, too, followed in the wake of what, in a time of leas mental excitiuent he would have voted the maddest chase ever undertaken by mortal man.

The lawyer was the first to arrive at the graveyard, and he rushed straight to the sexton's house.

" Quick, man," lie cried. " For God's sake open the vault in which Mr Fawcett was buried this afternoon ! We don't believe he's dead!"

" Oh, Lord ! sir, don't yer ? Then what did yer bury him for? But if he weren't afore, he'll be as dead as a doornail now, I'll warrant, so what's the use of fetching him out now ?"

Such was the gravecligger's reply. But it did not suit Mr Carey, who shouted angrily, " I'll soon show what's the use if you don't look alive. Do you wan't to have murder on your conscience by being a minute longer than you need 1"

Of course our lawyer, even while the man sulkily obeyed him, knew that all this was very irregular.

But he didn't stop to argue details, lie had adopted a certain idea, and was resolved either to verify or disprove it, without delay. By thin time a small crowd of people had l)("!ii attracted to the cemetery, and tin; gravedigger even became eager when Mr George Fawcett arrived on the scene and added his commands to those of the lawyer.

Amid breathless silenco the vault was opened, and tho coffin lifted on to the grave-side. Then the cofilulid was prised open, and all crushed eagerly forward to see if the dead were perchance not dead after all.

Picture the amazement of all present when it was seen that no M> Fawcett was in the coffin either dead or alive! In his stead were some lumps of lead, well wrapped up in blankets to prevent them from rolling about.

"Black magic, indeed!" muttered the astonished brother. "Satan himself at work here !"

" He generally has something to do with elopements," said the cousin before mentioned.

" What do you mean, sir ? "

" Well it's not difficult to guess my meaning. T(!our brother pretends to die, and there is a mock funeral. There is a strauge veiled lady seen here, there, and everywhere in his company. He wills his property so that after his supposed burial he and his charmer cau get hold of it without his discarded wife and daughter knowing auyching about it—and there you' are !"

"Have you anything more to say ? " "Well, not just now, I think."

"Very well, theu—there you are!" And with these words Mr George Fawcett permitted his fist to come into sudden juxtaposition with his cousin's nose, causing that gentleman to turn an unwilling somersault into the newly opened grave, near which he was standing.

This sudden onslaught, and the gentleman's frantic struggle to keep himself from falling right into the grave, loosened tho spell of horror which had held the crowd dumb, and their excitement found vent in a roar of laughter at the expense of the assaulted man who slunk away alternately wiping his bleeding nose and vowing vengeance on his assailant.

Of course there was a great hullabaloo in the neighbourhood, and all tho papers were full of tho mock burial and its strange discovery. But nobody could tell whether it was a live man or a corpse that had been spirited away, and several months elapsed ere even a solution of the mystery was arrived at.

As for Mrs and Miss Fawcett, their case was truly pitiable. Their faith in father and husband, who had always been everything that was good to them, was as strong us ever. But the general public accepted the \lev of the case suggested by the uncharitable cousin, and were inclined to make a grim jest of the whole affair. What lont additional colour to the theory of wilful desertion was the discoveiy that Mr Fawcett, very shortly before his disappearance had withdrawn no less a sum than £10,000 from the bank, and it really required the most loving faith to get over this remarkable fact. Meanwhile Mr George Fawcett was employing every possible means of discovering the whereabouts of his brother, and the ingenuity of our firm was taxed to its upmost iu followiug up first one and then another clue. All in vain ! It was left for me to solve the mystery. But I claim no special credit for it, for my luck was purely accidental. I was watching another case at Brighton. The house in which I was staying pro tem was an old-fashioned affair, built back to back with another one exactly like it. Both had a ruptic summerhouse at the end. These summerhouses also backod each, other, and a high, privet fenco separated the two enclosures.

One afternoon, it being very ho!:, I retired to tho little euintner-hoiiso as tho pleasantest place in which to write my daily report. I had not boon seated many moments ere I heard somebody enter the adjoining rustic retreat, and with the instinct of my profession, I listened to their convocation which might for anything I knew to the contrary, apply to the case I was watching.

"Oh, John!" I heard sighed by a weary voice. '! How long is this misery to last? Am I always to live in an atmosphere of crime and wrong? Am I never to be vindicated to the rest of my relations ? I have been compelled to lead such a life, and to do many disreputable things which my soul abhorred, even while I obeyed the behests of the evil will which holds me in thrall, that eveu you,. who used to be fond of mo when a girl, have believed me to be responsible for all the things laid at my door since that awful man crossed my path ."

"My poor sister ? I have heard you talk like this before," was the reply. " But of what avail is it, since his fatal influence nover ceases long enough to enable u» to

shake off this mental lethargy ? Yours has beoa a terrible fate. To be linked to such fiend for twenty years is heart-breaking- And in. what better case am I now ? Compelled first to write some document which I believe to be a will estranging my fortune from those I lovu ; reduced to a state of catalepsy simulating death, not knowing whether actual premature burial might not be in. store for mo ; submitted each night to a renewal of hypnotic influence, lest I should recover too soon ; compelled to aid in deceiving

my own dear ones by packing heavy weights in the coffin procured for myself; and finally, compelled by his awful influence to come away with him, first to York, and thon, lest youv houso should be searched, brought hither. It is awful to walk in the streets as we sometimes do, in obedience to your husband's commands, and to bo s.> enslaved by his will, that we dare not implore help by so much an a look r"

"Yes, yes, Jbhn, but I really believe his influence is waning. Never, since wo left York wilh Anton hava we been able to express ourselves so unrsservodly as now. He has not masqueraded as a veiled lady lately, so I conclude that he has no particular plot on the carpet just now in which he requires help. Come, let us leave the house ! Let 113 defy his commands ! Let us— Ah Heaveu ? Here he is !"

The speaker's voice, which had become excited, now suddenly ceased, and died away in a shuddering sign, echoed by a fainting one from her companion. Moved by irrepressible excitement as it was I was yet cautious enough to make no sound, as I stepped on to the rustic seat of the arbour, nn& peered through the leafy foliage unobserved.

I soon saw the object which, terrified the brother and sister into such abject submission. It was a man of medium height, and not ungraceful proportions. He wore a great deal of coal black hair, which hung in snaky ringlets about nis shoulders. His face was of a disagreeable livid hue, and he walked in a slow, deliberate manner, with n sardonic grin on his Mephistophelian features, as if he were taking a demoniacal delight in the mental tortures he inflicted upon his victim s

But his eyes were the strangest features about him. Awful 13 the only word by which I can describe their appearance. They glowed like live coals, and, for a momeufc, when their glances fell upou my leafy screen, I felt quite as terrified as the poor souls on the other side.

But whatever the cause of the man's malign influence, or whatever its tendency, it speedily passed from me. and centred itself upon his unhappy victims, who slowly, with mechanical motion, and without a word from him rose from their seat, and walked up to him, in obedience to the mute command of those evil eyes.

Advancing only half way up the garden, the man turned upon his heel and walked back into the house silently followed by the brother and sister. As soon a3 the spell of their presence had left me. I eighed as i£ half my strength had been drawn from me, and sank back upon the seat feeling perfectly exhausted.

The Evil Eye " T thought, shuddering'y. Black Magic ? That is what it is. And I know who this trio is too. No other than Mr John Fawcefct whom our firm is deputed to find together with the sister to whom the money was willed. Of course, this Mr Anton is ' The Veiled Lady,' and equally, of course, it is he who has got hold of that ten thousand pounds, and who meant to appropriate the rest as well. But I think he is about at the end of his tether."

Lethargic no longer, I gathered my writing materials together. Then I cautiousiy availed mysolf of the shelter of the hedge, as I was fearful of being seen by the man with the evil eve, lest he should put a spell on me also.

A few hours later, in response to a telegram which I had despatched to Messrs Bell and White, a raid was made upon the house in which Mr Fawcett resided against his will. Ho and his sister were rescued, and, removed from Anton Sehreiber's evil influence, soon began to act like reasonable beings again. Restored

'o their friends, they were welcomed with delight, everybody vieing in showing kindness to the poor woman Who, it was now seen, was nob responsible for anything she had done whilo under the subjugation of a stronger will.

But Herr Schre ber gave our men the slip most unaccountably, and we have none of us seen him since. A short time ago his wifo, who lived in daily terror of his reappearance, received the following , letter from him :

Madrid, Dec. 20th IS9O

Mr dear Wife, —I know you are expecting to hear from me, and th at you are rta-ly Imping for my return to your charming society. I am very sorry to disappoint you. lam tir u d of Kngland and the foolish people who live there, although sjme of the latter would doubtless like to embrace ui". Henceforth I work no more for your suppirt. I \\-\v. got a younger companion, who is ready to do all I wish li-jr to do, without requiriug such an everlasting supervision as you needed. Even my mesmerio, or as they now-a-ctays call it. hypnotic piwer. is no longer required at home, for I and my boautiful partner are as o:\e soul. I failed in my attempt to myself of your brother's fortune, and did not risk discovery by asking for any portion of it, after reading of his exhunntinn in the newspapers. But I have, most of v thi= ten thousand pound left which your brother was good enough to give to me. With that, and the money we can easily obtaiu from others, Theresa and 1 will manage very well. And thou— I pity thee, p>or thing -but thou wilt nevermore set eyes ou Thine no longer.—A xto.v Schrkiukr