Terry's Trials and Triumphs Part 14

The suggestion was a very unlikely one, yet they both sought to take comfort from it. Gold was very plentiful in Halifax in those days, and the successful blockade-runners lavished it with a free hand. Some one of them, whose wits had been stolen away by strong drink, might have filled Black Mike's pockets in a fit of reckless generosity.

But the more Terry thought over this the more improbable did it seem, and he felt himself, however reluctantly, thrown back upon the only other alternative to which almost unconsciously he gave expression.

"If father did steal the money," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the drunken form, "where do you think he could have got it?"

He put the question because, although he had already answered it in his own mind, he shrank from expressing his thought, at least until he saw whether the same had come into his mother's mind.

Mrs. Ahearn was silent for some moments. Then, bending over towards him as if afraid the sleeper might catch her words, she replied,--

"The black bag, Terry!"

Terry gave a groan of misery. His own harrowing suspicion had found expression in his mother's words, and instantly he saw himself transfixed between the horns of a terrible dilemma.

Not only so, but just as his mother had hit upon, the same solution of the mystery of the gold, so must she realize the position in which he was placed by it. That she did this was made clear the next moment; for, as he remained silent, she drew him into her arms, and folding him to her breast, sobbed out in plaintive tones,--

"Ye won't tell Mr. Drummond, will ye, Terry darlint? Sure it would break me poor heart entirely if they were to send the police after your father, and have him put in the penitentiary."

It was long past midnight before sleep came to Terry's eyes. He tossed and tumbled about on his hard bed in a state of the most painful perplexity. The idea of informing upon his father seemed nothing short of horrible to him, and yet did not duty to his employer and to the truth demand it? Mr. Drummond had been so good to him. Here, now, was an opportunity to prove his grat.i.tude. By prompt action a good part of the stolen money might perhaps be recovered before it was squandered, therefore the sooner he informed the better. His mother had carefully put away the gold coins, in order that they might be restored when they knew for certain to whom they rightfully belonged. Should he take them to the office in the morning, and tell the whole story?

When he got up the next morning, a little later than usual, having overslept himself, he found his father already gone out. Black Mike had apparently not missed the gold, and asked no questions, although his drunkenness had disappeared.

Nothing was said between Terry and his mother while he ate his breakfast quickly; but just as he was hurrying off, she threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear,--

"Say nothin' about the gold to-day, Terry darlint. Maybe it wasn't your father took the bag at all."

At the office the clerks had settled down again to their regular routine, and the distractions of the preceding day having caused some arrears, they had to work all the harder to make them up. Terry was kept on his feet continually, and was left little time for quiet thinking. Mr. Hobart was absent, having been sent off by the firm on an important mission to Windsor, whence he would not return until the following day. Terry's heart sank when he heard this, for he craved a talk with his friend, although his mind was not yet made up as to whether he would tell him about his father.

Another absentee was Morley. A note had come from him, stating that he was ill and confined to bed, but hoped to be at his desk in a day or two. For some inexplicable reason, when Terry learned this the thought flashed into his mind that Morley might know something about the black bag. He could give himself no reason for it, yet there it stuck, and by its presence helped to strengthen his reluctance to make known the facts about his father.

In the afternoon the office was once more thrown into a state of excitement by the news that the detectives had discovered the thief, and already had him under arrest. Terry was out on an errand when the word came.

On his return he entered the office just behind Mr. Boggs, the a.s.sistant book-keeper, at sight of whom one of the other clerks, eager to be the first to tell the news, shouted out,--

"They've caught the burglar, Boggs. Guess who it is?"

Terry's heart stopped beating, and an icy chill ran through his body, as, pausing by the door, he waited in harrowing apprehension for the answer.

CHAPTER XII.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

Mr. Hobart was not the only friend Terry had among the employes at Drummond and Brown's. The storeman, John Connors, had always been kind to him in his own rough way. He pitied the boy because of his drunken father, and liked him because of his pluck and energy.

Having no boys of his own, he had several times, half in jest, half in earnest, offered to adopt him; and although his proposition could not be considered, it strengthened the warm affection that Terry felt towards the bluff "boss" of Long Wharf.

Intense, then, as was his relief that it was not his father who had been arrested for the stealing of the black bag, there quickly followed feelings of keen surprise and sorrow, for the suspected criminal proved to be no other than John Connors, in whose possession had been found a bag presumed to be the one taken from Mr. Drummond's desk.

Terry listened for a while to the conversation of the clerks as they exchanged wondering conjectures in reference to the matter, and all the time the conviction grew stronger within him that, however appearances might be against him, Connors was no more guilty than he was himself.

At length he could not keep silence, and burst out with,--

"John Connors never stole the bag. I'm sure he didn't."

His fervent declaration of faith in the storeman's innocence roused a laugh, and one of the clerks turned upon him with the question,--

"What do you know about it any way that you're so sure as to who didn't do it?"

Instantly there came up in Terry's mind the scene at home, and the mysterious gold dropping from his father's pockets. What did he know about it indeed? Far more perhaps than he cared to tell just then.

Regretting that he had spoken, he made no answer; and noticing his confusion, the clerk, attributing it to his being so sharply challenged, added good-humouredly,--

"Never mind, Terry; we're a good deal of the same opinion. We don't think Connors is the man to do such a thing, and there must be a mistake somewhere."

As soon as he got home Terry told his mother of Connors' arrest, and Mrs. Ahearn, eager to seize upon any other explanation of the affair than one which would involve her husband, said persuasively,--

"Now then, Terry, ye'll not be saying anything about your father till ye find out some more, will ye, darlint?"

Poor Terry was in a sadly perplexed state of mind. He firmly believed in Connors' innocence; yet he was by no means sure of his father's guilt, and, without being able to explain to himself why, he had haunting suspicions as to Morley. How he longed to have a talk with Mr. Hobart! But his friend was away, and there was no one else in whom he had the same confidence, or to whom he could go for the counsel he so sorely needed.

Black Mike did not show himself in Blind Alley that night, greatly to the relief of both Terry and his mother, for they dreaded seeing him in their then state of mind. The two had a long talk before going to bed; but it did not make the future much clearer, although the more he thought over the matter, the more strongly Terry felt that he was not doing right in withholding the information about his father.

Immediately on his arrival at the office next morning he was told not to go out anywhere, as he would soon be particularly wanted, and presently he learned that he was to appear in the police-court as a witness at the preliminary examination of Connors. His heart sank within him at the prospect of this ordeal, and he felt as though he would give anything to run off and hide himself until the trial was over.

Shortly after eleven o'clock, Mr. Hobart, who had just got back that morning, told him to accompany him to the police-court. In profound perturbation Terry obeyed. It would be his first appearance as a witness, and he had the vaguest possible notions as to what would be required of him.

They found the court-room already crowded, for the case attracted a good deal of attention. It was a bare gaunt room, whose princ.i.p.al virtue lay in its being well lit. Along the farther end ran a dais, upon which stood three desks, with a big black sofa behind; while over all hung a canopy bearing the royal arms of Great Britain.

As the market clock sounded out eleven strokes, a door at the side of the dais opened, and the stipendiary magistrate, the presiding genius of the place, appeared. He had rather an imposing port, which was helped by his full gray beard and large gold spectacles. Behind came Mr. Drummond and Mr. Brown, who at his invitation took seats upon the sofa.

Having adjusted himself comfortably at the central desk, he directed the clerk, who sat in an enclosure behind him, to open the court.

A number of "drunk and disorderly" cases, which were represented by a row of men and women in various stages of rags and frowziness, had first to be disposed of, the routine being to call up the policeman who had made the arrest, listen to his statement, and without further inquiry impose fines of "five dollars, or twenty days," or "ten dollars, or forty days," according to the gravity of the offence.

At length the dock was cleared of its unsavoury tenants, and the clerk called the case of "The Queen versus John Connors."

A perceptible stir and murmur ran through the crowd when Connors came forward. He certainly had not the appearance of a criminal, and despite his evident distress at his situation, there was nothing in his bearing to indicate guilt. He had secured the services of Mr. Morton, the leading criminal lawyer, and was permitted to take his seat beside him, instead of being placed in the dock. There seemed something reproachful in the glance he gave his employers, as though to say, "You ought to have had more faith in me than to put me here."

The preliminary formalities being gone through with, the examination of the witnesses was entered upon. Mr. Drummond, Mr. Brown, the officers of the blockade-runner, and Mr. Hobart gave their evidence one after another, while Terry listened to every question and answer as though his own life depended upon the result. His mind was in a state of the utmost distress and indecision. His turn would come soon. How much should he tell? No one could have any idea of what he knew. Must he betray his father, or had he the right to maintain silence?

Never in his life before had he been brought face to face with so perplexing a moral problem, and his early training was indeed a poor preparation for its right solution. Indeed, had he been left to decide it by the standards of that training, it would have been quickly done; but during his short stay with Mr. Sargent in Boston a new view of life had come to him, in the light of which he saw his duty as he had never done before.

He looked longingly at Mr. Hobart, for he felt that a good talk with him would be a wonderful help in straightening matters out; but there was no chance of that now, and he had come no nearer a decision when he heard his name called by the clerk.

Dazed, and trembling in every limb, he entered the witness box, and took tight hold of the front rail, for it seemed as though his knees would sink under him. In consideration of his youth and manifest perturbation, the prosecuting attorney questioned him very gently and briefly as to what he knew, and Terry having told about seeing the bag locked up in the desk, hoped that the ordeal was over.

But to his dismay Mr. Morton now took him in hand, adjusting his gold spectacles so as to look straight through them into the boy's face; and a.s.suming a very confident air, as though he knew all about it, the renowned cross-examiner said,--