The Finger of Fate Part 45

The hand was stretched forth. _It wanted the little finger_!

Increased sensation in the court!

"My Lord, and gentlemen of the jury, you perceive there is a finger missing? _It is here_."

As the counsel said this, he stepped towards the witness-box, holding the strange object in his hand. Then, quietly raising the hand of his client, he placed the missing finger in juxtaposition with the stump, from which it had long ago been so cruelly severed.

There could be no doubt about the correspondence. The white cartilaginous seam that indicated the scar, commencing upon the back of the hand, and running longitudinally, was continued to the finger's tip.

The jury could not help being convinced. _The claimant was Henry Harding_.

The sensation in court had now come to its climax; and so had the trial to its end.

The case of "Harding _versus_ Harding" was by an unanimous verdict decided in plaintiff's favour--defendant "to pay costs in the suit!"

CHAPTER SIXTY SIX.

WHAT BECAME OF THEM.

Six months after the trial I received an invitation to spend a week at Beechwood Park, and take a share in its shootings.

Start not, reader! My host was not Nigel Harding, nor my hostess his wife, _nee_ Belle Mainwaring. The new master and mistress of the mansion were both better people, and both old acquaintances, whom I had encountered in the _campo_ of the Parana. They were Henry Harding and his fair Italian _sposa_, now fully put in possession of their English estate.

I was not the only guest they were entertaining. The house was full of company, among whom were the _ci-devant sindico_ of the Val di Orno, his son, and South American daughter-in-law.

If Henry Harding had lost one of his fingers, he had recovered all his old friends, and added a host of others, while Lucetta was surrounded by her own kindred.

In the mansion of Beechwood Park there was as much cheer, and perhaps far more contentment, than when the unamiable Nigel and his equally unamiable wife had the ordering of its entertainments.

I never met either of them again; nor were they ever after seen in that neighbourhood. But I have heard of them: their life since then, though dark--compared with the splendour that had for a time surrounded it--has not been one that should be deemed unendurable.

The generous Henry did not prove resentful for the wrong his half-brother had done him. Though of different mothers, they were sons of the same father; and for that father's sake, Henry abstained from any act of revenge. Not only this, but he behaved towards Nigel with a n.o.ble generosity. To the thousand pounds left to the latter, in the second will, he added several other thousands--giving Nigel enough to keep him and his wife from want, even in England.

But England was no longer a land to Nigel's liking. No more did it suit the taste of Belle Mainwaring. No more that of Belle Mainwaring's match-making mother, who had signally failed in her schemes.

India was the country for them, and to India they went--Nigel to become a resident magistrate, and perhaps mete out injustice to the talookdars--his wife to distribute bewitching smiles to various subalterns, captains, and colonels; while the mother would find solace in dealing out Oriental scandal.

Of most of the other characters who have been conspicuous in our tale I am able to record something of later date.

Mr Woolet is still pettifogging--still robbing a poor _clientele_, out of sufficient to keep a carriage at their expense; but not enough to tempt being employed by the rich. Of these, General Harding was his first client, his son Nigel the last.

Doggy d.i.c.k in due time gave up being a bandit; not from any repentance, but because the life was to him a hard one. He had found brigandage in Italy not quite so safe, nor even so pleasant, as poaching in England.

He was stupid enough to return both to the country and the practice, now and then varying the latter with a job of burglary or garotting. The consequence was, getting his own neck into a noose as tight as ever he had twined for any of his victims. It was a halter he had already earned--by the deed of blood done before going abroad.

From the contemplation of such a dark character, let us turn to those of lighter and pleasanter complexion.

Tommaso--the wronged, misguided Tommaso--is no more either wronged or misguided. As head groom at Beechwood, he may be seen every day about the yard, or the stables, of that splendid establishment--faithful as ever to the man he rescued from captivity, and to the woman he was instrumental in saving from dishonour. To him is the writer of this tale indebted for a knowledge of much of the brigand life it has depicted.

Through the influence of his new client--the squire of Beechwood Park-- Lawson _pere_ has succeeded in obtaining a seat in Parliament, and Lawson _fils_ expects some day to tread in the footsteps of his father.

It is an agreeable task to record the after-fate of those who have agreeably interested us when we can speak only of their prosperity. And we can testify to this in the case of Luigi Torreani, his pretty wife, and his worthy father.

The three, after a prolonged sojourn among the Chiltern Hills, returned once more to their home upon the Parana--their home not only by adoption, but from choice. There they are still residing; the old Italian _sindico_ playing patriarch, on his _estancia_; his son still living a life, part planter, part painter; while his daughter-in-law keeps house for both.

It is not improbable that, some day, his son-in-law and daughter may seek them there, for more than once has Henry Harding been heard to say--Lucetta joyfully listening to it--that he was never so happy as in his South American home!

And this, too, in the midst of wealth, power, and splendour! To the true heart, there is no wealth to compare with contentment--no power so enjoyable as that of free physical strength--no splendour of our so-called civilisation comparable to the savage charm of an American scene--be it forest, prairie, or pampa!

There lies the future of Freedom! There points the "Finger of Fate!"

THE END.