The Unknown Wrestler Part 47

"I am ruined."

"Can you not get it elsewhere?"

"No, not that amount. I have tried and failed. Six thousand was the best any one would do. I hope you can favour me, sir," and Stubbles turned his eyes beseechingly upon the lawyer's face.

"It all depends upon my young friend here," Garton replied, "and that is the reason why I have asked him to remain in the room."

"It depends upon him!" Stubbles exclaimed in astonishment, as he looked toward Douglas. "I do not understand your meaning, sir."

"You know him, then?"

"Yes, I have met him several times. He is Jake Jukes' hired man, so I understand."

"And he is the man you have been persecuting ever since he came to this place. Why was that?"

"There was no persecution, I a.s.sure you," Stubbles hotly defended. "He made himself most obnoxious to people in general, and for the welfare of the community I ordered him to leave the parish."

"In what way did he make himself obnoxious?"

"He insulted my son one night at a quiet dance in the hall at the Corner, and broke up the gathering."

"And what was your son doing? How did he behave that night? Did you ever think of that?"

As Stubbles did not reply but dropped his eyes to the floor, Douglas turned upon him.

"It was your son, Ben, who made the trouble that night, Mr. Stubbles,"

he charged. "He acted more like a beast than a human being, and because I interfered and checked him, he started out to have revenge.

And how did he do it? In a manly way? Oh, no. He persuaded you to order me from the place, and when I refused to obey, he set men to waylay me at night along the road. He even gave the men liquor to induce them to carry out his evil designs, and then at the trial he blasphemously denied it all. And you," he added, turning to Squire Hawkins, "allowed British justice to be perverted."

"Are you not afraid to make such a charge as that, young man?" the Squire pompously asked. "Do you not already realise the danger you are in from last night's affair? How can you account for that?"

"Yes, that's what I want to know," Stubbles questioned. "Did you not stir up Jake Jukes and others to set upon my son and treat him in a most shameful manner?"

"I knew nothing at all about it," Douglas explained, "until my arrival from the city last night."

"You lie!" and Stubbles stamped furiously upon the floor. "Do you expect me or any one else to believe such a thing as that?"

"Ask Jake and the rest of the men. They know that I had nothing to do with the affair."

"I wouldn't believe what they said if they swore to it on all the Bibles in the world. They are nothing but a pack of curs, and I'll fix them, see if I don't."

"You will do nothing of the kind, Mr. Stubbles," the lawyer quietly remarked. "If you do, not a cent of money do you get from me."

"Keep your money, then," Stubbles retorted. "I'm not going to be brow-beaten by you or any one else, and especially by a farm-hand. I shall get along somehow, but I will have satisfaction for the injury that was committed last night. Ben is my son, and I am going to stand by him no matter what happens."

"Steady, Mr. Stubbles, steady," the lawyer advised. "You must not talk that way. You are not out of deep water yet."

"I will stay in, then, and you can all go to blazes. You want me to back down and say I have been in the fault. But you've got the wrong bull by the horns this time."

"Am I to understand, then, that you will not need the ten thousand dollars from me?" Garton asked.

"No, not under your conditions. You want me to apologise to him," and he nodded toward Douglas. "If I do, you'll let me have the money. Is that it?"

"Mr.--er--Handyman, can speak for himself," Garton replied.

"I am not thinking so much of myself, Mr. Stubbles," Douglas told him, "as of the parish in general. If you agree not to act like a tyrant in the future and not to meddle in Church matters, and stop persecuting every clergyman who comes here unless he bows to your slightest wish, then I am satisfied."

"Do you think I am a fool?" Stubbles flung back. "What impudence!

Why, I never heard the like of it before! And I won't allow it! You can go, both of you. I'll attend to my own affairs, sink or swim."

Stubbles rose to his feet, signifying that the discussion was at an end.

"So you don't want the money, then?" Garton asked.

"No, and that's the end of it."

"Very well," and the lawyer rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner, "that's settled. And you intend to prosecute the men who took part in last night's affair?"

"Yes, to the limit of the law, especially that man there," and Stubbles pointed his finger scornfully at Douglas. "He was at the bottom of the trouble, and he shall suffer for it."

"Well, look here, Mr. Stubbles," and Garton rose suddenly to his feet as he spoke, "I warn you that the moment you do that, I shall have your son arrested for attempted murder."

Had Simon Stubbles received a direct blow in the face, he would not have been more surprised than at these words. His eyes bulged in amazement, and he became as pale as death.

"What, what are you saying?" he gasped. "Surely you must be mistaken.

Ben, my son! attempted murder!"

"Yes, that was what he did. He pushed a woman over Long Wharf in the city, and left her to her fate. And she would have been drowned but for timely a.s.sistance."

"Oh, Lord!" and Stubbles buried his face in his hands. "I knew that Ben was wild, but I had no idea he would do anything like that."

Presently he lifted his eyes to the lawyer's face.

"Are you sure it was Ben?" he asked. "There may have been a mistake.

Perhaps it was some one else."

"No, there has been no mistake. It was your son who did it; we have good proof of that."

"And who was the woman? Much depends upon who she is. It may be a case of black-mail."

"It was a girl from your own place, a neighbour of yours, Jean Benton."

With a gurgled groan of abandoned hope, Stubbles sank back and remained huddled in his chair, a pitiable object of misery. The man who had acted the tyrant for years, who hardly knew the meaning of mercy, and had crushed all who opposed him, was now being paid back tenfold. As he had sown, so was he reaping.

"We must go now," the lawyer reminded him, after a few seconds of silence. "But remember, Mr. Stubbles, the instant you lay a charge against Mr. Handyman here, or any of the men who took part in last night's affair, you will know what to expect. And as for you, Mr.

Hawkins," and he turned to the Squire, "I shall deal with you later for wilfully perverting justice. You acted with cowardice and partiality at the trial, and you must put up with the consequences."

"Don't do anything, for G.o.d's sake!" Hawkins cried, now smitten with a terrible fear. "I will do what you say, but don't take action, I beseech you. It will ruin my business."