CHAPTER XXV.
THE PACKAGE OF OLD LETTERS
"I think you once told me, Uncle Richard," Abner said, later in theconversation with his uncle, "that Andrew Hite visited Lawsonvillewhile my mother was living with you."
"Yes, he did," Dudley replied, "a week or so before she and Page weremarried."
"Did he learn of the cruel deception of which she was the victim?"
"Yes, I told him that, and of her approaching marriage and intendedremoval to Kentucky. She was in poor health, and I feared a decline,but she and Page thought her best chance for recovery was to marry, andto find a new home far from anything that could remind her of herconnection with your father."
"This," said Abner, "explains Andrew Hite's will. He thought that mymother, being his nearest relative, had the first claim upon him; but,in case she died before he did--which doubtless appeared probable,owing to her frail health--he preferred that his property should go tohis half-sister's child, rather than to me, the bastard son of adastard father. I have, therefore, morally no claim whatsoever to thisinheritance, and I will never touch a farthing of it. Oh, why," he wenton bitterly, "was I not told, years ago, my true history? Had I alwaysknown it, the burden of shame which is my only lawful inheritance wouldhave gradually adjusted itself to my strength, and would not now havesuch crushing weight. It is the contrast between what I thought I wasand what I am that is the bitterest ingredient in my cup of misery."
"I deserve your reproaches, my poor boy," said Richard Dudley,sorrowfully; "but Heaven is my witness that my only motive in keepingthis from you was to spare you shame and sorrow."
"Ah, I know that," cried Abner, "and it is ungrateful and cowardly toreproach you, my more than father. It was the suddenness of the shockthat made me utter that unmanly plaint. Forgive me. I know you havebeen actuated in all that you have done by your regard for me."
"As to this inheritance," said Dudley presently, "it is lawfully yours.It was left to your mother, and you inherit it, not directly fromAndrew Hite, but from her."
"No, no! The whole tenor of the will was to cut me out of all share inthe estate. It would be infamous in me, knowing what I do, to claim it.Besides, my mother died before coming into possession of this property.How, then, could I inherit through her, when it was never actuallyhers?"
"Who, then, is heir under the will?" argued Dudley. "Not Sarah Pepper;for it is clearly set forth in the document that she inherits onlyunder the condition that your mother be dead, leaving no legitimateheirs, before the date of the will."
"Then, the will must be declared null and void," firmly asserted theyoung man. "It is a mad will, anyway."
"In that case," retorted the doctor, "you being the only child of yourmother, the next of kin, are, as you once pointed out, the rightfulheir--at least, you are co-heir with Sarah Pepper."
But Abner stoutly adhered to his determination to have nothing to dowith the property. It, therefore, became imperative to ascertain thewhereabouts of Sarah Jane Pepper, or her heirs, if any.
That night Abner looked through his mother's papers. He found severalletters beginning, "My Darling Wife:--" or, "My Own Mary:--." Thesignature to each of these epistles was, "Your affectionate husband,John Logan." The tone of each letter was thoughtful tender, solicitous."These do not read like the letters of a villain," Abner thought, amomentary gleam of hope penetrating the thick gloom; "but then, theevidence to the contrary is conclusive. I must not allow myself tohope. I do not wonder, though, that my poor mother was deceived; forsuch words as these would mislead any simple, trusting heart like hers.He did love her, I suppose, as well as his craven, selfish nature wouldadmit of his loving any one."
The last letter in the package gave the young man, alone in the lowattic room, a shock of amazement. It was dated "Chestnut Hall, February1, 1782," and was signed, "Your affectionate cousin, Sarah." It statedthat the writer had returned to Chestnut Hall, after the death of thefaithful Myra, and that she was now living alone with the negroattendants, in the home of her childhood; that she was betrothed to aman who held the rank of major in the Continental army. This man, shewrote, had been badly wounded the spring before in a skirmish withArnold's raiders, near her home. He had been carried to the Hall, andshe had nursed him back to complete recovery; and he was now inKentucky looking for a suitable location for their future home. Heintended to return in the course of a year, marry her, and remove tothe new home across the mountains. The name of this man was HiramGilcrest. The letter likewise said that Major Gilcrest knew her to be awidow Logan, whose husband had fallen in battle, but that she had toldher future husband none of the miserable details of her connection withJohn Logan except that he had treated her with great cruelty. She hadextracted a promise from Major Gilcrest that no one in their new homein Kentucky should know that she had been a widow, and in order thatthis fact of her widowhood might the more easily be concealed, she hadinduced him to agree that if ever the question arose as to her maidenname, it was to be given as Jane Temple. Another motive, Sarah wrote,for this change of name from Pepper to Temple, was in order to preventanybody knowing of her relationship to Fletcher Pepper, who hadrendered the name of Pepper odious to all who had ever heard it, by hisdesertion of the patriot army to join the traitor Arnold.
GENEALOGICAL TABLE
Showing Abner Logan's and Mrs. Gilcrest's Claimsto Andrew Hite's Estate
+---------------------------------------------------+ | | Abner Hite and Jane Temple Daniel Thornton and Jane Temple | (widow of Abner Hite)+---------------+--------------+ +-----------+----------------+| | | | | | Silas Andrew Mary Sarah (d. in (inherits (m. John (m. Jackson Pepper) childhood) estate) Hollis) | | | |+---------------+----------------------+ +----+----------------+| | | | | | Frances 6 other children Mary Belle Sarah Jane (m. Richard (d. in (m. 1. John Logan (m. 1. John Logan Dudley) infancy) 2. Marshall Page) 2. Hiram Gilcrest) | | +------+---------+ +--------+---+ | | | | | | Abner Dudley Logan | Betsey | John Calvin | Martin | Silas | Philip | Matthew]
Until he read that letter, Abner had, half unconsciously, clung to thehope that even though his father had been a dastardly villain who hadwrecked the happiness of two trusting women, it might still be possibleto establish his own legitimacy. Now, even that shadowy hope must beabandoned. "What!" he thought despairingly, "prove my right to wear myfather's name at the cost of the fair repute of Betty's mother! Never,never! Rather will I accept the bar sinister for my own escutcheon."
He could bear no more. Thrusting the papers roughly aside, he rusheddown the stairs and out into the darkness. Here, throwing himself facedownward upon the ground, his hands dug into the sod, he cursed the dayupon which he was born. But at last the soft serenity of the starryJune night soothed him into a better mood. He arose, and, with a prayerfor strength and guidance, re-entered the house.
"My first duty must be to write to Major Gilcrest and Betty," was hisfirst waking thought next morning. "My precious, loving Betty, I mustgive you up; for even should you, after knowing my history, be willingto marry me, I love you too well to allow one so sweet and pure, sohigh in worldly position, to link her fate with a base-born earthwormsuch as I am. O Father i
n heaven, give me strength to do the right!Uncle Richard must take the necessary steps toward establishing Mrs.Gilcrest in possession of the Hite estates," he concluded after morereflection. "Not that she has any claim under the will, but because she(barring myself) is Andrew Hite's next of kin. However, all this isUncle Richard's affair, not mine; but I hope the business can beaccomplished without revealing to any one that dark page in JaneGilcrest's early life. Betsy, at any cost, must be spared theknowledge."
Abner wrote to Major Gilcrest, renouncing all claim to Betsy, andenclosing a note for her, which he requested her father to give to her.
After this duty was performed, the young man fell into a state of dulldespair which benumbed every faculty. Holmes has said, "A greatcalamity is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened. Itstains backward through all the leaves we have turned over in the bookof life, before its blot of tears and of blood is dry upon the page weare turning." For weeks after Abner had learned the secret of hisbirth, it seemed to him that this blighting, blackening misery whichhad laid low his pride, and killed every hope, permeated, not only allhis past, but all his future. He seemed to have been born for nothingelse but to experience this agony of loss and shame. He could make noplans. The future stretched out before him a desert waste; for, withthe downfall of family pride and the loss of Betty, his ambitionlikewise had perished.
He was finally aroused by a communication from James Anson Drane. Thiscommunication stated that, owing to certain facts which had recentlycome into the writer's possession, he must decline to act any longer as"Mr. Logan's" agent. These facts, as Mr. Drane wrote, were as follows:The Mary Belle Hollis Page named in the will of the late Colonel AndrewHite, of Crestlands, Sterling County, Virginia, had died and beenburied at the village of Centerton, Virginia, March 9, 1782, nearly twomonths prior to the execution of the will; she had left no legitimateissue; and, therefore, Sarah Jane Pepper, daughter of Sarah Thornton,and now the wife of Hiram Gilcrest, of Cane Ridge, Bourbon County,Kentucky, was the sole lawful heir to the estates of the said ColonelAndrew Hite, deceased.
Mr. Drane then went on to give an account of the manner of Mary Page'sdeath, and to explain that it was not until immediately after herburial at Centerton that her husband, Marshall Page, accompanied by hisbrother and sister-in-law and his little stepson, had gone on intoKentucky. Enclosed in Drane's letter was a loose slip of papercontaining a copy of the half-effaced inscription upon the oak slabwhich marked the grave at Centerton. The slip was headed "Copied atCenterton by James Anson Drane, from the slab marking the grave of MaryBelle Hollis Page."
This communication served to awaken Abner from his apathy; for thestatement conveyed in it respecting the time and place of Mary Page'sdeath, if not proven false, would tend to very seriously reflect uponthe integrity of Richard Dudley, executor of the Hite will, and wouldprobably render him liable to arrest and trial on the charge of beingparty to a fraud.
Abner was thoroughly convinced that the statement in Drane's letter,concerning Mary's death, was false. He had full confidence in RichardDudley's clear-sightedness and uprightness. Moreover, his own intuitionand his faint recollection of episodes in his own early life made himsure that his mother had died that August night in the stockadefortress of Bryan Station. These dim, tantalizing recollections whichhad been first partially aroused that November night by Gilcrest's andRogers' recital of the horrors of the famous Indian uprising of 1782,had been kindled into stronger life by what his uncle had recently toldhim of the attack upon the cabin of the Pages, the flight to Bryan's,the death there of Mary Page, and the return of her little orphaned boyto his Lawsonville people. But, although his faith in his uncle's honorand in his own intuitions and memories were to himself "confirmationstrong as Holy Writ," they would not be accepted as evidence in a courtof law. Hence it now behooved him and Dr. Dudley to learn somethingmore of Marshall Page's brother.
Neither Richard nor Rachel Dudley knew anything of the man--not evenhis Christian name.
"This Page and his wife did not start for Kentucky from Lawsonville,"Dr. Dudley said. "They came from Maryland, and joined Marshall and Maryat some appointed place--I do not now recall--on the road, many milesfrom Lawsonville."
"But when the man returned with me," asked Abner, "did you not thenlearn his full name, and something of his history?"
"I did not see him," was Dudley's reply. "I was away from home, and hestayed only an hour or so after committing you into your aunt's care.She was too shocked by the tidings he brought and by her pity and carefor you, cold, sick, half starved, and bewildered as you were by thelong, rough travel, to think of anything else."
"Could it be possible," thought Abner, "that the man deceived theDudleys in regard to the woman who had died at Bryan's, and that it washis own wife instead of Marshall's? No, that could not be," heconcluded; "he could have had no possible motive for the deception.Surely, there must be numbers of persons still living who were in thesiege of Bryan Station, or the battle of Blue Licks, and who could notonly remember this man's full name, but other circumstances that willbe of service to us now. Mason Rogers can, I'm certain, find someperson or persons who can give the evidence we need. I will communicatewith him; and, in the meanwhile, I will go to Centerton."
Abner returned from Centerton without having gleaned any informationthat would throw additional light upon the mystery. He was furtherperplexed that no reply to his letter to Rogers had reachedWilliamsburg.
"I suppose I will have to go to Cane Ridge for information," heconcluded when another month had passed bringing no word from Rogers,"although my soul revolts against revisiting the place of my losthappiness. But go I must, unless I soon hear from Mr. Rogers. I willtell everything to dear Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They are noble-hearted,discreet and sympathetic, and they will still be my staunch friends. Iwill also while there make some disposition of my farm--I think I caneasily find a buyer or a renter for it. Afterwards, I do not know whatI shall do, nor does it matter much, either, what becomes of anameless, baseborn--no, no!" he broke off, ashamed of his momentaryweakness. "I will not let such unworthy sentiments master me. It isunmanly to give way like this, and is a wrong to my noble, unselfishfoster mother and father. And even if they were not still left me, Imust still be true to myself, and rise above the shameful circumstanceswhich would pull me down. It would not do for me to return permanentlyto Cane Ridge. It would try my strength too far, to be daily in theneighborhood of my lost darling; nor would it be kind to her and herfamily for me to do so; and it would be a source of embarrassment andtrouble to the Rogers family, and would perhaps estrange them stillmore from their old neighbors at Oaklands. But I will not hide my headin some far-away, obscure corner where my birth and antecedents areunknown. No! Here is my battleground. Here, where I received the blowwhich bereft me of my love and my position, will I fight the fight, andattain the victory. I will take up the study of the law, as UncleRichard always wanted me to do; and I will strive to become useful andhonored in my profession. I can nevermore be happy; but I can, and Iwill, make the name of Logan an honored one, in spite of all."