



Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, David Edwards, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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THE PRICE OF BLOOD


[Illustration: Upon the last stage of their journey they stopped for
dinner at a tavern.]




  _THE_

  PRICE OF BLOOD

  An Extravaganza of _New York Life_ in 1807
  _Written_ in Five Chapters and _Illustrated_ by

  HOWARD PYLE

  [Illustration]

  _Boston_ From the Publishing House of

  RICHARD G. BADGER & CO.
  157 Tremont Street MDCCCXCIX




  COPYRIGHT 1899 BY

  RICHARD G. BADGER & CO.

  _All Rights Reserved_





CONTENTS


  _INTRODUCTION_                               Page 11

  _CHAPTER I_                                  Page 17

  THE EXTRAORDINARY AND INITIAL CLIENT OF A
  YOUNG LAWYER WITHOUT PREVIOUS PRACTICE

  _CHAPTER II_                                 Page 39

  THE REMARKABLE BEHAVIOR OF THE LAWYER'S
  SECOND CLIENT

  _CHAPTER III_                                Page 51

  THE HORRIFIC EPISODE IN THE COURSE OF WHICH
  THE LAWYER OBTAINED A THIRD CLIENT

  _CHAPTER IV_                                 Page 67

  IN WHICH IS RELATED THE REMARKABLE BEQUEST
  OF THE LAWYER'S FOURTH CLIENT

  _CHAPTER V_                                  Page 81

  THE CONCLUSION OF THE STORY OF THE YOUNG
  LAWYER AND HIS FOUR CLIENTS

  _CONCLUSION_                                 Page 97




ILLUSTRATIONS


  "Upon the last stage of their journey they stopped for
   dinner at a tavern"                                     _frontispiece_

  "Bidding his companions to await his return,.... he
   followed his interlocutor"                              _facing page 26_

  The somewhat peculiar pastime of our hero's
   second client                                           _facing page 44_

  "You next!"                                              _facing page 58_

  "It was at this juncture ... that an apologetic knock
   fell upon the door"                                     _facing page 68_

  "The <DW64> advanced to the portmanteau, ... and
   displayed the contents to his master"                   _facing page 90_




HERE FOLLOWS THE INTRODUCTION




INTRODUCTION


In the year 1807 New York was grown to be a city of no small
pretension to an extremely cosmopolitan cast of society. Being a
seaport of considerable importance and of great conveniency to foreign
immigration, it had even before this become a favorite haven for
itinerant visitors from European countries, who for reasons best
known to themselves did not find it to fit their inclinations to
remain at home. These people, being received into the society of the
most exclusive and particular fashion of the town, soon lent to the
community a tone characteristic of the manners and customs of European
centres of civilization.

Could the reader have been introduced into our American city at this
period of its history, he might easily have flattered himself that
he was in London or Paris. Or could he have stood upon Courtlandt
Street corner, and have beheld young gentlemen of style dressed in
the latest English mode or the young ladies gay with red hats and red
shawls worn _à la Française_ passing in review upon their evening
promenade, he might have believed himself to have been transported into
a community composed of both those European cities. Madame Bouchard,
the mantua-maker upon Courtlandt Street, vied in public favor with Mrs.
Toole, the English woman, whose shop upon Broadway had for so long been
the particular emporium of fashionable feminine adornment. Fashionable
bucks, who could afford to do so, drank nothing but Imperial champagne
at Dodge's; and young ladies who aspired to the highest flash of ton
made it a point to converse in French from the boxes of the theatres
between the acts of Mr. Cooper's performances. Monsieur Duport taught
dancing to young people of quality at twenty-five dollars a quarter,
and the French waltz and the English contra-dance divided the favor of
the most _récherché_ assemblies.

So much as this has been told with a certain particularity that the
author may better invite the confidence of the discerning reader; for
otherwise it might cause him some misgivings to accept with entire
assurity the fact that a deposed East India Rajah should secretly have
maintained his court in an otherwise unoccupied house on Broadway, and
it might shock his sense of the credible to accept the statement that
an Oriental Potentate should have been able successfully to pursue
his vengeance against the authors of his undoing in so unexpected a
situation as the town of New York afforded.

It is with so much a preface as this that the author invites his reader
to embark with him upon the following narrative, which, though it
may at times appear a little strange and out of the ordinary course
of events, may yet lead the thoughtful mind to consider how easy it
is for the innocent to become entangled in a fate which in no wise
concerns him, and for the discreet to become enveloped in a network of
circumstances which he himself has had no part in framing.

Accordingly, while the frivolous may easily read this serious story
for the sake of entertainment, the sober and more sedate reader will
doubtless carry away with him the moral of the discourse which the
author would earnestly point out for his consideration.




HERE FOLLOWS THE FIRST CHAPTER




CHAPTER ONE

The _Extraordinary_ and _Initial_ CLIENT of a _Young_ LAWYER without
_Previous_ PRACTICE.


There was at this period in the town of New York a number of young
gentlemen possessed of very lively spirits and pretty ingenious tastes
for folly. These gay rattlers about the town had gathered themselves
together into a society known as the "Bluebird Club," in which they
pledged themselves not only to eat a supper of oysters and to drink as
considerable a quantity of rum punch as possible, but subsequently to
perform all manner of extraordinary acts of folly. This assemblage of
rakes, though it possessed no fixed place of meeting, usually resorted
to an oyster-house of no good repute situate upon Front Street,
maintained by a <DW64> crimp by name Bram Gunn, whither it gathered once
a month during the period that oysters were in season.

Because of many questions of police jurisprudence that had arisen, it
was deemed necessary by the members of the Bluebird Club to conceal
their individual identities as far as possible from the recognition
of those who might otherwise know them. Accordingly, it was customary
for those who attended the assemblies of the club to assume for the
occasion some such masquerade or disguise as the rag-fairs of the
junk-shops or the disused wardrobes of the theatres might afford them.

The organizer of this society and its leading spirit, at the time of
which we speak, was a young gentleman by name Nathaniel Griscombe.
He was nominally an attorney-at-law; but, though fairly entitled by
admission to practise his profession at the bar of justice, he had
so far had such small encouragement therein that he had as yet found
nothing whatever to do but sit at his office window and amuse himself
with his own thoughts and speculations, with such an occasional
entertainment as might be offered by the transit across that frame
of vision of one or more of those females of lighter tastes and
inclinations who by the men of the town were denominated "does." He
was regarded by those who knew him as possessed of a superior wit, and
he was noted as a professional fulminator of what was then popularly
known as "whim-whams." It was also reputed that he could consume more
spirituous liquors, without a perceptible effect upon his equilibrium,
than any man of his age about the town.

Such extravagances as he indulged in entirely hid from the view of his
acquaintances and of the town the fact that he was a young gentleman
of no uncommon parts. Indeed, had fortune offered him opportunities
in proportion to his abilities instead of neglecting him so entirely,
he might have been earning the applause of those in his profession
who possessed the respect of the community instead of evaporating his
time with such entirely shallow companions as those young bucks and
rattlers with whom he elected to consort. Having, however, a prodigious
amount of idle time upon his hands, and being of a disposition that
would desire the applause even of the vain and foolish rather than no
applause at all, he yielded himself with only an occasional qualm of
conscience to the indulgence of such follies and escapades as afforded
excitement and interest for the moment to his extremely volatile
spirits and active temperament.

Upon a particular night this young gentleman wended his way to a
meeting of the Bluebird Club, arm in arm with three fellow-members.
Each was clad in a most extravagant and ridiculous masquerade. One
was adorned with a long night-gown covered over with yellow moons, a
mask with a prodigious nose and spectacles, and a wig of cotton-wool.
Another wore the black costume of an astrologer, his face blackened,
and a tall steeple-crowned hat made of black paste-board upon his head.
Our young gentleman of the law had clad himself in the loose cotton
blouse and drawers of a clown. Upon his head he wore an extraordinary
cocked hat with a rosette and ribbons of green, yellow, and red; and,
to further conceal his identity, he had chalked his face, and had
painted red circles in vermilion around his eyes and mouth. In these
costumes our three wild bucks made their way to the meeting-place
of the Bluebird Club, shouting, singing, and by their pungent jests
exciting alternate emotions of amusement and irritation in all those
whom they passed. Arriving at the meeting-place of their society, they
found gathered an unusually large assembly, consisting of four or five
and twenty other young gentlemen, all like themselves bent upon the
execution of whims and follies, and all alike disguised in extravagant
and outrageous costumes.

With many absurd ceremonies, which were supposed to be of a secret
nature, and a multitude of performances which rather befitted a cage of
monkeys than a gathering of rational human beings, but which so well
sufficed to tickle their sense of wit that continued roars and peals
of laughter greeted each performance, the initiatory formalities were
concluded; and a supper of stewed oysters, cucumber pickles, water
biscuit, and rum punch, was attacked with a heartiness of appetite
which did credit alike to the easy consciences and the hearty stomachs
of those who partook thereof. Nor did the mirth of the club at all
diminish with the progress of the repast. Rather did their sense of the
ludicrous become more keen and volatile as each new glass of rum punch
was consumed. A look, a word, a grimace, was enough to cast the whole
assembly into convulsions of laughter, from which some could hardly
recover before spasms of cachinnations would seize upon them again.

The extravagance and uproar had become deafening, when at their height
the door of the room in which the assembly sat at their obstreperous
repast was suddenly flung open, and a portentously tall and mysterious
figure, clad entirely in black, entered the apartment, and stood
regarding the furious scene of folly in masquerade, if not with
amazement, at least with a perfectly silent observation. The figure
that thus so suddenly appeared was wrapped in a long rich cloak of a
dark and heavy material, the face being entirely hidden by a mask hung
with long black silk fringe. This apparition stood for a considerable
time unobserved by our young racketers, who were too far engrossed in
their own follies to take notice of anything else; but presently one,
and then another, and then all of the individual members became aware
of his presence. This acknowledgment of the advent of the stranger
was indicated by a redoubled outburst of uproar, composed of shouts,
whistles, and cat-calls; and, supposing nothing else than that the
new-comer was one of their members, they began freely to bestow upon
him such part of the evening's entertainment as had not been consumed
in a shower of cucumber pickles and water biscuit that fairly rained
upon him like a storm of hail.

Any one less determined upon a purpose than the stranger could hardly
have stood his ground. As it was, he made no pretence of defending
himself from the attack, but submitted to the assault of the Bluebird
Club with so much dignity of demeanor that, what with the richness of
his attire, so different from their tinsel foppery, and what with the
silence of his observation,--his eyeballs now closing into darkness and
now shining whitely beneath the ebony shadow of his mask,--it began
to dawn upon the brains even of our half-tipsy buffoons that here was
something of a different purpose from their intemperate madness and
frenzy of folly.

By little and little the uproar in the room diminished, until at last
all fell fairly silent, and sat returning the gaze of the visitor, if
not with a growing respect, at least with an increasing curiosity as
to the purpose of the presence that had thus unexpectedly introduced
itself upon their absurd and senseless performances. Whereupon, being
able now to make himself heard, the stranger in a commanding voice
demanded to know which of the company present was the attorney-at-law,
Nathaniel Griscombe.

It may be imagined that our young lawyer was somewhat surprised and
sobered by this inquiry. Rising from his seat, he replied to the
challenge that he was the individual whom the other named; and then,
suspecting that it might be the intention of the stranger to put a hoax
upon him, he added that, if the visitor was up to any whim-whams or
bit of hoax, he, Nathaniel Griscombe, was a rattler himself, and knew
perfectly well exactly what o'clock it was.

The stranger, without any immediate reply, regarded our young gentleman
for a considerable time in silence. But, if he experienced any emotion
of surprise or amusement at the sight of his white and bepainted face
and the extraordinary attire that the youthful attorney presented to
him, he made no betrayal of his sentiment. "Sir," said he, with perfect
seriousness, "so far from jesting or desiring to jest, I assure you
that I at this moment am more serious than I suppose you have ever
been in all of your life. I have been looking for you everywhere, and
have gone from place to place, misdirected by every one from whom
I requested knowledge. I have stood at the door for a considerable
time, knocking; but, finding myself not heard because of the noise you
have been making, and not choosing to wait all night for permission
to enter, I came in without being bidden, to find you, at last, in
this company of apes and buffoons. My purpose in coming here, I must
inform you, is of so serious a nature that, were it governed by other
circumstances, I would at once withdraw and leave you in peace to the
continuation of your folly. But you will perhaps be surprised when I
assure you that it is with the utmost satisfaction I discover you in
such a place as this, and so surrounded and engaged as you are."

At these words, spoken with perfect sobriety and every appearance of
candor, our young gentleman presented, it must be confessed, a rather
silly face. "Upon my word," he said with as easy a laugh as he could
assume for the occasion, "I am very well pleased that my present
surroundings afford you satisfaction. I can only say, however, that I
am glad you are not likely to come to me as a client; for your respect
for my parts could hardly be augmented by finding me so engaged."

"As to that," returned the stranger, with unrelaxed sobriety, "you will
no doubt be additionally surprised to learn that I do indeed come to
you as a client to his attorney."

"Then, indeed, sir," cried our young gentleman, who began again sagely
to suspect that a hoax was being put upon him, "you have my word of
honor that I am at a loss to guess why you are satisfied to find me
indulging in such folly and intemperance as that which you discovered
when you favored us with this unexpected visit."

"As to that," said the stranger, "I can easily enlighten you. The
nature of the business in which I would employ you is of such a sort as
to demand the attention of one not only possessed of spirit and courage
and an entire command of unoccupied time, but also of one possessed
of other and very different qualifications. To this end I have made
diligent inquiries; and I have conceived the opinion that you are a man
not only possessed of considerable parts, but of an honesty sufficient
to carry you through so delicate and dangerous a commission as that
with which I have to intrust you."

At these words, our young gentleman knew not what face to assume; nor
could he yet tell whether to regard the whole affair as a hoax or as
the beginning of a more serious adventure. "Upon my word, sir," he
cried, "you pique my curiosity. But, if I am to believe what you tell
me, I must be better assured of your truth. I am, as you may well
believe, too knowing a bird to be caught by chaff."

"Indeed," said the other, "you yourself can alone prove the sincerity
of my words; nor would it in the least remove the doubts that you
entertain of my sincerity, should I inform you that the business upon
which you will be employed concerns the possible murder of my own
self. If, however, you are the man of mettle I suppose you to be, you
have only to accompany me in the conveyance that awaits below, and you
can then and there satisfy yourself as to whether I have spoken with
veracity or with dis-ingenuousness."

By this time, as may be believed, the assembly of young bucks had
fallen entirely silent; nor could our young attorney compose himself to
any frame of mind to digest the credibility of that which he heard. "I
protest," he cried at last, "the more you tell me, the more my belief
is increased that you have a purpose to make me the victim of a jest.
Nevertheless, if what you have just said is offered as a challenge, you
shall find me your man; for I declare that I am not afraid to accompany
you or any other man, wherever you may choose to conduct."

[Illustration: "_BIDDING HIS COMPANIONS TO AWAIT HIS RETURN ... HE
FOLLOWED HIS INTERLOCUTOR_"]

Thereupon, bidding his companions to await his return, he arose, and,
removing his cocked hat with its parti- ribbons from its peg
upon the wall where it hung, he followed his interlocutor down the
staircase to the street below.

Here he discovered a very handsome cabriolet with red wheels, into
which, at the bidding of his companion, our young gentleman stepped,
the other following him and closing the door with a crash. Thereupon
the driver instantly whipped up his horses, and drove away at an
extremely rapid rate of speed.

The curtains of the window had been closed, so that our young lawyer
was entirely at a loss as to whither he was being conveyed, excepting
that the cabriolet continued rattling over the stony streets, and
that it turned several corners at an undiminished rate of speed. Nor
did his companion speak a word until the vehicle was drawn up to the
sidewalk with a suddenness that nearly precipitated our hero from
his seat. Almost instantly the door was opened, and the attorney,
following his conductor, stepped out upon the sidewalk at what appeared
to be the back gate of a considerable garden that partly enclosed the
back buildings of a large and imposing edifice standing at a little
distance, its outlines nearly lost in the obscurity of the night
beyond.

What with the many turnings of the conveyance that had brought him
thither, and what with the fruitless surmises and speculations as
to his destination, Griscombe was as entirely at a loss to tell
whither he had been fetched or what was the situation of the building
he now beheld as he would have been, had he been transported into
another world. Nor did his companion give him time for surmises or
suppositions; for, drawing forth from his breeches pocket a key, he
opened the gate, and immediately introduced our hero through a dark
and wind-swept garden and by the back door into the kitchen of the
residence, which was illuminated by the light of a single candle.

With no more illumination than this latter could afford, the stranger
thence led the way through the dark but richly furnished spaces of a
silent and sleeping house of palatial dimensions, until at the further
extremity of the building he finally conducted our young lawyer into a
large and nobly appointed library. Here a lingering fire of coals still
burned in the marble fireplace, diffusing a grateful warmth throughout
the apartment, at the same time lending a soft and ruddy illumination
by means of which our hero was able with but little difficulty to
distinguish the stateliness and profusion of his surroundings. The
heavy and luxuriant folds of rich and heavy tapestry sheltered the
windows; soft and luxuriant rugs of Oriental pattern lay spread in
quantities upon the floor; the walls were hung with paintings glowing
with color and of the most exquisite outlines; beautifully bound books
crowded the cases that surrounded the room, and the marble mantel
glistened with ormolu and crystal adornments.

Meantime his conductor, having lit a quantity of wax candles upon the
mantel-shelf, and having laid aside the mask that for all this while
had concealed his identity, turned at last to our hero a face whose
lineaments, though extremely handsome, were as pale as wax and furrowed
with the lines of a most consuming care. A quantity of hair as black
as ebony curled about his alabaster forehead, and he fixed upon his
visitor a pair of large and sombre eyes whose piercing brilliancy
betrayed an illimitable anxiety of soul. Beautiful, however, as was
the countenance presented to the observer, there was in the hardness
of its lines and the thin and compressed nervousness of the lips a
stern relentlessness of expression that the smouldering and sinister
fire which glowed in the eyes alone might be needed to enflame into a
conflagration of rage and of cruelty.

Having motioned Griscombe to a soft and luxuriant seat upon the other
side of the fire, himself leaning with an elegant ease against the
mantel-shelf, this strange and singular being composed himself as
though with a considerable effort, and addressed to his listener the
following extraordinary discourse, without any preface whatever:--

"You will doubtless be considerably surprised," he said, "to learn that
you behold before you one who feels well assured that he is already
condemned to an unknown death that shall visit him perhaps within the
course of a day or two--perhaps within the course of a few hours. I
know perfectly well that you may be inclined even to doubt the truth
of so extraordinary a statement or to question the entire sanity of
one who propounds so startling a statement. Nor can I even enter into
such an account of my miserable circumstances as shall convince you at
once of my truthfulness and of my sanity, without involving you also
in the danger in which I lie entrapped. Should you be the recipient of
my confidence, certain death would probably await you, as I believe
it awaits me; and you would thus be prevented from carrying out the
important commission that I am now about to impose upon you."

It may be rather imagined than described into what a state of
amazement, not to say stupefaction, our hero was cast by so
extraordinary a prologue. He sat, sunk into a perfectly inert silence,
gazing at the singular and tragic being before him, without possessing,
as it were, the power of making a single movement. At another time
his absurd and preposterous figure, with its bedaubed and bepainted
countenance, might, in its expression of solemn seriousness, have
appeared infinitely ludicrous. As it was, the profound tragedy of
the scene was only accented by the grotesqueness of his outlandish
presentment. Without seeming to observe his silence, but fetching a
profound sigh that appeared to come from the very bottom of his heart,
the speaker presently resumed his address as follows: "But, though I
may not relate to you all the circumstances of my dreadful fate, I
may at least tell you this much,--that I and another were engaged in
a political revolution in Industan, in the course of which a powerful
and implacable Oriental ruler was overthrown from power. Knowing to
what an extent I had incurred his resentment, I thought to escape his
vengeance in this remote country. I find, however, he has discovered
me; and I have already received a warning that my life is in imminent
danger. My brother, who was the companion of my machinations, as he
was the partaker of my rewards, is hidden in a remoter part of this
country; and it is my intention not only to transmit through you a
warning to him of his extreme danger and of my own miserable fate, but
also to have you carry a portion of that treasure which was my reward,
and which I do not choose to have fall into the hands of my enemies.

"I may, sir, be unable to convince you of my sincerity by the use of
such empty words as those which I am obliged to use; but what your ears
may disbelieve, your eyes may at least convince you of."

As he concluded, he smote his hands together sharply two or three times
in succession, whereupon a door near to where he stood was, as though
in echo, immediately opened by a waiting attendant, who, with a silent
footfall, entered the apartment. This new personage upon the scene
possessed an Oriental cast of countenance, which was further enhanced
by his extraordinary costume, his head being surmounted by a turban,
and his figure clad in a long garment of dark embroidered silk. In one
hand he bore a casket about the bigness of a hat-box, bound about with
bands of steel of prodigious strength, and studded with polished brass
nails. In the other he carried a small tray with a leathern bag upon
it. Without betraying the slightest signs of curiosity or surprise at
Griscombe's extraordinary figure, but with a deportment of the utmost
seriousness, he placed both of these objects upon the table beside our
hero, and then, with a profound obeisance to the gentleman beside the
fireplace, withdrew as silently and as suddenly as he had entered.

"In yonder bag," said the gentleman, immediately resuming his colloquy,
"are one hundred pieces of gold, valued at twenty dollars each. Such
part of this as you find necessary, you are to expend in executing
the commission with which I shall presently intrust you: the residue
you are to retain as a fee for your services. This strong box you are
immediately to convey to your lodgings in my cabriolet (which waits
for you below at the back gate), devoting to its safety the most
extraordinary care; for it contains a priceless treasure. If by nine
o'clock to-morrow morning you receive no word from me, you will know
that I am no longer in the world of the living, and that the vengeance
that has followed so relentlessly upon my footsteps has at last
overtaken me. In that case you are immediately and with all despatch to
convey this box to Bordentown in the State of New Jersey, and are to
deliver it to the person designated upon the address attached to the
handle. He is my brother; and his name, as you will discover, is Mr.
Michael Desmond. Upon the opposite side of the ferry at Paulus Hook you
will find a post-chaise awaiting its passenger. This I have provided
for myself in case I am able to escape the dangers which overhang
me. Should I not be so fortunate as to accomplish an escape, you are
to take my place in the conveyance, and to pursue your commission,
stopping neither day nor night until it is accomplished. My brother I
make the legatee of the greater part of that wealth (the price, if you
please, of treachery and of blood) which has proved the source of my
own undoing. Behold! You shall see it for yourself!"

As he spoke, our young lawyer's extraordinary client stepped briskly to
the box, applied a key to the lock, and lifted the lid. Within was a
considerable mass of closely packed lamb's-wool, which--as Griscombe,
consumed by a fever of curiosity, arose to observe--the speaker deftly
removed, displaying to the young lawyer's dazzled and bewildered gaze a
sight that well-nigh bereft him of what reason he had remaining after
his late most incredible interview. Reposing upon a second mass of
lamb's wool, hollowed out as though to receive its precious contents,
was a double handful of precious stones of inconceivable size and
brilliancy, which, in the light of the candles that had been lit, shed
forth a thousand dazzling sparks of infinite variety of flaming colors.
It was but a glance: the next moment the lamb's wool was replaced, the
lid was clapped down again, the key turned, and Griscombe's bedazzled
sight returned once more to the objects about him.

"And now, my dear sir," resumed his interlocutor, "whether or not you
believe my story, you will, I am sure, perceive how important is the
commission I intrust to your keeping, and how well I am inclined to pay
you for all of your trouble. I trust, therefore, you will consider me
to be lacking neither in courtesy nor in hospitality if I beg you to
withdraw, and to return to your own house. So great is my threatened
danger that I dare not even accompany you to my cabriolet that is
awaiting you where we left it; but in lieu of myself I shall send with
you an attendant who is altogether attached to my interests, and who
will serve as a guard until you and your charge are safely ensconced in
your lodgings."

Thereupon he once more clapped his hands together. Again the same
mysterious attendant, who had before replied to the summons, appeared
in instant response, and, in obedience to elaborate directions
delivered in a foreign tongue, of which the young lawyer understood not
a single iota, bowed to our hero, and indicated that he was prepared to
accompany him upon his return.

With this concludes the first chapter of our narrative, with only
this to add, that our hero--under the escort of his singular
attendant--arrived safely at home, where he hid his treasure casket
under the bed, in the remotest corner of the room, until he could
otherwise dispose of it.




HERE FOLLOWS THE SECOND CHAPTER




CHAPTER TWO

The _Remarkable_ BEHAVIOR of the LAWYER'S _Second_ CLIENT.


As the ingenuous reader may readily imagine, what little remained of
that night was passed with no great ease or repose by our hero. But
little slumber visited his eyelids, and that little so disturbed by
vivid and diabolical visions of terror that he had better have remained
awake than to have fallen into so portentous a sleep. In a succession
of monstrous images he continually beheld his client distorted by the
most grotesque and fantastic pangs of dissolution; as continually he
was haunted by visions of the journey he was about to undertake; and
such phantoms were always accompanied by corresponding dreams of the
strong box of treasure.

In one of these tremendous visions he beheld himself searching in a
deep bed of sliding sand for the jewels which had been lost from the
overturned casket, while a dreadful form leaned out of the window of
the post-chaise upon the bank above, shrieking to him to hasten or it
would immediately perish.

It was from this portentous dream that he awoke to find the early
winter daylight struggling through the window-shades, and to an
immediate realization of the strange and inexplicable commission that
awaited him.

Nor was it until in the gray of the morning he had again viewed the bag
of gold and the casket of treasure, that he could feel entirely assured
that what had befallen him the night before was not an hallucination,
such as those that had pursued him throughout the troubled sleep from
which he had just aroused himself. It appeared to him incredible that
such strange occurrences could really have happened to him, and it was
above an hour before he could compose his mind to accept that which had
occurred.

Finding himself at the end of that time in no small degree exhausted
by the several instances of extreme excitement through which he had
just passed, and discovering that he was now assailed by a sharp
and vehement appetite, he determined to visit an oyster-bay at the
neighboring Oswego Market, where, so long as he had been able to obtain
the necessary credit, he had been in the habit of taking an occasional
meal. To this end, having extracted a piece of gold from the leathern
bag, and having carefully hidden the rest in a drawer of his bureau,
he sallied forth in quest of that with which to satisfy his appetite,
carrying with him, for the sake of safe keeping, the treasure casket of
jewels.

Having satisfied the immediate pangs of his appetite by a breakfast
of unusual elaborateness, and having nearly overwhelmed the keeper of
the oyster-bay with the proffer of a double eagle of gold, from which
he was requested to extract payment for the entertainment he had just
received, he returned home refreshed in body and in mind, with renewed
courage and possessed by a keen and vehement desire to follow out to
its end the adventure upon which he now found himself embarked.

Entering that bare and half-furnished apartment which he designated
his office and which opened into his bedroom beyond, he discovered a
stranger to be seated in a chair beside the desk, as though awaiting
his coming. As our hero entered, this stranger arose with a profound
salutation, and presented to our hero's view a person singularly
tall and slender, a face of coppery yellow, straight hair, a hooked
beak of a nose, and eyes of piercing blackness. He was clad with the
utmost care in clothes of the latest cut of fashion. His linen was
of immaculate whiteness, and the plaited frill of his shirt front
exhibited the nicest and most elaborate laundry-work imaginable.
In short, his costume was that of the most exquisite dandy. His
countenance--the singularity of its appearance enhanced by a pair of
gold ear-rings in his ears--was that of a remote foreigner of unknown
nationality.

Without giving our lawyer time for further observation, the stranger,
in the most excellent and well-chosen English, and with hardly a touch
of foreign accent, addressed him as follows:--

"You behold," said he, "one who has come to you offering himself as
a client, whom, though you may find his business to be of a singular
nature, you will also find to be extremely inclined to profit you well
in the relations which he seeks to establish with you."

"Sir," replied Griscombe, with no little importance of tone, "you come
to me at a time of extreme inconveniency. It is now after half-past
seven, and at nine o'clock I may be obliged to undertake a commission
of importance beyond anything of which you can perhaps conceive. A
journey of the utmost tragic importance lies before me; and this box,
which you behold in my hands, belongs to a wealthy and liberal client,
whose behests must in no wise be denied."

"I am convinced," replied the stranger, in accents of the most extreme
and deferential courtesy, "that your time must indeed be greatly in
demand if you cannot afford to bestow a little of it upon myself. I am
in a position to be perfectly well able to indulge every whim that
seizes me; and just now it is my whim to become your client, and to
purchase of you a considerable portion of your valuable time."

At these words it began to occur to Griscombe that the eccentric being
before him was, perhaps, better worth his attention than he had at
first supposed. Accordingly, excusing himself for a moment, upon the
plea that he had to dispose of his present charge, he entered his
bedroom, and deposited the jewel-casket where he had before hidden
it,--under his bed, and in the remotest corner of the room. Having thus
left it in safety, he returned again to the office, where his second
client was patiently awaiting his return.

So soon as Griscombe had composed himself to listen, the other resumed
his discourse as follows: "I am," said he, "as I before told you,
perfectly well able to pay for every whim that seizes me. That I may
convince you of this, I herewith offer you a fee which I feel well
assured is equal to any you may have received in your life before.
Behold, in this bag are a hundred pieces of gold, valued at twenty
dollars each; and, if that is not sufficient, I am fully prepared to
increase your fee to any reasonable extent."

At these words Griscombe knew not whether his ears deceived him nor
whether he or this new-found client were mad or sane. Nor could he at
all accredit the truth of what he heard, until the stranger, opening
the mouth of the bag, poured forth upon the table a great heap of
jingling gold money. "You will," resumed his new-found client, with
perfect composedness of manner, "be, no doubt, considerably surprised
to learn the nature of the duty which I shall call upon you to perform.
It is that you play me a game of jack-straws."

Here he allowed for a moment or two of pause, and then continued: "You
have doubtless observed that I am a foreigner. By way of explanation
of this whim of mine, I may inform you that I am an East Indian of
considerable importance in my own country. Being extravagantly wealthy
and possessing a prodigious amount of unoccupied time, I have passed
a great part of it in practising and playing the game to which I now
invite you to participate; and by and by I became so inordinately
fond of the pastime that I now find it impossible entirely to cease
indulging in it. In this country I find every one either to be too
busily engaged to take part in it, or too lacking in the patience to
pursue it to a consummation. Learning that you are favored with ample
leisure to pursue your every whim, I was encouraged to visit you,
and to invite you to participate with me in my recreation. Since
beholding you, I am consumed with such an appetite to test your skill
that I am entirely willing to pay very handsomely for the privilege
of indulging myself. See, I have brought with me the implements of my
favorite pastime."

[Illustration: _THE SOMEWHAT PECULIAR PASTIME OF OUR HERO'S SECOND
CLIENT_]

As he concluded, the stranger drew forth from a pocket in his coat
a cylindrical box of ebony, carved into the most exquisite Oriental
design. Unscrewing the lid of this receptacle, and tilting downward the
box itself, he spilled out upon the table a set of ivory jack-straws of
so marvellous a sort that Griscombe, in his wildest imaginings, could
never have believed possible. Some of the straws were plain sticks of
polished ivory: others were ornamented with heads or figures of wrought
gold set with precious stones. Each of them was different from the
other,--this a gryphon, that a serpent with distended crest, this a
yawning tiger with diamond eyes, that an idol's head with a ruby tongue
thrust from its gaping jaws.

The stranger either did not observe or did not choose to remark upon
the extreme surprise that possessed his attorney. Offering his opponent
a golden hook with a pearl handle, he invited him to open the game,
into which he himself entered with every appearance of the most entire
satisfaction and enjoyment.

In spite of his not infrequent indulgences, Griscombe was favored with
extreme steadiness of nerve; and, though a casual acquaintance would
never have accredited him with it, he possessed at once patience and
perseverance to an extraordinary degree. But neither patience nor
perseverance or steadiness of nerve was any match for the infinite
skill and dexterity with which the stranger played his game. Griscombe
was but a child in his hands, and the jack-straw player dallied with
him as a cat dallies with a mouse. At the end of each round the
stranger politely assured his opponent that he played naturally a very
excellent game, and that in time and by practice he might eventually
hope to become no inconsiderable adept at the sport. But these
courteous expressions only declared to Griscombe how inadequate was
his play, and at each repetition merely served to incite him to fresh
endeavors.

At the end of an hour the stranger declared his appetite for the
amusement to be satisfied; and, gathering up his jack-straws and
replacing them in the ebony box, he thanked our hero most courteously
for the entertainment he had offered him. Thereupon, resuming his
cloak and hat which he had laid aside at the beginning of the game, he
delivered a bow of the profoundest depth, and departed without another
word, leaving the pile of gold pieces upon the table behind him, as
though they were not worth any further attention.

Nor was it until he had fairly gone that Griscombe--with a shock
that set every nerve tingling--recalled his precious chest and that
inestimable treasure that had been deposited in his care, and which for
all this time had been left unprotected and almost unthought of. At the
recollection of this his heart seemed to stand still within him, and
his ears began to hum and buzz, and a cold sweat stood out upon every
pore of his body. For upon the instant it occurred to him that maybe
this polite stranger with his marvellous jack-straws was merely a rook
seeking to divert his attention while a confederate carried away the
treasure box from the room beyond. With weak and trembling joints, and
yet with hurried steps, he ran into the next room, and, falling upon
his knees, gazed under the bed; and it was with a feeling of relief
that well-nigh burst his heart that he discovered the object of his
solicitude reposing exactly where he had placed it.

With a heart as light as a feather and with a rebound of excessive joy
and delight at the thought of the additional fee of a thousand dollars
he had just earned with such extreme ease and in so extraordinary
a manner, he set himself in haste to dress for the journey that lay
before him, finding it exceedingly difficult, in the lightness of heart
that now possessed him, to direct a proper sobriety of attention to
the possibly tragic fate that had maybe befallen his first unfortunate
client since he had beheld him the night before.

       *       *       *       *       *

With this concludes the second stage of our narrative, excepting to
add that, when nine o'clock came, bringing no signs of his client,
Griscombe crossed the ferry to Paulus Hook, where he found the
post-chaise awaiting his arrival, exactly as his client had foretold.
Entering this vehicle, our young lawyer immediately began that journey
which he pursued with all diligence, stopping neither day nor night
till he had arrived at his destination.




HERE FOLLOWS THE THIRD CHAPTER




CHAPTER THREE

The _Horrific_ EPISODE in the COURSE of which the LAWYER obtained a
_Third_ CLIENT.


Our hero arrived at Bordentown early upon a clear and frosty winter
morning with entire safety and success, and with no greater adventures
befalling him than usually occur to the traveller in a private
conveyance upon so considerable a journey. Nor had he the least
difficulty in discovering Mr. Michael Desmond's address, that gentleman
dwelling in one of the most palatial of those abodes that lend such an
air of aristocratic distinction to the town.

Immediately, in reply to his request to see the master of the house,
he was shown into the reception-room, where Mr. Desmond presently
appeared, presenting to his astonished sight a person so exactly and
minutely resembling his brother that, had Griscombe not known it to be
otherwise, he would have believed them to have been the same individual.

The remarkable resemblance, however, did not extend deeper than the
lineaments of the features; for, whereas the countenance of the
first Mr. Desmond had been overclouded by an expression of the most
sombre melancholy and the most overwhelming anxiety, the face of this
gentleman beamed with courteous hospitality and generous welcome.

He still held in his hand the card which Griscombe had sent in to him
by the servant; and, as he advanced with a smile of extreme cordiality
illuminating his face, he cried, "I cannot, my dear Mr. Griscombe,
be too much delighted that you have favored me with so early a call,
since it will give me the pleasure of having you to breakfast and of
introducing you to my daughter. I see from what you have written me
upon your card that you come upon important business from my brother;
but, before satisfying my curiosity upon that point, I shall insist
that you first appease the craving of what must be a very hearty
appetite after so long a journey."

Nor would he accept any refusal of his invitation, but, with polite
determination, put aside every effort that Griscombe made to explain
the pressing and tragic nature of his mission. "Nay," he cried, as
Griscombe continued to urge upon him the importance of his affair,
"I insist that you say no more at present. I am perfectly well aware
with what an extreme degree of exaggeration a young lawyer regards a
commission that may very easily wait for breakfast. I am determined
that you first satisfy your appetite, and then your sense of duty."

And so, protesting and insisting, he led our reluctant hero by the
hand until he at last introduced him into a spacious and sunlit
dining-room, rendered additionally cheerful by a large fire of cedar
logs that crackled in the marble fireplace. Here a table spread with
snowy napery and sparkling with crystal and silver was prepared for an
ample breakfast; and, as they entered, the slender and graceful figure
of a young lady, clad entirely in white, arose from where she sat at
the head of the board behind the tea-urn. In response to her father's
introduction, she replied to our young gentleman's profound bow with
all the ease and dignity of deportment imaginable.

At that time Miss Arabella Desmond was one of the most perfect beauties
in the United States. With a figure of rounded yet slender contour,
she bore herself with an ease and grace of deportment that at once
charmed and delighted the beholder. Her features presented the most
exquisite delicacy of outline, and the rich abundance of her raven
tresses matched in their color the dark and lustrous eyes, whose
liquid brilliancy was ineffably enhanced by the ivory delicacy of her
complexion. Add, if you please, to those graces of person a wit at
once subtle and alert and an address as amiable as it was entertaining,
and you shall possess an image--imperfect, to be sure--of that famous
beauty whose hermit-like seclusion from the world and whose mysterious
personality had now for above two years been a matter of wonder and of
speculation to the elegant society of Bordentown, that would gladly
have received so admirable an addition into its fold.

Griscombe, as may be supposed, had all this while maintained a close
hold upon his precious treasure-casket. He had placed it beneath his
chair as he took his seat at the table; and what with the consciousness
thereof, and of the interview with his host concerning his brother's
probable fate, he discovered himself to be the victim of a singular
embarrassment, and strangely at a loss for words wherewith to commend
his wit to the easy and affable beauty. It was in vain that he
endeavored to display the aptness of dialogue which he was entirely
conscious he possessed. He was aware only of an unwonted constraint;
and, accordingly, it was with a singular commixture of relief and
regret that, at the invitation of Mr. Desmond, he at last quitted the
table, and followed his host toward the study, mentally declaring to
himself that, should the opportunity again offer, Miss Desmond should
discover him to be not so lacking in brilliancy as she must have
supposed from their first interview. Nor was it until he found himself
in the study, face to face with the father, the strong box of treasure
upon the table between them, that he was able to fetch himself entirely
back to the seriousness and complexity of the business which rested
upon him. Beginning at the beginning, however, he presently found that
he was recovering entire command of himself, and presently, in clear
and lucid phrases, was reciting every circumstance that had befallen
him from the time of his absurd and preposterous masquerade at the
supper of the Bluebird Club to the moment when his present host had met
him in the reception-room.

As he progressed in his discourse, a dark and sombre shadow of
extraordinary gloom gathered deeper and deeper upon the hitherto
smiling countenance of Mr. Desmond. By little and little the color left
his cheek; and an expression of the profoundest anxiety overspread his
face, causing him to resemble to a still more extraordinary degree his
unfortunate brother. As our young lawyer concluded his narrative, the
other arose, and began walking up and down the narrow spaces of the
room, betraying every appearance of an infinite perturbation of spirit,
suppressed by an iron will and an implacable determination.

"My dear Mr. Griscombe," he said at last, stopping in front of the
fireplace, "I shall not attempt to conceal from you my apprehensions
regarding the fate of my unfortunate brother. I fear that he is no
more, and that a tragic fate has overtaken him. That, however, is now
past and gone. It is irremediable, and the question that at present
lies upon us is that of my own danger. Tell me, do you suppose it
likely that the agents who pursued my brother have any knowledge of my
being established in this place?"

"That I cannot tell you," said Griscombe, "unless, indeed, the
mysterious jack-straw player who penetrated into my office may have
been in search of such information. I confess I cannot account in any
other way for his coming to me."

"It may be so," said Mr. Desmond, thoughtfully. "At any rate, I shall
immediately quit this place where I now live, and shall seek for an
asylum in some still more retired and undiscoverable locality. Meantime
let us examine into the safety of the treasure which you have so
faithfully transported thither."

And, as he concluded his speech, he arose, and crossing the room to
a handsome mahogany escritoire, and opening a secret drawer therein,
brought thence a small steel key, the fellow to that with which his
unfortunate brother had once before opened the casket in Griscombe's
presence. This he applied to the lock, gave it a turn, and threw back
the lid.

The piercing and terrible shriek which instantly succeeded the action
struck through Griscombe's brain like a dagger. The next moment he
beheld his host stagger back, clutching at the empty air, and at last
fall into a dishevelled heap into the arm-chair behind him, where he
lay white and shrunken together as though shrivelled up to one-half his
former size and bulk by a vision that had just blasted his sight.

So unexpected was this conclusion, and so terrifying, that Griscombe
sat as though stupefied. At last he arose, hardly conscious of what
he was doing, and the next moment found himself gazing down into the
interior depths of the open casket, like one in a dream.

There before him he beheld a spectacle the most dreadful that ever
he had beheld. His sight appeared to him to swim as though through a
transparent fluid, his brain expanded with a fantastic volatility, and
his soul fluttered, as it were, upon his lips. For there before him
lay, entirely surrounded by lamb's wool as white as snow, a still,
calm face, as transparent as wax,--the immobile face of the first Mr.
Desmond, now infinitely terrible in its image of eternal sleep. As
though in a malign mockery, the now worthless jewels--about which the
possessor had once been so infinitely concerned--had been poured out
carelessly upon the motionless lineaments. A precious diamond, like a
tear, reposed upon the transparent cheek, and a ruby of inestimable
value clung to the pallid and sphinx-like lips. Across the forehead was
stretched a fillet of linen; and upon it were inscribed in letters as
black as ink the two ominous words--

[Illustration]

How long Griscombe stood like one entranced, gazing at the dreadful
spectacle before him, he could never tell; but, when at last he turned,
it was to behold that Mr. Desmond had arisen from his seat, and that he
was now clutching to the mantel-shelf as he stood leaning against it,
his body heaving and his whole frame convulsed with the vehemence of
the passion that racked every joint and bone. "God, man!" he cried at
last in a hoarse and raucous voice, and without turning his face: "shut
the box lid!"--and Griscombe obeyed with stiff and nerveless fingers
that strangely disregarded the commands of his will.

[Illustration: "_YOU NEXT!_"]

At last the unhappy man, having regained some control over the emotions
that convulsed him, and heaving a profound sigh as though from the
bottom of his soul, turned once more, and exhibited to the young
lawyer a countenance from which every vestige of color had departed,
and in whose dull and leaden eyes and pinched and shrivelled features
it was well-nigh impossible to recognize the genteel and complacent
host of a few moments before. "You have," said he, in hollow tones,
"just delivered to me my death-warrant. In how dreadful a form it was
served upon me, you yourself have beheld. My sins have overtaken me,
as my poor brother's have overtaken him. They may perhaps have been
of an unusually heinous character; but how great is my punishment! I
call upon you to declare, even if our hands were ensanguined with the
blood of a prince of India, and if the spouse of an Oriental king were
executed at our commands, and even if we were partakers in our reward
as in our crime, is not the fate that has overtaken us altogether too
enormous for our deserts?"

"As to that," cried Griscombe, "Heaven is your judge, and not I. As for
me, I begin to perceive a glimmer of light through these mysteries that
have been gathering about me during these last few days, and I declare
to you that I will have no more concern either in you or in your
secrets. How is it possible," he exclaimed, "that I have come to be the
partaker in the consequences of that rapine and of murder in which you
and your brother were doubtless one time so guilty? No: I will have no
more to do with you!"

"And would you," cried the other, "desert me in such extremity as this?
Then at least have some pity upon my innocent daughter. We live a life
in this place without a friend or an intimate,--almost, I may say,
without an acquaintance. To whom am I to confide her in a time of such
mortal danger as this? Am I to take her with me in my flight? And what
if my fate overtakes me upon such a journey,--what, then, would become
of her?"

Upon this plea Griscombe stood for awhile with downcast eyes, every
shadow of expression banished from his countenance. As with an inner
vision he beheld Miss Desmond as he had seen her but a little while
before,--innocent, beautiful, radiantly unconscious of the doom that
was about to fall upon the house--and his heart was wrung at the
thought of such hideous misfortunes falling upon her sinless life.
"Sir," he said at last, "your appeal has reached me. What is it you
would have me to do? For your daughter's sake I will assist you in so
far as my abilities may extend."

"I would have you," said the miserable man, "convey my daughter, upon
your return to New York, in the post-chaise which brought you hither.
With her I will send a quantity of jewels similar to those which you
brought to me. These I will place in a strong box, and that again in
a portmanteau of such a convenient size that you can easily take it
into the post-chaise with you. These jewels comprise a large part of
my fortune; and with them my daughter, should she be called upon to be
separated forever from her unhappy father, can easily live in affluence
and luxury. She, together with this treasure, you are to carry to a
M. de Troinville, who has for a long while been the agent both of my
brother and of myself, and who is under considerable obligation to us.
With you I shall send to that gentleman a letter of full instruction;
and, as soon as you have delivered that and my daughter into his
hands, your responsibility shall be at an end, and you will have the
satisfaction of knowing that you have relieved the anxiety of one who
has probably only a day or maybe a few hours to live, and who would
otherwise have found his last moments upon earth to have been blighted."

"So be it," said Griscombe, after a moment or two of consideration. "I
accept the commission."

"Sir," said Mr. Desmond, "you have won the eternal gratitude of the
most miserable man upon the earth." And, as he spoke, he made as though
he would have embraced our hero.

"Nay," said Griscombe, "I do not choose to accept your caresses. You
owe me no gratitude; for, upon my word, I declare that what I do is
only for the sake of your daughter, and that, except for her, I would
leave you to a fate which in no wise concerns me, and which, from your
own confession, you appear in no small degree to have merited. Prepare
your letter to M. de Troinville; and in the mean time, by your leave, I
will wait in some other apartment of your house than this."

"You are," said Mr. Desmond, "neither polite nor sympathetic. But
let it pass. I find myself obliged to accept your services, however
unwillingly they may have been offered."

       *       *       *       *       *

Little remains to be said concerning this part of our narrative,
excepting that about ten o'clock Griscombe was summoned to depart upon
his return to New York, and that he found the post-chaise waiting in
front of the house, with the young lady and the portmanteau already
ensconced within. As our hero stepped into the conveyance, Mr. Desmond
gave him the letter of introduction to M. de Troinville, and at the
same time thrust upon him a leathern bag containing a hundred pieces
of gold valued at twenty dollars each, declaring that he had employed
him as his attorney, and that this was his fee. Griscombe would gladly
have rejected the stipend, could he have done so without betraying to
the unconscious young lady the portentous nature of the affair that
had overwhelmed them all. As it was, he found himself obliged, however
unwillingly, to accept the gratuity thus thrust upon him.




HERE FOLLOWS THE FOURTH CHAPTER




CHAPTER FOUR

In which is related the _Remarkable_ REQUEST of the LAWYER'S _Fourth_
CLIENT.


Even if our hero had never again beheld Miss Desmond, he might easily
have retained her in his memory for years afterward as a bright and
radiant vision of that otherwise gloomy and portentous episode of
his life. As it was, what with his having been intrusted with the
guardianship of so beautiful a creature, what with his pity for her
unconsciousness of the dreadful fate that had overtaken her father,
and what with the necessity he was under of disguising from her the
terrible events that had occurred, and of answering in kind the sallies
of the innocent and entertaining gayety that burst from her continually
during their journey,--what with all these, and the warmth and fragrant
charm of her presence so close to him in the narrow confines of the
post-chaise, his heart was possessed to its inmost fibres with so
consuming an ardor of pity and tenderness that he could gladly have
laid down his life for her sake.

It was at two o'clock of an afternoon upon the last stage of their
journey that they stopped for a dinner at the tavern in Newark, N.J.,
almost, so to speak, in sight of their destination. It was excessively
cold; and a light snow had begun to fall from the gray and leaden
sky, giving promise of an early night. A cheerful fire of hickory
wood burned in the fire-place, diffusing a grateful warmth throughout
the apartment; and in the pleasure of its heat Miss Desmond yielded
herself to an extreme relaxation of spirits. She rallied Griscombe upon
the diffidence he had exhibited upon their first introduction. She
congratulated him with a mock seriousness upon his approaching release
from his duties as a squire of dames. Her father had given her to
believe that he would follow her immediately to New York, accordingly,
reminding Griscombe that the next day would be Christmas, she invited
him to come to M. de Troinville's to dine with them. Nor could
Griscombe listen to her innocent prattle without experiencing such an
overmastering pity for her unconsciousness of the tragic fate that had
overtaken her father and for her own hapless condition, that it was
well-nigh impossible for him to answer her sallies with raillery of a
like sort. However, he continued to act his part with such skill of
performance that his companion never once suspected with what effort
he composed the words he uttered.

[Illustration: "_IT WAS AT THIS JUNCTURE ... THAT AN APOLOGETIC KNOCK
FELL UPON THE DOOR_"]

It was at this juncture, fraught with such pathetic emotions to our
hero, that an apologetic knock fell upon the door; and the next
moment, as in answer to his own summons, a little old gentleman of
extraordinary appearance entered the room. A long white beard half
concealed his face, which was of a yellow-brown complexion, and
entirely covered with a multitude of minute wrinkles. His eyes,
piercing and black, sparkled like those of a serpent beneath his
overhanging eyebrows.

"My dear young gentleman and my dear young lady," he began in a thin,
high voice, "learning at the bar that you had a good fire in this room,
I ventured to intrude myself upon you with perhaps as strange a request
as you ever heard in all of your life."

At the very first appearance of the stranger--who, somehow, in his
singularly Oriental appearance suggested the jack-straw player of a few
days before--a strange presentiment of evil began to take possession
of Griscombe's mind. Nor were his apprehensions lessened as the old
gentleman, resuming his speech, continued as follows: "I am, as you
may observe, my dear young gentleman and my dear young lady, extremely
old; and I am obliged to confess to the possession of certain
follies of which I am now entirely unable to rid myself. Fortunately
for myself, I am excessively rich, and so am perfectly well able to
indulge those whims, however absurd, that have now grown altogether a
part of my nature, and which, in one so old as myself, can never hope
to be eradicated. Learning that you, my dear young gentleman, were
an attorney-at-law, I determined to approach you as a client, and to
purchase of you a small portion of your no doubt extremely valuable
time." Upon this he drew from beneath his cloak a leathern purse full
of money, which he set upon the table. "In this," he continued, "are a
hundred pieces of gold valued at twenty dollars each. I offer it to you
as a retaining fee, and I venture to say that few lawyers of your age
have ever received so much at a time from a single client."

"And what," cried Griscombe, with a voice he could scarcely
command,--"and what is it you desire of me?"

"I hardly know," said the old man, "how to prefer the extraordinary
request that I have to offer. You must know that I am inordinately fond
of the game of tit-tat-toe; and my object is to purchase one half-hour
of your valuable time, my dear young gentleman, so that I may indulge
myself in my favorite pastime."

At these extraordinary words, and at the entire seriousness of the
speaker, the young lady burst into an irrepressible fit of laughter,
which she found it altogether impossible to control. But upon Griscombe
the effect was entirely different. Those vague and alarming suggestions
that had already begun to take possession of him leaped at once into
positive reality. He had for safety left the portmanteau with its
precious contents in the adjoining bedroom, which he had just used as
a dressing-chamber, and he instantly perceived, under the innocent
request of the old gentleman with the white beard, the most sinister
and malignant designs upon it. He sprung to his feet, as though
stung by the lash of a fury. "You villain," he cried in a hoarse and
straining voice, "I know what are your designs; and but for this young
lady, and my desire to conceal from her your ominous purposes, I would
fling you at once out of the window. Begone, lest I find it impossible
to restrain myself!"

These words were uttered with a paroxysm of passion such as the young
lady was entirely unable to account for. Never before had she beheld
our hero exhibit anything but the utmost delicacy and gentleness of
manner; and now, not in the least understanding the reason for his
fury, she gazed upon him with astonishment, in which terror was almost
the entire component part. These emotions, however, gradually gave
place to an increasing and generous indignation at what she considered
the unmerited violence exhibited by a young man against another old
enough to be his grandsire.

"Upon my word, Mr. Griscombe," she cried indignantly, "I profess I
am entirely at a loss to understand your anger against this poor old
gentleman. What, may I ask, is the reason of your excessive fury at so
harmless a request as that which he has proffered?"

"Madame," exclaimed Griscombe, vehemently, "I cannot explain it to you."

"I confess," she cried with still more heat than before, "I cannot
understand your violence, unless it is that you fear to appear
ridiculous by indulging this poor old gentleman in his innocent
whim." And then, upon our hero's continued silence, she added: "I
could not have believed it possible that you could have exhibited so
much impatience and anger at so slight a cause. My opinion of you
is altogether altered from what it was; nor can I again recover my
original favorable impression unless you offer such reparation as lies
in your power by accepting the fee which has been so generously offered
you, and by sitting down and gratifying your client with the game of
tit-tat-toe he has requested. Should you decline such reparation, I
can, as I say, never entertain again for you the regard I have until
now experienced."

"Indeed," said the old man, in a gentle voice, but with a smile in
which Griscombe read the most malignant and sinister suggestion, "if
the young gentleman apprehends any malevolent designs upon my part, he
has only to declare what he suspects; and I will go directly away. If,
however, he has nothing with which to accuse me, I, too, shall insist
upon it that he, by way of a penance, shall indulge me with my little
game."

Poor Griscombe stood overwhelmed with a multitude of emotions. One
thing alone was clear to his mind: he must protect his innocent and
precious charge from all knowledge of what had now doubtless befallen
her unhappy father. It were better that those emissaries of evil
that had beset him should fulfil their every purpose--even to the
last--rather than that she should suffer. He must be dumb, and allow
them to conclude their dreadful work. After all, he could easily inform
M. de Troinville before the fatal portmanteau should be opened. "I will
obey you if you command me, madame," he cried; "but pray, pray spare
me this!" And, as he spoke, he fixed upon Miss Desmond a look of such
agonizing appeal that she could not but have been moved by it, had
she not been blinded by her own imperiousness of purpose. As it was,
she only hardened her face into a still more immovable expression of
determination. Where-upon, finding her not to be shaken, our hero sank
into rather than sat down upon the chair beside him.

The old gentleman with the beard, having thus gained his point, beamed
with the utmost cheerfulness of expression, and, advancing with
alacrity, pushed aside the dinner plates, and immediately assumed a
position opposite his unwilling opponent, and between him and the
door of the room where his precious portmanteau lay hidden. Having
thus established himself, the old gentleman drew from a capacious
pocket a sandalwood box inlaid with arabesque figures of gold and
mother-of-pearl. Opening this box, he displayed, to the profound
astonishment of at least one of his companions, an exquisitely wrought
tablet of mother-of-pearl and gold, pierced with one-and-eighty
holes arranged in a square of nine. Opening a slide in the side of
the tablet, he thence emptied from a receptacle upon the table five
curiously wrought pins of gold, and a like number of silver. Handing
the five pins of the more precious metal to Griscombe and reserving
for himself the five pegs of silver, the old gentleman immediately
explained to his listeners the simple process of the game upon which
he proposed to embark. Each player in turn was to thrust a pin into
a hole in the tablet, and he who could so far escape his opponent's
interference as to arrange three of the five pins in a line should,
upon each occurrence thereof, have scored a point in the game. Having
completed these easy instructions, he immediately invited Griscombe
to open the play, which he upon his part entered upon with every
appearance of entire enjoyment and satisfaction.

At any time Griscombe would have been no match for the extraordinary
skill of his opponent; but, as it was, he was so torn and distracted
by a multitude of emotions that he occasionally knew not what he was
doing or what he beheld. His imagination framed the most ominous images
of what was going forward in the bedroom beyond; and he lost again and
again, while at times his hands trembled so that he could hardly place
the pin in its respective hole. Now and then his hearing, strung to an
unnatural intensity of key, seemed to detect smothered sounds from the
adjoining room; and at such times the ivory tablet appeared to vanish
from his sight, and the sweat started from every pore.

But, in spite of all he suffered, he took care never to permit the
young lady to perceive the agony under which he labored. The frequent
mistakes of which he was guilty and the extreme inadequacy with which
he played the game she attributed to mortification or to obstinacy. At
last, at some more preposterous blunder, she could contain her patience
no longer. "Why do you not place your pin in that hole, Mr. Griscombe?"
she cried: "it will score you a point," And Griscombe, obeying, found
the next instant that three of his pins stood in a line.

At that moment a faint whistle sounded from without; and the old
gentleman, as though in answer to a signal, declared his desire for the
game to be entirely appeased. Withdrawing the pins from the tablet, he
replaced them in their receptacle, replaced the tablet itself in the
box and shut the lid with a snap. "Madame," he said, "I should have
played with you instead of with our young gentleman here; for, indeed,
he exhibits no great aptitude for the game." Then addressing Griscombe
with a double meaning that set every nerve of his victim to quivering,
"Nevertheless, young sir," he observed, "you have afforded me a great
deal of entertainment, and I protest that you have entirely earned the
fee which you have pocketed." Thereupon he incontinently departed,
leaving the young lady and our hero to digest, each in his or her own
way, the events that had just transpired.

       *       *       *       *       *

So concludes this part of the narrative, with only this to add--that,
had Griscombe had no one to think of but himself, he would at once have
torn open the fatal travelling-case, and so have satisfied himself as
to the nature of its contents. As it was, for the sake of his charge,
who had in so short a time grown so infinitely dear to him, he would
rather have had his right hand struck off than have betrayed his
terrible apprehensions to her innocent ears. Accordingly, he still
wrapped himself in his martyrdom of silence, though he would rather
have sat facing a living adder than that ominous portmanteau upon the
front seat of the post-chaise.




HERE FOLLOWS THE FIFTH CHAPTER




CHAPTER FIVE

The CONCLUSION of the STORY of the _young_ LAWYER and his _Four_
CLIENTS.


The snow, which had begun falling about noon, was, by the time the
two travellers reached the ferry to New York, descending in such
impenetrable sheets as entirely to conceal the further shore from
Paulus Hook. Indeed, it required no little persuasion upon the part
of our hero and the promise of a very heavy bribe to induce the <DW64>
ferryman to transport them across the river upon so forbidding a night.
And so slow was their transit and so doubtful their course that the
night was pretty far advanced before they reached New York.

The town lay perfectly silent, smothered in a blanket of soundless
white, upon which the ceaseless clouds of snow fell noiselessly out
of the inky sky above. Indeed, the drifts were become so deep that
Griscombe entertained very considerable doubts as to how he should
convey Miss Desmond and the now tragic contents of the portmanteau to
their final destination.

Accordingly, it was with the feeling of the utmost relief that, upon
quitting the ferry-boat, he was met by a <DW64>, who told him that M. de
Troinville had been already informed of their coming, and that, because
of the storm, a conveyance had been waiting at the ferry-house ever
since early in the evening to transport the young lady and her baggage
to that gentleman's house.

A large coach was indeed in waiting, the driver, the horses, and
the vehicle alike covered thickly with a coating of white. In this
conveyance our hero, with the utmost solicitude, disposed the young
lady, and at the same time ordered that the portmanteau should be
deposited upon the front seat. Having thereupon distributed a liberal
gratuity to those who had assisted him, he himself immediately entered,
and closed the door; and instantly the driver cracked his whip, and
the coach whirled away, with scarcely a sound, upon the muffled and
velvet-like covering of the street, directing its course through the
continually falling clouds of whiteness.

Nor could Griscombe so far penetrate the obscurity of the thickly
falling snow as at all to tell whither they were being conveyed.
Several corners were turned and a number of streets were traversed,
the lamps whereof were entirely unable to pierce the falling clouds
of snow so as to declare the locality toward which the coach was being
driven.

At length, however, after a rather protracted journeying, and to our
hero's considerable relief, the carriage stopped at the sidewalk before
a large and imposing edifice, altogether unlighted and as black as
night. No other building was immediately near; and the mansion stood
altogether alone, looking down upon the street in solitary state.

Almost instantly upon the arrival of the coach a number of servants
appeared upon the sidewalk, as though they had been waiting in
expectation of the coming of the travellers. Some of these opened the
door of the conveyance, and assisted the young lady and our hero to
alight; others took charge of the portmanteau, which they proceeded
immediately to carry into the house; others, again, stood about as
though waiting in attendance upon the new arrivals.

All these attentions were preferred with a singular assiduity and in
such entire silence that Griscombe knew not whether most to admire the
imposing extent of M. de Troinville's household or the extraordinary
training of his attendants. Turning to one who appeared to be the upper
servant, our hero commanded that the portmanteau be conveyed to some
place of safety unopened, and carefully guarded, and that he himself
be immediately conducted to M. de Troinville for a private interview
concerning business of the utmost importance. In reply the man to
whom he spoke delivered an order in a foreign tongue, which Griscombe
was entirely unable to understand, whereupon two attendants, as in
obedience to his command, conducted him and the young lady up the
steps and into a wide and imposing hallway, the front door whereof was
instantly shut upon them.

It was but little wonder that Griscombe and Miss Desmond should have
stood gazing about them altogether at a loss to understand in what
manner of place they had arrived. For, however much they might have
been surprised at any eccentricity of a French gentleman living
entirely alone in bachelor quarters, what they beheld was the very last
thing they might have expected.

The faint yellow light of a single lamp, suspended from the lofty
ceiling by a chain, diffused a dim illumination throughout the space,
and by its yellow glow Griscombe discovered, with no little surprise,
that the hall was altogether unfurnished. Not a fragment of carpet lay
upon the floor, not a chair, not a stick of furniture, relieved the
bleak and barren space of wainscot about them; but all was a perfectly
empty and barren desolation.

And, what was still more remarkable, the numerous attendants that had
just before surrounded them and had introduced them into the house
had disappeared as if by magic; and a dead and solemn silence reigned
throughout the entire edifice, broken only by a single distant voice
that, in a monotonous sing-song, inexpressive intonation, continued for
a time a level discourse, which at last sank abruptly into an entire
silence.

There was something so ominous and threatening in all the
unexpectedness of these things that Griscombe felt his spirits becoming
overshadowed by an overmastering sense of impending evil. It was only
when he discovered that Miss Desmond was becoming perturbed by a
similar emotion of dismay, and that she was clinging to him with an
exceeding tenacity, that, by an effort of will, he overmastered his
accumulating fears, and, in spite of the cloud of apprehension that
threatened to overshadow him, regained command of his courage once more.

"What does this mean!" exclaimed Miss Desmond in a hurried and
terrified whisper. "What strange place is this to which we have been
brought?"

"Have courage," replied our hero, steadily, but in the same subdued
tone. "You are in no danger. We have probably come to the wrong house,
that is all. Wait but a little while, and all will be explained." But,
though our hero spoke with so much courage, his heart was exceedingly
burdened with a sense of impending calamity; for he seemed to feel the
network of circumstances that had been gathering about him for these
few days past enwrapping both him and his ward in ever tightening
meshes.

At that instant the figure of a man appeared emerging suddenly from out
the gloom. He was tall and thin, and was clad in a long flowing robe
of Oriental design. Desiring Griscombe and the young lady to follow
him, and without waiting for any question or refusal, he turned, and
immediately led the way up a broad uncarpeted stairway to the floor
above.

Here a narrow thread of light outlined a door opening upon the landing,
as though emitted from a considerable illumination within. This door,
as they approached it, was suddenly flung open; and the next moment
our hero found himself with his companion in an apartment flooded with
such a dazzling brilliancy that, coming as he had from the obscurity
without, he was for a time entirely blinded by the unusual radiance.

Little by little, however, his sight returned to him; and he discovered
that he and the young lady were in a room of extraordinary dimensions,
suffused with an oppressive warmth, heavy with perfume, and flaming
with a thousand radiant and variegated colors. Surrounding him and
his companion on all sides was a multitude of attendants of a foreign
aspect, all clad in extraordinarily rich and sumptuous costumes of an
Oriental pattern.

Immediately upon his appearance with the young lady hanging upon his
arm, this crowd of attendants parted, forming, as it were, a vista
through which our hero and his companion could behold the farther
extremity of the saloon.

It was thus that Griscombe first beheld him who, his instinct instantly
told him, was the spider who had woven all this web of mystery in which
he had become so singularly entangled.

What he beheld was a little yellow man with a flat, fat face and black
and brilliant eyes. He had composed himself cross-legged upon a divan
of crimson silk, surrounded by luxurious cushions of embroidered
patterns, and sheltered by crimson silk curtains resplendent with
gold, which hung suspended from the walls behind him. His figure was
almost entirely enveloped by a purple velvet robe, thickly studded
with jewels and ornamented in arabesque designs with seed pearls and
gold. Upon his nether parts were a pair of crimson velvet trousers,
and upon his head was a large and voluminous turban, enriched with a
single diamond of excessive magnitude and brilliancy, which glowed in
the centre of the folds of the head-dress like a star of inconceivable
size and brightness. In his hand, brilliant with a multitude of rings,
he held the mouth-piece of the long and snake-like water-pipe, the
smoke from which he inhaled with every appearance of entire enjoyment
and satisfaction, emitting it now and then in a thin cloud, which
immediately dissolved in the heavy and perfumed air. His face was
devoid of all expression, and he regarded Griscombe and the young lady
with an impassivity of countenance that was in some inexplicable way
infinitely ominous.

Upon one side of this figure stood he with whom Griscombe had once
played jack-straws, and upon the other side the old gentleman with
the white beard whom he had indulged in the game of tit-tat-toe. Both
men were now clad in Oriental garb, far more appropriate to their
appearance than the garments of civilization in which our hero had
first beheld them. Near at hand, as though standing upon guard, were a
half-dozen or more <DW64>s clad entirely in black, and each armed with
a naked scimitar, the blades whereof shone now and then like lightning
in the dazzling light of the thousand waxen tapers that illuminated the
expanse of the apartment.

A long carpet of extreme richness extended the length of the
apartment; and upon the floor, in front of the central figure of
all this remarkable and terrifying apparition of Oriental splendor,
reposed the fatal portmanteau that Griscombe had conveyed with such
extraordinary pains from Bordentown.

At sight of this object it seemed to our hero that all that which
before had appeared so inexplicable became instantly entirely clear,
and it was as though his very vitals dissolved with the fear of that
which might in a moment befall the innocent ward confided to his care.

All this while he had been half supporting her, with his arm thrown
protectingly around her; while she, upon her part, clung to him with
all the tenacity of a growing and overwhelming terror. It was at this
juncture that of a sudden he felt her form relax and her clasp upon him
to weaken. As he gazed down into her face, he became instantly aware,
by the excessive pallor of her countenance, her upturned eyes, and her
closing eyelids, that, either because of the excessive heat of the
room or because of the overpowering perfume, or because of the growing
terror which had entirely penetrated her heart, or on account of all
these causes combined, she had fallen into a swoon that more nearly
resembled death than unconsciousness.

Looking about him, he perceived near at hand a sofa of rich brocade,
covered with a multitude of soft and luxurious pillows. Upon this he
laid the inanimate form so dear to him, and then, rendered bold by the
desperateness of her situation, turned, and walked directly up the
length of the room to where that ominous figure sat amidst its cushions.

"Sir," he cried, "I more than suspect who you are, and what are the
sinister purposes you have accomplished. I may even, indeed, guess
somewhat of your present designs. I demand, however, to know for
certain what now are your intentions toward this young lady and myself.
Do not forget that we are in the town of New York, and that a single
call from a window may bring me help at any moment."

To this address the being to whom it was delivered made no other reply
than to issue by a gesture, and without moving the mouthpiece of the
pipe from his lips, a brief command to a gigantic black, who stood near
at hand. As in reply, the <DW64> advanced to the portmanteau, and with a
single movement opened it and displayed the contents to his master.

Griscombe had already taught himself what to expect concerning the
melancholy contents thereof; but, now that he looked down upon it in
reality, he again experienced that singular and volatile expansion
of his brain, and again his every nerve tingled with the shock which it
received.

[Illustration: "_THE <DW64> ADVANCED TO THE PORTMANTEAU ... AND
DISPLAYED THE CONTENTS TO HIS MASTER_"]

This time not one, but two waxen faces--so exactly alike that they
might have been cast in the same mould--reposed side by side, smiling
in sphinx-like silence upon their bed of snowy lamb's wool.

And, as before, the jewels about which the brothers had once been
so anxiously concerned were scattered as in mockery in a shower of
sparkling and variegated brilliancy upon the immobile lineaments within.

"It is accomplished," said a calm and dispassionate voice; "and it is
well."

Then, directing his words to Griscombe, the speaker continued! "You
have been the instrument of fate, and you have performed your part with
admirable exactitude. Ask what return you desire, and it is yours."

At these words a sudden inspiration, as it were, seized upon Griscombe.
"Who you are and what you are," he cried, "I do not know, nor do I ask
aught of you but one thing: it is that I be allowed to convey the young
lady yonder in safety from this terrible place."

A moment or two of silence followed this, and then the same
dispassionate voice resumed its speech. "I had intended," said the
speaker, calmly, "a different fate for her. But be it as you will: she
is yours. One thing only I demand of you. It is that you deliver to me
the letter of instruction that her father wrote to M. de Troinville.
Give me that, and take the girl. The coach that brought you hither,
still waits below. It will transport you whithersoever you may order.
You have entirely served my ends, and now you are free to go."

Upon the instant a remote clock struck the hour of twelve; and, as in
echo, the chimes of Trinity Church began ringing at no great distance,
heralding for Griscombe the most extraordinary Christmas Day that was,
perhaps, ever experienced by any person in the United States before or
since.

       *       *       *       *       *

So concludes this part of our narrative, with this to add,--that
Griscombe conveyed that precious charge, whom he had rescued from a
dreadful and mysterious fate, to the City Hotel, where, declaring
that she was a traveller who had been taken with a sudden illness, he
confided her to the care of the worthy hostess of that excellent and
well-known hostelry.

Furthermore, it may be added that the next day he with some difficulty
discovered the residence of M. de Troinville, to whom he recounted
such portions of his adventures as he deemed necessary, and whom
he requested to take charge of Miss Desmond. As, however, he had
neither credentials to show nor any proof to offer of the truth of his
statements; as, moreover, the treasure with which he had been charged
had entirely disappeared,--M. de Troinville either disbelieved or
pretended to disbelieve the whole story. He declared that Griscombe
was either a dupe or himself an impostor, and he ended by bidding him
to leave the house, which command our hero obeyed, consumed with an
overwhelming indignation.




HERE FOLLOWS THE CONCLUSION




CONCLUSION


The casual and flippant reader will no doubt be entirely inclined to
ridicule the possibility of events like these herein narrated occurring
in such unexpected localities as New York, Bordentown, or Newark; and,
if he reads the story at all, he will do so merely for the sake of
amusement and of entertainment, and not for the purpose of seriously
digesting its morals.

The more serious, however, will weigh well what he has read, and will
not be inclined to disbelieve that which has been so soberly narrated,
even though it cause him some surprise that such things should have
occurred in the midst of sedate American towns.

For the benefit of the former and lighter class of readers it may be
added to the above account that Griscombe undertook the guardianship
of Miss Desmond without the least reluctance in the world; that little
by little he gradually unfolded to her such parts of her own unhappy
situation as he deemed it necessary for her to be made acquainted with;
and that, after a sufficient time had elapsed, he proposed to her that
she should give him the entire right to become her protector.

Having in such a little while earned eight thousand dollars in fees
from four clients, our hero embarked upon his married life with all
possible satisfaction and happiness; and, when in 1850 he discovered
himself to be at the head of the New York bar, no one would have
supposed that so serious and moderate a gentle-man could ever have
passed through a series of such remarkable occurrences as those herein
related.


THE END

       *       *       *       *       *

  PRINTED BY GEO. H. ELLIS
  AT 272 CONGRESS STREET
  BOSTON, FOR RICHARD
  G. BADGER & CO., PUBLISHERS
  BOSTON

       *       *       *       *       *





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Price of Blood, by Howard Pyle

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