Cord and Creese | Page 4

me; when I ordered you to
beg his pardon or leave my roof forever; when you chose the latter
alternative and became an outcast. My noble boy--my true-hearted son,
that last look of yours, with all its reproach, is haunting my dying hours.
If you were only near me now how peacefully I could die!
"My strength is failing. I can not describe the details of my ruin.
Enough that the mine broke down utterly, and I as chief stockholder
was responsible for all. I had to sell out every thing. The stock was
worthless. The Hall and the estates all went. I had no friend to help me,
for by my madness I had alienated them all. All this came upon me
during the last year.
"But mark this, my son. This man Potts was not ruined. He seemed to
have grown possessed of a colossal fortune. When I reproached him

with being the author of my calamity, and insisted that be ought to
share it with me, the scoundrel laughed in my face.
"The Hall and the estates were sold, for, unfortunately, though they
have been in our family for ages, they were not entailed. A feeling of
honor was the cause of this neglect. They were sold, and the purchaser
was this man Potts. He must have bought them with the money that he
had plundered from me.
"Now, since my eyes have been opened, I have had many thoughts; and
among all that occurs to me none is more prominent than the
mysterious murder of my friend. This man Potts was with him at the
time. He was chief witness against the Malay. The counsel for the
defense bore down hard on him, but he managed to escape, and Uracao
was executed. Yet this much is evident, that Potts was largely benefited
by the death of Despard. He could not have made all his money by his
own savings. I believe that the man who wronged me so foully was
fully capable of murder. So strong is this conviction now that I
sometimes have a superstitious feeling that because I neglected all
inquiry into the death of my friend, therefore he has visited me from
that other life, and punished me, by making the same man the ruin of us
both.
"The mine, I now believe, was a colossal sham; and all the money that I
invested in stocks went directly to Potts. Good God! what madness was
mine!
"O my boy! Your mother and your brother are lying here sick; your
sister attends on us all, though little more than a child. Soon I must
leave them; and for those who are destined to live there is a future
which I shudder to contemplate. Come home at once. Come home,
whatever you are doing. Leave all business, and all prospects, and
come and save them. That much you can do. Come, if it is only to take
them back with you to that new land where you live, where they may
forget their anguish.
"Come home, my son, and take vengeance. This, perhaps, you can not
do, but you at least can try. By the time that you read these words they

will be my voice from the grave; and thus I invoke you, and call you to
take vengeance.
"But at least come and save your mother, your brother, and your sister.
The danger is imminent. Not a friend is left. They all hold aloof,
indignant at me. This miscreant has his own plans with regard to them,
I doubt not; and he will disperse them or send them off to starve in
some foreign land. Come and save them.
"But I warn you to be careful about yourself for their sakes. For this
villain is powerful now, and hates you worse than any body. His arm
may reach even to the antipodes to strike you there. Be on your guard.
Watch every one. For once, from words which fell from him hastily I
gathered that he had some dark plan against you. Trust no one. Rely on
yourself, and may God help you!
"Poor boy! I have no estate to leave you now, and what I do send to
you may seem to you like a mockery. Yet do not despise it. Who knows
what may be possible in these days of science? Why may it not be
possible to force the sea to give up its prey?
"I send it, at any rate, for I have nothing else to send. You know that it
has been in our family for centuries, and have heard how stout old Peter
Leggit, with nine sailors, escaped by night through the Spanish fleet,
and what suffering they endured before they reached England. He
brought this, and it has