USA > California > A picture of pioneer times in California, illustrated with anecdotes and stores taken from real life > Part 39
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"Leave the room. I want to talk on business to this gentle- man."
Agnes slowly arose from her seat, and walked with a sort of to listless step out of the room; but the moment she closed the door she darted with a noiseless step into a closet that was in the wall between the two rooms, and close to where Lusk sat. As she stood, with breathless, listening attention, she heard him give his confederate, who seemed not to have been at their late council, the full particulars of their plan of robbing Sir John's house the following night, concluding with:
" We will go armed to the teeth, for none of us must be taken alive in any event; and, if a scramble does come, I will take good care that old Sir John will never live to prosecute me-or persecute me, either-any more."
As quick as thought, Agnes left her place in the closet, and now, as Lusk and his confederate came out of the room, they found her as if half-dozing in an old, rickety chair, gazing into the badly lit, ill-cared-for London street, in which the robber had his miserable home. For a little while her mind was in a
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whirl of excitement. Her father's life, perhaps that of the whole family, was threatened. Yes; her dear, good father, who had never in all his life said one cross word to her, and on whom she had already brought such shame and sorrow by her disobedience. Yes; was her fault to go still further, and cause his murder ?
" No, no ; God forbid ; she would put him on his guard." But oh, how could she do it in time, and so as to avoid the vigilance of her robber husband ? Poor, generous, girl ; she never con- demned nor found fault with the unnatural, cruel and anti-Chris- tian edicts of the English society, which condemned her fault as one not to be forgiven, even when repented of with tears of anguish like hers, so often shed. No; as became a true English girl, she bows to its heathen laws, without one doubt of their jus- tice crossing her mind. She was all in fault ; no one else had done anything wrong or un-Christian, though she should starve or be trampled to death by a villain husband. After due reflec- tion, she determined that as soon as Lusk should leave the house, the next morning, she would make her way to her father's house, and privately see her mother, for she dare not venture to see her father, unbidden, under any pretence, and in this way put them all on their guard. That night she tried to sleep, but whenever she dozed she saw Lusk murdering her father. To her relief, morning came at length, and Lusk left at the usual hour. Not a moment was to be lost. She had from time to time, by half- starving herself, saved a few shillings out of the money given to her by Lusk for the purchase of food. This she now put in her pocket, and, instructing her son, now six years old, what to say in case his father should happen to return during her ab- sence, she started for the railroad station, took a seat in a sec- ond-class car, and was soon at the station, which was within half a mile of her father's beautiful residence. Oh ! who can imagine or describe her thoughts and feelings as, after seven long years' absence, she walked on with trembling step toward the grand old iron gate, that opened the way through the mag- nificent avenue and beautiful lawn that was all hers in childhood, to love and enjoy, when the world looked a paradise before her, and when her steps were all guarded and watched as though she were heiress to a throne. She hurries on, and luckily no one notices or accosts her. She is very close to the house, when the old house dog runs out and barks at her ; but now he stops, for
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oh, he knows his long lost, but darling mistress, for he belonged to Agnes individually, and she often thought of his having bitten Lusk the first time the fellow made so free with her as to take her hand in his. She glances all around ; no one, she thinks, was looking, so she stoops and hugs the dog, as she often did, long, long ago. Then, kissing him affectionately, sbe hurries on, while he runs before her yelping, and rolling over and over, and making every demonstration of joy. All this is observed by Agnes' mother from an upper window of the house, and, without thinking or knowing that she recognized in the miserable girl before her her own lost child, she almost flies down the great staircase, opens her arms wide, but utters not a word. In an instant the child's arms are clasped around the mother's neck, while, in a convulsion of grief and choking sobs, she implores forgiveness. The mother, too, cries and sobs in agony, for she now, for the first time, fully realizes the terrible fate of her beau- tiful child. The mere skeleton she held in her arms ; the wan face, and wild eyes, and miserable clothing, all tell the fearful story .
" Oh, mother, hide me from my father! I would not have come at all, but that I have a terrible thing to tell you that I could not get any one else that I could trust to explain to you."
" Calm yourself, my poor darling," the mother whispered ; " and do not fear your father. He has had terrible dreams about you of late, and has just concluded to look you up and forgive you, which he would have done long ago, but that he feared to offend the ideas and laws of society ; so, do not fear to meet him, my poor darling. Come to my own little room, and tell me all you want, and let me hold you in my lap, and rest your head in its own old place, my darling." And so they were seated, when Agnes exclaimed :
" Oh ! mother, all is now over for me in this world ; I feel it here, and here," she said, placing her hand first on her head, and then on her heart. " A few more weary days, and my task is over, and my terrible journey finished; but oh, how happy I will be if you all forgive me before I go ; and father will kiss me, and call me some of his old pet names, and that will be life enough for me." Then, suddenly starting erect, in her moth- er's arms, she exclaimed : "But, mother, I am losing time, when there is no time to lose ; I came to tell you something ter- rible."
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Then she, with hurried voice, related all that she had heard of the plans of the robbers, and how they had resolved not to be taken alive, and how they had planned to kill her father if there was any resistance. But she never revealed that Lusk was to be the leader of the party, or to be there at all; for, somehow, she could not bring herself to that, and it was evidently unnecessary. Her mother now insisted that she should not return to London, or any more leave her old home; but a few words from Agnes convinced her that to pursue this course would be to reveal every- thing to the robbers and endanger her own life, without hav- ing accomplished any good. Her mother then proposed to change her clothes; but no, that, too, would insure her discovery and destruction. Then, with an aching heart, she filled out a glass of wine, and induced Agnes to swallow it. Then, after one more silent, impassioned embrace, they parted; Agnes leaving as she had come, and no one in the whole house knew that the poor, miserable looking girl they saw, with supreme dismay, pass- ing out of Lady Ward's room, was no other than the once favorite child of the whole family. Lady Ward had to hold the old dog with her handkerchief around his neck, or he would have fol- lowed poor Agnes back to London, and after he was liberated he whined and moaned piteously, while he lay, as if in suffering, on the ground. Just then Sir John rode up, and, as he alighted and threw the bridle-rein to the servant in waiting, the old dog rushed to him, and, looking up in his face, commenced the same piteous moaning and howling.
" Why," said Sir John; "what is the matter with you, Nero ?"
The dog now redoubled his demonstrations of grief or pain, and ran down the avenue for a little way, with his nose close to the ground; then back again to Sir John; then he sat back on his haunches and gave out a long, fearful, continuous cry. Sir John regarded the old dog with astonishment, and said:
" I believe the poor old creature is going to die; but what does he mean by running down the avenue in that way ?" Then turning to a servant who was approaching him, he asked: " Has any one been here lately ?"
" No one, Sir John, that I have seen, except a ragged looking girl, who was, for a little time, with Lady Ward in her room."
And then the servant told him Lady Ward wished to see him in her room.
Sir John trembled all over, and grew deadly pale. But what
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caused his agitation he had not the least idea. In his wife's room the mystery was soon explained. Sir John was shocked and terrified at the description of poor Agnes and her terrible misery. His manhood, for a time, forsook him, and he gave way to uncontrolled grief; as he paced up and down the room he cried out:
" Oh, I have been an unnatural father! I have allowed the cold, unnatural laws of society to govern me, and have let my child, my sweet, my poor, darling, simple/child, the victim of a cunning villain, be beaten and starved to death, without once inquiring to know her fate ! Oh, England, my country! why do you manufacture religion by acts of Parliament, which give us Christianity in a form so cold and icy that it can neither reach the heart nor soften down the tyranny of the rules of cold society ? Oh, my child! my murdered child! forgive, forgive your father ; and, oh! may God forgive me, too!"
Then suddenly he recalled the threatening danger to his house- hold, and exclaimed:
" Aye, aye; we must ward off this threatened blow."
CHAPTER III.
A SELFISH CHILD-FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
Agnes, on leaving her mother, retraced her way to London. She took her place in the railroad car, all wild with excitement; she knew not why. She was no longer weak or trembling, as she had been approaching her old home; her step was light, as though her whole frame weighed nothing; her vision was clear and intensely sensitive to every object, far and near; there seemed to be within her some violent contention.
" What have I done ! What have I done !" she murmured to herself, as her wild, bright eyes flashed from side to side, as if seeking for sympathy or relief in the surroundings. " He is the father of my child. Yes, yes; he is, and he will be shot to-night, and I have done it. " Oh !" she continued, as her eyes were now riveted on the plain gold ring on her finger. "I swore that morning in the church to be true to him until death. Oh, God ! what have I done!" As she whispered this to herself, she started to her feet, as if aroused beyond control by some bitter pang ; then, dropping back into her seat, she rested her forehead, now streaming with perspiration, on her hand, and murmured : " Yes, my God; I thank Thee for the thought ; if I did anything but what I have done, I would be my own father's murderer, and no vow ever made on earth is holy that would justify that."
It was late in the afternoon when Agnes found herself on the stairway to her garret home. The little boy answered her eager questions as to his father, by informing her that he had not re- turned. As she stooped and kissed the child, a pang again darted through her, and again she started, trembled, and became dead- ly pale. The boy looked at her with a strange, meaning intelli- gence, as he said, in a blunt way :
"I won't tell him."
" No, of course you won't, my pet ; and I have brought you a nice cake, all for yourself." Then she kissed him, with cold lips,
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and he snatched the cake from her hands and ran off to devour it in his usual, selfish way, alone. Agnes, prompted by some new feeling she herself did not understand, took more pains than commonly to put things to right, and make her wretched room look its best. She looked over the scanty store of provisions on hand, hesitated for a moment, and then, drawing from her pocket bright shillings, she looked at them wistfully; then, reaching out for her old, faded shawl, she threw it over her head and darted down the stairway, murmuring to herself as she went :
" Yes; it is all I have in the world, but I will spend it for him."
In a few moments she returned with a beefsteak, and in a short time had the evening meal prepared and all in readiness for Lusk when he should make his appearance. H > came at the ac- customed hour. He seemed excited, but in uncommonly good humor, and, as he glanced at the nicely prepared supper and gen- eral surroundings, he excaimed, smilingly :
" Why, Aggie, you are getting to be a great little housekeep- er ; but where on earth did you find the money to get that nice, tempting beefsteak ? for I believe I did not leave you a penny for the last three days."
Agnes trembled, grew pale, but tried to smile, as she stam- mered out that she found two shillings in her trunk that morn- ing. Lusk observed her agitation, and looked on her, not as of old, but with an expression of kindness and concern Agnes had never seen in his face before.
" Come, poor Aggie," he said ; " you do not look well. You and Johnny must share this steak with me to-night ; come, bring the boy ; there is enough for us all, and to-morrow I will have plenty of money, or "-and he stopped for a moment as if chok- ing, but, clearing his throat, he concluded with :
" Yes, yes ; to-morrow I will have plenty of money for us all, and more than we want."
His words seemed to confuse and bewilder Agnes. She snatched up the boy in an excited way, and placed him at the table ; took a seat herself, and ate in a quick, nervous way, feeling as if in a dream, for Lusk talked and laughed to-night as she had never heard him in her married life do before. It sounded strange and unnatural, and excited her almost beyond control; but, by a des- perate effort of will, she kept herself within bounds, and Lusk never observed her anguish of mind. Just as their meal was fin- ished, heavy footsteps were heard on the stairway, and presently
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a dark complexioned, heavy-whiskered man, in a heavy, gray overcoat, entered the room, unbidden.
" Well," said the stranger ; "you are eating; it is time we were on the move; so, hurry up, Captain." Lusk assented, and, stepping behind a ragged curtain Agnes had hung to guard her bed from sight, he changed his clothes, and prepared himself fully for his night's work. As he did so, he now and then ex- changed a word with the stranger on the general news of the day. At the sight of this man Agnes almost swooned away, and saved herself from falling only by dropping back in her chair. There she sat, motionless and unobserved by the two men, whose whole thoughts were evidently on their own business. The boy had crawled into his little bed the moment he had finished supper, and is now fast asleep. Lusk is ready, and both men leave the room, without even a glance at Agnes, whose eyes are wild, and burning like coals of fire, while every muscle and limb is powerless to move. Just as Lusk is about to descend the stairway, he remembers Agnes, for the first time he had ever done so on such occasions. He stops, and turns back into the room. He walks to where Agnes is yet seated, motionless. He stoops, and says in a low voice :
" Agnes, if anything should happen to me, and that I never come back, you know, forgive me for all the terrible misery I brought on you; I did not intend it ; I thought your father would forgive us, you know."
Agnes struggled to speak, but her tongne refused its office, and it was well, for justice's sake, that it did, for the generous woman would have given way, and saved a villain's life had she had speech to do it. Lusk saw the struggle in her face, and continued:
" Never mind, poor Aggie; I swear I will be kind to you for- evermore." And he stooped and kissed her cold, marble cheek, and then he turned quickly to the bed of the child and stooped to kiss him, but at that moment the boy opened his eyes, and, with his little fist clenched, he struck back his father's head with all his force, crying:
"There, get away; you shan't kick me so any more."
Lusk arose to his full height, and, looking down on the child savagely, muttered between his teeth:
" Curse the brat!"
Then he was starting down the stairway to join his confed-
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erates, and the street door was heard to bang behind the robbers. At the sound, Agnes leaped from her chair as if aroused from a trance; she flew to the stair-way, and in a moment more was in the half-lighted, dismal street; a heavy fog, which was almost rain, added to its fearful gloom; she knew the way to the rail- road station, and, supposing the confederates had gone in that direction, dashed on, without either bonnet or shawl; her long, beautiful hair, which had fallen loose, streamed out behind her in the wetting atmosphere. Suddenly a stout arm arrested her progress, and then the glaring light of a policeman's lamp was on her face and person.
" Ah," said the night-watch, in a sort of a kind voice; " young, beautiful and of rare, fine stock, too, but miserable and starved, I see. Ah, a wedding ring, too! Poor thing! Where are you going ? or what do you want ? Can I help you ?"
Agnes at first tried to pass, but that she found impossible, and suddenly her presence of mind returned, and she realized her position. She said, mildly :
" Oh, I was trying to overtake a friend, but I see I am too late; so I will go home."
As she turned to go, the officer said:
" Shall I see you safe back? This fog makes the night so dark that you may miss your way."
" No, no, I thank you; I would rather go alone, so please let me."
This was said in a voice of supplication, so the officer intruded no further, but said, as he turned away:
" God help you, poor child, whoever you are."
Agnes thanked him, and, hurriedly retracing her steps, soon found herself again in her dismal garret, standing by the bed of her boy, with the candle in her hand, gazing down at his face. She was wet, cold and pale, with her eyes still glowing with un- natural brightness. She murmured as she gazed:
" Yes, he is gone for ever; and, oh, my God! he cursed his boy as he left him!"
Then she laid her candle down and commenced to walk up and down her garret floor, with her arms sometimes folded across her breast; sometimes both hands were clasped tightly on her forehead. At the least uncommon noise in the street she would start, and be on the point of screaming out. On, on, she walked for hours and hours, sometimes muttering to herself broken sentences, such as:
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" When he was so kind to me to-night, why did I not go on my knees to him, and implore him to give up his terrible plot ? Why did I not confess to him what I had done, and let him kill me on the spot ? Oh, it would have been so much easier than to endure this terrible feeling. If I had done that, it would have saved father just as well. Oh, how can I ever hug my boy again, when it was I who-but I will not let myself think of it, for I could not help it. Oh, when will this terrible night have an end ? Oh, God, be merciful, and help me!"
On, on, poor Agnes walks. She hears the clock strike two. Now her head leans forward, and her face is clasped in both her hands; she turns to her child's bed, drops on her knees, and, without removing her hands, lets her head rest forward on the bed; she tries to pray; then overcome and worn-out nature has its way, and she is fast asleep. Another hour passes, and now her whole frame seems to writhe in agony, for her dreams are of a bloody struggle between her father and her husband. With a half-scream she leaps to her feet, drenched in cold perspiration, yet half-awake; the light is dim in the room; she trembles with fear of she knows not what; then her ears catch the noise of a carriage rattling over the pavements; she starts, and ex- claims:
" Ah, what carriage can that be at this hour ?"
It is nothing strange, either, for London, in any hour of day or night, yet now her gaze is transfixed; she cannot move, and scarcely breathes. Yes; the carriage stops at the street door, and now Agnes hears several voices, as if in consultation; the door is opened, and some one ascends the stairs, with a firm, heavy step; that step is recognized by every nerve in her system; she drops on her knees, clasps her hands above her head, and, as the door opens, exclaims:
" Father, forgive your poor child!"
The answer is a passionate embrace, with whisperings of pet names, that tell of the overflowing of pent-up love.
In a few short hours more Agnes is in her own old room in her own old home.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ROBBERS TRAPPED-YOUNG LUSK.
When Sir John learned the danger that threatened his house- hold from Lady Ward, it was too late to send to London for po- lice assistance, so he had to depend on his own resources. He at once summoned to his counsel three gentlemen who were his visitors, two of whom were army officers. The whole plan of defence was soon arranged. Twenty reliable men were found to put under arms. Everything being ready, and every man well instructed and put in his place, the lights were put out at the usual hour. The trap laid for the robbers worked to a charm. A little after midnight they came in force, and found the en- trance to the house much easier than they had expected. After securing the booty they sought for, they turned to descend from the window by which they had entered, when a terribly deadly fire saluted them; they were off their guard, and every one of them but one powerful fellow dropped dead on the spot. This man who escaped was evidently the leader. He dropped to the ground also on the first fire, but seemed to recover himself, and dashed off towards the avenue. In five minutes more Sir John and four of his friends were on their way to London for Agnes and her boy. In the afternoon of that day the body of a large man was found under an old oak tree, where, from the appear- ance of the ground and the position of the body, it was evident he had died in terrible agony. It was the body of Lusk; and this was the very tree under which he had met Agnes, to arrange for her elopement. Sir John and the old gardener were the only two who recognized the body as that of Lusk, and they kept their own counsel.
Two weeks from the day of her arrival at her old home, Agnes yielded up her blighted life. She expired, surrounded by all the loved ones of her childhood and girlhood, with her head
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resting on her father's bosom, and her wasted white arms clasped around his neck.
Sir John now took the greatest pains with the little boy, poor Agnes' sole bequest. He was petted by the whole household, but, somehow, he appeared without any real attach- ment to any one, often gave symptoms of a dark, revengeful temper, and was often singularly cruel towards animals. At twelve years of age, he was sent to a school of much reputation, where he improved in all his studies rapidly. Here, however, he got into a quarrel with one of the teachers, and on that occasion displayed such a fearfully dark temper that he was expelled. At the next school he went to, he made the same rapid progress in his studies. One day, while at this school, he came home from a walk, and reported a school fellow drowned in a deep canal in the neighborhood. His story was, that the drowned boy washis companion in the walk, and had stumbled headlong into the canal, and was drowned before he could render him any assist- ance. When the body was taken from the canal, it was found to be bruised and cut about the head, which caused many dark sus- picions at the time, which, in after years, were revived by a woman's story of once having seen two boys in a desperate fight on the spot where the body was found, when one, she said, over- powered the other and flung him into the canal.
Young Lusk grew tall, handsome and powerful; was intelligent and bright, and, when he wished, could make himself most agreeable to men and fascinating to women. Sir John never cared to have him much at home, and now he got him a place as midshipman on board a man-of-war going on a long cruise. He was not popular with his messmates. The ship returned in one year, and on this occasion Sir John was most liberal to the mid- shipman in the way of money. Young Lusk dashed into all sorts of excesses, and closed his visit home by forging his grand- father's name to a check for two hundred pounds. The grand- father discovered the forgery, though no one else did, just before the ship sailed, and summoned the boy before him, upbraided him for his crime, explained its enormity, and warned him of the consequences if he ever again was guilty of the like. Lusk asked forgiveness, and promised never again to offend. The very next time his ship returned to port, Lusk repeated his crime; this time for a yet larger sum. Sir John again paid the forged check, without bringing the young man to justice, but gave him
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