CHAPTER XIX
THE WOMAN AND THE MAN
Yes--the woman was dead. Ballingall had gone--and the fortune wasfound.
Put in that way, it was a curious sequence of events.
Indeed, put in any way, there could be no doubt about the oddity ofthe part which the woman had played.
Medical examination clearly showed that death had come to her fromnatural causes. She must, the doctor said, have been within ahand's-breadth of death for, at any rate, the last twelve months. Hedeclared that every vital organ was hopelessly diseased. Asked if theimmediate cause of death was shock, he replied that there was nothingwhatever in the condition of the body which could be regarded assupporting such a theory. In his opinion, the woman had burned out,like a candle, which, when it is all consumed, dies. Nothing, in hisjudgment, could have retarded the inevitable end; just as there wasnothing to suggest that it came one instant sooner than might, in thenatural course, have been expected.
That was what the doctor said in public, at the coroner's inquest.
He listened to them when, in private, they told him the strangestory of the night's adventure, pronouncing at the conclusion anopinion which contained in it the essence of all wisdom, for itmight be taken any way. The gist of it was this. Very probably forsome time before her death, the woman had been light-headed. Whenpeople are light-headed they suffer from hallucinations. It wasquite possible that, in her case, those hallucinations had taken theform--literally--of her injured husband. It was on record thathallucinations had taken form, in similar cases. It was a perfectlyfeasible and reasonable theory which supposed that the woman,wandering, a homeless outcast, in the streets of London, delirious,premonitions of her approaching dissolution being borne in upon her inspite of her delirium, would turn her dying footsteps towards herone-time home, to which, as her behaviour in forcing herself on Madgeplainly showed, her thoughts had recently returned. Nor, under thecircumstances, was there anything surprising in her delusion that herhusband had led her there.
It was when asked to explain how it was that she had hit upon thehiding-place of her husband's fortune--hit upon it, as it seemed,altogether against her will, that the doctor became oracular. But evenhere he was not without his hints as to the direction in which anexplanation might be found.
He pointed out that our study of the science of mental psychology wasstill in its infancy. But, even so far as it had gone, it seemed tosuggest the possibility of what has come to be called telepathiccommunication between two minds--even when the whilom owner of one ofthe minds has passed beyond the confines of the grave. This sounded atrifle abstruse. But as the doctor professed his inability to put itany clearer, they had to take his statement as it stood, and make outjust as much of it as they were able.
As for Ballingall's pretensions to having shared the woman'shallucination--if hallucination it was--the doctor pooh-poohed themaltogether. The man was as mad as the woman, and madder; and animpudent rogue to boot. Where was he? Let him come forward, and allowhimself and his statements to be scientifically tested. Then it wouldbe shown what reliance could be placed on anything which he might say.
But where Ballingall was, was exactly the problem which they foundinsoluble. He had vanished as completely as if he had never existed.The presumption was, that while they had been absorbed in watchingMadge's efforts to carry on the work of discovery from the point atwhich the woman had left it, he had sneaked, unnoticed, from the roomand from the house. The curious feature was that they were unable toagree as to the exact moment at which he could have gone. Bruce Grahamdeclared that he was in the room when he went to fetch the hammer andchisel, and that he was still there when he returned. Madge protestedthat he was in the room when she ran across to the recumbent figure onElla's bed. If so, since Jack discovered his absence within less thana minute afterwards, it was during that scant sixty seconds that hemade good his escape.
Why he had gone at all was difficult to say. One might have thoughtthat after what he had undergone during his search for the fortune hewould hardly have disappeared at the moment of its finding. He hadsuffered so much in looking, that he had earned at least a share, whenat last it was brought to light. Such, certainly, was the strongfeeling of its actual discoverer. He stood in need enough of money;that was sure. Why then, at what from one point of view might bedescribed as the very moment of his triumph, had he vanished?
He alone could tell.
They could only give wild guesses. Nothing has been seen or heard ofhim from that hour to this. They put advertisements for him in thepapers, without result. Then, as they felt that living the sort oflife which he probably was living--that is, if he was living atall--it was within the range of probability that a newspaper wouldnever come his way, and that he would never glance at it if it did,they distributed handbills broadcast through the slums of London,beseeching him to apply to a certain address, and offering a reward toany one who could give an account of his proceedings after the nighton which he had taken himself away.
To those handbills they did receive answers--in abundance. There wereevidently plenty of people who were willing, nay, anxious, to laytheir hands on that reward, just as there seemed several CharlesBallingalls with whom they were acquainted. But no one of them was theCharles Ballingall. More than once they thought they had chanced onhim at last; the stories told were such very specious ones, and theyfollowed up the trail till it proved beyond all manner of doubt to bea false one. When the Charles Ballingall to whom it referred wasunearthed, he proved, in each and every case, to be not in the leastlike theirs.
And so the presumption is that the man is dead. He was, probably, asthe doctor suggested, more than half out of his mind on that eventfulnight; his sins had brought him suffering enough to have driven theaverage mortal mad. It is not unlikely that the strange things whichthen transpired, completing the work of destruction, robbed him of hisfew remaining senses; and that, at that last moment, when Madge Brodieannounced her discovery of what he had sought with so much pain andwith such ardour, the irony of fate which seemed to have pursued him,pressing on him still, had driven him out into the night, a ravinglunatic, seeking anywhere and anyhow for escape from the burden oflife which haunted him.
God alone can tell where and how he found it.
CHAPTER XX
THE FORTUNE
And the fortune?
This remark may be made--that had they not found it when they didthere would very shortly have been nothing left to find. Mr. ThomasOssington had chosen for the treasure-chest a simple opening in thewall, to which access had originally been gained by touching a spring.This spring had been concealed under what had probably been a pictureof a dog's head; the fifth alternating dog's head on the right-handside of the bedroom door. When you pressed it a door flew open. Butthis primitive treasure-chest, if not entirely obvious to the world atlarge, was open to the rats and mice, and similar small deer, who hadtheir happy hunting-grounds within the wall itself. The result wasthat, when the contents were examined, it was found that the bundlesof bank-notes had been gnawed, in some cases to unrecognisable shreds;that meals--hearty ones of the cut-and-come-again description--hadbeen made of parchment deeds, bonds, share certificates, and similarimpediments; that coin--gold coin--had been contained in bags, whichbags had been consumed, even to the strings which once had tied them.The coins lay under accumulations of dust, in heaps upon the floor. Onseveral were actually well-marked indentations, showing that sharp,gleaming teeth had applied to them a stringent test before finallydeciding that they really were not good to eat. A curious spectaclethe whole presented when first brought to the light of day.
However, in but few cases had the damage proceeded to lengths whichhad rendered what was left absolutely worthless--discovery had comejust in the nick of time. The Bank of England was good enough to handover cash in exchange for the fragments of all notes of which therewas satisfactory
evidence that there had been once a whole. Thevarious documents which represented property were none of them in acondition which rendered recognition altogether impossible, and whenit was once established what they were, for all intents and purposesthey were as available for their original use as if they had been in acondition of pristine freshness.
Altogether the find represented a sum of something like L40,000. Not alarge fortune, as fortunes go, but still a comfortable capital to bethe possessor of. If fate only had been kind to him, and the men andwomen who formed his world of finer texture, Tom Ossington might havebeen as happy as the days were long.
Oddly enough, the real trouble came after the fortune was found. Thedifficulty was as to whom it belonged--not because the claimants wereso many, but because they were so few.
It was Madge's wish that it should be divided between those who wereactually present at the moment of its discovery, maintaining that sucha division would be in accordance with both law and equity.Ballingall's continued disappearance resolved the number of these intofour--Ella, Jack Martyn, Bruce Graham, and herself. The first rift inthe lute was caused by Mr. Graham, he refusing point-blank to havepart or parcel in any such transaction. He maintained that the fortunehad been found by Madge, and that therefore, in accordance with theterms of the will, the whole of it was hers. In any case he would havenone of it. He had felt, on mature reflection, that Ballingall'saccusations had not been without foundation, that his conduct had beenunprofessional, that he had had no right to share his confidence withanybody--that, in short, he had behaved ill in the whole affair; andthat, therefore, he had no option but to decline to avail himself ofany advantages which were, so to speak, the proceeds of hismisbehaviour.
When she heard this, Madge laughed outright. Seeing that her laughtermade no impression, and that the gentleman continued of the sameopinion still, she was moved to use language which was, to say theleast, surprising. It was plain that, beneath the lash of the lady'stongue, he was unhappy. But his unhappiness did not go deep enough toinduce him to change his mind. When it was obvious that his resolvewas adamant, and that by no means could he be induced to move from it,she announced her own decision.
"Very well; if the fortune's mine, it's mine. And if it's mine I cando what I like with it. And what I like, is to divide it with Ella;and if Ella will not have half, then I'll not have a farthing either.And the whole shall go to the Queen, or to whoever unclaimed moneydoes go. And you'll find that I can be as firm--or as obstinate--asanybody else."
"But, my dear," observed Ella, mildly, "I never said that I wouldn'thave half. I'm sure I'll be delighted. I'll need no pressing--andthank you very kindly, ma'am."
"I do believe, Ella," returned Madge, with calmness which was bothsignificant and deadly, "that you are the only reasonable person withwhom I am acquainted."
So it was arranged--the two girls divided the whole; which of coursemeant, as Madge knew perfectly, that Jack Martyn would have his share.As a matter of fact, Mr. and Mrs. Martyn have been husband and wifefor some time now, and are doing very well.
And it is said--as such things are said--that Madge Brodie will beMrs. Bruce Graham yet before she dies. It is believed by those whoknow them best that he would give his eyes to marry her, and that shehas made up her mind to marry him.
This being so, it would seem as if a marriage might ensue.
If such is the case, it appears extremely likely, if Madge ever is hiswife, that, whether he will or won't, Bruce Graham will have to havehis share.
She is as obstinate as he is--every whit.
The Gresham Press UNWIN BROTHERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
Tom Ossington's Ghost Page 19
