AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
BY
EDITH VAN DYNE (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
1908
Continued....
CHAPTER XVII.
JOE TELLS OF "THE GREAT TROUBLE."
"As a young man, my father was a successful sea
captain," said the boy,
"and, before he was thirty, owned a considerable
interest in the ship he
sailed. Thomas Hucks was his boatswain,--an honest
and able seaman in
whom my father became much interested. Hucks was
married, and his wife
was an attendant in the employ of Hugh Carter, a
wealthy ship chandler
of Edmunton, the port from which my fathers ship
sailed. Thomas had some
difficulty in enjoying his wife's society when on
shore, because old
Carter did not want him hanging around the house; so
Captain Wegg
good-naturedly offered to intercede for him.
"Carter was a gruff and disagreeable man, and,
although my father had
been a good customer, he refused his request and
threatened to discharge
Nora, which he did. This made Captain Wegg angry,
and he called upon
Mary Carter, whose especial attendant Nora had been,
to ask her to take
the girl back. Mary was a mild young lady, who dared
not oppose her
father; but the result of the interview was that the
sea captain and
Mary Carter fell mutually in love. During the next
two or three years,
whenever the ship was in port, the lovers frequently
met by stealth at
the cottage of Mrs. Hucks, a little place Thomas had
rented. Here my
father and mother were finally married.
"Meantime Nora had a son, a fine young chap, I've
heard; and presently
my mother, who had a little fortune of her own,
plucked up enough
courage to leave her father's roof, and took up her
abode in a pretty
villa on the edge of a bluff overlooking the sea.
Nora came to live with
her again, bringing her child, and the two women
were company for one
another while their husbands were at sea.
"In course of time my mother had two children, a
girl and a boy, and
because the Hucks boy was considerably older than
they, he took care of
them, to a great extent, and the three youngsters
were always together.
Their favorite playground was on the beach, at the
foot of the bluff,
and before young Tom was ten years old he could swim
like a duck, and
manage a boat remarkably well. The Wegg children,
having something of
their mother's timid nature, perhaps, were not so
adventurous, but they
seldom hesitated to go wherever Tom led them.
"One day, while my mother was slightly ill and Nora
was attending to
her, Tom disobeyed the commands that had been given
him, and took his
younger companions out on the ocean for a ride in
his boat. No one knows
how far they went, or exactly what happened to them;
but a sudden squall
sprang up, and the children being missed, my mother
insisted, ill as she
was, in running down to the shore to search for her
darlings. Braving
the wind and drenched by rain, the two mothers stood
side by side,
peering into the gloom, while brave men dared the
waves to search for
the missing ones. The body of the girl was first
washed ashore, and my
mother rocked the lifeless form in her arms until
her dead son was laid
beside her. Then young Tom's body was recovered, and
the horror
was complete.
"When my father arrived, three days later, he not
only found himself
bereaved of the two children he had loved so
tenderly, but his young
wife was raving with brain fever, and likely to
follow her babies to the
grave. During that terrible time, Nora, who could
not forget that it was
her own adventurous son who had led all three
children to their death,
went suddenly blind--from grief, the doctors said.
"My father pulled his wife back to life by dint of
careful nursing; but
whenever she looked at the sea she would scream with
horror; so it
became necessary to take her where the cruel sound
of the breakers could
never reach her ears. I think the grief of Thomas
and Nora was scarcely
less than that of my own parents, and both men had
suffered so severely
that they were willing to abandon the sea and devote
their lives to
comforting their poor wives. Captain Wegg sold all
his interests and his
wife's villa, and brought the money here, where he
established a home
amid entirely different surroundings. He was devoted
to my mother, I
have heard, and when she died, soon after my birth,
the Captain seemed
to lose all further interest in life, and grew
morose and unsociable
with all his fellow-creatures.
"That, young ladies, is the story of what Thomas and
Nora call their
'great trouble'; and I think it is rightly named,
because it destroyed
the happiness of two families. I was born long after
the tragedy, but
its shadow has saddened even my own life."
When the boy had finished, his voice trembling with
emotion as he
uttered the last words, his auditors were much
affected by the sad tale.
Patsy was positively weeping, and the Major blew his
nose vigorously and
advised his daughter to "dry up an' be sinsible."
Beth's great eyes
stared compassionately at the young fellow, and even
Louise for the
moment allowed her sympathy to outweigh the
disappointment and chagrin
of seeing her carefully constructed theory of crime
topple over like the
house of cards it was. There was now no avenger to
be discovered,
because there had been nothing to avenge. The simple
yet pathetic story
accounted for all the mystery that, in her
imagination, enveloped the
life and death of Captain Wegg. But--stay!
"How did your father die?" she asked, softly.
"Through a heart trouble, from which he had suffered
for years, and
which had obliged him to lead a very quiet life,"
was the reply. "That
was one of the things which, after my mother's
death, helped to sour his
disposition. He could not return to the sea again,
because he was told
that any sudden excitement was likely to carry him
off; and, indeed,
that was exactly what happened."
"How is that, sir?" asked the Major.
"It is more difficult to explain than the first of
the story," replied
the boy, thoughtfully gazing through the window;
"perhaps because I do
not understand it so well. Our simple life here
never made much of an
inroad into my father's modest fortune; for our
wants were few; but
Captain Wegg was a poor man of business, having been
a sailor during all
his active life. His only intimate friend--an
honest, bluff old farmer
named Will Thompson--was as childish regarding money
matters as my
father, but had a passion for investments, and
induced my father to join
some of his schemes. Mr. Thompson's mind was
somewhat erratic at times,
but keen in some ways, nevertheless. Fearing to
trust his judgment
entirely, my father chose to lean upon the wisdom
and experience of a
shrewd merchant of Millville, named Robert West."
"The hardware dealer?" asked Louise, impulsively.
"Yes; I see you have met him," replied Joseph Wegg,
with a smile at the
eager, pretty face of his visitor. "Bob West was a
prosperous man and
very careful about his own investments; so he became
a sort of business
adviser to my father and Mr. Thompson, and
arbitrated any differences of
opinion they might have. For several years, due to
West's good offices,
the two oddly mated friends were successful in their
ventures, and added
to their capital. Finally West came to them himself
with a proposition.
He had discovered a chance to make a good deal of
money by purchasing an
extensive pine forest near Almaquo, just across the
border in Canada.
West had taken an option on the property, when he
found by accident that
the Pierce-Lane Lumber Company was anxious to get
hold of the tract and
cut the timber on a royalty that would enable the
owners to double their
investment."
"Howld on a jiffy!" cried the Major, excitedly. "Did
I understand you to
say the Pierce-Lane Lumber Company?"
"That was the firm, sir. I used to overhear my
father and Will Thompson
talking about this matter; but I must admit my
knowledge is somewhat
imperfect, because I never was allowed to ask
questions. I remember
learning the fact that West had not enough money to
swing his option,
and so urged his friends to join him. Relying upon
West's judgment, they
put all their little fortunes into the deal,
although Thompson grumbled
at doing so, because he claimed he had another
investment that was
better, and this matter of West's would prevent him
from undertaking it.
The Almaquo tract was purchased, and a contract made
with the lumber
company to cut the timber and pay them a royalty of
so much a thousand
feet. Yet, although the prospects for profit seemed
so good, I know that
for some reason both my father and Thompson were
dissatisfied with the
deal, and this may be accounted for by the fact that
every penny of
their money was tied up in one investment. West used
to come to the
house and argue with them that the property was safe
as the Bank of
England, and then old Will would tell him how much
more he could have
made out of another investment he had in mind; so
that a coolness grew
up between West and the others that gradually led to
their estrangement.
"I can well remember the evening when Bob West's
pretty financial bubble
burst. Thompson and my father were sitting together
in the right wing,
smoking solemnly, and exchanging a few words, as was
their custom, when
West arrived with a while face, and a newspaper
under his arm. I was in
the next room, lying half asleep upon the sofa, when
I heard West cry
despairingly: 'Ruined--ruined--ruined!' I crept to
the half-opened
door, then, and looked in. Both men were staring,
open-mouthed and
half-dazed, at West, who was explaining in a
trembling voice that a
terrible forest fire had swept through the Almaquo
section and wiped out
every tree upon the property. He had the full
account in the newspaper,
and had begun reading it, when my father uttered a
low moan and tumbled
off his chair to the floor.
"Will Thompson gave a wild cry and knelt beside him.
"'My God! he's dead, Bob,--he's dead!--and you've
killed him with your
good news!' he screamed, already raving; and then
Old Hucks ran in just
in time to prevent the madman from throttling West,
for his fingers were
even then twined around Bob's throat. There was a
desperate struggle,
and I remember that, scared as I was, I joined
Thomas in trying to pull
Thompson off his prey. But suddenly old Will threw
up his arms and
toppled backward, still raving like a demon, but
unable to move his body
from the waist downward. West helped us to put him
in bed, and said he
was paralyzed, which afterward proved to be the
truth. Also, his mind
was forever gone; and I think it was father's death
that did that,
rather than the loss of his money."
They were all staring, white-faced, at the speaker.
Most of the mystery
was being cleared away; indeed, there was now little
of mystery
remaining at all.
"West hurried after a doctor," continued Joe, who
was almost as much
absorbed in his story as were his listeners, and
spoke in a reflective,
musing way, "and he succeeded in finding one who was
stopping for a few
days at the hotel. Poor Bob was very kind to us in
our trouble, and I
never heard him mention a word about his own losses,
which must have
been severe. After the funeral was over, and I found
I had nothing to
inherit but the farm, I decided to go to the city
and make my way there,
as I had long wished to do. West gave me a little
money to start me on
my way, and the rest of my story is not very
interesting to anybody.
Major Doyle knows something of it, after the time
when I got through my
technical school by working as a servant to pay for
my instruction. I'm
a failure in life, so far, young ladies; but if
you'll not bear that
against me I'll try to do better in the future."
"Good!" cried the Major, approvingly, as he took the
boy's left hand in
both his own and pressed it. "You're developing the
right spirit,
Joseph, me lad, and we'll think no more about the
sadness of the past,
but look forward to the joy of your future."
"Of course," said Patsy, nodding gravely; "Joe Wegg
is bound to be a
great man, some day."
AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
Continued....
 
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