"And now, gentlemen," said Judge Baxter, "here we are. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable. I shall have a good deal to say and I expect to surprise you. Sit down."
Captain Gould and Mr. Hamilton were in the Judge's library at his home. The funeral was over, all that was mortal of Marcellus Hall had been laid to rest in the Ostable cemetery, and his two friends and former partners had, on their return from that cemetery, stopped at the Judge's, at the latter's request. He wished, so he said, to speak with them on an important matter.
"Why don't you sit down, Captain?" asked the Judge, noticing that, although Zoeth had seated himself in the rocker which his host had indicated, Shadrach was still standing.
Captain Shadrach laid a hand on the back of the armchair and regarded the lawyer with a very grave face, but with a twinkle in his eye.
"To tell you the truth, Judge," he said, slowly, "I don't cal'late I ever shall set down again quite so whole-hearted as I used to. You spoke of a surprise, didn't you? I've had one surprise this afternoon that's liable to stay with me for a spell. I'm an unsuspectin' critter, generally speakin', but after that--Say, you ain't got a brass band nor fireworks hitched to THIS chair, have you?"
Judge Baxter laughed heartily. "No," he said, as soon as he could speak. "No, Captain, my furniture isn't loaded."
The Captain shook his head. "Whew!" he whistled, sitting down gingerly in the armchair. "Well, that's a mercy. I ain't so young as I used to be and I couldn't stand many such shocks. Whew! Don't talk to ME! When that devilish jig tune started up underneath me I'll bet I hopped up three foot straight. I may be kind of slow sittin' down, but you'll bear me out that I can GET UP sudden when it's necessary. And I thought the dum thing never would STOP."
Mr. Hamilton stirred uneasily. "Hush, hush, Shadrach!" he pleaded.
"Don't be so profane. Remember you've just come from the graveyard."
"Come from it! By fire! There was a time there when I'd have been willin' to go to it--yes, and stay. All I wanted was to get out of that room and hide somewheres where folks couldn't look at me. I give you my word I could feel myself heatin' up like an airtight stove. Good thing I didn't have on a celluloid collar or 'twould have bust into a blaze. Of all the dummed outrages to spring on a man, that--"
"Shadrach!"
"There, there, Zoeth! I'll calm down. But as for swearin'--well, if you knew how full of cusswords I was there one spell you wouldn't find fault; you'd thank me for holdin' 'em in. I had to batten down my hatches to do it, though; I tell you that."
Mr. Hamilton turned to their host. "You'll excuse Shadrach, won't you, Judge," he said, apologetically. "He don't mean nothin' wicked, really. And he feels as bad as I do about Marcellus's bein' took."
"Course I do!" put in the Captain. "Zoeth's always scared to death for fear I'm bound to the everlastin' brimstone. He forgets I've been to sea a good part of my life and that a feller has to talk strong aboard ship. Common language may do for keepin' store, but it don't get a vessel nowheres; the salt sort of takes the tang out of it, seems so. I'm through for the present, Zoeth. I'll keep the rest till I meet the swab that loaded up that chair for me."
The Judge laughed again. Then he opened his desk and took from a drawer two folded papers.
"Gentlemen," he said, gravely, "I asked you to come here with me because there is an important matter, a very important matter, which I, as Captain Hall's legal adviser, must discuss with you."
Captain Shadrach and Zoeth looked at each other. The former tugged at his beard.
"Hum!" he mused. "Somethin' to do with Marcellus's affairs, is it?"
"Yes."
"Want to know! And somethin' to do with me and Zoeth?"
"Yes, with both of you. This," holding up one of the folded papers, "is Captain Hall's will. I drew it for him a year ago and he has appointed me his executor."
Zoeth nodded. "We supposed likely he would," he observed.
"Couldn't get a better man," added Shadrach, with emphasis.
"Thank you. Captain Hall leaves all he possessed--practically all; there is a matter of two hundred dollars for his housekeeper, Mrs.
Hobbs, and a few other personal gifts--but he leaves practically all he possessed to his stepdaughter, Mary Lathrop."
Both his hearers nodded again. "We expected that, naturally," said the Captain. "It's what he'd ought to have done, of course. Well, she'll be pretty well fixed, won't she?"
Judge Baxter shook his head. "Why, no--she won't," he said, soberly. "That is a part of the surprise which I mentioned at first. Captain Hall was, practically, a poor man when he died."
That the prophesied surprise was now a reality was manifest. Both men looked aghast.
"You--you don't mean that, Judge?" gasped Zoeth.
"Poor? Marcellus poor?" cried Shadrach. "Why--why, what kind of talk's that? He didn't have no more than the rest of us when--" he hesitated, glanced at Zoeth, and continued, "when the firm give up business back in '79; but he went to sea again and made considerable, and then he made a whole lot in stocks. I know he did. You know it, too, Zoeth. How could he be poor?"
"Because, like so many other fortunate speculators, he continued to speculate and became unfortunate. He lost the bulk of his winnings in the stock market and--well, to be quite frank, Captain Hall has been a broken man, mentally as well as physically, since his wife's death and his own serious illness. You, yourselves, must have noticed the change in his habits. From being an active man, a man of affairs, he became almost a hermit. He saw but few people, dropped the society of all his old friends, and lived alone--alone except for his various housekeepers and Mary-'Gusta--the little girl, I mean. You must have noticed the change in his relations with you."
Mr. Hamilton sighed. "Yes," he said, "we noticed he never came to see us and--and--"
