Godfrey Cass

“ A plain man like Godfrey Cass, speaking under some embarrassment, necessarily blunders on words that are coarser than his intentions, and that are likely to fall gratingly on susceptible feelings. While he had been speaking, Eppie had quietly passed her arm behind Silas's head, and let her hand rest against it caressingly: she felt him trembling violently. He was silent for some moments when Mr Cass had ended—powerless under the conflict of emotions, all alike painful. Eppie's heart was swelling at the sense that her father was in distress ”

“ Mr and Mrs Godfrey Cass (any higher title has died away from Raveloe lips since the old Squire was gathered to his fathers and his inheritance was divided) have turned round to look for the tall aged man and the plainly dressed woman who are a little behind—Nancy having observed that they must wait for "father and Priscilla"—and now they all turn into a narrower path leading across the churchyard to a small gate opposite the Red House. ”

“ Bob Cass was figuring in a hornpipe, and his father, very proud of this lithe son, whom he repeatedly declared to be just like himself in his young days in a tone that implied this to be the very highest stamp of juvenile merit, was the centre of a group who had placed themselves opposite the performer, not far from the upper door. Godfrey was standing a little way off, not to admire his brother's dancing, but to keep sight of Nancy, who was seated in the group, near her father. ”

“ But, if Cass found no material result from his treasure, it stimulated his lazy imagination, and, albeit a dangerous and seductive stimulant, at least lifted him out of the monotonous grooves of his half-careless, half-slovenly, but always self-contented camp life. Heeding the wise caution of his comrades, he took the habit of wearing the ring only at night. Wrapped in his blanket, he stealthily slipped the golden circlet over his little finger, and, as he averred, "slept all the better for it." ”

“ There is hardly anything in the world which Godfrey will not find out if he is given time. A secret has the same attraction for him that cheese has for a mouse. Some day, I hope, he will find a trap baited with a seductive mystery.
“We always coal at night,” said Power.
“Of course,” said Marion, “the dirt shows so much less at night than it would in daylight.”
“But,” said Godfrey, “I don’t understand why you—”
I rose and said that we must go ashore. I invited Power to dinner, and urged him to bring McNeice with him if possible. I made it quite plain that I was not inviting Godfrey. ”

“ Lloyd declined to have anything more to do with it, but left him to Boyce, the gaoler, who, Prance afterwards said, wrote many things that he copied after him, and that he could find that Boyce had been with Bedloe and lord Shaftesbury, and that he was told that he must make his evidence agree with Bedloe's, or he would be sure to be hanged. The first story of Prance was, that they had killed Godfrey because he was an enemy to the queen's servants; that Green strangled him with a handerchief, and punched him on the breast with his knee; but finding him not dead, wrung his neck. ”

“ At length, on the 21st of December, one Prance, a silversmith, who had worked for the queen's chapel, was apprehended on suspicion, he having absented himself from his house for several days about the time of Godfrey's murder. The moment Bedloe saw him, he exclaimed, "That man is one of the murderers." It was in vain that he denied it, equally vain that he brought witnesses to prove that he did not leave home at the time of Godfrey's death, but a week before. He was thrown into Newgate and loaded with irons ”

“ He quite determined to leave Blazing Star, to settle himself seriously to the task of money-getting, and to return to his comrades, some day, a sarcastic, cynical, successful man, and so overwhelm them with confusion. For poor Cass had not yet reached that superiority of knowing that success would depend upon his ability to forego his past. Indeed, part of his boyhood had been cast among these men, and he was not old enough to have learned that success was not to be gauged by their standard. The moon lit up the dark interior of the coach with a faint poetic light. ”

“ He spends a little of his time in hunting, and a good deal more in grumbling at his hard luck. He might make a good living for his family with his rifle, if he felt so disposed, for game is abundant, and he is a good hunter and a capital shot; but he is too lazy to follow even that, the laziest of all occupations.”
After a few more questions Clarence learned so much of Godfrey’s history, and of his disposition and habits, that he began to think that he was already well acquainted with him; and besides Don described him so accurately that he could not fail to recognise him if he once met him. ”

“ In a moment more Godfrey would have been scudding across the field at the top of his speed. Tremblingly he approached Clarence, and had there been light enough to enable him to distinguish his features, the boy would have seen that they were as white as a sheet.
“You gave me to understand that you are not afraid of any man in the country,” continued the latter. “Now prove it. Reach out your hand and take hold of this fellow’s arm; and if you don’t feel solid flesh in your grasp, you may take yourself off as soon as you please!”
“Is it a man?” gasped Godfrey. ”

“ It takes just a touch of insanity that Dick never had, to do what ‘the man’ is doing. ‘The man’ must be practically a monomaniac on the subject.”
The bus stopped just as the Bank came in sight. Dorothy turned squarely in her seat and faced me. The seats around us happened to be empty. She looked at my somewhat guilty face and spoke emphatically.
“Jim Orrington, you don’t believe me, but it isn’t Dick Regnier.”
“Now, Dorothy,” I said, “look here. How did the letter get changed, unless it was done by Regnier that night at your cousin’s?”
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Oh, come now,” said Tom. ”

“ An impish spirit had seized upon Delia.
"Oh, yes, it is, isn't it, Muriel? Godfrey's never yet proposed to any girl because he knows that he'd be accepted, and if he had to marry that would upset his habits. Godfrey dear, you don't realize how much you hate to be upset."
"You know t—that's untrue."
"No, no, no. You're afraid that you won't be able to afford both a wife and hunters, and you prefer the hunters. Martin, Godfrey is one of those people who pretend to cultivate the earth in order that they may destroy its creatures. ”

“ I had time for no more, for the doctor came hurrying in.
“Only a scalp wound,” he said, as he made his brief examination. “I can bring him round in a minute.”
A vigorous application of cold water, an aromatic to his nose, and the patient sneezed and opened his eyes. As he gazed around I stepped forward.
“Mr. Hamerly,” I said, “I’m Orrington of Columbia. I’m a Theta Sigma Rho man, myself, [130] as I see you are. You’ve had a nasty fall, but you’re coming out all right. I’m going to see you home.”
Hamerly smiled rather wanly. “I don’t feel very energetic,” he said. ”

“ Godfrey was satisfied of it; and while he secretly admired the boy’s shrewdness, he reproached himself for not being smart enough to take advantage of the opening, and thus securing the ten dollars for his own use. Without a word more he pulled out Dan’s money and gave it to him, then walked back to the bench, picked up his pipe, and went off into a brown study. He never came out of it until he was called to breakfast, and even then he hardly aroused himself sufficiently to know what was going on around [Pg 134] him. Having satisfied his appetite, he took down his rifle and left the cabin. ”

“ The winter wore away, the spring came, and after spring, summer, with its greenery and flowers. Godfrey was happy enough during this time. To begin with, the place suited him. He was very well now, and grew enormously in that pure and trenchant air, broadening as well as lengthening, till, notwithstanding his slimness, he gave promise of becoming a large, athletic man.
Madame Riennes too and her unholy terrors had faded into the background. He no longer thought of spirits, although, it is true that a sense of the immanence and reality of the Unseen was always with him ”

“ After a moment she asked, suddenly, "What are you going to do with Hornsby?"
Cass had not thought of him. His short-lived rage was past with the occasion that provoked it. Without any fear of his adversary, he would have been content quite willing to meet him no more. He only said, "That will depend upon him."
"Oh, you won't hear from him again," said she, confidently; "but you really ought to get up a little more muscle. You've no more than a girl." She stopped, a little confused.
"What shall I do with your handkerchief?" asked the uneasy Cass, anxious to change the subject. ”

“ Better still, he won a certain praise for himself, in himself, in a consciousness of increased strength, health, power, and self-reliance. He began to turn his quick imagination and perception to some practical account, and made one or two discoveries which quite startled his more experienced, but more conservative companions. Nevertheless, Cass's discoveries and labors were not of a kind that produced immediate pecuniary realization, and Blazing Star, which consumed so many pounds of pork and flour daily, did not unfortunately produce the daily equivalent in gold. ”

“ The judge rose blinking. “According to your own statements,” he said, “the letter has not been out of Miss Haldane’s possession at all, and the [66] message once on there could not disappear. I fear I shall have to hold Mr. Orrington after all, till we can hear from the President.”
My heart sank. Tom turned to me.
“Never you mind, Jim, we’ll find the President for you, and have you out inside two days.”
I smiled somewhat wearily. “You mustn’t leave your work to do that, Tom.”
Dorothy broke in. “We can’t work alone. It needs all three of us to get anywhere, doesn’t it, Tom?” ”

“ We were still standing, peering out through the rising mist, when Dorothy spoke out excitedly. “That’s the next clue, there’s nothing else that will do so well,—the hunt for disappearing iron.”
“What good will that do?” said Tom. “We know where iron has disappeared, and we’ve run everything down as far as we could. It isn’t likely that Heidenmuller or the man went around shooting off signs for fun.”
“Of course not,” answered Dorothy impatiently. “But don’t you see the man must have had a laboratory, or lodgings, anyway, somewhere in London, if he got his data and his power from Dr. ”

“ Look a yer,” he added, pulling [Pg 77] some bills out of his pocket, and extending them across the wagon toward his father.
Godfrey was mollified at once. The sight of money always made him good-natured, especially if he saw a prospect of handling it himself.
“How much ye got thar?” he asked, in a very different tone of voice.
“Three dollars an’ a half,” replied Dan. “Silas Jones done offered it to me fur my beef, an’ when I axed him whar was the money, he counted it right down. Mebbe I could lend ye another dollar, pop, if ye’ll promise to pay it back.” ”

“ Those whom he incriminated, to a man, steadily denied any knowledge or participation in any such plot as he pretended. It was necessary to have two witnesses for convicting traitors, and other tools were not long wanting. Government had offered a large reward and full pardon to any one who could discover the assassins of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, and in a few days a letter was received from one William Bedloe, desiring that he might be arrested in Bristol and brought to London to give evidence. ”

“ For some time I had noticed a damp acrid odour in the air, and Godfrey said it came from the reptile.
"Then kill it and bury it," I said; "and, by the way, where did it come from?"
"I don't know that either," laughed Godfrey; "I found it clinging to the box that this gold serpent was brought in. I suppose my old Reuben is responsible."
"If the Cardinal Woods are the lurking-places for things like this," said I, "I am sorry that I am going to the Cardinal Woods."
"Are you?" asked Godfrey; "for the shooting?"
"Yes, with Barris and Pierpont. Why don't you kill that creature?" ”

“ Dorothy’s face was clouded as Tom came up to the spot where we were standing a little apart, Hamerly and Swenton had already started up the stairs. “I’m not sure that you are doing right in this, Tom,” said Dorothy swiftly, in a low voice. “I don’t like to bribe a servant to let us into a place where we don’t belong.” ”

“ At the announcement of my name and purpose, the statue at the door became suddenly disenchanted—the legs and wings fell—a man dropped lightly from the loft, musket in hand, and Cass only, with his gaze intently fixed on the mocking savages before him, of whom he took me indeed to be one, continued his defensive attitude with the poker, nor was it until I had advanced and taken his weapon from him, amid the loud laughter of the young Indians, that he finally came to his senses. And yet, after all, poor devil, his distrust was but natural. ”

“ Kase I know it is, an’ I can tell a’most every boat on the river that stops here, too. When she whistles, ye’ll see she’s got four—two high up an’ two low down. Mr. Don,” added Godfrey, lowering his voice, “can I see ye jest a minute, please, sar?”
Don, wondering what business Godfrey could have with him, which was of so private a nature that it could not be spoken of in the hearing of his father [Pg 115] and brother, drew off on one side, and the man, after clearing his throat, continued:
“We’re powerful poor folks, Mr. ”