The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-05-13


Glad to see you, old fellow; sorry /
cannot offer You better hospitality;
will for the deed.
The turnkey left us, and / sat down
on the bed near Brancher, who as
sumed an photographed manner,
and waved black-edged envelope in
his hand MS he spoke
My dear boy, said he, when told
you / was once Judge in India, re-
served the important fact that / was
driven from my judgement-seat on an
absurd charge of corruption. The man
who drove me from it, however, /
should not forget TO say, was n greater
thief than myself, and only hated me
because | was his rival. ! returned to
England almost penniless, and declared
war against the richer part of mankind,
especially hotel-keepers. determined
to live on rich fools, and never to starve
while they had crust l had first
tried to be honest, tried lecturer, wine
merchant, coal merchant, auctioneer,
house agent, but failed in all. Temp
ted in the hour of need, l joined gang
of swindlers, and soon became compar-
atively rich We worked grand COM
binations of fraud, and divided the
spoil.
As he made this unblushing confess
sion, Brancher kept rolling a small pill,
about the color and size of the seed of
a sweet pea, between his finger and
thumb.
Holloway? said I, glancing at the
pill inquisitively.
No. said he, smiling % no; not
Holloway. A better pill. 1t cures
neutrality-suspicious., ague, govt, cramp,
brain, stomach, everything But, as /
was saying, our gang prospered. AT
last we got too daring, and L was
caught. But there was one disagreed
bic condition entaled on all those who
entered our confederacy, and who
should fall into the hands of the Phil
istines. That condition l have been
unpleasantly reminded of this morning
by the letter l now hold in my hand.
And this condition? said |.
4 cannot tell you. Take this letter,
l have re-sealed, open it tomorrow
when you get up; you will then see,
and can act accordingly. But enough
of that. Why / asked You to come
was this: ! shall soon have to start for
a distant country ;-transported, IN fact.
| do not want to leave poor Lizzy and
the children beggars. | have some
money which | wish you to take care
Of and manage for them
Money = | said, incredulous. "A
prisoner with money?
Yes, said he; "a prisoner with
money Do you think an old thief has
not two tricks for every one that the
thief-taker has Look.
He stopped down, and taking off his
heavy soled shoe, picked out one of the
sparrowbill nails in the heel, and then
slid back sort of lid, which covered a
box-shaped hollow, constructed in the
thickness Of the heel. He drew out a
small square wad of bank notes-they
were notes to large amount.
There, said he; that's for Lizzy.
1t was honestly got, and is not part of
my spoil, so you need not fear taking
/ it.
1 did not put out my hand.
'Gregson, said he, if you do not pity
me, you should pity Lazy. L swear to
you ON this Bible, she did not know
how lived. 1 spared you too when /
could have stripped you of every penny
of your savings.
| started.
Do you not remember how, one night
when you had whist party, | came in
and got you into a discussion about
monographs, how we all began to try
our signatures, and | eventually went
off with the paper that contained them?
/ could have forged your name to any
amount, but l spared you because we
had been good friends
/ took the money, and listened to his
directions as to how it was to be in
vested.
BE kind, said he, to Lizzy and the
children-they will not be ungrateful.
The boys will grow up good men. Give
them and Polly my love
But You don't so yet?'
No, not yet, he replied slowly; but
l cannot bear to see them again And
as he said this in a rather low voice,
he playfully tipped the little brown
pill at the wall and caught it again in
his hand
If it were not somewhat pharisaical
and cruel to preach to you at this mo-
ment, Brancher, said |, i should urge
you to lament your lost opportunities,
your injured wife, your degraded chill
dren. 1t is hard in these selfish days
to struggle upward; it is doubly cruel,
then, to take ones children and hurl
them down into an abyss of hopeless
poverty. You had talents, you had all
that men require to fight their way to
the sunshine
And do you think never lament
those lost opportunities 2 said Branch
er, tanning away his head; 1T was my
mode of revenging myself on an unjust
world.
But pitiful way; the world is an
abstraction--you cannot revenge your
self on it except by injuring the inno-
cent and hardening and debasing your
self
Our points of view differ, said
Brancher, rising, rs the turnkey came
baok for mo sGood-by God bless