Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-11-21

went 10 look for Bsvidge'6 carriage,
leaving the Oriental With my employer.
He was some minutes away, sud
when be returned Bavidee was much
worse; hs could no longer speak or
even stand they had to get the help
OF some walters to lit him into the
carriage. The forsisner's attentions
were given in the kinosst possible way !;
but my informant would not hear Of
bis leaving the Guildhsll, as he offered
to do, and himself got into the carriage
and brought my poor employer home.
The eminent ply stefan ! bad sent for
shortly made his appearance. As soon
as he saw the patient he intimatsd to
me that death was at hand. Then q
short colloquy was held by the two
doctors apart. | overheard Q word or
two Of their consultation, as it hap
pened. The local practitioner seemed
to be urging something which the other
pooh-poohed.
"Preposterous, my dear sir" |
heard him say. "At q Guildhall din
ner Nonsense No, no one OF those
cases Of obscure cardiac disease, end
ing in sudden and unexpected syncope.
The case is plain to me-"
The local doctor relinquisbed his
opinion, whatever it was, and bowed to
that Of the great man. A sudden
weakening of the hearts action was,
they told me, the cause Of old Bayidge's
prostTation. There was probably some
unsupported organic disease, and this,
acted on by the excitement Of the din-
ner, had resulted in syncope.
Meanwhile the patient lay white and
motionless upon his bed scarcely breath
ing. Toward midnight he opened his
eyes and looked at US. lie gazed at
Emmeline and her mother as they knelt
sobbiDg by the bedside, and then at
me, the doctors, and his friend, who
still remained. lie seemed to make
great efforts to raise his left hand, but
could not succeed in doing so, and kept
looking at it and then at US.
"Curious," said the gentleman who
brought him home; she kept doing
that in the carriage"
The physician lifted the hand and
looked at it. A slight recent cut or
scratch was perceptible on the ball Of
the thumb.
THAT'S it," said the great man.
L" His weakening faculties are fixed on
this little cut, you see. Likely he
caught his hand on something just be-
fore the seizure perhaps even in the
carrisge."
And then old Bsvidge gasped and
gasped as if he tried to speak and
could not. And finally he looked visit
fully and yearningly at Emmeline and
then at me. And half-whisper gur-
gled from bis stiff lips. thought he
said:
take care Of"
But then the spirit fled and left me
forever uncertain whether he meant to
warn or wished to give his dear one
into my charge.
The funeral took place day or two
later, and then the will was read. Ex-
cept few legacies, including year.
salary to each Of his clerks, the tesla
tor bequeathed all he died possessed o.
to Emmeline. The trustees, two city
friends Of Bavidge's, appointed an az
countant to wind up the dead mans
affairs, and asked me to remain at the
office and help him for the present.
The day after my employers death |
had gone to the Office to inform the
other clerks. was surprised to find
poor old Bavidge's keys upon the table
in his private room. But everything
appeared to be locked up and uudis-
turbed. Still the forgetfulness was
unlike the man, and | took it as indi-
eating the beginning Of his seizure.
Yet there was something mysterious
about it, for / fancied recollecting his
taking those keys away with him, and
he certainly bad not returned to the
Office before the seizure overlook him.
The housekeeper, whom questioned
en- this head-our Office was set OF
chambers in large building-had not
seen or heard any one como IN after .e
left. She fancied some ore came in
late at night, because in the morning
she had seen muddy foot-msrks on tbs
stairs she had cleaned the night before
But there were many Offices in the
building, and nothing to indicate which
of them the person had gone to, if any
such had indeed entered at all. IL
must have been somebody belonging to
the place, at any rate, or he would not
have had q latch.key for the outer door.
The matter did not rest in my mind
just then.
When the accountant and ] came 70
look into the affairs we found tho bust
ness extremely compact and simple.
ard the records thoroughly posted. IL
seemed that when all goods and securi-
ties were realized there would be some
$50, 600 at least for Emmeline. This
was our first impression, but it quickly
appeared that we were premature IN
accepting it. We received intimation
of large credit given to " Bsyidge ~
Co." by bank {; then another similar
claim was heard Of, and then various
unaccountable acceptances began to
crop up. 1t appeared that large trans
actions in the East were still in pro-
gress.
TIE odd thing was that no reference
to these matters appeared in any of the
books. All had had any knowledge
of was straightforward and easily an
derstood, but these latter affairs were
a puzzle indeed. Only one UNDECIDED
scrap of paper thrust away in corner
threw any light upon them. There
seemed to have been memorandum
upon it, pencilled by my late employee.
There was column Of figures and
dates and initials opposite them. We
gathered eventually that it was a rougn
list of bills aud acceptances now fall
ing due; but it did not enlightcn Us
except as to the total amount, which
was startling. The paper appeared to
have been used as wrapper for others,
as on the back Of it appeared the en-
dorsement Vouchers of Il, d, and
others"
OF course we made diligent search
in every possible place for papers re-
lating to these matters. We found
none; but We discovered that certain
pages had been extracted from Bs.