The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-28


half-past seven"
At IL o'clock on the following day the
answer came by telegram:
"Shall be with you half-past seven"
$50 You have got some nsws for me, Fer
ris, Philip said, as hs entered.
II have a long yarn 10 tell YOU that |
heard from Harbut last night. OF course,
it was not told me officially. In fact,
may say at oace that legally it amounts to
nothing. Still, it is interesting, and there
are some singular points in it; but it is a
long story to tell. and am sure | shall make
much better telling of il. and you will APP
preciate it much more, if you put it by uaGil
We have finished dinner"
Just as you like" Philip said, 81 confess
| am hungry, and l know how your land
lady cooks. Well, your message surprised
me. 1t was but the other day that YOU told
me you had heard nothing Whatever about
it. Has this friend of yours made any dis
coveriesl If 50, he must be a clever fellow,
for as we agreed there seemed nothing to GO
upon.n
"Harbut is one of the cleyerest fellows |
know, only, as he complains himself, he can
not get a fair start. He is singularly
youthful in manner as well as in appear
ance; he has keen sense of humor, he is al
ways ready 20 turn anything into joke,
and when he does try to look grave he is so
preternatuTally serious that any one can see
that it is put on Men who don't know him
as l do, regard him as sort of madcap boy.
The result is he scarcely gets any business
put into his hands. OF course, we have but
little in his line. If we want an opinion
we get one from one of the leaders, not be-
cause this opinion is worth any more, per-
haps, than MS, but because our clients are
very much more influenced by il. Some
day Robert will get his chance; his leader
will be away, ald he will be able to show
what he Is made of, and when he does be
will astonish them, but when tell the story
you will see that what he has accomplished
is something marvellous. However, we will
leave the matter till we have finished din
ner. Is there anything new down in your
part of the worlds hear from report that
there is likely TO be vacancy in the West
ern Division.
turn being thus given to the converse
ton, they chatted politics until the cloth
was removed and coffee brought up.
Now. Philip, take a mental note of any
points that occur to you as | go on. Talk
about them afterward, then you will not in
terrupt the thread of the story"
James Ferris then related the facts he had
learned from Robert Harbut's first nara
tive, and ELECTED by his questions after
ward
Philip Clitheroe heard him in silence until
he came 10 the point of the missing leaf
from the register.
"You don't say so, Ferris" he broke in
Good heavens, that girl doesn't think that
it is my doing, hope"
"As Hlrbut had enlightened her some-
what as to your character, Philip, you may
be sure that the idea did not occur to her,
and if it had done so it would have been
dissipated by the further discoveries that
have, as you will hear, been made"
but this IS amazing" Paihp went on,
when the narrative was brought to con-
clusion. "Who on earth can be meddliag
in this manner who could nave known that
this man Morson was likely to have been
present at marriage of my uncle's? Nov
you have told me the facts, pleas, let me
know the conclusions that you and Harbut
have arrived at"
Our opinion IN most respects Is the
same, Philip. OF course, Harbut thinks
that there was marriage at Fokestone
Church; equally, of course, | by no means
admit this. 1t is question of pure conjec-
ture on either side. His opinion is that your
uncle married the girl there, aud after her
death abstrac cd the proof of the marriage.
My contention is, that 1t is more likely that
TIE marriage is either a real one or O false
one, by which the girl was deceived, took
place in London, or wherever else they
stopped, the morning when they started for
Folkstone; but it would probably be in
London, aud the leaf of the register is just
as likely to have been distracted by some
one interested in one of the other mar
riages recorded upon it as by some one in
terested in this Of your uncle's. l grant, of
course, that if the marriage took place at
Folkestone, the person who cut out the leaf
was probably your uncle. 1t is a horribly
unpleasant thing to have to say of dead
man, but certainly the suspicious point
strongly that way. Still / incline very much
to my own view, that there was either real
marriage OF sham one in London. | am
Inclined to think that it was sham one.
although here | allow l may be mistaken.
We have nothing to go upon either way.
The girl brought up in a country village
could, of course, have been easily deceived
by a ceremony performed by sham clergy
man in a private room. Such things have,
we know, been done, and it would be no
worse to credit your uncle with this than it
is to credit him with cutting the leaf out of
the register"
81 do not know that it is" Philip said,
gloonily; lin the one case he robbed a
woman OF her rights, and in the other a
child. Still, Ferris, / don't belieue he did
either one or the other Ny uncle was not
a man ever quite understood, or whom
ever warmed to, but l never knew him to
do an ungentlemanly action, and | certainly
always credited him with a kindly DISPOSE
ton. | don't believe he was capable of
either of these actions. Now, as to this
Morsou business-whaG do you make of
that's?
1.-THE only reasonable idea that occurs to
me Is, that it is some friend of your uncle's,
who perhaps met him abroad with his sup
posed wife and servant, and to whom he
coafided the secret, aud hearing that Corbyn
was dead, and that you had come in for the
property, he was endeavoring to get hold of
Morson and find out il the woman was
alive, and if there were any children. An
other alternative is, that Morson may have
told the story to some friend who is now
trying to make money of it."
''Your first alternative, Jim, would imply
that my uncle confessed TO a marriage; If he
had told friend that he was not married
to the girl, there would be no reason for our
making inquiries now"
~ quite see that, Philip, and therefore I
incline to the other hypothesis, that it is
some other friend of Morson's who had
promised to let him know if there was any
Grange at C ,rbyn Court. in order that he
might put the screw upon your uncle IL the
opportunity should arise. In all these years
ne might we'll have lost sight of Morson,
and when he saw your uncle's death in the
paper, might have set to work at once to
endeavor to find him out"
But again that rather points to mar
riage. AS long as my uncle was alive the
man might attempt to make money out of
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