The Living Link Part 70

Saying this, Reginald looked at his watch, and then replacing it, turned once more to Leon.

"Your tricks have failed. I will produce you as you are, and Miss Dalton will be safe. You'll have to explain it all in court, so you may as well explain it to me. I don't want to be hard with you. I know you of old, and have forgiven other villainies of yours. You can't take vengeance on any one. Even your silence will be of no use. You must choose between a confession to me now, or a general confession in court.

Besides, even if you could have vengeance, it wouldn't be worth so much to a man like you as what I offer you. I offer you freedom. I will give you back all your notes and bonds. You will be no longer in any danger. More, I will help you. I don't want to use harsh measures if I can help it. Don't be a fool. Do as I say, and accept my offer. If you don't, I swear, after what you've done I'll show you no more mercy than I showed your dog."

Leon was silent. His face grew more tranquil. He was evidently affected by his brother's words. He stood, in thought, with his eyes fixed on the floor. Debt was a great evil. Danger was around him.

Freedom was a great blessing. Thus far he had been safe only because he had been in hiding. Besides, he was powerless now, and his knowledge of Reginald, as he had been in early life, and as he saw him now, showed him that his brother always meant what he said.

"I don't believe you have those notes and bonds."

"How could I know unless I paid them? I will tell you the names concerned in most of them, and the amounts."

And Reginald thereupon enumerated several creditors, with the amounts due to each. By this Leon was evidently convinced.

"And you've paid them?" said he.

"Yes."

"And you'll give them to me?"

"I will. I am your only creditor now. I have found out and paid every debt of yours. I did this to force you to come to term. That is all I want. You see that this is for your interest. More, I will give you enough to begin life on. Do you ask more than this?"

Leon hesitated for a short time longer.

"Well," said he at last, "what is it that you want me to do?"

"First of all I want you to tell me about that infernal trick of yours with--the body. Whose is it? Mind you, it's of no consequence now, so long as you are alive, and can be produced; but I wish to know."

With some hesitation Leon informed his brother. The information which he gave confirmed the suspicions of Miss Fortescue. He had determined to be avenged on Edith and her father, and after that night on which Edith had escaped he had managed to procure a body in London from some of the body-s.n.a.t.c.hers who supplied the medical schools there. He had removed the head, and dressed it in the clothes which he had last worn.

He had taken it to Dalton Park and put it in the well about a week after Edith's flight. He had never gone back to his room, but had purposely left it as it was, so as to make his disappearance the more suspicious.

He himself had contrived to raise those frequent rumors which had arisen and grown to such an extent that they had terminated in the search at Dalton Park. Anonymous letters to various persons had suggested to them the supposed guilt of Edith, and the probability of the remains being found in the well.

The horror which Reginald felt at this disclosure was largely mitigated by the fact that he had already imagined some such proceeding as this, for he had felt sure that it was a trick, and therefore it had only been left to account for the trick.

The next thing which Reginald had to investigate was the mock marriage.

But here he did not choose to question Leon directly about Edith. He rather chose to investigate that earlier marriage with Miss Fortescue.

By this time Leon's objections to confess had vanished. The inducements which Reginald held out were of themselves attractive enough to one in his desperate position, and, what was more, he felt that there was no alternative. Having once begun, he seemed to grow accustomed to it, and spoke with greater freedom.

To Reginald's immense surprise and relief, Leon informed him that the marriage with Miss Fortescue was not a mock marriage at all. For once in his life he had been honest. The marriage had been a real one. It was only after the affair in the Dalton vaults that he had pretended that it was false. He did so in order to free himself from his real wife, and gain some control over the Dalton estate. The Rev. Mr. Porter was a bona fide clergyman, and the marriage had been conducted in a legal manner. He had found out that the Rev. Mr. Porter had gone to Scotland, and saw that he could easily deceive his wife.

"But," said Reginald, "what is the reason that your wife could never find him out? She looked over all the lists of clergymen, and wrote to all of the name of Porter. She could not find him."

"Naturally enough," said Leon, indifferently. "She supposed that he belonged to the Church, because he used the Church service; but he was a Presbyterian."

"Where is he now?"

"When last I heard about him he was at Falkirk."

"Then Miss Fortescue was regularly married, and is now your wife?"

"She is my wife," said Leon.

At this Reginald was silent for some time. The joy that filled his heart at this discovery was so great that for a time it drove away those other thoughts, deep and dread, that had taken possession of him. But these thoughts soon returned.

"One thing more," said he, in an anxious voice. "Leon, where is my mother?"

CHAPTER LIV.

THE SONS AND THEIR FATHER.

"Where is my mother?"

Such was Reginald's last question. He asked it as though Lady Dudleigh was only _his_ mother, and not the mother of Leon also. But the circ.u.mstances of his past life had made his father and his brother seem like strangers, and his mother seemed all his own.

At this question Leon stared at him with a look of surprise that was evidently unfeigned.

"Your mother?" he repeated.

"I do not say _our_ mother," said Reginald. "I say _my_ mother. Where is she?"

"I swear I know nothing about her," said Leon, earnestly. "I have never seen her."

"You have never seen her?" repeated Reginald, in a tremulous voice.

"Never," said Leon; "that is, not since she left this place ten years ago."

"You saw her at Dalton Hall!" cried Reginald.

"At Dalton Hall? I did not," said Leon.

"Mrs. Dunbar, she called herself. You saw her often."

"Mrs. Dunbar! Good Heavens!" cried Leon, in unaffected surprise. "How was I to know that?"

Reginald looked at him gloomily and menacingly.

"Leon," said he, in a stern voice, "if you dare to deceive me about this, I will show no mercy. You must tell _all_--yes, _all_."

"But I tell you I don't know any thing about her," said Leon; "I swear I don't. I'll tell every thing that I know. No such person has ever been here."

Reginald looked at his brother with a gloomy frown; but Leon's tone seemed sincere, and the thought came to him that his brother could have no reason for concealment. If Leon did not know, he would have to seek what he wished from another--his father. His father and his mother had gone off together; that father alone could tell.