A STRANGE WILD STORY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2764, 19 March 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

A STRANGE WILD STORY.

“A diamond ring on fingers that sew for a living-!” The envy and. suspicion that prompted this remark and others like, it was turned into pity when the women of Bloomsboro learned' that tire genteel and reserved! stranger who had sought a home among them was burdened with a . groat sorrow. This lady and her little girl wore handsome clothes—they had no others .—and their appearance and manner were in strange contrast with their surroundings at Aunt Polly Cartels. In/’explanation the land old woanuz tofcl her aieighibours that Mrs. Van Dale was her great-niece; that her own pretty home had been broken up, her money wrongfully taken from her, and she had come to live wit'll-her and was trying to get her living by making fine shirts for a- city store. Years after this, when greatly depressed, and fearing that she was about to die and leave her little girl friendless, Mrs. Van Dale told her story to one who had manifested sympathy without vulgar curiosity. Using ner own words as nearly as I can after an interval of more than twenty-five veal's, I will repeat the story here: “After my mother’s death I went to sea two voyages with my father, who was a sea captain—once to Calcutta and once to Hong Kong. After this his health failed, and he gave: uj) has ship, and we travelled in our own country for about a year, when he died at Saratoga. ••I was left with a small property cf about 12,000 dollars in charge or his only relative —a half-brother —for whom my father had sent in his illness. Of course, I was heart-brokeai, for I was alone in the world. The only personal friend or relative I had was this kind old farmer. He took me after my father’s burial to lias home. “The moment I entered it I saw that his wife, who had no children, and whose only purpose in life was to' save both work and money, was not glad to see me. She did not even kiss the poor forlorn little girl whose coming had surprised' her. “After a dull and unhappy year my uncle sent me to boarding-school, and I went gladly, feeling sure I could find there more of the love for which, my heart was aching than I had found in my uncle’s home. “My hopes were realised. The principal of the school was a tender, motherly woman, and real friendships among the girls. When I had been there a. year or tiwo tli!e brother of my room-mate —a graduate of a medical school —came to visit her, aiuLfrom that hour when we two met, voy Tate was interwoven with his.

“My uncle was satisfied with the young man’s family and prospects, and gave his consent to our marriage, and in four months aft-ar tlhat lie, gave me and my 12,000 dollars into stranger hands. “I was taken to my husband’s home, a rambling old house, said to have been built before the Revolutionary war. There were modern houses around it, which were occupied by the brothers ol my husband —rough-looking men —and by a widowed sister. The sister was the oldest of the family, and she was a most forbidding woman in pea-son and manners. “The family all called any husband 'Dr. Thad/ although he had never had a patient—and they seemed very proud of him and his learning, as well they might he. I was told- that sonic of bis brothers were engaged extensively in tlie. oyster business, and others in shipping, ‘down the coast,’ wherever that was.

•‘I often heard loud talking between the young men and the old people, who always seemed pleading with them, for or against something—l 'knew not what. , , ' _ , “When I had been in the house about six months I was startled and distressed one day by my husband s telling me that he must leave me for some time, and that if I felt lonesome with the old people, I could go to Efhe s. “Effie, the widowed sister, seemed more like a stalwart man in woman s clothes than she did Like a woman, fehe always looked at me as if reading my wry thoughts. I told my husband that there was a weirdness about Erne s house that made mv blood run cold; and added, ‘l’m afraid of your sister. “He asked me if anyone had been telling ,me stories about her. “I replied that' uo one had spoken to me about her, in fact, I 'knew' no one out of his family, and I pleaded with him to take me with him. But he put saying that he going to a lonely parrot the coast on business, and should occupy a hut white there with two old -negroes and several rough men, with whom he should not dare leave me in liis long absences cm his scientihc expeditions farther down the coast and into the interior. , That night two men came to the house and carried some iron-bound boxes from a locked chest in my room o_ to Effie’s house. .My husband asbed me not to mention this to the okl people, who were-then absent, and added, •'Doctors haye many Hungs that peopk ought not to see, you know. “I thought of skeletons and dead bodies and turned pale; hut he laughed and .said: ‘They are filled with surgical instruments and such things , an was very natural for me to believe him When my younger sister-in-law came home from school to spend her vacation I was very happy. But she sc ® m troubled. She was grieved to find J still there in that old house, and said •Thad promised me faithfully that he d never bring you here. When he mines homo insist on his taking.a house in town and beginning the practice of hm profession. Buy a house with y own money.’ “I told* her I had given all my money to him. She sighed, and made no re“Mv husband wrote me very often, mailing -his letters from a city. He was always ‘coming home next- month.’ In the meantime ray little .girl was born, and she could walk and say many words before I saw him again. “When be did return he said he would buy a place in town and stay with me, but he soon had a letter which hk said contained intelligence that vrawld necessarily take bam again for several weeks at least. I tlien tod him that I should certainly go back to my uncle’s unless he made some provision for me and my child. “A few hours later he. came into the house, kissed me and said that hehad ■just heard the sad news that Jett of hisobrothers — had been drowned at sea, but I saw no signs of grief m tn house, and I did not believe it. Jetts place, however, was bought for me. i was under the very shadow of thie widowcal sister’s house, and I felt as of she was set as a spy over me. “Even my servant bore the family name. My husband was always too tender in his manner towards me and our child that, although my conhdeuce in his uprightness was shaken, I i could be happy anywhere if we oc together.

'I pleaded with him to take ns, hut lie said it was not practicable. It was a. iojnely region where he was obliged to be, and to- get to it I should have to tramp ten miles through the canebrako after leaving the last conveyance. ‘You will not be happy there/ he said. At last, however, he promised to improve his accommodations and send for us. But he did not keep his word. - - “With all their riches—and "they were supposed to be wealthy—the Van Dales were, for some reason, ostracised in -that region; and I grew so nervous by the continual mystery that was about me that sometimes I was almost frantic. .

‘‘One day I packed my trunks when Effie, the sister, was array, and sent them to a storehouse in New York, and with a bag as. my only luggage I set- off for the undefined locality, ‘down the coast.’ I knew the name of the large city near the place I sought and of the locality of the hamlet where my husband stopped. “I travelled day and night. The cars carried me to' within five miles of my destination, and there- I took a waggon. My Tow white’ driver, taking me for a nigger-huntor, shrewdly suggested that ‘there was an old man and woman off in the brake that never come out, and that they might be my “niggers,” ’ and lie pointed out a rude path which would lead me to them.

“When, after a cruel tramp of two or three .miles, I fell fainting oin the cabin floor, with my child in my arms, old Hippy and Tobe, the negroes who lived there, thought I was a ghost conic to punish them for their sins. Whlen I told them who I was they fairly turned white! They said the mas’rs wouldn’t come home for four days, but that they would ‘cherish me right smart’ themselves.

“I soon learned that Jeff, who had been Tost at sea/ and Da.ve, who ivas ‘in the West Indies/ were both with my husband. ''‘Old Hippy asked mo if I was 'Mas’r Thad’s true and sartin wife—married to him de way dat sticks? “When I told l her ‘yes’ she sighed and said, ‘Dis yere’s a mighty wicked world! I wish de good Lord would take us all out oai’t-l Does you, pray, honey ?’

“I could' not toll her that my misery had vet led' me to God.

‘‘ \[ prays/ she said, ‘and Tobe, he swars; but neither way gits us out o’ dis yere death, swamp. Mas’r Jeff’s wife died here of swamp fever, an’ she lays dar, twix de two tall pines dat’s been skinned by de lightnin’!’ “I told hor I had seen his wife just before I left home, and she nodded her head and said, ‘Not dis yere one ! She was a pirate’s wife fust, and she helped ’’em in all de business!’

“That night, after a supper ol rice and possum, we sat listening to the howling of the storm., when Tobe remarked, ‘Good 1 night for business. We shan’t see deni ones hack; not for db present.’ “Those words of Tobe’s half revealed the wretched truth to me, and they aroused a. feeling, not of weakness, but of strength. I asked him to tell me all he know of the family, and promised that if lie would I would help him to escane north.

“ ‘But- dese dogs is trained to chase us, missus/ he said. “I told him i/J kill the dogs. That Elan for escaping had never entered his ead.

“ 'Dey’s a bad gineration/ he said. ‘Dey bad trouble wid officers up Norf and so come down here to carry on de wrackin’ business, where’s less law to watch ’em. Dev lures vessels on to de rocks wid false lights and wracks ’em! Den dey robs de ships and de drowned passengers. “ ‘I hasn’t never heerd of one oil ’em washin’ ashore alive/ he said in answer to my inquiry. ‘Dey buries ’em in de sand. I peeps and listens to Ifim nights and I know a heap !’ “ ‘But dey isn’t no wuss dan dat great giant sister o’ their’n, dat takes de gold and de jewelries in trunks ,up Norf and hides ’em up. Oh, dere’s de heart o’ a. pirate in her busso.ni! And, oh, missus, dere’s heaps of buried gold ancl sich round he. e. I reckon dere’s some under dat harf-stun, de dogs watches it so!’ “I told him I would not touch it any sooner than I would a serpent. “We . left.'the hut the next night, that we might not attract attention, and started 1 for the Northr— Tobe carrying Anna, and' Hippy carrying my bag and bundle —and reached the cars just at daybreak; and a poor, bedraggledlooking -party we were ! ’ “The negroes, who declared they had been stolen from a kind master and preferred to .go back to him, rode a hundred miles with me, and then took the road to reach their former home — with more money from my small store than they had ever seen before. “I left no trace of myself, and 1 the surprise of the men must have, been great when they returned to their cabin to find the negroes gone and the dogs dead. Of course, they did not dare to pursue the blacks for fear of drawing attention to themselves and' their dreadful work. “When I reached New York I took my trunks from the storehouse. I knew Effie would seek me at my uncle’s, and, remembering that my father always sent a Christmas' gift to his Aunt Polly Carter, I wrote to her and received a welcome to the little farmhouse—a haven of oeace. , , . “Tobe and Hippy had spoken of my husband as being unlike his brothers. They thought .him only their tool. But my ‘love for him had all vanished, and I resolved that the Van Dales should never have my child. About three years after this recital by the poor wife, the New York papers •were filled, one day, with the details or crimes of a certain family—'giving names and place of residence—arid hints were given of piracy and statements of facts respecting the wrecking of ships for robbery. A description was also given of an amazon who was to figure in the trial. The next day Aunt Polly and Mrs. Van Dale went off on a long journey. In a few weeks the former returned alone, saying that her niece had concluded to live in a mild'er climate. Mrs. Van Dale had evidently fled lest she might in some way be traced and made a witness against those of whom she stood in mortal fear. Many persons in middle life will recall the' trial of these wreckers and the disclosures made of their crimes. But none of them knew the story of this young life that was blighted by a hasty connection with them, and was thus made a sufferer for their sins.