“Yes, but I could, and did too; and many's the time I said to myself, 'If Beecher was n't a top-sawyer, what a trump he 'd be! He has head for anything, and address for anything.' And do you know,”—here Grog dropped his-voice to a whisper, and spoke as if under great emotion,—“and do you know that I could n't be the same man to you myself just because of your rank? That was the reason I used to be so sulky, so suspicious, and so—ay, actually cruel with you, telling you, as I did, what could n't I do with certain acceptances? Now, look here, Beecher—Light that taper beside you; there's a match in that box at your elbow.”
Unsteady enough was Beecher's hand; indeed, it was not wine alone now made him tremble. An intense agitation shook his frame, and he shivered like one in an ague fit. He couldn't tell what was coming; the theme alone was enough to arrest all process of reasoning on his part. It was like the force of a blow that stunned and stupefied at once.
“There, that will do,” said Grog, as he drew a long pocket-book from his breast-pocket, and searched for some time amongst its contents. “Ay, here they are; two—three—four of them,—insignificant-looking scraps of paper they look; and yet there's a terrible exposure in open court, a dreary sea-voyage over the ocean, and a whole life of a felon's suffering in those few lines.”
“For the love of mercy, Davis, if you have a spark of pity in your heart,—if you have a heart at all,—don't speak in this way to me!” cried Beecher, in a voice almost choked with sobs.
“It is for the last time in my life you'll ever hear such words,” said Grog, calmly. “Read them over carefully; examine them well. Yes, I wish and require it.”
“Oh, I know them well!” said Beecher, with a heavy sigh. “Many's the sleepless night the thought of them has cost me.”
“Go over every line of them; satisfy yourself that they 're the same,—that the words 'Johnstone Howard' are in your own hand.”
Beecher bent over the papers; but, with his dimmed eyes and trembling fingers, it was some time ere he could decipher them. A sigh from the very bottom of his heart was all the reply he could make.
“They'll never cost you another sleepless night, old fellow!” said Davis, as he held them over the flame of the taper. “There's the end of 'em now!”