“We have just heard from father,” he said.
“He died in South America,” explained Albert; “died there miserably—not because of any poverty, but because he was an exile and felt that he was a swindler. He left a letter which was forwarded to us. His life, he said, had been one long torture since that night on the boat, and he had a thousand times regretted that he did not actually throw himself into the lake. I fear,” added Albert sadly, “that he really did commit suicide finally. He made one dying request. I would like to read it to you.”
Albert took a letter from his pocket and read this paragraph:
“My life as an exiled swindler has been hell, but I have seen the Chicago papers and I know that I saved the firm and the invention and that you have prospered. That has been my only consolation. It would have been some relief if I could have communicated with you, but I would not make you a party to my crime. Now, at last, I ask you to do something for the old man: Refund to the insurance company every cent you received, less the premiums I actually paid. Refund it all, if necessary, but make my record clear. That was the only dishonest act of a long business career, and God only knows how I have suffered for it. You have prospered, you can do this, and I know you will. It is that alone that gives me consolation as my period of punishment at last draws to a close.”
“How did he do it?” asked Murray, before Albert could speak.
“He purchased and took with him a second-hand suit of clothes and a wig,” explained Albert. “He cut off his whiskers and mustache, so that he appeared as a man who had neglected to shave for a week—a pretty good disguise in itself, for father was always neat and clean. The clothes he had worn went overboard with a weight attached, which accounts for the splash, and he himself raised the cry of ‘Man overboard!’ After that he kept out of the light, and he had little difficulty in slipping ashore while we were hunting his state-room. His mental distress was real, for he was leaving all he held dear and condemning himself to exile.”
“Well,” commented Murray, “I guess the circumstances would have fooled any one, for his whole previous life made him about the last man who would be suspected of anything of that sort.”
“And now,” said Albert, “my brother and I are prepared to make a cash settlement with you on any basis that you deem satisfactory.”