“Well, read it; that’s all I can say!”
Together the pigtailed heads bent over the open page; stock-still as statues stood the pair as they took in the exciting contents of Mrs. Fleming’s missive.
“Darling Margot,” wrote her mother, “I have just got back to York, and want to send a line so that you may get it to-morrow, for I know you will be anxious to hear of the poor old man in your ‘Little House.’ I was with him until the doctor came, and then left Long Jake there; he will stay as long as he is needed, but the old man is very ill, and will not want him long.
“I could not explain to you yesterday all that there was to know, but now I have asked Long Jake, and he is willing for you to understand. You remember that, when he came out to us in the Bush years ago, he was in trouble? That, I think, was all you knew at the time. The fact was that he had been charged during his college days with forging the name of his uncle—who was the Earl of Carflick—on a cheque, and he had been convicted of this and consequently punished. I need not tell you that the conviction was a mistake; all the while—though he told no one—he knew that the forgery had been committed by an old servant in his uncle’s house—a butler who had been in the family for many years, and of whom, since boyhood, our Long Jake had been very fond. We both knew him well enough to be sure that he would suffer punishment of any kind rather than throw light on the wrong-doing of another, and he went to prison for that reason. When he was free again his uncle was dead, the old servant had disappeared, and Long Jake came out to Australia to ‘make a man of himself’ again, as he used to say. He stayed out there until he had put together a sum of money; then, with this in his possession, he came back to England last week to look for the old butler, whom he had always felt sure would never have committed this crime had he not been in great difficulties. He meant to help him look life in the face again.
“Then, darling Margot, comes the strange and wonderful part of the story; it was in the ‘Little House’ that he found the old servant; he was ill and dying, but he was longing to make a confession before he died, and to declare that it was he who had been guilty of the forgery. It seems almost impossible to believe, but it is true, that, just as he was beginning to tell the rector all this—just at that moment you and Long Jake knocked at the door.
“Since then Jake has not left the old man. You need not be unhappy, Margot, for he is quite peaceful and at rest now, and he will not be left alone again until the end. I think you may tell this to Gretta and Josy, as you have all been so much interested in the ‘Little House.’ Stella will, no doubt, hear something of it from her father, and as Long Jake will be returning to Australia again almost at once—for he has nothing now to keep him here—there is no reason for his sake why the story should be kept secret. This is a long letter; I must arrange very soon to see Gretta, and will write to Miss Slater about this. We have given up the car, so I may come over by train.”
It was at this point that both heads were raised simultaneously. Both the girls’ eyes looked remarkably moist. “Oh, Margot!” burst in Gretta almost impetuously. “What an awfully brave man that Long Jake is! Fancy bearing all that!”
“And our poor old man!” said her cousin. “Oh, I’m so glad he’s happy now. It’s the most wonderful story I ever heard. But I’m not surprised at anything brave Long Jake would do!”
The letter, being re-read to Josy in the dormitory before church, provoked louder if not more heart-felt adulation. “Whether that Long Jake of yours is at school or whether he isn’t, he ought to have the shield,” announced that damsel. “Why, the motto simply fits him exactly; he’s the most utterly downright ripping man I ever heard of in my life!”
“It’s funny to think that if it hadn’t been for Sybil——” began Gretta.