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The Hindered Hand, a novel by Sutton E. Griggs |
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Chapter 33. Back In Almaville |
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_ CHAPTER XXXIII. Back in Almaville The Hon. H. G. Volrees sat in his office room looking moodily out of the window. Since the desertion of his young bride his life had been one long day of misery to him. His mystification and anger increased with the years, and he had kept a standing offer of a large reward for information leading to the discovery of his wife. He had vowed vengeance upon the author or authors of his ruin. "Come in," said he in a response to a knock on his door. A young Negro man walked in and Mr. Volrees turned around slowly to look at his caller. "This is Mr. Volrees?" asked the Negro. Mr. Volrees nodded assent, surveying the Negro from head to foot, noting the flush of excitement on his swarthy face. "I understand that you have offered a reward for information leading to the discovery of the whereabouts of your wife," said the Negro. An angry flush appeared on Mr. Volrees' face and he cast a look of withering contempt in the Negro's direction, who read at once Mr. Volrees' disgust over the fact that he, a Negro, dared to broach the question of his family trouble. "Pardon me," said the Negro, turning to leave. "Come back! Are you a fool?" said Mr. Volrees angrily, his desire for information concerning his wife overcoming his scruples. "My wife took me to be one and left me," said the Negro in a tone of mock humility. Mr. Volrees looked up quickly to see whether he meant what he was saying or was making a thrust at him. The solemn face of the Negro was non-committal. "Now, what do you know?" asked Mr. Volrees gruffly. "I know where your wife is," said the Negro. "How do you know that she is my wife?" "I was the porter on the train that you and she began your bridal tour on," replied the Negro. "How have you been able to trace her?" "I was the porter on the train on which she first came to Almaville. She came into the section of the coach for Negroes, and she and a Negro girl created a scene." "Go on!" almost shouted Volrees, now thoroughly aroused. "The reward?" timidly suggested the Negro. "Of course you get that. Go on!" said Volrees, with increasing impatience. "The affair was so sad-like that I always remembered the looks of the two women," resumed the Negro. "One night not long ago I saw the Negro girl buy a ticket to Goldsboro, Mississippi. It came to me like a flash that she was going to see your wife. She had the same sad look on her face that she had the night I saw them together. I followed this girl to Mississippi and sure enough I came upon your wife." Volrees had now arisen and was restlessly moving about the room, his brain in a whirl. "Was she living with some family, or how was she situated?" he asked. "She and her husband live----" "Her husband!" thundered Volrees, grabbing the Negro in the collar, fancying that he was grabbing the other husband. "The people there say that she is married," said the Negro timidly. "I will choke the liver out of the miscreant," said Volrees, tightening his hold in the Negro's collar as if in practice. "I am not the man," said the Negro, with growing determination in his voice. Volrees was thus recalled to himself and resumed his restless tramping. "No, you are not the man. You are only a ---- nigger." Grasping his hat, Volrees strode rapidly out of the room. At the door he bawled back, "You will get your reward." The Negro followed Volrees at a distance and noted that he went to the office of an exceedingly shrewd detective. In the course of a few days the city of Almaville was shocked with the news that a Mrs. Johnson, wife of a leading Mississippi planter had been arrested and brought to Almaville on a charge of bigamy. The prosecutor in the case was the Hon. H. G. Volrees, who claimed that the alleged Mrs. Johnson was none other than Eunice Seabright, who had married him. Mrs. Johnson denied being the former Miss Seabright, and employed able counsel to conduct her defense. The stir in the highest social circles of Almaville was indeed great, and for days very little was talked of save the forthcoming Volrees-Johnson bigamy trial. _ |
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