_ CHAPTER XXXI. THE CONFESSION TO THE BOYS
The carriage had gone two squares before the silence in it was broken. Then Roy spoke.
"What is it, Syd?" he said. "I am sure you are worrying yourself needlessly over something-- are magnifying it from a molehill into a mountain."
"Needlessly? Oh, boys, would that I were! But as soon as I tell you, you will understand it all. And I shall tell you now-- in a minute. But just give me your hand, each of you, that I may feel the warm pressure of your confidence before-- before you know the worst of me."
Roy and Rex instantly put out their hands. Syd took one in each of his and held them tight for an instant. Then he dropped them quickly and began to speak rapidly.
"Do you remember, Roy, the night last July you went home in Dr. Martin's carriage and left me alone with Mr. Tyler? The will that left all his money to mother had been signed and witnessed; you know what it contained. I felt so rejoiced for you all, although I had no idea then that there was a chance of your so soon coming into possession.
"I sat talking to the old man for an hour or so, about his investments and the various savings banks in which his money was deposited. Finally he appeared to grow restless.
"'Have you got that will I made, Sydney?' he asked.
"I pointed it out to him where it lay on the table.
"'I can make another one, can't I?' he went on.
"'As many as you please,' I told him.
"'Then write out this one and I'll sign it,' he said, and he dictated a document that left every penny of his fortune, except the five thousand to Ann and a thousand he left to you, Roy, to Maurice Darley, if living, or his heirs if dead.
"'You and Ann can witness it,' he told me, and I called her in, and she wrote her name under mine.
"He named myself and Dr. Martin as executors just as before, and said that I could probably find Maurice Darley without much trouble. He turned over in bed then and I asked him where Darley was when he last heard from him, but he did not answer. I went over to the bed and looked at him, and found that he was dead.
"Then the temptation flashed into my mind.
"'What a shame,' I thought, 'that owing to the caprice of a foolish old man these people who have been so good to me should be deprived of the fortune which had just been left to them. This Darley is undoubtedly rich. He has behaved contemptibly to the man who did so much for him. Why should he get the money?'
"Then I recollected that you had gone into the kitchen, Roy, earlier in the evening, to get Ann to sign the first will, and then the doctor had told you that it was not necessary. I reasoned that she would undoubtedly suppose that the will she did sign was the only one that had been made, because I was sure she had not read it.
"All these things flashed into my mind within a few seconds of time as I stood by the bedside of the dead man. My determination was quickly taken. I knew that Ann had gone home, that there was no one near to see the deed.
"I took the new will and held it in the flame of the candle till it was entirely consumed. Then I blew the cinders, so that they scattered about the room and would not attract attention."
"Oh, Syd!" This in a kind of gasp from Roy.
Rex said nothing. He was sitting upright now, still seeming to see before him the face of "No. 131," Mr. Keeler's criminal brother.
"Yes, I knew you would all shrink from me when you knew," went on Sydney. He spoke in a voice that was almost hard now. It was as if it had become so from the spurring that was necessary to enable him to make his confession. "I shrank from myself as soon as the last piece of tinder had vanished from the candlestick. I could not bear to stay in the house. I hurried off to the undertaker's, and then stopped at Dr. Martin's to tell him that the miser was dead.
"He said something about the good fortune that had come to us so quickly. I shuddered and hurried home. But I could not sleep. I seemed to have become an old man in that one instant while I held that sheet of paper in the flame of the candle."
"That's the reason we did not see you at breakfast the next morning?" said Roy softly.
"Yes, I felt that I could not face you all just yet."
"And that is why you looked so terrible and fainted away when I told Scott Bowman about our inheritance at your office?" added Rex.
"Yes; I was planning all sorts of ways to fix things, so we needn't take the money. Then I saw it was too late. Now you know what has been on my mind all these months. I knew that my health was being undermined by the strain. But I did not care for that. I even hoped at times that I might die, because then I felt that you need never know."
"And-- and was it anything in particular that made you tell us to-night?" asked Rex.
"Yes. It seems very strange how things come about, but then it often happens so. Do you remember, Reggi-- Rex, telling me the name of the man who left your friend Miles with the Morriseys'?"
"Yes, and it was Darley, the same name you mentioned just now. And you fainted then, just as you did that time at the office. You don't mean that Miles--"
"Yes, I am almost certain that Miles Morrisey is really a Darley, the son of Maurice Darley, to whom all this money belongs. When I suspected this I knew that the end had come-- that I must trace the thing down and confess."
At this point the carriage halted before the door of the house. Rex sprang out, then Roy, and both boys waited to help Sydney. But he made no movement to follow them.
"Aren't you going to get out, Syd?" asked Roy.
"No; I have no right to live among you any more. Now that you know, it will seem like having a convict in the house. I can go to some hotel. You can send my things to me and I will stay there till-- till this is settled up and they put me away."
Roy stepped into the carriage and put his face so close to Sydney's that the latter felt the smooth flesh against his day's growth of beard.
"Dear old fellow," whispered Roy, "you must come. We haven't cast you off. And-- and besides, we want you with us to help us decide what to do."
"Don't be so good to me, Roy. I can't bear it."
But as he spoke, Sydney got out, and the three went up the steps.
Nothing was said as they ascended the stairs. There was danger of disturbing the household.
"Good night, Syd," said Roy, when they reached the top.
He put out his hand, but Sydney did not see it in the darkness.
"Good night, Roy," he responded.
Rex said nothing, but when Sydney's door closed behind him, he drew Roy into his room with him.
"You must stay with me to-night, Roy, "he said, and he began taking off his coat.
"Why didn't you speak to Syd before we came in, Reggie?"
"I couldn't, Roy. I feel awfully sorry for him. But he's committed a crime, and I can't help but think all the while of Mr. Keeler's brother."
"It's terrible-- awful." Roy's face was pale; he looked almost as Sydney had looked at one time.
"What are we going to do?" Rex sat down on the edge of the bed, a despairing droop to the shoulders that he usually carried so squarely.
"We must give up everything to the rightful heir."
"But where shall we go then? We've sold our house in Marley and spent the money we got for it. We'll be worse off than we were before, Roy. Oh, dear, why did you ever look up at that trestle and see that old man crawl out on it?"
"I've wished I hadn't before now," replied Roy gravely.
"The money hasn't made us happy as you expected it would, and now see what misery it has brought. But I suppose it's wrong for me to regret doing what I did. And don't think so hard of Syd, Reggie. Remember that he did what he did, not for himself, but for us."
"I'll try my best, but I don't feel now as if I could ever touch him again. And think what he has brought us to! Poverty, after just giving us the taste of wealth." The twins did not sleep much that night. _