The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) (25 page)

At last the trial came on, and the people gathered from all
around to witness it; among them many strangers from considerable
distances. Yes, everybody was there, except the accused. He was too
feeble in body for the strain. But Marget was present, and keeping
up her hope and her spirit the best she could.

The money was present, too. It was emptied on the table, and was
handled and caressed and examined by such as were privileged.

Father Adolf was put in the witness box.

Question. You claim that this money is yours?

Answer. I do.

Q. How did you come by it?

A. I found the bag in the road when I was returning from a
journey.

Q. When?

A. More than two years ago.

Q. What did you do with it?

A. I brought it home and hid it in a secret place in my study,
intending to find the owner if I could.

Q. You endeavored to find him?

A. I made diligent inquiry during several months, but nothing
came of it.

Q. And then?

A. I thought it not worth while to look further, and was minded
to use the money in finishing the wing of the foundling asylum
connected with the priory and nunnery. So I took it out of its
hiding-place and counted it to see if any of it was missing. And
then—

Q. Why do you stop? Proceed.

A. I am sorry to have to say this, but just as I had finished and
was restoring the bag to its place, I looked up and there stood
Father Peter behind me.

Several murmured, "That looks bad," but others answered, "Ah,
but he is such a liar!"

Q. That made you uneasy?

A. No, I thought nothing of it at the time, for Father Peter often
came in unannounced to ask for a little help in his need.

Marget blushed crimson at hearing her uncle falsely and impudently charged with begging, and was going to speak, but remembered herself in time and held her peace.

Q. Proceed.

A. In the end I was afraid to contribute the money to the
foundling asylum, but elected to wait yet another year and continue
my inquiries. When I heard of Father Peter's find I was glad, and
no suspicions entered my mind; when I came home a day or two
later and discovered that my own money was gone I still did not
suspect, until three circumstances connected with Father Peter's
good fortune struck me as being singular coincidences.

Q. Pray name them.

A. Father Peter had found his money in a path-I had found
mine in a road. Father Peter's find consisted exclusively of gold
ducats-mine also. Father Peter found eleven hundred and seven
ducats-I exactly the same.

This closed his evidence; and certainly it made a strong impression on the house; one could see that.

Wilhelm Meidling asked him some questions, then called us
boys, and we told our tale. It made the people laugh, and we were
ashamed. We were feeling pretty badly anyhow, because Wilhelm
was hopeless, and showed it. lie was doing as well as he could, poor
young fellow, but nothing was in his favor, and such sympathy as
there was was now plainly not with his client. It might be difficult
for court and people to believe Father Adolf's story, considering his
character, but it was almost impossible to believe Father Peter's.
We were already feeling badly enough, but when Father Adolf's
lawyer said he believed he would not ask us any questions, for our
story was a little delicate and it would be cruel for him to put any
strain upon it, everybody tittered, and it was almost more than we could bear. Then he made a sarcastic little speech, and got so much
fun out of our tale, and made it seem so ridiculous and childish and
every way impossible and foolish that it made everybody laugh till
the tears came; and at last Marget could not keep up her courage
any longer, but broke down and cried, and I was so sorry for her.

Now I noticed something that braced me up. It was Satan,
standing alongside of Wilhelm! And there was such a contrast:
Satan looked so confident, had such a spirit in his eyes and face,
and Wilhelm looked so depressed and despondent. We two were
comfortable now, and judged that he would testify, and would
persuade the bench and the people that black was white and white
black, or any other color he wanted it. We glanced around to see
what the strangers in the house thought of him, for he was beautiful, you know; stunning, in fact; but no one was noticing him; so we
knew by that that he was invisible.

That lawyer was saying his last words; and while he was saying
them Satan began to melt into Wilhelm. He melted into him and
disappeared; and then there was a change, when his spirit began to
look out of Wilhelm's eyes.

That lawyer finished quite seriously, and with dignity. He
pointed to the money, and said-

"The love of it is the root of all evil. There it lies, the ancient
tempter, newly red with the shame of its latest victory-the dishonor of a priest of God and of his two poor juvenile helpers in
crime. If it could but speak, let us hope that it would be constrained
to confess that of all its conquests this was the basest and the most
pathetic."

He sat down. Wilhelm rose, and said-

"From the testimony of the reverend Father Adolf I gather that
he found this money in a road more than two years ago. Correct me,
sir, if I misunderstood you."

Father Adolf said his understanding of it was correct.

"And that the money so found was never out of his hands
thenceforth up to a certain definite date-the last day of last year.
Correct me, sir, if I am wrong."

Father Adolf nodded his head. Wilhelm turned to the bench and
said-

"If I prove that this money here was not that money, then it is not
his?"

"Certainly not, but this is irregular. If you had such a witness it
was your duty to give proper notice of it and have him here to-"
He broke off and began to consult with the other judges. Meantime
that other lawyer got up excited and began to protest against
allowing new witnesses to be brought into the case at this late stage.

The judges decided that his contention was just and must be
allowed.

"But this is not a new witness," said Wilhelm. "It has already
been partly examined. I speak of the coin."

"The coin? What can the coin say?"

"It can say it is not the coin that Father Adolf once possessed. It
can say it was not in existence last December. By its date it can say
this."

And it was so! There was the greatest excitement in the court
while that lawyer, and Father Adolf and the judges were reaching
for coins and examining them and exclaiming. And everybody was
full of admiration of Wilhelm's brightness in happening to think of
that neat idea. At last order was called and the court said-

"All of the coins but four are of the date of the present year. The
court tenders its sincere sympathy to the accused, and its deep
regret that he, an innocent man, should through an unfortunate
mistake have suffered the undeserved humiliation of imprisonment
and trial. The case is dismissed."

So the money could speak, after all, though that lawyer thought
it couldn't. The court rose, and almost everybody came forward to
shake hands with Marget and congratulate her and then to shake
with Wilhelm and praise him; and Satan had stepped out of
Wilhelm and was standing around looking on full of interest, and
people walking through him every which way, not knowing he was
there. And Wilhelm could not explain why he only thought of the
date on the coins at the last moment, instead of earlier; he said it just occurred to him all of a sudden, like an inspiration, and he
brought it right out without any hesitation, for although he hadn't
examined the coins he seemed somehow to know it was true. That
was honest of him, and like him; another would have pretended he
had thought of it earlier, and was keeping it back for a surprise.

He had dulled down a little, now; not much, but still you could
notice that he hadn't that luminous look in his eyes that he had
while Satan was in him. He nearly got it back, though, for a
moment, when Marget came and praised him and thanked him,
and couldn't keep him from seeing how proud she was of him.
Father Adolf went off dissatisfied and cursing, and Solomon Isaacs
gathered up the money and carried it away. It was Father Peter's
for good and all, now.

Satan was gone. I judged that he had spirited himself to the jail
to tell the prisoner the news; and in this I was right. Marget and
the rest of us hurried thither at our best speed, in a great state of
rejoicing.

Well, what Satan had done was this. He had appeared before
that poor prisoner exclaiming-

"The trial is over, and you stand forever disgraced as a thief-by
verdict of the court!"

The shock unseated the old man's reason. When we arrived, ten
minutes later, he was parading pompously up and down and delivering commands to this and that and the other constable or jailor,
and calling them Grand Chamberlain, and Prince This and Prince
That, and Admiral of the Fleet, and Field Marshal in Command,
and all such fustian, and was as happy as a bird. He thought he was
Emperor!

Marget flung herself on his breast and cried, and indeed everybody was moved, almost to heartbreak. He recognised Marget, but
could not understand why she should cry. He patted her on the
shoulder and said-

"Don't do it, dear; remember, there are witnesses, and it is not
becoming in the Crown Princess. Tell me your trouble-it shall be
mended; there is nothing the Emperor cannot do." Then he looked around and saw old Ursula with her apron to her eyes. He was
puzzled at that, and said, "And what is the matter with you?"

Through her sobs she got out words explaining that she was
distressed to see him-"so." He reflected over that a moment, then
muttered, as if to himself, "A singular old thing, the Dowager
Duchess-means well, but is always snuffling, and never able to tell
what it is about. It is because she doesn't know." His eye fell on
Wilhelm. "Prince of India," he said, "I divine that it is you that the
Crown Princess is concerned about. Her tears shall be dried; I will
no longer stand between you; she shall share your throne; and
between you, you shall inherit mine. There, little lady, have I done
well? you can smile, now-isn't it so?"

He petted Marget, and kissed her, and was so contented with
himself and with everybody, that he could not do enough for us all,
but began to give away kingdoms and such things right and left,
and the least that any of us got was a principality. And so at last
being persuaded to go home, he marched in imposing state, and
when the crowds along the way saw how it gratified him to be
hurrah'd at, they humored him to the top of his desire, and he
responded with condescending bows and gracious smiles, and often
stretched out a hand and said "Bless you, my people."

As pitiful a sight as ever I saw. And Marget and old Ursula
crying, all the way.

On my road home I came upon Satan, and reproached him for
deceiving me with that lie. He was not embarrassed, but said, quite
simply and composedly—

you mistake-it was the truth. I said he would be happy the
rest of his days, and he will. For he will always think he is the
Emperor, and his pride in it and his joy in it will endure to the end.
He is now, and will remain, the one utterly happy person in this
Empire."

"But the method of it, Satan, the method! Couldn't you have
done it without depriving him of his reason?"

It was difficult to irritate Satan, but that accomplished it.

"What an ass you are!" he said. "Are you so unobservant as not to
have found out that sanity and happiness are an impossible combi nation? No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he
sees what a fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not
many of those. The few that imagine themselves kings or gods are
happy, the rest are no happier than the sane. Of course no man is
entirely in his right mind at any time, but I have been referring to
the extreme cases. I have taken from this man that trumpery thing
which the race regards as a Mind; I have replaced his tin life with a
silver-gilt fiction; you see the result-and you criticise! I said I would
make him permanently happy, and I have done it. I have made him
happy by the only means possible to his race-and you are not
satisfied!" He heaved a discouraged sigh, and said, "It seems to me
that this race is hard to please."

There it was, you see. He didn't seem to know any way to do a
person a favor except by killing him or making a lunatic out of him.
I apologised, as well as I could; but privately I did not think much
of his processes. At that time.

Satan was accustomed to say that our race lived a life of continuous and uninterrupted self-deception. It duped itself from cradle to
grave with shams and delusions which it mistook for realities, and
this made its entire life a sham. Of the score of fine qualities which
it imagined it had, and was vain of, it really possessed hardly one. It
regarded itself as gold, and was only brass. One day when he was in
this vein, he mentioned a detail-the sense of humor. I cheered up,
then, and took issue. I said we possessed it.

"There spoke the race!" he said; "always ready to claim what it
hasn't got, and mistake its ounce of brass filings for a ton of gold
dust. You have a bastard perception of humor, nothing more; a
multitude of you possess that. This multitude see the comic side of
a thousand low-grade and trivial things-broad incongruities,
mainly; grotesqueries, absurdities, evokers of the horse-laugh. The
ten thousand high-grade comicalities which exist in the world are
sealed from their dull vision, they are unconscious of their presence.
The ten thousand are hid from the entire race."

By request he proceeded to name some of them.

"No religion exists which is not littered with engaging and delightful comicalities, but the race never perceives them. Nothing
can be more deliciously comical than hereditary royalties and aristocracies, but none except royal families and aristocrats are aware of
it.