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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“Very well, Mrs. Pope; the simple name will suffice for the
present purposes. Do you reside in this neighbourhood?”
“In Biberry. I was born, brought up, married, became a wid-
ow, and still dwell, all within half – a – mile of this spot. My
maiden name was Dickson.”
Absurd and forward as these answers may seem to most
persons, they had an effect on the investigation that was then
going on in Biberry. Most of the audience saw, and felt, the difference between the frank statements of the present witness,
and the reserve manifested by the last.
“Now, why couldn’t that Mary Monson answer all these
questions, just as well as Abigail Pope?” said one female talker
to a knot of listeners. “She has a glib enough tongue in her
head, if she only sees fit to use it! I’ll engage no one can answer more readily, when she wishes to let a thing out. There’s
a dreadful history behind the curtain, in my judgment, about
that same young woman, could a body only get at it.”
“Mr. Sanford will get at it, before he has done with her, I’ll
engage,” answered a friend. “I have heard it said he is the most
investigating coroner in the state, when he sets about a case in
good earnest. He’ll be very apt to make the most of this, for we
never have had anything one – half so exciting in Biberry, as
these murders! I have long thought we were rather out of the
way of the rest of the world, until now; but our time has come,
and we shan’t very soon hear the last of it!”
“It’s all in the papers, already!” exclaimed a third. “Biberry
looks as grand as York, or Albany, in the columns of every paper from town, this morning! I declare it did me good to see
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
our little place holding up its head among the great of the
earth, as it might be”
What else, in the way of local patriotism, may have escaped
this individual, cannot now be known, the coroner drawing
off her auditors, by the question next put to the widow.
“Did you ever see any gold coins in the possession of the
late Mrs. Goodwin?” asked that functionary. “Several timesI
don’t know but I might say often. Five or six times, at least. I
used to sew for the old lady, and
you know how it is when a body works, in that way, in a
familyit’s next thing, I do suppose, to being a doctor, so
far as secrets go.”
“Should you know any of that coin were you to see it again,
Mrs. Pope?”
“I think I might. There’s one piece, in partic’lar, that I sup-
pose I should know, anywhere. It’s a wonderful looking piece
of money, and true Californy, I conclude.”
“Did any of Mrs. Goodwin’s gold coins bear a resemblance
to this?” showing a half – eagle.” “Yes, sirthat’s a five – dollar
piece I’ve had one of them myself, in the course of my life.”
“Mrs. Goodwin had coins similar to this, I then understand
you to say?”
“She had as many as fifty, I should think. Altogether, she
told me she had as much as four hundred dollars in that stocking! I remember the sum, for it sounded like a great deal for
anybody to have, who wasn’t a bank, like. It quite put me in
mind of the place ers.”
“Was there any coin like this?” showing the widow the Ital-
ian piece.
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“That’s the piece! I’d know it among a thousand! I had it
in my hands as much as five minutes, trying to read the Latin
on it, and make it out into English. All the rest was American
gold, the old lady told me; but this piece she said was foreign.”
This statement produced a great sensation in the court –
room. Although Mrs. Pope was flippant, a gossip, and a little
notorious for meddling with her neighbours’ concerns, no one
suspected her of fabricating such a story, under oath. The piece
of gold passed from juror to juror; and each man among them
felt satisfied that he would know the coin again, after an interval of a few weeks. Dunscomb probably put less faith in this
bit of testimony, than any other person present; and he was
curious to note its effect on his client. To his great surprise, she
betrayed no uneasiness; her countenance maintaining a calm
that he now began to apprehend denoted a practised art; and
he manifested a desire to examine the piece of gold for himself.
It was put in his hand, and he glanced at its face a little eagerly.
It was an unusual coin; but it had no defect or mark that might
enable one to distinguish between it and any other piece of a
similar impression. The coroner interpreted the meaning of
his eye, and suspended the examination of the widow, to question Mary Monson herself.
“Your client sees the state of the question, Mr. Dunscomb,”
he said; “and you will look to her rights. Mine authorize me, as
I understand them, to enquire of her concerning a few facts in
relation to this piece of money.”
“I will answer your questions, sir, without any hesitation,”
the accused replied, with a degree of steadiness that Dunscomb
deemed astonishing.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“How long has this piece of gold been in your possession,
if you please, Miss?” “About a twelvemonth. I began to collect
the gold I have, very nearly a year since.”
“Has it been in your possession, uninterruptedly, all that
time?”
“So far as I know, sir, it has. A portion of the time, and
a large portion of it, it has not been kept in my purse; but I
should think no one could have meddled with it, when it has
been elsewhere.”
“Have you anything to remark on the testimony just giv-
en?”
“It is strictly true. Poor Mrs. Goodwin certainly had the
store of gold mentioned by Mrs. Pope, for she once showed it to
me. I rather think she was fond of such things; and had a pleasure in counting her hoards, and showing them to other persons. I looked over her coins; and finding she was fond of those
that are a little uncommon, I gave her one or two of those that
I happened to own. No doubt, Mrs. Pope saw the counterpart
of this piece, but surely not the piece itself.”
“I understand you to say, then, that Mrs. Goodwin had a
gold coin similar to this, which gold coin came from yourself.
What did Mrs. Goodwin allow you in the exchange?”
“Sir?”
“How much did you estimate the value of that Italian piece
at, and in what money did Mrs. Goodwin pay you for it? It is
necessary to be particular in these cases.”
“She returned me nothing for the coin, sir. It was a present
from me to her, and of course not to be paid for.” This answer met with but little favour. It did not appear to the people
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
of Biberry at all probable that an unknown, and seemingly
friendless young woman, who had been content to dwell two
months in the “garret – room” of the “old Goodwin house,”
faring none of the best, certainly, and neglecting so many superior tenements and tables that were to be met with on every
side of her, would be very likely to give away a piece of gold of
that unusual size. It is true, we are living in a marvellous age,
so far as this metal is concerned; but the Californian gold had
not then arrived in any great quantity, and the people of the
country are little accustomed to see anything but silver and
paper, which causes them to attach an unwonted value to the
more precious metal. Even the coroner took this view of the
matter; and Dunscomb saw that the explanation just made by
his client was thought to prove too much.
“Are you in the habit, Miss, of giving away pieces of gold?”
asked one of the jurors.
“That question is improper,” interposed Mr. Dunscomb.
“No one can have a right to put it.”
The coroner sustained this objection, and no answer was
given. As Mrs. Pope had suggested that others, besides herself,
had seen Mrs. Goodwin’s stocking, four more witnesses were
examined to this one point. They were all females, who had
been admitted by the deceased, in the indulgence of her passion, to feast their eyes with a sight of her treasure. Only one,
however, of these four professed to have any recollection of
the particular coin that had now become, as it might be, the
pivoting point in the enquiry; and her recollections were by
no means as clear as those of the widow. She thought she had
seen such a piece of gold in Mrs. Goodwin’s possession, though
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
she admitted she was not allowed to touch any of the money,
which was merely held up, piece by piece, before her admiring
eyes, in the hands of its proper owner. It was in this stage of
the enquiry that Dunscomb remarked to the coroner, that “it
was not at all surprising a woman who was so fond of exposing
her treasure should be robbed and murdered!” This remark,
however, failed of its intended effect, in consequence of the
manner in which suspicion had become riveted, as it might
be, through the testimony of Mrs. Pope, on the stranger who
had so mysteriously come to lodge with the Goodwins. The
general impression now appeared to be that the whole matter
had been previously arranged, and that the stranger had come
to dwell in the house expressly to obtain facilities for the commission of the crime.
A witness who was related to the deceased, who was absent
from home, but had been told, by means of the wires, to return, and who had intimated an intention to comply, was still
wanting; and the inquest was again adjourned for an hour, in
order to allow of the arrival of a stage from town. During this
interval, Dunscomb ascertained how strongly the current was
setting against his client. A hundred little circumstances were
cited, in confirmation of suspicions that had now gained a firm
footing, and which were so nearly general as to include almost
every person of any consequence in the place. What appeared
strangest to Dunscomb, was the composure of the young girl
who was so likely to be formally accused of crimes so heinous.
He had told her of the nature of the distrust that was attached
to her situation, and she received his statement with a degree
of emotion that, at first, had alarmed him. But an unaccount-
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
able calmness soon succeeded this burst of feeling, and he had
found it necessary to draw confidence in the innocence of his
client, from that strangely illuminated countenance, to study
which was almost certain to subdue a man by its power. While
thus gazing at the stranger, he could not believe her guilty;
but, while reflecting on all the facts of the case, he saw how
difficult it might be to persuade others to entertain the same
opinion. Nor were there circumstances wanting to shake his
own faith in expression, sex, years, and all the other probabilities. Mary Monson had declined entering at all into any account of her previous life; evaded giving her real name even to
him; carefully abstained from all allusions that might furnish
any clue to her former place of abode, or to any fact that would
tend to betray her secret.
At the appointed hour the stage arrived, bringing the ex-
pected witness. His testimony went merely to corroborate the
accounts concerning the little hoard of gold that his kinswoman had undeniably possessed, and to the circumstance that she
always kept it in a particular drawer of her bureau. The bureau
had been saved, for it did not stand in the sleeping – room
of the deceased, but had formed a principal embellishment of
her little parlour, and the money was not in it. What was more,
each drawer was carefully locked, but no keys were to be found.
As these were articles not likely to be melted under any heat
to which they might have been exposed, a careful but fruitless
search had been made for them among the ruins. They were
nowhere to be seen.
About nine o’clock in the evening, the jury brought in the
result of their inquest. It was a verdict of murder in the first de-
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
gree, committed, in the opinion of the jurors, by a female who
was known by the name of Mary Monson. With the accusation
of arson, the coroner’s inquest, as a matter of course, had no
connection. A writ was immediately issued, and the accused
arrested.
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CHAPTER V
“It was the English,” Kasper cried,
“Who put the French to rout;
But what they killed each other for,
I could not well make out.
But everybody said,” quoth he,
“That ‘twas a famous victory.”
Southey.
The following day, after an early breakfast, Dunscomb and
his friend the doctor were on their way back to town. The former had clients and courts, and the latter patients, who were
not to be neglected, to say nothing of the claims of Sarah and
Mrs. Updyke. John and Michael remained at Biberry; the first
being detained there by divers commissions connected with
the comforts and treatment of Mary Monson, but still more
by his own inclinations; and the last remaining, somewhat
against his wishes, as a companion to the brother of her who
so strongly drew him back to New York.
As the commitment was for offences so serious, crimes as
grave as any known to the law, bail would not have been accepted, could any have been found. We ought not to speak
with too much confidence, however, on this last point; for Dr.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
McBrain, a man of very handsome estate, the result of a liberal profession steadily and intelligently pursued, was more
than half disposed to offer himself for one of the sureties, and
to go and find a second among his friends. Nothing, indeed,
prevented his doing so, but Dunscomb’s repeated assurances
that no bondsmen would be received. Even charming young
women, when they stand charged with murder and arson,
must submit to be icarcerated, until their innocence is established in due form of law; or, what is the same thing in effect,
until the caprice, impulses, ignorance, or corruption of a jury
acquits them.
The friends did not entirely agree in their manner of view-
ing this affair. The doctor was firmly impressed with the conviction of Mary Monson’s innocence; while Dunscomb, more
experienced in the ways of crime and the infirmities of the
human heart, had his misgivings. So many grounds of suspicion had occurred, or been laid open to his observation, during the hour of private communication, that it was not easy for
one who had seen so much of the worst side of human nature,
to cast them off under the mere influence of a graceful form,
winning manner, and bright countenance. Then, the secondary facts, well established, and, in one important particular,
admitted by the party accused, were not of a character to be
overlooked. It often happens, and Dunscomb well knew it,
that innocence appears under a repulsive exterior, while guilt
conceals itself in forms and aspects so fair, as to deceive all but
the wary and experienced.
“I hope that the comfort of Miss Monson has been properly
attended to, since she must be confined for a few days,” said
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