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CHAPTER EIGHT

The Portrait

Phoebe and Holgrave remained in the room until they heard a noise.

“Someone’s at the door,” whispered Phoebe.

“It’s probably the police,” said Holgrave. “They’ve probably heard about Judge Pyncheon’s visit and Clifford and Hepzibah’s disappearance. Let’s go and open the door.”

But to their surprise, before they had left the room they heard footsteps in the house, and then a voice, “Thank God, my brother, we’re home!”

It was Hepzibah and Clifford, who had returned home. When Hepzibah saw Phoebe she started crying.

“It’s our little Phoebe and Holgrave, too” Clifford said, smiling happily.

The police and the doctors who later investigated the case agreed that the judge had died of a heart attack. Therefore, Clifford was not suspected.

The people talked about his death for many days, and both good and bad things were said.

Interestingly, the people discovered much more about the judge, his personality and his life, now that he was dead.

However, the murder of Judge Pyncheon’s uncle more than thirty years earlier was still not clear. It seemed as though somebody had been into his apartment and stolen some money and other valuable articles.

They had also found a bloody handprint on the old man’s bed sheet. Clifford had spent thirty years in prison for this murder, but was he guilty?

Mystery still surrounded the death or murder of Clifford’s uncle. Holgrave was able to find out more about the case.

During his youth Judge Pyncheon had been a wild man. His uncle, who had always liked him in the past, began to dislike him. One night young Jaffrey Pyncheon did something terrible.

He went to his uncle’s room and started looking in his private drawers. Suddenly his old uncle appeared, and was shocked and frightened by what he saw. He had a heart attack and fell to the floor. As he fell, he hit his head on the corner of a table and died.

The cruel young man did not try to help his old uncle. He continued looking until he found a recent will in favor of Clifford. He destroyed that will and found an older one in his favor.

To save himself, Jaffrey accused Clifford of the uncle’s murder. So young Clifford was sent to prison for thirty years, and Jaffrey became a famous judge.

By now it was late in life for Clifford and he couldn’t change what had happened. But after Judge Pyncheon’s death he felt free and he was clearly happy.

All of the Judge’s money and property belonged to Clifford and Hepzibah.

“Well, Jaffrey’s country house is ours now,” said Hepzibah. “Let’s all go to live there.”

Everyone agreed that this was an excellent idea. As they sat in the living room discussing their plans, Clifford said, “That portrait! How I hate it. It seems to hold a secret, a secret from my childhood that I can’t remember.”

“Perhaps I remember it,” said Holgrave. “You see, there is a secret mechanism behind the portrait.”

“That’s it” exclaimed Clifford. “It’s a secret mechanism.” Holgrave touched the secret mechanism on the back of the portrait and it moved to one side.

There was a small hiding place in the wall and the secret map and land deed were hidden there.

Holgrave examined the old Indian map and the land deed. Everyone was amazed. “This is what the Pyncheons have wanted for centuries and now they’re worth nothing” said Holgrave.

“Poor cousin Jaffrey” exclaimed Hepzibah. “He died thinking that Clifford had discovered his uncle’s money.”

“How did you know this secret,” asked Phoebe.

“My dear Phoebe, my last name is Maule” replied Holgrave. “Yes, I’m a descendant of Matthew Maule the wizard. But I’m not a wizard.

The son of poor Matthew Maule was one of the men who built this house. He made the secret hiding place behind the portrait and hid the map and deed there. He was sure no one would find it.”

A handsome green carriage stopped in front of the old house. The group of happy people were chatting and laughing together.

Clifford and Hepzibah turned around and looked for the last time at their family house without any emotion. Several children had come to see the unusual sight.

Hepzibah recognized Ned Higgins, her first customer, and gave him a handful of silver coins.

Then they got into the carriage and drove away to their new home in the country. The long feud between the Pyncheons and the Maules had finally ended thanks to Holgrave and Phoebe’s love.

As the carriage drove off, two men looked at each other and one said, “Well, what do you think of that? Hepzibah opened a cent shop a few months ago and now she’s rich!”

“Very good business” said the other man.