(Jflrn?U ICam ^rljool ICibtatg """""•>' "*"^ PZ 3.M231™" Upas tree / 3 1924 024 904 116 6 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240249041 1 THE UPAS TREE THE UPAS TREE BY ROBERT McMURDY Illustrations by WILLIAM OTTMAN F. J. SCHULTE & COMPANY PUBLISHERS CHICAGO LONDON: B. F. STEVENS & BROWN copteight, 1912 By BOBEET McMUEDT All rights reserved M23I2- THE VPAS THEE "v'^iN/f/.x PREFACE 'T^HE apocryphal upas tree, planted by Mahomet as a punishment for sin, visited with the blight of death every creature that remained within its shadow. It was solitary—a forbidding sentinel in a barren, burnt-up waste. The juice, providing poison for implements of war, and used in executing the death penalty, was gathered by criminals. They ap- proached with the wind. If they returned, they were^ pardoned ; but nine out of ten, benumbed by the tree's malignant vapor, were seized with spasms and fell dead. It was the tree of sorrows, watered only by the tears of men. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Youth 15 II Madness 23 III Pluto oe Plato 29 IV A Little Mendicant .... 44 V The Red Gate 48 VI Newport 58 VII Home, Sweet Home 66 VIII The Trap 75 IX Into Dust 91 X A Woman Scorned 97 XI In the Tombs 106 XII Sun and Shadow 116 XIII Temptation 122 XIV Preparation 135 XV General Sessions 144 XVI The Case of the State . 154 XVII Wife and Mother 168 XVIII A Dangerous Witness .... 174 XIX Explaining 179 XX At a Disadvantage 192 XXI The Verdict 201 XXII The Nemesis 212 THE UPAS TREE CHAPTER PAGE XXIII Gloom 226 XXIV The Struggle 234 ^ XXV The Paths of Prejudice . 241 XXVI Retrospect 252 XXVII Ninety-two Days 259 XXVIII The Letter 269 XXIX Gethsemane 276 XXX Lex Talionis 280 Beckwith's Confession 297 ILLUSTRATIONS It Drawings by William Ottman FACING PAGE "Ah, I have sighed to rest me." Frontispiece "You must be practical: we make judges here!" 80 "Let me tell you that this lawyer is not for sale." 216 "But here! this confession isn't signed." . 288 — The Upas Tree CHAPTER I Youth This fair orphan ward Seem'd the sole human creature that lived in the heart Of that stern, rigid man. —Robert Bulvier Lytton. T T was the last day of the high-school baseball season, and the nine were feasting at the home of Beckwith Miller. Goodfellowship was rampant the natural, disinterested, ebullient, ringing comrade- ship of yoiath. Some years before, when Beckwith was on the team, these dinners had been inaugurated by his father. The custom then established still ob- tained: each boy stood upon his feet and forced him- self into a semblance of public speaking. Good, indif- ferent or poor—no matter what was the quality of the utterance, the room resounded with approval. "Hurrah! Hurrah!" "Good for Billy!" "A home- run, by thunder!" "Give him the pennant!" "Our own Neddie !" "Crown him !" "He's the whole nine !" "You're a brick!" Such was the rollicking comment. 15 — THE UPAS TREE "Now, Beck, the valedictory—come, fellows, the game's called !" And Beckwith rose. His mother led into the room a neighbor. Dr. Wag- ner, and his daughter. "Three cheers for Alice!" The boys rent the air again. "Tiger!" yelled one, and they gave a great yell and then settled down. "Well, boys, I will be brief—as usual. I want to add to your vocabulary and give you a chance to add to your manhood. I want you to learn the mean- ing of resiliency—^the ability to recover—rebound from a fall or strain. It's all right to nurse an in- jured finger, but you must get back into the game. It's no discredit to be knocked down; but not to get right up again is shameful. You may be forgiven if you fail, but never if you do not try again. Now you've heard—^wiU you heed.'"' "We will," yelled all the boys together, and they beat their hands until Alice, laughing, held her ears. "A gem!" exclaimed Dr. Wagner as he grasped Beckwith's hand. His admiration had already been won. On an earlier occasion, at the high-school gradu- ation exercises, Beckwith had delivered an oration on the public school system—"The American Crucible" was the title—which had charmed the audience and 16 YOUTH had put the name of "Beck" Miller in the mouths of the entire neighborhood. This cherished triumph had not turned the young man's head, but had been no small factor in determining his choice of the law as a profession. The feast was over, and the company gathered about Alice at the piano—an instrument left over from the early days of Mrs. Miller, but which still had music in its soul. "Nut Brown Maid" they sang as Alice blushed and the boys made merry, their arms inter- laced, with the abandon of the young. "John Brown's Body," "We Won't Go Home 'til Morning," and all the rest of that family of songs came in due order, and then a boisterous contention for the honor of walking home with Alice. A second later they seated Mrs. Miller, formed a ring around her, placed on her head a wreath and hailed her as the diamond queen, the significance of which Beckwith explained to her. When the party broke up the young men kissed Mrs. Miller goodbye. At the gate they serenaded, gave another three cheers for "Beck," and off they went with Alice and her father, chattering, volatile and happy. 17 — THE UPAS TREE "Those are great boys, mother." !" "And that is a great girl, Beckwith The mother's remark apparently passed over his head. He took on an air of gratification. "What do you think—the Doctor has just laid a little plan before me. After his wife's death he fell to philosophizing and analyzing—got to dwelling on the needs of the masses—and he has organized the Public Bath Institute, to provide free baths for the poor and drinking-fountains for the public. He asked me tonight to become a member of the board of direct- ors. I'll be duly advertised as counsel, and it will lead to other things. In fact, I think in time I'll be the Doctor's personal attorney—and I'll have his in- fluence, too." Mrs. Miller was silent. "You think it is wrong to capitalize charity, mother! Our rector says the highest occupation is doing good and earning a living at the same time because it fits him—^but that will be my situation in the Bath Institute.—You are not convinced! Well, dear mother, if father had left us something more than this home, or if I had not chosen the starving profession, or if I had not relied too confidently on my popularity and too soon assumed the burdens of 18 — YOUTH a law office in a great city like New York, or if my practice were not among such poor people, or if the torment of my creditors were not in truth brought home to you, or—^we'U cut the list off here—it might be different. Besides, it's a good work and appeals to me. The motives of the best of us are mixed, no matter what we do." "I suppose this connection is proper enough, my son, but I hope a dollar viewpoint is not springing up in you—it is so corroding." "And debts undermine—^but there is no real room for such thoughts in this matter—mother, do you want me to marry Alice.?" "Why, Beckwith, you shouldn't ask me such a ques- tion. If I did I wouldn't say so. Everybody is headstrong in such affairs, and you are in every- thing, dear boy." "Which means that you would ! She's not long out of her teens—I'm nearly thirty." "A proper difference," interjected Mrs. Miller. "I vow! You're really in earnest. Come now she has always been a pet of yours—you feel that she would fit in here and we could all live together —and 'her dad ha:s the rocks,' as those boys would say—considerations of convenience—and a dollar 19 THE UPAS TREE viewpoint! You'll break your boy's heart!" An explosive laugh escaped him, as he put his hands affectionately on his mother's head. "It's no use for me to argue with you—you make " black white "And 'the worse appear the better reason,' I sup- pose. Well, to bed! to bed. It's late—for us!" Conferences regarding a common interest drew Beckwith not infrequently to Dr. Wagner's home, where Alice always met him with a warm welcome. Once she gave him, with becoming grace, a bouquet picked by her own hand, in her own small garden, and touched a tender chord when she gently reminded him that the flowers were for his mother, adding art- fully that she would trust him to deliver them faith- fully. On his next visit he bore a beautiful gift-book as a remembrance from his household, and Alice agreed to keep and treasure the mother's part of the present, but would not promise as to his. The season's first snow had faUen, and mother and son were seated at their dinner table.