avenport Dunn, than the
interest increased tenfold, and, with that marvellous ingenuity
falsehood would seem ever to have at her disposal, a dozen artfully
conceived versions of the late event were already in circulation. It
was the act of a maniac,--a poor creature driven mad by injustice and
persecution. It was the vengeance of a man whose fortune had been ruined
by Dunn. It was the father of a girl he had seduced and abandoned.
It was a beggared speculator,--a ruined trustee,--and so on; each
narrative, strangely enough, inferring that the fatal catastrophe was an
expiation! How ready is the world to accept this explanation of the sad
reverses that befall those it once has stooped to adulate,--how greedily
does it seek to repay itself for its own degrading homage, by maligning
the idol of its former worship! Up to this hour no man had ever dared to
whisper a suspicion of Dunn's integrity; and now, ere his lifeless clay
was cold, many were floundering away in this pseudo-morality about the
little benefit all his wealth was to him, and wondering if his fate
would not be a lesson! And so the train went on its way, the _coupe_
with the dead body detached and left for the inspection of the inquest,
And Davis on a sick-bed and in custody of the police.

His wound was far more serious than at first was apprehended; the
direction the ball had taken could not be ascertained, and the pain was
intense. Grog, however, would not condescend to speak of his suffering,
but addressed himself vigorously to all the cares of his situation.

"Let me have some strong cavendish tobacco and a pint of British gin,
pen, ink, and paper, and no visitors."

The remonstrances of the doctor he treated with scorn.

"I'm not one of your West-end swells," said he, "that's afraid of a
little pain, nor one of your Guy's Hospital wretches that's frightened
by the surgeon's tools; only no tinkering, no probing. If you leave me
alone, I have a constitution that will soon pull me through."

His first care was to dictate a telegraphic despatch to a well-known
lawyer, whose skill in criminal cases had made him a wide celebrity. He
requested him to come down at once and confer with him. His next was to
write to his daughter, and in this latter task he passed nearly half the
night. Written as it was in great bodily pain and no small suffering of
mind, the letter was marvellously indicative of the man who penned it.
He narrated the whole incident to its fat