ENSNARED: THE MYSTERY OF THE IRON ROOM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 277, 20 November 1907, Page 10

ENSNARED: THE MYSTERY OF THE IRON ROOM.

By E. R. PUNSHON

CHAPTER XV.—Continued. , They had walked on together till now they were near Osterby, and she paused here, and let him understand that she desired to continue alone. " Yet speaking of revenge," she remarked, "do you not resent the way your cousin spoke to you yesterday—he bears you a grudge, ?nd will satisfy it if he can. Do you not resent that? " " Good gracious, no," replied Norris •with a laugh; "Mark doesn't mean half he says. He is a very decent chap, and I am sure would never injure mc. Of course, he -was a bit upset the other evening—that w-as all." "You speak better of him than he does of you," she remarked, and added, grudgingly: "Indeed you seem to make a. point of speaking well of everybody. Do you then find everyone so good and honest?" "Well, you know," he replied, with an air of deeply pondering the question, "on the whole most people are pretty decent, aren't they?" She looked at him again for some moments, rather as though for some secret reason of her own she was both disappointed and relieved a.t the honest, kindly habit of mind which all his replies to her had seemed to show. Then she shook her head slowly. "Only good people think so," she said; "the rest of us know that we are bad, bad, bad," and still muttering 'bad" beneath her breath she hurried away, by g. gesture forbidding him to follow. "I wonder why she kept talking to mc like that," Norris said to himself as he •went back. "She made mc feel like a little boy in a Sunday school," he added, .-with a touch of resentment that a laugh Boon cleared away. He began to whistle to himself, for now it occurred to him that all these questions which, she had put him at least showed a certain interest in his personality. He was close to the house, and was still whistling, when to his surprise and vexation he" saw the woman he had rescued, Miss Maryon's discharged maid, come suddenly from the shelter of a hedge into the road, and stand smiling before him. It was plain she wished to speak to him, and he was considerably afraid she wished to demonstrate her gratitude again. He would have liked to jump over a gate into a field near, and so avoid her, but as he could hardly do that .•without appearing ridiculous, he walked on. He noticed that she was dressed much better than he had ever seen her, before, -wearing a costume of pale biscuitcoloured cloth with revers and elbow cuffs of gTeen velvet, and having on some rather good jewellery. He nodded to her and tried .to pass on, but she put out ier hand to stay him. "Well," he said impatiently, "what do you. want?" "Can jou not guessf" she asked Elowly. "Certainly not, I am in a hurry," he replied, with more energy than politeness. However, she did not seem to notice his brusque tone. She smiled and looked at him in that oddly intimate and caressing manner he found so repulsive. "'Really," sh; said, with a simper that Feemed at once absurd and dreadful on her heavy, gather sombre features; "one •would almost think you were afraid of mc. I wonder why?" "Nonsense," he exclaimed very angrily; "if you have nothing more sensible to gay than that —" "Oh," she interrupted, "so far as that goes you would not be the first man to fear mc by any means," and she showed her regular, white teeth in a formidable smile that seemed to tell she spoke no more than the truth. "But you should know you have no cause to fear mc," she added, and somehow as he heard that assurance, Norris knew for certain that he really entertained a hidden terror of this dark womaa with the bold eyes. She continued:, "I came here at some .trouble and even risk to suggest to you that if you are -wise you will not go again to that stile where I once saw you." "I know no reason," Norris replied ■to Inez's mysterious warning to avoid the stile where he had once met Ruby Hole, "why I should either go there or stay away." "What?" cried Inez, looking very much surprised; "has she not asked you to meet her there, then?" , "What do you mean?" he demanded. "Oh, I see she has not, just a little mistake of mine," Inez answered hurriedly; "well, then, let mc suggest instead that your . JTairs in London would be all the better for your personal attention/ 1 "I fan to see what business that is of jyonis," he replied; "but if you have any definite information to give, I am to pay liberally for it." "I cannot speak definitely," she answered, "but you had better listen to mc. I tell you you will find nothing but sorlow and pain if you stay here." "Ah, well," he answered a little sadly; ''those are things one may find easily enough, so perhaps you are right." i "Then you go?" she asked eagerly. [■-• "Nay, I stay," he replied. j She made an angry gesture. "There is danger threatening this louse," she said slowly. "Not this only," he returned; "if I may judge from the situation in which I recently found you." good retort," she admitted with a grim smile, "and I am glad you reminded mc of that. Now I will make you another suggestion: if you go I will promise you your uncle's life shall be safe. If you stay, both you and he will be xn great danger." "I am afraid," he replied, "that I have only suspicions of p?ople who make suggestions like that. I believe neither in your power nor your will." "Come and visit mc on my yacht," she cried eagerly, "and I will convince you of both. Will you?"' "Thank you, I think not," he replied: "I trust still less discharged lady's maids who talk about their yachts." "Does the lady's maid stick in your throat?" she asked, and with a wave of her hands and a shrug of her shoulders she seemed to put aside all memory of that. "Come and visit mc," she said again; "and I will explain everything, and make all clear." "As I said before I trust neither you nor your promises," he replied; "and as you seem to have nothing of any importance to say I will wish you goodmorning." - 2? 4? Ot poUte to refuse a- lady's invitation," she said darkly; "however, next time you may perhaps accept it." The words reached his ear as he walked away, but he paid them little attention, though she flung them after him like a threat. His mind was fall of an I I uneasy consciousness that Ruby Maryon I iad alsq-iried. to persuade him; to go

(Author of " Constance West," " Earth's Great Lord," &c).

away, but he assured himself repeatedly that the coincidence did not in any way imply any connection still existing between the two women.. CHAPTER XYT. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE riCTTJRE. Mr. Nugent did not seem much impressed when Norris told him he had reason to believe Mark ■was still in the neighbourhood. He only shrugged his shoulders and turned again to his picture, now practically completed, though he still occupied himself in giving it little finishing touches that had already taken up more time than the actual painting itself had done. "I am afraid," he remarked, "that Mark wants it very badly indeed." Norris did not inquire to what his uncle referred. He was beginning to understand that there are questions it is wiser not to ask. He was a little relieved, however, to find that Mr. Nugent evidently attached no importance to Mark's complaint that the identity of Miss Hole had been concealed from Jiim, appearing indeed to think that Mark's anger was mainly assumed. Then Novris began to urge on his uncle, as lie had often done before, the desirability of leaving this house where the sensi of dark surrounding danger seemed to gro«stronger every day, and of going to reside in London. And this time Mr. Nugent listened in silence, abstractedly painting at the leaves of the old oak in the foreground of his picture. "Who told you," he asked suddenly, "that Mark was still about here?" "Miss Hole," answered Norris, a little unwillingly; "or Miss Maryon, as I understand her correct name to be." "Ah, yes," said Mr. Nugent, stepping back to admire the shadows on the underside of a branch he had just completed; "the young lady whose maid you rescued—by-the-by, do you think you are likely to see that maid again 1" Norris nodded. He had an uneomfort- j able conviction that there was no one in the world he was more likely to meet. "Well, if you do," said Mr. Nugent, "tell her we' are going up to London the day after to-morrow." "You will?" cried Norris, excitedly; '"'do you mean that, uncle?" Mr. Nugent nodded in his turn, and began with extreme delicacy to touch up the foliage of the oak. "Yes,. I mean it," he replied. Tie stepped back, and invited Norris's attention to the picture. "Now that I am free," he said with exultation; "as that proves." He paused and drew his gigantic form to its full height and stretched wide his arms, in one hand his palette, in the other a brush. '"Now that I am free." he said again with triumph and with joy, "as that proves, I will go." Norris looked at him, and then began to examine the picture with a minute and rather nervous care. "Yes," he said at last, "this certainly proves it. But about the house —" "Oh, tell her I shall leave the house exactly as it stands.' , "But," said Norris, and he glanced up above. "Oh, that room," said his uncle, understanding him; "oh, I am strong enough now to deal with what's there. This is finished now and what is upstairs I will deal with to-morrow. The next day we will go to London, and with what we leave behind these good people can do what they like." Norris drew a sigh of extreme relief. The burden that these last few days had laid upon him seemed suddenly to disappear. Mr. Nugent, too, was like a /oung man again; and while he painted he hummed a gay waltz tune to himself, and when he moved, moved lightly and rapidly, almost as though his feet were ready to dance in unison with the tune he hummed and the joy of his heart. "There," he said at last, "that will do for the present. That foliage does not quite satisfy me—l have not got altogether the effect of wind I want to give. Shall we go and sit in the garden and watch the oak?" The rest of the day they spent accordingly in the garden, Mr. Nugento Eketch book in handi making many studies of the old oak as it rustled in the breeze. All the time, he talked more freely and more gaily than Norris had ever remembered him doing before. He told many stories of his past experiences, in the days when he had been associated with the leading artists of the world, and he made plans for the future with the careless optimism of a school-boy. Especially he talked of the work he meant to do, the grand deep paintings of nature at her loveliest which were taking shape in his mind. "Ah," he said, "the actor may hold the mirror up to nature, but the artist does more—the beauties of nature lying so deep that only a few can see them, he shows to all the world; not a copyist, but a seer. I have, Norris, an idea of hazy soft sunshine on an English landscape that I believe no one but myself has seen quite as I see it, but that, when 1 have once shown it, no one will be able to help seeing. I must try that next. After all, it is something to extend the range of human vision by discovering these new effects." In the morning he was still in the same mood of happy optimism, and after breakfast Norris Jeft him bumming cheerily to himself as he tried to reproduce on the foliage of his oak the effects he had observed the night before. Norrit himself felt lighter of heart than he had done for some time, and he also hummed a tune as he strode on along-the road to Osterby. For one thing he felt that now his uncle's determination to leave this neighbourhood and resume his natural place in the world of art, restored to himself that freedom of action which of late circumstances had conspired to aeny him. He decided he would speak to Ruby fully and freely of all that had happened, and he was sure that in return she would at once explain all that seemed so doubtful and suspicious, lie was not, however, at all surprised To see before he had gone half way, the figure of a woman following him in whom he at once recognised Inez. He waited for her to overtake him, and as she joined him he noticed a flush on her dark cheek, and an anxious, almost tender look in her brilliantly black eyes, it only occurred to him then, and he bit his Hips with vexation at the thought, that perhaps she had misunderstood hi 3 motive in waiting for her. "I have a message for you," he said brusquely, almost rudely in fact: " Mr. Nugent -wished mc to tell you that he is returning to London the day after tomorrow."' .",'•■•' - She-looked at him in blank "He'.idace; not," she exclaimed.

"He also told mc to inform, you of his intention to leave the house exactly as it is." She looked at him still more doubtfully, not in the least knowing what to make of it. '"Excluding, of course,' she suggested, " what he hides so carefully in the room with the iron door." ' Ah," cried Norris, excitedly, "then it was you who came that night when we were drugged ? " " Perhaps," she answered with a smile; "or perhaps it was someone else, and she told mc about it." ■'What do you mean by 'she'?" he asked uneasily. " Why, to whom should a poor servant girl refer but to her mistress?" she returned, mockingly. J " You know," he remarked, " I believe very little of what you say." " A wise plan," she retorted. " for I myself believe still less," and then she laughed softly and looked at him again, in her eyes still lingering that smile which was to him like some wanton caress. " But do not let us talk business," she continued softly; "are there not more pleasant subjects you and 1 can discuss ? " " None that I have any taste for," he replied grimly, and raising his hat he went off towards Osterby at a rate she could not hope to keep up with. She called after him once or twice, but he paid no attention. Then he heard her laugh a little, and though that made him shiver strangely, he did not pause. Walking thus rapidly he soon outdistanced her altogether, and arriving at Osterby he got his dinner there, anil wait-ed about the parade till at last he cought a glimpse of Ruby's tall, slim figure. (To be continued daily.)'