A Fight With Fate.

Bruce Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 89, 8 December 1913, Page 4

A Fight With Fate.

tT B ? MADGE BARLOW, Author of "The Cairn of the Badger," "Secret of the Black Bog," r "Love Finds a Way," j'- "lUynn o' the Hall,"

CHAPTER, XIX. Curtis Row was a block of aaicicnt houses- let on the tenement system, and having for its pleasant frontage the high wall of a disused churchyard. As j ' a rule, the pavement swarmed with, playing children and gossiping women | . in the slack afternoon hours, but the [ fog had driven them to the domestic] hearths, and Kitty had the whole Howto herself, except for a riostman doing ; '■■■ his rounds and >n< gaunt cat stalking a. j ' sparrow iu the gutter. '. The fog got into her eyes, and she could not make out the numbers. She J was about to enter one of the common ■ passages and inquire for No. 13 when . tho postman gained on her, and she ap- , pooled to him. He brought her to the ( • tar end of the street and asked- which family sho was in search of, thinking • sho belonged to a baud of spinsters known locally as "them dratted distric ■• visitors." "I am looking for a Mr Fitzgerald, , sho said. # . "The Dook! Attics, miss. r lop left." Ho touched his cap and went on, and , sho climbed the stairs. The door at the left on the top landing was -unlocked, ' and Kitty turned the .kindle. It was a large attic, bare as a barrack-room and smelling of recent applications of soapy water and beeswax. Its furniture consisted of a couple of chairs and a table, a folding bed shrouded' in a brilliantly • striped blanket, a shelf of kitchen utensils, a pipe-rack, and a calendar. She gazed blankly around. The emptiness of it suggested terrifying cab mi ties—- , Dick taken to hospital, Dick dead and removed to some dreadful morgue. With a low cry sho hid her face in her hands and shook in every limb. A frenzy of despair took possession of ' her. In all tho world she had only Dick. . Nobodv else cared whatJiecame. ' of her or had one tender thought-for her, except, perhaps, the padre, uwul he did not understand girls, so there was something wanting in his sympathy. She stumbled to the door, blind with anguish of heart, going to find him, and ignorant of where she Was going. panic-stricken as a child who sees death tor the'first time in the person of its best beloved. On the landing she tottered into the arms of Dick, coming hungrily home to tea, his tall kit • pushed to the back of his sunny head; and tho wave of rapture that flooded ■her piteous face transfigured it. She rubbed her cheek on his wot eoats'eeve, kissed it, sobbed incoherently that it was surely her Dick, alive, not ' even ill, not hurt in the very least. • Oh, let her hear that he was not hurt, that it was a wicked untruth. Tears of nervous exhaustion gushed from her eyes. The agony condensed into the last few minutes had worn her out. He led Ikm- Into the attic and • ■ fastened the door, mindful of keen ears . about them. "Kitty, darling, what's the matter? I'm not hurt. How could 1 be? Did you think I was? I'm as right as the mail, and as H.it'o, you poor clear. Dry your eyes and tell .me the trouble." "I got that this afternoon," she replied, fumbling in her pocket for the lying letter, and smiling through a

shower of crystal drops. Ho ran a. glance over it, a puzzled frown contracting his brows. "Nice epistle, and a credit to the inventor," he said, gravely. "And so you rushed off to my dying bed in spite of Mrs Grundy." "I'd have come in spite of in thousand Mrs (irundys. Dick, you aren't Warning me? I was simply mad with fear." "Bless you, I'd deserve to have my head punched if 1 blamed yon. Hut who could have played you the trick? A dastardly mean trick, too."

"Mi's Lessing might. She isn't friendly to me now, and I think she has said ugly things. Lots of people won't speak to me since she stopper) speaking, and those who do are generally nasty." "Mrs Lessing's weapons are of the approved ladylike stamp," said Dick, ' his lips tightening. "She doesn't use tools of this description. No, Kitty, your correspondent wasn't the fair Amg"la. 'We owe a great deal to her, .more tk.'.n you can guess; bub tli.it is uoi her fist."

"You —you heard the gossip?" Hushing cri nisei. "Mrs iWnthrop went out of her way to enlighten/ me and give .some motherly advice. She's a good creature. If she hadn't been compelled to hasten to , Franco with her invalid husband, she vowed she would gag Mrs Lossing'.s

mouth Yory effectually. She couldn't delay, however, on. account of Winthron's hmgs, and I doubt whether she could liavo stemmed the torrent. Angela Lessing's influence/is vast." "Sho was sweetness itself when she thought you would consent to meet me regularly at her .house. It was .after you refused the rift came. It seems -curious, doesn't it?" "Thorn are wheels within wheels," Dick c "vd, stonily. "Don't bother about her, Kitty. Leave her and the rest of our traducers to a just Providence. And. dear, remember that when I refused to meet yon' it was because you were so precious to mo that I daren't give lanyone the smallest excuse fortletaniing you. It's an evil generation, fond of tearing characters to shreds for . sport. I said"l'd never cast a blot en . my own girl's name; I'd keep it eleui: at any cost. We can both lift up clean hands, Kitty, and still tho tar-brush has daubed us. That's tho part th.it angers me. I can't conceive of anything more fiendish than a woman trying to ruin another woman's reputation to serve her petty ends, and I hop? I'ii ■ live to sen Mrs Lessing duly rewarded. Fortunately for her, sho can shelter bo hind her sex." His stormy fnco showed that, thanks to Lucy "Winthfop he. knew more than K:'tty did of tho forces Angela had set in motion, and her reason for 'long it. Paul Bouchior figured in his thoughts also. The man must bo well aware of what was being said, and Kitty's life behind tho scenes might be made miserable in consequence. Sho would not complain, she had grit, but her features ; were sharpened, and she wax woefully thin. Tho bruise on her forehead became visible when she pushed the straying wisps of hair under tho motor-cap, and, sudden fury leaped in him as lielooked.. "Who did that?" he demanded. "Tho cut here?" putting her finger to it. "I did it myself, falling against tho fender. 1 was silly enough to taint,"

"No fibs. Was it Bouchier? I'd choke him ■if--—" "I did faint, Dick. I mas reading , the letter on the hearthrug, and i slithered down, and hit a brass knob on the fender. It isn't awfully painful, ami that's how it happened. Nobody struck me." "Kitty, you wouldn't shield him? "J wouldn't when.it was you who asked." ' "Are you out unknown to him?" "lie takes no notice of when I go oiii or come in, and 1 am seldom missed unless by my maid." . "Has he ever spoken of mo to you? "Not lately. Why, Dick?" , | "We'll say it's my inquisitivcnos's, v " he smiled, gently. And, tapping the illiterate scrawl, "Have you any opinion as to vftiom the writer may be? Think. | dear; there's tm harry." 1 She shook her head. "Well, I've got a peculiar notion that this message was intended to decoy you to my room, ami the mysterious ; writer will probably call on u.s as soon < ns lie or she tires of loitering outside in j the' fog. It seems my address was a dark tiorse on which you were to throw • light Am 1 a bad-minded fellow, 'Kitty?" "01 course you are not." She was startled. "1 didn't dream of being followed. Ought Ito go? If they como -up " "It would rejoice me," he said, his jaw firm and liard-set. "You shall stay to meet your enemy and mine, and make him' or her do the. flying. We havo no cause to bo affrighted, but somebody will if I get the sender of that literary gem inside my room, and my back to' the door. Take a seat and rest yourself. I'll kindle a fire and brew a cup of tea."

Ho applied a match to the paper and .sticks in the grate, filled the kettle from a pail of water and put it on the kindling coals, spread a coarse white cloth, and took cups and saucers and plates out of a cupboard in the wall, outter and a brown loaf, and a savoi'oy. "I'm a splendid manager," he said, gaily, giiaddened by the ripple of fun that crossed her sober face. "I do my own cooking, shopping, and scrubbing. Had no tuition either."

"Isn't it clever of you?" she cried, in .a spasm of admiration. "The attic smells lovely. Fancy you on your knew scrubbing!" "You should see me swabbing down cabs, Kit. I'm a dab at it." "I'm sure they a-.'o the cleanest cabs in London," she nodded, her eyes shining. "Do tliey cull you 'the dook' where you work?"

"How did you hear?" he laughed. "They do; but there isn't a grain of malice in them. They are fine lads with a turn for quizzing." "Dick, are you ever sorry you didn't try for a cler'kshio or—or a secretaryship:-'" "1 won't deny that 1 have grouching moments," lie replied, unscrewing the lid of his tea-caddy. "Nevertheless, I'll .stick to driving'till the last particle of nonsense is knocked out of me." He measured the tew into tho earthenware pot, pleased that he had diverted her thoughts from the spy in the street, for he was convinced that Bouchier .had laid the snare to catch her, and he was listening while he chatted lightly for Bouchier's foot on the stairs, asking nothing better of heaven than a chance to teach the evil-minded cur a lesson he would not forget in a. hurry, and instil such fear into him that he would hesitate to continue his persecution of Kitty.

"By the way, I had Sir "Watty hero,'' Dick said, as she filled the cups and cut bread-and-butter in wafery slices, which wore an insult to his healthy appetite. ''He got on my trail and pinned me quitting the yard. 1 fancy .Mrs Winthorpe gave him the hint. Watty offered me a post among the pickles—a rattling good one—and 1 said no. Failing that lie iirged me to go home and make peace with my hither, and 1 said no again. Iha voir t forgiven my lather." "Sir "Watty is perfectly inhuman to expect it of you," said Kitty, wrathfully. "He preached the reverence children owe their parents and was very glum at my refusal to be impressed. Whispers had reached him and Sheelali, spewings of scandal, and he -said it would he best for you if J accepted one of his proposals, and 1 told him you and I didu' t need dry-nursing and our honor was safe in our own hands. He replied that he knew it, but it would correct people's erroneous impressions of iiiv character if I. were of the firm of Jaikes and Co., or resumed my proper place as the son and heir of my respected parent. I laughed at him. It's a far cry to the days when public opinion was my fetish."

r "Sir Watty was nice to us, Dick. You could have accepted his offer without sacrificiiig an atom ai pride-, and the work—it would have been more congenial; it might lead to a partnership. Sheelali must hate inc. I've been a lowering influence in your life, and you are her only brother. It's evading the subject of the ruby and dawning on mo that she has as much reason to detest me as I think I have to detest her. I wish you had taken tho post in that factory, not to stop anybody's tongue, but because "

''Because' you are a thorough littlo aristocrat and prefer to .sen me kidglovcd," ho rallied her. "I didn't, and Mint owh it, Kitty. I. would have jumped at it six months ago. Sow I've just myself to consider, and myself s an independent rascal." "It is the best self in the world," she .laid, warmly, her lips quivering. "The bravest, the manliest. Everything you do is right in my eyes; it always was since we wore little kiddies, i continually in mischief and fleeing before Aunt Coring. I wonder how dear Dorrybawn looks?" .she- mused, softly. "Watty savs it's the sumo old grov ruin. Mrs Coring is sunk to her neck in debts and difficulties once more; Blanche and Adelaide ' are vincgarish and dispirited; and Larry is toiling yet for starvation wages. When I'm foreman of the yard I'll send for him and keen him as a pet." "Pooi- Larry," she said, remorsefully. "What an ungrateful, selfish wretch I am. I could have sent 'liin a few pounds._ and T was too engrossed in my own affairs, but I'll do it to-mor-row. And I'll write. He'd like me to. I wonder if he hit en the truth when bo suggested that the jackdaws might have stolen the ruby?" "1 saw none in the grounds that night," said Dick, rising abruptly to get i candle, and speaking in a constrained tone. "Nor did I," she rejoined, rather snrnr'Pffl at the change in his i'oice, •ind lifting her head quickly. "The candle should encourage enr friend below to_ come up," he said, walking to the window. "I'll allow this shadowy person three minutes' grace, and in the meantime tie your veil on and get ready to go home. I'm going with you —the blessed fog grants mo the privilege, Curtis Row will art-bo,

abroad to stare and commout and show- i er witty smiles upon ns." Ho returned to the fireside and bent over her, his hands, on her shoulders, his young, strong lace lull of earnest pleading. ' ".Dearest, havo yon secret worries you are concealing from mo?" ".Boy .Dick," s'he answered, heruaikfringed lids drooping nervously, "don't bo absurd.-" J

"That's no reply," he insisted. "Well, 1 haven't." "It's no use. You won't tell .tie," he sigked. "Faithful to your salt, aren't you, Kitty? You wouldn't l/o a Goring otherwise. I want you to bear in mind that if you require help at any time old Dick isn't i'ar away, ready to stand by you in danger or distress, to run at your call and hiy down hia life for vou."

"I'd be less lonely if I could feel .sure .vou were near, that you wouldn't desert me," she said, clasping his wrists. "I shall be near, though we may not sec or hear from oach otner, lor we are hedged round with thorny convention;; that forbid us tie; commonest I'oim of intimacy, wo that were lovers once, and might have been husband and wife. We couldn't convince abominable men and women of the innocency <T cur thoughts and actions. Oh, Kitty! Heaven keep you as guileless as \cuv eyes confess you, as ignorant jf tic world's viciousness. or it will break tne heart in you. And never fret for anything you may hear of mo—lies I'.v3 toc.a.t's, invented for some Wicked purpose. I'll como to no harm. JM'y life isn't my own, it's yours, and lor \i.!.;i sake I'd guard it, lor the service it may do you when you need a iielp~er most."

"i will remtnber," sho whispered, unspeakabie joy thrilling her. "And <on II let me know il' anything goes wrong?" "11 it's anything serious, Dick, 1 will." Hi> took her hand, Mow out the candle, and lifting liis cap and overcoat led her to the «taire. They defended unobserved, and paused on the pavement, his gaze straining through the murky pall in quest of the man he had hoped to confound that night. The street was still and deserted as the place of graves at the hack of the high wall opposite. But lie was persuaded that il Bouchier had not followed Kitty someone had, yet who e-lse would do it on such an {'veiling? And Douehier, slinking home again alter .seeing her enter seemed scarcely compatible with a jealous- husband seeking to entrap his wife. Knitting his brows lie tucked the girl's arm snugly in his, and they proceeded. she chattering in low, musical accents and snatching happiness while she might. "Let us walk the whole way, Dick." she said, eoaxuigly. ''Will it weary'yon?'' ho ar-kcd.

''l couldn't be weary when you are with me," she* said, ami her blithe 'ace raised to his filled him with an insane longing to gather her to iiis breast and .swear that she should not g& back to I'aul Bouchier, that it was u desecration of her sweet youth and beauty intolerable to think of. He fought it down resolutely, but he would have

been more than man if he had not felt it>. To Kitty the misty streets were enchanted land, for was not Dick beside her. no longer stiff and aloof, cheerful as in the days of their courtship, ten derlv concerned about the wrapping up of her throat lest she should catch cold, lull of delightful care for her. Too soon the arched gateway of the Court came in sight, and she stood and looked ai him wistfully. His doubt of Uouchio; revived 1 . "Kitty." he said, "you must let mc go in with you. and give nie th.it let-

tor, in case—in case you are asked

whero you have been, and why. No one who saw your excuse could be angry." A gasp of dismay esqaped her. ''No, no. 1 shall not bo questioned-. You needn't be anxious. Paul and 1 don't see each other for days sometimes." "Ho may bo watching for you tonight." "He will not, indeed. He goes early Bo his rooms. And, Dick, you would get mo into trouble if you came in. He hates you. There is his lamp in that unpor window in the gable. He won't hear me .slipping in. j have the f "'to '-ey and a latchkey for the front 3o«&'' /'.Hut, Kitty " Her distressed osculation strengthened his lea'- that she was in terror of Bouchier. She cut snort his attempt to reason with her. laughed tremulously at his suspicion that Paul might have lured her to Curtis Row. He had to tell her his doubt in the end. She ridiculed it gently.

"Paul isn't .even aware that you are in London, and he imagines' people drooped us because thoy neither like him nor want him. He hasn't heard anything < )r ho would speak, he can't contain himself if he's enraged, and nothing would enrage him worse than to know I was talked alwut, no matter how undeservedly. Please, Dick, bid mo good-bye and go. I am quite safe. I wouldn't say it if I were not." Against his will, in spite of his apprehension, ho yioldod to her persuasive plea. "If you really love me and wish to holo me. don't do this." "I'd rather vou let me. but since you will not I'll wait here till I think you are. all right," he said, folding 'her hands in his, reluctant to release thorn. Their eyes met and clung in farewell. Kitty smiled with unsteady I ins and tore, liorself away. At tho gate she looked round and motioned to him to go. Inside tho high Avails which concealed tip lower storey from the outer view a

shiver ran through her. Lights flared on tho ground floor of the house aud lam sat keeping watch. Itis shadow silhouetted on the. blind his head bent over something he held in his hollowed palm.

CHAPTER XX

Jo return to Bouchier and Levinski at the point where we left them standing on the road.

"Out with it," yelped Paul, gondii fioyond endurance. 'What's Solly done? What have I done?" "Didn't you sign a paper for him?" "Nominally an agreement to buy shares, but I lent h'im that ten thousand I'm lamenting, and the agreement wa.siaf kind of guarantee. I'd not repent my generosity and snap the cheque back."

"Here'ssimplicity!" chuckled Levinski. "Here's Simple Simon for you ! I won't reproach you for denying to my faco that you gave him money, and I'll tell you what you signed. It vas a legal document drawn up by a person in the know, and in it you contracted to tako over tho entire A halo no muddle. _ shouldering ia-11 responsibilities and liabilities, and annexing the profits flic thrust his tongue out derisively) for the sum fixed' bjj the teller and pro-

prictor of tho concern, £10,000." "Jiali! you grinning clown. I read, the agreement through Wore I ;:iit pen to paper." "The paper your servants witnessed?" "I—J. believe so."

"Solly may have shown you an innocent document like the one you pin your faith on; but had ho a cliance tu substitute another. Paul's memwy travelled backwards, and his confident expression changed. "He had!" ho answered, and swore fluently. "Then Solly did it!" "It won't stand in a court of law if ho did."

".Maybe, not. Anyhow, he has taken steps to shift his burden to your back, and at present you are the Abalono Company. It'll suck you dry, supposing you give in tamely. The swindled public will pounce on you like kites on carrion, and leave nothing but your picked bones. They're besieging the office to lind out who's the new management, and wlkmi they hear they'll call on you and treat you as if you were no better than Solly. That brother of mine, the diver, has como home and is telling tales in newspaper offices. It's going to be a dirtv business." "I'll fight." "'But—or—if Solly's laid by the heels he'll explain the why and wherefore of that loan." "What do yon mean?"—bouncing forward. Levinski recoiled, and throw up his arm as if to ward off a blow. "Just that you wouldn't have shelled out unless he had the whip hand of vou somehow."

Paul gripped his chin, and thought of the sinister import of the transaction it Waring lived to charge him with murder on his own confession—-if (.Jo.llinsr.er were arretted at hi.s (Paul's) instigation, and declared that the money was a gift, the price of hiss silence. Between diem these two could place him in the Jock, and it would be no comfort to send (Jollinger to penal servitude and have to go along with him in the event of the capital charge being reduced to one less serious. Of course the ca.se might fall through. And it might not. His guilty conscience exaggerated the danger, and he forgot that men have confessed crime and escaped for lack of proof to substantiate their own statements. Ho licked an icy sweat oil' his upper lip aud felt a constriction of the throat as though a rope were tightening round it. Xo. Until he heard of the death of Waring he dared not risk fighting Oollinger's impudent claim. He must submit to it. Kven'if he had to let them despoil him he would stil! have a reserve of nobody knew anything. Fortunately, lie had told none of the provision made years ago for a possible evil day. "Co'mo into the house," he. said, abruptly, his face working. "Will you remain with me?" he asked, pouring out whisky for himself and Levinski. "Beggars can't be choosers," was- the doleful reply. "I'll stay. What do you propose to do, guv'nor?" ".Nothing." "Nothing? ix>t yourself be fleeced right and lef,t?" "They won't get much off a sheep alroady shorn. I'm considered wealthy, but it's surface, show mostly, built up on unlimited credit. The sum I lent Solly crippled me. There's very little Jto my name in bank or scrip." "Tell that to the marines," Levinski laughed. ••It's a deplorable fact. Herby." "Well, f won't contradict you, but I'm at liberty to think different. It isn't in your* nature to take things so cool unless you have a lie-by, and it don't matter to me so long as; you treat tno decent." "I'll do that because I need your help. I may have to leave England at a few hours' notice, and I'll dismiss the servants to-night." Levinski nodded. He was too familiar with the type that finds it convenient to leave England in a hurry to show auv surprise. "1 want you to get hold of that fellow Fitzgerald," and do you know any roughs who'd batter a mail's face to pulp for five pounds?" "Rather! I know two who'd oblige for five shillings." "lliro them. This photo, of :gevald will assist you to identify him. He is in the locality. I'd have spotted him io-day when i was following my wife, but an acquaintance took ill in the street, and I had to fetch him here—. the chap who died—and she got away from me, wor.se luck. Handsome face, Master Dickie, ain't it? I want it disfigured, smashed into such a hideous caricature of humanity that he'll pray Heaven to hide it under a coffin-lid." "The job is as good as done," replied Levinski, stroking sallow cheeks and trying to conceal his amusement. Boueh'ier's jealousy had been a constant source of amusement to him. "And about the couple of hundred you promised?" "The money is in the house, Herby. "Then I'll get my men to-night." "If I have to go before you catch him I'll manage to see tho English papers, and when I read the account of how thoroughly you've done tho work 111 send a bit extra. That will stimulate your efforts." , "It just will. I wouldn't miss him now for anything. He's no gentleman to como crowding aud aggravating you." . ... , "He has -been the bane of my lite," hfesed Paul. , nn ~ . ~ "And to plant himself down in the same locality as you and your sweet young missus! A saint couldn t stand it. fcon't be afraid hut we'll give you a grand revenge, Mr Boucher. 111 be off the minute I've discussed <t plato of cold beef, and a loaf, and a pot of coffee. I've had neither dinner nor tea, and I'm famished." , The food was ordered in. While Levinski ate. and drank Paul raved alternately of Gollinger's wickedness and Fitzgerald's. (To be continued.)