LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1252, 23 March 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

RED-HANDED. [London Society.] ' This way, senor ; this way ?' Ti was only ail office-boy who spoke, but he was a precocious youth, and he flat ered himself he knew a Spanish gentleman* when he paw one. And Spanish gentlemen were well known in that office hard by the Strand, for it was especially devised for holding communion with Spanish gentlemen —of the Carlist persuasion; and, in fao l- -, was the head-quarters of the London committee for aiding the Pretender to the Spanish throne. A dark, gloomy, saturnine young man, handsome withal, but appearing overcome with some deep feeling, was he now in the hands of that office-buy ; and his question, uttered in English so broken as to bo almost destroyed, had been to the effect that he was in search of a Mr Edward Royston who waß at the taking of Estella in February of the current year (1876), and was believed to have fled to England on the collapse of the Carlist cause—Did the London (Committee know anything of the gentleman ? ' Well, I should jolly well think so,* said the office-boy, who had now perched himself on an office- and was trying to look altogether as official as he could, considering his diminutive inches and his very juvenile appearance: 'I should jolly well think so. Why, he's one of our great guns, is Mr Royston; bin a-flghting there like winkin'!' *Ab, yes, "great guns"—what you call cannon ; but he can run as well as fight—better than fight, for he runs with the plunderer.'

Thin gibberish theofficeboyconld;not understand, more especially as it was einphassised with a ferocious glance which made him feel queer ; so he hastily asked what he could do for the senor, and for the rest of the interview he was, as he subsequently told a fellow office boy round the corner, 'all in the humble pie business.' Could he introduce the hew comer—who gave his name as Ben G-elasco, a captain of the Carlista—to any responsible member of the committee able to talk Spanish, for the captain's English was very indifferent to speak, though he was able to read it fluently. No, the office b:>y could not; for none of them that he knew of were in town just then, but he could forward any letters. Letteis? Pest! They were useless, for the matter was urgent. Where was Mr Royston to be found ? The office boy turned to his books with excellent alacrity, and, the place being found read from them with great satisfaction - for that fierce hungry eye of Senor Gelasco's never moved from him ' Edward Royston, E-q., Lakelands, near Ambleside, Westmoreland.'

Glancing up quickly as he pronounced the last word, the boy noticed that his visitor was trying nervously with something lo king remarkably like the butt of a pistol stuck in his bosom, and the office boy felt mure queer than ever. 'And it is his living—what you call?— where he does live ?'

' Yes, that's his address ; sure to find him there,' was the hasty reply, not that the lad had any authority for the assertion beyond the evidence ot his books ; but truth to say, he feared the unwholesome gleam of Bias Gelasco s eye, and would gladly see him out of the place. The Spaniard remarked the effect he had produced; he knew fear when he saw it, and he also knew its value for his own ends.

' And say to me,' he went on, 'in that book is there the living of—of—one Nella—ah!—Nella—'

'0 yes,' interrupted the precocious one ; • funny name, and I remember it well Never heard it before.'

He galloped over the pages at a great rate paused, spoke : ' Yes, here it is—a lady—Nella Fitzgibbon. Why, it's thesame address as Mr Koyston's!' The dark look on the Spaniard's face grew black as Erebus, and a passion the lad knew not of, as yet, made the man's dark features writhe again. It was the writhing of revenge. But he mastered it in a moment, and calmly asked : ' She lives there, then ?' ' Yes, certainly; it seems she lives there with him.'

' Ah, thank you, my young friend. I will see this—ah !—Ftoystone. Here is for your information. I thank you.' Placing a paper on the counter he passed hastily out, and was lost in the tramping

crowds of tho strand before the om e Viy h»d recovered from hia surprise, Sftti ootned the little packet, ahd found inside a odfrpU l oi.Eneftsh sovereigns. Then he ran after Bias G&ltoco «o return the money, but that romant'c pefs'fchatttf had vanished in the surging tide of hatttfoifSy rotmd Charing Cross; and when the youth' got back to his desk he found another gentleman waiting him. i 'Why, Mr Royston !' he cried :'Good I gracious, if yoa had only been here a minute °M?, Awl H 1 had, William, what then?' t . . The speaker was a gttsm your* Saxon, bronzed a little in the face—* hPne-eyed, yellow-haired, model of the English geiVSleman of good blood—and he was dressed faultlessly, but as one is who has 'jnßt run ?utJto town, y uknow, all in the rough.' "■'why" fhere was, n»t a second ago, a Spani-h fellow I—altem!'gentleman, 1 —altem!'gentleman, I meaninquiring after yoii'.* • Yes; ahd what did he' Want? V ' V ell, Mr Royßton, he had a pistol 1 The other laughed. He had see"tf * good' 'deal of active service, iff and on, with t>o» 'C«rlo8 j for he was one engaged in the verv. dangerovis business of supplying that hen's armv with money and arms and he took a hand in the fighting whenever he came across any. '" herefore he was 1 not to' be ftightened by the mention of a p&tol', though Wiiliam was, andjaaid so with considerable energy. I * \ es, Mr Royston, I was scared a bit; tiiL&i d'ye know, he got your address out of «•'' ' ■• -• ' Did he mf€ hfe 1 own 1' 'No ; I clean forgot So ask- hra». Perhaps But |no ; there was no writing whatever on the paper in wbicft the gold had' been wrapped ; and Wi Ham looked like one expecting a rare blow ng up. He did not get iS, however ; for Ed Koyst"n wan a kind as h ell ag reck «»a fellow, and he supposed the paniard was some half-crazed refugee from the war, unable as yet to get rid of the habit of carrying weapons. William was mofa affected 1 Hut f say", Mr Royston, I know his name —Mr Bias UelasCd r . , The English Oarlist started violently, and for a moment his sun-yellowed face grew white as death. Bat he immediately put from him whatever thought haa occasioned that deadly pallor, and lauehed. I ,'Pshaw!' he said, 'what a fool I ami The name's" common enough, and th» poor fellow's b -nes aV« bleach'•! long ago on the mountain slop s about KSHftwafc Or else this chap's an impostor,' ut that view did not suit the boy W illiam at all The strange manner of the { visitor had made a deep impression on his j nervous organisation, and he could not drive I those fierce b!aok eyes from his mental ' vision' it,. •And, Mr Roystoh,'he Went on, 'he got Miss Nella Fitzgiobon's address out of me too, same as yours, jM fcnpW.' 'Same as mine you thundering' young idiot? Why, you don't know mineT What d'ye mean?' Ed. Royston was really alarmed as well as angry now. Why, William could not make out, So* the latter turned to his books in his confusion, and* re»4 out, one after an .ther, the Lakelands direction, entered after the names of both gentleman and lady, Royston taought aloud, ' Bias Gelasco and Nelle Fitzgibbon ! Good Heavens, he oan't have— 1 'Hillo ttoyston? Ju«t the man I want. But what's this about Miss Fitzgibbon and Wehwso? Strange, I wished to speak to you about that very ftllow, and came in her* to get your address.' The speaker was a stout, florid, elderly gentleman, who had hurriedly entered the office just as Ed. Royston was speaking. He had a bundle of railway-rugs in one hand, a travelling-coat across the other arm. (7b be coiioluded)