THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 519, 20 November 1912, Page 2

THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

"Rights Reserved.)

By ALBERT LEE, Author of "The Baronet in Corduroy," "The Key of the Holy House," King Stork of the Netherlands," " The B:.ack Disc," &c.

Published By Special Arrangement,

CHAPTER XXXl.— {Continued ) "I should say four days. At all events, they have been staying in the hotel for that time, being anxious to repair the yacht in which, as I understand, they have been sailing for some months." I wondered what I should do. Should I ask any questions which would lead me to judgo whether Teresina had arrived at Hesketh's plantation ? He might not know, of course, for she would land, and ride at once to Hesketh's home. It occurred to me while I was thus considering the matter that if any mischief had befallen her while u;"..'.'or Hesketh's roof the news would run through the town, and it was scarcely likely that one like Tclauiono would stay at St. Monod after having assassinated his wife. This was the natural conclusion, and I determined to abide by it, and be content until I could discover for l myself what had transpired. Turning to the hotel manager, who was waiting to know nty intentions, I said to.him: "I have little luggage with me, but here is money which I hould be glad if you woule pub into /our safe. I will seal tlr bag, and vou can give me a receipt for it." Half an hour later I was standins: in the manager's office, making inquiries on various matters, whereby I hoped to elicit information li: a way that should not arouse suspicion as to my motives concerning the three men who were by some arrange concatenation drawn to this place where Teresina was probably come. Their presence was a menace to her safety, and one could feel that some awful crisis was approaching. Was it a mere coincidence that Telamone —unknown to me—had property in Cabesterre, which he had come to look after? That .Regnauld, wrecked at Patrie Island, should escape, and find the nearest land to be this same district where he would be able to carry out the decree of the Fraternity of Paris ? That in my anxiety to get Teresina into a place of safety, I should actually advise her, under certain circumstances, to go to Cabesterre, of all places in the world ? I should have set the matter aside as something bordering on the impossible had the suggestion been made; but here was the fact, if it proved to be the case that Teresina and my sister were actually under Hesketh's roof. A phaeton was standing at the door, and a stalwart negro was waiting to drive me to Anselme—Hesketh's place. While my, hand was turning the handle so that I might open the door and go into the hall I heard some voices which it was impossible to mistake. Eercns' was speaking, arid Telamone answered. I opened the door slightly as they walked by, and saw them pas.;., ThereN was no mistake.. A few moments later, when they had passed up the grand staircase, I went out to the jj'haeton, and tho. negro, gathering up tho reins, whipped up the horse. The splendid creature went along at a rattling pace, knowing the driver he ha:! behind him.

As we swung round the corner of a street a man stepped back with ? cry, and trying to avoid the phr.eton, which was going on at a pace which would have been set down a:; furious driving <in any of our English towns, fell backward, __ and rolled on the ground. laughed, but did not stop. Ho was evidently used to such an experience, and whipping his horse afresh, cent h!m forward at a ytiU more furious pace. But I had seen the faco of tho man, and there was no mistaking it. It was Regnauld who lay in tho dust. I found myself wondering, as we sped along, as to what would happen when he discovered that Andr,ieno Telamone was lodging in tho same hotel as he himself had chosen. Strange things were happening in tho larger world to which I had como after my sojourn on lonely Patrie Island. CHAPTER XXXI. AT ANSELME. The negro at my side was talkative enough, but he could give me no information as to any of the inmates a.t Anselmej and knew nothing when I asked him whether Hesketh had any ladies staying at his house. While we were driving through a forest clearing I caught sight once more of the black, smouldering mountain, which rose dark and forbidding, and seemed more unsightly now than when I saw i from the deck of the Beagle. "Do you not. fear it?" I asked, the driver, pointing to the smoking crater. The negro looked in the direction indicated, and laughed. "We'd as soon see it smoke as not, massa. I've known it smoke before, and no harm came. Some are frightened, and are leaving Cabesterre; but

laughing niggers on the quay shew signs of fear ? Not they! Come, Jake, get along!" the negro cried, and whipped the horse to further effort. When I looked at tho man he seemed tho embodiment of carelessness. Before long we were at Anselme, and Hesketh, whom I had not seen for years, and who was standing on the verandah smoking, looked keenly at me to see who his visitor was. "I ought to know you," he said, coming forward. "Stand, man, and let rue look at you, for there is something familiar in your. face. You don't belong to St. Monod, or I should know you." There was a short pause, during which 1 stood still for amused inspection, but then Hesketh exclaimed: "By Jove! I think I have it. Aren't you Carson of Balliol?" "Well, I was, once upon a time," I answered: and at that he clasped my two hands, and bade me welcome a hundred times over. But my thoughts were for Teresina, and when the opportunity came, after a score of questions had been asked before I could put in a word by way of answer, I asked if he had my sister staying with him. "Yes, and her Italian laxly friend —Signora Telamone." "And is she safe?" "I should think she was, old man. Why shouldn't, she be?" Hesketh looked at, me in a puzzled way, as if he wondered how any harm could j come to her or to anyone on his plantation. "Come in and see her j for yourself." He led the way to a garden bel hind the house, and there sat Agnes, and by her side Hesketh's own wife. I But my eyes were all for her who sat before them, more beautiful than ever, so I thought, although there was a look of sadness on her face, as if the trouble of her past had impressed itself indelibly, and woiild not pass, even under happier conditions.' "Agnesc," I called, while Hesketh and I stood just outside the French window and watched the little group of women. The three women looked up, and two of them exclaimed in surprise, , then* sprang to their feet, and came j across the grass with outstretched hands. Agnes threw her arms j about my neck, and kissed me til! | I cried for mercy; but Teresina j stood, her small hands clasped, but j a look was in her eyes which made j my heart leap. Yet, because she was another man's wife, she dared not do more than put out her hand, and express her joy at seeing me again, safe and sound. "I thought you were dead," she cried, and her dark eyes gleamed. "I am very much alive," I answered, gaily, holding her hand in mine, and looking at her in a way which brought the dark blood into j her lovely face. "I thank Heaven I see y.ou safe," sh:> murmured. ' "Dr. Carson, we thought you dead, for through all j the weary days not one word has como cinco the message reached us j from Paris. You seemed to speak to us, and bid us hope, and then, alas! you vanished, and we were distressed." She bent and kissed my hand, and when she raised her eyes to irJ.no again I saw that they were full of tears. One of them had fall- j on on my hand, and I took caro no: ' to wipe it away. Later on, while j wo all sat in the garden bene;:: j tho shade of a. plantation tree, Agues holding one of my hands and Teresina tho other, I told toy story, and how at that moment Rcgnauld and Telamone were actually in St. Monod. "He has come for the ScarletCross package," said Teresina, in a low and frightened voice. "Will you surrender it to your husband, and put 'an end to this intolerable state of things," 1 "Oh! Dr. Carson, I cannot. f made that promise to my father never to part with it, and I muet not break it. You cannot think how earnestly ho urged me to hold it at all hazards, and how could I refuse hdm ? . And how could 1 dare now to forget.the solemn promise I made him, and his satisfaction when he gained my assurance that it should never go into Andrieno Telamone's hands? If you had seen my father's face, or heard him, you would never wonder at nry persistency. But for that I should have surrendered it gladly, so as to be at ease." "The package is in my safe, old man," interposed Hesketh, when I asked where it was; "and thero it will stay, until I receive orders to restore it to Signora Telamone, who, i by the way, id known as Miss Braden—which was my own sweetheart's maiden name. Why should tho signora yield to the unreasonable demands of a. husband who has forfeited all claim to loyalty, I'd like to know ?" "I am content," I answered. "But one thing is certain, that wc must look well to Teresina's safety."

round on a, scene of bcantv, the "ike of which I I:?-:! never witnessed before. It was a magniiiccnt tropical wilderness, broken hero, ;11 there by great gorges, down which the mountain streams plunged wild ly, in mad haste to get to the distant sea. A rocky' spur, luxuriantly covered with forest trees, and other crags and peaks ranged across the landscape, with here and there a roaring mountain torrent, tossing i't waters into a ravine from which the white mist. rose. In tho valleys were gardens and scattered huts. cocoa and coffee plantations, and closer yet, Nature's wild bountv-■■• orchids, begonias, plantains, anc* orange groves, which man's hands never tended. One could almost fancy the country peopled by the buccaneers who, in olden times, kept the sailors of the western seas m constant fear and played havoc with the untiring labours of the jnanters. But there was always the sight of that forbidding fire-mountain smoking, ominously. "Do you not fear it?" I asked, for it filled me with dread; but Hesketh looked at it when I pointed to it, and laughed. "Not a bit. Some are frightened. I must confess, and are bundling out of the place as quickly as possible, but I see no reason why they should. A month hence the sky will be as blue over the summit as it ever was." When the ladies had retired for the night, I sat and talked with Hesketh concerning the danger which threatened Teresina. It seemed to me that here, in a house into which any man might enter almost with impunity, her life was at the mercy of Telamone if once he should discover that she was under Hesketh's roof. When the planter heard more of my story than had hitherto been told to him, he concurred that Anselme was scarcely the safest place in the world, 'now '., that. Andrieno Telamone and Reg-' nauld were in St. Monod. We sat for a long while in silence, each one considering this grave problem which confronted us. "Listen to me, old man," said Hesketh, breaking in upon my thoughts. "Anselme is not the place for the signora : but Beaumont, who was at Balliol with us —do you remember him ?" I nodded. "He is a clergyman in St. Monod, but just now he and his sister arc at his country place taking a month's holiday. It is a- secluded, spot called Bouille, where Miss Braden—we will call her such for sa-: fety's sake—and your sister might: remain, and yet have a large amount of liberty, without their presence there being suspected by that brace; ■of scoundrels who kept you on board the Vallauris. What say you to our going there and asking Beaumont to give them his hospitality "till the coast is clear ? Once wo get them I .among the hills, we can hunt ont Regnauld and Telamone, and settle them in some way." "But what of Teresina''s safety while we are away?" I asked, although Hesketh's suggestions pleased me greatly. "That's easy. I have a man named Peel—my overlooker—and he would watch her ceaselessly, night and day. He could easily keep three or four negroes on the watch, and take account of all strangers. I'll call him."' Peel was, such a stalwart fellow that Telamone and Bercns together would have found him a tough customer, and when ho heard what we wanted from him ho pulled out a revolver, a.nd declared that it would go a long way towards making matters hum a bit for unwelcome intruders. "Besides," said he, slipping the dangeraus-looking' weapon into his pocket again, "there's Jake and Peter—Sam, too, if you dcirt rair.cl him missing his work for a day—and between them and myself I think Miss Braden will be safe while aw.aiy. CHAPTER XXXII. ! ' THE EARTHQUAKE. | When we arrived at Bcuillc, v. c i found the Rev. Stephen BcaumopsL I ensconced in an arbour, where ir?j was busy with some magazines which; had found their way from Engbn-d. Absorbed in their contents, he d. : d j not heed our approach until we j were standing before him, and lies keth had deliberately put out his hand and drawn the book from the clergyman's fingers. "Hesketh, my dear fellow!" he exclaimed, when thus disturbed. jumping to his feet, "How came you here ? I thought myself far enough' away from the world to csc j no one, and able to lose myself completely in thoughts of home. What. is wrong ?" "Nothing's wrong, old man. Here's Carson of Baliol, come to Cabesterre, and circumstances rendered it necessary to ride out hero to consult with you." Beaumont was locking at me eagerly while the planter explained "I know you new, Carson.," ho cried: "but I should not have done so if I had met you in the streets of St. Monod. A young man like you ought not to have ycur hair streaked with grey—and plentijully, too." (To be Continued.) Q.P.—25.