THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 522, 30 November 1912, Page 2

THE DOCTOR'S PROTÉGÉE.

(All Rights Reserved.)

By ALBERT LEE,

Author of " The Baronet in Corduroy," " The Key of the Hoiy House," King Stork of the Netherlands," " The Black Disc," &c.

Published By Special Arrangement,

CHAPTER XXXV.* | THE CONTENTS OF THE 1 SCARLET-CROSS PACKET. | Teresina's hands trembled while ] she broke the seals, and mine were no steadier when I cut the scarlet ribbon with my pocket-knife; 'but' in a few minutes the wrapper was opened, and the contents were re-1 vcaled. They were to all appearances, and at the first glance, anything- but startlihg. A small key lay in l vfc first wrapper, on which were writlen the words : "The Key of Gemsbok Trident." A paper lay beneath, which we opened at once, and on it was written in a cramped handwriting - words which explained the anxiety of the Committee of Paris to obtain possession of it. I reproduce them here : = I have entrusted this package to Signor Sarpi, from whom I extorted a solemn promise that it should not pass from his possession, even at the probable cost of his life. He has also entered into a bond that it shall not be opened until the ioth of August, 1901, and in case of Ill's death before that time he is to take steps for it to pass into the hands of his daughter Teresina. The Fraternity of France, known also as the Committee of Paris, a secret society which has declared itself against me, for various political reasons, and has hounded me through the world, knows that I have certain wealth—great up to the point of giving me a place among the millionaires of the world. They know that I have hidden away the bulk of my wealth, and they have sought by foul means to wring out the secret of the hiding-place, so that they may obtain that wealth in order to carry out their revolutionary programme, which is cruel and disastrous to law and order in my native country. It was such a policy which caused me indignantly to sever my connection with them. 1 have always protested /against the programme of assassination. So far I have successfully frustrated their endeavours to obtain information as to the whereabouts of my wealth. I hereby bequeath it all, subject to certain conditions and charges, to Signor Sarpi; and should be die before the time mentioned is expired, it is all to go to his daughter Teresina, whom, I will here confess, I have loved fondly, and hoped would some day listen to me when I asked her to be my wife. But illness has come to me, which will shortly end in nr death. The conditions for acquiring my wealth are two in number. First: One-fourth is to be spent in lessening the sorrows of the poor of Italy. Once I was poor—miserably poor — and it harrows my soul to think of the myriads who live so near to the borders of starvation. One eighth is to be devoted to charity where, in Signor Sarpi's judgment—or in Teresina's, if she succeeds to n~ wealth because of her father's death —the money is likely to be most helpfully bestowed. The other eighth is to be devoted to the education of poor children, and in giving them a good start in life. The benefits here named are for the poor, of my own country, and".doubtless the Italian Government will devise a scheme for carrying out my wishes. The remaining half of my possessions is for my friend Sarpi, and on his death for his daughter Teresina, to spend as they 'will . I happen to know the Andrieno Telamone—so-Called—is eager to marry Teresina; but why I cannot think, unless it be that he is infatuated with her beauty. I hope she will, not marry him, for I have no confidence in him. When he held a high position in Italy he abused his trust and deservedly became an exile- Signor Sarpi . must never allow him to gain possession of my secret. Rather let it die than become his. It is my solemn wish that neither the Fraternity nor Telamone shall ever discover the secret or obtain my wealth. GIAN GALEAZZO. There was a further paper sealed with red wax, and when it was opened I was astounded. It was a map of Patrie Island, whose situation in the sea was clearly defined. From the coast where the derelict had plunged on shore was marked out a red line and as I traced it across a 'bit of country I knew so well, I found that it led to the cavern where I had found the Gemsbok Trident. In the margin were some written instructions as to the further search: There is in the floor of the cavern in the furthest corner, to the right of the entrance, an oblong-shaped hole cut in the rock. It is filled with earth and beaten in hard, so : that its:, presence is unsuspected. In

ankle of the negro, and after that the way is plain. GIAN GALEAZZO. We sat in astonished silence when we had come to tlie end of our reading. What was irt Teresina's mind I do not know, but while she read over again what I have already here transcribed, my own mind was busy. My first thought was one of real gladness that I had married Teresina before I knew of the contents of the Scarlet Cross package. For I was by no means a rich man. A couple of hundred pounds a- year, left me by my father, was the whole of my private fortune, and anything else that came to my purse came through my personal exertions as a medical man. By the terms of this strange letter by Gia.ll Galeazzo, Teresina was a rich woman—immensely rich—c.nd had I known of her wealth I should have refrained from marrying her, fondly as I loved her, lest I should seem to be a fortune-hunter, rather than a man who asked for Teresina Telamone's hand because he loved her. When I married her, I married one Who, as I supposed, was no richer than myself, for she had said explicitly that she would never touch the fortune of her dead husband, and would repudiate everything that was done in the matter of a marriage settlement. Our united fortunes simply promised comfort,- but nothing in the way of affluence. But now ? Teresina might be rich beyond the dreams of avarice—that is, 011 the presumption that she was disposed to seek for the fortune of the dead Galeazzo. "What shall you do, Teresina?" I asked, when she sat with the papers lying iu her laii. "I should like to prosecute the search, Wilfred," she answered, simply. Thon I ventured to tell her of my thoughts—that: I was glad that t had married her while I thought we had but a comfortable competency between us; but she looked so pained that I was sorry I had spoken. "Oil! Wilfred, it is unkind to sj.eak like that. I Loved you with all my soul, and because I loved you so, I married you." "I know it, my darling, but " "You think I would not have married a poor man when I found myself rich 1 ?" she interrupted. "A thousand times no, my love! It was of myself I was thinking. I should have hesitated to ask a rich woman for her hand, lest she should have thought I was looking for her wealth." "Thon, Wilfred, you would have married mo. I knew you loved me, and if I knew that the thought of any prospective wealth had closed your lips, I should have asked you myself, and then you could not have refused my proposal —now could you?" She asked me this archly, for, putting the papers 011 the table, she had s?.t 011 my knees, and with her arms about my neck waited for my answer. "Not if you looked like that," I answered, laughing. "Then let the thought of everything go except this, Wilfred, that we love each other. And, knowing that, promise me that you will join mc in the search for this fortune of Gia-n Galeazzo, whom I knew quito well as a kind but most eccentric man. Will you promise?" "With all my heart," said I, drawing her closer.

CHAPTER XXXVI. rHE CONTENTS OP THE GEMSBOK TRIDENT. When we talked the matter over, we saw that there were many obstacles in . the way of the further quest of the treasure referred to in Gian Galeazzo's papers. There was the question of expenso to begin v.ith ; but this was met by reason of a discovery I made the day alter we had opened the Scarlet-Cross package. Hesketh and I went to the hotel where we had seen Telamone face to face in death with his .pursuer. The assumption was, thai when Regnauld had arrived at St. Monod with the money he had taken from Patrie Island, he had removed it to the hotel, or had lodged it at the bank which was in the next block of buildings. One-half of it—as treasure-trove —was mine, and Regnauld had taken it away without my jiormission. My hope was to find it, and then, appropriating my own legitimate portion, I purposed defraying out of it the expenses that would be incurred in search for Gian Galeazzo's hidden fortune. We found it safely deposited in what had been the manager's room, and making explanations to the authorities who had come to maintain the rights 01 surviving citizens as against those who were looting the city, we took away, with the aid of Hesketh's negroes, what the new Governor considered my proper share. * The re-

It appeared to me, whrn vnj h:vl landed, that Tormina was more eager to know where I h\d spent ii y days during tlio dreadful time of 1: 7 marooning th,an to prosecute the search for the Gemsbok Trident. Again and again I reminded her that the wealth of Gian Galeazzo was more to her than.a man's experience in a lonely island; but she laugliod, and declared that it was altogether different. when that man was not the man in the street, but. her own husband. It was only when her curiosity was satisfied in this respect that she turned her attention tp what was hidden in the floor of tho cave. When we found it undisturbed, since I had replaced it there, she went down on her knees to draw something out of the hiding-place which I had not noticed. It was a leathern case wrapped, like tho trident, in brown paper, and when she opened it she found it full of Bank of England note:; to the value of more than fifteen hundred pounds. With it was a piece of paper 011 which were scrawled the words, in Galeazzo's handwriting: "To defray the expenses for prosecuting the search." Laying these on the floor, we turned our full attention to the trident, and when I inserted the key in the hole in the negro's ankle the upper portion swung, back 011 unseen hinges, leaving the horn of the gemsbok open, and displaying a littlo slip of scarlet, ribbon. Drawing this out carefully, lest it should break, for it seemed to come unwillingly, we found ■attached to it a folded parchment, and this, when spread open, proved to be what we expected to find—the further instructions as to the discovery of the hidden treasure. Teresina's heart sank, and so did mine, when we read and found what had to be done in order to end our quest successfully. Wo had hoped that the wealth referred to in the Scarlet-Cross package would be found somewhere in Patrie Island, but the eccentricity of Gian Galeazzo involved us in a long and tedious if not dangerous journey if wo determined to prosecute the search. The parchment hidden in the gemsbok horn set forth, not the plan of a hiding-place, but the roadway to be pursued when once wo had landed on the West African coast. Every tenth mile along the route indicated was marked by a short red stroke of the pen, and when we counted these there were eighteen of them : so that if we were to unearth the treasure, we must needs travel a hundred and eighty miles of country through the villages and territories of tribes that were probably savage. The manuscript, however, set forth the fact that at the time Gian Galeazzo hid his treasure in Machodi, Secliele was king, and that, his territory stretched from the shore to some mountains which were far beyond his capital. It, moreover, made things easier by stating that whatever difficulties might meet those who sought the treasure, the Gemsbok Trident would enable the seekers to surmount them. As soon as any native in Sechelc's territory met the man who possessed the trident, the owner had but. to display it, and demand to be led at once to the king's presence, and he would docilely turn, and serve as guide. I sat down in moody silence, and thought seriously for a while as to whether the reward would be commensurate with tlie dangers to be faced. Civilisation could have made but little if any impression on tho natives, and when once we had landed on the coast there might be a rush of hurrying warriors, a hideous din of war-cries, and then death before we should have time to test the virtues of the Gemsbok Trident. Yet. everything seemed so straightforward, Gian Galeazzo's instructions bore such a tone of quiet certainty, and the bait was so tempting, that I did not like to forego the search. The adage, "Nothing venture, nothing win," appealed to me, and if for no other reason the mystery enticed one to follow it up, and put to the proof the assertions concerning a great and hiddon treasure which always has a fascination for me. {To be Continued. ) D.P-28.