Lady Trebor's Secret, OR THE MYSTERY OF CECIL ROSSE.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 257, 26 September 1877, Page 4

Lady Trebor's Secret, OR THE MYSTERY OF CECIL ROSSE.

o fßv Mrs. Harriet Lewis.] . CHAPTER XXX.— contd. “ You’re right, Let ’em live till wc arc ready to start for England,” said .Maria. “There’s that strange noise again ! This old house is lull of noises. We’ll plan out how to kill Miss Rosse and Grctchen and carry out the plan a month hence. Meanwhile, we’ll keep a closer watch on ’em than ever. Well prevent any signals, or escape, and lull Miss’s suspicious il she should possibly have any.” Jarvis arose quietly and began stealthily to creep along the wall towards the hall-door. “ I’m agreeable to that plan,” said Mrs Jarvis, with an air of relief. “ The thing is settled —all but details. Them we can arrange at our leisure. «Jarvis, what arc you up to ?” Jarvis suddenly pulled open the door. Cecil Rosse and old Grotchon were scon, both pale as ghosts, and wild with terror, cowering on the threshold. With one shrill scream, Cecil turned to run down the stone passage. In an instant Jarvis had seized her by her rippling hair and dragged her brutally into the kitchen. Old Grctchen followed, wringing her hands, and begging that her young mistress’s life might bo spared. “ Shut np !” commanded Jarvis. “ Xow, you women, we’re ionud ont. The gal has listened to everything. (She’s got to die, sure enough, and the old crectnr with her. Lock the doors, and we’ll settle this here business !” CHAPTER XXXI. IAU’KISONMEXT. The excited order of Jarvis was promptly obeyed. Mrs Jarvis ran and secured the great outer door of the kitchen with bolts and bars, while Maria, the Portuguese woman, locked the door leading into the hall, and transferred the massive key to her pocket. It was a weird and strange scone. The black, stone floor, the kneeling figure ol Cecil liosse, her young face upturned, her dusk eyes wild and scared, yet within strangely brave, the brawuoy, red hand of her enemy clutching the ripplin'/ waves of her red-brown hair ; behind''her old Grctchen, moaning and wringing her hands; on either side the two sinister women, awaiting their master’s orders, and over the whole group the strong glare of the light that flamed from the blazing logs on the wide hearth.

Outside, the wintry gusts of wind raved and roared. A whirling eddy of snow came in under the great door. In the chimney the winds held high revel, whistling and screaming like unloosed demons. It seemed as if nature herself wore in sympathy on this night with deeds of violence and crime.

In his excitement, Jarvis had dragged his young victim'to the floor. Now that the doors were fast, and his excitement began to cool, he loosened his hold upon her and retreated a few paces, pausing to regard her with mingled fury and exultation.

££ There’s an old sayin’ as listeners never hear no good of themselves,” ho exclaimed, “ and you’ve found it ont, Miss !’’

Miss Rosse staggered to her feet and sank down into the nearest chair.

££ I’d have you know as Miss Cecil wouldn’t have listened, not even to such as yon, a plotting her death, if I hadn’t suspected something and fetched her down !” cried Grctchen, indignantly. “You suspected something!” exclaimed Mrs Jarvis, with a sneer. ££ Yon !”

“ Oh, I’m an old cow,” cried Gretchen, “ and stupid, and all that, as you say, I suppose, or I’d have made my young mistress run away tin's very night instead of bringing her down here to ho caught like a bird in the snare. Oh, Miss Cecil, forgive me—it’s all my fault !”

“ Hush, Gretchen,” said Cecil, softly and affectionately. “Do not blame yourself !” “It was my man’s sharpness that caught you,” said Mrs Jarvis. “ Lor’, Jarvis,” and she turned to him admiringly, “ how keen yon are. To think that yon detected them a-listcning when Maria and mo couldn’t’ hear anything. You’re like them bloodhounds, you arc.”

Jarvis appeared complimented. Ho stroked his stubby chin while he regarded his prisoners with keen and threateningeyes.

11 You’ve heard what wasn't intended for your cars, Mis?,” ho said, after a pause, “ but wo won’t have to explain matters, so time’s saved. You know now that you are a prisoner here ?” The girl bowed her head in assent. “ You know as you ain’t at no Greycourt, nor in Yorkshire?” " “ iVhoro am I, then ?” asked Cecil, who had attained to j. marvellous calmness, although her pulses beat fierce and fast. “Aml in England ?” “ No, you’re not. I shall not tell you where you are !” “ Docs Lady Trevor own this house ?” asked the girl.

“ No, she don’t, and she never saw it neither 1” affirmed Jarvis. j “ Poos Lady Trevor know that I am here ?” inquired Cecil, trying to understand her terrible situation. “ No, she don’t. We don’t know no Lady Trevor. Wc never saw her. We’re working for another party, we are !” Cecil’s little bands clasped each other in an uncontrollable agitation, “ And that party is secretly my enemy ?” she asked, in a trembling voice. ££ You’ve hit it, Miss !” “ But there mast be some mistake — some awful mistake !” cried Cecil. “ I am a stranger in England. I have no enemies. I never harmed a person in my life. Who could wish to kill me ? It is monstrous —incredible ! I will not believe it. Tell me that you were not speaking seriously, Mr Jarvis. Tell me that it is all a dream or phantasy. Why, I have lived here months and found you all kind and respectful to mo. Could you have been harbouring thoughts of murder in your hearts all these months ?” She turned her wild and anguished eyes from one to another of the three faces of her enemies, and she shuddered at their hardness and savage cruelty. “ Wo won’t argufy, Miss,” said Jarvis. “ The facts is as yon know. You’re in the wav of some one as sent you here, and has paid liberal to have you kept here!” “ And who is it wants me dead ?” asked Cecil, her young voice having an unwonted sharpness, her young face thrust forward further into the flaring light. “ Who is my enemy ?” “ Some questions can’t bo answered, and that is one ol ’em,” answered Jarvis. Cecil was silent for some minutes, seeming stnpificd. The whole matter scorned to her unreal and utterly incredible. (She could scarcely believe the asertions of Jarvis. Whom had she ever harmed or wronged ? Why should any one ever wish her dead ? The more she thought upon the matter the more it seemed to her that she had been mistaken for some one else. Presently she urged this conviction upon Jarvis’ but he shook Lis head, declaring with an oath that he had made no mistake. “ It’s you —Miss Cecil Rosse of Germany—as I’m ordered to keep a prisoner, and no one else,” ho affirmed. “It was Lady Trevor’s friend, or business agent, Mr Pnllord, that put me on board the yacht,” said Cecil, reflectively. “It it he who seeks my death ?” “ Mistaken again. Y on can’t pump me, Miss, of tilings I don’t wish to tell,” declared Jarvis. “ There’s folks as have kep’ their eyes on you longcr’n you'll ever know of—folks as hate you and want you dead. They pays liberal, and folks as pay liberal always gets their will. Your embroidery work has all been a blind, and has passed away your winter, and so has served its purpose, You’ve come to Black Rock, but you’ll never leave it alive.” Old Grctchen renewed her expressions of grief, moaning more loudly, and wringing her hands in yet wilder despair. Unselfish Cecil forgot her own peril in pity for her servant. “At least, Grctchen is in no one’s way,” she exclaimed. “ No one demands her life. Do what yon will with me, since I am helpless in your hands, but let her go.” “To warn the police, eh? Yon must think mo a simple,” sneered Jarvis. “ She thinks such an uncommon lot of of, Miss, as makes mo wish to send her along of you to the other world. The fate of one of you is to be the fate of the other.”

“ I won’t accept my freedom unless Miss Cecil can be free too,” cried the old peasant woman. “ I am old and ignorant. I deserve to die for advising my young mistress to leave London. She owes all this trouble to me. Kill me, Mr Jarvis, but let her go free. Bhc young, so good, so—” “ And she’ll die if you can be saved,” cried Jarvis, again sneering. “ I know my business. You think so much of each other you shall die together. I sha’n’t spare neither of yon.” “ That’s the talk,” said Mrs Jarvis, approvingly. “You’ve wasted too much time in palavering, Jarvis. The gal has found out the whole thing. She ought to die this very night 1” “ Yes,'they both ought to die to-night!” declared Jarvis, gloomily. “ Oh, mercy, mercy!” groaned Grctchon, sinking upon her knees, her gray hair becoming unloosed and falling to her shoulders, scant, short, and witchlike in its effect. “ Sparc my poor youngmistress, who never hurt a living creature ! In the name of the great God, who will one day judge and punish yon, if you commit this awful crime, do not harm her !”

Jarvis and his wife laughed brutally. “ Hush, G retch on !” said her young mistress, sweetly and softly, in a low, calm voice, her face looking as might look the face of an angel. “ Let ns pray to God, and not to people like those. God has not abandoned us !” Again Jarvis and his wife laughed coarsely. “ Prayers won’t help you none !” said the latter. “ Bui if they’d be any comfort to you, be at ’em quick. Your time’s ’bout up !” j TO BE CONTINUED. J