AN EXPENSIVE PRESCRIPTION"I WISH I'D KNOWED LATIN.”

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1132, 31 December 1883, Page 4

AN EXPENSIVE PRESCRIPTION—"I WISH I'D KNOWED LATIN.”

LITERATURE.

{Continued.)

* I know that, for I’ve looked in your pockets,’ coolly returned Pike; 1 bnt you know where they are—where you put them after you came out of the house and locked the door.’

The old man was silent. By an arrangement with his brother, who had a duplicate key of the garden door, and sometimes visited the house at intervals during the holidays, the actual keys of the house were left hanging under a clnmp of ivy near the garden door, that he might be able to enter the house at any time if his brother were absent. It was not likely, however, that the man who had trapped him would dream of looking for them there, and the mor ment’s thought gave him courage and ' hojje.

‘You surely do' not imagine for a moment that I will help yon to commit a robbery?’die at last exclaimed ; ‘ I would die sooner than do that to my own brother.’

lb ope, not, for I mean to try yon,’ sa'id 'Pike, .darkly ; ‘ now, look here, yon see-, you’re in my power, and can’t get a souli to come- near yon. You might blind arid no one would hear,ypu though I may tel 1y on that ;.y<m :iry. that game on I quj*Oi<to let yjonhave this on your noh, »s-lߧayy ; can lay it. on ; and he s6sly ‘ a Aid suggestively waved the bludgeon within, an. .inch of the old man’s nose* 1 ? :: ; I.;

course l ean break’ into-the place if I’ve a niind to, while I hayo yon safe dock .and, key, ..but I don’t want'to.damage the .door.and windows, or nftvke a noise; ’6r : have any fuss about, iCfMust yon say quietly where the key is, or it’ll be the worse for you—death, for air that I know.’

'" ‘ Til sOoh he missed and sought for !’ sdid the old man, with “ more , resolution than he felt; ‘you may do what yon please, I shall not say where .the keys are,’ ; '

-’’‘Then weM keep yon here till you rot; ’savagely returned Pike ; * and very likely we’ll break into the place all the same. It was only to save trouble that" '•I thought J’d; give you the chance, to give ns the keys. When they find the house robbed and open, and you missing, of course they’ll say’yon done it, and as long as'they live'they’ll look onypn'as'.ah old thief and swindler.’ ' •

‘ And what would they call me if. I helped you to the' keys?’ scathingly retorted‘ the old man. ; Pike was not good-at reply,’ so he made no answer but to leave the hole and lock the door aftervhim; There was no window or fireplace in the damp and.frousy den, and Pike look the light with him, so poor old Mr Brownings was left in a darkness that might almost have been cut with a ;kh?ife. i; ’ ; ’ The situation was horrible and depressing, but solitude , and darkness with some develop reflection. ’Mr Brownings was pot deficient in quickness : and intelligence; though his retired life had madb him ;: B3hrcely fit .to rub shoulders witfithe active ; and work-a-day world, and all his thoughts,and energies were now; turned bn J oUe question —‘ How could he 'circumvent and outwit the villain who had played him such n dastardly trick ? In a contest of ning the inan of education iuAhe long run has generally ,the, best of it. MrBrownings thought of dozens of plana before morning, and at ; last resolved. to try 1 bhe of them, the ingenuity of which alone h«s induced me to recall the case.

When < Pike entered 'the - deri next morning with gn apology for a breakfast in h|g hands, he found his prisoner he’d, listless jpaa psUlut, and evidently agreeing 7 badly with the confinement and ‘ change'of air.’ f , ‘ You don’t loot - so smart this ing,’ he said with; exultation; * are you going to, say keysds,-and have done with it ?’ j ; v- ‘ No, lam not well; and I hope; I’ll die,’ feebly returned the prisoner, /v * ; ‘ Wouldn’t you Jil?e me ; , to bfifigr-a first-rate doctor? :to feel your . poultice and set yon up?again T said Pike, with brutal humppr., To'this the old man made no aiiswer, and Pike, soon tiring of the of his victim, retired. In the afternoon, however, on re-visiting the den, he fonnd; the hreakfastaintbuchcd and the old man still )ying f on .the bpd, with drooping eyes and.pallicl aspect, .and began to?get alarmed. ‘

‘ l£ao can have a d,rop of (drink,, if you* like,* ho - suggested,’ ’ .that, being ; bisuniversal medicine for all ailment.

‘No/ that would kill me,’ said the old man, with a shudder; ‘ go away and let me die; iTbe mtedicjiie I want you cannot got.’ ‘ Don’t knowiahoutlhat. I’ll get my wife to bring yon a pennyworth of anything from the doctor’s shop if yon give it a in sudden generosity.- * That would not; do. What I n'edd is an expensive"-prescription, and 1 I’m not snre if they would give, it without -a doctpr’Siline/ said the old man. ‘ Wiite if down On (a bit of. paper, and promise to tell me where the keys is hid, and I’ll try,’ said Pike ; and to this proposal the old man, with feigned reluctance, at last agreed. Raising himself in bed, he took the scrap of paper, and- a pencil placed before him by Pike, and heading it with the usual cabalistic R, wrote down in. Latin a message, of which the following is a free translation “ I am a prisoner in. a den' off the Cowgale, For heaven’s sake get the. assistance of the Jaw and have ihe bearer followed and me set free. The man who trapped me means to rob rny. brother’s house at the south side,of the city,” The old man would have put down more, bgt he was afraid of rousing the snspicioris of the watchful Mr Pike, by making the thing look 100 much like a'letter. The more effectually to carry out the deception, he lad arranged the

message in separate lines, with figures representing imaginary grains, scruples, and draclims, at the end of each. The whole he sighed with his initials only, “T. B.” trusting to good fortune or the activity of the police to do..the test. {To he Continued.)