CHAPTER XXXVII.

Te Aroha News, Volume 64, Issue II, 23 August 1884, Page 4

CHAP TER XXXVII.

UNDER THE nifi TREE. Wo but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return Jo piaguc the inventor. Thus even-handed jusneo Commends the ingredients of our poisoned clmlice To our own lips. — Maohetii. Imogene went to her home. Confused, disordered, the prey of a thousand hopds

and a thousand fears, sho sought for solitudo and found it withia tho four walls of tho small room which was now her only rofugo. Tho two detoctivcs who had followed hor to tho house — tho ono in the carriage, tho othor on foot —mot, as tho stroet-door closed upon her rotreating form, and consulted together as to thoir future course. "Mr Ferris thinks wo ought to keep watch over tho house, to make sure sho does not loavo it again," announced Mr 111 •yrd. " Does ho? Well, (lion, 1 am the man for that job," quoth Hickory. "I was on this very same boat last night." | "Good roason why yon should rost and give me a turn at the' business" declared! tho othor. " Do you want it?" " I am willing to tako it," said Byrd. "Well, then, after nino o'clock you shall." ! " Why aftor nino?" " Because if she's bent on skylarking, sholl loavo tho houso boforo then/ laughod the other. " And you want to bo here if «he goes ! out ?" "Woll, yes, rut her!" Thoy compromised matters by both remaining, Byrd w ithin view 01 tho house and Hickory on a corner within hail. ! Neither oxpected much from this ellbrt at feiuvoillance, there seeming to be no good reason why &he should venture forth into the streets again that night. But the watchfulness of tho true detective mind is unceasing. Scvoral hours passod. Tho pcaco of evening had come at last to fcho troubled town. In the streets, especially, its gentle in ll nonce was felt, and regions which had seethed all day wiih a lostless and impatient tluong were fast settling into thoir usual quiet, and solitary condition. A now moon hung in tho west, and to Mr Byrd, pacing the walk in front of Imogcne's door, it seemed as it he had ncvor seen tho town look moie lovely or lev like tho abode of violonco and crimo. All was so quiet, especially in tho house opposite him, ho was fast becoming com incod that furthor precautions were needless, and that Imogene had no intention of stirring abroad again, when the window whore hor light had burned suddenly became dark, and ho perceived the street door cautiously open, and her tall, \ oiled iigiue emerge and pass rapidly up the street. Merely stopping to givo the signal to Hickory, ho hastened, after her with rapid but cautious steps. She went like otic bound on no uncertain errand. Though many ot tho walks were heavily shaded, and the light ol the lamps was not biilliant, she speeded on from j corner to corner, threading tho business I with rapidity, and emeiging upon the large and handsome avenue that led up toward the eastern district ot tho town before Hickory could ovei tako Byrd, and find Miliieiont breath to ask : " Whetc is she bound for ? Who lives up thi-* way !'" " 1 don't know," answorcd Byid, lowering his voice in tho four of staitling her in to a knowledge ol their presence "It may bo she is going to Mi.ss Tiemaine's; the High School ih somewhere in this diroctian. But o\en ax they spoke, the gliding ti'^uie beforo them tin nod into another -trcet, and before they know it, they were on tho car- track leading out to Somerset Park. " ll.i ! I know now," whi^perod Hickory. "It I*. Oreutt she is aftei.' 1 And pressing the arm of B>rd in his enthusiasm, lie speeded alter her with renewed zeal. Byrd, seeing no reason to dispute a fact that was eAery moment becoming more e\ ident, hurried forward also, and after a long and breathless walk — for she teemed to be urged onward by flying feet — they found themselves within sight of the grand old treei that guarded the entrance to the lawyer's somewhat spacious grounds. " What are we going to do now ?" asked Byid, stopping, as thoy heard tho gate click behind her. " W ait and w atch, " said Hickory. "Sho ha.-> not led us this wild-goose chase for nothing." And leaping the hedge, he began creeping up toward the house, lea\ ing his companion to follow or not, as he saw lit. Meantime Imogene had passed up the walk and paused before tho front door. But a single look at it seemed to c atL-fy her, for, moving hurriedly away, she iiitted around the corner of the house and stopped ju->t before the long windows w ho»e brightly illumined sashes proclaimed that the master of the house was still in his library. She seemed to feel relieved at this sight. Pausing, she leaned against the frame of a trellin-woik near by to gather up her courage or regain her breath before proceeding to make her presence known to tho lawyer. As she thus leaned, the peal of the church clock was heard striking the hour of nine. Sho staited, possibly at finding it so Hte, and bending forward, looked at the windows before her with an (unions eye that soon caught sight of a Miiall opening left by the curtains having b( en diaw r together by a too hasty or a too careles.s hand, and recognising the opportunity it afloulod for a glimpse into the room before her, stopped with a light tread uiion the pia/za and quietly peered within. Tho sight she saw never left her memory. Seated before a deadened fire, sho beheld Mr Oreutt. He was neither writing nor reading, nor, in tho true .sense of the word, j thinking. The papers he had evidently taken horn his desk lay at his side undisturbed, and from one end of the room to the other solitude, sullering, and despair seemed to iill the atmosphcro and weigh upon its dicaiy occupant, till the single lamp which shone beside him burned dimmer and dimmer, like a life troing out or a purpose vanishing in the gloom ol a stealthily approaching destiny. Imogene, who had come to this place thus secretly and at this late hour ot the day with the °010 intent of procuring the advice ot this, man concerning the deception which had been practised upon her before her trial, felt her heart die within her as sho surveyed this rigid figure and realised all it implied. Though his position was such she could not see his face, there was that in his attitude which bespoke hopelessness and an utter weariness of life, and as ash aftor ash fell fram the grate, she imagined how the gloom deepened on the brow which till this hour had confronted tho world with such undoviating courage and confidence. It was therefore a powerful shock to her j when, in another moment, he looked up, | and, without moving his body, turned his head slowly around in such a way as to allow her to catch a glimpse of his face. For, in all her memory of it — and sho had seen it distorted by many and various emotions during the last few weoks— she had never beheld it wear such a look as now. It gave her a new idea of the man ; it filled her with dismay and sent the lifeblood from her cheeks It fascinated her as the glimpse of any evil thing fascinates, and hold her spellbound long after he had turned back again to his silent contemplation of the fire and its ever-drifting ashes. It was as if a veil had been rent before her eyes, disclosing to her a living soul writhing in secret struggle with its own worst passions j and horrified at the revelation,

more than horrified at the remembrance that it was lior own action of the morning which had occasioned this change in one she had long revorenced, if not loved, she sank helplessly upon her knees and pressed her face to tho window in a prayer for courage to sustain this new woe and latest if not heaviest disappointment. It camo M'liilo sho was kneeling— came in tho breath of the cold night wind, perhaps ; for, rising up, she turned her forehead gratefully to the brcozo, and drew in long draughts of it beforo she lifted her hand and knocked upon tho window. Iho hharp, shrill sound made by her lingers on tho pano reassured her as much as it startlod him. Gathering up her long cloak, which had fallen apart in hoi last hurried movement, she waited with growing self-possession for his appearance at tho window. llocamo almost immediately—camo Avith his usual hasty stop, and with much of his usual expression on his well-disciplined featuros. Flinging aside the curtains, he cried impatiently: "Who is there?" But at sight of tho tali figure of Imogone standing upright and firm on the piazza without, ho drew back with a gesture of dismay which was almost forbidding in its character. &he saw it, but did not pause. Pushing up tho window, she stepped into the room ; then, as ho did not ofl'er to help hor, turned and shut the window behind her and carefully arranged the curtains. lie meantime stood watching her Avith eyes in Avhoso fierce light burned equal love and equal angei. Whon all was completed, she faced him. Instantly a cry broke from his lips : " You here !" ho exclaimed, as if her presence a\ ere more than ho could meet or stand. But in another moment tho forlornness of hor position scorned to strike him, and ho advanced toAvard hor, saying in a voice husky with passion : " Wretched woman, what have you done? Was it not onough that for weeks, months now, you have played with my lo\ c and misery as with toys, that you should rise up at the last minute and crush me before tho whole world with a story, mad a& it is false, of yourself being a criminal and the destroyer of the woman for whose deatli your miserable lover is being tried? Had you no consideration, no pity, if not for yourself, ruined by this day's Avork, for mo, who have sacrificed everything, done everything the most devoted man or lawyer could i\o to save- this felloAv and to win you for my Avifc?" " Sir," said she, meeting the burning anger oi his look with the coldness of a set despair, as if in the doubt awakened by his changed demeanour she sought to probe his mind for its hidden secret, " I did what any other woman would have done in my place. Whon a\c are pushed to the Avail wo tell the truth." "Thotmth !" Was that his laugh that rang startlingly through tho room? "The tiuth ' You told tho truth ! hnogeno, Imogeno, i» any such farce necessary with me?'" Hur lips Avhich had opened, closed again, and she did not answer for a moment ; then she asked : "How do you know that what I said wa= not the truth ?" " liow do I know?'' He paused as if to get his bieath. " Plow do 1 knoAV ?" he repeated, calling up all his self-control to sustain hor gaze unmoved. "Do you think I have lost my reason, Imogene, that you put me such a question as that? How do I know you are innocent ? llecall your own woids and acts since the day avc met at Mrs Clemmens's house, and tell me how it would be possible for me to think anything eKe of you V" But her purpose did not relax, neither did she falter as she returned : •' Mr Oreutt, Avill you tell me Avhat has ever been said by me or what you have ever known me to do that would make it ceitain I did not commit this crime myt»olt ?" His indignation Avas too much for his I courtesy. " Imogene," he commanded, " be silent ! " I Avill not listen to any further arguments of this soi t. Isn't it enough that you have destroyed my happiness, that you .should seek to spoit with my good-sense? I say you are innocent as a babe unborn, not only of the ciiine itself, but of any complicity in it. Every woid you have spoken, cvciy action you have taken, since the day of Mis OlemmenVs death, proves you to be tho victim of a fixed conviction totally afc war with the statement you were pleased to make to-day. Only your belief in the guilt of another and your — your •" Ho stopped, choked. The thought of his lival maddened him. She immediately seized the opportunity to say : "Mr Oreutt, 1 cannot argue about what I have done. It is over and cannot he remedied. It is. true I have destroyed myself, but this is no time to think of that. All I can think ot or mourn over now is that, by destroying myself, I have not succeeded in saving Craik Mansell." II her purpose was to probe the lawyer's soul for the deadly Avound that had turned all his sympathies to gall, she Avas successful at last. Turning upon her with a look in which despair and anger Avcro strangely mingled, he cried : " And me, Imogene — haA r o you no thought for me ?" "Sir," said she, " any thought from one disgraced as I am iioa\- would be an insult to one of your character and position." It was true. In tlie eyes of tho world Tremont Oreutt and Imogene Dare henceforth stood as far apart as tho poles. Realising it only too avcll, he uttered a halfinarticulate exclamation, and trod restlessly to tho o*hor end of the room. Whon ho came back, it was with more of the lawyer's aspect and less of the ballled lover's. " Imogone," ho said, "Avhat could have induced you to resort to an expedient so dreadful ? Had you lost confidence in me ? Had I not told you I Avould save this man from his threatened fate ?" "You cannot do everything," sho replied. " There are limits' even to a poAvor liko yours. I kneAv that Craik Mansell was lost if I gave to the court tho testimony which Mr Ferris expected from me." "Ah, then," he cried, seizing with his usual quickness at the admission which had thus unconsciously, perhaps, slipped from her, "you acknoAvledgo you uttered a perjury to save yourself from making declarations you believed to be hurtful to the prisoner 1" A faint smile crossed her lips, and her Avhole aspect suddenly changed. " Yes," she said ; "I have no motive for hiding it from you noAV. I perjured myself to escape destroying Craik Mansell. I was scarcely the mistress of my own actions. I had suffered so much I vas ready to do anything to save the man I had so relentlessly pushed to his doom. I forgot that God does not prosper a lie." The jealous gleam Avhich answered her from the lawyers eyes was a revelation. "You regret, then," he said, "that you tossed my happiness away with a breath of your perjured lips ?" " 1 regrot I did not tell tho truth and trust God." At this answer, uttered with the simplicity of a penitent spirit, Mr Oreutt unconsciously drew back. " And, may I ask, what lias caused this

sudden regret?" ho inquiied, in atone not far removed from mockery ; " the generous action of tho prisoner in relieving you from your self-imposed burden of guilt by an acknowledgment that struck at the foundation of tho dofonce I had so carefully pro pared?" "Wo," was her short reply; "that could but afford mo joy. Of whatever sin i ho may bo guilty, ho is at least free from' tho reproach of accepting deliverance at the oxpenso of a woman. I am sorry 1 said what 1 did to-day, because a revelation has sinco boon made to me which proves 1 could never have sustained myself in the position I took, and that it was mere suicidal folly in me to attempt to save Craik Mansell by such means." " A revelation ?" " Yes." And, forgetting all else in the purpose which had actuated her in seeking this interview, Imogene drew nearer to the lawyer and earnestly said: "There have been some persons — I have perceived it — who have wondered at my deep conviction of Craik Mantell's guilt. But the reasons I had justified it. llioy were great, greater than any one knew, greater even than you knew. His mother— were she living — must have thought as I did had she been placed boside me and soon what I have seen, and heard what I have heard from the time of Mrs Clemmens's death. Not only were all the facts brought against him in the trial known to me, but I saw him — saw him with my own eyes, running from Mrs Clemmens's dining-room door at the very time we suppose the murder to have been committed ; that is, at five minutes before noon on the fatal day." " Impossible '" exclaimed Mr Orcutt, in his astonishment. " You are playing with my credulity, Imogene." But she went on, lotting her voico fall in awe of tho lawyer's startled look. "No," she persisted; "I was in Pro fessor Darling's observatory, I was looking through a telescope, which had been pointed toward the town. Mrs Clemmens was much in my mind at the time, and I ' took the notion to glance at her house, when 1 &aw what I have described to you. I could not help remembering the time," she added, " for I had looked at the clock but a moment before." "And it was rive minutes before noon ?" broke again from the lawyer's lips, in what was almost an awe-struck tone. Troubled at an astonishment A\hich seemed to partake of the nature of alarm, she silently bowed her head. " And you were looking at him — actually looking at him— that very moment through a telescope perched a mile or so away ?" " Yes," she bowed again. Turning his fcice aside, Mr Orcutt walked to the hearth and began kicking the burntout logs with his restless foot. As he did so, Imogono heard him mutter botween his j set of teeth : "It is almost enough to make one beliove i in a God !" Struck, horrified, .sho glided anxiously to his side. "Do you not believe in a God?" she asked. He was silent. Amazed, almost frightened, for she had never heard him breath a word of scepticism before — though, to bo sure, he had never mentioned tho name of tho Deity in her presence — sho stood looking at him like one who had received a blow ; then she said : " I believe in God. It is my punishment that I do. It is He who wills blood for blood ; who dooms tho guilty to a merited death. Oh, if He only would accept the sacrifice I so willingly offer ! — take the life I so little value, and give me in return " "Mansell's?" complotcd tho lawyer, turning upon her in a burst of the fury he no longer had power to suppress. "Is that your cry — always and for ever your cry ; You drive me too far, Imogene. This mad and senseless passion for a man who no longer loves you " " Spare me !" rose from her trembling lips. " Let me forget that." But the great lawyer only laughed. "You make it worth my while to save you the bitterness of such a remembrance," ho cried. Then, as she remained silent, ho changed his tone to one of careless inquiry, and a^ked : "Was it to tell this .story of the prisoner having iled from his aunt's house that you came here to-night?" Recalled to the purpose of the hour, she answered, hurriedly : " Not entirely ; that story was what Mr Ferris expected me to testify to in court this morning. You see for youi'self in what a position it would have put the prisoner." " And the revelation you have received?" thr lawyer coldly urged. " Was of a deception that has been practised upon me — a base deception by which I was led to think long ago that Craik Mansell had admitted his guilt and only trusted to tho excellence of his defence to escape punishment," " I do not understand," said Mr Orcutt. " Who could have practised such deception upon you ?" ' ' The detectives, " she murmured ; ' ' that rough, hearties fellow thoy call Hickory." And in a burst of indignation, she told how she had been practised upon, and Avhat the results had been upon her belief, if not upon she testimony that grew out of that belief. The lawyer listoned with a strange apathy. What would once have aroused his fiercest indignation and fired him to an exertion of his keenest powers, fell on him now like the tedious repetition of an old and worn - out tale. He scarcely looked up when sho was done ; and despair — the first, perhaps, she had ever really felt — began to close in around her as she saw how deep a gulf she had dug between this man and herself by the inconsiderate act which had robbod him of all hope of ever making her his wife. Moved by this feeling, she suddenly asked : " Have you lost all interest in your client, Mr Orcutt ? Have you no wish or hope remaining of seeing him acquitted of this crime ?" " My client," responded the lawyer, with bitter emphasis, "has taken his case into his own hands. It would be presumptuous in mo to attempt anything further in his favour." " Mr Orcutt !" "Ah !" he scornfully laughed, with a quick yielding to his passion as startling as it was unexpected, "you thought you could play with me as you would ; use my skill and ignore the love that prompted it. You are a clever woman, Imogene, but you went too far when you considered my forbearance unlimited." " And you forsake Craik Manseil in the hour of his extremity ?" "Craik Mansell has forsaken me." (To be Continued.)

Public Discussions. — My clear conviction is, that public discussions on the evidonces of Christianity never do any good, but often do great harm. The sceptical champion, and his friends too, generally come up to the encounter to win, by fair means or foul. They are in too great a heat to hear the truth ; it cannot get a fair entrance into their minds. On the other hand, young, fresh minds, unused to these inquiries, are often caught by the new and startling words they hear, and become doubters j perhaps, eventually, confirmed unbelievers,— Thomas Cooper.