CHAPTER LXX.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 109, 4 July 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER LXX.

THE PAYMENT OF A DEBT. 11 Dead ! with a bullet through his brain J" Ten minutes later Vella and Miss Dorothy came downstairs and into the gas-lit sittingroom, where, on the hearth-rug, two youthful figures stood together. " Ah ! here they are !" cried Voyle's glad voice. Despite his companion's murmured protestations, he still kept his arm around her slim waist, as he laughingly turned his head over his shoulder. • " Vella," he cried, "am I not the bost of brothers to have won you such a sister ?" "Eh?" And stock-still stood Mies Dorothy, fumbling for her spectacles. Vella sprang forward, with a cry of astonishment and delight. " Oh, Toyle ! are you really such a lucky fellow V And she caught both Bessie's hands in hers, and kissed, in loving gladness, the shy and blushing face of the little bride-elect. " I really am !" Voyle declared, proudly. "Hark! there's some one! Get in \our hugging, Aunt Dolly, before a visitor spoils your chance of ifc. That's right " as the small personage addressed made a headlong charge at his pretty fiancee. Two minutes later the hall-door was opened, in answer to a ring. "A gentleman to sco Mr Vernell !" announced the servant To see him ! Voyle stared perplexedly. What important business could have brought anyone here to see him ? "Show him in," Bessie said. The man who entered was grave of aspect, clad darkly and plainly, with a reddish moustache and goatee, and steady hazel eyes. "Mr Vernell ?" "I am he, sir," "I hardly like to speak before these ladies " Voylo interrupted him. "You cannot possibly have anything to say to me which I could object to in their presence." The man went swiftly across the room to where the young fellow stood and laid his hand on his shoulder. " I arrest you," he said, " for the murder of your uncle, Colonel James Vernell \" A gasping cry broke from Bessie. Vella stood still as stone and marble white. Miss Dorothy sank trembling to a chair. As for Voyle, he struck off the hand upon his shoulder, and wheeled around his eyes, blazing like those of a lion in wrath. " Are you mad?" he cried. The man stood quite unmoved by the tempest he had aroused. " No, sir," quietly, " but I am doing my duty. My comrade is waiting in the hack without. Here is my authority." And he flung back his coat, disclosing on his breast the star of a detective. Voyle's brows met in an ominous frown. " What does all this mean V he demanded _jmgrily^ ." lam no child to be trifled « ith." Terrified were the three women, and &till " as death. "It means this, "determinedly, "that you are under arrest for murder— that the sooner and less rebelliously you come with me the better for you, and that if you are innocent you will have the opportunity to prove the same. That is what it means. Come !" A resolute effort at patience drove Eome of the irritation out of Voyle's face. He turned to the others. "There is some wretched blunder," his young, indignant voice outringing through the quiet room. " I shall go with this man, and find out who is at the bottom of this fiendish work. Don't worry ;it will be all right to-morrow. I will follow you, sir." Taking his hint the man went out. Voyle hurriedly said good-night with as much cheeriness as he could muster. "It's only a mistake — all will be made straight in the morning," he whispered to Bessie. "Now you must be brave for my sake, darling." For down her cheeks so lately flushed with love and happiness great frightened tears v.eve rolling. But on the morrow there was no lifting of the dreadful cloud which had gathered, no single gleam of sunshine. An afternoon paper got hold of the affair. The article concerning it was doubleleaded. The editions went off 'like hot cakes. The story was blazoned through the city in an hour. People commented on it, devoted it voraciously, discussed it with the rabid human hunger for sensation. So the lucky colonel had been murdered ! They had always thought there was something queer about his death. It was so sudden. And the nephew? There was a sister, too, was there not ? And both were singularly beautiful and marvellously alike. And the widow ? Ah, the charge was preferred by her. Already, so rapid had been repertorial labour and so comprehensive its result, alleged statements of persons interviewed were given concerning it— the topic of the hour. A family on the west side had had for a lodger one Charles Hartley, whom they now identified in the prisoner. He bad a visitor one night. The woman of the house had overheard snatches of the conversation be- 1 tween them — had heard Vernell, alias Hartley, say : " .Revenge I may forego— justice I will j have !" Before his guest had left, he had made an j engagement with her to enter secretly his uncled house —presumably, at least, his uncle's house. "I'll come up," he had said, " this night two weeks, about ten." Two weeks after the avowal, the murder had occurred. It was also understood that a young lawyer of the city, Mr Dennis Grimes, would testify as to having heard Voyle Vernell say to an acquaintance, one evening in the alley near Mr Vickers theatre : "As Burely as there is a just God in heaven,' James Vernell shall answer to me for my sister's life !" Between them, the reporters and detectives, they had discovered and questioned the former footman of the Vernells. Ye?, he recollected quite well having run against Master Voyle on the basement stairway the night of the colonel's death. Voyle had told him— Roberts— that he was aware of his uncie's return, and had given him money, with the request that he be silent concerning hie presence. i And Mrs Vernell's charge? Ob, she had been a witness to a terrific quarrel between Voyle and his uncle, which had concluded

by "the former striking the latter a blow i which stunned him, and then driving into : hia brain, through the oridce of his ear, a long and slender nail. She had ever since been too shocked and horrified to speak ; ; but now that the young murderer had come forward boldly to claim the crown of his crime — the end for which he had done so foul a deed — she could be silent no longer, The body was to be resurrected. The opusin from the country had failed to materialise, so Hilaria still remained in the grand house on Prairie Avenue, in sheer charity to the convalescent old master. Her mistress, too, had consented to remain a few days longer. Of the visitor the latter knew nothing. Neither was she aware of the scheme which was on the tapis. To-day, as Helm, muffled in shawls, eat bolstered up in the chair next the window of an upstairs apartment, he suddenly cried out and lifted himself erect. Hilaria, busying herself over some work at the farther end of the room, rose hastily and went up to him. "What is it?" His faded old eyes were fastened on a man who had swung open the gate and was approaching the house. lie I Had he followed them, then? So soon ! She shrank back. A quick wonder as to the cause of Mr Helm's agitation took possession of her. " Do you know him ?" she whispered. u Know him !" echoed the old voice, shrill with hatred, scorn, excitement. "Know him ! He is my son !" " Oh, it cannot be ! That is Mr Dennis Grimes. Your eyesight " Ho turned on her almost furiously. "My eyesight has been better, but in this case it cannot fail me. I know his height, his walk, his air. He has not changed much. I would know him among a thousand. He is my son who robbed me, deserted me, left me to die by the road side of fever and starvation. Curse him !" His passionate vehemence persuaded her of the truth of his words. What an incarnation of cruelty, even in youth, had been this man whom she had once loved ! Helm struggled to his feefc. " Let me go to him !" he panted. But her resolute grasp was on his arm. Without the visitor having rung, the door was opened to admit him. They could hear it softly closed behind him. " Wait," and the woman's voice was an excited whisper, "do nothing rash. i( If he is your son, pity mo when you consider what he is to me !" " To you !" " Yes. He is my husband !" He fell back in amazement which was almost incredulity. How had ho come to marry this old woman ? She read his thoughts. " Stay here !" she cried. And she ran from the room. In a few moments she reappeared. Or — was it she ? There stood no bent, grey haired, bluespectacled hag, but a woman sleuder and tall, and still youthful, with keen grey eyes. " You have been wearing a disguise !" he exclaimad. " For what reason !" Breathlessly, rapidly, she told him all, every word of her strange story. And when sh3 had finished the incredulty died from his face, leaving horror in its stead. "I 3 there a fouler fiend than he?" he cried. Guila's cheeks had grown scarlet with the telling of her tale. She was fairly quivering with excitement. She grasped the old man by the wrist. " Come down !" she panted. " Come down ! We can secrete ourselves in the alcove off the library and hear what fresh villiany he is plotting-. Come !" And neither remembered that she had washed the brown dye from her face and flung aside wig and spectacles. Five minutes later they were crouching behind the portiere, listening. "He is certain of—" began Mrs Vernell. "Conviction!" put in Grimes. And at the sound of the familiar voice the blood came rushing redly under the old man's wrinkled skin. "As certain as we both live and breathe. The papers have got hold of the affair. They are merciless judges. They will condemn him before he is tried. Yes, my dearest. Thus with the hanging or life imprisonment of Voyle Vernell for a murder a bride's pretty fingers committed," unable for the saltation of him to repress the taunting jeer, "we shall dispose of our last obstacle, our only enemy." A scream burst from Mrs Vernell as the portieres were swayed and twisted with the writhings of Helm, who, tearing himself free from Guila's detaining hands, reeled into the room and confronted them. Even Grimes's usual calm composure deserted him. He turned absolutely ghastly. Was this the dead— come back to confront him after all these years ?" Was this the spirit of the man whose body he had planned to murder, as surely by neglect and starvation as he could have done with a daggerthrust—was this he?" " You know me 1" and that cracked voice sounded in the silent room like the howl of a savage beast. "Father!" That was all. Just the one word. What a meeting for parent and child ! Still shrinking behind the curtains, a sudden, unconquerable impulse overcame Guila. She must come forward, sooner or later, to tell her story to the world. They were trying to fasten their brutal sin on an innocent boy. Sooner or later ! Prudence was dumb. Desperation said, "Why not now?" She thrust the portieres aside with a violent gesture, and stood between them. " And do you know me ?" she cried. Her bosom was heaving tumultuously — her eyes like coals of fire. Grimes actually cowered before her. Great drops of sweat oozed out on his forehead. "Guila— you •" he whispered, "Ay, Guila!" every word clear and distinct as the not9B of a bugle-blast. " The wife whom you discarded— deserted ! Madam, is it possible you do not recognise me ?" turning to Mrs Vernell, who, thrilling with instinctive comprehension of all that | this scene expressed, stood like a maddened tigress waiting for her chance to spring. "I am your maid, Hilaria. I have watched my husband closely. I have watched you. I know all !" All! The eyes of the guilty pair met wildly. "Are you her husband ?" Slowly the words were uttered. Her rage was strangling her. Like the coward he was, Grimes held out his hands imploringly. The very fact of his appeal condemned him. j He had deceived her. He had blasted her life. He had dragged her down toj infamy, dishonour— to the worst and vilest grade of both. Well she paid her debts ! Before the others could guess at, surmise ever so faintly her intention, she had thrust her hand in her breast, drawn therefrom a toy she hid long secretly carried and ever! lacked courage to use, turned on Grimes — i fired! Her aim was true. He went down like a log— lay still. The others, petrified with terror, did not stir. But she was beside him in an instant, had his head in her arms, was smoothing,

patting, kissing it, talking all the time gay, merry, jesting words. "And we will go to Paris— won't we, Dennis? And we will be all the world to each other. You do love me dearly, I know. When he ia out of the way all will be well. Yes, I remember how you told me to do it, I remember ! And then Paris — Dennis I— love ! Oh, won't thatb© glorious -glorious?" Andshe burst out laughing — loud, vacant, horrible laughter ! Guila and Helm glanced at each other in unutterable consternation. With the shct which had silenced eternally the false heart )f the one creature she had loved in all her painted, hollow, glittering life, in all God'a great fair world, the light of reason, long flickering, had gone out in darkness. They fled as fast as their shaking limbs would bear them from the room, from the house. When they returned with aid she was still where they had left her, groveling beside the corpse, kissing the stiff lips, smiling down in the ghastly oyes, whispering words of fondness and endearment. 41 Dennis ! Dennis 1 When he is gone,none will ever suspect me j we shall be all to each other j heaven and earth! I love you — I love you, Dennis, Dennis 1" Oh, come away ! Upon the house rests broodingly the crimson curse of Cain.