CHAPTER XXV.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 128, 14 November 1885, Page 3

CHAPTER XXV.

THE MAN LEAST WANTED. " Linter !" echoed Robert Hood, visibly paling as he thus acknowledged the detective's introduction of himself. 11 Linter," bowed the stranger, " and permit me, my lord, to exonerate your servants. They are trustworthy, I assure you. It was only by explaining that I was confidentially in your lordship's employ that I succeeded in reaching tho house. I must also acknowledge that I alone am to blame for my unceremonious intrusion. Being rather early, and wishing to take a survey of the Abbey's grounds, I took a circuitous route, and chanced upon a small side door instead of the main entrance. I knocked several times, and, at last, finding the door unfastened, I entered in." " When did you come ?— to the village, I mean," suddenly interposed Hood, a certain angry sharpness in his tone. " By the midnight train." "And wherefore? I sent you word I would see you in London soon, and would not see you here. I said explicitly I desired to be left a peaceful sojourn at the Abbey, and without poisoning recollections of interviews bearing upon my hapless father's assassination. You should have respected my instructions, Mr Linter." There was an almost imperceptible pause before the object of this sharp rebuke answered. While Hood was speaking, Lillis had gathered up her hat and wraps, and now quietly left the room, unnoticed except by the sleepy eyes of the detective. The momentary distraction caused by this incident at 1 an end, Linter said : " I ask your pardon, my lord, and I hope to win it, though it may be you will insist my zeal has carried me away. Briefly, Lord Langdou, the blood-stone ring is likely to prove of more value asa clue than has been anticipated. Without doubt the man who lost it replaced it in Paris." It was a frightful statement to Hood's ear ; but Lady Melross came ignorantly to his rescue. Before Detective Linter could do more than note his employer's fluctuating colour, her ladyship startled his gaze to her own face by a loud, vivacious cry. " I knew it !" she ejaculated. "I knew it !" "You knew it, madam ?" Linter's voice rang out eagerly as he put this question, and his sleepy eyes lightened into a dangerous wakefulness. " Yes !" answered her ladyship. "I knew it from the first ! I felt from the first that I heard of the ring, and saia from the first, that it was destined to be the monster's undoing ! You see I was right, Mr Linter." "It would seem so, madam," bowed the detective, politely, and turned his heavy lidded eyes upon flood again. The miserable man still looked pale, but was perfectly composed. He at once addressed Linter. He said, warmly : "This news has, indeed, won you my pardon, Mr Linter. The news is as gratifying as it was unexpected. Sit down and let me hear the particulars." "Hear nothing until you take that emblem of crime from your own fingers," cried Lady Melross. "I dont see how you can wear it. It chills my old and sluggish blood every time I chance to see it." "Then I won't wear it, Lady Melross. See, I will do more. I will end its existence." Speaking the words, he tore it with one swift movement from his hands, and flung it among the coals. Linter breathed a smothered ejaculation, and bounded from the chair he had just taken. At the risk of burning all the flesh from his fingers, he thrust them into the heart'of the fire. With Spartan fortitude he seized and clung to the bauble, finally dropping it upon the hearth. There he set his foot upon it. The whole thing was done so quickly that there was no time to interpose either by word or action. Butthe ring fairly rescued, Hood burst out angrily : " What's that for ? I certainly have the right to burn my own ring." Linter made no reply. He leaned against the chimney-piece, white with pain. "I think," aaid Lady Melross, "you have burned yourself needlessly, Mr Linter, but you shall have a solution." She turned to speak to Lillis, but for the first time discovered the girl's absence. She glanced quickly at Hood, but Hood's attention was riveted upon Linter. The I next moment her brow cleared. I "I have no cause for anxiety," she thought, and swept off on her errand of ! mercy. Passing through the breakfast room, she found Tony Folger there, a newspaper on his knee, and wholly absorbed in his own meditations. " You are still here ?" she said. " Better go to the library and hear the news." " The news ? Of what, Lady Melroes ?" 1

Lady Melross motioned hurriedly aB if to say she had no time to spare, and disappeared. Somehow news did not strike Mr Folger as being favourable to his comfort or ease of mind. He got briskly upon his feet and took her ladyship's advice. He was more than surprised at seeing Linter. "Bad, this, in the face of positive orders !" * he thought, and then exclaimed easily : " Linter I Why, what's up? The assassin bagged ? And what the deuce is the' matter with you ?" " Burnt myself," said Linter, laconically. On ordinary occasions there wasj nothingtopartioularly distinguish Detective Linter from other men of medium size. But as he now stood on the hearthrug, his face pale and his lips set sternly with pain, both Tony and Hood recognised him as a man to be feared. With an easy coolness that amazed Tony," Hood instantly followed Linter's brief reply, with the necessary explanations. "But why," he concluded, "Mr Linter should turn his fingers to a crisp to rescue my ring is a mystery he alone can solve." "I did it on the spur of the moment," said Linter, removing his foot from the ring, and pioking it up. " I've developed a mania for examining rings yesterday afternoon. You see there was a distinctive mark upon the one bought in Paris." "There's a distinctive mark upon that I one, I think," laughed Tony. Mr Linter showed his strong white teeth in appreciation of the joke, and, Lady Melross returning from her errand at the moment, quietly dropped the trinket into his pocket. "I'll keep it to remember my folly," he said. "When your fingers no longer serve the purpose," supptemented Tony, with another laugh, "Well," relieving Lady Melross of the cotton and lotion, " it's an ill wind that blows nobody good. You have afforded me the opportunity to display my surgical talents. They are great, Mr Linter. I was born a surgeon, you must know. In fact, but for my stupendous lazyness, I should to-day be a famous man !" As he rattled on, deftly applying bandages and lotion, Hood leaned upon the mantel and watched him. "Tony's worried," he said to himself. " Worry always loosens his tongue. It can't be about the ring. That's pact doing harm. What then ? The simple fact of Linter's intrusion, most likely. But that was undoubtedly the result of mistaken zeal. How could he suspect me of the purchase of the ring ? He could not !" His meditation had reached this point when Tony's task was ended with the bombastic declaration that his patient's hand was as good as well. Mr Linter tendered his thanks, and in the same breath announced his resolve to board the next London train. "But about this Paris matter, " said Hood, bold in his sense of security. " I'd like to hear more about it before you go.'' Linter hesitated, and looked off to where Lady Melross was seated at a distant window. Her ladyship was out of hearing. He acknowledged the fact, and accounted for his hesitation by an immediate answer : "Certainly, a perfectly natural wish," he replied. He took out his pocketbook, and found a newspaper slip. He gave this slip to Hood. "It appeared" in yesterday's 'Times,'" he explained.