CHAPTER XIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 156, 29 May 1886, Page 6

CHAPTER XIII.

GUY POLLARD. I will tell you why.— Hamlet. These was » silence, then Dwighfc Pollard spoke again. "I have made a confession which I never expected to hear pass my lips. She who has forced it from me doubtless knows how much and how little it means. Let her explain herself, then. I have no further business in this place." And, without HftiDg his head or meeting the eye of either of us, ha strode past us towards the door. But there he paused, for Rhoda Col well's voice had risen in words that must be answered. "And where, then, have you business if not here? Do you not know I hold your good name, if not your life, in my hands ?" "My good name," he slowly rejoined, without turning his head, "is already lost in the eyes I most valued. As for my life, it stands in no jeopardy. Would i could say thesamejfor his !" was his fierce addition. . " His ! came from Khoda Colwell's lips, in surprise. " His ?" and with. a quick and eubtle movement she glided to his side and seized him imperatively by the arm, •* Whom do you mean ?" she asked. He turned on her with a dark look. •• Whom do I mean ?" he retorted, " Whom should I mean but the base and unnatural wretch who, for purposes of his own, has made you the arbitrator of my destiny and the avenger of my sin — my brother, my vile, and wicked broker, whom may Heaven " ••Stop! Your brother has had nothing to do with this. Do you Buppose I would stoop to take information from him ? What I know I know because my eyes have seen it, Dwight Pollard ! And now, what do you think of the clutch I hold upon your life ?" and she held out tho?e two milk-white hands of hers with a smile such as I hope never to see on mortal face again. He looked at them, then at her, and drew back speechless. She burst into a low but ringing laugh of immeasurable triumph. '* And yon thought such a blow as this could come from a man ! Dullard and fool you must be, Dwight Pollard, or else you have never known , me. Why should he risk his honour and his safety in an action as dangerous to him as ungrateful to you ? Because he admires her ? Guy Pollard is not so loving. But I— l whom you taught to be a woman, only to fling aside like a weed. —Ah, thatiß another thing ! Reason for waiting and watching here ; reason for denouncing, when the time came, the man who could take advantage of another man's fears ! Ah, you see I know what lam talking about." -- - ' ' "Speak!" he gasped.- "How do you know ? You cay you saw. How could you see? Where were you, demon and witch in one?" She smiled, not as before, but yet with a cense of power that only the evil glitter of her sidelong eye kept from making her wholly adorable. " Will you come into the cellar below?" said she. "Or stay; that may be. asking too much. A glance from one of these windows , will do." And, moving rapidly across the room, she threw up one of the broken sashes before her; and pointed to a stunted tree - that grew up against the wall. "Do you see that limb?" she inquired, infiicating one that branched out towards a window we could faintly see defined beneath. "A demon or a witch might sit there for a half hour and see without so much as craning her neck, all that went on in the cellar below. That the leaves arethick, and, to those within, apparently hang like a curtain between them and the outer world, would make no difference to a demon's eyes, you know. Such folk can see where black walls intervene ; how much more when only a fluttering screen like that shuts out the view ?" And,drawing back, she looked into his dazed __ face and into mine, as though she would ask : " Hare I convinced you that I am a woman r to be feared ?" | ' His white cheekseemedto answer Vee, but 'his eyes, when he raised them, did not quail '^before her mocking glance, though I they drooped a little whec, in 5' another moment, they flashed in my direction. - j j*:Miw Sterling," he inquired, "do you 'understand what Miss Col well has been, saying ?"„.._ - I shook my head arid faltered back. I •-bad only one wiab,and that was to be effaced from this spot of t misery. . He turned again to her. "Do you intend to explain yourself further?" lie demanded. : ' She did, not answer ; her look and her attention were fixed upon me. k<- ?* You are not quite convinced he is all p[%Jilfe>declared.liina to be?", she said, fiinpgingtiawardß me. " You want to know there is not. some l^^bpla l)y which you -can escape ? from jTtterfy ©pndemoiDg him," .Well,' you shall

have my story. I ask nothing more of you hin that. And with a quiet ignoring of his presence that was full of contempt, she drjw up to my side and calmly began : You have seen me in the streets in the g«rbof my brother?" •* Your brother ?',' cried a startled voice. It was Dwlght Pollard who spoke. Be by the wrist. It was a pioture: all the more that neither of them said anything further, but stood surveying each other, till he thought fit to drop her arm and draw back, when sho quietly went on as though no interruption had occurred. " It was a convenient disguise, enabling me to do and learn many things. It also made it possible for me to be out in the evening alone, and allowed me to visit certain places^ where otherwise I should have been anything but welcome. It also satisfied a spirit of adventure which I posses?, and led to the experience which I am now about to relate. Miss Sterling, my brother has one peculiarity. He can be entrusted to carry a message, and forget it in ten minutes after it is delivered. This being generally known in town, I was not at all surprised when one evening, as I was travorsing a very dark street, I was met and accosted by a muffled figure, who asked me if I would run to Mr Barrows' house for him. I was about to say 'No,' when something in his general air and manner deterred me, and I changed it into the half -laughing, eager assent which my brother uses on such occasions. The man immediately stooped to my ear and whispered : " Tell Mr Barrows to come with all speed to the old mill. A man has been thrown from his carriage and ia dying there. He wants Mr Barrows' prayers and consolation. Can you remember ?" " I nodded my head and ran off. I was fearful, if I stayed myself; for the voice, with all its attempted disguise, was that of Guy Pollard, and the man injured might for all I knew be hia brother. Before I reached Mr Barrows' door, however, 1 began to have my doubts. Something in the man's manner betrayed mystery, and as Guy Pollard had never been a favourite of mine, I naturally gave to thia anything but a favourable interpretation. I did not stop, though, because I doubted. On the contrary, 1 pushed forward, for if there was a secret, I must know it ; and how could 1 learn it bo readily or sowell as by following Mr Barrows on his errand of mercy ? "The person who came to the door in answer to my summons was fortunately Mr Barrows himself ; fortunately for me, that is ; I cannot say it was altogether fortunately for him He had a little book in his hand, and seemed disturbed when I gave him my message. He did not hesitate, however Being of an unsuspicious nature, he never dreamed that all was not a3 l Baid, especially as he kuew my brother well, and was thoroughly acquainted with the exactness with which he always executed an errand. But he did not want to go ; that I saw clearly, and laid ib to the book j for he was the kindest man who ever lived, and never was known to shirk a duty because it was unpleasant or hard. " I have said he knew my brother well. Remembering this when he came down stairs again ready to accompany me, I assumed the wildest manner in which my brother ever indulged, that I might have some excuse for not remaining at his side while still accompanying him in his walk The consequence was that not a dozen words passed between us, and I had the satisfaction of seeing him draw near the old mill in almost complete forgetfulness of my proximity. This was what I wanted, for in the few minutes I had to think, many curious surmises had risen in my mind, and I wished to perform my li»tle part in this adventure without hindrance from his watchfulness or care. "Itwa3 a very dark night, as you remember, Dwight Pollard, and it is no wonder that neither he nor the man who came out of the doorway to meet him saw the slight figure that crouched against the wall dose by the door they had to enter. And if they had seen it, what would they have thought ? That the idiot boy was only more freakish than usual, or was waiting about for the time which was the usual pay for hia services. Neither the clouds, nor the tree?, nor the surrounding darkness would have whispered that an eager woman's heart beat under that boy's jacket, and that they had better trust the wind in its sweep, the water in its rush, or the fire in its ravaging, than the will that lay coiled behind the feebly moving lip and wandering, restless eye of the seeming idiot who knelt there. " So I was safe, and for the moment could hear and see. And .this was what I saw : A tall and gentlemanly form, carrying a lantern which he took pains should shine on Mr Barrows' face, and not on his own. The expression of the former was therefore plain to me, and in it I read something more than reluctance, something which I dimly felt to be fear. His anxiety, however, did not. seem to spring from hip companion, but from the building he was about to enter, for it was when he looked up at its frowning walls and shadowy portal that I saw him shudder and turn pale. They went in, however — not without a question or two from Mr Barrows as to whom his guide was and where the sick man lay, to all of which the other responded shortly or failed to respond at all, facts which went far to convince me that a deception of some kind was being practised upon the confiding clergyman. "I was consequently in a fever of impatience to follow them in, and had at last made up my mind to do so when I heard a deep 9igh, and glancing up towards the doorway, saw that it was again occupied by the dark figure which 1 had so lately seen pass in with Mr Barrowa. He had no lantern now, and I could -not even discern the full outlines of bis form, but his eigh being repeated, I know who he was as certainly as if I had seen him, for it was one xhich had often been breathed in my ears, and was as well known to me as the beatings of my own heart. This discovery, as you may believe, Miss Sterling, did not tend to allay either my curiosity or my impatience, and when in a few minutes the watcher drew back, I stole from my hiding-place, and creeping up to the open doorway, listened. A sound of pacing steps came to my ears. The entrance was guarded. " For a moment I stood baffled, then remembering the lantern which had been carried into the building, I withdrew quietly from the door, and began a tour of inspection round about the mill in the hope of ' spying some glimmer of light from one or more oi the many windows, and in this way learn the exact spot to which Mr Barrowa had been taken. It was a task of no mean difficulty, Mies Sterling, for the bushes cluster thick about those walls, and I had no light to warn me of their whereabouts or of the many loose stones that lay in. heaps here and there along the way. * But I would not have stopped if firebrands had been under my feet, nor did 1 cease my exertions or lose .my hope till I reached the back of the mill and found it as dark as the eide and front. Then indeed I did begin' to despair, for the place was so solitary and /remote from observation ' I could m ot conceive of any better being found for" purposes that required secrecy., or concealment. Yet, the'sombre walls rose before nfe, dark 4 and unrelieved against the sky ; and nothing remaintd forme but to press

on to the broad west end and see if that presented as unpromising an aspect as the rest. ' „. « . .... "I Qooordingly recommenced my toilsome journey, rendered positively dangerous now by the vicioity of the water and i the^steepnees of the banks that led down to it. But I did not go far, for as,* in my avoidance of the stream, I drew nearer and nearer the walls, I oaught glimpses of what I at first thought to be the flash of a fire-fly in the bushes, but in another moment discovered to be the fitful glimmer of a light through a window heavily masked with leaves. You can imagine what followed from what I told you. How I climbed the tree, ;and seated myself on the limb that ran along by the window, and pushing aside the leaves, looked in upon the scene believed by those engaged in to be as absolutely unwitnessed as if it had taken place in the bowels of the earth. f " And what did I see there, Miss Sterling? At first little. The light within was so dim and the window itself so high from the floor, that nothing save a moving shadow or two met my eye. But prepently, becoming accustomed to the position, I discovered firat that I was looking in on a portion of the cellar, and next that three figures stood before me, two of which 1 immediately recognised as those of Mr Barrows and Guy Pollard. 1 But the, third stood in shadow, and I did not know then, nor do I know now, who it was, though I have my suspicions, incredible as they may seem even to myself. Mr Barrows, whose face was a study of perplexity, if not horror, seemed to be talking. He was looking Guy Pollard straight in the face when I first saw him, but presently I perceived him turn and fix his eyes on that mysteri•us third figure, which he seemed to study for some signs of relenting. But evidently without success, for I saw his eyes droop and his hands fall helplessly to his side as if he felt that he had exhausted every argument, and that nothing was left to him but silence. "AH this, considering the circumstances and the scene, was certainly startling enough even to one of my nature and history, but wnenin a few minutes later I Baw Guy Pollard step forward, and seizing Mr Barrows by the hand, draw him forward to what seemed to be the verge of a pit, I own that I felt as if I were seized by some deadly nightmare, and had to turn myself away and look at skies and trees for a moment to make sure it was not an hallucination. When I looked back they were still standing there, but a change had come over Mr Barrows's face. Prom being pale it had become ghastly and his eyes, fixed and fascinated, were gazing into those horrid depths as if he caw there the horrible fate which afterwards befell him. Suddenly he drew back, covering his face with his hands, and I sai" a look p*nss from Guy Pollard to that watchful third figure, which, if it had not been on the face of a gentleman, I should certainly call demoniacal. The next instant the third figure stepped forward, and before I could move or utter the scream tiaat rose to ray lip 3, Mr Barrows had disappeared from view in the horrid recesses of that black hole, and only Guy Pollard and that other mysterious one, who, I now saw, wore a heavy black domino and mask, remained standing on its dark verge. "A cry, so smothered that it scarcely came to my ears, rose for an instant f rsm the pit, then I savr Guy Pollard stoop forward and put what seemed to be a question to the victim below. From the nature of the smile that crossed hi* lip as he drew back, 1 judged it had not been answered satisfactorily ; and was made yet more sure of this when the third person, stooping, took up the light, and beckoning to Guy Pollard, began to walk away. Yes, Miss Sterling, I am telling no goblin tale, as you can see if you will cast your eyes on our companion over there. They walked away, and the light grew dimmer and d\mmer and the sense of horror deeper and deeper, till a sudden cry, rising shrill enough from that deadly hole, drew the two conspirators slowly back to stand again upon its fatal brink, and, as it seemed to me, propound again that question, for answer to which they appeared to barter their honour, if not their souls. "And this time they got it. The decisive gesture of the masked figure, and the epeed with which Guy Pollard disappeared from the spot, testified that the knowledge they wanted was their", and that only some sort of action remained to be performed. What that action was I could not imagine, for, though Mr Pollard carried away the lantern, the masked figure had remained. 1 ' Meantime darkness was ours ; a terrible darkness, as you may imagine, Miss Sterling, in which it was impossible not to wait for a repetition of that smothered cry from the depths of that unknown horror. But it did not come ; arid amid a silence awful as the grave, the minutes went by till at last, to my great relief, the light appeared once more in the far recesses of the cellar, and came twinkling on till it reached the masked figure, which, to all appearance, had not moved hand or foot since it went away. " Miss Sterling, you have doubtless con soled yourself during this narration witl the thought that the evil which I had seerj done bad been the work of Guy and a per son who need not necessarily have been .out friend here. But I must shatter whatevei satisfaction you may have derived from the possible absence of Dwight Pollard from this scene, by saying tßat when the lantern paused and I had the' opportunity to see who carried it, I found that it was no longei in the hand of the younger brother, but had been transferred to that of Dwight, and that he, not Guy, no»v stood in the cellai before me. " As I realise that we are not alone, 3 will not dilate upon his appearance, mud as it struck me at the time. I will- merelj say he offered a contrast to Guy, who, if ] may speak so plainly in this presence, had seemed much at home in the task he had sei himself, uncongenial as one might coneidei it to the usual instincts and habits of c gentleman. But Dwight -you see I can be just, Miss Sterling— looked anxious and out of place ; and, instead of seeming to be prepared for the situation, turned and peered anxjously about him, as if in searcb of the clergyman he expected to find stand, ing somewhere on this spot. His eurprisc and horror when the masked figure pointed to the pit were evident, Miss Sterling ; bui it waß a surprise and a horror that imme diately settled into resignation, if not apathy; and after his first glance and shuddering start in that direction, he did not stir again, but stood quite like a statue while the masked figure spoke, and when he did move, it was to return the way he had come, without a look or, a gesture toward the sombre hole where bo much that was manly and kind lay sunk in a darkness that must have seemed to that sensitive nature the prototype of his grave." "Andjs that all, Miss Colwell?" came with a strange intonation from Dwight Pollard's lips, as she paused, 'with a triumphant look in my direction. % u It is all I have to tell," was thereply • and it struck me that her tone 'was as peculiar as hip. " Minutes], seconds even^ spent under. 'such circumstances,Tseem« l like hours j and' after a spell of* what appeared an interminable waiting, 1 1 allowed' myself to be overcome bjj the disquiet /and of' my; ? Bituatidn>i = arid^dr6pping7fr6m ' sr tay percb^dftpWpme)^

i/ j Y ,? u Bbould have .stayed ariotliei?jhour f he drily observed. ««I' wbnder ?at/an im patience you had never manifested til then." • -i ''Do you?" "*. „ * The meaning with w.hioh she said this,, the gesture with whioh 'she gave it weight, struck us both aback. ' „f *< ' "Woman!" he thundered, coming near to her with the mingled daring and repugnance with which onel " advances to crush a snake, "do you mean to cay that you are going to publish tbismuch.of your story and publish no more ? That you will tell the world this and not tell-—" " What I did not see?" she interpolated, looking him straight in the eye as might the serpent to which I have compared her. " Good God r was his horrified exclamation ; and yet you know " " Pardon me," her voice broke in again. " You have heard what I mow,'? and she bowed with such an inimitable and mocking grace, and yet with such an air of sinister resolve, that he stood like one fascinated, and let her move away towards the door without seeking any word or look to stop her. "I hold you tight,, you see," were her parting wqrds to him aashe paused upon the threshold to give us a last and scornful look. "So iigh^; she added, shaking her close'shut band,* "that I doubt if even your life could esoape> should I choose to remember in court what 11 1 1 have counted before you two here to-day*"' ' i " And forget "h* b£'gan! ''* "And forget," she repeated.' ■ " what might defeat the ends of tha,t f justice w;hich demands a life for the olae W' wantonly sacrificed in the vat whGsVh'ideous 'depths now open almost u'ndef'.yout-fdet.'" And, having said these words, she turned 4 to go, when, looking op, she found her passage barred by the dark form of Guy Pqllard, who, standing in the' doorway with hie hands upon either lintol, surveyed her wit-h his saturnine smile, in which for this once I saw something that did not make me recoil, certain as I now was of his innate villainy and absolute connection with Mi Barrows's death. She herself seemed to feel that she had met her master ; for, with a hurried look in his face, she drew slowly back, and, folding her arms, waited for him to move with c patience too nonchalant not to be forced. But he did not seem inclined to move, anci I beheld a faint blueh of anger break out on her cheek, though her attitude retained its air of superb indifference, and her lips, where they closed upon each other, did noi so much as break their lines for an in stant. ".You are not going, Miss Colwell," were the words with which he at laat broke the almost intolerable suspense of the moment : "at least, not till jou have given us the date of this remarkable experience oi yourp." " The date ?" she repeated, icily. " What day was it that Mr Barrows was found in the vat?" she ihquired, turning to me with an indifferent look. JBis hand fell like iron on her arm. 11 You need not appeal to Miss Sterling,' 1 he remarked. "/ am asking you this question, and I am not a man to be balked nor frightened by you when my life itseli is at stake. What night was it on which you saw me place Mr Barrows in the vat! I command you to tell me,or ." His hands closed on her arm, and — she did not scream, but I didj-for the look of the inquisitor was in his face, and I saw that she must succumb, or be broken like a reed before our eyes. She chose to succumb. Deadly pale and shaking with terror with which he evidently inspired her, she turned like a wild creature caught in the toils, and gasped out : "Ib was a night in August— the seventeenth, I think. I wish you and your brother much joy of the acknowledgment." He did not answer, only dropped her arm, and, looking at me, remarked ; "I think that puts a different face upon the matter." It did indeed. For Mr Barrows had only been dead four days, and to-day was the 28th of September. * * * * * * I do not know how long ifc was before I allowed the wonder and perplexity which this extraordinary disslosure aroused in me to express itselt in words. The shock which had been communicated to me was so great, I had neither thought nor feeling left, and it was not till I -perceived every eye fixed upon me that I found the power to say : "Then 'Mr Barrows'e death was not the result of that night's work. The hand that plunged him into the vat /drew him out again. But— but ."Here my tongue failed me. I could only look the question with which my mind was full. , D wight Pollard immediately stepped forward. • ' * «•'" " But whoee were the bands that thrust him back four days ago?! That is what you would ask, is it not,' Miss Sterling?" he inquired, with a force/and firmness he had not before displayed. , { "Yep," I endeavoured to.? say, thbiigh I doubt if a sound passed my lips. Hiq face took a more earnest cast, his voice a still deeper tone. " Mies Sterling," he began, meeting my eye with what might have been the bravado of despair, but which I. was fain to believe the courage of truth, " after whafc you have just heard, it would be strange, perhaps, if you should place much belief in anything that we may say 'upon this subject. And yet ib is my business to declare, and that with all the force and assurance of which I am capable, t|rat we know no more than you how Mr Barrows came to find hitnselt again in that .place ; that we had nothing to do with it; and, that his death, occurring, in the manlier and at the spot it did,' was a surprise thus which cost my mother heYlife^ahd^m'e^^wibll, almost; my reason," he added, jn.a jowe'r.tone, turning away his face. -'m.UL - MMI 41 Can this be true ?"--I~asked -myself, unconsciously taking on an^air of determination, as I remembered 1 was prejudiced in his favour and wished to believe him innocent of this crime. This movement on my part, slight as it was, was evidently seen and misinterpreted by them all. For a look of disappointment came into D wight Pollard's face, while from his brother's eye flashed a' dangerous gleam that almost made me oblivious to the fact that Rhoda Colwell was speaking words full of meaning and venom, •* A specious declaration !" she exclaimed. " A jury would believe such assertions, of course ;so would the world at large. It is so easy to credit that thia simple and ordinary method of disposing of a valuable life shoufd enter the mind of another person •» " It is as easy to credit that,", answered Dwight Pollard, with an emphasis which showed that he, if not I, felt the force of this sarcasm, "as it would be to believe that Mj? Barrows would return to a spot so fraught 'with Hideous memories, except under the influence" of a purpose which made him 'blind to all but ics, accomplishment. The fact that he died *. there, proves to my mind that no other yrill, than his plunged him anew into that 'dreadful vat." "Ah I so ' you, afe^ going to asoribe.bis death to suibide?"»ißhe%quired, with a curl ?f? f h er lip that was' f ulliof disdain. , :/ V Jes, " . he sterjaly^feßponded, with no wavering now, fthough)Reploaks mightwell biftve;Btung;the stoutest soul into some «how /

• 1 Ifci .t\* wo stroke," Bhe laughed, with indesonbablo emphasis. "It haa so much II? Mr Barrow&'s life and character to back It. And may I ask," ehe went on, with a look that included Guy Pollard's silent and contemptuous figure in its eoope, " whether you have anything but words wherewith to impress your belief upon the public? I have heard that judge and jury like factß, or, at the least, circumstantial proof that a man's denial is a true one." • " And proofs we, have I" It was Guy Pollard who spoke this time, and with an icy self-possession that made her shiver in spite of herself. 11 Proofs?" she repeated. "That we were not near the mill the night before Mr Barrows was found. We were both out of town, and did not return till about the time the accident was discovered., "Ah !" was her single sarcastic rejoinder j but I saw—we all saw—that the blow had told, bravely as she tried to hide it. " You can make nothing by accusing us of this crime," he continued; " and if *.I might play the part of a friend to you I would advise you not to attempt it. "And his cold eye rested for a moment on hers before he turned and walked away to the other end of the room. The look, the action, was full of contempt, bus she did not seem to feel it. Following him with her gaze for a minute, she murmured, quietly : «• We will see," then turning her look upon Dwight and myself added slowly ; " I think you are effectually separated at all events," and was gone almost without our realising how or where. I did not linger long behind. What 1 said or what they said I cannot remember I only know that in a few minutes I too was flying along the highway, eager for the refuge which my solitary home offered me. Events had rushed upon me too thickly and too fast. I felt ill as I passed the threshold of my room, and was barely conscious when a few hours later the landlady came in to see why I had not made my appearance at the cupper table. {To be Continued.)