CHAPTER XV.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 28 August 1886, Page 8

CHAPTER XV.

OS THE TRACK. " What makes you say my mistress wa3n't killed ?" asked Glora, after both had pondered the matter a moment. " All the plantation people knew she was killed. Ask'em if you don't want to take my word for it." "The simple reason why I said so was that Ferraro Brothers spoke of her as alive, and at present residing in San Francisco. The estate was sold to my father by her through them, lam positive of that." " P'raps 'twas some other Jardine who fel heir," suggested Glora, after reflection. " You see, that woman carried off the child; co it's likely, think in' the child was dead, too, that somebody else has taken possession of Mr Jardine's property. That's it ! Night and day I think about that little girl, wishing I knew what had become of her. No tellingr what trouble that woman may have led her into, when she ought to be a lady in her own right. She will be in her sixteenth year, sir, if alive, and beautiful as an angel. I'm sure, for a handsomer little creature never was than she." "I do not think," said young Sterling, growing more seriously interested the more he thought of the matter, " that father bought this place from any one but the Mrs Jardine— that Is, through her agents, • acting for her I remember distinctly, now that I dwell upon it, that the gentleman told us of her marvellous escape, with her child, and of her going on to Mexico by the firat ship which sailed, to seek the protection of her relatives." " Escape, with her child !" almost Bcreamed Glora. " Yea. That was what he told us. I was interested in the story, and asked several questions." " The Lord have mercy on my soul !" ejaculated the woman, throwing up her ai ms And lifting her dark f&ce to neaven. " Why, Glora, what do you suspect ?" '* What do you suspect, sir?" "If your account is atrictly correct ;» if you absolutely sato your mistress mur dered " "I did! I did! I did !" " Then there is but one inference to be drawn. Thia Mrs Henderson, who seems to have been an adventuress of the worst kind, must have assumed Mrs Jardine's name and imposed herself upon that lady's business agents and relatives as Mrs Jardine. Under the circumstance, it is not impossible that she might have successfully perpetrated such a fraud," he added, musingly. " Ob, the snake 1 the snake !" hissed Glora. "Calm yourself, girl," advised George, f himself greatly excited, though a stranger to all parties concerned, " you may be glad to find this true, after all ; since, in that case, if the daughter is living, she is probably with her mother's family, well brought up, and heir to her own legitimate estate at the pretender's death." " That's 56," asserted Glora, turning this new phase 1 over in her mind. ?> -''It's a f strange affair, CUora." -' ««It^i»<bh'at,* master, 'etr^nge and dark. I -don't' kflbw who'd believe 1 it if I told 'em. '•You see; * I ! neveV told a soul but Sam. who it was that shot my mistress. They all think it was the soldiers, 'Twoen't worth

while for me to' undeceive 'em. shuti n it all up in my own breast ; and, oh, how c my heart has ached these years." "In Havana they believe that Mrs Hen- n derson waa the victim of the raid, 'the companion, and a lady's m.aid,' they were p told ; I dare say you were the maid." v "Aye. She thought she'd killed me, c eartain. Bu,t I didn't die, and I see now for n what purpose I was saved." i The woman here fell into a deep fit of abstraction, while George, softly whistling, a q sign, with him," of mental perturbation, a tried to decide if it was incumbent on him, c a stranger, to take any steps ib the matter, i or try to unravel a skein which had been t tangled so many years. Sam, through with ( his tasks in the library and sitting-room, t came to Bee if his wife was ready to go t home. r " Will you take good car' o' that book, f Master Sterling?" she aeked, .anxiously, before leaving. ' } "I will. Twill lock it up in a pafe place i as soon as I return to the librsry." c The following day the mulatto woman ( moved about the kitchon in a gloomy, ( absent-minded way; but she gofc up her i dinner even more nicely than usualj for ahe ] had a favour to ask, and she wished the i gentleman to be in a good humour, vx hen i the work was done slip sought the youngtr one's presence. " , J "Mister George, I've thought , and I've prayed ; and it'n borne in on me that I ; oughter go to Mexico and expose that irn- j postor.' j " Go to Mexico !" "Yes, sir." : "And leave us to starve, meantime?" i smiling. i " No, I wouldn't do that, I should like to stay here two or three weeks till I got ; Bam well broke in. I could learn him to cook considerable in that time, master. Then I want to set out on Mra Hendorpon'a track : I can never rest again unless I do my duty." " Why will it not answer to go to Havana and make your deposition before the proper authorities, and have them attend to this business ? That is the only way to do it properly. How would you get along, travelling alone, in a country of which yon knew nothing to a place of which you know leff, on such an errand ?" "The Lord will pint out the way. He set a pillar before tho children ot Israel, and He'll light me forward, if I ask him. I'm afraid to give my information to the officers. They didn't like Mrs Jardine, because that liar told 'em she was a revolutionist. And they wouldn't be sly enough, even if they tried, sir. She'd get wind of her danger, and be off, perhap3 with the girl, before they laid hands on her. No, master, it's bestest / should go. I want to meet that .voman tace to face ! I want to see her look when ehe sees who it is>. If she takes me for a ghopt, so much the better. " Well, Glora, I'll talk with father about it." Mr Sterling, senior, liked Glora'a cooking and hia own comfort ; but he was a Yankee, and it is hard for na to decide how much credit should be given to his moral principle, and how much to his curiosity, when he decided, after hearing the whole strange story, vvith the utmost promptness, that the woman should be allowed to go, and receive every ad in his power towards the successful completion of her errand* Glo^a remained a fortnight giving Sam culinary instruction, and then set out for Havana under young Sterling's protection, who had business in the city, and .made it convenient to go at that time. He took her before Ferarro Brothers, to whom she repeated her tale, corroborated by the diary which George brought with him. To them the story appeared eicuply incredible. They were inclined to laugh at the Sterlings for their credulous interest in the vagaries of a perhaps partially insane coloured woman. "Her fright at the time of the raid or her wound, and tho fever which followed it, turned her brain, very likely," they remarked. " But the diary ?" urgod George. " Oh, that is some nonsense scribbled by some sentimental person. Ten to one, it has not a glimmer of truth in it." " But it tallies with her etory. Such a correspondence could not possibly be the result of accident." " I do not know about that, Mr Sterling," answered the elder Ferraro, blandly. "We saw and talked with Mrs Jardine several times. We saw her &id her little daughter together. Is it reaponably probable that a child five years of age, or over, should be induced to accept another person as her mother within twenty four or forty-eight hours after parting from her own ?" "Did you hear the little girl call her companion mother ? Remember, she ha 3 been in daily companionship with this Mrs Henderson for nearly three years. Loving her, and confiding in her, she would be apt to obey her orders, whatevs" they were." "True. Then again, we were personally acquainted with Mrs Jardine. At least, we had several times met her, and she had once dined at our house. We had not seen her in a couplo of years, and she had changed greatly in the meantime; but that, as she explained, was owing to illness, grief, terror, and mental anxiety. I never pitied a lady more than 1 did her, when she presented herself before us, late in the evening, two nights after the raid on her home. She waa in a fearful state of agitation. We did our best to persuade her to remain in our family until phe waa somewhat recovered from her nervous state ; but a steamer sailed the following _day for Mexico, and a3 this just suited herijwiah.es, she insisted on going in it, We" had barely time to pack her valuables, which were stored in our vaults, and get them on board before the hour of sailing. She had succeeded in saving such of her husband's most valuable papers as were not already with ue. We caw them, and looked them over our Belves. If that was not Mrs Jardine whom we assisted at that time, and with whona we have been in bueineßa .correspondence, more or less, ever since, then I'll never be certain of anything again, even my own identity. 1 , . Glora was not permitted to hear all this conversation, but when Sterling reported to her the manner in which her project was received, she only clung the more stubbornly to it. "That was another part of her plot, inducing my mistress to eend her plate and valuables to Havana, to be ready for her use when she choosed to come aloDg , an claim 'em ! Oh, I'm a-going to see her, face to face, you better believer sir». I'll walk every step of the way an' live on grass an' berries, but what I'll spile- the game, for her. She's had the good of it too long !" "You can't walk on. the water, Glora ,; with all your faith 1 I will \ pay .your paasage to Vera Cruz, and give you ,a little money, besides. I don't know that there is anything more I can do for you, than to pay jour expenses.'*' „ < • „( \ \> ~ "Thank you, master. s<Sam!ll wprk to out, if I never come back." ,' ,■ ti , <„ " If you make out anything, you mupt;report to me immediately, by letter, and alsoby some surer method., .You see^Glorajrit is of importance to us, aleo^-my father and myself— to learn if we have received, pur f title-deeds from ao'impoßtOjcim m&> j *•' . " Surely. I never .thought o' tbatr.l?, t ■ t " 1 fice it vexes these gentlepfien ; to,.speak of it, so we will keep our.affftire to ourselves. I know you have judgment, Glora,. and per-

| Severance. You -will do better than "an \ -one else.*, 0, , .*>,. „ , ■ „; : ; ;;;. "You muet give me that little. book, master. I may need it as, a proof / , , i( v , , " You shall have it. Keep it about; your person, and try and not get drowned ; that would wet the book, you see. I shall no,t expect to hear from you for three i or four months. And now 1 will inquire when, there ia a steamerleavingfor Vera w Cruz." ,t, t - There wasonegoinginthreedays. George, 5 Sterling id led abont Ha vanar-baving^boughtt and despatched goods which his, father had ordered, with nails, glass, and other build-ing-hardware for repairing the villa-^ until the chip Pteamed out of the harbour, with Glora on board. She had cried, a good deal the last day and sent many messages of }ove back to " her Sam " by the young gentleman ; but she ;had not for a .moment flinched from her purpose. Never having, been twenty miles from the plantation on, which ahe was born, until now, all was novel to her, as she sat on the deck in the quarter, allotted to people of her colour, and looked baok on the rapidly receding city. .But she felt that she had a mission ; and if she had been ten times as lonely (or twice as seasick, which is saying more, she would not have regretted her solitary journey., " The ends of the earth cannot hide her from me now," ahe muttered. Meantime .George Sterling returned to Lisbon Place, where Sam continued to cook, and serve, and where great repairs were going on.. The time allotted to Glora slipped away, but nothing was heard from her. The rainy season came on The Sterlings left Sam in charge of the house and an overseer in charge of the plantation and returned for a few weeks to the United States. On their return, one of their first inquiries made of Sam, who was looking thin, was if Glora had come home. "'Fraid I'll never see Glora no, more," replied Sam, choking a little and coughing to cover.