CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 192, 19 February 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

A STRUGGLE FOB LIBERTY. Meanwhile, Louis was diligently searching for the hiding-place of the missing money. The room 9, as we know, were bare and empty • not a thing in them to conceal anything ; while, carefully examining the floors, he could see no evidence o£ a single board having been removed from its place. There was a cloaet in the outer room and one leading from the landing at the head of the stairs ; but upon exploring these he was confronted only by bare walla, empry drawers and shelves, and all festooned with cobwebs, and musty from dampness. He descended to the lower room, only to find the same unpromising prospect before him there. Under the stairs, however, he found a long deep closet. Entering this, he began to investigate. Like the others above, it was empty and bare, but at his feet he saw a trap door in the floor. Raising this he saw another flight of stairs, leading, as he conjectured, into the cellar. It was rather late, he thought, to attempt to explore such a piace that day, and ho finally returned to the room where he had left Arthur to wait uniil morning. He found him sitting as he left him, sullen and despondent. He looked up, however, with a defiant toss of his head and a muttered oath, as Louis entered. " I supposed you had gone and left me to my fate," he said, after a moment. "Ob, no; I intend to pass the night here with you. I do not intend to show mycelf in public until I know something definite about that money, and I shall make a thorough search of these premises for It." " It will be a pity to have so much labour lost." "It will not be labour losb," Louis returned. " I am sure that it is somewhere here. It is my belief that you cam a here to-night to remove it to a place of safety— perhaps to take it to some other country to deposit it where you could draw upon it without attracting suspicion."

" ' Plato, fchou reasoneet wel?,' " was the earcastic response, as the young man paused in these reflections. Louis paid no attention to his ill-humour, but, seating himself upoa a chair, he deposited his revolver uoon the floor beside bim, and began to inepeot the package that Arthur was in the act of passing to him when he found himself confronted by the muzzle of Louis' weapon. Ie contained some freah rolls, from which be began 60 feed himself, as he was hungry and faint, after the excitement of recent events. Having at length eaten sufficient to appeaee his appetite, ho drew forward another chair for hie feet and made himself as comfortable as circumstances would allow. In this position he fucceeded in catching an occasional nap, and thus the night passed and the morning of a new day dawned. Louis awoke at an early hour, and, refreshing himself with some of the rolls left over from the previous night, stole as quietly i»s possible from the room and began again his search for the lost treasure. Bis first, venture was to mount into the third story ; but this was as bare as the rooms below. Ho kept on to the attic, but here the duet upoo the floors had not been disturbod by even bo much as a footprint, and he Knew that it would be useless to waste any time in looking about among the rafters and beams. He then descended to the first floor again, where he removed the trap leading to the cellar. He crept down the narrow stairway and found himself in a large, open cellar, running under the whole of that portion of the building. Here he determined to examine every inch of ground to ►cc if it had been disturbed ; and every stone in the wall, with the same end in view. The moment the door was closed and locked after Louis, Arthur Aspinwall sprang from his couch, muttering a malediction upon his foe, and began to look wildly about him for some means of escape. On two sides of him there were those impassable iron bars fastened into the floor at the bottom, and running up into a beam above the ceiling. It was impossible even to stir them, though he threw his whole weight against them, hoping that some of them might be loosened in that way. But he found himself powerless in that direction. On the other two sides of hie place of imprisonment, there were only bare walls that had bean painted some neutral tint, Suddenly his face lighted, as his eye caught the gleams of a substantial-looking knife and fork upon hia table. * "I wonder if I could cut through this plastering, then whittle through the laths, thus making my way into another portion of the nuilding, and escape in that way," he muttered. He pounded upon the wall with his fist as if to ascertain what he would have to contend against ; but it only gave forth a dull thud that did not appear very promising. " If I could have time enough I believe I could do it," he murmured; "but it he j should take a notion to deliver me up within a day or two, I should have all my labour for my pains. However, it will do no harm to try." He pulled out his lounge from the wall I and marked off a place to begin operations. "If I could make a hole I could conceal the debris under the lounge, and he would never suspect my purpose ; he is down in the cellar, and cannot hear me plainly, and," with a little derieive laugh, " he may hunt there for his treasure until doomsday : meanwhile I will not be idle ; this kind of life is maddening to me." Ho fell to work at once ; marked off a square which he thought would be large enough to allow him to creep through, and then began to cut into the plastering. He soon found that it would not be 83 difficult an he had at first imagined ; a couple of hours would suffice to take away the whole square. This discovery so encouraged him that he stopped for awhile to eat something, for he was very hungry His appetite was excellent, and he paitook heartily of tne food that he had brought for Louis. " What an idiot he was !" he said to himself, while making his breakfast ; "he might have done this very thing — worked his way out and escaped me after all. Strange that ho did not think of it ! but, blaet me ! he, and whoever has helped im, has been cunning enough at their other trick." If he couM have known of another hole, not threo feot from him, where Louis, not so idiotic after all, had himself laboured for long, weary hours for his liberty, only to find himself coming out against a huge fireproof wall that extended troin cellar to roof, his spirits would not have been so buoyant as they appeared to be over Mb brilliant (?) idea. Having eaten all he wished, he resumed his labour and worked busily for two or three houn?, takiug care to keep all his rubbish in u compact pile, where he could hastily concoal it by wheeling the lounge baok into place if he should hear anyone coming. Midday came, and with it Louis, to strengthen hiuasclf for his afternoou's work ate what remained of his rolls, Everything in the room was apparently just as he had left it in the morning, while Arthur was lying at full length upon his couch, either asleep or feigning to be so — he could not tell which. He had not been encouraged by his own work that morning ; he had not found a trace of anything to show thatany one had been into the cellar for an unusual purpose ; but he had not expected that success would attend htm all at once, and he had no intention of relinquishing it until he had been, as he said, over every inch of ground. He ate his meagre dinner in silence, and then betook himself again to his work. As soon m he was gone Arthur sprang up to resume his own operations. He had succeeded in removing all the plastering, and now began to work upon the laths. This wag not so easy, for they were tough and his knife was dull. He tried his pocket-knife, but broke it in cutting the first one, and was forced to go back to the other. For more than an hour he toiled diligently, but his success was not encouraging. His hands were lamed and blistered, but that was of no consequence compared with the object in view. A 3light noise in the room beyond startled him. He paused, but could hear nothing. He was about to resume his work, when he waa sure that he heard some one cautiously inserting a key in the lock of his door. He had not heard Louis come upstairs, and it was not like him to exercise so much care. Perhaps it was the private detective, whom he imagined to be in league with him. His heart bounded into Ms throat at the thought. As quickly and aa noiselessly a3 he could he arose from hia kneea, brushed the lime from his clothing, and pushed ounge

back to its place, thus concealing toe rubbish he had made. The next moment the door pwurtg slowly and Bilently on its. hinges, pushed by some •jnseen force on the outside. (To be Continued)