CHAPTER LXV.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 196, 26 March 1887, Page 7

CHAPTER LXV.

" NOTHING FOR MX BUT REVENGE 1" " I will help you," said an ardent voice. Helen turned. The mist of fury passed from her eyes. There was a cloeet io one corner of the room ; it had bean shut, but now the door stood open, and in it stood with eager face <and extended right hand the very man of whose murder she had been accusing Leigh, the man who had co sin gulariy offered to help her in her plans for vengeance about a year and a half before. He looked absolutely unchanged. There was the same wiry, nervous figure ; shrewd, eager, weazened lace, and beetling brows ; but there was a new, overpowering look in the man's eyee, a look that had leaped toward Helen, while a flame seemed to pass over his fa.cc the first time that he saw her, and from which she had fled with precipitation. Now she did not fly ; ehe laid her hand on her fluttering heart, to still its agitation, and she stood her ground. " You ! alive and well ?" she faltered. "Yes; ac a comet far off goes into space, lost to eyes ot men, and then returns from its cycle of disappearance, so I have been lost and come again. What month was it when we were here before ?" "November." " I thought so ; the trees were in sere and yellow leaf. Now they are lush in beauty, and a paper that I bought yesterday bore date in June. And that November was not the last one ?'' "No It is nineteen months since." " That is a long, strange time to be lost in darkness. Did it ever happen to you to be so lost ?" "No." 11 It is a strange experience. A strange remedy ; for do you know, from birth, I was subject to occasional loss of self and consciousness, and this blow on my head, that made me mad for seventeen months, has cured me finally. I am now a sound man. It is two months since 1 fully came to myself. It has taken me some time to recover myself, my memory, my plans. I did at last, by means of the advertisement in that paper. That put me face to face with ray real self, as if in a glass. I took up my life where I left it I got the very kind of dress that ie described, I reported to my attorney, I came back here, to the spot where I myself parted company for a time, and as I came, and when 1 came, more clearly I remembered you. You were injured, angry, and needed a helper then ; it is the same now —behold me at your order." 41 When did you come here? How long have you been here?" demanded Helen, uneasily. " I came early, before you did. I heard your step below, and I slid into that closet. You see the door has a panel made of slats for ventilation. I could look through that. I saw you come in. I looked at you. You threw yourself there. I was longing to rush out and speak to you, but you fell asleep, and I respected your slumber, Besides, I could still see you, and what more could I ask T Then he came in, and with every word he spoke to stab your heart, I longed to drive a knife into his heart ! I will now pursue him, if you say so ' [ "Hush! Ido not say so." l! But you want vengeance on him." " Yes, but net that. If death is to be the end, not that way, and not now." " Sit down here by me, and tell me what you want." But Helen shrank back nervously. " What ! you will not Bit beeide me ? Well; sit there, and I will ait here. Now, how shall I help you ?" "Tell me first why you came here that November, and what you meant to do." " I came here to see Lord Leigh, because I am his mother's step-son, and so a sort of relation ; and I wanted to see him, and see how people of his Quality live. Sometimes they are not ashamed of relations finch as I am. I wanted to have a taste of aristocratic life if I could" " You wanted money ?" " Not a bit. I have a sheep farm in Australia. I have made nearly twenty thousand pounds. I only wanted to learn how to use it like a lord— to see what lords wear, and eat, and how they live, and amuse themselves. Then, too, after a little of London life, I wanted to go back to Australia, and I wanted my stepbrother's help to get me a position, so that I Bhould be a man of mark and place in the colony. I wanted to do well for myself." " Then your intentions were quite harmless ?" 11 Quite so, I did not like to go up to the house at once ; it looked so grand, and I had heard servants are stiff to strangers ; I thought I would have a look at the place, and might meet Lord Leigh, go I rolled, round and round— l like these English woods — till I gob here, by this queer house, aud I heard voices and heard the name 'Lord leigb,' bo I knew he was here, and came up, Then as I came I heard your tones clearly, and 1 saw your face; and that changed all my life, and all my plans." , "I do not understand you," said 'Helen. " Why ; you were seeking for a helper, and for vengeance ; and on the minute Ire solved if Leigh- was your enemy . he should be mine^ if ycu wanted vengeance we would seek it together, that at your bidding it should be not, peace, but war, and no it shall! Speak the word!"

"Will you help me? 4 ' " To death I" " Then tell me, did you tell yourattorney you were coming here ?" "Yes. 1 told him I was coming to see I eigh, and that I hatod him, and meant to have it out with him for not finding my friends and treating me like a gentleman and a man of means, when he found me hart and ineane. I hate him now, on my own account." " Then I will tell you what to do. Hide yourself now ; leave here some garment, blood-etained, and a weapon of come kind. I will mail a letter for you, telling your attorney to teek you here if you do nofe return in throe daye. Disappear, and let Lord Leigh be accused of your death, and brought to trial." " But tio you not see that could not b3 carried out ? I cannot hide forever ; I want come good of my life, and Lord Leigh would have the best lawyers, and they would search me out with all the industry and eharpneee of EDglißh detectives." " Yep, yes, I know ; but the diegraco of the accusation would be there, we would bring down his pride. He scorns me, boasts over mo— you have heard him- this would ! bring him where he could vaunt no more. Ah ! the trial would bring out the blots on his name and history." The/ man laughed."That'is a woman's way and notion—notwell wrought out. There are plenty of flaws in that plan. But, Helen — I think he called you Helen - 1 can show you a better way." " What is it ?"' said Helen eagerly ; yet shrinking from this free use of her name. "When I came here first," said Kemp, " I had some letters of his mother's, and if he tried to be proud with me, and not receivo mo as a step-brother should, I meant to threaten him to make those letters parti} public. When I heard you calling for help to avenge yourself on him, I determined to go to your help, and gall him if I could, for he looks a proud, scornful aristocrat, and I hated him the minute I looked at him. I hate him worse now, since I heard you say you loved him. " Go on," said Helen, averting her face. " Well, when about two months ago I came to myself, and found that I had been insane, and had not been treated as a gentleman, and kept in a private asylum, with the knowledge of my lawyer, 1 caw this proud Leigh hated me, and wanted to hide me, ashamed that I could claim kin with his mother, and I resolved then to show him tfcat trifling with Bart Kemp was as playing with powder. If I had not been shrewd and cunning above most men would I in twenty years have made twenty thousand pounds? I tell you I have the papers and the witneeses now to bring this Lord Leij>h down to the duet. But stop and think would you not rather be a rich man's wife— go, aa he suggested to queen it in one of the coloniee - marry an official, say in Australia - and go to be a leader there, a queen, as your beauty and your manners fit you to bo ?' 11 No, no!" cried Helen, ''nothing for me but vengeance on him. You promise ?ne revenge j I will have it — nothing but revenge !" " But, if you have it, you must pay me my price."