CHAPTER XL.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 224, 15 October 1887, Page 8

CHAPTER XL.

L " 1 AVILL BRAVE IT OUT TO THE BITTER EXD." Lifting her flashing eyes, her cheeks crimson with indignation, Ruby sprang to her ieefc. *' What does this outrage mean ?" she demanded. He did not pay any attention to her ■words, but said to someone outside : " Bring them light in !" And the next moment a man came in, bringing one of her trunks, and she could see the other one standing in the hall. He deposited them where Mr Carpenter indicated, and then passed out without so much as glancing at Ruby. Edmund Carpenter shut and locked the door aft r him, and then turned to his captive, with a triumphant smile on his dark face : " These room*? are not quite so spacious and airy as those at Forestvale, but I trust you can make yourself comfortable in them for a while," lie cooll}' remarked. * l What does this mean ?" she repeated. *'It means that you will be a compulsory •guest here until you give me that document which 1 asked you for this morning ; and jioc only that, but you must also give mo your promise never to mention that you found it." <# I shall do neither one nor the other," Ruby retorted, resolutely. "if you have it concealed about your person, as you led me to suppose a few hours ago, I shall soon have it," her companion said, regarding her searchingly, " for I havo ■commissioned a woman to search you." Ruby's lips curled, and she Hashed a glance of triumph at her enemy. "I am perfectly willing to be searched, Mr Carpenter, but your accomplice will not find w hat she seeks," she coolly replied. The man looked nonplussed at the statement. He had been very sure that she had it about her, and that was why she had flown so eagerly to the bell that morning when he attempted to approach her. He had imagined that it he could make her a prisoner lie could easily bring her to terms ; or, that failing, he believed he could attain hi-> object by having her forcibly searched. But her coolness and defiance startled him and made him fear that she had been too cunning lor him after all, and had hidden it somuwheic, so that ;-he could have it foithcoming w henever she chose. "What have you done with it ?" he demanded, angrily. " I .shall not tell you," she answered, quietly, and actually experiencing a thrill ©i triumph in being able to defy him. He sat in silence for several minute 3. He wa-> bitterly disappointed, but her composmo wa.-j too veal, her enjoyment of hi^> discoinitme too evident to allow of the belief that, sne wa« playing a pait. "AYell. then," he said, at last, in a dogged tone. " there remains, only one thing ior me to do '' She w onM not a&k him what that was, though he paused ad if he expected she v ouM. " And that is," ho resumed, with a scowl at her indifference, "to keep you confined here until I can turn my property into money and leave the country, when you n.ay produce your will and welcome. It i cannot haim me then, for I shall be beyond ! your reach, and beyond the power of the Uw." Still Ruby showed no sign of relenting or fear, though his word 1-*1 -* had caused her heart to pink with something very like despair. She knew that if he ishonld carry out his threat Ralph Carpenter's v\ ill w ould amount to nothing ; for, with his property turned into money, lie could go whore he chose, c-capc t! 1 law, and enjoy his ill-gotten gains "You may as well lay aside your hat and wmp-, Miss (Jordon," he continued iiftoi waco'tung her in silence for a few minuter, v ' foi you w ill make this your home for the pie-ent."' '• Io \ou imagine you can keep me here for any length of time without dibco\ezy ?"' Kuby demanded. <% Ye-, indefinitely," he asserted. "Mr Pnggles will set the whole city in an upioa:, as soon as he misses me," she declared confidently. But Irs courage wa-> considerably dampened by h'iv cap tor' •» next words. "I i>;i\e attended to that matter," ho said coolly, '"and Mr Ruggle.s will not be t-oubk'u ibout you in the lea-st. I sent my C'lriiaj.c ft./ you nctihj, and intercepted hi-t on the wav out to Fore&tvale, sending word back to him that you had ' chamjerl your mind,' and had concluded to go to Hanisjjurg to - t o.n Eotelle, as you feared you were not doin n just right to desert her when she was in so much trouble. So, you perceive there w ill be no inquiries for you, my friend. Estelle and all the soivants at Forests ale believe you have gone to Rcdville", while your verdant companion, Mr Euggles, imagine- that you are on your way to Ilarnsburif. I call it pretty well planned, eh V and Edmund Carpenter laughed triumplianily. Ruby giew almost faint over this consummate plotting. She .saw at once that it •would bo fust a.s ho said. Mr Ruggles's mind would be at iest, and he would go home satisfied that ehe was all right, only he might feel that- she was somewhat fickle ; w bile Estelle would believe that she was wifely housed at Iledville. Ko one would have a suspicion of her fate, at \e:^b for some time, and thus this arch villain would have all the opportunity he wished to matuie his plans and flee the country, while in the meantime the very worst mifjht happen to Walter. But >f;T;, desperate aa she felt affairs were fcr hey, f-he would not give him the satisfaction of glor\ ing in her suffeiing. "Whit kind of a place is this to which you ha\e brought mo?" she asked, a» she calmly untied her hat and laid it upon the table, and then began to unbutton her water pi oof. Edmund Carpenter regarded her with astonishment ; &ho was far more plucky than he had suspected. i( Well, you take the situation pretty coolly, 1 must confess,'' he observed. " Why 5-houldn't I?" &ho questioned, btavely ; (> I ha\ cno fear of you, whiles I am so confident thai you will get your just deserts, that 1 can afiord to bo patient for a while." " I am afraid your patience will be sorely tiied," ho letortcd savagely. "How will you like it not to see your handsome lover again until you find him behind prison bars ?'' Thisv.Jifsa keen thrust, but she boro it like the liUle heroine she was. "It w ill not bo Walter who will come to such a fate as that," she answered confidently, and with suggestive emphasis, while she deliberately drew the glove from

her left hand, and turned the sparkling diamond on her third finger to the light. That act enraged Edmund Carpenter more than anything that had occurred yet, and he sprang to hia feet with a muttered imprecation. The sight of that diamond was torture to him. "Don't be too sure," he said, through his tighblyshut teeth. " Your confidence may have a severer test than you are prepared for." " An idea strikes me," Ruby said a light breaking over her face. "The trial is to como off before very long, and since my friends will doubtless be present at it, inquiries will, of course, bo made for mo ; and let mo say, Mr Carpenter, yon may find things getting rather warm for you about that time." It wn« evident from the m mi's looks that he had not taken this into consideration, or, if he had, he had probably reckoned upon bringing her to his own terms long before that. He arose from his seat impatiently. " I shall find you les& impatient and in a move conciliatory frame of mind a few days hence," he remarked, as he 'moved toward the door. Ruby also arose. '* You have not yet answered my question, Mr Carpenter, ' sho said. " What question ?" " In whose house am I ?" " It is the houso of a respectable physician, a particular friend of mine, one who sometimes is prevailed upon ~mo to treat patients of a refractory and wilful nature," he replied, watching her with an evil smile as he made the statement. Ruby grew pale. It was not a pleasant thing to know that she might be in the house with people who were not sane. Still she believed that he would not be likely to bring her to a \ place where she would bo in danger of perj sonal violence. " A ' particular friend' of yours, and a respectable phynia'an .'" she repeated, with a sarcastic emphasis that made her listener's ears tingle. " Has Ho many patients?" "No, ho has not," Edmund Carpenter! answered, gravely, and not unkindly. "I did not intend you should know this, for 1 do not wish you to be tortured by any fear of that nature. The doctor has only two or three patients here at the present-, and they are perfectly harmless, and confined to another portion of the house." "Am I supposed to be a patient ?" " Well, not exactly ; you arc simply a boarder." j " In other words, you have bribed the man to keep mo here to suit your purpose. But, Edmund Carpenter," Ruby continued, taking a step toward him and lifting her right hand to emphasise her words, "your friend may keeu me here as long as you raay see fit to pay him for it ; but I forbid you to enter my presence again ; I will not see you — 1 w ill have nothing whatever to say to you." "But you cannot help yourself, Ruby, my beauty,"' he retorted, with a smile and with glowing eyes. She never looked so attractive to him as ! when sho was flushed and excited with , anger. ! "I can help myself, I will help myself !" she replied, sharply, and, turning abruptly from him, she walked into her bedroom, where she shut and locked the door, the key, fortunately, being in the lock. Mr Carpenter looked somewhat astonished at this decisive movement, and resolved to give orders to the servant «ho was to wait upon Ruby to secure that key the next time she came up. But nothing could be gained from his spirited captive in her present state of mind, and he left the Held veiy much disturbed over his ignominious failure to biing her to terms. Ruby heard him depart with a feeling of intense relief, and then began to look about her to .see in what way she could defend herself from his future visits. " I will not be subjected to such interviews as this," she said, resolutely, " and if I will nob see him, ho will begin to understand that he cannot make me burrender." Suddenly her face lighted, and going to her trunk, she took from it a largo spool of wire which she sometimes used in making artincal {lowers. Armed with this, she went back to her chamber, and began to wind the wire around the knob of the door, which was locked ou the outside, and which she led into the hall, carrying it up through a bracket to the mantel that was near, passing it back and forth again and ; again, drawing it as tight as sho could, until she was sure the- bairicado was strong enough to keep out intruders. Then she moved the head of her bed up against it, and felt that with the key of the other door always in her possession, &he should have a place oi refuge to flee to whenever her unwelcome visitor presented himself. At six o'clock, a servant brought to the door a tempting supper upon a tray, but the poor girl was not hungry, or rather she was too wretched to cab. She would be brave enough when Edmund Carpenter was there to arouse her antagonism, but it was very different when she found herself a solitary prisoner, and felt that she was liable to remain there indefinitely, and no one dreaming but that she ' wa« safe, happy, and contented with her friends. , Walter would miss her letters, and would wonder why she did not write. He might even go "to Fore^tvale to learn the reason, and would probably be told that she had either gone to Redv'ille or Harrisburg, and would bo none the wiser until his trial should come off, when sho knew there must be inquiries for her. But she might not be found until it would be too late to cjo any good. And with a heart bursting with grief, as all these thoughts crowded upon her, she retired at an early hour, and tried to forgot her wretchedness in sleep.