CHAPTER LXX. NAGDALA'S FLIGHT.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 243, 25 February 1888, Page 2

CHAPTER LXX. NAGDALA'S FLIGHT.

I hnxo an ear that craves for everything That hath the smallest sign 01 omon in it ; Yet calm can moot my com in i? destiny In all its threatening or its fatal shapes. W attr. Colonix FiTzar,RAi,i> and Dr. Goodwin "walked with vapid steps towaids the alms, house, a new building of old red sandstone, situated in a dealing of the forest behind the village. They passed through the iron gate admitting them into extensive grounds, in a distant part of which the physician was seen in conversation with the warden and several of the attendants. Colonel Fitzgerald and Dr. Goodwin hurried to the spot, from whence, as soon as they were- seen to approach, and warden and the physician hastened to meet them. " Welcome home, Colonel ! Welcome home, Doctor ! lam rejoiced to sec you !"' exclaimed the physician, extending a hand to each of the returned travellers, and shaking theirs heartily. " Not more &o than we are to see you certainly/ responded J)r Goodwin. "Happy to tee you back safe, gentlemen both, I'm sure," said the waiden, cordially. "Thanks?, Mr Fugit. Wo are pleased to see you looking so well. Dr. Shaw, can you take us now to your pationt, Magdala, or rather Clea, as 'she calls herself? I was glad to hear at the hotel that she was much better," said Colonel Fitzgerald anxiously. The physician's face grew very grave, -while the warden seemed anxious " Yes," said the doctor, uneasily, " she is better, so much better, confound her, that she has levanted." " She has — *' began Colonel »tzgerald, with a puzzled expression. ** Levanted! bolted! sloped! vamosed:"' "Gone?" "Yes, gone !" " For Heaven's sake, when ? and why ? and how ." ** This morning ! Some busybody told her that you and Dr. Goodwin had returned to the village, and &he, who appeared to be so very feverishly anxious to see you, appears to have taken a sudden fright at the prospect of meeting, and has made oif. You never can depend on the vagaries of thefc half-mad creatures. Their minds shift like the winds* — " "And, indeed, it seems that you cannot much depend upon the wholly sane either. Who was it that told the woman of our arrival '!" testily inquired Dr. Goodwin. '* Who was it, Mr Fugit ?"' inquiied the ■doctor. *' Indeed, gentlemen, it was not I, nor any of my family. It was the pauper, Molly Morton, who was one of the nurses in the infirmary for this week. She says that the ijipsy was very restless, and she told her the news to keep her still until the colonel could come. She was so anxious to see the colonel that anyone might have fancied she would be quieted by hearing that ho had arrived. But it seems to have had quite the contrary effect, and to have frightened ber off the premises. " " But how did she escape ?" impatiently demanded Dr. Goodwin. " Oh, sir, she was nob a prisoner, of course. Since her improvement she has had the freedom of the house and grounds," answered the warden. " Who saw her go ? Why was she not followed ?" inquired Colonel Fitzgerald. "No one saw her go, and that was the reason why she was not followed." •• When was she seen last? When was e'-ie missed V inquired the rector. "Seeo lasb about two hours ago. Not missed until the doctor came, about half an hour ago, to pay his daily visit to her, when ehe could not be found." " You have sent in pursuit of her, I presume?" said Colonel Fitzgerald, anxxisusly. "Of course, Colonel. The men with whom you saw us engaged were even then receiving their orders to go in search of her. They have dispersed in various directions," replied the physician. " But since she is not a prisoner, upon what pretext can the men arrest her and constrain her return ?" " Ah ! that is provided for. Our governor, thinking, perhaps, that I hadn't enough to do to keep me employed, has appointed me Justice of the Peace for tho , oounty. 1 have made out a warrant for her arrest as a vagrant — a harsh measure, bub a necessary one for her own preservation. She is in no condition of health to be lying out in the woods all night, in this March weather," replied the doctor. "Poor creature!" sighed Colonel Fitzgerald. " Now, my dear Colonel, do not give yourself any anxiety about this woman. W© shall probably get her before night. It is only a question of a few hours with our .men, said the warden encouragingly. *• lam glad you think so, Mr Fugit. But pray do not let us detain you any longer ■from your duties. Dr. Shaw, can we have ■a word with you In private ?" "Certainly, my dear Colonel. I was *bout to propose the same thing. Will you come with me to my office ?" . " Thanks, yes. Come, Dr. Goodwin." When the three gentlemen were seated together in the little office attached, to the Alms-house Infirmary, 'Colonel Fitzgerald saiji : '* Now, doctor, I wish you to tell ns, if you please, all that you know of the woman, Magdala, or Clea Phara, as she calls her*' self." "My dear Colonel, I really know not a syllable more than I have already written to you." " Has she made any new allusion to the secret she claims to possess ?" '» Not a word. Tnere is only one new feature in the affair. She insisted, some weeks ago, on our advertising in all the ■ American and European papers for Adam Lackland. Now, as that was a rather expensive proceeding, we declined to do it at the bidding of this half-crazed creature, " until her father confessor, at her suggestion, advised us to do so. Now, we know Mr Dubarry must have had strong reasons toi the counsel he , gave us, although he could not give us those reasons without breaking the seals of Confession." " Doctor, you 'we' and 'us.' Now, ■who was your coadjutor in all this trouble •and expense ?" inquired Colonel Fitzgerald. " Mr Greenleaf, of course." " Royal ?" "Certainly." "I ask because you must all be reim- . bursed for your generous outlay." ." There ia no hurry, my dear Colonel." . > " Thanks ; but we, too— Dr. Goodwin here .and my c eif — are deeply interested in the return oi this Adam Lackland, upon other accounts.' , '* Ah ! Indeed ? * May I inquire why ?" "Certainly. We have evidence to show •that this Lackland married in 'England, the missing daughter of old Gabriel Haddon; of 'Haddoa's' 1 Ferry,,- and of his wife* Lilian, Vale, who/iif living is the\h#iress, . 4 thrqugh

her mother, of very nearly half of Wilde county." "You astound me, Colonol Fitzgerald!" exclaimed the physician. " Why, surely, since the deaths of Hiram Slaughter and of Gabriel Hacldon, you have heard something of this missing daughter of Haddon's ?" "Y-e-s, but only as a myth. I never thought anything would come of it," replied Dr. Shaw, still showing signs of astonishment and incredulity. " Very little is likely to crnno of it, unless wo can find Adam Lackland, and ascertain to a certainty whether his or their child still lives." " They had a child then?" "Yes, ft daughter. And she, if she still lives, is, in rightof her mother and her grandmother, heiiepp, ♦us tiforewud,' of half of Wilde country." " And what an heiress ! How the young fellows would go for her, even if she wcie hump-backed, cross-eyed and pock-marked ! I am not sure that I should not do so myself if I weie n young man. But perhaps she is already mariied," said Dr. Shaw. " You forgot. If Gabriel Haddon's daughter were living she could not be more than thirty-three years old. Her daughter could not." be more than sixteen or seventeen," put in Dr. Goodwin. Colonel Fitzgerald said nothing, but arose to take leave. " \\ ell, gentlemen, you may rest assured that every eflort will be made to recover the woman Macrdala ; and I have no doubt that she will be brought back in the course of the day," said the physiean, as ho aiobe to see his visitors out. "i shall leave my man, Jubal, at the 'Antlers,' Dr. Shaw, to wait your orders. May I request you, in case the. woman should be brought back, to send him oil" to me immediately, with notice of her return ." inquired Colonel Fitzgerald. 41 Certainly. You will bo at the Summit, I presume?" 44 Yes ; I am going up there to seu if my people have left one .stone upon the other of the old house, or whether they have pulled it all down during my absence." "Oh, it is all right up there ! I was there yesterday to see your overseer's wife — '' " What ! Old Ox ton married again ? ' " Yes, and his wife has just increased the wealth of the world by a line brace of boys." " The old blue- beard ! This is his fourth wife, if you will believe mo, and those twin boys aie his sixteenth and seventeenth children ! If ho goes on increubing his family at this rate, I shall have to increase his salary ! But come, we are taking up the doctor's time. Good-day, sir." " Good-day, Colonel. Make yourself easy about Mngdaln. We will find hei," were the cheerful parting wotds of thep hysician. The Wo gentlemen walked back to the hotel, where they found quite a large collection of fi lends, who had heard of their sudden and unexpected anival at home and had come to gicet. them. Among the rest was the editor of " The Wilde County Agricultural Chronicle and Commercial Advertiser," a little weekly sheet, published every Saturday at Wildeville, without fear or favour of parties, politics, or printers' strikes, because the editor was also the proprietor, printer, pressman, and principal contributor. He had called on the returning travellers, in his character of local reporter. He wanted to know the particulars of Colonel Fitzgerald's escape from the burning of the Messenger, ami also whether it was the ' colonel's intention now to settle down on his ancestral estate and live and die among his own people. Mr Eastman did not in the least degree allude to the life or death of Colonel Fitzgerald's young wife. Gertrude. Everyone knew, or thought they knew, that Gerald Eitzgerald had married the little ferry-girl during a paroxysm of insane fury against his own betrothed bride, Geraldinej that he had married her in wrath, and not in love ; that he had repented his madness within an hour after the deed was done ; and that, finally, he had lost his unloved wife in the burning of the Messenger, and must, therefore, feel very much relieved to have been freed by destiny from his uncongenial marriage bonds. This is what the people of Wildeville and Wilde county knew, or thought they knew, concerning Gerald Fitzgerald, and thus the reporter did not question him about Gertrude, but only about his own experience in the disaster. Gerald Fitzgerald begged to be excused from that theme, and with such a look that the reporter left him, wondering whether the colonel were not, after ell "deucedly cut up " by the loss of that little girl. The reporter next 4t interviewed" Dr. Goodwin as to whether he would fill his own pulpit on the next Sabbath. Colonel Fitzgerald in the meantime ordered a cold collation to be served to his calling friends. This delayed his journey to the Summit to so late an hour that he determined to defer it until the next day. This plan would j also afford him the orroortunity of hearing earlier news of Magdala. So Colonel Fitzgerald engaged a room at the '* Antlers " for the night. Dr. Goodwin took leave of his travelling companion, and rode over in the " Antlers' j hack to the rectory of Old lied Sandstone Church, to astonish and delight his servants, Bobby and Babby Boykms, with hJA sudden and unexpected return home. Colonel Fitzgerald remained waiting lor news of Magdala. He sent his man Jubal over to the alms-house, with orders to wait there, if necessary, until feho closing of the gates at night for news of the fugitives, but to return to him on the instant that any should be received. Colonel Fitzgerald waited until eleven o'clock, when Jubal made his appearance, with anote from the warden, paying that he himself had detained the man beyond the hour ,for closing the gates, if the hourly hope of- hearing 1 some tidings from the men he had despatched in search of the runaway, but that they had just got back from an unsuccessful pursuit. Very much disappointed at this result, Gerald Fitzgerald retired to rest, and being much fatigued with his three days ana .nights of stage coaching over the mountain .roads, he fell asleep and slept soundly, notwithstanding his anxiety. His first care, on waking at a late hour the next morning; was to despatch Jubal to the alms-house to learn if anything had been yet heard of Magdala. By the time Gerald Fitzgerald had dressed and breaktasted, his messenger returned with a note from Fugit, to the effect that the men had gone out again in pursuit of the fugitive, but had not yet returned. Gerald Fitzgerald " was not ono to brook ,delay ; ." .He pub on- his hat and walked over to the little den with the flaming sign : " Office of the ' Wilde County Agricultural Chronicle and' Commercial Advertiser,'" and 1 put iH an advertisement, offering a reward of five hundred dollars for the apprehension of Magdala, the gipsy, and her restoration to her friends. , The editor, who did not know the- motive .of his li.beral patron, thought Colonel Fitzgerald the most humane gentleman he had eVer.met. " ■* <*• "After" this,' Gerald* Fitzgerald," leaving his man Jubal behhfd a'tiTthe "• to

wait for tidings, mounted' a hired horse, and set out to ride to the Summit. Ho took the bridle-path across the i mountains, which was two-thirds shorter I than the carriage road, and where every foot of the way was bo unchanged since he had seen it last, so perfectly familiar, that it seemed to him he might have been gone | only hours instead of years. He reached his home before noon, and mot an enthusiastic welcome from his numerous servants. He found all right as the physician had told him. And, indeed, everything seemed to prosper so well under the management of the much-married old Oxton, that Colonol Fitzgerald had not conscience to upbraid his overseer for his inordinate ailcctions, especially as having his confidence in Oxton's ability thus confirmed, ho did not feel a doubt in leaving him in full churgo of the estate for any length of time, while he himself should bo free to travel the world over again, or to ongago in activo military duty on some distant post. lie only waited to hear tidings of Magdalu before going to Washington to ask to be reinstated in the army and sent West. Day after day passed and no news was heard of tho fugitive. Jubal rodo out from tho \illage every day to bring his master's mail and to take back any letters that might be ready for the post. And every day he brought the same provoking message from tho doctor or tho warden to tho effect that all the idlers in tho \illage, and indeed, in the county, inspired by the hope of winning the big reward, turned out daily to scour the woods in search of tho lost woman, but with no result. One day, in one of the New York papers brought from the post-office by Jubal, Gerald Fitzgerald read these lines : " The steamship Zanzibar, which sailed from Liverpool for New York on tho twentieth ultimo, is nov/ several days overdue.' But Gerald Fitzgerald, who dreamed no I that he had so deep a stake in the fate o that ship as the life of his loved and lost Geitrude, turned from thesn lines with per feet indifference to glanco over the other items of new. Three days later he read in another the following paragraph : "Great anxiety is felt for the fate of the Zanzibar, now ton days overdue. Incoming ships for the last week have reported severe gales olFthe coast of Newfoundland." Gerald Fitzgerald glanced over this with almost as much indifferonco as he had passed over the preceding paragraph on the same subject. Two weeks later, about tho first of Aptil, ho read this in a morning paper : "Thostcan.ship Asia, from Liverpool on the 22nd ultimo, roports the wreck of a steamer found fust to an iceberg off St. George's Bank. It is supposed to be that of the missing Zanzibar." , This wos the last paragraph on the sub jeet, and it scarcely attracted passing notice in Wilde county. No one in that part of the world was supposed to have any personal interest in tho fate of the Zanzibar. Yet in that doomed &hip had been Adam Lackland, Gertrude Fitzgerald, and Sallust Rowley. As for Colonel Fitzgerald, he felt a great deal more anxiety concerning the fate of the woman Magdala, or the gipsy, Clea Thara, than he did about that of the lost steamship. But when weeks passed, and no tidings of the fugitive were received. The advertisement was kept standing in the little | paper with the long name, and some per- ! severing persons continued the search in ! the hope of the reward, just as some people | still hunt for Captain Kid's buried treaI sure. I Colonel Fitzgerald kept his word with Mr Royal Grecnleaf, and dined once or twice with the family ab Greenwood, renewing his acquaintance with his madcap cousin, "Bat Fits," and her dignified mother, Mrs Doy Fitzgerald, and meeting Geraldine, also, but showing her no more attention than courtesy required— no more, in fact, than he showed the other ladies. Colonel Fitzgerald lingered in the neighbourhood until two months had passed, without bringing any tidings either of the misBing woman, Magdala, or of the missing man, Adam Lackland. Then, having put his affairs into complete order, he went to Washington, and Bent in his application for reinstatement in tho army, supplementing" it with a request to be put on active duty. His application — perhaps in consideration of his military ability as shown in hia distinguished services to the country— with less than usnal expendtiure of red tape, with more than üßual expedition, was acted upon, and ho was commissioned as a colonel of cavalry, and appointed to the command of a regiment then under orders for San Francisco, California. His commission and appointment were dated the first of July. His regiment was to go on the first of August. He had a clean month of leave to bid good-bye to j home and friends before joining it.