CHAPTER XXXIX.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 328, 26 December 1888, Page 6

CHAPTER XXXIX.

TELT,S WHAT' BECAME OF GEOFFREY. Glatds lay so long in her _swoon" that no* only hor friends bub bhe v physician became greatly alarmed letb she should never rally ; the shock which had caused bhia suspension of animation might end in death. Evereb Mapleson, too, as he sab alono in that small room back of bhe drawing-room, was in a very unenviable fr»rne of, mind. Tie knew that if Gladys should die her death would lie at his door ; he would really hare been her murderer, and such a disastrous result of his reckless plot he had never contemplated. Ho fondly hoped, as ho told Mr Hun tress, that/, in the excitement and gaiety of the'evening, surrounded by friends and receiving their congratulation!!, he couldeasily play (JeolTrey's part, and ehe* would notpdetecb the imposition until they should start off alone upon their wedding journey. •He had practised many little mannerisms that were peculiar to Geoffrey, changing his voice, as far- as -ho could, to imitate his, and had nob reckoned upon the keenness of lore to discover the fraud so readily. He had expected that Gladys would be vory unreconciled and unreasonable at first, bub he had hopod, when she realised that there was no help for the deefl, she might resign herself to the inevitable, and he would gradually win her love by bhe influence of his own for her and his devotion to her. Ho had been wholly unprepared, however, for the exceeding horror and loathing which she had evinced upon discovering him, and she had thoroughly frightened him by her rigid despair and the terrible lethargy that had followed it. When they bore her away to hor room ho fain would have followed, his anxiety was so great upon her account ; but as he essayed to do so, Mr Huntress turned upon him in sudden fury. 'Stay w'hereyou are!' he commanded ; • or, what would be better, leave -the house altogether/ * I shall nob leavo the house, sir,' the young man answered, doggedly, and he resumed his sea'b, resolved to brave it out to the end, though a sickening fear was creeping over him that the end might be such as would make him wish that he had never been born. So the poor little bride was borne from his sight, her bridal robes wero removed, and everything done for her recovery that love could do or professional skill suggest. Strange though it may seem, no one, save the physician, suspected the cause of this sudden attack. Mr Huntress had confided the circumstances attending it to Doctor Hoyt, bo .cause he felt that he ought to be informed in order that he might work understandIngly, but riot even a servant dreamed that their beautiful young mistress had been married to the wrong man. * August, I am nearly wild about Geoffrey, us well as Gladys,' Mrs Huntress said to her husband, as together they bent over bhe unconacious- girl, anxiously watching for some ,sign of returning life. 'Do you believe that wretch would dare bo harm him?' 'No, indeed, dear. I feel sure that our Geoff is safe enough. I judge, from the fellow's- words, that he has been decoyed to some place, where he was to be detained until the weeding was well over, and Mapleson well on the way to Boston with Gladys. _ Heavejns ! what an escape for the dear child !' he concluded, growing white over the contemplation of the young girl's sad fato if Everet had succeeded in keeping up bht decoption after the steamer had Bailed.. .' - • • _<» * Bub is it an escape ?* M rs> Hun tree's whispertd, with iquivering lips'; * Can the marriage be annulled ?' * ' ' Certainly, Alice,' her husband emphatically replied, ' because we can prove the man a scoundrel and an impostor." llb will make a terrible scandal,' sighed his wife. * Better that than that our dear one should be doomed to a life of misery. I will spend my last dollar to give her back her freedom and punish that audacious wretch/ said Mr Huntress, with firmly compressed lips. Poor Geoff !' he added, after a pause, ' I wonder where he can be ; he must be in a terrible state of mind, wherever he is,' concluded Mr Huntreis, with a weary sigh. Bufc they could nob think of much savt Gladys while she lay in such a critical condition, and they hung over her with white faces and sinking hearts, while they anxiously watched the physician's every look and movement. j After what to them seemed an eternity of time, a faint sign of life began bo show itself; the heart slowly resumed its motion, j the pulse gave forth* "4 feeble thrqb, a faint tinge of colour flickered in the drawn lips, and the chest began to heave with the renewed action of the lungs. * She will weather it,' Doctor Hoyt said, under his breath, bub in his brisk, decisive way, which instantly carried conviction and comfort to those parents' fond hearts. ! Bub when she did come fully to herself and looked up in to those earnest facen above I her, when reason and memory reasserted themselves, that same look of horror camo intp,her eyes, that rigid setting of hor featurei returned, and were followed by an- j other swoon, although not so frightful nor prolonged as the first one had been. It was ten o'clock before the physician succeeded in arresting the tendency bo I fainting and she came fully to hereelf. I ' Geoffrey !' she moaned, as soon as ehe could speak, and looking around for tho< dear face, while a shudder shook her from ' head to *oob. > ' ' . - ' Dr. H^yt shot a warning look at Mr airl Mrs Huntress ; then, said, in a reassuring, tone: *He is nil rigjhfc, and rhall como to you when you are rather more like yourself. Now drink this for the sake of getting a little strength.' j He put a glass to her lip?, and she drank median iealiy. Then pushing his hand away, she Bbrußgled to a half-sitting posture, and looked fearfully about the room. Ab her glance fell upon her wedding finery, which had been hastily thrown upon some chairt, fshe -was -seized with another violont •hivering, and foil back among her pillows, covering her eyes with her hands «B"if Ho shut out from sight and memory tKe fearful ordeal through wh»ch ehe hud pasted a few hours previous. But, the potion which the physician had administered* %as- a powerful narcotic, which , began almost immediately bo take effect, and -slqep soon locked her een.«es in ■oblivion. > , Hardly had she, begun to, breatho fregularly,\and;the wearyi watchers- abouther bid; to hope, that the worst wae over, when the great .clock ip the hall below •*ruek,thtfihour of midnight.

r ,At the -.last stroke the door of the sickroom swung softly open, and Geoffrey's face, 'pale, "haggard, and anxious, appeared in the aperture. -- - - s It required a mighty .effort on the part of Mr and Mrs HnntYoss to refrain from uttering an exclamation of joy at sight of him. But the doctor held up a warning finger. Mrs Huntress, who had half started from her chair, sank back to her post beside Gladys's pillow, while her husband, with a look of intense relief, stole quietly from the room. We must now go back to the hour when the wedding party started from the houso j for the church. ' Geoffrey, as has been stated, left a little in advance of the othere, as he desired a few motnents\i»tcryiew with the clergyman before the ceremony. Not a thought of foul play entered his mind as lie drove away, neither had he a suspicion that a different carriage had been substituted for the one he had ordered, that having been suddenly and cunningly sent off to the station for an imaginary arrival on the evening express. He was do absorbed in his own thoughts thai he did not observe the route the driver was taking, until he suddenly noticed that the speed of the horses had greatly increased and he was rolling along at a remarkable rate through quiet and almost deserted *treets. Ifc was quite dark, but the street lamps gave light enough to show him that he was a long distance from the place where he wanted to go. He tried to lower the window beside him. It was immovable. He tried the other, bnt it watt as fast as the first one. He thumped on the fronfc of the carriage to attract the attention of the driver ; but a crack of the whip was his only answer. He shouted, commanding the man to stop, bub the horses ouly went on the faster. Driven to desperation, Geoffrey drew back, and, with ono powerful blow from his foot, shivered one of the windows to atoms. Ab fche sound of the breaking glass the coachman slackened the speed of his steeds. ' Driver, where are you taking me ?' Geoffrey shouted, thrusting his head from the window. 'I want to go to Trinity Church.' 'Oh, Trinity Y replied the man, in a tone of innocent astonishment, as if he had been bound for Rome other church and was surprised to lesrn that he had made a mistake. Geoffrey was unsuspicious enough to believe this, yet ho was very much annoyed. He desired to see the clergyman before tho ceremony, and he know ib was already pait the hour set for his marriage. ' You have no time to lose,' he shouted again to the driver. • I fear you havemade me late as it is ; get mo there as quickly as you can.' 'All right, sir,' came back the answer, while the carriage suddenly turned a corner and the man whipped his horses for a run. Geoffrey had an overcoat with him ; he thought he should not need it, the day had been so mild, and he wouid be shut in a close carriage : but now the chill night air came in through the broken window, and he began to suffer with the cold. On and on the carriage went, faster and faster the horses flew, until suddenly Geof- , frey discovered to his dismay that he was rolling over an open country road, while the lights of the city were gleaming far behind. Again he leaned forth and shouted to tho driver to stop ; that he was wrong. But this time there came no answer, save the whiz and crack of the lash, and the sound of the horse's hoofs upon the road. He began to fear that the man was intoxicated. He called, he commanded, he threatened ; all to no purpose, except to make the driver urge his horses to go faster and faster. They were far out in the suburbs now, with fche houses few and far between, and Geoffrey was nearly in despair. What would the w«dding-party think, upon reaching the church, to find no bridegroom there? What would Gladys think ? what would those hundreds of ffueats »ay when they should discover there I could be no wedding ? What would be the «nd of this dreadful adventure ? Could it be possible that the man who I was driving was some insane creature 1 carrying him to destruction ? Every possible explanation, pave the right one, flashed through his mind as ho sat there utterly powerless to help himself, yet almost crazed with anxiety and suspense. He shouted himself hoarse without eliciting the slightest response or attention. He leaned as far out of the carriage as he was able, to look at the man on the box ; but could only dimly distinguish a figure muffled to the care in a huge ulster, but as motionless as a statue,, except for that periodical swing of his right arm in wielding the whip. Geoffrey dared not leap out, even though in his desperation he was strongly tempted to do so ; he realised that such a hazardous proceeding might result in instant death, while there was no way by which he could climb to the top of the carriage to reach the driver ; there was nothing that he could do but submit to the inevitable, and await further developments. So wearied out, and thoroughly chilled by j the keen night air, he first stuffed one of the cushions into the broken window, then sank back into a corner and surrendered himself ' to his fats.. For three long hours he sat there and was driven at a rapid paco knowing not whither he was going. At last, to his infinite relief, the carriage stopped. Taking instant advantage of this circumstance, Geoffrey leaped to the ground, «nd turning furiously fco the driver, he demanded what he meant by bringing him there. The man might have been a deaf mute for all tho notice he took of either tho young man's question or passion. He neither spoke nor moved except to quickly turn his horses about and drive rapidly back in the direction from which he had come, leaving his victim standing in the middle of a lonely road with not a house in sight. For a moment Geoffrey was so bewildered he did nob know what to do ; he had not the slightest idea where he was, only hewas sure that he must be miles and miles from Brooklyn. Bub his insufficient clothing but illy protected him from the cold, and he soon began to realise thaL he could not stand there long without great danger to himself. He began to walk rapidly and soon found himpelf ascending a hill, and upon reaching the top he saw, beneath him, the lights of a, small village gleaming through the darkness. Quickening his steps he reached ib after ten or titeen minutes, and, to his joy, discovered that .a line of railway passed through it. v * ' ' Following this ■ he soon came to the .station, where he found a sleepy-looking agent and telegraph, operator, who regarded him and nis immaculate dress suit with undisguised astonishment.

1 Ho inquired when the nexb train wenb-bo Brooklyn, and fco his dismay learned that I this was only a branch road, and thab no train was duo there for an hour. Ifc waß small comfort, too, to bo bold thab it would be only a freight train with a passenger car attachod - that -it would stop at every station where there was freight to bo deleered "or taken up ; that it would be a full hour reaobiug^ the main line, whero he would have to wait another for a* brain to Brooklyn. - All this delay he knew would prevent him from reaching home before midnight, and then there flashed upon him, for the tirafc time, a suspicion thab he had been brought fco thab remote place by no intoxicated driver's freak, neither had he been the victim of a maniac's frenzy, bub that hia abduction had been deliberately and cunningly planned to prevent his appearance at his own wedding — to hinder, if possible, his marriage with Gladys, But who could hate perpetrated such a dastardly act, and what could have been the ultimate object ? It did occur to him thab Evereb Mapleson might have had something to do with it, bub ho quickly abandoned that idea, for, much as he distrusted and disliked him on many accounts, he could not think anything so bad as this of him — little dreaming how much worse he had done — while, too, he believed he had left the city more than a week previous. He was very cold, and he knew he could not be three hours more on the road without a coat or wrap of some kind to protect him ; bub how to procure ifc was a question he could nob solve, for the station master told him there was nob a. clothing store in the place. While he was hovering over the fire in the ladien' waiting room, shivoring with the cold and feeling inconceivably wretched, a ball, portly woman entered, bearing a large gripsack in one hand, a heavy shawl and waterproof in the other. She wore a long circular of some rough cloth, which completely covered her from her neck to her heels, a knibtod hood upon her head, a pair of brown woollen mittens on her hands, and looked so warm and comfortable thab Geoffrey shivered afresh. His eyes fastened themselves instantly and enviously upon the shawl she Parried. A bright idea struck him, and, addressing her courteously/ he asked her if she would sell ib to him, explaining briefly that he had been on his way to a wedding in a close carriage, when accident threw him unprotected out into the cold. * I will give you twenty dollars for that shawl, madam,' he said, knowing well, however, thab it was nob really worth that sum. Bub she refused his offer — the shawl had belonged to a sister who had bub just died, and she could nob part with it ; however, she would sell him the circular she had on, she said, for half what he had offered for the other wrap, and wear that herself. This proposal pleased him even better than his own, for he would be far lees conspicuous in bhe dark circular, and he never had felt better over a bargain or experienced a greater sense of personal comfort than when he gare up his ton dollars and wrapped himself in the shabby garment, jusb as the lazy train came puffing up to the station. He found a seat near the stove, and strove to po3BesB his soul in patience until he should reach the main line. The waiting at the junction, however, was even a greater tax upon hia nerves, but it was over at last, and, boarding the Brooklyn brain bhe momenb ib stopped, he was soon rolling rapidly toward home. He reached Brooklyn only a little before midnlghb, called a carriage and arrived before his own door five minutes before the hour struck. He leb himself qaiebly in with his latch-key, and, fearing he hardly knew whab, stole up fco Gladys 1 room, whero he had obierved a light and seen shadows on the curtains before entering the house. {To be Continued.