GONE!

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1754, 27 July 1895, Page 3

GONE!

[continued.] £

&6ng,"intimaSe ami' Happy association - with- ray dear Celia- bad familiarized me with the way excited young women talk, and taught me what is .sufficient in responding, to them at such times. All one teeeds to do is to agree with them, or at Jeast seem to do so, in order to get alcmg admirably. That -affirmative word was all Annie wanted, for.to her it seemed perfect assent to all that was affirmation in her mind,-and,, as she imagined, committed me to looking with her ey|s upon her lover’s delinquency. “I want you," she went on, unwrapping s the bundle and exposing an. old fashioned jewel box, “to do something for me. I don’t know enongh about business to say how it is to be done, but you can fix all that if I provide the means, as I will. Papa is furious; says he is going to lose a whole lot of money by Harold's going away, and it i 3 for that, I understand, he is going to have him put in nrison. Now. I rely on you to stop that. 1 don’t care how appearances may De against him, I’m sure Harold 1 has never done anything wrong. Ho never intended to rob anybody,'did ho?” . Of course I said “No." Catch me arguing with her! * ; “I have here the diamonds my mother ’left me. They have' been handed: down from mother to daughter in our family for hundreds of years, and no doubt Providence intended them to be preserved until now to save an innocent man from undeserved shame. Papa said he was going to the city to ‘catch’—that was hia very word, Mr. Merrivale, to ‘catch’—Harold and would take you with him. I want you to carry these diamonds along, sell them and have imitation stones put in the. settings. I never wear them, you know, and papa will never stop to see whether the real ones are there if he just sees something in the case when he looks, as he sometimes does. And I want you to use the money they bring to somehow deprive my father of an excuse for sending Harold Linden to prison.” From the jewels when she opened the case flashed such a flood of scintillant light as almost dazzled me. I do not profess to be an expert on diamonds, but something of their value is known to me, and i am sure those little white stones Annie was so willing to give to save her lover were worth more money than he carried away with him. !

“You must think, a good deal of Harold,” I said banteringly, “to make a sacrifice like this for him.”

She colored deeply, but raising- her eyes with courage to mine replied firmly: “Yes. Why should 1 not admit it? I love him and was*to have been his wife, but that dream is past. Papa swears I shall never marry him, and he can prevent me. But he also swears to ruin Harold, and I can prevent him.: Will you take the diamonds?”

**WUI fioii tdke the diamonds?? ■ ‘‘Yes, I replied. There was a big difference between' taking thenaih charge and disposing of them as she wanted me to. When she. had gone away,, after warmly expressing her gratitude to me, I carefully; locked those diamonds up in safe to-wait until T could deposit them in the bank vault the next mornings there) to be kept present storm should have blown over. If that good, true little girl ever lost her diamonds, it would' not be through any connivance pf mine, that I was resolved upon. And so, I reflected, Mr. Bunker was going to take me to New York. He had settled it without bothering himself to consult me—l was just to be taken, like a valise perhaps—but I doubted it. Just then another knock called me to the door. My dear Celia,, with a most distressful countenance, had sought me to share her anxieties; Again she had telegraphed to the hotel clerk, and his reply, just received, was that nothing had yet been learned of Mr. Linden, “And now,” she said, “I feel sure something awful has happened to Harold. He may have been robbed and murdered. No one knows what may occur to anybody in New York. And I want you. Ransom, dear, if you love me, to go there tomorrow and try to find him.” “Certainly I will, my love,” I replied. “Mr. Bunker and I will go together.” ,

CHAPTER ill

The next afternoon I put the store in charge of Mr. Gobley, my assistant —a well meaning but grievously pimpled young man —arranged my affairs for two or three days’ absence and set out for New Yoyk with Mr. Bunker. I. do not deem it n ecessary to relate the details of bur two days of wearisome but futile search for some trace of. the missing man. W 0 enlisted the police in the hunt, scoured the hospitals, visited the morgue, did anything and everything we cquld think of or anybody suggested, but so far as we could learn Harold Linden, when he w r ent out of the As tor House after breakfast on the morning of his arrfval in the city, might have stepped right off the planet into space. The weather was abominably hot; our feet—unused to such continuous walking on hot stone sidewalks —were like big boils in tenderness, and wo were pretty thor--oughly discouraged when late on the afternoon of the second day, just at our hotel door, wo mot a young fellow named Alvin Rutledge, who had coins to this city a year before to read law. * “Hello!” he exclaimed at, sight of us. “What has happened up at Bridgton

that she is 'tending so many delegates to this convention?” " .y

"Bello!” he exclaimed at sight of us. \ “Two ain’t much of a crowd,” replied Mr. Bunke? laughingly.. “Twol- Why, Willoughby, the dentist, and Colville, the harness maker, were down last week, Linden only two or three days &go, and now” ‘“Hold on!” we both interrupted him. “Did you meet him?” ; “Linden? Yes. Why?” ** “Becaufe we’re looking 'for him,” answered Mr, Bunker quite fiercely. " “Ohi Well, Tm afraid I can’t help you much in finding him. I only saw him a minute. Met him on Cortlandi - street going in haste to the Jersey City. ferry.” , “What day was that?" : . “1 don’t remember, only he said -he had just got to town that morning. It was about 11 o’clock when 1 met him, I guess. He just shook hands and galloped on., Said he had to catch a train.” And that was all Alvin knew. The next day vre went over to Jersey City and ransacked it as we had New York, but accomplished nothing. “We can do nothing more,” said Mr. Bunker. “Not here at all events. I shall offer., SI,OOO Reward for him and put the case inVtho hands of both the regular police and, .a., detective agency for-a still hunt.. I don’t believe in blowing it through newspapers. Then wej may as well go homo, .and I’m thinking that is where we will be likely to soonest! get on his track,. "He is pretty certain tO| write to Annie or his sister, and if we watch'their letters we will probably, catch him before long.”- - 1 “You will of course do as you please about watching your daughter’s correspondence,” I said, “and your proceedings will doubtless demonstrate characteristic delicacy and nice perception of propriety, Jrat you need not count on my spying upon Miss Linden to learn what communication she may have with her erring brother. I would be glad if she could have the relief of knowing him alive and. would not feel myself at lib-:, erty if she told < me where he was hid- ' den to use the knowledge to procure his arrest. Indeed I would blush to think myself capable of such an action.” y“You are too durned sentimental. in business-matters,” said Mr. Bunker in -disgust. “But I don’t,_see that sentiment has any place, im‘.this case pow anyhow. Annie tells mo you were engaged to Harold’s sister, but of - course that is all off after his making such'a break as this.” .. < “No, Mr. Bunker. It is not ‘off.’ Harold does seem' to have been a rascal and .to have got away with my money, but I do not see how his sister is responsible for y. that. She no morehas his possible tur-u pitude than she has his mustache.” .~ ? My companion looked at me with scorn- ; ful pity, but debated the subject'no further, and that night we returned home. .. In a couple of days, thanks to the suecessf nl issue of McQuillop’s negotiations, I was in a position to approach Mr. Bunker with a proposition for a final settlement on a cash basis, to his manifest surprise.

“I was under the impression that jtour partner had practically bankrupted you, but am gratified to know-1 was mistaken,” he remarked dryly. 1 offered no explanation, for I wa? still angry with the old fellow for thinking I would-play the spy on Gelia Linden. Hb took his invested capital, his percentage of the profits up to date and his check for §785, which I had not used, pocketed all without a word,'nodded “Good day” and; went away. In his face I could read the expression as plain as could bp: “You aud your partner • are up to some deep game. . 1 don't know what it is; but, thank God, I'm safely .out of it.” But what did i care for what he thought? To his daughter l sent anote at once:

Du An Miss Bukkbk—Your father’s possible reason for prosecuting Mr. Linden no longer exists, and it lias not been necessary to nsa your diamonds. You will find them at the bank In charge of Mr. Hogg, who will deliver them */» t-ott, »u.rKntnUlv mini) vour n resentation of tno inclosed receipt tor

The capital I had left after paying off Bunker was small, but enough for me to gp ahead on, though in a rather circumscribed way compared with what Y had hoped for less than a fortnight since. No matter, I said to myself; I shall have to keep pay hose to the grindstone preTty closely a year or two, and then I will be all right. And I shall have compensative happmess meanwhile, for Celia and I will now marry at once, double our joys and halve our expenses. But when I so proposed to her that same evening she replied: ' ~ “No, Ransom, I shall never be yonr wife until my brother’s name is cleared from the suspicions which now tarnish it.” ; -■ ' “But,” I argued, “Harold’s name is not tarnished at all. His case is simply one of mysterious disappearance. Nobody knows anything more than that about it.” “You are wrong,” she replied, with tears in her beautiful eyes. “Mrs. With - erwell called this afternoon and asked me where my brother was. I could see by the malicious gleam in her eyes that she believed herself in possession of a scandal, which she was doing her utmost to spread, as she always doe 3 whatever will bring pain op shame to any one.” “Oh, you only imagined so!” “No, for she had the audacity to ask me if' it was true that he had gone off with a large sum of money belonging to tko firm.” “Venomous old hag!” I could not refrain i'rom o^clai.ming, (To be continued.)