Literature.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 114, 18 May 1904, Page 4

Literature.

|HE WAGE ROBBER. A TAI/E OF LAKE WIXDKRMEBE,

. (Continued.) Almost stupefied, she watched the horrible proceedings of the men, and saw Hume Meredith and his leaky craft launched upon the lake. And then the men slunk away, and she only remained. Paralysed almost beyond action, she stood there stupidly, knowing not what to do. And then that voice—his voice—calling for help, smote upon her ear, and recalled her to herself.

Two or three minutes she waited,' to make sure all the men had left the spot, and then she leapt from her concealment and bounded down to the brink of the lake. Quick as thought she had resolved upon what to do. Tying her garments about her as well as she could, so as not to impede her movements in the water, she dashed into tho Jake, and swam vigorously out into the boat. She was a good swimmer, but the boat was a long way off. Again that cry for help, and, even as it was uttered, she reached the boat. "Hum«," she said, "it is I—Nora ! Have you got your knife?" "Yes," he replied, "it is in my pocket—the one on your side." "Thank God !" she said, fervently, and, reaching over the boat, she felt for it and drew it out. The water was in the boat now, almost to the man's mouth, and a great fear came into the the girl's heart as sho felt the boat sinking lower and lower, and the water swallowing up her lover.

With a supreme effort, she mastered her hysterical weakness, and slashed at the cords that bound him. One by one they snapped, and when at last one hand was free, Hume took the knife and severed the remaining ropes. He held his breath now for the water was over his face, and each effort drove him almost to madness. But at last the cords were all severed, and slowly and carefully, for he feared the too sudden foundering of the little craft, he drew himself out from beneath the seats where he had been bound, and dropped into the lake beside Nora. Almost as he did so, the boat, weighted with the bars of pig iron, disappeared beneath the surface. With a great effort, they avoided the eddy thus caused, and swam silently to shore. And then, her' task accomplished, her lover saved, Nora Langham sank down on the bank, and burst into tears. Hume bent over her and kissed her.

"You have saved my life, darling," he said. "Thank G-od you were in time !" And, lifting her tenderly up, he led her home. • • » «

Once more Hume Meredith sat in the private office of the great ironmaster. A solicitor was also seated at an adjoining desk. "Well," said the ironmaster, " we have won after all. The men are beginning to see the benefit which this inventijon is to themselves as iwell as to us. But it was a near thing for you. Had it not been for that pluc-

ky little sweetheart of yours, I'm afraid the firm would have lost a prospective partner." Hume Meredith started. His handsome face flushed. What was he meant to infer ? The ironmaster noticed his start of surprise, and smiled.

"Yes," he said, "Ijiwant a partner to help me in the work. If you will consent to put your head into the business I shall be satisfied. You have a patent and no capital, and I have capital and a very prosperous business. How much of that prosperity would decline were you to fight me with your patent I am not proPared to admit. But I hope you will not do that. Have the patent rights made out in the name of Outrani and Meredith, and I will make over to you an equal share in this business, present and future. What do you say ?" Hume Meredith rose, and this time it was he who ottered hia hand. "You are more than generous," he said. The ironmaster shook his head. "Not » bit,j ofhe sold. 'V i n five years' time you will realise that you are benefiting' me, not I you. This is the very biggest thing that has ever happened to the trade. Already the German contracts are being thrown out, and we—we aro the gainers." For nearly an hour they sat thus, the solicitor taking legal instructions meanwhile. When at last Hume Meredith rose, the ironmaster took a decanter from the sideboard and poured out three glasses of wine. "To the new firm," he said. "It is an old one —as old as this wine—but to-day is the best and most profitable day in its history." Hume Meredith bowed.

" And I," ho said, "having experienced the pleasure of working for a clear-sighted ironmaster who has encouraged me in all the labours I have undertaken, am now more highly honoured than in the wildest : dreams I have ever anticipated. If the little genius for invention T possess is valued so highly as to place me on a pinnacle I had never hoped to reach, I will at least couple it with an energy and integrity towards the still further advancement of the business of which I am now a member, that shall prove a generous deed to be a deed politic." " Well said !" the ironmaster replied. "Now, I shall expect you tonight at dinner. And my wife desired me particularly to bring with you the young lady, but for whose brav- , ery, in the face of so many foes, we should all have been losers."

So Hume promised. And, for the first time in her life, Nora Langham sat down to dinner in the ironmaster's great house, and enjoyed a foretaste of that wealth and prosperity that 'were to follow her all the days of her life.

For the firm of Outram and Meredith has prospered beyond the dreams of avarice, and its partners are the wealthiest ironmasters in the land.

And what of the men who so nearly robbed Hume of his life? They soon understood the huge advantages of the new invention, and became ashamed of their cowardice on that eventful night. Leonard Steele and Ambrose Drew, the ringleaders?, publicly apologised, and tbo most prized of all the wedding gifts that fell to the lot 01 Mr and Mrs Ilume Meredith was the present from the employees to their master and erstployees to their master and erstto love and trust so well.