LITERATURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7762, 14 March 1905, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A BID FOB FORTUNE. L' (Contlnaed.j - So she read to him, and he «as , r. sad when stts left bis bedside. He , !' watched for her to conic round tl o ward, and bis eyes followed hei , & .wherever, she w«nt. She notieed his £ attention, and it pleased he to] think that she was sooth. i"* Bs 'noin—for, in order to enlist her syin- & cbathy and get her often to his side, &■" bod pretended that his -.vg xltti j 1* cause him pain nni great discom- , p* tort at times. I S* When she retired from duty and gave her place to a night nurse, l»Q turned over in vexation at the nature of things and went to sleep. He was surprised to lind whit a ho'.d she had obtained over him and how empty everything appeared wtat she was gone ! He looked for her in the morning, and she came to hiin as soon as she entered the waid, asking him if he wore feeling better. ?■" " Yes," he replied, bis face brightly ening " I shall soon get well if you B 1 couM stay here all day ! K\. "Oh ! " ihe laughed merrily. BJ, «• What would the other patients » "do?"

p ~ •• Hiey do not want you as I do," 'jf'-. be saM warmly. "It does me so mucb good to have Yin, near me. '■ 'Vou are so fcOod j must If luut—- '" well, it makes me fuel that lam a £ bod lot ! "

|> He blurted out the last clause be-ll-iore" bet was aware of it. &■" She had moved towards the foot i*' ot the lied during the llrst portion' of this short speech, believing that KS# was about to pay some compli- £ ment to her appearance, but she returned on hearing the tinislv. " I hardly think that you are

' • treating yourself fairly in saying ttot ! " ,sho. said ./gravely. "Of course not one of us is as good as >v he or she ought to be, and you must not speak as if I were entirely good you irere entirely bad. Now, you a>: must rest. I will come again soon." ; She saw that he »«s agitated and h', die left him.

ite. " It's true," muttered Mayle sadly. fc_-'"" I see now- thnt f am face to face |pj with a woman who is good ' Ive Sk been a bad lot, and -how can 1 exit to make a girl like that love' K-" me? Many girls would marry for a" jL title, but she wouldn't ! She's too E ' good to do that ! Well, I'll enjoy g her society whi eit lasts, and then— P' oh. then I'll go my own way ! " gr, lie laughed mirthlesn'y, and lookE. "Ed once more for the sweet-faced, fe. sweet-voiced, sweet-tempered nurse ! She came, to him several times, and he engaged her tn conversation. She asked him questions about himself, p;' following bis example in this 1 , for he Bfj had put leading inquiries to her. ST' He couU not tell her much, and he |f eoncelaed his family history as far t'-. "s the huronetc/ was concerned. She it an orphan. And so the day pasi »ed, and Mayle remembered with a start that the following day waf E" Friday, tie all-important day for vn ? lr , slept fitfully that Thursday £ night, anli he felt sorry when momag. j ing camo, for he half-dreaded to fa meet those tender eyes of Nurs-j. 6F Boduey ! Ho tried to hide the fact fe.' v?® himself, but he could not ' was guilty, of plotting to rob U- "O® «" a fellow-creature for his own advancement ! How could h > |ip 'lace this girl? came to him, just as sweet «s H ®y er - he steeled himself against %, his own conscience % «> that he might enjoy her society. 1. S *J® l w » 8 impelled towards him by a » -juntle power which die could not I, thenonderstand. fcut which she afterf. *. ar ? 8 «oognised as that of the l>i r vinity that shapes our ends, as to Shakespeare puts it. She read to I ShJ r-r 8 , Sbort * but « I>"thetif "i 1 Storj ' ot doi!, S right % mL and he realised that - V^tte^wh 0 Sat ° TOr hitu was one s"- who „ wo «ld act thus. • And e w5. me ha asketi '"'UMlf 'in £ iq>ly fcheie rose in his mind the picl GaTnsford " aUaCk t • >s tjhe rose to leave him he caught f 0n third f,Ußtr ißvolimtarily 6 . ? " She Wushfd rosily, and slipped ufi the riog.

-C ''l do not usually wear it when, on duty," she explained. "1 had forgotten that I still had it on ! " r. He stifled a pang of jealously that shot through his heart. " You must tell mo alxout hiui ! - We ore good friends, yet you have not toil me that ! " he cried. •"Ob, there is nothing to tVU," she analcd in reply, But I Want to know his name ■ and something about him !" he urged. It seemed to him that he had a - right to know. •• I'lcnse tell ii,,_ < v She told him, just to pacify him. f i His name i.s Harold (Jainsi'oril," she said, and lie is assistant manager in a boot factory in one ol th<_- >■_ j/mces outside Northampton:. about half a dozen miles away, vou know, ij That is all ! " "AH! Heavens, was not that too much 7 liarold Uainsford, the man H .whose death he was encompassing, wasi this girl's atfianced husband t He lister Kajlc, who lkr.i learnt to :c- ---;■ ..vere this girl /or her goodness, was b"nging desolation upon her ! She hurried away from him, mid he toy in his bed a prey to the most v- terrible feelings. If he allowed llaroki Uainsford to be sent to his v doom ? And yet, how couhl he ptv|ij.iwnt it without lading himself open I.to a charge of attempted murder ? conW he save Gainsford, even if be were prepared to sudor himself V £=, ; . She did not come near him again v -till alter dinner, and then it w a s to ; chide him fon not eating his por-i-JSoU. f, ■" I bejieve yoti were sulking bek'couse 1 didn't come ! " she said'. J, holding up a warning linger. "Do you know if Sir James Langfclord and his son are Recovering ?" he fjtiakcd suddenly,. " Toil have wen £j(Jle case in the papers ? " Eg 1 " Both have succumbed ! " said (he Ctrl, Asking her head sadly. it i s d&adful, is it noi ? " f: No reply. Mayle was thinking, if top. son, had lived and the title had W gone to Harold Gainsford, lie vKoyle} might have tried to ft op' TOS.crime ; buj. now ! A big reniroH and ease awaited him ! pjj&ee? He glanced at thj girl, and Ipere joshed across his mind the jMglt of what it woujd mean to ■W How could he expect ease when bp WO lid be for over haunted by gjjbllt lace ? He scemqd to see her urfnttng kiln out as a murderer ! He ShWiE from her, and she noticed the njoveroent. r>" What it ? " she asked, y '* TTIiS," he cried suddenly. " Harold Gainsford will be attacked on way from ihc hank with the nqney this afternoon : I am one of ■jti»cs& concerned in the crime ! lie ■Hmjgtayxftjteti, then killed • "

Oli). what is this you arc saying? ell me, tell me ! Oh, Harold ! " He told her nil, as slve kn.'lt by ;s bedside. It. was nearly three o'ock, lip l winter day was lit .:v. III;. > a close ami darkness was falling. !arold would !,'• on the way bac!. > the factory on his .|,icycle,' and Ik ouki meet this awful j'at.\ In tin gilt i»i pi l-m'|il knou li ii seeiin k'e temptl'll,' r,,/ him in ( l, lis (yank business alone. ami yet li. j ail done it Air more ilwn a year,' nd nobmlx had ill'e.iml of danger. I w.v-- , sael h the Tarl of ihis. as lined security which had s iven May-' ;.rul (us accomplices ihir oppnrunity. . i..list tr\ t,, sa\e him ! " she anted, pressing her hands to her ide - Iv. ill tr.v, J Will try ; Jl m - Id, tuy Untold ! " l.i»e a flash slio was gone. Out in lie bleak air, clad only in her sim-. nurse s costume, am] after a has-* y word to the matron, she sped to-, tatds the spot indicated by Alayle. lurry as she might, she could not each it ui.d r an hour ; she Would >c too late to avert the tragedy, ■he was lorced to realise that, hilt ;he weal on, oil ! lYrhaps she miirlit Ind him nlive ! At footsore and exhausted, she reached the place. She could tin., 110 trace o; Harohl, so she went on in the direction he must, take, which was towards the railway. lit a bend, in the road she came upon, the damaged t>:eycle, but jJnrold war not there ! With eyes that 'but lit lot lack of tears that could not come, she passed on. Over the low style that kept people from the rai,hva.\ line and on the track. She knew that. Harold hail avoided a loiii; detom sometimes by lilting his machine over this .sly!''. Ily the sii-de of Ih ■ inel als she g.tzid up and down the track in the darkness, and her heart stood still as she saw some dark object b ing right in the four-foot way ! A moment later she was kneeling by this object. It was Harold, insensible, his body right across the metals of the up-Unc t In the distance she heard the lain! sound that denoted the approach of the up-express from Rugby. Harold was alive, but death in another form awaited him. She tried to vift him, but he was a strong, heavy voting man, awl he lux' like ;j 'log. She her.s.'h, never muscular. | was now" exhausted g>y h.-r hurrici 'journey and by grief. She found ho I strength unavailing—ai.d the train was coming, coming! She eoi/.'u hear the noise a little more disItiuctiy I With a cry of despair she sprang up. A newspaper luv near ;li,■ track.

■■dropiKil prol.ably by llnruLi's assailants. An idea had seized >M' ! j She usually carried a box <>i ! matches with her. She struck ; : match, set light to the newspaper, {and waved it aloft, standing right in the track. I The driver of the on-coming tiuin, 'keeping a good look-out, taw a i strangL* light smlJenly spring iiito ; 1-I'' right in his path, lie ) nr. ui, I the screw, ami it seemed to hiu Itliat there was borne to him on the | wind that beat against the engine the appeal: " Stop I Oh, stop"! " The train was brought to a standstill within a few yards qf Harold's inanimate ligure. The passengers got out of the carriages, and the utmost consternation prevailed for a fen moments. It looked like attempted 'suicide, but Klorrie llodney tottered •up and gave her explanation, j *' We will take you two to Xortbainpton Station and give you over to the station-master ! " said the "'guard. And this was done. | Harold was alive and very :iuie hurt. He had teen knocked sensc- • less and then dragged 011 to tin line. His death would have appealed, | .to be suicide through fearing to fan' . | the cuasuquence-s of losing the money. jit was a clever scheme, but it was , frustrated by the influence of a good, . woman over a bad man. mid i»v the : heroic conduct of that woman. . | Bennett and Waller were never caught, but the money was <j licklj I (replaced by Harold Gainsfoid when he came into the Langford baronetcy, j Mayle was the only one who suffered; [ ;he ought to have been prosecuted for attempted minder, l>tit both Har;old and his sweetheart thought that \ ; repentance was north something, so. *,thev allowed it to be supposed that Mayle "was concerned only in tlx* ".robbery. Tlvey would have'liked to get hiut oft the consejqu'ences of that piece oi wickedness, but the law stej>- . Iped in. However, Mayle got oil light'ly with twelve months' imprisonment " and when he was liberated, he received from Sir Harold and Lady Langford a sum of money that gave, •him a fresh start in another coun- . I try, and they promised him an a'nI nuity if he lived well. ; | The engine driver, too, came 111 for •a gratuity that made him stale, but ; Sir Harold and Us sweet wife • thought that he should he well re- - warded for his promptitude in paying heed to the strange signa'! - .