FICTION IN BRIEF.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2505, 20 May 1893, Page 4

FICTION IN BRIEF.

OVERTAKEN BY RATE, By Iza Duffus Hakdy, Author of “ Oranges and Alligators,” “Love in Idleness,” “ Hearts or Diamonds ?” &c. [All Rights Reserved], ( Continued.) ging her into his sm-stair~d career, blotting her name and her life by contact with his —save for this, and the sullen fitful tempers and dark moods which had weighed on her snirits and weakened her nerves, Paul Romer had done her no wrong. But it was not to reproach her that he had sent for her. d was to warn her not to dare to marry Derwent, or he would have his revenge upon them both when he came out. He had detected Derwent’s growing interest in her .efore she had seen it; ond smouldering jealousy kindled to devouring the inanature wherein evil passions struck deep root, 'md good were only evanescent impulses. Her heart sank coldly within her whenever she recalled the threats which he had sworn to carry out; for she knew the man well onough to know that threats of his were no ile words! Yet she had married Derwent, f'ccause she could not say him nay ! and they had come here to the far south, where Derwent had a piece of land, and here they had settled and been happy, except when black cloud of the past lowered over the present. She had tiied to keep her second marriage a secret, but it had reached Paul Homer’s ears; and a message from him had reached her too! And now, a year ago, thr seven years were up. Paul Romer —if he still lived—had been free a year; and all that Sr the fitful shadows of memory and fear now and again drifted darkly across the bright horizon of her life and love. To-day, as she lounged in the shadu of the palmetto trees, the misgiving born of that memory weighed her spirits down. The splash of oars startled her. Was it Dick coming back ? No, it was in the other direction. Perhaps the Hawkshaws were coming up the river ? She looked round, leant forward to see. A little boat with a single rower was heading straight towards her. The boat ground among the brushwood ; the rower shipped his oars, took up his gun, and stepped ashore. As the bo:.; approached, although his back waste .is her, something in his figure startled i ■ r with a terrifying reminiscence. As he turned and came face to face with her, she knew Paul Romer. He was changed—far more changed than she was, by the years that had passed. His hair, when last she saw him was of a tawny brown, had turned almost entirely grey. A grizzled beard and moustache veiled the curves of his mouth. He looked b?pnzed, battered, and haggered ; there were lines od bis brow and round his eyes that had not been there before. Still she recognised him on the instant. Often the instinct of fear is swift as that of love. She knew the unaltered eyes, with their dark and subtle, sinister glance. As one paralysed, stricken speechless, she stared up at him in dumb dismay. •• So you know me ?” he said with the cur of the lip—like, yet unlike, a smile. "I am a good deal changed—but you have not forgotten me ? I told you I should find you, .vherever you might go ! It has taken me longer than I thought. Still, better late than never, is it not ? Nora.” Her lips moved, but at first no voice came. " How—how did you come here ?” she murmured at last. “ It was a long time,” he replied quietly, " before I could find any trace of you. But when once I got on your track, it was a quick thing.” He paused a moment, gazing intently on her face. " This is a contrast to our parting !” he added glancing round-at the tang of tropical forest. ”It ia better here in the free open air, than within those four wall', ■where we saw each other last. It was cold tiled too—.cold as our Northern winters are. It seems* ver Y a ?° and ar away—and yet it is like y'V'stonfoy J You have thought yourself safe here—free fr° m ai® ? “ Have you—have you fallowed KUi ?” "Yes. I saw you start on yo' x * excursion this morning—l heard that DerweSt was going up alligator-shooting, and you were with him. I followed you at a distance, and where the river forks, and you took the longer, broader sweep of the stream, I cut round by the shorter curve, and came out there—” pointing to the inlet where his boat had lain concealed—" within easy range of you. While Derwent was trying to get that big alligator—(he doesn’t seem as good a shot as he used to be, by the way !) —I had the drop on him. I could have put a bullet through him as neatly as—as I shall do it yet ! I could have laid him at your feet—” " And why uicl you not ?” she asked bitterly. " Because I thought my revenge would lose some of its full sweetness if you did not see it coming beforehand, I thought that perhaps in all these years you might have forgotten—for they have been long years; what long years to me I —waiting I” " No, I had not forgotten,” she murmured. " But sometimes—sometimes—” her voi. quivered into a faint, pleading tone, " I have wondered, thought, hoped " " That I was dead ?” " No. But that in all these years you might have learnt to forgive!" " To forgive the woman who deserted me, the man who robbed me. Did you think that was at all in my line, Nora ? You did not know me very well. For all these years I have waited, hugged the thought of this day—this hour— to my heart! I told you that if you married Derwent I would kill you both when I was free I And I have come here to do it.” " You may kill me,” she said, looking at him with a flash of the defiance of desperation in her eyes, as the most timid creature will turn when driven to bay, "and then Dick will kill you!” “If he can catch me off guard 1 But do you think I shall wait to let him be first ?” Nora looked round despairingly. No help was near. In Paul Romer’s power, almost in his grasp, as she was, she dared not scream; and even if a shriek could have reached Dick Derwent—now far away pp the creek—he could not return in time to jjer, if Paul meant murder; and even as ' his ra,;Tie in sight Romer might easily shoot ’?’ ,n down -be.fpre he could reach the shore. She std 1 * 1 - a gin+i££ sideways towatds the basket lying the palmetto scrub. Not only 100. -1 nvit-id body, luncheon and literature, ha' 1 bee« stowed away there, but also a pistol—her own little, Deringer, which Dick had given her, thinking it well when he wss obliged to leave her alone, she should not be without some means of defence in case of any emergency. No emergency, however, had ever y 6t called upon Nora to use this dainty toy w.^tjon; .but now she thought of it. She moved '"uetly, and as if accidentally, a little nearer the has bet. Another movement, swift and siJ'dthy. bwwgh.t her hand close to it; but his quio.’.' e Y« had fcxlpwed her glance and gesture. "You have something there?" he pouncing on the basket before she cornu touch it. " Yes jnst so!” opening and looking into it. ” Pistols are dangerous playthings, my dear. I had better take care of it for you !” He smiled at her white face of terror and dismay as he put the little Deringer into his pocket. " I’m pretty well provided already,” he added, with his evil smile, showing his own revolver, " but I can take charge of this too.” One weapon was snatched out of her reach ; but one other was left, the legitimate weapon of her sex. She glanced up into his dark face, pleadingly, controlling all expression of fear. " Paul,” she said, in a trembling voice, striving to compel her stiff lips to a faint smile, her terrified eyes to a look of trustful appeal, “you are trying to frighten-me? You do not really mean to hurt me ? You (Jio he continued.)