CHAPTER II.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 167, 20 April 1871, Page 7

CHAPTER 11.

THE MYSTERIOUS STUDENT.

After we had all drawn a long breath, the question burst from our lips simultaneously, " And what did you perceive while turning to the fire?"

" Only," said my uucle, " that sinister meaning glances were being exchanged between my host and hostess. This troubled me ; but by the time I had refreshed myself with a substantial supper and a few glasses of excellent wine, had lit my pipe, and stretched my legs before the kitchen fire — there being no other traveller in the house I had insisted on remaining in the kitchen — they were forgotten, and the wind of incredulity was beginning to make straws of the poor girl's story. " Fright had crazed the beautiful creature," suggested Reflection. "No wonder, so young and alone in that congregation of terrors," whispered Compassion. Shouted Reason, after his self-satisfied fashion, " She saw Darby and you come up the pass. Where could you come from at that hour but from the Auberg l'Fayette ? Where could you intend to pass the night but at the Auberge l'Roy? That much was clear, delirium supplied the rest." "Itis as plain as the smoke before your eyes," cried hasty Conviction. " You are a nose of wax not to have seen it before," murmured affronted Common Sense. " You are a romantic fool, and to be candid with you, it is not the first time I have observed the fact," hissed Experience. " Consult the host and hostess immediately," counselled young Resolve, plucking the pipe from my mouth, and throwig it on the table. '• But the fellow by the boulder ? The student who walks twenty-five leagues in twenty consecutive hours as an aid to reflection? How did she obtain the knowledge of the fact that you had twice passed him," quoth Memory, in her dimly impressive way, and quietly handing me back my pipe. From this reasonable question my mind gradually fell away. For some time I was conscious of being engaged in the very difficult task of measuring with a loot rule that would double up how far I had left the student behind. This task got finished somehow ; I was asleep. 1 had slept twenty minutes when my pipe dropping to* the floor awoke me. Whence comes that low, hurried, earnest whispering? Is it a murmuring in my ears from the land of dreams ? or is it a veritable sound from the world of evil meaning 1 By the time I was fully awake it had melted into silence. I fancied that there were traces of coufusion on the face of the host as he hurried forward with a pipe, and that he betrayed a nervous anxiety to engage me in conversation. But on the comely face of the hostess there was no sign of confusion there. " Tush," I said to myself, " you are growing suspicious. But the student? Confound the student ; I will go to bed."

Having closed the mental with this resolve, I took out my repeater to see how the night had gone ; it was ten o'clock. Whose eyes are those glaring upon the watch ? Not trie merry eyes of mine host? They are though. He noticed the expression on ray face, aud laughed, what he intended should be a clear, merry laugh. I did not like his look, but his laugh chilled me, After a while, I said to myself, "How nervous you are growing," and turned my thought to the child amid the crags. It ran in this way :—": — " Yes, I will follow thy counsel until morning, then heaven and earth shall be moved, but thou shalt be found." Eesolve, when separated by a few hours from action, is apt to use extravagant figure of speech. Then the operation which in such seasons we take to be thought, continued thus : — " Poor, stricken one, where art thou ? Alone, amid the superstitious night ? Alone with thy wild fancies aud terrible realities ? Alas !" The image that rose upon my mind was too painful to be endured. By an effort of will I blotted it out. '• Let there be no further operations in that direction," quoth Will, imperiously. Then, by way of changing the subject, I said to myself, " I trust there will be no repetition of the afternoon's storm during the next six hours. I wl'l look at the night before going to rest." So I went out, as I began by telling you, and, lo! the stars were putting their heads together, and singing at the Auberge 1' Roy. In their presence I felt ashamed of my state of feeling, and turned into the hostlery, saying to myself, " I wonder you do not suspect them of being plotting to steal your saddle bags."

" Iwill go to bed," I said to mine host.

"And did you go to bed?" burst from half-a-dozen lips. " Not for many hours," said my uncle ; "but lam going to tell you how that came about. I was standing with my back to the fire, w<iiting until a bed-room candle could be procured, when the door, which lei upon the road, was gently opened, and who do you think entered ?"

"The student!" we crLd simultaneously, ■

I " Yes, the student," said my uncle. Then he continued :— " When I saw the man my Wool seemed to freezo in my veins; an nndeun.tble loathing and horror took possession of my soul. In an instant it .flashed upon my mind that I looked up the straight entrance to the valley, sketching far into the star-light, and visible in all their unfenced details. Had this person been moving on the road I must have seen him. Has he been concealed among the crags? Had he overheard the girl? That he could be among the crags was impossible. The lightning could hardly have outstripped Darby. He had not journeyed by the public road. He knew passes in the mountains unknown to travellers. He is no student ; he is an imposter, a robber, a murderer. Awake, and on my guard, I am his match ; I will not go to bed. My mind reached this point in an instant. I must confess that, although there was little in the man's appearance that suggested the idea of his being a gentleman, there was as little to jtistify imagination in investing him with the character of a robber or murderer. His face, long and sallow, wore a subdued expression that seemed habitual. His forehead was high and narrow ; the nose long, thin, and curved downward, provoking the vulture idea. His eyes rayed an icy light, and his lips had a white thinness, not pleasant to look on, but I could not detect in his face any of the traces of violent passion generally supposed to mark the countenances of those who have perpetrated dark crimes, and lived a life of social warfare. He was tall and muscular, and seemed altogether as likely a man as any I have met with to walk twentyfive leagues for exercise, and to do many other things not quite as harmless. Without uttering a syllable he seated himself on the bench in the chimney corner and began, by the light of the fire, to read his book. 1 resumed my seat, relit my pipe, and resolved to think the whole matter over again.

" When I had arrived at my first sight of the burning tower, a new light broke on my mind. The character of the tower ; its position • its obvious purpose ; the expressions that fell from the girl ; her knowledge of the student, and his whereabout. Ah ! unpleasant as the conviction might be, it thrust itself upon my mind ; would not away ; I was trapped ; 1 was in the meshes of a brigand ; in the power of the notorious Gonsalvo la Diable —perhaps in his presence.

" For a reason, which I will give you by-and-bye, this last thought fired my English blood. My first impulse was to spring to my feet and close with the student. It required sudden activity, and no small perseverance on the part of Prudence to prevent me doing so."

After a pause, my uncle said, solemnly, " Looking back over a long life, do we not perceive that in some eminent moment God, speaking with the voice of onr soul, has said to the storm of passion, 'Be still,' and it was still ; and that a present blessing, or perhaps present existence, is the result. Unquestionably, that which I named prudence was such a speaking of the soul. Had I betrayed the slightest suspicion of the real character of the student, the hours of my days had been numbered." Pausing, my uncle looked ?nto the tire for a long time ; meanwhile, we sa* silently gazing at him with mingled foelings of wonder and awe. He resumed — " I was the bearer of a very large sum in cash and securities, to be disposed of in the business of my journey. On this account every precaution had been used to keep the purpose of my journey and the route I had intended to take profound secrets. " Then how is it I am thus trapped 1 " was the question that arose in the hush of passion. I was no babbler ; I was too old a traveller to have betrayed myself, either by useless display or an affectation of special economies. During my journey I had been an Englishman travelling, and had paid like an English traveller. Turn the question which ever way I would, I could see no l'eason for supposing that I had betrayed myself, and I could find no ground to rest a supposition that I had been betrayed ; yet, as I sat smoking and looking- at that diabolical student, the conviction that I was trapped grew every moment. A half-hour might have passed, when, in an instant, my friend, Tom Atton, of Cottonborough, who, speaking of being violently interrupted in a process of mental weaving, used this figure — no matter who used it, it is a good figure, though in iry case, burnt off would have been more exact, for suddenly a wave of lightning poured through the window and filled the kitchen of the Auberge with a lurid horror. In the twinkling of an eye a peal of thunder burst overhead, shaking the house to its foundation.

" The student never raised his eyes from his book.

(To be continued.)