A Tardy Wooing.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8120, 14 April 1906, Page 2

A Tardy Wooing.

By Charles W. Hailaaway. thor of " Marjorie's Sweetheart*" "A Lour/ Martyrdom," "A, Rash Vow,' c " Joseph Dane's Diplomacy," etc., etc.

CHAPTER V—Continued. However, Wynnie was too young to be kept entirely awake by any dates; she had slept undisturbed, in epite of the fretting of the cross infant and fche rosdesa sighinga and •matterinaa of the cautivc. Sne . would have slenfc longer if soma person stumbling against her in the dark had not resented it with an ' >oatb and a savage kick at what he supposed to be a bundle of rags. She managed to suppress a cry and squeezed herself closer to the wall in the recess. lest she should be descried and scolded for being there at all. The person who had kicked her ■waa not either of the Marbys, though they had ascended the stairs with liim. He may have been the. wearer of the livery, the treacherous rascal who stole upon, Harold Outram while, not dreaming of danger, he stood lightiug his oigaretto; but at the present moment he was garbed in a long great-coat, although the weather was inild and beautiful; while a fur oap, pulled down over bis eyes, partially concealed bis feaGuided by Mrs Marby,—tbe oth«r men seemed to havea curious di&like to looking on the face of their prisoner—this fellow went into the ; garret where he lay, and Wynnie, a | prey to the most hideous terrors, i held ber breath till be returned from j this inspection. i "Well?" queried one of tbe-bro-j thera, abruptly ; and both scowled | angrily at their visitor; but Wynnie | peeping at the group on the .landing, noticed that Mis Marbj, who oarried the lantern, had stationed herself beside, and yet a 'little in advance of thil strjnge man, as if to identify herself with and protect him. "Well?" echoed the other Marby, '-"What's to be done next? ¥ou'vp drawn as into,a pretty mess, and 1 •don't see'the way oat of it!" The stranger tappet! his pocket. "Isball pay you well for all yoa doforme. k Yon'velost nothing by it-yet". • "But ,I like fair play among mates, • and there's none about you," was the answer, spoken with an air of • -disgust. "Jfoa've tricked Jack and me; and If you wasn't the missus's -own brother, and she a bit softhearted about you, I'd make you pay for It!" "That's jaat what I'm doing," was the retort., "Five pounds down, , and " , ' But Marby went on without heod- j ing the interruption: j "You gave me to understand that i thechap in here'was ooncerned in a I great diamond robbery at Paris; you , hinted tha* he oarried some of the spoils in that trunk of his, and that we could share aniong us thev heavy reward offered for him. Here be Is, caught as cleverly as. thief' ever was caught;. but there's nothing teyonu a "swell's"'^rdinary clothes in his po's&assion, nnd^'bow 1 ybu ao- ■' knowledge that him fcar-3 'is a little. ko w nC , 2;"'!" nm " .-of reVange, you call it!" , "The Idea."' celled i.hC' . Marby, scornfully, "of man of your years runumg the" rials of j bringing the meddling polico on as, and wasting no end of money, and nothing to gain by it I if you - wanted to pay the chap for doing yoa an ill turn, why didn't, you give, hltn a good thrashing and let him go abont hia business? What's "to fie gained "-by* cracking a man on the'head?-—and what's to be doiie with him now? We can't have him | die here!", ' Die! Oh I was he in so perilous a condition as that? the dismayed i Wynnie asked herself, her soft eyes with tean.' "He'll not'die," said the stranger,'confidently; "and I've toldjyou already that yoa shall not ;.loqe anything by what you have done." "That's mere words," he was told. "But this isn't 1" and, rolling a bank note into a ball, he tossed it to. the men, whose grim' countenauoas relaxed as they satisfied themselves, .with the help of a lantern, that it was a good one. "I can't move your lodger in his present state," he went on, following tip the advantage he had gained; "but l'Jl bring ti)m some medicine to-morrow that'll set him to rights and,' as soon as be can take my arm and walk out of the house, you fiball see no more of him." "That's all we want," one of the , Marbys declared. "But,-remember, there's" jto v be no more trickery!'* added the elder brother, with a menaulng wbio6, however, was laughed at. , ••'Go to bed, J act Marby, don't let anyone see that you've lost ail your old spirit, If anybody had told me that you'd live to start at your own shadow, I wouldn't have believed them!" "There's the wife and. the children

to be thought of," was the sulky re- . ply. "1 don't mind a few ■ risks, Where'll yon find a man at aa run as many as I have?—but I've always stopped phort of ' murder I" Airs Marby'uttered a stifled cry, and bet 1 companioua were more or less affeoted; yet it was she, although the first to testify her apprehension, who now put an end to the conference. "Leave Chris to me; I know his ways better than, either of you. Jatifc you two go off to Canterbury io'r .the-cricket week as you talked of doing, and I'll promise you I'll Ijasg-a clear house and all right be* Jfoie you come home again.*' *'i don't like being fooled and then sneered at!" muttered her husband, stili surveying his brother in-, law irefully. ,"How do I know. Chat I mayn't come hack and find the police in possession and my character aa-a respectable tradesman rdone for.?"- • -"If that was to happen," said the -wife-fiercely. ,"Ohris■ should' pay '■ <Jetir for it, ,or my name's not Banda. '.Marby. He needn't' think that one '.note 'or-two will satisfy me as 5 We'll have that new cart yotr was wanting, and it shall be at his • flxbebse." , IV .

But what was he about to.do now?

While she, went swiffcy and silently up and down the stairg on unavoidable she discovered that the brothers Marby had gone to Canterbury, us the wife of the elder one bad suggested, leaviug Mrs Marby in ai.arge.

This they knew they could safely do. Was she not as capable and nnsuruyulous?—fertilo of resource, uud cunning enough to be a match for all the officers iof the law in and about tbe neighbourhood? Moreover, her. brother had made them bis tools, and tbey still resented it. so keenly that she saw the absolute necessity of keeping them apart, while thoy acknowledged the wisdom of leaving ber to unravel the meshes of tbe net into which be had contrived to drag them. With this woman Wynnie discovered that Ohris Kennett bad a lengthy interview before ho visited bis captive, whom he contrived to soothe and satisfy by 'assurances that he should be removed to better quarters as soon as it could be effocred without duttger. . il.ov? pathetic to the sufferer this tiold-blooded man , contrived to> appear? How reaily he promised to communicato with bis friends? And when Harold taxed his clouded mind in endeavours to recall the accident,' railway or otherwise, that 'bad brought him into this condition, with wjiat fiendish cruolty he sat b? nnd-smiled at bis inab'lity to do so!"

| . .Groaning with the violence of | those, fiery darts thatO ran tbrobgh I every nerve of bis injured bead, Mr pOutraai resigned himself to the I cures of Wynnie, who, with ice

. (To ba Continued).

Chris Kennett smiled assent as he followed the speaker downstairs. What price would be too great to pay for a revenge that would blight Cyrilla Dartison'a ambitious hope, not .for. a while, for ever. CHAPTER Vl._ THIS LITTLE NURSE ANDi THE DOCTOR. When tha same man—Wymlie recognised him now by his shaggy, light eyebrows—oam« again, lie had assumed a new character, and , presented himself in the garret as the medical man for whom Mr Outram bad been inquiring; With some difficulty Harold colleotcid himself to reply to the ques-i tions put to him. As long as he preserved a recumbent attitudo he I was tolerably easy, and the heaviness oppressing bis intellect began to disperse: but to sit up or talk brought invariably a return of the delirium'followed by exhaustion. Through a crack in the door Wynnie watched the so-called surgeon with ever deepening distrust. She had heard him avow that all I he had done was part and parcel of [ some/plot of whioh Harold Outram waij the victim; and, when he spoke of revenging himself, there was a vindictive slitter in his eyes thatmarie her shudder and veil her own.

water—it ,was the only remedy she I could'', biing—laved bis brow till he I was somewhat easier.