RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 6 April 1907, Page 2

RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

By Julia Edwards, Suthvr of "The Little Hid aw" "Sudiu, the lUmbud," "Prettiest of All. 1 ' "btella Sterling," "Laur:i Itrayton," etc.

A KOSIANuE OF THE SAN FRiNCISCO DISASTER.

CHAPTER XXVlll.—Continued.

Berdyne vacated the chair, and Trenwyck sat down in front of him, the leaf of Berdync's notebook in his hand. "It's a forlorn hope, said berdyne, white TronwycK v/'is iCtUii the written words, "'but I've known a forlorn hope to win out more times than once." "It won't do," said Trenwyck, shaking his head. "I suppose you want one of these posted up in each of the refugee camps, in the hope that the girl will see it." "Sharp, ain't you?" snarled Berdyne. "What else do you suppose I want of a thing like that? "But suppose Neil Preston sees it?' "So much the better. I'd like to -get him in this net as well as the girl. Then I can make sure he is properly confined while I take the little beauty for a cruise in the Gloriana, which is waiting for us off Sausalito." "You're clever," muttered Tren.wyck, his old cringing deference manifesting itself. "But I think you're too late." "The girl, if we can put any reliance in what Preston said during the clash in Sutter Street, is now Mrs Preston. The law - "Hang the law!" snarled Berdyne. "I have sworn to possess that girl; she is the only woman on earth that I can ever care for. Apart from that, there are—well, there are other important matters at stake. If I could find Hargreaves, and get at that trunk of papers, I could explain to your entire satisfaction. Copy that, and be quick about it. Better make about thirty copies. Then you can take half of them, and Gorsline the other half, and post them up in every refugee camp you can find." While Tfenwyck, amid all the unusual sound and commotion that assailed the square, was busily manipulating the keys of the writing-ma-chine, Berdyne found a supply of thumb-tacks in a drawer in one of the desks. Gorsline read one of the type notices, and his devil face filled with guile and cunning. "What a crook you'd make, Berdyne" he murmured admiringly. "Youv'e the right touch for a topliner." Some time was required for the lawyer to make the copies. There was paper in the desk at which He sat, and the machine itself was in fair condition, considering the rough handling > fc must have had. When all was completed, the master scoundrel and his two henchmen separated. Trenwyck and Gorsline were to make a round of the refugee ramps, each having a certain number of-squares and parks to cover, so that they might not go over the same ground, and at each camp one of the forged notices was to be conspicuously posted. Both men were to keep sharp watch for Hargreaves, and, if found, send him to Marm Kinney's, in Oakland; in addition, the lawyer was to call at Arthur Preston's, on Nob Hill, to learn whathe could, if anything, relative to Neil, This duty came in particularly pat with Trenwyck, inasmuch as he was, after a fashion, retained by Morley Preston for certain unscrupulous purposes, and might be said to have the entree of the palatial residence on Nob Hill. Gorsline went to meet Berdyne at the ferry house at ten that evening, and go with him to the Oakland rendezvous. Trenwyck was to come later, when his work was finished and the hour propitious. So the web of deceit was deftly woven. At best it was a forlorn hope, as Berdyne had said, and its success depended on many contingencies; yet, as Berdyne had pointed out, desperate ventures have often been known to win. And much was to happen between the execution of these plans and that fatal hour when this cunning plotter should cry: "My plots fall short, like darts jvhich rash hands throw With an ill aim, and have too far to go; Nor can I long discoveries prevent; I deal too much among the innocent!"

CHAPTER XXIX

CAUGHT IN THE WEB. When the young officer had called out that Arthur Preston's automobile was coming, and had left Beryl and Tomta£ and,|| stepped out into the street to meet it, Beryl had seized her friend's hand, and they hurried off through the park. "They must not know what we have done!" exclaimed Beryl. "The hateful words spoken by Mrs Preston last night are still ringing in my ears. I do not want any favours from lier. If she allowed herself to feel any gratitude, it could only be false gratitude. What I did was all for Neil." "'Tiswell, darling," said Tonita. "J[ doubt whether that cruel woman is capable of so soft a sentiment as gr.atitude. Her heart is too hard. How my brain burns with the insulting words she spoke to you! If I wgre you I should never forget nor forgive them." Beryl was troubled. "I think only of my darling Neil's happiness," said she. "Whatever he counselled me to do, I should do." "That,, querida," said Tonita, softly, "shows how love can beat down every barrier." The path they were following led them through the centre of the park. At one point the path branched to right and left, and, in the very forks of it, stood a noble old tree. The tree had been ["growing there when the park was laid out, and the landscapfe architect had modified his plans so that it might be preserved. Just at that time the tree was serving a

purpose of which no landscape architect had ever dreamt. All over its trunk, and as high as a tall man could reach, scraps of paper of every conceivable sort, and even bits of cloth and playing-cards, were secured, carrying tidings to loved ones. § "Ah!" cried Tonita, halting. "Some one told me of this tree while I was standing in the breadline a short time ago. I made up my mind then to pay it an early visit." "Let us not stop, dearest," said Beryl, thinking of Arthur Preston, and fearing he should institute inquiries for those who had rescued her aunt. "If the soldiers should be sent to look for us " "But do you not understand, dear?" retuned Tonita. "People who are looking for friends have posted notices here saying where tlheir lost ones may find them, See here is one. Listen." and Tonita read: "Anna Bremer —Mother is waiting for you. dearie. She is in one of the government tents on the west side of the park. Oh, come, come quickly, for my heart is breaking.—Mother." "That must have been put there by the poor woman who shared our tent with us last night!" exclaimed Beryl, thrilled with the yearning sadness of the scrawl. "Sad, is it not, querida?" whispered Tonita, her eyes dimming. "And, oh, thera are so many, many more. They all tell of broken ties, and how many are calling loved ones in vain." "Do you think that Neil may have left a notice for me?" whispered Beryl. "Who knows?" answered Tonita. "Let us look, at all events. You take that side of the tree, darling, will take this." "We must hurry," said Beryl, with an apprehensive look behind. "I could not bear to be found and taken into the presence of Mrs Preston." "Nor would I have you, dearest. But if any one should come after us we would not have to go. We will not be long, however." Beryl did not dare allow herself to hope. It seemed, after all her trial and disappointments, as though, it | would be too much of a favour to ask at the hands of fate. Later, when something like order began to prevail in the stricken city, the method of finding lost friends and relatives was reduced to a system. • Newspapers and others opened registry bureaus, and when'the first papers were printed after the disaster, their columns were filled with advertisements, all asking for information concerning the missing. But in those first two or three days any method, no matter how primitive, was called into requisition. Suddenly, while the two" girls were poring over the notices on the tree, Tonita heard a Bharp cry from her friend. "What is it dear?" she asked, hastening tu Beryl's side. Pale as a lily, her eyes like stars, one hand on her wildly heaving bosom and the other pointing to a typewritten slip on the tree trunk, Beryl was standing like one fascinatedmute from the very excess of joy which ran like fire through her veins. Yet there was no need of words. Tonita, with a glad cry, read the lying words on the paper, then snatched it from its place. "At last, at last!" she exclaimed, in a transport of happiness, flinging her arms around her friend., "You see, querida, how Heaven helps'you! If we had not stopped, if I had not felt deep down in my heart that we should not. go on without examining every one of these notices, we should have on and never known what your sweetheart had left here for you." "He is in after all!" gasped Beryl, her voice throbbing with the rapture of hope fulfiled. "Oh, we must go there at once!" "Yes, querida," answered Tonita, "without a single moment's delay." "But we have no money!" exclaimed Beryl, suddenly idealizing their abject condition. Tonita laughed lightly. (To be Continued.)