RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 16 April 1907, Page 2

RIVEN ASUNDER. OR, BERYL GRAYSON'S ORDEAL.

A KOMANOE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER

CHAPTER XXXVll.—Continued. "If you live, Nicholas Berdyne," said Neil, with soiemn intonation, "you will pass the rest of your life in stripes and behind prison bars." "Not for this work. You won't drag the girl's nctme through the courts in - order to send me up for what I tried to do with her." "You speak truly there. Not a breath shall ever hover over my wife's name in any trial dealing with a case of this kind. You will be brought to book, Berdyne, for something else." "For what?" Berdyne demanded, his face contorted with pain and his black eyes levelled upon Neil's face. "For swindling Leroy Grayson's daughter out of a fortune!" said Neil sternly. Berdyne shrank back in dire dismay. All along he had hoped against hope that Neil had not managed to secure the Grayson papers from the trunk. Now that hope was destroyed, and »if he lived, and if the prison doors failed to close upon him, he would be ruined and penniless. "When I reflect upon the vile treachery and the devilish arts you have used against a poor, friendless girl," Neil went on, the honest indignation showing in his handsome face, "I hardly know why it is I spare you, grievously wounded though you are. No punishment is too severe for a man of your vile character. Live, Nicholas Berdyne, and you will be a felon for life. I have the proof of your rascality, secured in Alaska months ago, and in San Francisco on the day of the earthquake, and I shall produce them in the Denver courts at the proper time." With these words, Neil turned and went back to the girls. Just then the ■c aptain of police and his men returned from their pursuit of Gorsline .and.Hargreaves. "The rogues have given us the slip, Mx Preston," said the captain. "We have the worst a man of the lot, jiowever, and he shall be held safely until such time as you want him." "Very good, captain," said Neil; ""you will hear from me later." "Come dearest," he added, to Beryl. "We will leave this place and go to some hotel where you and Tonita can rest after your terrible sufferings." "And there is something else you must do for us, senor," said Tonita, with dancing eyes. "What is|that, Tonita?" asked Neil. 4 'Send a telegram to your people saying you are safe " "Oh, that, of course, just as soon as you can. But. look at us! Our .gowns were none too suitable before the earthquake, but now—now " A little shiver of mock dismay pulsed through Tonita's slender form as she surveyed her tattered and soiled apparel.

"There are thousands in a worse plight than either of you," laughed Neil. ' "But I shall keep the promise I made on the morning of the earthquake. If there are any gowns to be had in Oakland I shall not be long in replenishing your wardrobe and my poor little Beryl's." That night they were lodged comfortably in an Oakland hotel, and Beryl and Tonita were well stocked with a supply of ready-made garments. - What a delightful talk they all had together that evening in the cosy parlor of the hotel! Each had experiences to tell, and bfa by bit the ' details were filled in and a connected story made of the many incidents that had befallen them since the earthquake. But the strangest happening had'to do with Neil's finding Berdyne's trunk and securing the packet of papers; connected with that packet was a strange story of successful knavery.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. LEROY GRAYSON'S NEMESIS. To Circle City, in far away Alaska, there came—some two years previous to the opening of this chronicle—a man whoi gave his name as Leroy Grayson. He was a middle-aged man and gave his hailing-place as Denver, in the States. In some way it had become known that he had failed in business in , Denver, through a dishonest partner, and had come to the land of gold to recoup his fortunes. Whenever a mail went out by Indian runner or by dogs and sledge, Grayson was certain to send .a letter to his daughter, about whom he was wont to speak often, and in endearing terms. "My little Beryl shall live to be a lady," he declared. "I shall dig a fortune for her out of these icy hills, and some day I shall return to Denver and pour my gold at her feet." That seemed to be the one desire of Leroy Grayson to endure the bitterest hardships in order that he might make a fortune for his darling child. For months he worked on fruitlessly; then some one came into camp with the news that gold had been discovered in the bed of a remote creek. Grayson joined in the stampede of men that started for the place, and staked off a claim of wonderful richness. Into the camp, on this creek where the new strike was made, drifted Nicholas Berdyne, penniless and starving. He -was likewise from Denver; and Grayson, who needed help in working his claim, took this man into his cabin, gave him work, and helped him in a hundred ways. Berdyne coveted the claim, and his evil mind set to work to secure it from his unsuspecting' friend. From a tribe of Indians he secured a slow poison whose deadly work confines itself to the brain. In artful ways he contrived it so that Grayson should partake of a certain amount of this poison every day. In the end, Ber-

By Julia Edwards, Author of "The. Little Widow," "Sail-in, the Rosebud," "Prettiest of All" "Stella Sterling," "Laura Braylon," etc.

dyne's generous benefactor lest his reason. A littie later a party of capitalists came to the creek to buy up the most likely claims. Berdyne showed a deed, purporting to have been £iven to him by Grayson, whereby the rich claim had passed into his— Burdyne's —hands. No one disputed the validity of the deed, and Berdyne received a draft of 800,000 dollars for his right and title in the rich holdings. Poßing as a gold-hunter who had "struck it rich" in the Northern fields, Berdyne returned to Denver a wealthy man. With him he brought Grayson, whose mind was a blank and whose body was but the.shattered wreck of what it had once been. Thus the scheming scoundrel returned the father to his daughter; in a few months Grayson died, Beryl went to work in the bindery, and Berdyne began the enjoyment of his ill-gotten gains. But the poor, wronged daughter had one friend who was not disposed to accept Bordyne's story. This was Neil Preston, who had become acquainted with the beautiful bindery girl, and had given her his heart. Neil proposed that he should take a trip to Alaska in Beryl's interest, and find out whatever he could concerning her father. Beryl dreaded to have him go to a country where such evil had befallen her father, but he insisted, and so the two fond lovers parted. What has already been stated, Neil discovered. He even found the man, one Mings, who, had helped Berdyne secure the poison from the Indians, and who had forged the deed to Grayson's claim. Mings was desperately angry at Berdyne, as the latter had gone away without carrying out his written agreement to divide half the spoil with his confederate. * Mings had hitherto kept silent, fearing to involve himself in a net of the law; but, under the persuasion of Neil, he made an affidavit regarding Berdyne's actions, and told of certain papers in Berdyne's possession which would prove his guilt conclusively. Neil went to Dawson City to see another man who, Mings thought, could offer more damning testimony against Berdyne; and while in Dawson City Neil fell ill and was in the hospital for a long, long time. For months he had not heard from Beryl, and a vague feeling that all was not right filled his breast. As soon as he was well enough to leave the hospital, he returned by overland route to Skaguay, and thence, by the steamer Argonaut, to San Francisco. Here his arrival was announced in the daily papers, and he was visited by Irma Lee, who told him a tale of persecution against his sweetheart which filled his soul with a mighty desire for vengeanec. He arranged for the immediate marriage of himself and his sweetheart, and went to Sunset Ranch to get his little brideelect. All that Neil lacked to make a thorough case against Berdyne was the packet of papers mentioned by Mings. And we have already seen how providentially they came into Neil's hands* It seemed almost like the direct intervention of a Higher Power seeking to undo the evil wrought by Berdyne, and carry to a success the unselfish struggles of Leroy Grayson for his daughter's welfare. v (Tobe Continued).