"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8860, 21 October 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

CHAPTER XI.- Continued. __ „ i "For God's sake, Miss Rentoul, j what does this all mean?" he said with a tremor in his voice, placing f his hand upon her arm. , She turned her gaze upon him slowly. "I don't know," she said, and the j words sounded like the utterance of asleep-walker. "But why did you run to warn me? j How did you know?" he said impatiently. "I overheard " She stopped speaking suddenly as if unwilling to continue. "Well?" he replied questioningly. "I heard two men talking, down there in that cluster of fir trees. One was persuading the other to shoot you, and I ran, as soon as I could, after you to warn you." "1 am deeply indebted to you, Miss Rentoul, for having saved my life," he broke in quickly, remembering with a sudden shame that he hiad never so much as thanked this girl for having tried to life. "Do you know who the men were?" "I saw neither-of their faces," she answered, "ibut the voice of one of them sornded like that of your chauffeur.' - ' "What old John?" retorted Strangways in amazement. "No the other. The man you told us had left." Strangways whistled. "By Jove, .lames Connell!" he exclaimed. ".But why on earth should James want -to take my life? I haven't done any harm to him that I know of. He left my service of his own accord. But now I remember he sent me some fanatical message or i ■other. The poor fellow is evidently off liia head. That confounded American charlatan, with all his blasphemous mummery, has turned his brain. 1 must warn tho police." Miss Rentoul broke in suddenly, .-speaking in a quick excited voice "I'm not sure that it was Connell, ,Mr Strangways. I may have been mistaken. I have only seen him 'twice." "Who was the other man?" exclaimed Strangways. She evaded his question. "There is some horrible mystery here," she said, staring fixedly at him. "Why did they kill your father? Why did they try to till you?" He shook his head. "I wish I did know, Miss Rentoul. But, tell me, did you recognize the second man?" "I can't say," she said, dragging the words out slowly. " You mean you don't know?" he questioned. ' She suddenly put her hand upon his arm, bending forward towards him, and speaking in an earnest strained voice: "Mr Strangways, I want you to make a promise.' Say nothing about this.- Don't take any action in the affair at all. Give me a week, and perhaps I can help you." He looked at her, too surprised to speak. ".You can trust me, Mr Strangways," she said anxiously. The intense earnestness of her voice effected him. "What do you, mean?" he replied. "Don'task any questions, please," she said. "Will you give me a week?" "Very well. I promise. I will give you one week. And then?" . : She took no notice of his question. "1 am very cold" she said with a shudder. "Let us go back to the house'."

CHAPTER XII. In.;the grey light of early morn the great ~oak doors of "The Gappe" .opened cautiously, and a neatly attir,ed figure almost crept out on the teps of the front hall. Strangi.ways' pointers and retrievers lifted itheir, heads, lazily, but an the house dogs inside had.given no warning, ithey .concluded that it was no part of ■their business t,o bark at this untimeJy.hour. .The.givl had a small handbag, and .carried.a stout.walking-stick. With the swift .firm step of the woman trained,to.earn her own living, she jSejt,ou.t,3qros3 the moor after just a parking .look at the curtained winand in.a very few minutes the Jhosp,itali,ty of the Yorkshire mansion bad seen .the,last of Miss Rentoul. As she timied,her face to the morning light;, a cptreful observer might have seen there :a,lpok of irrepressible sa.l- - though .her firmly set lips betokened a determination to fight with hersalf against any lingering desire .to retrace her .footsteps. As .the i.ight.slowly broadened .and the sun began to sparkle on the dewdrops in tlr; shrubbery, one ' after another of the blinds in the upper rooms were slowly drawn up, yawning youths appeared at the windows, the big oak doors swung well back, and at the rear of the house the crackle of burning faggots played an accompaniment to the pattering i'ootstens <- r rosy cheeked Yorkshire girls in yhite caps and spotless print frocks. After the Servants, the members of the household gradually awakened to the fact that another day had bsgun. Strangways, rapidly developing into a count/y gentleman, was up betimes, and in homespun knicker-bocker suit set off for a morning stroll with hjs dogs barking and dancing around him. Everybody else was down by the time he came back except Miss Rentoul. The servants had discreetly and gently knocked at her door once or twice without waiting i'or an answer, assuming that she was still asleep and unwilling to disturb her. Strangways hated the conventional country bi-eakfast,it had stern and severe memories for him in the old days of long lectures and merciless punctuality—and his gen-

PAUL URQUHART.

[Published BysSpecial Arrangement.] [All Eights Reserved.]

*ral instructions were that everybody in the house was to awake and dress at will, each taking breakfast according to his or her own individual taste. There was thus a running series of breakfasts,and the impromptu house party never really niet together until lunch. The morning wore on without any special notice being taken of the fact that one of the party had not put in an appearance. The only person indeed who displayed any anxiety about the matter was Beeton. Full of a heroic desire to the pace and to effect a reconciliation, Theodore, his arm now practically sound, had made up his mind to challenge Miss Rentoul to a walk over the moors and a game of old - fashioned American hockey through the whin bushes and gorsa around "The Gappe." It was at his instigation that the servants had rapped gently at the bedroom door, and stimulated by his bribes, they at length ventured to disobey their" master's orders by hammering with such violence that none but the dead could sleep on. The fact was communicated to the lady's-maid who attended on the Duchess that no answer could be obtained from Miss Rentoul, and witn an excited mixture of Parisian French and broken English, that impulsive creature ran from end to end of the mansion hysterically proclaiming that Mademoiselle Rentoul had fled. She said she had examined the room, it Was empty, mademoiselle had taken her bag—she must have gone "like ze thief in ze night." Esther Elders peremptorily ordered the girl to make less noise, but with genuine concern she made her way to the room, only to find that the French maid had somewhat exaggerated what was an undoubted fact. Miss Rentoul was gone and she • had taken her handbag with her.

Bee*,on, who at that moment was fretfully, pacing the gravel walk outside the front door, came in when bo heard the commotion,, and brushing aside all conventional forms, rushed upstairs, burst into the room, where a crowd of shattering servants were all in a body endeavouring to explain to Miss Elders that the doors were securely locked late at night and that nobody could have come in or out without the dogs being roused. The impetuous American rushed 4o the window, and, leaning out <*f it, examined the twining evergreen on the wall. "It's iust like these antediluvian castles you have in this senile country of yours. You grow up >readymade ladders for all kinds of murderous scoundrels to climb in and out at their will, and your century-worn masonry is as thick and hard as the heads of the retainers who ought to be protecting your lives and property. Somebody has found the way to this God-forsaken de&ert. She has been strangled, carried off, abducted, poisoned, or some other infernal thing, while we have aM been sleeping soundly in our beds." The torrential indignation of the Trans-atlantic gentleman so overawed the country-bred easy-going servants that they disappeared in a body, just as Strangways' voice was heard at the top of the stairs inquiring with cheery good-mature why everybody was making so much fuss about a girl taking a morning walk. "I tell ycu, Strangways, it's r.o morning walk at all, it's a plant; there's foul play somewhere, I iknow there is; some of those durned rascals that hang around her unc " Beeton pulled himself up with.a doub e hydraulic brake. Just then the Duchess of Knaresborough, who, on the information of her maid, was fully convinced that Miss Rentoul had run away "under circumstances of grave suspicion," swept into iths room with stately and matronly concern. She noticed the awkward pause, and with well-bred skill she managed to give the conversation just the tuiui her maid had with undiplomatic vehemence attempted. "We must endeavour to bear this unhappy blow calmly, my dear Mr Beeton. lam sure we all are truly sorry for Mr Strangways. If the misguided girl had only confided m some one older and more discreet than herself, we might, at least, have saved her from scandal." "Scandal be " Once more ueeton managed to pull himself up in time. Strangways qui:kly intervened with an assurance that matters would turn out quite satisfactorily if they would all calm themselves, and await the progress of events. He was far from feeling satisfied himself, but as host, his first duty was to preserve something like calm thinking out of the chaos into which - his household had been thrown. A score of little asides that he had not noticed at the time, trivial matters which became suspicious now that they were reflected on, came crowding over one ' another, suggesting collectively and individually that there was some weird and unfathomable mystery about all this girl's actions. Ordering his motor car out, and taking Beeton with him the better to preserve peace at "The Gappe," he scorched off to the railway station. (To be Continued.)