"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8867, 30 October 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

* CHAPTER XV].—Continue J. mmt '" It was with very great difficulty that Strang ways obeyed.this injunction, for there on a couch, bound hand and foot, gagged and tied down to the sofa, was Miss Rentoul, sleeping heavily from sheer exhaustion. Jack would have cut the cords at once, but Medhurst very carefully examined the room by professional instinct, and only when he had satisfied himsef that there was no evidence documentary or otherwise, to be gathered up without the girl's knowledge, did he consent to loosen the bands. The girl woke up with a start, and as they slipped the gag from her mouth, she stared wildly at Strangways. _ "You here!" she cried in terror. "Go away, Mr Strangways, for Heaven's sake go away; go at once." Ho tried to calm her, but she only •implored him the more to go away. "There may yet ba time," she said. "Theyj have left the house, 1< ■heard them go; but they will be tack, and then " ' She suddenly sprang up, and rushed to the door. "I may escape them myself, but you must come too. Do not •waste an instant. How did you get here? But don't stop, to explain that; ■come at once, this instant, this very instant." Jack was about to reassure her ;again, but Medhurst interrupted him. "The lady is giving us the best ■advice," he said quickly; "we must all go together. Don't be frightened, miss; you keep by me, and," he added to himself, "I'll take care to keep by you." . The three of them made their way quickly towards the patriarch's study, but here a difficulty presented itself. How were tfiey to get the lady over the roof? The difficulty was explained t;> her in a few hurried whispers and she quickly disposed of it. She had had too much experience in climbing in the American woods to be frightened at a high window, "But I would like to get my gun," she said, with a sudden afterthought. J'Tbuy shook it out of my hand by the front door, and I never go about without itl" Before either of them could, stop her, she was off towards the hall, and groping about on the "Good God,' we have waited too long," whispered Medhurst hoarsely. "I must find- " Tom Medhurst was as gentle with women as circumstances permitted, but he clasped, his hand over the girl's mouth and smothered her voice. A step outside explained his action, and in a second or two they heard the harsh grating of a rusty key in a little-used lock. The [door opened and a man came slowly in. They could just see his figure in the darkXI6SS* "Why is there no light?" he exclaimed aloud; then he paused listening suspiciously. The next moment he fell on the carpet like a stunned ox from a welldirected blow on the temple, and Medhurst, following this up, lifted him in his arms, swung him into the room, double locked the door and put the key in his pocket. "By the time he gets over that, a ilot of things will Have happened," he remarked grimly; "and now, miss, you must get another gun, for we haven't a second to spare." Without, waiting for further protest, he hauled the girl through the open door, and ran her down the garden path. CHAPTER XVLI. The man who was sleeping the sleep of the stunned had left the garden gate unlocked, and the three marauders walked out with easy confidence. Following Medhurst's lead, they crossed the road to the nearest cab-stand. In a four-wheeler they drove up the hill towards Hampstead, where Medhurst paid the ' man his fare and dismissed him. He had not even allowed either of his companions to speak up to now, and care fully looking about him, he motioned them to walk down a side street. "You see, sir," he said when the .cabman was out of hearing, "it is somewhat difficult to know where we .had better go. If "we could get tu Clapham, my mother might look after this young lady." The difficulty of what to do with Miss R-.mtoul had already occurred to Strangways, but he had as yet found no solution. Clearly they want ed a chaperon of some sort. Medhurst's view of the matter was somewhat different. He wanted some one to keep an eye on her. Miss Rentoul herself .solved the iproblana, "Take me to Esther Elders' flat," she said. '''l have the address, and she told me I could call there at any time, are all late sitters and somebody is sure to be up." She was too frightened to suggest going back to her own rooms. Miss Esther Elders was one of the ladies .f the twentieth century with a will . / her own and a determination to n,ike herself useful in the world. She occupied in partnership with a friend who was an artist, a pretty little flat at the north end of Hampstead Heath, and when Miss Elders was not at* home the other lady was sure to be there. . Her friendship with Lady Violet had begun when they were both completing their education on the Continent--she the daughter of a well-connected rector who died early in life, with charges for dilapidations on his big country rectory heavy enough to ruin a whole family, and Lady Violet | the daughter of an English peer, who found it necessary to economize in his [ daughter's education. A fast friend-1 ship had grown up between them, ' hence the invitation from Lady Vio-

PAUL URQUHART. [Published cßy Special Arrangement.] [All Eights Reserved.]

let to spend a month in their country seat in the north. The railway accident had rudely interrupted this arrangement, but it was understood that they would proceed together after spending a week or two at "The Gappe" in order that the Duchess could thoroughly recover her shattered nerves. It was with some astonishment therefore that Strangways, on ringing at the flat, found himself faced with Miss Esther Elders instead of the lady artist. "Come in, all of you," she cried gaily. "Rennie, 1 have been expecting you in particular. I came up tonight and was going to sit up for you until you came. I knew you would come sooner or later." The two men and Miss Rentoul were bustled into the daintily furnished little sitting-room, which they almost filled, and Strangways was endeavouring to explain in a somewhat confused mass of words what had occurred, when Esther, rushing past him, caught Miss Rentoul just as she was falling. "What on earth have you been doing with the girl?" she asked. "I suppose she has rushed about without proper rest or food, and here she is in a state of utter collapse. Alice, just help me to carry her into my room, and then if she does not pull round I shall have to ask Mr Strangways to fetch a doctor." A dainty little lady, the counterpart of the flat, who had been touching up some drawings in a little studio to the right, and who, hearing that the visitors were Esther's, had discreetly remained in the background until called, bustled in. Without waiting for introductions, they carried Miss Rentoul between them to the inner room, and leaving the two ladies with her .Strangways plumped down in one of the little chairs. Medhurst sat on the corner of another with a general air of doubt and uncertainty as to whether the chair ought to hold him or he the chair. "Well, and what's our next move now?'' asked Strangways awkwardly. Medhurst shook his head, and waited a while before he spoke. "1 sjppose we cannot stop here," he said, "but I don't like the idea of leaving the lady. This is going to be a wild night. When those people discover she has gone, of course the first place they will go to will be where she has been in the habit of stopping in London, and as she seems a friend of this lady's they are pretty certain to be somewhere in this neighbourhood before long." "You may calm yourself oh that, for she never saw Miss Elders until they met near my house. How on earth they came to strike up such a close friendship in those two or three davs passes my imagination. I left Miss Elders at 'The Gappe,' expecting her to remain with the Duchess and Lady Violet, and here she is, missing the chance of a holiday in a fine country house, in order to rush back to town and look after this stranger whom she had never seen a fortnight ago. The ways of women are incomprehensible." "And some women are clever enough to make friends when they need them," added Medhurst drily. "Now, look here, Medhurst, surely what we have seen to-night ought to calm your suspicions about that girl. I see you still have a notion that she is as bad as the rest; but if she were one of the gang why the deuce need they bind and gag her?" "She had turned soft-hearted, and they had to do something till they rnado up their minds which way to turn. If we want to cafah them, believe me, sir, the best thing we can do is to use this young lady as a decoy. The first thing they have to do is to find her, and in that attempt there is a good chance that they will put us in the way of finding them, but I want to discover a bit more about them first." "I hope you gentlemen are helping yourselves to whatever refreshment you can get there, but lam afraid Burgundy is about the most potent liquor you will find," said Miss Elders, putting her head out of the bedroom door. 'You will be glad to know," she added, coming back to the sitting-room after a while and softly closing the door behind her, "that there is nothing very serious the matter with Miss Rentoul; she has simply broken down and wants a sleep. And now can you give me some coherent account of what all this is about. Why are you two here, and where is that stupid man Theodore Beeton?" (To be continued.) A sluggish liver gives rise to biliousness headaches, irritability and other disorders. The liver wants siiniulatinc; gently to do its work, and the h; is Qham barlain's Tablets. They art mild and gentle in ther action, and tbeir use is not followed by constipation. For sale by al dealers.