THREE MEN AND A MAID.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9037, 2 March 1908, Page 2

THREE MEN AND A MAID.

CH A PTE I ; XX. Con tin ued

"1 do not propose to enter into any detaihi of the quarrel between Warren and my cousin. 1 had nothing to do with it, and Warden will bear me out that 1 advised him to leave the village, warned ■ him that Robert meant mischief, am! generally did my utmost to prevent the two from meeting. Notwithstanding all my efforts, however, they met, and arranged the duel. I suspected there was some explanation of my headstrong cousin's calmness during the afternoon of the day passad by Warren in Lancanlt Church. When he left the Court at eight o'clock, the night being stormy, with moonlit breaks, I followed him, wondering what was going to happen. I saw him enter the ruins, and speak to Warren. lie wrote something on a sheet of paper, with a fountain-pen given him by Warren. I crept to the rear of the church, admittedly intending to listen to what took place. Then, to my amazement, I found that the stick which Robert appeared to be carrying was really a foil. Mind you, I say a foil. Not until the fight was ended did I discover that it was a rapier. They stripped off their coats and waistcoats and began to fence. They had done the same thing hundreds of times for amusement. I could not realise, in the dim light, that they were engaging in an actual duel. Warren is an idealist, Robert was somewhat of the same order in a crude way, just as tjje modern pugilist who refuses to hit a man when he is down is akin to the knight errant. I saw nothing unreasonable in ths assumption that they had decided to light for Marjorie, with foils, and I was glad of it, feeling sure that Warren would win. I wanted him to win. Robert would marry no other woman, he would drink harder than ever, and 1 was his heir. My motives may not rank high in ethics, but they were not, criminal.

"Well, they fought, fought like devils, and Warren was winning. Being undefended by masks, gloves, leather jackets or aprons, they bled a little, but the india-rubber tips on the ends of their foils might easily cause nasty scratches. Not being cast in the heroic mould myself, 1 could not believe that two men would assault each other with naked steel with such fiendish skill, determination, and indifference to death. At last, during the passing of a cloud over *he moon, something seemed to happen to Warren—was it the loss of that cursed ring?—which obviously handicapped him, even in my untrained eye. Soon he was disarmed, and Robert pinned him against the west, wall. Some broken talk passed. I gathered that Warren was held to a compact made previously; he resisted, and half mad with losing the contest, flung himself bodily against Robert, who fell underneath him. Then Warren leaped up, and ran off like a madman. Now, mark my mental condition at that moment. I was carried out of myself by the fury of the combatants. I was almost as exhausted with excitement as Robert himsel*. Moreover, • I shared in Warren's defeat. Ifjßobert won, he would marry Marjorie sooner or later, and I had strained my wits to cracking in order to bring about a marriage between Warren and Marjorie. So here was I, beaten by ill-luck, with my prospects of succeeding to the Edenhurst estates practically extinguished. Excellent arguments these, you may say, for helping coilsin Robert to a more peaceful world, far removed from the stress and fume ( of this life. Nevertheless, I had no more Intention of killing Robert then, than I have now of going to the scaffold in a quixotic spirit of self-sacri-fice. I cannot help it; lam built that way. I shudder at killing anything, let alor.e a man, and especially •if that man happen to be'myself. "But, to resume. While I was striving to evolve order out of the chaos of my mind, and listening to Robert breathing like a blown hunter, I was startled, stricken dumb and motionless, by the spirit-like appearance of Hannah. She rose out of the gloom behind the east wall like some witch of the night. Whather she was there before the fight began, or came on the scene during its progress, I know no*.. But her extraordinary deed, and the manner of it, drove all other considerations from my brain. She raced across the uneven floor, picked up Warren's sword, and deliberately plunge.l it into Robert's breast. He groaned, groaned horribly. It must be a vile thing to see and feel death, and be helpless. Then for the first time, did I actually become aware that the fencers had used rapiers and not foils. "I watched Hannah as a fascinated bird is said to watch a snak*. By her action, that which had seemed to be a somewhat high flown method of determining the recipient of a lady's favours was fearfully changed into a downright murder. She did uot seem to realise that I might be in Lancault, and here let me interpolate that I have never since spoken to her of the incidents of that ghastly night. I even go so far as to state that I think she only stuck the sword into Robert to render Warren's conviction for the crime a certainty. Being a woman, every sword was to her a deadly weapon. lam sure she does not understand the very potent distinction between a foil and a rapier. When questioned, if she admits the truth of my relation, she will probably say that she thought Robert was a'ready slain, the absence of the body armour accounting sufficiently, in her -nind, for the difference between the harmless combats of other days and this duel to the death. That is only a theory, I put it forward as one of the considerations which kept my mouth closed at the inquest. I began by describing her as headstrong, vindictive and

By ROBERT ERASER.

[Tuulisiied By Special Arrangement.]

[All Eights Reserved.]

narrow minded, and I did not choose those adjectives at random. Hannah would stop at nothing to achieve her ends:. She meant to be the lady paramount of Hudston. She want?d to crush her too popular .sister, and she never stopped to reflect that I would lie a most unlikely person to marry a •woman who attained her ends by such drastic means. Of course, she may have fancied that her act would never be known, though why she thought that I Was in the locality it is hard to guess, because it was I who sent her to tell Marjorie where Warren was hidden, so that they might elope together. "When you come to me, as you doubtless will come very speedily, I can elucidate this speculative side of my story more fully. At present, I must go on with its action. When Warren snatched up his discarded clothes, I believe that a letter fell f' - om a pocket. At any rate, Hannah found one on the pavement. She opened it, and tried to read its contents. She made out sufficient of its nature that she searched Robert's coat, too, and found another similar letter. In her haste and flurry, she must have placed Warren's declaration inside Robert's envelope, beaause, in her growing fear of the dead man's presence in that dreary place, she dropped one of the two letters, which proved to be Robert's declaration in Philip's envelope. I came upon it after her departure, and it is now among my papers at the Court. I kept it as a piece of circumstantial evidence —in case of need!

"Then, yielding to sudden panic, she fled.

"At that moment, the very crisis of my life, a strange calmness possessed me. I saw, quite accurately, what a tremendous effect on my wayward fortunes Hannah's vicious stab must exercise. Not only was Imy cousin's heir, but (and this led to my undoing) I might be able to secure Marjorie myself. In view of Bennett's arrest, you may shake your head at the first of these considerations. Therefore, I now affirm that the business of the will was wholly of his contriving, if, indeed, theie has been any fraud in the matter. He is a clever little reptile; he had financed me considerably, not out of Ibve, but because of my reversionary interests. This gone, his money followed suit. j (To be continued.)