ONE IMPASSIONED HOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 905, 2 April 1908, Page 2

ONE IMPASSIONED HOUR.

By OWEN MASTERS. or of "Nina's Repentance," " Clyda's Love Dream," " Her Soldier Lover," " For Lovo of Marjorie," " The Mystery of Woodcroft," etc.

CHAPTER XXJV. MR WILSON'S RESPONSIBILITY. There was a knock on the door, and a servant entered. The man presented a letter, unci Allan immediately saw that the superscription was in Miriam Eustwoud's handwriting. He opened it with fingers that would tremble, and read : "Dear Allan: Come at once. Let nothing prevent you. MIRIAM." He glanced at Kate, and hesitated; thets he placed the letter before her. "I am going," he said. "You see how imperative it is." "You will please yourself, of course." She looked out into the gatheringtwilight. / The messenger from the Priory was Mr Simmonds, the secretary, and he was waiting for a reply. Allan went out to him with quivering ntrves. "What's the news now? Miss Eastwood is all right, eh?, I've ordered the carriage." "This automobile is at your service, sir, if you are ready." "Ready! Of course I am! Bring me a hat," he called to a servant. "The carriage isn't required." Two minutes more, and the car was throbbing along the drive, and Mr Simmonds was answering questions. "Our London manager is at the Priory, but what his business is, 1 don't know. He came in this automobile—and wouldn't drop a word to a soul except Miss Eastwood, although he knows that I'm the governor's confidential man. Then she sent that letter to you." The secretary's explanation rather inflamed Allan's anxiety than otherwise. "Faster—faster!" he cried. "We're doing thirty miles now, sir. and it won't do for this car to be held up by the police. These big motor-broughams are so noticeable, and we might have to give secrets away. By Joe, it's after lightingup time, too!" The automobile whirled through the village, and Allan saw the tradesmen hurry to their shop doors. A very tall policeman, with a thin neck and sloping shoulders, was standing at the cross-roads. He held up his right hand authoritative ly, but when he recognised the occupants of the car he saluted, and look • ed Hie other way. "Mad—mad! We are all hopelessly mad!" Allan exclaimed. "The events uf a long lifetime have been crowded into a couple of weeks. What malignant fate is playing battledore and shuttlecock? It almost makes one question the wisdom of Providence, bscausa there seems to be no good end in view. Once the evil tide sets in it rarely turns until it has become a raging torrent leaving a trail of ruin behind." The instant the automobile came to a halt at the doors of the Priory, Allan leaped to the ground. Miriam ran into the hall to meet him, and clutched his hand wildly—hysterically. "Oh, Allan—how good of you to come! I have been tortured by the fear that you would not get my letter till it was too late." "Too late!" His eyes were searching hers. "Speak out; I feel like a man standing amid volcanoes!" "The London manager is there," she pointed to the door of a room that was usually called the "den." It was a smoking-room, a study, a musicroom, and a workroom generally. Its furnishings were incongruous throughout. Cheap sporting-prints and gems by Rembrandt hung side by side on the walls; sixteenth century cabinets and tables, and modern easy chairs were scattered about, and gleaming electric-light fittings depended from an oaken beam hundreds of years old. "The London manager," Miriam went on, "Mr Wilson." Her voice was only a whisper. "He brings, news of my father, but he is a most stubborn man. I insisted upon sending for you; he grumbled and growled, and threatened to take matters into his own hands." £ She stopped gaspingly, for Mr Wilson had appeared in the doorway, big and scowling. He was covered with dust from head to foot, and blinking savagely.. "If you're Mr Berrington," he said, the burr of his accent Scotch and broad, "I'd like to hear what you've got to say in this matter. Just come behind closed doors, man, and you, too, Miss Eastwood—and we'll see what we can make of it. At the present time I feel that I am a grand example of a lunatic. At the bidding of the master I've pelted from London, defied the law, and nearly blinded myself. I can't drive without glasses, and goggles won't fit over glasses." And then he swore deeply, and wiped his eyes. Allan shut the door, and faced the Scotchman, who was tramping up and down like an angry bear. Miriam had dropped tremblingly into a deep chair. "By 'the master' I presume you refer to Mr Eastwood," Allan began. "Who else?" blurted out Wilson, his red moustache bristling. "Did he cable to you?" "Cable be hanged, man! What's he want to cable for? Whitechapel and Thames street don't need it." "But he is in America!" "America!" was the contemptuous rejoinder. "You're as mad as he is! Didn't I leave him at Coventry two hours since? Haven't I had the devil's own time with him since yesterday? Jews and coffins, and tommyrot, and him half-dead! Then I must hire an automobile, and bring him home. Not a soul must know about it. I humoured him, all the while | believing that I ought to hand him

over to a doctor. At Coventry he insisted upon stopping at a wayside hotel while 1 came on here. Nobody must know of it—oh, no! Tell Miss Miriam to have the tower put in living order. He must hide for a week or two. He'd promised the thieving Jew, with the cent-per-cent. nose! I tell you, man, he's clean off his head. I speak my mind to you because you are the son of the man he's been jabbering ab"ut all the way from London." Allan listened, afraid to break the spell. "Go on, Mr Wilson." "I've gone on long enough. What's to be done?" "Just what Mr Eastwood says. You are going back to Coventry to fetch him?" "I don't know; there seems to be too many risks." "Then We can dispense with you, sir." "Steady—steady, young man. I'll see this thing through. There's a lot more than appears on the surface. There's a woman in it, man, and a bad one at that; there's ten thousand pounds gone ten thousand! He's been robbed, drugged and nearly buried! In America, is he? That's where he should have been according to my reckoning—that's where somebody is who pretends to be him. Well, man, you get that tower ready to receive him, and I'll produce him alive within three hours. Not a whisper to a livi.-g soul? It's destruction, death and everlasting torment if he's discovered! I don't know whether I'm on my head or my heels. Twelve o'clock —on the very stroke. Man, this is an awful responsibility!" Mr Wilson adjusted his glasses, and crushed his cap on his head. Miriam was shaking with apprehension. She clasped and unclasped her hands, and watched Allan and Wilson alternately, with piteous eyes. "I'll see that the coast is clear," Allan said. "Even if the servants hear the car they need not know that it brings their master." Then he turned to Miriam. "I am sure that the clouds are breaking at last. The very blackest sky usually has a gleam of promise somewhere." He went with Mr Wilson to the hall door, and assisted him to "light up." The secretary was in charge of the cur. "Now take a turn along the drive with me, Mr Wilson," Allan said "I no sooner recover from one earthquake-shock than I receive another." "You had a few, I believe. My heart's sore for that Lit of a lassie. Now, you can't pump me, for I'm dry." "You have told me all?" "All I know. The master's in a state of collapse. He's been in love, and he's out of it; he's been robbed of ten thousand pounds, and chloroformed by the thief; he's been left for dead, and ne's dead and buried —so the woman thinks. Now, he's aiding and abetting the criminals. He daren't even come home like an honest man. He says he mu3t be loyal to the rascal who saved him. It's my belief there's more behind it." ' "There's a lot more behind it, Mr Wilson." "H'm! Out with it; I'm running grave risks."' "Mr Eastwood is charged with murder," Allan said gaspingly. "Only charged," Wilson said contemptuously. "It's easy to charge a man with anything. The master wouldn't hurt a fly. It's the woman again, and she'll get away with that ten thousand." He ground his teeth. "Ten thousand pounds is a lot of money." (To be continued.)