A GIRL TO LOVE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9099, 27 May 1908, Page 2

A GIRL TO LOVE.

By BERTHA 1. CLAY. Author of " Thrown on the World," " Her Mother's Sin," Beyond Pardon," " The Lost Lady of Iladdon," " Dora Thome," !Übh. " An Ideal Love," etc.

CHAPTER XXlX.—Continued. "I won't say that. sir. Oh, no!" the inspector answered with a smile. "Before we make a start may I ask who is at the bottom of all this bother?" The inspector considered, then he whispered: "Miss Nathalie Leighton, sir." CHAPTER XXX. GOOD-BYE TO THE WORLD.

For some weeks past, when speaking of Harry Owen, Jasper Trenwith had called him "that mad fellow." And irad he undoubtedly was—mad with himself, and mad with an unkind fate. Reared in the lap of luxury, he had expected to inherit a fortune, but his father died insolvent. He went to the Klondike, and slaved in the mines for half a year for nothing. He gave his claim to .a wastrel of a man, who struck it rich the very next week. He had other similar kicks from fate, but the crowning blow was Nathalie Leighton's scornful laughter when he told her of hia love. When Pelham inherited the colliery, he remembered that his friend Owen was an engineer, and seized upon the opportunity to do him a good turn. Owen was appointed manager. Harry was doubtful at first. He looked Victor squarely in the fate that morning, and said: "You are a fairly lucky man, I believe?" "I suppose so," smiled Victor. "Do you want to be ruined?" "Hardly. What are ycu geting at, old chap?" "Well, I want to be fair and square with the only friend left. I am 'hoodooed,' as the niggers say; everything I touch goes wrong, and othes go under with me." "Nonsense!" laughed Victor. "But my record! I go on well up to a certain point, and then the fruits of my labour are snatched away." "Don't expect anything of the kind, old chap, and it won't happen! You are clever, and you have plenty of grit. My confidence in you is absolute. Don't throw away opportunities. I can't attend to business myself, and as I have mute arrangements to spend a year in FlorgflCQ - 1 "All right," interrupted Owen; then he added grimly: "Your blood be upon your own head!" He had worked hard and tried to forget his ill luck. Success followed him. persistently, nnd the profits of the cofliery .were nearly doubled. Then he realized that the mines were surely being worked out, and that new ground would have to be opened up. Desperate adventures followed, and his mind became unbalanced while he dreamed of millions! And the shadow of his ill luck fell upon him. Now all was ended. These were the thoughts in hi 3 mind while the cage was going to the bottom of No. 2 shaft, and he resolved that his last prayer should bo for Nathalie. Tenderly, lovingly, he lifted the inanimate Victor from the cage, and laid him in a canvas bed, used by the ■ miners between their "shifts." Then he seated himself on the edge of a trolly, and in the light of a safetylamp wrote a message to John Ireland. "He will be obedient, because he is an arrant coward," he thought, "and even if he is not," he laughed hollowly, "we shall be buried soo;; — Victor and I." He tore the written pace from his pocketbcok, and affixed it to the inside of the cage. His movements were well considered and methodical. The electric signal was pressed, and iii a moment the cage vanished into the blackness above. « '* "Good-bye to the world!" he cried. ""Good-bye to its cruelty and inhumanity!" He applied a light to a second safety-lamp, selected a few of the beat tools, an axe, a shovel, and a pick. Then he covered the bottom of the trolley with canvas, and tenderly laid Victor upon it. One last look round, one final good-bye, and be began to push the car before him. The heat soon became stifling, and he stripped himself of coat and vest. Sometimes ho had to proceed on bands .and knees, and often the car had to be stopped and switched upon other rails. The disturbed coal-dust floated about him densely, and clung to his perspiring face, until hir, appearance was demoniacal. And there came a time when the rails ended, for the 'west workings had not been entered for many months, and the labour of pushing and dragging the trolley wan two-fold harder. At last Owen dropped from •exhaustion. His eyes were bloodshot .and glaring, his lungs lull o< fn.e dust. "No farther," he decided. "Not another inch!" He scrambled to his feet, and reeled from side to side. Fie clutche i ;.t tthe black walls, and gasped for Sbreuth. "Poor old Victor!" he moaned. "Oil, my ciiurn —my (.hum! We )>egan life almost together, and we end hat nearly the same hour. One c unrnon tomb for both !" lie arranged the canvas in the. form •of oed, and reverently laid Victor u.o.it. He dronpped to his knees and kissed the white face—as white ,aj snow, it appeared to him, amid the .b'.urknejs of the mine. H-j sat down and clasped his throbbing brow. The lamps behind him threw giant shadows on the sloping root'. He moved, and the black jy seemed to be reaching nearer.

"Wait!" he yelled. "I'm not ready yet! Yon pillar of coal has to be cut awav, and then you may come. Ha ! ha ! the fall of earth will be terifie. A hunrded tons? Perhaps ten times a hundred, and the shock will be felt in the world above. How long? A few hours at most, and then oblivion! Oh, I dare not delay; my brain reels and there is fever in my veins. They may follow me tomorrow —aye, to-morrow!" A wild shriek left his lips, and he snatched up a heavy pick, 'ihe keen point glittered when he swung it round. He attacked the mighty pillar with mad fury, and coal and earth' flew in all directions. The minutes lengthened into an hour. Chip, chip! Stab, stab! One side of the pillar was eaten away, and almost every blow brought a fall from

the roof. Owen was trembling, reeling, panting. There was no air to breathe. His mouth, his nostrils, were choked with dust; his eyes were almost blinded. We are nearly ready," he shouted to the shadow on the wall. "Wait — jwait! A little longer. Oh, for a drink of water!" He sat down for awhile, and his mind became clearer. He remembered that there was a flask of brandy in his coat pocket. He groped his way to it, found the flaak, and drank some of the fiery spirit. His strength was renewed, and he went back to his task. He examined it by the light of a lamp; lie walked round the almost shattered pillar, and calculated with the eye of an expert. "Fifteen or twenty minutes!" He replaced the lamp on the floor under the wall, and waved his hand to his own grotesque shadow, bobbing up and down on the roof. He addressed it coaxingly, endearingly; he savagely abused't, and then resumed his work. He struck right and left with redoubled fury, and a great fall of earth bore him to the-lloor. Still he lay for a minute, believing that 1 the end had come. The pillar was I almost cut in half, and he could hear it creaking, groaning, and splinter-

ing! "There may be time for one last look at Victor in the flesh," flashed through l.is mind. "And one more drink, and may Heaven have mercy upon me!" He crawled upon his hands and knees to Victor's bed. He wiped the dust from his eyes, and peered into his friend's face. "We shall meet again soon, old chap," he whispered. "And 1 wish I were as sure of God's torgiveness as I am of your?." A few tons of the roof fell with a reverberating crash, and he laughed wildly. "Go ahead, ye furies! The world ia closing in at last:!" He groped for the flask, and crept back to Victor. "If we are discovered, it shall be sleeping side by side." He was in the act of raising the flask to his lips., when his hand '] dropped to his side, nerveless; his eyes started from their sockets, and his jaw dropped. He uttered a faint moan, and snatched at one of the lamps. He flashed it over Pelham's face, .and, to his unutterable joy and terror, saw that the dear eyes were regarding him painfully and questioningly. "Victor—Victor!" he half shrieked; then all was blank. The earth had closed in upon them. (To be continued.)