A SENSATIONAL CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2993, 18 September 1908, Page 2

A SENSATIONAL CASE.

By FLORENCE WARDEN, Author of" The Lady in Black," "An Infamous Fraud," "For Love of Jack," "A Terriblo Family," "Tho House on the Marsh,"

CHAPTER XXlX.—Continued. A sound in the adjoining room caused Jem to look around and watch the door between the two rooms. Be • lieving, as she did, that Netelka was in the adjoining apartment, sho would have entered it unceremoniously beforu this, but that Linley took care to keep between her and the door. Hugh went on: "I know who you are, Linley Dax; and if either your wife or young Waller should die within the next few months, I will undertake to say that the money for which you insured their lives will not be paid. Again from the next room there was a sound. This time if was like a stifled cry. Jem burst into tears. "Oh, let me see her, let me see her!" she cried piteously, advancing toward Linley,-*ho had turned livid, ] and who was engrossed by a sense o ; deep personal injury as he replied to Hugh's threat. He was so much agitated that he was quite hysterical. He seemed broken down under this ; outrage. . ; "You infamous, m&ulting man. You detestable spy!" he exclaimed, like an angry woman, as he held the , handle of the door, looking the picture of helpless indignation. How dare you come and say such things to me! flow dare you accuse me wanting to—to—to murder anybody! Why, I wouldn't hurt a fly, as everybody knows. Miss Collingham, it s , shameful for you to come here with him and allow him to say such things! It's enough to kill my poor "wife outright to hear such things taid!" , . And the glance he gave toward tne door showed Jem that her suspicions were correct Netelka was in the next ronm. But Hugh stood firm, and i raising his voice slightly and speaking with great emphasis, said: I "Then, if your wife can hear me, | let her hear this; that every day she passes under the same roof with you j increases not only her own danger, | but the danger for Gerard Waller, whom I'saw yesterday in almost a , dying condition." > There was a moan, and then a sound as of soma one filling against the door. A moment later, Netelka's face, white as death, appeared in tna , doorway. j "Dying! Gerard Waller dying! she stammered. Before she could utter another word tier husband i ad pushed her back into the bedroom and ( shut the door. "I insist," said he querulously, turning to Hugh, "on your leaving the house this minute! Your presence is disturbing my wife, who is in ■ no fit state to hear such things as you have been saying. If you insist on remaining, I shall obliged to send round to her doctor to order you out." . ' While he was speaking, Jem seized the opportunity she fancied she per- : ceived of communication with Net- , elka. Slipping out of the sitting-room j into the passage, she knocked at the door of the adjoining apartment. ( first there was no answer. She ■ knocked again, with same result. "Mrs Hilliard, won't you let me hi —won't you let me speak to you.'" she asked, putting her lips close to the keyhole. She heard a sob for an- < swer, and, rendered desperate, she tried to open the door. It was locked. Jem rattled the handle, and then, to her joy, she heard some one com- : ing toward it. The key turned, the \ door was flung wide, and she found , herself face to face with —Linley! In her surprise, Jem utter jd a cry and stepped * Linley laughed disagreeably. "You wanted to see my wife?' aaid he, in a mocking tone. " Well, she and I have no secrets from each other. Come, Netelka, and tell this persistent young lady so." With a strong hand, ho halfdragged, half-led Netelka into view." "Tell her, tell her, my dear, whether you wart any outside interference, or whether you are satisfied with tho care of your husband." Netelka, who was pile and trembling, and who, in her white dressincgown, looked like a fleshless phantom rather than a woman, tried to smile. "I am quite,quite safe; thank you, dear," she said gently in the weak, husky voice of an invalid, "quite, quite safe" —then, as Linley laid his left hand on her arm, as if prompting her, she added in a whisper—"with my husband." Jem, who could not trust herself to speak, sprang forward and kissed her friend, putting both arms around her neck. Then, with one long look into Netelka's eyes, ancl without fo much as a glance at Linley, sho quickly withdrew. Hugh was waiting for her at the hall door. They both heard Linley's mocking laugh as they passed out of the - house. CHAPTER XXX. .AN AWKWARD POSITION. I;i her misery at her friend's misfortune, poor Jem grew confiding and unreserved, and allowed herself to be consoled quite tenderly by Hugh. "Oh, .wiiwt will become ot her? What will become of her? He won't dare to murder her now, will he? Wont' he lie afraid of being arrested for it now, that he knows you've learned his o'.hrr name?" cried Jem, not waiting f.n' an answer to one question beiute ahe quavered out another. Hugh answered with reserve. He thought he had never, in a pretty wide experience qf the ne'cr-do-wella whom England ships off to her colonies with a few pounds in their pockets, in the hope that "roughing it" wall ipurge them of original sin, met quite such a perfect specimen of what •a man ought not to be as the whitehrißitkid Linley. Having already

proved himself to be resourceful, Netelka's husband would, it was to be feared, find a Way out of this new difficulty, as he had done out of his old ones. "It will be his wife'fi fault if she doesn't get away now," he answered. "Sho has been warned. Unhappily, he still seems to have a great influence over her. I can't understand it." "Then do you think our coming has done more harm than good?" asked Jem despairingly. "We'll hope not," said Hugh, affecting more cheerfulness than he felt. "Of course, if they stay on here, he won't dare to—to play any tricks. The fear is that he may have enough influence over her to get her to go away with him to some other place whei'e she will be out of our reach." "Can't you have him arrested now, before he has tihne to do any harm?" asked Jem impulsively. Hugh laughed. "What for?" asked he, shaking his head. "Don't you see that we are absolutely without proof of any sort against him? That although w« know him to be up to his eyes in evil-doing we haven't a scrap of evidence, real evidence, that we could found a case upon?" "But the trial?" "He was acquitted. Another accusation of the same sort would have to be backed by much stronger evidence than the first, or it would be put a down to prejudice and that would tell in his favour." Discussing the matter very gloomily, and deeply absdrbe.d by it, Hugh and Jem approached the residence of the Misses Ponsonby, Jem's aunts, with slow footsteps and with afixious faces. They did not notice, as they drew near the gate of the v pretty detarhed house, with its trim drive and little bit of velvet lawn, that the two elderly ladies were watching at one of the windows wi th faces full of interest—nay, more, of excitement. Scarcely had Jem and her escort reached the top of the tessellated steps when Hugh, who was raising his hat preparatory to leaving Jem, was startled to see the front dour open quickly and Miss Lilian and Miss Muriel Ponsonby flutter out with leading faces. "Dear, child Dear Jemimif!" cried Lilian, who was the elder, the' taller, and perhaps the sweeterlooking of the two. And she threw her arms round Jem's neck and kissed her affectionately, while her sister extended both hands, with a welcoming smile, ito Hugh. "Dear Mr Thorndylce!" chirped the little lady sweetly, as she smiled up at him and offered her little dried cheek, growing pink as she did so. "We welcome you. We are most proud and delighted to know our dear Jem's future husband." The young people wera thunder struck. They had nothing to say for themselves. A more aubject picture of helpless confusion and dismay | was never presented. Of course, however, their inarticulate condition passed with the simple-minded, elderly ladies for modest confusion of the most graceful and becoming sort; and in spite of Hugh's plaintive assur- ! ances that he could not stay, that he had friends waiting for him in the town and other futilities, he found himself genLly inducted into the drawing-room, which had been fresh- I : ly decorated with the choicest flowers i of the conservatory in honour of the 1 supposed betrothal. I (To be continued.)