THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3102, 27 January 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XXVI. Continue 3. [ * The passage was of a considerable width tor such a place, and not long. The Nell Gwynne chambers were to the right, and up two flights of stone steps built in the wall. As they came to where (.he passage branched'off to the left, seemingly a long distance, Lady Disnro said in a strange voice: i "I suppose that leads to the rooms my cousin occupied. It will be dark now the rest of the way. Are you afraid yet, Dorcas?" | "Not in the least, my lady. It smells cbse and musty, that is all." . A few steps farther on, and the I end of the passage was reached. A few moments of groping for another i cpncealed spring and they stood in tjje room in which Captain Tyrrel had breathed his last, stabbed to the Jifjirfc by the hand of 9 cruel dastard. '"I don't LclieVd aiiyona IiSS ' In the rooms since 1 left them," J Edith said in a hushed voice, &hd tUnied with something of the horrofc of that other time upon | those black-, ink-stained spots on the , velvet carpet. She did not shrink | now as she had then. She had endured deep sorrow since; she had Buffered and stronger. "I stayed here only two nights alter," she said to Dorcas. "Hut they were the most dpeary, haunted hours ever woman passed. I slept a little the fir3t night; the second 1 never closed my eyes; I seemed to see him wherever 1 looked." "Sha'n't we go, my lady?" Dorcas 'asked. "There isn't anything you want to stay for, in there? Besides, the man with the cab may get tired of waiting." "Yes, we will go." ! Lfady Disbro stood a moment long'er, looking round at the gloomy Toom. There she had sat when her false cousin stole in upon her the first night of her husband's absence. That was the chair she had sat in when she had fainted, with her husband standing over her, and threatening her with the very weapon that had finally drunk his life's blood. "Yes, let us go," she said, dropping the blind she had lifted to let a ray of light into the dismal room. They went away as they had come, meeting no one, and finding the driver of the cab waiting patientiy. They found they had an hour yet at the station, and in the idleness of waiting Lady Disbro's anxiety about her husband rose anew. "I believe," she said to Dorcas, "that you misunderstood him. There was so much noise and confusion, it would have been very easy. And there is a town called Dan by between here and London. I believe you misunderstood him." Dorcas shook her hand. "No, my lady. He must have been outside the window when you spoke up so loud, and overheard you. If he would deceive you about where he was going, he would turn back when he found you were watching him." ''But why should he go to Heathcote House secretly? My cousin would not try to get him there for his own sake. He would be more likely to contrive some place to lure him in some other direction—to some secret den where he has been lurking himself like a great cruel spider all these years. And wheie he can murder him like the rest. Dorcas, I hope, I do hope. Til live to see that treacherous rascal hupg!" "Ivly lady, why don't you tell what you know about Whispering Lois? | You didn't take any oath about that." "Because, my poor Doocas, [ don't know anything. I have my own convictions—as good .as knowledge for me, but they wouldn't satisfy other people. Besides, Randal Heathcote is supposed to be dead. What should I gain by accusing a dead man? I'll tell- you what I'm inclined to do, though. I've a mind to turn detective myse ; f, hunt the villian down, and put an end to it all by shooting him." "Don't talk that way, my lady. There is the train," They went back to London. Lord Disbro had made his calculations, and waited in London for them to return by this very train. He watched thep leave their car, and, crossing the platform, entered a hired coach. They did not see him, and the morning express took him in his turn to Annesley, and to Heathcote House. A week passed and Lord Disbro had not been fjheard from. Edith was wild with anxiety. She had telegraphed to Annesley on the day of her arrival home. She had been to Disbro Castle herself. Frank had not been there. Then she went to Blackmere and back to London. She telegraphed in twenty different directions. She advertised for him, and made all her friends start and wonder at her excessive anxiety, till it became known that neither telegrams nor advertisements produced any news of him. "You'll will have to break that shameful oath, my lady, and tell your story," Dorcas said. "If Ran- . al Heathcote knows anything about ur husband, the only way to circumvent him is to tell the London police the whole story and set them after him. If you don tdo it, my -lady, I certainly will. You broke no oath in telling me, since you did not know what you were saying at the time. And lam sure now that I have held back long anough, and too long." i. "Wait, Dorcas; hear me first. You don't want to destroy Frank's last chance for life, do you/ Something teils me that wretch has got him concealed in some den of his. To do as you propose would be to arm his wicked hand for the fatal blow. He would kill Frank, if he still lives, the instant he got a hint that the police were afted him. You don t knr.w him as I do." f "Then what will J(OU do?' "If I don't get news of Frank very I

By HELEN CORWIN PIERCE, Author of "At His Own e," "Carrie Emerson Wilde," "Badly Matched," "T1 e Cheated Bride," Etc.

shortly, I'll do what I threatened at Annesley. I'll turn detective myself, and hunt down Randal Heathcote. If I ever do find him, he shall not escape me again till this business is settled. " Meamvnile, Lord Disbro had gone to Annesley. But, as he concealed his identity, and no one there knew him, his wife's telegram failed to produce any news of him there. From Annesley he had walked to Heathcote House, consequently there v,as no driver of a carriage to report having conveyed him there. Heathcote House was not a show place, but Lord D'.sbro, after sauntering through the neglected grounds, and looking at the outside of the wide ivy-grown and rambling structure, rang at thcf great front cbor, and without announcing" 111 HI" self by name asked to see the house, which, being a very old one, might bs supposed to possess some interest j for the sightseer, I At thy sam c time, he dropped a : gold piece into the gaping apron pocket of the housekeeper. Mi's Turner was a tolerably grim and stern old lady in her way. But the money won her at once, or perhaps it was the handsome pale face of the stranger, the dark eyes, sad in spite of the smiling lips. She volunteered to show him over the place herself. . The dame was garrulous. She had a story for every room of any importance, every picture on the walls. Lord Disbro let her talk. Bu\. he put no questions to her till they reached the rooms he had come to | pee—the Nell Gwynne chambers. }

CHAPTER XXVIII. IN THE NELL GWYNNE | CHAMBERS. Mrs Turner hesitated somewhat at showing Lord Disbro the Nell Gwyrme chambers, and looked important. ''They're the finest rooms in the house, by all odds," she said, "but they haven't been opened since Mrs Tyrrell—she that is Lady Disbro now —occupied them; and my late master, her cousin, gave us orders in his lifetime to keep them closed. You see, sir, these rooms always has had a bad name. Somebody's always getting killed in them.. Both he and his lady were occupying the rooms, and someone stabbed him as he was j coming through the park. His wife was our master's cousin, and, indeed, the two had been on the point of marrying once. So, when ail this trouble came, my master took it hard on her account, and he swore the rooms had a curse on theim, and no one should sleep in tfcem any more." Lord Disbro had waited patiently for the story to be finished, (To be continued).