THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3106, 1 February 1909, Page 2

THE CURSE OF HER LIFE OR A DARK SECRET.

CHAPTER XXX.—Continued. j "I leave that to you. You have ways enough, I dare say," she scorn- _ fully answered. j "I don't know of but one. The; spiritualists might hel; us to communicate with him," answered Mr Bazel grayely. _ j "Never mind." Lady Disbro said j calmly. "I don't care how you do i it. Please convey to hiai, any way you like, this message. My cousin . Randal has done me many wrongs. Ho must right this last one, or I j swear to you—and he knows how I ; can keep an oath—l will have him put where I believe he ougot to have ■ been long ago—in a madhouse." j Lawyer Bazel started violently, j and looked for the moment terribly i disconcerted. i "I don't think there would be ; much difficulty," Ladv Disbro went] en calmly. "I'm his nearest surviv- i ing relative, and I am sure any j physician used to judging in such j cases would decide that no sane man j would behave as my cousin Randal is doing." i She rose now and drew up her , elegant shawl, preparatory to depart- j The lawyer had recovered his self- j possession by this time. j "I don't think I understand you, j my lady," he said, blandiy. "Even if'Mr Heathcote were alive, as you assume so persistently, you don't know where to find him." "Are you sure of that?" Edith answered. "Suppose I were to tell vou where he was no longer ago than yesterday. I h«ve just retuuned from Heathcote House." "And you fancy'you saw Mr Heath- j cote there?" "Never mind. You'll tell him what ; I say, I'm very sure of that: Goodday, Mr Bazel." j Returning home, Edith found an | old and particular fri-nd of ner bus- I band's, that very Baron Arundel who ; had once visited at Blackmere with! Lord Disbro. I Wondtrful to relate, joung , Arundel had just come from Paris, and had stopped in Amiens for some days. "Oh!" cried Lady Disbro, all excitement. "Did you meet Frank there?" "Frank? Certainly not. He is not there, is he? I stopped at the Hotel De Rhin nearly a week, and that is where he usually stays." "He was there. He wrote me from there." | "Odd that 1 did not 30c him. Did he speak of remaining any length of time?" "No. He must have been there some time be-fore he wrote, if he went there directly from here, as I have reasons for thinking he did." "Odd that I didn't meet him," j repeated the baron, and then they j talked of other things. j The next day Lady Disbro was ! walking past Lawyer Bazd's office, j She had been to see her husband's attorney about some business she knew ought to be attended to. Jame3 Rial came out and passed up the street just ahead of her. Edith muttered an exclamation behind her veil. She knew him, of course. He had not seen her. "That means something," she said to herself, and quickly followed. He went into a chemist shop presently, and this enabled her to overtake him. She entered also, and, while the druggist was in the back of the shop, spoke to Rial, who looked confounded at the sight of her. " yVhere is your master?" she askecl haughtily, taking out her purse and laying it down upon the counter. "Tell mo how I can obtain speech with bim, and I will do it without betraying that you have told me. This for'yo jv reward." She extended the purse. Rial kept his eyes resolutely upon the floor after the first glance in Lady Disbro's face. He would not look at her. "If yon mean Mr Heathcote, my lady," he said, "I have just been to Lawyer Bazel's to inquire if there was any news, and there w:: > not." Lady Disbro looked at him a moment angrily, and walked out. of the shop. She did not go away, however, but posted herself in a pastry cook's near till Rial came o it, when she followed him.. The, valet's tall, strange shape made this comparatively easy, even in a crowd. But suddenly, at a turning, she lost him. He had discovered that she was following him, and had doubled on her her, going merely to the next turning and then back into the same street by an alley way. Suspecting that she had passed him, Lady Disbro immediately retraced her steps, and, as chance would have it, came upon the skulking valet just disappearing up a flight of stairs. CHAPTER XXXI. A WATCH ON MISS ALTMAN. He thought, he had escaped her, ard never looked behind him, while she tripped noiselessly up; and when he stopped before a door, unlocked it and entered, she was in nearly as soon as he. The key was in the door yet. Lady Disbro had determined upon drsperate measures. She took out the key and, while Rial was staring at her, locked the door on the inside, before his face. Then, standing against it, she took from a little pocket under her overskirt that small pistol which she always carried with her. ' Fhe knew Rial to be a coward, and | I-;i" 1 thought he knew that it was she j v,-!<> kin- rl Captain Tyrrell. What] xvrrfcr, t!:er. that he shivered end: t- . ~ ' v" -" h. .a.." i-:-!-"" li->

By HELEN OOKWIN PIEKCE, Author of "At His Own Game," "Carrie Emerson "Wilde," "Badly Matched," "The Cheated Elide," Etc.

to!, small as it was, levelled directly at his head. "Where is your master?" Lady Disbro asked, in a low, stern voice. Rial hesitated an instant:. "I haven't any idea, my lady." "Then where is Mr Heathcote? You do know. Don't deny it." "It* I knew, my lady—-" Edith made an anpry movement. "If youd:.n't toll me '" She \ stopped. "I've a great mind to shoot yon, anyway, you scoundrel! Where j did you get tho.->? letters you brought to I-ore! Disbro?" "I?" with the most innocent air. "You did bring them. I had Wil- j li*m describe you to me. Who wrote the last one?" Rial stared acain. "I don't know what you maan." "Oh. yes, you do. Come, the truth! Heathcote wrote it and you copied it. Don't deny it to me. I've a faculty for reading faces, and the vile wickedness shows very plainly in yours. Now, then, where is Mr Heathcote? Are you going to tell me?" "Lawyer Bazel thinks he is dead." "You and I know better than that, and so does he, foi that matter." j "Won't you lower that pistol, my lady? It might go off, and it makes one so nervous." Ldith smiled rather grimly. "You're right, sir. It might go off, and serve j you right, too. How much is Mr Heathcote going to give you? What- , ever it is, I will give you more. You i will not be telling me very much, either, when all is told. I am a pretty good guesser, and I know one of your master's secrets, which neither he nor you suspect is in my possession." Rial gave her a sudden odd look, which she was quick to interpret. "You don't believe me," she said, taking two steps toward him and saying half a dozen words in a low tone. Then, drawing back again, she looked at his changed face, with her own whiter and thinner than ever. Rial's under jaw had dropped, his face was livid, and he kept casting quick, apprehensive glances over his shoulder and at the door. ***** As Lady Disbro re-en tend her own house on her return from the exciting interview with Rial, she encountered Rose Altman at the door, just going out. Miss Altman seemed terribly confused at the meeting, and made a vain attempt to conceal something she was carrying in her arm—a waterproof cloak. "It is not raining," said Lady Dis bro, glancing at the cloak, "and if it were, why don't you take the carriage?" "Oh, isn't it?" stammered Rose, turning very red. "I thought I'd go tor a walk, thank you." "It's a strange hour to go for a walk. But you needn't look so frightened about it." "I'm not frightened. Of what should I be frightened?" asked Rose, her green eyes flashing spiteful anger, "unless at your white face, indeed. Edith, you look as if you had seen a ghost." "Perhaps I have," Edith answered, looking her sternly in the face as she passed in. Edith was indeed deadly pale. Her eyes glittered like fire. I think I won't go, after ell," Rose said, turning back, and, as she went, exchanging a swift glance with William, the hall-footman. As Lady Disbro went on to her j own apartments the expression of j Rose's face haunted her. (To be continued).