The Colonel's Enemy.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3152, 1 April 1909, Page 2

The Colonel's Enemy.

CHAPTER XXVl.—Continued. "Miss St. Hilary is herself thanks to you," he said.- "I heard that from Lennox, but what did you mean by that extraordinary promise you made just now?" "Only what I said." was the quiet reply. "Ask me no more, my dear Athol, please; but wait till the month is over." "One question," he said, "in keeping that promise do you bring danger to anyone, to whom 1 owe a debt of gratitude, and who held, at some time in your life, a high place in your regard? Is there no peril to be averted, no warning to be giyen?" "None," she said, with an inflection that rang through him. "They what the peril is can avert it, or pay the penalty. If you suspect, or know anything, give what ■warning you please; bout it I live, , Col. St. Hilary shall be with his daughter one month from to-day." CHAPTER XXVII. A MOMENTOUS INTERVIEW. The doctor knew Mrs Dacre too well to entertain a doubt as to her sanity, or he might have been pardoned for calling it into question, when by this repetition she strengthened the singular promise she had given to Dora; the network of mystery with which he felt they were surrounded was made more intricate, and a shadowy suspicion which bad haunted him like a nightmare began to take a distinct and dreadful shape in his mind; but the name belonging to that shape was one he would not, dared not, whisper even to himself. He descended to the lower landing ana opened the drawing-room door for her, saying quietly as he did so: "Mrs Dacre is here." It was only a moment gained, but that was something done for Mr Dacre, ana he was not so completely taken by surprise as he would have been had she gone in alone. De Vigne saw the chiselled lines of his statue-like face break and quiver with one instant's pain and Ipnging, and then he rose to receive her with the stately grace of the courtly old school in which he had been trained. f: How she responded to his greeting /the doctor did not see, for Leonard, obeying a sign from her, "retired with the major. The three men went still further down tne stairs, into the. dining room, where in this hospitable house the fires were always burning. The doctor put a kind hand on Leonard's shoulder, and answered the anxious interrogation of his eyes. ..■■-"Yes," he said, "let us all be , thankful row, every danger is past, and Miss St. Hilary is much better; I have not made my regular visit, yet, but I saw her from the door and heard her speak. She is quite rational now. Mrs Dacre finished the good work so wall begun by Maj. Lugard. You will not be disappointed, I hope, major, when 1] tell you that, though the young lady knew you so well ■\ when sha was not in possession of frer senses, shu j had to sooner regained them than she had to ask Miss Walton whether you had been tu see her, or whether she had dreamed it?" "I believe that is' generally the way," said the good-natured soldier; "when people are out ofjjtheir senses they reverse the order of things, and turn against those they really like the best. But I can be content with a very little of her liking, now that I know she is herself again." "Shall I be able to see her soon?" Leonard asked. He had been rather jealous when he heard that Lugard, privileged as her father's frknd,' and sheltered by the sober maturity of his three-and-forty years, had been admitted to the sacred precincts, but his heart was lightened now. ; "We will see what can be done in a day or two. Miss Walton is mistress of the ceremonies, now that our patient is on thb, road to convalescence. It has been a trying time for you, my boy, and now that the worst is over, you must pull yourself together, or I shall have you on my list of p? ients." "Nonsense?" the major said. "He only wants a change. When Dora can be moved, he had better come with her to Ravenskerne, the climate is splendid there; even in the depth of winter, there are days when you might easily Imagine* you were in Italy or the south of France." "If I can get a holiday," Leonard said, "there is nothing I should like so well, I have found the London winter rather trying for the last year or two, but we have no slack time until the autumn, and the firm could not well spare me." i^^wv "Then let the firm get somebody else," Lugard said; "your health is of more importance than yo*r paltry pittance of three hundred a year, and, as your uncle's heir, you ought to be independent of that." "You would not call it a paltry pittance if you knew how difficult it is to get in these days," Leonard said; "very few nien earn such a salary and there are plenty better qualified in every way and more experienced than I am who are glad to work for half,the amount. As for letting them get somebody else, you know, major, that my mother would not allow me to accept anything from my uncle." "That was on account of the old grievance, Leonard. Yoxxv mother is here to-day, and that looks like a reconciliation to me." "I do not think so," Leonard said. do not know what,to make of it, In fact. Mother has been rather strange ever since Col. St. Hilary disappeared; if slse were not so clearheaded on other subjects, I should be afraid she was giving way to some hallucination concerning him. Sne

By WINTHROP B. HARLAND. Author of "Lady Elgin's Secret," "A Harvest of Shame," "The Elder Son," "Lord Ashton's Heir," Etc.

always speaks of his return as a question of time, and as if the time depended upon herself." "Would that expression, 'she always speaks of his return as a question of time,' give us the exact impression you intended to convey?" the doctor asked. "She has spoken in that way more particularly from the time I introduced the major, and he told her all about it; and since Dora's illness a wild idea that she can find the colonel ' seems to have thoroughly taken possession of her." "Why do you call it a 'wild idea'?" "Because so much has been done already and to no purpose; so many peopla employed in the search, and they have all failed. Let me correct myself on one point. In the first interview between my mother and Maj. Lugard, she expressed an opinion that the colonel is in the hands of a dangerous enemy, and that unless some steps were ifaken soon, Dora would never see her father in this life." "I am glad you have mentioned that," the major said; "I was about to refer to it, as De Vigne attaches some importance even to the exact turn of a phrase." "I do," the doctor said, "since a single word misplaced may lead to a tatal misconstruction. Pardon me, Leonard, if I seem to be putting you under a cross-examination, but very much depends upon it. Has Mrs Dacre modified that opinion since the interview took place?" "To the extent I have already told you. She no longer speaks as if she believed his life was in danger, but as if his return were a question of time." "And just now," said De Vigne, "your mother fixed that time. ! I heard her promise Dora that the colonel should be with her within a month from to-day. I to!d Mrs Dacre that I heard it, and she repeated the promise to me. Now the natural inquiry is this: Has she at her command any secret and special source of information?—does she know, and has she known from the first, what has really happened to the colonel, and is it in her power to apply such pressure as would result in his liberation at the time she likes to name; or is she merely acting on the strength of her belief in her owd instinct, which she may think has taken her at a leap into the heart of the mystery?" "You have asked me more than I can answer," Leonard said. "In this one matter 1 have to give her ail the information I can gather day by day, but she does not discuss it with me or make me her confidant in return. I have discovered, by an observation let fall here and there that she, has a curiously minute and comprehensive knowledge of the colonel's history, and this may have her to put a mental finger s on his enemy, while you have been working in the dark; and this knowledge would be equivalent to the secret and special source of information you seem inclined to think is at her command." [to be continued.]