HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3195, 22 May 1909, Page 2

HER SILENCE JUSTIFIED.

CHAPTER Xll.—Continued. And then Wilfred, who had heard the plunge, and guessing what had happened, would have no objec-. tion to punish their misleader, springs upon him and drags him from out the sheltering boughs of the alder. But what is this creature that is writhing and panting in his grasp? Is it a boy, as the rough and belted coat seems to imply, or is this the curly head of a girl? The struggles have ceased; it is his turn to utter an exclamation cf , pain, for a set of small white teeth have been fixed in his hand, and only his indomitable pluck enables him to retain his grasp upon his strange prisoner. CHAPTER XIII. BETTY WAKELY'S GUESTS. Although his startled companion instantly scrambled down the precipitous declivity, Laurence Haydon had sunk before Wilfred reached the edge of the black, sullen pool, and only a ripple on its surface remained to show where he had been. Flinging off his coat, Mr Stuart would have sprung in without the least hesitation, but, as he was in the act of doing so, he was forcibly dragged back. "You mustn't risk it!" gasped a voice, tremulous with horror. "They say the pool's bottomless just under the bank, and if you should be sucked into the hole you'd never come up again." "Loose your hold!" cried Wilfred sternly, and without more than a trarsient glance at the white face-—it was a woman's—of the person who was gripping him with such convulsive tenacity, that it was difficult to shake her off, ."Release me, I say. Do you think I could let any fellow creature perish before my eyes, and do nothing*to help him?" He was wrenching himself away when, to his immense relief, he caught sight of Laurence rising to the surface. A blow on the forehead received in falling had partially stunned him, so that he had not hitherto been capable of making Eiy efforts at self-preservation. Even now he was but partially conscious, and was beating the water and struggling in a manner that made it dangerous for any one to approach him. Fortunately Wilfred Stuart was a powerful swimmer and was soon beside him. Avoiding the deathly embrace that would have endangered the lives of both, he contrived to sustain the drowning man till he was suffi- I ciently recovered to strike out for the I only place in the bank where the j ground shelved enough to enable i them to extricate themselves with ease. To this spot they were guided by the warning cries and exclamations of the unknown, who, in her eagerness to render assistance, waded up to her knees in the water. Yet as soon as both men were in safety, and she had shaken the moisture out of her skirts —wihch she did with the utmost indifferece to their condition, except as far as impeded her movements—she began to laugh with the unrestrained hilarity of a child. In spite of the deepening twii light their ludicrous appearance caught her eye, and she did not hesitate to give way to her amuse ment, while they, in their turn, stared angrily at the eccentric being who had so suddenly sprung into sight. Whether she was young or old t was difficult to determine, for her face was hidden by a hideous sunbonnet, of gaudy print. Her dress was as shapeless as her head gear, and consisted of a skirt and hose jacket of rough blue serge such as the fishermen wear, while her boots were so thick and clumsy that it was a wonder they did not impede her agile movements However, both gentlemen were too much concerned at the condition in which they found themselves to take much notice of the person who had come to their assistance* until timed mirth provoked Wilfred Stuart into addressing her sharply. "Was it to your pranks we owed this accident?" "I didn't think he'd have fallen into the pit!" she muttered, in tones which, in spite of a broad Hampshire dialect, were singularly sweet. "Did you trouble yourself to think at all? lam sorry it is not in our power to punish you for such folly. Instead of- standing there giggling, why don't you tell us where we can get our clothes drier l ." It was a very rare thing for Wilfred Stuart to' lose his temper so completely, but Laurence was leaning upon him, shivering violently, and with his teeth chattering; and his friend feared that, to a person newly arrived from a tropical climate, such a shock to the system might prove very dangerous. "If you walk about long enough they'll dry on ye!" he was contemptuously told. "Or there's some charcoal burners at Mark Ash. They've got good fires, they have; go to them." "How far?" queried Laurence, with impatience. "Dun' no'; never waa there but once. But lord, you're shivering with cold, like granny when she had the ague!" she added, regarding him , with more compassion.

By HENRIETTA B. EUTHVEN". Author of "His Second Love," " Corydon's Infatuation," " Daring Doia," " An Unlucky Legacy," Etc., Etc.

( "What is your granny's name? Wakely?" eagerly demanded Mr Stuart, as a hope flashed into his brain that, after all, they might be on the track of the person they sought. "And what if it be? She has r.,0 cause to be ashamed of it!" he was told, defiantly. "She's a decent old woman, and as honest as the day." "Lead us to her house, and you shall be well rewarded for your trouble." But, retreating and putting her hands behind her, she bluntly refused. "Not if I knows .it. I guessed who you was as soon as I saw you. You're the lawyer chaps as old Siddons threatened ua with when his mare died. 'Twasn't granny's fault if I had ridden her now and then, and she'd have lived longer if he hadn't starved her." "We are not lawyers," she was promptly assured, "neither do we intend Mrs Wakely any injury; but we have travelled some miles to have an interview with her, and so I beg of yo'J once more to show us, or tell us, where she is to be found." But still the girl, as her voice and a glimpse of her features proved her to be, eyed the gentlemen suspiciously, and refused to comply with their request. "What can such fine folk as you want of granny? She's sold all her honey, and the hens don't lay, and there's a man at Lymington takes all she can grow in the garden." "Chut, Wilfred! don't parley with the creature any longer!" cried Laurence Haydon angrily. "We shall catch pneumonia standing here. Come on! it will be only prudent to keep moving, and we must hope that sooner or later we shall find an inn." "Not that way you won't, for it leads into the heart of the forest, ard so does that other track," exclaimed the girl, as she stood watching them. "Then this one does not!" said Laurence, turning sharply in the onposite direction, "and by following it we shall come to Betty Wakely's." "But you won't; for she. lives a good mile this side of the village; and there is no regular path to granny's after you pass the road to the shore." "If Betty Wakely's dwelling is nearer than the village, let us make for that." said Laurence Haydon to his friend, speaking in French, "but how shall we compel this giddy girl to show us the way?" "What's that he's saying?" cried the girl, speaking to Mr Stuart, ard aidling away from the other gentleman. "Is it the Romany tongue, or is he laying a spell upon me?" [TO BE CONTINt-120.1