SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9683, 6 January 1910, Page 2

SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

CHAPTER XXll.—Continued

"The young lady is an ill-used angel!" she said to "And she is quite pretty when looked pleasant! Maybe she was thinking of her young man, who is due here at five—at least, that is what Mr Bartlet said." Even as the housekeeper went out of the room Hilda returned to her station by the window, for the rumbling of a distant vehicle had reached her ears. How well she knew the old flyman from Llanberis and his jog-trotting gray horse! The vehicle wound slowly along the drive, the driver flourished his whip, and "crack" fell clear and sharp upon her ears. Victor had come! Hilda almost flew downstairs, heedess of the fcotrnan standing in the hall. Bartlet as talking in the courtyard to a man with a red mustache a stranger, who glanced furtivelv and curiously at Victor Linton as he sprang out of the fly. "You need not wait,'Linton said to the flyman as he paid him his , fare."l shall walk back to Llanberis. The "evening looks fine, and there wiil be a moon " Then he turned to Hilda, smiling fondly into her troubled eyes, and the ■ lovers went straightway to Miss Car- ! rington's boudoir. j When they were alone Victor took i the trembling girl into his arms and kissed her passionately. j "Dear little woman! Why, where is all your bravery?" j "I am not brave a bit when you are away!" There were tears in her eyes. "My nerves are completely shattered. Oh, how I wish that Sir John had never sent for me, and that we had been permitted to follow the delightful plans we hiS made!" Then she added quiekly, tremulously, "Victor, you must not walk to Llan beris to-night—the way is so lonely!" j "I am not afraid of anything, darling. And lam really cramped from i constantly driving about lately! Who i to waylay me. while I am armed with that trifle?" pointing playfully toward a heavy cane which ! he had placed in a corner of the room. i "What do you think of that for a weapon? The head of it is loaded j with lead. It is quite a curious thing in its way, being nothing I more nor less than the stem of an old grapevine, which Mr Reuben Growcott himself cut and dried. He gave it to me to-day. By the way, that reminds me that I have news for you, so we will sit together in your favourite embrasure and talk."

Hilda's confidence was fast return • ing. Her lover seemed so calm, so s rong!. "I was afraid that my letter would have alarmed you, dear!" she said, plunging at once into the subject which she feared most. "Why should you be, sweetheart?" He was regarding her gravely. "It was rather hysterical, wasn't it?" "Yes; you fancied that you were in some very great danger." Fancied? Oh, yes; it was best that he should know all, for his own sake as well as hers! And then she must prove to him the necessity for caution. His natural resentment must be kept in check at any cost.

i "It is the Indian," she went on rapidly. "I hate—l loathe the creature ! He is gifted with some evil power that makes one almost helpless if it be his will! Oh, darling, he atI tempted to make love to me! And my unhappy father is completely in his power!" She waited almost breathlessly for signs of Victor's sudden rage, but she saw merely a strange smile. 'I know ail about it," he answered quietly, drawing her head down upon his shoulder; "but I have jio intention of murdering him, as I might have done in ordinary circumstances." He set his teeth hard, then laughed roughly. 1 "Victor, darling, you mystify me!" ; "Your father has made some confession to serve his own selfish iends?" he asked. I "How do you know this? Oh, Vic- ' tor, you must not speak of him too j harshly—he is my father, and blood is thicker than water! He is in danger—terrible danger—and every man's hand is against him!"' "He has brought it all upon him ■ self, Hilda; and I have nothing but contempt for any man who thrusts his burdens upon others, when he is driven to the wall and unable to sin any more. Don't think me unkind, dear—my anxiety is all for you! Now, I will be plain with you. As Captain Carrington desires to tell me as much as will suit him about his perilous position and his hopes of escape, it will be my duty to undeceive him. He cannot escape!" A sharp cry 01 fear passed Hilda's < lips. ; "i say that he can, and he shall!" Victor saw that she was regarding him with qtormy, suspicious eyes. "He cannot—the police are here now! Be brave, little woman—the ( worst will soon be over! I think that he is wanted chiefly as a witness against the others. I half warned him, but he would not understand —

BY F. L. DACRE, Author of "A Lossless Marriage," "A Change of Heart," •'Trenholine'a Trust," "A Case for the Court," Etc, etc.

CHAPTER XXIII,

not thai It would have been of the slightest use!—anti I was angry at the time. Detectives do not show their hand until t.hey are ready for the final move. The butler, who is known here, u? Bartlet, is a detective; he told me so yesterday, fearing- that I haa penetrated his disguise. He was originally sent to Woodcroft to run to earth Sir John's private secretary, who was suspected of being ban:! and glove with your' lather, as regards the forgeries, you know; and then snatters began to develop in-unexpected directions—the detectives often trace several crimes through a single criminal. It was discovered that the man who negotiated forged notes under ;in English name was in re'ality an Indian prince, who has been wanted by the police for years. This man is Prince Ali Narain. Two of his confederates were arrested this morning at Luxembourg. "And all this," Victor continued after a pause, "has sprung out of Sir Jour. CnrriDKioVs sudden death and the a rtn.unctmerit in the newspapers that Captain Vane Carrington was his brother's heir! The whole story was concocted by Bartlet, and your father prompily fell mto the trap. Then the Oriental followed, hoping to fatten upon the power he held over your unhappy father. Bartlet—or, rather, Perrin, the detective, to give him his real name—sent me this news to-day, and I knew that you were safe from the schemers around you. 1 have heard, too, that you have been annoyed by the Indian. By Jove, it would be a pleasure to me to thrash him with my own hands!" "Can nothing be done for my father?" Hilda asked, with a hopeless shiver. "Victor, if you had seen him to-day as I have seen him, your heart would have melted with pity!" "He has no one to blame but himself! and, though I am very sorry for him, I cannot forget that he has wilfully brought this sorrow upon you. His conduct toward Sir John, too, from his very boyhood " "Hush!" She placed her fingers on his lips, and a sob escaped her. Hush, Victor—nothing can redeem the past!" . There was a long spell of silence. The sun had sunk behind the hills, and the stars were brightening in the purple sky; the shadows of night were fast creeping over the land. "I believe that I was happier as the poor drudge that Miss Morgan made of me," Hilda said at last. "Even then I had dreams of independence earned with my own hands and brain, and they were in themselves a feast of delight. Then you came into my life, darling, and, when I realised what your love really meant for me, I tasted of happiness to the full! You rescued me from slavery—you gave me freedom —and our little world was full of golden promise, until Sir John Carrington made me a wealthy woman. That was the first bar to our marriage; and now ——" In a passion of tears, she both praised Victor for his goodness to her, and reproached him for his dislike of her father, whom, in her capricious and illogical way, she ended by blaming for his selfishness and cowardliness. "How am I to bear it—the disgrace, the degradation? My father to be arrested in my house! I shall hate the place forever afterward. How dare he bring such trouble upon me?" "It will soon be ov-jr. Poor little Hilda, I could have saved you from this! Captain Carrgnton haa practically beenjjnder arrest for a week; the police have been waiting only to fill their net. The captain's punishment will be light—l am convinced of that—and in a little while this seeming calamity will resolve itself into a mere incident in our lives. Had your father escaped, he would have known no rest or peace in any quarter of the globe, the machinery of the law having been once set in motion. Hilda, my darling, try to believe that it is for the best!"

"It is a pity he is not dead!" she fiercely answered. Then she hid her face on her lover's shoulder and wept. In the midst of her tears a quick footstep was heard in the corridor without, and the door of the boudoir was unceremoniously pushed open. Victor Linton saw that the intruder was Captain Carrington, and that his eyes were blazing almost with the light of insanity. For a few moments he stood in silence; then a wild laugh escaped him, and he cried: '•So there you are, Linton! By heavens, if it were not for my daughter's sake, I would shoot yoj dead at my feet'"

"I AM SURE THAT THE FLACE IS ACCURSED!"' Carrington meant what he saidthere was no mistaking that. The expression on his face was that of a madman, and, even in the half light, the scar on his cheekglooked livid. TO BE CONTINUED.