SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9685, 8 January 1910, Page 2

SIR JOHN'S HEIRESS.

CHAPTER XXIII.-Continued. In ten minutes Victor was riding away in the teeth of a fierce blast of wind. The trees creaked and groaned, and the leaves whirled hither and thither in clouds, while great raincrops began to iall. Once he fancied that he heard a sound like the crack of a pistol shot, but he smiled in self-contempt. His nerves were overstrained. Was the snapping of a twig to turn his blood cold? Involuntarily the young man glanced in the direction of the ruined tower as he rounded a bend in the drive, and'he saw a faint phosphorescent glow. "Fancy a gain'." he muttered a little wrathfully. "All the same, I am beginning to dislike this place even as Hilda does. Now, Bess, my lass, we must travel fast when once clear of the castle grounds." He glanced at the granite pile, which looked like a crouching giant in the darkness. The lights in the windows showed blurred and dim through the rain. "Goud-by, my poor Hilda!" he 1 murmured. "We must live for the future." He tnought that he heard a wo.man's fain scream—the shriekrhg of .the wind. Then he saw a wild white face with staring eyes peering from ! among the limes in the avenue; but i it seemad to melt away even as he i gazed. Black Bess reared and plunged. "Hang it all," he growled. "I am frightening the mare with my unsteady rein! Go ahead, my lass! It is your rider who is a fool!" CHAPTER XXIV A TRAGEDY IN THE WOOD. The insane notion had taken possession of Captain Carrington that Victor Linton was his enemy. It was "this infernal limb of the law," as he termed him, who had raked up his past and had put the police on his track. And why? Because he wanted his own influence over Miss Carrington, and her wealth to be supreme. It was all so clear—Linton, with all his cleverness and double dealing, had been unable to disguise his real feelings?! Thus Carrington, in his mad mood, reflected, and the more he dwelt on the subject the firmer became his belief in his theory. He was ruinedruined ! There was no gleam of hope before him was the criminal's dock or death, and death was preferable a thousand times! He was a traitor, a forger and a thief ! And the newspapers would be full of the details of his villainy. "I can't face it!" he decided. "I will die, but not alone—there is Linton; and there is also my evil genius, the accursed Indian!" He went up to his daughter's boudoir, and, finding Linton there, gave utterance to his raging thoughts. But his purpose was changed; for he reflected that Hilda j cared for Linton—was his promised wife—and Hilda would be good to I her stepmother, so he would not harm his daughter's lover. And Linton's I sin was sure to find him out! , But ' there was another—the man who had i caused his utter downfall! I Bareheaded, he rushed into the courtyard to cool his throbbing temples; then he remembered that he must speak or write to Hilda, snd must kiss his wife "good-by." He j her in his way, though he had led her a life of privation and misery. I He went to his room and scribbled j these lines: "I shall die to-night after I have killed my worst enemy. Why should I live to disgrace you more? The police are here; and, when I think of them, I am appalled by the magnitude of my 'crimes. lam one of those unfortunate creatures who are born under an evil star; no matter how good their intentions, they always fail, and drag the innocent With them in their downfall. I want you to forgive the wrong I have done you, because I could not help myself. And, now that it is too late, l am beginning to realise what I owed to you in the matter of parental duty. But forget and forgive, for, when you read this, my life will be over! But lam determined to send another before me! "Good-by, Hilda! And one last request—be kind to my wife! Whatever her faults, she has been faithful to your unhappy father, "VANE CARRINGTON." "The servants or the police will find it here," he thought grimly as he sealed the letter and addressed it to Hilda, "But when? Not until my checks are handed in!" He left the grewsome message on he table, and went to Mrs Carrington's room, which adjoined his own. His wife was, reading a novel, and merely glanced up as he entered. His comings and goings weie erratic, and she was rather afraid of h m. "Alice" —his voice was hoarse — I "put down that trash and listen to I me! I am sorry if I have startled you, but I want to say 'goud-by' to you, my girl." "Good-Dy to me? Not if I know it!

BY F. L. DACRE, Author of "A Loveless Marriage," "A Change of Heart," ••Trenholme's Trust," "A Case for the Court," Etc, etc.

Where you go I go. jj J wish we had never come here to be treated like dirt!" She bpgan to cry in her hapless way. "'Don't snivel, Alice! I've never been overgood to you, but I am going to do you the best action of my life!" He laugher! boisterously. "Let me kiss you, and don't ask queqtiona! And, my poor girl, always remember that I never under-estimated your good qualities! Better a thousand times for you had you married my orderly!" "Vane, my dear, what are you talking about? Haw can you compare yourself—you a gentleman—with the like of Sergeant Jaggers? It's cruelof you, my dear!" Mrs Carrington's handkerchief went up to her eyes. Her husband looked at her fiercely, and the wild light in his eyes softened a little.

"It will be sill right soon, Alice. Dont'fret—that's all! Everything will be explained to-morrow." "Donf go out again, dear—spend the evening with me!" she pleaded. "I do hate that Prince AH, and wish J your daughter wbuls send him to the right-about! If I was the mistress here, as ycu thought I should be, he'd hav-2 to pack up pretty quick!" Carrington bent and kissed his wife's brow, then he nodded and left the room without another word. Conscious that even the servants might be spies, he had asked the rajah to meet him near the lake, thinking they would not be interrupted there. He clutched the revolver in the breast pocket of his coat. That the prince would De at the place appointed he never doubted; he had noted with satisfaction the swift flash of alarm in the Indian's dark eyes, the sudden compression of his thin, cruel lips. These Asiatics were crafty, but, as to the powers they claimed for themselves —Carrington laughed—with utter folly. They were in a real crisis! The clouds were scurrying over the face of the moon. How the wind blew, how the ice-cold rain beat up on his bare head! With swift feet he crossed the moat, passed oyer the lawns and terraces, and struck into the little wood that bounded the lake. Then he stood irresolute until a tall figure loomed before him, and as he recognised the Indian the hot blood rushed through his veins.

"Is that you, Prince Ali Narain?" "It is I, my friend," came in cooing tones. "You requested me to meet you here, and now you pretend surprise!" "I pretend nothing." N "Bah! You are quarrelsome—l read your thoughts." 1 •'Stuff! Your thought-reading is, like yourself, a fraud—humbug through to the core!" The rajah laughed.

"I have never failed to read your thoughts, Captain Carrington, and to anticipate your every action. You wish me to give up the supreme effort of my life, and I decline. Mind, you have already insulted me and crossed me once to-d'iy, and it must not occur again!" He hissed out the last sentence, "I shall make a princess or the charming Hilda!" , "You fool!"

"I wear a flower in my coat which she dropped to me from her window —see, a white camelia! Now, do you realise the extent of my power? She will come to me in a day or two of her own free will—or what will seem like her own free will." "Liar! Your power? Faugh! And your knowledge? Why, vou don't even know now that we are tracked and doomed! The police are in the house—they have come to take us—they know that we are here, and will follow us in a moment! And you talk of your power!" . [ The Indian reeled backward. "Your knowledge!" repeated Carton, following him and glaring at him. "You craven humbug and cheat! And to think that I have been led by such a thing as you—that X have been your dupe and servant!" But the end has come; I have only one more thing to do—to save the hangman a little work." , A report like the crack of awhip j rang out, startling a bird in a tree j above them. The moonlight broke through a mass of flying clouds and penetrated faintly even to where they'stood. Prince AH Narain leaped forward brandishing a heavy stick: a cry like the snarl of an angry tiger passed his lips; the stick fell wii;h a dull thud. The next moment all was dark again. It seemed but an instant later w hen a heavy splash sounded from the lake, and a man's flying feet craahed among the undergrowth. The wind whistled in fitful blasts through the bending trees, and the rain fell in torrents. Midway between the lake and the carriage drive to the stables, Hilda Carrington was crouching. Her face was deathly pale. She had witnessed the blow which had killed her father, had heard the splash as of a body falling into the lake, but had been incapable of movement or speech. Now a moan burst from her lips, and she turned toward the castle. TO BE CONTINUED. (