"The Chains of Bondage."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10067, 15 August 1910, Page 2

"The Chains of Bondage."

V BY EMILY B HETHERINGTON. * 1 I it Author of-" His foileg C -vi n," " W .ct'iiu.^t;a i W z ,: A iieijtn t ,nt Foe," o'«o. «* ? J

CHAPTER XXl.—Continued

They had passed in one of corridors, when a startled look crossed Jim's face, and he suddeiay whispered to his companion: "I heard someone just now. ill swear there's someone behind us." He turned swiftly as he spoke. All his faculties were keenly on the alert, and he could have swore he had heard the faint rustling of a woman's garments, as of someone moving stealthily through the o-hostlv gloom that lay everywhere Tike a" heavy pall beyond the. dun radius of the wavering candle light. Suddenly Jim sprang quickly forward, and the rush of air extinguished the light of the candle he carried as he darted down the winding corridor whence that rustling sound had proceeded. Trevena followed, but more cautiously, shielding the light of his candle to prevent it being blown out by the draught. Its dim, flickering gleam scarcely dissipated the darkness a dozen yards ahead. Jim did not pause to light his own ceandle again. The spirit of adventure had gripped him. He was determined to get to the bottom of this tantalising mystery. What should a woman be doing here » i this house of silence •■; . ? 3d_ ow? And it was the rustling of a woman's dress he heard.

The only light to guide him as he raced forward along the twisting corridor was from Trevena's candle seim distance behinri; hut it pierced the gloom sufficiently for Jim, as he swung round an angle in the passage, to catch a momentary glimpse of something thai startled him. "Whoever yr,u are- stop!" he shouted. The figure of a woman W'.s on'v just visible in the grey shadows that flitted across his vision fcr an instant; then it had vanished as quickly—where? Again ho had heard the faint rustle of her garments, tho almost imperceptible clink as of a closing door, following a sudden waft of wind in his face Then he came upon adoor, scarcely more than a moment after €he figure had disappeared so suddenly. It must be through this door that she had vanished.

He stood with his fingers on the handle as Trevena came quickly up. "Whoever it was, she went in here—a woman!" whispered Jim breathlessly. This is beginning to get exciting. I caught a momentary glimpse of her in the shadows —just the mere outline of a woman's figure; but whoever she is, and whatver she's doing here she's in this room."

As he spoke, he hurriedly relit his candle, and opened the door. It was a room they had already explored—a large unfurnished room of a curious shape; it was hexagonal. The one window it contained was high above the ground. To all appearances, there was no other mean of egress, no other door in the six bare walls. And yet the room was empty! "Well, I'm blessed!" muttered Jim, utterly amazed, as the light of the two candles flung monstous moving shadows round the _ oddly shaped room, revealing this un-looked-for ending to their chase. In spite of himself, an imoanny thrill quivered for a moment over Jim Ralston,s nerves. He had seen that mysterious woman,s figure less than a minute ago. It could only have been into this room that she passed; Ih'a doo was the only door near. Yet she r had vanished as if into thin air. The two men exchanged puzzled, startled glances. "What on earth does it mean?" muttered «/ira.

As he was speaking, Trevena suddenly made three or four swift steps forward.

"Look! Do you see that?" he excitedly cried. He had picked up something form the dusty, uncarpeted floor. "This proves that the figure you saw passed through this room, for this wasn't here when we were in this room before!" he cried. "And ghosts don't drop tangible proof of their presence like this." It was a playing card that Trevena had picked up from the floor. Just such a playing card that had startled Herbert Wace by its strange, inexplicable appearance nights before—the nine of diamonds !

The two men looked at the card in puzzled amazement. It was as though this adventure, which had met them almost as they crossed the threshold of this old house had been the first step leading them into a mystery far stronger than ever Trevena had expected. Who could the woman beP What was she doing here? Where had she vanished ?

Three .quetions to which the silence of the empty room gave no answer, as Jim and Trevena stared in blank bewilderment into each other's eyes.

CHAPTER XXII

A SHADOW OF THE NIGHT.

(To be Continued)

The two men stood there utterly baffled. It was aqueer, ending to the adventure.

If the woman whose figure Jim Ilalsto.i h:id dimly described in the shadowy L;;o'.m, moving noiselessly save for the faint rustling of her garments, had been apparently us impalpable as the thin air into which she seemed to have vanished, the card at least that Trevena had picked up was substantial enough. "I begin to think this old place is going to prove a bigger puzzle even than I expected." Trevena said, after a few moments' fruitless search round the hexagonal room. •' Old Andrew Grieyson's dying words hinted at some secret, but 1 never bargainer) fui mysit-non" ten ants who vanish into space like a conjuring trick. One thing is obrintiF, ince we can have ti eqn s tion of ghosts out of consideration —this room has some hidden outlet, and, short of pulling J Jie place to pieces, we'll find it, Jim!" he cried. "I promised old Andrew not to let th? house—though in spite of me it soer:;s to have occupants already—but I didn't promise not to try to solyj the secret."

The inexplicable thing was that they had gone from basement to garret, making a complete exploration of every room in systematic order, search had revealed no trace of any unauthorised tenants ,such as the sound of muffled voices, which they had heard on entering ,and the apparition of the woman, seemed to indicate there must be.

"Jim," said Trevena to his friend suddenly, "I don't know whether you bargained for ghost hunting among your new secretarial duties?"—with a laugh, though his tones were serious—" but whether it leads us to the secret of Andrew Grierson's missing jewels or not, you and I have to unravel this mystery we've run up against and " A sound from below, clear and distinct, cut through Trevena's words.

After the almost uncanny disappearance oj the figure, Jim had seen—strange enough to Irave savoured of the supernatural, had not both men been convinced that it was merely exceedingly clever trickery on the part of someone no less of flesh and blood than themselves—the utterly commonplace nature of the interrupting sound seemed almost the more startling. It was the whir of a telephone bell.

"By Jove! I remember now noticing a telephone apparatus in the hall as we entered," Jim said; "but one is so accustomed to the sight of a telephone that it never struck me as being an odd sort cf ornament for an untenated house. Now, what on earth should old Grierson have wanted with a telephone installed! in this empty house of his, for the telephone company wouldn't fail to charge rent?" This was only one strange fact further in an array of inexplicable facts that had confronted Trevena since his ownership of Ffoulke's Folly. "Yes; and, what's stranger still, who can be at the phone, presuming ably ringing up dead Andrew Grierson?" added Trevena, ae the two men went quickly down from the hexagonal room to the hall, where the telephone bell was still ringing its insistent summons.

Trevena, glancing round, took up the receiver.

"Hello! Who are you?" Then, as the answer came he turned quickly to Jim. " It seems to be a message for you." "For me?" cried Jim in surprise. " From whom?" Trevena's ear was at the receiver, listening. Then he said : "Miss Hood." "From Elsie?" cried Jim. He took the receiver quickly from Trevena's hand, realising the simple solution of the apparent mysteryy. He had told Elsie hurriedly that he was going to the late Mr Grierson's house at Denmark Hill that night, and ,no doubt, looking in the directory, she had found that this house was on the telephone. "Elsie ,is that you?" he said. "It is I, Jim."

Then, as ho heard the girl's familiar voice come to him over the stretched wire, Trevena saw his friend's face take a startled look in the light of the candle he was holding. " Oh, Jim—Jim, can you come at once?"

There was an agaonised note in tlfe girl's agitated voice as the words reached the ears of the man who loved her.

"Jim, something terrible has happened " The words seemsd to break off with a choking cry. With a white face Jim listened with straining ears, but the ' voice did not come again. It was as though while the agitated message was being spoken the girl at the other end of the wire had fainted dead away.

With those startling, broken words ringing in his ears, Jim Ralston' turned to his friend with a, white face.

"I must go afc once," he teaid. "In Heaven's name, what can have happened?"