"The Chains of Bondage."
5 BY EMILY B. HETHEBIHaTON. t Author o£—" Hiß Colleg3 Chum," *' Wortbington'e V Fledge," " A Kepenlant Foe," eie.
CHAPTER XXll.—Continued.
With shaking fingers she fitted the big, old-fashioned key to the lock. The grating screech it. gave in turn- j ing alarmed her—made her turn with a start, and look round uneasily. Then, withdrawing the key, she pushed the door open, and stepped into the darkness within, closing the door behind her softly and turning the key. • • For a moment Judith paused there in'' th& : holding her hr^th,£ 'listening.densely.' \' k Ji: '•'••\V-- > creaked t as Judith made her way. upstairs in* the- dark,' like muttering enemies watchfully on the alert, bent on betraying her. Even in the dark, every step of the narrow steep staircase of this miserably furnished, foul-smelling house was familiar to this woman, to whom the costliest refinement of luxury had become the commonplaces of life; and yet it seemed to her in some odd fashion as though it must have been in another existence that she had last mounted these stairs. This hazardous adventure had brought a strange sense of unreality with it.; . . ''..; ,:.'..'■"', Judith's heart was beating rapidly. Here, fn th> dark and the silence, in 'the'ihotfse of her enemies, she realised fully all ,she was risking by this desperate impulse'• of«a mother's love*. ■ "* '
There had never been any love lost between Gilbert wife and -the Burts. , Mrs Burt, the dead man's sister, had hated Judith with a bitter jealousy, due perhaps to the feeling that her sister-in-law came of a class different from her own, that always made her conscious of a sense of inferiority in Judith? s presence. ~..Judith knew how little i; money she ■: might - expect.- ; from the *•' Biir;fcs,; who rib jdoAibt,; ibelievecl -' herguiltyAOf her husband's /murder; Npf; • shing : ,to hope"for> 'shplild ; ihey find, !'•:::' \ : ,'' : ''- : '/. .',• ■:■,:..,: . -Jk^.. ;' : She pushedj thexdpor of :;the:: j-»rbomv at '':^on^';Kg^edlby,''-'a' : .guf^. | teririg: candle; she crept in softly, Land her eyes went kungrily to the bed, where the being she loved | most of all in the. world lay already asleep. -.•■ '*■••/'. ■'■,;<.•.'•' V Judithf raised her heavy : veil, ! afraid of' startling the boy should ;he awake. She took up the candle arid held it over the face of the sleeping child, looking down with poignant emotions, her eyes filling | with a rush of tears. She had ; staked eevrything in her desperate bid for, the she had won—;the fortune she was holding now by fraud; yet now to-night this womarii whose feet had wandered so far iffto the quagmire of deceit, felt that she would have sacrificed everything, almost without a pang, if by its surrender she could only have gone out into the world with her child, freo and with nothing :to fear. That thought swept over her now as she! '.' bent lower over the; sleeping boy, rei eyes hungrily devouring the face ■on the pillow;,through-.'a; rain of falliie tears. But too such surrender woul i give; her that' freedom. Always the ish'<c6w of the rope!' •
': >A swift intuition had told her—and the man's own face had confirmed her accusation—that Vernham had killed Gilbert Hardress; but she had no proof, no shred of evidence to fix the guilt' on the actual culprit, and thus clear herself. -A very real menace that shadow of the rope. ,' " Gilbert—.Gilbert, mj/ darling ?" she whispered. [-\
The're was no time to lose. She must wake the child and get him away at once. Who; could say how soon, the Burts might return? Judith had already made temporary arrangements, once she had got her child safely away fromliere. She had engaged rooms in a respectable house, under an assumed name, where/she would take him; she had' invented a plausibly story for the landlady. [,' At the end of the street a-cab was waiting. She had paid the driver. well, and had promised him a; further payment to ensure his waiting.- .:•'. " Gilbert !».' Judith stooped and kissed the little flushed face on the pillow; its heart. The hoy moved restlessly then : opened his eyes sleepily. xFor an instant they rested in staring bewilderment at the face bent down over his, then two little arms /were filing out eagerly and clung round her neck. .—- "Oh, mummy, mummy, dear! You's come back—Fse so vewy glad you's come back!" cried the little childish voice. " Why was you so unkind before?" The words! went like' a stab to her ''hearty ' -- : •'., ■'• V-, ■•■ ••'...■.■■■"'.. " Mummy didn't mean to be unkind," she-whispered, drawing the slender figure in a convulsive clasp, to her heart; "and niummy won't ever be unkind to her little boy again. I'm taking you far away to-night ,where you'll be happy and no one shall'be cross with you- " "An' I's not coming back here?" "No; never back here, Gilbert!" And she'saw the glad look of contentment in his face. ," Now, you must dress at once." She was in a fever of impatience to be gone. As she pressed him quickly, Judith's liands trembled so much* that she could hardly fasten buttons arid laces. The, suspense
was almost unendurable; but safety and success were in sight, almost won! Once she was out of this house she would feel safe. No near neighbours had been about as she entered; and, perhaps, even if she were seen leaving, no suspicion would be aroused. She mast control, her impatience and fear, if she was a friend of the Burts'. Suddenly Judith turned with a start. She had realised that -from the position of the candle her shadas ; . moved about the.room, had been throTOi. on the- blind of to alter its position, and as she did so her eyes "fell" on the niirrah Something she saw there seemed to stop the action of her heart in the middle of a beat—to turn it to a handful of dust. She had shut the door on entering ; now it was ajar an inch or more. Someone had opened it softj —someone was peeping in upon them now! Judith stood looking into the mirror as if fascinated, watching in horror the door slowly open, to reveal the evil, grinning | face of Tom Burt, bent on her in a i malicious smile! Heaven! the bitter cruelty of it! To be trapped in the very moment of triumph! Then she heard a frightened cry from the child, and she felt the boy clinging to. her as if for protection. ' The touch of his fingers, seemed to galvanise the desperate woman into action. She sprang forward, and struck at the candle with her bare hands. In a moment the light went out, leaving them in absolute darkness. As the darkness closed round them like a trap, Judith heard the hated, remeipbered voice saying mockingf'' filo'. it's Judith! . Hanged if 1 didn't think' it- was your; shadow I ;i' saw on the blind f Lucky. I- had " to come back, wasn't, it ? And I ■' came in quietly—to give you a pleas-. , ant. surprise, Judith!" . , ; ' The soft, mocking voiee suddenly changed to one of rasping malice, as he.added: ■ "And what a fool you we"" to . come. back to the house of the relatives of the man you murdered—to run your neck into a noose!" CHAPTER XXIV. ; JUDITH COMES BACK TO HER ... FATE. . For an instant Judith stood there in the darkness, utterly unnerved, like a hunted creature that sees the fangs of the hounds closing' on it| Her first thought was: Could she •bribe this man to silence P Selfinterest would, surely weigh with a man like, Tom Burt. But she had little money on her beyond that to pay the. cabman; not enough to make the bribe worth offering. He would doubt her ability to pay,, unless she told him that Judith Hardress was now Judith Fairfax ; -and that she dared not tell him, except as a last resource. She would never know another moment's'safety. He would take her money and promise secrecy, no doubt, almost inevitably, he would let out the ser cret in some drunken moment; he was a man who alweys talked in his cups. v ; • She heard him open quickly a box <3f matches, heard at the same moment little Gilbert's frightened cry, and quite noiselessly > she moved a step forward. There was a little, - rasping sound as he essayed to strike a match; then a muttered oath as the match broke ineffectually. '.' ■ 1 ~ - rv. If Burt could have seen her face then he would have realised that he had a' dangei'ous woman to deal with. Jjadith was desperate, and out of her desperate position she seemed to pluck a mail's strength and resolution. -1 Guided by the sound of the match, she sprang forward, before he could take a second match from its box, and struck out with all her strength; , Her clinched fist ffell on his chin, and the man reeled back under the unexpected blow from the dark. Quick as lightning, her fist fell again, this time full on his temple, and before he had recovered his balance. The man stumbled and fell, with a crash, striking his head in his fall. - He lay still, neither moving nor moaning. Was he merely stunned, or-—— But it was impossible that her blow could have killed him. A shuddering fear seized Judith. In a panic she caught Gilbert's hand, lifted, the child up in. her arms, and, .carrying him, felt Tier way to the 'door. ■ •• ' : Through the door, on the landing, and down the stairs in the dark, trying'" desperately to find whispered words, words to soothe the c boy's fears, her shuddering thoughts lingering behind, with the man who lay so still on the floor upstairs. Enjoining the boy to silence, sha flung open the front door, half dreading to find Mrs Burt waiting outside ; but the coast 4 seemed clear. She closed the door softly afh* them—hurried down the street toward where the cab was Once in. the cab, she wo lid feei safe..
(To be Continued)
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10069, 17 August 1910, Page 2
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1,648"The Chains of Bondage." Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10069, 17 August 1910, Page 2
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