A DESPERATE GAME.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10107, 30 September 1910, Page 2

A DESPERATE GAME.

(OUR SERIAL.)

By OWEN MASTERS.

Author of "The Master of Trederoft," "One Impassioned Hour," "The Deverel Heritage," "When Love Rules the Heart," "Captain Emlyn's Bride," etc.

CH'APTER Vl.—Continued

"Tell me," lie broke in, "toll me whether you perpetrated that robbery or not. But never mind—whether or not, it makes no difference. Will you come to Coy ton?" I was about to refuse rather peremptorily, and then I paused. Why should I not go to Coyton ? It would give me unrivalled facilities for —I did not mince the words with myself —for spying on him. It was not a nice thing to do, but, situated as I was, I could hardly consider the intricacies of conduct. I did not, however, reply on the instant. "I am waiting to hear from my cousin," I said.

against himself. So I clung with an almost hopeless hope to Ephraim, and waited for his answer.

"You can wait at Coyton," he responded.

But I shook my head. "I will go," I went on slowly, "but not yet. When I have heard from my cousin I will go." "You say he wants you to leave the country?' ' 'Mr Vanneek told me that—yes." "And you " "I shall not leave the country," I said fiercely. "If he will not give you the—the money you want?" "I shall earn it or—they say once a thief always a thief in this country, don't they? I shall steal it perhaps."

I have said that that was part of the inspiration of my inaction, but it was not all. I could not shake of the feeling that in some way I was being engineered by Vanneek, either with or without Ephraim's cognizance, into some scheme of which I could not trace the precise meaning and development. That I would not leave .ongland I was resolved upon, and I gave them a full week in order that their plans might be unveiled.

On the fifth clay I received a typewritten note from Vanneek, short, almost brutally so, and decidedly to the point.

"Ronald, old chap, you are bitter and cynical," he said, laying a hand on my shoulder. "I don't wonder at it, but why should you vent it on me? I tell you on my honour I believe you were innocent. Strong as the proofs were, I believed in you. Come down to Coyton and let us talk it over. Perhaps we may find a way out." "I will go later," I said. Indeed, I was now fully determined to go, for by unmasking him I should do double work—rehabilitate myself and destroy his chances with Constance. Imake no defence of my decision; I was but human, and prison life does not tend to ennoble one's moral strain. "It is a promise?", he queried cheerfuly. "It is a promise." "Where are you staying now?" "At—in Bloomsbury—at the old place." Wo stood for nearly a miiinte facing each other. "Is .Joel Hud-pith still there?" he asked. "Yes."

"My Dear Normington: Your cousin refuses all monetary aid except under the conditions I have outlined to you. I shall expect yoti the day after to-mor-row, as arranged, say 8.30 p.m. "Yours, "R. V^NNECK."

There was another lengthy pause during which Maynard seemed to be thinking out some problem. His train of thoughts were displayed in his next words. "If you were innocent " "Yes?" "There was a plot against you." "Yes."

I determined that I would keep that appointment, and I also resolved that I would see Ephraim ere I took his refusal as final, and fell back on Maynard as my last resource. In any case my mind was fuly made up that I would not leave England. It was dark when I reached Hampstead, but I knew the way and had no difficulty in finding the house. As I drew near the gates I noticed a motor car standing some eight or ten yards away, but I paid no heed to that. I approached the door with mixed sentiments of doubt and forboding, but, curiously enough the real object of my visit was not my most insistent thought. Should I see Constance again, and if so, how

"A plot to involve you, to fasten the crime upon you, in order that the real offenders might get off scotfree." "Yes."

"I have thought of that and tried to work it out. If that be so, somebody at the trial must have lied, and that should put you on the track of the conspiracy." I had it on the tip of my tongue to say, "Yes, you lied," but I hesitated in time and merely nodded my head. "It must -. have been carefully planned." 'lt was—very."

"And there must have been a confederate at your lodgings." "I have thought of that." • "Did you ever think of Joel Hudspith in that connection?" The query took me by surprise. I had never thought of Joel Hudspith in that connection, and yet, barring the fiction about the loan, I had "quite as much reason for suspecting him as for my doubts of Maynard Drew himself. But I did not put the thought into words. I merely replied, with as near an approach to indifference as I could assume, that I regarded all the world with suspicion, and that in that category Joel Hudspith had his place.

would she receive me? was the question which hummed in my brain, not exactly to the exclusion of the more sombre problems, though it forced even those into ;i dim background. It is curious how little we know of ourselves. -Nine people out of ten would have averred that the unutterable misfortune of a false accusation and undeserved imprisonment would have outweighed all else, but I can avow with clearness and certainty that as I rang the bell at Holme Lea that evening. Constance, and neither her father nor my cousin, was uppermost in my thoughts. How and under what circumstances I was to see her I could not have dreamed. The surprise and horror of it is as fresh with mo now as it was on that same sombre evening years ago.

I rang the bell and waited for two of three' minutes, and then, hearing no answering approach from within, I rang again. Still there was no answer, and I took a step or two backward, with the idea of looking about me. The house was nearly all in darkness, but I could see lights dimly through the heavy crimson curtains that shrouded a window of a room on the left, and , one single light in an upstairs chamber. I returned again to the door, and this time I noticed that it was slightly ajar, perhaps a couple, ox- at the most, three inches. I had not noticed that before, owing I dare say to the fact tha't the hall was in comparative darkness-. Without stopping to inquire as to the wisdom of my action, I pushed the door wide open, and stepped into the hall,, making my way straight

CHAPTER VII,

to the room on the left, a pretty apartment, pleasing and tastefully, though richly furnished, with an appearance ,part boudoir, and part bijou parlour. But it was empty and the book lying face down upon the hearthrug, a fragile table over-turn-ed, and a broken vase just by the piano, made it look as if it had been vacated in haste.

A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY,

The week that followed was one. of the slowest I ever endured. I appeared to have run up against a dead wall, and what lay upon the other side I could not see. For some reason not easily analysed, I seemed to be unable to make a move until the question pending between my cousin and myself was settled. It was not entirely the money, though that was not an unimportant feature by any means. For the quest, on which I was bent, it was necessary that I should have unlimited and unhampered leisure, and that could only be secured by the possessions of the wherewithal to secure the necessaries of life. Nay, more than that I should have to spend money on the quest itself. I had already made serious inroads into my own slender stock, and if Ephraim should refuse my prayer, I should have to look round for the means of earning some—a dubious task for an exconvict to essay, over and above the fact that it would, mean the end and 'ruin of any hopes I had of establishing my innocence. Of course, there was Maynard Drew, and you may bo sure I did not lose sight of him, or his money, though I shrank from making full use of him, since what ever I had from him would be used

I crossed the hall again and tried the room opposite. It was in darkness save tor a simmering glow of the fire. Li the half dim light I could see a figure at the table, and the indistinct outlines of another upon the couch at the far end. ' 'Mr Vaimeck!" I said.

Receiving no ansAver, I took a matchbox with trembling fingers from -.my vest pocket, and struck a, light. And as I did so I saw framed in the pale gleam of the window at my right, a face—indistinct, unrecognisable, intangible, but undoubtedly the face of a man. And then, as I turned to see what WJis in the room, I dropped the match with a loud cry, and stepped back into the hall.

My nervousness lasted less than a minute, however, and I was back again in the room with another match held aloft in my hand. Trembling as if with an ague, I searched for the electric switch, with a touch of which, when I had found it, I Hooded the room with light. At the head of the table, which glittered richly with silver and glass, sat Richard Vanneck, bent forward, his ghastly face lying upon the cloth his arms flung out wide before him. A thick stream of blood oozed slowly from his mouth, and on the snowy cloth was a dark patch, sluggishly outspreading as it was fed by the hideous tiny rivulet from which, it came. I went towards him, and shook him gently. But he remained motionless and inert. I think he was already dead then, for he made no sign then or afterwards as far as I could learn.