NEIL MALLOW'S SIN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10138, 8 November 1910, Page 2

NEIL MALLOW'S SIN.

(OUR SERIAL.)

BY JOHN A. PETERS. Author of "Married at Midnight," "Two Odd Girls," etc., etc., etc.

CHAPTER ll.—Continued. "1 am through begging arms. Have patience. A few unvarnished truths and our interview, so fraught with unpleasantness for both, is ended. Randal Drake, 1 am inexpressibly disappointed in you. You arc naturally magnanimously inclined, and T cannot acocunt for this display of parsimony on your part now. That something of no light nature has come between us as a barrier, I can see plainly. I, innocent of all intentional ' wrong, am kept in the dark. The prayer of Ajax was for light. That, you will not grant me. So. without material to work with, I am powerless to dispel the cloud between us. 1 cannot hew down the barrier. Forget your injustice, I never can. r'orgivc it, I possibly may, if I am safely delivered from this fiery trial. Stay, do not leave me. It is said to be a contemptible act for one person to remind another of his indebtedness -to him. As I am dealing with an unprincipled man I will not mince matters, but boldly declare the truth. Randal Drake, do you remember when, standing on the verge of bankruptcy, T came forward and rescued you? That, unhesitatingly, and willing to lose -my fortune for the sake of accommodating my dearest friend in this, bis hour of need, I placed in your-hands the thousands*that saved you? Have you forgotten it, .1 ask?" A pause ensued, painful in the extreme. It was a strange scene. At the foot of the tree the two men stood, bathed in silvery moonlight, branches waving and whispering above their heads. The fair one kept his head studiously bent to the ground, his brow flushed hot with

shame. Too well lie remembered all. Only for tho man whose kindness he was repaying with scorn, he would have been a pauper. Yen. better that, than have another rob him of the woman he worshiped. And if Christine, with her independent way of thinking, her volcanic temperament, should meet the original of the picture, whose face had so fascinated her, he shuddered to think of what might happen. If, on the other hand, he was consigned to a prison cell—stigmatized as a gaol-bird—he could not stand in his path as a rival. A few feet from him with hand slightly upraised, the embodiment of dispair was Neil Mallow. His dark, glorious hair, reminded one of a tropical night. And screened from the eyes of both, abhorring the one, pitying the other, was a brilliant daintily beautiful woman, the diamonds on her person flashing like innumerable fireflies in the dark. The moon looked down and illumined the spectacle. The three never forgot that night; it jutted out prominently in their lives as the most miserable one they had ever spent. One by one tho moments passed. Randal Drake, never at a loss for felicitous words to express, himself, uttered no syllable. He felt as if the brand of Cain was on his brow—like another Judas who had betrayed his master. Once more, and for the last time, Kei; Mallow spoke.

"No, Kandal Drake, you have not forgotten. Your shrinking attitude bespeaks shame! Yen are fully sensible of your cowardly treatment of mo. One more instance, and then we part, never more to meet as friends. Look back, Randal; take a retrospective view of what happened when we were both boys and visiting at Mr Gordon's country seat on the banks of the Hudson. See you that swift-rolling river; the boy struggling in the water, at the mercy of those cruel waves; drowning, because he cannot swim ? Has that which took place escaped your memory? No, no, impossible! A boy tears down the bank—a mere stripling; he springs into the dark water, and to the shore he drags the body of his friend. Hours later they sit on the green bank and listen to tho play of the waves. A yellow moon shines in the sky. The fair youth says to the dark one: 'Neil, sec you that moon ? When I forget that you have saved my life—when I ever say nay to anything you desire of me—then may its glory for ever be obscured ; may darkness shut out niysight forevermorc!' You have been tried and found wanting. Farewell! my once loved friend, farewell!"

He, turned the corner of tho building. Ho was gone. Randal, repentant —the scene of that boy struggling in the waters fresh in his memory—started to recall the despairing man. He did cry out, '-Neil, come back!"

but no one returned; the cry was made in vein. ■ Christine, too, endeavoured to bid him stop. She thrust aside the brandies at the window, but both figures had vanished, and she, also, was too late to infuse hope in that despondent soul. She had not meant to lot him ro. She had been waiting for an opportunity to speak—to offer him aid. Oh, why had she let the chance slip by? Gladly mild she have slipped off the diamonds that encircled her

anus and nock, that shone in her hair, and depended from her ears, and, tendering them to him said, "Dispose of them and pay your debt." 01), where had lie gone? Would he take his life, as he had intimated? Or, to obtain the requisite sum, would he stain his hands with blood, and steep his soul fn eriine? "God help him in this, his hour of need," she prayed. "Tempted as he is, driven to despair, oh, save him! save him! Alas why did 1 not aet when it was time for action ? I, who was base enough to eavesdrop, ought to have boon bold enough to face the participants of that tragical scene—to cry 'Shame!' to the one, and giov consolation to the other. Randal Dra'ke, your day with me is over. I would sooner die than become your wife. Oh! what can I do to bring peace to the heart of that wretched man ? How can I go to work to trace his whereabouts —to find and save him ? A detective must be put on his track or Dear ine, someone is approaching! I must flee!" She retraced her steps down the aisle. The person coming toward her proved to be Randal Drake. "Ah, Christine," he exclaimed, "I have found you at last. What a cool, fragrant spot! Will you not be. seated? Here, near this jungle of fire-tongued cacti is a delightful seat." But she drew haughtily away. "Henceforth, Mr Dn&e, we arc strangers. I never want you to address me again." "I don't understand you, Christine. You arc wholly enigmatical." "Am I? I will try to bo less puzzling', then. Sir, .1 overheard your conversation with Neil Mallow. I find myself justified, therefore, in withdrawing my friendship from one who has proved unworthy of it. Words are inadequate to describe my contempt for you. He kept you from bankruptcy—he saved your life. How have you repaid him? Hush! it i.i useless to expostulate—to plead to me. You were adamant to him; I am adamant to you! Co ! Like some outraged queen she confronted him, pitiless and unyeilding to the last degree; and, with a groan, realizing that by Ifis base act he had lost his friend and the woman he loved, he went out of the conservatory. Christine ordered her carriage and was driven home. She remcuvn-ed afterwards hearing someone ;ay, as the horses started: "Look, Hill; there goes old Marsh's bv.ightu-, the handsomest woman in Noiv Yoik, and weighed down with 'iia.-nonds that cost a small fortune! ' CHAPTER ill. *"I SHALL ALWAYS THINK OF YOU AS MY GUARDIAN ANGEL!" Christine was glad to be alone in the privacy of her own room. Felicie; who was waiting for her, was dismissed at once. "1 shall not need your help to-night, Felicie. Go to bed; you are tired." As for Christine, she felt that she could not sleep ; so she threw herself, all dressed as she was, on a sofa at the window, and mused on the events of the evening. At last when the clock struck three, and she lay in a dreamlike state, which is neither sleeping or waking, but, still held by the thrall of inertia, a scene from the Inferno seemed to glide before her. She beheld an arid, precipitous bank, seamed with rocks and alive with snakes and slimy, crawling things—a very Gehenna of a place, where naught grew save a few noxious weeds. At its base was a pool of turbid water, fairly swarming with hissing tilings, the nature of which she could not determine. Up, far as the eye could reach, on. a jagged, beetling rock, regarding the scene with horror, yet impelled as it were to take a leap into tiic muddy pool below, was a man with the beauty of Lucifer—dark, glorious, with the shadow of evil hanging over him. As he stood, in the act of hurling himself down, a green oasis sprang magically into existence on that wide strip of desert land; from the bowels of the earth, seemingly, came a slender girl, bearing in her hands ropes of diamonds. Tho thicket of grass through which she moved half buried her; she held aloft the scintillating stones; the snakes ran afrightencd from her presence, and the man paused in his man act, and sank to the ground, crying out: "I am saved! Thank God, I am saved!" _ With gladness unutterable she opened her eyes, no longer oppressed by that terrible dream. No steep bank met her glance—no Stygian pool—no squirming reptiles. She was in her own room—wide awake—alone. Nay, not alone! Some one, tall, dressed in black, his face hidden by a mask, stood so near her that her drapery touched her feet. Whence came he? And what was his intention— robbery? (To be Continued.)