PAOLINA. OR THE MILLION AIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10147, 25 January 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA. OR THE MILLION AIRE'S PLOT.

(OUR SERIAL**

By MAEU'OSA WEIR, Author 6! "tvaayne's Temptation," "A Chase Rounrf taa World,' etc.

CHAPTER Xl.—Continued. j i Hector pulled the bell, which was answered by an elderly woman. Hector's first' inquiry was whether there was a "front room'- to let. Being answered in the affirmative, , he said lie would take a look at the apartment, and was shown, upstairs to a, square room on the second floor. It was poorly furnished, but lieat and well kept. ' ... ...... ..,,... Then he: inquired the .price of the lodgings, 'paid for a month in advance, and' said he would take pp's-. session afternoon. ~'; CHAPTER XII. GINA'S SUSPICIONS CON- ■"*•'.' FIRMED. When the Princess paid the next visit to,the hospital,, she did not fail to give Zip a circumstantial account of her adventures of the preceding Mlay; and when asked whether she had any idea as to who the person was who had followed her, she rereplied that she had no doubt at all that he Avas Hannah Hepburn's uncle, Mark.Pimdewou. Thereupon Zip became much excited, and declared that the police ought to be set upon his track at once. "What I am afraid of, Zip," said the girl, who had evidently been thinking of the matter a good deal, "is. that he'll try to do you some injury. You see, he'll calculate that as soon; as iyou get well, you'll be making-a complaint' against him. Or, even if" he had no, fear of that, he'd feel uneasy because you overheard .that strange; plot of; his.. His coming round theliospitla'l in that way, with-: false whiskers and a wig,, looks suspicious. And then if it's true that he is working for the great man he talked about, with no end of, money, he will have great power for misdiief." "Well," said Zip, "the thing for me and Seth is to look out sharp for ourselves as soon as we get out of this. He can't do us no harm while we v are inhere:" t Gina said she didn't feel so sure of that. He was*so wicked and so cunning, , and so bold, that there was no telling what he wouldn't try. She. cautioned Zip to be constantly on his guard. She should't wonder, she said, if Punderson should bribe some one in- j side the hospital to act as his spy. When she came, the second day after this visit, she had another adventure to .relate. As she was passing the corner of Montgomery and Clay Streets, the day previous, a lady who had just stepped out of an omnibus dropped her purse asishe reached the sidewalk.' Gina saw it fall, and hastened to pick it up and restore.it to j its owner. '"I 'had to run after her,/' said the girlj "for she was walking very fast.' When I came up to her, and told her she had lost something, she turned and looked at me; and, oh, Zip, liow beautiful she was! I never saw anyone in my life so beautiful. She asked me my name and where I Jived. Then j she took out a five dollar gold piece j and offered it to me. But, of course, ] I. didn't take,it. Then she took out a i card, and wrote something on it, witha gold pencil, and gave it to me, and told me to call at the address. She! said:she ; wanted to,see me particular-I ly. She said for me to come this afternoon.. Here's the card. j Zip took the card, and read on it,! 1 "Miss Cranch, .No.— Stockton-st." j "Well now," he observed thoughtfully, "that does begin to look like an adventure after all. Are you going?" "Yes, I should, like to see her once more. There can't be any objection, can there?" "I'm not so sure of that," said Zip, looking ever so wise and thoughtful. "You're just arriving at that time of life, Gina, when a young female can't be too careful and particular. We . don't know, notliin' about this here beautiful lady. Wbat can she want you. to come to her house so particular for? I don't exactly like the looks of it." ... /' ' Gina seemed greatly puzzled and grieved at this speech. She said with nrnch earnestness that she was sure that the lady was as good as she was beautiful. "You oughtn't to go to her house" persisted Zip, "without a purtector. But as you seem to be so set on it, you'd, better take Hannah along. "She has got more grit than most]

men, and will know what to do if there's any thing wrong. She can wait outside, and walk back and forth till you come out." At this moment one of the attendants brought a bowl of soup for the patient. The girl took it from his hand, and after lie had gone, she asked Zip whether the man was not one who had been newly employed. She had not seen him before, she said. Zip had been told that one of the nurses had been discharged the day before for drunkenness, and he "supposed3hat' ! "tnis was lnV succesor. At; any rat© the man's face was new to him. . . ~ : The conversation was interrupted at this moment by the entrance of Doctor Spiretti, whereupon Gina took her leave, promising to call again the next day. As she went'out she -saw a man loitering at the adjacent corner as if waiting for some one. In this person she recognised at a, glance the man who had followed her a few. days before, and whom she believed to be Mark Punderson. He did not seem to see her., and she walked quickly away down the street. But after she had got a block and a half off, she turned and went slowly back until she was near enough to observe "the 1 man's movements. In a few moments she saw another man come out of,,the hospital and join the first. The two how came toward her, engaged in earnest conversation. As. they .approached she turned up a side ...street, keeping her back to them until they passed Then she "turned again and followed them"at. a. short distance, until they stopped at a street corheiy still so absorbed, in. what they were talking about thai neither of them took any notice of her. • , ,As ;sjie passed- by ; ,them. : ,o?r the other., side of the way, "she saw.'the man she supposed io be Punderson, put some money into the hand; of the other, and distinctly "heard the chink of coin. At, the same time she recognised the attendant who had taken Zip the bowl of > soup a short time before. Her most, alarming; suspicions, being thus confirmed, she walked swiftly,on until the two men were out of sight, and .then made her way back to the hospital by a' circuitous route at best speed.' CHAPTER XIII.. DR SPIRETTI'S DISCOVERY; When Gina re-entered the hospii tal Doctor Spiretti was sitting at Zop's bedside, conversing with him in a low tone. The first,thing the girl did was to examine the bowLof broth which the attendant had' left for the patient a little while before she had left. It was nearly empty, but a few tablespoon fuls of thebjotb. remained. ■ * j "What's up, Gina?" said 'Zip [ drowsily, "wasn't you Tiere a while ago, or have I 'been dreamin'. ■ It ' seems to me you was here, and'told me about a beautiful lady, ypu'd seen. But p'r'aps. I dreamt itt I don't feel very wide awake, somehow. Wasn't you here, though?" :. Gina told him she had left .only . twenty minutes before, but .he! did not seem to heed her reply, an<J after muttering some half-intelligible words, turned over, and almost; instantly began 6 breathe stertorou's- >■"■- ■ "■ ■ :•;...' ■/".-,■...• *£'i::-it-'He seems to be singularly comatose," said the..doctoiv "I shall have to call, again by and by,-for he has been unable to talk coherently. "You are a physician, I believe?" said Gina. ' j "I have made some studies in medicine," answered: Spiretti, : eyeing the girl curiously; 'and 1 once was supposed io possess some skill." Gina handed him. the bowl ) and said: >•'',; "Examine this, please. I'm afraid there's -something wrong about it.' He was quite wide awake a little while ago when I was here. Then they brought him. this, and it has made him sleepy." .; t The doctor smelled the broth, at first, putting' his nose over the'edge of the howl, then dipping his'.fbr- [ finger into it, and applying it, tb his nostrils. A singular expresion came over his countenance, and as lie set down the -dish Gina saw that' 1 his hand trembled; To De Continued.