PAOLINA. OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10149, 27 January 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA. OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

(OUR SERIAL.-

By MARITOSA WEIB. Author of "tvaayne's Temptation," "A Chase Roum's tlio World," etc.

CHAPTER XlV.—Continued. The battery being brought . and prepared for use, Spirotti placed one handle of one pole in the right hand of the sleeper, closing the fingers round it. The hospital physician, looking on with a half sullen, half mortified air, observed with astonishment that when the Italian had thus adjusted the holder in the patient's hand and removed his own, the finger£, of )?? in^'^? n '' s might-have .been expected, firmly-and .*'•>'

told her to say nothing of it to any one else.

>f he,xGiaimt?d, -'fthis. woidd seem to be the sleep of catalepsy. That is certainly a cataleptic symptom." "It is not true catalepsis," returned the Italian, "though this peculiar rigidity of the muscles is, as you say, a mark of the cataleptic condition. I am one of those that hold that catalepsis can be artificially superinduced."

He now proceeded to apply the magnetic-■current, first to the limbs, then to the chest, and .finally, to the temples of the patient, whose breathing gradually became perceptible, and like that of a person reposing peacefully in natural slumber. When this treatment had been continued for a little time, Zip began to murmur in his sleep, and to move his limbs uneasily. At length he opened his eyes and stared confusedly at the faces about' his bed. I

"I must get right out of this," he said. " and Seth must get out, too." When' Spiretti returned with, a draught he had mixed, and Zip had swallowed it, the latter declared his intention of leaving the hospital in the morning. , "I felt quite well to-day," he said, "until I took that mess of pizen. Tomorrow I shall get up and dress myself, and ask for my discharge. I've got work to do. I've got a deep game to reckon up, and that young woman, you're a-lqokin r j f6r; dpcj-tor, is in the game." Spiretti shook his head sadly. "I hegin to despair," he said, "of ever seeing the child of my poor Paolina. My strength wanes with my hope, and the conviction grows upon me that my long quest is vain.'* "Don't you give up hope, doctor," returned Zip, encouragingly. "I begin to think that I am on her track. "You wait until you hear what I've got to tell you. If I feel as strong in the morning as I do now, I'll be at your place before noon. I'm just fretting myself to death here. I want to be out, a-workin' up this case. When you've heard the whole story, youUl take heart ag'in."

Some minutes passed before he appeared to be fully conscious. Then ;he satlup, aijdvputting both hands to his temples, said: = "Whatfs happened to me, T worn der? Have I been drugged? I feel ijiasfe as: if;I;-had•■ beeiii ; on;.a night, arid had jest woke up. Say, •what are you lookin' at a feller that way for? Gina, anyone ,'u'd think from your face that you'd been to a fnneraL What hev you been cryin' about?"'."

For answer the girl bent over the bed and kissed him on the forehead, whereat. Zip looked more astounded and mystified than ever. - After appearing to cogjtate for a while in a perplexed sort of way, he suddenly exclaimed :

"Ho, then! I've got it at last! It all comes back to me. I have been drugged. It's that there soup; and where's the man that give it to me—the new man that jest come inter the place? I'll bet the ducats that it's Mark Punderson that has got him put there in order to pizen me and Seth! And that puts me in mind. I shouldn't wonder if Seth's got a dose too. Doctor, you'd better take a look at that'par drier of mine in >the Salamander business, and jest see if they haven't served him the same trick." The resident physician summoned a, man and'told him to see if No. 19 was awake.

The man departed on his errand, and, returning in a moment, reported that No. 19 was in a sound sleep.

"Will you look at Mm," said the resident physician, addressing , Spiretti.

The latter replied in the affirmative, and the two physicians went off to ascertain whether No. 19had also "been;practiced on. Spiretti, •■; pronounced • Hagburn's sleep to be perfectly natural. He then, wrote a'prescription for Zip, which he handed to the resident physician, remarking that it would counteract aud remove the remaining efi fects of the poison. "I would inquire," added the Italian, "if there is connected with your institution, as visiting physician, or otherwise, a professional man who calls himself Di- Goethe Guberlet." The physician replied in the negative.

"You will doubtless,"-said Spiretti, "institute an examination into this attempt to poison one of your inmates?"

"Most assuredly," retunied.the physician: "In the meantime I have to request that,-you. "will say nothing of the affair. The.attendant who served the medicated soup has been in the hospital only a few days. He was strongly recommended for the place, and special efforts seem to have been made to get him in here." Ho then excused himself-for a moment, and on his return said the suspected attendant had disappeared, carrying with him the small bundle of personal effects that he had brought with the hospital. Zip, after hearing Gina's story,

CHAPTER XV. A PROPOSED PARTNERSHIP. "You don't seem to relish the idea of having the count go down in person to Santa. Cruz. to verify the fate of the Huntingdons," observed Law-; yer Tripp, when Ptmderson returned to' Kis office after parting with the Italian. . ,^ls, ; voyage up the coast, and the ship; wreck, from which none escaped to tell the tale, a bit of romance?" "Tripp," replied Pimderson, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "I think I must take you entirely into my confidence. Things are getting so extremely complicated that I'm afraid I've made one or two false, moves lately. I can't carry the whole thing alone. I must have someone with whom I can talk everything over; Do you want to come in, Tripp, and make your fortune?" ... . . . "That depends," returned the lawyer. "I've no invincible prejudice against making a fortune by a short-i er cut than practising in the police court, and I anr not over squeamish, yet I am a prudent man, and I have profound respect for the law of the land; therefore I don't take any State prison risks under any circumstances.' "Who said anything about State prison risks," growled''Pimderson sullenly. "It isn't so much any help I want from you in the active way as some one to talk to over matters, and open my mind to." "Oh, if that is all," returned Counselor Tripp, lifting his eyebrows, 'and if there's a fortune to be made in that way,-I'm your man, ;You can open your mind to me as much as you please. I'll listen with inexhaustible patience, and furnish you with illimitable sage advice. But this is with one special reservation, upon/ one inexorable condition, that I won't be privy, even in my own mind, to any ; scheme or plot the: knowledge of which the law would call 'guilty knowledge,' and the neglect to. divulge which would be a criminal,offence. Now, if I don't know the parties against whom you scheme, how can I divulge your scheme, or attempt to prevent it? In short, what I require, is that in consulting with me you give your dramatis personae fancy: names. You hinted the other day at some man of prodigious wealth and power and craft, .being one of the characters. Well, we'll call him if you choose, the emperor, or Aaron Burr, or Monte Christo. Suit your owii fancy. You alluded to a proud, and beautiful woman of whom Monte Christo, alias Burr, alias whatever you choose, is desperately enamoured. Call he> Helen of Troy, or Zenobia of Palmyra. If you have anything to say about the count, call him Bombas-" tes, or the bravo, for upon my soul I can't feel certain whether the blower or the desperado predominates in him —I suspect he's a curious compound of the two."

(To Be Continued.)