PAOLINA. OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10159, 8 February 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA. OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

(OUR SERIAL

By MARIPOSA WEIS,

Author of "tvaayne's Temptation," "A Chaso naunri flic'"World," eie.

CHAPT'eB XXlll.—Continued

now, that Hannah went!" "Yes," said Zip, "it's what I call providenshull. Hannah's game and gritty, and wide awake, and she will stand by the young lady like a trump. I know'd already that this Miss Oarich was the one that the rich fellow was after, and I took it for granted that she was the girl that Doctor Spiretti was a-searchin' for. If this hadn't ahappened I was goin' to plan out so that the doctor would get a sight of her in a day or two. I'd worked the case up that far; I know'd something was goin' to happen, but I didn't reckon that it would come so sudden, an' I didn't know until this morning, when you gave me the directions for delivering your, mesage that your beautiful lady was. the young woman in Mark: Punderson.'s, game." "And what'are they going to do about it, Zip ? What are her friends i going to do to find her?" "Now, that's jest wnere it is, Gina. That jest brings me to the point. I have engeaged to go out of town tomorrow with the young gent that's in love with her, purvided he's able to travel. We may be gone a week or , so. Are you afraid to stay here alone and take care of the old lady?" , No, Gina said she was not afraid. But had she seen Count Leandro Marliani as he walked away from the house on that Sunday morning, and noted the expression of his face, and understood the purport of what he muttered to himself as he strode down the street, she might well have been afraid. Yet, had she heard, there is little probability that she would have understood. "Eureka 1" he exclaimed. ' 'My search- is at an end;- There can be no doubt," he soliloquised, "of the parentage of this child. The eyes —those amazing eyes —who could mistake the look in them? Voice, action, attitude, they are all her mother's. And that hair of burnished golden hue—- , the hair of the Marlianis!" Here he paused and laughed a sinister little laugh as he passed his white, jewelled hand over his own crisp, dark curls. "Truly, if that test were decisive," he went on, "my own family claim might be in jeapardy. And now, Count Leandro, what is your plan? You must consider? ..Then, consider quickly. Ah, I fear, my impulsive friend, that you were rash in letting out to her the secret of her birth.' Yet > ..after. alii /whatdoes she- : kh6>;,; and whatcan she do without ? your'aid.?; Why did I not secure the book ? That' was an oversight. Andl now there are so many courses open to me that I stand perplexed which to choose.. / 1 can bargain with her, j I' can marry her, first removing a slight obstacle, ■or I can adapt my original idea to the changed circumstances, and prove her ! dead. Besides, she id< mortal. This, however, begins to grow clear in my mind —that there, are at this instant two women, or two girls, breathing this vital air of whom' one is superfluous, and who, being superfluous, must conveniently cease to breathe. Which must it be? This one is already changing from child to woman. She will be beautiful, she will be distingue. She has talent—unless 1 mistake, she has genius—and the daughter of such a mother should have it of just right. "•' Last, and best of all, she will be prodigiously rich. It seems to me that I tire of the other. I suspect it is the other that is superfluous."

"At last," resume! Gm-i "MoMnr Hagburn r me into the room, ard hj." tiros-', to ?o. 'Talvs cii' 3of that 'joo": ' he said, laying his finger upon it, 'for it is worth more to you than a thousand times its weight in gold. And now I take my leave, but not for long. When I see you again I shall make some explanations.' " "Gina," said Zip, jumping front his chair, and speaking very earnestly, "I b'leeve, after all, that they're on the wrong scent. I begin to b'leeve that you are the Marlyanny that the old doctor has been a-rakin' all Ameriky in search of, and that all this fuss has been made about. I b'leeve it's you that's a comin' into this. cussed fortun'. I thought it was your beautiful lady; poor thing, but' now, 'Gina, I*m afeard it's you." "What nonsense, Zip," said Gina, shaking her head incredulously. "But why do you say that you're afraid it's me. I should think that you would be glad to have me find out my family, and become an heiress." "Well, then, you're mistaken," returned Zip, gloomily. "I ought to be glad, I know, but I ain't, and I won't lie, about it; I'm so selfish and mean on the subjeck that I can't bear the thought ofcyour turnin' out to be a great lady with a great fortun'. Of : course, that would separate us. ,1 couldn't come into no such sphere as that. 'Zip, the Chickadee,' or 'Dan'l Barne' would cut a pretty figure along with the Marlyannys. -Oh, yes, he'd be a high assoshiate of counts, docks, and markisses. he would!" "Why, Zip," said Gina, "you're not so foolish as to imagine that I would ever forget you, even if I should be 1 a real princess." "There's no use of talking nonsense, Gina," said Zip, morosely, "for such things do change everybody, and - they,can't help it. But if this ain't the most mixed-up mess I ever see. Yesterday I thought I'd cleared the I whole thing up,' and got it perfectly , straight, and now this Count Marly- j anny has jest come and knocked my' case into pieces. If your name was Pawleena, instead of,Gina, I shouldn't, have a doubt left as to where to look lost heiress of the Marlyannys." • :'.'•., ',. "That's her name, as I told you before," said Gina. "And now tell; me your adventure. But firsty what. did. she say when you. delivered -xiij vaesj sage this morning—that I couldn't go tcP church with her on account of not getting my now dress ?"■ "She didn't say notning," returned Zip, somewhat embarrassed. "In fack, she wasn't there; she had gone, and nobody knew where." "Gone, and nobody knew where?" echoed Gina, wonderingly. ; "YeSj gone, carried off, kidnapped," Zip then dfetailed at length .the circumstances of the affair. • ''She was chloroformed,' he added, " '.with the same sort,of stuff that they put ,into my gruel at the hospital. I guess I know the smell of it pretty well, andjher room was so full of it 1 that,l could snlell it through the keyhole."

had finished,- "this must be what you' heard Mark Pundersdn talk to Soth about on the. night you both, came so hear to being burned to death." i "Of course it is," he answered, "an* Mark Punderson has had a hand in the affair. When he was a-layin' out' his plot to Seth that night, and I was up in Kinge's loft a-listening, he said there was three in the game. Fust, there was an old Italian who was ahuntin r for his grand-daughter; that's Doctor Spiretti, though the young woman he's in sedrch of isn't his grand daughter, or any relation to him at all, as I understand it. Then there was a young Italian a-lookin' for the same girl, and that'young Italian is the feller you seen to-day. Then there was a chap as rich as Kreesus, that owned all sorts of mines, and stocks, and ranches, and fifty lots; he knew the young woman and was dead in love with her, and wanted to marry her, but she wouldn't have him, for all his money, and so he was a-goin' to kidnap and carry her off to " "Oh; why didn't we know before," interrupted Gina, "that it was my 'beautiful lady' that was threatened with this danger? Then we might have saved her. But I. am so glad,

CHAPTER XXIV.

PAOLINA'S NIGHTMARE

When Paolina retired on that Sat- ( urday night she felt oppressed by a vague foreboding of evil which kept her long awake. It was not until after she heard the clock strike one that she fell into an uneasy slumber, in-which she. heard, or dreamed that she heard, strange voices coming from the closet.near the foot of her bed, followed by low whispers. Then 'a-"pe-culiar odour seemed to pervade the room, and she made an effort to sit up, but in vain. Surely she was awake now, for she opened her eyes and perceived that there was "a subdued light in the room, but some strange spell was tipon her, for she could not move or speak. There way surely some one moving softly about, and now a face—a horrible face it seems to her—bends over the bed. (To Be Continued.)