PAOLINA OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10165, 15 February 1911, Page 2

PAOLINA OR THE MILLIONAIRE'S PLOT.

OUR SERIAL.

By MARIPOSA WEIR, Author of "Evadyne's Temptation," "A Chase Rouiid the World," etc,

CHAPTER XXVlll.—Continued. j Her excitement had now risen to a hysterical pitch, and Hector deemed it best to retire. At the street door he met Mr Sloane, who was just pulling the bell as Hector made his exit. The lawyer greeted him with a formal nod and a cold "good morning," making no overture to further conversation. Returning to his room to ascertain the contents of the envelope Mrs Cranch had put into his hand, he tore it open, and found that it covered -four checks payable to bearer j and a small scrap of paper on which were a few lines of writing. The first check was for 500 dollars, 'the second for 1000 dollars, and the third for 2,500 dollars. The fourth was signed with a blank left for the amount. The writing on the bit of paper was in these words: "You can. fill in the blank, check for any amount up to 5000 dollars. That amount will exhaust my present, funds at the bank. Should any need arise of more, write me." Looking out of the window he saw the lawyer walking away with | a .lowering brow. It was evident that Mrs Cranch had refused to see him.. After ten. minutes given to reflection ,the young man hastened to the bank and presented' his 500 dollar check, which was paid at once. He next walked to the county clerk office,' where he was received in a somewhat stately manner by the chief deputy. "Have you come to resume your duties?" asked the officer. "No," replied Hector. "I have come to hand in my resignation," and sitting down at a, desk he wrote it out and presented it to the official. "I regret to have been obliged ■io address a note to yOu requesting your immediate return to work," said the chief deputy, "but we are much pressed for work, and I learned that you were in town all the time." "I have no complaint to make," returned Hector. "You have acted quite right. .„ It is true that I have not been out of town, and I have no time at present to explain the matter. I should have been obliged to resign in any event." Having bid his late official superior good' morning, he descended to the story below, where the office of the chief of police was situated. Entering it, he found the officer he was in search of, who had just com«r i* to make, a report. 'Do you know," asked Hector, of this officer, "where Efam Taggart is to be found?" The officer looked at the clock over .the property clerk's desk, and replied that, at this time of day the Ivy Green would be the most likely place to look for him. Taggart was found by Hector deep in a game of three-handed crib, with a glass of whisky at. his elbow. Two years before this timo he had been one of the most efficient detectives in San Francisco. Rum, however, had got such a grip upon Eben Taggart that, notwithstanding his acknowledged talent, he had been dismissed from the force, and ever since gained a precarious support by jobs "on the outside," for such private individuals as needed some assistance in ferreting out some mystery or "shadowing" . suspected parties. With the exception of the ono failing already alluded to, he was considered thoroughly reliable, and thoroughly reliable to his em- '< ployer. Upon being.informed that a gentleman; wished to see him on business, i Tagg*art came forward, and Hector intimated that he wished to have a few words with him in private, and they entered one of the private rooms/ When alone with the ex-policeman Hector asked him if he knew Miles Grandin. Of course he did; everybody knew Miles Grandin, and ho had special cause to know him. When he, Taggart, was an aplicant for an appoint- . ment as special policeman, Miles Grandin had interfered, cuss him! —and his influence had beaten him out of the place. ■.■"l'll., suppose a case," said Hector. "Stvppose Grandin wanted to gi-t out of town without anyone knowing that he was gone —suppose it was important for him to go to Sacramento, for instance, or Stockton, or wherever you please, and to do it in such a way that his absence wouldn't be known, could you keep such a watch upon him that it would be impossible for him to get away without your knowing it?" "I couldn't begin to do it alone,"

said Taggart. "No man living could do it. Grandin is as crafty as a fox, and would be the hardest man in San Francisco to shadow if ho wanted to make an irregular move. But I could do it with help." "How much help?" . "I can keep run of him for a week or ten days with the help of a manand a boy that I know of —that is, if I can get the boy. He's worth any two men in the regular force, that boy is. Perhaps you know him ? They call him 'Zip, the Chickadee.' I believe his name is.Zip Barne." "You can't get him," said Hector, "he's out of the city, or will be tonight." "Then it will take a bigger force," said the other, "but it's only a question of money after all. I can get the force if you can stand the expense." "What will it cost, then, to keep such a watch on him that he can't get away from San Francisco secretly?" Taggart drummed on the table with his fingers and reflected for a few minutes. "If you can stand seventy-five dollars down, and seventy-five when the time's up—no second payment in case he gives me the slip—l'll undertake it." Hector closed the contract on these terms, paid the stipulated seventy-five dollars, and asked when he would commence making the arrangements. "I'll go about it in ten minutes," returned Taggart, "and in an hour from this time I'll have my force organised- and at work. But when he quits town —supposing he does quit it —what then?" "Meet me on board the. Stockton boat this afternoon a few minutes before she leaves," replied Hector,''and I'll give you your instructions. You can be there without interfering witli the business?" "Yes; I'll be there," said Taggart, laconically, and then Hector departed. „ CHAPTER XXIX. COUNT LEANDRO MARLIANI IS PANIC-STRICKEN. It was rather singular that Count Leandro Marliani, alias Signor Ludovico Giorni, after retiring as.we have described, should have suddenly awaked as the clock struck one. It could not have been the bell that broke his shunbers, for he was already wide awake when the,stroke sounded—wide awake with a strange feeling that some one or something had touched him, and with an impression that he had just heard a deep sigh beside him. Stretching out his hand he found that Viplante. was * not beside him. He saw the light of the lamp .streaming through the entrance of the dressing room, and when he called his wife by name, and there was no answer, he was seized by a strange terror. Springing out of bed, he proceeded straight to the dressing room, with a perfectly clear comprehension of what he should find there. The fair form, with pallid face and dishevelled hair, lying there upon the floor; the room and its furniture; the lamp burning upon .the table; the open window, with the moonbeams struggling faintly in, all looked familiar. Eve'ti" before he saw the vial, where she had set it down, emptied of half its deadly contents,-he knew well what had happened. Now an inexplicable panic seized upon this brutal man;'with the nerves of steel, and a strange horror overshadowed him. Seizing the lamp in ono hand and hastily gathering up his clothes with the other, he fled through the sleeping room out into the-hall, without.even looking back—nothing would have tempted him to look back then—and closed the door behind him. Setting clown the lamp in the middle of the hall, he huddled on his clothes, and, still without venturing a b.ackwaid glance, stole, dpwn the stairsIt, was not.-until Jmjiad reached the street that ho discovered that he had left his hat in bis room. From those that were hanging : from-the-rack-in the lower hall-'lie snatched one, the first that lie saw, and placing it upon bis head, rushed into the street. (To Be. Continued.)