A DEEP GAME. OR THE HONOUR OF THE TREVELLANS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10575, 5 March 1912, Page 2

A DEEP GAME. OR THE HONOUR OF THE TREVELLANS.

OUB SEBIAII.

By Mrs Ds Winter Baker, Author of "The Sin of Csrine," "Sir BiaadWi Proves," -'For Weal or-.Woe," ©to.

CHAPTER Ll—Continued. Colo hesitated. The bright colour on Adelaide's face, the sparkle of her eyes .somehow caused him to forge!, all about the news till at he had brought The door of an empty sitting room was open to his right. He never knew how lie did it, hut in some mysterious fashion his aim was linked in Adelaide's'and together they walked into that sitting room and closed the door. "I have some important news to tell you,' ho said 'suddenly facing her. He spoko so gravely, so that Adelaide ca.ught her breath. Something had happened to Erie! Something that Lettiiee would have to bo told of. "Wha—-what is it?' sho stammered, and found herself crushed fiercely to his heart.

"1 love you, darling,' was the quick, hard-breathed reply. Thus did Adelaide find the wonderful thing called 'love,' that had been so long denied her. Tims did sho como by the priceless heritage of -womankind. Her .long white arms encircled her lover's neck —she threw her head back, revealing tho pure lines of her snowy throat. "Kiss mo dear," she whispered/ "I know now I have loved you from the very first.' Gladly her lips were now lifted and she surrendered to this newfound joy. Lettice had heard the voice of Cole in tho hall and had heard the sitting room door shut. Her school friend—a vivacious young lady, about her own age—kept on chattering about her Continental experiences. Lettico grew tired 'and asked to be excused. She went down: to the sitting room door, and knocking, asked if she could como in. Norman and Adelaide came, out instead, however. One look was enough, for Lettice. She flung her arms impulsively round her sister's neck and kissed her. A moment later thoy all sat down to tea, while totally ignorant of the little romance that was going on under her pert, retrousse nose, Lettice's friend plunged anew into her breathless description of the delights of the Continent. "Ami what have you been doing ever since I saw you last, Lettice?" sho asked. "I heard from someone —I forget who—that you had become a lady secretary or something." "Yes,' replied Lettice. "I have just come back from Cornwall. I was down there as secretary to Lady Trevellan. I don't suppose you know the name. "Trevelhin—Trevellan— why, yes, of course I do," exclaimed the young girl. ««"VVhy—-3'iow funny you should mention that name. I danced with her son, Sir Eric, at my first dance last season, J and, still more curious, I saw him in Paris two days ago." 'Saw Eric in Paris only three days ago!' shouted three voices in accord. The young girl started hack in, f}*™''Ye —yes!'' sho stammered. Have I seen anything wrong? I saw him quite plainly—hut he did not see mo!' 'Where?' camo the three voices a-

'gam. , . , -n "At the Hotel Splendide, in the Kue tie Eivoli,' was the amazed reply, as Oole incontinently upset his tea into the trav and Lettice and Adelaide tell 'laughing and crying into each other s anna.

CHAPTER UU. | "THE INFANT." | It may bo wondered why after his hurried 'night from ,the castle Mark Jason should find .it necesary to visit Pigeon Alley. . The reason was, that fearing exposure of his villainous (blackmailing schemes, ho-wont thcro to try and recover an incriminating document viz. ,th G letter lie,had sent to William Omer instructing him to send the bogus telegram to Eric announcing Lettice s departure for Paris. Finding his disreputable brother-in-law in the preliminary stages of a debauch, Jason had concealed the real purpose of his visit, .but had managed to make a thorough search of the filthj attic. Ho had discovered the Jotter in the pocket of a waistcoat that William Omer had put aside for subsequent production at the sign ot the three golden balls. ■ Then, guessing that Graco Omei would sooner or later bo on his track, he had departed again, after instructing Omer to say nothing of Ins visit—injunctions, which, needless to say, were soon forgotten. Jason deemed the Continent to he tho safest place for him at this critical moment, and ho selected Paris as his destination. Accordingly, ho went straight ithore from Pigeon Alley, and forthwith started to enjoy himself to tho top of his bent. But even in the midst of Ins l>ca.suro his. cunning did not desert him. Ho instinctively avoided (the better quarters of Paris, lodging at first over a small inn where the vine was cheap. It was a place muchUrequested by t)he dangerous roughs and crooks of Paris, the innkeeper himself being a "fence " or receiver of stolen property, and Jason found himself in appropriate company. The proprietor of the inn spoke a little English, and ho and Jason soon struck up an acquaintance. Jason was duly introduced to many of tho notorious scoundrels with which that comer of Paris abounded, among them a thin-visaged, cadaverous lad of eighteen or nineteen summers, and known to his associates as "the Infant." "The Infant was the leader of a strong gang of "Apaches"—-those

highway robbers and murderers who infest the .poorer quarters of Paris, and think nothing of knifing a defenseless citizen for the sake of a gold watch chain.

With the assistance of the innkeeper as interpreter, Jason heard how "The Infant" had recently stabbed two policemen fatally and garrotod another in broad daylight. Ho lost no time in making a friend of this bloodthirsty ghoul, for he had no desire to encounter a similar fate. However, it began to bo known presently among the frequenters of the inn that Mark Jason was a wealthy English gentleman who had fled from England with the proceeds of a successful coup, and ho therefore considered it advisable to strike camp and seek lodgings elsewhere. The stories told about "Tho Infant" and his gang upset Jason not a little. He moved unostentatiously to a quiet lodging house near the Seine, and avoided empty or badly lit strets and dark corners when he went out after nightfall. Sitting one evening at a little round table in one of those open 'brasseries' or wine restaurants, which crowd the pavement of every Continental city, he saw a tall, well-dresed man sink forlornly into a chair some yards away, and prop his head upon his hands in complete misery. The man's back was turned toward him, but Jason recognised it at once —it was Eric Trevellan.

Here it must be remembered that Mark Jason was in complete ignorance of the sensational developments that had followed the discovery of Lettice in the underground dungeon, at Trevelan Castle. Consequently, Eric's presence in Paris was a mystery to him at first. Watching the young baronet out of the corner of his eye, the chaplain tried to imagine what could have brought Eric to France. Could it be that he himself were the quarry m-nd that Eric was the hunter? No ; the utter wretchedness of the young man's attitude,the general air of limpness and lassitude about him, was sufficient to convince Jason that this was not the case. I Then the truth burst in upon him. i Sir Eric must have seen those letters ' of Sir Thomas' and believed them. j Now Jason began to think hard. A ' scheme was forming at the back of his distorted brain —a scheme for turning i Eric's misery to good account. | Doubtless," he told himself,the young t baronet would ha-vo some money of his ' own' stored away somewhere. Why 1 not offer to +el him the true story of those letters in return for a nice littie sum and immunity from tho police. It seemed an excellent plan, but there ! was one difficulty in the way.

How was ho to approach Sir Eric? To go openly to him in such a place as this would be to court immediate disaster. Irritated beyond endurance as !ie doubtless would be by the exposure of what he believed to, be his father's disgrace, the young man woiild.probably spring up and knock - him down and then hand him over to the gendarmerie. No; extreme caution would be needed to deal with the situation, Jason saw. At this moment, Sir Eric, after swallowing the licquer that lie had ordered, rose and wandered out into tho briliantly-lit street-. Jason let him ' got a good bit ahead, then rose and followed him.

It was getting on for midnight, so there was no chanco of losing him in a theatre or place of amusement. As a matter of fart, quite unconscious of ■being followed —unconscious, indeed, of everything save the appalling scandal that never ceased to weigh upon his brain —Eric made wearily for his Jiotel —the hotel Splendide, in the Hue de Rivoli. Mark Jason -was just in time to hear the commissionaire on duty say "good-night," .and to set; the "glass doors swing back upon the grief-stricken man as he walked past tho hotel.. Noting its name and locality, ho returned to 'his lodging house and anon, to the problem of how to get bold of Eric. The solution of the problem came to Jason in the wee hours of t'he morning —Jie'd been dreaming about "Tho Infant,' and awoke with a start to find himself in a cold sweat. For, in his dreams, "The Infant's" (horrible knife had "been at his heart. The point seemed already to have entered his heart when ho sprang up in bed. 1 "The Infant,' he muttered with his teeth chattering. "Of course—"The Infant"—ho will help me. I will go ' and soo him this very day." | CHAPTER LIU. j AN INTERRUPTED BAIIC4AIN. j In a aheap inn in the depths of the slums of Pa-ris,threo men sat at a dirty wine-stained table. They were the innkeeper, Mark Jason, and "The Infant." The red wino circulated freely as they spoko in subdued whispers. Presently Jason counted a handful of silver and handed it over to "Tho Infant." Solemnly spitting on it, the other transferred it to his pocket. "To-night—eleven, o'clock—at the 'corner of the Impasse Verron—good 1 Ho. smiled hideously and slouched a- ( way. { (To be Continued.)