The Dark House at Highgate

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10685, 3 August 1912, Page 2

The Dark House at Highgate

JOUP ISERI >L.)

OH A FTEiR VII J.—Continued. "Look here,, Tody," I blurted out, "it stems a. great pity that you ■should get involved with a woman "like that." Tony raised' his delicately marked eyebrows'. "involved P" he sard coldly, and «iit>li dignity. "J think yen «arci iy iu.ndfirsta.nd. Cou-rtwiay is a good woman.';®

"Oh!" ya'cd I. Then I feit that the ease was hcpeJess.

'•'She -supports her invalid mother entirely. Not many grita in her position are so unselfish."

I groaned inwardily. How young, Show very UKiSopiii-aticated Tony wa:>, aftor alii

"'And -iv fj'ijphi:! brother, I suppose?" I added! cynically. "I lia'-ih't heard of that," replic-i Tony quietly; and I knew ] was on the side cf tho I 'winced under tte sinib.

Was lis guilty? Was ho guilty? The question kept iiy.'.latently repeating itor.lf in iny ir.ind. Given certain pitch of infatuation for a woman, -and u ; liat would not a young man of Tony's stomp do to procure money for her — to be expended, of •coute?, fr.r the .bemefrt of her invalid mother. Xcrcr hc.fore had I realised in its if nil force the wordly wis'dem of the (preaclior'© naming against the wiles of "the strange woman."

<We .sat oil for «• few miwuteft, star, in.g out into the lamp-lit street. The 'city had eo .many 'pleasant ways in which a man mii.gUit wan dor innocently coiongh— it had so many joys to offer pteasure-Ooviiig youth; and this pale (boy beside me .had chosen the one that leads, perhaps more promptly tha.vi amy other, to destruction. "I with I could eoniv.ince you," I pursued presently, "of -the danger of such a woman's firacnidshlip. She may be all ytcu think her"— I said this, ihut without any conviction of it in •niiy nirmxl— "as a daughter she may be a hbiniM'g paragon —but can you afford to become (intimate with her?"

"That's my affair," said Tony, stiffly. "I can't admit, Rycroft, that your engagement to Anne gives you the Tight.to choose my friends for me."

it gives jiio the right at lea sit to put you on youtr guard agaliiist another danger. I don't know whether Anne has told you that a. man from Scotland Yard called at •yoiilr mother's house a day or two ago to ask how you caime into the pa'itwion of a ecu I ,tain bank mote." Tony was certainly igurprisled,' but lie would net betr.iv the fact, and .1 fcllt a sudden pt'ty for him. He was plair.iiy unaware of the full .measure of the per: 1 ! that threatened hi'm. "A bank note—yes?" lie inquired ■carelessly. "The note was in Mr Beteworth's pos-'-toaaoih on the eve of his dentil, and in iih'C banc's r.f a jtiegent Street j*\vellor a day or tw9 'later." "Well?" Tony lit a cigarette with ostaiitatious mdifferesc; 1 . "The jewfffl'cr trok that r.i r ;te from Cyntihia Courtenay in payment for a bracelet, and Oyi'.thia C'ourtenaay, when questioned, admitted that .she had received «it from you."

'Jo,ny's face contracted unexpectedly as if with fiuckl>ovi pain. In another momenlt he had put o:i his mr/=k of pi!ac ! id again; but 1 had noticed the swiftly passing shadow, and divined that it was less his own. danger ibhan some duplicity of Cymthia's that troubled him. No d:oul:jt the money had been lent, or given, at a time of pretended stress, for the supposed benefit of itoer invalid mother ; and s'no had actually wanted it for the (purchase of..some silly trifle that" had 'taken her c;\ger fancy-

"Do you suspect me of murdering poor Betsworth for his money?" asked I\>,ny tiwli a bitter .laugh. "Don't be a foci," I retorted. "I think you borrowed it to spend gi an extravagant woman, and I hope that ends the matteir. But "

"But the police are building up a pretty eas? against me," interrupted Tony. "I know that. I didn't know they bad gone quite so far, however, and; I'm really • obliged to you for posting line. Don't ithink that I want to quarrel with you ,ol'd man, when you .come hard on the heels >of such gireat news;—l mean, of course, your engagement to Anne; but you really misjudge C'ynthia." The young feUlow was looking Wretchedly all now. He knew well enough tha the himself liad misjudegd his idol—that ,(hei J feet were clay, that she had extorted money from him 'by a 'lie, :u J hen he was ready to stake h'ls life's blood on her truth," but h'e was too much of a istoic by education to betjray any emotion, and

BY DERWENT MIALL. A thor of "Lady Rosalie's Lo-acy," "Bellamy's Warning," "The Strange Case •<£ Yincont. Hume," "In the Woi'j. '' Etc Etc.

smoked on qui;tJy, gazing at 6:10 *t.reet Jumps outside, urate 1 the duor op?neo'i, 'ant! a club .servant came nriso--I'crssly across ; tho carpet. "Some one to <seo yon, Mr Kettering. I have shown ilxi'm into the strangers' iwm," said the man. And oie of us, at any rate, .knew instinctively that the blow had fallen.

Jony fluaig away 'a cigarette, and -rose; to jus feet, as the serva-at > ei-t out again. ' .

"Forgive me, eld chap, if I lost my tejnper' ~jst now," li, osa.id. -vVi':] you come with me? I .think this is —some one I was expecting." I here were a few men. dispersed about the spacious .room, talking quietly together .in two and throe*" ?>'one noticed the exit of their feii-.jw club member, or, at all events, none suspected that he was pa&silng from their wonted 'haunt of ea»se into the ante-chamber of the .Vail ley of th. Shadow'.

We went into the strangers' room, ■ivOiere a ,stra.:ffit, soldierly man war awaiting u©; and J felit that I had known all along,, subconsciously, that it was JbounH to 'happen thus evening, imli that. Tony would bo arrested on suspicion of having committed wilful murder. He sh-cwed no .symptoms of alarm while the embodying the awful ('barge was iread to him ; it was I who blustered and declared the accusation wa.s monstrous.

All Tony raid was thie : "] tell you both, on my solemn oatih, that I am ■intiocenit; but, df course, this is not tiie place in winch to ,say it. J -should be glad if you would see my lawyer t'he first thing in the- morning, Rycroft, and send ltun to me. Good night!"

"Nonsense, I'm .coming to ' bail you," I replied.

"Oih !my diear old chap, there's no question of .haul in cJi&ets of this kind" lie yaid; "you stay here and write to my mother. I shouldn't like lie.r 'to gev the first news of it from t'he papers.."

I luiew he was right, hut I wan to do' something practical for him. It 'was a li-atwral 'but perfectly futite wish; all I coukl do was- to accompany liim to ths street and isee him get into a cab before his custodian. I ,remcm'ber I noted that 'lie- cab 'horse, by its; freshness, bad Just come frcin the stables; that Tb.iy iit a cigarette, and nodded ngai'n to me, and then he was g&ie. The whole episode had la&bd barely five jr.inaitcs.

And tli'Cai wlien i'ho cab had na?sod from my wght 1 ireaKised tte awful significance of t"b: fact that that trfmentlous rnginc;, the iLaw ;f Kngland, had started iu motion to break a buttfi-fiy, a lie! "awt. Tony's Jo v< aft'afr had brought him to th? brin): of the pit of degradation.

X. RIMINGTON'3 LIFE WAFER. There arc ,uc!vc-ii-tiro-mOriitf so fami! in* to the eye that cup sec* them v. hundred timci> -without. taking in their meaning; at the hundred and first or fhcnsajid ar.d first reading tho;':mossage goes home, making its definite record .0:1 ho broiii,, r. id the rasf oxpeti.se of pcrenmaa! advertising is just: fied.

I had written to Anne—staying up half the nigh.t to c(-o so. . I had tried to see Tony's 'layyer— wlio, 1 vowever, hiwl a.lready started- for Stonrminstcr, wlrX'Sur '.Pony 3i.iirsc-W had been taken ,by the first train— anci was. abstractedly going the morning's papers in the reading rcem of the hotel 11 it u'liich ,T had spent the iKg'ht, when tills caught my eye:

RIMTXCSTOX'S LIFE WAFER. Jo fliii'lied upr.':i me that the advertisement was strangely familiar; I must hwe seen it dozens of times of late, hut not ix., now Had it any special significance for me. "Rimingtoir's Life Wafer." And Riimingtrxl was the nrnie of the Atiicbieaii physician whom I had tried—in ,a haltf hearted it was true—to connect witli tlio- tragedy at Pol ton. Suddenly T saw ; my duty clear. T must fin;d : out ,if t!io proprietor of the life w'.fer wr.'s the man who had stayed at the Jolly Farmer Inn. And tha- dene, what then ? (To be Contin