The Dark House at Highgate

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10700, 22 August 1912, Page 2

The Dark House at Highgate

'OUP SERIAL.)

C:il A I'TK II XXIV(Cow t i nucd.) Madame, Claude had recovered in some measure her dignity and seltposscssion, l)iifc her fierce rage betia\ed itself as she stood, twisting and toaringa lacc pocket handkoichiei, and leading me to believe that 1 should have to undertake the \ei\ ungrateful task of restraining a gentlewoman by brute force from attempting to make her csoapts fiom the danger from wh;ch her intempe.ateviolencfJ had placed her. But she uAuie no such attempt, and presently a long-d ra \vn, quavering whistle startled t-ho breathless night.—and with that sound these came the noiso of move frantic haunrioring from helowstairs, an awfu! tattoo nf despair. In a few minutes a policeman stamped into the hall; and T was ne\ei more nleasod in mv life to see the familiar uniform of iho man in blue. T was explaining the situation to him when a second constat),e ciiteicd the room, and while one man remained in charge of Madame Claude, the other accompanied me downstairs. We unlocked the door of what, had so very nearly been my condemned cell, and T own I was not pronaml for what awaited us. Thonnu.n-i Ira:! relit the candle, and. although T expected to find him angry and .frightened. T was startled and horrified at the change in him. The suave, slv fellow seemed converted into a panic stricken imbecile. "There is another," I said, when he was se-jurcd. "011 the sofa there. I see lie lias not yet come out of the .swoon I left him in." ' T<iom. at the second glance. I y w the meaning of Thompson's gibbering panic, saw'that Doctor Rimington never would conic out of the into which he had fallen. Here was a case where even his much-vaunted Life-Water could effect 110 cure. For his accomplice, mistaking piostrate form for mine, and wishing to "make sure." thai thccrime should be complete, had stabbed him to the heart. At the time I was smitten wit a pA. for him; but later I could see that this was the best way out of the tangle of life for a man who had so misused his talonts. For at least, the end camo in what I believe to have been his hour of penitence.

CHAPTER XXV

LOVERS' MEETING

I The prisoners wore, without loss of | time, taken before the inspector of • the police station, and Ceeile and I were perforce present when they were j charged. It was at the police station j that T first learned, when these formalities wore over, that search had. 1 been made for me, hut that I" had net achieved a newspaper notoriety, or furnished .sensation-seeking subedit- ' ors with startling headlines; and for j this I was <;lad. It was too late to wire to Anne the

; iio',vk of my safety ihnt hut I 1 arranged for a telegram to lie disj patched in tlio early morning. and j also for the police to visit Albert 1 Bligh. as it was essential that Clutiy I should ho traced. and T honed that j the bov might have found J:is address. ; For Cecile was a!>!e to inform us that ! he had boon only an occasional visitor lat Madame Claude's and he certaiu-

. ly was not in the house at the tinv j when B-imington paid me his last visit I although I learned later that he had , been in the garden shortly before

then —as T had inferred. ! Then, when I was free to go where I would until next morning at eleven, at which hour I should have to attend at the police court, it suddenly occurred to me that Cecile was homeless. T turned to her, while we were yet jin the inspector's room, and asked I her .whether she had friends or rej latives in Loudon, to whom she could j go. Poor child, she had none; she j had nothing to suggest except that 1 she should go back to the convent where she had been educated, with a view to taking the veil. The sisters wero the onlv friends she had.

"Not the only friends, J hope." T

said, looking at her pale, tired, little face; "from.to-night T trust you will consider me one. You have, in all probability, saved my life, and 1 should like you to give my future wife a chance of thanking you." For I had a sudden inspiration with regard to Cecile; with such a face as hers she would have done the world a wrong by immuring herself within convent walls. "I can safely promise a welcome for you from friends of mine in the country," f continued, "where you can consider your future plans at leisure. For the night we must ask the police to recommend a suitable lodging for you."

There was no difficulty about this; a clergyman's widow, a little way down the road, could provide her with all the comforts requisite to a gentlewoman, for one night or for anj' lon-ger-period; and after the girl's injured arm had been rebandaged by the police surgeon, 1 accompanied her, with a policeman for guide, to the widow's .bouse.

On the way she told me something of her story. She was the orphan daughter of a professor at a French military academy, and he and her father "had been very happy until he took a second wife, and very unhappy afterward. She was not without means —in fact, her small fortune had been a constant cause of dissension between herself and her stepmother,

BY DERWENT Ml ALU t, their of "Lady Rosalie's la: aoy," "Bellaicy'i Warning," "Th« Strange Case •>£ Vincent Hume/ in the Wob." Et-c fc'tc.

■To hs Continued.)

who had wanted control of it —no doubt .so that 'she might'use it in furtherance of that scheme which was .still a matter of mystery to me. When I parted from CVoilo at the irate rrf a plcasnnl suburban villa, I. had fully formulated a h'tt'.e conspiracy of my own, which, hon'over doubtful its success, was never likely toj load to such ill results as marked the jend of Madame Claude's conspiracy, j At all events. 1 told myself thai it ! was worth a trial. I I slept that night at an inn not very far from the dark house whore T had i been lodged so uncomfortably: and I ! believe the chambermaid had some trouble in rousing me in time to pwt in an appearance at tke police court, so soporific wore the efleets of clean sheets mid a soft pillow, aftc'i the hardships I had endured. T have no very lucid recollection o« that day's police-court -proceedings, for my thoughts were very freely occupied with Anne, and f was impatient to not to ho*", and away from London. , . T remember thinking it particularly incongruous that a woman of refined mid distinguished a npoaranco like i>iadoe OSaude should have to stand in the dock beside a sneaking, craven rogue like Thompson ; though it cannot he denied that she deserved to stand there. I remember succeeding a policeman in the witness box, kissing with repugnance a much-fingered volume, and explaining to the best of my ability why I had been decoyed to Madame Claude's house. But ean recall little else., exeept that the prisoners were remanded, and that Madame Claude, as she stepped down from tl>* dock, would have lulled me with a glance if she could. And then I had another diuy to perform that, would still delay a bttlmy return to Polton. I bad to get the little cabinet out of the place of is storage, and to fathom .its seciet. THis was necessary in the into est of justice, and a police official accompanied nv- on this errand. Ou 1 ' mission was duly accomp.iMWi : the cabinet was opened, and f wav wc learned the secret of the cu.iI'ous plot that had nearly cost »io in> life, and -that luul--no one widd |oi - per doubt it— actually cost Mi BatsCluny was arrested later 111 the day, for Albert Bligh had successfully run him to earth at Campden Hill—whoie ,he had been living 111 seclusion some i davs previously. Albert, it turnec out. was rather anxiously—awaiting a postal order from me He got thl promisee] douceur, and a good di-a int» the bargain. I should ha,e been crlad to have seen Oluny after his attest, I)ut T was already on was* hack back to Anne when the arrest was

11 I a liuhted from tho tram about 9 o'clock' tlmt niiiht. and waM, in the moonlight, and rlio pool night air. "!> tho white, road that led to Mis - • taring's house —past the Jolb aimer " where lights showed through the eh inks of tho shutters, past the clustering, rose-covered cottages, m which happy husbandmen— f assumecl that they were happy, beatitude being so much in the air—had alreadv retired for the nigh! after a clnv of lioalthv labour; past my old friend, the doubting policeman, who failed to recognise me as I hurried !,v hi in : and <-o to Mrs Tvettornm s wicket gaie. with mv great news tne secret of the cabinet—still to- bo told. The French window of the orawuigroom was onon. and the room was lighted un. T hurried noiselessly across the lawn, and was about to step iu when t'n 1 sound of a man' voice, raised apparently in angor. arrested ine T recognised it for s, and' focling quite certain that Anne, in her anxietv to prevent trouble between us. would never report to 1110 all he said. T did not scruple to stand for a minute, hidden by a cuitaiiHK half window, to listen. "You're pretty blind to your own interests, T must say," ho was remarking. "T don't mean as regards vour treatment -of me. Blackguard me as much, as you like ft—you look awfullv handsome with your temper up—but to stand up for a man who has turned tail and run because your brother is under cloud is simple follv."