The Swoop of the Vulture

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10710, 30 September 1912, Page 2

The Swoop of the Vulture

'OUR SERIAL.)

CHAFTER XXI. (Continued) "f wonder what Mrs Enstone and Harold would say if they know that Jonner Hal kino, poisoner and convict, had como to lifo again, and was .running this wonderful institute, with Bam a I for a figurehead? Perhaps lie might ho persuaded to abolish his niece's husband in some decently unobstrusivo way. That would leave the coast clear in a legal sense. When 1 come to a thorough understanding with our resuscitated convict, perhaps that would be worth thinking about. It would do away with many unpleasant contingencies. I hopo the princess will .havo sufficiently recovered to bo thero this afternoon. If she-is, itought to bo quite an interesting meeting-

"And now I think a bath and a turn in the park won't be at all a bad thing." Saunders was not at all pleased at being roused at such an unseemly hour, but ho know his master too well not to make his appearance with his usual serene composure. A telephone message was sent to the stable, and by the time Siemens' toilet was completed, and he had taken his early coffee, his horse was standing before the entrance, in charge of a groom. Gaierre.ro was a splendid black stallion, descended from the old Andalusian stock imported into central and western South America by the old conquerers of Peru. He was his owner's favorite mount when ho wanted the exhilaration of rapid motion with perfect ease .in the saddle

These may appear tilvial details, and yet if Hedley Siemens had known tho ultimate consequences of his waking so early and taking a fancy spin on Guerrero in tho park that particular morning, ho would rather havo put a bullet through tlu l head of his favorite horse than have risked them, so fatally are the smallest and the greatest concerns of human life mixed together in the tangled webs of destiny.

It so happened that Harold and J Grace were taking an early spin that j morning, and just as they turned in through Ale'xandi'fa Gate the,"*. ?>w Guerrero r.0.„<0 swinging along at about eig'": .r.des an hour, with his rider erect and motionless in tho saddl:-. "What a ioveiy horse!" exclaimed Grace ; "and, why, Harold" as Guerrero's .rido.r turned and his soft, broad-brimmed felt hat —'-that's Mr Siemens! How boautifr.'.'y lie rides!" "Siemens! 1 know him now; T knew I had seen him before." "Harold, what is the matter with you? What is it? Won't you tell me, dear?" He had mechanically returned Siemen's salute, and as the black horse swung round the bend ho followed it with his eyes, as though he had not beard her question. The sight of Guerrero and his rider j had. suddenly taken hk thoughts back j through nearly fifteen years to a little straggling collection of weatherboard, tin-roofed shanties, which made up the beginning of what was now a city, far away in Arizona. He saw himself, a lad of fourteen, riding up the wide, ragged street, fringed with its worn plank sidewalks, beside the man who lay in tho family vault at Enstone, done to death by tho infernal arts of Halkine. A hundred yards away a man was riding toward them on a black mustang. A poncho, or .Spanish cloak, hung from his shoulders, and a wide-brimmed hat was tilted slightly back from his forehead. Ho saw Godfrey Enstone's hnndl go back to his pistol pocket, and heard him say, in a voice that was sharp and hard with sudden anger: ' "Hal, that's Collier Banfield, the man who had your father killed, and left me to die in Australia! Get out of the way—quick! Ther'll be shooting in a moment." At the same instant the other man's hand wont back to his hip. Tho two pistols icracked . Isimultanecuisly, but Sir Godfrey's was the quicker. A bullet sang past his ears; then he saw tho other man sway in his saddlo and roll off. He remembered when the wound ■was dressed it was a very peculiar one. The bullet had broken the collar bone, passed round tho neck, almost miraculously clearing the great blood vessels, and had run down and lodged itself deep in the muscles of the back, whence it was afterward extracted. Certainly the wound would 'leave a mark which could not possibly be mistaken as long as Collier Banfield lived. It all pased in one of those swift flashes of memory which take no account of time or distance. In fact, so brief was it that Grace hardly not-

BY OWEM MASTERS. Author of "Hia Heart** De«ir e," "One Hour," "Captoia Emlyn'a Bride," "Tlta Derennl Heritage," "The Ironmaster's Daughter" etc.

iced more) than a little htritati.xi in reply. "I beg your pardon," he said, still looking after the (lying shape of Guerrero and his master, "but you will forgive me when I toll you that I was perfectly right when I said to you the other day that I was certain that I had seen Hedley Siemens somewhere before. lam certain of it now, and, what's more, I know who ho really is." 'Do you mean," exclaimed Grace, "that ho is not really what ho represents himself to be?" They turned their horses in the dir-' eefcion of Hyde park Corner, and he bagan his explanation, speaking quietly, but with a thrill of angry emotion running through his tones. "No, 'Grace, he as not what he pretends to be. To put it shortly, Hedley Siemens of to-day—millionaire, mino king, student, and all the rest 1 of it—is really {Miier-Bannold, of ten or fifteen years ago, gambler, card sharper, thief, assassin, and any other tiling that is bad. Do you remember Sir Godfrey telling the story of the narrow shave he had in Australia, when the man he thought was his friend and comrade drank his water, biolo his gold dust, took his papers, and left him to die in the wilderness of hunger and thirst? That man was Collier Banfield, alias Hadley Siemens. "You know that, on what we call tho anniversary, Sir Godfrey and I always wore black ties, and that I do still? Well, that is tho day that my father —I mean my real father —was knifed in a gambling hell in Yokohama ,taken unawares, and killed in cold blood by a cross-bred English-, Chinaman, who was hanged a few* j years after for another murder, or | rather .half a dozen. He confessed the tho night before ho died that Banfield was the real owner of the place, and [that ho had bribed him to pick a quarI red with father and knife him, because my father had found out a few rather ugly truths about the establishment, ar.d had threatened to havo it closed by tho authorities. So now yon see why I have a double grudge against •cur millionaire."

"How awful, Harold!" exclaimed Grace, almost in a whisper': "but how is it that, you recognised him only this morning, when you have seen him scores of times before?" "Because it is the first time." replied Harold, "that I have seen him ridding since our last meeting in Arizona, when Sir Godfrey was to quick for him. and got his bullet in first. That supplied the missing link of memory. Look, here, .he romes again. You can't mistake a m?.n who rides like that, and that light coat flying behind him reminded mo of the Mexican poncho he was wearing. I'd lay a thousand pounds to a petinv that if I could seo that man's shoulders I should find the bullet wound."

"And suppose you are right." she said in a low tone, as Hedley .Siemens, who had already completed the circuit, swung past them again, withins hand on the brim of his hat.

"Well," he said slowly, "if we were in the West. I'd shoot him like, the dog ho is. T couldn't bring any legal crime home on him —at least, unless something like a miracle happened; but I can find some way of proving that I am right, and there'll bo some satisfaction in letting the world know that Hedley "Siemens, the gold king, as they call him, is identical with Collier Banfield ; and then we will see what he does. By tho way, are you going to Mrs Bowel-Grover's this afternoon?" "I intended to do so," she replied, "but he -will 1» sure to be there, too, and after what you have told me it would be rather uncomfortable, and perhaps you wouldn't like me " "Quite the reverse," he interrupted. "Meet him, and treat him exactly as though I hadn't said a word to you." (To be Continued.)